[ Union Laws ]

The Kinewa Conventions are a series of three conventions about the development of weapons and technology, signed by various supranational entities in the galaxy, including the Union. The convention binds the members of these organisation to refrain from developing and deploying certain types of weapons.

The purpose of the Conventions is not just to limit these weapons, but to allow the galaxy to function in a relatively stable manner, preventing destruction from affecting the galaxy as a whole.

There are currently three Kinewa Conventions, covering 3 basic categories of weapons: the First Kinewa Convention which forbids certain classes of biological weapons, specifically those that pose a threat to life in the entire galaxy, the Second Kinewa Convention, that forbids anti-physics weapons that disrupt reality itself and the Third Kinewa Convention which forbids weapons that target and disrupt hyperspace.

The First Kinewa Convention forbids certain classes of biological weapons. Though most species believe such weapons to be morally reprehensible, it does not forbid them outright, but rather they forbid three of the most dangerous classes of bio-weapons:

Exotic-class bio-weapons - Bio-weapons engineered with non-biological technology, using such things as Strange Matter or Dark Energy. These bio-weapons are not just highly difficult to fight off, since they can easily make themselves immune to regular biological countermeasures, but they are problematic to control even by the party deploying them - see also Cherich

Species-class bio-weapons - Bio-weapons engineered to target a specific sentient specie, race or population group, while leaving others unharmed. Such weapons are deemed genocidal and promoting of xenophobia, especially when non-target species can be carriers.

Space-class bio-weapons - Bio-weapons that can survive exposure to hyperspace, on the hulls of space ships for example. Once such a disease starts to spread, it would be nearly impossible to prevent it from arriving on other planets and such a weapon could go out of control and infect the entire galaxy if it were to spread on a trade hub.

The Second Kinewa Convention finally forbids all weapons that disrupt or break down the commonly accepted laws of physics. Specifically it mentions the following:

Singularity Weapons – Weapons that create or use gravity-gone-mad black holes. By their very nature, such weapons are self-destructive, they warp hyperspace, and testing of these weapons is considered to be potentially dangerous.

Though most signatory members consider this act to concern all black hole weapons and technology, the convention actually only restricts the creation and use of black holes with growth capacity – micro-black holes, which are too small to swallow particles and thus cannot grow or gain mass, are technically not forbidden by the Second Kinewa Convention.

Backwards Time Travel – Any devices that cause information or matter to travel to the past. Such weapons would allow the destruction of other species or entire civilizations before they were ever created. However, since the universe is extremely complicated, the consequences of such an act would be very difficult to predict.

At the current time, most physicists agree that time-travel is not possible, making this mostly a theoretical law.

Universal Vacuum Disruptor – Any weapon that breaks the current vacuum barrier of the universe. No such weapon has ever been developed, and it exists in theory only – there exists no knowledge of how to even begin to research such a weapon and many scientists consider it highly debatable whether it is even possible.

However, in theory such a weapon could destroy the current balance of the universe and force a phase shift into a different state of existence. From its point of origin, the disruption would spread through the universe at the speed of light, hitching rides on any hyperspace lanes to speed up its spread and quickly engulfing first the galaxy and then the rest of the universe. Matter would seize to exist, the laws of physics would be fundamentally altered and all known life would become impossible.

At the current time, most physicists agree that there is no lower-energy vacuum state that the universe might take, making a Universal Vacuum Disruptor impossible. Regardless, all Kinewa Convention signatory parties consider this purely theoretical weapon to be excessive and have banned development that would lead to it.

The Third Kinewa Convention forbids all weapons specifically targeting or disrupting hyperspace. Specifically it mentions:

Hyperspace Disruptors - weapons that disrupt or damage hyperspace, rendering area's inaccessible by faster-than-light travel, either temporarily or permanently. Faster-than-light travel is deemed essential for the galaxy to operate in the manner in which it currently does.

Gravity Well Generators - weapons that generate artificial gravity wells in hyperspace, causing hyperspace calculations to fail and ships to be either lost in hyperspace entirely or to be destroyed as they fly into planets and stars. Note that disrupting hyperspace calculations (for example by using a computer virus) is not illegal. It is just illegal to warp hyperspace itself.

Hyperspace power sources - Energy sources, especially for high yield beam weapons, that draw their power from hyperspace. Drawing power from hyperspace causes hyperspace to be warped, which produces effects similar to that of a Hyperspace Disruptor.