Stones
Featured UpdateP-IV BigMole | American Industrial Excavator and Refinery
The BigMole is still in operation after over 4 decades of service since it rolled off the Reinhart HIC production line. It has been modernized numerous times to keep up with automation trends and efficiency standards, and is currently operated by a distant subsidiary of the interstellar giant, CAUCorp.
Unturned Stones is a worldbuilding project; essentially, it is a fictional setting developed for the sake of futility immersing a viewer in a world very different from our own. It might become the grounds for a short story, a video game, a board game, or one of a million other things - but for now, enjoy the scenery!
Make sure to visit the subreddit /r/worldbuilding to learn more, and feel free to join the associated Discord chat server.
In the distant future, during one of many nameless interstellar conflicts, a technology was perfected that could replace a persons morality, ethics, and empathy. It was called the prosthetic soul.
Armed with the ability to program their troops, spies, and workers on a whim, five major powers took advantage of the procedure to put themselves and their ideologies ahead of each other on the interstellar stage.
As the tension between these powers escalated, the ideals that they once stood for were slowly abandoned in favor of improving the effectiveness of the prosthetic soul. Advances in AI, and the introduction of UNIT - a ubiquitous computing network - led to the implementation of widespread social engineering programs.
Meanwhile, bizarre anomalies discovered on the expanding stellar frontiers - starships from the future, derelict human civilizations, supernatural timeloops - have redirected the focus of the Cold War to exploring the Rift for knowledge that could put one power ahead of the rest.
Starship crews have begun to stumble upon secrets clearly protected by something that doesn't want them discovered. Secrets that makes one question the nature of the Cold War, the prosthetic soul, and even the place of human civilization among the stars.
KAIZEN
Discovering the futureExplore the history of Unturned Stones
Sometime in the distant past, the arkships left Earth. 435 years ago, one of them landed on a desolate, lifeless rock which the Arab-Persians ended up naming Sakram. Also 435 years ago, they decided that their only objective was to find a way off of Sakram.
They were, subsequently, the first to establish an interstellar empire. They were also the first to discover an ancient ghost ship, the remains of a past human civilization, slowly plummeting towards the event horizon of the Tupor black hole.
A new regimeWho holds all of the power?
The majority of humanity and its influence is split over 5 major powers: the Confederacy, Federation, League, Empire, and Conglomerate. Their relationships are complicated, but simply put - tense. Each one is in it for itself, and each one is brimming with factions who bring their own philosophies and agendas to the table.
However, they are all mere pawns in a greater game; one which involves more than just humanity.
StarscrapersPrimary mode of space transportation
Spacecraft range in size from tiny, tub-sized lifepods to massive interstellar long-haulers. They are the lifeblood of the interstellar community, and, without a doubt, the way of the modern world. Despite the fact that the vast majority of humanity remains anchored to terrestrial worlds, space is where things happen - where nations exert their force, corporations do business, explorers uncover mysteries, and people make their fortunes.
Welcome starscrapers: enormous, space-borne monoliths accelerated constantly by fusion torches. Most of these are custom designed and commissioned for a specific purpose, much like skyscrapers - hence the name.
Discover places in Unturned Stones
Many, many light years away, beyond the core worlds and bustling micropolises, beyond the starbases of the League and the colonies of the Major Powers, even beyond the very fringes of all human activity, lies the Rift.
The Rift isn't marked by any particular stellar object, nor is it something that can be readily marked, as it is a zone that seemingly fades into existence and stretches on endlessly. The only thing to suggest that one is travelling beyond the Rift is a steady increase in the rate of odd, unexplainable phenomena that seemingly get more drastic the further one goes in. Phenomena such as a rusty Imperial colonial settlement abandoned thousands of years ago despite the fact that they've only traveled the stars for a few decades; slow, ethereal voices echoing through hulls while deep in interstellar space; starships seemingly from our own future interacting with crews despite not actually being there... and far stranger.
Life of a spacemanThe people and culture of Unturned Stones
In the distant future, human beings can be found anywhere; in the cyberpunk sprawls of Yazhou, braving the dusty dunes of Karaglia, orbiting the Tupor black hole, and everywhere in between. Learn more about the men and women, both great and small, who populate and turn the gears of the universe.
International Researchers of Interstellar Anomalia
We don't care about your national identity. We don't scour your past, we don't dissect your faith, your beliefs, your culture, and we don't judge your modifications.
All we care for is your desire for Truth. Not the truth your government designs, not the truth you hear from the holovids, but the Truth.
Welcome to IRIA.
Unlike Dossiers, IRIA reports are made from the perspective of an agency within the world of Unturned Stones made up of common and random citizenry who are only interested in cataloguing, finding out, and understanding the truth behind the uncanny, almost supernatural phenomena that occur within the world.
What do you do when your men refuse to pull their triggers because of some human emotion or antiquated philosophy?
How things workDossiers on science and technology
With each dossier, you'll gain some more overarching insight on a particular aspect or subject relevant to Unturned Stones, whether this is a unique technology that has impacted all of society, a political overview on a delicate situation, an analysis of an alien being, or something else completely. They are completely random.
Generally, these come from a meta standpoint, and the inhabitants of Unturned Stones are unaware of these facts, unlike IRIA reports.
