United Families
| Utha Sa Kemzit (United Kemzali Families) | ||
|---|---|---|
| ||
| Notable Populations | Kemzali, Kobari | |
| Capital | None, each dynasty has its own central location. | |
| Ruler | 2059 Elder Kemzali | |
| Official Political System | Theocracy | |
| Evaluated Political System | Hamarchic Aristocratic Theocracy | |
Utha Sa Kemzit (United Kemzali Families)
A dream made manifest, a dream of perfect order, the dream of perfect peace, the golden eternity is at hand, if we only seize it.
The United Families are the most ancient living culture in Known Space, a nation of history, power and stability. Ruled by the Kemzali, a long lived species of furred, serpent like beings, natural born psions and powerful hunters, they are regarded by their people as heirs to divine power, living gods that rule benevolently. To most outsiders, they are despotic tyrants with little regard for free will and individual thought.
Overview
The United Families' are not the most powerful people in known space and their territory is relatively small compared to many of their neighbors. But they are consistent, constantly growing, and immensely patient. A plan that takes a century to enact is not long term planning for the kemzali.
History
The United Family's history is ancient, with thousand-year lifespans of their rulers, their retelling is extensive and details their history over the past forty-thousand years, with less firmly documented past histories going back over a hundred-thousand years. Despite this, history itself has little meaning to kemzali and events, conflicts, social growth and the like barely figure into retelling. Rather they are extensive details of lineage, territory, intro-dynastic drama and have proven difficult to parse and penetrate due to high bias and lack of overall focus. An exasperation of this issue is the lack of high-utility written language. Kemsit, their native tongue's written form only represents key cultural concepts and proper names. Forcing all history retelling to rely on the oral traditions of various families.
In the modern era, the United Family's history begins some 9500 years ago when they began settling the other planets in their system. Leading to the current three most populated worlds, Kemsin, Jemzal and Kuni. Splitting into two distinct social groups, the Kemsin and Kuni people, who regard Kemsin as the home of their people, and the Jemzal, which considers their dynasty, the Jem, the true home and Kemsin populated by those cast out to these worlds to develop in peace. The united Families, despite a high degree of technical knowledge failed to develop faster-than-light travel of their own and had only sent occasional slower-than-light explorations into nearby systems. None of which resulted in serious opportunities for growth.
This changed when the Families encountered the Ruz'kahni Directorate in 2054 as one of the first peer-powers encountered. The encounter involved the capture of the Directorate exploratory ship and its crew. Proper contact came 11 years later in 2065 when the ship and its crew were returned to the Directorate and a cultural exchange was made. The United Families were cordial, stated that their reason for the capture was a misunderstanding, and interacted with the larger Directorate presence with pleasantness and understanding.
The Directorate, cautious about giving technology to the potentially aggressive aliens, would be surprised when the United families would suddenly reveal the first kemzali made FTL system in 2088 and began a serious of minor conquests into their nearby territory, eventually the United Families clashed with the Directorate in 2133, sparking a low-intensity conflict that lasted until 2160, settling the Directorate-United Families borders of today.
Since, the United Families have made a few, slow, key captures, territorial expansions and key encroachment, wary of preying on any people that could be a serious threat, and choosing populations, if targeted, that are reasonably compatible with their highly structured way of life.
Society
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Technology
The Families' technology is distinct from all of their neighbors, one some level, it is archaic. When the kemzali find something to rely on, they tend to maintain that technology and keep using it and adapting it, even if theoretically a better replacement could be sought out. On the other, it is incredibly well developed.
Hnad
A key substance to their technology base is a liquid known as Hnad, a highly conductive viscous liquid that is used in some manner in most of their technology. It is used to contain plasmoids that form the basis of much of their weaponry, it is a key method of regulating their nuclear fission engines, and it forms up a living circuit throughout much of their buildings, vehicles and weapons. While the substance is not well understood outside the United Families, hnad can create a bio-electric circuit that permits the neural-interfaces used in the families' technology.
Psionic Interfaces
The second key concept comes directly from this, psionic interfaces. Naturally psionic people, kemzali find it easier to mentally interface with an item than fiddle with controls, and their equipment reflects this. This is less like some form of alternate reality or seeing through another's eyes, so much as feeling an item like an extension of their body. It reacting as if it was part of the wielder's being.
Biological Technology
The third is related to that want for psionic interfacing, and its biological systems. Long ago the United Families developed a form of living material, even their hand items are partially 'living,' or were living when they were first created and grown. Armor, weapons, are formed of a unique bone-like lattice, once containing a hand-veined fleshy being inside. Technically, most kemzali technology are similar to a siphonophore, with multiple zooids in a singular organism that are tasked to specific parts, a combination of individual and colonial. Smaller usages of these living items are often permitted to die. Essentially making their equipment out of the bones and remains of these specially formed organisms. Larger are usually fed via energy-absorbing zooids around a nuclear fission reactor.
Weaknesses
While dominant in many fields, kemzali technology has difficulty working with other technology and is almost always a unique solution to an issue. and while an individual weapon can be operated by a single person, it tends to be larger and heavier than its peers. Yet the issues come more clear as technology grows in size. The United Families have nearly no concept of automation, the few that possess an artificial intelligence, or even a digital computer are joint-projects with other people.
To them, it is more efficient and easier to have 3000 kobari who were born and bred to work switchboards in the heart of a space station than to have a central computer. In larger ships, weaponry is almost always manually aimed, yes, it is based around probability from other kobari, and the entire colony inside of a vessel forms a living computer of fantastic power, the necessary resources and space to house these specialized servants is going to force larger and larger vessels and stations, and necessitate a kemzali to constantly live on the ship to guide the reproduction of the kobari.
If a Kemzali starship is grounded or dry docked for a significant duration, it cannot simply be given a fresh crew and sent back out after repairs. In most cases, a new colony needs to be established and while kobari develop very quickly, it still takes up to five or six years.
Current Relations
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