Epsilon Eridani
History
In the earliest days of Human expansion beyond the safety of its home system, before the formation of the Orion Confederacy or contact with the Vikara Combine, a limited number of sublight colony ships were sent to nearby stars by some of the human governments which had been established following the Last Great War and ensuing human diaspora. These early efforts would ultimately be both decisive to determining the character of Sol’s immediate neighbors, but also the pivotal technosignature that alerted the Skrell of humanity’s existence following their departure.
One of these would be the ICV Albion, a several-kilometer-long interstellar ark ship designated for colonization of the Epsilon Eridani system after it was confirmed to harbor an earth-like planet within its habitable zone. It would take nearly two centuries to cross the ~10.5 ly void to its destination, during which time its contingent of settlers from the responsible post-diaspora colonies lay frozen in cryogenic sleep, a majority of which could trace their origins to the Pre-War Terra regions of England, Wales, and Scotland, though they were joined by others, if less in number, from places such as Ireland, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, the Netherlands, and Iceland.
The voyage would be completed without issue, after their arrival and establishment into the system’s first colony, their radio message of success transmitted back to Sol taking 10 years to reach the now headquarters of a growing Orion Confederacy. An FTL communications probe was sent to relay a reply to the system – which had been deliberately left untouched in the intervening time –, its news updating the budding colony on Sol’s confederation, the alien first contacts, and all which had developed during their journey, as well as an invitation to the Orion Confederacy, which the nations that sent them had helped create, and which they would indeed join, first as the System of Epsilon Eridani, and eventually expand into the Eridani Alliance.
Already from the time they had first landed, colonists on Eridani had, like so many colonists before them, thought themselves to some degree distinct from the old nations of Terra and Sol, and this feeling had only increased in the intervening decade and yet more as the news of humanity’s advances arrived. The loosening of ties to old diaspora governments to join the Confederacy under their name as Epsilon Eridani would do much to help this sentiment further. Placed in this situation as both a remnant of human history now past and yet undeterred in being at the cutting-edge of its future – such a thought being what had led most to board a colony ship, to begin with – there would rise most of the cultural phenomena that are still the roots of Eridanian culture to this day.
The Eridanian dialect of Sol Common, now 200 years outdated to its namesake, while already based on British English, would adopt countless loanwords from less-represented European regions which some of their colonists had come from, while many English names and expressions were altered, often as a deliberate statement, to harken back to their welsh, Gaelic and even Scandinavian origins.
Bridget was once more Brighid. Price to Ap Rhys. Osborne is now Asbjorn.
Possibly one of the most notable additions to this period of differentiation would be the growing popularity of certain gene mods, the simplest and earliest of which was pointed or “elven” ears. By no means universal, it was nonetheless hugely favored by many colonists for its simplicity and wide-reaching connections to legends and folklore which spoke of a "land of elves" that spanned almost every cultural background in the growing Eridanian colonies and their renewed historical interests.
Through to the present day, these and many more subtle influences would shape the colonies of Epsilon Eridani to be in many ways fiercely faithful, yet in many other ways completely unlike, the Sol cultures from which they arose, earning the system and its people their unique character, which has persisted over it’s now more than three hundred years of history since that first, isolated colony.
(Finally, what of drow, lamias, etc.? Those are more likely within ε-Eri. The system never really had the inertia to “resist” gene mods in the way Sol did, and as such developed a culture that’s more encouraging of them. That’s not to say that Sol dislikes them, just they’re not going to be as prevalent there when you already have a huge “normal human” population.) ((need to tune this blurb))
Modern Day
The capital of the modern day Eridani Alliance is centered on the planet Albion in the Epsilon Eridani system itself, named after the colony ship that first brought the initial settlers to their new homeworld. The governing body of the initial organization of colonists would find clusters of stars in which large numbers of habitable planets exist, with large swaths of space between them not previously exploited in the last century by the rest of humanity. In time, the area of space administered and claimed by the Alliance would reach from a few tens of lightyears from Terra out to the limits of human space on the "eastern" and "southern" borders of Confederation space, facing the galactic core to the east and the Vikaran Combine to the south across the divide separating the Orion and Perseus arms of the galaxy. With the hands-off approach of their central government in most cases, this has led to several independent worlds within their sphere of influence that have stayed free of the Orion Confederation or have joined in their own right, leading to a complicated economic relationship with the EA.
Ethos & Culture
A strange mix of modern Terran culture and ancient traditions hailing back to the historic cultures that spawned them, the citizens of the Eridani Alliance live much like the rest of the members of the Orion Confederation. Initially expanding outwards in rapid fits and starts as FTL technology was brought to the forefront and put into production in the rapidly established shipyards, the worlds of the Alliance suffer from a contradiction that has led to the 'clusters' of systems that have been settled: Scarcity of large scale industrial efforts. Because of the late establishment of the state as it did its best to manage the swarms of humanity swarming out as the Diaspora moved into the then-Frontier, the government of the formative Alliance had to concentrate its efforts on what it *needed* to support its citizens. This has led to a much more hands-off approach when it comes to regulating and ordering its citizens, in turn leading to the myriad of distinct yet related cultures that have sprung up all over the sector as the decades and centuries march onward.
Governmental Structure
Much like the cultures that coalesced to leave Terra for parts unknown, the government of the Eridani Alliance resembles a parliamentary bicameral house, with an upper house formed of appointed by the governments of important industrial and cultural worlds, and a lower house representing individual provinces based on population size. This has led to a somewhat slow-to-react, indecisive legislative body; offset by the fact that, in most matters, each province handles internal matters by itself, with only defense, taxation, and judicial coming under the jurisdiction of the highest level of government.
Military Organization
The Eridani Alliance has organized its military forces and other security services, along the lines of the culture that spawned them, with a heavy influence from that of the old United Kingdom of Terra. Considering the frontier that they are facing towards the center of the Milky Way galaxy, they guard humanity's 'east flank' in addition to the forces they and other members of the Confederation contribute to the JSDF.
The military is organized into three branches, as the responsibility of handing planet-based issued has fallen to the naval infantry forces.
- The pride of the Eridani Alliance, the Alliance Navy is the backbone of their contribution to the JSDF and the sword and shield brought to bear against hostile incursions to the worlds they are charged with defending.
- Quick, aggressive flotillas of destroyers and frigates exercise constantly, always seeming on the move and crewed with sailors for whom 'tenacity' is their creed. Patrolling between the void between the dense clusters of worlds inside the alliance, cruisers patrol the trade routes to keep the way clear for trade and communications traffic, spending months or years on their patrols with many frequent calls at spaceports allowing the myriad of different types of humans that crew the vessels a time of shore leave.
- Numerous carriers, smaller than those of Terra, Mars, or the TSC, operate in pairs or trios conducting flight operations and training exercises in the outer reaches of Alliance systems, honing the skills of their crews and building confidence in their systems, their battlegroups acting as both screens and support for the attached small craft, providing command and control and more powerful electronic support than t.
- Finally, the heart of iron (Yes, I'm referring to Hearts of Oak Fol) at its core, the squadrons of squat, dense battleships and the long battlecruisers heavy with sublight engines that support and screen these monsters of naval combat put out into the black rarely, but when they do, the enemies of the Alliance are shortly to know the fury they have called down upon themselves.
Alliance Corps of Marines
- Spawning from veterans of the Final War who served in the Royal Marines and other similar services of the regions constituting the original colonists, the Alliance Marines constitute the entirety of the land-based forces that the Eridani Alliance can bring to the JSDF or to invaders of their territory (aside from local militia forces). Given the spread out nature of worlds and garrisons within the Alliance, a traditional "army" never formed in the early days of the Alliance in 2350. Based in small garrisons along important trade routes and aboard the ships of the Alliance Navy, the Alliance Marines operate as boarders, ship defenders, and station assault crews using speed and violence of action as their trademark tactical approach to solving the equation of violence when called upon. On the ground, they use light vehicles and cavalry tactics to keep opposing forces off-balance, always seeking to keep the initiative in combat engagements.
Alliance Aerospace Forces
- An outgrowth of colontists that had served in the UK's Royal Air Force and other similar services, the Alliance Aerospace Forces form the backbone of most Alliance world's first response to external threats. Innovative designs hailing from the technical design houses of Martinique, New Sheffield, Eindhoven and others give the relatively small, professional corps of pilots and service crews consistently excellent strike and space superiority fighters that can be brought to bear from orbital space stations and platforms, or from the deck of the Alliance Navy's large numbers of armored carriers.
Notable Stances Towards Corporations:
The Eridani Alliance has the most acceptance of the operations of these corporations within their own borders, even if they do place a premium on those that chose to base themselves out on the Frontier or in other areas of the Confederation to operate.
Influence:
OOC notes for players:
(most of this I need to sort through aaaaa)
"Don't feel like you have to larp the model citizen of a given modern-day european country. In fact, don't. Of course everyone will have a certain background that'll affect their worldview, their religious beliefs, their manner of speech, etc. and in general Epsilon-Eridanians still have some appreciation for Terran culture's influence, but how much that is the case is a matter of individual basis and a lot has changed in 500 years." This is why I've mostly referred to ε-Eri as it's own thing, since their identity is about how these influences can both persist while also changing over time into something familiar but different. In this case "Terran culture" refers to colonization-era and prior, not modern as was mentioned previously.
"Eridani Common has a very distinct accent to Standard Sol Common, as well as an uncountable number of differences. It's in a superficial way similar to the difference between British English and American English, yet the Eridanians have loaned words from many languages absent to Standard Sol Common, ditched a few that it used to have, and missed out on two centuries of the language's evolution, while having gone as far as to revive the occasional Middle or Old English word back into their lexicons. How much of this your character reflects varies. A more cosmopolitan sort might only have a hint of an accent, while someone less inclined might be genuinely difficult to understand to a tourist from Sol." I do find it a misnomer that the overall language is called Sol Common, but it's a misnomer that makes sense historically IC so it's not a bad thing. While they would've "caught up" with some of Modern Sol Common, I don't imagine the languages would ever homogenise back into a single thing. The Old English mention is a bit on the "funni" side, but if there is a single place in the universe that could happen, it would probably be there. Mostly this is just for flavor and "why do they speak SOL common". (partial language understanding would be the dream obviously but that's out of my hands)
Last note, cont. from the "Germany & France" note: "Similarly, characters with particularly underrepresented backgrounds such as the scandinavians might well be more prevalent elsewhere, and need not be from Epsilon Eridani, as the bulk of it's colonists were from the Sol colonies that succeeded Great Britain after the Last Great War." Just clarification. Ideally demographic scope would be fairly delineated after some vague yet plausible post-war group of states rather than a pure grab-bag of European culture. That said these notes are for ε-Eri the system, so it might be a little more flexible in the rest of the Alliance, particularly recent additions or incorporations.