Denpruet

Northwest Slobovia's race, the Denpruet, currently lacks an introduction. Oh well.

Original Forum Post
Species Name: the Denpruet Homeworld: Thati

Appearance: Mottled dark violet and grey hexapods, approximately 2m long, with thick, meter-long necks and large, angular heads. They stand about 2m tall at the shoulder, meaning their heads tower over humans. Their front and back limbs have long-toed, prehensile feet, and their middle ones have evolved into grasping hands. All of their limbs are thick and muscular.

Basic Biology: Large omnivores from a high gravity world. Their original habit was forested hills and mountains, and they're colored to blend in with their native vegetation.

Ideology: "From each according to their gifts, to each according to their ambitions."

Culture: meritocratic. Individual skill is prized above all other things. Individuals rise though the ranks of Denpruet society by showing skill at their jobs, initiative at taking the lead on difficult problems, and the diplomatic abilities needed to win the triple election of subordinates, peers, and superiors needed for promotion.

Government: A hierarchical, elective empire, as suits their culture. A triumvirate rules at each level of government (imperial, solar system, planet, region, and so on, down to individual cities and towns). In addition, each triumvirate is supported by a bureacracy to provide them with information and abilities they personally lack, and to carry out the triumvirate's laws and provide administrative detail to put them into practice.

Triumviral elections are held every twelve years. One member of the trumvirate is selected at random to stand for re-election, and all residents of the area governed by the triumvirate may stand against them. All residents having been promoted at least once in their professions -- that is, showing at least some skill -- are allowed to vote; there's no formal age of majority. Candidates' entire career records are made public when they stand for election in order to ensure that the voters are well-informed about them.

The Denpruet Fundamental Rules guarantee certain individual rights (freedom to gather and transmit information and access to jurisprudence being the major ones) but otherwise, each triumvirate has sweeping powers within its jursidiction.

Religion: regarded as primitive or childish

History Prior to FTL Discovery: A typical balkanized mess, with wars and peace, alliances and betrayals, freedom and oppression. However, the period before FTL discovery was mercifully short (see below, under science and technology).

Governmental unification was achieved only as the result of a savage nuclear war between two major powers on Thati, which killed tens of missions of Denpruet and left large areas on one continent desolate. A group of 19 of the remaining nations, both on Thati and in other solar systems, joined together to work out an agreement by which the Denpruet could be governed, as they believed another nuclear war was inevitable without it.

They produced a government design very similiar to the current Denpruet empire. With some diplomacy, threats, and a little actual violence, they managed to bring the Denpruet together. That was 1,558 years ago, and while the empire has been reformed a number of times, its basic structure has proven durable and well-accepted by the Denpruet.

Foreign policy: as meritocrats, they much prefer to engage in give-and-take with all they have contact with, judging each species and member of species by what they're worth. Exchange of goods, services, and knowledge clearly benefits all, at least to the extent each can negotiate their due. Warfare is generally avoided -- the dead can't contribute anything to any society -- but if the Denpruet encounter societies that can't or won't get along with them, they have no further qualms about striking first and hitting hard.

Science and techology: The Denpruet produce some of the galaxy's finest theoreticans, but some of the worst engineers. Oh, sure, their engineers can build stuff, but since they're seeking to prove their worth to other engineers, "novel", "cool", and "bleeding edge" take precendence over "reliable", "cheap", and "manufacturable". As a result, they'd discovered magneto-gravitic unification before their first practical steam engine, and had explored other solar systems before they could produce an affordable automobile. Special relativity had been known for several centuries before some genius wiped his home city off the map with a crude gun-type bomb while trying to build a nuclear reactor with a higher power density than his boss's (he was posthumously promoted for his invention).

So consider their FTL technology: they know of every way there is to get between here and there as fast as possible. They have the fastest FTL in the galaxy (assuming the OP approves), and every engine, every stargate, every quantum-foam wormhole projector they produce is a work of art: sleek, elegant, nonesuch... and every one needs constant adjustment, incredible amounts of power, and/or is so dependent on the design of the ship it's built into that it can't be copied without a major redesign. And they think that's just the way it should be. [OOC: think of the way cutting-edge computer games are produced and work, and you've got the Denpruet ideal of engineering.]

(Well, there is a small group of eccentrics who like mass-produced reliability, but they're just cranks. That their equipment is cheap, compact, and works every time really isn't important to anybody who matters.)

Military: Since every Denpruet warship is unique, their tactics and logistics are... highly variable. Some ship and squadron commanders do absolutely brilliant things, and others struggle with their ship's unpredictability. The Imperial Quartermaster's Division is likewise torn between getting the most out of their field craftsman and being unable to keep squadrons at even the most basic operational capabilities. Strategists assume that battle outcomes will be unpredictable, but (often correctly) conclude that will confuse the enemy more than it confuses them. Military purchasing officers are often former engineers, so they like the cool stuff, and it's hard for generals to turn down a ship that clearly has more killing power than last year's, even if it has certain logistical drawbacks... well, that's Quartermaster's problem, not theirs*.

In short, where other militaries are well-developed and well-honed fighting machines, the Denpruet have the best special-effects department in the galaxy. In battle, they're usually about even.

(*: Well, one of the Denpruet mad-science companies, Consolidated Physics, does produce a line of standard military components, such as mass drivers in six standard calibers. They make two complete warships: the Model 11 System Defence Boat, an overgrown fighter, which mounts a "small" mass driver and a pair of turreted "tinies", and has a Class A energy screen (which the serious engineers notes is totally useless against projectiles); and the Mighty Hammer-class Planetary Assault Ships, mounting a pair of "Ooooh! That's gotta hurt!"-size mass drivers, a large number of secondary mass drivers ranging from rapid-fire point-defense "tinies" to anti-ship "larges", and a Class T energy screen.

Once in a while, Purchasing will get one of Consolidated's fan-boys, and for a while, the Imperial fleet will have ships it can depend on. But usually, things go back to normal within a decade or so.)

Other Info: The Denpruet currently rule 14 star systems scattered over a large area, and have contact with a few other species (if the OP allows).