Fiction:Merosian Collective

The Merosian Collective or Merosia, briefly known as the Grand and Prosperous United Merosian Imperium and the Merosian Imperium, is a totalitarian semi-fascist empire located in the. Maintaining limited contact with other large interstellar empires, Merosia is feared by many nearby planetary or early-interplanetary civilizations for their apparent drive to conquer and claim their territory. The result of several civil wars which resulted in innumerable casualties, and of the species' inherent collectivism, Merosia is known amongst neighboring interplanetary civilizations for their massive military and infamous invasion forces, comprised mainly of tripedal terror-based combat vehicles.

The Fall of the Merosian Republic
The Republic was growing fast, faster than anyone had expected.

The Three Great Wars
Upon the fracturing of the Merosian Republic, the three resultant factions of Merosian society quickly escalated tensions to the point of war.

Invasion Forces and Weaponry
When a planet of interest to the Imperium contains sapient, civilized lifeforms, Merosians often rely on invasion to take the world by force. Depending on the stage of technological advancement the natives fall into, invasion and subjugation may be easier or more of a challenge, and if deemed to be a credible threat to the Imperium, Merosians may turn to full-scale conquest and might end up obliterating the native civilization.

Regardless of difficulty, Merosians primarily turn to terror-based strategies and have thus built their military around easily overcoming native defenses and rooting out -- and in many cases, rounding up -- the populace, by use of several vehicles and other craft. Invasion-craft are delivered to the surface in large entry capsules, at least thirty meters in diameter, which utilize retro-thrusters and small gliding surfaces, in addition to ablative shielding, to situate the forces on the surface, before unleashing the war machines upon the unsuspecting natives in a coordinated launch.

Most notable of these vehicles are the many classes of Tripods -- incredibly tall walkers named for their three-legged gait, carrying powerful molecular accelerator beams which vaporize, burn, or melt just about anything that they come in contact with, commonly referred to as heat rays.

Societal Collective
To the unobservant, Merosian society may appear to be brainwashed masses blindly following a dictator without any revolt whatsoever. While the idea of "revolt" has not yet come to pass in the current cycle of civilization -- having done so to establish the Imperium itself, a byproduct of the Three Great Wars -- the Merosians are not "blind" in any sense. Merosian society is inherently collectivist, believing it cannot progress toward a "greater good" or towards the establishment of a true "great society" without complete participation in whatever way, shape, or form one may choose.

It is theorized that the inherent collectivism is in fact biological in origin; Merosians themselves are capable of tactile telepathy; four out of their sixteen tentacles contain specialized nerve bundles which, when contacting nerve bundles of another Merosian -- or even other species, such as the Merosian Tripod -- can transfer thoughts and information, allowing for pathic conversations between Merosians on scales as small as between the budding-parent and its developing children, to as large as entire planetary populations. This creates a true societal collective consciousness.

At the end of the Third Great War, Merosian society collectively concluded that all members of the civilization must contribute to the development and idea of a "great society" in whatever way they can, and to establish a sort of dictator -- the Grand Imperator -- to railroad current society in the direction that it needs to go to progress towards the sociocollectively-defined "great society". This form of "willing fascism" results in a complete lack of oppression of Merosian citizenry, as all citizens are considered as playing their part in the advancement of the Imperium toward fulfilling a "greater good".

Soon after the creation of the establishment of the dictatorial role, the first and only Grand Imperator found a way to abolish his own role; pushing the then-limits of Merosian telepathy, he managed to encode plans which were soon put into motion. These plans allowed for total decentralization by means of boosting the species' pathic abilities to a near-complete collective state, where all major decisions for the "greater good of Merosia" would be quickly decided by the entirety of the Empire. Within a few generations, this effect made its way into the entire natural gene pool, abolishing the role of Grand Imperator and establishing the Merosian species as a semiconnected collective.

Systems
Total System Count: 20,000

Core Systems: 9,000
 * Capital Binary System: 2
 * Central Hub Systems: 18
 * Internal Node Systems: 450
 * Median Node Systems: 1,350
 * External Node Systems: 2,500
 * Intermediary Core Systems: 4,930

Annexed Systems: 11,000
 * Akpadur-Annexed Systems: 4,000
 * Imperial Annexed Systems: 7,000

Population Distribution
Total Imperial Population: 774.316525 Trillion

Core Systems: 528.191525 Trillion
 * Capital Binary System: 1.332 Trillion
 * Central Hub Systems: 6.45975 Trillion
 * Internal Node Systems: 83.925 Trillion
 * Median Node Systems: 111.599775 Trillion
 * External Node Systems: 136.91875 Trillion
 * Intermediary Core Systems: 187.95625 Trillion

Annexed Systems: 246.125 Trillion
 * Akpadur-Annexed Systems: 152.5 Trillion
 * Imperial Annexed Systems: 93.625 Trillion

Quotes
"Large and rather strong. Our ideologies align fairly well, also. I believe a powerful relationship can be built."

- The Director of the Vogrik

Trivia

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