Odraani Q&A Asnwers! (Patreon)

Q: What's the general time line like? From developing/scavaging/finding the gates to first aliens met and such~

A: Post industrialisation Ssetten had a massive population growth, which was soon followed by resource shortages due to climate change, Ssetten’s already hostile environment and short sighted planning.

This escalated to a resource war among the largest regions, whose effects were soon felt by smaller, neutral states as well. The 12 year war depleted all factions, with the small gains massively outweighed by the losses. The following famine pandemics claimed even more lives than the initial great war, with about 60% of the initial population alive.

The fear of extinction grew stronger, and people demanded differences to be put aside to face the dire issues. The Maro council - Marotanka - was formed from a number of states, including the ones most active in the war to start a global rebuilding project, which was ultimately successful in combating the urgest of problems. Albeit at a great cost of living standards.

Seeing that the world’s resources are not going to be enough, they started the Sky Jump program - Geugrü

The first colony was on Sisu (Ssetten’s moon), then Könno (a colder rocky planet), which now were governed by the United Odraani Council, later reforming into the Odraani Paktum.

The global hopelessness was soon overtook by endless optimism, seeing space as a limitless source of opportunities. 

In hopes of finding new planets to call home, Ssetten launched 5 sleeper ships - 4 Odraani, one from a rich, neutral country - towards promising solar systems.

One was lost and with its fate unknown, 

Two arrived as scheduled forming their own colonies (Üydri and Naédinzral, which still independent from the Odraani Paktum, and aligned with its parent country, Dinzral)

One arrived after the Odraani discovered the slinggate technology, with the planet mildly terraformed and pre-colonised the world for the sleeper ship (Vaun)

One ship arrived near Mitleidion that turned out to be an inhabited system.

While the native civilisation was initially advanced, they suffered a global catastrophe that regressed their advancements by decades. Through difficult and lengthy communications, the Odraani colonists reassured the natives that they are peaceful and have suffered a similar fate as them, offering help if they allow them to claim land on another planet.

The Mitleidiani council allowed them to land on Azremnaio; a warm rocky world with a dense atmosphere. There, the colonists made a long term, self-sustaining settlement, and began mining for resources they traded with the Mitleidiani in return for technology.

The decades-long cooperation brought the two cultures close, close enough that plans for a jump gate were shared with the colonists. After studying the plans thoroughly, they made changes so the project can be realised.

They began constructing the gate and years later it was ready, with the first trip back to Ssetten, carrying plans and parts. Seeing the project was a success they began building the second gate in the home system, eventually connecting the two solar systems with near-instantaneous travel.

With the influx of Odraani resources, terraforming technology, the climate of Mitleidian was stabilised and restored close to its former state, while the Mitleidiani gave advanced pieces of technology to the Odraani, such as gravity projectors

A couple of years later they were offered to join the Paktum, which Mitlieidian gladly accepted. To this day, the two civilizations maintain a close relationship.

Q: Is criminal activity a major issue within the Pact? 

A: Piracy, illegal mining, and smuggling are the most common crimes you find, aside from corruption of course.

The Odraani tries to curb them but given the scale of the empire, it’s an impossible task, and smugglers, pirates are often supplied by rival factions to disrupt the Odraani economy. (Something the Odraani does to its rivals as well)

Q: What is the most common form of urban crime if there's any, and a rundown of their legal and incarceration systems?

A: Subsistence crime is fairly rare, the most common crimes are vandalism, bribery, extortion.

Anyone facing prosecution has the right for an attorney which is all provided by the state. Sentencing wise most punishments are types of community service, but they range from weekend furlough prisons to maximum security.

The main goal of the odraani incarceration system is to rehabilitate, therefore unpaid prison work is illegal (prison work wages are either sent to relatives or paid out when the sentence is over), cells are made hospitable and can be decorated, and inmates have the opportunity to study or learn trades. 

Q: I'm also concerned about the Odraani's strategy of using numbers to overwhelm their enemy than to invest in better protection, implying that their personnel are disposable. Have this been met with objections or at least concern from some parties?

A: It’s more due to the lack of technological advancements in the Odraani; the enormous size of the empire means any kind of new technology is hard to adapt universally, thus they make their way through painfully slowly.

However, they have an essentially endless supply of resources and manpower, which other, more technologically advanced factions are lacking. 

The odraani military is an artillery one; destroying forces from a safe distance using their massive, precise, powerful ship-carried coilcannons. The only time they go close quarters is when there’s a risk of civilian casualties or damaging important infrastructure.

Some Odraani political parties have raised voices over the infantry losses, suggesting a wide range of solutions from using nerve gases more liberally against enemy forces to a massive personal protection upgrade plan, but none got much traction beyond a few planets.

Q: PS: does the emperor mind if we hug and boop them? :3

A: Please don’t touch the Emperor, it’s rude

Q: You think we would see tbe Pact meet humans in our lifetime?

A: No, they exist in a completely different universe! Closest thing they’d meet are primates.

Q: What are the pirates like? Ex military or a whole new faction altogether, and how do they act? simply destroying transports or are they taking the cargo and crew hostage and release them after a ransom, or a mix of both?

A: Varies massively! Many of them are ex-navy, as they have the know-how of how ships work, how they operate within Odraani space as well as their routes. Some are secretly backed by other factions to disrupt Paktum economies (Successfully done in Grjana) or to spread their navies thin. The Odraani does support their own pirates in a few rival systems.

How they operate is also very inconsistent. Some destroy the puller ship, and collect the cargo containers, some just hold them at gunpoint forcing them to eject their cargo. You also see them extorting cargo liners for safe passage or kidnapping their occupants for ransom.

Better equipped gangs sometimes raid asteroid mining facilities to steal ships, part and supplies to keep their own motherships running.

Said motherships or hubs are larger cargo liners, cruise ships, ferries whose passengers the pirates ransomed away or killed.

Q: Is there a cultural hierarchy? Or do the Odraani keep things their own and member races´s cultures and religions as even as possible?

A: The Odraani respects all cultures and laws within their home regions, even if they disagree with them deeply. However, in Odraani space (ranging from planetside spaceport facilities, space stations to any of the Odraani systems) the odra “freedom of religion, freedom from religion” rule applies; anyone can practice their religion or culture, but cannot discriminate based on them. This still creates tensions occasionally though.

Q: How fast can a new member race become an actual member of the Odraani?

A: (Important to note that it’s not a race that becomes a member but their country/planet)

It’s a long, tedious bureaucratic process where the applying region has to fulfill a lot of requirements, usually taking about 10-15 years

Q: How much power does the royal house truly have?

A: While technically the Emperor could veto any law, notion the lower or upper house makes, they never use those powers as they are aware of the disrupting nature it would have for the public perception of the Odraani. While they could make a decree resigning that right, they hold onto it in fears of a political instability, populist takeover risking peace within the Paktum.

Q: Are they in an active war against someone, or are they more after peace, even with their rebels?

A: Right now their biggest ongoing conflict is the Asao-Odraani war; a massive territory dispute over three solar systems. While the war itself is a stalemate, it came at a cost of staggering Odraani losses.

Other regions of the Odraani are relatively peaceful, with only a few, small scale rebellions, insurrections ongoing. 

Q: Are local militaries brought up to standard of the Odraani military, and do these have to adapt only Odraani weaponry or are they allowed to keep their own military standarts under the wider Odraani? (also counts for local ship types)

A: The Odraani allows the local armies to keep their technologies and equipment, from uniforms to spaceships, but they are banned from using nuclear weaponry. This overall does cause logistic difficulties, but the Paktum considers it a good trade off for morale boost and combat efficiency for the militias.

When deployed together, Odraani troops wear a yellow band on their sleeves to curb confusion over different uniforms. (The same yellow band is also worn by volunteer units within the Odraani army)

In case said system has less advanced technologies, limited resources or no access to large scale space navies, the Odraani provides them with equipment.

Q: How far WOULD they go to keep control over a golden world?

A: Golden worlds have a special place in the heart of the Odraani diplomacy; as these planets are primary target for all Paktum member civilisations. Very often the Odraani co-colonises the planet with an ally - Mitleidian or Tzanduro or both - but they also ‘offer’ to do the bulk of the process, shipping, building gates, space elevators and infrastructure, and thus demanding a higher - but never total - representation on the world.

The Vasma system, is so far the only golden world that has been “colonised by mistake” as not a single observation revealed any kind of population - likely due to rushed work - Only months after the first exploration groups landed they discovered the sparse population.

Not wanting all the effort to go to waste, the Odraani contacted the locals - who were later discovered to be members of a former, withered Mitliediani colony - offering help, resources, gate access and other infrastructure, in hopes of land claims in return

Q:  As (kinda) mentioned in the Kamrili stories (Null AND the one with the radio operator which you reused the pic for for this [Which I love to see her again ^^]) How evil/grey is the Odraani secret service/how known are their expirements, or did the cook just loose it in the end and wanted to blame someone, and they were an easy target?

A: Lüanozza - the cook - was just wanted an easy answer for a complex, never seen problem.

While the Odraani secret service is quite ruthless, they focus on curbing specific political movements deemed dangerous for the Paktum’s unity, such as Odra-supremacists or hardline separatists. They also do a lot of economical espionage and sabotage in competing factions, hindering technological researches that would challenge the Odraani gate network's monopoly, even supporting local pirates.

That being said, the events on the Kamrilli provided important information on space safety and long term isolation.

Q: Do NCOs and COs work relatively the same way in the military, officer training and such?

A: Yes! They even have officer academies. The Odraani needs a large administrative force to keep their ports, gates, elevators running.

Q: Since the empire is relatively vast, there would be companies that have seen combat and companies that havent, like home defence and such, would there be any rivalry between them, along the lines of say, the companies that have seen action consider them green, or just not as good because of it?

A: Indeed, there is a massive discrepancy in troop experience, the Paktum doesn’t want to ship people across the many systems to even it out; they do offer benefits (payment, earlier end of service, campaign awards)  for volunteering but it's not expected.

Local militaries are often used for disaster relief, supply chain management or sparsely populated areas, or construction of public infrastructure.

Rivalry is unavoidable, but the army does try to combat it by not glorifying war and combat.

Q: What are some of the popular pass times. Sports? Gambling? Nerd Games.. :D

A: Depends on what the world has to offer, but generally music, dancing, sports, reading, community events.

Dancing has an essential activity for most odra, especially for the - most widespread - Idrian cultures. Each family has a dance of its own, and upon marriage they combine the two into a new one, indirectly acting like a family tree. 

The most common sports are running, swimming, climbing, javelin throwing, kayak and handball, but there hundreds and hundreds of different sports played across the Paktum. Books are very cheap - even in regions with no paper supplies of their own - and the selection is practically endless given the millions of odra writers and translated foreign books.

Roleplaying, team based card games are popular among all ages. 

Q: Are there any major opposition/rebel groups within the Pact? What would they like to change about the scalies?

A: The largest rebel group was in 1268, Neben, a border region; it’s a set of large mining colonies where a populist, odra-supremacist view gained rapid popularity, claiming the Paktum is weak and spread too thin, pandering to other species for profit, that they are the superior beings and rightful owners of the known galaxy and should rule over the other systems with an iron grip

They seceded from the Paktum, forming the Nebenuiapaktum, and quickly gained the upper hand over the little local military forces running the gates and spaceports by collaborating with nearby pirate groups.

While the takeover happened quickly, the Odraani retaliation was swift and brutal - in line with the doctrine at the time - three fleets arrived from neighbouring systems and gave an ultimatum to the rebels, surrender or die.

Initially the rebels had minor successes in hit-and-run attacks, claiming several small and mid-size ships, but their numbers dwindled quickly. Over several months the Odraani navy took back all strategic points, except for one major, fortified asteroid breaking facility. Despite numerous calls for surrender, the rebels refused and the navy bombarded the site into oblivion.

The conflict claimed over 120,000 lives.

Q: Most of what we've seen is focused on military, but I'm curious about life outside that as well.  How are things from the perspective of people who don't choose that path in life?

A: For an average citizen, life within the Odraani Paktum is peaceful, calm, slow and secure. While almost every odra is aware of other systems, inhabited planets existing, most of them never leave their planet as it is a very costly endeavour. Sometimes local trips are given as rewards for heroic behaviour, notable achievements or to bring in workforce to a new colony.

The odraani sees every job as an important part of society therefore the concept of “unskilled” or “low-skill” jobs don’t exist. 

Most new odra cities are spacious, well designed, pedestrian friendly with decent public transport coverage; private car ownership is limited as it has an expensive upkeep in urban areas. People in remote, rural places can apply for government issue vehicles in most systems.

While in comparison to other civilisations, wages are quite low, but their cost of living is also way smaller; simple housing, healthcare, education, public transport, utilities and basic local foods are generally all provided free by the states, but the quality and selection varies by region.

Lives on golden worlds are a quite different, with the various economical, societal systems meeting on the same planet. Though the odra prefer living in Odraani-governed regions, you see many living 'abroad' as well as many non-odra species living in odra lands, making them an unique melting pot for cultures. Mitleidiani and Tzandurians often spend their holidays in the Odra regions as they are way more affordable.

Q: I'm curious how a "First Contact" Even would occur for some races. If they are technologically advanced would they attempt communication or for a race that is relatively simple in terms of tech would a more subtle attempt at making themselves known be taken?

A: It's a slow and cautious process, the initial steps are observing the system via powerful telescopes and radio sensors to see if they are inhabited by an technologically advanced society.

Depending on the outcome, they send in an explorer drone to get a closer look as often civilisations cannot be detected from a different system. If a civilisation is detected, the system is marked off limits - as the technology of its inhabitants is not advanced enough - and if the system is uninhabited, it is claimed by the Odraani or member civilisation and marked for colonisation.

In case a technologically advanced civilisation is present, the Odraani observes them for a lengthy period of time - over 10 years - studying their language, culture and viability to be introduced to the Odraani; war-prone, overly territorial civilisations are less likely to be contacted over concerns of violent reaction or the Odraani existence.

If a civilisation is deemed to be suitable, the Odraani sends messages to the inhabitants as a beginning steps of diplomatic relations.

Q: And on that topic, how technologically advanced are the Shark Odra?

A: The kaspali -  Si-Merrians - were in the early stages of industrialisation, with most work done through hand labour still. This was due to choice though, as they see labour as worship.

While they were aware of space travel, they simply decided to live in isolation and peace and ancient tales tell about all sorts of conflicts in the skies.

Note! Shark Odra is misnomer, would mean “shark reptile”, Kaspali or Odraani Sharks are the correct names ^^

Q: And what are the names of their gods and what role do they play in the lives of their worshippers?

A: The Si-Merri religion is difficult to sum up as it’s not unified. There are about 12.000 gods worshipped - that are known about - some are worshipped only occasionally or maybe even prayed to once in one’s lifetime, and each god can be worshipped in many different ways. For example, the same deity can be worshipped by a soldier seeking strength to recover from an injury, and by the nurse asking for endurance to pull through the many hours of tolling work.

For Si-Merrians, worshipping only one deity is like forever walking into one direction.

Q: Do certain sects have a great emphasis on peace, knowledge and communication over others?

A: Some give their entire lives to a single purpose, studying aspects of nature, history, literature, mind and such. Some sects dedicate themselves to healing, teaching, various forms of art, even cooking. They see their dedication as a kind of worship, praising aspects of life and existence. 

Q: Theme parks in the Odraani universe! Do they exist?

A: Yes! Since space travel is not something most odra can experience, many theme parks are based around different worlds, space adventures and exploration.

Q: If so, how strict are the safety standards? Given they were less perfected around the 70s-80s. What sort of rides/attractions are preferred by reptiles, birds, mammals, etc?

I could imagine there are cute jungle gyms full of climbing structures for baby lizards, or tonnes of cool water rides favourited by lizards and snakes :D

A: Most rides are quite gentle, but robust. Though accidents CAN happen, especially on rides that were inspired by ones their allies made, and given the size of the Paktum, new safety rules are slow to make their way through.

While it’s a very broad average, reptiles generally prefer fast rides close to the ground or water, birds tend to prefer tall swinging rides and mammals don't seem to have a general preference.

Climbing attractions are very popular for the odra of all ages, as well as a version of hide-and-seek. Water parks are also very popular, with dedicated basking sections.

Q: Is there TV in the Ordaani universe? If so how many channels? Are the ads cheap and terrible like Barret's Liquormart or East Hill's Shoppig Center?

A: Yes! While the Odraani itself never really came up with the idea of home use of TV or even films, they are common for other factions.

TV did make its way into the lives of some odra, there aren’t many home grown shows to air, most of the movies are - badly - dubbed foreign films.

Theatres/community centres are equipped with projectors to work as occasional cinemas, news reels, or recorded theatre plays.

Q: i know i'm both late and a nerd lmao, but is there an actual odraani language you constructed or smth 

A: Yes! Called Yirti, it has its own alphabet and dictionary. Based on the Hungarian grammar, still very much WIP though!