selas
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| - Declaration made upon the founding of Selas. | - Declaration made upon the founding of Selas. | ||
| - | * Selas was a small, fertile (or formerly fertile) planet. The Selasi nation previously also controlled a rocky planetoid called the First Selas before it was destroyed. | + | * 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. | * 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. | * 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. | * Most Selasi honour and espouse the idea of a meritocracy, but in practice their social structure is pretty far from this ideal. | ||
| - | * The planet Selas was destroyed by Eunomia in the war. | + | * Selasi relations with Eunomia are strained, worsened by civil unrest at home between nationalists and those who wish to unify with Eunomia again. |
| =====A history of Selas===== | =====A history of Selas===== | ||
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| 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 [[eunomia|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 conference|the Ananke]]. | 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 [[eunomia|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 conference|the Ananke]]. | ||
| - | Selas was the first target of [[the war]]. The swiftness and brutality of the Eunomian bombings shocked the interplanetary community, as the people of Selas were all but wiped off the map and the planet itself was left a toxic wasteland. The planet’s population fled mostly to allied systems, Briareos and Kybele, before Eunomia turned her wrath on those places as well. The final blow to Selas came when Eunomia turned its powerful mineral extraction technology on the now-abandoned Selas, turning the planet to dust and doing the same to the First Selas for good measure. Despite having little to no population nor production capabilities, the First Selas had a great deal of symbolic importance to the people of the system. It was held as a symbol of hope, a symbol of what Selasi could do and how far they could go with the power of their ideas. Even more than their actual planet, the destruction of the First Selas has left the Selasi diaspora crushed and hopeless. | + | While the conference was broadly a successes, a number of diplomatic incidents increased distrust between Selas and Eunomia, a trend which only increased over the following years. Particular incidents include the revelation of Selasi research into fungal bioweapons such as those warned about at the Ananke conference,, and then, once those institutes were shut down, the discovery of chemical weapons. However, Eunomia has been caught up in dealing with domestic problems, meaning that the situation - almost by chance - has not grown worse. |
| + | This has left room for some political and social development. An underground movement, spurred by several notable articles spread in the late 1260s, has led to a growing movement of people sick of the money-focused Selasi system and calling for a return to Selas's //true// meritocratic roots. | ||
| =====Selas now===== | =====Selas now===== | ||
| - | With the planet wiped out, the few remaining Selasi live scattered throughout the other systems, the majority of them now working gasbags on [[Briareos]] or fighting for turf in [[Kybele]]. Some live in ships that drift aimlessly through space, powered by Selasi ingenuity but hampered by a critical lack of resources. | + | The political situation on Selas is tense, to say the least. A significant faction of the planet is strongly in favour of reunification with Eunomia - some may say aggressively, given their propensity for violent tactics. However, the planet has yet to break out into a full-blown civil war, with most of the citizenry stewing in their own resentment rather than acting. |
| - | =====The people of Selas===== | + | However, while the situation is tense, the planet is not significantly damaged. While the risk of a true war breaking out with Eunomia is always present and there are occasional outbreaks of civil unrest, the majority of Selasi live peaceful lives, their most significant problems being the rampant inequality that permeates Selasi society. Some have argued that the Selasi leadership have taken advantage of the arms race they are currently involved in, and indeed overplayed it to inflate their own pockets, pouring the state treasury into a military industrial complex that serves to make the rich richer and the poor poorer -- even those who demonstrate the traditional Selasi merits. |
| - | 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. Before the war, the Selasi people could be divided along two axes: nationalist versus re-unificationist, and leadership versus non-leadership. | + | These people have begun to raqlly together to call for a return to true Selasi values, and the pursuit of knowledge above all. while still a small movement for now, this move is gaining traction. |
| + | =====The people of Selas===== | ||
| - | Whilst the average citizen of Selas roughly corresponds to the description above, the leaders of the planet had a tendency to differ in a few ways. Members of Selasi leadership are likely to have gained their status through connections and money, rather than any inherent 'merit', and therefore were less likely to view the pursuit of knowledge without a well-defined goal in mind as worthwhile, and were more likely to favour research with obvious and obviously profitable applications. Additionally, Selasi leaders were less likely to favour the pursuit or dissemination of knowledge that had potential to negatively affect themselves or their political allies. Despite these things, however, many Selasi leaders openly espoused 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. | + | 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. |
| - | Now that the Selasi people are scattered throughout space following the planet’s destruction by Eunomia, the reunificationist approach has fallen out of favour -- not least because those who were about to demonstrate their reunificationist tendencies quickly enough were taken in by Eunomia, living effectively as Eunomian Realisers rather than Selasis. The leadership has more or less crumbled. As the relentless pursuit of power is now not much more than a dream, even the former leaders have fallen back on an idyllic view of Selas as it once was, pushing for the pursuit of knowledge for its own sake - in the limited way their can, siloed in amongst oppressed and war torn populations on Kybele and Briareos. | + | 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. |
| + | The distinction between nationalists and reunificationists is a large and bitter one: if there are moderates, they keep quiet about it. Reunificationists support full Eunomian control over Selas, while nationalists are determined to remain independent. | ||
selas.1557232462.txt.gz · Last modified: 2019/05/07 12:34 by gm_tilda
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