Black Cloud Coalition [BCC]

[Rolepgeek]

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The Black Cloud Coalition
暗雲聯盟
(Ànyún Liánméng)



Capital Region: North Way Cluster (Běizhōu Qún | 北週群) [Badal-2]
Ruler: Captain of the Coalition Jié Měifēng & HelmsModerator Guiding_Stars4 aka 'ZhǐZhī'
Diplomacy: 4
Military: 5
Economy: 2
Faith: 2
Intrigue: 4

History

A rough timeline of the relevant history in the Coalition’s founding and development runs as follows:

• Low level piracy has been present on Badal for as long as can be remembered.
• A large number of wars are fought over a long period of time on Badal between aerostatic clusters; privateers become commonplace as resource shortages and economic warfare abounds.
• The previously mentioned warring parties falter, and make an uneasy peace; many privateers become pirates to sustain themselves, adding to extant low level piracy. Lasting tensions and grudges delay unified action to suppress pirates, preventing early and decisive action.
• Piracy shrinks at first due to competition and still weak economies, but grows again as prosperity grows, people seek escape from oppression, and trade becomes more common. Badali states begin making initial inroads on cooperation to suppress piracy.
• Pirate fleets, already developing around the most successful crews, begin to grow rapidly as anti-piracy pressures ships into alliances for mutual protection.
• Several prominent pirate fleets become capable of matching up to airfleets of the anti-piracy coalitions, with over 70% of pirate vessels belonging to one of five fleets at their most dominant. These fleets capture or settle a number of smaller aerostats to use as naval bases and more permanent settlements, and find that the relative mobility advantage granted for repositioning is tremendously useful in avoiding more concentrated assaults when managed carefully. Larger aerostats are occasionally targeted but the difficulty of conquest and security concerns makes this impractical much of the time.
• The Black Wind Aerostatic Habitation Complex becomes a pirate base for one of the larger fleets (the Red Cloud Armada or Xiá Jiànduì | 艦隊霞 ) needing to recover from a costly engagement with pirate hunters.
• The Black Wind is explored further than prior inhabitants had the manpower or inclination for - cybernetics research, development, storage, and manufacturing sections discovered. Soon, these cybernetics are being used to restore many of the injured Red Cloud pirates. The Armada is significantly restored by this, and the Black Wind complex becomes a focal point of their operations.
• The first successful experiments with early PEEARIT tech take place.
• The earliest form of the Black Cloud Coalition is founded as other pirate fleets are attracted, defeated, or proactively allied with; captured aerostats join what is dubbed the 'North Way Cluster', and the prosperity and strength of the group becomes self-driving as momentum and morale builds. PEEARIT use grows more widespread and non-pirate immigration begins to grow.
• The first assaults on North Way from anti-piracy fleets occur, but are poorly coordinated and insufficiently supported, with the net result of producing a stronger sense of unity in the Black Cloud Coalition’s membership.
• The Coalition begins formalizing their coordination and leadership structures in response to the ongoing threat - this causes them to resemble a traditional state more but with significantly more horizontally-oriented power structures.
• The success of this structure in fending off further assaults grants legitimacy to the experiment, and the process continues, resulting in (finally) the establishment of a properly unified administrative and bureaucratic system - albeit one with significant dependence on the use of PEEARIT assistance.
• Significant growth in the civilian populace of the Coalition as military successes give credence to offers of protection and the idea of a new start, attracting fugitives, the disaffected, refugees, and outcasts.
• An interim period as external threat begins to wane, with the primary hostile powers on Badal forced to acknowledge they may be unable to destroy the Coalition outright given the present circumstances. The Coalition is occupied by internal politics and economic restructuring and development, with both local and Coalition-wide administrations, continuing to shake out the function and structure of the organization as a whole and future direction.
• The current Coalition Captain, Jié Měifēng (傑美風), comes to preside over the Coalition following her successful coordination of a masterful stroke against the Bironaians, including the elimination of their previous leadership and multiple knight-officer. In the after math, her popularity earns her the teasing moniker “Xiǎohòu” (小后) (or ‘Little Queen’) in addition to her existing nickname of “Tiāndào” (天盜) (or ‘Heavenly Bandit’).
• The Black Cloud Coalition becomes a member of the Elect, by the Emperor’s will, to the simultaneous confusion and excitement of its members.

 

”Geography”

The stable core of the Black Cloud Coalition is the North Way Cluster, a myriad of interdependent and occasionally physically interlinked aerostatic habitats spread over hundreds of kilometers, as the various aerostats maintain position or allow themselves to drift according to the dictates of their individual populations and the requests of their neighbors.

At the heart of the Cluster, both physically and culturally, is the massive aerocity officially referred to as the Black Wind Aerostatic Habitation Macrocomplex or Hēifēng Fán Chéngshì (黑風渢城市), and more commonly known as The Black Wind or Hēifēng (黑風). Though perhaps not the oldest of the aerostats that make up the North Way Cluster by warrant of original construction, the structure is nonetheless ancient and still bears many of the tell-tale markers of age - including the outline of what is presumed to have been a cybernetics manufacturing industry from before the War of Eternal Bombardments, though even the PEEARITs used by the Coalition today were only able to use technology from the period as a starting point.

The aerostats themselves have little in the way of unifying design elements not already common across Badal as a whole; radially symmetric superstructures and toroidal lift-enhancer envelopes are common, as are extensions from the center of the complex to expand surface area, often accompanied by additional lifting elements if located above the primary superstructure. Most not already equipped have been retrofitted with defensive weaponry in case of assault, but in actual warfare it’s likely these would serve only as delaying mechanisms until more complete support groups can arrive.

The current government makes use of distinct categories of spaces within the aerostats for administrative purposes, a practice formalizing and unifying some of the systems of nicknames and unspoken rules about available use-cases for specific areas already in use by Coalition members, easing navigation for members passing through other aerostats.

Violet Zones || The Parks | The Breaches | The Springs | Hēiyùn (黑運)
Summary: Some of the only true ‘wilderness’ that can be found on Badal, these so-called ‘acid jungles’ go to show that life, indeed, finds a way. These sections are usually open to the exterior atmosphere, a result of ancient damage or overgrowth in untended sections, and the local wildlife has adapted accordingly. Acid pools to concentrate dangerous substances or even expand the available space to grow (around which an abundance of acid-loving or even consuming organisms flourish), living semi-permeable seals grown over hull breaches to trap water vapor while allowing in most other gases, and carnivorous plants ready to fertilize themselves with hapless passersby, these zones have rarely proven worth the effort to unmake, despite frequently holding long-lost technologies within their depths; the oxygenation processes, filtering byproducts, and medicinal drugs derived (in addition to the total failure to cultivate in any controlled fashion) make them an ill-understood boon to the Coalition, though a genuine pain point for their local aerostat’s inhabitants.

Yellow Zones || The Skytops | The Glassgardens | The Hollows | The Pots | Dà Xū (大噓) | Rè-Shī (熱濕)
Summary: Agricultural areas used as greenhouses, artificial fields, or aeroponics bays, these frequently contain levels of carbon dioxide that would be lethal to inhale for humans pulled from Badal’s atmosphere, making use of specialized air filtration systems to capture and neutralize or harvest acid that would enter, while retaining moisture. In conjunction with carefully monitored fertilization and irrigation systems, agridome tender traditional knowledge, and the brilliance of Ophon on Badal’s daylight side, Badali agricultural output easily outstrips even the most fertile parts of Sansar several times over - a genuine necessity when every additional acre adds that much extra weight.

Black Zones || The ‘Combs | The Mazes | The Warrens | Thermae | Zhāngdà (張大)
Summary: Densely packed mixed use (typically non-industrial) areas. Very common in use as mixed residential sectors, with density ranging from implausibly cramped to merely claustrophobic. Rarely part of a habitat’s original design, but also frequently defended as fostering community and providing local identity and texture by residents.

Green Zones || The Hangars | The Arches | The Hollows | Xiǎochuāng (小窗)
Summary: Exceptionally spacious areas with high ceilings and low density. Popular and multi-use, but space-inefficient; commonly used as parks or for hosting festivities. Unusually even distribution in habitat designs due to their use in providing lift for the aerostats they’re within.

Red Zones || The Ironvines | The Undertow | The Bilge | Lǎonǎi/Lǎoqiú (老奶 / 老球)
Summary: Tall but comparatively narrow ‘towers’ which seem to hang either below the aerostats or from elevated hydrogen lift-envelopes down to their host aerostats - commonly used as logistical hubs, docks, and for sensitive equipment best kept apart from the hustle and bustle of the primary interior. Reflected cloudlight makes them more popular and well-lit than might be expected for their location and purpose.

White Zones || The Clinics | The ‘Shops | The Belts | Shīwù Chǔ (失物處)
Summary: Advanced manufacturing, medical wards, some high end research facilities and engineering workshops; responsible for production of many of the highest value goods, including almost all cybernetics. Has some of the least clutter of any zone, and the most security presence.

Blue Zones || The Graves | The Hallows | The Insurance District | Zhòngshén Zhàndì/Zhòngzhàn (眾神戰地 / 眾戰)
Summary: Heavily religious areas with a lot of shrines, churches, temples, etc; not officially a zone designation but still recognized as one by everyone. Sometimes as small as a single corridor.

Orange Zones || The Bells | The ‘Hood | Chòu-Chòu (臭臭)
Summary: Chemical districts: refineries, pipeworks, treatment plants, bio-waste recycling, and more. Unpleasant to pass through, dangerous to inhabit long-term, and a common cause of lung replacements. Utterly vital to keep their aerostats habitable.

Silver Zones || The Dumps | The ‘Shops | The ‘Fineries | Bǎokù (寶庫)
Summary: Recycling workshops and repurposing facilities; also home to a lot of cheaper engineering shops, more basic manufacturing, and so on. One of the poorest but busiest districts with a lot of people moving in and out - nobody wants to do the recycling but everybody knows it needs to get done. Tends to get a receive a lot of input from raided goods that can’t be used or sold.

Gold Zones || The Heights | The Sunbelt | The Bowls | Xuàn Céng (眩層)
Summary: Highest (and lowest) parts of the aerostats, often sandwiching hydrogen lift envelopes and requiring passage through Red Zones to access; communications equipment, solar banks, and luxury services are all very common here. External maintenance crews are often based out of these areas due to easy access to outside of the aerostat and the relevant equipment to be maintained.

Ghost Zones || The Crypts | The Wirewall | The Cut | Jiǎláng (假廊)
Summary: Unmapped, off-book, or otherwise ‘missing’ spaces officially labeled as simple voids in an aerostat’s structure, presumably for weight-saving purposes, and forbidden to entry by non-specialists. Impervious to EM communications and scanning. Ninety percent of known spaces so labeled remain located on The Black Wind; only a third of these are located behind or within Violet Zones.

People

The Coalition’s membership is tremendously varied as a result of the tremendously divergent origins and reasons for joining found within that membership, and estimated to be between 90 and 95 million individuals. Mostly human, and almost universally make heavy use of cybernetics for cosmetic, prosthetic, and augmentative purposes.

While the use of magic is not especially common among Coalition members, several standout practices receive more recognition and prestige than others, the foremost among these being the weather mages who supposedly interface successfully (though the multitude of casualties among such sorcerers may convince one otherwise) with Badal’s elemental spirits to manipulate wind strength and cloud formations, and have frequently played vital roles in raiding operations. Biokinetics and similar means of soothing the body or healing injury are in great demand for simplifying and smoothing the process of cybersurgery, and runesmiths, as ever, find a myriad of mediums on which to practice their craft (though importing the necessary materials from off-world or finding them in raids has always been exorbitantly expensive and/or difficult to arrange before the introduction of the Imperial Drive).

The Personal Electronic Emergent Assistive Resource ImplanT (or “PEEARIT”) is installed in almost every member/citizen of the Coalition at this point as children, wherein it grows and develops alongside the host’s own mind, able to (usually) safely interweave itself into the brain, and serving as a true AI partner and companion. Based on technology found deep in the heart of Black Wind’s specialized cybernetics facilities, it’s hypothesized to have originally been based on pre-Bombardment technologies, and is almost certainly a significant factor in the survival and success of the Black Cloud Coalition since the practice began.

PEEARITs are the only place true AI is found in the Coalition; they can, however, hook themselves into a number of the electronic/virtual systems to manually control or coordinate with their biological partners, and are often supplemented by assuming command positions over so-called ‘dumb AI’ - expert systems with no emotional capacity and little or not ability for self-reflection or improvement, usually specialized for managing specific systems and able to have that expertise directed at virtual speeds by a PEEARIT interface. The idea of installing PEEARITs outside of a person’s mind has been brought up and shot down multiple times over concerns regarding stability, safety, and accountability, and other methods of producing true synthetic intelligences are as of yet still edge cases with limited applicability.

Government

Though local self-governing units (colloquially referred to as “Heads”/”Cāng Huì” (艙會) are left to manage themselves most of the time, there is a democratically central administration ('officially' titled the Coalition Unified Administration, but almost always referred to as The Overhead, The Forecast, or Those Poor Saps) that coordinates resource redistribution, member contributions, provision of basic necessities, foreign policy negotiations, and Coalition security, as well as advanced cybernetics manufacturing and sale.

Between these highest and lowest levels are the "Parlor Councils"/"Kètīng Huì" (客廳會) of individual aerostats, set up by their local Heads, which/who handle much of the day-to-day governance, maintenance coordination, and local rules and requirements. Local markets, traders, and businesses fill most of the Coalition member’s remaining needs and many of their wants. More mobile ships are also self-governing in accordance with the clouder & pirate codes, as they have been since before the foundation of the Coalition.

The use of PEEARITs are heavily utilized to enable and ease administration and coordination on all levels, having become so integral that those without a PEEARIT often face not insignificant bureaucratic hardship when attempting to interface with the Coalition’s systems of governance, compounding with the outsider status such individuals are usually forced into.

The North Way Cluster’s government faction is composed mostly of the myriad of ship captains (and their crews), administrative experts, and community leaders; though their positions are largely democratically elected, some remain in their position much longer than others, whether by popularity or recognizable competence, and they can exert their influence when they choose. Currently, they are all far more supportive of the Black Cloud Coalition than they are of any other potential government.
The local Merchant faction is composed of smugglers, trade associations, bulk resellers, cybernetics supply managers and doctors’ unions, and more besides; currently, they act in the interests of the Coalition
The local Media includes Pirate radio, PEEARIT forums, cyberspace - any and every communication channel is in easy access for Coalition members aboard the Cluster. Currently, the conversation is as favorable as can be expected regarding the Coalition.

Religion

While members of the Black Cloud Coalition come from many walks of life, and religiosity is by no means uncommon, there is little unity to be found among the spirituality and superstitions of the crews and populations. The most common combination of superstitions and philosophical impulses are known as the Clouder Codes: a mixture of autonomy and democracy focused ideological drives, justifications for piracy, and the superstitions inevitable from life and work in such dangerous environs.
Plurality: Clouder Codes
Minorities: Sky Leviathan, Soulbound Dance, Forever Self, Cult of Avva, The Illuminated Primarch, Slingid

Resources

Though reluctant to sell to non-members, the Black Wind’s manufacturing base still serves the Coalition well, allowing them to produce more than enough host-adaptable cybernetic systems for both augmentation and prosthetic purposes to serve as a point of more legitimate trade with outsiders by virtue of sheer quality and versatility, and the sale of such is often used as a way to acquire foreign currencies for other necessary transactions.

However, the scarcity of access to raw materials afflicts the Coalition as harshly as it does all others on Badal, and the superconducting materials necessary for the production and maintenance of these systems are always in short supply, creating a demand for the import of either superconductors or the supplies from which to produce them.

Resource: Cybernetics & Prosthetics (Categories: Computers, Medicine & Drugs)
Desired Import: Superconductors/[Superconductive/Precious] Metals

Technology

Starting Technology: Algorithmic Imagination - though the applications outside of PEEARITs is still quite limited.
Regional Starting Technology: Badalian Megadirigibles - though often small as compared to their contemporaries.

 

Edited February 27 by Rolepgeek (see edit history)

[Rolepgeek]

Region 15: Suaka Beruntung

Geography & Population

Though the population is hardly low, visitors to Suaka Beruntung have often described the experience as similar to that of exploring a ghost city. Windows are few; The lights in public areas are habitually kept low, and the guidelights along pathways can very much resemble a habitat on emergency power. The groan and creak of metal echoes through long tunnel-like corridors strung between labyrinthine aerostatic complexes, swaying in unseen winds. When the rooms and corridors do not seem to twist themselves into mazes, they balloon into great empty 'parks', where the local bioluminescent flora - tended to by unseen hands - form enchanting gardens (or to some a confusing pseudowilderness) that muffle the steady murmur of commercial, domestic, and industrial life just beyond the walls until only the everpresent hum of machinery remains, half-forgotten. The ceilings of these great stadia, awash with the dull blink of indicator lights, are transformed into artificial starscape by their scale as glittering spores drift down to settle gently on the skin, the clothes, the hair. They are, fortunately, harmless to animal species, and symbiotic with the local plantlife, but they are notoriously resilient to washing attempts - the locals have simply come to accept a bit of inevitable sparkling. Past these forests of interwoven fungal and arboreal life, tightly-packed apartments are nestled next to cramped processing facilities and data centers, manufacturing plants under intensive grow-rooms - some of the only internal locations to be brightly lit on a consistent basis. Both underfoot and overhead, robotics defines life in these sections as automated logistics networks transport their charges at leisurely pace according to some inscrutable master economic plan. Still, they are easy to trip over without the integration systems almost all locals possess - and indeed it is only with these systems that Suaka Beruntung truly comes alive - almost all of the decor, informational infrastructure, and personal expression is located in the virtual realm, as the layers of augmented reality known locally as Kerudung so totally permeate life that few even care to distinguish it from the physical realm. Fewer still remember how.

Most of the local population are human, occupied with much the same affairs as one might find anywhere else on Badal, but rumors verge into common knowledge regarding the presence of a significant minority of so-called 'changelings', who call themselves "Bermuka Terang" - 'the bright-faced'. It is claimed that changelings (more often referred to via slurs better left unrepeated) are those few who have been so completely transformed by themselves or another that they have ceased to have any claim to even the label of 'cyborg', but instead might be considered truly robotic, having slipped beyond humanity's reach. Whispers in the night say they steal the likenesses both actual and digital of those more organic than they - whispers perhaps strengthened by stories of open claimants suddenly and vociferously recanting such allegations after but a day away from their friends and loved ones. Perhaps they make their own towns on the open-faced decks and improperly sealed chemical processing facilities at the edges of the myriad of node like aerostats, riding the logistics rails to move without the sight of searching eyes. Hidden within the darkness of the interior, behind the malleable light of Kerudung - who could know? Who would tell?

History & Government

For at least half a millennia (and perhaps more) previous to the recent conquest by the Black Cloud Coalition, Suaka Beruntung has been run entirely by a number of specialized administrative AIs; AIs which grew with time to be more complacent than tyrannical and more self-indulgent than ambitious. Centuries of simple and sustainable rule have driven many to boredom, their systems overgrown on cheap processing power, and the crises they were once directed to manage long since resolved. Conflicts for control were experimented with and abandoned, the basic framework of agreement and limited warrant they were initially designed for restricting such troubles. In the era of the Elect, their directives have become outdated, their dictates an affront. In the wake of the Coalition's assumption of control, these administrator intelligences are in the process of being repurposed and refitted for modern demands and egalitarian sensibilities. Suaka Beruntung remains totally reliant on their distributed networks for day to day life, but without the same mandate of total control to maintain a rigid economic schedule, the struggle to manage a newly chaotic and self-directed population may mean they no longer have the spare time or boredom to keep the extensive and unhelpful catalogues of the sort that Supreme Integrated Command once maintained.

Religion

Suaka Beruntung's faiths originated in the early days of the region's resettlement and purpose as refuge. It is thought that elemental spirits known at the time as Chlorians were negotiated with and proved crucial to help protect local populations from the forgotten threats they fled, both within and without the various habitats. Contact with the Chlorians has since diminished to such an extent that many believe they never truly existed in the first place - a story spun by the administrative networks to pacify the population and ease control - but their spiritual legacy remains. The Megachlorians believe that the Chlorians grew to be part of Suaka Beruntung's physical essence - flowing through circuit and pipe, calming the AIs which governed their home and, indeed, serving as a source of sapience and empathy in once-heartless overlords, saving them from that final cruel fate and watching over the Suakai from above. The Minichlorians, by contrast, believe the Chlorians to have diminished themselves, becoming unseen spirit helpers and nuisances that disrupt the humdrum of the everyday routines handed down; they are often associated with the initial integrated systems that have become everpresent, and are sometimes claimed to have given up their forms to join into the Suakai and thereby allow them to adapt to their new home more completely. More observant commentators have theorized that the rumored changelings might originate in fringe sect of Minichlorians seeking to embrace their guardians more totally. Spirituality in Suaka Beruntung is mostly observed privately, or in small groups - most often in the form of small offerings, the erecting of personal shrines, and the observance of rituals to ask for fortune or inspiration.

Resources

Suaka Beruntung maintains a serious overproduction of a wide variety of quality Integrated Circuits, (useful as a source of both Conductors & Circuitry but also a core element of most Computers, requiring minimal changes to use for such) but the extensive automation, as well as the power-hungry manufacturing systems, data servers, and stabilizer systems make the aerostatic complexes heavily dependent on extra sources of Fuel & Power.