A lurker on this site, decided to finally introduce myself

[SolarRider]

As for where the civ is taking place, I envision it to be an island or a patch of terragenkind, away from the main sphere surrounded by uncolonized space but still near it to eventually reconnect with their long distant cousins. I am aware that there are isolated civilizations within the civilized galaxy, however i want to prevent any cultural or ideological memes from even slightly entering the civ. I feel like even if an archai were to go to extreme measures to isolate eir civ from it neighboring empires, one way or another, the memes from the outside civilized galaxy will still get in. However I am open on changing the setting for my civ as i do want them to have a history unique to the rest of the civilized galaxy. I might set them in the Periphery as colonization of the area is still ongoing.

So - just to we're clear here: How do you see your civ being documented in the Encyclopedia Galactica if they don't have any contact with Terragen civilization? The EG is the vehicle by which we describe the OA universe, and I don't think we would be open to any alternative 'source of truth' within the setting outside of stories in our fiction section.

Well eventually contacted with be made with the greater civilization, and the border will open. So, imagine those documenting EG now have access to the Civ and the Civ won’t be isolated anymore

Honestly I thought an S4 was able to break up into smaller pieces in order to travel from one place to another a bit faster. Thank you for bring up that information. I probably will downgrade the leader into a S3 Transap or like you said, a S3 scion with transavant spikes.

The idea has probably been discussed from time to time, but at this point the consensus is pretty firmly that self-ascended S4 wouldn't be mobile. An S4 created by an S5 or S6 mind as a servant or tool (or just because it felt like it) might be considerably smaller than an S4 that is the product of the normal chain of ascension/transcenion (for example S5 minds can create S3 minds less than 100m across (possibly hugely less)). But I don't get the sense that is what you're going for here.

I do want the leader to be able to ascend to an Archai once it reaches it destination.

The plan is for the civ to have their own history, politics, cultures, tech(or variants of existing ones) and memes w/o interference from outside influence. As isolates, they are unaware or vastly ignorant of the greater terragen civilization and many have grown to fear or even hate them because the past major transgressions that occurred in the civilized galaxy. The ruling Archai who although is distant with eir subjects, created this indifference and intolerant towards the greater terragen civ because E eirself hate them especially the dominant archailects for the atrocities they commit.

Hrm. I'm afraid I'm still not seeing the major differences from the Sephirotics here. All of the different Sephirotic empires are made up of millions of solar systems encompassing hundreds of thousands or millions of cultures, each with their own history and politics. While the overarching memetic of the ruling archailect does influence things (to one degree or another),  individual worlds, systems, or habs often have their own interpretation or spin on the overarching theme and may be quite different from each other. Technology is limited by the laws of physics so there is a limit to the amount of variation that is possible in that area.

Huh I see, when reading the profiles on the different Sephirotic Empires, I didn’t think there was such a massive amount of diversity within them. I’ll definitely check on them again and see if there is something I could add on top.

Since I'm assuming that disliking the Sephirotics is not the only unique thing about them, can you provide some specific examples of what you mean by this civilization having its own, presumably unique, elements in these areas? In what ways has this civilization evolved in a drastically different way from the main part of Terragen civilization? In what way is their culture(s) so alien from those of the Terragens?

That is a work in progress, I have yet to brainstorm ideas on what makes them truly alien of them.

Also, what 'major transgressions' and 'atrocities' are you referring to? If they haven't had any contact with each other for thousands of years, what are the sophonts of your civ basing their dislike on other than the meming of their ruling archailect?

The destruction of wormholes, leaving entire systems to die. The rogue autowars created by them wrecking havoc on unsuspected world, especially those without transaps that can protect. Blights and perversities that are preying on smaller civilizations. Their dislike come from the narrative created by the ruling Archai that the Sephirotic Archai are the boogieman that do what they want and don’t care if they end up destroying lower terragen life.

yeah it definitely is a major issue when creating this project, and I have difficulties coming up a solution or an explication as to how they manage to go so far in so little time or even got there before the greater civilization caught up to them. I don't mind setting the civ more closer to the greater sphere to accommodate for temporal and travel issues that make this scenario unlikely. Like I told Ryan I do want them to their own little island surrounded by a sea of uncolonized space. I also dont have a problem reducing the leader of the exodus fleet to a S3 instead of a S4 or higher.

A certain amount of uncolonized space may be doable for a time - but sooner or later it will probably start being colonized unless they make it clear they don't want that. There may be some treaty options that might play a role here.

Yes there will be treaty that creates a buffer between them and the rest of the civilized galaxy.

I will take it in to consideration most definitely. I never plan for the civ to be as powerful as the dominant S6 empires that already exist but i do want them strong enough to where no other empire wants to mess with it or will result in a very costly invasion and occupation if they do so. 

Hrm. This bit is a bit of an issue. Per our intertoposophic conflict guidelines, it is pretty much impossible for sophonts of a lower S-level to best a sophont of a higher S-level in any competition or conflict. When the difference is multiple S-levels the inability of the lower minds to prevail becomes total.

Put another way - All of the modosophonts, transapients and archai in the setting from S0 thru S5 could band together in a coordinated all out attack on a single S6 - and it could squash them as easily and as totally as you or I might step on an ant. Any individual transapient has virtually total power of life and death over all sophonts of a lower S-level.

Basically, there is no possible amount or combination of military force that this empire could create that would slow down even a single Sephirotic empire if it wanted to conquer or destroy it. As far as invasion being 'costly' - the invasion would take place with automated self-replicating weapons that have no sense of self-preservation or self in general (also no concept of mercy, pity, or compassion). If they wish, they can fill every world and habitat with guardwebs that immobilize anyone who attempts to resist, or infect the entire population with nanotech devices that grow control networks in their bodies that will allow the invaders to puppet everyone to do whatever the invaders desire. Or - if they want to go even further - they can reprogram every lower sophont into a happy and willing citizen of the invading empire - or a happy anything else the attacking archai desires.

The various lower level empires and civilizations and cultures in the OA universe exist because the highest archai want them to exist, or at least don't mind them existing. Issues of cost or power or consent of the governed don't really apply.

I remember reading that article because I was very interested in how transaps/archais conducted wars with each other. Ngl I kinda thought a group of S5s could takedown a whole S6 entity but I didn’t think S6s were that OP. Now I know thank you for that

I also do have some smaller projects in mind or other small subjects in OA that i would love to touch on

Cool! I look forward to seeing them

I plan to post them in a few weeks so stay tuned

Also sorry for my late response, I'm a pretty slow at typing and gathering my thoughts sometimes. I'm still learning how to the quote system in this forum. Any help on that will be well appreciated

No worries I don't actually use the quoting system per se, so I'm afraid I can't really help there. But I'm sure someone around here does and can chime in.

Todd