The Realm has over a thousand colonies all throughout the galaxy. These Earth-like Golden Worlds vary from one another in innumerable ways however they all share one thing in common; each colony was started by a seedship. One of the innovations to arise from the exodus from Earth, these spacecraft were pivotal to the rapid expansion of humanity throughout the stars. Regardless of the manufacturer they all shared a set of traits as well as a common purpose.
Every seedship has one goal: the successful founding of a human colony. Everything which does not further that goal is considered a luxury. These massive vessels are easily the largest ships ever created by humanity, dwarfing even Shiva-class warships. Each seedship either keeps in stock or can manufacture everything the first few generations of colonists may need so that they can thrive.
The beating heart of the seedship are its two manufacturing bays. These automated factories are massive. Both can produce everything from building materials, tools and even entire vehicles without pause for decades. So long as raw materials are mined and brought to the processing centers, these mechanical marvels will turn them into whatever is most needed. But tools and materials without people to use them aren’t very useful. Fortunately, a seedship can provide all the people a colony needs as well.
The autocreches are another engineering miracle. Vast storage banks hold human embryos in cold stasis waiting for their chance to be born into the new colony. The seedship’s first crew has the important job of setting up the first few hundred colonists to be born a few years after the ship makes orbit. This will make sure that they are raised and educated in time to be helpful to the colony as quickly as possible. These first generation colonists are often tasked with multiple second-generation children even as they themselves are busy building their new home at the same time. It is not an easy life but it is rewarding to watch a colony evolve from a frontier outpost into a burgeoning new home for humanity.
It is not uncommon for a seedship to carry 100,000 embryos so there are multiple generations who are born from the seedship and with each new generation, the numbers increase. It is in this way that a world can go from just hundreds to thousands in only a century. But the seedship has one more thing to give every colony: itself.
Over a couple of centuries a seedship is slowly dismantled and brought to the surface. Often starting with a blink drive to power the first city and usually culminating in the landing of the manufacturing and processing centers. Even the ship itself is reused and integrated into its new home. Many Realm worlds have a first founding memorial as well as the parts of the original seedship preserved for future generations to experience and explore. When the final pieces of the ship are brought down the ship’s AI splinter is returned to the Collective, its purpose fulfilled.
There are not many new seedships built these days as the most promising Golden Worlds are already occupied. But in spite of their growing absence in daily life over the past century, everyone recognizes that these versatile ships were a testament to the human spirit of exploration and without them the Realm could not be what it is today.
Like what you see and want to know when Outward Realms has launched? Subscribe here:
https://cdn.forms-content.sg-form.com/d0dc92c0-7a70-11eb-84ad-ce0e62c52420