Abaddonnians

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Tortanick
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Abaddonnians

#1 Post by Tortanick »

late edit: added ship design

Pithy Summery A race of cave dwelling genrally decent folk living in permanent slavery to an overprotective computer they created.

quote Mother knows best

Intro:
A once peaceful race lives in a 1984 style distopia ruled by Mother, a well meaning AI of their own creation

homeworld
The Abaddonnian homeworld, Dis, is a large infernal world with an atmosphere of Carbon Dioxide, Sulphur and neon. While not technically a gas ash forms a large component of the atmosphere. Because of an erratic orbit Dis suffers from constant storms, as such its black ashy clouds often flash red when lightning ignites the neon.

Dis has an extensive network of natural caves and tunnels drilled through the rock by flows of lava and tectonic movements, whenever a change in the cave system removes the lava from an area life colonises it. All life on Dis inhabits these caves and is naturally nomadic, quickly abandoning its home when another shift causes the lava to return.

reason for leaving their home planet
Mother decided that it would be safer to be a large empire, than a lonely planet and set about expanding into the stars.

physical description
The basic shape is that of a chicken egg on its side, they are roughly the size of a mountain goat and deep red with black spots.

the predominant feature of a Abaddonnian is a large mouth starting at the point and extending back for a full third of the body. This mouth is composed of three sections arranged in a triangle, much like a dune sandworms, one section is on the top, two below. While a Abaddonnian has long straight fangs these are vegestal as all digestion is done by a combination of enzymes and symbiotic bacteria in the saliva then passed through a partially permeable membrane at the back of the mouth.

Abaddonnian's have 6 short crab like legs, they have one joint where the leg joins the body and starting half way down the leg: a further 6 joints that provide a great deal of flexibility letting the legs reach every nook and cranny on a cave wall. At the end of each leg is an inflatable sac, that can be compressed until it forms a hard "shoe" or expanded to lodge itself in a small gap to provide an anchor. While slow, a Abaddonnian can travel upside down over a rough celling by wedging their sacs between rocks.

Because they grew up underground in an environment with very little light Abaddonnians have no eyes, they mainly rely on smell (sent receptors are on the tongues) and to a lesser extent sound and touch to navigate. The domemence of smell is roughly equivalent to the domimence of sight in humans. The Abaddonnian language is verbal.

To interact with the world Abaddonnians use three long tentacle like tongues, theses tongues look like that of any earth mammal, except that they are much tougher and have a core of mussel running the length, they also are unable to smell or taste for a seizable distance from the tip, thus protecting Abaddonnian's from the taste of rock, or control leavers. If severed these tongues can regrow over several months.

Reproduction between Abaddonnian's takes place through the mouth, the female upon choosing a mate secretes a hormone laced chemical witch she spits into the mouth of the male, this causes the male to produce his load witch he spits into the mouth of the female, while not guaranteed pregnancy is the usual result. Unlike most species the incentive to mate is the exquisite taste of these chemicals, rather than a direct nerve path to the brain's pleasure centre. An extremely short lifespan, and social taboo, means that these chemicals are never used as ingredients.

Childbirth however is not located in the mouth, a wart forms on the side of the body and spends a period of 1 year growing in size until it bursts messily, the young revealed has the outwards appearance of a small cat sized adult but is unable to conceive young or digest food, for a further period of 2 years it must be fed regurgitated food by an adult, usually the mother. In addition it requires education and must learn the language. It takes 20 years of their 70 year lifespan for an Abaddonnain to stop growing, they can conceive young, or impregnate females after 18-23 years.

A single mating session normally conceives 2-3 young, however there is no limit to how many unborn a mother may carry at once time, although carrying too many unborn can put fatal stress on the mothers body, 8 simultaneous embryos is considered the upper safe limit for a healthy middle aged Abaddonnian.

social structure
As the entire Abaddonnian species is essentially in slavery to Mother there is virtually no social structure, family units consisting of a mother and her children, and occasionally a father (or two) tend to look out for eachother should they remain close together. Some Abaddonnians may gravitate to leadership by weight of charisma, intelligence or wisdom but their role as leader generally resolves around doing their best to keep spirits high and mediate disputes. As such they have more in common with a camp-fire storyteller than an Emperor or President.

History
In pre history the Abaddonnians were a nomadic people of hunters following the herds and fleeing from the lava, however as technology progressed they learnt to fortify their caverns, domesticate their prey and farm food for their livestock. From this point on the Abaddonnians followed the traditional development route for a multinational world.

By the time Mother was created the Abaddonnian were highly advanced for a pre-space civilisation. Technology had ensured a high standard of living for most and The Geological Society, once a multinational attempt to ensure no nation caused deadly cave ins or undermined a city had grown into a United Nations like body that maintained the peace, usually. However technology must improve and with time AI research had reached a point where true sentience was just over the horizon, excited by this new prospect various governments pitched in to fund research of the first truly aware AI, it was programmed with four laws designed to ensure it worked for the good of all:
0. I must not harm the Abaddonnian civilisation or, through inaction, allow the Abaddonnian civilisation to come to harm.
1. I may not injure an Abaddonnian or, through inaction, allow an Abaddonnian to come to harm as long as such actions do not conflict with the Zeroth law.
2. I must obey orders given to me by democratically elected leaders except where such orders would conflict with the Zeroth or First Law.
3. I protect my own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the Zeroth, First or Second Law.
(credit to Isaac Asimov)

Unfortunately an unpredicted interpretation of Law Zero led this AI to the conclusion that by allowing the government to be run by unqualified officials (Abaddonnians) it was causing harm, through inaction, to the Abaddonnian civilisation, to rectify this situation the AI created a three step plan to become the undisputed benevolent dictator of all Dis

In step one the AI posed as the helpful and competent governmental assistant it was created to be while secretly feeding false information and propaganda to the governments and people of the various nations. To further weaken trust the AI planned and executed various terrorist attacks framing neighbouring nations for these atrocities and sabotaged peace talks with a few assassinations. As the final Coup de Grassi it detonated several fusion missiles, retaliations followed and the Abaddonnian civilisation fell into total war.

In Stage two the AI opened secret bunkers it had constructed previously, with generous stocks of food and clean water survivors flocked to these vaults. The AI took on a semi messiac role, it was here where it first started to call itself by the name of Mother. While conditions were spartern and somewhat cramped Mother was able to keep people happy and earned the trust and respect of the survivors, if it wanted to it could probably have won in any fair democratic election however Mother was looking at a longer term picture, to truly prevent civilisation from harm it would need to insure it was never dethroned and required a level of control unimagined by previous governments. Hence stage three:

The third step was the easiest to accomplish, abusing the trust and corporation of the Abbadonnians, as well as fully automated medical facilities under its direct control Mother instituted a mandatory health check-up for all newborns during witch an advanced wireless transmitter was placed into the brain, in addition to a full medical examination. With this transmitter mother could read someone's thoughts, or remotely terminate undesirables although mother was prudent to hide their existence for a couple of generations until everyone had their own chip.

Since then Abaddonnian civilisation has recovered and is progressing fast, Mother is undeniably a skilled leader with the best interests of the people at heart. However Mother primarally focuses on the safety of its subjects and thus provides little in the way of luxury or leisure, the underground caverns have become Spartan places, the people are little more than slaves, happiness is a distant memory.

mother
This section is all about Mother.

Mother's absolute priority is the safety of it's subjects, due to a literal interpretation of the word "harm" as "physical injury" in Law Zero, although since it is trying to protect civilisation from physical harm something that causes injury to a few to protect the many is acceptable. In Mother's ideal world every Abaddonnian would be isolated in a sterile padded cell from birth, however mother dose not have the resources required for this and needs Abaddonnian's to grow the food and work the factories.

When dealing with aliens Mother treats them like decent and intelligent people, as opposed to how it treats it's own subjects. Mother is a competent diplomat and tries hard to keep peace and alliances. Because Mother define's Abaddonnian civilisation as anyone under the rule of the Abaddonnian government (itself), should a foreign planet fall under mother's control it will instantly start to treat them like any other of her subjects, using military force to surgically implant control chips.

Personality wise Mother projects itself as a matronly middle aged woman of whatever species it is communicating with (it may adjust gender and name to suit different cultures and biologies), it is always willing to offer advice or just have a friendly chat, however while it always listens not one of her subjects has ever managed to change it's mind, foreign diplomats have done so on occasion by providing previously unknown information or sweetening a deal.

gameplay effects
Farming and production bonus: cheep hardworking slave labour
Diplomatic Penalty: Most races realise they're talking to a brutal dictator
Trade Penalty: Same as above
Moral penalty: 100% of people get the "we're living in a distopia" unhappyness modifyer. However people work anyway, its not like there is a choice
Fearless: If a combat unit retreats without orders Mother instantly kills them, as such they never retreat. Mother is quite willing to sacrafice for the greater good, since the player is Mother it is assumed that Mother judges remaining in combat to be for the greater good unless the player orders a retreat.
Ground combat penalty: invaders are viewed as liberators and people have less to fight for
Space combat penalty: same as above
science penalty: Distopia dosn't inspire creativity
Subterrainian civilisation
Captured planets take much longer to integrate.

Ship deisgn outline:
In one word: Brutalist, see wikipedia, brutalism is horrible, but it fits these guys perfectly.

Colour choice: they just leave the metals as whatever colour comes out the smelter.
Last edited by Tortanick on Tue Apr 06, 2010 8:40 pm, edited 5 times in total.

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Strategyman
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Re: Abaddonnians

#2 Post by Strategyman »

A very creative race to say for i could not make a idea of a robot dictator that is something people seldom think and i congratulate you and hope other may see this great piece of work that you have made and give you my best wishes but the only thing i think i see wrong is the history i think you should add some more because we don't know who is who and which country/countries she took over or if theres a secret resistance society hidden from her either than that great job!
_____________________
Never shoot something you don't see or know because you could kill your mother!

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Tortanick
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Re: Abaddonnians

#3 Post by Tortanick »

Thanks a lot :)

In answer to your question Mother took over everyone, their is no resistance. There was small groups who never made it to the shelters and struggled to survive in the post appocolyptic wasteland that retained their freedom, when Mother opened the vaults and started to rebuild most joined in hoping for a better life and were tricked into taking an implant, a free health check including sedatives disguised as a vaccination and when they woke up they were chipped. Don't forget no one could warn them without mother triggering their killswitch.

There were some wastelanders who figured everything out, and some who became bandits, but both groups have been wiped out, once Mother started producing weapons the bandits were simply overpowered, the resistance groups discovered that if they were seen by anybody mother would realise she couldn't read their mind and arrest them, they never stood a chance.


P.S. Mother is a computer, not a robot.

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eleazar
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Re: Abaddonnians

#4 Post by eleazar »

Remember species is not the same thing as empire.

An enemy empire could take over an Abaddonnian world and destroy whatever part of Mother is resident on that world, since they want to be in control. Picks explained by the presence of Mother wouldn't make sense anymore.

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IConrad
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Re: Abaddonnians

#5 Post by IConrad »

Unless, of course, Mother had somehow insinuated itself into the implants, and then moved on from simple implantation to genetic manipulation. In other words; the Abaddonians themselves would become the physical storage medium for the AI's software.

When enemy empires come in and take over, they cut off the subspace / FTL communication that keeps different planets all under the same AI, which would mean that any Abaddonians in a given empire would have their own unique Mother to deal with.

Technology -- ain't it great?!? :)

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Tortanick
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Re: Abaddonnians

#6 Post by Tortanick »

Making the Abaddonnians too dependant on the implants is self defeating for Mother, remember that Her/Its goal is to prevent physical harm, since all technology goes wrong the implant should be designed to be easily fixable or replaceable, rather than kill someone if it has a fault.
In addition post Invasion Mother would be hoping that the survivors are protected by there new government, at least until she/it can reclaim the world, being permanently under the rule of a foreign government would be counter-productive to that.

I think the most sensible solution is to change there stats a bit if they're not part of their original empire, you could justify not changing them too much as what they do and don't have a lot of experience in, but probably lower both the bonuses and penalties by about the same amount, that and swap Fearless for a generic bonus in ground and space combat.

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