• Nobles of Null is a forum based roleplay site where sci-fi and magic collide. Here, Earth remains fractured and divided despite humanity reaching out to the stars. Worse still, the trans-human slaves of one major power have escaped, only to establish their own Empire, seething with resentment at abuses of the past. Even the discovery of aliens, though medieval in development, has failed to rally these squabbling children of Earth together with its far darker implications. Worse still, is the discovery of the impossible - magic. Practiced by the alien locals, nearly depleted and therefore rare, its reality warping abilities remains abstract and distant to the general populace. All the while, unseen in the darkness of space, forces from without threaten to press in. For those with eyes opened by insight, it is clear that an era is about to end, and that a new age will dawn.

The Commonwealth of the Dawn

Overview


The Commonwealth of the Dawn, referred to colloquially as simply ‘Li Ming’ for its primary system and territory, is one of three confederate member states of the greater Heaven Forged Republic. It holds sovereignty over most of the non-habitable astronomical objects in the Li Ming/黎明/“Dawn” system and their orbital spaces, along with significant portions of the system’s primary habitable world of Zhuque/朱雀/“Vermillion Bird”.

Despite being a relatively young human colony, Li Ming hosts the HFR’s capital and boasts some of the highest living standards and quality of life in all of human space. Li Ming as a whole projects democratic and progressive ideologies with a keen adherence to the scientific process.

However, the recent opening of Node Gate Jia has begun to cause shifts in the local rules of reality within the Li Ming system, sparking further tensions with the local Aos Si and exposing humanity to new alien contacts. Furthermore, Li Ming’s pacifism throughout the HFR’s war against the Daqin Empire has sparked tensions between it and the other confederate states of the HFR. Whether Li Ming can hold onto its idealistic principles amidst these brewing conflicts remains an open question.

History


Even prior to the Zhongzhi (Termination) event in 2199, there existed open rebellious movements against authoritarian Pan-Asian Combine rule in the Li Ming colonies. The PAC-appointed governing body on Zhuque had found it increasingly difficult to hide information on their genocide and experimentation of the local Aos Si from adventuring journalists, and the nail in the coffin for the local authoritarian government came from the artificial Zhuli servants commonplace throughout the Li Ming system in 2199, who surgically eliminated the executive leadership in the system during the events of the Zhongzhi.

The sudden betrayal, combined with a nigh-complete loss of PAC governance both on a local and interstellar scale, paralyzed coordinated decision making as the Zhuli escaped to Pingqiong. Their actions ultimately had an unintended side effect of opening an enormous system-wide power vacuum for the local pro-democracy rebels to exploit, leading to a rapid and popular takeover of governance at all levels throughout the Li Ming system. By the time the 2230’s arrived, a rudimentary parliament had been established and was in contact with the other ex-territories of the PAC, leading talks of establishing a new democratic interstellar federation to replace the gap left by the PAC’s collapse.

Immediately following the Zhongzhi in 2199, Operation Distant Flock was in full effect by the American Union and the Commonwealth of Worlds. In the Battle of Kongzi, the western coalition systematically destroyed resisting ex-PAC voidcraft while taking custody over those that surrendered, neutering Li Ming’s ability to defend itself and serving as the system’s local military force instead. However, the American Union chose not to visibly interfere with what appeared to be a grassroots democratic takeover of Zhuque, instead choosing to put their support behind the locally formed fledgling government and allowing it to progress independently outside of military matters. The expedient destruction of resisting PAC spacecraft is believed to have contributed to the success of the early rebel government,by preventing any attempt of remaining PAC military authorities to retake control of the Zhuque planetary government by means of local space superiority.

Following the Heaven Forged Republic’s formation in the 23rd century, the western coalition would gradually relinquish military command of Li Ming, eventually retreating entirely in the early 24th century and allowing the local Li Ming government to begin managing its own defensive forces as it came into maturity as a part of the newly-formed democratic supernation known as the HFR,

The Commonwealth of the Dawn was officially established in 2235, subsequently leading to the creation of the HFR alongside the United Republics of China in Sol and the Federation of Celestial Territories in Shen Zhou with the signing of the Zhuque Promises in 2253. At the top of the CotD’s agenda was restoring the system’s economy that had broken down over the chaotic course of the early 23rd century. To do so, Li Ming resorted to state-run corporations like its predecessor, the PAC. Through a controversial but ultimately successful vote, the government took complete control over the space mining industry to fund state programs, rebuild infrastructure, and provide social welfare, a system that has survived into the 24th century.

As the economy stabilized in the 2250’s, Li Ming turned to humanitarian reforms, the most pressing of which was the poor treatment of the local Aos Si. Not only were there moral holes that needed to be filled, but conflict with the local Aos Si was a personnel and resource taxing affair, when the Aos Si could instead be peacefully incorporated into Li Ming’s working population. Thus, teams of researchers and professors were sent out to establish diplomatic contact with the Aos Si, recruiting leaders in the local communities into human educational programs to accelerate them through human society, attracting further Aos Si immigration into Li Ming jurisdiction. Controversially, multiple Li Ming administrations have purposefully turned a blind eye to anti-human resentments amongst the integrated Aos Si, leading to anti-human incidents in the 24th century due to the purposeful negligence in security.

Long term demographic problems remained a concern. In the 2260’s, several years after the official establishment of the greater HFR, Li Ming introduced a new array of social programs. Direct resource contributions opened up to mothers, giving them access to food and housing in the absence of work. Major incentives opened to humans in other systems to make the arduous journey into the Li Ming system as immigrants. The introduction of these social programs coincided with a general, solarpunk movement to reorganize society into more sustainable, organic communities, most prominently seen in the capital of Yunwang and its surrounding rural villages.

From the 2270’s onward, Li Ming continued to improve its international relations with the local Aos Si and expanded its social programs, fueled by state investments in space resource exploitation. In 2278, the New Dawnlight/新曙光 Project was started on the mercurial world of Jiuweihu/九尾狐/“Nine-tailed Fox”, an ongoing dyson swarm project to provide near limitless power to the inner Li Ming system.

State

Government Structure


The government organization of Li Ming follows closely with that of the HFR, after some compromises and reforms in the early years. In summary, the executive leader is the Prime Minister with their cabinet of ministers, with a parliament that makes up the legislative body. Notably, in absence of a council that can override Parliament, the Li Ming government is much stronger than the greater HFR counterpart, able to pass legislation and make decisions much faster.

Political Parties


Land-Sea Party: Focused on social progress and justice, but a hardline stance against foreign meddling, mainly from the Daqinren and the American Union, making party members international isolationists.
Farsight Party: Focused on technological progress and active, peaceful foreign relationships, including with the Daqinren.
Unity Party: Focused on medium-term economic growth and active relations with the rest of the HFR and other human superstates.
Independence Party: Focused on social and cultural traditionalism and economic independence from other nations, including other HFR member states.

International Relations


Li Ming is relatively isolationist, not caring for power projection. When it comes to the rest of humanity, it is primarily concerned about two things: one, research, two, immigrants. As such, it involves itself heavily in the greater scientific community and does a lot of advertising to attract high value human resources from other nations.

Due to high transportation costs across interstellar distances, anything involving large amounts of physical resources is off the table. What is traded is information, advanced products, and human resources. Free travel is the norm between Li Ming and the two other HFR states. Military vessels and other spacecraft are regularly delivered to each other. Information, primarily literature and research, are the most traded products.

Demographics

Age Groups


There is a noticeable drop in the population of those more than a century old since those people were caught in the post Zhongzhi chaos. Government reforms have increased child birth rates that are finally paying off in recent years, giving the age pyramid a slightly pyramidal shape with sharp absence at the top. There are “islands” in the two hundred to three hundred years old range due to the Aos Si presence.

Ethnicities


Li Ming is predominantly Han, with a sizable minority of Koreans, due to the historical PAC view that only Han deserved to go interstellar. The new democratic reforms have opened the doors for easier immigration, but due to the expense of interstellar travel, non-Han immigrants form small minorities, albeit wealthy and well educated.

The Aos Si form the alien minority in Li Ming. In particular, ethnic Goedwish dominate the Aos Si population under the CotD jurisdiction.

Geographic Distribution


Most of the human population are located in high density urban areas. The rural population is spread across many small, tight knit communities. Life in these rural areas mainly involve agrarian and energy production, technical work. Labor on Li Ming is highly mechanized. In cities, technicians compose a smaller part of the labor pool with the presence of researchers, bureaucrats, etc. An even smaller, primarily adult population lives on space stations as researchers, engineers, and technicians, supervising the massive, mostly automated space economy that brings Li Ming most of its raw resource wealth.

Culture

Music


In general, the most popular music in Li Ming is classical East Asian with fast-paced, digital input. Over the decades, there has been a heavy flute influence as well, courtesy of the local Aos Si, made more popular by the convenience of flutes on long space voyages.

Downtime Recreation


Li Ming mandates three-day weekends with four-day workdays, purposefully staggered by region to encourage local community bonding. Videogames and sims are quite popular, but with solarpunk reforms, local communities are encouraged to have their children gather and engage in person, physically. There's a variety of space efficient sports, including pingpong, martial arts, yoga, international football, gardening, rodent and aquarium caretaking, and visual arts. Parents are heavily involved.

Traditional Practices


During the PAC-era, ethnic minority traditions were claimed as ethnic Han traditions: Han-washing. Due to Li Ming's distance from Sol, however, this kind of indirect suppression was much harder to enforce. The tiny minorities who did arrive in Li Ming were able to practice freely in relative peace. The Li Ming democratic reforms only made these practices more open.

The cultural revolution following the formation of the HFR allowed traditions to revitalize, but certain practices were phased out due to egalitarian concerns, such as arbitrary social hierarchies. Due to Li Ming's high homogeneity, the reforms' impacts on minority traditions are hard to discern.

Transhumanism


Transhumanism, be it bionetically or cybernetically, has had a profound effect on 24th century human productivity and quality of life. In Li Ming specifically, transhumanism is most commonly manifested as gene therapy at the embryonic stage: standard procedural things to increase lifespan, decrease the rate of cancer, etc. Invasive life-changing transhumanism occurs primarily at the adult stage via cybernetics, be it to deal with a chronic illness or just plain aesthetic fashion. Much of the older generation who survived Zhongzhi have cybernetics to deal with injuries.

While perfectly legal and socially accepted, the Li Ming government tightly regulates bionetic and cybernetic applications to ensure the health and safety of the patient. With the wide acceptance and simultaneous vigilance, bionetic and cybernetic implementations generally led to longer lifespans and higher quality of life.

However, certain bionetic implementations are considered taboo, or banned altogether by the government, mainly those related to the Daqinren due to historical animosity. Visual bionetic modifications that create resemblances to animals are considered Daqinren-philic, and certain biosignatures and genetic templates are banned outright as they interfere with Daqinren detection. In the early 24th century though, even before the outbreak of the HFR-Daqinren war, measures were pushed forward to overturn these laws and change population attitudes. Proponents argue that suppressing these bionetic expressions artificially hamper Li Ming’s advancements in biotechnology.

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