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The Lilium setting seeks to explore many religious, political, and social issues ranging from forms of governance to the role that religion should play to various social taboos and norms. But more than anything, Lilium seeks to explore what it means to be human. By utilizing many possible forms of sentient life, it poses such quandaries that force the players to decide what kind of person he or she wants to play. In essence, it tests the humanity of each character.

Communist vs. Capitalist vs. Socialist

This is one of the great conflicts of the 20th and 21st centuries, and it is not going away anytime soon. With the fall of the United States, due to inordinate amounts of internal corruption, only the EU stood between China's and India's rise to dominance. As a result, the EU quickly extended its membership to include the nation-states resulting from the collapse of the Great Experiment in an effort to stand up to the Chinese threat. Unfortunately, not even the Indians were able to stand up to the Chinese economic threat in the end. Now, with worlds colonized by all three superpowers, there are a multitude of planets that express each type of economic arrangement and the difficulties that arise from each.

Governmental Structure

Some forms of government consider themselves higher than other forms. In fact, most forms of government assert their own loftiness above all other forms. This continual debate over what form of governance is the best fuels some of the fires between various planets. These conflicts typically fall into one of two categories—those who wish to impose their form of government upon another world and those who wish to defend themselves against perceived threats from other forms of government.

Politial Intrigue

Owing to the complex nature of the Confederacy and the relationships between its member worlds and the vast amounts of wealth involved in ruling such enormous bodies of people, corruption and intrigue pervade every level of government. This is not to say that Earth and the Colonials are without their share of chicanery. Secrecy and loyalty are commonplace where shadow organizations conduct clandestine research in attempts to raise the affluence of their world, and rivals seek to discover and exploit every weakness of their adversary in both political and military combat.

Safty vs. Freedom

In a world rife with danger—both perceived and real—populations attempt to survive by many means. Some fear outside threats so greatly that they willingly relinquish personal freedoms in an attempt to ward off all danger in their lives, and others embrace their freedom in the face of uncertainty and adversity. When both types of people live on the same world, the population becomes polarized and internal strife threatens to tear apart great alliances.

Religious Tyranny vs. Individual Spiritualism

When there is little certain in life, many find solace in faith. Unfortunately, there exist those who would capitalize on faith and seek to utilize a people’s beliefs for their own personal gain. Organized religions rise in power, and through their influence, populations are controlled, manipulated, and eventually cowed into submission by those who would fancy themselves godheads. Meanwhile others try to shed the mantle of organized religion and stale rituals in favor of discovering divinity in their own way.

Good & Evil

Karma is real. There is that which is good and that which is evil. While most issues are painted only in shades of gray, there almost always exists a path of pure good and one of pure evil. Those who follow the path of good will find great rewards both in and after life while those who choose evil are categorically punished both during and after life.

Power of Nature

With so much technology at humanity’s disposal, people often grow arrogant in the face of the most powerful forces in the universe—those of Nature herself. Mankind may have tamed the stars, but events still occur that threaten the lives of millions if not billions. In these cases, humans can only cower before Nature’s might.

Racism in Society

After hundreds of years of spacefaring, mankind has yet to shed its prejudices and hatred. But rather than turning the destructive force of ignorance against only itself, mankind has also learned to despise and fear robots, those augmented by cybernetics, and the couple alien races they have happened upon. Also, with the rejoining of the Cosmic Stream, people are particularly terrified of those who are discovering magic again.

Cleansing Taboos

All societies have their own taboos, but some pervade all cultures. Many of these derive from base instincts hardwired into the brains of humans everywhere, but others are the result of cultural crosspollination. While some of these may be uncomfortable for some players, Lilium will explore such ideas as nudity, sexuality, cannibalism, and other ideas often held in great contempt by societies as a whole.

Self-Discovery

As a person grows, he discovers himself. As a person discovers himself, he grows. This paradox sums up much of what drives us as humans. The players will often be put in situations that force them to question exactly what it means to be human as well as what it takes to truly discover oneself. It is only through true knowledge of oneself that a person can reach the sort of inner peace required to truly discover his or her own divinity.

Finding Divinity

Most people wonder if a greater power exists. Of these, there are few who do not wonder what the nature of that power is. This quest for divinity is shared by almost every person in existence, and the few that discover the answers find a sort of inner peace uncommon indeed.

Definitions of Humanity

Perhaps the most pervasive theme in Lilium is the idea of humanity. There exists a thin line between a sentient being and a monstrous aberration of the human form. Often one finds that humans commit the greatest atrocities against those they claim are monsters. Other times, two warring sides become so engrossed in their struggle that they label each other as animals and behave no better themselves. Perhaps it is true that being human is synonymous with being ignorant, reactionary, fearful, violent, savage brutes keen on destroying anything that could possibly pose a threat to our own existence. Perhaps being human is recognizing this tendency and trying to subdue it in favor of a more peaceful existence.