Zeelich Communes

**Dev. Status** | Conceptual

*"Good morning starshine*

*The earth says hello*

*You twinkle above us*

*We twinkle below"*

- "Good Morning Starshine", from the musical *Hair*
The **Zeelich Communes** are a Null faction created by Valiant Prime. An egalitarian democratic society that has reached the post-scarcity era and attained a level of development that the Soviet Union would label as being truly communistic, though the Zeelich prefers to be called anarcho-communist; the Communes are in many ways the antithesis of the Totalitarian and Social Darwinistic Ecumene and just as the Ecumene are based on vicious alien invaders in fiction; the Communes draw from benevolent aliens. Also influenced by Westwood/Petroglyph's other RTS games; the Zeelich are a force that bring high technology and a highly technical means of waging war on the battlefield with an arsenal from the stars themselves.

## At a Glance

 **Basic Look** | Shiny, hopeful space futurism

## Background

### Collateral Collectivism

The Commune began as the Zeelich first left their homeworld of Alendra, having already achieved unity and having done so under a global system of consensus democracy aided by their technology and psychic powers. With their different abilities and psychology, the Zeelich had reached the stars as a society that had outgrown the boundaries of class and monetary economy and this system only further reinforced itself as they developed their technology. Assimilating many other species into their rapidly growing system of society thanks some fortune in being so quick to reach FTL in their area, they became known as a peace and pleasure-loving people who warred only reluctantly and for a time, their weapons of war sat in storage largely unused.

But as they began to explore beyond their neck of the universe. they started to find that their way of life was not accepted everywhere. Some were afraid of their often seemingly-hedonistic ways, others of their near-total democratization of society or their continual psychic communion and aptitude. Others simply saw their expansion and the incorporation of lower tech species as a grievous threat to their established order. Chief among these was a society known as the Civilized Meritocratic Ecumene, the authoritarian Ukrazol-governed society and its social darwinist order saw seeing the Communes an ideological threat as well as an imperial rival.

To the Communes, the filing of everyone into certain niches based on the recommendations of A.I.s, the present monarchical institutions, the unflinching deference to hierarchical authority and the shackling of all A.I.s made the Ecumene strange and uncomfortable. Even other cosmic superpowers they found such as the Star Imperium of Izandrakht; which while also monarchical, still had much stronger conceptions of democracy, seemed to fit the Communes' way of life better than the Ecumene and its allies. Still, when war between the Ecumene and the Imperium first broke out, they sought to keep its involvement on the Imperium's side of the war limited to a volunteer basis, not wishing to engage in a total war over a fight that wasn't its own.

However, continued Ecumenical raids on the Communes' territory and ships and those of its partners to prevent trade from reaching the Imperium and its allies and continued diplomatic bungling as well as the reports of the soldiers on the front made the Ecumene the Commune's problem in good time. The Ecumenical bloc, having already fought itself to exhaustion with the Imperial Alliance, found its gains reversed by the offensives of its new enemies. Armies were smashed, fleets were ruined and the Ecumenical government went for hell and high water to rebuild for a vicious counter attack that brought the war grinding to a halt and lead to a peace that left very few satisfied to any degree.

### Great Offworld War

When the Ecumene doubled down on its values and drifted away from flirtations with democracy in favor of radicalizing what they already had, the Communes had their own shift in character as they realized the magnitude of the foe they were facing. They became even more collectivist, more warlike, more eager to spread their way of life; though they would prefer not going to war if they could help with, they realized that the Ecumene would be an enemy for the long haul. So, the Communes took up the task of working to counteract the Ecumene's expansion and power without drawing themselves into a direct war. For the sake of trying to ensure that escalation did not go out of control, the Communes would generally work to counteract Ecumenical observation fleets with task forces only about as advanced as the technology grade used as the Observational fleet in question, assembling them as volunteer task forces who accepted the risks knowing that they would be acting without the protection of the greater communes.

This lead to a great many little conflicts with the Ecumene between assorted plausibly and not so plausibly deniable forces that while not all-out wars, were often fiercely fought conflicts between the two societies. Often but not always, the culture fought over would join up with the Communes if they successfully managed to fight off the civilizing fleets, other times they would choose to go it alone or merely ally with them, other times yet another culture was absorbed beneath the banner of the double lightning bolt. But the two would generally limit their attempts to interfere in large-scale conquests or absorptions for fear of triggering an all out war before either was ready for such a conflict.

This has produced a long standing great game as the two (and other spacebourne societies) sought to keep the other in check, whether it was in terms of political influence, ideological spread, military growth, or territorial acquisition. Throughout this journey in the stars, they encountered other societies that they often either befriended or ended up adding to the list of their enemies. The enigmatic Scrin and their spread of their Ichor across the stars soon lead to the Communes deciding that they too an enemy of the people of the universe, as did the rapacious expansion of the so-called Hierarchy and the genocidal Shroud who spread a silence throughout the stars as they silenced whole societies at the time.

Just as the Ecumene started to treat the Hierarchy, the Shroud, and the Scrin as enemies as well, the Communes also began to find more allies: (the human-like) Masari and the Beta who fought hard to survive and flee from the Shroud. The data collected by the Hyksos would also find a new life in the Communes even with the extinction of their society at the hands of the Scrin, which would be invaluable in ensuring that their society would be better equipped to battle it out with them. But the constant state of cold war and proxy war that the universe seemed to be in would eventually lead the Communes elsewhere.

Tracing the fleet movements of Arakrast, the Communes would enter the arm of Orion as they sought to contain his aggressive campaign of expansion. However with how entrenched he was, a general offensive against him would likely spark a second universal war, so they decided to wait for a chance to inflict a real reverse on him and if possible; take him out of the picture. This task fell onto Alaranii-Meela (literally Fleet-Leader) Emiyra Reenya Aloros, who took her task force and followed their fleet to a little blue world colloquially known as Earth.

### Not Too Quiet on the Earth Front

The Communes sought to disguise their own fleet in the orbit of the fifth gas giant of the solar system, far beyond the orbit of Neptune and past the positions of both the Jovian Fleet and the Scrin Kuiper belt fleet. Nestling itself into its orbit and its magnetic field, this planet would serve as the anchor point for their fleet. Acting in limited fashion to prevent the Ecumene from finding their location, Arazandril acted without much support beyond her fleet deep into Ecumenical territory. The first Earth-bound operations didn't exactly leave much to be impressed by, the planet was in the midst of WWI and all the technology displayed was unremarkable and primitive.

She fought to make sure that the Ecumene would avoid getting too bold, letting them know that they couldn't operate on the Earth without interference. However, the population of the Earth managed to surprise the experienced crew and population of the fleet. The first unusual thing was the early development of directed energy weapons, which was rather quicker after an industrial revolution than most cultures other than the Zeelich themselves that the Communes had reached. The other was how slow they were to pursue atomic research with even rudimentary forms of nuclear reactions remaining out of the reach of humanity for decades.

However human technology proliferated in a great number of odd paths, and the fleet came to realize that if this planet were to fall to the Ecumene they would be faced with a foe branching into all sorts of technological paths thought closed to the their scientific means. This meant that the battle for Earth would have to be fought and won at any cost to ensure that their developments did not fall into the hands of the Ecumene. For the sake of more than just the Earthlings or killing Vra'Kul'Mal, the Earth would have to be defended against the crushing might of the Jovian fleet and Ukrazol totalitarians, lest he returns home with a massive haul of technology and advance the Ecumenical war machine.

With the arrival of Tiberium on the planet, the increasing diversification of the Earth's technology and the introduction of all manner of strange new actors, the situation on the planet grew even more complicated. From what the Communes could tell, the genocidal Kumun, the domineering Legion and the menacing Protectorate could not be allowed off the planet, and the Concordiat proved to be intractably hostile to alien life of any sort as well as staunchly totalitarian in its own way.

Even more conventional factions showed some worrying signs. The Soviets were authoritarian, the Allies and Syndicate could be corrupted to the Ecumene, secretive forces frequently tangled with them, the Empire's worship of its Emperor was off-putting on a fundamental level to the Communes and the Technate freely played around with the forces of nature around them. All the while, even as the Ecumene stepped up its involvement on Earth, the Scrin had also begun to launch the first probing, exploratory assaults on the Earth. For all her experience, this may be Emiyra and her fleet's most challenging mission ever.

## Gameplay Mechanics

### Power Mechanics

The Central base building of a Zeelich base can power the rest of the base entirely on its own, but all Zeelich buildings save for defensive structures must be connected by destructible conduits to either their Field headquarters or to an outpost; if these are severed, any building that was relying on that connection loses power.

### Resource Mechanics

Zeelich resource buildings are actually built on top of the mine, where the resources are pumped through the conduit to provide resources for the base; allowing for a continuous supply of resources. Severing the conduit links however, cuts the flow of resources instantly.

### Tiering mechanics

Increased tiers are made available by upgrading a central headquarters building to the next stage of its design, where it becomes increasingly durable and well defended and increasingly reinforces its conduits (and eventually adds defenses to them as well). Each central headquarters building must research tiers independently. Outposts can also be upgraded.

## Commune Indigenous Rescue Force

*"Whoever - or - whatever those nippers were, it ain't porky that our [CENOSRED] haven't been carked back there thanks to 'em. I'm sure as hell not gonna come the raw [CENSORED] prawn with you today; if I were 'ta kick the bucket today, go up to the heavenly gates and see none of 'em in there, I'd leap all the way from the sky straight down to Brizzie just so those nippers are gonna rescue my [CENSORED] like earlier."*

- Browncoat Bob Harris, after the highly-anomalous and classified "Battle of Yuendumu"

## Behind the Scenes

The Communes are effectively the Autobots to the Ecumene's Decepticons; their archnemesis faction and whose ideals oppose theirs in most every way. They draw a healthy amount of influence from Petroglyph's post C&C games as they tried hard to find their magic again; particularly Universe at War and Grey Goo; most particularly Grey Goo's humans and Universe at War's Novus. But they also generally draw on benevolent aliens throughout fiction (Space cats, Turtle people, Jellyfish, funny shroom people, Plant Aliens, Inexplicably Human aliens, Technicolour space babes, and energy beings) the same way that the Ecumene draws on evil alien invaders (Greys, Reptoids, Bug People, Space Squids, Worms that Walk, etc). The Zeelich themselves are based on kemonomimi, more specifically Owls, which are Valiant Prime's favourite bird. The technicolour space babes/space tieflings were later split off into the Vuradi, while the inexplicably human Atrelex may or may not be Kane's original species.

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