Selas

‘The Light has led us here, to this fertile ground. Here, shall we found our new society. Here, shall any who desire to follow their ideas be welcome. Here, shall those ideas be put to work for the betterment of all humankind. And here, shall those whose ideas do the most good be recognised as the greatest humanity has to offer.

With the guidance of the Light, we have cast off the rigidity of the oppressors. Our future is ours to mould. No person of this new civilisation, should they be worthy and dedicated, shall need fear the conditions into which they were born - for here, the conditions of their life shall be entirely in their hands.’
- Declaration made upon the founding of Selas.

• Selas is a small, fertile (or formerly fertile) planet. The Selasi nation previously also controlled a rocky planetoid called the First Selas before it was destroyed.
• The original settlers of Selas defected from Eunomia because they disagreed with the rigidity of Eunomian society.
• Selasi culture idealises the pursuit of knowledge, but as an end in itself rather than a means to an end.
• Most Selasi honour and espouse the idea of a meritocracy, but in practice their social structure is pretty far from this ideal.
• Selas has been the subject of a vicious civil war between those who wish to rejoin Eunomia and those who wish to remain independent.
• The Reunificationists, sensing they were losing the fight, fled to Eunomia after releasing a toxic fungus called Scratch into the atmosphere, covering the planet in its growths and choking out all life.

It would not be inaccurate to state that Selas owes its existence to Eunomia, though you'd never hear a Selasi say that. The founders of Selas were originally from Eunomia, but had become disillusioned with the rigidity of the caste system, and the lack of social mobility that necessarily followed. Moreover, they felt that seeking knowledge only with an end in mind, rather than letting that knowledge itself be their compass, was a backwards approach. They took a leap. Out into the stars they flew, with no idea of where they were going, only of what they were leaving behind.

They landed on a rock: an inhospitable wasteland that could not be called a planet, much less a home. But from that rock, they saw a light. In the distance, there was a star system. How far?, they asked. Could they make it? But it was better than remaining. So they left their First Light - their First Selas - and journeyed onward. Eventually, they discovered a fertile system - one never before located. And there they settled.

In the ensuing centuries, they expanded. They laid their values into the soil. They swore theirs would be a civilisation of thought - where anyone with ideas could set them in motion, for the betterment of all. They had Eunomian roots, but their branches and leaves were their own; and they bore fruit. They created technology of a kind that few had seen before. Their advancements were lauded across the Seven Systems. But just as a light can be a beacon of hope, so too can it burn out. Their leadership, once hailed as a true meritocracy, became detached. They became hungry for power, wealth, and self-indulgence. Their ability to recognise great thought slowly atrophied, replaced by an ability to recognise exploitable knowledge. The people continued to output research at as remarkable a rate as ever, but their focus began to shift. Slowly. Gradually. Unnoticeably. The people let their ideas be their guides as ever, without realising that these ideas were themselves being shaped by their leaders. It was these ideas that they brought to the conference on the Ananke.

Following the explosion, a current that had been growing on the planet was able to suddenly burst into the fore. Many people hated the way Selas was run and wanted a return to the ‘pure’ ways of Eunomia. A vicious civil war broke out between these Reuniificationists and the Nationalists, with the other planets and factions piling in to support one side or the other. The war was brutal and scorched earth tactics - chemical weapons, destruction of farmland - were used by both sides to gain the upper hand. The final tipping point was when the Reunificiationists, sensing that they were about to lose the war, released a bioweapon known as Scratch into the planet’s atmosphere, covering the planet’s surface in a virulent red fungus.

The Scratch, a bioweapon – a radiotropic fungus – was released onto the Selasi homeplanet. It was first released in the nuclear wastelands, subject of bombardment by the Reunificationists’ Eunomian allies. It thrived on the radiation there, and flooded the wastes with red. By the time anyone realized it was a threat, it was too late to stop it. The highly hallucinogenic fungi spread, strangling all complex life wherever it reaches.

The disaster only happened a few years ago, but already the effects have proved devastating. It turned out that Scratch could not cross some of the rivers of toxic chemical sludge that had formed as a result of the attacks, and so the people of Selas and the Eunomian Restorers who has sought shelter there retreated into the ruined cities of the chemical wastes.

The agents with which these areas are contaminated are highly mutagenic, and just being near these areas can cause uncontrolled mutations. The vast majority of life in these areas has been wiped out, and that which hasn't has been altered into an unrecognisable state. These altered lifeforms are not always hostile or violent, but the sudden encroachment of humans into their territory has led to some violent clashes. These clashes are almost always fatal, as the creatures tend to be toxic enough that just being near them will cause debilitating sickness. Those who survive the encounters have found their bodies changing in response to the exposure afterwards.

The famous Selasi ingenuity is being put to the task of solving the Scratch, but the first order of priority is finding somewhere safe for people to live and research. There is some shelter - primarily afforded to those who have the most 'value' for the society. In theory, this is determined by that person's contributions to the society. In practice - as wealth has little meaning any more - this means how well-connected they are. Those who are unable to find shelter make do as best they can, fighting off monsters in the wastes and trying to build up what strongholds they can.

Broadly speaking, Selasi culture values the pursuit of knowledge (even without a direct goal or application for that knowledge in mind) and the ideal of meritocracy. In reality, many Selasi preach these things much more than they practise them - though this can of course vary by the individual. More specifically, the Selasi people can be divided along two axes: nationalist versus re-unificationist, and leadership versus non-leadership.

The nationalists and the re-unificationists were the factions who fought in the civil war that saw much of the planet become toxified. The former favoured remaining separate from Eunomia and having as little to do with them as possible, whilst the latter had become disillusioned by the direction that Selas was headed and longed for the 'good old days' of Eunomian order. The nationalists won the war with the slightly reluctant help of the Eunomian Restorers, fleeing the warmongering government. However, the parting blow delivered by the Reunificationists mean that victory is essentially meaningless.

Members of Selasi leadership were likely to have gained their status through connections and money, rather than any inherent 'merit', and this tends to give them a different perspective. Selasi leaders are less likely to view the pursuit of knowledge without a well-defined goal in mind as worthwhile, and are more likely to favour research with obvious and obviously profitable applications. Additionally, Selasi leaders are less likely to favour the pursuit or dissemination of knowledge that has potential to negatively affect themselves or their political allies, and will often leverage their clout as leaders to suppress such research or to discredit its creator (regardless of the merits of the research itself). Despite these things, however, many Selasi leaders openly espouse a version of meritocracy which basically means that because they are in charge, their ideas and actions are by definition meritorious and 'better' than those of people who are not.

In Selas’s now-fractured state, the distinction between leader and non-leader is functionally meaningless: everyone lives in the same toxic wasteland with little hope of escape, and being a little more important and having slightly better shelter doesn’t help that much.