A Humble Sell-Whip Captain's Log

By the end of this post, I hope to introduce you to the Federation that rules the two populated galaxies, the Milky Way and Andromeda, and the pros and cons of being a citizen now that they’ve managed to take over the world. You’ll learn what a Sell-Whip is, and why they may seem dangerous but are actually pretty good people when you get to know them. And I hope to adequately explain why everyone keeps kidnapping each other and making up afterwards. I’ll add a tl;dr after every section, just in case you’re interested but don't have the time to dedicate towards reading my little history textbook.

Because this journal will touch on sensitive things like identity and culture, I encourage you to speak up if you find a problem with how I approach them (I’ve allowed anonymous questions on my account), so that I can learn what I’m doing wrong and improve the story being told. I don’t plan on stealing directly from existing cultures (except for my own, for the Human species of the American Hemisphere, and what not), but it’s not really feasible to build a new culture without some level inspiration from somewhere, and there’s always a risk of me making a mistake and ending up with something that's orientalist or demonizing. I only want to spread a story of love (and excitement… and whips), so if you don’t like something over it being offensive, I won’t like it either.

For the curious, and to establish the type of story I plan on telling, here’s a list of books I’ll be using…

Thirsty Sword Lesbians

A Spark in Fate Core

The Adventure Crafter

Perilous Wilds

And possibly more!

And lastly, here’s a content warning…

A Quick Mention of Bigotry

Systemic Oppression

Kidnapping

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Section 1: How to take over the whole galaxy… twice.

It’s not quite as bad as past history would lead you to believe. Turns out all you needed was UBI and free healthcare, and to just share resources with everyone instead of going to war. It’s a little easier said than done, I suppose, but we figured this out centuries ago in this escapist, semi-utopic world. The problem is that after all this, those damned American Earthlings still managed to make it all about them.

To be fair to the Earthlings of the 2Xth century, they’re at least a little more progressive. They’ve learned how to perform diplomacy with other nations without invading them or supporting a coup, and they started accepting all ethnicities, genders, abilities, and orientations. They even avoided a robot uprising by giving android rights, and even banning non-androids from producing them. 

Unfortunately they haven’t learned how those people have been systematically oppressed. Seeing as Earth developed convenient FTL space travel before any other planet in either galaxy, they got a lot of first say on how the galactic union should be organized. The result is the formation of the Federation, benevolent enough to be beyond greed and direct violence, but fully capable of enforcing Homogeny.

tl;dr: This game takes place in the Milky Way and Andromeda, which is run by a single body called the Federation, which is basically like Star Trek, but there’s no Prime Directive so they act like they know what's best for you.

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Section 2: We got rid of capitalism, but we decided to keep corporate culture.

Homogeny is built from common ideals that mostly come from Earth; valuing procreation over recreation, the protestant work ethic, and a frustratingly narrow view of what it means to have dignity are just some of what it means to be Homogenous.

To be fair, once again, to the Earthlings of the 2Xth century (yeah, I’m biased), Homogeny isn’t identical to how Earthlings live, or even how those in the American hemisphere of this time. Earthlings still value their own history, identity, and bodies, while Homogeny justifies itself by acting above such concerns, claiming to have equal apathy to all walks of life. With that being said, it’d be pretty rich to say that those in the American hemisphere don’t fit into Homogeny, or that they don’t still have heavy influence in how it's formed. After all, there’s a reason people in a separate galaxy are speaking English.

The challenges that Homogeny causes are related to the bloated bureaucracy that the Federation clings to. For a common citizen, say, a species who requires sunlight more regularly than most others, you need to demonstrate in documentation why you need a sunroom anytime you move to another planet, and wait for that to get approved. For a society's government official, not only is your unique, local, and important role dumbed down to ‘government official’, but you also need to explain why the consumption of a poisonous drink is as harmless as consuming something like, for instance, wine.

For those who don’t fit into Homogeny, but feel fulfilled living within your local culture, you’re still typically able to avoid all this headache and still live a safe, authentic, or even luxurious life. The only obstacle, assuming you even fit in a local culture, is whether or not your society is able to navigate the legal maze outside and be granted everything their people need. Unfortunately, from time to time, the Federation just won’t play along in a timely or sufficient enough manner, and that's where all the outsiders of the galaxies swoop in and save the day for everyone else.

tl;dr: Cultures that don’t fit in need to constantly justify why they should have the right to be how they are.

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Section 3: The best part, where I can finally tell you what a Sell-Whip is!

Smugglers, pirates, robbers… you’ve seen sci-fi adventures, you know the trope. The reason I gave this reveal seven paragraphs of build up is because I wanted to put the motivations of this group in context. These aren’t scoundrels, atleast not how they’re classically portrayed. Sure, many of them do what they do because they don’t fit with the cultures they were raised in, but that’s not out of persecution, that’s just the beauty of being a sentient individual with unique wants and needs. While the Federation are convinced this is a profession of delinquency taken to a dangerous extreme, naming them after the Earthling concept of a sellsword, this is a role that exists because of compassion, comradery, and most importantly for many, necessity.

The whip is the weapon of choice because, by the 2Xth century, making a prehensile whip is pretty trivial. Not only do you have the utility of being able to grab things from a distance, but you have the choice between striking and grappling from a distance. It’s a very practical choice that has nothing to do with the fact that they’re cool and super kinky I promise it's super thoughtful world building.

Sell-Whips are typically, although not always, non-homogeneous peoples. They know what it’s like to not have they’re ways acknowledged, or atleast are willing to listen, and they don’t much like the idea of passing on the favor. They’re respectful in a way that goes beyond the Federation’s passive tolerance and senseless questioning. Sell-Whip Captains accept others on their vessel without ever experiencing a conflict with them regarding their way of life, outside of the challenge involved in converting your new first mate’s quarters into a fully aquatic environment (they’ll figure it out, don’t worry). If offered, an Unassimilated might even take part in a practice to burn time in warp-drive. There’s a lot of time spent in warp-drive, crew members have plenty of time to get to know each other.

tl;dr: Space Piracy is inclusive and cool and based. Also, whips.

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Section 4: By the way, the Sell-Whips are kidnapping each-other. No hard feelings, it’s just business… sort of…

The Federation has developed a program where those under a warrant for arrest are also given a bounty, and it is really easy to get a warrant under suspicion of someone being a Sell-Whip. Conversely, bounties can be earned with almost no documentation beyond proof that you have the bounty in question. This has resulted in previously allied Sell-Whips being pitted against each other to get more credits, which can be used to get supplies that the societies they work for may not be able to provide. For anyone that’s willing to acknowledge it, a Bounty Hunter and a Sell-Whip are almost always the same person.

There is a silver-lining, the bounty system is so underfunded and backed up that this rarely leads to getting someone to trial before they manage to escape at the suspiciously last second. It turns out that while the Federation has its many major flaws, some that work within it are aware of these flaws and do what they can to fight it without losing their jobs. As much as it’d be nice to abolish the system, people were atleast able to make lemonade with it.

Keeping someone with a bounty captive is done by Sell-Whips for just the passive income, never the bounty itself. In the time it takes to schedule a trial, the Federation will pay the captor credits in return for keeping them until then. There’s an etiquette involved to make keeping someone against their will as painless as possible, even as they do everything they can to escape. When the time to collect the bounty gets near, the captor engineers an escape for the captive to make, and does a bogus search which just ensures they get back to civilization safely. Some Sell-Whips might even say they had fun, just don’t let it spread to other captains.

tl;dr: The Federation developed a bounty system designed to cause Sell-Whip infighting, and Sell-Whips responded by developing a system to make it safe, sane, and (almost) consensual. You can’t ask to not be captured, but you’ll never actually see a Federation prison, and you’ll even get aftercare on the way.

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Section 5: Am I forgetting anything… OH, right, the awakening eldridge horrors! Silly me.

There’s a decades-old field of technology that uses thought-free lifeforms, such as the trees of Earth, or the brainless nerve tendrils of Klendis, called Bio-Tech. Recently, a new type of bio-tech that can clone the DNA of fossils has been developed. The potential of this field is possibly limitless, but its potency is quite difficult to control. Scientists working in this field found that, as the field advanced, accidents would be more frequent, less predictable, and cause more and more damage. The dangers of this field were only becoming more clear, Sell-Whips started to refuse working with anyone who used this tech, and the Federation started restricting it to the point where it had been banned completely, even to their own scientists.

Extinction-Tech, as it's now called, is today a field of nefariousness and secrecy. Those who develop it believe the advancement should exist for advancements sake, though very little work gets done without some disaster striking. Those who use it have some agenda that can’t be done without it. If you spot someone using or practicing Extinction-Tech, no one will blame you for turning them in to Federation custody, most will likely thank you for it.

tl;dr: Stop making Cthulhu, ffs…

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Section the Last One

Whether you're here after all that rambling, or you just skipped to the end to check for any justifications on my madness, you might have some questions. I like questions, it means people care about me! There's actually some stuff about the world I haven't posted yet, if you can believe that, and plenty more I still need to expand on. If there's anything you're interested in seeing developed or elaborated, let me know, or maybe spitball your own ideas. There's plenty of room in this massive world for all sorts of fun fantasies!