Polarion

POLARION are one of the four Factions within VoxoDeus

***‘Beyond the next horizon.’***

Compelled by the spirit of **adventure**, service in Polarion is a covenant with discovery - a promise to be first and furthest into the void.

Called to explore, duty-bound to serve.

Charting starmaps, collecting new matter, extending the boundary of safe cypherspace.

Coming home is never easy, but a mission isn’t successful until it provides utility to the fleet. When the job is done, eyes always go back to the sky, because for Polarion, every horizon is just the beginning of the **next expedition**.

**KEYWORDS**

* Exploration
* Betterment
* Adventure
* Leadership

**POSITION IN THE WORLD**

* Explorers
* Protectors

**GOVERNANCE**

Polarion is governed by the Prime Council,

The Council is formed of heroes of Polarion whose magnificent deeds expanded the Faction in one way or another.

Governance consists largely of approving missions, planning voyages and tracking the Fleet as it moves from one region to another.

Council members are treated like celebrities, and a large part of the appeal of serving on the Coucil is the ambassadorship and wide appeal that representing Polarion holds.

**CULTURE**

Polarion culture is fixated around exploration, and the epic deeds of voyagers who seek to uncover more of the Cypherverse through adventure.

For the average Polarion, life is transient. Where you are is never as important as where you’re going, and a Polarion citizen might live their life spread across the Cypherverse.

From the moment of birth, a Polarion’s trainng begins, and there is a strong emphasis in youth to choose a vocation and work hard to achieve the results needed to attain wings.

Of course not everyone can be a pilot! There are many careers that revolve around ships that do not directly involve flight.

With this comes something of a hierarchy, with the pilots and navigators at the top, and the lowlier maintenance and robit-operators closer to the bottom.

There is also a sub-culture of “grounders” - citizens who, for one reason or another, have left their wings behind and settled down. For some, this is a choice - citizens who’ve found love on some far-flung planet, or otherwise been compelled to stay and explore in a long-term capacity.

For others, this comes with disgrace - pilots who’ve lost their wings, been rejected for some behavioural trait or have lost the physical capacity for flight.

With so much emphasis on exploration, voyages form a huge part of Polarion’s culture, and both setting off and returning are treated as spectacular events. Those left behind get to revel in the achievements of those returning, and the reunion of family and friends is the silver lining to long periods of time apart.

Naturally, there are individual cultures in every settlement that Polarion establishes, though most revolve around the creation and upkeep of a spaceport, a trading facility, an entertainment center, living quarters, food halls etc.

In this way, there are jobs for all manner of sapiens and robits and Polarion is welcoming to anyone with the skills and the attitude to contribute.

**POLITICS**

Politics are not, and never have been, Polarion’s strong point. Adventure means crossing boundaries, diving in with abandon and fighting “the good fight” wherever required.

Like the Shen Tanks, this can cause issues related to privacy, ownership, sovereignty and laws, although Polarion are decidedly less interested in integrating within their new discoveries. Rather, they prefer to plant a flag and claim a stake - behaviour which causes political problems as often as not.

Polarion also self-identifies as law enforcement for the Cypherverse, and has a habit of picking sides in disputes and acting as arbiters of righteousness. When the Corpos back the opposition, politics is often required to find a resolution lest the situation dissolve into conflict - which it sometimes does,

Polarion have an historic conflict of sorts with Luma Systemica, who in many ways represent the opposite values to Polarion. Where Polarion seek ever-outward, Luma retreat within; where P desire adventure, L desire deeper understanding.

In some cases these differences compliment each other, but they can also stir old rivalries. Polarion’s desire for swift resolution conflicts often with Luma’s methodically slow rumination, and in larger-scale Cypherverse politics this is often the spanner in the works.

**KEY HISTORICAL EVENTS**

Taryst was an adventurer and writer who fought for the side of reason in the Vast War of Ideas, and earned great favour with the nascent Moon Colleges.

Helping to fuel their development with discoveries he made phase-skipping around the Cypherverse, things went awry when he returned to Humanica (main human planet) and spent time in the first Moon College, Lumantis Lutens.

The rift that formed between Taryst and the College Leaders revolved around their ideals. After many years of exploration and discovery, the college wanted to shift into a period of deep reflection and introspection. Taryst wanted to push further than ever, beyond the horizon’s horizon.

**IMPORTANT FIGURES**

Polarion Taryst

The Prime Council - (a traditional military leader, a jaded ultra-celebrity figurehead, an optimistic and naive “true believer”, a grounder who rose to greatness,