Sesestran Colonial Union - Ideas and Q&A

Faction Status: NPC/Character Source Only
Faction First Contact Status
Note: They do have UOC refugees (it ties into how the NMX or rather a small group of NMX found them) so they do have some knowledge of the setting from them the extent of which I still need to determine.

• Nepleslia: Known of but not contacted.
• Yamatai: Known of but not contacted.
• Lorath: Known of but not contacted.
• HSC: Unknown.
• Iromakuanhe: Unknown.
• Neshaten: Unknown.
• Gartagen: Unknown.
• Azorean: (Unsure if they'd be aware of them.)
• NMX/SMX: Known, hostile toward.

Important Articles and Completion Status

• Coverpage/Mainpage: Sesestran Colonial Union (Complete/Approved)
• Territory Page/Influence: Sesestran Territorial Holdings(Needs some work but overall concept approved and accurate.)
• FAQ Page: Sesestran FAQ (Complete/Approved)
• Culture Page: Sesestran General Culture(Some additions will come along but overall it is accurate and approved.)
• Economy Page: (Incomplete/Unapproved)
• Government Page: (Incomplete/Unapproved)
• Military Organization Page: (Incomplete/Unapproved)
• Technology Page: (Incomplete/Unapproved)
• Interstellar Outlook: (Incomplete/Unapproved)
• NPC Fleet (Made at Cadetnewb's suggestion): Sesestran Colonial Space Command Combined Fleet (SCSCCF) (Represents two-thirds of their starships, article is approved and will be updated as I expand the detail in their organizations.)

Faction Goals

• Above all establish first contact (possibly via a general conference of some kind?) with all but one of the listed factions at the beginning of this post.
• After the first contacts have been carried out establish normalized but political neutral relations with said factions in order to setup player character avenues to allow players to create Sesestran characters and or play them in other faction plots. (The main goal of this human faction in the first place.)
• Finish all setting articles in the Territorial Holdings page (probably wont accomplish this till sometime next year).
• Overall incorporate these guys into SARP.

(Copied from GM forum for those without access and who want to chime in.)

I know my opinion may not amount to a whole much more than a hill of beans, but I've been talking with Arieg a lot during his making this group. I've also been a bit of a sounding board now and then when he needed opinions on various things. So I suppose that while this wiki could use some fleshing out and polishing up to be more aesthetically presentable on the wiki, I feel it would be a welcomed addition as a middle-ground between lizard-people, bird-people, machismo Space Rambo, and the über-classy cat-people.

A Lt. Winters thrown in to insanity. I like it and think this should be a go.

I like the idea of this thing. Throw in some nice holiday resort so plots can go and have time off in there so it will see more time in the actualy IC roleplay as well. AKA give people reason to go there for a visit

The big things that come to mind are how they tie into the world around them. Where did they come from (same place as Neps)? How did they get here? (Same way as Neps?) Why have they taken so long to reach out to the rest of the galaxy, and how did they avoid detection before?

What's uplifted them, if anything? What method of faster-than-light travel have they achieved, and how far can they reach? What's their outlook on the various races that they know of?

I think we could use some justification as to why they'd be willing to play intermediary for other factions. What gives them the credibility? Being new, they're possibly more likely to be a pawn than a legit powerbroker. But maybe factions don't want that.

Not interested in a new UOC. Last one died an ignoble death. Considering your past absences, shall we say, and overall lack of interest in completing role plays, I hardly see how you qualify as a Faction Manager and how this will not die another ignoble death.

Peacekeepers? I don't see how they could even hope to compete in a major conflict. They won't have the numbers, technology or respect from any side. Yamatai vs. Lorath, ROFLstomp from both ends. Nepleslia vs. Yamatai, likewise. The small new kid to the block does not get to dictate terms. That is basic politics.

Unless you mean to tell me that they will pop out with DION/YSE equivalent technology and go against:

The Wiki said:

The tech level should be at basic spaceflight or lower.

Avoid the "we're totally badass" cliche.

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There's something very wrong about a brand new faction popping out, ready to kick ass and tangle with the biggest players in the galaxy. And don't worry, I'll be repeating similar objections over in the Raiken thread.

Why have they taken so long to reach out to the rest of the galaxy, and how did they avoid detection before?

The big things that come to mind are how they tie into the world around them. Where did they come from (same place as Neps)? How did they get here? (Same way as Neps?)

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I'd assume the same place as the neps, or at least of the same stock. As far as the how did they get there I'm still pondering on, could be generation ships, sleeper ships, or perhaps just the good old fashion method of large over sized colony ships having settled down centuries ago. This bit of history is still up in the air but I hope to use this discussion thread to help hammer it into place.

Why have they taken so long to reach out to the rest of the galaxy, and how did they avoid detection before?

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I'm honestly hoping to submit them as having been known for quite sometime before, maybe even as early as Pre-UOC or even farther back. But rather then integrating or joining the international community they chose to simply sit off at the edge up until recently. As far as the motivations for that I was planning on using both the ending of the Second NMX War and the general economic demands that would place on the area. From what I'm considering this event is occurring along side their own economy reaching the point to where its feasible for them to begin exporting goods (which for the most part will probably be agricultural in nature).

What's uplifted them, if anything? What method of faster-than-light travel have they achieved, and how far can they reach? What's their outlook on the various races that they know of?

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That I haven't determined yet, considering I plan on them being the same or similar origin as the rest of the humans in the sector they could have merely started on the same technological base and only proceeded more slowly down a similar line of development (not fighting many wars may have factored in to a slower technological development that and their smaller population and size compared to the other factions).

FTL is a bit murky, I figure they use fold style drives like everyone else, though if Wes would allow it I may make that a bit of an expensive tool just for the military or large civilian vessels and funnel most of the civilian regular space traffic through some kind of gate system. But.. more then likely they'll wind up using the standard fold for everything. Range well... hmm... probably limited by the stores they have on board like everyone else I'd imagine.

As far as outlook on other races? That is very much a work in progress that I'll have to base on previous and first encounters and events that occurred during SARP history when they were 'aware' of the rest of the setting.

I think we could use some justification as to why they'd be willing to play intermediary for other factions. What gives them the credibility? Being new, they're possibly more likely to be a pawn than a legit power broker. But maybe factions don't want that.

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This.. is very much a work in progress and more of a creative idea and a possible use for GMs in plots and meta plots. As far as the willingness I believe it would mainly be to their proximity to the former UOC and their want for it to be somewhat stable. Or maybe its just a sense of duty? I'm still trying to figure it out really lol hence this thread. As far as being a pawn who knows, maybe they could wind up being the monkey in the middle (or rather a group of mediators from the SCU) for some future conflict.

Not interested in a new UOC. Last one died an ignoble death. Considering your past absences, shall we say, and overall lack of interest in completing role plays, I hardly see how you qualify as a Faction Manager and how this will not die another ignoble death.

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Above all this is not... another united outer colonies, the UOC was essentially a modified copy of Yamatai with certain unwanted features removed. And your right, I don't qualify as a faction manager, I don't even really have the decent mindset or free time to run a plot right now... but... this isn't intended as a full on player faction like the UOC, DION, or YSE. Its a character source location and possibly a significant GM/FM tool. It works because while I generally suck at consistently playing in the setting I've gotten damn good at world building and making setting elements (both of which are something I rather enjoy) which is essentially what the idea behind this NPC faction is, making something highly detailed and hopefully useful to roleplay.

Peacekeepers? I don't see how they could even hope to compete in a major conflict. They won't have the numbers, technology or respect from any side. Yamatai vs. Lorath, ROFLstomp from both ends. Nepleslia vs. Yamatai, likewise. The small new kid to the block does not get to dictate terms. That is basic politics.

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I think your mistaking peacekeepers for peacemakers (hai B-36 reference!). The one major thing being they wouldn't be involved unless they where requested to come in, they wouldn't make policy or demands or really even intervene in a dispute or conflict. They would merely deploy and observe both sides much in the same way the UN operates today, they'd have very limited provisions for self defense at the most and could only really report one side for going beyond agreements or intentionally acting aggressively. The entire idea is based around providing transparency in conflicts, shedding a neutral viewpoint on both sides. Now if the shit hits the fan, they won't fight, they won't intervene, they'll just get out of the way and take notes (saving civilians caught in between would probably occur as well.) In the end the style of peacekeeping I'm envisioning isn't about having the numbers, tech, or respect to enforce policies, its about acting as a cooler head between a pair of powers and trying to get them to see that tipping over into a shooting war isn't worth it.

Unless you mean to tell me that they will pop out with DION/YSE equivalent technology and go against: 'The tech level should be at basic spaceflight or lower.'

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As far as technology goes I have them pegged in the late fusion age, their society primarily operating on hydrogen and helium-3 economies. As far as weaponry goes I figure they've just started experimenting with antimatter as a weapon system (such as they about into the late 40s early 50s with weapon size and sophistication with antimatter). As far as the 'bad ass cliche' the faction isn't intended to be badass, its intended to be normalized and average as far as the military and their technology goes (which is what I imagine your concern is.) I'll leave the 'badass' to the Neps, its what there around for.

As far as the basic space flight rule, that seems to apply to new species... and if you haven't read the initial post the Sesestrans aren't a new species.

There's something very wrong about a brand new faction popping out, ready to kick ass and tangle with the biggest players in the galaxy.

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As far as 'popping out' and 'ready to kick ass' they're not, I don't see how you've drawn this idea from the faction being intended as a neutral player and above all.. not very out going unless wanted or needed. They only have a single system and the fleet count to go with it, they're military will be as large as it needs to be for self defense with perhaps a single decent sized expeditionary force. Compared to the biggest players in the galaxy they pipsqueaks, at the most they could tie down one hostile fleet of standard SARP size and that's only if they where defending their home systems. They neither have the tech, nor the military, nor the numbers, nor the cultural want to expand in that manner.

And don't worry, I'll be repeating similar objections over in the Raiken thread.

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Now... I thank you for your opinions and your views, they where questions I needed to answer and things I needed to clarify... but this particular line seems a little... malicious.... I understand you have the right to state your views but perhaps you should consider being a little more... academically neutral about it?

After speaking with the Dosh for a while on the subject I've decided to put the peacekeeping and for the time being the mediation option on the shelf until faction completion.

Right now, I don't really think it's appropriate to retcon them into the setting. If they were directly involved with the setting in the past, and were known, I find it hard to believe nobody would have tried to form relations or pull them into, for example, the Mishhu wars, even if nothing else would have done it. Short of them being newcomers, or a very recent emergent group, I don't think this idea really works.

I'd also question putting them in the same area as the UOC. We have enough trouble with arguing over who owns what out that direction just among the factions that we already have, adding another group to the region just seems like a bad idea. Especially since it's especially hard to believe that a group that close to an area that was overrun by the NMX forces wasn't drawn into the fighting at all.

Considering the proximity, short distance, and technology of the factions we have right now most of the newly emerged factions should have been discovered ages ago, if anything not retconning in some kind of encounter or interaction with them wouldn't make sense. As far as relations, those could be written in, though as limited and unintrusive as possible to the existing canon their small size will probably benefit this because of the lack of importance in the setting as a whole it would create for the faction (IE they're not something people would want to conquer or form major relations with). Anything beyond a bit of history I'll probably have to has out with whomever wanted to have previous relations with them.

After thinking on it a while I'm inclined to agree with you so after bouncing some ideas I decided on a little unmarked dot below 'ASE-006', as far as the ramifications for the location I still need to ask around and research it.

I'm actually all right with their placement within the ASE Expansion Zone. As Arieg has told me, they won't really be expanding at all outside their system and their location within the ASE Expansion Zone also explains their lack of major interaction with other nations. Besides, the ASE has actually RP evidence of allowing independent, single-system polities to exist in their Expansion Zone (ie Khorsovarolor and Relay Moon's Invalid).

https://wiki.stararmy.com/doku.php?id=members:arieg:sesestran_q_and_a - Almost completed Q & A for them, gives far more in detail then what I posted in here at first.

The garts aren't lizards. They are mammals. I like space Swiss a lot. But I wonder with your pretty much being die hard on neutrality, what will they have to offer in terms of story?

An interesting point of view for characters that are born and raised there but go on to serve and roleplay in other factions, that is essentially the main goal of the Sesestrans. There is also the possibility of plots emerging from them later on down the road as more and more of their details are brought online.

I've been talking to Arieg for a bit on this development, and I want to chime in and say I like the idea, not so much as starting up a new powerhouse faction, but rather as another setting in which players can roleplay outside of the Nepleslia-Yamatai duality. In particular, the laissez-faire, neutral (or even isolationist) approach to politics is attractive to me, and would/will be to my character, not to mention the fact that a weak central government would provide a lot of potential for characters who delve a lot into a criminal underground notorious for exploiting loopholes in the system.

If a conflict were to ever arise between them and a stronger outside empire, yes, they would probably get stomped in no time flat, however, real-world history has proven the power of cunning politics as well as a fiercely independent population base. If we're drawing the parallel to "space Swiss," one of Switzerland's natural defenses against invasion has been their geography and the fact that a nine-year-old Swiss girl can probably shoot better than many modern nations' military marksmen. Afghanistan is another good example (I think) of a nation that, while on the surface is weak and disorganized, is easy to invade but extremely difficult to hold and control due to the guerilla tactics and fanatic loyalty of its natives. So in brief, I don't think they're quite as feeble a nation as some might otherwise suggest.

Perhaps, to again invoke the Swiss example, if they found a way to provide a trustworthy and neutral ground on which finances and politics can be handled on an inter-empire forum, the Big Boys would probably leave them alone, largely because the territorial and resource gains would be overshadowed by the immense costs in keeping control of the region as well as potential international backlash from doing so. This would especially be important for them to realize and act upon, now that they've been discovered. To paraphrase an old adage, as long as goods and services flow freely across borders, armies usually won't.

For Switzerland to be a big financial giant, it took more than just neutrality. It also helped that it was one of the more centrally located European nations when it began, which was the big starting point. While location no longer matters in the world, I think it would matter in a stellar environment. I can definitely see the neutrality helping in the domain of politics, but due to location I can see the Sesestran banking system being more for those who want to deposit their funds in an isolated location away from prying eyes.

Massive update on the first post.