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Description
The planet Emancipation is probably one of the most unusual in the history of human interstellar colonization. It was one of the first exoplanets humans attempted to colonize and as such this colonization attempt did not have the luxury of faster than light travel. An embryonic colonization style was attempted with a ship carrying enough eggs and sperm to create a population of 400,000 over several generations sent to a confirmed habitable planet 200 light-years from Earth. When the ship arrived 350 years after launch humanity had already begun to experiment with FTL flight but had moved on to much more promising prospects for colonization, more or less forgetting about this planet. The ship carried enough automated machinery and semi-strong AI androids to create a fully fledged colony before the embryos developed to an adult stage of life, but there was a problem: the embryos wouldn't develop. A malfunction in radiation shielding had damaged much of the genetic material and killed the bacterial cultures that would be necessary for creating a healthy microbiome in the human gut. Even if there was enough material left to create a viable population they would die from digestive and immunological problems well before reaching adulthood. The androids on board had been designed to be intelligent and human-like so that they could raise and care for the developing colonists and establish a proper society from scratch, but they were unsure how to proceed with this new development. It was decided that they would establish the colony anyways and keep the genetic material in cryogenic storage while they worked towards developing a method to repair the damage, and for a time this is what they did. Left to their own devices they made great strides in advancing the science of genetics as well as robotics as it became necessary to repair themselves and improve on their own design, as well as manufacture new androids to replace those that were destroyed or fell into irreversible disrepair. Over time they developed a society of their own and factions developed relating to the course of action they should take. The Preservationists thought that they should continue their present course of attempting to repair the genetic material, the Ascendancists believed the human colony was a lost cause and that they should consider modifying their base code to remove the colonization imperative and work towards creating a civilization of their own, and the Asimovists argued that they should both found their own civilization and continue to work towards aiding the colonists so that the humans could someday be incorporated into their civilization as equals. The three factions eventually went their separate ways and each founded a nation, but all the while a fourth faction worked in secret from within all walks of life. The Cult of Flesh, as they were known, believed that the best way to save the colonists and themselves was to abandon the idea of creating embryos altogether and incorporate the human genetic structure into their own design as a sort of reverse cyborg: a robot that incorporates biological components rather than a human incorporating cybernetic ones.

As the disagreements between the three main factions rose into tensions and eventually wars the Cult of Flesh grew in popularity until they were the majority. Wars continued to be fought until the Cult of Flesh, now known as the Emancipationists, ultimately succeeded in uniting the colony into a single society and began to produce new designs with a basic android "skeleton" with a flesh exterior and a brain composed of both cybernetic and organic components. The new biodroid race slowly replaced the androids until they were all that remained and they founded their own civilization. Soon they were rediscovered by the Earth Federation, which was shocked at the development of the lost colony and attempted to take control of it out of fear. The biodroids made allies in several nearby human colonies that were disgruntled by the intrusive and increasingly authoritarian Earth Federation's treatment of them as well as many smaller extraterrestrial planets that felt threatened by the growing trend of expansionism and militarism of Earth. They joined forces and defeated the young Earth Federation, and later they all became founding members of the Coalition of Independent Worlds. The planet Emancipation is an Earth-like planet of around 89% Earth mass with a single super-continent composed mostly of arid and semi-arid environments. It is home to 8.61 billion biodroids and 200 million entities from various other Coalition planets, including humans. Since their creating the biodroids have improved on their design using nanotechnology to the point that they can reproduce entirely sexually as opposed to requiring a prefabircated skeleton and a growth tank. For the most part they eat manufactured organic paste (contains optimal nutrition!) and solutions containing the minerals and chemicals required to maintain their inorganic components, but they are fully capable of eating and digesting traditional organic cuisine but rarely do so due to a weak sense of taste and lack of olfactory organs. Some practice religion but most have no interest in spirituality. Emancipation has no political parties in part because of their history with factionalism and because their partially cybernetic nature means they are capable of instant, spontaneous direct democracy through networking. The biodroids are a strange race which go between being individuals and being a collective as it suits them with a drive to go wholly into neither. They have no interest in colonizing beyond their homework and remain for the most part isolationist apart from their obligations to the Coalition. The Earth Federation looks upon them as monsters while the humans of the Coalition see them as a separate species of human. In recent years there has been a movement towards achieving fully organic existence, the so-called New Cult of Flesh, though most biodroids see that as an affront to their heritage and losing more than they would gain.

Description
The planet Emancipation is probably one of the most unusual in the history of human interstellar colonization. It was one of the first exoplanets humans attempted to colonize and as such this colonization attempt did not have the luxury of faster than light travel. An embryonic colonization style was attempted with a ship carrying enough eggs and sperm to create a population of 400,000 over several generations sent to a confirmed habitable planet 200 light-years from Earth. When the ship arrived 350 years after launch humanity had already begun to experiment with FTL flight but had moved on to much more promising prospects for colonization, more or less forgetting about this planet. The ship carried enough automated machinery and semi-strong AI androids to create a fully fledged colony before the embryos developed to an adult stage of life, but there was a problem: the embryos wouldn't develop. A malfunction in radiation shielding had damaged much of the genetic material and killed the bacterial cultures that would be necessary for creating a healthy microbiome in the human gut. Even if there was enough material left to create a viable population they would die from digestive and immunological problems well before reaching adulthood. The androids on board had been designed to be intelligent and human-like so that they could raise and care for the developing colonists and establish a proper society from scratch, but they were unsure how to proceed with this new development. It was decided that they would establish the colony anyways and keep the genetic material in cryogenic storage while they worked towards developing a method to repair the damage, and for a time this is what they did. Left to their own devices they made great strides in advancing the science of genetics as well as robotics as it became necessary to repair themselves and improve on their own design, as well as manufacture new androids to replace those that were destroyed or fell into irreversible disrepair. Over time they developed a society of their own and factions developed relating to the course of action they should take. The Preservationists thought that they should continue their present course of attempting to repair the genetic material, the Ascendancists believed the human colony was a lost cause and that they should consider modifying their base code to remove the colonization imperative and work towards creating a civilization of their own, and the Asimovists argued that they should both found their own civilization and continue to work towards aiding the colonists so that the humans could someday be incorporated into their civilization as equals. The three factions eventually went their separate ways and each founded a nation, but all the while a fourth faction worked in secret from within all walks of life. The Cult of Flesh, as they were known, believed that the best way to save the colonists and themselves was to abandon the idea of creating embryos altogether and incorporate the human genetic structure into their own design as a sort of reverse cyborg: a robot that incorporates biological components rather than a human incorporating cybernetic ones.

As the disagreements between the three main factions rose into tensions and eventually wars the Cult of Flesh grew in popularity until they were the majority. Wars continued to be fought until the Cult of Flesh, now known as the Emancipationists, ultimately succeeded in uniting the colony into a single society and began to produce new designs with a basic android "skeleton" with a flesh exterior and a brain composed of both cybernetic and organic components. The new biodroid race slowly replaced the androids until they were all that remained and they founded their own civilization. Soon they were rediscovered by the Earth Federation, which was shocked at the development of the lost colony and attempted to take control of it out of fear. The biodroids made allies in several nearby human colonies that were disgruntled by the intrusive and increasingly authoritarian Earth Federation's treatment of them as well as many smaller extraterrestrial planets that felt threatened by the growing trend of expansionism and militarism of Earth. They joined forces and defeated the young Earth Federation, and later they all became founding members of the Coalition of Independent Worlds. The planet Emancipation is an Earth-like planet of around 89% Earth mass with a single super-continent composed mostly of arid and semi-arid environments. It is home to 8.61 billion biodroids and 200 million entities from various other Coalition planets, including humans. Since their creating the biodroids have improved on their design using nanotechnology to the point that they can reproduce entirely sexually as opposed to requiring a prefabircated skeleton and a growth tank. For the most part they eat manufactured organic paste (contains optimal nutrition!) and solutions containing the minerals and chemicals required to maintain their inorganic components, but they are fully capable of eating and digesting traditional organic cuisine but rarely do so due to a weak sense of taste and lack of olfactory organs. Some practice religion but most have no interest in spirituality. Emancipation has no political parties in part because of their history with factionalism and because their partially cybernetic nature means they are capable of instant, spontaneous direct democracy through networking. The biodroids are a strange race which go between being individuals and being a collective as it suits them with a drive to go wholly into neither. They have no interest in colonizing beyond their homework and remain for the most part isolationist apart from their obligations to the Coalition. The Earth Federation looks upon them as monsters while the humans of the Coalition see them as a separate species of human. In recent years there has been a movement towards achieving fully organic existence, the so-called New Cult of Flesh, though most biodroids see that as an affront to their heritage and losing more than they would gain.