This section contains miscellaneous lore that doesn't fit inside documents.

Grandhold of Abyss 'flag'

EXPLODOBOY'S

ROLEPLAY LORE REPOSITORY

"Retcon central."
-Me, College Student

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CATEGORY: NATIONS

Introductions to nations.

THE GRANDHOLD OF ABYSS

The Grandhold of Abyss is an ancient, utopic state ruled by a benevolent monarchy. For most timelines it is more than halfway through its 1017th millennium (year 1,016,658 to be precise). It is free of crime, disease, and (outside of the military) death. Even its 'poorest' citizens live surrounded by luxury the likes can only be dreamed of; even inconvenience is barely present.

The Grandhold originates from another universe, transported by means unknowable to any other country in its galaxy. As one of the galaxy's galactic superpowers, the Grandhold has an incredibly powerful economy and military. Relative to its rivals, the Grandhold is extremely new on the galactic stage. It is also the single most advanced state in the galaxy, wielding two levels of technology; zenith-tech is 3x above the average techlevel of the other superpowers, and phitech is 4x above that. The Grandhold had been stagnant since its 43rd millennium, but has begun to progress again within the past century into phitech.

By raw power, the Grandhold is the weakest of the superpowers. Its allies are, in turn, more powerful relative to the members of other superpower blocs. Said allies had once been neutral states attracted to the Grandhold for the promise of security and prosperity; most have invested heavily into the bloc, accepting economic dependence on the Grandhold in turn for becoming some of the wealthiest countries in the galaxy. The bloc of the Grandhold is known as the Mutual Trade and Territory Assurance Agreement, or more commonly the MTTAA.

Unknown to itself, the Grandhold was founded as a despotic regime. It had always portrayed itself as a utopia, the lie becoming truth shortly before its 43rd millennium through countless small and unlikely events. Its dystopic past still leaves its legacy in the absolutely, if altruistic, control it exerts over its own citizens. The government is empowered to, among other things, impose medical treatment up to and including personality modification (ex: removing psychopathy) and indefinite imprisonment (until reformed). Its monarch has no legal checks and balances, and is instead restrained by sheer cultueral inertia and a fine-tuned personality that prevents selfish behavior. Overall, the Grandhold is extremely free and has excellent sapient rights.

CATEGORY: CULTURE

Self-explanatory. Anything cultural goes here.

CLOTHING PREFERENCES

Most Grandhold citizens wear a mechanical frame between their skin and clothing. This keeps clothing secured firmly to the body. The locks which secure clothing can be disengaged either by neural or a physical button on the torso.

Also, Grandhold-Human clothing has a strong cultural preference to what covers the entire body below the neck. This is not a hard cultural rule, though those who prefer show skin typically belong to an expressionist subculture popular among the youth.

A SONG OF TIME, SPACE, AND ENTROPY

The 'A Song of Time, Space, and Entropy' collection is a collection of stage-plays which explore the various fields of existentialism. The collection was made hundreds of thousands of years ago, and stands as an excellent look into the condition of Grandhold existence. It is revered across the Grandhold for its quality; each play considered a masterpiece in and of itself.

A Song of Time, Space, and Entropy
"This is a story a million years in the making; the story of a lonely collective, the story of an empty universe, and the story of lasting warmth in spite of it all."
The debut play of ASoTSE. It is a re-enactment of all major events in recorded Grandhold history, from the evolution of the Human species to the beginning of the Phi Period. It has been updated many times across history to remain up-to-date.

Starfall
"What awful future do I gaze upon? A world without ambition, without wonder, without bliss. Please, let me not have to accept this coming day."
An exploration of a people succumbing to nihlism and hopelessness in a dark and uncaring universe. At the very end of technology, one truth has reigned above all; entropy will reign in the end, and heat death is unavoidable. The play follows the degredation of society as the crushing truth brings each and every person to their knees. The ending is dark and sad, implying that the society performs collective suicide as the stars begin to die out.

Eternity, NOW!
"Hear me here, hear me far! Hear me to the edge of this galaxy! Our day has come to stand up against this cold, cold universe and claim our self-declared heritage; the wide, wide universe. Come with me, and let us ring eternal!"
The sequel to Starfall, and a complete reversal of its dark story. The play explores themes of absurdism and hedonism, revealing that the society of Starfall survived its self-inflicted sorrow and completely changed course, accepting its fate but not giving into it. The society of Starfall is one driven by simple enjoyment of existence while it lasts, and the denouncing of the nihlism that plagued it before. The ending is bittersweet, as heat death does indeed come for them...but even in the end, they refuse to give into the darkness by celebrating the wonderful eternity they had.

Beckoned by the Above
"Countless shores hang in the void, calling - no, begging to have life breathe into them. The stars beckon; who are we to refuse their call?"
An exploration of idealistic expansionism in an empty universe. The play is a collection of short stories oriented around exploring and colonizing the unknown yet expected, for no other reason than to breathe life into endless unliving worlds.

The Great Facade
"And just like that...everything we knew was thrown into chaos. Fallen and bruised we are, there is yet hope for a brighter day. Maybe, just maybe, this strange new reality will give us the forever we wanted."
An exploration of hope in the face of uncertainty. The play follows a final experiment to prove a true theory of everything and bring about the end of discovery. And yet, it only proves to signal the beginning of a new age of discovery as the experiment causes a then-unknown false vacuum to reach its true base state, overwriting the laws of physics of old and bringing in a new, strange set. Near-collapse ensues as many old technologies become useless. Yet, hope also blooms as new discoveries are made that may far surpass all old technology. And then again, it could end poorly for everyone involved. The ending is cautiously optimistic; though the future is certain, it also holds the potential for a new golden age.

The Man at the Threshold
"I do not care how many worlds I doom. I do not care how long I must run. I do not care what awaits at the end of my journey. If it means I live, then it will all be worth it."
An exploration of the futile delaying of the inevitable. The play follows Kashmir, a time-traveler attempting to escape a mysterious 'end' - an unknowable, unstoppable and inescapable that is apparently pursuing Kashmir for an unknown reason. His goal is to reach the Threshold; a place deep in the multiverse said to be the only place where Kashmir could find safety.

Kashmir's travels lead to the presumed doomings of multiple universes (though it is never directly shown), ultimately leading him to the Threshold - which Kashmir finds to be nearly identical to the 'end' he was running from. Just as he resigns himself to an eternity of running and prepares to flee to another universe, Kashmir finds himself trapped between the Threshold and the 'end'. With no other choice, he willingly enters the Threshold. His fate is ambiguous, as the story ends at the moment he enters the Threshold.

CULTURAL VIEWS ON ROMANCE AND SEX

Grandhold culture is highly tolerant of sexuality. It has few taboos, only looking down upon what commonly leads to harm. Culturally, most relationships are open; romantically exclusive, but permissive of sexual partners outside the relationship. Fully exclusive and polyamorous relationships are also both considered perfectly acceptable.

FIRST-NAME BASIS

Grandhold culture deeply values informal behavior. Friendliness is a core pillar of social interactions, so it is culturally expected for individuals to be referred to by their first names. Referring to someone in any other way is considered mildly rude.

When introducing oneself, most people provide their full name and job title.

POPULAR GAMES IN THE GRANDHOLD

The Grandhold is one of the more notable sources of video games in the galaxy. The following is a non-exhaustive list of popular games in the country.

MilGame: A military simulation game. It is multi-platform, but is recommended to be played in VR. It is a very expansive game, depicting various kinds of warfare in a variety of scales from high fantasy to hard sci-fi. MilGame is also used for Societal Defense training.

  • It is owned by ALPHA-PACT.

Inspirations: Nothing in particular.

Salvage: A survival-strategy game with mixed perspective. The game loop is comprised of dismantling derelict spaceships to maintain the player's fleet. The player themselves are an AI.

  • It is owned by ALPHA-PACT.

Inspirations: Duskers.

The Great Adrift: A (space) flight simulation game that takes place in the Grandhold's original galaxy. The game is exceptionally realistic and depicts all known current and oudated technologies of the Grandhold.

  • It is owned by Grandiose Games.

Inspirations: In-universe game, Galactic Flight Simulator.

Demiurge: A casual construction-strategy simulation game of variable scale. The base gamemode is open-ended, all about automating resource-gathering, logistics, and construction to build...well, whatever the player has in their head. There are numerous other gamemodes, which makes it enjoyable to a wide audience.

  • It is owned by Bliss Software.

Inspirations: In-universe game, Builders.

SCIONS: A multi-genre simulation game ranging from the birth of single-celled life to the supreme dominance of multiversal hyper-empires. It has numerous expansion packs made over tens of thousand of years.

  • It is owned by ALPHA-PACT.

Inspirations: Spore, Stellaris, Thrive.

Rimworld: A base-builder strategy game originally developed by the now-defunct Ludeon Studios. It is very similar to the game made over a million years ago, sharing all major content but in a a more modern game engine, with improvements to its main attraction factor; modding. The modern Rimworld has a goliath-sized modding scene providing practically infinite customization and replayability.

  • It is owned by Digital Magnum Opus.

Inspirations: Rimworld, obviously.

THE SNAKE

There are few remnants of religion in Grandhold culture. One of them is the serpent from the Adam and Eve story. Unlike its ancient roots, the serpent is viewed positively; a source of knowledge and wisdom. The serpent is universally accepted as fictional, but that has not stopped it from being popular in Grandhold culture. Snakes are a common pet, often given extensive brain implants to give them a low degree of sapience in addition to excellent memory. Grandhold snakes have a closer mindset to dogs; friendly and trusting.

Epoch owns a snake.

SACRED AND DEATH DON'T MIX

The Grandhold doesn't bury their dead. Instead, they reprocess their body into something else, breaking it down into its most basic components and turning that over to their industries. For example, a dead person's biomass may be used to grow a new body or make a meal, while augments are likely to be resold outright.

This is not due to a lack of respect for the dead, but rather a difference in perception of death. In Grandhold culture, an individual's body is little more than a vessel; the mind and the consciousness stored inside is what is truly sacred. When a person dies, when consciousness ceases, all value once tied to the body is permanently lost. That body, now without intrinsic value, becomes a functionless object in need of recycling.

THE GRANDIOSE SPECTRUM

Because Grandhold-Humans can percieve the entire electromagnetic spectrum, Martix has names for numerous colors outside the visible spectrum. Most colors are between the microwave and ultraviolet range.

HOW TO BE COMMUNIST, A DOCUMENTARY-COLLECTION

A series of documentary-style videos written and produced by the Societal Division Administrator, Bonla Voxel. It was made sometime after the Grandhold's arrival to Reboot and Origin. The series is a deep-dive written from a neutral, objective perspective into the qualities of a successful communist economy and society, in addition to the benefits and drawbacks inherently associated such a system. Other economic systems are also compared and contrasted, though the documentary-series avoids making any statements on which system is overall better, instead emphasizing the fact that no system is perfect and some compromises must always be made.

The documentaries also take great care to cover the trials and tribulations of attempted communist economies in the Milky Way galaxy, ensuring what did and didn't work with each covered system was well portrayed to its audience.

Though written by a socialist who does not personally support the idea of communism in the Grandhold, the series is nevertheless a strong guide to any who genuinely wish to form their own communist economy.

CATEGORY: SOCIETY

Anything to do with the inner-workings of a society.

A POPULACE OF FEW

The Grandhold has a very small population for a superpower. Compared to other superpowers, the Grandhold has approximately a thousandth the people, or approximately four quadrillion citizens. Because of this, Grandhold territory is very rural; most of the habitable worlds they control are entirely unpopulated, and most inhabited worlds have small populations.

90% of the Grandhold's population is concentrated around a few thousand city worlds. 15% of the total population is concentrated across five 'nexus' dense city worlds, and the other 75% is spread across approximately three-thousand city worlds. The average city world has a population of one trillion.

The remaining 10% of the global population is sparsely distributed across a little under 20 million planets, or roughly 56% of the habitable worlds in Grandhold territory. The average rural world has a population of twenty million. Most of said worlds have a single very large city, with the rest of the planet completely untouched.

The five 'nexus' worlds are as follows:

Martil Rotin, in the Sonil Rotin system. 200 trillion, or 5% of the population.

Zephil Rotin, in the Sonil Rotin system. 140 trillion, or 3.5% of the population.

Avotin Rotin, in the Sonil Rotin system. 100 trillion, or 2.5% of the population.

Accrio Rotin, in the Sonil Rotin system. 80 trillion, or 2% of the population.

Kenit Rotin, in the Sonil Rotin system. 80 trillion, or 2% of the population.

TAXATION, WAGES, & UTOPIAN ABUNDANCE

The Grandhold is a welfare state. It provides everything citizens need to function in day-to-day life, including housing, food, utilities, and medical. It is also very tax-heavy, mostly drawing its funding from corporations and wealthy individuals to fund itself and its generous welfare. Its tax laws are extremely robust; many have tried to cheat the system and that many have failed.

Citizens and national corporations have a hard limit to how much money they can have at a time, with the rest being automatically taxed. Extranational corporations do not have this limitation, and as such face harsher taxation rates.

As citizens recieve all of their needs directly from the government, all of their income is disposable.

MARSBUCKS

The Grandhold's national currency is the Maril. It predates the Grandhold.

Like the Kyat, the Maril is a heavily-regulated blockchain currency with a fixed value tied to energy; prices are thus based almost entirely on the input energy for any single good. Unlike the Kyat, it has no physical representation. Its value is almost exactly 1% of a Kyat and approximately 2% of a UHC dollar.

CRIMINAL JUSTICE IN THE GRANDHOLD

Between becoming a utopia and crossing the multiverse, the Grandhold did not have a criminal justice system whatsoever. It had become entirely unnecessary after the end of crime and unrest. It returned to necessity after allowing immigration and tourism with other countries, and therefore re-introducing itself to the natural chaos of most sapient species.

Non-citizens are universally deported upon committing a serious crime, even for heineous acts such as murder. Citizens who commit crimes are universally put into rehabilitation regardless of crime. Convictions are typically handed out in fractions of a second, as the entire court system is automated and surveillance is absolute. Guilt is dependent on a 'beyond any possible doubt' standard, so false positives are completely impossible.

Those sentenced to rehabilitation are relocated to dedicated facilities for holding and rehabilitating criminals, where they are kept until it is determined that they are unlikely to offend again. There are no minimum or maximum sentences, so theoretically a sapient can be imprisoned forever. In such cases where rehabilitation is deemed impossible, the criminal will be subject to limited personality modification to remove the underlying issue. This may sound bad, but 99.99% of the time the 'modifications' are curing negative conditions like psychopathy. There are few or no cases where a person subjected to personality modification are noticeably different beyond being less likely to commit the same crime.

PETS HAVE RIGHTS TOO

Animals owned by Grandhold citizens, or companies, or that are inside Grandhold territory enjoy many of the same rights as citizens. This operates under the idea that all consciousness is sacred, and therefore deserves protection.

AN ETERNAL CULTURE

Prior to its multiversal odyssey, the Grandhold had become culturally homogenous and stagnant; notable events happened on the span of centuries and millennia. Most Grandhold-Humans are still getting used to thinking on human timescales.

THE GRAND MONOPOLIES

Since the pre-Phitech technological stagnation and the end of innovation, the Grandhold's economy has been composed entirely of monopolies. These mega-corporations are better known as coalition industries. It is impossible for a foreign company to compete in the Grandhold market without partnering with a coalition industry due to the extreme efficiency at which all of them operate.

All coalition industries descend from a single company that, over thousands of years, came to encompass the entire field it once had a niche in. They are only that company in name, however; countless mergers and acquisitions has left each and every CI unrecognizable from what it had once been.

In the face of the coming Phi age and the subsequent end (for now) of technological stagnation, departments of coalition industries have begun to compete with one-another to see whose names will be on bleeding-edge technologies. The CIs aren't competing with one-another since there is zero overlap in what each entity does.

The following is a non-exhaustive list of all Grandhold CIs. Founding dates are in GE; year 0 being the founding of the Grandhold.

  • Mechascension deals with everything related to the medical system, including augments and medicinals. It was founded in the early second millennium, having started as a niche cybernetics firm.
    • Alpha-Pact is a media behemoth that is behind all instances of Grandhold culture, be it movies or video games or books or art. So on, so forth. It predates the Grandhold, having originally been a video game studio.
    • Starsmith manages everything related to engineering and construction. It forms the bottom layer of several other coalition industries. It was founded in the early eleventh millennium. It had originally been a dyson sphere manufacturer.
    • Everlast produces all food. It has always been a food company, and has changed the least out of the coalition industries since its founding in the fourth millennium.
    • Uplink manages the GGIN and all other digital services. It is the 'youngest' of the coalition industries, having been founded in the 42nd millennium as a consolidation of all intranet companies.
    • Molecular Assembly Corporation is in charge of mining, manufacturing, and recycling. All contemporary materials also fall under its purview. It was founded in the late 15th millennium, once having been a synthetic alloys company.
    • Stellar Sandbox manages terraformation and anything else to do with maintaining an ecosystem. This includes life support systems. It is the smallest coalition industry, having been founded as a terraforming company in the 2nd millennium.
    • Starlink is in charge of all transit, and produces the equipment the government uses for societal logistics. It was founded as a public transit company back in the 6th millennium.
    • Societal Defense is technically a coalition industry as it controls all military-industrial assets in the country. However, the government does not legally classify it as one since it, being the military itself, is a part of the government.

    CATEGORY: TECHNOLOGY

    Anything about technology, without direct association with the military.

    GRANDHOLD AI GRADES

    The Grandhold classifies its AI into four distinct grades, rated by the complexities of tasks they can perform.

    • Task-grade are simple, very specialized, and cheap computationally. They can do one, maybe two things very well, and are usually incapable of anything else.
    • Operator-grade are typically very good at a select few things and decent at everything else.
    • Administrator-grade are true generalists, equal to or better than the most skilled of humans in any subject.
    • Zenith-grade are hyperintelligences. They are massively superior to any unaugmented sapient.

    THE (BEST) EVERYTHING THEORY (WE HAVE)

    The Grandhold's name for its theory of everything is the Definition of Reality, which almost perfectly explains every component of reality. Prior to phitech it hadn't been able to explain phi-matter; recent revisions have begun integrating it into physics at a basic level.

    YOU SEE IT, BUT YOU DON'T SEE IT

    Embedded counter-cognition is a form of information security with a similar base function to psionic locks, in that individuals without explicit authorization are unable to view a piece of data. ECC works on fundamental principles of perception and cognition, so they apply to everything with a modicum of intelligence. Some non-conscious AI and its equivalents are resistant, but not in ways useful to any sapient.

    How it works is that any information embedded with ECC, upon being processed, self-censors and is immediately forgotten about. In essence, minds are forced to not acknowledge the information in any way, shape or form. As such, it can also be used for stealth. The only way to percieve anything shouded underneath ECC is to 'decrypt' or remove it; without advanced technology or knowledge on exactly how the ECC is formatted the underlying information is destroyed. Even godlike intelligences like those developed by the Falon need to decrypt before viewing, even if doing so may be trivial.

    The Grandhold only permits decrypted information protected by ECC to be stored inside IntSec-approved mediums, such as in augmented parts of the brain that deal with memory. There is no way for a country with equivalent technology or less to get their hands on any ECC-secured information.

    SLOW ASCENT TO THE ZENITH

    The Grandhold achieved the following tech-levels at the following approximate years. It had advanced considerably slower than the other superpowers of the galaxy, but the general progression is universally applicable.

    CATEGORY: MILITARY

    Anything to do with the military.

    CORE MILITARY STRATEGY

    The Grandhold is the only superpower that does not wield a large arsenal of hyperweapons - in fact, its arsenal depending on timeline is either light or non-existent. It subscribes to a different strategy to dealing with total war; defense in depth. The military is overengineered to ward off invaders over defeating them through invasion.

    Part of this strategy is Obliteration Defense, which negates other powers' ability to destroy the Grandhold and its allies with saturation hyperweapons bombardment. It is based around dedicated military assets which destroy hyperweapons outright or redirect their force, protecting systems and planets from destruction. Obliteration Defense takes up what budget would go into a hyperweapons program, hence its invalidation of such weapons entirely in war rather than allowing it to act like a 'nuclear power' with no true peers.

    Obliteration Defense can be overwhelmed in local areas with saturation bombardment, which can be useful for taking out important military targets. It still renders hyperweapons entirely useless against civilian populations since the Grandhold can evacuate entire systems within hours; for comparison, it would take over a day for any hyperweapon to hit its target.

    Theoretically, should the galaxy burn itself down in hyperweapon-fueled fire, the Grandhold would survive relatively unscathed.

    MILITARY SERVICE AND RETIREMENT

    Less than a percent of a percent of the Grandhold's population serves in the military. The vast, vast, vast majority of Societal Defense is automated. Furthermore, it is entirely capable of operating without a single sapient. Due to this, SocDef has no expectations of its soldiers in regard to service. There is nothing stopping a member from quitting, even in the middle of an operation; they can be replaced in moments.

    THEY USE A VIDEO GAME TO BE READY FOR WAR. I'M ####ING SERIOUS.

    Societal Defense trains all of its soldiers in MilGame.

    That's literally it. Grandhold military personnel are trained in a VR game.

    (While that may sound like a disaster waiting to happen, it's as good as any military simulation.)

    CATEGORY: MISC

    Other stuff that doesn't quite fit the other categories.

    WE ALL LIVE (OR AGE) TOGETHER

    While it had developed such technologies before then, prior to discovering a method to make all of its citizens clinically immortal the Grandhold never used them. Technology instead focused on extending the lives of every single citizen as much as possible, until the day nobody had to age.

    MARTIX

    The Grandhold has a single language, named Martix. It has a rather strange history, descending from several distinct natural languages and containing several hallmarks of synthetic languages. Many of its synthetic words have to do with scientific concepts.

    The following is a list of the meaning of all Martix words that I've assigned a meaning to.

    Compound words:

    Simple words: