[Akalabeth Angel]

     Anyone have any speculation on the state of affairs for the Vasudans prior to the war with the GTA? The TVWP is giving a sort of fan-made history of pre-war with the warring terran states before unification. I was thinking it might be cool to one day in the far off future play a similar campaign/MOD based on whatever the heck the Vasudans were doing. Assuming of course that they were fighting one another on some level which I think can probably be assumed to some extent given that they're not too dissimiliar to the Terrans and they had to have a reason for some huge armed fleet of ships in the first place.

    Might be cool to have a mod more like IL-2 Sturmovik in space, where ammunition limits force the player to do more burst fire shots than say "spray and pray" or whatever it's referred to here. Just playing the Earth Defense Demo I'm finding the ammo based guns pretty fun if a little inaccurate.
 
    EDIT - made the title less dumb

[Eishtmo]

My best guess:  Religious extreamists, and lots of them. 

That said, there is probably one other angle I've throught on.  It is possible that the Vasudan Parliment didn't give it's many colonies the representation they probably deserved (see the whole bit with "no taxation without representation" with regard to the the American Revolution).  That could create a LOT of interesting scenerios, and might explain how the Parliment was dissolved after the Great War (apparently it was bloodless and easy).

It's just a thought though.

[S-99]

My best guess:  Religious extreamists, and lots of them.

So vasuda was planet al qaida.

[Ace]

For a twist though, you could do what Plasma and I were considering for FS: FPS.

The Emperor is the religious extremist, and Emperor-cults were supported by the GTI during the Great War as an effort to weaken the VPE. "True heirs" to the 10,000 year dynasty are a dime-a-dozen and none of which are legitimate. Probably not even Khonsu II, but he had economic policies and charisma in a time of desperation.

The Parliament, ruling in the stead of the ancient dynasty, is incredibly Vasuda-centric and drains resources from the outer worlds. This leads to disillusionment which leads to periods where various pretenders to the throne rise.

One of the subplots for the Red Faction mod was going to deal with the GTI's support of such a cell, though Vasudan factionalization went down dramatically after first contact.

[MT]

Perhaps Vasuda may be similar to Feudal Japan, ie a powerless dynasty and figurehead Emperor while real power rested in the hands of a class of "lords" that form the Parliament, with a Shogun like lord who holds most of the executive powers.

The Shivan invasion and HoL movement prompted certain political factions to push aside this Shogun and have a "Meiji Restoration", with the Emperor being pushed back into the limelight and take on a certain political role, while those who backed the throne now have influence over the Emperor and also hold political offices in the new bureaucracy.

[Eishtmo]

I've always viewed the Parliament and the Emperor as competing for power, in a way.  Officially, the Parliament holds the power, but unofficially, there's a struggle within the Vasudan government over who really holds power.  I can see multiple political parties, and at least one is a Royalist, which pursues restoring power to the Emperor, by legal and political means.

I think there is a general cult of the Emperor, but it's not very potent (widespread, yes, but not potent).  This explains the language thing, if they didn't revere the Emperor at least a bit, then why bother with the language thing.

That said, the Imperium has been usurped, probably long ago, by the Parliament that held power until the Great War.  In many ways, the Emperor still doesn't have power, but he does have influence, and that can mean a great deal.  When the Shivans arrived, however, that influence increased to the point where the Emperor could actually dissolve the Parliament.  With that, the cult of the Emperor returns to the forefront, and becomes much more prominent.

[SypheDMar]

Didn't it say somewhere in the FS1 campaign that there are Vasudan spies working for the Terrans?

[S-99]

I wouldn't be surprised with the way the vasudan government was corrupt.

[Harbinger of DOOM]

Hmmmm, so why do them crazy GTVA Terrans have Khonsu and all the other Zods lording over them now?

Why no human emperor?

[Marcus Vesper]

Hmmmm, so why do them crazy GTVA Terrans have Khonsu and all the other Zods lording over them now?

Why no human emperor?

Because the FS2 universe isn't Warhammer 40,000.


Also, the Vasudan emperor is the ruler of...the Vasudans, not the Terrans.  The GTVA is an alliance, but the worlds involved are still ruled by whichever species controls the planet.  England is in NATO but that doesn't mean the US considers the queen their sovereign.