“The time has come to make good on the promises of our forebears. John F. Kennedy once said something about doing things not because they are easy, but specifically because they are hard. My father once said that the only things worth doing tend to be tough. That speaks to me. It should speak to you too. What we’re doing isn’t just the next great leap for mankind, for humanity: It’s also the toughest thing we’ve ever undertaken. Putting aside our differences, surviving our conflicts, saving our planet, all those challenges pale in comparison to accessing the final frontier stretched before us. But our future is beyond that event horizon. The future of humanity. It won’t be easy. But that’s why we’re doing it. Mankind has leveled up, and it’s up to us to prove we’re up to a whole new level of challenge. To your posts.”
-Siegfried Hoffman, the first Alliance captain to ever take a crew beyond Sol
The United Global Alliance (UGA)
Primary Species: Human
Species Class: Mammalian
Species Traits: Talented and Intelligent
Humans devote an inordinate amount of both biomass and energy to brain matter. This puts humanity on the right end of the bell curve in terms of intelligence. They learn quickly, and advance quickly, and show a remarkable aptitude to incorporate foreign but superior technology into their own lexicon. They are driven and naturally predisposed to competition for resources, which accelerates their skill development.
Humanity has small windows for generating pregnancies biologically, and 3-5 percent of the population has been rendered infertile from environmental factors, including radiation. Additional barriers to population growth are a nine-month gestation period and a comparatively long pre-adult stage.
In a highly independent, capitalist, individualistic society, Earth continues to grow crowded, and certain elements of humanity are pushing back. Many yearn for a less industrial way of life in a less urban environment. These individuals are typically the first to enlist for colonial duties, preferring rustic and isolated life on the frontiers of space.
A continental world covered mostly in saltwater ocean. It bears has tremendous biodiversity, though it’s former bevy of natural resources has been largely depleted. The human societies on Earth have largely globalized under the UGA. This new government has made efforts to repair and restore the battered environment, but such initiatives are in their infancy. Urban and suburban civilization occupies over 80% of the planet’s landmass as of the advent of FTL, with the rural way of life in danger of vanishing.
Governing Ethics: Militarist
Defense spending and constant conflict have been a defining characteristic of humanity and its nation states for millennia. Though increased globalization, manifested in the UGA, has curtailed the need for military budgets significantly, the cultural hallmarks of a warrior race remain. The UGA Fleet is a peacekeeping and space exploration program funded by all the member nations of Earth, and occupies a central position in nearly all cultures and national identities.
Classical liberalism from the Western, industrialized nations has continued, over the centuries, to saturate human culture. By the advent of FTL, it has become, by cultural and philosophical attrition and aggressive foreign policy, the dominant cultural ethos of humanity.
The human identity changed when an alien data bank found on an asteroid proved they weren’t alone in the universe. One of the founding tenets of the Fleet is to seek out and interact with alien lifeforms, and mankind as a whole is breathless with excitement for the date First Contact finally occurs.
Government Type: Indirect Democracy
The UGA is funded by member nations and staffed by member nation military personnel. The greater the percentage each country contributes to the annual operating budget, the more seats (the holders of which are democratically elected) in the UGA Congress that nation may fill. The United States, being by far the largest global economy and strongest military power, typically holds a plurality by virtue of their tight coalition with the European Federation, which typically holds the second or third most seats. Their voting bloc, by and large, sets policy. The United Kingdom, though no longer as close to the EF or US as they were in decades past, votes with their bloc some 70-80% of the time. These three member nations, together, comprise a majority, if not a supermajority, of UGA Congress seats.
The 21st Century was a difficult one for mankind. Economies continued to drift together even as philosophies and ideals remained polarized. This toxic relationship between states promised conflict, and conflict did indeed erupt. Several brushfire conflicts in the Middle East and Africa kept the major powers on edge with their fingers on the trigger. As the world continued to industrialize and develop, the Earth itself continued to suffer, with natural resources depleted, climate change worsening, and energy crises springing up with greater regularity.
It was near the tail end of a dark century that technology and idealism finally unified in a fashion that rendered a shining future tractable. Silver Bullet Inc., an energy conglomerate spending hundreds of billions on democratizing space travel, brought asteroid mining to the fore and developed sustainable, clean energy. This went far to stop the climate and scarcity crises riddling the planet, and brought unprecedented resource wealth to Earth. Other large corporations, seeing the astronomical, historic profits being reaped by SBI, re-tailored their corporate missions in imitation. Big business looked beyond our little, green world, and in the process, changed it.
Though slow to respond, Earth’s nation states eventually rumbled into action. Initially, the unprecedented wealth and resource haul was put to use on military matters, and violent, explosive conflict characterized the early decades of the 22nd Century. Nuclear weapons were launched, and millions died. But eventually, extremism and anti-democratic and anti-globalist forces were defeated utterly, overwhelmed by the tide of material from space. Though accompanied by this substantial bloodshed, globalization had reached its final stages: a world full of nation states whose economies were virtually indistinguishable, and whose governments were closely allied. The United Nations was substantially reformed into the United Global Alliance. The UGA partnered with SBI and their subsidiaries to project a unified, human presence into every corner of the Sol system, with full Martian industrial utilization achieved by 2150.
The Washington B-1 find accelerated the dreams and fears of all mankind. An alien data cache, stored in a fashion we could decrypt, was found during mining operations on the Washington B-1 asteroid. In the cache were scientific revelations, medical miracles, and, chillingly, a directive to seek “Those Who Came Before”. Reactions amongst humanity varied, but those in power embraced this new destiny. Wondrous technologies were developed in line with the knowledge gained from the WB-1 cache, and mankind took a great leap forward.
The UGA has presided over decades of prosperity, and mankind has developed its assets to levels that were previously the dreams of science fiction. At long last, we are prepared to leave Sol, to chase our destiny amongst the stars, and the seek Those Who Came Before. What will we find in the darkness? Is space as cold as it seems? Only time will tell that tale.
We’re excited to share this unfolding space opera with you. Galactic Chronicles: Stellaris begins the week of May 9. Read more about our galaxy.