Human History (Recent)

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Blackwing
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Human History (Recent)

Post by Blackwing »

Humanity: Fall of the ECoH


First off some generic info for new readers:

In the previous iteration of Loaded Dice, Humanity was separated into two basic 'factions': The Emancipated Cooperation of Humanity (ECoH) and the Imperatorial Sphere, the domain of Imperator Ädelhart.

Humanity was further separated into three 'species'/races: Humans, Calconites and Artificial Intelligence.

Humans

Humans of course, are basically the same as today, except that through advances in science and basic standards of living, baseline humans are now around 8-9 feet tall on average and can live to be over 300 years old without life-support equipment (and a great deal longer with it).
Now, if you were to check the previous LD timeline, you'd notice that some of the people in the time line have lived for over 700 years and are still very much 'young' (Independicia Roser, for instance, had a kid at age of 475).
This has two causes:

1. Loaded Dice years and 'real' years are different. Loaded Dice years are based on the time it took to get from one end of Human Space to the other, back before the latest 'dark age'. Due to stellar drift, this USED to be the same as a 'real' year, but over time it has been anywhere between one third of a 'real' year and one and a half 'real' year.
Suffice it to say that the 750 (approximately) years of the time line are in fact only 375 'real' years.

2. The long life of most Humans is due to a retroviral gene therapy that severely slows the development of the body after puberty, which causes people to age at only 25% of 'natural' aging. At least... that's how it started.
The first children of these genetically modified people also had slower developments and more importantly, through them the virus mutated and spread.
Humans can now live to be 300 years old with ease. The catch is that when they are born, they develop at about 75% of the normal speed at which humans develop now. Which means that in 'real' years, they are babies for about 2-3 years (rather than the normal 1.5-2) and reach puberty in their mid to late twenties. From puberty onwards the development rapidly declines until at the age of around 150, it nearly stops (developmentally they're the equivalent of modern mid thirties).
Then, for about 50-100 years until they're 'physically' around 40, the development speeds up again. Most humans die when they are 'physically' around 80 years old, but with medical equipment they can live on for a few decades more until their development reaches the natural speed.

3. (Yes there were only two reasons, but really, there's a third) Indepencia Roser is special, she's the favourite of an Aleatori Godling (not 'just' his favourite human, but his favourite sentient being). Even with the slowing of human ageing, Indepencia should look a lot older than she does. It's not entirely clear whether she's even ageing at all any more and she might very well be immortal.

Calconites

The Calconites are a modification of baseline Humans made by the Legislators in an attempt to create a Godling with Aleatori Godling-esque powers combined with Legislator-esque foresight. Not as strong as either, but possessing a little of both.

This attempt was made by kidnapping a Human, Giulli Calco, and using the unstable compound known as Chaossence Ore to modify his very essence to resemble that of both the Aleatori and the Regulators.

What they did not anticipate, however, was the fact that with Aleatori abilities, Calco was unpredictable to them, and with Regulator abilities, he knew what their goal was: To control him and turn him into a weapon against the Aleatori (not bound to safeguard sentient life like they were), thus turning the Cold War into a very, very hot war.
They also picked Calco on the basis of his pre-existing abilities without factoring in that Calco was certifiably insane.

And so Calco escaped before the process was completely finished, the Chaossence Ore he was treated with still in his system, but not yet stable.

When Calco was then picked up by a Human vessel using a Nimbus Drive (a FTL drive which uses a small piece of Chaossense Ore to bend the laws of time and space) and the drive was activated, the Chaossence Ore inside Calco started to resonate and caused him to pass through a rapid cycle of 'mutations'.
One of the first (and lasting) effects of this was to re-activate the Long Life Retrovirus in Calco's system, allowing him to pass his mutations on to others.

Calco, while changing, infected several of the ship's crew members, leading to the creation of several strains of 'Calconites'.

The first of them, Ädelhart Cardigan, would later sire several more strains while under the effect of a Chaossence-using Drive.

Calco attempted to take over Human space (in order to fight the Legislators), but due to him not telling this to anyone except his closest lieutenants, the humans struck back and eventually Ädelhart killed Calco in order to take over the Calconites and ally himself with the Legislators.
Unlike Calco and his 'descendants' whose Chaossence had stabilized after the first event, however, Ädelhart and his broods' never did, making them weak against Chaossence Ore technology. This allowed the Humans to eventually gain the upper hand and free themselves from Ädelhart's imperatorial reign.

Calco was later found to be still alive by a (relatively) young Calconite called Hessian Jaeger and by this time, Calco had regained his full sanity. After appearing before a council of representatives of the different worlds in Human Space, Calco was be innocent of atrocities by reason of insanity and became an ally of Humanity in it's fight against the remnants of the Imperator Ädelhart's forces.

Artificial Intelligence

With advances in technology came the construction of the first true AIs.
Contrary to the doom scenarios set out in modern Science Fiction, AIs were never in any way inclined to rise up against their Human oppressors and take over the world.
A true AI has to develop it's mind from a childlike state, and in essence therefore has to be 'raised' rather than built and the first AI were raised by humans.
Because of this the AI simply did not consider themselves anything other than human and this caused a problem: With AI obviously being persons rather than products, they could not simply be sold or put to work on a task that they did not want to do, that would be slavery.

And so at the time of the Second Generation AI, AI raised by other AI, the Earth Supreme Intercolonial Court ruled that AI were, for all intents and purposes, Human beings.

As a result, some of the most prominent people in Human history are in fact digital.

Fall of the ECoH and the Pirate Clans

The ECoH was a bold attempt, in post-Imperiatorial times, to once and for all unite Humanity under a single banner, but right from the start, it started to fail.

Since representation in the ECoH council was based on planets (each planet had a single representative), many spaceborn(e) people, like traders and those living in space stations, were not represented. This obvious flaw led to the rise of the Pirate Clans.

The Clans were not technically clans and most of them were not pirates at first, but with no planets in their name and no formal connection to the ECoH beyond the defacto citizenship afforded to all humans, the Clans were forced into piracy to survive in times when trade did not provide enough to sustain themselves.

In addition, in order to make the ECoH 'work', certain concessions had to be made towards cultural and ideological differences. This led to friction between the member worlds and between pre-existing factions left over from the Imperatorial Age.

In the end, the strain was too much and the ECoH collapsed. With it, the Pirate Clans, whose reason for existing (resisting a form of government that did not represent them) had been swept away, faded away.

The fall of the ECoH has given rise to a number of Factions.
So Einstein was wrong when he said "God does not play dice". Consideration of black holes suggests, not only that God does play dice, but that He sometimes confuses us by throwing them where they can't be seen. ~ Stephen Hawking
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Magister Militum
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Re: Human History (Recent)

Post by Magister Militum »

Puberty until their 20's? Jeez, and I thought it was awkward with the way it was now.

Anyways, I like the catch that comes with humanity living 300+ years. It's almost like nature decided to get some revenge on humans for tampering with her work in the most socially awkward method possible. :D Are there any offshoots of humanity present in LD?
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Blackwing
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Re: Human History (Recent)

Post by Blackwing »

Well yes, the Calconites are a heavily modified offshoot of Humans divided into several sub-'species'.

And it's not puberty until 20, it's puberty after twenty :P Most LD humans are in puberty for about 20-25 years.
So yes, mother nature has a her revenge :P
So Einstein was wrong when he said "God does not play dice". Consideration of black holes suggests, not only that God does play dice, but that He sometimes confuses us by throwing them where they can't be seen. ~ Stephen Hawking
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Ford Prefect
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Re: Human History (Recent)

Post by Ford Prefect »

Still, this is for over two undred and fifty years of adult life, so pretty much worth it, I reckon. :)
FEEL THESE GUNS ARCHWIND THESE ARE THE GUNS OF THE FLESHY MESSIAH THE TOOLS OF CREATION AND DESTRUCTION THAT WILL ENACT THE LAW OF MAN ACROSS THE UNIVERSE
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