Tell your Custom Race story here.

I'll bite. This story only applies in Sandbox mode, mind you.

It's common knowledge that the Terran Alliance discovered Hyperdrive technology and shared it with the other space-faring races; however, this did not mean that they were not attempting Colony Projects beforehand. As new engine technologies were developed, the Terran Alliance continued to send colony ships out from Earth to find habitable planets.

Many of them, unfortunately, never completed their missions having dried up their life support and rations. As interest in colonization lost the public interest and garned new animosity toward the government, the Terran Alliance tried one last colony ship design - a self-sustained artificial eco-system. While the ecosystem wouldn't be able to provide fuel for the ship, it could at least provide an agricultural center where food and water could be harvested. It was a marvel of science and renewed the then-failing Colony Project. Several citizens of Earth gathered onto many of these new ships and set off once again into the unknown. However these, too, disappeared into the void as contact with each ship was lost one by one. It would be several years until the humans discovered Hyperdrive.

Unknown to the Terrans, though, was that the design of the new ship suffered terrible flaws. Domes were cracked, hulls were fractured, engines failed. The eagerness of Earth to spread into space resulted in the deaths of millions of colonists as most of the ships sent out suffered some kind of critical failure and perished. However, one such ship (there may be others) did not fail like the others.

Instead of a fatal failure in the ship components, this particular ship was afflicted with an undetectable core breach, causing a radiation leak that spread far too fast for anyone to have noticed in time to have done anything. Instead, life continued in the colony ship's ecosystem, but over time, the radiation leak did its damage. The colonists on board and their generations afterward began to mutate. The food no longer provided proper nourishment and the water was tainted. The people of TCS Wanderer began to lose most rational thought, regressing to animalistic tendencies. Communication became an incredibly broken and incoherent form of English, yet they were still able to operate complex machinery by instinct alone. They would look at panels and instead of analyzing the data presented, they simply recognized certain patterns that would let them know what to do. As far as their physiology had regressed to almost savageness, their intelligence was incredibly high - very much like how some autistics are able to perform complex mathematics, yet still cannot comprehend how a pen works.

For decades, the colonists drifted through space. By the time the Wanderer crashed of its own accord (on a habitable planet, no less), there was very little left of the colony that could be considered human. The ecosystem itself luckily managed to grow out of the ship and into the surrounding area, providing the very basics for the lost colonists. Over time, the brighter of the colonists and their offspring began to interpret the technology of the ship in their own way, resulting in a stable, if bizarre, colony (your Starting Colony tile).

It was the Iconian refugees, then, that found the lost colonists of the TCS Wanderer, long after Earth had completely forgotten about them. They marvelled at the odd combination of the primitive culture of the colony and the advanced technology they had developed. Intrigued, the Iconians went to work on educating these creatures, giving them Hyperdrive in the process. Though the creatures could not advance too far in terms of what we normally consider a proper society, the Iconians had given them enough to begin exploring space on their own.

By the time the other races made first contact with these creatures, they had already begun work on expanding their tiny world into space. However, they would not treat visitors the way they had treated the Iconians (with curiosity). Instead, in the time since the Iconians left them to their own devices, the colonists had become an incredibly hostile race. Their minds had regressed far enough that their territorial instinct made them untrusting of any other race.

When Terran spies had analyzed the original colony that the ship had created, they learned all-too-late that this planet was where the TCS Wanderer had come. It was the Terrans that dubbed this new race the Forgotten, who had taken to space (although none can really figure out how) by the time the rest of the major races had discovered them.

Unable to use universal translators, the Forgotten could not barter nor communicate properly with any of the other races. Instead, they developed their own forms of weapons technology and slaughtered anyone they found in their way. Their ships were horridly jury-rigged contraptions armed well enough to cause the other races to fear them. As of now, the Forgotten slowly pass through space, occasionally settling new worlds; however, they are most notorious for unprovoked hostility, and tend to do anything to ensure that their territory remains theirs.

The behavior of the Forgotten has lead most of the other races to avoid them as much as possible, but as the Forgotten spread through space, the threat they pose to the rest of the galaxy can no longer be ignored.

Play as: War Party
Military and Research bonuses, plus luck and a decent research (since you won't get help from anyone)
NEVER research universal translators.
Be the most hostile sumbitch you can be and see how far you get. I have yet to win a game. haha

oh good lord, no! not fan fiction!

LoL, fan fiction is sometimes fun to read. You love it, Skam240, you just shuddup and read.

just as long as they dont start trying to do dialog. I would rather look at photos of furries in action than read fan fiction dialog (and I literally mean this).

Even without dialog, most fan fiction tends to be worse than even the worst B movies. Seriously, if you were any good at writing (as the odds go) someone would already be paying you to do it.

Edit: The Paradox forum AAR (After Action Report) section for HOI2 (Hearts of Iron 2) was literaly ruined by fan fiction. you can't find a decent AAR anywhere in that forum anymore. All you see is a collection of the worst dialog mankind has ever seen.

Seriously, if you were any good at writing (as the odds go) someone would already be paying you to do it.

Or they simply haven't found out about you yet...

Or they simply haven't found out about you yet..

Indeed, and besides, alot of writers started writing fan-fiction, and learned how to make a good story. It's possible to be born a good writer, but I doubt that most of the known writers were "born to be" writers. It's more something you learn in many many years, I think.

it terms of writing, mediocrity is the norm. Thus without a good editor, crapy writing is the likely outcome to fan fiction.

forum problem. repeat

Or they simply haven't found out about you yet...

The odds of that are amazingly slim.

Indeed, and besides, alot of writers started writing fan-fiction, and learned how to make a good story. It's possible to be born a good writer, but I doubt that most of the known writers were "born to be" writers. It's more something you learn in many many years, I think.

In terms of fan fiction being a forum to learning how to write better, there are much better forums. I know I have never heard of a major writer getting his start by writing fan fiction.

I represent the mighty Intergalactic Chicks, lead by Cassandra Sweetlips, and I'm here to tell you that we are for the first time about to win a game played on Tough. The Drengi is putting up some stiff competition, but we're sure that female logic will prevail in the end. We excell at military and social production and tend to focus a lot on sneaking in with transport ships and snatch planets away just when it's about to fall into the hands of another faction. Salutations! :

The Umbreal Sentience:

Ever since they first could reach for the stars, every sentient race has sent out probes to scan the galaxy. For what they were looking for varies upon the race, life, knowlege, slaves. Because of the vast distance between stars, the probes cannot be directed from their home world. So they have protocols that dictate their actions, and over time these protcols grew more complex. One race (the Torians as it happened) sent a probe that was near sentient. They also had it on during the launch and transit. Having nothing to do, the probe thought. About life, about the Universe, about Everything. By the time the Umbreal probe reached it's target, it had almost reached sentiance. It landed succesfully, and began analizing the planet, finding enormous quantitys of metal. Soon another probe from the Yor crashed onto that same planet.
When the Umbreal probe finaly arrived at the Yor one, it found a dying Yor. Being another machine, the Umbreal probe quickly made a direct mental link with the Yor. Finding and amazing repository of knowelge, the Umbreal Sentience queried how to garner the knowelge. The Yor replied: Expand the territory and power of the Yor. The Umbreal probe accepeted the charge and the knowelege, finally becoming Sentient in it's own right. The Yor's energy reserves expended, it deactivated for the final time. The newly sentient Umbreal Probe dismantled the dead Yor, carried it home, and began to use the new machinery to build a mining bot, and the start of a factory.
One thousand years later, a small city of machinery was fully functional. But it was not of the Yor. When the Umbreal Sentience arrived back at it's home, it consulted it's databank's for information about the Yor. The databanks said that the Yor strive to eliminate all life in the galaxy. This was not a mission the Sentience could accept. A new mission was decieded upon, to contact and educate the Yor of a new way, a way of technology and learning. Soon one of the comm satelietes began to pick up stray messeges. Communication between the Terrans and Arceans. The plans for a stargate were transmited, and Umbreal got them too. Not being as strong as the Tennans they might take longer to make the stargate, but they would strive. Another message, this time, plans for a Hyperdrive, to travel freely between stars! They could go and meet their brothers, the Yor! They soon did so, and told the Yor of a way. But the Yor would not listen...

Heheh, I've got one. I'll post it later. You guys can tell me if the writing sucks.

can't wait to read it... I like the two other stories btw. I was thinking, maybe if I can get some help, I would like to mod the game to something that is totally different (story wise and ship design wise) from what it is now. Instead galaxy filled with alien civs, I was thinking of doing human factions fighting for control. No aliens, just good'ol humans doing what they know best. Slaughtering each other.

Finally typed it up:

Primer: Society Phoenixus

"Ours is a society born of hardship and sacrifice. Certainly, we cannot be considered a good civilization. Perhaps, some would even call us evil. Nevertheless, we have endured." - Razius Henry Huang

Prepared by a. Michael Hayden, Head Historian at the Society of Phoenixian History

Our history dates back to the infancy of the Terran Alliance, back before the Hyper Drive brought on the new era. Some years after the Arceans gave humanity the star gate plans, a number of corporate interests began to develop a plan for mass colonization. Quietly, they began to copy the star gate, at last developing a small prototype aimed at the planet Horizon. The plan was, of course, to build a series of these small star gates, and to use Horizon as a gateway colony to settle the planets beyond. "To travel beyond the Horizon," I believe the slogan was.

It was little known at the time, and I surmise that even now the Terran Alliance is loathe to admit it, but... they sent 100,000 of us on the initial run. We were sent ahead, privately, gathered from many different places, in secret, so that nobody would notice our absence. We were to be the first wave of colonists on the planet Horizon, sent in to install and develop the planet's infrastructure in preparation for the second wave once the corporations received governmental approval for the projects.

That second wave never came. Unfortunately, shortly before the second fleet's transit, the star gates exploded, leaving us isolated from Earth for the next 100 years. It was unfortunate, you see, because there had been a passing astronomical storm that was emitting radiation all over Horizon's system. That second fleet had been carrying the antibodies and stimulants necessary to immunize us to the radiation's effects until it finally passed two years later. Without it, we Phoenixians would all have died within the next seven months.

We don't know what happened to the fleet, or why no rescue attempt was ever made - perhaps the corporations were forced to shutdown and declare bankruptcy after the prototype failed. But, it was apparent after five months that no help was coming and that the situation had become desperate. (We have never forgiven the Terrans for this.) People had long begun to succumb to the radiation, and we didn't have many options left.

So we turned to the one option left for us, long regarded as taboo throughout the Terran Alliance - genetic manipulation. Our scientists had managed to duplicate the anti-radiation treatment insofar as developing a mutating agent that would pervasively alter our bodies to become immune to the radiation. It was an impressive feat for only five months of research, but it was a prototype, like the star gate, and untested.

However, we were desperate. Of course, you know the saying about desperate times. In what came to be known as Project Phoenix - and now you know where our name comes from - a group of lead scientists and governors secretly embedded the prototype into the water supply. The result was either disastrous, or it was miraculous. I suppose it depends on your perspective. Thirty percent of us rejected the agent outright, and died immediately. Another twenty percent couldn't take the strain of the agent's effects, and died sometime after. By the time the storm had passed, only half of us had survived. But the important thing is, we survived.

Yet, the survivors were angry. Why weren't they told? They shouted. What gave them the right to play God? Others shouted. It was understandable. One out of every two of us had died. Fathers lost sons, mothers lost daughters, and husbands lost wives. They demanded justice. The highest surviving members of Project Phoenix, among them an engineer by the name of Jason Razius, were arrested and taken to trial for crimes against humanity. They were condemned for genetic engineering - mostly by the colony's proletariat. He and the rest were found guilty, and sentenced to death.

This did not sit well with a faction of the surviving colonists, among them a great number of the colony's elite. Many of them saw Razius and the others as the saviors of Horizon, and petitioned for Razius's release. Foremost amongst these was a soldier who went by the name of Tiger. When the courts refused, Tiger led a small group of volunteers into the prisons and freed Razius and the others.

And from that, we plunged into the Great Phoenixian War. Things looked very grim for Razius and Tiger. They were greatly outnumbered, nearly three-to-one. But Tiger had taken with him a great deal of the colony's intellectual elite, who by this time had refined and perfected their genetic manipulation techniques. They began using the techniques on themselves. They became, faster, smarter, stronger, than their unmodified counterparts. Eventually, Razius and Tiger won out. They reclaimed the city of Beyond, renaming it Phoenixus, and installed a new government and social structure, with Razius's and Tiger's faction at the top.

Over time, Jason Razius became a man known for his wisdom and foresight, as twenty years later our genetic selection techniques (see aside) helped us to prevail in a war against one of Horizon's hostile indigenous species (none of them exist today.) Shortly after Razius died, Tiger adopted his name and became the defacto ruler of Society Phoenixus. He became the second Razius, and subsequently all leaders have taken Razius as a title.

And so it went, and here we are now. And it is finally time for us for us to “travel beyond the Horizon”.

ASIDE --- On Phoenixus's Social Structure

It is important to note that both Razius and Tiger knew of the dangers of genetic stagnation, and believed that ultimately, nature would determine who was best fit to survive. The use of genetic manipulators was heavily restricted to only medical conditions and military usage, and non-defect cosmetic or gender modifications were banned outright. Each new generation of children would first be screened for health defects, and genetically treated at birth, so as to make us Phoenixians immune to any sort of diseases that developed between each generation.

Razius then created a new caste system to promote the genetic system. Razius and Tiger's faction became the first Alphas. These people became the ruling class. They were given access to facilities not available to others, and correspondingly were given greater duties. He created another tier, Betas. These people were the Alphas' first children, and correspondingly were given greater access and responsibilities than the others. The rest of the colonists were now Gammas and the handicapped or deficient became Deltas. Structures were set in place so that each class would be able to earn a higher status through merit.

Tiger and Razius also believed in helping evolution along, albeit not superseding it. The bloodlines of Alphas would be combined and mated to artificially create children as a means to enhance population growth and its recovery. These children would become Betas upon birth, to be adopted or raised by the state, and would otherwise be treated the same as anyone else.

Razius also stressed the importance of family and survivorship. There were few enough colonists left as it was. Abortions and contraceptives - for the time being - were banned. Adoptions, instead, became the method of choice. Razius promoted marriage as a way of ensuring survival. Thus, he decreed that a child legitimately born between two Alphas or a Beta and an Alpha was born a Beta. No child was ever born an Alpha, because Alpha status was to be earned, not given.

With this decree, a bastard child was born a Gamma, and had to earn his way into Beta hood before he could continue onto Alpha hood. This only technically affected the Alpha class, since Beta and Gamma children were also born as Gammas; but the stigma against bastardy soon also passed onto the other classes. Deltas, while cared for, were not allowed to reproduce without having their defects treated.

Raising your social status can be earned in many ways. The most basic is achievement. Passing minimum grades of physical and mental abilities can enter you as far as the Beta caste in certain cases. For merchants, creating a great public work in your lifetime (a great achievement considering that Phoenixus does not have inheritances) is worthy of Alpha status. For many, the military is also a viable option. Earning your way into the Command can grant you Alpha status. Good political acumen and achieving high office does as well. Immigrants enter society as Gammas, and, should they be non-human and reach alpha status, will have their genes spliced for human capatibility, or, failing that, will have certain favorable aspects of their design copied and merged with a human alpha's genes.

Nobody else, huh?

All the stories has been interesting so far. C'mon all, lets get this rolling.

Hmmm...

My custom race, the Hot Mommas, ruled by Empress Nicole, were born when I bought GC2 on my way home from work and wanted to play right away but my wife had hoped to spend some time together. So, as a compromise, we sat in the office while she did her crossword puzzle and some work on the laptop and I worked hard to keep her interested so she wouldn't make me turn the game off. She got to name all my planets and she chose shoe and clothing designer names so as homage to that night (and her patience with me) all the Hot Momma planets are named Delman, Jimmy Cho, Blahnik, Dior, Mizrahi, etc. My ships are pink. Nothing like a big pink ship called HMS Dreadnaught GA-2.

I'd like to think that the Hot Mommas have brought a litte peace to my corner of the galaxy.

so... anymore?

There's actually a forum subtopic for AARs. Problem is, you have to use the teeny little dropdown on the main forum page and click 'Go' to get there. There are several well-thought-out subtopics in that list, but they're so hard to find that there's almost nothing in them.

The straight url for AARs, btw, is: https://forums.galciv2.com/?ForumID=350&AID=0&p=1&s=2&d=1

I really wish that the main forum page just had a list of all of the subtopics instead of a smattering of month-old posts. That way, people could actually find and use the subtopics instead of having to post everything in GalCivII (if they want others to read it, at least).

I'm going to repost mine in that forum. We can start a grassroots movement.