SDPA

Created By: Alice.

The Space and Dimension Patrol Agency (SDPA) is an extraterrestrial, extradimensional polity with 37 full member planets and approximately 50 planets that they are still establishing full connections with. It is spread across multiple time-space-dimension planes far from Earth. In 2063, following an incident with an SDPA criminal, the SDPA opened an Interests office in Starguard headquarters in Colonial bay. Pleiades is the current field liaison officer, serving under Commander Pescara Siata. =Government= The SDPA appears be a semi-democratic military government. Interdimensional and interstellar trade and relations fall completely under the purview of the SDPA. Planetary scale and below governments are democratic, but must conform to the broader structure of SDPA law.

The SDPA is led by the Governing Council, consisting of the heads of the five services, a single representative from each member world government, three retired service members that had extremely distinguished service records, a representative from each of the three highest prestige civilian universities, a representative from each of the three largest corporations, and a representative from each of the three largest religious organizations. The Governing Council is generally democratic in its deliberations, but any successful vote must have the support of at least three of the service heads. Any change to the SDPA Charter requires the approval of all five service heads and at least 60% of the remaining Council members.

SDPA headquarters is located in Midgard City, on planet Midgard, the capital of the SDPA.

Services
The SDPA military consists of five services.
 * Patrol Service Responsible for space and dimension security. Operates the SDPA fleet.
 * Guard Service Responsible for planet-based large scale security and conflict.
 * Strike Forces Elite combat and training units.
 * Investigation and Security Service Law enforcement on the interplanetary scale, as well as assisting planetary investigations.
 * Dangerous Artifacts Bureau Locates, secures, and, where possible disposes of dangerous weapons and other artifacts left over from the Last War.
 * Logistics and Procurement Service Oversees supplies and matériel for the other services, as well as research and development. Also regulates interplanetary trade and collects taxes.
 * Emergency Search and Rescue Service Disaster relief and rescue operations, usually at the planetary scale, but also assists with local accidents and disasters.

Economy
Most commercial trade is in unique items, rare commodities, luxury goods, and services. The overall population is small enough, less than one billion across the 37 worlds, that automated factories, farms, and mines provide the basic necessities at a minimal cost.

=Language and Culture= Each of the worlds is different, based on the origins of the groups of refugees that survived on them, but there are overall similarities. Midgardian is the most common language, spoken by everyone, followed by Modern Valken. Alhazzaredian is a far distant third, typically only spoken by scholars that studied it.

Equality is the assumption in all dealings, regardless of personal characteristics, such as gender, or natural human status. A person's mage rank might be an interesting talking point at a party, but socially it is irrelevant.

In regards to aesthetics, SDPA citizens appreciate natural spaces, an abundance of light, curves, asymmetry, and openness. However, privacy is also highly valued, and it is considered rude to share personal details in public, including public displays of affection.

The lessons of the Last War continue to shape the SDPA. Even the military avoids lethal weapons unless absolutely necessary. Negotiation and compromise are the guiding principles, and direct conflict is either very subtle, or channeled into harmless competitions and games.

The most popular sport is Combat Magic Tournament Fighting.

Origins
Most people in the SDPA are natural humans, but there is a small but noteworthy minority that are not. Examples include artificial persons (either clones, or unique engineered people), manifested magic programs (beings of pure magic that have manifested permanent physical forms), independent AI devices (magic robots, more or less), and familiars (magical beings created by another mage using a non-sapient animal as the basis).

Random metahumans, as found on Earth, are unheard of, as are sapient non-humans, outside of certain magical creatures.

Religion
The are a variety of beliefs, but the three largest are the Sankt Kaiser Church, who regards the last Valken emperor as a saint, the Spiritual Home, which honors the spirits in all living and unliving things, and the Singers of Light, who believe that awakening the divine spark within themselves will allow them to achieve enlightenment.

Magic
Being a technomagical society, magic is an integral part of everyday life, and virtually all SDPA citizens can use magic to some extent. Those that can't are provided with artificial magic linkers to allow them to interact with the various magical gadgets they'll run into during their normal life.

Everyone has a mage rank, which indicates their overall level of skill and power, ranging from E to SSS+. An E ranked mage can use basic magical devices but can't learn Magic Skills. An SSS+ mage is a once in a millennium disaster. The highest powered active duty mages are SS+ and any mage ranked higher than A is required to have a limiter installed, restricting them to A rank unless released by two designated authorities. Any person who is ranked C or higher as a child must attend a magic training academy to learn how to control their power. Many go on to join one of the SDPA services.

Magic Traditions
There are many magic traditions practiced throughout the SDPA. Below is a selection of the more notable ones.
 * Midgard Main The most popular, focusing on ranged combat and support.
 * Modern Valken The next most popular, focusing on close combat and defense.
 * Kaiserkunst The style practiced by the Sankt Kaiser Church. Well balanced.
 * Summoning Summoning creatures of pure magic.
 * Artificery Creating golems.
 * Witchery Binding and drawing on the power of magical creatures.
 * Strike Arts A modern style mostly used in tournaments.
 * Inherent Skills Special magic skills that can't be learned; practitioners have to be born with them.
 * Rare Skills Incredibly hard to master magic, such as precognition.
 * Archivery Focused on gathering, organization, and analysis of information.

=History= The SDPA was the remnants of the last surviving military at the end of the Last War. Based on Midgard, they secured the planet, then cautiously made contact with other survivors. They were greeted with open arms by people desperate for stability and safety. Over approximately 50 years the basics of the SDPA government was formed and the SDPA Charter approved.

Expanding slowly, they encountered more planets, some empty, some that needed to be slowly reintroduced to civilization. The last full member planet was added 23 years ago.

An ever-present danger were dangerous artifacts, the relics and weapons scattered across the time-space-dimension planes during the Last War, which caused multiple disasters (and the loss of a world) before the SDPA learned how to deal with them.

Today, the SDPA is at peace and focused mainly on exploration and recontact with as many worlds as they can. It maintains a strong military as there's no telling if or when they'll encounter another group that survived that Last War, and they want to be prepared in case they're hostile.

The Last War
The key event in the section of time-space-dimension planes where the SDPA is was the Last War (so-called because of the fervent hope that it really will be the last one).

It was a massive conflict, involving three superpowers and hundreds of lesser polities. The main combatants were the Valken Empire and the Alhazzared Alliance. The third was the Midgard Concordance, which tried, unsuccessfully, to stay neutral, only to find itself under attack by the other two sides. In all, over a 1000 planets were involved and well over 10 trillion people. All three powers were immensely advanced technomagical societies, though even on that scale Alhazzared was well beyond the other two, though it was also the smallest.

The weapons used were unimaginable. Sequenced portal massdrivers capable of splitting a planet with a single shot. Dimensional cannons that rotated planets into pocket dimensions where they froze in the sunless void. Gravity Disruptors capable of sending a planet flying off into space, or spiraling into its sun. Humanoid terror weapons with the power of entire armies of lesser troops that could be secretly landed on a planet to wreak havoc. Biomagical plagues that devoured the dead and animated them to attack the living.

The war ended not by a treaty or conquest but by the simple fact that there was no one left that was willing and able to fight. Nearly 900 inhabited planets were lost. On the planets that were left, less than 10 million people survived in total.