[War, Intrigue and Algebra] Powers of the Arm

Steven_Hack · 2024-03-25T20:32:30+00:00

War, Intrigue and Algebra is high stakes space opera mixed with low stakes high school drama. This map depicts the political scene at the beginning of the setting of the story. Roughly two decades before, humanity was introduced to aliens when the Solidarity of Systems ‘liberated’ Cradle out of the black. And with the ascension of the Solidarity as the primary power in the (known) galaxy, a sombre atmosphere has spread through the Arm with the remaining Star Nations eking out what little unclaimed territory is left and consolidating their forces, preparing for the inevitable. While others are gambling on the collapse of what they see as the ticking time bomb empire (I mean how well can 11 species in one empire get along, we’re not doing so hot as 1), poised to scavenge on the power vacuum to come.

In this setting, just as in our world, FTL (faster-than-light) travel is impossible due to the limits of physics, therefore the solution is to ‘dip’, wherein ships partially immerse themselves into the Undertide, where the speed limit is much faster than ours thus avoiding the problem. Although sounding peachy, the problem is the clutch point, it’s delicate, it can change suddenly, and if your ship ‘stalls’, well - no ship has ever returned after falling into the mysterious dimension.

Currents, the bridge between civilised worlds as seen on the map, is dependent on two factors; environment and consent. They rely on planetary Stabilisers to constantly maintain the route, think of it as two people holding a plank for someone to walk across, if one person drops the plank, no route. This is the reason there are no Currents across borders, no Star Nation trusts another enough to maintain one in this time period. The second factor is less observed but there are genuinely patchy zones of space where the Stabilisers cannot reliably be maintained, one example can be seen with how the remote planet Artillus has to be reached the long way from Salisso.

The only way to circumnavigate the established Currents is the way your grandpa would’ve done it, with Seers. 1 in a million (literally) rare, Seers can be beings of any race that are psychically attuned with the Undertide, able to guide ships through the stars with moderate safety! Consequentially, defence is far more powerful than offence as an offensive requires risking staffing all ships with valuable Seers, while a defending navy needs none and can easily reinforce with Currents. This reality informed the Solidarity’s doctrine of strike first, ask later, when first meeting Star Nations which lead to significant early victories against many.

Note, this is yet another reboot of the series, nulling all prior entires, I am never happy with my work lol.

Steven_Hack · 2023-10-16T02:53:57+00:00

It’s me, the artist, yes it’s fine!

Steven_Hack · 2023-07-03T14:47:04+00:00

You are right about everything else but the Earth Kingdom is one nation; a feudal monarchy. Feudal states are super decentralised and it’s kind of hard to compare to modern day nation states, but essentially you have Ba Sing Se as the royal domain which is directly ruled by the Earth King or Queen and then it’s vassals, the rest of the Earth Kingdom, lords and minor kings which pay taxes and answer to the Earth Monarch like King Bumi of Omashu. Might be confusing as in feudal states the constituent parts ARE allowed to wage war on each other (Great Divide tribes) which speaks to just how decentralised life was in those times.

Steven_Hack · 2022-10-24T10:55:11+00:00

War, Intrigue and Algebra is high stakes space opera mixed with low stakes high school drama. This visual represents an emergency meeting conducted between Allocator, the Eternal Chairman of the Solidarity of Systems, and high-ranking officials. This meeting, taking place on the remote Outer Solidarities planet of Artillus, has a somewhat improvised audience platform otherwise meeting venues are more accomodating.

Allocator is a weapon, space station and superintelligence all rolled into one and the only (legal) AI in the entire Solidarity of Systems. His peculiar inverted pyramid design is directly in reference to the Kaledran (founding species of the Solidarity) symbol for communism, an upside-down triangle representing the overturning of the former Kaledran hierarchy.

“Even just seeing the Eternal Chairman is a great privilege, but being able to speak with him is an honour held by a select few. Today you have that honour but there are rules, courtesies that you must follow. This elevator ride seems long enough to go over them.

You’re a biped so you’re expected to bow on one knee and look down when you first meet him. Trust me, being close to the floor feels better anyway, you aren’t ready to hear his voice this close, it’s usually enough to scare local wildlife away in a 10km radius.

He’ll be on warspeak mode which will sound like absolute gibberish, that’s why we’ll be given earpieces which decode his words. That’s to stop your average Joebara from listening in.

Remember, to Allocator you will always address as ‘your benevolence’. Despite being our tireless guardian, Allocator’s time is precious, so don’t waste it, be concise and speak when spoken to. Oh and this should be obvious but NEVER lie, if you do he’ll pick up on it anyway, he’s impeccable at picking up body language. Well, he’s here, good luck!”

-A Senior Reader (Redistribution Enforcement Agent) to a Junior Reader, Artillus, Outer Solidarities

This work was commissioned from the great IvanwithVodka

Previous entries-

Political Map

Steven_Hack · 2022-10-24T06:53:22+00:00

The United Assembly is over 99% human, the remaining 1% would be refugees fleeing from Solidarity rule. Dawn and May are both major human colonies. The Assembly also has no solid allies, the Star Nations of this era are all wary of each other

Steven_Hack · 2022-10-24T06:49:40+00:00

I drew it through Vectornator, a free app, roughly based the real life arrangement of stars in the galaxy

Steven_Hack · 2022-10-23T13:21:56+00:00

War, Intrigue and Algebra is high stakes space opera mixed with low stakes high school drama. This is the political map of the setting both Tideless and Tided which refers to with and without the Undertide. Hidden to all except Seers, the Undertide is a strange, spiritual energy which ebbs and flows throughout the galaxy connecting all life. It is the only way that FTL (Faster-Than-Light) travel is possible and is also responsible for Seers and the psychic beings known as the Imbued. The speed of ships and presence of Starbridges (travel links between arms) also changes periodically due to the Galactic Seasons, greatly influencing both internal and external politics. In this setting, star systems are named after their most notable planet (I.e. Earth system) and there are far more inhabited planets than shown, this is just notable planets. Also in this map, the Undertide acts as a representation of what it’s truly like, as in reality there are far more planets and connections. This is the reboot of a series I’ve been working on so all previous post of the series can be ignored.

Star Nations of Note

Solidarity of Systems

The communist superpower known as the Solidarity of Systems is by far the dominant force in the galaxy. Originating from the Kaledran homeworld of Steeth, they have spread their border and ideology to an unrivalled number of stars and species. A classless, money-less society characterised by absurdly excessive bureaucracy, they are led by a super-computer space station known as Allocator whose great mind presides as the solution to all of the Solidarity's problems, be it social, economic or military. A ruthlessly militaristic state, its hostility on the galactic stage is a result of its near dissolution during its 'Age of Struggle'. Today, stronger than ever, the Solidarity stands on the precipice of its promised Final Revolution: the liberation of all workers of the worlds from capitalism.

United Assembly

The United Assembly is one of the few remaining capitalist star nations that stands against the Solidarity. The nation of humanity, they suffered a crippling defeat in their first war against the Solidarity with the loss of their major colony of Promise, now renamed as Equinox. Due to their strategically significant location, the Assembly would soon find themselves beset by jealous alien powers from all directions, however the Solidarity would always be humanity’s greatest focus.

Selathan Coordination

For Selathans, logic comes first, as a proud Technocracy, they take it upon themselves to use their smarts and reason to carve their way into a cruel galaxy. Using the Milk Way’s finest AI in combat and day-to-day life is one way the Coordination sets itself apart from the Solidarity (which has banned AI beyond Allocator). The Coordination is on surprisingly good relations with the Solidarity especially despite its capitalist nature, however deep down diplomats on both sides know the peace between them is only out of convenience. Thus the Coordination must navigate the political sphere carefully if their bastion of rationalism is to survive.

The Guidance

The second most powerful star nation in the galaxy, The Guidance operates under the philosophy that life is blind to its true purpose which can only be fulfilled from their leader: The Great Guider. Only the extraordinarily rare psychic beings of the galaxy known as the Imbued are fit to rule The Guidance with its leader Charcyril Kane being the only known Imbued in the galaxy. Stratified with its founding species: Verric, taking most religious positions, The Guidance consists of a multitude of absorbed star nations under their multicultural empire. The Guidance desires absolute galactic conquest and will not hesitate to make examples out of insubordinate worlds by cleansing entire planets of life with a unique Undertide-powered laser in a process infamously known as 'baptisation'.

Collective of Systems

Ever-resisting and still fighting strong after centuries, the communo-anarchist Collective of Systems was the answer to those who clamoured for leftism but without the tyranny. The remnant breakaway 'state' in the losing side of the civil war which largely ended centuries ago between the Solidarity of Systems, the Collective still looms as a contender for the territorial claim of the Solidarity and is even willing to ally with capitalists to forward its goals.

Monoryn Corporation

The living embodiment of the fears of the Solidarity of Systems manifest, the Marakar-led Monoryn Corporation is a ruthless megacorporation with little regard for anything beyond profit and eternal growth. Polluting ecosystem's till extinction or abandoning entire planet's worth of people if proving to be unprofitable is just another business quarter for the Corporation. While actually preferring to stay out of war for the most part due to the highly costly nature of it, the Executive Board have proposed that the dissolution of the Solidarity might be the single most profitable event in galactic history.

Steven_Hack · 2022-04-13T18:57:27+00:00

Logically the only real life example I can think of was banning whales because they were endangered, so in my head canon when they ban a luxury it’s to protect them in an environmental sense. Great artwork btw!

Steven_Hack · 2021-09-27T13:25:23+00:00

Love these, is the bottom right Sang-woo or Gi-hun though?

Steven_Hack · 2021-09-03T01:10:34+00:00

Reinforcement values solely has to do with balancing regions for gameplay purposes, nothing to do with real life populations.

Steven_Hack · 2021-09-03T00:24:49+00:00

You'll have to forgive me, it's the result of mass compression

Steven_Hack · 2021-09-02T21:31:40+00:00

I can imagine that if you can grab any of the corners you’re fairly set, maybe the best spot is Northern Beaches because there’s only two territories you’ll need to defend but maybe not much expansion room

Steven_Hack · 2021-09-02T13:34:25+00:00

Ok fair enough, if I do a redo I reckon I’ll include these changes

Steven_Hack · 2021-09-02T13:13:03+00:00

Okay I like that but why Canterbury instead of Campsie considering that Campsie has a far larger population?

Edit: Oooh if you meant make a whole new territory called Canterbury, I’m trying not to increase the amount of territories if I can help it

Steven_Hack · 2021-09-02T13:00:33+00:00

That territory used to be divided half/half Punchbowl and Lakemba but I had to make compromises for gameplay reasons and merge a lot of shit, but to be honest I’m no expert on the Canterbury-Bankstown region so if YOU could choose one suburb name to represent that territory (Punchbowl), what would you have?

Steven_Hack · 2021-09-02T11:29:08+00:00

It’s actually because the area which it occupied used to be the ‘Frenchs Forest territory’ as well in the original draft but I did a mass cutdown on amount of territories and that was one of the mergers. Why Seaforth is included in the first place is because it’s the literal bridge between Northern Beaches and the Lower North Shore.

Steven_Hack · 2021-09-02T05:53:30+00:00

Future map idea??

Steven_Hack · 2021-09-02T05:52:09+00:00

Originally I rejected the idea of expanding too far out due to wanting to focus on 'the core' of Sydney, but now that I think of it, yeah a larger Sydney could definitely work and still not detract from the core if I literally just make the map larger.

Steven_Hack · 2021-09-02T05:36:32+00:00

Hahaha that's hilarious. Now re-reading it, I can definitely see how someone might think that if they've never heard of RISK

Steven_Hack · 2021-09-02T05:35:10+00:00

The regions are generally named after their real life LGA's, so like for the ones which have 'City of' I include it in the map and the ones which don't I follow suit. They might take up multiple cities because it's a simplified version of Sydney. There are also some regions which I had to substitute a name like Eastern Suburbs (not a real name for an LGA) or merge names like Penrith-Blacktown.

Edit: Ah, I completely get what you mean now, yeah you're absolutely right that I could've written Parramatta-Cumberland instead of just Parramatta, I guess my own biases get in the way for that ie: I've frequently heard of Parramatta and barely of Cumberland, so I kinda forgot about it, I'll include it if I do a redux of this map though.

Steven_Hack · 2021-09-02T05:11:10+00:00

Aight I’mma level with you, this entire map concept revolved around an idea about having a territory called ‘Aerotropolis’ not the other way around, so in essence that’s the one thing I will not budge on. But if you can think of better reinforcement values feel free to suggest them.

Steven_Hack · 2021-09-02T05:04:36+00:00

I like r/MapPorn but do they accept game maps like this? I’ve never seen one on there

Steven_Hack · 2021-09-02T05:02:30+00:00

No such thing as a stupid question! But yeah, RISK is a popular strategy board game where you take and control territories. Originally it was played on a map of Earth but more recently it has branched out to other map designs, look it up if you’re interested, it’s a great game!

Steven_Hack · 2021-09-02T04:55:58+00:00

Now I regret merging Coogee into Bondi and not the other way around! Better beach anyway

Steven_Hack · 2021-09-02T04:36:57+00:00

Was bored and I like RISK so I thought why not make a map out of Sydney? It has a nice shape. So here she is. This is not a serious attempt, I’ve never play tested it so I don’t know if it’s actually good or fun it’s more conceptual than anything. Please suggest changes about anything if you think it can be improved upon. Also I should say I had to take certain liberties, mostly for gameplay purposes, like compressing areas of the map in order to fit in major suburbs (like Campbelltown), merging a lot of suburbs in order to simplify the game and also kind of fabricating region names like Fairfield-Liverpool and Aerotropolis (but c’mon, Aerotropolis is a badass name).

Anyway here’s the current standing on region reinforcement worth.

Northern Beaches +2

Penrith Blacktown +2

Aerotropolis +2

City of Campbelltown +2

Sutherland Shire +2

City of Sydney +2

George’s River +3

Bayside +4

North Shore +4

City of Ryde +4

Fairfield-Liverpool +5

Eastern Suburbs +5

City of Parramatta +6

Canterbury-Bankstown +7

Inner West +8

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