That humans encountered the Sung when they did is a big coincidence; the Sung could just as well have developed slightly faster and been the ones who reached the stars first. Here is an alternate version of 2300AD, assuming that the Sung got to Earth first.
Sometime mid-21st century, right in the painful rebuilding after the Twilight war, humanity saw sleek starships appear in the sky. They soon announced themselves as the Atcheektoon starfleet, willing to engage in peaceful trade and education.
The nations that joined under the Atcheektoon as Taka-soon gained assistance from the meddlesome but benevolent aliens: resources, advanced technology, education and access to space. Those who did not join in found themselves at a tremendous disadvantage. Given human nature (and perhaps some meddling from a few Machiavellian Sung), some nations tried to seize the goodies anyway, leading to a reverse Slaver war. After decisively demonstrating what 200 years of technological advancement and orbital superiority can do to an essentially 20th century military, the Atcheeektoon gracefully accepted the peace offering of their stricken enemies.
Sung space is the current Chinese Arm. They discovered the Xiang and Eber before the humans and incorporated them in their empire, so they had limited experience with alien contact (and some ideas of how troublesome ungrateful natives can be). By the time they met with the humans they were exploring the American arm. The French Arm – now the Human Arm - becomes a joint human-Sung project.
The Sung Empire is a multi-species empire, although the Sung tend to be the dominant species and control the Charr-to-sah. The different Sung nations set up colonies on suitable worlds (mainly low-G worlds like Avalon, Ellis, Beta Hydri, Botany Bay, Rho Eridani, Kanata, Neubayern and Haifeng), sometimes together with humans and Eber. King is mainly an Eber world, as the solid Eber handle the gravity pretty well.
Eventually meeting the Pentapods proved to be a great cultural challenge: they do not seem to understand the Sos-Soon-Atkacharr, and are neither interested in learning how to build advanced technology nor willing to teach their biotechnology. While trying to deal with this challenge humans and sung encountered the Kafers. Now the Human Arm has to deal with both problems – and due to the long Atchektoon peace the human-Sung warships are not very advanced…
In this setting most human nations fall into three groups. There are the big ones who have reached Tassacharr-soon and may soon be vying with Atchektoon (and each other) for being Kacharr-soon. They have colonies among the stars; they have absorbed much Sung culture but have also developed a great deal of confidence. The Taka-soon nations are still under Sung control. They are weaker, more dependent on the Atchektoon and also more likely to be used by them as pawns in politics. They participate in exploration and interstellar trade within the Sung Empire. Then there are the pariah nations that refuse Sos-Soon-Atkacharr, seeking their own way but cut-off from trade, technology and space by the collaborators. Some may be proud isolationists trying to preserve human culture from Sung imperialism; others are failed states and dictatorships that won’t play the game fairly. There are secret projects to acquire advanced technology through espionage or independnet R&D, hopes for demonstrating unexpected supremacy in some domain that embarasses the Sung.
This scenario is a bit like David Brin’s “Sundiver”: some people do everything to emulate the new space overlords; others take pride in their human “barbarism”. The Sung are however not very superior overlords so there is a great deal of opportunity for humans to rise in the ranks or become equals. Technology could be on the usual 2300/2320 levels, but with Sung design twists. Given the reduction of conflict under Sung rule weapons tech is not as advanced, while various forms of agent gadgetry for espionage has advanced significantly.
As for nations, one setup could be that France, as the 21st century power with the most to loose, did not join the Empire and was slapped down in the “Slaver War”. Meanwhile the nations of North and South America joined in early, and are now at Tassacharr-soon status. The cultural effects have been complex. The less individualistic south nations had an easier time fitting in, becoming paragons of Taka-soonness. The northern, more individualistic nations benefited greatly but always chafed under the obligations and constraints. Over time they have become somewhat better adjusted, but are clearly the hawks of human-Sung politics. The rest of the world is either relatively well off Taka-soon loyalists (much of Europe, Russia, the middle east, parts of Asia, parts of Africa), or the poorer pariah nations working more or less well together to counterbalance the overlords (France, Australia, parts of Asia and Africa, India).
Sometime mid-21st century, right in the painful rebuilding after the Twilight war, humanity saw sleek starships appear in the sky. They soon announced themselves as the Atcheektoon starfleet, willing to engage in peaceful trade and education.
The nations that joined under the Atcheektoon as Taka-soon gained assistance from the meddlesome but benevolent aliens: resources, advanced technology, education and access to space. Those who did not join in found themselves at a tremendous disadvantage. Given human nature (and perhaps some meddling from a few Machiavellian Sung), some nations tried to seize the goodies anyway, leading to a reverse Slaver war. After decisively demonstrating what 200 years of technological advancement and orbital superiority can do to an essentially 20th century military, the Atcheeektoon gracefully accepted the peace offering of their stricken enemies.
Sung space is the current Chinese Arm. They discovered the Xiang and Eber before the humans and incorporated them in their empire, so they had limited experience with alien contact (and some ideas of how troublesome ungrateful natives can be). By the time they met with the humans they were exploring the American arm. The French Arm – now the Human Arm - becomes a joint human-Sung project.
The Sung Empire is a multi-species empire, although the Sung tend to be the dominant species and control the Charr-to-sah. The different Sung nations set up colonies on suitable worlds (mainly low-G worlds like Avalon, Ellis, Beta Hydri, Botany Bay, Rho Eridani, Kanata, Neubayern and Haifeng), sometimes together with humans and Eber. King is mainly an Eber world, as the solid Eber handle the gravity pretty well.
Eventually meeting the Pentapods proved to be a great cultural challenge: they do not seem to understand the Sos-Soon-Atkacharr, and are neither interested in learning how to build advanced technology nor willing to teach their biotechnology. While trying to deal with this challenge humans and sung encountered the Kafers. Now the Human Arm has to deal with both problems – and due to the long Atchektoon peace the human-Sung warships are not very advanced…
In this setting most human nations fall into three groups. There are the big ones who have reached Tassacharr-soon and may soon be vying with Atchektoon (and each other) for being Kacharr-soon. They have colonies among the stars; they have absorbed much Sung culture but have also developed a great deal of confidence. The Taka-soon nations are still under Sung control. They are weaker, more dependent on the Atchektoon and also more likely to be used by them as pawns in politics. They participate in exploration and interstellar trade within the Sung Empire. Then there are the pariah nations that refuse Sos-Soon-Atkacharr, seeking their own way but cut-off from trade, technology and space by the collaborators. Some may be proud isolationists trying to preserve human culture from Sung imperialism; others are failed states and dictatorships that won’t play the game fairly. There are secret projects to acquire advanced technology through espionage or independnet R&D, hopes for demonstrating unexpected supremacy in some domain that embarasses the Sung.
This scenario is a bit like David Brin’s “Sundiver”: some people do everything to emulate the new space overlords; others take pride in their human “barbarism”. The Sung are however not very superior overlords so there is a great deal of opportunity for humans to rise in the ranks or become equals. Technology could be on the usual 2300/2320 levels, but with Sung design twists. Given the reduction of conflict under Sung rule weapons tech is not as advanced, while various forms of agent gadgetry for espionage has advanced significantly.
As for nations, one setup could be that France, as the 21st century power with the most to loose, did not join the Empire and was slapped down in the “Slaver War”. Meanwhile the nations of North and South America joined in early, and are now at Tassacharr-soon status. The cultural effects have been complex. The less individualistic south nations had an easier time fitting in, becoming paragons of Taka-soonness. The northern, more individualistic nations benefited greatly but always chafed under the obligations and constraints. Over time they have become somewhat better adjusted, but are clearly the hawks of human-Sung politics. The rest of the world is either relatively well off Taka-soon loyalists (much of Europe, Russia, the middle east, parts of Asia, parts of Africa), or the poorer pariah nations working more or less well together to counterbalance the overlords (France, Australia, parts of Asia and Africa, India).
