The Ascendancy

Ayhchahnavu Lusoykiresah

Public socioanthropological record
Property of the Royal Atheneum of Hövnís, Eörpe

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The Ascendancy is the largest and oldest of the major galactic states, controlling over forty worlds spread across the Asurla's Wake, He-Zy's Whisker, and Farthest Reach galactic arms. While they've surrendered sizeable chunks of their territory in the last few hundred years, and have been caught up on by other galactic states in terms of technological advances, they're still considered a wealthy, formidable political and military entity.

Etmyology & Definition

The Ascendancy is a contextual translation of the Lusoyan's own name for their state, Ayhchahnavu Lusoykiresah. A more literal translation would be 'We are the Ascended'.
The first part of the name is built from the inclusive pronoun 'chahnavu', meaning 'I and them'. It's one of three we-pronouns used in Voehn. 'Ayh' is a prefix denoting an infinite plural. (Inf. Pl.)+(I & Them)
The second part is built from the root word 'lusoy', meaning 'to ascend/enlighten'. The two suffixes 'kire' and 'sah' are the stative case for 'in state of doing/being/knowing' and validative case for 'factual statement, first hand knowledge' (aka factual truth). (to Ascend/Enligten)+(pres. state being)+(pres. true statement)

Recent History

During the first Skethal Infestation, the Ascendancy suffered heavy losses as the conquered worlds at the tip of the Far Reach galactic arm were overrun by the Marrowblight. Initially blamed as the source of the infestation and undergoing systematic extermination, the surviving native population of Ktlac Ktlac fled and sought refuge within other states.
Taking advantage of the state of emergency, the Therännan and Lao'coatl staged an insurrection with the help of the Rin Sovereignty in order to liberate their worlds. They quickly set up the temporary Twin Suns Alliance to protect themselves from attempts of re-conquering.
The Akreian and Vulgoc populations of the former Atramen Empire worlds followed suit not long after, but opted for a less violent approach by seeking assistance from the United Worlds and Lukariat. With the threat of ending up in conflicts on three fronts, the Ascendancy eventually acquiesced to most of their demands and withdrew control from all of their native worlds except Hrarro and Kosizir. Eventually the liberated worlds formed into the New Atramen Empire and Roko Fuan, loosely allied through the Hextlan Accord.
Even more recently, the bioengineered species Rejinat and Nullvox no longer wanted to accept living under slave-like conditions as raw labor forces and rebelled when their demands for sapient rights were denied. This led to the formation of the Three Tails, who are still actively fighting for equal rights for these two species as well as the Cheitosnu.

Territory

The Ascendancy currently cover 44 planetary systems with habitable worlds. Of these, two are protected reserves due to their primitive native civilizations. Every planet settled by Lusoyans have predetermined population limits to ensure that present ecosystems are protected, and minimal living standards can be followed.

The Rosepetal Galaxy

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Organizational Data

Type

Unitary Galactic State

Polity

Meritocratic Oligarchy

Head of State

League of Savants

Head of Government

Ascendant Worlds Congress
League of Savants
Representative Committee

Power Structure

Ascendant Worlds Congress
Military Assembly
Ascended Family
Cardinal Family
Great Family
Subjacent Family

Capital World

Lusoya

Economic Structure

Mixed Economy

Currency/ies

Ikmes
Bavros (Premium)

Demographic Data

Population

~302 billion

Demographics

Akreian ~81.54 billion 27%
Baluke >0.3 billion >0.001%
Bieggjan >0.3 billion >0.001%
Eörpan 39.26 billion 13%
Laocoatl 12.08 billion 4%
Lusoyan 114.76 billion 38%
Nullvox >0.3 billion >0.001%
Rejinat >0.3 billion >0.001%
Vulgoc 54.36 billion 18%

Ethnicities

Csaruusi
Inazoru
Hrostthi
Lushyati
Miruasi
Ninprosso
Nksumiri

Osukirn
Qipoku
Rabyksu
Rsahnhi
Saahcs
Suszukoro
Cheitosnu

Official Language(s)

Voehn

Aolkili

Minority Language(s)

Chitba
Eimkjan
Iwarji

Jinatsu
Huuju
Äeline

Culture

Social Structure

The Ascendancy features five distinct social classes, whereof four are strictly Lusoyan-only.

Cheitosnu

The lowest social class is called Cheitosnu and consists of all non-Lusoyan citizens. Lusoyans that choose to be stripped of their family name and any associated priviledges as a form of criminal punishment, rather than being exiled, typically also fall into this social class.
A cheitosnu has the rights to the absolute bare minimum when it comes to civil rights, health care, social service & security, as well as employment security. They also can't

The Families

The other four classes are collectively called families, and make out the core of how the Lusoyan organize themselves into social groups. They are organized hierarchially based on their power, influence, and 'area of concern' and each can be considered a partially self-governing entity.

While called a social class, a more accurate description would be that they're a complicated mix between a bloodline, a social class, an ethnicity, and an industry/business.

— Notation by Dr. Tybulus Svilen

Ascended Family

These are the most influential bloodlines but tend to be the smallest in number, and are put in charge with ruling the Ascendancy. One representative of each make up the League of Savants state council.
Each family is responsible for a specific area of national concerns and its not uncommon to “recruit” new members through marriage or adoption in order to optimize related work appointments based on qualification, merit, and education.

Cardinal Family

Each cardinal family is charged with the governance of a world, and also have a representative in the Representative Committee.
They have the overarching responsibility over all great and subjacent families settled on their world.

Great Family

These are larger bloodlines that can occupy regions on multiple worlds, and although they don’t have true governing rights, they’ll usually be able to lift their concerns with the cardinal family.
In terms of numbers, they are commonly the largest and there’s often frequent exchange of members between them and the subjacent families. However, the gap between them and the cardinal families are far wider – movement in either direction tend to be much rarer.

Subjacent Family

Lowest on the hierarchical ladder are small to mid-size families with low to no governing power. They’ll usually be lucky to be heard and their land allotment tend to remain static.
They’re instead encouraged to marry/adopt away members in order to adhere to regional population limits.

Kinship

Similarly to the Bieggjan, the Lusoyan have an easy time integrating into new, even entirely unfamiliar, social groups among their species and has developed a very broad definition of what a family is as a result.
On a direct level it's the family within one of the social classes that the individual belongs to, and on an indirect level it's anyone the individual is related to by blood or shares a mutual emotional bond with.

What we would define as a pair of school friends, would likely call and treat each other as siblings in the Ascendancy. And it's not just limited to the single individual: siblings, parents, and grandparents of a friend could also end up treated as family.
A single person with three friends could thus end up near equally at home in four different households.

— Notation by Dr. Tybulus Svilen

Family vs. Family Unit

Due to the fluidity of Lusoyan social bonds, and their social hierarchy system encouraging planned marriages and adoptions, foreigners can sometimes gain the false impression that a single family unit is extremely large when they're in fact several separate units whose individuals are refered to by the same kinship terms.
In this context, a family unit is defined as:

• A married individual and their spouse, children, and grandchildren.
• An unmarried individual and their parents, grandparents, and any yet unmarried siblings.

Kinship Terms

Lusoyan only observe six kinship terms in total: Grandparent, Parent, Sibling, Spouse, Child, Grandchild.
They can be used straight based on genealogic generation (Ex. your sibling's child is your child), or on mutual perceived relation (Ex. your friend's child is your child, even if your friend is the same generation as your parent). Just as their language doesn't observe gendered pronouns nor does it observe gendered kinship terms.

Gender Roles

The Ascendancy doesn't officially name or recognize specific genders. It as well only distinguish between the biological sexes when strictly necessary to cater to special needs and care either may need, and for ruling valid marriage pairings.

Relationships

The current laws that restrict romantic relationships to heterogenic pairing originate from the physical requirement of a female and male pair to create offspring before the invention of genetic engineering. This social/cultural taboo on non-heterogenic relationships is largely considered relic but has yet to be officially abolished by the Ascendancy.
In most families non-heterogenic couples are accepted and considered as natural as heterogenic ones, but since they can't formally marry they also can't officially form their own direct family unit.

Language Groups & Dialects

The Ascendancy has it's own state language, Voehn, which is enforced by law to be learnt by all citizens. While there used to also be laws that punished the misuse* of their state language and the use of any other language but their state language, these have both been abolished. In addition, an official trade language name Aolkili was created but has yet failed to gain much traction.
There are also a number of non-sanctioned languages such as the sign language Chitba and Rejinat's Jinatsu. A large number of creoles, some featuring dialectal variation, exist within the Cheitosnu ghettos.
*This included the unintentional failure to properly learn and/or voice the language, which led to Lusoyans with certain handicaps and non-Lusoyan cheitosnu being forced to muteness in fear of persecution.

Government

The Ascendancy is ruled by a council called the League of Savants, made out of a voted representative from each of the current Ascended Families. They have the support of the Representative Committee which functions like a parliamental cabinet consisting of representatives from each of the Cardinal Families. In addition, they have the support of the Military Assembly, which is an entity unaffiliated with any family and responsible for the state's security and military forces.