Fwurg

[Danar Sylvia]

Sylvia clearly looked amused by the stories Shadow of War heard: "I don't know to whom you have been talking to, but you are clearly misinformed.

We have artificial, lungs, cardiac pumps and cortical implants. But yes, you can say that at a certain point we cannot have children anymore. When a female has no ovaries anymore, she cannot lay egg-sacks anymore.

Although we do have artificial lungs and cardiac pumps, you rarely see them in use. I think you know as well that the brain is the most important part of the body. When something happened to the heart or lungs of somebody, often the brain suffers as it is deprived of oxygen. When the brain has a short time no oxygen anymore, it immediately starts to decay, often to the point that we cannot safe it anymore. So when something happens to the lungs or heart of someone, our medics are often to late to help him."

((OOC: The problem is, as long as it is not on the wiki, I do not know it. And I cannot make assumptions about the sizes of your ships, simply because they are your ships. So if I cannot find data on the wiki, the only assumption I can make is that I do not know. Of course, you do not have to write down every trivial fact, but you have to be prepared that when you don't write it on the wiki, the others do not know it and thus ask for it when they like to know. And given the situation I preferred to ask it IC as that created better role play. :) (The same goes the other way around as well btw. Things I do not write on the wiki are unknown to the other players.)))

[Shadow of War]

"You'll have a hard time to find Astrians without artificial lungs and cardiac pumps. The amount of children born with strong enough lungs or harts to sustain them properly is negligible. I heard other species sometimes bare their children in their own home. That never happens with us."

[Danar Sylvia]

"That sounds terrible. What happened that your species no longer sustain yourself during birth?

In the Consensus, couples sometimes hatch their sacks in their own home, but more often they are hatched within one of the Consults of the couple. As getting children is an important happening for the whole community, the whole community is often involved. Stillborn or complications during the hatching do not happen that often, and when they occur, we see it early enough most of the time to bring the sack to a hospital where the baby can be helped immediately."

[Shadow of War]

"Bare in mind Astrians bare live young, much like humans. It can be difficult to detect complications before they arrive.

We happened. In an attempt to improve the interface between biological tissue and cybernetics we started genetically manipulating ourselves. The process had become irreversible before we even realised what we had done. The last Astrian without any cybernetics died before we joined the Union, so you will never find an Astrian that isn't a cyborg.

The successful birth of an Astrian child requires a very specific set of tools and procedures. Hospitals and personnel need special licences and training to perform Astrian births, or they can be held accountable for anything that might happen to the child and/or mother during the procedure. Intentional or not. It's the main reason there haven't been any Astrian childbirths outside the Novalia system as of yet. Though I read an Astrian hospital on Unity has recently acquired the required licences."

[Danar Sylvia]

"But that means that the Astrians have defied one of the basic principles of early life. No wonder your species are so protective around yourself and your world. Even the slightest catastrophe would mean the end of you all.

That explains why you started to colonize other worlds in your system."

[Shadow of War]

"And what principle would that be? Astrians are more resilient than you think. We are protective of our roots because it is our single most greatest asset, without the Novalia system we wouldn't be Astrian."

[Danar Sylvia]

"The principle that the goal of life is to continue existing. What you told me, is that Astrians have entered a situation which is very hard to maintain and vulnerable to changes. Making it difficult for the Astrian species to adapt and thus to survive on the larger scale.

Or am I missing something about the Astrian species I don't know about?"

[Shadow of War]

"The fact that the Astrian species would be on the verge of extinction without cybernetics. Have you heard of the Cataclism of Partesia?"

[Danar Sylvia]

"I have heard of it, but I have never learned what it was. Can you tell me more about it?"

[Shadow of War]

"It was a catastrophic event that wiped out about half the life on Stellaria. It decimated the ecosystem. What exactly it was or what caused it is unknown.

We barely had discovered electricity and were suddenly faced with an extinction level event. It's practically a miracle we're still around. But it did boost our technological advancement. The three nations that later formed the STF are the only reason we made it.

And it also led to our use of cybernetics. Could you tell me something about the origin of Teprogrenaian cybernetics?"

[Danar Sylvia]

"We had never invented bacta, and during the times of chaos, it was close to impossible to set up decent trade relations with other worlds, mostly because the worlds we knew were pirates. Over time, we developed cybernetics as a medical resort. It started small, with pacemakers, artificial limbs and so, but over time we advanced our cybernetics till the point that we can make an entire cybernetic body. Cybernetics are only a medical treatments within the Consensus. You will barely see a Teprogrenus who has cybernetics because he deliberately installed it, instead of he needs it. We are learned from a young age to be proud of our natural body and its resilience. Therefore we also do our best to keep track of our genetic code, and make sure that it stays healthy. We do like our cybernetic capabilities, but we love our bodies and do our best to never be dependable of cybernetics. That would place us in a very disadvantageous position.

How long ago was this Cataclysm?"

[Shadow of War]

"Interesting, it seems you deliberately try to prevent cybernetics to become a part of you. While we did exactly the opposite. I suppose that is why you see so few Teprogrenaian cybernetics that augment one's ability to do their job?

Quite intriguing, my people has used a meritocratic system for most of our history. Using cybernetics to improve our performance was fairly natural to us.

The Cataclysm happened around three-hundred years ago. How do you decide whether your genetic code is 'healthy'?"

[Danar Sylvia]

"Yes, if someone can use cybernetics for their job they might adapt their implants to do so, but you won't see a Teprogrenus deliberately taking cybernetics to be better in a job, that is just a taboo and disrespectful towards your body.

However, we have some examples of cyborgs using their cybernetics to augment their abilities, for example our Guardian and Collossus program make maximum use of the beneficial capabilities of cyborgs.

But our governmental system and use of cybernetics overall always have been separated. We believe that our Consensus system is not so different from a meritocratic system. What would be the reason that the governmental system of the former ACA, the STF, would contribute in your quick adoption of cybernetics?

We believe our genetic code is healthy as long we can survive without technological aide. No matter what catastrophic event would happen, we believe this would help us to ultimately survive in the end."

[Shadow of War]

"My apologies, it seems I wasn't clear enough. I was referring to pre-Cataclysm history and thus pre-STF.

Meritocracy was not just a governmental system, it was our way of life. People did the job the where best suited for. It is also one of the reasons we never had any nobility. The daughter of a poor farmer could be a much better leader than the daughter of a previous leader. So as you can see it is a part of our culture.

Moving on, I think you need to correct yourself. Surviving a catastrophic event has nothing to do with genetic code. With or without technological aid. You're not suggesting Astrians weren't able to survive the Cataclysm without cybernetics because our DNA is defective, are you?"

[Danar Sylvia]

"I am certainly not. In fact, that you were able to survive is quite an accomplishment if this cataclysm was indeed as devastating as it sounds. However, as far we understand, Astrians are not able to live on any kind of world without the aid of cybernetics. This a way we as Teprogrena want to avoid. I am not saying your way is wrong, only that is not our way.

But help me out, I must confess that I have not learned the history of the ACA properly. The Cataclysm was three hundred years ago, you were able to survive thanks to cybernetics I believe, but you developed cybernetics only around 80 years ago if I recall it correctly. Can you tell me what happened and where I am wrong?"

[Shadow of War]

"I mean it in much more general terms. Say, for example, an asteroid over 500 kilometres in diameter hits a medium sized, populated planet. The population on the planet will die, it's not a matter of genetics. An impact that size will wipe out all life on a planet that size.

One of the things the Cataclism caused was a large decrease of pure oxygen in our atmosphere. This slowly killed a lot of people. Cybernetics can actively counter the effects. Biological alternatives couldn't do that."

[Danar Sylvia]

"You are surely right. I think the line we draw to so called healthy, or unhealthy genes is the moment you actively need to adjust your world to you, or yourself to the world above the unaffected state of that world. So, when a species needs to change the environment of a world to something else than the natural environment that world is providing for the species, than the genes of that species are not fit to live in that world.

But can you refresh my memories about the history time line of your species about the cataclysm and your implementation, because I believe that I have it remembered wrong."

[Shadow of War]

"Can you be a bit more specific on where you want me to start? Because I can tell you a lot about history."

[Danar Sylvia]

"Well, as I said, as far I know, the cataclysm was three hundred years ago, you, the Astrians, survived thanks to the development of cybernetics, but your cybernetic program started not even hundred years ago. So what happened in the two hundred years in between?"

[Shadow of War]

"A lot. The three founding nations of the STF expanded very fast. Annexing smaller nations and conquering those that refused to fall in line. Not that there where many able to oppose them. Didn't stop some of them from trying though.

The Colonial Military still teaches one of those battles to recruits and cadets. It's known as the Battle of Viper Squad. A single fireteam of five marines won against an army of five-hundred. The marines used full auto assault rifles, bulletproof armour, GPS, computer systems and radio transmitters. The most advance weapon the other side had were muskets. Luckily the army was smart enough to surrender after a quick display of force from the marines.

Still it took a very long time to get the whole planet under STF control the last conflict only ended seven or eight years ago. Probably the only reason we still had a standing military when we joined the Union.

I'm sure the Teprogrenaians have had a few wars any significant ones I may have heard of?"

[Danar Sylvia]

"I have no idea what muskets are, but I assume that those are rather old and weak weapons.

Well, the two most famous battle we of the Consensus teach our children are the First battle of the Consensus and the First Victory battle. The First battle of the Consensus happened 2998 year before the start of the Union, around 2 years after we first developed space travel and made first contact. It was the first time the Consensus went to battle, it was against space pirates. Without any experience in battle, we suffered heavy losses and for a long time Dhiahamara was raided by pirates. This battle teaches our children the importance of learning to fight, as a lot of species like to use aggressive force and violence to get what they want. The current war with the Mandalorians is another example of that.

The second famous battle we teach our children is the First Victory battle. It happened around 1870 years before the start of the Union, and it was the first battle which where we actually emerged victorious. This battle took place near Samahadrahac, where we were starting to create large harvesting mines for iron and other metals. Pirates saw this as and opportunity for an easy raid. However, we were prepared and lured them into a trap, killing all of them with no losses on our side. This battle teaches our children the importance of learning your enemy and adapting to new situations.

After we obliterated the pirates near our space, we had a peaceful time. We kept communications to the outside world to a minimum and focused on developing our military might.

What part plays the development of cybernetics on the survival of your species after the Cataclysm?"

[Shadow of War]

"As I already said, the Cataclysm caused a decrease in oxygen levels in our atmosphere. Cybernetics countered that and improved overall health and living. I think I just told you this.

Teaching to defend yourself is good, but it sounds like you teach your children to be soldiers. I can't condone that. Children should be taught how horrible conflict is, how wrong it is to take the life of a sentient being. So that they will do everything they can to prevent it.

Teaching a child fighting is good should be a crime in my opinion."

[Danar Sylvia]

"Yes, you said that cybernetics improved your living, but we of the political Consult don't understand your development of history. Let me try to elaborate on what we don't understand: The cataclysm happened 300 years ago, when you barely had a space program as far I know. Your cybernetic program started about 80 years ago. The cataclysm caused a decrease in oxygen levels. How did your race manage to survive 220 years without oxygen. Most races, including the Teprogrena, already die after a few minutes without oxygen."

[Shadow of War]

"I never said there was no oxygen. I said there was less. We went from a 23% oxygen atmosphere to 17% oxygen. This might not sound like much but it's quite problematic. It's especially dangerous for a foetus during the mother's gestation period.

Can you imagine the panic we had when suddenly all our children where stillborn? Our population decreased by 300 million in the first 25 years alone. It wasn't until 83 years ago our population actually had positive growth again. If we hadn't started to advance so quickly after the Cataclysm we'd probably be extinct by now."

[Danar Sylvia]

"Oh now I understand, the lower amount of oxygen was enough for most of your people to suffocate, but not enough for some who where naturally adapted. And the development of cybernetic implants finally created the option for everyone of your people to survive. So in those 220 years in between, only the few people who were naturally adapted were on your planet. It was enough for your species to survive, but not enough time for your genes to adapt properly.

Thank you for clearing this up.

And to come back to the point you made earlier: We do not teach our children to be soldiers, in fact, the Consensus want nothing more than galactic peace. However many people in the galaxy think that violence is the best way to go. Therefore we take measures to defend ourselves. You would never see a Teprogrenus kill another Teprogrenus, that is just unthinkable. Just like we would never start a fight. But we will finish it. Even if we have fly all the way to the homeworld of our attackers and lay it to ashes, we will finish the fight.

But if the Astrians didn't had a growth in population till only 83 years ago, there must have been an incredible baby-boom. How does your government handle a growth of ten times the amount of people within two generations? Such impacts must be enormous."