Eternals: Biology, Culture & Society

Dystopian & regressive, oppressive and unjust, dark, dank and cruel, The Eternal Empire is none of the above; at least, not to its own.

Ruled over by the Eternal Empress, Victoria VIII, the people of the Empire live in unity with each other and their leaders; the civil strife and conflicts that plagued humanity mere stories of their ancestors, together the people of the Eternal Empire work towards shared goals and interests, confident that together humanity can prevail against the outside universe.

For the universe is dark, the universe is cruel... it is a dystopia; regressive, cruel, oppressive and malicious, the threats to their very exsistance are innumerable. These threats all stem from one core factor, one influence, one source.

Xenos.

> *"Harken these words, forever remember them. Fear the xeno; fear its son, fear its desires, fear its will and infact fear for us all. For the alien covets what no other have achieved... peace"*
>
>

## **Biology**

### *Appearance*

The Humans of the Eternal Empire look no different anatomically from Humans of Earth and only have superficial differences; Eternal Humans have a wide spectrum of heights but average out at 5ft 8in or just under 173cm, making them actually taller on average than Thadrakos though the Thadrakos heights vary little more than half an inch.

The species can be ethnically diverse (unlike the Thadrakos) and their hair colour remains within the same spectrums as usual, though red/ginger hair is more common due to a high percentage of ancestors being from Ireland (due to said country being close to the Isle of Man portal)

### *Inside a Eternal Human*

Almost no feature of the Human body has changed from the Earth-bound humans, however they would have been considered above average fitness back on Earth; the bodies have unusually strong immune systems for a Human and bones seem to be stronger. This is chalked up to good lifestyle, diet and healthcare than genetics though.

#### *Other notable features inside an Eternal Hum*an

Blood cells have higher oxygen capacity than average, the cause of this change is unknown; the Humans of New-Earth were not present for long enough for such significant changes to occur, one theory is that the air was laden with spores from flora which were so alien to the Human body that they entered the body without resistance and somehow changed the Humans. Another is that the portal they entered through mutated their DNA to make the body accustomed to the alien climate on the other side.

The blood of an Eternal Human is also a deeper red, like a dark red wine. Why is unknown, it has no effect besides the noted increased oxygen capacity.

In terms of age, nothing is naturally prolonging or shortening it from normal Human lifespans; unlike the Commonwealth Humans who naturally live longer than normal Humans.

All-in-all, Eternal Humans are no different than Earth Humans on a biological level besides minor altercations.

## **Society**

The society of the Eternal Empire is one of peace and unity within while projecting might and spite to any outside it, using military might they wilfully enforce their own isolation; they believe entirely in the goal of Humanity and its leader and see the pervasive threat of alien influence in everything not their own.

The state maintains the most minimal contact with the outside world as possible, no embassies, no delegations, no summits, no meetings, nothing. The Empire tolerates non-visual communication and when they must speak face-to-face they make it as brief as possible.

#### Dialect

By and large the Eternals speak English, mostly they speak in a controlled and calm manner with hints of sophisticated language. The people referred to as 'Common Citizenry' do not speak in a stereotypical upper class accent and even most of the aristocracy does not, the posh accent does survive in the Imperial Court and many clubs make an effort to use the accent in appropriate situation.

### **Society: The Government**

The Eternal Empire is ruled over by the Eternal Empress, who forged the nation and created a centralised government in the form of an Imperial Court and Eternal Ministry, one making macro decisions and edicts while the other running the state apparatus.

The Empire is ruled Imperially, decisions come from on high and are not put through any democratic process besides the vote of approval by the Empress or by extension her Regent, whom actually has the deciding voice on *everything* and may simply make their own plans.

#### *The Imperial Court*

The Imperial Court is made up of the highest ranking positions in the Empire; such as, the current Lord Admiral who commands the Sovereign Armada, the leading Field Marshals of HM Imperial Army & HM Armed Forces, but at the very top of the court is the Lord Regent who rules with technically absolute power and authority (technically because his authority is a proxy of the Empress and she may at any time countermand the Regent if she dislikes his actions).

#### *The Eternal Ministry*

A large body of aristocratic people who employ clerks, bureaucrats, lawyers, planners, accountants etc etc; these elite run the gears of state.

#### *The Eternal Empress*

The Empress largely retreated from direct management of the Empire after 2150, after establishing a temporary parliament to oversee the final years before the Imperial Court & Ministry took full control; since then she remained almost exclusively within her chamber, un-aging and immune to ailment or threat. The majority of her time is spent in slumber though she often wakes to receive weekly reports, her powers affording her security as she sleeps for she can sense whenever something may be amiss within her own government.

If she ever wishes to do something directly she may simply inform whomever it concerns psionically or give more broad and general instructions to the Lord Regent.

### **Society: The people**

Humans of the Empire live in man-made utopia, everyone is cared for by the state no matter their education or economic background; this isn't to say that everyone is rich and living in luxury, but no-one is truly poor. Enamored welfare programmes, byzantine economic supports and a group consciousness of support all coalesce to create a society where the destitute do not exist. The people see this state of utopia as the ultimate testament to mankind and its leaders, who through unity and strength forged a nation despite the odds; the state is seen as a benevolent and just one, little seems to point to the contrary, the people believe resolutely in the unity of mankind to the point they go to seemingly extreme lengths to help one another.

Take welfare for example; injured workers are left ample (paid) recovery time and receive additional support schemes if needed, this is regardless of class or background, even self-employed workers can receive support.

Categorically there is no class system anymore (After 2200 said *class system* was entirely replaced) but the Empire does separate its people into two groups, the Aristocracy and the Common citizenry.

#### *The Aristocracy*

The Aristocracy are upper members of society who fill high ranking government roles i.e. as ministers or Admirals, at first many became aristocrats through merit but since then have became more family inherited roles; the family is expected to provide competent personal for the role though and so the aristocrats raise their children for the position they will inherit, this means that even though some positions are inherited they are not given rank without merit.

Some aristocratic families become so significant within the Eternal Empire to be consider "Nobles". A noble house is often found occupying many high level or economically important positions, in example a noble house may find many of its members in high positions of the Admiralty, Armed Forces, Eternal Ministry, Industry etc etc.

#### *The Common Citizenry*

The Common citizenry is everyone else, farmers, soldiers, builders and so on; they all receive a standardised payment, including state provided housing and healthcare. However depending on the career / job the citizen fill they earn additional income dependent on the skill of the role (A farmer does not earn as much as a scientist, else everyone would simply be a farmer). So the Common citizenry do have different income rates but they are all guaranteed a baseline income.

The people are assorted and categorised in a complex education system, which both provides academic learning and skills suited to a profession they seem best suited to; in example, a child who shows talent for the natural sciences is placed in science classes more often, a child who lacks academic drive will still receive writing and mathematic classes but may find themselves being allocated for roles such as farming or industrial based jobs. The education system may seem akin to a cold and box ticking sorting system, and in many regards it is, but every role and profession in society has upward mobility. Especially the military.

The Common Citizenry are all taught the history of the Empire, and they take pride in the achievements of their ancestors and the Empress; they see the past as a time of conflict and betrayal, only through unity and strong leadership can a nation stand strong. The citizenry is devoutly loyal to the Empress and hold Human life in high regard, it is something to be cherished, safeguarded and upheld with dignity.

### **Society: The Military**

The Eternal Empire is resoundingly militaristic but not out of a wanton desire to conquer and dominate, rather it values its armies highly for they are the guardians of Humanity who would see off any xeno threat; the people of the Empire prefer unity and peace over war and the army is seen as defensive measure, it excels in conflict and conquest only because it seeks to return to peace... the fact that in doing so it expands the Empire is an additional benefit as the increased power can be used in the future to ward of further xeno threats

The ideals seem to conflict. At the same time the Empire wants isolation yet also to eradicate xeno, this just creates a mindset of 'defensive expansion' though; to protect themselves and maintain a peaceful existence the neighbouring xeno empires must be cut down to the point that they are ether extinct or too small to threaten the 'Pax Britannica**'**. To this end the military is at heart defensive, even though it must invade others to enforce peace.

Traditionally the Empire maintains a large standing army, though in peace time they are more often used as public servants. The military often fills building and farming roles in peacetime and is even the primary apparatus of colonizing planets. Annual parades are held, in which there can be over 100,000 troops; but the biggest parade of all, The Trooping of the Colour, occurs once every 4 years. The parade is a massive assembly of over 1.2 billion troops that parade across all of New-Earth, of this number 500,000 troops parade at the palace. The expense of this parade is significant hence why it is only perform every 4 years, during wartime though these parades do not take place on such a large scale.

While the Empire prides its military tradition, it more so endears it maritime roots; none shall contest their right to rule the void and the Sovereign Armada, without question being the largest fleet in the galaxy, shall meet any who challenges them.

More information on the military is available here: HM Imperial Army & HM Armed Forces

### **Society: The Law**

#### Crime

Crime in Eternal Society is low compared to the other inhabitants of the galaxy, trust and compassion for each other is imbedded in children and early adult life; theft, assault and murder is almost non-existent and when it does it is often motivated by extreme factors, the most common crime in the Empire is deviancy from societal ethics. Some do not believe dogmatically to hate xenos, this in itself acceptable; going further to advocate for helping them or seeing them as equals though is not, the most common deviance is in the form of humans trying to help xeno slaves by ether feeding them or even setting them free.

Organised slave smuggling groups made up the majority of organised criminals, emphasis on 'made up' as the past tense, since 2280 these groups were eliminated from society through the combined efforts of the Constables and MI5.

#### The apparatuses of law

There are three main bodies of law enforcement in Eternal society.

* The Watch: Officers of the watch patrol the streets day and night.

Most officers of the watch are volunteers and are equipped with little more than a uniform, a stun gun and communication gear, there is little call for more as violent crime is low; more often they spend their time helping communities i.e. cleaning roads, litter picking, painting fences and walls etcetera etcetera.

* The Constabulary: The right hand of the law.

Full time workers, many spend time guarding slave workers and keeping the peace on newly conquered planets; around half of the constables work in the field, while others are pilots for police drone squads or in cyber security, the constabulary also have detectives and specialists for high risk situations.

* MI5: Enigmatic and quintessentially British beyond reason, MI5 remains a mystery.

A spy agency shrouded in mystery, all agents were psionic whose origins are unknown; when the Eternal Empress disappeared so did MI5. After 2350 a spiritual successor agency was created, it has no official name and so is simply referred to as The Greystone Agency.

### **Society: Architecture**

Cities are spacious, filled with gardens and trees; the buildings made of smooth gleaming white material, shaped in many forms with a tendency to smooth, curving and flowing architypes. Cities are very wide and buildings spread sparsely apart besides a few areas of concentration, this does mean that the entire planet surface is entirely covered in cities though as the space required to house 100,000 people is gargantuanly larger than it is in other nations.

The Empire resolves this by excavating the underground to make room for more cities, these cities still receive sunlight though; ether by simply having the ceilings made out of reinforced (one way glass) that serves as the ceiling for the underground city and the floor for the surface, or by genetically modifying plants to glow sunlight by consuming water and carbon (an invention created sometime in 2325)

Despite this some tighter housing is still needed, apartments make up a large portion of overall buildings; these apartments would by earth standards be considered rather high end, parking spaces available for all residents, a communal dining room and even an indoor garden.

And obviously, people drive on the wrong side of the road; which is of course, the left side. Much to the bewilderment of every other road using nation.

## **Culture: The Xenos**

Unity & Compassion. Honour & Loyalty: Humanity came close to extinction and in the time of need found these traits wanting, never again; these attributes are prized definitions of a persons character and through each individuals' act of compassion the Empire is made utopian. It is a safe haven from the outside world, a state of tranquillity, the very heart and soul of the nation is in its people and those who live within the Empire should do so happily and without fear.

Of course if you're not human, expect nothing but a fate worse than death.

Xeno life is a threat to the established ideals of Humanity, it cannot be trusted to share in the vision of utopia for they will ultimately betray humanity to favour their own species; whether they undermine unity through manipulation or wish to leech off the achievements of mankind, they are the ultimate enemy, they are the evil forces of the universe made manifest.

Death camps, torture, slavery, blood sport, xeno hunting, public displays of xeno mutilation, whack-a-xeno, xeno killing competitions, drug trials, organ harvesting, mass alien corpse burning, hanging, beheading, drowning, mutilating, dissolving aliens alive in acid.

Anything goes when it comes to a xeno.

### The xeno question

As the Empire expanded into the stars they did so still pondering the bug question, the xeno question; more specifically, what do we do about them. The general answers varied from extermination to absolute avoidance, at the time the people were not set on any specific goal though none wanted friendship.

Then they discovered their neighbours; on one side a aristocratic slavers nation who kidnapped civilians from the colonies, on the other a warmongering nation of warriors who butchered Lord Regent Ashbury. Needless to say, the nation quickly had an answer to the question.

For the next 3000 years any xeno who encountered the Empire stood at a crossroad, one path leading to death and the other a fate worse than.

#### The Solution

The Empire is marked by others for its depravity and barbarism, many do not understand why until they see what the Empire does in the name of peace.

So what do they do in the name of peace exactly?

#### Death Camps

Tame and dull by Eternal standards. As the Empire conquers new worlds it must clear out the current inhabitants to make room for its own. The xeno are carolled into the biggest cities of their planets and penned in by walls, then the city is bombed to rubble with artillery and orbital fire, troops march through the wreckage and slaughter those still alive. Squads of infantry equipped with flamethrowers will torch anything suspected to still be alive, tanks and mechs roll over the ramshackle barricades the survivors formed, many irregular mercenary bands and contractors are invited to participate in the purging; this slaughter is recorded and sent back to the Empire for entertainment, or even better, they show the footage live and allow citizens to place bets on who'll get the most kills or which xeno they think might live longer than x amount of minutes.

#### Blood Sport

The best way to surmise this event is as follows: Fox hunting, except foxes are now a protected animal and have been replaced by aliens. Mostly done on newly conquered worlds, aristocrats and citizens alike may participate in hunts, designed to root out the surviving xeno population in the countryside these hunt last a few days but thousands of hunts occur in the first few weeks of colonization. Again this is recorded for entertainment.

#### Slavery

Though the majority of aliens are killed, a very tiny percentage might live to serve the Eternals in servitude, in Eternal society there are jobs that no Human should be brought down to do; this isn't a problem because robots do those jobs, but aliens are even cheaper when you don't have to feed them or fix broken limbs. Aliens are bred in captivity so that they can be used for sport and public spectacle, most bred in captivity are not strong enough to be used as slaves though so the slave population is but a speck in comparison to the Thadrakos or Yaanari.

#### Public Spectacle

From colosseums & executions to game shows & gambling, or all at once for increased spectacle, the events range from simple hanging in a village to Grand Tournaments in the capital; while few xenos in captivity are strong, some are, and these stronger xeno are then bred in more stimulating and enriching environments.

#### Organ harvesting

Why harvest alien organs?

No reason other then that they're xenos, the organs are often fed to other xenos though (Because they might as well spare the cost of producing food for the aliens) That, and Thadrakos organs can be turned into very nice perfumes.

#### Drug Trials

By drug trials the Eternals really mean, 'let's stick this probably poisonous mixture of chemicals into an alien and just confirm that it's definitely poisonous, lets start with that one'.

So it's no surprise that doctors churn out more chemical weapons than they do cures.

#### Torture clubs

Hot pokers, whips, stretching machines, crushing machines; whatever devious torture method you can imagine, they do it all here. People have birthday parties, stag-dos, celebrations, interactive church sermons and literal baptisms for children are held at these clubs; the tamer the torture the less it costs, and vice versa.

#### Death Squads

Planets not yet under the flag of the Empire are the targets of many hit and run terror tactics, teams of untrialled special forces are dropped onto a planet to reap and sow destruction; one of the favourites is murdering the inhabitants of entire villages, sometimes they do is silently at night and other times guns blazing in daylight.

The level of depravity sinks to lows that would make the Yaanari quiver or a Thadrakos choke on the meat of his kin, what makes it so sinister is the fact that if you did not see it you would not believe they did it; a child in Eternal society could go to school, share lunch with friends and give his last sandwich to a stray dog, come home to his family, do his homework and have a family dinner... and then they'd all go out and watch an alien be ripped open and have its organs pulled out and roasted over a fire to the laughter and applause of children and parents alike, then they'd go back home and watch footage of a death squad crucifying alien children, then they'd tuck the child into bed and read jack and beanstalk.

## **Culture: The Empire**

By now you likely have surmised the culture of the Empire, humanity is regarded not just as a species but also as an ideology; an ideology that must be valued highly and protected from the corrosive influence of aliens in all its forms, past betrayals and experiences have taught the Eternals that no-one but their own can be trusted.

There was a time when humans could not trust each other ether; but through rigorous propaganda and the efforts of the Eternal Empress, values of unity and compassion come before wealth, power and possessions. The people see the Eternal Empire as a nation made by its people rather than a nation made by its rulers, and anything that threatens the nation is a threat to themselves as the individual; people are devotedly loyal to the Empire the same way they are loyal to their family, everyone is human after all and humanity is the greatest thing the Empire has.

* Honour
* Compassion
* Humbleness
* Duty
* Loyalty
* Unity

Through valuing these points above all, the rest that is desired will follow; strength and power stem from the collective might of everyone, truly everyone is rich when all are content, fear is nought when you can trust in others to provide.