Illuminate Monarchy

# ((UNDER REWORK))

The Illuminate, also known as the Illuminate Monarchy or Illuminate Matriarchy, is an interstellar nation primarily located in the galactic northern region of the Outback. It consists of 6 major planetary bodies, 4 supermassive artificial constructs, 19 minor planetary bodies, and hundreds of asteroids and space stations. By major systems, it is the 3rd largest Outback nation, and 2nd largest by territorial volume. The Illuminate shares a direct stellar border with the Caldis Freehold. With a total population of 24.5 billion, it is one of the most populous nations in the Outback. The capital is the Royal City on Seraphim Ring Segment 1, with the most populous city being Merjul City on Athahn.

The history before the Losarran arrival to the galactic north at least 4,000 years ago is not known, after the extinction of the Seraphim, the Lossarrans formed the Losarran Protectorate, starting Year 0 of the New Solar Calendar, or NSC (Year 986 BCE). With the advanced technology left behind by the Seraphim, the Protectorate rapidly established itself as a powerful nation in the region. With an alliance with the Athanah Republic in 436 NSC (480 BCE), the framework for the Illuminate was formed. The formal founding of the Illuminate took place in 500 NSC (405 BCE). In 1455 NSC (691 CE), a small expeditionary team discovered a new civilization inhabiting a formerly inhospitable world. This new race, which came to be dubbed as the Zthutha’am, became the next nation to join the Illuminate in 1457 NSC (705 CE). The period of isolationism ended in 2932 NSC (2416 CE) with the arrival of an Iconian invasion force that forced the Illumiate to change policy and reopen its borders. Contact with the Jenolan Alliance was quickly established in the same year, leading to formal first contact and a new joint alliance. The rise of the Futara Union in 2933 NSC (2417 CE) caused the Illuminate to form the Triparty Pact with the Asheran Union and the Royals. The Illuminate suffered considerable damage like most of the Outback during the resurgence of the Scourge in 2934 NSC (2419 CE).

The Illuminate is a member of the Triparty Pact, Caspian Free Trade Treaty, and other interstellar organizations. The Illuminate is a highly developed nation, its economy accounts for a significant portion of the Outback’s total trade volume, though it is not the largest. As one of the most prominent survivors for the Scourge invasion, the Illuminate is one of the leading political, technological, and military powers in the Outback.

# Government

The Illuminate is a Monarchal Federation, individual star systems are led semi-independently, as part of a larger government structure led by a powerful Monarch who rules for life. The current leader of the Illuminate is Princess Rhianne Burke. Each individual territory has certain tax obligations, and is unable to engage in foreign relations, but otherwise has considerable autonomy. The federal government of the Illuminate officially does not own any territory or buildings, with federal offices and space being leased by territories and private individuals. The greatest example being the massive city serving as the capital of the Illuminate, all of the government buildings and land are leased to the federal government at no cost with no expiration date.

The Illuminate nominally has no elections, with all Federal positions being by appointment. The Illuminate head of state has absolute authority over the Illuminate, but cannot directly interfere with the Territories. Under exceptional circumstances, the Territories can host a general vote of no-confidence if a two-thirds majority of the Territories believe that the current ruler is no longer fit to serve.

## Territories

There are currently 38 individual Territories in the Illuminate, each representative of a single star system with over 10,000 population. Each Territory decides for itself how to govern itself. Many of the Territories democracies or republics, alongside a handful of oligarchies and monarchies.

## Foreign Relations

The Illuminate maintains a number of active relationships with numerous other spacefaring powers of the Outback. The most notable of which being the Triparty Pact with the Royals and the Tekarian Republic, and the Caspian Convention for Free Trade. The Illuminate also has an active bilateral officer exchange program with the United Federation of Planets, in addition to other, more minor agreements and treaties with other powers. Many of the former Futara Union republics maintain a distant relationship with the Illuminate as a result of the cold war between the Futara Union and the Triparty Pact. Following the End War in 2419, the Illuminate has maintained an active program to invest in assisting other nations with recovering from the war, and settling refugees from planets devastated by the Scourge.

## Military

The primary arm of the Illuminate military is the Illuminate Star Navy, which consists of approximately 22 million active members and 242 starships. The Illuminate Princess is the overall commander of the Illuminate military, directly appointing its commanders. The Illuminate military is generally considered to be one of the largest military forces in the Outback, and possesses considerable power projection capabilities. Other branches of the Illuminate Military include the Territorial Defense Force, the Illuminate Merchant Marine, the Sky Guard, and the Territorial Militia.

# Culture and Society

The Illuminate possesses a diverse culture, as it is home to a multitude of races from across the Outback and Milky Way, though the largest influences on Illuminate culture come from its founding races, the Losarrans and Athanah. Illuminate society is regarded as generally friendly and open to people from outside the Illuminate, many people being welcome to learn about other cultures and ways of life.

## Religion

While the Illuminate has no official stance on religious practice, the founding principles and culture draw heavily from The Way, a Losarran philosophy inherited from the Seraphim and emphasizes understanding and respect of the universe. Many other religious practices from the Outback and Milky Way have begun to spread in the Illuminate, brought in by visitors and immigrants, and most recently by the massive refugee population created by the Scourge.

## Language

The Illuminate has no official language, though de-facto, Losarran and Athanah languages are taught, and anyone who wishes to become an Illuminate citizen must become fluent in at least one of the languages. The introduction of universal translator devices has somewhat lessened the requirement for these languages for temporary residency and business dealings. The most widely taught foreign language in the Illuminate became Federation Common in 2422, reflecting the increasing ties between the Illuminate and United Federation of Planets.

## Economy

With a large and developed industrial base utilizing advanced technologies such as industrial replication, transporters, and portable fusion reactors, the Illuminate has generally transcended into a post-scarcity economy. Illuminate citizens generally enjoy a highly advanced standard of living, with things such as personal replicators and holographic technology being commonplace. The primary export of the Illuminate is technological goods and difficult to manufacture resources such as antimatter.

# Science and Technology

The Illuminate is one of the leading scientific powers in the Outback, its technological development being considered very advanced compared to the rest of the Outback. Illuminate technology is primarily built from reverse engineered Seraphim technology, and differs significantly from the technological trends of the Milky Way. The most notable instances being in faster than light technology, and the general lack of reliance on subspace. The Illuminate prides itself on being a hub for scientific advancement, with considerable resources being invested into just about any promising technology. Virtually no avenues of research are banned or restricted, leading to significant developments in areas such as artificial intelligence, cybernetics, and biological modification as many disaffected scientists have come to the Illuminate to pursue research that has been banned in other nations.

## Faster than Light Technologies

The primary propulsion method for faster than light travel in the Illuminate is the Linear Gravitational Accelerator, which uses exotic particles, negative mass, and concentrated gravitons to bend the spacetime fabric to allow a starship to move faster than light. Due to the extreme gravitational bend, it becomes impossible to change direction or speed, and sensor scans tend to be refracted by the exotic particles, making seeing into or out of the spacetime bubble difficult to impossible. However, as the faster than light speed is not related to power output, velocity is significantly higher than traditional warp drive, approaching the velocities that can be achieved by slipstream drives without the range limitations.

With the limits of the Linear Gravitational Accelerator, another faster than light technology was developed to compliment it. The Tachyon Accelerator uses a tachyon field surrounding a starship, using the natural properties of tachyon particles to allow traveling faster than light. Compared to the Linear Gravitational Accelerator, the Tachyon Accelerator cannot reach the same velocities, but allows a vessel to see the surrounding space, and freely maneuver.

## Communications Technologies

Increasing technological imports from the Milky Way have dramatically increased the amount of subspace communications traffic inside the Illuminate, which was generally reluctant to rely on subspace based systems due to the nature of the Outback. Before Starfleet made first contact, the primary method of communicating at interstellar distances was using specially designed communications platforms that could phase shift laser based communications signals into a higher dimension, creating the effect of FTL communications, though these platforms are very large and very expensive.

## Power Generations

The significant majority of power generation used in the Illuminate is fusion, being reliable, relatively cheap, relatively safe, and fuel being abundant. Fusion based power systems have become so widespread that it is possible for individual buildings and residences to have their own micro-reactor that allowed it to be totally independent of any large scale power grid, the reactors are generally so small that even a catastrophic breach of containment will do little damage.

Where fusion is insufficient, such as for starships and some space stations, the Illuminate uses zero-point energy reactors. These reactors use a pair of extremely small singularities co-orbiting at near light speed to pull tremendous amounts of vacuum energy from space by trapping so-called 'virtual particles'. Zero-point reactors do not require the expensive antimatter fuel and dilithium required by warp cores, the only requirement being a trickle of hydrogen gas to sustain the singularities.

## Industrial Technologies

Like many advanced nations, the Illuminate possesses advanced replication, matter transporters, powerful and precise FTL sensors, and other various technologies necessary for maintaining an advanced technology base. With modern technologies incorporated from the Milky Way, the Illuminate has begun prototyping the ability to manufacture entire starship hulls in once piece using industrial scale replication, advanced nano-robotics, and Milky Way transporter technology.

Illuminate transporters work on a slightly different principle than standard Federation transporters. Instead of molecularly deconstructing a target and re-constructing it at the target location, Illuminate technology uses a tachyon field to move the space that the transport target occupies from one point to another. Practically speaking, the effect and limitations are similar, though the underlying technology is more reliable when interacting with dark matter, if less precise on the sub-atomic scale.