The United Laniakean Incorporated Sovereignties & Indentured States (ULISIS) is a byzantine group of private entities and super-national structures that sometimes trust each other less than they trust outsiders. The ULISIS appears to be a unit through a confluence of interests, entangling relationships, and mutually entrapping binding agreements & regulations between competitors than actual cooperation.

History

Origins

Though humanity eked out a victory in the AI Wars, the effort nearly exhausted the resources of its governments. Private capital already had the upper hand, but the Great Leveraging - a joking name that stuck - was the death blow. Nearly every government on earth went deeply into debt to fund the war. 

Afterward, a UN convention was held to discuss the debt problem, in response to massive public outcry that the loan terms had been extortionate in the face of dire circumstances. Some fought for complete forgiveness of the debt and nationalization of the corps required to ensure humanity’s survival. Others simply fought for a renegotiation of the terms. Neither won out.

The convention resolved that stabilizing the international economy would take precedence over preserving the solvency of states. The fall of a center of private capital would have disastrous cascading effects across nations compared to the greater but more contained chaos of the fall of a state. 

However, the UN lacked the enforcement measures to prevent debt defaults. Corps could seek redress in the ICC, but if a state dissolved their loan was forfeit. A resolution was reached to form an international debt-enforcement framework, UnitedNationsDebtEnforcementFramework(Rename). Some of the private debtholders reduced their principals in exchange for official recognition of sovereignty as state-level actors. States were prevented from defaulting on their debt and were forced to accept major austerity measures.

Formation of ULISIS

Demographics

Population 

Language

Religion

Family Structure

Health

Education

Science & Technology

Government & Politics

Subdivisions

The legal framework consists of multiple de jure sovereign governments that serve to enforce and legitimize the rule of the corporations that control it behind the scenes. In practice, the states hold no real power, and the ULISIS would be considered Anarcho-Capitalist at best, or Fascist at worst. But elections are held, and a façade of accountability and freedom of movement/choice is maintained under nominal democracy. 

Citizenship

Legal status of individual citizenship is often dual: Most are citizens of states, but many are also citizens of Corps. Corporate life is so all-encompassing that one often has more in common with a co-employee of the same corp than a co-citizen of the same government.

Interplay between States & Corporations

Any given state may be dominated by one or many corporations, or in the case of The PRC it may have maintained considerable independence due to the size of its market. States serve to establish legitimacy and quell dissent while keeping the corps’ hands clean. They are also manipulated in various ways as a means to block competitors’ access to markets. 

Competition between Corporations

The corporations are perpetually at low-grade warfare with each other. Espionage is ubiquitous, and occasionally boils over into messy proxy warfare between subservient client states, private security firms and "independent" operatives.

There is a strong undercurrent of chaos that might break its authoritarian bonds if it weren't directed against itself or strung along by mirages of economic opportunity. 

Rulership

The ULISIS is a chaotic system that generally allows a positive feedback loop of accrual of power. 

Foreign Relations

Their outward policy is toward rapacious expansion and short-term extraction of resources. Since corps follow only the profit motive, they are the most ruthless players in the galaxy. The ULISIS would be truly dangerous if it were a unified force, but… it’s not. Much of the danger is directed inward at sabotaging the competition or stomping down the underclasses.

Criminal Enforcement & Resolution of Civil Disputes

Economy

Nominally a classless society, but economically stratified. Nearly everything is commoditized. Aspects of Feudalism & Imperialism.

Social Divisions

Classes divided by Political Economy

Top Tier

Wealthy beyond royalty or oligarchy. Often Alpha-humans. Generally live cloistered in top levels of Arcologies, or other exclusive spaces. 

Within the mass media their class controls, and often the wider ULISIS culture at large, their lives are the objects of reverence akin to celebrities or royalty.

Insiders

“Insider” is the term most commonly used to refer to one who works for a corp and lives in one of its Arcologies or the corporate enclaves outside the Arcos. The most common pejorative is “Arco-Scum,” which in the linguistic melting pot of the Outside became “Koska.”

As the Arco is a self-contained city and generally an island of relative safety, there are many who spend their whole lives without leaving. 

Citizens commonly hold insurmountable debt, either through their own accrual, inheritance from generations of their ancestors, or as reparation for violation of draconian legal codes.

Almost all are subjects and dual-citizens of the corp that holds their debts. A corp generally exerts complete dominance over their lives, providing and charging for all necessities and paying in company-restricted chit instead of actual currency. Most are resigned to a life of inescapable serfdom. 

A few token citizens acquire nominal freedom through the lottery, but by necessity this is generally not enough to change their life except in terms of conspicuous consumption. There is also a token amount of social mobility - but just enough to keep people working hard in hopes of getting it, not enough to actually make the classes permeable. But most buy the lie and devote their lives to acquisition and consumption. Generally strong culture of loyalty to essentially meaningless but numerous consumer options or state memberships. 

Not all Citizens are debt-enslaved, however. Many are of the professional classes who are content to live in corporate Arcologies or the nicer enclaves of the Outside. The lifestyles of these scant few petty bourgeois only cost pocket change to the corps who benefit from their existence.

Outsiders

Many choose to escape the trap by erasing their identity, becoming a part of the criminalized classes in the process. This is a much more dangerous world but it does carry the possibility of freedom for the lucky ones. This is the world of the Outside - outside the clean and safe corporate arcologies and stations, where social order hangs on by a thread.

The Outside is not only tolerated but appreciated. Its citizens provide a good underclass ripe for exploitation or scapegoating whenever necessary. It’s also something they can point to as a warning to those who misbehave on the Inside. Life on the Outside is so apparently dirty & brutal that many Insiders would kill themselves before submitting to exile.

Disempowered and hopeless but placated by bread & circuses. They are targeted with corporate propaganda, but their lives are bad enough that very few of them consciously buy it. However, the Spectacle works its Sorcery in subtle ways, so many are indoctrinated as much as Arco-Scum, only more subtly. 

Extremely diverse and permeable, rife with criminal activity.

Infrastructure

Culture

Many of the nations in the ULISIS are partly owned via debt-leverage by various corps, and the corps all generally have parts of various nations. So one might identify with the nation of their citizenship, but also as a member of their employing corp.

Culture is dominated by the brands & consumer choices that pervade CIS society. It is not uncommon for people to name their children after their favorite brand, even if a stipend for doing so is not on offer.

Food

Literature, Philosophy, Visual Art, Music, etc.

Sports

Mass Media

General Aesthetics

Values

ULISIS culture is heavily focused on acquisition, opulence, and comparison. Media gravitates around avatars of impossible perfection and abject misery, imparting a driving sense of competition that blinds citizens to avenues for real change.

Gameplay

Generally aggressive and powerful. High emphasis on acquisition. Different power-players in ULISIS are best beaten by pitting them against each other.

Started as a mining colony created by LodeStar Resource Logistics Group in 2136 to extract the massive reserves of platinum and nickel on 116 Gorée. Corporate leadership dictated its administration when it was simply a mining colony. After the AI Wars erupted, the massive influx of refugees made mining operations impractical. When the wars were over, mineral extraction of platinum was too labor-intensive compared to salvage, or to newly gate-accessible sources, so operations never resumed.

Population swelled with refugees during the AI Wars. Now largely abandoned, but still a notable transit hub in the belt. Technically under the jurisdiction of United Laniakean Incorporated Sovereignties & Indentured States (ULISIS), but little presence.

Characters (View All)

[This section and others will be populated as you meet characters]

Organizations (View All)

Merensky Station Council

MSPD

Sub-Locations (Deprecated Map - See Sidebar instead)

• Bidonvil District
  • Jurczyk Ward
  • Novoceres
  • Severniy Ward
• Diyubai District
  • Gueriva Ward
    
    • Gueriva Commons
  • Kotakotak Ward
    • East Bay
  • Omashina Ward
    
    • Staging Ground
• The Frith
  • Eastfrith
  • [Southern Ward of The Frith] (rename)
  • Westfrith
• Extension Chambers
• Greenhouse District
• Onigasta District
  • Armada Ward
  • Packhouse Ward
  • Pondokan Ward
• Plaza District
  • Market Ward
  • [North Plaza Ward] (rename)
    • Agora 
    • Council House
    • MSPD Headquarters
  • [Central Plaza Ward] (rename)
  • [South Plaza Ward] (rename)
• The Scar
  • Appentis Ward 
  • Camp North
  • Eastside
    • MSCAR Hostel East
• South Bay District
  • [Far East South Bay Ward] (rename)
  • [Far West South Bay Ward] (rename)
  • Galangan Ward
  • [Salvage Ward] (rename)

Lovely art by Mike Transfiguracion!

A Kuol is a large levosteoid mammalian predator native to Bodue. 

Physiology

At its tallest posture (legs extended, neck retracted in threat fear response), a Kuol stands up to 4m tall to the shoulder. At a normal standing posture, they measure about 2.5m to the shoulder, with the limbs arching about 0.5m higher than that.

The Kuol has six muscular spiderlike legs. Between the legs are patagia which allow the Kuol to soar by extending them taut. They catch enough wind resistance to allow the Kuol to soar from any height, a favored tactic to ambush prey. Its long semi-prehensile clawed digits default to a powerful grasp and thus require exertion to open rather than to close. This is an adaptation for climbing and hunting, but makes their locomotion on flat surfaces somewhat ungainly. However, it allows them to maintain a supporting grip effortlessly, which they use to await prey or sleep suspended. And for a hunter, a powerful crushing grip makes a great addition to its arsenal. Its trunk is long, somewhat slender and very muscular on the top. The underbelly is soft and vulnerable¹. It has a thin prehensile tail used for rapid balancing, measuring about 3m long. The Kuol is covered in long, coarse, dry, usually black hair, giving it a woolly appearance. When huddled against the cold, the long bristled fur can give the Kuol a vague appearance that helps it blend into the darkness. 

The Kuol's neck is about 2m long, very muscular and prehensile, and gives the creature a surprising grace of form. Kuol have large fanged mouths similar to a Tiger (8cm canines, shearing carnassians, small incisors for precision work). The tongue is covered with papillae, giving it a rasping texture to strip fur from meat, meat from bones, and when in starvation mold from bark. The eyes are large and very light-sensitive - Kuol will generally avoid the Middle Canopy and Emergent Layer, preferring to hunt in the Lower Canopy, The Void, and Rootlands. The ears are long, pointed and very sensitive to directionality. 

Variations

Fur color and texture varies according to climate and season. I dunno, go crazy.

Behavior

Territory

Adult Kuol lead semi-solitary lives. They establish and maintain dens most frequently in Lomoi Maws or empty Geophore Follicles, but have much wider home ranges within which they roam. Resident adults of either sex generally confine their movements to their home ranges, within which they satisfy their needs and those of their growing cubs. Individuals sharing the same area are aware of each other's movements and activities, but do not hunt cooperatively. 

Young Kuol establish their first territories close to their parents', drifting away over time. Males migrate further and earlier, acquiring territory by absence of competitors or by challenging an existing resident for it. If not ready for a challenge, a young male may migrate a long way as a transient in others' territory, but this is a risky way to survive. Transient Kuol are identified by a greater frequency of injuries and scarring, more poorly-maintained coats, disguised musk, and increased (sometimes suicidal) aggression.

Kuol mark their territory with feces in trails, claw marks on bark, and some of the foulest urine ever discovered. Kuol are not always aggressively territorial. Though they hunt individually without exception, they are known to share kills even with others not related to them. In the case of a Transient Kuol, sharing is often preferable to risking injury from combat. Nevertheless, males are less tolerant of competitors in their territory than females. 

Combat between Kuol never takes the form of their normal predator ambush, and is normally resolved by display of intimidation or submission. Males will tolerate a submissive male in their territory if they do not encroach. If the competitive display is between males and a nearby female is in estrus, or one or more of the competitors has nearby young, it may develop into combat. Females with young will not accept another female's submission display.

Kuol are frighteningly fast climbers and only passable swimmers, usually avoiding bodies of water water except in the hottest climates. 

Hunting & Diet

Kuol are apex predators save for the civilized Haaru. Gheheshmat are a favored prey and relatively defenseless. Kuol who hunt the Middle Canopy can afford to eat smaller prey like Pesh. Those who drop from the Lower Canopy or Trunk to the Rootlands are investing much more energy in the hunt, and as such will ignore most creatures smaller than a Gheheshmat². A Kuol can kill prey much larger than itself, such as the Sina. Selecting for the young and infirm reduces the chance of injury. 

The most common hunting method is to drop a short distance within the middle canopy on another creature. If a chase follows, Kuol are terrifyingly fast at climbing and traversing treelimbs, and their prehensile neck makes some evasive maneuvers pointless. If sick, starving or injured, one may simply stalk the forest floor.

They kill much like the predators of earth, preferring to knock prey down with gliding momentum or brute strength, and kill with strangulation by a bite to the throat. Their talons are used to grip prey, tear tendons or disembowel. After a kill, Kuol often conceal it in vegetation. 

Reproduction & Lifecycle

Kuol identify each other primarily by sight, and when necessary by scent. Their musk and urine convey information about age, identity, and reproductive status. During estrus their skin increases secretion of an oil that gives their fur a sheen and strong scent. Estrual Kuol Oil is a common ingredient in Haaru perfumes, diluted to a faintly sweet and musky scent with a slight edge of bitterness. 

Kuol females attract mates with a specialized shriek loud enough to echo throughout the Void into other territories, generally from a perch that would be suitable for hunting. Males compete for mates by aggression display or combat, and it's very toxic on all accounts. 

Like most mammalians on Bodue, Kuol are oviparous. Upon mating, the pair will find a den - most commonly in a Boduan Maw or emptied Geophore follicle. Male Kuol stay to rear and feed their young, so that's nice.

Gekepeshiyik is a traditional dish in many Haaru cultures, consisting of a roasted pregnant Pesh ("Kepesh") and its fetuses ("Peshyaat" or "Yaat"). It is particularly associated with Kepeshnags, a holiday of thanksgiving, though the dish is consumed as a delicacy at any time.

Selection

The selection of a Kepesh is given much attention. At any given time, several members in a Brasture may be pregnant, but selecting just the right one can be challenging even to an experienced Bo-Pesh. 

Ideally, the Kepesh is at a precise point in her pregnancy that the Peshyaat are as large as possible without their bones becoming too solid to bite through. If chosen too early, the meat will be mushy and bloody. If chosen too late, the bones will be chewy or hard.

Some Bo-Pesh claim that the hardening of the bones is accompanied by various signals in the Kepesh's behavior or appearance, but their theories are generally as numerous as they are. Reaching into the womb to palpate a Peshyaat to feel for bones is considered offensively bad form, not to mention a bad idea in terms of husbandry. But social esteem is crucial to the Haaru, and it is not unheard of for a Bo-Pesh to ruin a few pregnancies to ensure the feast goes well.

Preparation

In some regional variations, the Kepesh is first brined or steamed to loosen the thick bristly hair from the skin. It is then plucked completely, a process which traditionally occupies the early morning to midday for the preparer.

Next, it is roasted over a low fire for several hours with the Peshyaat still inside. If the fur was not removed, it simply burns off during this phase, giving the skin a bitter aroma prized in some regions. If done correctly, the Peshyaat will be cooked inside the Kepesh to a medium-rareness.

Consumption

The table's seat of honor cuts into the Kepesh's abdomen and placenta, aiming to cut just enough to reach inside without exposing it visually. Then, by order of decreasing age, the diners reach into the still-hot womb and pull out one Peshyaat each¹. Broods are generally 5-9 in number, meaning for large tables there may not be enough Peshyaat for the youngest. This is considered a privilege of age, and the youngest are often content to age into the ritual.

After the Peshyaat are consumed, the rest of the Pesh is divided as a normal meal. 

The Parking Stratum  is a geological stratum and anthropological horizon that refers to the continental pattern of Lots and Highways falling into ruin and becoming part of the landscape, creating a distinct layer in the Earth's crust.

Mikey is a reference to Mikey Moose, a subsidiary of Swanstone Holdings. At one point, Swanstone had tested using the character to communicate public announcements in its arcologies, a choice that was met with vague disgust everywhere but GisnegWorld Undersea Arcology. The decision was quickly rolled back, but remains an embarrassment to Swanstone's reputation. Now, authority figures in the Swanstone hierarchy are referred to disparagingly as Mikeys.

______ (Fyllarch, literally "Leaf Ruler") is a term with various usages. It mimics legitimate feudal titles like Kormarch & Cladarch, but is not itself an actual title given by any Haaru courts. 

This term has historically been applied to nobles to demean the significance of their domain.

In modern usage, it refers to a greedy or petty person who lacks humility, but has little to show for it. It is a term of ridicule, implying that the target thinks themselves grand and mighty but in fact rules little.