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 Hiigaran Republic in Detail
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| Ironwatsas |
Posted on 17-02-2015 21:56
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 Posts: 856 Joined: October 21 2005 |
Now, as the overall "Good Guys" in Homeworld's storyline, the Hiigarans obviously have the most well developed backstory and have always been the focus of the games. While we here at PDS have very much shifted the focus toward the fragmentation of the Vaygr, the Hiigaran republic is still the "face" of the Homeworld-verse (From our perspective) and, post Homeworld 2, the dominant galactic superpower. Most of what is written in past PDS versions lore wise is still valid. The big change being that, in the past, the Hiigarans have always been treated largely as a monolithic national entity, whereas canonically it is much more of a federation of large clans and family groups with a collective parliament for settling disputes and general cross-Kiith administration. It also means that, up until the events of HW2, the Hiigaran Military and Economic sectors were divided up along Kiith Lines. Each Kiith formed it's own de-facto nation state, answering only to the Diamiid. The Diamiid was largely a necessity in the chaotic post-Landfall world, although it was for all intents and purposes, a forum by which the assembled Kiith-Sa could mediate their differences and plan. There was never a clear single leader. Karan S'jet was the S'jet Sa, and was very much the spiritual leader of the Hiigaran People, but never had any coherent political power beyond Kiith S'jet. In the Exile Era and through the Beast War, there was no unified "Hiigaran Navy". Each clan maintained it's own private fleet, proportional to it's numbers, wealth, and political power. The fleets operated co-operatively, and were obligated by necessity to share technology and operate jointly to protect the Homeworld, but were otherwise left to develop according to their needs and ambitions. This lead to a complicated web of diplomacy, liscencure, etc, which marginalized many smaller kiithid, indirectly leading Kiith Somtaaw down the path that would release the Beast. At this stage, it can be surmised that military doctrine was in a state of flux. Point Defense Systems style ship loadouts were just beginning to come into vogue, and overall the battle environment would resemble something akin to PDS version 4. Most of the debates over doctrine from the pre-exodus era were broad generalizations (E.g. the Riif-Sa vs Paktu debate) over the necessity of strike craft versus capital ships, which was abruptly solved when they had to fight Turanic Raiders. Beyond that, the Kiith Navies of the era would basically have had to "wing it" and make up their own deployment strategies and innovations in organizing as they were gradually exposed to other, radically different ways of fighting and technology development paths. For the most part, their ships and tactics were copied from those of the Taiidan, which were wholly adequate for the Kiith Navies of the day, and it wasn't until the Beast War that things became more coherent and organized. The Beast Conflict was the defining event, probably more so than the Homeworld war, that lead to the shaping both of Hiigara as a star nation, and the political layout of the galaxy to the beginning of Makaan's invasion. The Beast could rapidly turn a star fleet's tactics and weapons against itself, and the relative inflexibility of and lack of cross compatibility of the Kiith Fleets at the time lead to an extremely dangerous situation. After the War, and the political changes (both internally and externally) that a unified Hiigaran Navy was founded. The Kiith system remained in place, and each kiith retained it's private fleets, but was forced to donate a portion of it's forces to the HGN, and in times of war, cede their authority to the HGN Fleet Command. This also fostered a standardization of forces, with only the highly specialized kiith like Somtaaw maintaining a dramatically different technological base. The old Kiith System was slow to erode, and even in a deep post HW2 environment, has never been completely erased. On paper, the private navies of the Kiithid exist, although wartime conditions has lead to their effective dissolution, with only Kiiths Soban and Somtaaw retaining largely independent fleets (for black operations, and remote logistics/mining respectively). This allowed for the rapid development of a centralized technological base based on many of the creations of the Somtaaw during the Beast Campaign, and allowed for a more coordinated inter-kiith operability in increasingly far flung operations (as the Hiigaran Navy had rapidly begun to become a Naval Superpower, and began major colonization, peacekeeping, counter-insurgency, and Beast-Eradication operations farther and farther from the Hiigaran Control Zone). Still, at the beginning of the Vaygr War, most Hiigaran Warships still wore individual kiith colors and banners, while by it's end most would wear the colors of unified HGN combat units, with few vestiges of the old Kiith Navies visible. Strategically, Hiigaran forces are highly deployable, and have an incredibly well developed logistical and industrial base. Their technology and organization (as of the HW2 era) is considered the 'gold standard' by which other races are judged, replacing that of the Taiidan Empire. Only the "Unbound" races, the Bentusi, T-MAT, P3, Progenitors, and (in a few specialized areas such as Artificial Intelligence and Cybernetics) the Yomi, can be considered technologically 'superior'. Of course, this is a broad generalization, and is balanced out by the strategic and political situations of the day: The HGN is far stronger than any of it's known or anticipated the opponents. Only the T-MAT would give them severe trouble in a hypothetical full scale war (the T-MAT's military capabilities are virtually unknown). That being said, the technological gap is quickly being closed by a resurgent Taiidani Empire, and the sheer scale of the Vaygr Loyalist forces' numbers and controlled territory means that the HGN is spread over a huge tract of galactic space, fighting both symmetrical and asymmetrical opponents. This means that while Hiigara and it's core territories are safe, the Vaygr War is far from over. Another factor quickly coming into play in a post-HW2 world is the discovery and exploitation of advanced Progenitor Relics. Overall, the Progenitors are assumed to be roughly several centuries (if not millenia, based on the relative rate of technological advancement) ahead of all current actors, especially in the fields of Hyperspace technology, Directed Energy Weapons, Materials Science, and Energy Field Warfare. The time frame of the PDS mod occurs between the canonical end of Homeworld 2 and the Discovery of the Eye of Arran and the Progenitor Hypergate network. The Hiigarans are still closely studying the various progenitor technologies and machinery encountered during the Mothership's expedition, and have begun more aggressively exploiting known archeotechnological sites. Previously, empirical information on the Progenitors had been tightly controlled both due to religious dogmatic reasons, and galactic council policy. This could be seen as a cynical (if partially justified) effort on the half of the Bentusi, T-MAT, and ruling Galactic Council races to maintain their technological edge, or prevent dangerous powers such as the Taiidan Empire under Riesstiu from gaining control of technologies that could challenge them, To say nothing of the sheer danger posed by Progenitor automated sentries. Over millennia, screwing with Progenitor tech has largely become a cultural and political taboo. This has begun to be broken, due to the waning of the council and the military necessity of exploiting these technologies in a dangerous galaxy. A sort of archeological arms race has begun as various factions have begun harvesting progenitor artifacts. Most notably the Hiigarans and Imperialist Taiidan, but also the Frrern Aggrigate, Yomi Empire, and others. The Eye of Arran is ultimately to be discovered as part of this process. This has caused two major side effects, however. Firstly, it is leading to more frequent conflicts between modern fleet forces and ancient Progenitor Defenses. These sorts of engagements tend to highlight vast technological disparities and styles of warfare, and tend to be highly asymmetric and chaotic. Progenitor Keepers are proving to be much more intelligent then previously thought, as they are starting to launch pre-emptive strikes and use deception. They're getting smarter. The other issue is, anti-Hiigaran sentiment in the post war galaxy is building. There is a general feeling that whenever the Hiigarans start screwing around with ancient technology or trying to fufill old prophecies, various apocalypses happen. Generally citing the Beast War and chaos surrounding the Fall of the Taiidan Empire as examples, generally retrospectively. There is also a perception that Hiigara's war against the Vaygr and economic pacts with surrounding galactic powers including the Cush Federation and Levii Conglomerate are ultimately going to end with Hiigaran hegemony over a vast region of space, effectively leading to their replacement of the Taiidan Empire. Up until the fall of the galactic council, this has had no major political repercussion, but that is starting to change: without the Bentusi to mediate things or interpret prophecies, there has been a cooling of relations between the Hiigarans and nations such as the Frrern Aggrigate, Yomi, and even some of it's closest allies such as the Nalthoran Kingdom and Cush Federation, mainly over what it sees as territorialism and hoarding progenitor discoveries. That being said, Hiigara is, at the end-point of the Vaygr War, the Galaxy's largest economy and most powerful single military force. It has some level of trade relations with almost every galactic power except the Taiidan Second Empire, Turanic Kingdoms, Vaygr, and T-MAT. As well, the charismatic spiritual leadership of Karan S'jet is widely admired and respected, even by some of Hiigara's nominal foes (Note, this is NOT the case with the Taiidan Imperialists or Vaygr loyalists. The latter believe she is a literal witch). It is likely that, following the activation of the Eye of Arran (which otherwise lies outside our mod's timeframe), the Hiigarans would found a new galactic council as the military and political situation stabilizes. Now for some statistics. The Hiigaran Government is a representative democracy based on the ancient Kiith System. There is no single official leader amongst the gathered Kiith-sa, although Karan S'jet is the de-facto leader over most of our timeframe. The Legislative Assembly of the Republic is referred to as the Diamiid. The Capitol of the republic is the city of Assam Kiith-siid, on Hiigara (obviously). The colors of the Hiigaran Nation are blue and white, with the winged guidestone symbol as it's sigil. This reflects Homeworld 2 fleet livery (although, in practice, individual Kiith Fleets and Tactical Units have their own colors). Hiigara, as of the end of the Vaygr War, has official control over (>insert number here<) major star systems, including Hiigara Itself. Other major systems include Coruc-Tel, the greater "Talas Crossroads" region, Tanis, Sarum, the Simuliin Training Grounds, several sections of the Karos Graveyard, the "Hyperspace Arena" region, the Kadiir Nebula, the Aiowa System, and several others (feel free to go nuts making new ones up and reinterpreting old ones). The Kharak System is considered a Hiigaran Enclave, and a national graveyard. Entry is restricted and it is guarded by a remote, ceremonial detachment of the Hiigaran Navy. No survivors from Kharak have ever been discovered and the planet is completely dead. The Kadeshi are semi-officially recognized as a seperate Kiith, but no contact has been made with them since the Homeworld War. It is unknown if they survived the battle, although it is assumed there were more of them. It seems unlikely that they would have been able to support a fleet of the size that they had without infrastructure. The area remains under lockdown. Foreign Relations of the Hiigarans is as followed. Military Allies
Trade/Diplomatic Allies
Neutral/Cold War
Hostile/At War
Other/Unknown
The Hiigaran Monetary Unit is the Shekel. The official language of the federation is Kushan-la, which is transliterated into english (or the language you have your locale.big set to  ) for convenience sake. The obvious exception being place names or words for which there is no earthly equivalent.The de-facto official religion is Sajuuk Monotheism. This is near universal among old Kharaki, although there is quite a bit of variation (see Siidim-Gaalsien conflict). Religious interpretation, however, has begun to change as old traditions die out, and the revelation of Progenitors as very real beings has affected traditionalist teachings. Specifically recovery of Sajuuk and it's possession by Karan S'jet has lead to a major religious resurgence among the Hiigaran people, as well as of many other races. The implications of this are only just starting to become apparent. Very few other religious practices exist, and most of these come from immigrants to the republic from outside nations. Hiigara has evolved into free-market economy, although it is dominated primarily by intra-kiith specializations, and is just emerging from a period of tight government control. During the early resettlement of Hiigara, the economy was planned and tightly controlled, simply out of the nescessity of delineating limited resources on a nationwide level. This gradually transferred into the kiith-specialized model which precipitated the beast wars, and further evolved to economic systems similar to those used by other races. Large, inter-kiith conglomerates have begun to crop up and replace the old system, although kiith specialization is still heavily reflected in the present economic makeup and is unlikely to change soon. The Hiigaran Military is divided up amongst the Hiigaran (grand) Navy (HGN or HN in official nomenclature), Planatary Combat Forces (subdivided into the Hiigaran Army, Air Battle Force, Sea Battle Force, etc, which are further subdivided by specialty. E.G. Armor, Air Logistics, ASCA, etc), OSEC (Orbital Security and Emergency Control, think space version of the coast guard.), Intelligence Service, and Soban Force, as well as various Kiith-specific units and police forces (including Kiith Somtaaw's mining security fleet). In times of war, civilian assets such as cargo ships and infrastructure are designed to be requisitioned by the Fleet Command, forming a large Merchant Navy. Finally, the old exodus-era Mothership is still operational. Having been converted into a combination of a national monument, museum ship, and shipyard, it was hastily evacuated from Hiigaran Orbit once the Vaygr Invasion came too close. It is heavily protected in an undisclosed location, in use as a manufacturing plant, and is planning to be returned to it's place of honor once it is feasible to do so. Crime and Dissent are generally no more or less prevalent than any society of similar size. Hiigara is generally considered an extremely stable political structure and is generally, very safe and pleasant to live in. Most crime consists of petty larceny and drug abuse, although some level of organized crime and a black market is inevitable. The generally interconnected and close-knit kiith system is largely self policing, and violent crime is rare. The only domestic sources of terrorism or political violence come from rare religious fanatics following a neo-Siidim or neo-Gaalsien worldview. However, the obsolescence of these views in modern Hiigaran society generally limits their prevalence. Most other violent crime is state-sponsored terrorism or sabotage conducted by Imperialist Taiidan spies, or petty space piracy by the Turanic Raiders. The major internal social issues facing modern Hiigara are over the gradual loss of Kiith Identity, and racial issues over the vast influx of expatriates and refugees not of Kharakian Descent. Aside from the obvious need for housing, food, and the strain on infrastructure, there is the difficulties of reconciling these individuals with, and governing them by, the extant kiith system. There are simply, a vast number of kiithless individuals, and the traditional mechanism of representative democracy is via the kiithid and the Diamiid. This has lead to a number of contentious issues between the Traditionalist Kiith-preservationalists, and more progressive (and perhaps pragmatic) parties whom see the need for an alternative system, or a restructuring of the current one. The necessities of war have put a delay on these issues' resolution as much as they have shaped them in the first place. Finally, Hiigara is host to the Taiidan Republican government-in-exile, as well as the tattered remnants of it's military forces. Most of these have been integrated into the HGN for the duration of the war, and it is becoming increasingly unlikely that the Taiidan Republic will ever regain any territorial control beyond a few scattered exclaves. As well, there are a very small number of Bentusi living amongst the Hiigarans. Most of whom were trade barge pilots or their interpreters stranded after the Vaygr attacks which wiped out the remainder of their species. Their disconnection with the Bentusi conclave and small numbers mean that they are very likely the last of their kind, and have so far been content to live out their days as lone wanderers, traders, and storytellers, although a few are rumored to be in the employ of the Hiigaran Intelligence Services. Beyond this, all of what was written for prior PDS manuals is still valid (including the old rank structure and such) unless it directly conflicts. Edited by Ironwatsas on 17-02-2015 22:16 |
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| carl |
Posted on 17-02-2015 22:21
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 Posts: 28 Joined: February 11 2015 |
Only really a couple of point to raise. The one i raised elsewhere about the descriptions of the Vaygr advance which make it doubtful any other major factions would still be around after the war, (like i said though you can always ignore/retcon that if it's incontinent). An the same document noting that pesudo religious worship of Karan has allready started as of Landfall. Oh yeah and HW1 explicitly mentions a Diamad on kharak in it's manual, that isn't a new thing to cope with the post landfall situation, it's a continuation of how they've been doing things for a at least the last few centuries, (i can't remember if HW1 gives a founding date for the kharak era diamad off the top of my head). |
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| Warman1 |
Posted on 18-02-2015 00:17
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Posts: 146 Joined: September 08 2005 |
I'm pretty interested in the HW-HW2 transitional period as far as ship designs are concerned. It is probably safe to say that we shouldn't try for doing too much post HW2 work as it is quite likely that with the hoped for success of HW-Remastered that they will be working on it. While I can imagine them doing a space based HW-Prequel (as in, not ShipBreakers), I think they are going to leave the in between space empty. This transition period I think is ripe for some work to tell the tale of how the Hiigaran's got from the primarily ballistics tech of HW to the high-tech beam oriented HW2. |
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| Ironwatsas |
Posted on 18-02-2015 02:31
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Posts: 856 Joined: October 21 2005 |
Well, a lot of that has to do with the goodies collected by Kiith Somtaaw during the beast campaign. Pulsars came from a mix of Helix Bundle ion cannons and Bentusi focusing arrays. Miniaturized plasma cannons evolved from HW1 era plasma bombs and energy cannons. The siege cannon was never really expanded on because it was too much of a pain to replicate (plus, gun-launched strategic missiles are a much cheaper alternative). Gravity Well generators, Mimic fields, and Repulsors have niche uses, but aren't commonly seen in a main battle line. The main limiting factor is the latter two at-least would be a pain to script, if it's possible at all. Intermediary ship designs, between cataclysm and Homeworld 2, would have probably been early versions of the "Vanilla" HW2 ships. I would think that there would be a few design projects among various kiithid. With full use of HW@ resources, I'd use a few of the UNH capital ships for such purposes, although most would have been retired around the time of the Vaygr War as force standardization measures came into play. A lot of HW2 designs were developed specifically with the Beast threat in mind, which lead to such things as the Arbiter destroyers and associated battle doctrines (long range "Line Combat Divisions" meant to break up infected formations at maximum range) or otherwise have a lot of Somtaaw influence in them. |
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| Ironwatsas |
Posted on 20-02-2015 06:27
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Posts: 856 Joined: October 21 2005 |
To be more specific: There are a few ideas I'd like to go over. I'm planning to use some of the HW@ models for various purposes later on. Both to flesh out the Taiidani and introduce the Frrern Aggrigate, among other things. I want to use some of the UNH ships (the corvettes and frigates, mostly) as placeholders for the Yomi Navy (more info on that later), although the Destroyers, Cruiser, and Interceptor of theirs have too much of a Kushan/Hiigaran feel to be passable for anything else. My thoughts being those would be introduced as interbellum developments of the Revelation destroyer, and a successor to the Avatar heavy cruiser. The idea being some of the Kiithid took the cheaper approach to creating proper successors to the original HW1 era ships, rather than go with the Diamiid's development plan of the (canon) HW2 style navy. These alternative developments would probably have reached the end of their serviceable lives around the start of the Vaygr War, and last only as long as they were needed. HW@'s Interceptor is stated to be a joint Hiigaran/Republican Taiidan co-operation. I find this an interesting (and plausible) idea, being a sort of "Export Development" made between the Republic (which desperately needed to cut costs, and defense outsourcing was one solution), and an Industrial Kiith like Nabaal. Presumably, the design didn't last all the way up to HW2 due to technological compatibility difficulties or cost overruns or some logistical stuff such as that, but it's otherwise a neat interim design of the Blade series toward it's HW2 incarnation. I also wanted to retcon our existing Marquess hull as a Pre-war development. Basically, a co-project developed alongside the Imperitor-III/IV class carrier. The idea there being, the Marquess was more of a replacement for the Matriarch Support Frigate, and was meant to be a direct counter to the Turanic Attack Carrier. A small fighter/corvette tender with an offensive armament meant mostly for convoy escort, or planetary assault operations. A bit of a fusion between WWII era CVE's and modern Helicopter Landing Ships, if you will. The general change from the big, chunky ships of HW1 era to the smaller, flatter, 'pancake' style used in HW2 times would have mostly taken place immediately post beast war, but there would have been a long period where less wealthy Kiith fleets and naval units would use heavily modernized HW1 era ships alongside what would become familiar designs circa HW2. I'm also still trying to get in touch with Molololololu from the PTV mod. If he allows us use of their models, there's a few (Their Pulsar Fighter, Torpedo Corvette, and Heavy Gunship, among others) that would look neat as interim models or Kiith-specific ships, as well as a few HW2-era Somtaaw ships. Infact, I'm going to try and get in touch with him right now. |
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| Warman1 |
Posted on 23-02-2015 17:36
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Posts: 146 Joined: September 08 2005 |
One thing that might aid the process of planning out the evolution of ship designs is if we could come up with something like a graphical representation, sort of a family tree, of the ship designs. This way we could more easily plot out how we get from HW1->Beast Wars->HW2. And we can also figure out where some gaps might be that need filling or add in possible spin off designs that maybe didn't go anywhere. |
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| Ironwatsas |
Posted on 23-02-2015 18:17
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Posts: 856 Joined: October 21 2005 |
That's a good idea. Admittedly my graphical art skills are fairly minimal but I can do my best (or atleast get someone else to)! One alternative would be to set up some kind of wiki or ship database (like the one we had on the old Penguin Mayhem site) where we can go into nauseating detail. There are a number of ships for other races I'd also like to do as well, especially early-war Vaygr. |
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| mrWHO |
Posted on 07-09-2015 20:38
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 Posts: 485 Joined: September 02 2005 |
I wonder about one thing - do you think that HGN mannaged/wanted to recover the second mothership from galaxy center? In HW2 campaign it seem drifting toward galactic black hole, but it would still take centuries if not milenia till it would drift to it at sub-light speed. I think that if HW1 Mothership still work as a shipyard and memorial then second monthership would also work well as additional Higarra garrison shipyard (without hyperspace core the normal shipyards would be probably much flexible for expeditionary forces as they can service battlecruiser-size ships) |
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| Ironwatsas |
Posted on 08-09-2015 03:49
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Posts: 856 Joined: October 21 2005 |
I doubt it would be economical (or safe) to try to recover the Mothership, especially given the insane gravitational eddies in the region of Balcora. The implication of the Mothership's being abandoned is that all three cores were needed to power Sajuuk, and all three working in unison were needed to extricate the fleet from the intense gravity of the Balcora region. The military necessity of the Mothership is also sort of moot: It was built as a command and factory ship, and to house the Hiigaran core. Sentimentality aside, there's no longer much of a purpose for the Pride of Hiigara compared to a conventional shipyard. The HW1 Mothership survives as a monument and functional space station by virtue of not having been abandoned in a radioactive cluster of black holes, and has substantially more of a cultural and spiritual value to the Hiigaran people due to it's more benevolent intentions and the circumstances of the exodus. They probably would have evacuated it to somewhere safe when the Siege of Hiigara began, to prevent the Vaygr from messing it up. Hiigara surely has some kind of giant facility somewhere nearby to build and service mothership class ships, like the Empress-type shipyards, Kuun-Lan, Faal-Corum, (both are still alive and kicking) and any other mothership-sized military or commercial craft. |
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| yasotay |
Posted on 09-09-2015 00:45
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 Posts: 637 Joined: September 09 2005 |
I have to agree with Iron that there is neither a need or financial viability toward the Hiigaran's trying to retrieve the Mothership 2. To my mind after the defeat of Makaan, the Hiigaran's are in tough shape trying to recover from the near apocalyptic war (think England or France after WW1 or 2). I think what funds are availalbe are being used to modernize as much as they can.
I am ancient
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