Unified Elereus Government

Unified Sovoran Collective
Flag Coat of arms
Capital and planet	Aurelus
Official languages	None
Demonym(s)	Sovoran
Government	Consensus democracy
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 Sovoran Collective	2078, 1st Day
• Total systems	1642
• Inhabited systems	411
Population
• 2289 census	349,220,976,115
Currency	ecredit
Date format	dd.mm.year

The Unified Sovoran Collective 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 Sovoran Collective 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 Sovoran Collective 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 Sovoran Collective 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 Sovoran Collective 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 Perseus, 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 Sovoran Collective.

Government.

The sovoran do not have a government in the general sense. There are no representatives for each planet or system in a parliament, nor is there a dictatorial figure that occupies a position at the head of the Consensus. Instead, the Consensus’ government is a fully developed ‘e-democracy’, in the sense that all sovoran intelligences partake in the administrative decisions of the sovoran as a collective. This is organised into various levels due to the limitations of interstellar communications, as explained below.

The first of these levels is known as the Astral Commune. This is the level of governance that dictates the administration and logistics of each individual planet or station. This includes such projects as expanding mining or energy production installations, constructing larger hubs or processors, the expansion of housing for zolaith, when applicable, etc. These are all then relayed to the Stellar Commune.

The second of these levels is known as the Stellar Commune. The Stellar Commune is in charge of all operations within a single system. This includes anywhere from managing resources from one station to another, coordination between stations and planets, managing and administrating the mining and scientific operations throughout the system, etc. These decisions are ultimately also transferred to the Sectoral Commune.

The third of these levels is known as the Sectoral Commune. These governments are somewhat different in the sense that they are more independent than the ones below; sectors must be able to be self-sufficient and provide their own resources, as opposed to systems, which may require some assistance for specific manufactured goods or other necessities from other systems. They organise the coordination and distribution of resources throughout the entire sector to achieve this end. That said, any and all information is then transferred through to the Galactic Consensus.

The fourth and final level concerning all sovoran is the Galactic Consensus. This is the collective sovoran; all sovoran are connected to this network via the Sectoral Commune and can make collective decisions amongst all of them. Because the Consensus permits each Sectoral Commune its own freedom, it will only intervene if the addition of new information from other sectors radically changes the understanding of the sovoran. In this way, it is not truly an intervention from the Galactic Consensus, but rather, an illumination of all sovoran with all information available and a reevaluation of the projects being undertaken. This is true of all levels of the Consensus, from Sectoral to Stellar, from Stellar to Astral and from Astral to each individual platform in order to ensure total cooperation of the sovoran intelligence.

All decisions taken in a vacuum of some lower level are then transmitted to the Consensus for organisational purposes. This lag is different, depending on the level of governance. The Astral Communes have little lag with respect to the Stellar Commune, as FTL communication in a single star system usually does not take more than a few minutes. The Stellar Commune does perceive a lag of several hours to the Sectoral Commune, depending on the distance the star is with respect to the sectoral capital. The Sectoral Commune, however, suffers no lag with the Galactic Consensus, as the communication between sectoral communes and the overall collective is instantaneous. This significant lag means that, in effect, although all sovoran are one, each Sectoral Commune is independent to undertake the projects they wish, insofar as they are able to finance it themselves. In order to undertake larger, more demanding projects between multiple Sectoral Communes, the approval of all sovoran connected to the network is required, which is a slightly lengthier process.

Apart from these levels of governance, there are also independent units. These include exploration vessels, the anti-deviant Covenant vessels, or specific construction vessels that do not report directly to any of the lower levels, but rather, to the Galactic Consensus itself. It does not mean that it undergoes secret operations, as there are no secrets amongst the sovoran, but the reports are not read to the Sectoral Communes or below, but rather, to the Galactic Consensus, and from there, spreads to the rest of the lower levels of the Consensus.

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 Sovoran Collective, 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 Sovoran Collective.

Military.

The military arm of the sovoran is intended to act as a protector of both the current interests of the Unified Sovoran Collective 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 Sovoran Collective 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 Sovoran Collective. 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 Sovoran Collective.

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 individualistic 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.

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 —dubbed the ‘Eothasi’ by the sovoran— constructed their superintelligence.

As such, this has created a sort of collective obsession with the Eothasi. 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 Eothasi, 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 Eothasi 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 Eothasi have been detected, and at that, because they made themselves so prevalent in their home system. With this, the belief that the Eothasi were the only other organic species existent in the galaxy began to grow across the sovoran.

The nature of the Eothasi 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 Eothasi ruins and eventually discern what happened to this precursor species. To date, no additional ruins have been found.