HOME | DD

Description
Hey all. Been real busy with the current slate of big projects (“Cydonian Days” and “Adrestia’s Hammer” are their names), but I figure I’d throw y’all a bone. I’ll be honest, I haven’t had time to really flesh out Jovian history too much, so, a lot of what you’re gonna read might be subject to change at a later date, but that describes almost everything I make anyway, because I’m a hopeless perfectionist.

Also, I’m uploading this from my phone, so if the quality is shit, I will try to fix it when I next have my laptop in front of me (and for those wondering, I do 90% of my writing on my phone).

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DA FLAG
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White, red and orange are taken from the three dominant colors of Jupiter’s atmosphere. White represents the faithful optimism, peaceful intentions, fresh opportunities and the purity of purpose of the Jovian people. Red represents the strength and vigor, historical sacrifices and the bonds of love between all Jovians. Orange represents the energetic enthusiasm, dynamic creativity, stalwart determination and success of the Jovian Empire.

The eye and lightning bolt are the coat of arms of House Zeus. The eye represents the legendary storm on Jupiter; once known as the “Red Spot”, this crimson cyclone is now referred to by the more colorful monicker of the “Eye of Jove” or simply “The Eye”. The lightning bolt, meanwhile, refers not only to the affinity of Jupiter’s mythological namesake for storms and thunderbolts, but also the planet’s own mighty electro-magnetic field, known locally as the “Maelstrom”.

The flag’s tricolor format and similarity to the Martian and Venusian flags is no accident. During the formation of the Jovian Empire, its founders took many notes from the Martian Assembly and Venusian Soviet, and saw the tricolor format as emblematic of planetary nation-building.

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DA LORE
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Formed in 2090 as an evolution of the Jovian Free Trade Organization (JFTO), which in turn originated in the 2030’s. While the JFTO was successful in stringing together the economies of Jupiter’s 79 moons and hundreds of artificial habitats, further political union was hampered by distrust and the conflicting political interests of the various moons - the starkest difference being the conflict between the “Greater Jovians” (Io, Europa, Ganymede, Callisto, Amalthea and Himalia) and the “Lesser Jovians” (all the other moons). The list of concerns went on and on, impeding further political union throughout the 2050’s, 60’s and 70’s. That is, until the Jovian Commission - the JFTO’s governing body - happened upon an idea that was so insane it had no chance of succeeding.

They were going to breed themselves a race of genetic ubermenschen to serve as selflessly-dedicated civil servants and heads of state. Okay, when you phrase it like that, it sounds kinda shady. But the realities of nation-building around Jupiter were immense. The vast differences and distances between the moons, as well as their sheer numbers, made many democratic options less-than-ideal, due to the necessity of long-term planning rather than cheap politicking and pandering. The idea of an educated, apolitical aristocratic class therefore gained a certain appeal, but of course, the question became: who would form such a class? Choosing someone from any one moon or habitat would anger the rest by giving them unfair power. The Commission would just have to make their philosopher-kings from scratch.

Creating House Fulmen (Latin for “thunderbolt”) was something of a moonshot goal. The best gengineers from across the Jovian Cluster were gathered together and spent ten years working on “Project Thunderbolt”. To have this royal house truly representative of the Jovian people, anonymous genetic samples were taken from all 79 moons of Jupiter, used to create a completely new, recombinant human genome from scratch. Engineered to be racially-ambiguous and superhumanly-attractive, each member of House Fulmen is born (or rather, sliced out of an artificial womb) with a distinctive thunderbolt birthmark over their right eye. From the day they’re born, Fulmen are extensively educated and conditioned for civil service and leadership, and their bodies are constantly being augmented with the latest in cybernetics and biotech, stopping just short of full-somatic replacement. While the Fulmen are all intentionally-sterile, as the technology improves, each new generation of Emperor gets better and better.

In 2285, there are 215,136 members of House Fulmen, who oversee various duties of state and public-relations for the Empire - very often filling the niche of celebrities and idols as well as aristocrats.

The Jovian Empire is a confederal elective constitutional monarchy. Individual polities within the Empire have a high degree of autonomy in their local affairs, with the imperial government mostly concerned with issues impacting the Jovian Cluster as a whole, various large-scale projects, and affairs with other polities beyond the cluster, as well as dealing with UniGov. Most power in the Empire is vested in the unicameral Imperial Conclave, which convenes on Olympia, a massive rotating habitat between the orbits of Ganymede and Callisto. Conclave representatives are elected by the people of the moon or habitat they represent, and serve for terms lasting five standard years. The Emperor/Empress serves for a reign lasting two Jovian years (a Jovian year is 11.8 standard years, meaning each reign lasts 23.6 standard years), and at the end of their reign must abdicate. From an algorithmically-selected body of “pretenders”, the next Emperor/Empress of Jupiter is chosen via popular vote.

The current Emperor of Jupiter is Zeus Augustus Ashoka II; originally “Paul Fulmen, Duke of Amalthea”, upon becoming Emperor, he adopted the honorific of “Zeus Augustus” (for Empresses, it’s “Hera Augusta”), as well as a new “imperial” given name, and as the second Emperor to adopt the imperial name “Ashoka”, he gets the appellation of “II” as well. His full title is “Emperor of Jupiter, Lord of the Seventy-Nine Moons, Protector of the Trojan Fields, Commander-in-Chief of the Imperial Jovian Forces, by the Grace of the People of Jupiter, His Imperial Excellency, Zeus Augustus Ashoka II”. But you can just call him “Ashoka”. He wears bitchin’ clothes and a cape and a mask (think Char, from Mobile Suit Gundam), and whenever he addresses his subjects, there’s smoke, holographic lighting and a theme song in the background. Hey, in the future, people understand the power of memes.

The results of Jupiter’s imperial system have been the stability and political unity of the Jovian Cluster. To a degree. At the end of the day, say, Ganymede still runs about 60% of its own affairs, independent of the imperial government, and smaller, more remote moons and artificial habitats are borderline lawless.

Indeed, rule by a race of “mutants” has spurred a curious rebellion by the anti-biomod, baseline-supremacist bioreactionary movement known as the “Fourth Reich”, which aspires to topple the Fulmen monarchy with a bloody revolution and turn Jupiter into a “baseline redoubt” for the coming “Genepocalypse” - when excessive, “unnatural” biomodification of culminates in human extinct, akin to the Knotweavers of Kaptyen’s Star. The response to Reich terrorism around Jupiter has been counter-insurgency operations by the Imperial Jovian Forces, which for the last forty years haven’t managed to stamp out the Reich completely.

Additionally, while the Empire is slowly turning it around, Jupiter has, since the 1990’s, suffered from something of a “resource curse”, wherein the export of water, ammonia, helium and hydrogen has substituted the growth of a diversified or competitive economy. Simply-put, Jupiter spent most of the 21st century shipping raw materials to Mars, Venus and the Belt, in exchange for technologies it then, at best, could only manufacture inferior versions of. While Mars, Venus and the Belt grew into diversified economies (indeed, Venus avoided the resource curse with regards to their trade in carbon dioxide, by sound investments in other industries, at great cost), Jupiter lagged behind in many ways. Again, this is begging to reverse itself, and some are wondering if Jupiter may eventually eclipse Mars, Venus *and* Earth.

For the average Jovian, the imperial government isn’t really in their lives, and it stays out of grassroots politics. Most Jovians support the monarchy and, increasingly, cast more and more of a cynical eye towards the conventional politicians taken for granted in other parts of the Solar System, part of which might be the Jovians identifying their “Imperial” system of government as very much part of what it means to be “Jovian”. Then again, most “Jovians” think of themselves as “Europan” or “Amalthean” first, and Jovian second. Still, they do appreciate the charm and badassery of getting to say “I am a citizen of the Jovian Empire”.

Description
Hey all. Been real busy with the current slate of big projects (“Cydonian Days” and “Adrestia’s Hammer” are their names), but I figure I’d throw y’all a bone. I’ll be honest, I haven’t had time to really flesh out Jovian history too much, so, a lot of what you’re gonna read might be subject to change at a later date, but that describes almost everything I make anyway, because I’m a hopeless perfectionist.

Also, I’m uploading this from my phone, so if the quality is shit, I will try to fix it when I next have my laptop in front of me (and for those wondering, I do 90% of my writing on my phone).

=======
DA FLAG
=======

White, red and orange are taken from the three dominant colors of Jupiter’s atmosphere. White represents the faithful optimism, peaceful intentions, fresh opportunities and the purity of purpose of the Jovian people. Red represents the strength and vigor, historical sacrifices and the bonds of love between all Jovians. Orange represents the energetic enthusiasm, dynamic creativity, stalwart determination and success of the Jovian Empire.

The eye and lightning bolt are the coat of arms of House Zeus. The eye represents the legendary storm on Jupiter; once known as the “Red Spot”, this crimson cyclone is now referred to by the more colorful monicker of the “Eye of Jove” or simply “The Eye”. The lightning bolt, meanwhile, refers not only to the affinity of Jupiter’s mythological namesake for storms and thunderbolts, but also the planet’s own mighty electro-magnetic field, known locally as the “Maelstrom”.

The flag’s tricolor format and similarity to the Martian and Venusian flags is no accident. During the formation of the Jovian Empire, its founders took many notes from the Martian Assembly and Venusian Soviet, and saw the tricolor format as emblematic of planetary nation-building.

=======
DA LORE
=======

Formed in 2090 as an evolution of the Jovian Free Trade Organization (JFTO), which in turn originated in the 2030’s. While the JFTO was successful in stringing together the economies of Jupiter’s 79 moons and hundreds of artificial habitats, further political union was hampered by distrust and the conflicting political interests of the various moons - the starkest difference being the conflict between the “Greater Jovians” (Io, Europa, Ganymede, Callisto, Amalthea and Himalia) and the “Lesser Jovians” (all the other moons). The list of concerns went on and on, impeding further political union throughout the 2050’s, 60’s and 70’s. That is, until the Jovian Commission - the JFTO’s governing body - happened upon an idea that was so insane it had no chance of succeeding.

They were going to breed themselves a race of genetic ubermenschen to serve as selflessly-dedicated civil servants and heads of state. Okay, when you phrase it like that, it sounds kinda shady. But the realities of nation-building around Jupiter were immense. The vast differences and distances between the moons, as well as their sheer numbers, made many democratic options less-than-ideal, due to the necessity of long-term planning rather than cheap politicking and pandering. The idea of an educated, apolitical aristocratic class therefore gained a certain appeal, but of course, the question became: who would form such a class? Choosing someone from any one moon or habitat would anger the rest by giving them unfair power. The Commission would just have to make their philosopher-kings from scratch.

Creating House Fulmen (Latin for “thunderbolt”) was something of a moonshot goal. The best gengineers from across the Jovian Cluster were gathered together and spent ten years working on “Project Thunderbolt”. To have this royal house truly representative of the Jovian people, anonymous genetic samples were taken from all 79 moons of Jupiter, used to create a completely new, recombinant human genome from scratch. Engineered to be racially-ambiguous and superhumanly-attractive, each member of House Fulmen is born (or rather, sliced out of an artificial womb) with a distinctive thunderbolt birthmark over their right eye. From the day they’re born, Fulmen are extensively educated and conditioned for civil service and leadership, and their bodies are constantly being augmented with the latest in cybernetics and biotech, stopping just short of full-somatic replacement. While the Fulmen are all intentionally-sterile, as the technology improves, each new generation of Emperor gets better and better.

In 2285, there are 215,136 members of House Fulmen, who oversee various duties of state and public-relations for the Empire - very often filling the niche of celebrities and idols as well as aristocrats.

The Jovian Empire is a confederal elective constitutional monarchy. Individual polities within the Empire have a high degree of autonomy in their local affairs, with the imperial government mostly concerned with issues impacting the Jovian Cluster as a whole, various large-scale projects, and affairs with other polities beyond the cluster, as well as dealing with UniGov. Most power in the Empire is vested in the unicameral Imperial Conclave, which convenes on Olympia, a massive rotating habitat between the orbits of Ganymede and Callisto. Conclave representatives are elected by the people of the moon or habitat they represent, and serve for terms lasting five standard years. The Emperor/Empress serves for a reign lasting two Jovian years (a Jovian year is 11.8 standard years, meaning each reign lasts 23.6 standard years), and at the end of their reign must abdicate. From an algorithmically-selected body of “pretenders”, the next Emperor/Empress of Jupiter is chosen via popular vote.

The current Emperor of Jupiter is Zeus Augustus Ashoka II; originally “Paul Fulmen, Duke of Amalthea”, upon becoming Emperor, he adopted the honorific of “Zeus Augustus” (for Empresses, it’s “Hera Augusta”), as well as a new “imperial” given name, and as the second Emperor to adopt the imperial name “Ashoka”, he gets the appellation of “II” as well. His full title is “Emperor of Jupiter, Lord of the Seventy-Nine Moons, Protector of the Trojan Fields, Commander-in-Chief of the Imperial Jovian Forces, by the Grace of the People of Jupiter, His Imperial Excellency, Zeus Augustus Ashoka II”. But you can just call him “Ashoka”. He wears bitchin’ clothes and a cape and a mask (think Char, from Mobile Suit Gundam), and whenever he addresses his subjects, there’s smoke, holographic lighting and a theme song in the background. Hey, in the future, people understand the power of memes.

The results of Jupiter’s imperial system have been the stability and political unity of the Jovian Cluster. To a degree. At the end of the day, say, Ganymede still runs about 60% of its own affairs, independent of the imperial government, and smaller, more remote moons and artificial habitats are borderline lawless.

Indeed, rule by a race of “mutants” has spurred a curious rebellion by the anti-biomod, baseline-supremacist bioreactionary movement known as the “Fourth Reich”, which aspires to topple the Fulmen monarchy with a bloody revolution and turn Jupiter into a “baseline redoubt” for the coming “Genepocalypse” - when excessive, “unnatural” biomodification of culminates in human extinct, akin to the Knotweavers of Kaptyen’s Star. The response to Reich terrorism around Jupiter has been counter-insurgency operations by the Imperial Jovian Forces, which for the last forty years haven’t managed to stamp out the Reich completely.

Additionally, while the Empire is slowly turning it around, Jupiter has, since the 1990’s, suffered from something of a “resource curse”, wherein the export of water, ammonia, helium and hydrogen has substituted the growth of a diversified or competitive economy. Simply-put, Jupiter spent most of the 21st century shipping raw materials to Mars, Venus and the Belt, in exchange for technologies it then, at best, could only manufacture inferior versions of. While Mars, Venus and the Belt grew into diversified economies (indeed, Venus avoided the resource curse with regards to their trade in carbon dioxide, by sound investments in other industries, at great cost), Jupiter lagged behind in many ways. Again, this is begging to reverse itself, and some are wondering if Jupiter may eventually eclipse Mars, Venus *and* Earth.

For the average Jovian, the imperial government isn’t really in their lives, and it stays out of grassroots politics. Most Jovians support the monarchy and, increasingly, cast more and more of a cynical eye towards the conventional politicians taken for granted in other parts of the Solar System, part of which might be the Jovians identifying their “Imperial” system of government as very much part of what it means to be “Jovian”. Then again, most “Jovians” think of themselves as “Europan” or “Amalthean” first, and Jovian second. Still, they do appreciate the charm and badassery of getting to say “I am a citizen of the Jovian Empire”.