Universities of Jol-Nar

The twin ocean worlds of Jol and Nar are home to a vast variety of soft-boned, large-brained creatures. Intelligent life developed independently on both planets, though along similar evolutionary tracks. Soon after they achieved spaceflight, the variety of subspecies on both worlds had mingled and identified as a single species: the Hylar. The Hylar’s large bodies and soft bones had led them to take up material usage rather than physical adaptation to survive, and they established the Universities extremely early in their species’ development.

The Universities quickly became engines of research and innovation as well as institutions of learning. It was perhaps inevitable that they also came to dominate the societies of Jol and Nar, to the point that they took over governance of both planets. At the height of the Lazax Imperium, the Universities were a central pillar of galactic society. Their discoveries and engineering solutions underpinned nearly all technology in the galaxy, and entire branches of applied science were based on proprietary Jol-Nar tech. The Universities leaned heavily on the throne to grant them exclusive rights, locking up all their discoveries behind oceans of encryption and Imperial red tape. This led to a culture of tech worship throughout the galaxy; a Jol-Nar engineer was revered wherever they went, from manufactory to throne room.

Due to the Jol-Nar’s Imperial pull, any work to reverse engineer Jol-Nar systems was strictly forbidden, and any attempts were swiftly met with harsh retaliations. The Universities only had to withdraw their tech—gravity generators, universal translators, mass-drives—from offending civilizations a few times to create such a fear of backlash that for millennia, only the Universities were able to fully understand and integrate their work into new discoveries.

As galactic technology fell under a veil of lucrative exclusivity arrangements and cushy Imperial grants, the Hylar of the Garian system grew comfortable, and wealthy, and arrogant. As they saw the Lazax begin to stumble, they believed they had the opportunity to supplant them as the masters of the galaxy. Thus, they supplied the Federation of Sol with new, highly advanced mass-drives that allowed Sol to launch a devastating surprise attack on Mecatol Rex. Once the Imperial Throne was empty, the Universities shuttered their embassies, withdrew their patents, and went on the offensive, bringing their fleets to bear against the other major galactic players in a bid for the Imperial Throne.

The Headmaster of the Universities, Sunjan Emeritus, had assumed that without access to their technology, the other Great Civilizations would simply falter and roll over, paving the way to a quick victory. In fact, he had vastly overestimated the Jol-Nar’s capabilities. The Hylar soon came to realize how much they had relied on the income, protection, and natural resources of others.

Still, without the plague, they might have had a chance.

Doolak was a rapidly mutating virus that grew in salt water, with a long incubation period and asymptomatic spread. As the Hylar government had prioritized wartime efforts over public safety, the plague devastated the twin planets, sparing neither hatchling nor Headmaster. Despite all their knowledge, nearly all of Hylar contracted the plague. The final death toll: one in four.

The massive loss of life, knowledge, and associated cultural trauma shattered Hylar morale, leaving them unable to resist the Sardakk N’orr invasion. Battle after battle ended in the Hylar’s rout or total defeat, until the Hylar Admiral Ta Linern held the line at the Saudor system, leaving critical Hylar food and medical transports in the open as bait for the N’orr fleet before jumping in behind them with every ship of the line the Hylar had left, including their new secret weapon, the war sun.

The winner-take-all gambit went against all University doctrine. But it delivered the Jol-Nar a decisive victory, finally blunting the N’orr advance and staving off near-certain extinction.

The aftermath of the Jol-Nar withdrawal soon became apparent across the galaxy. Hundreds of years of technological failure ensued as Jol-Nar component after component failed without adequate replacement, integrated systems collapsing across known space. This collapse and the brutal fighting of the Twilight Wars led to massive famine, poverty, and chaos, initiating the downfall of countless economies, cultures, and eventually galactic civilization, culminating in the millennia long Dark Years after the Age of Dusk.

The Universities of Jol-Nar Today

All Hylar grow up in schools, large social bodies that travel the currents and teach the basics of University principles. Once they have proven themselves proficient in either the formal, natural, or social sciences, young Hylar graduate to one of the local colleges before applying to enter the vaunted halls of the University of Nuun-Dascha and its many branches on Nar or its more prestigious sibling school at Wun-Escha and its many branches on Jol.

Traditionally, entrance to one of the Universities required something truly remarkable: completely original research, no small feat given the millennia of advancement and research that the Hylar have achieved. Many candidates refine their theses for decades—with the historical acceptance rate averaging 3%, inheriting a great-grandparent’s unfinished thesis is a rite of passage for many Hylar children. However, in the centuries since the Twilight Wars, Jol-Nar culture has undergone a shift. A succession of Headmasters created a new branch of the University system, led by the University of Nuun-Dascha and including nearly half of the system’s lesser schools.

In these schools, attendance is determined by a series of grueling aptitude tests administered to every Hylar child. Those who score highly are offered a place with all expenses paid by the government. Crucially, applicants are encouraged to accept only if they are truly interested, to ensure maximum engagement.

The twin University systems have created a cultural divide in Jol-Nar society. Students from the traditional system of Wun-Escha are seen as pure researchers, scientists, and philosophers, while those who attend the Nuun-Dascha system are seen as engineers and technicians. Inevitably, both branches have developed a rivalry that through the centuries has ranged from “healthy” to “verging on civil war.” One of the Headmaster’s primary concerns is ensuring that both University systems can work together as a whole.

Between the Universities are those Hylar who seek out a different course in life. To accommodate the millions of Hylar who do not make it into the Universities, smaller specialized schools have sprung up, teaching everything from technical skills to linguistics, literature, fine arts, and culinary science. Due to the high level of automation in Jol-Nar society, many Hylar find employment as artisans, chefs, or performers, with Hylar opera singers (relying on the unique sound-carrying abilities of water) in particular demand.

In the Universities, Hylar adjuncts and professors are encouraged to push the boundaries of current thinking in revolutionary new ways. Theoretical geomaterials, mutatic energetics, self-metamorphic nanobiotics, transformational xenoneuroanatomics, applied cyropsychotronics—these are all long-established disciplines at the Universities. Eminent scientists and researchers from other Great Civilizations are frequently invited to give talks and present their research—to win the coveted Universities Xenoscience Prize is to ensure one’s name is forever ensconced in the annals of scientific history, never mind the boost to the career.

Goals of the Universities of Jol-Nar

The current Headmaster, Magistrate Caran, and her Circle of Regents recognize that the Universities of Jol-Nar will never again enjoy the technological dominance they once possessed. The fracturing of galactic society forced too many of the Great Civilizations to pursue their own technological research, and now each faction is largely self-sufficient.

Instead of trying to maintain a monopoly on advanced technology, Caran now charts a new course. First, she pushes the Universities to obtain as much knowledge, research, and technological development from other civilizations as possible. What they can’t buy or reverse engineer, the Universities steal. She longs to see the archives of Jol and Nar filled with as close to a full record of galactic knowledge as possible.

While that record is being completed, Caran is already moving toward her second goal. She is pushing the Universities to identify the next field of research that promises to bring a paradigm shift to the galaxy, so that Jol and Nar can be the first to reach that shift and dominate it. After all, the Universities of Jol-Nar don’t need to monopolize all knowledge. They just need to be the best at using the parts that matter.