final for this branch

Governments and Organisations/Corporations/Nanotrasen/Divisions of Nanotrasen.md

@@ -13,9 +13,8 @@ Field: Research and Development
 
 ## NTCS (Nanotrasen Chemical Supply)
 Field: Chemical Manufacture and Distribution
-Another acquisition made in the early days of the company, NTCS began life as Texas Chemical, a major US-based chemical manufacturer. In the centuries since, it's grown to be one of humanity's largest chemical producers, taking advantage of NTHI's dominance in the resource extraction field to produce a wide range of consumer, laboratory, and industrial grade chemicals. NTCS' operations are managed from Nanotrasen's Southern US Headquarters, in Houston
+Another acquisition made in the early days of the company, NTCS began life as Texas Chemical, a major US-based chemical manufacturer. In the centuries since, it's grown to be one of humanity's largest chemical producers, taking advantage of NTHI's dominance in the resource extraction field to produce a wide range of consumer, laboratory, and industrial grade chemicals. NTCS' operations are managed from Nanotrasen's Southern US Headquarters, in Houston.
 
 ## NTCG (Nanotrasen Consumer Goods)
 Field: Consumer Electronics
 NTCG is based out of Nanotrasen's Asian regional headquarters in Busan, Korea.
-

Interesting Planets/Human Space/The Australicus Sector.md

@@ -6,7 +6,3 @@ Constituting a federation of 9 stars (Kookaburra, Booderee, Adelaide, Elizabeth,
 ### Kookaburra
 The capital system of the Australicus Sector, Kookaburra is considered by many to be the least hostile of the systems of the Australicus Sector. It is, naturally, host to the capital planet of the sector, Union, alongside 2 other habitable planets, all of which have mild climates and generally harmless fauna.
 
-### Union- Home of the Australicans
-
-#### Fact Sheet:
-

Interesting Planets/Human Space/The Core Territories.md

@@ -9,6 +9,7 @@ Officially, the core starts at the borders of the Sol System, and ends at the st
 * Adasta has rapidly become the largest industrial centre in Alpha Centauri, making it one of the most industrialised planets in human space. Though it does not currently rival the Moon or Saturn (although it is close), its current trajectory of expansion suggests that in less than a century it will surpass them.
 * This industrialisation is prompted by an incredible mineral wealth. Ore deposits lie near or at the surface, with massive excavations and open pits pulling up billions of credits worth of ore daily. Unfortunately, however, the planet lacks plasma, which makes its ability to keep up with technological advancements limited without imports from Mars, or further afield.
 * The shipyards of Adasta are colossal, and the TerraGov navy has plans to set up facilities for the production of the next-generation of capital vessels there- much to the chagrin of the corporations operating on and around the Moon, who are presently responsible for the expansion of the TerraGov navy.
+* Adasta has a yearly "dark season", wherein the cloud cover becomes so thick and severe that the sun is essentially blocked out for several months at a time. This is known as the Long Night to the inhabitants of Adasta.
 
 Adasta was one of the greatest finds during Humanity's surveying of the Alpha Centauri system. An Earth-like planet, Adasta was perfect for human colonisation, with passive fauna and edible flora, and a quite survivable, if cold and significantly wet, climate. These conditions have precipitated an explosion of activity, bringing millions of settlers in the centuries since humans first set foot on its surface. Now, it's the main population centre of Alpha Centauri, as well as one of the most populated planets in human space, with well over 8 billion people calling it home.
 
@@ -55,7 +56,7 @@ Commissioned in 2305 as a replacement for the previous Jump Three Incarceration
 ### Idyllus: Paradise by the Sunset Lights
 
 #### Fact Sheet:
-* Located in the trinary Marinus System, Idyllus is an ocean resort world famed the galaxy over. Its pale sands, shallow and warm azure oceans, lush jungles and mangrove swamps, tropical climate, and peaceful fauna make it an ideal location for vacationing- and the massive resorts that have sprung up to accommodate those visitors.
+* Located in the trinary Marinus System, Idyllus is an ocean resort world famed the galaxy over. Its pale sands, shallow and warm azure oceans, lush jungles and mangrove swamps, tropical climate, and peaceful fauna make it an ideal location for vacationing- and for the massive resorts that have sprung up to accommodate those visitors.
 * The oceans on Idyllus really are shallow. At their deepest, they bottom out at around 50 feet deep, and the average depth is closer to 25 feet. The seabeds are alive with coral and plant life, with abundant fish in the crystal-clear waters above.
 * As most of the surface of Idyllus is covered with water, floating platforms and submerged structures are used to expand beyond the small islands. Popular amongst humanity's richest are submanors beneath Idyllus' azure waves. Those with less money (though still enough to spend on holiday homes on a resort world) may opt for a floating home, either in isolation or as part of a settlement. The very richest have private islands.
 * The signature animal of Idyllus is the Idyllic Seaskater, a massive ray-like creature that is found throughout its oceans. Notably sensitive to water conditions, attempts to keep it in captivity in aquariums away from Idyllus have lead to little besides dead seaskaters and disappointed marine biologists.

Interesting Planets/Human Space/The Sol System.md

@@ -13,7 +13,7 @@ The Moon: ever a focus of Humanity's gaze. A muse for artists and romantics; an
 
 When TerraGov did come into being, however, this created a problem. The nominally-independent Moon had relied for centuries on its status as an economic and industrial free zone, but humanity's centralised government claimed natural dominion over the Lunar body. This dispute escalated through the senate's halls, and then into the legal system, until the work of Chancellor Christian Ebert (and the resulting Lunar Free Zone Act) brought about the establishment of the Lunar Free Territory- an economic free area, under nominal TerraGov jurisdiction but with significant economic, industrial and legal liberties afforded to a newly-founded committee of the 12 ruling corporations. This deal allowed the Moon to remain an important hub for industry, while also giving TerraGov the ability to maintain important legal stability and territorial integrity in the Sol System.
 
-Life on the Moon today is characterised by stratification. The dominant form of Lunar architecture is the stack city- so named as it is tunneled into the surface, with wealthier citizens living on or near the surface underneath great domes, while beneath lie the poorer districts where the workers live.
+Life on the Moon today is characterised by stratification. The dominant form of Lunar architecture, and the perfect example of this phenomenon, is the stack city- so named as it is tunneled into the surface, with wealthier citizens living on or near the surface underneath great domes, while beneath lie the poorer districts where the workers live.
 
 ### Mars: Fuelling Humanity
 

Interesting Planets/Human Space/The Spinward Far Rim.md

@@ -40,7 +40,7 @@ Humanity is far from the first civilisation to make it to space, and it is not g
 
 #### Fact Sheet:
 * New Jalisco was originally pioneered by a small Mexican resource extraction firm, since acquired by Nanotrasen and rolled into NTHI. As such, much of the population of the world originates from Mexico and other Latin American nations, and Spanish is widely spoken alongside Galactic Common there.
-* The planet has only one permanent settlement, Vallarta, built up around and supporting the planet's spaceport. Other settlements are temporary, springing up around pockets of resources and being packed up and moved when the veins run dry. To accommodate this purpose, much of the construction on the planet is done with modular prefabricated structures, which can be lifted in and away by air when required.
+* The planet has only one permanent settlement, Vallarta, built up around and supporting the planet's spaceport. Other settlements are mostly temporary, springing up around pockets of resources and being packed up and moved when the veins run dry, leaving only automated infrastructure behind. To accommodate this purpose, much of the construction on the planet is done with modular prefabricated structures, which can be lifted in and away by air when required.
 * New Jalisco is primarily a mining colony, with rich deposits of precious metals and iron, as well as a significant production of minor metals. Due to the planet's low population, very little refinement occurs on New Jalisco itself, with ore instead being shipped back to the galactic core for processing at larger industrial worlds.
 * Life on New Jalisco is best described as "frontier living". The desert climate, general isolation, and hostile fauna all adds up to give an experience that's quite similar to the old stories of the wild west- although today the outlaws pack bigger guns, and the only horses are made out of steel.
 * The planet has one orbital station, Veracruz Orbital, mostly utilised for the loading and unloading of massive cargo vessels that are too large to reach the planet's surface.

Species of the Galaxy/Ethereals/ethereals.md

@@ -1,10 +1,16 @@
+# The Moths
+
+>"Stellar Shock: a term attributed to the societal and political upheaval caused by undergoing 1500 years worth of technological development in less than 50."
+ 
+- On the Difficulties of Enlightenment and the Ethereal People, Dr F. Jimenez
+
 ## Description:
 
 The Ethereals are a humanoid species hailing from the planet of Sprout- a densely jungle-covered planet with wide oceans and plentiful rivers. Near the oceans there are thick saltwater bogs, while inland rocky plateaus and tepuis, lush cenotes and occasional volcanoes dot the landscape. The skies have a constant cloud cover, and monsoons are frequent across almost the entire planet's surface. However, it is not the landscape itself that makes Sprout a planet of ecological interest, but the flora and fauna. Almost every living thing on Sprout thrives off of electricity. Via a complex ecosystem of beings that provide electricity via electrophoresis and electrochemistry, and those that consume electricity as their main source of energy. Amongst these "electrical consumers", Ethereals are the top of the food chain.
 
 Ethereals themselves are a biological oddity, with an internal organ structure and life cycle that puzzles even the most decorated xenobiologists. Their skin is translucent, revealing both their blood- a complex, bioluminescent solution similar to battery compositions known colloquially as Liquid Electricity- and their internal organs, which are crystalline in structure. How exactly these crystals function is unknown. Analysis of the chemical makeup of Ethereals reveal that they are not carbon-based, but silicon-based, which has lead some to theorise that the internal working of an Ethereal is much like a flesh-and-blood machine.
 
-When first discovered by TerraGov's explorers, the Ethereals were in an Medieval age, similar to our own Middle Ages- an era of knights and chivalry, with feudal nobility ruling over petty fiefdoms and few (if any) strong, unified nations. TerraGov initially made the decision to observe the populace of the planet- however, an event would occur that would force them into contact with the natives: the Day of Fire. A TerraGov resupply vessel would suffer a malfunction in its thrusters while coming to dock at the observation post, resulting in them becoming jammed on. This pushed it (and the observation post) into the gravity well of Sprout itself, resulting in the entirety of the station crashing down nearby to a city on the surface. Survivors who were fortunate enough to jettison would now find themselves stranded on the planet, which had, until moments beforehand, been entirely unaware of the existance of aliens. The resulting fire from the crash burned around 20,000 square kilometers of jungle before a monsoon was able to extinguish it, and this left TerraGov with a crisis to resolve. This resulted in the decision to uplift the people of Sprout, in what became known as the Great Enlightenment. Until this point, direct intervention with "primitives" was strictly forbidden by TerraGov.
+When first discovered by TerraGov's explorers, the Ethereals were in an Medieval age, similar to our own Middle Ages- an era of knights and chivalry, with feudal nobility ruling over petty fiefdoms and few (if any) strong, unified nations. TerraGov initially made the decision to observe the populace of the planet- however, an event would occur that would force them into contact with the natives: the Day of Fire. A TerraGov resupply vessel would suffer a malfunction in its thrusters while coming to dock at the observation post, resulting in them becoming jammed on. This pushed it (and the observation post) into the gravity well of Sprout itself, resulting in the entirety of the station crashing down nearby to a city on the surface. Survivors who were fortunate enough to jettison would now find themselves stranded on the planet, which had, until moments beforehand, been entirely unaware of the existance of aliens. The resulting fire from the crash burned around 20,000 square kilometers of jungle (an area roughly equivalent to modern-day El Salvador) before a monsoon was able to extinguish it, and this left TerraGov with a crisis to resolve. This resulted in the decision to uplift the people of Sprout, in what became known as the Great Enlightenment. Until this point, direct intervention with "primitives" was strictly forbidden by TerraGov.
 
 The uplifting was not gentle, nor was it well received (at first). The Ethereals were ripped from their feudal institutions into the plasma age in less than 50 years. The decision sent waves across humanity, and the galactic scene- diplomatic protests from the Lizards (who viewed the act as an aggressive expansion by humanity into another species' territory) and the Moths (who viewed the act as an immoral interference with the natural development of another species) would create problems for the project, but once it was started, it was irreversible.
 
@@ -13,7 +19,7 @@ And so, the Ethereals would find themselves thrust onto the galactic stage.
 ### Fun Factoids:
 * Sprout has three moons, of which one is able to maintain a breathable atmosphere, as well as a tropical climate. This moon, called Spring by the Ethereals, is now a resort world, with thousands journeying to it yearly to vacation.
 * Sprout is located in a particularly isolated region of space, with the most direct route to Human space being via a nebula- too dangerous for most vessels. For this reason, the planet takes a long time to reach from the rest of inhabited space, and particular commitment is needed to visit.
-* TerraGov advises remaining in and around major settlements while visiting Sprout, as the local flora and fauna are considered quite dangerous. Even in the larger cities, the possibility of a wild Volthound running rampant through the streets is (unfortunately) high.
+* TerraGov advises remaining in and around major settlements while visiting Sprout, as the local flora and fauna are considered quite dangerous. Even in the larger cities, the possibility of a wild Volthound running rampant through the streets is (unfortunately) high. A secondary (and unspoken) reason for remaining in large settlements is the inherent risk of being kidnapped (or worse!) by reactionary militias.
 * If you've been a member of the TGMC in the past 50 years, particularly as a peacekeeper, you've probably been deployed to Sprout to assist in the pacification efforts.
 
 ### Sprout: From the Ashes

Species of the Galaxy/Lizards/Culture.md

@@ -42,12 +42,3 @@ Another major landmark in Zagoskeld is the Triumphal Arch. Standing at 70 metres
 Also of note is the New Fortress, standing at the opposing end of the Long March. Originally constructed shortly after the Imperial Palace, the New Fortress was designed to be a military hub and defensive structure for the growing city of Zagoskeld, in contrast to the old fortress on the site of the palace. Throughout the centuries, it received a number of expansions to keep up with the evolution of warfare, eventually becoming outdated in the industrial period. After a period of neglect, it was taken under the custody of the Archivist Order, who restored it and converted it into a tourist destination and museum. The urban headquarters of the Tiziran military was constructed adjacent to the fortress as a symbolic link to the Ozkmarzelic military's past. Today, the fortress is a popular tourist destination, and is famously utilised every Unification Day for the ceremonial firing of 149 guns- one for each member state which gave up their independence for the Tiziran union. This is also the traditional beginning to a military triumph- but Tizira has not celebrated one of those in over a century.
 
 Additionally on the Long March is the Rizkalon Park, located at roughly the midpoint. A large and beautiful park, it is well known for three key features- the Water Gardens, an extensive example of Tiziran mastery of hydrology; the Necropolis and the westernmost entrance to the Halls of Atrakor's Own, Tizira's largest burial catacombs; and the Statue of the Unnamed Soldier, a monument to the unidentified dead of Tizira's many, many wars.
-
-### Waterworks: How the Lizards tamed the deserts
-It is no secret that the desert is an inhospitable place- even for the heat-loving lizards, the prospects of constructing a settlement beyond the bounds of readily available water are hopeless. Therefore, one of lizardkind's first priorities when moving into the civilisation era of their history was in finding and moving water beyond its normal bounds.
-
-The earliest settlements in the blistering heat of the desert would utilise canal-based systems- drawing water from existing water bodies and bringing them via artifical channels to the settlement site. This also lead to the development of reservoirs and waterwheels- important systems for storing and moving the vast quantities of water needed to support the growing cities. In other areas, qanats were constructed to feed cities and their need for water, as well as giving farmland the necessary water for growing.
-
-These techniques would be refined and advanced throughout the ages, in addition to harnessing water for powering industry. Ancient aqueducts and canals that have survived the test of time and lizardkind's numerous wars still litter the landscapes around these older regions, giving way to more modern techniques further into the deserts.
-
-Even to this day, the old techniques of water management retain relevance- on new colonies, constructions of this sort are often used in the interim until proper techniques are available.