Governments of EV Nova

Since by now only about 8% of this article is about the Auroran Empire, I decided I should stop dragging pesimist_guy's old Shame on Aurorans! thread to the top of the board. Here's the full article as it stands on July 1st, 2001. It may not receive too many more updates, and you may want to bookmark and/or save it if any of this information is important to you.

The Governments of Escape Velocity: Nova

Federation of United Planets: They seem to be a direct outgrowth of modern human culture, and are a representative democracy, at least in name. They seem to have started with lofty principles when they were founded slightly less than 250 years before the start of the game, but have become controlled, at least to a certain extent, by the manipulative Bureau of Internal Investigation, whose stated goal is "unifying all of Known Space under the Federation banner." Their primary target at the beginning of the game is the Auroran Empire, although they plan to conquer the other governments further on. They fear that they may have been infiltrated by Polaris Mu'hari spies. The Roughnecks, a highly regarded Federation Navy unit commanded by Admiral Raczak, play an important part in the initial stages of the Auroran operation. The Federation controls Earth.

Auroran Empire: They have an "honourable" culture, and don't believe in capturing offenders unless it's unavoidable. Their society has a dominant warrior class, and is ruled by five principal families, each of which contributes three members towards the Auroran Council. These families are the Moash, the Dani, the Vella, the Tekel, and the Heraan. One of these takes precedence over the others. The Aurorans are a warrior culture, so death matters little to them, but dishonourable activities such as smuggling or stealing are considered to be much worse. Their system of government is feudal, and all five houses vie for power and prestige. Their territory was originally one of the southern outlying districts of the Colonial Council, and they derived their name many years later from a man called Vanadium Aurora. The Auroran storyline may include some level of a love interst.

Polaris: They a "somewhat human" culture. Their ships perform several levels above others in the same class, and they grow most of their technology biologically rather than building it. Polaris ships are alive, and quite intelligent, although they have some industrial components. They also have their own ideas about faster than light travel. They have a caste-based society. The Federation Bureau of Internal Investigation says that the Mu'hari caste are trained to infiltrate other cultures. However, this is only one of their roles. Their name translates literally as "honoured servants." The other Polaris castes are the Nil'kemorya, P'aedt, Ver'ash, Tre'pira, and Kel'ariy. One of these is a warrior caste, and the Kel'ariy may be in some way dominant over the others. Each caste has a different set of "unwritten rules of conduct," and a different role within the social structure. Polaris freighters are always unarmed in acknowledgement of the events of the Polaris Civil War. The Polaris are the first (or perhaps only) major government to develop cloaking technology during the course of the game, and implement it on a ship called the Zephyr, which was named by web board moderator ShadeOfBlue. Polaris space is located to the east of the Federation. The Polaris grew out of a colonisation expedition that left during the time of the Colonial Council, but they were never part of it. In fact, without the intervention of an outside force, the two governments might have gone to war. There was one battle between the two governments, which the Polaris won.

Vell-os: Descended from an Indian prince named Vell-os and his followers who somehow left Earth 2977 years before the game begins, around 1500 AD. The second Federation preamble refers to the "shattered remains of what was Vell-os space," a condition that resulted from bombing by the former Colonial Council, a human government predating the Federation. They were, however, members of the Colonial Council for several centuries. They have "mind powers" and nanites, which they developed themselves, having more superior biological sciences than other humans. They also have an organ, made up of a mix of pure biological matter and specific types of nanites that produces more nanites, which is the only physical difference between humans and Vell-os. This organ does not provide their "mind-power," although it is peripherally related. The Vell-os are still close enough to "ordinary" humans that they can interbreed, although the resulting child is always Vell-os. The Vell-os lived apart from the rest of the human race for quite some time, but by the time the game begins, they have been in contact for several centuries. Some or possibly all of their ships are made of a sort of energy, and are not really ships, but rather projections of their "mind-power." The former Vell-os space is located west of the Federation, but they no longer reside there. The Vell-os are in some way controlled by an outside power.

Rebellion: They aren't rebelling against the Federation, but often end up forced to fight its Navy. Some of their ships are modified ships taken from the Federation, Polaris, and other governments. They have a very specific charter, and don't exist merely to attack one government.

Associated Guild of Free Traders: Pirates. They are relatively organised and powerful compared to the pirates in EV or and renegades in Override. Rather than destroying the player like in the previous scenarios, these pirates will now disable the player's ship and steal their money and cargo. Many of their ships are modified versions of ships stolen from other governments, including the Starbridge and the Auroran Enterprise. However, they have also designed some of their own ships, including the Pirate Carrier seen in the desktop images and the famous Manticore. The pirates are located to the north of the Federation. They control all piratical activity in Federation space, but are divided into several factions. There are also some independent pirates not affiliated with the Guild operating in Auroran space.

Wild Geese: The Wild Geese are a mercenary organisation. Their storyline is almost a major storyline, and they are important enough to merit one preamble. (The six major governments have two each.)

Wraith: The Wraith are a non-humanoid sentient alien race (all of the other governments are humans). They play a part (approx. ten missions) in one of the six major storylines. The Wraith are organisms which live in space. I don't mean they live in spaceships, I mean they live in the vacuum of space. There are, however, a couple of Wraith planets. The Wraith may have cloaking technology or abilities.

Krypt: The Krypt plays an important part in the Vell-os storyline and appear in one other, and is peripherally connected to humanity via the Vell-os. The Krypt controls and is spread over approximately 1/10th of the galaxy. The Krypt and Vell-os have been connected for centuries but have only known each other for decades. Every time they meet, the Krypt attacks the Vell-os. The Krypt evolved after the bombing of the Vell-os by the Colonial Council. It is are descended from the Vell-os in a strange way that involves their nanites. Its space now borders human territory, and there has been a small level of contact. The Krypt is in some way a collective unit. It originated on the planet Vellos and was "born" self-aware. The Krypt is/are sometimes like humans, and sometimes larger than planets. It has no specific form, and can change shapes.

Guild of Bounty Hunters: The Guild has a minor storyline which is important enough to merit a chär resource.

United Shipping

The chär Resource

When the player starts a new pilot, they select a chär resource. This chär resource is created by the scenario designer, and controls:

• Initial money
• Initial ship type
• Initial system (can be chosen random from a group of up to four)
• Initial legal status with up to four governments
• Initial combat rating
• Intro text shown
• Intro picture shown
• Initial mission bit sets

See the Nova Bible for more information. The default character in the inital Nova scenario by ATMOS is called "Merchant," and is equivalent to the initial character in EV or Override. While the standard scenario does not allow you to actually ~join~ a government using the chär resource, ATMOS has also provided characters to allow easy entry into each major storyline and also the minor storylines of the Wild Geese and the Guild of Bounty Hunters. A scenario designer can create whatever characters they want, and if they so choose, can let the player select a government at the beginning of the game. Or not.

The player, when creating a new pilot file, ~also~ chooses their gender, which can be accessed by the scenario designer through a NCB expression, but this is not connected with the chär resource.

Miscellany

• Nova's calendar begins at 0 NC (New Calendar), which coincides with the death of the great Omata Kane. Prince Vell-os and his followers left Earth around -1800 NC (circa 1500 AD), the Federation was founded in 935 NC, and the game begins in 1177 NC.
• Omata Kane discovered the physics that lead to the development of hyperspace technology. She also designed and built the Kane Band (a solid ring around the Earth) and the hypergate system that was used for human interstellar travel for many centuries.
• By the time the game begins, space travel has been common for a long time. For example, many Leviathan heavy freighters are as much as 600 years old. In Nova, the hyperdrive as used in EV and Override is relatively new, and you can still find some examples of "hypergates," stationary objects which launch a vessel through hyperspace to another system. The hypergates are closed to the player when the scenario begins, and even after the player is allowed access to them, there is still a fee.
• The human race - except the Polaris, who had other ways to travel through hyperspace, lost political, social, economic and scientific cohesion in the aftermath of a terrorist bombing of the Sol hypergate.
• Large cargo ships often use standardised cargo pods. The Terrapin carries one pod, the pirate Manticore carries two rings in order to carry the cargo it steals, and the Leviathan heavy freighter carries five rings. The Leviathan costs so much that only the richest corporations can afford it, and takes 20 years to build.

Other Resources

• First Federation Preamble by Frandall: The Preamble to the Constitution of the Federation of United Planets
• Second Federation Preamble by Frandall: Minutes from the Meeting of the Board of Directors of the Bureau of Internal Investigation on 1 January 1177 NC
• Pirate Preamble 2.0 by pipeline (While these are the only preambles that have been made available at this point, Nova will include two preambles for each of the six major governments and one for the Wild Geese. These three preambles are also fairly old versions, and may not match the versions that eventually ship with Nova.)
• EV Nova Screenshots
• Asteroid Mining: A fifth QuickTime movie that is not linked on the screenshots page
• Pyrogenesis I: A landing screenshot that demonstrates the new interface
• EVN Editors: An image demonstrating R&R Software's editors for EV Nova
• Pre-Release EV Nova Bible by Matt Burch
• EV Nova Progress Log

---

David Arthur
Talon Plugin for Classic EV

[This message has been edited by David Arthur (edited 07-01-2001).]