The Unified Republic of Stars - A Sci-Fi World Building Podcast

This weeks story generator contribution: “A girl (14) from Miyazaki wants revenge against her brother’s killers on Gangwon when a deadly contagion breaks out that must be stopped before everyone dies.”

As I mention at the top of the cast, this kind of thing may not be unusual. As an example, see the entry on the Eating Disease that affected Columbus.

Of course, this week, what we’re discussing is the second major invasion by Earth of its former colonies, now recently bound together by the creation of the Unified Republic of Stars. And this invasion, building off of the last one, is called The Second Republican Defensive.

But, unlike last time, where the Authority only invaded Galileo and Athena, this time they got a little more ambitious and included Troy, Gangwon, Kaesong, and Darwin into their plans.

So we’ll discuss exactly how this all went down and how the newly Republican worlds reacted to being invaded. And we’ll discuss the effectiveness of the new Razorback fighter.

But, as we do, here are some of the promised links from the show:

And that’s it! Feel free to contact me either through Twitter @republicofstars or on Facebook. And, of course, I’m always available at urspodcast at gmail dot com.

This week we discuss the re-organization of the independent colonies into the Unified Republic of Stars, because, yeah, you knew that was coming.

But, as always, the story generator’s suggestion for creativity: “A girl (16) thinks joining the militia will be fun on Gangwon when her best friend gets into trouble because he saw something he shouldn’t have.”

First this week we discuss the creation of the new Constitution of the Unified Republic of Stars in response to the First Republican Defensive. I suggest you take a look at the constitution if you’d like to read all of the guaranteed rights that were listed in Article One. I would be curious to know what you would add, change, or remove from the list.

After describing how the new government was to be established, we next discussed the reorganization of the Independent Fleet into the Republican Fleet. And here we discussed the five new divisions that were established, listed here for your reference:

And, lastly, we spent some significant time going into depth on what the NOVA Battleship would be and how the NOVA Group came to be in order to build it.

Serious changes were afoot in the star cluster and for the colonies of Earth. It’s pretty exciting. And, next week, we’ll have the Second Republican Defensive to discuss.

As always, you can email questions and comments to urspodcast (at) gmail dot com and I’ll either get you on the show or read them for you.

And, we’re social! Find us on Twitter @republicofstars or on Facebook.

A mid-week supplemental! Who would’a thought?

I wanted to spend a little time speaking about one of the characters I think has been probably the most important and, which, has gone almost entirely unnoticed: economics!

Economics as a character? Sure! It’s been moving things behind the scenes the whole time. It’s why people left for the colonies in the first place. It’s why Earth started getting so aggressive with the colonies over tax money. And the colonists, then, reacted from the other side.

It wasn’t like someone just said, “Hey! Let’s go independent!” and that’s why Earth and her colonies went to war. Things had been souring between them for decades. And the souring was cased by the economic circumstances.

Oh, and as mentioned on the cast, do check out Planet Money if you want something interesting to listen to on the subject. And, for those interested in the American Revolution, do also check out Mike Duncan’s Revolutions cast also. Both of these after you listen to this one, of course.

This week, we discuss the First Republican Defensive. It’s not actually a “republican” defensive because there was no “republic” fighting it. But, it became known as the First Republican Defensive because… well… that’s what people called it.

But, this week’s Story Generator suggestion: “A man (57) from Gangwon wants his revenge on his twin sister’s killer’s on Yamanashi when his best friend is captured by the Authority.”

Okay, so some links that might make this week’s episode more accessible:

There are, of course, dozens of topics that could be discussed just in this one episode. However, in my attempt not to overwhelm you, I’m limiting it just to these major areas.

However, comments and question are always welcome via email at urspodcast at gmail dot com or via our Facebook page or via Twitter, which I have found myself strangely drawn to since starting this podcast. Responses are guaranteed.

I’d like to throw a quick shout out to “DevonElyse” and “JackMyer1024” for their reviews on iTunes. I’ll name them next week but, unfortunately, I had this podcast already recorded before I checked to see their reviews. So, in the name of urgency, here they are, and thank you for your ratings.

Also, thank you, everyone for your listening to this. I created this storyworld to tell my own stories in and my friend suggested I share it with everyone because of the crazy amount of detail I’d put into it. The idea that dozens of you are willing to let me describe it to you every week is a serious honor.

And, as I’ve said, this is your podcast. So, if you have any changes or suggestions you want to see, please, email or tweet me and I’ll discuss it with you on how to make this thing better.

Welcome to part two of this week’s two asides.

Unlike the last one that dealt with a topic that was directly related to the last episode, talking about how the former colonies would have communicated with one another, this one is dealing with terms that will be coming up in the next episode or two.

Also, we’ve been talking about shippers since almost the beginning, and they deserve their own supplemental, but

So… some links to compliment this week’s episode:

This was a fun one to describe! I hope it sparked some ideas for stories that might involve space travel.

The first of two asides to supplement this week’s material.

With this supplemental, we discuss how you might go about communicating not just next door but to the next town over and, even, to different planets and from deep space.

Some of the topics we discuss:

And, of course, we mention the companies:

And, because we mention the, do check out the shipper reference page if you’d like to understand a bit more about their culture.

This week’s contribution from the story generator is: “A man (40) finally has the perfect job at Santos Recreational Pharmaceuticals in Cobanito when the Galileo City Republicans make it to the Republican Series and he has tickets.”

This week, I discuss how the revolution actually began. As always, you can read it for yourself in the reference section. But, for those who are just listening, it’s a description of the events that led to Article of Independence being declared by the First Independent Congress in 2169 and the colonies and the human home world of Earth reached the point of war. And, of course, the details of the actual period of revolution.

Some of the more interesting people mentioned this week include:

And links promised in the episode:

Also, don’t forget to read the Universal United Human Authority’s entry in the reference section. It’ll be a slight spoiler when I get to the History of the UUHA but, if you’re interested in the story world, it can help you understand further why the colonies weren’t that interested in following its resolutions.

As always, if you have comments or questions, email me at urspodcast at gmail dot com and I’ll either get you on the cast or read your feedback on the air.

An aside to this week’s material.

In this one, I discuss why the colonization period within the story world might just be my favorite in which to set stories.

I don’t want to give away too much of what’s discussed in the cast but suffice it to say it boils down to a couple of things. The first is that this is the only period within the story world that is stateless. As in, no government what so ever.

Yes, there are a few elected sheriffs and the occasional police force in cities like Athena City. But, in this era, the primary way to resolve disputes is determined by each community, the customs they brought with them from Earth, and what they feel is right, fair, and just.

Because of this, different ways of dealing with things begin to emerge, from a common weapon etiquette to things like recovery specialists as people experiment with different ways of maintaining order away from a government that they can turn to.

As I said, I think this is a fascinating period. However, we have a lot of story world “history” that is still coming up, so I’ll be curious to know if you agree.

Welcome back to Chapter Five of A Short History of the Unified Republic of Stars, The Seeds of Discontent.

Before getting into this week’s episode though, the contribution from the Story Generator: A man (21) is a gunsmith with Calcutta Arms on Shaanxi when he is kidnapped in exchange for information he doesn’t have.

This week, I discuss the events leading just up to the first real rebellion by Earth’s colonies in the Colonial Star Cluster and the human home world. Reasonable people can disagree as to whether these were reasonable causes to engage in rebellion but, at least in the story world, this is what led directly to people, at first, ignoring Earth and, then, actively fighting them.

So… here are some links to things that get discussed in this week’s episode:

As always, your participation on the site and podcast is welcome. If you have questions or comments or want to appear on the cast yourself, email me at urspodcast at gmail dot com, and I’ll be happy to figure out a way to get you featured.

Welcome back to another episode of the Unified Republic of Stars Podcast. This week, we discussed A Short History of the Unified Republic of Stars, Chapter 4 – A Growth Explosion.

Except… that this week, rather than just read from the chapter, I based the episode on the chapter and added some extra detail. I’d love to know your thoughts on the format change and whether it worked for you.

Also, this week’s Story Generator suggestion: “A girl (13) falls in love with the girl of her dreams on Athena but is arrested for a murder she didn’t commit.”

The topic this week was the explosive growth the colonies experienced between 2106 and 2172 and both how that was possible and why it came to be.

Some helpful show links based on what was discussed:

And, of course, it was mentioned how viable work could also be found in both prostitution and pornography on the colonial worlds.

As always, if anyone has any comments or questions, please email at urspodcast at gmail dot com and I’ll happily invite you onto the cast with me or just read what you wrote if you’re not so inclined.