Humans came to the Alice System (named for the fiance' of George Henderoark, amateur astronomer, who discovered it in the mid-21st century) in three waves, the Badinicotti, the Catholic Rennaissance, and the Denialist Republic in 2317, 2539, and 2761 Anno Domini respectively.
The Badinicotti were explorer/tramp trader/outlaw/pirate, a loose clan of Eurabian thugs/merchants who traded when they could not steal. Their small ships chugged out with Warp One engines, and upon finding this place, they made themselves a home on an unoccupied planetoid.
The Catholic Rennaissance came in vast ships that were more like homes and cities than ships powered by Warp Two drives and faith that were more on the order of small moons, and set up a trade network, and repressed piracy effectively so that the Badinicotti found themselves having to do honest work.
The Denialist Republics came in smaller ships that were a hundred times faster than the CR moonships powered by Warp Three model drives and by Star Magery. Behind them came no more fleets because Humans had noted the rise in bias of magic, and had decided that the universe was on the verge of falling apart because of too much magic. So magic and warp drive and faith had to be suprressed to keep everyone safe, and in their place, and predictable. People flying around space, seeing space angels and such were just not suited to being drones under the guidance of the Wise who ruled Earth for God. But they knew what God wanted without asking him, for theirs was a religion that really only worshipped themselves.
The Denialists rejected all this with a passion. They were Romantic, wild, given to grand gestures, and lost causes, and epic poetry, and any thing that went Really, Really Fast.
The Catholic Rennaisance took a more balanced approach, but they too had moved from Earth as a partial separation from the growing culture that the Denialists hated. The Badinicotti were not even of this for it had never entered their mind. They worshipped the Stars, and stole, and looted, but only those they had not given hospitality too.
Some theorized that what had happened was that Earth was a separate place, a place with little magic. That the Human desire for materialism had ripped reality and caused Earth to have less magic than space. But once people got into Deep Space, they found magic. And then when people came back with magic, they brought it back to Earth, so Earth started to recconect to reality.
NOTE: You can see their theory. Its not quite Universe/Subuniverse but they are close. And they are aware of the Magic Bias if not other biases.
But the Alice system is of long tenant. It has seventeen planets, moons, and planetoids that are habitable to a human. Some are empty of sentient life, but a number have life, and all have old ruins.
One of the ruins much sought is that of a Balancer. A Balancer is a tall, black rock with an inhuman face. If you find one, and ask of it a question, such as 'Is it fair that my cousin Jeremy is captain of a ship while I, who am older than he by two years, is only a second mate?' It will strive with its considerable powers at its disposal to rectify this imbalance. This involves interplanetary power beams, and waking up robot armies.
Now, such things are not totally out of order because the Balancer will only answer one question a century, and usually they are lost in dark and hidden ruins under a planet's surface. But rumors of a new balancer always set off a massive treasure hunt as its obvious that you could ask for a lot more that needs to be 'properly balanced' in your favor.
Some few favor destroying Balancers, but 1)Its hard to do. 2)No one likes those who do. 3)If you take the Balancer's favor you can't destroy it. So despite all the laments against this peculiar alien device, no one really stops it.
Another issue is the Peaceful Ones. They are a race of luminescent creatures, similar to space angels, but far less intense and scary. They have great powers of dispelling attacks by means that seems to be magic, but might be technology, or body means. They seek peace, at any cost.
They can fly through space at Warp One.
They have been known to rescue pirates from an ambush, take the pirates promise to be peaceful, leave, and then the pirates who were then not surprised wiped out the settlers.
They are beautiful and inhuman with high charisma so that arguing against them makes one feel to be an untutored yokel. Some of the CR speculate that they have a power to generate such a feeling.
They have never been seen in the presence of space angels.
One race that is cursed by pretty much everyone except the Peaceful Ones are the Shade. They drink the brain fluids of sentient beings without which they would degenerate back to animal intelligence. They have a basic primate size and nature of body of a great gorilla such that they have strength much more than a human, and would be such if they allowed themselves to be so. They are called the Shade because they have strong chameleon skills so that spotting one in dim light is difficult for many races. And they have a symbiotic relationship with a bat-like alien flyer which picks lice from their skin in return for having a safe place to sleep at night (on the shoulder of the large predator).
Note: Yes, thats a space gorilla vampire! Wanna make something of it? :) Let's just say that sometimes making creatures and worlds that are a tad silly is a good idea. This world should have a little humor to it.
There are at least five other races in the Alice System, and there are abundant ruins of other races who have come and left, and in those ruins you can find all sorts of strange goodies and weird dooms.
A Balancer is a tall, black rock with an inhuman face. If you find one, and ask of it a question, such as 'Is it fair that my cousin Jeremy is captain of a ship while I, who am older than he by two years, is only a second mate?' It will strive with its considerable powers at its disposal to rectify this imbalance.
Spoken like a true O.
I'm very curious about this. I'm curious because I'm pretty sure that I can phrase just about any question to appear as if it is prejudicially against me. "Why does a brainless twit like Barrack Obama who has had all lucky breaks and become fairly wealthy in politics get to be President of the United States, while I, older, smarter, and of better established family, who has struggled for decades against poverty with low-income jobs, am relatively unknown and powerless?" "Why is J. K. Rowling richer than the queen for writing a few novels and my equally wonderful novels don't sell at all?"
The answer is of course that not everything that is unequal is inequitable. But can the Balancer understand this, and determine that there are often legitimate reasons for inequalities?
--M. J. Young
No, the Balancer does not understand this which is the point. The Balancer is a metaphor for a certain POV. And yes, one can use the Balancer to attain all sorts of unfair advantages and cause lots of chaos.
And come to think of it, the Balancers might use the quickest method to get what they want. So if you asked your JK Rowling question, the Balancer sends out a horde of robot assasins to kill all the authors more famous than you.
Heh. Heh.
Or it could just send an ultimatum to the publishing houses.
"MJ YOUNG WILL BE FAMOUS AND RICH AS AN AUTHOR." With the unspoken threat of using one of those interplanetary power beams to melt Publisher's Row into a crater in the ground.
Edit: As you can guess, Major Treasure Hunt at rumors of one being spotted...