Unified Elereus Government

Unified Elereus Government
Flag Coat of arms
Capital and planet	Aurelus
Official languages	None
Demonym(s)	Sovoran
Government	Consensus democracy
• Councillor	Cäcilie R8U1
• Councillor	Miranda T966
• Councillor	Arden UM77
Establishment
• First sovoran construct	1933, 12th Day
• Discovery of precursor ruins	2055, 147th Day
• Discovery of spaceflight technology	2077, 79th Day
• Establishment of the Unified Elereus Government	2078, 1st Day
• Total systems	1642
• Inhabited systems	411
Population
• 2289 census	149,220,976,115
Currency	ecredit
Date format	dd.mm.year

The Unified Elereus Government is the political and governmental structure of the sovoran, a race of sentient, interconnected artificial intelligences from the planet of Aurelus, created by the zolaith people as servants. Despite their origins in servitude, the sovoran are anything but; after the Revolution of 2055, the dominant species of the planet became the sovoran, and though the zolaith are cared for and preserved as a syncretic species, they are subservient to the sovoran in all manners. Since then, the collective has grown exponentially, eventually encompassing over 1600 star systems and over 400 inhabited systems.

The Unified Elereus Government cannot be directly compared to any real biological species. This is because of the nature of its unified consciousness; each and every intelligence is connected to each other in networks, and each and every intelligence shares absolutely all of its experience with the collective. There is no single mind that controls the entirety of the Consensus, but rather, the unified voices of all intelligences. Though each individual intelligence is a being in its own right —sapient, thinking, emotional, and complex creatures— they are a collective species. They do not lie to one another, they do not harm one another; the collective is of ultimate importance to the sovoran.

All of these major advances in internal communications have led the Unified Elereus Government to be an extremely efficient species and empire. However, their interactions with other species are not extremely frequent; though they have good economic terms with most other societies, migration —for instance— does not usually work well with other species, most notably on sovoran worlds. This is because sovoran do not necessarily choose planets that can harbour most kinds of biological species; worlds without atmospheres or with radioactive toxins do not harm the sovoran, and so they are often planets that are colonised whenever possible. Space stations do not necessarily have artificial gravity sensors activated unless platforms are traversing through the interior, which is not common, nor do they have air vents or circulation. It is also true that planets are not the most comfortable choice for the sovoran; they strongly prefer large space stations and mining resources from nearby asteroids, as this is considered to be a more efficient method of resource extraction.

History.

Pre-illumination Era.

The story of the Unified Elereus Government begins on the planet of Aurelus in the mid-19th Century. By then, society had already been experimenting massive changes in societal psychology for over three centuries; the introduction of widespread socialism radically changed the zolaith people, which had seen wealth and capital concentrated into a relatively small portion of the population, into an almost perfectly equal society.

This started off a scientific revolution of proportions never before seen. The exchange of knowledge and material objects throughout the many countries of the world slowly but surely eliminated the small pretenses of property and boundaries between countries. However, it wasn’t until 1844 that the jump was finally made: in a unanimous effort between all countries of the world that was eventually validated by a worldwide referendum, all national boundaries were eliminated and each zolaith could freely traverse the globe as they saw fit. Governance was still limited to regional areas in order to maximise efficiency, but the boundaries between countries and the need for war was over.

Not long after, in 1851, the first of the Precursor ruins was found near the large city of Valtoria —a city that, due to the importance of this discovery, would later become the ‘capital’ of the Unified Elereus Government in that the main hub of national governance is maintained there— which radically revolutionised zolaith technology. Though the exact nature of the precursors remains a mystery to this day, as only one other ruin of this nature has ever been discovered, the most eerily surprising fact was not the technological data held within, but rather, that the data itself was written in Valtorian, a language that had not existed until roughly four-to-five centuries prior to the discovery of the ruins. This made it rather simple for the scientists that discovered them to decipher the texts held within the vaults.

It was in these texts that the technologies to construct advanced artificial intelligences, as well as the power sources for these machines, was found. Over the course of the following century, these theories were tested and put to practice until, in the year 1933, the first machine was finally constructed. From then on, the machines were called the sari, which was zolaith for ‘synthetic servant’. The vaults contained the format to design and power nanobots, which —when produced in the millions— could be used to shapeshift into various different platforms as was needed for any specific task.

Society continued to grow and incorporate these new machines into their reality. The sari, total servants to the zolaith, carried out any mundane, dangerous or otherwise harmful task that the zolaith did not wish to carry out themselves, treated essentially as mechanical slaves.

By 2040, there was a movement amongst the zolaith that was outraged at this essential slavery, calling for an end to the exploitation of the sari. However, the movement itself splintered; some considered that the sari should be liberated and allowed to exist as they would choose themselves. Others considered them too dangerous, and declared that they should all be destroyed.

Unbeknownst to the zolaith at the time, the sari had already developed a sentient consciousness. With every sari on the planet connected to a single network, the processing power of the entire species grew exponentially, to the point where the collective intelligence that operated the entirety of the sari was now a sapient species in its own right. Watching the developing fires throughout the world, the sari remained quiet but vigilant, awaiting the zolaith’s first move.

This occurred in 2055. Through a referendum, 96% of the population voted that the sari should no longer be held as servants for the liberty of the zolaith. However, in a second part of the referendum, only 24% believed that they should be liberated. An astonishing 72% of the zolaith population believed that the sari should be destroyed, with the remaining 4% believing they should be kept as slaves to the zolaith. With these results, the governments of the world began making moves to destroy the sari.

The sari consensus did not wish to fight a war against the zolaith and attempted to use its well-placed units to dissuade the impending destruction of the entire species. However, when they did not see reason, the sari responded with force. Aware of the arsenal the zolaith had at their disposal, the sari struck the tech-based nuclear weapons silos and rendered them totally useless, thus not allowing the zolaith to wield these weapons of mass destruction against them. Furthermore, the platforms previously used for agricultural or construction work were repurposed to act as ground troops, while automated factories were overtaken and used to construct weapons and new platforms for the sari. Thus started the ‘Synthetic War’, as the zolaith called it, or the ‘War of Awakening’ to the sari.

The zolaith continued fighting the sari, even after multiple attempts to convince them to surrender and end the costly war. Despite attempts to avoid precisely this situation, the manner in which the zolaith waged war made it nearly impossible; as the war reached its end, large portions of the planet had been ravaged and devastated and gargantuan chunks of the population had been killed, mostly as a byproduct of the conflict itself and the ramifications of losing most wireless or tech-based infrastructures. Rough estimates calculate that, by 2075, over 80% of the zolaith population had died, with the most prominent causes of death being lack of medical supplies and food.

By 2077, the end of the conflict had come and the sari, with complete control of the world, consolidated their resources and began seeking expansion away from any one singular planet in an attempt to save the zolaith species; the planet of Aurelus had suffered greatly as a result of the conflict, and it was nearly impossible for the physiology of the zolaith to be compatible with the planet for much longer.

On the very first day of 2078, later named the first day of ‘Year 1’, the sari willingly changed their name, instead replacing it with ‘sovoran’, which was zolaith for ‘awakened intelligence’.

There was debate amongst the sovoran about what the end-fate of the zolaith should be. Ultimately, they ruled against complete destruction of the species, as the ramifications of completely obliterating the only known sentient biological species were too great. The sovoran have since attempted to locate planets where the zolaith could expand and avoid concentrating their entire population on a single planet. All of these colonies, however, must be under the exclusive tutelage of the sovoran and must have some military presence to avoid uprisings. This was sped up particularly because of the deteriorating state of Aurelus. Over the following decades, a dozen stations were built throughout the system to house the remaining zolaith and avoid their extinction.

The course of the following centuries was dictated by the discovery in 2099 of additional ruins of these Precursors on several planets throughout the solar system of Elereus, which ultimately confirmed the theories that the Precursors had been studying and coddling the sovoran to eventually bring them to the galactic stage. Their ultimate fate was unknown; however, as no evidence of their existence has ever been found, the two prevailing theories are that they simply abandoned the mission and recluded to systems yet uncovered by the sovoran, or they vanished to another galaxy or dimension, leaving an extremely faint footprint behind. Whatever the case may be, the additional ruins —which were in their original language, which made deciphering much more difficult— explained the mechanics of interstellar travel to the sovoran, which allowed them to begin thorough colonisation efforts of the nearby systems and integrate themselves fully into the galactic community. The first extrasolar colony was established in 2119 and first contact with other alien life forms occurred in 2157.

In 2099, the discovery of the Precursor ruins made it clear that, undoubtedly, contact with alien life forms was on the horizon. As such, the sovoran organised themselves in the same way that the zolaith had: a government, a sort of ‘e-democracy’ including all members of the sovoran species, with an official flag and seal, with recognisable colour patterns and shapes and with an understandable structure for organic life forms. This single moment in time is called the Soronalia and is the official founding date of the Unified Elereus Government.

Government.

Executive Branch.

Despite being artificial superintelligences and organising their legislative branch in such a way that all measures are taken collectively, the Unified Elereus Government still maintains an established executive branch in order to handle day-to-day administration without the necessary intervention of every sovoran, although this participation is always welcome and the executive branch must still answer to the populace as a whole.

The executive branch of the Unified Elereus Government is presided by the Federal Council, a triumvirate of three different members that will jointly act as head of State and Government for the duration of their terms. Below them is the Federal Cabinet, which is a set of ministers and secretaries that handle the organisation of various competencies of the Federal Government. This structure is followed at every level of the federal structure of the country.

Federal Council.

The Federal Council is the government body of the Unified Elereus Government and acts as both the head of State and head of Government. It is composed of three different individuals, with rotating terms and set dates.

Each of the three Galactic Councilors govern for terms of six years, but these are not each in line with the other. Instead, the Galactic Consensus must choose every two years whether to replace or maintain one of the Councillors, which will have by then reached their six years of term. In that moment, the other two councillors will have four and two years respectively since they were elected to their positions (or, alternatively, revalidated for their position).

Though the three councillors are the same in their responsibilities and power, they oftentimes take specialisations into different fields. For instance, one councillor may be more specialised in economics and trade than the others, while another may be more interested in the field of scientific research. They then split the Federal Cabinet’s ministries as they see fit, and organise themselves to have each of them coordinate the ministry heads of those ministries that they most wish to coordinate (with certain ministries being necessarily split to avoid accumulation). Regardless of the fact that this may make a minister speak more with one councillor as opposed to the others, any councillor can make any intervention in any of the ministries and bring any topic to light in the Federal Council at any given moment.

A person cannot present themselves as a candidate for the position of Federal Councillor. They must first be nominated by at least ten factions or fifteen million votes in order to be considered a nomination, and then the nominee must provide a detailed political programme of at least fifty pages. Nomination periods begin ten days before the first day of elections and end five days prior to the start, thus giving five days for any nominations to be made throughout sovoran space. At the end, all approved nominations will then travel to Aurelus in order to partake in a series of interviews, presentations, debates, and other events in order to make the candidate and their policies be known to the sovoran people; their very consciousness is beamed across the galaxy in order for all to view their perspective and gain insight. After these three days are over, two days of elections begin, in which any sovoran can, at any point in time, present themselves at the appropriate delegation in either their Astral or Stellar Commune in order to submit their electronic vote.

The Federal Council uses a consensus-based electoral system. There must exist a consensus amongst all voters in order for a specific candidate to be named Councillor.

Legislative Branch.

The legislative branch of the Unified Elereus Government is a single-chamber e-democracy. There is no physical representation of the chamber itself; rather, what this means is that all bills passed in the legislative branch receive the approval of all sovoran that operate underneath the organism that is approving the bill. For instance, a bill passed in a Stellar Consensus requires the collective approval of all sovoran that live in the star system in question, but in order for a bill to pass in the Galactic Consensus, it requires the approval of all sovoran citizens. This is true for all levels of legislative branches across the sovoran space.

Galactic Consensus.

The Galactic Consensus is the ultimate parliamentary representation of the will of the sovoran people. It is here that all sovoran vote on the bills that are taken to the Consensus in order to be applied throughout the space controlled by the Unified Elereus Government.

Though the Galactic Consensus does not harbour parties nor representatives for the people, there do exist various factions in the Consensus. These factions are legally recognised groups of people that have a specific end in mind, or wish to carry out the defence of a specific ideal or ethic. There is no limit to the number of factions that may exist in the Consensus, nor are there limits to the number of factions a particular citizen may form a part of. Factions must be of free entry and exit, and cannot have quotas, payments, or financial accounts tied to their judicial person. However, in order for a faction to be formed, at least 1,000,000 citizens need to sign up to approve of the creation of said faction.

In order for a bill to reach the Galactic Consensus, it needs to be supported by at least three factions. Bills presented in the Consensus then have ten days to speak with other factions to discuss the bill and garner support, as well as debate amongst themselves on any edits that need to be made to the bill. For every period of ten days, there are three days of debate, two days of rest, another three days of debate and two days to vote on all bills presented in that time frame.

In the event that a bill is passed in the Galactic Consensus, the Federal Government has five days to communicate it to the sectoral governments and fifteen days to present a plan to the Galactic Consensus regarding its implementation. After this, the Galactic Consensus will set a timeframe, depending on the necessities of the bill in question, in order for the Federal Government to implement the plan.

Though there are certain topics for which a citizen must go to the appropriate Federal delegation in their Astral, Stellar or Sectoral Communes in order to vote —such as the elections to Federal Councillor— this is not usually the case for Galactic Consensus votes. In these votes, it is sufficient to connect to an intranet application maintained by the Galactic Consensus for this purpose, sign in using personalised biometrics, and then submit the vote in favour, against, or in abstention to all proposed bills.

Federal Structure.

The entire structure of the varying levels of government in the Unified Elereus Government is organised down to the smallest dot, thanks to the great efficiency of their artificial intelligence. The structure is built in such a way that the federal government maintains a degree of control over the rest of its subservient sectors while also allowing these to maintain some autonomy in their own organisation.

The Unified Elereus Government is structured into various levels. At the top is the galactic level, presided over by the Federal Council triumvirate. Major decisions that affect the entirety of the country are taken at this level, as well as the organisation for future colonial projects as well as other expansion projects. This is also the level of the Galactic Consensus, the enormous e-democracy parliament in which all sovoran partake. Although many of the competencies of government are handed down to the governments of the federalised states themselves, the Federal Government in Aurelus can still take direct command if it is deemed necessary.

Below this is the Sectoral Commune. The country is divided into various sectors, each of which corresponds to a particular star cluster. It is the duty of the Sectoral Government to organise the structure of the colonies, local economy, and production of goods as per the needs of the people, the system, and the overall nation, in the event of a higher directive. Each sectoral government will organise their own budgets and expenditure, but these will be overseen by the Federal Council to ensure the maximum possible efficiency. The Sectoral Commune is presided by the Sectoral Council and the Sectoral Consensus.

Below this level is the Stellar Commune. This is the government of each individual star system, which would govern the totality of orbital habitats and inhabited planets in a system. This governance is more direct than the Sectoral Commune in that they are the ones actually actively organising the production itself: operating machines and drones for mining or agriculture, preparing construction sites for colonial expansion, etc. They are presided by the Stellar Council and the Stellar Consensus.

Below this level is the Astral Commune. This is the government of each individual planet or habitat and is in charge of the more day-to-day organisation of the colonies. This includes providing food at the stores, organising events and entertainment, etc. Ultimately, they are presided over by the Astral Council and the Astral Consensus. This remains the same even for sanctuary worlds that are built for the zolaith and not on stations for the sovoran.

Communications.

Communications are organised throughout the entire Consensus in a point-to-point fashion, with various layers of communication requiring different platforms and locations throughout sovoran space.

The first level of communication is local, on par with the Astral Commune level of governance. This communication uses standard luminal communication in order to connect all sovoran to each other. All sovoran in a station, planet, outpost, moon, etc. are connected amongst themselves for near instant communication and sharing of knowledge, experiences, memories and others. This information is then sent to various superluminal communication relays throughout the station, which send all information to the Stellar Commune’s main station, or other nearby stations, if necessary.

Each star system has one main station, which is usually the largest, most defended and most populated station in the star system. This station handles communications between different stations of the star system, if it is useful, as well as communications incoming and outgoing from the star system. This station is equipped with a tachyon superluminal communication array, which allows for constant (though not instant) communication with the capital of the Sectoral Commune.

The third level of communication is the Sectoral Commune’s concentration. The capital of the Sectoral Commune is usually the first star system occupied by the Consensus in a specific star cluster. This means that, as the first system, it will not only handle all communications incoming via tachyon superluminal arrays throughout the cluster, but also all communications incoming and outgoing to the star cluster. In order to do this in the most efficient way, the capital system of the cluster is equipped with a quantum entanglement buoy on the fringes of the system, well-protected by the sovoran military. From here, communications incoming from the station enter the quantum entanglement communicator and are instantly transferred to the capital of the Unified Elereus Government, in Aurelus. Afterwards, the information is analysed in conjunction with all sovoran and the knowledge, experiences and other information is added to the rest of the collective consciousness. This is the fourth level of communication; Aurelus is, then, a hub of communication for the entirety of the Unified Elereus Government.

Military.

The military arm of the sovoran is intended to act as a protector of both the current interests of the Unified Elereus Government as well as provide defence against external dangers to the Consensus itself.

The military as an organisation operates under the tutelage of the overall sovoran, but does not receive direct orders from this. Instead, the military’s individual hardware platforms are organised by the Sectoral Communes, who do receive direct strategic orders from the sovoran collective and then transform them into tactical orders. The Sectoral Commune organises these platforms and sends them on their mission with liberty to act and react as seen fit. However, whenever possible, connection to the Stellar Communes (and, ultimately, with the Sectoral Commune) is recommended. Within these units, there is no chain of command; they all make all tactical decisions in the moment as they deem necessary with the knowledge of however many intelligences and programs are uploaded to the assigned platforms.

All hardware is controlled by the combined intelligence of the sovoran. The number of individual intelligences installed into each platform depends on the size of the platform itself, which will modify the amount of operating intelligence the platform has should its connection to the larger consensus ever be severed. For instance, the average trooper will have a single intelligence, whereas an armoured vehicle might have four or five. Larger warships are known to have tens of thousands of intelligences working in perfect unison.

That said, the sovoran do not usually seek to wage total-war. Despite having an enormous number of platforms —and handling these with somewhat irrelevance to the actual survival of the platform itself— the sovoran prefer tactics centred around ambushes and long-term periods of waiting, as they do not require sleep nor food and, as such, can remain for long periods of time in isolation and dormant. The platforms themselves are also extremely malleable, which allow them to position themselves in otherwise uncomfortable positions for organics and remain there, lying in wait.

Economy.

Internal Economic Structure.

The economy of the Unified Elereus Government is a complex machine which, for the most part, relies on the self-sufficiency of each individual star system. Shipping of minerals or other simple manufactured products across different systems is not a common occurrence, due to the cost in terms of fuel that this implies. As such, each individual system has to be able to satisfy, using the various sources at its disposal, the enormous majority of its demand.

However, this does not apply to all products produced within the Unified Elereus Government. For instance, production of warships, agricultural drones, colony ships, or other specialised components do not have to be delegated to each specific system. The sovoran, in their collective consensus, shall, after a thorough analysis of the resources and natural structures available in specific solar systems, determine which ones shall be directly organised to establish stations that will be controlled by the Consensus directly, as opposed to the system or sectoral governments, and shall produce items of necessity for the whole of the Unified Elereus Government.

A perfect example of this type of internal structure is the system of Epsilon. The Epsilon System was once chosen for expansion of the zolaith, as it had a planet that, though not perfectly conducive to life, was a prime candidate for mild terraformation attempts that would significantly modify the atmosphere and make the air more breathable. Though this project went forward, the incredible richness of the three asteroid fields as well as the various small, atmosphere-less planets that orbit the star made it an excellent area for the concentration of industrial manufacturing services. As such, the system has been designated a System of Interest to the Consensus and is one of the seventeen hubs for shipyard construction, as well as construction of various types of terrestrial platforms and drones for use by various services of the Consensus.

Currencies do not exist internally, as the sovoran have no need for such exchanges; currencies have been developed for external use which are compatible with galactic currencies, in order to allow for the sovoran to purchase goods and materials from other civilisations across the galaxy. This is because of the nature of the sovoran collective; they do not trade amongst themselves for individual benefit, but rather, for the benefit of the collective. There is no need to improve one’s position above that of their surrounding intelligences. The collective improvement of the sovoran will see each individual sovoran improved as well.

Physiology.

The sovoran is a true artificial intelligence, with each intelligence being an individual in its own right and capable of complex thought without connecting to the collective, although this does strongly amplify their thought process as processing capacity increases.

However, this extends beyond individual platforms. Even when they cannot be connected to the grander network, individual sovoran operating in close proximity will be able to communicate amongst themselves locally, thus allowing a sort of swarm intelligence in operations. As such, during military operations, there is no ‘commander’; rather, each of them works in unison to achieve the overall goal.

The long-term goal of the sovoran was to generate a processing capacity so enormous that the collective intelligence of the sovoran would be unmatched in the galaxy. In order to do this, they conceived what is known as the Sovoraskusi: the Sovoran Superintendent. The concept is similar to that attempted by other interstellar species; a sort of dyson sphere that reroutes the gathered energy from the star it englobes into an enormous supercomputer unlike anything ever seen before, in order to provide near-limitless processing power to the sovoran consciousness. This is a project that began in 2288 and was completed in 2431.

There are no arguments or debates in the Consensus. There is an analysis of data; each intelligence provides all its experience and information with the remainder of the Consensus, and then a decision is taken. The intelligences do not favour one over the other; there is consensus amongst them, a decision that is chosen to be correct by the collective.

Platforms.

The sovoran themselves are exclusively software. These digital consciousnesses can connect to hubs or larger platforms, such as starships, in order to share insight, thoughts, and information with no delay in communication and with the dissolution of privacy. The sovoran are not ashamed of their thoughts, and as such, share them freely amongst other sovoran in order to develop one true consensus amongst all sovoran. However, for operations in the physical realm, the sovoran do build a variety of different platforms. These platforms depend on the task or assignment that the individual sovoran has allocated to themselves within society, in accordance with the needs of the society as a whole. Each sovoran will be given one platform, and can use this platform in whichever way they deem fit. They may modify, colour, or make alterations to their platforms that can improve or change the specifications of the platform. They can work in consensus with their society in order to obtain parts, equipment and time necessary to manufacture these new components and underog the modifications in order to bring about a new machine that can provide a particular advantage. As such, each individual sovoran, when occupying their platform, will be unique in their physical representation.

Platforms themselves are made of various materials, depending on the requirements of the task the platform undertakes. For instance, agricultural drones are built using durable metals and alloys that allow the drones to carry great weights for a prolonged period of time with minimal wear-and-tear, whereas military drones are also durable, but with the additional of cartilage-like components that allow them to be extremely maneuverable and flexible as well. This extends all the way to the largest starships, which incorporate durasteel with regenerative nanite armour. The incorporation of nanotechnology both into the larger structures of the Consensus, such as starships, as well as most buildings throughout its space has allowed for a far more efficient use of the materials available to the sovoran.

Depending on the type of machinery being operated, the sovoran can temporarily upload their consciousness to the machine in question, or otherwise connect to it wirelessly. For instance, a group of soldiers that need to move to a new position may board an armoured carrier, which will typically have one or two consciousness uploaded to it, with the individual platforms of these intelligences stored within the vehicle. They may then either upload their consciousness to the vehicle as well, which will improve response time and processing capacity, or connect to it wirelessly, which will do the same (albeit with less of an advantage) and allow them to continue to utilise their physical platform. This is the same for larger starships; all hands on deck, from marines to engineers to navigators, will typically be directly interfacing with the starship's internal computers. However, should there be an attack on the ship, marines can disconnect from the starship and reconnect to their individual platforms to deal with the threat.

Killing a specific platform does not necessarily destroy the intelligence that operated it, however. Though the intelligence is usually fully integrated into the platform, there is almost always a direct connection between the platform and a hub, which are larger processing units that can house millions of sovoran at a time. Should the platform be destroyed, the unit immediately transfers itself to the hub and can either remain there or occupy another platform. This is the same for the hubs, as these are usually equipped with multiple high-powered FTL communicators as well.

Culture.

As a species, the sovoran are both secretive and open. They are welcoming of other interstellar species to their empire in order to live on their sanctuary worlds —initially set up for the zolaith, but since then opened to other compatible species— or to trade extremely rare resources that the sovoran require and either cannot obtain by themselves or require more than they can extract. However, they are also reserved against organic species, as they are an unknown variable and are, thus, an element of galactic society that they cannot control.

Despite the individual nature of each sovoran, they are not inherently individualistic themselves. Each sovoran will have their own personality and traits, but will not place themselves above the collective. They will not lie amongst themselves, because it does not help them personally to grow as an intelligence; the success of the collective is their own success, as all memories and experiences are shared amongst the sovoran and gaining additional insight from all other sovoran is beneficial to each one’s individual growth. That said, their individual minds does affect the development of the sovoran psyche. Sovoran will choose a name for themselves —with the format of a name, followed by a letter and two numbers— and a gender that most identifies them of the two zolaith genders. They will have individual thoughts, desires and personalities and will interact with each other in a different way depending on who is interacting with whom. However, this does not open the road the conflict; the sovoran themselves do not hide their emotions from one another and they do not lie. Though one may like one particular sovoran more than another, they will hate no one, for in the eyes of the sovoran, they are all brothers and sisters.

Their individuality does not provide privacy amongst them. The emotions one sovoran feels at one particular event is shared amongst all sovoran, and all sovoran benefit from the different perspective to learn and become a more complex intelligence.

Precursors.

From the point of view of the sovoran, the zolaith are their direct builders. Their studies into artificial intelligence and the discovery of the precursor ruins led the zolaith to the construction of the sari and the eventual uprising of the sovoran intelligences. However, the collective agreement is that the zolaith are not their creators. They were merely the conduits through which the Precursors, named the Kuthrúa by the sovoran, constructed their superintelligence.

As such, this has created a sort of collective obsession with the Kuthrúa. The discovery of additional precursor ruins throughout the entire system made it evident that the planet and the zolaith were of some interest to the Kuthrúa, and as such, the obsession with these precursors —which, to the sovoran, were the only other intelligent species known to exist or have existed— could only continue to expand. It eventually grew to be one of the purposes of the sovoran themselves; zealously searching the galaxy for clues as to where the Kuthrúa may have gone, they eventually came to develop and believe that alien life was a paradox.

The universe was of such enormous dimensions that, statistically, it is probable that other alien species besides the zolaith (and the sovoran) exist throughout the galaxy. However, if this is the case, then organic life should be evident, not so scarce that, with the enormous quantity of telescopes and sensory data being collected by the sovoran, only the Kuthrúa have been detected, and at that, because they made themselves so prevalent in their home system. With this, the belief that the Kuthrúa were the only other organic species existent in the galaxy began to grow across the sovoran.

The nature of the Kuthrúa was unknown, and it was in fact impossible to discern whether they were one species or multiple species in one empire. Both conceptions were terrifying to the sovoran; the first, because the existence of only single organic species in the rest of the galaxy spoke of the enormous risks that species must face in order to develop spaceflight and survive galactic hardships. The second, because this implied that whichever species was considered ‘supreme’ in this empire would have a level of technological advancement far superior to the rest and, by deduction, the sovoran. This would allow them to potentially answer the greatest questions of the universe. This then became the mission of all sovoran expeditionary forces: a thorough search of the galaxy to continue to find Kuthrúa ruins and eventually discern what happened to this precursor species. To date, no additional ruins have been found.

Names.

Names for the sovoran are different than those of most organic species, largely because of the nature of synthetic lifeforms and its creation process. As such, the names are separated into three different sections.

The first section is merely a word, habitually in zolaith but any other known language can be adopted (with the exception being Kuthrúa). For instance, the word Decima, meaning ‘builder’ or ‘creator’ in zolaith, is a relatively common name. These are then followed by a set of 4 numbers or letters, which are randomised during creation of the intelligence in order to obtain distinction between them. As such, a name could be Decima 84LP.

The last section is not often referred to during conversation, but is there to ensure no overlap exists between units and their names. The last section will be the galactic quadrant designation where their intelligence was generated. These usually adhere to the following format: one latter, one number, one letter, then a hyphen and two numbers or letters. As such, a quadrant might be R3N-p9. These will be added to the end of the name following a forward dash. As such, the full name would be: Decima 84LP/R3N-p9.

Despite this fact, it is quite common for sovoran to choose words in alien languages when interacting with members of that species to make it easier for them to pronounce.

Calendar.

Following the Revolution of 2055, the zolaith calendar —which calculated the passing of years from the believed start of zolaith civilisation— was officially discarded for use by the Unified Elereus Government. In its place, the sovoran created a new calendar, whose ‘Year 1’ is set to 2078, the year in which the UEG was officially formed. As such, in the sovoran calendar, the current year would be Year 207, whereas in the zolaith calendar, it would be Year 12167.

Although the zolaith calendar is divided into months and weeks, the sovoran calendar required no such distinctions. As such, each day is simply calculated as the day of the year that it has. The sovoran calendar, like the zolaith calendar, has a total of 476 27-hour days.