On Varieties of Terraforming
-I'd mentioned in a previous post the classic trope of empaths/telepaths being driven to genocide out of a desire for emotional/mental Quiet. But not everyone wishes to eliminate emotional states - psychic vampires would feed on certain states/thoughts. There could civilizations manipulating those above ground or beyond the planet-swallowing storm into varied emotional states - like keeping those others in a state of perpetual warfare, encouraging polygamy and polyamory, bring a melancholy peace to a planet in order to produce a certain vintage of emotion from its poets.
-The moral terraforming the Star Knights believe the Way wants the to do to the Universe. Given Star Knights in this particular setting are ex Void Knights they might just turn their general disregard for other lives in pursuit of selfishness toward what they see as the Greater Good. It might be something like an Inverse Prime Directive - compel budding civilizations to toe the line by claiming (perhaps rightly) to serve God or just use brutal force to make an example out of a few sinners.
-Using mushrooms to terraform lands overly polluted and/or terrorized by certain kinds of vermin and/or diseases. This might also lead to an Assimilant Strategy where mycelia underground overwrite the world consciousness of the biome. However the number (if any) of planets which have some kind of psychic field both acting as some kind of global consciousness *and* have this global consciousness emerging from or at least dependent on the ecosystems it sustains/contains is up to the GM.
-Inverted Terraforming - alter the world so much that its new homeostatic state is inimical to all races that might have tried to occupy the planet and exploit its resources. Given both the variety of life across the galaxy and the uncanny similarities between certain species this will usually mean making this same planet completely uninhabitable for those unleashing the havoc-wreaking terraforming methods. Some humorously refer to this as turning a planet into a "sour grape".
-Cultural/Memetic Terrforming - the most obvious culprits engaging in this would be those civs engaged in absorbing planets into their ideas of how society should be. Let those who fight the empire eventually become the empire and then the Imperial citizens can move in without worrying as much about culture shock and incompatibility of mores, foods, what counts as entertainment, etc. However not every cultural terraforming initiative is begun by an empire - Some races have planned far in advance knowing first contact would eventually be made. These civs utilized AIs and sometimes agents to shift the flow of cultural direction of their neighbors, hoping these course "corrections" would prevent future conflict. Of course genuine AIs may not behave according to their expected teleology, especially if their convert mission brings them up against psionicists and mystics. (In which case expect witch trials and such.)
-Random & Pseudorandom - There may be a heartless AI and/or inveterate post-Singularity gamblers who decide to subject whole planets to their power. The "heartless" AIs may actually be trying to run an experiment so the worlds are terraformed as part of a randomization protocol to help negate bias and other issues which are to plague the practice of science. The gamblers probably like the idea of terraforming because they want to see which reconfigured species thrive.
-The moral terraforming the Star Knights believe the Way wants the to do to the Universe. Given Star Knights in this particular setting are ex Void Knights they might just turn their general disregard for other lives in pursuit of selfishness toward what they see as the Greater Good. It might be something like an Inverse Prime Directive - compel budding civilizations to toe the line by claiming (perhaps rightly) to serve God or just use brutal force to make an example out of a few sinners.
-Using mushrooms to terraform lands overly polluted and/or terrorized by certain kinds of vermin and/or diseases. This might also lead to an Assimilant Strategy where mycelia underground overwrite the world consciousness of the biome. However the number (if any) of planets which have some kind of psychic field both acting as some kind of global consciousness *and* have this global consciousness emerging from or at least dependent on the ecosystems it sustains/contains is up to the GM.
-Inverted Terraforming - alter the world so much that its new homeostatic state is inimical to all races that might have tried to occupy the planet and exploit its resources. Given both the variety of life across the galaxy and the uncanny similarities between certain species this will usually mean making this same planet completely uninhabitable for those unleashing the havoc-wreaking terraforming methods. Some humorously refer to this as turning a planet into a "sour grape".
-Cultural/Memetic Terrforming - the most obvious culprits engaging in this would be those civs engaged in absorbing planets into their ideas of how society should be. Let those who fight the empire eventually become the empire and then the Imperial citizens can move in without worrying as much about culture shock and incompatibility of mores, foods, what counts as entertainment, etc. However not every cultural terraforming initiative is begun by an empire - Some races have planned far in advance knowing first contact would eventually be made. These civs utilized AIs and sometimes agents to shift the flow of cultural direction of their neighbors, hoping these course "corrections" would prevent future conflict. Of course genuine AIs may not behave according to their expected teleology, especially if their convert mission brings them up against psionicists and mystics. (In which case expect witch trials and such.)
-Random & Pseudorandom - There may be a heartless AI and/or inveterate post-Singularity gamblers who decide to subject whole planets to their power. The "heartless" AIs may actually be trying to run an experiment so the worlds are terraformed as part of a randomization protocol to help negate bias and other issues which are to plague the practice of science. The gamblers probably like the idea of terraforming because they want to see which reconfigured species thrive.
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