Prominent Figures - Locations - History - Culture - Technology - Character Creation

The Enclave is what can be best be described as a 'Military Nation' (some refer to it as the Belligerent Nation) as it falls into both categories for being an independent, self-sufficient country as well as a Private Military Organization.

Nation: The Enclave

Population: The Enclave has a population of roughly 10 million individuals, of which about 80% are part of their armed forces and the remaining 20% are either scientists, overseers or officers. They are rare in that they do not have any civilian population, as everyone starts their training at the age of 6 so that everyone no matter the station can handle a weapon.

For more general information about the entire nation, please see the Enclave page [here]

Frank Horrigan
Lord Commander. Leader of the Enclave.
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Faith Hannigan
First Commander.
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(not to scale)

The Icarus: Although more a mobile space station, this is the ship that the Enclave originally escaped in, and has been heavily modified since to accommodate a country-size population instead of simply a crew. It stands a mind-boggling 10 miles tall from base to top and is shaped like a flat-tipped obelisk with the base measuring 5 miles squared and narrows down to 4 miles at the top. Black panels cover it from top to bottom with the exception of the corners which is silver, and each side has the star-circled E logo emblazoned on the middle-upper half. The inside is a maze of halls and corridors without equal, as it extends to no less than 6000 decks from top to bottom. The Machinery: The first 200 decks consist entirely of the gargantuan engines which propel the mighty vessel. Above that for 100 decks is the Quantum Singularity Drive Core which supplies power to every single system of the ship, and then some. Then comes the 300 decks worth of automated foundries and factories and all their billions of subsystems, capable of processing entire planets in order to sate the unending demand for equipment. The Labs: Decks 500 to 600 are all R&D labs and facilities with separate sections for the many scientific fields they study. General Usage: The rest of the station is one giant labyrinth of halls and corridors with a great numbers of mess halls, crew quarters, combat simulator facilities, armories, sickbays and study rooms. The Conservatory: At the very top is the floor known as the "Conservatory" that is one great indoor park. This area contains what the Enclave considers the most precious to them in the form of all the native flora and fauna of their homeworld. Great care has been made to allow it to flourish to its full extent and it is considered a great honor for an outsider to be allowed to visit it. VIP Quarters: Right below the Conservatory is a single deck dedicated to the rare VIP aboard the vessel and is lavishly decorated with thick red carpets and dark wood paneling with golden door handles, plaques and accents.

The Enclave was first formed roughly 20,000 years ago when Frank Horrigan attempted a coup against the Sarafan organization which had almost fully conquered his home galaxy at that time. Managing to escape the violent counter attack that destroyed all his other ships, he ordered the crew to set a course at the closest neighboring galaxy at full FTL-speeds. This galaxy happened to be the Milky Way and while processing a few uninhabited planets for raw materials came across Arda. Coming off to an initial rocky start many considered them to be evil for quite some time, based off of their highly militarized ways and warlike outlook. It took time and effort before their mostly benevolent ways started shining through, and they are now considered a vital piece of the world's culture.

As can be expected from any large group of people put into isolation long enough, the Enclave have developed a very unique culture that are strange and unusual in many ways. As they started out as a military unit a long, long time ago, much of what they do echo from the training and dicipline passed down from those long before them. Much has changed since then, but things that would appear irksome and bothersome to many is a completely natural part of their society to them. The most obvious difference is how they view weapons, which is basically the opposite of what any other society does. In the Enclave it's considered strange and unusual NOT to go everywhere bearing weapons. Having an armory is no more strange than having a library and walking around without a weapon attached somewhere is like missing an important piece of clothing. Although they have very few true rules, there are a set of guidelines for each member to follow. There are no punishment for not adhering to it, but it is considered to be lazy and somewhat disrespectful to ignore it. They are as follows: Each and every citizen of the Enclave is expected to be punctual or early to wherever they are going at all times. Your weapons are each a limb of yours that you must care for, treat them well and they shall treat you well. Children are the future, if you harm the future then the past will find you. No one is above the Law, respect the Law and it will respect you. Take what is not yours at your own risk. Anyone willing to take a bullet for you is a friend you must cherish.

Society: Although it has its roots in the military with a clear ranking system that has existed virtually unchanged in thousands of years, the Enclave is at its base a Meritocracy where each and every one gains rank and power based on intelligence and ability. Although there are families that are known for having done great things, everyone is born equal. This has led to a complete abolishing of the notion that women are less than men and that homosexuality is wrong.

The ranks are as follows:

	Private			Second Lieutenant
	Private First Class			First Lieutenant
	Lance Corporal			Captain
	Corporal			Major
	Sergeant			Lieutenant Colonel
	Staff Sergeant			Colonel
	Gunnery Sergeant			Brigadier General
	Master Sergeant			Major General
	First Sergeant			Lieutenant General
	Master Gunnery Sergeant			General
	Sergeant Major			First Commander

Lord Commander NOTE: Only Frank Horrigan has ever had the rank of Lord commander. Despite re-elections every 100 years it's basically just a formality since no one can even imagine not having him as their leader.

Laws: As the centuries passed many of the original navy laws that were employed simply fell out of use since there were no higher power that they had to answer to. For a while this led to a borderline anarchistic society until Frank finally put his foot down and implemented a single law: Do not touch the innocent. Simply defined as that no one may harm, kill, incapacitate, drug, rape or kidnap another person without their consent.

In any other society this would never have worked, but the Icarus had slowly been saturated with Frank's dark energies over the years allowing him to at all times know what happened aboard the vessel. This meant that anyone who violated this one law simply fell into his own shadow and was never heard from again. Akin to a god within the walls of his vessel, Frank knows everything you do at all times and he will enforce this law with extreme prejudice. Nobody cares if you do drugs, if you and someone you hate decide to have a shootout in the middle of the mess hall. But no one will help you if you hit someone who had no business with your feud.

One unofficial law exists, however. It's a law that no one speaks about openly yet is known to all: Do not mention the Machine Mother, to do so is to invite her. Anyone who does so is killed on the spot, and struck from all records.

"Anything worth shooting is worth shooting twice. Ammo is cheap, life is expensive."

Training: Every child aboard the Icarus start basic training at the age of 6, normally given in a combination of the parents, computer courses and tutors. They are taught proper firearm handling and maintenance, maths, reading and writing as basic training. When this is completed, children are mostly left on their own to choose from the vast library of knowledge that the Enclave have gathered over the past 20 millennium. Lacking the time constraints set by most other societies the children of the Enclave are allowed to learn as much as they want, whenever they want and for as long as they want. Viewed as anathema by many outsiders the lack of a centralized learning facility and a flourishing online network has led to children and young adults from all over the vessel coming together to study and discuss their interests. The combat training of the Enclave is probably the most brutal one in the galaxy, however. As a result of their extremely advanced medical technology, nothing less than a head shot is considered a lethal wound. Therefore their soldiers are put through combat training comparable to suicide missions anywhere else. Often their first weeks of training they are given no armor other than a highly sophisticated shield-collar that will protect the head against any injury. Many question why they do not simply cover their whole bodies with said shield at which they simply shrug and reply "Where would be the fun in that?". Concepts like shock, fear of death and even self-preservation quickly become foreign as they fight ever onwards. They lose track of limbs and blood lost as the moment they are severely injured they are teleported to a medbay, all wounds regenerated and sent back. Their training facilities are also likewise without equal, capable of near-instant energy-to-matter conversion to create any possible terrain. Enemies are supplied in the form of an endless supply of clones, genetically altered so that they have no brains. Instead they are given special brain-chips that mimic all the necessary signals required for the body to function, and are controlled by a specific training A.I. This avoids any moral qualms and allows a sort of difficulty setting that can accurately replicate anything from green recruits to seasoned veterans. There is even the famous training area 8472 or as most call it, The Eternal War. This is an area where the maximum difficulty setting has been set for the past thousand years. This is where men and women fight a constant, impossible war against an infinite enemy where everyone is constantly aware of every other soldier. Most people would find this absolutely mortifying, but the men and women of the Enclave are not ordinary in any sense of the word. To them it is the ultimate adrenaline rush and soldiers often brag to one another of the length of their longest session in the Eternal War. Duties: There is no single man or woman (and no married ones, either) aboard the Icarus that do not pull their own weight. As they choose whichever branch they wish to work in, it is expected of them to trust in their superiors and strive to improve themselves both physically and mentally. That aside everyone is free to pursue whichever career they wish as long as they can come to arms when called for. Friends and Family: Your unit is your family is something you often hear, only in the Enclave this is literal. The general consensus within the Enclave is that Family is the most precious thing there is, and not limited by blood. This had the result of superb teamwork and morale on the battlefield, as family is never broken up with the exception of emergencies. At home the gentle side of the soldiers come out, as they are taught from an early age to distinguish between work and play. The average Enclaver has two to three hobbies which may be anything you can think of. One thing they all have in common however, and no one knows when it started, is to have a collection of bullets, often standing on display on shelves built into a wall. These bullets each are engraved with the names of friends and family where the size of the bullet and the care taken in the engraving are proportional to how close they are. It can range from simple small arms bullets with a name scratched onto them, to enormous artillery shells where the name of a wife or husband has been meticulously and carefully engraved into the side. This is meant to be that if you have a friend or loved one who betray you, you have a bullet with their name on it proportional to deliver the hole they left within your heart.

Religion: It is rare to have someone from the Enclave to discuss religion, as they are not big on spirituality. However they cannot ignore that there are things far greater than anyone can imagine, thus several figures are recognized in shrines and chapels.

The Master Builder Other Names: Builder. Forge-Father. Him Above. Nature: Order and Creation Symbol: The Hammer The Master Builder is for a great many the centerpiece of Enclave faith, and is considered to the highest authority there is. It is said that it was He who forged the universe from the raw stuff from which everything came, that reality was forged by a single swing of His hammer. Originally a Sarafan deity, the Enclave found that even though they left everything they know, they could not renounce The Builder. He is the embodiment of Order, but is also related to all things related to artistry and crafts, creativity, ingenuity and innovation. Et-Tarsis the Ever-Ready Other Names: Loadout. Great Tactician. Duty. Nature: Vigilance It's unknown exactly where the belief in Et-Tarsis originated or where it came from. There has been attempts to track it through the well-kept history of the Enclave but sources are conflicting, and they have only been able to narrow it down to somewhere around 5600 *A.E. She represents the core of the Enclave philosophy; to always carry a varied enough loadout to be able to face any circumstance. To always have enough ammunition, to always have your knives sharp, your lenses polished, your grenade pouch filled and your armor spotless. *A.E. is short for After Escape and refers to when the Enclave escaped from their former brethren and began their long voyage. It is now 20014 A.E. Shodan Other Names: Machine Mother. Metal Maiden. Foundry-Mother. Processing Component 4-3-8-9-3. Infinite Record. Nature: Technology and the keeping of records. As the Master Builder is the high, Shodan is the low. Although not technically evil, Shodan possesses a sort of cold disregard for everything that makes her entire existence a thing of horror for those who truly understand. The story goes that she aided the Master Builder in creating the universe and reality, but in stark difference to his care she only desired to catalogue everything until the end. It is said that she has done this for every single universe since the Cycle began, and at the end of each one she compares it to those that came before in order to see if progress were made. To the Enclave it is a fact that all technology in the universe stems directly from Her and that she will call it back once the end comes. Thus no one in the Enclave will ever say her name out loud, because it is believed that if her name is spoken she will hear it through the Essence that exists in all technology. Unlike most deities there are empiric evidence of her existence, documented sightings of her are kept in the Forbidden Library aboard the Icarus but exactly what is written is known only to one. As the essence of technology she transcends concepts like magic and reality and can appear anywhere and in any form. However no matter what form she appears in, she always has the glowing green eyes that are her trademark. Scholars have fought and argued for thousands of years whether it is because she cannot fully hide her nature or if it is because pure vanity that such a clear tell exists. No one knows, and no one has ever dared get so close to her as to ask. As technology is her nature so is everything related to it, and some R&D swears up, down and sideways that sometimes when they are deep in research they can hear her voice. Like a siren's call it continuously goads them to move forward, that progress must march on.

Arts and Crafts: Although much of their time is spent in combat training, it is very common for the people aboard the Icarus to spend some of their free time pursuing various hobbies. They range between but are not limited to: playing and composing music, film making and screenwriting, carving wood and bone, leather working, painting and drawing, architecture, various mechanics and much more. A man or woman's hobbies are considered a private thing and no one in their right mind would ever ridicule anyone for their choice of self indulgence, as the sharing of hobbies is something only done between close friends and family.

It should also come as no surprise that the reigning number one hobby is gunsmithing. This is considered to be a great and meaningful thing and a multitude of new weapon technologies have been developed in this 'hobby arms race' as it is sometimes called. It is an enormous honor to develop a design for a weapon or even an individual part that somehow improves the power of the Enclave, it is not uncommon to find someone that devote all their free time to it.

Entertainment: During their travels the Enclave have amassed a truly gigantic library of films, music and writings. This can all be freely accessed either from the comfort of the own home or in one of the thousands of cinemas that dot each deck throughout the Icarus. It is up to each individual how they spend their free time and so even in such a militaristic society you can still go have a beer with your friends and catch a movie along with hundreds of like-minded others.

Exports: As a military nation the two things that are always in demand are weapons, ammunition and body armor. Naturally what they sell to anyone outside the Enclave is nothing compared to what they field in battle. That said, even civilian-grade power armor makes a mockery of ordinary small-arms fire, and their handguns fire bullets that anywhere else would come out of autocannons. It's not all weapons and armor however. They also export a curious beverage commonly known as Hyperspace Diesel. Although plasma-based, numerous studies have shown it to be perfectly safe to drink, if rather curious. Although not actually rocket fuel, it is a faintly glowing liquid that seems to shift between blue, purple and orange depending on its movement. Nobody knows exactly how it is produced but it is extremely invigorating and many report that it helps them wake up and stay awake far more effectively than coffee or any conventional energy drink.

The Enclave are incredibly technologically advanced, owing both to the galaxy-spanning empire they once escaped as well as their own ingenuity. This is readily apparent when one looks at the Sarafan technology where they favor light, form-fitting suits of picite*-armor and a wide range of energy weapons. This is because at the time of their separation, solid slug weaponry and powered exoskeletons were just being phased out within the Sarafan Empire. Thus instead of switching as the Sarafan did, the Enclave continued to develop these technologies as well as inventing new ones to support them. Eventually they reached bizarre levels where they blurred the lines between conventional and energy weapons and managed to bypass many of the shortcomings. *Picite: As Nanites operate in the Nano-scale, Picites operate in the Pico-scale; a thousand times smaller than the Nano. Power Armor: The Enclave Power Armor is by this point iconic and as closely associated to them as the British and their tea. It's composed of several different technologies working in tandem to create the most advanced and heaviest suits of body armor in the world. They utilize bleeding edge nano- and compression technology to compress all its working parts both in storage form as well as when it is worn. They do not come on piece by piece the way regular armor is but it unfolds itself in a way that is almost fluid, rushing across the body to take shape and allowing it to be practically seamless. Accompanied with a sophisticated scanning system it scans the user before being deployed and adjusts itself to fit him or her perfectly down to every tiny detail to ensure maximum comfort and stability. It is also fitted with a gravity-control module that employs exotic Turquoise Matter to allow the user to change their mass at will, making otherwise impossible maneuvers possible. The helmet of the suit is taken apart and stored around the neck when not in use, and can be deployed with a neural command to quickly cover the entire head of the soldier and produce a vacuum-proof seal. Naturally it also comes with full life support, climate control, the ability to process clean drinking water, an oxygen extraction module and a week's worth of protein and nutrient-rich rations as standard. These suits are awarded only when a soldier has showed that he/she can be both disciplined and accurate. There are many tests that need to be passed and many battles that have to be fought to ensure that nobody is allowed to wear a suit without being considered worthy. The first layer consists of silk-padded sections of a special Gel that acts as a barrier against both harmful toxins and bacteria as well as all forms of nuclear radiation and some exotic ones. It's also equipped with a spinal-mounted neural interface that works in tandem with delicate neural implants within and around the soldier's own spine. These implants are constructed on site by billions of nanites deployed either directly by the suit itself or by a separate injection prior to donning the suit. The second layer is first a 4 mm layer of a light laminate consisting of extremely durable, lightweight, graphene-based ceramics sandwiched with layers of an artificial spider silk weave. On top of this is the auto-reactive servos which allow the wearer to move the armor as an extension of their own bodies, adding both strength and speed while simultaneously supporting the weight of the armor itself. This layer also houses the operating system hardware with the four 512-core processors in the chestpiece and the 18 Gigawatt micro fusion-plasma hybrid reactor located in the back. All of this is suspended in another Gel layer which acts both as an insulator, additional shock-absorber and serves to lubricate the many moving parts of the suit. The third and final layer is that of the armored plating, auto-senses and the emergency weaponry. The armor plating consists of layers of Krontin, an ultra-dense alloy of entirely alien origin that the Enclave developed through their extended exodus between galaxies. Sometimes called Bloodsteel for the deep, crimson color that appears when cut it is quickly covered in a dark grey oxide layer that renders it inert to most acids and bases. At its making it is reinforced by sheets of the same ceramics of the second layer, drawn into strands ten times thinner than a human hair and made into an eight-fold weave. This makes it durable to the point where regular small-arms fire is practically useless and only the heaviest weapons do more than dents in it. Embedded between the plates where three or four meet at a time is the sensors that feed outside information to the many systems within. These in turn are covered in convex pieces of artificial diamond to prevent accidental damage and dirt that may foul them. The emergency weaponry consists of four knives, one pair stored in compressed form within the hip plates of the armor and within the inside of the biceps. These knives are made from specifically hardened Krontin allowing them to have edges so fine that the very tip is a single row of atoms wide. These monomolecular knives represent the sharpest edge physically possible without resorting to magic or energy fields. Finally the entire armor is covered in a three micron thick layer of ablative coating, which is highly effective at dissipating heat and allowing the armor to be able to take laser and plasma fire that would otherwise melt its plating. Trainee Armor: Naturally the future of the Enclave are not sent into the proving grounds wearing nothing but their own clothes on their backs. They wear a stripped down version of the iconic armor, consisting of the same Gel layer and reinforced ceramic plating of the second layer. However all servos, the neural interface and the reactor is gone and replaced with more armor. One processor remains in the chestpiece linked to the manual helmet and is powered by a compact hydrogen fuel cell in the lower back. This is probably the closest they can come to light armor and although the fully inducted members scoff at it using words like "Civilian-grade" and "paper-thin" it is superior to all conventional, military-grade armor employed by the rest of the world. Due to its relative low level of advancement and lack of a neural interface this is sold at the Pyramid as body armor for whoever can afford it. Medicine: As soldiers train, fight and spar they will inevitably suffer injuries, which makes it come as no surprise that the Enclave has probably the best healthcare of any country in the world. Stemming from thousands of years of experience, research and development they are familiar with the human body down to the smallest cell. Employing their Perfect Cloning technology they can re-create and even improve upon lost limbs and even organs, along with rapid cellular regeneration they can get a soldier back to his or her feet and good as new within minutes. However as with all things the technology is not infallible and there are cases in which they simply can do nothing. Besides obvious things as being vaporized or melted, they cannot heal a pulped brain. While fully possible to clone and/or regenerate lost grey matter, they cannot recreate the memories and the personality of someone who got their head blown off. While rare, it is one of the times when they simply have to accept that the person they knew is gone forever. Part of this echoes in their disdain to bionics and cybernetic implants, as they believe that grafting metal and wires into your body makes you less than you were before. However they are not blind to the advantages of augmentation so instead they spent time and effort into developing various gene-mods and nano-assisted surgery. By carefully putting precision tweaks into a person's genes they have achieved twenty times normal density of muscle and sinew, ceramic-bonded bones, super-conducting nerves and much more. Compression Technology: One of the greatest achievements of Enclave technology is their compression technology. Using a combination of dimensional and temporal folding they are able to "create space" in the manner of making something capable of holding much more than what would otherwise be physically possible. As it folds time and space, it thus also folds the mass of whatever is placed within an area of compressed space. Therefore the weight loss is proportionate to how much space is folded meaning that the outside only experience about 3% of the actual weight of the inside. The Enclave uses this to great effect not only in the magazines of their weapons allowing a single mag to hold thousands of rounds, but also the Icarus itself is space compressed.

NOTE: It's not necessary, but if you want to make an Enclave character and are unsure about anything, you can contact me either in the chat, AIM, or Skype.

AIM: ChainsawDisaster
Skype: Packkitsune

The Enclave is also in the habit of taking in outsiders, both as independent mercenaries and full-fledged members. The most common way of joining is by contacting them at their offices in the Enclave Pyramid in Ambrose, Erufu.