The Underdeveloped Planet Preservation Pact, abbreviated as UP3, is a treaty by Pangalactic Federation aimed at protecting both technologically-underdeveloped planets and the balance of the galaxy. Its laws strictly prohibit contact with the population of such planets, as such encounters may negatively disrupt the natural development of these worlds.
All the citizens belonging to the Federation are required to adhere to this treaty, unless there is a clear and present danger to a person's life. It delineates how Federation citizens must act when in contact with an underdeveloped civilization. The UP3 also states that if Federation personel interact with individuals of an underdeveloped planet beyond a certain limit, then those individuals are not allowed to return to their own world and are to be brought into the Federation.
Story[]
Star Ocean: The Last Hope[]
During the years S.D. 10 and 11, Captain Edge Maverick of the SRF-003 Calnus come into contact with several underdeveloped civilizations while carrying out their exploration mission. The very first of such contacts takes place on the planet Lemuris. The Lemurisians consider the Calnus a Celestial Ship and treat Edge, Reimi Saionji and Faize Sheifa Beleth as gods who would solve all their hardships, bowing in front of them. This doesn't lead to any major incidents as the group manage to persuade the Lemurisians to stop considering them gods and to treat them as friends instead. However, the second time was a different story.
After being sucked into a strange black hole-like object, the Calnus appeared in an alternative reality on planet Earth in the year 1957. While being there, due to his own naivity, Edge was tricked by Milla Bachtein to let them have the Calnus' exalithium core which ultimately led to the Earth's annihilation due to the failed experiment of pair annihilation in a Kevin antimatter reactor in the Area 51. After this incident Edge was shocked and was shaken by his own guilt so much that he was unable to command the Calnus anymore, leaving Reimi to take the lead.
During their time on the planet Roak, Edge was very careful to not directly interfere in Roakian's business, even to the point his inner self was refusing to help to rescue Sarah Jerand. His experiences both on alternative-Earth and here on Roak led him into belief that the humanity has no right to intervene in the affairs of young civilizations. Moreover, he considered such interventions as the same thing the Grigoris did to numerous worlds, speeding up the evolutions of entire races and civilizations just to destroy them.
After the events of Nox Obscurus, Stephen D. Kenny considered making a universal alliance with both developed and underdeveloped planets with the aim to teach them, but Edge pointed out his own observations. According to him, such an alliance would deny any underdeveloped civilization its own ways, leading to either sped-up forced development, or leading to their destruction due to their lack of understanding of higher technology, or simply due to their own lust of power stimulated by unregulated contacts with off-worlders. This argument made Kenny reconsider his plans. Before the UP3 law was adopted by the newly created Terran Alliance in S.D. 12, such idea led the last surviving Eldarians to abandon their technology to live peacefully on Lemuris, choosing to regress to underdeveloped status in order to start anew there. The hyper-developed 3 bilion years old civilization of Morphus agreed to cease any contact with Earthlings and other civilizations in order to not stimulate the Missing Procedure. The Terran Alliance was thus put in charge to enforce this law on its own.
Star Ocean/Star Ocean: First Departure[]
When Federation Captain Ronyx J. Kenny and Head Science Officer Ilia Silvestri offered to help Roddick Farrence, Millie Chliette, and Dorne Murtough cure the petrifying virus plaguing the Roakian village of Coule in S.D. 346. However, they warn the Fellpool that they cannot return to their homes if they agree to interact so closely with the Federation.
Star Ocean: Anamnesis[]
Contents[]
The original reading of the UP3 in S.D. 12 (The Last Hope) was accepted as follows:
- UNDERDEVELOPED PLANET PRESERVATION PACT
- In order to preserve the peace and security of all intelligent races throughout the universe, and to eliminate any and all the threats to that peace and security, this Pact establishes a set of rules which all intelligent races shall be bound, and which all intelligent races shall unite in enforcing, according to the principles of justice and the laws of the Terran Alliance.
- Article I
- 1. All intelligent races on all planets throughout the universe have the absolute, inalienable right to independent development, free from cultural interference, invasion, and other destructive activities by more advanced beings.
- 2. All intelligent civilizations capable of interference with planets holding other intelligent races, and all members of said civilizations, are strictly prohibited from introducing any cultural, scientific, linguistic, or religious influences which may exceed the level the level of civilization present on such planet.
- 3. Any act of an intelligent being which violates either of the preceding paragraphs shall be deemed as having disrupted interstellar harmony, and all intelligent races shall have a duty to take united action against the perpetrator of said act.
- 4. Any intelligent being which, due to accident or as an effect of spacetime phenomena, finds itself unable to avoid interference with a planet or intelligent race whose level of civilization is inferior to its own shall limit the use of its own civilization to that necessary to preserve life, and shall take steps to minimize the effects of its interference on that planet and any intelligent races residing thereon.
The number of articles of UP3 is unknown. Any possible amendments of this law since its adoption are not known.
Protected planets[]
The following is a list of known planets which are or were under the purview of the UP3: