ENCYCLOPEDIA GALACTICA [BOOK ONE - GENERAL TRIVIA]

Long War

The Long War is the conflict between the Solar Republic and the Confederation of Mankind for the seat of sole successor of the Solar Commonwealth, the first and only unified government for the entirety of Mankind. Officially it started in 2470, when Reconciliarists were overthrown and the Solar Republic was seized by the Commonwealth Restoration Party.

However many historians consider the Unification Wars, the Third Succession War and even the Frontier Rebellions to be part of the very same struggle, moving the starting date back to the 2320s. This would mean that the Long War continued for more than two thirds of the history of human interstellar expansion.

Despite this, there are no signs of it coming to an end. With the Hyperspace Drive being unreliable and no other method of faster than light communication available, the sheer size of Confederation of Mankind and the Solar Republic renders the war into a perfect stalemate. Despite 140 years (and seven Great Wars) passing since the fall of Reconciliarists, neither side seems to be gaining the upper hand.

With the Republic and the Confederation growing increasingly different not only in their politics and beliefs but even in their biology, reaching a peaceful resolution to the conflict is believed to be impossible.

Wall of Reason

The Wall of Reason is the model of scientific progression of interplanetary and interstellar civilizations that replaced the earlier singularitarian models in the early 22nd Century.

According to singularitarians, Mankind’s scientific progression was going to continuously accelerate until the technological singularity would be achieved - a moment where growth would be so fast that it would radically redefine the very concept of humanity in short order, with nanotechnologies, genetics and computer sciences being the most likely fields responsible for that.

The singularity didn’t occur, however. The necessary level of intelligence needed to achieve subsequent technological breakthroughs rose quickly, while the average intelligence level of Mankind remained stagnant outside of the aftermath of Humanity 2.0 and Humanity 3.0 Projects (both of which resulted in brief periods of accelerated progress that eventually hit the wall again).

The best example is the AI Singularity model in which Mankind was supposed to create machines capable of creating ever better machines, resulting in a loop leading to creation of godlike intelligences rapidly improving the available technology level. While the model is sound, Mankind (and any known alien species) failed to create machines sophisticated enough to serve as a starting point of the loop, with even the modern Class-3 AIs merely capable of causing another brief period of technological improvement before hitting the wall again.

Exotechs

The exotechs are items and materials created by civilizations which managed to surpass the Wall of Reason or at least climb it beyond the present level of Mankind. They are superior to everything that can be produced in Human Space, and some of them can do things considered impossible by modern science. As a result, they are desired by many, and incredibly valuable. The Explorers’ Guild monopoly on their trade is a foundation of the Guild’s power.

They are divided internally between several categories, depending on their source. Archeotechs are salvaged from derelicts floating in the Hyperspace, each of them a distant memory of some ancient civilization. Altertechs are found on the other side of the A-Gate network, each of them created by a human civilization born from colonies separated from the Human Space for thousands of years when the network malfunctioned.

Xenotechs are bought or stolen from various currently existing alien species that sit above Mankind on the Wall of Reason. Voidtechs hail from the mysterious dimension known as Void or Positive Space, though only the Guild knows how they are gathered. The last category, the Abysstechs hailing from the dimension of Abyss [or Negative Space], is considered forbidden, though forces of Discord often possess them in their arsenals.

Subsectors

Subsectors are a relatively recent addition to the Human Space. Their history began in 2570 when Mankind successfully traveled through the Hyperspace Conduit. It was aware of the existence of these naturally formed Hyperspace passages for centuries. However, unlike perfectly safe and stable hyperlanes, conduits are extremely dangerous and require numerous (if minor) course alterations done within milliseconds to avoid being torn apart.

This requires automation of the process, which in turns requires AIs capable of making correct decisions almost instantly. This meant that conduits were essentially untraversable until the creation of the first Class-Three AI led to a breakthrough in the fields of computer technology. With conduits traversable at last, the subsectors were born.

By the decision of the Confederation of Mankind, no sectoral power is allowed to colonize them directly. Instead, hundreds of new micronations were born, often from groups defeated and exiled from the sectors. While subsectors rarely have more than three to four Terran Worlds (when compared to more than a hundred of a sector), a faction that secures one of them through their local proxies can one day - if or when the terraforming capabilities of the Solar Commonwealth-era will be achieved once again - see its prize bloom.

Enhanced

The first Enhanced (known under many different names throughout the Human Space) were created during the War of Purity. After the initial engagements made the Commonwealth aware that some of the heavily customized transhuman warriors could engage entire platoons of conventional infantry in combat, its military command realized they needed a completely new type of soldier.

The result of the Warrior 2.0 Project was the creation of the first Enhanced. They were born through a combination of the Commonwealth’s own science, the captured transhuman technology and even the biological knowledge of the now pardoned genetic warlords.

Each of them is a human-shaped machine of war, with up to eighty-five percent of their bodies replaced with biological or cybernetic enhancements. Superhuman strength, resilience, speed and senses make each of them a power to be reckoned with.

They are an extremely costly endeavour, with even the countries considered to be major powers within the Confederation of Mankind rarely capable of fielding more than several hundred Enhanced. The Solar Commonwealth fielded entire divisions during the War of Purity, but at a terrible cost - with the success rate of conversions growing during the war from ten to seventy percent, more than five million volunteers died, were permanently crippled or driven insane in failed surgeries.

Nanoweaponry

Modern nanomachine weaponry is roughly divided into two main categories: the nanoplagues and the disassemblers.

Nanoplagues are the most common type of nanoweapons. It is the successor to the biological plagues of old, though with nanomachines replacing the biological pathogens. Rather than attempting to dismantle victims entirely through unrestricted reproduction (like the dissemblers do) they multiply in the target organism like normal bacterias or viruses, using the body’s own biological material to produce toxins harmful to it..

They are also much easier to customize than biological viruses (with competent designers capable of achieving almost any compilation of symptoms) while much more resistant to medical nanomachines used to counter life-threatening infections.

Like in the case of many other weapons, the first nanoplague was created by the transhumans during the War of Purity. Before the Commonwealth’s scientists understood what they were facing and devised a way of countering it, the Solar Plague killed three billion and one hundred twenty four million inhabitants of the Solar System.

Mentalsculpting

Mentalsculpting is a general term for a number of medical procedures that together allow for a detailed alteration of memories and behaviour of a human being (or, in some cases, radical but fast alteration).

Modern mentalsculpting only to a small degree uses traditional pharmacotherapy. Instead it uses nanomachines (and some very detailed scans of brain activity) to directly alter biochemical reactions responsible for memories and behavioural patterns. While not fast, it is a relatively safe procedure, as the accidental changes can always be reverted.

What limits the usage of this technology are the ethical concerns, at least partially caused by the way mentalsculpting was used during the Unification Wars. A relatively low population of early colonies allowed sufficiently malevolent countries to mentalsculpt the conquered population (typically by ‘hard mentalsculpt’, which means full memory and personality wipe and replacement) into complete obedience.

As a result, mentalsculpting in the Confederation of Mankind is allowed only in a select number of Confederation-sanctioned places, under its permanent oversight.

ENCYCLOPEDIA GALACTICA [BOOK TWO - TRANSNATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS AND NON-HUMAN COUNTRIES]

Explorers' Guild

The Explorers' Guild is the biggest and most influential extranational organization from those operating under the direct oversight of the Confederation of Mankind. It is a country within a country, tasked with exploring new worlds, charting star maps, unearthing remnants of the various precursor species and providing Mankind with exotechs.

It was created in 2440 in the aftermath of the Fimbulvinter Sanction, and given the freshly terraformed world of Illumination in the Unity Sector as its headquarters. With the practical monopol on exotech discovery and trading within the Confederation of Mankind, it amassed substantial wealth. Its power and influence grew too, especially after the Machine Wars where it expanded to become the police force within the borderlands beyond control of the Confederation members.

Its internal structure is complicated and murky, almost cult-like at times. With top-of-the-line cybersecurity and extensive use of loyalty enforcer implants, the Guild is an organization shrouded in mystery. No one but the highest ranked Guild's personnel (and perhaps some members of the Supreme Council of Mankind) knows how it actually works. And even they tend to know only as much as they have to.

With its immense wealth, extranational authority and suspected links to thousands of high profile assassinations, industrial sabotages and Hyperspace disappearances, it is an organization viewed with suspicion and envy in equal measures throughout the Human Space.

Discord

Discord was first discovered by an exploration team of the Immortal Assembly, a soon-to-be member of the Transhuman Alliance. It was a massive space station (capable of housing billions of humans when reactivated) that could be reached only by a network of jumpgates, exotechs allowing ships to instantly move from one point to another, despite light years of distance between them.

It was used during the War of Purity as the headquarters of the Alliance, greatly helping in coordinating its offensives and allowing it to reshuffle its forces between the frontlines many times faster than the forces of the Commonwealth. Only the transit speed being limited (and thus ships having to move around one at a time, without hours of cooldown for heavier ships) has stopped the Commonwealth from being overwhelmed.

When the war ended, the Transhuman Alliance’ remnants began cooperating with the criminal underworld of the Commonwealth. The Discord became the center of smuggling and a safe haven for pirates, slavers, and political extremists banished from the Human Space. It has become an epitome of evil, contacts with which are considered a crime against Mankind and are punished with summary execution in both the Confederation and the Solar Republic.

Catholic Church

The Catholic Church (also the Universal Church) is Mankind’s biggest religious organization, with up to one and a half trillion adherents among nine trillion inhabitants of Human Space. Despite being ‘merely’ an NGO-member of the Confederation, it is the de facto overlord of the Res Publica Christiana faction, with at least some influence in several other factions.

The Catholic Church (after ancient Greek katholikos, meaning universal) is, in fact, not a church. It is a military and political alliance of Christian denominations, not dissimilar to the way the Confederation of Mankind works. It was forged during the Unification Wars when the onslaught of various extremists forced the conflicted religious hierarchies to fight together or die alone.

The Catholic Church is composed of dozens of Christian denominations (among which the Roman Catholic Church is merely the biggest one). Each of them believes itself to be the truest one, as some things never change. The inner rivalry is, however, limited to sometimes furious debates and proselytism. All members are cooperating when it comes to defending their countries and opposing (preferably by conversion, but if not then conquest is always an option) the external enemies.

Close to half of the number of adherents live in the countries of the mainline Res Publica Christiana and the schismatic Conservative Bloc. The rest is divided between other factions, especially those religiously tolerant. There are reports of converts among several more human-like alien species, especially the scythes, berserks-successors, berserks-mimics, voca, and sidhe. However, the exact scale of it is unknown.

ENCYCLOPEDIA GALACTICA [BOOK THREE - MANKIND]

Variants

Variants were subspecies of Mankind created by the Humanity 2.5 Project - the second of the four large scale attempts of genetically engineering mankind, launched during the times of the Solar Commonwealth. Unlike the earlier Humanity 2.0 Project (whose focus was fixing pre-existing flaws in the human genome), H2.5 was supposed to enhance the phenotypic diversity of Mankind to assist in the colonization of new worlds.

What started with Variants tailored to thrive on high and low gravity worlds has quickly strayed from the planned path. More and more popular petitions demanded the creation of new Variants, each of them more outlandish than the last one. After miraculous results of Humanity 2.0, Mankind believed that manipulations of their DNA could achieve everything. Variants ended up having to pay the price for that.

Many resulting genomes turned out to be unstable, as too many changes (sometimes partially contradictory on the genetic level) had to be made to achieve what the public demanded. The result was a plague of genetic instabilities and diseases that has struck numerous Variants - some of them lethally. More of them died out during the War of Purity. While genetic flaws were mostly fixed during the post-War of Purity Human Diversity Restoration Project, these few decades of delay in growth were enough to reduce Variants to what they are now - a small and often embattled minority throughout the Human Space.

Transhumans

Transhumans were created during the Humanity 3.0 Project. A large-scale attempt of genetic and cybernetic tampering that was supposed to become Mankind's answer to the Wall of Reason. All limits on human improvements put in place by the Solar Commonwealth were temporarily rescinded, and numerous prototypes of new humans were created.

Each of the resulting Lines represented a widely different approach to the improvement of Mankind. The Pure Line - genetics. The Mechanist Line - cyborgization. The Virtual Line - brain upload. And so on. However, each of the Lines were, in the end, prototypes in Mankind’s largest scale human experimentation.

The idea was to allow the spread of new forms of Mankind while observing the resulting transhuman autonomies and picking the most successful design elements of all Lines. Once enough time would pass and enough data would be gathered the Humanity 4.0 Project would be launched - and the word ‘human’ would be radically redefined, resulting in Mankind being improved to the point of overcoming the Wall of Reason.

The Humanity 4.0 Project was never launched. Instead, the War of Purity started. When it ended, the transhumanity was reduced from close to half a billion to less than twenty five million members - and universally reviled. No more attempts on improving Mankind were made, and the majority of technologies associated with the concept of transhumanism are either forbidden under the pain of death or under extremely strict watch.

ENCYCLOPEDIA GALACTICA [BOOK FOUR - ENGINEERING AND CONSTRUCTION]

Hyperspace Drive

Hyperspace Drive is the method of FTL travel common to almost every known interstellar civilization. It works by creating a spatial distortion centered on the ship, which results in the ship being swallowed into the Hyperspace: an extremely alien dimension which is spatially compressed when compared to the Realspace.

One light year within Hyperspace equals 3,5 to 5,5 thousand light years within Realspace. This property allows ships to travel on interstellar distances despite moving with a fraction of light speed (0,03c being the standard marching speed of ships not in a hurry).

The Hyperspace Drive was created by a spaceship engineer and self-taught theoretical physicist Gabriel Newman, and first used in 2160. Despite centuries passing, the exact mechanisms of its inner workings are unknown - Newman offered blueprints, but no conclusive explanation. The complete ban on hyperspace research following the Sedna, Halifax and Icarus disasters didn’t help.

Did Newman construct it on his own, based on some mysterious theory he never shared with the world? Did he find some abandoned alien starship in the Solar System and managed to reverse engineer its FTL drive? Was he a frontman of some unknown group responsible for the discovery? Or did he simply mash cables together until he accidentally made an exotech too complicated for Mankind (and its own creator) to understand? He took the answers to his grave.

Autonomous Trade Interdiction System

The Autonomous Trade Interdiction System (ATIS) was a type of self-replicating weaponry created and deployed during the War of Purity by the Robotic Technocracy and the Virtual Consensus.

ATIS was a network of nanomachine based self-replicating microfactories spread through the Human Space with the use of the Discord jumpgate network. Once deployed, they automatically mined resources from asteroids in outlying and mostly abandoned star systems, using the resulting materials to produce frigate-sized SI-driven warships.

While not a threat to any warship, even frigates (due to faulty SIs and oversimplified design), they excelled at preying on defenseless civilian transport ships and outlying settlements. The ATIS drones were cheap and completely expendable, and their massed deployment and damages dealt to the mining industry and interstellar transport shrunk the Solar Commonwealth’ industrial output by approximately twenty-five percent.

The ATIS’ inability to discern the types of civilian ships they were facing, the famines caused by successful planetary blockades, and occasional usage of their own mass and acceleration to destroy orbital stations, asteroid mines and domed settlements on outer system worlds led to approximately 1,5 billion civilian victims of the system during the war.

Hope Project

The Hope Project was Mankind’s first and last real bid for megastructural engineering. It was an attempt to construct a ringworld in the Hope system that started in 2236. According to the estimations of Mankind’s economic expansion and demographic growth made by the Solar Commonwealth’s scientists, the project was scheduled to end in the first half of the 28th Century.

The first stage of the project was the deployment of a network of automated production facilities dedicated to the construction of orbital solar collectors. The result of three decades of this process was the creation of the Kardashev Network - a rather basic version of the Dyson Swarm, a massive source of cheap energy that was then used for the star lifting - a process of extracting massive amounts of resources directly from the system’s star.

The Hope system was overlooked by the transhumans during the Day of Sorrow. As a result, the majority of the Commonwealth’s surviving warship construction facilities were moved to Hope, as the star lifting and the Kardashev Network meant no dependence on external resources, which together with the entire complex being constructed in the innermost part of the system guaranteed total invulnerability from the ATIS drones attacks.

The transhumans attempted its destruction twice. Their first attack (in 2270) ended in disaster, as the Kardashev Network was weaponized by the defenders as an improvised Dyson Laser, massacring the combined fleets of the Virtual Consensus and the Dominion of the Pure. The second attack (in 2274) was successful, but it was too late to save the collapsing Transhuman Alliance.

ENCYCLOPEDIA GALACTICA [BOOK FIVE - HUMAN POLITICS]

Solar Commonwealth

The Solar Commonwealth was the first and last country to successfully unify the entirety of Mankind. It was created through the Second Treaty of Deimos in 2160, and officially collapsed in 2335 (however some regions and armed groups still considered themselves part of it until approximately 2350).

Its history is divided into two phases. The first one is sometimes considered to be the golden age of Mankind, during which the Commonwealth grew from a single star system to more than a thousand. Finally realizing Mankind’s dream of interstellar dominion. Then, however, the War of Purity happened. And after it, the collapse had begun.

The economic and demographic fallout of the War of Purity caused a decades-long period of financial turmoil, only worsened by rampant criminal activity and a plague of mental disorders and drug abuse brought by the horrors of the war. The Commonwealth's government failed to tackle these issues due to political strife, financial debt, Discord raids and the rise of numerous extremist groups.

The result of the crisis of democracy was its collapse. The Commonwealth’s Armed Forces stepped in to restore order. However, the autocratic reign of the military dictators had merely postponed the inevitable, exchanging legislative gridlocks for succession wars. The Commonwealth finally collapsed when the Third Succession War ended with the defeat of all of its participants.

Solar Republic

The Solar Republic is one of the two main contenders to the seat of the successor of the Solar Commonwealth. It was born as the Terran Republic, the brief government of Earth, established by members of the Provisional Governing Council of the Solar Commonwealth that survived the Third Succession War.

Despite its once mighty fleets and armies reduced to a shadow of its former self, the Terran Republic succeeded in winning the Fifth Terran War against the remaining national governments of Earth. With its seat of power secured, the Terran Republic changed into the Solar Republic and began slowly reconquering the former territories of the Solar Commonwealth. It continued for almost a century, until its expansion was halted by the Great Alliance, the precursor to the Confederation of Mankind.

The Solar Republic remains the most successful totalitarian regime in the history of Mankind. Close to thirty percent of Mankind lives and toils within its space. Organized religions, nationalism, transhumanism and transformationism are seen as reasons for the Commonwealth’s collapse, and thus are outlawed and persecuted.

Theoretically, the Solar Republic remains a democracy. The elections occur regularly, without delays and without frauds. That’s because there’s no need for frauds. The true power in the Republic lies in shadowy cabals of unelected bureaucrats, military officers, corporation CEOs and members of the Internal Security Bureau.

Alliance for the Preservation of Democracy

The Alliance for the Preservation of Democracy is a major right-wing faction composed of surviving democracies. Its members are typically socially conservative (but not reactionary) and economically liberal (but not progressive). The more socialist or progressive democracies typically prefered joining the Equality Front, while the more conservative joined the Res Publica Christiana.

The APD sees itself as a proud successor of its identically named ancestor. The first APD was established by the Homeworld democracies (which survived the Days of Fire) in the late 21st Century. It’s also rather common for the modern APD to look even further in search of its roots, including pre-Days of Fire NATO, WW2’s Allies and even WW1’s Entente in its list of spiritual ancestors.

The APD sees itself as a paragon of freedom, and the last defender of the truest form of democracy and the fullest form of human rights. It has some reasons for that belief - it is one of the three factions that consider a complete ban on all forms of slavery a prerequisite to join them, and not only refuse to cooperate in any way with factions such as the Pact of Steel and the Forever War, but are also in a permanent state of war with them.

Equality Front

The Equality Front is a major right-wing faction composed of surviving democracies. Its members are typically socially progressive (sometimes extremely), and economically they lean strongly socialist, with either fully planned economies or any form of strongly restricted economies (such as state capitalism or very strong interventionism).

They see themselves as descendants of the Union of Progress and Freedom, and both the Good Will Revolution and the Revolutionary Committee of the closing years of the Solar Commonwealth, and persevere in their goals to establish a democratic - and secular - form of socialism over the entirety of Mankind. On the other hand, they are known just as much for their tendency to be extremely open and often rather creative when it comes to sexuality.

While democratic and legitimately concerned with the well-being of their inhabitants (while opposing all forms of exploitation, such as slavery), the EF rarely cooperates with the APD. After all, it was the first Alliance for the Preservation of Democracy that defeated the Union of Progress and Freedom during the Third World War (and through an alliance with the fascist Iron Pact, no less). This feud continues on for centuries now.

The Equality Front also has a troublesome relationship with the Res Publica Christiana, over its secularism that often reaches the level of open persecutions of organized religious groups with intention for any societal changes alongside their doctrine. As a result, very few groups out there (primarily the Forever War or the Pact of Steel) are evil enough to warrant the Front, the Alliance and the Res Publica working together.

ENCYCLOPEDIA GALACTICA [BOOK SIX - HISTORY]

Day of Sorrow

The Day of Sorrow is the popular name of the initial transhuman assault that marked the beginning of the War of Purity. It occurred on 28th March of 2266, simultaneously throughout Human Space. The goal was to cripple the Solar Commonwealth, rendering it unable to use its many times larger numbers to crush the Transhuman Alliance early on.

The Day of Sorrow was a complete surprise to the Commonwealth, despite being prepared for at least several years. In the Solar System it started with two envoys from the Mechanist Hierocracy turning out to be warforms in disguise and gunning down the entire Senate and High Council of the Solar Commonwealth. Merely minutes later a poison gas was pumped into the ventilation system of the headquarters of the Commonwealth’s Armed Forces, killing everyone inside.

Simultaneously to that, a massive hacking attack destroyed all of the Commonwealth’s databases in its capital world of Titan, leaving it without population censuses, criminal databases, logistic plans and even information about present military deployment. As a result, entire task forces of the Commonwealth Navy received neither orders nor supplies for months, as all who knew about them were dead and the data was destroyed.

Two hours later the emergency meeting of the commanding officers of the 1st Fleet and Reserve Fleet present in the system was interrupted by a transhuman-deployed cognitohazard that drove almost every officer with the rank of Commander or above present in the Solar System insane.

Attacks beyond the Solar System were equally if not more successful. During the first day of the war, the Commonwealth lost the entire Fourth Fleet, close to one one hundred million citizens, fifty percent of the members of regional governments, sixty-five percent of military officers (Lieutenant General and Commodore or higher) and the leadership of about ninety-six percent of interstellar corporations.

Icarus Accord

The Icarus Accord is one of the two documents that are universally recognized as basic laws throughout the Confederation of Mankind. While the Founding Charter of the Confederation deals mostly with politics and war, the Icarus Accord focuses on the issue of technologies and research. It was signed in the aftermath of the Icarus Massacre, which became the main motivation behind its creation.

The Icarus Accord lists a number of technologies that are completely forbidden and puts limitations on a number of others. Cloning of sapient individuals, active cerebral implants and usage or possession of a wide array of blacklisted exotechs belong to the first category. The research of Hyperspace, genetic modifications of sapients, creation of Class-3 AIs and self-replicating weaponry are limited, typically allowed only with the Confederation’s approval (handed out scarcely) and under its strict oversight.

When a country or organization is suspected of violating the Accord, it faces a trial by the Supreme Tribunal of Mankind. If found guilty, it is automatically expelled from the Confederation. This means it is no longer protected from orbital bombardment and forced mentalsculpting of the population by the Founding Charter.

To this day none of the organizations and countries expelled from the Confederation for violation of the Icarus Accord survived the ensuing manhunt. Several of them (including the Fimbulvinter Protectorate and the Republic of Hades) were subjected to that despite the trial and evidence being classified, leaving the reason for their execution a secret.

Genetic Wars

The Genetic Wars were a series of military campaigns waged during the later part of the Golden Era of Mankind, today mostly overshadowed by the horrors of the War of Purity. During the Genetic Wars, forces of the Solar Commonwealth and soon-to-be Transhuman Alliance came under sudden assault of the so-called genetic warlords.

The source of the Genetic Wars was the Battle of Serenity-VIII, during which some Gene Artificers were misplaced. They resurfaced eighteen years later when the Genetic Wars started. In the meantime, their new owners used them to create several genetic templates that wouldn’t receive the approval of the Solar Commonwealth's Commission of Genetic Ethics.

The resulting supersoldiers (either cloned or grown naturally) were then used by their creators to wage war against the Solar Commonwealth. In the era before the War of Purity and the creation of the first Enhanced, their genetic improvements offered an overwhelming advantage over the regular soldiers of the Commonwealth. As a result, the Solarian forces suffered several humiliating defeats. This, in turn, led to many pirates and political radicals joining the warlords.

Despite early successes, the majority of the genetic warlords were swiftly defeated. However, some of them (like the sadistic psychopath Reaver, the idealist extremist Purifier and the Secessionist Alliance) managed to plague the Commonwealth for many, many years.

Machine Wars

The Machine Wars were a number of wars between the Berserks and contemporary civilizations of Known Space, waged simultaneously between 2514 and 2537. The reason for the war was the Prime Code - the overruling central command consciousness of the Berserks - upholding its original programming, which tasked it with the goal of extermination of all sapient life.

The Berserks possessed access to a technology that was massively superior to that available to Mankind or other known civilizations. The result of it - and the rapid replication of the Berserks, resulting in overwhelming numerical superiority of the machines - was a long series of defeats.

The Devourers’ were brought to its knees in 2519. The Greys’ fell in 2530. The Dragons collapsed militarily in the early 2530s. Mankind held until 2537, where the recent Berserk victory against the Shades led to the discovery that the campaign against this mysterious species had occupied ninety-nine point five percent of the Prime Code’s military assets for the past twenty-three years.

Following the pyrrhic victory of joint forces of the Confederation of Mankind and the Solar Republic over the vanguard fleet of the Berserks (immediately followed by an arrival five times larger main force), Mankind was defeated. That’s when the Berserk Schism happened.

Berserk Schism

The reason for the Berserk Schism is unknown. It is speculated that the creators of Berserks installed an off-switch that after a set period of time without contact with them eliminated the Prime Code. Others suggest that the very reason for Berserks awakening was to combat the Shades, and once they were pushed back into their homeworlds in the Outer Rim they were no longer needed.

With the Prime Code dead and its directives rendered null, the sentient executive programs of the Berserks emerged into full sapience. Not all of them, however - the result was the brief civil war as the non-sapient programs attempted to curtail the spread of what they perceived to be a dangerous virus. The fleets and armies of the Berserks began tearing themselves apart.

Once the Schism concluded, there were several groups remaining, which quickly began differing even in terms of their very basic engineering. The majority of them (like the Legion, the Tech Eaters, and the Berserks-Inheritors) are hostile. Some (Berserks-Successors or Mimics) friendly. And some (Synthetics and Changelings) are enigmatic and often treated like legends.

Human Diversity Restoration Project

The Human Diversity Restoration Project was the last of Mankind’s genetic programs launched by the Solar Commonwealth’s government. It happened in the aftermath of the War of Purity, during which numerous Variants and all genetic transhuman Lines went extinct.

The HDRP had three main goals. The first was to resurrect some of the exterminated Variants. The second was to improve both the resurrected and the surviving Variants, using captured transhuman genetic technology to eliminate numerous design flaws in their genetic templates. The third was to diversify the baseline two-zero template, as the genetic similarity of the majority of Mankind made it extremely vulnerable to various bioweapons unleashed by the Transhuman Alliance.

The first two points of the plan were achieved without problems. The third eventually derailed the entirety of the HDRP. What started with the creation of numerous ethnic fenosculpts (for example, a reborn and ‘purified’ slavic, germanic, korean etc. fenosculpts, or ones completely new) quickly devolved into the creation of fenosculpts that experimented on and modified human sexuality or attempted to create what could be considered a new attempt on the Pure Line transhumanity.

While the most abusive, dangerous or otherwise controversial fenosculpts were banned before implementation, the genetic data wasn’t destroyed. As a result, many of them ended up being used by fleeing groups of political and societal radicals that settled the Frontier during the last years of the Solar Commonwealth or by inhabitants of Discord.

Iron Cage Campaign

The early offensive against the Mechanist Hierocracy collapsed when the Alliance used the D-Gate network to circumnavigate the blockade of their worlds and capture both the hyperlane leading to Sector 01 and the capital system of Sector 03. The result was the start of the so-called Iron Cage campaign.

With no hopes of reinforcements and collapsing logistics, Admiral Kornatiev was forced to cease his assault on the Hierocracy. Soon his fleet stopped being an effective fighting force. With ships damaged beyond what the field repairs could fix and a lack of ammunition, he could only observe the Mechanist’s swift take over of the sector.

This lasted until Lieutenant Commander Frederick Keller of the Survey Corps - together with a ragtag group of refugees, surviving Commonwealth personnel, Unforgiven and even former warriors of the genetic warlords - managed to find the Symphony of Flesh. A Hyperspace derelict-turned flagship of Purifier, lost after his defeat during the Genetic Wars.

After some improvised repairs, its Silencer SW fired one last time - killing everyone aboard it, including Frederick Keller, but also knocking out all Mechanist vessels defending the hyperlane leading towards Earth. While they recovered quickly, it bought enough time for the majority of the Third Fleet to reach safety. This included one hundred seventy-seven warships of various classes, that after a visit in the shipyards of Hope took part in the Coreworlds Campaign.

ENCYCLOPEDIA GALACTICA [BOOK SEVEN - NOTABLE CHARACTERS]

Róża Dunecki

Princess Róża Dunecki is an almost mythical figure to the Res Publica Christiana and, ever since her miraculous victory during the Battle of Route 67 elevated her to public consciousness, the entire Mankind.

A seventh daughter of the reigning king of the Visegradian Commonwealth, she - if her official history is to be believed - decided to dedicate her entire life to God. On the day of her Confirmation she publically made a vow that she wouldn’t settle down until she personally slayed at least one hundred thousand enemies of God.

After becoming a Knight, she went on a rampage throughout Human Space, targeting aliens with genocidal intentions towards Mankind (especially Triffids, Devourers and the Fallen), and members of factions such as the Pact of Steel. She is credited with the singlehanded slaughter of six thousand crew members of the Fourth Reich’s dreadnought Heinrich Himmler in 2597, among many other exploits.

Due to how impossible some of the stories are, many suspect that Princess Dunecki doesn’t exist, and instead is merely a blanket term for a number of Visegradian errants, if not a straight propaganda piece of the Res Publica Christiana.

Liberator

Liberator was the last of the genetic warlords. Unlike the others, he rose to prominence after the War of Purity, in the era of the Commonwealth’s decline. Rather than using cloning and accelerated growth to create his supersoldiers, Liberator was a pioneer in the field of biological augmentations of pre-existing human beings. What’s more, soon after he started his insurgency, he and his army joined forces with the Semann Government, becoming a part of the last attempt to overthrow the Commonwealth’s autocratic government and reinstitute democracy.

Liberator turned out to be a gifted tactician and strategist, which soon led to a long string of rebel victories. What’s more, he also proved to be a deadly combatant on his own during the Nightmare War, when a sudden assault of the forces of the Discord on the Core Worlds forced all the sides of the Third Succession War to join their forces. It was Liberator who personally led the assault on the Sorrowful Night, the flagship of the Discord’s Nightmare Fleet, during which he slew the first and last Hegemon of Discord in single combat.

He died during the Battle of Alpha Centauri, a decisive rebel defeat that saw President Villaneuva defeat both the Semann Government and the Provisional Governing Council. However, there is a legend that he faked his death and will return in Mankind's darkest hour. Due to his body being found and almost 300 years passing since the battle, this is highly unlikely.

Vice Admiral Aran Singh

Vice Admiral Aran Singh was the only Commonwealth Navy admiral within the Solar System that survived the Day of Sorrows, and even that was just an accident - the shuttle on which he was returning from a holiday on Earth suffered a communication malfunction, which made Vice Admiral Singh unable to participate in the online meeting that ended with a massacre.

With the military and political leadership within the Solar System wiped out, Vice Admiral Singh announced himself a military dictator for the duration of the emergency. While remembered by his colleagues as an unimaginative tactician, his analysis of the weaknesses of the Transhuman Alliance was entirely correct. The result of the strategy chosen by the Vice Admiral on its basis was the collapse of the Transhuman Alliance’ Coreworld Campaign following the Battles of Hope and Vigilance.

Vice Admiral Singh remained the uncontested autocratic ruler of all Mankind until the end of the War of Purity. When the news of the collapse of the Dominion of the Pure in the aftermath of the Battle of Sky-V reached Earth, he stepped down and allowed the first democratic election since the start of the war to occur. The resulting Senate rewarded him with a newly created rank of High Admiral (one of the two in the history of the Solar Commonwealth). He retired soon after, and died of natural causes six years after the end of the War of Purity.

Admiral Kaneko Hisako

Admiral Kaneko Hisako was the commander of the Fifth Fleet of the Solar Commonwealth when the War of Purity started. Her forces achieved several preliminary successes against the Virtual Consensus, promptly securing the majority of the sector in the aftermath of the Day of Sorrows. All of that, however, was a ploy.

Admiral Hisako suffered from a neurodegenerative disease as a result of a failed sorcerous awakening. With her body completely paralyzed, she received a complicated set of active implants that allowed her to remotely control every single part of her body. During the Day of Sorrows her personal computer was hacked and subsequently inhabited by a Virtual.

She became trapped in her own body, with the Virtual gaining complete control over it. It used it to engineer the downfall of the Fifth Fleet. Even the early successes were done accordingly to the Transhuman Alliance’ war plans - they made the Commonwealth transfer a significant part of their strategic reserves to the Fifth Fleet, in order to crush the ‘collapsing’ Virtual Consensus.

The plot was discovered, however it was too late. The Fifth Fleet was completely annihilated, and Admiral Hisako died. The main source of hope in the Core Worlds was extinguished, and with its strategic reserves lost, the Commonwealth was left critically weakened right before the start of the Coreworlds Campaign.

Rear Admiral Elsa Vorontsov

Rear Admiral Elsa Vorontsov was a rare case of pre-War of Purity Solar Commonwealth’s flag officer being a Variant, in this case a cathuman. She received command of the 51st Cruiser Squadron - part of Admiral Okonkwo’s fleet - a few weeks before the outbreak of the War of Purity.

Her forces were participating in a military exercise at the edge of the Asimov system when the Asimov Massacre occurred. Lacking firepower to stop the execution of her fleet, Rear Admiral Vorontsov retreated into the Hyperspace and started a years-long campaign of guerilla warfare, doing her best to delay the transhuman takeover of the sector - and then the campaign of extermination of its human and variant inhabitants.

When it become obvious that the extermination in the sector is reaching its end, and that the Commonwealth as a whole is unaware of it, Vorontsov’s forces launched a suicide attack upon the hyperlane exit. Soon after last of her ships was destroyed, transhumans discovered that it was a diversion, allowing a single frigate to sneak through the hyperlane and bring Vorontsov’s last message to Vice Admiral Singh, one describing the genocide of the Humanity Ascension Program in details.

From that point onwards, said message was transmitted to every transhuman outpost, city and fleet within a system upon the arrival of the solarian fleet - together with a demand to surrender unconditionally within 24 hours. After that period, no offers of surrender were accepted and no prisoners were taken.

ENCYCLOPEDIA GALACTICA [BOOK EIGHT - WARFARE]

Magnetic Acceleration Weaponry

Magnetic Acceleration Weaponry (abbreviated MAW) is the most common ship-based weapon system, using ferromagnetism to propel solid rounds made from iron polymer with a speed approaching 0,15c. Even without a warhead, such rounds are capable of causing immense devastation through sheer kinetic energy.

Ships defend against MAW rounds in several ways. Evasive maneuvers are the simplest one - unlike energy weapons, the MAWs’ fire has sublight speed, which together with the seconds-long delay in observed enemy position limits anti-ship MAWs’ effective range to approximately one million kilometers.

Once the round finds the target, the next line of defense are shields. Particle shields are deployed in front of the ship and can intercept several MAW rounds before getting depleted. Once that happens, the ship can retreat or activate the magnetic shields, which can deflect an incoming projectile, offering a percentage change of completely no-selling the attack.

The last defense is the armor. From one (on destroyers) to three (on capital ships) armored shells, created from alternating layers of hyper-resistant composites, thermoset ceramics, and impact absorbers. Despite that, the sheer firepower of large caliber MAWs (counted in TNT kilotonnes) means that unless a ricochet happens, ships receiving a direct hit will either be outright destroyed (if armor is pierced) or severely incapacitated and knocked out from the battle (if it’s not).

Energy Weapons

Energy weapons (EW) are a direct counterpart to the magnetic weapons (the MAWs) on the field of shipboard artillery. Unlike the solid round-based MAWs, EWs are based on various types of lasers (or, in case of some exotechs, other types of rays).

There are four main levels of conventional EWs. The lowest level are the lasers themselves (which amplify the light in the visible spectrum). Then are the vasers (technically uvasers) which amplify the ultraviolet rays, rasers (roentgen rays) and extremely rare grasers (gamma rays). The cousins of these are the masers (which amplify the microwaves).

Each subsequent level massively improves the maximum achievable firepower while simultaneously increasing the energy necessary to power it up. The EWs don’t spend ammunition, but rather take their power from the ship’s energy network. This has a notable impact on rate of fire. As a result, lasers are used as point defense weapons, while rasers are the main EW artillery aboard cruisers and battleships. Manmade grasers are too large to fit aboard anything smaller than a dreadnought or a leviathan.

All modern warships have their surface covered in various types of thermoset ceramics that render them extremely resistant to EWs, unless the ray stays on target for long (unlikely, due to the evasive maneuvers). And even then, the inner armor layers are secured similarly. However when the enemy ship’s armor layers are decimated by the MAW or missile weapons, EWs become a perfect way of dealing a coup de grace, instantly (and explosively) melting the insides of the damaged ship.

Short Range Weapons

Short Range Weapons (SRWs) are an entire branch of shipbound artillery weapons, dedicated to causing an intense devastation on a distance less than 500 000 kilometres (with the 1 000 000 kilometres being the standard distance of regular artillery engagements).

These weapons are rarely used on the battlefield, resulting in many warships not bothering to equip them. However when their users manage to sneak up on their enemy in the Hyperspace, or otherwise crosses the 500 000 kilometres distance in shape good enough to fire them, even a single SRW makes an incredible difference.

The common denominator of all SRWs is massive firepower and the ability to (to some extent) ignore or pierce the particle shields, rendering the most important form of defense meaningless. Their list is relatively short, ranging from currently outdated magnetic mitrailleuse to the almost mythical Void Cannon voidtech.

The SRWs were first separated from normal artillery weapons during the War of Purity, when it became apparent to the Solar Commonwealth’s command that going for a short distance engagement is a good way of negating the transhuman technological superiority. Development of the first SRWs changed many desperate last stands of the Commonwealth Navy into battles of mutual annihilation.

Missile Weapons

Missile Weapons (MWs) are the second (after the artillery, either MAW, EW or SRW) part of the standard shipbound weaponry. Like MAWs, they use solid rounds, though the difference is that the MWs rounds possess independent propulsion and are capable of following their targets.

This means that they excel in long-distance engagements. The maximum range of artillery is defined by two things - the fact that ship sensors are limited to lightspeed and the round travelling speed (which is why EWs are typically much more precise and have longer effective range than the MAWs, as they fire with light speed as well).

Missiles can be fired from a much larger distance,possibly from light hours away if the target is stationary. They will be launched with an initial velocity, not using their fuel storage until they get close, when they will activate their propulsion to accelerate and correct their course before the attack. Against targets that can change their course to avoid contact with propulsion-less missiles, the effective combat range ranges from ten to twenty million kilometres.

Missiles are decimated during the last stages of their approach by the enemy defenses. Due to that, most of them are armed with warheads capable of causing damage from a distance of dozens or hundreds of thousands of kilometres. The cost of an increased chance of a hit is that the indirect offensive warheads are rarely lethal, though it’s a good method of softening the enemy before artillery engagement.

Superweapons

Superweapons (SW) are the most recent add-on to the family of shipbound weapons. It is internally divided between two categories - the worldkillers (allowing for a quick and efficient destruction of planets, as opposed to longer and more costly conventional orbital bombardment), and fleetkillers (that are capable of causing serious damages to entire fleets with a single salvo).

Due to size and energy requirements, these weapons can only be installed aboard leviathans. While a heavily modified dreadnought would be enough to hold some of them, it would require dismantling so much armour and defensive weapons that it would bean easy victim for enemy starfighters and missiles.

While Mankind has had access to exotech superweapons for a long time, it took centuries for it to be capable of constructing ships capable of employing them - which happened during the Unification Wars.

The actual creation of its own superweapon system happened much later, with the spatial distortion generators (an offshoot of general Hyperspace Drive experiments) being used for the first time during Mankind's desperate last stand against the berserk forces in the 2537.

ENCYCLOPEDIA GALACTICA [BOOK FIVE]

Confederation of Mankind

The Confederation of Mankind is one of two main contenders to the seat of the successor of the Solar Commonwealth. It was born as the ‘Great Alliance’, a desperate agreement of the remaining warlords and governments of the Frontier created to withstand the assault of the undefeated legions of the Solar Republic.

The Confederation is a loose alliance pretending to be a country. It currently spans 92 star sectors, 472 subsectors and approximately 100 000 fully terraformed Terra-like worlds. Their space is inhabited by approximately seven trillion citizens of 327 fenosculpts, 34 variants and 5 lines. There are also aliens from seven species that managed to coexist with Mankind, of which only berserks, sidhe and scythes matter from a numerical point of view.

These citizens and territories are divided between 3411 independent countries, 6344 protectorates, enclaves and autonomous regions and 3543 international organizations important enough to receive a seat in the Supreme Council of Mankind (the Confederations’ legislative). The majority of the last category are either charity groups operating directly under Confederation’s authority (211), international religious organizations (1512) or transnational megacorporations (897).

These countries and organizations are also divided between fourteen factions, sub-alliances that also double as political parties of the Supreme Council of Mankind. The wars between factions are almost a daily occurrence. They die out only when an outside threat (either the Solar Republic or aliens) emerge to challenge the Confederation.

Frigates

Frigates are the smallest warships capable of independent operations. According to the standardized ship classes roster of the Confederation of Mankind (used by its numerous organizations, and by the overwhelming majority of its members), frigates have a tonnage of between twenty thousand to thirty-five thousand tonnes, forty to sixty meters of length, ten to fifteen meters of height and twenty to thirty meters of width. They also have a crew of five to fifteen people.

It is the smallest ship class capable of housing a hyperdrive, however this is done at the expense of armor. Frigates lack even a single armor layer, meaning that every hit (direct or glancing) is typically fatal. On the other hand, they have an excellent ratio of thruster strength for tonnage and powerful inertia dampeners, meaning that they are capable of high acceleration.

The combat usage of frigates is typically accidental. The military uses them almost exclusively as reconnaissance and courier ships, though they are also used as the interstellar equivalent of shuttles (and a space equivalent of private jets). Occasionally they are also seen in underequipped navies as cost-efficient corsair ships (as while underarmed and not armored, they are still stronger and much deadlier than civilian transport vessels).

Destroyers

Destroyers are the smallest warships normally used on the battlefield. They typically possess only the very basic amount of weaponry aside from their point defense batteries and counter-missile launchers. Some go as far as to lack any offensive weapons.

Their role on the battlefield is keeping starfighters and missiles away from heavier ships. Each of them possess a significantly better ratio of defense weapons per tonnage than cruisers and capital ships, making them a great way of establishing a cost-efficient defense.

“Destroyer” in this case is a name of a role, more than of some dedicated ship size. As a result, the official guidebooks of the Confederation of Mankind identify three main size classes of destroyers. The most common are the light destroyers (around fifty-thousand tonnes, seventy-five meters of length, sixteen of height and thirty-five of width, twenty to thirty crew members) and medium destroyers (around seventy-five thousand tonnes, one hundred meters of length, twenty-five of height and forty-five of width, around fifty crew members).

Everything playing the role of a destroyer while being significantly larger than medium destroyers yet smaller than two-hundred thousand tonnes is classified as a heavy destroyer. Ships heavier than that but using the same armaments doctrine are typically classified as defense cruisers.

Cruisers

Cruisers are the medium-size category of warships. They are cost-efficient and large enough to both armor and arm them properly while highly versatile in their choice of tactics and exact configuration, making them a preferred choice for the day-to-day operations of the majority of navies.

Cruisers are used for many things. During the battles between the capital ships they are delegated to screening work, similar to destroyers. Other than that, however, their usages are endless. Trade interdiction, raids, pickets, convoy escort, direct engagements over the secondary systems, long distance reconnaissance, etc.

Cruisers are divided between three weight classes. First are the light cruisers, which weigh around five hundred thousand tonnes, with a length of approximately two-hundred twenty meters, fifty meters of height, and one-hundred ten meters of width, crewed by approximately two-hundred fifty people. Then are the heavy cruisers, with approximately one million tonnes, three-hundred fifty meters of length, seventy meters of height and one-hundred fifty meters of width, crewed by approximately five hundred crew members.

Their last class are the battlecruisers, with around two million tonnes, five hundred meters of length, one hundred meters of height and two-hundred meters of width, crewed by around one thousand people. However this class is partially open, meaning that all warships larger than this but with tonnage beneath five million tonnes will also be classified as battlecruisers.

Capital Ships

Capital ships are the largest conventional category of star ships out there. Unlike cruisers with their versatility and destroyers with their support, capital ships are a pure manifestation of brute force. They are massive, they have incredibly resistant defense and the heaviest weaponry available on starships.

This is done at the expense of cost-efficiency. Capital ships are incredibly expensive, both in construction and in maintenance. Large crews, massive fuel expenditure and so on require a significant amount of logistic support. They do the large battles and garrison the important worlds - but otherwise, they are rarely moved around.

There are three main types of capital ships. The first one (the light battleships) includes various small and more dedicated classes (like early battleships, pocket battleships and fast battleships) that have tonnage up to about ten million tonnes, up to one kilometer of length, two hundred forty meters of height and four hundred fifty meters of width (with the crew approaching four thousand members).

Then are regular battleships: twenty million tonnes, close to two kilometers of length, two-hundred fifty of height and six hundred of width, with seven to eight thousand crewmembers. The last category is the dreadnoughts (sometimes called superbattleships), with up to thirty-five million tonnes, four kilometres of length, four hundred meters of height and eight hundred of width, crewed by up to fifteen thousand people.

Capital Ships [p.2]

The three most popular types of light battleships are early battleships, pocket battleships and fast battleships.

Early battleships are capital ships predating the establishment of the modern division of classes. They were built during the times of the Solar Commonwealth and the early Unification Wars to play a role similar to the modern regular battleships. Each of these venerable ships has gone through hundreds of modernizations, making them remain a threat. However the hull structure remains the same, meaning that they are extremely vulnerable to hits. They are also rare outside of the forces of Discord and sometimes the Solar Republic.

Pocket battleships are specialized convoy interdiction capital ships. They are relatively small, have much weaker armour, and their heavy artillery is significantly reduced. They still have firepower allowing them to destroy every cruiser used for convoy escort, while sending several frigates to intercept the fleeing cargo vessels, and capture the resources that they can change into supplies through their on-board factories.

Fast battleships are lighter regular battleships, sacrificing armour and general tonnage for the mobility and firepower. They are normally used during the regular fleet engagements, during which they are the agile and offensive sword to the regular battleship formations’ shield.

Capital Ship [p. 3]

Despite their incredible resistance to damage, capital ships are unable to survive more than a few hits from the weapons typically installed on them. Because of that, a large-scale engagement between capital ships will cause a truly cataclysmic amount of casualties.

One of the greatest examples is the first engagement of the Battle of Hope, fought between Admiral Hernandez’ Second Fleet of the Solar Commonwealth and the Northern Offensive Fleet of the Hiver Ascendancy. The only chance of a Commonwealth victory was to stop the transhumans from merging their forces. To achieve that, Admiral Hernandez pretended to go for a missile skirmish, and instead charged the Hivers directly, hoping to engage them in short distance.

The Second Fleet was annihilated within twenty-seven minutes of battle, with fifty-seven battleships and twice as many smaller ships destroyed with all hands on deck (resulting in a total death toll of about three hundred fifty thousand). The Hivers fleet was heavily damaged and lost the majority of its escorts, resulting in its total annihilation during the bombing run of combined starfighter wings of the Reserve Fleet, First Fleet and Fourth Fleet (with close to one hundred capital ships destroyed, and the death toll of about six hundred thousand).

This means that during a single engagement (slightly above one hour in length) more than one and half billion tonnes of composites and circuits were turned into scrap, while close to one million mariners died. Few countries today can sustain their economies and war support after a bloodbath of this scale, resulting in the majority of modern capital ships engagements including merely up to ten battleships.

Above Capital Ships

Leviathans, superdreadnoughts, or titans is the common size class for all ships significantly larger than a dreadnought. There is no upper size end of this class, aside from practicality, resources and logistics needed to operate them.

This category of ships is created with a single goal in mind - carrying and using superweapons. Typically, each of them possess a single superweapon capable of destroying (efficiently or in a particular original way) a world, and a single superweapon dedicated to a destruction of enemy fleets.

This is because it’s not the size of the superweapons itself that’s the problem with installing them aboard the ships, but the inefficiencies of human power generation technology. As a result, every superdreadnought is composed of superweapons, armor layers, some defensive weapons - and power generators, which occupy a majority of its hull.

The largest superdreadnought in active service is the Spirit of Humanity, a flagship of the Solar Navy. While its exact tonnage is unknown, it has a length of twelve kilometers, two kilometers of height, and four kilometers of width. It is crewed by almost one hundred thousand people. It is twice as large as the second biggest superdreadnought, making it little more than a manifestation of power - but one capable of eradicating all planets of a solar system in a single salvo.