Standard Build Template
The Standard Build Templates were a system of databases that contained vast quantities of knowledge, most notably, blueprints. These systems of databases were often packaged with fabrication units that enabled colonists on newly settled worlds to construct virtually anything they needed from agricultural equipment to prefabricated homes, and later to weapons, and even starships. Most databases were at least partially corrupted in the events of The Great Cataclysm, and many were destroyed completely. The loss of all of this data was one of the key factors in the end of the Age of Unity, the near collapse of interstellar civilization, and the beginning of the Long Night.
Design
In its most basic form, the Standard Build Template is nothing more than stored data. Originally these were on large optical discs, however, towards the later phases of the evolution of the second generation SBT and afterwards, optical drives were replaced with data crystals based on Pardian designs. SBT data stores were then almost always paired with computers capable of reading the data, upgrading from the relatively basic computers of the late information age, towards the holocomputers of the stellar age. In the case of SBT units that were intended to directly manufacture goods, tethered to automated fabricators that could produce virtually anything stored on that particular SBT. More advanced fabricators slowly evolved the manufacturing processes from 3d printing, and large robots, to more advanced forms of these technologies, and eventually to swarms of nanomachines. Over time, the form of the arrangement changed significantly, but the core of data, computer, and fabricator remained unchanged. In the modern era however, many have adapted their SBT to alternative means of production as very often the automated fabricators were unable to read data corrupted by The Great Cataclysm, or were unable to function at all after centuries of service.History
The original conception of the Standard Build Template arose out of the outlining of Project Exodus and Project Valeria, and later, Project Valeria. Several key scientists involved with these projects noted that the need for constant resupply of interstellar settlements would be exceptionally difficult at sublight speeds and a degree of self-reliance was deemed necessary for future interstellar exploration projects. A cadre of scientists at Cadi-Ayyad university, led by "The Four Greats" Aicha bint Lahad Bakr, Binyamin ibn-Abdullah Ahl-Huk, Nurul Abulafia, and Ghaib ibn-Malik Salman created a technical database that would become the base of the Standard Build Template System. This initial database was envisioned solely as a repository of technical blueprints that, when paired with a fabricator, would allow colonists to create complex machines with access only to fairly simple tools and materials. This initial design would go with early colonists in the first part of the first expansion, and would be invaluable in the colonization efforts of the home regions, allowing the first humans to live in other star systems to survive despite the relatively hostile conditions and lack of viable terraforming options available to humanity in the early 23rd century.1st Generation
During the first expansion, the Standard Build Template quickly became a crucial part of early colonization efforts. However, it was not without its issues. The initial databases were considered “Earth-centric” with equipment designed with Earthlike conditions in mind. Tolerances for extremes of gravity and local materials proved especially problematic for early explorers. Early first generation Standard Build Templates were therefore adapted as quickly as information about their shortcomings could be made, with this first generation being evolutionarily improved with designs more amenable to extra-solar conditions being trickled into the databases of new Exodus ships. As the home systems developed, Qadi-Ayyad and other Earth-based universities were joined by the University of Chiron, Barnard Technical University, and Gaia Cosmia Institute of the Sciences among many others, as developers. One of the impacts of this more diverse input was the increasing militarization of databases on later expansions. The Earth-based scientists had assumed hostile environments could be conquered through engineering, and didn’t conceive of the need for powerful weapons to combat hostile alien creatures, and the slowly increasing phenomenon of extra-solar piracy. The colonial academics, conversely, saw the need for arms against these threats, and insisted on their inclusion in the databases loaded onto ships headed for the Line Worlds. As a result, the outermost edge of human expansion proved to be much better armed than their predecessor. Though this initially resulted in dramatic reductions in piracy, it proved dangerous for the health the nascent interstellar human civilization during the Troubles, and later the Line Worlds rebellion, as rebellious colonials were just as heavily armed as the central military of the United Nations of Earth, making what could otherwise have been short operations in to brutal long lasting wars that nearly escalated into an all-encompassing human civil war. Under great political pressure from the United Nations of Earth, and later the Transolar Union, efforts were made to correct perceived defects that allowed the rebellion to grow. The first of these solutions was to limit the capabilities of weapons and military technology for frontier settlements. In scholarly circles it is unknown whether this demilitarization removed weaponry from the database altogether, or, as in later generations of the SBT, limited weapons to a certain degree acceptable by the Transolar Union for its own security. However, the impact was obvious, limiting the independence of extrasolar settlements by making them more dependent on central security forces for their own safety. Another development, suggested by a group of social scientists, notably Isla Faro, was to foster a greater sense of unified human culture by including a cultural database alongside the blueprints, and allowing peoples in the far flung frontier to be made more familiar with peoples from other corners of human civilization just as much as they were familiar with their own local customs. Combined with these changes, efforts were made to make the SBT databases more data-efficient to slow the creep of data overload that had been arising ever since the first changes were made. The result was the advent of the 2nd Generation of the Standard Build Template.2nd Generation
The second generation was issued more slowly than the first on account of the slowing speed of human expansion in the era when it was first released. As a result testing of this new generation, and feedback on it was slower than expected. However, feedback did eventually come in about the second generation databases. Despite standardization being implied by the name of the project, many colonists still wanted to make modification of designs easier to better adapt to the unique conditions of their homeworld. The push to modability became one of the core drives towards the evolution of the second generation throughout its lifecycle, but this matter would become relatively insignificant in the face of a major discovery that happened in the late 28th century. The discovery of Pardian ruins in 2782 marked a major shift in cultural attitudes, and the discovery of Pardian data crystals shortly afterward marked a major shift in the development of technologies in human space. Data crystals unearthed throughout Pardian space indicated the existence of a former civilization with technology leagues ahead of anything humanity could have even conceived of, and xenoengineers reverse engineered many of these technologies. Research and development of reverse engineered Parditech saw humanity advance more rapidly than the designers of the SBT databases could reasonably keep up with. Moreover, the data crystals themselves proved an extremely efficient means of data storage, well beyond anything previously discovered. These discoveries were initially too difficult to keep up with and it wasn’t until the latter days of the Second Expansion that developers of the SBT had finally caught up with the pace of discovery. The 2nd Generation reached its ultimate form shortly before the end of the Second Expansion. In this form the SBT consisted of a computer with a series of modular data crystals that could be linked up to fabricators, or automated factories, produce anything from mining equipment to even starships, as well as a wealth of cultural information from across the galaxy. SBT devices of this time were very compact and could be carried even by individual colonists, owing to the extremely efficient crystal storage devices they used. Outside Sol, the Home systems and a select few technical universities, primarily within twenty parsecs of Sol, most every star system relied almost entirely upon the SBT to construct virtually anything they produced locally, representing the pinnacle of the SBT’s influence in the galaxy. Some changes would be made after the Third Great Human Civil War however, that would bring about the end of the second generation and make room for the third.3rd Generation
After the Frentierist faction won the Third Great Human Civil War, it dramatically restructured many facets of interstellar society. Among them was the SBT. The freely accessible and modifiable nature of the SBT was an affront to the defense of intellectual property that was at the forefront of Frentierist thought, and the cost of state research universities in maintaining the core databases was deemed unacceptable. As a result, the SBT was effectively privatized, the ancient patents re-established, reinforced and sold off to a host of galactic corporations, as the SBT was changed to eliminate the possibility of deviations, and to pay royalties to the holders of the patents. SBT computers were made to be non-compatible except with a specific range of fabricators, automated production equipment, or in the case of cultural works, a specific series of personal or community players, that were all owned by galactic megacorps. Additionally, if not implemented earlier, by the advent of the third generation, the deliberate limitation of military technologies to designs that were centuries old compared to the latest in the field was a requirement of the newly established Stellar League, for any SBT design produced outside of the Sol Sector. This was done to ensure that further rebellions, similar to the TCW, would be easily crushed, rather than degenerating into decade-long slogs. These changes proved enormously unpopular with Frontier systems, and many defied orders to update to the third generation, using older, second generation variations of the SBT, often well into the 38th or 39th centuries or even longer if they could keep their use secret, and a select few with well developed research and development, industrial, and resource gathering capabilities of their own working to develop new production designs. The majority of people however, fell into line eventually, making the best they could of the situation that they had found themselves in. As the third generation rollout continued its evolution proved much slower than previous developments, as the establishment of which parties owned what copyrights, particularly as new additions were made proved immensely difficult to keep up with, arguably moreso even than the maintenance of the old system. Eventually, more developed regions of the frontier started to drift away from dependence upon the SBT towards self-reliance as its bloat continued. Towards the end of the third generation’s development, the computers necessary to maintain them began again to grow in size, and the final variations of the third generation sbt were nearly as large as the first generation, though thankfully as it expanded, more variability was slowly included as the patent holders were willing to take payouts to allow the development of new models. The end of the third generation, and indeed the development of the SBT more generally came about during the Jred Scourge. During the conflict, Colonial Forces proved unable to deal with the Jred as they became increasingly advanced, meaning that the Sol Sector Forces would become increasingly relied on, well beyond what their numbers could allow. One of the many results of this was that restrictions on military technology were relaxed considerably for systems the league deemed trustworthy and more advanced weaponry started being produced in much greater quantities. Modern military technology began to slowly spread to Colonial Forces, allowing them greater independence of action. It is widely believed that, had the Jred been defeated at an earlier point, another Great Human Civil War would have broken out as the stronger colonies demanded the restoration of rights previously denied to them by the governments of the Sol Sector.The Great Cataclysm
The development of the Standard Build Template was ultimately finished off not by completion, but by The Great Cataclysm. As the psionic scream of the dying Jred galactic mind echoed throughout realspace and Jumpspace, its scrambled vast quantities of data, among them virtually every SBT device in the galaxy. Almost no database survived without some corruption, and the majority were rendered completely useless by the destruction of data within the devices and even the crystals that had been considered nearly indestructible previously. Along with the breakdown of interstellar communication making cross referencing and repair of the damage difficult, if not impossible, the SBT, as a unified store of technical and cultural information came to an ignominious end.Legacy
With the destruction of the Standard Build Template, worlds that had been reliant upon it found themselves limited to whatever fragments they still possessed, or the inventiveness of their own people. For some worlds this was an immense boon as, freed from the limitations of galactic intellectual property law, and the watchful eye of the Stellar League, they could develop their own technologies advancing into the future. For the majority however, this represented a time of stagnation, or technical regression as their own technical abilities atrophied in the centuries of easy answers. Many worlds, especially in the frontier regressed to pre-interstellar, even pre-industrial levels of technical understanding, although it is often suggested that most truly feral worlds had already shunned modern technology for religious or cultural reasons. Typically, those systems that had held on to second or even first generation SBT databases fared significantly better, at least in terms of preserving SBT derived technologies as they could adapt the data on the computer to different methods of production, including manual labor at times, instead of relying on the capabilities of the automated fabricators that the third generation had forced upon users. Some struggling to cope with the SBT’s destruction took to religion, forming a number of cargo cults to preserve advanced technologies. These cargo cults, later known as technocults often worshiped the developers of the SBT, seeing them as developers of a great holy work, or even worshiped the SBT itself as a god, treating its creations as sacred, and developing a wide array of arcane rituals to oversee the maintenance, preservation, and use of devices made by the SBT. Especially popular on worlds that suffered technological regression, these technocults became incredibly influential, particularly Opus Dei, which quickly established itself as a major galactic religion. More advanced worlds however, were better able to fend off religious superstition, and technocultists often practiced underground or adapted their rituals to better serve people with access to more advanced knowledge in order to survive. As the Long Night has started to abate, the possibility of resurrecting the SBT arose, as many SBT compliant machines had survived the period, usually still being produced somewhere in the galaxy, though often with somewhat more primitive means than expected. This meant that the sharing of data could allow for rectification of corrupt databases, or even restarting the development of the SBT anew. Many factions, particularly Opus Dei have begun working towards this, collecting SBT data and reproducing and preserving it, seeking to create multiple complete records of the whole SBT database. A select few societies have begun to develop what they call the fourth generation of SBT, taking not only older developments but iterations developed during the Long Night and slowly combining them into a new central database, in an attempt to restart the old system. Others however, have come to realize that they no longer need SBT, in an era where humanity has become a fragmented patchwork of developing societies once again, they have become truly independent, and ultimately capable of not only surviving, but thriving without the SBT.Utility
SBTs, especially early generation SBTs were, by design, extremely useful to the end user. In ideal circumstances they were intended as a plug and play method of rapidly developing the technical capabilities of newly founded extrasolar colonies, intended to be readily used by novices, and indeed actively improved by experts in certain fields. In practice, it rarely functioned perfectly, but still proved quite useful as a means of rapidly producing equipment and infrastructure that was needed for the settlement of extrasolar space. During the second generation, the SBT was arguably at its easiest to use, both as a user, or as a modifier of designs. However, many unskilled users preferred the increased convenience of generation three SBT databases, even as skilled users railed against the more onerous protections of intellectual property against modification.
In terms of civil engineering and manufacturing the SBT remains, if not a gold standard, a solid benchmark against which other products, and indeed other forms of manufacturing must be compared against. SBT designs still see widespread use throughout the galaxy, and many efforts to maintain standardization of things such as logistical chains, and interstellar trade, still rely on SBT based designs and those compatible with them. Over time however, as certain areas developed their own strong research and development sectors many major manufacturers have surpassed what SBT was capable of. However, manufacturing methods more efficient than automated fabricators using SBT technology, and scalable over an interstellar scale, if only because of the familiarity of virtually every engineer with SBT derived technologies, are rare even in civilized space.
An area of deliberately designed weakness in the SBT, was in the field of military technologies. Since the second generation of SBT at the latest, the technology of weapons, armor, and military vehicles was deliberately kept well below the cutting edge of technologies from Earth. This decision was intended to ensure the military superiority of the core over its peripheral territories. This decision proved disastrous during the Jred Scourge, where the undermined capabilities of the various colonial militias and sector fleets proved unable to match the growing sophistication of the Jred, and the Sol Sector Forces proved too few in number. Though restrictions were relaxed as the Scourge progressed, many argue this measure was both too little, and much too late.
Manufacturing
The production of new SBT databases, and compatible fabricators has been a matter of some concern across much of the galactic community. During the Great Cataclysm, a vast array of databases were destroyed or corrupted beyond repair, and the central databases had been kept on Earth, lost during the Scourging of Earth. As a result, efforts to recreate the complete database have been a matter of comparing data from billions of different sources, and countless quadrillions of examples of SBT technology to recreate a common understanding of exactly what was on the SBT. However, to this day, it is uncertain if anyone in the entire galaxy has managed to recreate the whole SBT.
On a smaller scale however, parts of the SBT are readily reproducible, and indeed manufacturing centers have arisen around SBT computers, with either intact fabricators or relying on alternative means of production. To this day, interstellar shipping relies on the continued manufacture of SBT compliant ships, and many government agencies, militaries, and civilian operators continue to rely upon the technologies produced by the SBT.
Social Impact
The influence of the Standard Built Template cannot be understated. Manufacturing was greatly simplified, and a galactic logistics chain could be readily maintained. This meant that newly established colonies could become economically viable within a matter of years rather than decades, or even centuries. With the SBT, humanity was able to rapidly build up an interstellar civilization over the course of two millenia, whereas even with the advent of FTL, it was predicted it would take ten. The routine expansion of the database allowed the sharing of technical knowledge over a wide area and helped maintain the pace of technological advancement, preventing a steady stagnation as the spread of knowledge slowed down once again in the face of the realities of jump travel.
An oft understated, but crucially important part of the SBT on the Age of Unity however, was not the spread of technology, but the sharing of cultures. The ready access to cultural data from across the galaxy ensured that a common sense of humanity could be built and maintained even across interstellar distances This sense of unification is widely believed to have been crucial in keeping peoples from scattered corners of the galaxy becoming so alien to one another that a unified interstellar government would prove impossible, and the Stellar League itself credited this facet of the SBT as crucial in helping it maintain control over the galaxy, even as humanity had spread to its furthest extent in history.
Even in the era when the SBT had failed, its influence has remained strong. The influence of such a great work directly inspired the rise of a number of religions, including one of the strongest religious forces in the world today, Opus Dei. Efforts to reconstruct or improve upon the SBT have likewise been matters of major importance to many organizations throughout the galaxy, notably the Galactic Surveyor’s Guild which has been trying to obtain access to any SBT technology it can find, especially that which is used in the process of terraforming in order to figure out the exact technology behind the devices which preserved Earth’s biosphere during the Age of Unity in an effort to finally develop the means of restoring the planet to human habitability. Even those states without such direct ties to SBT have been influenced heavily, as a simple matter of practicality. Much of the galaxy still relies on SBT compliant devices to maintain interstellar communication and commerce, and only ferals, or the most foolish of isolationists would fail to recognize this simple fact.
Generation 1 SBT fabricator under construction by Nightcafe
Generation 2 SBT fabrication facility by Nightcafe
Generation 3 SBT Nanomachines assembling a vehicle part by Nightcafe
Four Greats by Nightcafe
Access & Availability
Formerly Universal, Now Widespread
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