Difference between revisions of "Humanity"

Revision as of 12:06, 27 May 2017

Government

Despite entering into the galaxy's affairs, humanity remains fragmented at best. Even Earth still remains under the rule of many different polities, and its colonies are likewise independently-ruled. However, they are at least able to present a somewhat united face to the galaxy-at-large. The Human Alliance, or simply the Alliance as it is generally referred to by humans, is a representative body comprised of most of the major human polities, and many of the minor polities as well. Additional members are recognized from time to time and invited to send a representative to their meetings. The democratic body votes on matters of galactic concern, representing human interests as best as it can.

Of course, given humanity's history with such bodies, such as the League of Nations and the United Nations, 'best as it can' is not always that great.

Human Technology

Humanity's mastery of gravitation ignited a major technological development, as it was applied to every conceivable field. Manipulating a new fundamental force unlocked amazing advancements, and it is reflected in the technology that the average human of modest means has available to them. For example, common transportation is no longer wheeled (although many have wheels for landing gear, or for emergencies) but instead operates using antigravity. Instead of using forklifts to move large pallets of material in warehouses, the warehouse movers now use gravitic forces to sling material.

Military forces are no exception to this, and they not only use gravity manipulation for propulsion (including faster-than-light travel in starships), but also to generate defensive fields (incredible shear forces over very small distances can rip apart all kinds of incoming fire), and for offensive actions, both to propel projectiles and for direct action, using rapidly alternating attraction and repulsion to tear apart enemies (which are colloquially known as 'gravy guns').

A key advance that occurred shortly after humanity discovered their mastery of gravitation was the successful development of practical fusion power plants. Fossil fuels are now largely a thing of the past, as even the less-prosperous countries of the world were able to shift their power infrastructure inexpensively to take advantage of fusion technology. This serves as the primary power generation source for human spacecraft as well. There still exists a small market for renewable energy sources such as wind and solar, often for newer colonies and equipment that needs to run in remote locations, so that technology has continued to develop as well.

Even computers have been affected by gravity technology, as gravitic lensing has been used to enable the focusing of lithography to even smaller degrees than it once was, leading to additional increases in processing power and density. Several companies now produce floating 'assistants' that can accompany a person and use a gravity manipulator to act as an additional hand for them, running on these ultra-dense processors.

Attitudes

While humanity in all its teeming masses is nothing if not diverse, so there are certainly exceptions to the opinions below, these are the generally-held views and beliefs of humanity as a whole, insofar as it is possible to say such things.

Potentials

While Humanity translated the terms for Potentials and their types into words of their own languages, the classification scheme is older than humanity itself. There are few more topics on which opinions are more divided, some seeing Potentials as the next evolutionary step for mankind, and some seeing them as the work of dark and evil forces, conspiring to an end of the species.

Technics

Technics are, broadly speaking, the most accepted of the Potentials by mankind. The scientific background of humanity and their modern trust in technology makes the powers of the Technic type the easiest to understand and grasp -- and humans fear less what they believe they can understand.

Perfecters

Depending on Motif, many Perfecters are also well-accepted by humanity, particularly those with a working basis of the martial arts. They simply seem like incredibly skilled practitioners -- at least, to those that haven't personally witnessed their impossible feats.

Summoners

It is Summoners, who tend to have a more mystic bent, along with Perfecters of similar Motif, that tend to have the most uncertainty about them in the eyes of humanity en masse. Centuries of scientific study have trained humanity to view them as charlatans and tricksters, not to be trusted.

The Grey

Humanity is divided into three camps on the subject of their patron Elder Race. Some do not trust them at all, especially citing alien abduction and conspiracy theories which their appearance seems to give new credence to. On the opposite side, there are those that see their guidance as something incredibly valuable to the human race, if we can just get over ourselves long enough to actually accept it. In the middle sit those who really aren't sure about the Grey, still one of the mass of humanity that has had difficulty adjusting to the new galactic realities of the teeming alien cultures that surround them.

Ellorians

Other Known Races

History

The Akayama Equations

A major turning point in human history was the release of the Akayama Equations, sometimes referred to as the Akayama Event. Akayama Tomojiro was a Japanese teenager with a distinct flair for the sciences. His high school teachers remembered him as having an intuitive grasp of complex physics problems -- which in retrospect seems obvious, given that he is recognized as the first known human Technic Potential. However, rather than manifest his Potency by constructing a mecha, he delved deeply into the nature of gravity, refining an incredible grasp of its nature and the manipulation of it. The actual "Akayama Event" caused every single electronic device on Earth that possessed more than the most minute amount of storage to abruptly contain parts of what have become known as the Akayama Equations, a complex and extensive set of mathematical equations describing not only gravitation, but the means to manipulate it. As a common thread tying these fragments together is a single line -- "My Legacy to you is the Stars." -- used at the end of each stored fragment, in whatever local language the device was operating in. Collecting and reconstructing these equations was a major project involving many nations, and their work continues to this day, not only in collecting and indexing them, but in deciphering their meaning.

As a result of the Event, besides the incredible surge forward in human technology based around their mastery of gravity, two other facets were noted. Akayama Tomojiro, the Technic behind it, fell into a vegetative state. His body remains on Earth, still living in a hospital on life support. Notably, despite the amount of time that has elapsed since the Event, his body has not noticeably aged, nor his muscles been subject to the degree of atrophy that would normally be anticipated in such a patient. Secondly, when aliens were eventually encountered, they proved incapable of interpreting or utilizing the Akayama Equations -- yet educated humans have no more difficulty than would be expected with any complicated mathematical topic when dealing with them. Indeed, as the rise of Potentials has continued, even non-Technic Potentials have proven to have a flair for gravitic abilities, whatever their Motif may be.

The Legacy that Akayama Tomojiro left to all mankind would soon be realized in the construction of the first human starships, using gravitic drive technology to impel them to the stars at faster than light speeds. The sudden and abrupt jump in human technology led to an inevitable diaspora, the quickest initial spread of any species in known Galactic history.

The Diaspora

With the sudden jump in technology that humans achieved -- and with the specific callout that was left in the Akayama Equations -- it was inevitable that humanity would turn its new abilities to the stars. With this mastery of the force of gravity, it became almost trivial to leave Earth's gravity well, in comparison to the clunky rockets they used to use. And, as it has been famously said, once you are out of the gravity well, you're halfway to anywhere.

It did not take long until they solved the necessary Akayama Equations to enable faster-than-light speed, by which time they had already begun harvesting the resources of their solar system, establishing industrial facilities through the asteroid belt and near the outer planets. With that industrial base, ships rapidly began to stream in all directions, exploring nearby stars -- and establishing colonies.

Meeting the Grey

While humanity was rapidly expanding, they had yet to discover intelligent alien life. They did find more than a few planets with livable environments, and collected many samples of alien flora and fauna. However, it wasn't until they encountered the Grey that they found intelligent alien life. Fortunately, it was not the first time the Grey introduced themselves to a Younger Race.

What humanity was not aware of, was that the Greys had been monitoring them for some time, even coming so close as to kidnap samplings of humanity, exporting them to other worlds, thus creating the Ellorians among others. However, even the monitoring of an Elder Race is limited, and they had many Younger Races, and pre-spaceflight species to keep their eyes on. No other race had ever spread as far as quick as humanity in their sudden diaspora -- the Grey had anticipated it would be at least another two centuries before humans achieved a workable means of faster-than-light travel. No other species that was so fragmented as humanity still was had ever achieved such success.

Needless to say, the Grey's plans for humanity were somewhat thrown off the rails due to this. Their normal practice was to introduce themselves once a species had a workable FTL drive, but before they had established any colonies. Humanity, meanwhile, had established dozens -- and even Earth didn't actually know all of their locations, given that some had been privately established.

Still, humanity was given a crash course in galactic politics, and while many elements of humanity, with their independent ways, did not appreciate being called a 'Younger' race, nor with being relegated to a position under another species in the galactic milieu, they had little option in the matter when the realpolitik alternative was to be a rogue race, and be crushed by the superior technology and ability of the Elder Races -- not that this was something that was openly stated, of course... but it wasn't too hard to read between the lines, even when they were alien lines.