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The Improvement of Humanity
Topic Started: Oct 29 2012, 04:34 AM (96 Views)
Valadia
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Enduring and Eternal
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To the Imperial Order, the Eternal Empire is not just a nation. It is a grand social experiment, of which the Valadian of today is both the successful product and a waystation towards the future.

For over ten centuries, the Empire has explicitly engaged in the active breeding and manipulation of its genetic stock, to bring about a superior human being. From the crude methods practiced in ages past, great advancements in genetics, and in medical and scientific understanding, have ensured that the average Valadian is stronger, more resilient, faster, and more intelligent than his neighboring counterparts.

If we are accused of feeling and acting superior by our neighbors, we can perhaps be forgiven for such an attitude due to the simple fact that we are.

-Lady Mileyne, former Director of the Imperial Humanity Improvement Programme


The Valadian society, it has previously been revealed, was once divided into two groups: Valadians, and coenui, or the generic term used by Valadians to describe everyone who is unfortunately not Valadian. The real picture behind Valadian society, however, is much more complex than that.

There are, indeed, two broad groups of society. But the group known as "Valadian" is further subdivided, based on individuals' attributes and talents. These are neither accidental nor wild and unplanned developments. For a thousand years, the Eternal Empire has groomed and shepherded its citizens, through selective breeding, to ensure that the overall society is as healthy, productive and successful as possible. The program was first formally outlined in 1465 by the Emperor Valadenn, in his treatise The Improvement of Humanity. Since then, utilizing and constantly seeking out the latest advancements in science, medicine and technology, the Empire has practiced the cultivation and selective breeding of its own population. There is no such thing as an unplanned or random birth among Valadians; the citizens of the Empire prefer to leave such practices to "unimproved" peoples. It is believed by some observers that the Empire withheld the benefits of "improvement" from the coenui to make them easier to control. It is also believed by some that the Valadians also preferred to leave the coenui, such as Theleians and Zavalli, "unimproved" to ensure that a steady stream of "wild" genes remains available to introduce into the Valadian population if they proved useful or beneficial.

It has been noted by observers from the outside that Valadians are broken up into castes, based on their "purpose" under the Improvement Programme. If a Valadian is a soldier, it is because he or she was bred, engineered and born to be a soldier. If they are a politician, or an Emperor, or even something as simple as a merchant or a trader, it is because he or she has been likewise bred and designed to be such. No matter what their line or purpose, every Valadian citizen enjoys a much longer and healthier life than his "unimproved" coenui counterparts. In recent decades, biological, chemical and even mechanical enhancements have reportedly been employed as well, to build upon the foundation of a centuries-long breeding program and ensure that the Valadian remains the pinnacle of human development in Catena.

While much remains to be learned by the outside world about exactly what this thousand-year experiment has done for - or to - the Valadian people, it is becoming evident to outside observers that it has placed them well on the path of transhumanism. The average Valadian may well, as Lady Mileyne put it, feel superior to those from other lands because after a thousand years of trying, they have become exactly that. Some speculate that Valadians may not even see their neighbors as entirely human, or at the very least, in need of massive improvement.

The reforms introduced by the Emperor Galin have opened up the Improvement Programme to all in Valadia, but as of yet, the benefits of it have yet to filter extensively to the wider population.

The Imperial Nurseries

Posted Image

A group of babies being monitored in an Imperial Nursery

The Imperial Nurseries are part of the Humanity Improvement Programme, the strict program of breeding, enhancement and modification that is one of the foundations of the Imperial Order's plan for Valadia.

Every Valadian city of any size at all has a Nursery; larger cities will have several. Nurseries are usually attached to hospitals, although frontier outposts and small towns may have them attached to a basic medical clinic. Upon birth, all Valadian babies are taken from their mothers and placed in special isolettes for a period which is unknown to the outside world, but which may range from weeks to months. The babies are believed to undergo the first steps in the program of transhumanism which is a source of wild speculation and intelligence interest for the rest of Catena. Biological and chemical enhancements, genetic modifications and repairs, and even mechanical and artificial enhancements are believed to be all part of the process. The exact nature of the modifications, however, are one of the Empire's most closely guarded secrets, on a par with military technology.

It is rumored that there is currently a debate going on within the government between those who believe that the secret of the Nurseries must be guarded at all costs, and those who are eager to sell the technology involved to other nations for no doubt lucrative sums. The Emperor has, for now, remained on the side of those who want to keep the advanced technology secret.
Edited by Valadia, Mar 27 2014, 11:17 PM.
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