Epsilon Eridani (Somewhat hard sci-fi interest check)

[Bugg Superstar]

This is an idea that's been sirculating in my head for some time. In the scenario of interstellar colonization achieved by slower than light ships, what would happen if the colonists, left to their own devices for a thousand years, gets visited by the decendants of the civilization that sent them to the stars in the first place? How will the colonists, who's knowledge of Earth is nothing but a fading myth, cope with it? How will the visitors tackle the problem with being stranded light years away from Earth? And more importantly, what will the relations between the two cultures be like? A meaningfull exchange of words, or an exchange of anti-matter bolts and laser beams?

I have a personal affinity to hard/realistic sci-fi. Star Wars and Star Trek is fun and all, but they don't raise the deep philosophical and introspective questions the genre have a great potential for. It's too bad, for they have certainly taken the position in the mainstream consciousness that should be preserved for writers like Asimov and Stanisław Lem. The same thing goes for gaming, where games like Halo have much more attention than the more ground breaking games like Sid Meyer's Alpha Centauri. So let's make things interesting by creating an RP that explores this unfortunatly unknown realm, shall we?

So, people who join this should disperse themselves evenly between the explorers from Earth and the seeded civilization. They will be highly differently cultures. The Earth civilization have undergone a technological singularity, where uploaded humans, transhumans and AIs lives in an anarcho-syndicalist society where most of their existance is spent in a perfect virtual world. Highly liberal and progressive, this society is geared towards scientific pursiut, philosophy and all forms of art. A true utopia in any sence where resources are abundant. The members of the mission to this long lost colony are a gathering of willing uploads, transhumans and AIs(players can be any of these three), wanting to experience something different after centuries of living in the «perfect» world Earth has turned into.
The civilization located in Epsilon Eridani is quite different. A product of disenfranchized people of the 22th century escaping Earth to follow their own vision of civilization, this colony was founded on an initially communist ideology. However, facing the hardships of surviving on an unforgiving world, the civilization slowly changed to a hierarchy. I haven't quite worked out this one, but the idea is that the Epsilon civilization is ruled by an elite controlling the lower castes through a made up religion. Research is limited, and scientists are contained in Ivory Towers, isolated white archologies towering over the landscape. For the uneducated lower castes the scientists perform magic, but for the elites they are intellectual slaves toiling away to develop new technology the higher castes can control their world with. Other Epsilon factions are also a possibility. Aliens might exist, but not in the standard kind of way.

I am still working on the back story of this role play, so any level of creative input is greatly appreciated.

[Guest]

I will make aliens if you want me to. They would be unconventional.

[Sighlent]

I actually like the way this is sounding. It's like Planet of the Apes almost (in a very limited way), only no monkeys. Those monkey people always did scare me. O.o

Anywho...I am quite interested.

[American Ramblings]

I'd like to join this!

[Bugg Superstar]

Now that the holyday has ended, we can pick this up again. I am wondering if you who responded or others who are interested might help me with developing this.

Raptorman, if you could PM me about your unconventional aliens it would be great. Ideas about the Epsilon civilization and ideas in general would also be welcomed.

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