Yugash

(adj: Yugashi)

History

• The most prideful nation, that scavenges for materials the hardest and most successful nation in Vanilla. In Gunstar, the pride is still there, but they delve into intellectual depths now, becoming the experimental hub of thought. It houses the Titanomach and contained Wyldstorms, and is really just waiting for something to shake it up.
• In Vanilla, Yugash ended up in a war against Sova after denying any trade of materials (of which they were secretly short of too). Their ambition for this war was so horrendous that it led to even more overzealous stripmining of the planet, which drove elementals into mad marauding murderers and random parts of the nations as large as towns into destruction.
• Oh hey, ANOTHER general history section, awesome. Sirin of Het was a prophet who spoke of a way to the Godhead. Eventually he won the heart of the people (this is important) but the Tripartite was reluctant. Though in time they grant him power, when he died as they were changing his cast, murder was suspect. Revolution was insighted, and Kerok came into power in the chaos, a student of Sirin who spearheaded the bloody revolt. He instead re-aimed the expedition to Creation, attempting to use the feedback from a city-size essence cannon. Nothing can go wrong. Using some ancient magitech, he reduces the resource load of the city only to fund more expeditions to find more.

Culture

• Alchemicals: “Yugash is known as the most progressive and expansionist of the Eight Nations, and it has had some of the same difficulties as Claslat with traditionalist Champions. Those who buy into the Yugashite dream, however, tend to support their nation wholeheartedly. Yugash embraces the creativity of its Chosen and is willing to court significant danger to give them the tools to help it become the foremost among the Eight Nations. Where Claslat drives its Chosen into competition to seal their loyalty, Yugash offers frequent benefits and rewards for success. Most Yugashite Alchemicals feel more personally appreciated and included than their contemporaries in other nations, although some few are only further alienated by being trotted out as the centerpiece of parades and resent the impropriety of being issued frequent personal dinner invitations by high-ranking members of the Tripartite.”
  • Their arrogance can be summed up simply “A Yugashi statesman named Kerok famously rebuked Gulak’s attempt at policing, telling their grand autocrat: “Declare war or stand down.” The message was delivered on the back of a three-year-old petition from Sova for material aid.”
  • Want another? “The soulgems of hundreds of Sovan dead had been excavated from the ruins of Ixut, and placed in the walls, floor, and ceilings along the final march toward Kadar. They’d been prepared by the Luminors such that the spirits within rose up to beseech the Sovan soldiers in tones of anguish and despair.”
• Yugash, in its post-war (forced) boom was also the first to find the Well of Souls was emptying as stillbirths became commonplace. The nation's pride started to break, as violent crime rose and dereliction of duty became common. The Theomachracy started to enslave anyone who failed suicide, and spread anti-homosexual messages to ensure that Yugash spend as much time as it can obtaining what few souls remain available for reincarnation.
  • They are not MONSTERS per se, but they are ruthless. And heartlessness and mad science are a dangerous mix. They are ALL about the bottomline.
  • “Yugashi lectors, as one of the few castes which perform little manual labor, often grow out their nails to outrageous lengths as a sign of status; this has given rise to the performance art known as light dancing, in which the lector adorns her nails with luminous paints. These are used to trace intricate and breathtaking afterimages through the air in darkened amphitheaters (long-haired lectors often throw their entire body into the performance, using their flying hair to add fluttering bars of shadow to the performance). There is no commonly-accepted code of meaning to either patterns or colors in light dancing, and so the art form is highly interpretive and personal.”

Physical Descriptions

• “Unlike some other nations, Yugash is not situated in a segment of the Maker’s anatomy with many large, open spaces. Its towns and cities are tucked into narrow, claustrophobic cysts in Autochthon’s vast muscular system, connected by an intricate network of primary and secondary tram lines.”
• “Where the location of various towns and cities within the other nations is fairly fixed, Yugash’s internal geography stays in constant, if fairly predictable, drift.”
• “Yugash is nestled in one of the Maker’s mighty neural nodes, a confluence of faith and genius. Centuries of work by theotechnical savants have shaped it into a land of towering peaks and narrow, winding tunnels; prayer-flags flap in venting steam, and electrical arcs trace out entire sutras in their deadly currents. Thousands of savants, technicians, and scholars make their home in the district, bustling from project to project and providing brain-power for the largest think tank humanity has ever seen. Led by Exalted savants, they plumb the reaches of possibility, devising new and awe-inspiring tools for the Deliberative’s endless struggle. As Autochthon’s thought-lightning roars and crackles over-head, they bow their heads in solemn meditation, hoping that the Maker’s genius will grace them.”

Cities

Ot: (Patropolis, Jade caste)

• Second-largest of Yugashi cities, “Ot is comprised of three ring-shaped layers, stacked one atop another, pierced by a massive central trunk of veins and conduits. The city acts as an ancillary vascular system for the Great Maker, routing precious fluids and waste materials throughout the Machine God’s body. This makes Ot naturally wealthy in water, oil, and other necessary resources, but also a dangerous place to live; four centuries ago a main artery in the city’s trunk ruptured, flooding three districts of the second tier with molten silver.”
• The lowest tier tends to be Populat/pilgrim residency, generally too hard to police effectively.
• Middle tier is Tripartite and Alchemicals housing, as well as industry and seat of government.
• Upper tier is warehouses and light industry, and used as the staging area for the exodus into Creation.
  • Probably not so much in Gunstar.

Romos-Autrama: (Town(s))

• A ruined combination of towns created in a collision with Sova, unlikely to exist in Gunstar. Autrama is the outer Yugash town though, and Romos Sova, so they could still hold relevance in Gunstar outside of that, if we really needed to.

Het: (Metropolis)

• The smallest city, which withdrew from the nation after Kerok's bullshit and became more conservative.

Kereth: (Patropolis, Soulsteel caste)

• “Constructed along an almost 45-degree slope, Kereth is a soulsteel patropolis of right angles: high buildings with severe lines, grid-streets, and long black-and-red banners dominate the landscape. Its people are characterized as quiet but serene; spy-eyes peer down from atop the city’s buildings, while observation drones drift through his boulevards, always watching, making Kereth one of the safest places in the Octet.”
• Slowly shutting down in Vanilla.

Kadar: (Metropolis, originally Kaleidoscopic Armiger, Moonsilver caste)

• Yugash's capital, contested to be the oldest city in Autochthonia. “Nine times the size of Ot”
• “Like Ot, the ancient metropolis is laid out in a series of giant, open discs stacked atop one another, linked by both modern pneumatic lift tubes and ancient access ladders bolted to massive support pillars. Unlike Ot, Kadar totals six tiers in height, and its discs are better than three times the width of the younger patropolis; also unlike Ot, which is a Jade Caste industrial patropolis, Kadar is a moonsilver city of graceful, soaring towers, many of which pierce through two or even three of its stacks . . . ”
• Rife with conspiracies and factionalism, it also has the worst safety record—for members of the Tripartite. ““Politics make men clumsy,” goes the Populat joke, trotted out whenever a plutarch or lector ‘accidentally’ falls off a catwalk, tumbles into a set of factory gears, or locks himself in a factory just before it is scoured with cleansing steam.”
• Gunstar: “The Metropolis of Kadar forms the nation-district’s core; the Synaptic Junction Dynamo runs down the city’s spine, drawing energies from the Maker’s thought-lightning into massive rods and channeling it into the power grid. Even the residue of Autochthon’s genius is enough to power Kadar ten times over—which leaves more than enough for the Deliberative’s experiments. Early in the Realm’s history, a No Moon researcher perfected a method for containing Wyldstorms, and transporting them safely within the Gunstar’s hull. This raw creation-stuff has served as fodder for countless theories, experiments, and weapons—the first protoshinmaic vortex was birthed within the labs of Yugash, and its labs churn out refinements on the basic design to this day. In the nearby reaches, Lawgivers weave Miracle Shells within specially-shielded chambers, warping the laws of nature to better study them. These two disciplines have borne terrifying fruit in the form of the Titanomach, a device the size of a man’s hand. When detonated, the Titanomach affirms the reality of Nirguna upon a localized area, obliterating all existence within it.”

People of Note

Yevel: Celebrant of Ot.

• Interested in if Creation-born have souls, and how that works with the Well of Souls. Uneasy with Kerok's mad desires in such a case.
  • Could easily be shifted to Infernals.

Unhesitating Loyal Weapon: Orichalcum caste of Kadar.

• Security detail on the upper level of Ot. She is more personally loyal to Autochthonia than the government, but she does not let that get in the way of her job.
  • Might be usable but there's stronger stuff out there.

Sirin and Kerok: See History

• For some reason, not detailed in their own section, instead spread out through the history and cities, dumb. Largely detailed in the final history section, might be usable, who knows.

Fair-Spoken Rishi: 'The Elder Statesman,' Honorary Plutarch, Orichalcum caste

• A competent military general, and an even more competent diplomat. Finding little satisfaction in his military victories, he talked to a plutarch and became enamored with uniting the Eight Nations. He writes many essays and papers on the idea, subtly challenging the nation's beliefs while retaining allies in high places so that his loyalty is never questioned - as it is truly unwavering, but for Autochthonia as a whole. He is quick to train Alchemicals who share his views, often asking that they watch out for his friends in return.
  • Scroll: Stats on p. 151.

Excessively Righteous Blossom: Honorary Lector, Moonsilver caste

• “It is a testament to Blossom’s character that, when interviewed by Olgotary officials shortly after his Exaltation on the eve of the Elemental War between Yugash and Sova, he opined that an excess of righteousness was not a flaw but the greatest of virtues.” Oh I get it, like his name.
• Blossom, in past lives, was a military strategist and genius, but he has crystalized instead as an orthodox adherent. He insists the old ideals must be respected and early on as an adjudicator in Kadar harassed Populat and Tripartite for straying within modern cultural norms, and was transferred to Ot before eventually being stripped of his status.
• Blossom began to redeem himself in the war against Sova, “ fighting and crippling the Sovan Orichalcum Caste general Merciless Gauntleted Fist no less than three times,” and asked for command of a troop. He did not flourish here, blaming a lack of valor in the men rather than turning inward and realizing his charisma and cunning are not currently capable.
• “Since then, Blossom has fallen in with the lectors. He feels that inspiration is a quality sorely lacking within Autochthonia and so has dedicated himself to the craft. He has never commissioned Charms to improve either his ability to lead troops or inspire others, believing that his own native charisma and military prowess are second to none.”
  • “Excessively Righteous Blossom stands seven feet tall, his musculature augmented with synthetic moonsilver under shock-white hair. His eyes are cornflower blue, staring out from a moving but unfeeling mask of metal. Eschewing the standard voluminous garb of the lectors, the only concession to style he allows is a cloth kilt. He carries the Barisage Device, a barbed, self-deforming daiklave of moonsilver fitted with a mechanical seven-shot assault crossbow, triggered by a switch in the pommel.”
  • Scroll: Stats on p. 153.

Lissome Avid Engineer: 'The Young Prodigy,' Starmetal caste

• “We're not destroying [our future]. We're redesigning it for the better.”
• Young civic engineer whose designs have become popular in post-war Yugash, has made friends with the Tripartite allowing her high visibility and access to a female scholar lover, Kasta, who designs charms for her.
• She is wary of Clarity, as she feels it would interfere both with her aesthetic choices and her inward meditation, but she is not wary of modifying her body, finding the interplay of man and machine fascinating. A true engineer, her greatest desire is to study and assimilate knowledge (specifically architecture) from other nations, from those around her, from within herself.
  • I like her overall (though I confess that's partially her physical design), my biggest complaint is Yet Another Yugashi, I guess they wanted people for Project Razor games.
  • Scroll: Stats on p. 157.