ABOUT WEBSITE
As you've probably figured out by now, this website is completely fictional. This website serves as a lore archive for a private sci-fi roleplay group.
This page in particular contains a fair deal of meta information which simply can't fit anywhere else. Details about other peoples' factions will be very limited, since this website is about the things I've made for my clique.
PERSONAL THANKS
This section contains credit to individuals who I view as being vital to the development of the Grandhold. Names in brackets are Discord usernames. Note that only people who have accepted my offer to list them here are present.
Thanks to [antagonistis] for helping me design the vast majority of Societal Defense (military) documents. The Grandhold's military wouldn't be nearly as fleshed-out as it is without his extensive help. He's also helped me refine many of my concepts across the board.
ABOUT WORLD
The story takes place in a sci-fi Milky Way. The story is heavy on international politics with combat elements. The galaxy is dominated by five superpowers; the Dhatri Tsardom, Etan Republic, Grandhold of Abyss, Kreal Empire, and Orion Federation.
There are several different narratives running at the same time, labeled as timelines. These timelines are self-contained stories exploring a scenario usually involving the same cast of galactic powers, though not always. There are three types of timeline, based off of a different original narrative.
'Origin' timelines are based on an earlier (in real time) version of the Milky Way galaxy, and is mostly a legacy from the early years of the roleplay clique where we were much less skilled in storytelling. The Grandhold doesn't exist by default in Origin timelines.
'Reboot' timelines are based on a remastered version of the Milky Way galaxy, with several older nations removed to make way for newer nations. The Grandhold exists by default in Reboot timelines.
'Aberration' timelines have no defined basis. While they usually focus on a Reboot starting galaxy, anything goes with these timelines. Even something as far as ditching the regular cast and bringing in something totally new.
All new timelines are either Reboot or Aberration; Origin has been left behind due to having core narrative issues which cannot be reconciled without sweeping changes to several aspects of the world.
ABOUT GRANDHOLD
The Grandhold of Abyss is a socialist near-utopia ruled by an altruistic, absolute monarch. The Grandhold has a beyond excellent humanitarian record and standard of living. Crime, poverty, disease, and (except in the military for obvious reasons) death do not exist in the Grandhold's borders. Even inconvenience is hardly present, and few cannot have their each and every want satisfied with minimal effort.
Despite this, the Grandhold has a few questionable aspects. Granted, they are all for altrusitic reasons, but they are something to be aware of regardless. For instance, the Grandhold is authoritarian (soft, but still expecting obedience), is a surveillance state, and compels its citizens to undergo genetic, cybernetic, or even psychological modification (to cure mental disorders, rather than modify personalities).
None of these outwardly-concerning aspects are to say the Grandhold mistreats its citizens. On the contrary, the Grandhold treats its citizens extremely well and encourages freedom of thought and speech. Control is only ever exerted to ensure citizens don't risk severe injury or death.
The Grandhold of Abyss is the (by territory) smallest superpower. The Grandhold also has the best technology of any nation in the Milky Way. It appeared literally out of nowhere recently, having come from another universe. The Grandhold has refused to speak on how they managed to traverse universes without having multiversal travel of their own. The Grandhold has existed for over a million years.
The Grandhold was once dystopic. It was formed from the Grand Human Empire; a solar-system spanning empire which renamed itself into the Grandhold and erased its history, masquerading to be a utopia for thousands of years. The lie of the Grandhold was so great, that it accidentially became a utopia after a long period of time. The Grandhold is completely unaware of its dystopic past, and believes itself to have an idealistic foundation and later became the near-utopia it is today.
Also, as of the start of most timelines, it is the year of 1,016,658 (Unification Era).
ABOUT GRANDHOLD TECHNOLOGY
Almost all technological innovation in the Grandhold is done by corporations, who compete with one-another to create an ultimate product to be adopted across the Grandhold. The fierce (but friendly) competition among corporations ended hundreds of thousands of years ago when the Grandhold completely stagnated in its 43rd millennium, resulting in its entire economy entering a calm stagnation. That stagnation ended recently, when the Grandhold unlocked Phi-Matter technologies and began to rapidly advance technologically.
The Grandhold has two different tech-levels; 3x and 12x. The baseline is the technology level of the Dhatri Tsardom, Kreal Empire, and Orion Federation. 3x technologies belong to the 43rd-millennium 'Zenith-era', while 12x technologies belong to the recent 'Phi-era' technologies. The Grandhold's effective tech-level is somewhere in-between, due to a mix of the two technology-levels.
The Grandhold has specialized in cybernetics and does not use shielding technology whatsoever, instead utilizing inertial dampeners which provide a similar function, but are ultimately not shields. The Grandhold has also invested heavily in artificial intelligence, to the point that the entire economy can be (and is almost entirely) automated. It is why, despite having (about) a thousandth the population of other superpowers, its economy is on-par with the other superpowers.
ABOUT PHI-MATTER
Phi-Matter is difficult to describe well. It is by nature enigmatic, destructive, and chaotic. Relatively advanced sensor technologies are required to reliably detect Phi-Matter. It takes civilizations roughly a million years of extremely slow refinement of understanding of the universe to develop Phi-based technologies. For civilizations that know how to use it, Phi-Matter's uses are almost unlimited.
Phi-Matter comes from Phi-Stars; star-sized objects which emit pure yellow light. They are extremely dangerous, and will destroy any matter that gets too close. They are the only way for an early Phi-based society to harvest Phi-Matter.
INSPIRATIONS
The Grandhold's government structure is heavily inspired by the United States, in the form of General Administratror roles.
The Grandhold's access-level system is somewhat inspired by the SCP Wiki.
Panacea is heavily inspired by SCP-500.
Hyperspace travel is heavily inspired by an r/HFY story whose name I've forgotten.
The term 'biosculpting' is taken from Rimworld, and the terms 'fleshsculpting' and 'genesculpting' are heavily inspired by Rimworld.
The term 'skipgate' is taken from Rimworld as an alternate name for wormhole.