Gridlink
The State of Things
There are over ten billion humans on Earth and about four billion humans off-world. About nine billion non-human sophonts are known to mankind, though it's projected that this figure could be wildly incorrect. The most commonly encountered non-human sophont is the Discovery native, known by several different names. There are a few million non-human sophonts on Earth, mostly AI and Discovery Native.
America
The USA has split into two regions, North and South. Latin America's states are more powerful than in previous generations.
Canada
Canada has becoming something of a superpower, even absorbing the state of Alaska. It's currency (the Canadian Dollar, CAD) is one of the world's major traded currency.
China
China has split into a number of independent countries. Many other Asian nations have annexed various former Chinese provinces; Tibet is entirely a free state, some parts of Ximjiang are Kazakh, and Jilin and Heilongjian are seperate from North Korea only unofficially. Notably, Japan also controls Liaoning, Jiangsu, and part of Shandong.
France
France has ceded a small region to form a separate Islamic state that lives in relative peace. French is one of three national languages, the others being European English and German.
Germany
Germany has become the major power in Europe. Both European English and German are official languages. Currently the world's richest nation, Germany is in no small part responsible for the power of the ¥€$ as a currency.
Israel
Israel now occupies several territories, such as Jordan, the Lebanon, the Sinai region of Egypt and and a large portion of Syria; expansion was heavy for the country in 2045, when terrorist threats and internal pressure sent the country on an expansionist bent. By 2098, it had captured its current territories, and the entirety of Syria.
The country is currently considering further expansion into Egypt, which currently boasts a greater GDP, in no small part due to the massive Sun Farms used to suply much of the region's energy.
A number of cities outside of Israel are officially considered indepedant Israeli colonies, though whether the city or the country the city resides in return this feeling varies.
Investigation into human rights abuses continue following the 2203 Cyprus Intrusion, a failed expansion attempt. Terrorist attacks are also a frequent event.
Japan
Japan, the weakest of the ¥€$ states, nonetheless maintains a high standard of living and a high employment rate. It maintains a vast amount of online space, most of which remains sadly unused. Japan maintains heavy use of English as a second language, though Russian is now also taught in schools.
China attacked Japan in early 2031, and his failed attack was seen as part of the decline of China as a state. Japan now controls the Shadong, Liaoning and Jianso regions, which are officially recognised as extraterratorial colonies. These areas are a strong trading base with Russia and the rest of the Chinese States.
Japan briefly controlled North Korea in 2079, which since regained independance from Japan
Kazakhstan
Kazakhstan currently maintains the world's largest standing army and holds more extraterritories than any other nation. Beginning in late 2164, a massive sequence of expansions took Kazakhstan hold of most of Central Asia, leaving only Afghanistan and Mongolia (relatively) unmolested; it also cut up through Russia, spreading into the Ukriane, where further expansion has proved difficult.
Kazakhstan has lost size in the past forty years-- the ex-Chinese Xinjiang region has almost entirely seceded. Political tensions between the country and Romania, particularly, are high, and there is also a negative relationship between it and the Federation of Western Russia.
International sanctions against Kazakhstan are now far fewer, and while the countryis still recognised as expanding, it is no longer recognised as a threat.
Korea
Romanian Republic States
The Romanian Republic States (RSS) now control much of Ukraine and Moldova is one of their protectorates, so the country is a lot richer than it has been in the past. Romania has so far resisted Imperial Sovereign Kazakh (ISS) takeover, in part due to an alliance with West Russian troops (who maintain a solid presence in the Bashkir region). The Khanti-Mansiyskie East Socialist States (KMESS) has trade relations with the RSS, but West Russia and Kazakh ISS both maintain strong blockades - the former economically, the latter militarily.
Roughly 45% of Romanians speak standard English fluently, with a further 5% knowing solely how to read and type it. Dialectile English is common at another 15%, with a particular focus on internet English, AKA Grigg's English. 98% of Romanians speak Romanian.
Deva
Deva, Romania has a lot of the feel of Hong Kong, Las Vegas, or Birmingham, with shining lights and skyscrapers. It was also contender for capital of the RRS after the bombing of Bucharest. It's a very high tech down, with high population density. English, Russian, German, Hebrew and Romanian are all languages that one might encounter.
Amongst other things, Deva holds some of the important stations of office instead of, or aswell as, Brasov, the current capital. Indeed, Brasov was chosen to be capital due to the central proximity of the region; Devas advancement since has led it to become the spiritual and economic capital, though Brasov has the right in nomine.
Gridlink
Notable departments within Deva are Gridlink, an elite anti-terrorist team, selected from Romanian veterans and recruits from other armies. Boasting a small team of under a hundred, it maintains a high level of professionalism and great resources. The existence of Gridlink is an open secret-- the group is mostly known to exist, but not publically addressed. Chief Michael Aron, former head of the Jandarmeria Română, both founded and leads the group.
Gridlink are officially a specialist group within the gendarmarie, though they actually recieve seperate funding and support, with different remits and jurisdictions; they are a split off from the Grupul Antiteroriste, which broke into internal and external security. Whereas the Jandarmeria is based around preventing threats to Romanian security and the Grupul Antiterroriste Externe is for extraterritorial insertion, Gridlink are a specialised response and investigation unit, considered to have superior claims to investigation rights into internal terrorist incidents. They are also outside the remit of investigation of any group with a lower clearance than the Departamentul Român de Informaţii, the Romanian equvalent of the CIA.
"Gridlink" is an unofficial name; the official name for Gridlink is Detaşamentul de Protecţie Publice, the Department for Public Safety, or the DPP; they are also known as the Grupul Antiterorist Internă, or the Internal Antiterrorist Group. While they do not technically have extraterritorial permit, they nonetheless do find overlap with their sister group, the Grupul Antiterorist Externe.
They are often called in to take care of HCS, High Combat Situations or "Probabil Lupta Situatzie", colloquially known as an "Afacere Ploioasa", or a "wet job."
Russia
The Tri-Way Split
The TriRussian Split was an incredibly significant historical event that caused a snowballing of East European states into war and takeover, reaching into the rest of the world. It has affected the world more than the American and Chinese splits, or the forming of the newer states and empires.
The Federation of Western Russia
The most nominally Russian group, the Federation remains one of the world's richest countries.
Khanti-Mansiyskie East Socialist States
The KMESS is pretty much everything east of the Khanti-Mansiyskie region. In the last 200 years, it's been a massive site of immigration out of the simple presence of so much space to actually live, though there's a lot more urbanization throughout the KMESS. The Khanti-Mansiyskie states cover all of Siberia, from the Urals to the Lena river. It has one of the best trade relations with the Imprerial Kazakh Sovereign States.
Whereas the nation is Socialist in name, the country is generally a capitalist nation; healthcare is subsidised, and many public services are paid through tax. It is also one of the first countries to charge an immigration tax, a figure paid by first generation imigrants, to which the country is welcome, and constitutes a major part of the reason it has the world's highest population.
The Far-Eastern Republic
The Kazav Autonomy: The Fourth Russia
UK
The United Kingdom is less affluent than in previous generations, but still maintains ahigh standard of living and maintains a heavy trade powerbase. In all the world, it boasts the lowest crime rates, in no small part due to a zero tolerance policy; cybercrime being a major exception, where the UK fares surprisingly badly-- in part due to the government's tacit approval in off-shore cybercrimes. It is a point contention between the United Kingdom and some trade relations that, while the United Kingdom seems immune to intra-national cybercrime, the amount of data theft from other countries is excessive.
The United Kingdom also expresses some of the laxest censorship laws in the world, and maintains vast fractal-storage information vaults.
Scotland ceded from the united kingdom briefly in 2105, and rejoined in 2117 after failure as a stand-alone economy. It has recently been gearing up for a second attempted secession.
The United Kingdom officially has British English as the natinal language, though a large majority of the population also speak European English.
USA
The United States of America has divided into two nations. The New Confederate States of America (largely composed of southern states) and the Union of Northeastern Republics (composed of New York, New England states, the northern Mid-Atlantic States (Pennsylvania, Delaware, possibly Maryland) and the Rust Belt states). California is a war zone, the borders of which are highly disputed. Alaska has joined with Canada.
Off world
There are a few off-world colonies, mainly lunar or Lagrangian. Mars has proven too far from the Sun for current terraforming technology. There is (at least) one world terraformed, this is an expensive process and the joint venture is bankrolled by Canada, Germany and Japan (they also maintain a controlling interest in the planet).
There is an orbital ring around the Sun, which collects energy that would otherwise be wasted and beams it back to Earth and orbital colonies.
Discovery
Discovery is populated mostly by natives, though there are several human and mixed colonies on large landmasses; when discovered originally, the Discovery natives had steam-power and used geothermal energy for a wide variety of applications.
Discovery is not a homogenous world; it is a varied and fascinating place that's the subject of intense study and debate, and has the largest offworld population of humans.
The terrain and climates tend to mirror Earth somewhat, with a greater variety in seasons and a short day of only 13 hours; the equator tends to burn extremely hot, and often becomes uninhabitable. For this reason, the Northern hemisphere of the world is far less sparsely populated, and has a number of divergent evolutions from the south. There also tends to be much less light reaching the poles, making other areas uninhabitable due to extreme cold. Major powers on Discovery, other than the Humans, are the Hruir Empire, the United Dvåileå States, and the Milliak-Sonnt Federation.
The Discovery Native
Discovery Natives, or the Dvåildw, Molth, Dhilw, Invenio Sapiens, "Moles" or simply "invenid" are not entirely dissimilair to humans, though there are stark differences.
Physiology
The invenid body types vary as much as a humans, though the stature is a little shorter; the average height of an adult 1.3 to 1.6 m (4 to 5 feet) tall, although this varies significantly from place to place. The average weight is similair to a human's, perhaps with a slightly lower average. They have four limbs- two legs and two arms, with working hands, and a rudimentary tail.
They have six-fingered hands with opposable thumbs and hard, long nails that resemble vestigal claws, drawn back along the back of the extended distal pahalanges; these claws are not extremely sharp, but are very strong, and seem to be adapted to digging. This is one of many hints that the invenid is descended from a burrowing organism.
Invenids display a wide range in hirsuteness; in the colder regions, entire bodies of fur are seen, whereas those towards the equatorial regions are often entirely hairless. Their hair tends to be short and smooth, and grows in layers. This hair tends to run a scale from white to black, with hints of green or blue, due to melanins and chloronins. Hard, leathery plates cover their knees and elbows, and their skin resembles that of an elephant; depending on location, this varies from a pale white to a thick, dark, grey-brown.
They bear live young, like a mammal, though they produce no milk; their method of feeding their young appears to once have been regurgitation. Nowadays, this process has mostly been abandoned in favour of ground baby-foods.
Invenid limbs have a prodigous strength, roughly two to three times that of a human, but are thin and tend to be wiry; long arms and short legs leads them to adopt a quadrapetal movement when possible. They are nonetheless capable of a slower, less agile bipedal movement. They are surprisingly adept at quick movement in the sshort term, though they have poor long-term stamina.
Facially, they are distincly different to humans. Their eyes are midly different, with a natural horizontal stigmata that makes them more oval; their irises tend towards a uniform grey, with little variation in colour. This is unrelated to the race's poor colour vision, which is caused by the presence of a far larger number of rod-equivalent cells. The equivalent of cone cells has recognises two wavelengths of light; it was recently discovered that the lack of colour-blindness is due to the way the rod cells happen to also mimic the cone cells that normally recognise green. Indeed, the Invenid's ability to see green things is a little better than a human's. They also have a set of hard, clear membranes that are able to cover their eyes without obscuring vision.
Their muzzles protrude in a brachycephalic fashion, similair to a pug, chimpanzee or bulldog. Large flews hang from their lower lip over their bottom lip. Their snouts are short and mildly prehensile, and are used in various sign languages. They have an excellent sense of smell, roughly comparable to a dog's, and use his in hunting for food.
The species are primarily carnivourous, but can eat vegetables and fruits in the same manner as humans. Of note is that they have difficult with some common toxins, particularly chocolate, which is poisonous to them. They also retain less nourishment from Earth-based meat than meat from their homeworld, in the same manner that colonists on discovery find the meat there less nourishing.
Despite an atmosphere with a slightly higher amount of native oxygen than Earth, invenids have adapted as though there were less; they have small lungs, and their blood cells have a very strong affinity for oxygen, increasing the efficiency of oxygen uptake. They have a very low respiration and metabolic rate for an creature of such size, and use little oxygen; it is projected that this is due to the small amount of oxygen sometimes found within tunnel complexes.
The invenid sleep pattern is around five hours a Discovery day, or nine hours an Earth day. Unlike Earth, missing out on sleep is considered extremely unhealthy in most major cultures, and sleep deprevation has been shown to set in much more quickly than in humans.
The invend circulatory system is simpler and more efficient than a humans, though their blood shows a marked decrease in clotting efficiency; bruises commonly take up to twice as long to heal.
Genetics
Invenids are a xeno-eukaryotic species, and roughly akin to humans; genetics amoung xeno-eukaryotic species is similair to eukaryotic species.
Like humans, they have diploid cells with has two sets of chromosomes; however, whereas humans have two sets of 23, the Invenid has two sets of 24.
Fascinatingly to scientists, while each parent provides half of the chromosomes, there is a "twist" in the encoding. This leads to two sets with half the genetic information from each parent. There are 22 pairs of autosomes and a two pairs of sex chromosomes, leading to three distinct genders: XY-XY male, XX-XX and XX-XY female, and XY-XX androgynes. It is unknown what the evolutionary pressure was that caused these intriguing genetics.
Psychology
Invenid psychology is as varied and wide as humans, though there is a greater disposition to patience amoungst the race, and an increase in the number of phobia-related mental disorders over humans. They tend to sudden, intense bursts of aggression when angered, rather than longer bursts.
The average invenid is as mentally accute as a human in both processing speed and mental ability; their spacial awareness is particularly good, and are adept at long-term problem solving.
There are a surprising number of Invenid followers of Earth religion, moreso than there are human followers of Invenid religion. The reasons behind why Earth religion appeals to Invenids is unknown.
Evolution
It is theorised that the Invenid evolved from a subterranean ambush predator; the Invenid would dig into the ground and lie in wait for prey, before leaping out to catch it. Their low metabolisms would allow one Invenid to catch a meal for a family group, and the ingenuity in catching prey in this fashion, and outsmarting those who could escape them, led to the evolution of intelligence; the low need for food allowed group family units to form, which in turn led to them becoming social creatures.
Earth
The number of Invenids on Earth is roughly three million, and they form the most common non-human sentient race on Earth. They'r emost commonly found in Canada, Germany, Japan, and Australia, with other notable settlements in the formr USA, the Chinese States, and the KMESS. They are legally recognised all human rights under international law, but are often the subject of racist (indeed, speciesist) attacks.
The opinion on interspecies relationships between humans and Invenids is divided. Indeed, in some countries it is legally classed as bestiality, in others Invenid-human marriage is legal. The letter of the law and public opinion also sometimes differ.
Cultures
Languages
Other Native Life
There's what some call the Sky Manta, which fed on the native tribes of Newfoundworld. That's pretty close to a Cliff Racer, but it's pretty easily beaten with advanced technology such as "a roof".
Economics
The ¥€$ - Yes- is the world's most widely used currency. Most countries refer to them still as "Dollars", "Euros", or "Yen". Other major currencies are the Swiss New Franc, the Euro-American ¥€$, the HK-AU Dollar, the South Chinese Wulong, the Israeli Shekel, and the Canadian Dollar. The Pound is used in the UK and India, and the HK-AU Dollar Hong Kong and Australia. All three currencies - Dollars and Pounds- are interchangeable in these nations. Hong Kong nominally rejoined the UK, India unofficially, and the UK and Australia in part cooperating for financial benefit. The Pound/HK-AU is a trade currency throughout Southeast and South Asia, and sees some use in the border regions of East Asia, though not the de facto currency in these regions.
Oil, Natural gas, and natural Coal are rare and expensive, though Coal is easier to synthesize.
Technology
Space Travel
Space travel is still a slow process-- we can plant jump-gates to allow us to return to places easily, but actively reaching those places for the first time is excedingly difficult, often using cryogenic freezing. Wormholes are of limited use, as the technology to replicate them outside of jump-gates is still young and expensive.
High-power fusion rockets powered with biotech AI are used as the main method of reaching other stars, but so far only attain 15% of the speed of light as a raw maximum.
A recent plan, started in 2081 and released in 2100 as a centenary celebration, is the Century Rocket. This is a mobile, travelling jumpgate ship, moving at 12% of light speed outwards from Earth, away from the sun. It is from this technology Discovery was first reached, and a permanent jump-gate installed.
Most Jumpgates are space-based only, as it is extremely difficult to miniturise the technology without the wormhole collapsing.
Climate
Global warming hasn't killed us all only on account of clever application of technology; climates are about the same as they are now, for most places.
Energy
We tend to use small-scale fusion power, surprisingly. It's proven easier to use smaller reactors than larger ones, so small fusion reactors tend to power groups of houses, large vehicles, or such. So, what do drones and cars and the like run on? Piezoceramic batteries. Highly pressurized layers of ceramic and lithium containing more charge than seems right. Do NOT break the small mirror! There is the equivalent of a laser in there!
Sophonts
AIs exist. A few orangutans and dolphins now have evolved enlarged language centres, partially due to South American experiments. In 2183, an orangutan known as "Genio" was unveiled in Nicaragua; he was fully able to use sign language, understood fluent Spanish, and read voraciously. He was nonetheless the only real success from their experiments. Some genetic experiments have lead to extremely smart dogs, but nothing up to the level of the aforementioned examples. Sentience and sapience take a while to evolve, and human dickery doesn't seem to work too well in hastening it.
Language
Language has shifted and swayed a great deal, including and especially English.
The 20th and 21st century saw the rise of the internet and indefinite information storage, and other semi-permanent media has existed for a long time. This has somewhat reduced the amount of change in language, though some changes have been inevitable, including major influences from Hindu into British English and French into European English. The English languages are officially recognised as seperate, though the differences are mostly dialectile; thee are no major fundamental differences, and speakers of one- while not fluent can generally get by in another.
Various Englishes are incredibly common worldwide; roughly 2 billion- 20.89%- people on earth speak at least one type of English fluently, and another 3 billion know the language to some degree. This nonetheless leaves another 5 billion who cannot speak a word, something that tourists and heavy 'net users still tend to forget. It should also be noted that this figure does not include the number of English languages that have diverged sharply from standard English; while it includes Standard African English, it does not include Ugandan English, AKA Lugandishi.
On the internet, the most widely spoken form of English is Grigg's English, an evolution of an amalgamation of the various offline languages and many slang-terms. It is a strange pidgin, nonetheless understandable by most people with a knowledge of an English.
Useful Links
Gridlink/FixUp, the rough ideas page.