✎ selas [chronos]

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======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//


  * 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.
  * Post-war Selas is a toxic wasteland, full of bombed-out towns and areas permanently soiled by chemical and biological weapons.

=====A history of Selas=====

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. 

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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.

During the war which followed the disaster at the conference, the main settlements of Selas were spared most of the nuclear onslaught. There was no need for the other systems to waste such weapons on Selasi settlements--as conventional bombing, coupled with a simultaneous civil war that saw Selasi factions making widespread use of chemical and biological weapons on each other, were more than enough to bring the population to its knees. The First Selas, however, was not so fortunate. 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. It is perhaps apropos, then, that not only was the First Selas annihilated during the war, but that it met its end in the fiery light of a massive nuclear bombardment.
=====Selas now=====

On account of having been spared from a full nuclear onslaught, many of Selas' settlements remain somewhat recognisable after the war. Whilst no settled area was left untouched by either the planetary bombardment or the civil war, most buildings remain at least partially standing. Selasi settlements had been built to last. (However, buildings that had been built longer ago actually weathered the war better than newer construction.) As a result of this, survivors on Selas are generally able to find reasonably-safe shelter when it is needed. How safe and how nice the shelter is that's available to a particular person is determined by that person's 'value' to the society. In theory, this is determined by that person's contributions to the society. In practice, however, a person's 'value' on modern Selas is determined solely by their wealth and how connected they are (especially to the leaders of the society).

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Large portions of the planet--including cities, wilderness and (formerly) arable land--have been rendered uninhabitable by the aftermath of highly toxic chemical and biological weapons. 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 on account of their habitat few people have ever gotten a close look at one and lived to tell about it.

=====The people of Selas=====

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 practice 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.

Whilst the average citizen of Selas roughly corresponds to the description above, the leaders of the planet do have 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 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 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 re-unificationists are generally considered to have won the civil war (to whatever extent anyone could be said to have won), but the societal divisions remain as strongly as ever in the present day.
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