The Ascent

HESTIA - Imperial Ascent Lore

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The Ascent is an ancient, alien stellar empire located rimward of Skrell Space. Known for their hostility as much as their advanced technology, they are the victims of Humanity’s most recent conflict. Traditionally, the ascent is comprised of three distinct species.

Kharmaani

From their faraway birth star of Core, within the humid greenhouse-gas-choked giant crownworld Home, hails the Kharmaani,

a cepholapodean-mantid species with extreme sexual dimorphism, they founded the Ascent before Humanity even left their stellar cradle once the title of First of Core was claimed after a lengthy and violent unification war.  

Kharmaani are organized into Nest-Lineages, massive extended families comprised of gynes and their children, the alates.

Nest-Lineages take their names from the descriptive features of their capital homeworld, and can be as large as major imperial lineages such as Core, to as small as only one planet or even one city. Any gyne can break off and form her own nest-lineage at any time, but to stay within the same lineage as her mother and sister gynes often offers far more benefits and stability than striking it out on their own.

Kharmaani Biology

All Kharmaani begin life as one of thousands of small larvae, who burrow into the crust of their homeworld (or an artificial substitute) and pupate. They emerge a few feet long as Kharmaani Nymphs and will swarm mindlessly, fighting and eating each other nearby until the population levels stabilize, often overseen by spawning caretakers.

The survivors of this violent display of natural selection molt after a few weeks, shedding their old carapace for a fresher, larger and more developed version as a 'male' Alate, a crystalline creature with thin brittle skin over a gelatinous, translucent interior under a silicified chitin exterior with three grasper limbs, three legs, and a tail. There, they are fully sapient and are taken by the molting facility to fill positions that their nest requires. There is no formal education system within the Kharmaani populations of the ascent, but as an Alate ages through the viciously competitive culture of the Ascent, they often find mentors and develop knowledge on various practical disciplines.

Due to their comparatively small size and stature to other members of the Ascent, Alates are most often found in technical fields, as aides to Control Minds, scientists, physicians and engineers, though the Kharmaani's warring past, and due to Gynes being far less expendable they are, has led to a long tradition of martial disciplines for alates as they form the majority of the Ascent's civilian workforce and military divisions both.

Kharmaan Gyne Biology

At the end of an Alate's natural life expectancy, they will enter sexual maturity and participate in swarming breeding behavior. A handful of the eldest alates will spontaneously molt and emerge as the Kharmaani Gynes, the much larger and vastly more intelligent 'female' stage of the Kharmaani life cycle. Each gyne will breed with numerous alates during a spawning season, permanently incorporating them into her own body, giving the gyne genetic material she can use to produce more larvae at will, which will grow and form their children.

Similar to nymphs, newly-molted gynes will attack other gynes near them in what is known as the 'killing-trance,' in which they violently try to kill every gyne (and anything else that isn't an alate) that they see under the influence of a special physicochemical state they enter when they are pushed into an instinctual 'fight or flight' response, though gynes abandon all pretenses of fleeing when they enter the killing-trance, only calming down when removed from other life or when that life is dead.

For this reason among others, a Gyne's feeling of personal safety is among one of the most important things her retainers watch out for.

After surviving her molt and first killing-trance, a Gyne has obtained a master class education in personal survival and dismantling her rivals, as well as all of the practical knowledge they obtained while an alate. The rapid growth of her body, brain, and the responsibilities of her position require every surviving gyne to eventually become a master of management, logistics, warfare, sociology, and the complex great games played by the aristocrats of Ascent society, in order to ensure they and their children's survival.

Kharmaani Naming Conventions

Kharmaan gynes have names following the format (position within the current set of gynes) (the landform where they claim territory), which normally looks something like 26 Atonal Waterfall, indicating the current 26th-tier gyne of the Atonal Waterfall nest. A smaller number means correspondingly more power and influence; ambitious gynes will often try to usurp their betters and climb the tiers of their nest, with the gyne at the First tier being the absolute ruler of their nest-lineage and considered the mother of the entire nest, if they didn't literally birth it themselves.

Alates use the territory-name of their ruling gyne, and a similar numerical position, but due to the sheer numbers of alates this will always be much, much higher than a gyne. Some alates will also use descriptive names, owing inspiration from the names of their  monarch serpentid worker allies. For example, a child of the gyne used previously would be 10244 Atonal Waterfall 'Temperamental' (if the descriptive name is used)

Gynes hold the ability to control the tiers of their alates, and can promote or demote them at-will. Alates higher in the tier are often older and more experienced servants. Occasionally, alates will also try to achieve a higher position, though this is most often expressed through showing worth to their Gyne or the Gyne's most trusted advisors.

Kharmaani Behavior

In terms of behavior, Kharmaani are eusocial and will happily live and work together with each-other, so long as they are from the same lineage. Kharmaani from different nest-lineages are insular and often mistrustful of one another, and the cutt-throat politics of the Ascent has made them paranoid of peers and domineering of their lessers. They will take every opportunity they have to seize advantages, and their morality exists only in the form of their veneration for their gynes. They will only deal with outsiders as much as necessary, and think little of them.

Monarch Serpentids

Originating from the world of Tau-Wilo in the system of XX-168, the Monarch Serpentids are an evolutionary off-shoot of the Giant Armored Serpentids that now reside there. Taken from their homeworld by the Kharmaani millennium ago, the Monarch Serpentids were spared from the drastically reduced oxygen levels of Tau-Wilo, thus they kept their queens and did not evolve the adaptations necessary for the GAS to continue surviving.

Within Ascent society, they began as amusing pets and entertaining slaves, but over time have carved out an important role as middlemen vital to the smooth running of the Ascent between the warring nest lineages of the Kharmaani.

The kharmaani gynes who lead each settlement have difficulty in working with each other thanks to their aggressive instincts and paranoia of other fortress-nests and hives. The Monarch Queens act as envoys, diplomats, ambassadors and representatives of their patron gynes, the wisest of which will always shelter serpentid mezzanines in their fortress-nests to reap the advantages a queen’s court brings.

Beyond the queens, Monarch Workers may not be as numerous as alates are, but they are more physically imposing, and typically take jobs that require their strength, while kharmaan alates tend to more technical tasks. This doesn’t mean that a worker can not be a skilled surgeon or engineer however, nor does it mean that an alate can not be an effective soldier.

The Monarchs have been known to experiment with genetic engineering, producing specialized warriors augmented and modified to be even more physically imposing than the standard MSW, known as ‘Praetorians.’ They are rather rare and used as the personal guards for the more powerful queens and sometimes loaned to gynes as well. More often than not they are the mark of an Imperial interest in an endeavor.

After the Ascent’s aggressive first-contact with humanity, the Monarch Serpentids have grown aware of their cousins still on their homeworld. Believing that the GAS have become little more than willing slaves to humanity, the monarchs pity them and will often feel ashamed that the GAS have progressed little from their ancient culture.

Monarch Serpentid Biology

Monarch Serpentid Workers (MSWs) are almost identical to their GAS cousins, but they have very notable key differences. Rather than the earthly tones that GAS scales take, Monarchs tend to be hues of purple or blue, perhaps artificially induced to better resemble kharmaani.

Monarch Serpentid Queens (MSQs), on the other hand, are much smaller than their workers, lack hunting arms, and are exclusively female.

Both workers and queens have more developed intellects than the GAS, with the queens significantly smarter than their subjects. They lack the distinct speech pattern unique to their cousins, and speak in what is more commonly accepted as “normal.”

They lack the complex chemical production of their cousins, and their hunting arms have become smooth due to centuries of a more luxurious lifestyle.

Queens act as both rulers and representatives of their mezzanines, and are fully responsible for the well-being of their charges. Though the workers love their queens they are slightly more independent than the kharmaani and representing queens who become too unpopular may find themselves ousted and replaced by competing queens with support from their victims in the great game that dominates Ascent society.

Monarch Serpentid Naming Conventions

Monarch Serpentid Queens typically take their name after positive concepts, such as Queen Victory, Contentment, Peace, Prosperity, Fortitude, Serenity, and so on.

Monarch Serpentid Workers, meanwhile, still use ancient GAS origin names taken from a formative trait they did in their youth. A worker fledgling who had a habit of breaking hydration cylinders might take the name “Water Crusher,” while a fledgling who preferred to dabble in chemistry may be named “Medicine Mixer,” and so on.

Other examples are Unwavering Bulwark, Ceaseless Tinkerer, Grateful Physician, Bored Chemist, Displeased Researcher, Unsatisfied Material Scientist, and Mundane Analyst. Some workers will also occasionally have names relating to Crystallography, a way they see as kinship with the Kharmaani.

Monarch Serpentid Behavior

Monarch Serpentids hold full citizenship in the Ascent, equal with Kharmaani and Control minds.

Within a single fortress-nest however, a monarch queen is not quite a peer to a kharmaani gyne, but acts as a faithful companion and valuable diplomat. Their relationship is not one of a Captain and his executive officer, but more of two best friends who both lead their own clique and combine the two to achieve common goals, with one being bigger and more powerful.

Though the union between nest-lineage and serpentid mezzanine is a sacred one, Queens are ultimately subservient to Kharmaan gynes as they lack the sheer amount of resources the elder race can bring to bear.

Opinions on GAS vary from monarch to monarch, from viewing them as traitors at one end to tragic victims who should have come with them to the ascent at another end.

Control Minds

The Control minds, massive supercomputing clusters built into their fortress-nests and spacecraft were invented to govern and maintain the majority of day to day services and infrastructure within the empire, and subsequently given full citizenship due to their intelligence.

If the Kharmaani are the foundation, and the Monarch Serpentids the glue holding everything together, the Control minds and their legions of drones form the skeleton necessary to operate such a vast empire.

They assist Kharmaan Gynes and Monarch Serpentid Queens alike by maintaining their fleets of starships and interstellar habitats.

Self-aware machine intelligence is an accepted part of life in the Ascent, and AIs as advanced as the control minds are given the same full citizen rights as everyone else, including the ability to participate in the complex great games favored by the aristocracy.

As arbiters over Worldnet nodes and the vast majority of infrastructure, Control minds are vastly powerful, but rarely hold much ambitions of their own beyond ensuring structural stability.

Still, threats to that stability can often find themselves enemies of various Control Minds, who participate in the great social games of Ascent society in order to ensure vital infrastructure does not come to harm in all of the Kharmaani and Serpentid's scheming.

As the Ascent lacks positronic technology, the commonly seen Ascent utility drones are only about as intelligent as a typical human drone intelligence, when not being remotely possessed by a larger control mind.

All Ascent exosuits also have ports to be directly controlled by a control mind or lesser intelligence as well, if given permission by the user.

Although the oldest control minds were made by the Kharmaani, modern control minds are also assembled by other control minds, the 'parents' and 'children' in this relationship often form loose bonds to provide mutual assistance for their charges.

Control Mind and Drone Naming Conventions

Control mind names are a truly bewildering variety, often puns, jokes, clever references to science, or some other whimsy. The only constant is that they are usually far, far longer than a regular sapient's name, not unlike the length of some Diona's names.

Drones that are not being actively possessed by a control mind are designated a partial term from the leader's name followed by a sequence number, such as WATERFALL-3 or VICTORY-7

Tiros

Tiros are a relatively new class of non-citizens within the Ascent, only appearing after the Ascent-Human War.

They represent a personal auxiliary workforce composed of non-ascent member species for certain enterprising gynes.

While many kharmaani are xenophobic, considering the modern times they live in, others are interested in exploring how outsiders can work for them. Extensive cybernetic and physio-pharmaceutical augmentation has given the tiro the ability to breathe the Methyl Bromide-Oxygen air mix unique to ascent habitats thanks to lung modifications, as well as a specially adapted system controller implant linking them to the Worldnet and electronic systems, though this level of alteration by the Kharmaani may result in a paler complexion.

Each Tiro is unique, they may be a skrell, human, or even unathi, though they all provide some value to the ascent, or else they would not have been integrated.

Without Ascent citizenship, they are beholden to their patron gyne’s whims, as without their protection they could be culled at any moment. They are often used in a Gyne’s personal retinue as a servant with no ties to the Ascent’s politics and absolute loyalty to their patron, avoiding the case of fickle monarch adjutants, conspiring control minds, or alates favoring their mothers.

Tiros can vary from skilled refugees seeking shelter from the Solarian government or survivors of ship-bound catastrophes,  to heavily modified, purpose-made experiments.

Tiros are unable to participate in violent revolutions against their gyne. As diverse as the Tiro class is, this may vary from simple fear of being culled without their gyne’s protection, a genuine desire to work and progress in the Ascent’s culture, or various cybernetic and chemical methods to ensure compliance. Not all tiros are made equally, and while some may have had their memory replaced to remove their empathy, many others are unaltered beyond the base system controller, retaining all of their own thoughts, to better serve as diplomatic aides.

As it is taboo to perform any loyalty-altering conditioning on full ascent citizens, some kharmaani believe that their tiros too, should be allowed to determine their own beliefs. Others care little for such freedoms.

However, as outsiders to the Ascent, a tiro’s competence and loyalty to the culture as a whole can differ just as wildly.

For the most loyal of Tiros, many are used to infiltrate and conduct espionage on foreign empires such as the Human’s Solar Government and various Skrell city states.

Aurum

An enhanced, ‘elite’ form of Tiro exists, known as Aurum.

Used by radical xenophilic gynes, their exosuits are winged and represent a competitor to the Monarch Praetorians in personal guardians, though being openly guarded by an elite tiro is a brazen expression counter to mainstream ascent beliefs.

Veterans of a set of people already rare to begin with, the wings of a Aurum’s suit is not only functional, but also represents the ‘ascent’ of alien species. Having already been indoctrinated and earning enough favor with their Gyne to become an elite, the Aurum are often tasked with the responsibility of tutoring and policing their fellow tiros, in the event a gyne wishes for an influx of foreign auxiliaries.

Existing Ascent citizens may not take it too kindly, however.

Ascent Factions

As old as the Ascent are, nothing in their history with Humanity has shook them up quite as much as the Ascent-Human War, resulting in the total loss of all Ascent colonies and some skrell infrastructure within the borders of human space.

This has resulted in the birth of modern ascent factions. Though they are the main three movements at this point in time, the Ascent have lasted for ages and hold grudges for just as long amongst its diverse members.

Imperial Ascent

Ascent core worlds are highly interested in SCG's strategic weapons and have been discreetly funding countermeasures against them, though they still pretend to ignore other aliens as it remains very difficult to get a concrete opinion from the imperial lineage on much of anything, other than condemning their lost territory and the skrell colonies that were bombed on their worlds.

Publicly they still see humans as nothing more than primitive animals, but are very interested in gathering information about their technology, military doctrine, physiology and psychology, and there are no restrictions on conduct so long as the imperial flags aren't flown, or that there are no witnesses left to jeopardize the status quo.

Ascent Diaspora

Many of the affected nest-lineages who lost their homes in the Ascent-Solarian war have joined up with the Skrell League, an alliance of vengeance, contributing either direct military support or the economical remains of whatever holdings they had that wasn't in Humanity's reach.

They're aggressive, vengeful, and unlikely to be placated. The mass fatalities have killed many kharmaan gynes, leaving the border clusters fractured, only held together by their hatred of humanity.

Alates from even rival lineages have folded under surviving gynes, leading a hodgepodge of scattered monarchs and battle-damaged control minds. Others have tried coercing aliens into their warbands, using a shared hatred of humanity by skrell and vox to their benefit.

Radical Ascent

Others see humans as more worthy allies than the skrell, the war actually impressing some gynes who see the bold conquests by the humans as a sign that they may be strong enough to be compatible with Ascent philosophy. Since the war is technically over, and Solgov's next target being the Skrell League, they are the ones who are most likely to treat humans in a 'dignified' way, if only to establish personal envoys equipped with the typical Ascent espionage suites. Solgov's empire has inspired them to try integrating aliens of their own, as they preach the elitist meritocracy between the matriarchs and their servants.

Ascent Culture

The Culture of the Ascent is a focus on Ascending through the hierarchy established long ago by the Kharmaani, hence the name. It is a reverence of power as projected through violence, and a belief in the superiority of authority, and all people having a place in it as dictated by their betters.

The strong aristocrats deserve to rule, but the strong have a responsibility to provide for their lessers, often including their children, and as few as they are, if an alate supervisor, monarch queen or even kharmaan gyne fails to excel in their roles, they will find themselves without allies and quickly replaced by their rivals.

Day to day existence in the Ascent is largely a matter of navigating a bewildering labyrinth of social obligations, gyne power dynamics, factional tithing, protection rackets, industry taxes and plain old interpersonal backstabbing. Both member cultures of this stellar power are eusocial to an extent, and their society is shaped around the teeming masses of workers, soldiers, technicians and 'lesser' citizens supporting a throng of imperious and all-powerful queens, most organizations being divided between the matriarchs and their thralls.

The Ascent’s superiority is the closest thing they have to a religion or philosophy. To the Kharmaani, the gyne is the embodiment of both the soul of the land she rules, and the power and prosperity of the genetic lineage she contains. The closest thing they have to spirituality is the veneration of their mother, and the protection and preservation of their worlds. Sometimes this is interpreted as an invitation to replace their mother with a stronger gyne-sister if she is incapable of embodying the soul and power of her nest-lineage, but open rebellions in this manner are exceedingly rare in the age of Imperial enforcement.

To summarize: The strongest and most capable deserve their positions, and must reinforce their holdings and while males and lesser females can not physically become Gynes and Queens, if they are spurned they can just as easily support an usurper that has their best interests in mind.

Relations with other species

The Ascent are largely isolationist, and until recently, have not had much contact with other races outside of the Skrell.

Skrell

Long before the Ascent knew of the wider galaxy, first contact between an automated ascent strip-mining fleet and Skrell resulted in total war, causing untold destruction to both species.

Neither Ascent or Skrell were able to gain a decisive advantage over the other in over seven hundred years of fighting, resulting in a stalemate, and eventually, a white peace, at the cost of several crown-worlds being razed, and the glassing of Qerr’Balak

Known to the Skrell as the Kali’r war, Ascent-Skrell relations have been locked in a cold war ever since, though with neither side willing to commit to war again, their relations are somewhat cordial, and the Skrell hold the honor of having earned the most respect of the Ascent because of the threat they pose.

Humans

Prior to the Ascent-Human war, the Ascent refused to acknowledge humanity as even a sovereign power, instead classifying them as primitive animals and doing whatever they wished without caring for the borders of humanity. Many civilians were abducted and experimented on, raising animosity from the SCG, not helped much by the first recording meeting resulting in the loss of a capital ship, the SEV Magnus.

In a response to Nest-Lineage Volcanic Barrens’s expansion, the SCG retaliated with more ferocity than seen before, the human war machine already activated by the corporate wars. Deploying a truly apocalyptic amount of strategic weapons from nukes to planet-crackers, Volcanic Barrens and their allied lineages lost nearly all the territory they had gained, with 1 Volcanic Barrens and all of her daughters being killed in the conflict and a near-total ceasure of Ascent activities in human space.

The Ascent Core worlds now struggle with a considerate population rendered homeless, harboring seething hatred of humanity. The debate of how to respond to the ‘conflict’ rages on, with First of Core putting the topic on hold, though all evidence suggests that the numerous aggressive intelligence gathering operations by imperial gynes and control minds are a prelude to a second war.

Officially however, the Ascent has recognized Human space as an independent zone from their frontier, though not the sovereignty of the SCG itself, and have instructed their borders be respected in the meantime, though clashes on the edges of frontier-space between seedships and surveyor vessels continue.

Giant Armored Serpentids (GAS)

The Monarch Serpentids are aware of their cousins, formally classified in the Ascent as “Lesser Serpentids.”

They are looked upon with a mixture of disgust and pity, and though a few serpentids have tried to integrate into the monarch mezzanines, the vast majority are still loyal to their human handlers, and lack sufficient intelligence to impress the ascent.

Vox

The oldest ascent records can recall the Vox as an older stellar power, contradicted by all current information that indicates they are a nomadic species of untrustworthy pirate-scavengers. The Ascent refers to them as pests, and their drones destroy them on sight.

They have no official contact or diplomatic relations with the arkships or their resurgent empire.

Unathi

The Ascent have very little first-hand knowledge of the Unathi, and no formal contact with them. Biologically, they are considered un-interesting and lumped in with every other primitive species.

Adherents

The Ascent know almost nothing about the adherents, their only information coming from human databases infiltrated by their control minds.

Their mysterious past and eerie similarities to Kharmaani biology make them a curiosity.

Integrated Positronic Chassis (IPC)

The Positronic AI technology used by Humanity are often compared to a wasteful abuse of bluespace technology, too  dumb to be recognized as supercomputing self-sufficent productive citizens like the minds, but also too intelligent to be used as simple autonomous drone platforms.

The Ascent believes positronics to be too unstable to properly benefit from Ascent integration, though this hasn’t stopped curious control minds from experimenting on what they view as lesser synthetics.

They disapprove of the many laws binding positronics to their human masters, seeing it as form of slavery, however hypocritical the Ascent saying that may seem.

Ascent Technology

Ascent technology surpasses that of both human and skrell counterparts, to the extent that some of their more exotic creations are poorly understood. Still, samples of ascent devices are in high demand for potential reverse-engineering.

Cybernetics are universal and widely used, though in the form of subdermal implants rather than prosthetics.

Every member of the Ascent is implanted with a System Controller, a personal computer they can manipulate with their thoughts. It contains IFF signatures and authorization codes, allowing them to access Ascent technology. It also generates an augmented reality display linking them to the Ascent Worldnet.

The Worldnet itself is a peer-to-peer information network, akin to a version of the human exonet. Each citizen has a worldnet profile, detailing an ascent citizen's life accomplishments, all who they owe favors to, their name changes if they're a kharmaan, as well as stability credits, issued by control minds and system administrators for assistance rendered to upkeep local infrastructure.

Ascent Practical Information

Practical notes and tidbits of Ascent behavior will go here when available.

On Ascent Seedships, the Gyne is the absolute authority. Additionally, the Monarch Serpentid Queen has sovereign authority over her own monarch adjuncts. Control minds are independent and report to the gyne directly, with jurisdiction over the rare online non-remote drones. Alates and any auxiliary Tiros report to the gyne directly as well.

While wiser individuals should be listened to, they do not compel others to obey them outside of this chain of command, unless the Gyne explicitly grants them power over others.

Kharmaan and Monarchs alike are very sensitive about personal space, usually preferring to be one meter away from others at all times, else they could be grabbed or otherwise attacked.

In the Ascent, it is generally polite to make as little movement toward others as possible, keep limbs close to oneself, and keep a respectable distance. A disregard for personal space indicates that the mantid or serpentid is either very comfortable around someone, or as a quiet threat.

In diplomatic functions, it is customary to always remain at least one meter apart.

The Ascent practices ritual cannibalism. In their belief that the advancement of the nest-lineage as a whole benefits all of its members, a kharmaani who dies honorably for a good cause of the hive will be eaten by their brothers or even their gyne, descended from a millennium-old practice to never waste a resource.

When a gyne or queen usurps one of their rivals, it is customary to eat their deceased body, as a means to ‘inherit’ the position and control they once had.

Among the worst punishments in the ascent is to be executed and their body left to rot among the wilderness, their memory and body both damned to be forgotten and never circulate in the lineage ever again.

This has been adopted by the Monarch Serpentids as well.

Art, Original Kharmaani and Control Mind concepts by https://www.deviantart.com/octagoncalibrator

Original Giant Armored Serpentid (GAS) and Monarch Serpentid concepts by F-Tang Steve

Contact Shirumic if something is wrong or should be changed.