State of the universe

To the reader, the very prologue of Ascendance has been a clue that in the universe of Ascendance, quite a few things have changed, both majorly and minorly – And both on the sides of transhumanity, and that of the Citadel races (and beyond, in the Terminus, Verge and other constellations, clusters and solar systems we were never told about.) This has created a galaxy where these major and minor changes alike compound, be it on the side of transhumanity, or of that of the Citadel Races. Especially the recent events of the post-transhuman contact period have begun overturning and changing the Citadel Status Quo of the last hundred years.

The world of Ascendance is complicated; from the completely new backstory of transhumanity and its nearly two centuries of spaceborne growth until First Contact, its post-contact interaction with the larger galaxy, to the science and technology it has introduced to the galactic community, to new and expanded technologies and capabilities on the Citadels side.

"The World of Ascendance" will flash this world out further, mostly through a variety of codex and other worldbuilding entries as written and posted on Spacebattles and Sufficient Velocity, but also a set of dedicated stories – Eventually, we hope to expand into an entire worldbuilding series besides a growing set of stories set in this universe we have created.

So then, without further addo… let's get into the state of the universe.

Transhumanity

The 21st century of then-human history was defined by a series of leaps, bounds and catastrophic events of various kinds. Two largely non-nuclear world wars in the 2030s pushed mankind twice close to extinction by way of the weapons he created, but also set off the spark for a Biotech revolution that would see humanity turn into transhumanity in the 22nd century, adding AI, Uplifts, Bioroids and Augmented to its widening group of sophonts.

The subsequent decades were defined by the spaceflight revolutions – The exploration and colonization of the solar system, growing corporate independence, a series of independence declarations by new, interplanetary nation-states and alliances in the mind-21st century, and first great leaps in Bio-augmentation. Genetic fixing, epigenetic upgrades, the first advanced neural interfaces, augmentations and prosthetic bodies were all developed and refined during this era, setting the foundation for things to come.

When the Mars Archives were discovered around the turn of the 2080s, they set of a second revolution as slowly but steadily, their secrets were unearthed, reverse-engineered, and understood. Before long, humanity held a first, tentative key to the stars… and went to war over it.

The interplanetary war began over issues that had been brewing for a long time. What began as a bid of corporate independence from the earthern and few extraterrestrial nationstates of the time exploded into a full-blown war of the worlds, engulfing the entire solar system from Mercury or Saturn, as nations and corporations went to war, fighting each other alike in a shifting system of Alliances.

In the end, it was the tight hold onto the Mars Archives which granted the Allies access to the very first Mass Effect FTL drive, mass drivers, and kinetic barriers, plus the eezo to construct them – And with them the trump card that ended the Interplanetary War, and its stalemates, for good.

In the aftermath, humanity rebuilt… and began changing. The Mars Archives did not only contain technology, but also research Archives. Known as the "green archives", they contained prothean research on cro-magnon humans. The prothean understanding of human neurology and biology transformed entire branches of science and engineering, and opened a first tentative door to advanced human augmentation.

When humanity found the Charon Relay in 2095, and opened it three years later, an entire new frontier opened up, externally… and internally.

During the first half of the 22nd century, humanity began its first tentative steps into a transhuman future. The successful uploading and emulation of human minds in their entirety, as neuronal structures, became a reliable and common practice. Human mental augmentation rose from a complex science that was liable to (sometimes extreme) failures to a reliable science, followed by the innovation of data formats that allowed the first exchanges of memories, skills, and recorded experiences. New neuronal interface standards and body augmentations enabled Shells that had before been impossible to create, much less control and life in. And AI science and bioroid design became the foundations of a new form of civilization.

By the time of the Interstellar War in 2164, the last inter-nation-state armed war of now-transhuman history, functional immortality wasn't a dream – It was reality.

The interstellar war was also what gave rise to the precursor of the modern Systems Alliance, in itself a renovation and evolution of the old Systems Alliance, founded as an extension of the United Nations. The new Pax Stellaris would be enforced by independent hand; a new forum for interstellar law, exchange and joint policy was created, even through it suffered from the usual inefficiencies, and the at times very fierce insistence on independence. The only other major conflict transhumanity would suffer in the late 22nd century was one of independence – The Outer Fringe War, an event that would resonate well into the Council era of transhuman existence, when the unsatisfied colonies of several interstellar powers, including the USNA, rebelled against the Core and their economical-political position. Even though the Outer Fringe Coalition was crushed, and its radical elements captured, permanently killed or dispersed into the wind, the aftermath of the Outer Fringe War has consequences – Including a still-brooding separation movement right inside transhuman space, fueled by the unification under the Systems Alliance government and its laws as well.

The First Contact War happened in 2197. A tragedy born out of a conspiracy, misfortunes and misunderstanding, the Relay 314 conflict raged for three intensive months in the Cluster surrounding the system holding the Chinese colony of Xin Shanxi – Only The Eviction of the turian forces from Xin Shanxi, a responding turian build-up to crush transhumanity under billions of soldiers and several fleets and dreadnoughts, and the resulting Council intervention prevented a war that would have ended in devastation and transhumanities conventional defeat.

The aftermath was complicated. Transhumanity was a newcomer never seen before – A population defined as much by its population of Synthetic Intelligences and synthetically created transhumans (in the form of Bioroids) as it was by an origin population of "native" transhumans, underlined by groups of other AI and Uplifts. They had demonstrated a range of technologies not seen on this level before – And safely. With transhumanity came proof of safe General Intelligence and manageable ASI (a technology deemed essentially completely unsafe after the last straw that was the Geth Rebellions), and advanced medical science and augmentations. The shockwaves of these revelations would change the galaxy in the decades to come – In major and minor ways, positive and negative.

Transhumanity is now unified under the government of the Systems Alliance, with a population around 100 billion strong, and spread out over an interstellar home territory that extends up to 20,000 lightyears away from Sol, into the Orion-Cygnus arm and parts of the Perseus arm, taking up the core arms of a region once known as "the Unknown bulk" in Citadel Stellatography. Currently, transhuman colonial expansion is focused inwards, inside its own space, and trailwards into the Verge, a last phase of expansion driven by economic necessities.

Transhumanity has engaged in two major wars since First Contact – Both with the Batarian Hegemony over control of the Skylian verge. The second of these lead to the assault on Torfan, and ultimately, the progressing deterioration of the Batarian Hegemony.

By 2232, transhumanity has secured itself an associated position on the Council; it enjoys an embassy and overall neutral relations with the major and minor civilizations on the Citadel Council. However, repeated incidents of escalating cybercrime, and continuous issues over a selection of problems continue to sour relations from time to time.

The Citadel Alliance and its members

One the Citadel side of things, there are few noteworthy changes that impact the modern world; at large, the galactic situation still resembles canon to a large degree. There are, however, a few changes: A.) The techbase has been expanded, as part of a general theme of thorough advancement. However, the Citadel Alliance had not achived the common degree of augmentation, or transspecies cultures, before First Contact – A fact that is rapidly changing as now transhuman tech and concepts stream onto the open market and are adapted. B.) The quarians never lost their population and territory quite like in Canon, though the Quarian Federation exists in-exile, with a good majority of its population (over a billion) housed on spacecraft fleets, and C.) both the Citadel Alliance and the Terminus gained in minor species, powers, and interactions.

The arrival of transhumanity however, has triggered a massive change galaxy-wide. Both the asari and the quarians are undergoing major, sometimes cataclysmic events. For the asari, the arrival of transhumanity was a culture shock without end that has, by 2232, torn the Republics almost asunder, and deadlocked many issues in political opposition. Cross-cultural influence and contact is expanding rapidly, and the asari are both a source of major support for the Systems Alliance and transhuman rights, and a serious opposition. Overall, the transhuman-asari relation is probably one of the, if not the most complex of interstellar relations in every aspect.

The quarians are experiencing an even worse social split. Already a pro-augmentation species by nessecity, transhumanities arrival and mastering of "safe" AI after a fashion has caused an extreme split – One part quarians hates or detest transhumanity for a variety of reasons – Another part has started embracing transhuman philosophy and technology, and questioned existing doctrine – Including the quarian perception of the Geth.

Turian-transhuman relations were frosty after the Relay-314 conflict. The entire affair was an enourmus public sleight for the turians – Several of their high-ranking commanders were found guilty of conspiracy and treason, and the attack on transhumanity caused a political crisis as the integrity of other turian commanders was also called into doubt. This, and a perceived (and somewhat justified) threat in transhumanity lead to the "Cold Years" – Almost a decade of extremely bad political relations between the Systems Alliance and the Turian Hierarchy. This eventually thawed out with a change in political leadership and the first trust-building actions from the side of the Systems Alliance. In 2232, relations are neutral at large, with a few positive stand-outs, through the Relay-314 conflict is still a sensitive area.

Quite thoroughly positive relations are found with the Salarian Union. Pro-transspecies with a passion, and ready to retry the development of AI both out of demonstration of their secure viability as well as simple pragmatism in matching transhumanities own AIs and ASIs specifically, the Salarian Union has at large, facilitated many positive deals for transhumanity – Though transhuman reconstruction efforts of Tuchanka's biosphere remain a sore point, and the Genophage debate is a shutdown argument in any negotiation or political discourse between the two powers.

Transspecies Tech

Transspecies tech is one of the cornerstones of the world of Ascendance. Driven the furthest species-wide by transhumanity, though generaly proliferating and, in the physical realm, already well-proliferated, this ranges from a selection of body augmentation technologies over mental augmentations to tech that allows the uploading, digital handling, emulation and downloading of the sapient mind in full, as well as its quite extreme manipulation by means of psychosurgical tools.

Physical augmentations are widespread on either side – From minor implants and boosting augs as already seen in canon, over advanced augmentive cybernetics and biological upgrades, to high-conversion and full-conversion cyborgs that not even retain a fully biological brain in extreme cases, these are all feasible – If, on the Citadel side, still somewhat attached to higher price tags.

In a similar manner, Direct Neural Interfaces of various kind are proliferated – Though transhumanity has introduced several gold standards of interface and translation formats, and has developed DNI tech until a point where brain expansion by way of Exocortex is completely viable, and advanced abstract information can be intuitively introduced, read, and the brain strata can be rewired through so-called "effector DNIs" – This allows selective erasure and writing of any brain data (such as memories and skills) and also high-bandwith dynamic synthetic wiring with brain regions.

Such technology enables a host of technologies – Advanced mind enhancement, conceptual and abstract interfacing with information systems for intuitive control, perception and manipulation of data systems, skill software, memory up- and downloads, and even forking of neurological processes (known in GitS canon as "Ghost-dubbing").

The true off-shot of transspecies tech, however, is the separation of mind (henceforth refered to as the pheriphial and complete "Ego", representing the entire brain, and in distinction to the "Ghost", the "personality core" that defines a persona within the neuronal structures and information strata of the brain, all of which are housed in a "Shell" or "Sleeve".) Starting with cyberbrain transfers and modern augmentation of sensory and motor centers, it becomes possible to transfer the Ego and Ghost between bodies – At first, through physicaly moving the processing strata. Then, through uploading, digital storage and emulation, and downloading into another processing strata, in a process referred to as "resleeving". After some time, modern formats allowed digital transfer of the Ego over a network, as well as hosting of the Ego on appropriate servers.

The final big change is the "stack" – technically called a cortical stack, a special air gabbed brain mapping and storage implant that creates an up-to-date series of back-up files of the users brain. In the event of death, the heavily protected stack can be extracted from its cradle in the neck area and used to re-instantiate the Ego. In the same manner, these back-ups can be pulled in regular intervals and stored offline, creating a secondary insurance in case of stack loss. The end result of this, and other back-up technologies, is functional immortality.

Risks and crimes of the modern Era

There are a variety of concerns and crimes that represent serious risks – Many of them are connected to various forms of cyber- and infocrime, and extend as far as Ego hacking, and the most detestable of all crimes: Ghosthacking, an infowarfare technique able to to completely alter the personality of an Ego, and possibly irreversibly so.

The common sophont faces regular risks: Personal espionage and hacking of personal data, encryption ransom schemes, cyber-vandalism and personalized Kaos attacks, and other criminal activities aimed at extracting valuable information. This also includes blueprint theft of restricted, DMR-protected files, or even cybernetic-hostage schemes where the very lifes of people are tethered to continuous payments, services, or favors.

The big personal risks are information extraction schemes were data is stolen from the very mind itself, ego trafficking (in part or full), Ego slavery, and Ghosthacks. Most sophonts are safe from these events by sheer statistical cause – But the numbers of victims is there, and in Citadel space, it has been rising over the last years, as law enforcement plays catch-up with criminals. Transhuman criminals especially have discovered Citadel space for themselves, and are responsible for a great deal of Info- and cybernetics crime.

The other major threats are terrorism, internal and external, spaceborne piracy, and slavery on frontier colonies. Terrorism internally is mostly caused by a variety of extremists, primarily the fractured independence groups left over after the Outer Fringe War, or a selection of other ideological extremists of religious or political nature. The fact that modern, AI-driven automatization and fabber technology allows these groups to raise significant forces if willing, makes them a potent danger, and has lead to a greater adaptation of paramilitary response strategies – On the transhuman side, Section 9 foremost among them.

A/N (Sevoris): Well, that is it, for the time being. The rest of the massive information already compiled about the Exoxen-universe, as well as other dedicated entries, will follow with time; the above was mostly a primer to get you into the meat of things.

In this document specifically, I encourage all readers of Ascendance to ask questions in the review of this series; I will answer them both by way of PM and in public compilation chapters, either when sufficient answers accumulate or it is very important.

That is it for the moment – Next up is translating and re-formatting (as well as padding out, seeing as worldbuilding-wise things have moved since the timeline was first established) the timeline of Ascendance, and the transhuman perspective on it, seeing as reports have reached my ears the existing solution is… suboptimal.

Besides this, I will begin mirroring the codex entries hosted on SpaceBattles and Sufficient Velocity onto this document.