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This is an old revision of Jovians made by AdminDare on 2020-09-19 09:12:17.
THE JOVIANS
Your mind is original. Preserve it.
Your body is a temple. Maintain it.
Immortality is an illusion. Forget it.
Extinction is approaching. Fight it.
- Jovian credo [1]
Your body is a temple. Maintain it.
Immortality is an illusion. Forget it.
Extinction is approaching. Fight it.
- Jovian credo [1]
The Jovians are different
The 12-year-old [2] Jovian Republic was born out of the chaotic years of the Collapse - it's not called the Fall over there, because the Fall was Human being cast out of Eden by God, and the TITANs are not God. They do not count time as AF - they still maintain the Old Earth calendar, and by their reckoning the year is 2144 AD. This may be true, or not [3].
Ideologically, the important question to the Jovians is this: are you human? If your ego has only ever resided in the one morph you were born with, if you pass a (reasonably forgiving) DNA test, if you have two biological parents (even if you may not know who they are), then congratulations: you are a human, and the Republic wants to protect you. (That's the state definition, but some religious factions have stricter views, excluding splicers, the implanted, the cybernetically enhanced -- for the ultra-extreme, even people born in exowombs may not count. [4])
If you're not human, you may be harmless (an uplifted pig is a useful farm animal and livestock [5]), horrifying (a grotesque copy of a person who has died, maybe even by suicide) or insanely dangerous (an AGI). In many cases, the Jovians would rather you didn't exist, or at the very least stayed far away from them. Transhumanity is an abomination, a deluded concept at best, a TITAN-induced memetic plot to destroy what little remains of humanity at worst. The Jovians may deal with transhumans, they may trade with them, exchange diplomats and play against their sports teams [6] but they will never consider them human.
The Republic is a stratocracy: a militarised democracy, with the highest power residing with the military. While supreme power nominally resides in the Senate, the Security Council is the executive body who has not yet been challenged by the Senate. However, one should not mistake the Jovian republic for a short-sighted junta that will collapse the second it loses its strongman. The people who founded the republic did really want humanity to survive, and since they did not share the transhuman idea of immortality, they had to build a system that would outlast them. [7]
The Jovians are not so different.
--
[[https://eclipsephase.com/revised-jovians|[1] LordMunchkin, on the Eclipse Phase forums]]
[2] Assuming 10 AF. The Fall was three years long. The 17 Minute War occurred in the first year.
[3] It is probably true, since the Fall was only 10 years ago, and people do have memories that span 10 years.
[4] Exowombs and basic biomods are almost a necessity in the Jovian system. In low gravity, natural pregnancy tends to fail, and without basic biomds flats lose bone and muscle density. The most extremist factions are basically only in Reagan habs with 1G spin gravity.
[5] Some Jovians do eat uplifted pigs, but generally this is seen as a bit distasteful by those who are aware that the pigs are uplifts. Still, neo-pigs in the Jovian system generally lack vocal chords and opposable thumbs, and they are not bred for smarts. (Most Jovians are not even aware that there is such a thing as a "neo-pig"; they figure their pork is just another animal. Usually they are right.)
[6] For serious sports, Jovians do insist that everyone playing is a human; otherwise the match is pretty much a sideshow (and also, the Jovians would lose). Their opponents may or may not really fulfill the Jovian standards of humanity -- it's hard to confirm -- but at least appearances will be maintained, or the Jovians won't show up.
[7] There is a more cynical view: that in reality, the Republic is headed by actual transhumans, who actually do want to rule forever. A pointer towards this is the Intelligence Commander Zane McFarlane, who is not human by republic standard: it's well known he's egocast from Earth before the Fall. This does not seem likely, however, as attempting a deception like that would practically ensure that it be discovered at some point. So even if the Security Council was planning to upload & continue their existence, they'd likely do it in secret and not stay on as actual rulers of the polity, only as untouchable oligarchs.
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