Macus

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Macus (\mɑːkuːs\) was the fourth city ever to spring up on the planet Angion, homeworld of the Zavvaku. Forming out of the Crimson Tribe, Macus is an economic city and formerly, nation.

The warrior tribes of Shoeng saw the Macusians as an easy target and brought war to their people, quickly taking it over roughly the same time that ZC would come to purchase Sanny. Orange Nation's militaristic ways would lead to little happiness of the Macusians in following years, with little entertainment and high emphasis on factory production to try and compete with ZC. The Macusians were then forced into service to the Shoengese to bring war to Phran, their neighbor across the sea. The unhappiness of its citizens would lead to protests of the Macusians, who would then begin to riot in the streets when word reached them that the Orange Nation was failing to protect its own home city, Shoeng, from a monster attack. It was at this time that ZC stepped in and offered to purchase Macus as a way to aid the Shoengese, giving them the funds they would require should they choose to save Shoeng. Once ZC owned Macus, it was converted from a military city back to its economic roots, and the citizens were immediately appeased.

Its anthem was "The Glory of Macus", but was temporarily replaced with "Tempered Fist of Shoeng" during Shoengese occupation. It was reverted when ZC purchased the city. Macus now serves as the scientific hub of Angion. The demonym for its citizens is Macusians.

It would come to be followed up by several other nations: Djibon, Porti, Phran, Grevingvi, Kipei, and Orontorez.

Economic status[]

Macus is a major economic hub for the people of Angion, but it falls behind both ZC and Sanny in amount produced. Instead, it is primarily the focus of scientific endeavors for the entire planet, and much technology invented by their people since near the end of their civilization era has emerged from this city.

Because of the amount of money it takes to fund the Macus scientific research facilities, a large amount of funds are pooled together from the various economic cities to continue to pay for the scientists' many needs.

Leader[]

Unlike other cities on Angion, Macus has no true leader. Instead, it has numerous project leaders and research heads who oversee the innumerable research projects going on at any one time. Many of these so-called "leaders" have become heroes of the Macusian peoples and by extension the rest of the Zavvaku, and to some extent the researchers under these heroes are considered with great honor as well, like the soldiers fighting for the armies of heroic knights.

Such heroes have cured blander (despite that the cure for blander actually came from the Kipeians), invented teleportation, and even perfected flash cloning.

Areas[]

The city of Macus has your typical city aspects, with its citizens traveling between homes and entertainment centers, while they mostly work in the science district. Beyond this, the city is divided into multiple sections known as sectors, with each sector being directly devoted to one brand of science, such as astronomy and other space sciences, life sciences, disease research, technological research, et cetera.

History[]

Civilization Era[]

2,558,742,900: A trade route between ZC and Macus is proposed by the nation of Zavvaku City.
2,558,743,400: A trade route is finally forged between ZC and Macus amidst the Macusian riots.

2,558,743,700: ZC offers to buy Macus from the Shoengese and calm the riots for them. Shoeng accepts, as they have a bigger problem on their hands - their home city has been under attack by a giant monster for hundreds of years now, destroying anything new that they come to build and decimating its population.

2,558,743,800: ZC finally fully converts Macus back to its economic roots, bringing an 'abrupt' end to the unhappiness of the Macusians.

2,558,743,800: The Zavvaku of ZC have plans for the Macus docks; inspired by a species of fish-equivalents in the marketplaces, they construct company yachts to spread their commerce to the planet's other supercontinent.

2,558,748,500: The first discussion of things like recycling, microscopic organisms and the philosophical theory that everything is being controlled by a much larger being outside what would later be understood to be the universe, begin within the borders of Macus. This leads Macus to become the planet Angion's leading science division during their stellar and later their interstellar era.

2,558,749,100: Immediately following the official declaration of alignment, ZC proposed a trade route between the cities of Macus and Grevingvi, made by boat. Having only just allied with the original nation and due to them not declaring war on Shoeng, Djibon was skeptical at first and stated they had to consider the offer. During this time, Djibon through way of Grevingvi takes over the very first spice derrick ever built on the planet, angering Shoeng as due to their capitol city's horrible situation, they had actually moved hundreds of citizens to live on these derricks, hundreds of miles away from the encroaching daikaiju that threatened their home. Hearing about the attack, Shoeng responded by sending in their own fleet of paddlehawks, leading to the Great Oceanic War.

2,558,749,100: Realizing that the seas could soon become a deathtrap for those not involved in the war, the ZC government orders the Macusian yachts to quickly move in on Grevingvi, despite that the battle was taking place right outside its borders in the surrounding waters. They were hoping to succeed in buying out Grevingvi and ending the two factions' war prematurely while maintaining two clients to sell to, instead of being reduced to one. The first battle of the Great Oceanic War is short but sweet, and the yachts arrive just in time to see the last aquatic enforcer be destroyed, with its 5-Zavvaku crew bailing overboard - the other two vessels had only recently been sunk but it was too late for their crewmen. The yachts approached the survivors, but were surprised as a Shoengese rocket smashed down upon the remnants of the ship, exploding and killing two of its crew. One was immediately picked up while the other two had to be chased after to be brought on board. These survivors were taken back to Grevingvi Harbor.

2,558,749,500: The Great Oceanic War had continued for 400 years, mostly in the way of random skirmishes across the sea; Shoeng this entire time showed their prowess for combative superiority and had sunk every last Grevingvi aquatic enforcer, leading to hundreds of Grevingvi casualties. As such, the Grevingvi populace grew despondent and depressed, watching Shoeng kill their beloved brothers and sisters, mothers and fathers aboard the enforcers. During this time Shoeng pushed to take back their ancient derrick as well. Djibon pushed Grevingvi to continue the battle, leading to the yachts from Macus being their only means of supplies.

2,558,749,500: A solitary paddlehawk attacks the ancient derrick, and in response the Grevingvi send an aquatic enforcer out to deal with it as the Macusian ships disappear along the horizon. The ship takes heavy damage from rockets smashing into their hull, and realizing their fate has been sealed, they launch a final rocket, which finally destroys the derrick put in place by the Grevingvi naval fleet earlier. Right as a final rocket from their solitary enemy barrels down upon them, they release their own derrick deployment pod onto the spice node, reclaiming it for Shoeng but sacrificing the lives of all three sailors on-board. These three sailors become heroes in the annals of Shoengese history. This event becomes known as Paddlehawk Down, and is played to the Shoengese and the Phranites under that title in motion picture format. It tops the charts as best picture produced on Angion for several decades. Due to its intense popularity amongst the more militaristic societies on Angion, it is remade many times throughout the years; it is released every decade at least once following the incident, as motion picture technology improves.

2,558,750,200: Kipei discovers a cure for blander, a debilitative disease that ended in 80% fatality rate within 10 Angion years. Due to an alignment with its ruling government, Djibon, ZC and by extension Sanny and Macus also receive the cure, although it is directly withheld from Shoeng and Phran due to their ongoing war. Porti and Orontorez do not get direct access to the cure but are allowed to pay excruciating prices for cure administering within the Djiboni cities. ZC chooses to withhold the cure outwardly, yet sells it in back alleys to the Shoengese and Phranite citizens for the profit of it. The situation is kept under wraps from the Djiboni government as ZC plays both sides.

2,558,750,600: While Grevingvi (or rather, Djibon forceful hand at Grevingvi's trigger) attempts to take back the ancient derrick with another of its aquatic enforcers, Macusian yachts arrive at Grevingvi with goods. Grevingvi rejoices and ZC sees its opportunity to snag the city out from under Djibon's iron fist and possibly bring a premature halt to the Great Oceanic War. Djibon accepts ZC's offer of 32,000 zuan, and hands over rule of Grevingvi.

2,558,750,620: At Grevingvi, ZCitizens and Macusian scientists mix with Grevingvids to make a first test flight. It goes very well, yet ZC for some reason holds back on the technology; it is believed this was because some ZC heads believed that the ongoing wars would become far too devastating should one or both sides obtain the power of flight. As the legacy of the then-current ZC head was to sell everything instead of progress further in his nation's own technology, he seemed to not have final say in the government's ultimate decision. He was widely considered a fool for doing this, and the nation of ZC - nor any other nation - would not reach air until shortly before the planet's first launch into space.

2,558,750,900: ZC contacts Orontorez; the pontifex immediately gloats over their successful crusade over Phran, as a sort of roundabout way to threaten or warn the ZCitizens due to ZC's known alignment with Shoeng at the time of the takeover. The then-current head of ZC quietly thinks the Orontorezzer pontifex a fool; it had taken them over 6,000 years to take over a single city, and the crusade itself left Orontorez in a state of self-induced famine during that time. However, the ZC head initiates a plan to quietly take Phran from the zealots, whose citizens were not buying as much ZC/Sanny/Macus goods and services, believing (or rather, feeling they were required to believe) that the Source would provide most of what they needed to them. Providing ample funds to the Orontorezzer pontifex (hereafter referred to as the "Orontifex") causes the semi-corrupt Orontifex to consider ZC to be less of a potential threat due to being "dumb enough to hand money over to a perfect stranger". He ends his neutral feelings towards ZC and eagerly hopes to receive more funds from the foolish nation; his wishes would soon come to pass.

2,558,751,000: Not wanting to miss their opportunity to take Phran for themselves as quickly as possible, Macus contacts Phran during the Shoeng attack. Despite the static interference, Phran gets the message and wires to Orontorez about a proposed trade route. Having only just begun to consider ZC to not be a real threat, the Orontifex sits on the idea until his death.

2,558,751,000: Macus sends yachts to Phran to try to levée a response on the trade route. the Shoengese ships are surprised to see the yachts arrive in the area and immediately wire them about the potential danger and their plan, but the yacht crews assure the Shoengese that they are there to help save the citizens; the ensuing confusion of two groups "working side-by-side to work against one another" would confuse the Phranic occupiers and would make Phran's fall all the easier with even less innocence annihilated in the process. Shoeng agrees to this idea and the Macusian ships are allowed to contact Phran about the proposed trade route without interference from the Shoengese.

2,558,751,300: During a routine trip to Phran for their trade route, the yachts notice that the Shoengese vessels are acting more desperately than before. The Shoengese ships do not respond to hails, and so the Macusian vessels shrug their shoulders and continue with their mission. On their way away from the coast to head back to Macus, they finally receive word from the Shoeng ships - the vessels state that they themselves had only just heard - Shoeng had finally fallen to Djibon. The ZC-owned ships were shocked and alerted the ZC head, who insisted on taking the Shoengese ships back to port at Macus where they would be stored in dry-dock to prevent their potential destruction, while the Shoengese citizens from the vessels would be allowed to quietly integrate into any ZC-owned society of their choosing. They accepted this offer, and over the next several months, fleeing Shoengese refugees crossed into ZC-owned cities (almost exclusively into Sanny and ZC; Macus was much further to travel than either of those two cities to be practical and only surviving crews from other paddlehawks and refugees from the derricks made it to Grevingvi).

2,558,751,400: In a proposal made with the remaining Shoeng refugees, and to increase their own wealth (but mostly for the sake of the surviving refugees...probably), ZC sends its main yacht fleet from Macus to occupy and utilize Shoeng's northern spice derrick location, which Djibon had not yet reached as it was far from their borders. Plans to take the ancient derrick that the war was started over were also set into motion at the same time, building a small accompaniment of yachts at the harbor at Grevingvi and sending them there before Djibon could be arsed to stop subjugating the remaining original Shoengese populace.

2,558,752,000: Amidst the many skirmishes of the Djibon-Orontorez Conflict, the Orontorez destroy a number of Djiboni tanks, and while Djibon remains on top of the war, Orontorez believes this is a sign that they are destined to win the war by their god. As such, they attack the same spice refinery that the Portians had overtaken 1500 years prior. Thus begins the Orontorez-Porti Conflict. The two conflicts combined would come to be known in Zavvaku history lessons as the Great War. Despite being the largest nation on the planet by that time, ZC officially stayed out of the conflict, yet was the only nation to do so. Instead, they operated behind the scenes, seeing the wars as both a commodity for obtaining money from three warring factions at once as well as a threat, should theories of nuclear weapons that had been tossed about in recent years come to fruition. ZC considers overtaking all three nations in turn to make certain that the planet was not destroyed, as Macusian theologists had laid down the theory that nuclear weapon usage could decimate the planet beyond repair...and if that were the case, who would provide the ZCitizens with their funds..? It just could not be allowed to pass.

2,558,752,700: Macus celebrates their having seemingly eradicated blander permanently.

2,558,755,100: ZC gets attacked by a second daikaiju, a Campian Eyecon which becomes known as Gorvo. Using the tactics utilized to fell Xivvo years prior, Gorvo is eventually felled, though at the cost of 56 ZCitizen deaths manning the turrets and another 28 citizens who were crushed to death as Gorvo collapsed within city limits, unlike Xivvo who had collapsed outside. The last four of those deaths occurred at the same time as Gorvo itself succumbed to its wounds and perished. The sudden attack of Gorvo when it had been up until that point calm and complacent leads some Macusian scientists to consider the idea that the daikaiju may have been under the control of some even greater power all along. These scientists and a Shoengese task force kept their eye on the planet's only other daikaiju, a lawlmon that had become known as Sorrh. If Sorrh also attacked, it would "prove" the Macusian theory, and the Shoengese task force - named the Angion Defense Force (ADF) - would be there to bring down Sorrh as well.

Space Era[]

2,558,755,800: Only 100 years after advancing to the air, the Zavvaku manage to build a space-capable vessel known as the Price Gouger. Worried about the potential of the daikaiju possibly having been dropped onto the world by an extraangionestrial race causes many citizens to fear the concept of entering space, and to calm down the masses the economical prowess of Zavakku City combined with the military might of Djibon and Shoeng, the scientific know-how of Macus, the weapon concepts of Kipei and the philosophical ideas of fear from the religious states of Orontorez and Porti lead to the concept of a ship that appears to be a monster. That way they might be able to frighten away would-be ne'r-do-wells while their allies would know that the vessel bore no ill will and would still trade with them (and might even trade more as the Price Gouger could possibly keep things such as pirates at bay) - assuming of course that life existed off Angion, of course, as the majority of the planet now suspected was true.

2,558,755,805: In celebration of the first manned space flight, all ten cities on Angion release plasma orbs. Ground Control tells the pilot cadet to test out the flight controls while still in the atmosphere to keep from getting lost in space. Deciding to wow the world's populace, the captain chooses to fly through the orbs and break them up, much to the incredible excitement of the cities' populations below. The first orb is broken above ZC, followed in turn by Sanny, Macus, Phran, Porti, Djibon and Kipei. This day is later celebrated once a decade by the populace of Angion, flying extra price gougers through orbs in a similar manner. It comes to be known as Burst Day.

2,558,755,805: Realizing the species may be in some sort of genetic danger, the pair are abducted into the cargo hold of the price gouger. In the process a Pinjoop and a Krugg are accidentally picked up too, but are kept on-board. A second Crystal King also picks up a pair of Pinjoops as well. One of the Crystal Kings are released within the city limits of Macus for study.

2,558,755,807: Potential first contact begins as ground control reports that Macusian astronomers have picked up strange signals from the nearby planet Solleston.

2,558,755,807: Returning home, the captain explains the situation to ground control. They are amazed at the findings and warn of possible hostilities. They explain that Macus has completed a SETI tool for searching out life on other planets, but state that the reverse engineering being performed on the interstellar drive will take some time. Macus also states that they have developed a colony development machine - referred to as the Colony Incredi-PAK, which has not only been completed and a group of Zavvaku have been drafted to form the first colony, with the idea of placing on a planet in the nearby Bultea system known as Antana. The captain is confused with why Solleston is not immediately chosen for the first colony, but complies with the mission, though he first has his vessel repaired.

2,558,757,600: The captain immediately travels to Bultea, and explores the two outer worlds of the system - first Tayleshus and then Nabia before reaching Antana and placing a colony between two red spice geysers. He names the new colony Alteusa and returns to Angion, where he learns that Macus is in the process of constructing Angioniforming tools that can one day aid the Alteusa colony. Ground control instead states that there are more pressing matters at hand first, however: the Zavakku government had intercepted transmissions from an apparently sapient alien race, and wished the captain to locate them. He did so, discovering them within the Crahel system on planet Mictan.

2,558,801,575: New technology out of the Macusian science labs allow Zavvaku prolonged life; however, it is incredibly expensive and so it is not given to all citizens and the procedure is kept secret from those who are not considered for the treatment. One such individual is Yovosha, and he is given an essentially immortal existence both through the use of nanotech-aided cell regeneration and cloning procedures.

2,558,802,700: The Price Gouger arrives in the Proyica system, and explores two worlds before attempting to arrive at their mission destination, just in case things get too hairy. First up is Hamind, where they discover Trofeet, Zonas before being shocked to discover non-sapient Zavvaku. This is reported to mission control, who log the event before telling Recruit Yovosha to continue with his planetary scanning. He does so, discovering Blue Nest Eggs, Quarinths and Moonshines before departing for the next planet, Avadnes, where a signal has been emanating from. This signal turns out to be from a Book of Chance, Vol. 10. Impressed with his deeds, the ZC head commissions Macus to begin development of a basic cargo hold so that the captain can bring forth more artifacts for the Zavvaku Empire to sell.