Hello and welcome back to Lore Builder, where we work with you, the community, to help build out the Star Citizen universe. As always, if you are new to this feature or the game in general, please consult the Caveats and Background Reading section listed in the previous issue to get an understanding of what’s already been established.
So, with that out of the way, let’s get started.
For the past few weeks, we’ve been looking at the legislative branch of the UEE, specifically how that arm of the government was structured. After getting a robust list of potential bureaucracies, agencies and departments, we started looking at the division between local and Imperial governments to try and understand where one ended and the other began.
Thanks again to everyone who submitted ideas. There were some really interesting approaches to distinguishing these boundaries. Chaucer even presented a fictional news article.
As we continue to comb through the more detailed suggestions and further refine the nuances of government, here is a high-level look at the UEE structure incorporating a bunch of your suggestions and ideas.
During the Messer Era, the UEE was a pervasive presence in the lives of the populace (Carpe Caelum); they dictated everything from standardized architectural styles to how many rolls of nanowipes each family deserved. After the fall of the Messers, the government withdrew, eager for people to enjoy the freedom that had been denied to them for so long. They knew that they shouldn’t completely disappear — there needed to be guarantees that certain standards were being maintained for everyone — so they developed the Common Law: a group of baseline rights, privileges and standards that everyone in a UEE system could expect. (Amontillado)
These Common Laws include: fundamental personal freedoms, safety practices for structures and products, health services, basic education (Equivalency), a system to allow interplanetary trade and travel, jump point and exploration management, and a security force to protect from external alien threats and interstellar crime.
These Common Laws can be found/enforced on every planet (represented or not) in a UEE system. The planets within these systems can build upon these Common Laws if they want, but cannot lessen them (Ramblin, Ski).
We’ve talked extensively about the Local and Imperial government, but what about Recognized and Unrecognized planets? If you aren’t familiar with the distinction, a planet is considered Unrecognized until it petitions the UEE for recognition. This can be granted based on the planet’s contribution to the Empire or its growth or because it has a valuable resource. Once recognition is granted, the Senate lets the planet choose its name (up to this point it’s officially known as its planetary designation (Sol III) even though it would already have a name created by locals) and allowed to elect a Senator.
So would Unrecognized planets have to abide by these Common Laws? In short, yes. If the system is claimed by the UEE, then the Common Laws apply, even to unrecognized worlds. As in the distinction between Civilians and Citizens among people, think of the recognized planets as Citizens and the unrecognized as Civilians. All are subject to the law, but Citizens/Recognized have the voice to try and change the law.
Now we’ll continue to flesh out this system, adding in some of the departments that were suggested as we go.
Moving on to next week’s topic, something you might possibly be interested in:
As you are probably aware, Star Citizen is going to have a lot of pieces, from ship hulls down to smaller components like maneuvering thrusters. We have an internal corporations list that outlines all of the various manufacturers of these pieces and we’re developing style guides for each of them so they have a consistent look and feel to their parts. The goal is to infuse consistent design elements among the various parts so you could almost identify the manufacturer by the style of the part.
Therefore, we aren’t going to ask for corporations, instead we’re going to ask for Gun Names.
First off, here’s a format to work within:
Manufacturer: (chosen from the list below)
Gun Series Name:
Weapon Type: (energy, ballistic, plasma, neutron)
Naming Scheme: These weapons should come in various sizes 1-5. Do they have individual names for each class version, or a numbering system (Behring M3A = Size 1, Behring M4A = Size 2, etc.)
Tagline: How would they market this weapon? (“Behring M3A: The last word in any fight.”)
So now that you have the format, here are some Corporations that manufacture guns and a little description to help get your mind rolling on potential names:
That’ll do it for this week. As always, please try to keep responses as concise as possible, but we’re really looking forward to seeing what you come up with.