Some alien colonies were heavily polluted when warfare destroyed industrial waste containment facilities
Some alien colonies were heavily polluted when warfare destroyed industrial waste containment facilities
During the Shutdown War between the alien species known as the Arweli, and the Robot collective known as Groupthink, massive planetwide bombardments occurred.
Arweli industrial planets were targeted particularly as a means of slowing their war effort. Several times, Groupthink suicide ships equipped with a preciously irreplaceable drive crystals would jump deep behind the battle lines and into Arweli territory to unleash a planet wide barrage of atomic weaponry faster than the defenses of the planets could react. The resulting devastation of industrial facilities on the surface of these planets released unimaginable amounts of toxic byproducts into the environments.
After the war, many species including humans would make expeditions to these dead worlds in pursuit of resources, but would find mutated and degraded offshots of the Arweli species clinging to existence in the ruins.
(Sorry this is a repost, Beehaw defederated and apparently the original post I made disappeared)
Really enjoying the color scheme in this. What was the cause of the Shutdown War?
Also Beehaw defederated? I'm glad you reposted anyway, as I'm experiencing a ton of federation issues with this community and can only see/interact with some of its posts :(
What was the cause of the Shutdown War?
The war was between an alien race known as the Arweli, and a bio-organic robot collective known as Groupthink. The Arweli had been constantly expanding their territory by annexing the worlds of less powerful races. Eventually they brushed up against the territory of the Groupthink. What started as a minor dispute over the world of a third race situation on the border, which was attempting relations with both sides escalated somewhat uncontrollably into a total war.
The name of the war was retroactively applied. It was given that name as it marked the shutdown of Groupthink, when the supercomputer ships that maintained the group consciousness were infiltrated and poisoned. This caused a shutdown of Groupthink, reverting robots back to isolated individual consciousnesses only, and stopped the war it's tracks.
Some humans also suggest the name applies to the shutdown of the Arweli central government, who were the other side of the war. After the war the central government was fractured and a shadow of it's former self, with numerous leaders claiming to have legitimate leadership, and many other groups splintering off entirely.
Also Beehaw defederated?
Yeah, the mods are having a moment, they defederated from lemmy.world for mod drama reasons. It kind of sucks because some of my old posts are up, but some aren't and a lot of comments of mine and of people who commented on my stuff disappeared. I'll post things for lemmy.world from this account from now on.
Quite an interesting tradeoff! If the drive crystals were irreplaceable and precious, does it mean that it was a last resort move from Groupthink as they would have lost otherwise? Did the sacrifice of these ships impact Groupthink's overall mobility? Does the fact that there are now humans roaming the area show that the robots didn't last for long after having Godzilla'd the Arweli?
Also, I dig the retro posing and coloring of your illustrations!
The suicide attack ships were meant to break the stalemate that the war had become, and they were successful in allowing the robots to deeply enter Arweli territory before being stopped. This late offensive in the war is why the Arweli government collapsed at the end.
The crystals have unusual properties, but the short version here is that they are required for faster than light travel, and they can not be artificially made.
The crystal using suicide ships were novel for a few reasons. It was presumed that the robots didn’t have much in the way of crystals, since they very rarely used FTL ships aside from their massive moon sized nodesphere ships. The second reason is that the robots did have a spiritual reverence for the crystals, which is another topic too detailed for this comment, but it was presumed they wouldn’t use the crystals in such a way.
The war ended with the collapse of the Groupthink and Arweli as factions. Their former territories were ravaged by destruction, and humans among other aliens who had been displaced for their own homes by the war flooded into this territory for land grabs or to scavenge the valuable resources left in the rubble.
Humans weren’t unified before the war, and their interactions with the robots and Arweli varied. Some humans, and human factions may have positive, neutral, or negative opinions on the robots and Arweli. Some settlements welcome one or both, some ban them with extreme prejudice. It’s a complex topic. I apologize for deferring so much, but a lot of this seems like it needs its own post and infograph!
Thanks for liking my art, I keep trying to zero in on an aesthetic that’s in my head and commit it to paper.
That's the thing with worldbuilding, topics are interconnected and often deserve their own diving into. One aspect that strikes me: the robots have a spiritual reverence ror the crystals? Is it the result of their primary purpose or programming? What were they designed to do at first?
As for generally not using FTL, is it because they can afford the long travel time since they can shut down temporarily? That would still imply a huge quantity of traffic in order to sustain their territory and keep regular control of it.
Did other factions like the Arweli make more extensive use of FTL?