Agriculture: Most planets within the Ralsiian Star Empire are
self-supporting Agriculturally, the exception being the most central of
the worlds. This exception is of fifteen central worlds which are exceptionally
heavily populated and rely largely on imported food.
Industry: Industry and technology in general is in general equal
to that of the CCW and TGE; However, in some cases it is inferior in technological
advancement, but not in terms of sheer power output; The Ralsiians have
taken a brute-force development of many items. Many planets do have asteroid
mining to an extensive level.
Education: Education and medical facilities are, for, the five
main races, perhaps the highest in the Three Galaxies. For the other races
which do not have voting rights, this falls off, as it does for members
of the five races that live on the colony worlds.
Demographics: Further information is provided in seperate sections
about the various worlds of the RSE.
General Industrial/Technological Information: Maintaining such
unusual things as Admontium refineries for the M.D.C. metal found on the
Ralsiian homeworld and the Rals star system and other, more brute-force
technologies has made the Ralsiians rather interesting in these regards.
These refineries still operate on very brute-force principles, usually
fusion powered, and are nothing like the modern centers which churn out
the advanced composite materials that normally go into the M.D.C. hulls
of advanced warships; Other star nations may build with the ultimate in
ceramics or plastics for their hulls, having advanced far beyond primitive
metals, but the natural M.D.C. resistance of Admontium allows it's use
as a primary armour and hull construction element; The same used all the
way back to the Industrial Revolution on Ralsiia, when Ironclads could
appropriately be called Admontiumclads; Mega Damage beings, of course,
developing Mega Damage weaponry is all too natural.
For energy generation, plasma-fusion reactors are trusted as highly
safe and can be found powering essentially anything that they can possibly
be miniaturized, enlarged, or modified to do so. Fusion Cells and other
exotic forms of energy storage have also developed; Though wary of Anti-Matter,
the Ralsiian Star Empire is anything but primitive in power generation.
Other technologies include their unique shields, which are activated
by material traveling above a certain speed, allowing knife-fights and
swordplay and other noble activities while being very resistant to attack
by railguns, firearms, and energy weapons, far more than other personal
shields would be.
This has developed into a unique culture of shieldfighting; Though
the shield forms a double barrier, it does allow, for instance, someone
to charge into the face of heavy energy weapons or railgun firepower and
attack the enemy with a vibro-blade or something else held in the hand;
Only to melee weapons would they be vunerable, which can be demoralizing
for the enemy.
The Army often has units which rely entirely on these shields, prefering
them over bulky armour for stealth and speed for it's footsoldiers on the
battlefield and for the shock affect; Nobody really expects a modern day
army to take on another one with vibro-blades at close range when they
could use energy weapons, though some units have armour, as the lack of
being able to fire one's own energy weapons creates problems. However,
there are ways around that problem; Namely, units in the Ralsiian Imperial
Army use firearms which have ramjet shells with stabilization that accelerate
rapidly AFTER leaving the barrel, allowing them to fire from behind the
cover of their shields. These rounds are expensive but useful considering
the protection shields can offer.
Heavier versions of such weapons are available, for instance, anti-tank
missiles, ect, though other Ralsiian units simply use body armour and conventional
weaponry; Those are usually the Dominion and Colonial units, which can't
afford the expensive energy shields and special weaponry the units from
the homeworlds can. Those in combat equipment, namely, vehicles, power
armour, robots, ect, will usually have armour instead of shields, regardless
of unit.
For medical technology, most is equal with the CCW, except cybernetics,
where the lag is considerable. This does have an affect on medical technology
related to cybernetics, but in terms of fighting disease, medical technology
is similiar. For most household technology and other mundane things, the
RSE is also at CCW levels; The same for most civilian technology.
Communications and sensors are unusual and based on Tachyons as opposed
to contra-gravity, though contra-gravity sensors have begun to make an
appearance.
The Ralsiians are reasonably advanced when it comes to Anti-Matter
reactors and power systems, but still regard them as unstable, and even
religiously unacceptable in some cases; The exact opposite of the matter
of the universe could be regarded as a very destructive influence, and
the Ralsiians are a reasoning race, but still inherently superstitious,
like virtually all races that exist.
However, Anti-Matter technology in weaponry is reasonably advanced
for missiles and even quite ingenuitive at times. Likewise, Contra-gravity
technology is in use for railguns. The Ralsiians would prefer that any
instabilities in Anti-Matter blow up in someone else's face, not their
own.
[ Rifts® is a registered trademark owned by Kevin Siembieda and Palladium Books Inc.]
Writeup by Marina O'Leary (LusankyaN@aol.com ).
Reformatting by Kitsune (E-Mail Kitsune ).
Copyright © 2001, Marina O'Leary. All rights reserved.