The Society of Paradon.
As i related in my previous parts the society of Paradon was and still is dominated by the military and it shows in the way their cities are build and every system they populate.
Home world is Paradon and the capital is Paranor, the capital has remained unchanged for millennia and it is in fact forbidden to make changes to it. The city is build on several hills one of which is dominated by the royal palace. This is the main residence of Queen Elisabeth and in the time she has lived here she has made it the place where she is most comfortable. She takes great pleasure in her garden which she planted herself and she can usually be found here. She lives here with several family members and is guarded by 5000 Queens Own. While this is a formidable fighting force the main defense is the palace staff as most of these are black rangers. Should anyone manage to get past these then there are her 4 personal bodyguards who are all SS class swordmasters and trained by Alica. So far nobody has made it to her unless she chose to let them and even if they do she herself is also a SS class swordmaster.
Another hill is called the God’s district and as the name implies this is where the temples are located. I will explain this section farther in the religion section.
One hill is dominated by the Fort and is strictly military. As the army grew it eventually needed more space and their main office was moved to another city. The Fort was rebuild into a military school and is considered the best military school there is with students coming from all over the universe. The students either dorms located under the fort, in fact the hill under the fort has been hollowed out and converted into living quarters. Because this school is so highly regarded it is highly desired for students to go there. Because it doesn’t have room for many students it is very hard to get into and the entry exams are extremely hard. For those that do not make it in there is a larger school build a hundred miles north of Paranor. There are three ways to enter the Fort as a student, one is to apply for a scholarship and is considered the hardest way to enter. The second way is to go to another military school and earn a scholarship by excelling in that school. The third is by earning it in combat and this will need some explaining. In Paradon everyone learns to fight and often from a early age, as the military holds both male and female fighters relationships do happen and are in fact encouraged. Pregnancies are uncommon but accidents to happen, some are real accidents but most are not. When the fleet that the mother belongs to is on the front she and the child are not send away but must remain with the fleet. These fleet children are raised by the mother and the fleet and although they are shielded from the worst they are in a combat area. As soon as they are able these children join the war in a more active way and it is not uncommon for 10 year olds to take part in active combat. If the child has skill he/she can rise quickly through the ranks and some even made it to the rank of admiral before the age of 15. It is these that enter the Fort through the third way but as they have plenty of command and combat experience they get a slightly different schedule. Their classes mainly focus on etiquette and diplomatie as they often lack in these departments.
Further there is a merchant section and the rest is residents for the population. The houses are special to and are made to withstand a siege. This means tough thick walls and strong doors with small windows. The roofs are flat however and this to has a specific purpose. The roofs are used as gardens and in ancient times they were used to grow some extra food and herbs. These days it is no longer used as a vegetable garden but as a normal garden giving the city a rather green look.
Religion.
Religion in Paradon is rather special and this is mainly because of the swordmasters and their relation with Gods. They know that Gods exist and for this reason so no reason to stick to serving just one. The God’s District in Paranor holds temples to all the Gods and whenever they come across a new God a temple or shrine is added. Another curious thing about the God’s District is the fact that God’s roam freely through this district. The God’s District is a place that takes reality by the hand, takes it for a walk and leaves it tied up in the woods while it plays around with the Laws of Nature. It is not uncommon to enter a one story building only to discover that you have to climb a hundred stairs to reach the roof. Time and space have little meaning here and newcomers are often confused by this.
Although Paradonians are very free with religion and Gods they absolutely hate religious fanatics and they have fought several wars against them. Latest incident was a world where the local church was fragmented into several churches (sort of like Christians here) and brutal civil wars had been fought between the fractions. Peace had been established by the time Paradon found them but they were still very fanatical against other religions. They managed to piss off the Leah, who was the commander of the fleet, who decided to give them a small lesson. The Church had a conference to promote the relationship between the different religions. They meant the different religions off their world which was the same God but Leah decided to send some representatives from Paradon’s religion. She send the Black Angels who were more than happy to explain their religious beliefs. The meeting wasn’t a peaceful ones as the local clergy started to get aggressive against the Angels unfortunately for them aggression is the Angels speciality. Leah was laughing her bottom off watching the Holy city go up in smoke and it took a long time for the survivers to get enough courage to crawl from under the rocks they were hiding.
Magic.
Magic is also present in this universe but is not widely spread or used. There are various different forms of magic.
Low magic: This is mainly mind magic such as telepathy, telekinesis, healing, precog., etc. Although these powers don’t seem to be that powerful and important nothing is less true. Especially telepathy played a major role in the history of Paradon and even after leaving the planate they were indispensable as communicators. It was their skill that allowed the Paradonians to instantly pass messages from on end of the realm to the other. It wasn’t until after the discovery of faster than light communication that telepaths were no longer needed for this purpose. It is however customary to keep at least one telepath with every fleet as they are not affected by electronic countermeasures.
High magic: This is basically the same as that used in most fantasy books. Magic users are grouped into several categories.
Journeyman: These are only able to use the magic they have stored in their own bodies.
Master: Masters are able to tap the ley lines that can be found all over the world. These lines carry the live force of the planet and vary strongly in strength.
Adept: Adepts are able to tap into nodes. Nodes are points where ley lines meet and are very powerful.
Grand Adept: It wasn’t until later that people discovered that ley lines can also be fount in space. These galactic ley lines are massive and extremely powerful. Grand adepts have the power to tap into these lines.
Prime Wizard: These mages and are able to tap into galactic nodes and the enormous power they hold. They are extremely powerful and capable of great feats.
Warlock: Warlocks are basically the same as a Prime Wizard with one major difference. They don’t just tap magic they generate it. How they do this and where the power comes from are mysteries but it is without a doubt that their bodies generate vast amounts of magic. This has one peculiar result on their bodies and that has to do with their eyes. The power they generate can be seen in their eyes and they tend to glow like miniature suns giving a rather disturbing effect. They usually shield very heavily and use a glamour to make their eyes appear normal. They are also very long lived and they tend to count their lives in centuries instead of years..
Divine magic: This is power granted by the Gods and is the work of priests. Priests are able to channel their God and use It’s power to perform miracles. Depending on the God they can do various things, in case of War Gods this is usually destruction while in the case of Love Gods it’s ...... Uh, just use your imagination here.
Magic isn’t widely used in the universe and magic users are rare. Some worlds are completely barren magic wise while others are overflowing. Paradon is a mix like most worlds where magic is present but not in huge quantities. When Alica left with the swordmasters to Minerva she took the mages with her. When she created the Minerva system she made two planets, one is populated by swordmasters while the other was for mages. At first it was unclear why she created the system in that particular place it wasn’t until the arrival of Grand Adepts and Primes that they learned that Minerva II was located in the middle of a massive galactic node. Minerva II is one of those worlds that is overflowing with magic and this had a profound effect on it’s people. The children born here are infused with magic from conception till their deaths. After hundreds of generations the mages that are born today are almost all Prime Wizards or Warlocks. While because of their long lives deaths are pretty rare the same can be said of births and the population has been stable at 5 million for ages.
Power/energy.
The main power source of Paradon are energy crystals. While Fission and also fusion reactors have been around for some time it was the discovery of energy crystals that changed the way people used energy. Unlike Fission and Fusion there are no waste products and it is a clean source of energy. But what are energy crystals?
Energy crystals can be found in one place only and that place is Minerva. Energy crystals are a invention of Alica as a way to absorb and store the energy generated by swordmasters. During their training they generate fast amounts of power and using the crystals they can practice their most powerful attacks without fearing to blow up the planate. When a crystal is empty it is send to Minerva where it is recharged and send back. This generates huge revenues making the system one of the richest in the universe.
Health/medicine.
Health and medicine is state of the art and highly advanced. Most ailments and illnesses are no longer a problem and easily cured. The curing isn’t only because of the medicines but also because of the healers who use their Gift to heal those in need.
During their research into medicines they discovered a rejuvination drug. This drug is basically a virus that slightly alters the DNA strands and stops aging. There is a problem however and that is the fact that this isn’t permanent. After about 2 centuries the altered DNA breaks down and soon after rapid aging sets in making the person age rapidly. What happens is that the person ages about 2 centuries in a matter of weeks to a few months and death soon follows. Still the rejuv treatments are very popular and widely used as while it sets the live span at 2 centuries it does give you a young body to use during that time. The fact that you age rapidly at the end is considered a small price to pay for a young and powerful body.
There are of course other methods the only viable one being cybernetics. This method lets people get older than 2 centuries but this will involve replacing your entire body with machines and average live span is about 5 centuries. The cybernetics in Paradon are considered the best one around and they are often indistinguishable from real limbs. They are also very powerful and without the limiters they increase power about thousandfold. To get them however is very hard as they only give it to people as a last resort to save their lives. There are a few societies where cybernetics is considered a social status and they have tried several times to get Paradon’s secrets of cybernetics but so far they have been unsuccessful. The main difference between the technologies is the use of nano-machines. While others replace limbs through surgery the Paradonians inject nano machines which replace the limbs and organs.
The only people who are long lived or immortal are the mages and swordmasters. For this reason they tend to stick to their own kind. Those that spend a lot of time with normal people are faced with the fact that after a while all the old friends will die while s/he lives on. After a while most tire of burying friends and relatives and retreat to Minerva or decide to die themselves.
