Rejuve Universe

Background
Society in this universe is deeply impacted by a technology named rejuvenation which can transform people into a younger age—i.e. a means for age regression. For technical reasons it is only possible to make a person younger, not older. The so-called puberty barrier is another limitation to the technology: it means that the target age can not be older than about 12 years.

So all 'rejuves' come out as preteen children. They will have all the memories of an adult, but will tend to have the judgment, emotional needs and reactions of a child their physical age. For this reason, all 'rejuves' are legally treated as children and placed under the supervision of responsible adults. The age of majority in the setting is 21, this is coupled with both the Kensington treatment which is administered to everyone when they are 8 years old (or as soon as they are rejuved if they start older), it then blocks fertility until the counter-agent is applied, and the Fujikawa treatment that slows down the physical and sexual maturation process, which results in girls getting their first periods around fifteen or sixteen. Boys' voices won't change until high school.

In this universe all children are raised much more strictly than is the case in most of the world at present — spankings and other punishments are very common for all types of children. Some types of children, particularly Penitatas, are subject to much more frequent and severe punishment than others.

Lurking Dragon RU
Lurking Dragon (The original author of the Rejuve Universe) created the 'Spanking Novel' in 1998. Originally conceived as a series of four or five spanking stories set around the character of Melody, Lurking Dragons rejuve verse is self confessed as heving been an accidental success. As late as 2002 having created the initial concept LD continued to get requests for more Melody Stories and for better clarification of the environment.

Central to the idea of the Lurking Dragon interpretation is the idea that lifestyle is a replacement TO the prison system yet despite the graphic spanking depictions in his stories (to much controversy) LD insists that it is obligatory for parents of any child (Penny or not) to care for and think of their child first. To this end all the checks balances, compulsory psychiatric counseling, recordings etc are expected to decrease the likelyhood of abuse and those caught abusing their power and authority are punished harshly.

Red Dragon RU
A serial comic created by Red Dragon and drawn by Pietro Fox, 'RD's series of Rejuve comics consist mainly of cameos both of characters from popular 80's and 90's television cartoons as well as of RD himself and a number of fans of the comic verse.

Billeted as being a prequel to the Lurking Dragon stories, Red Dragons interpretation is set on an earth colony when the use of Rejuvination Technology is only new and hasn't completely caught on back on Earth. In this story verse Earth has Rejuve tech but mostly only used for medical reasons or by those who can afford it. It claims the Penitatas system was initially trialled on the colonies. The comic is well known and criticized for its casual depiction of nudity in the rejuve universe.

Professor Bob RU
Set 150 years after the 'Melody Stories', during the late 29th century, Professor Bob's setting depicts a time after the Penitatas Justice System suffers a breakdown due to growing abuse by some Penitatas Parents taking advantage of their authority which lead to a 'Penitatas Protest' which cost the life of one of their own. The end result lead to reformation of the system and its treatment of both Penitatas and those assigned to ward over them.

While popular, the setting has led to debates about the ethical values behind the Rejuve Universe among many of its fans.

Terminology
Like any good story verse the Rejuve Universe is extensive and has a wide range of terms and setting relevent information that only applies to the rejuve universe.

While a lot of this information can arguably be based on terms and concepts common in science fiction the below attempts to classify basic terms and concepts.

Rejuve Technology
Technology levels are approximately equal, they discovered the star drive in 2043. They have also found functioning rejuvenation chambers, and the differences in how they work on Drakonians help us to understand their problems.


 * Late 21st Century
 * Discovery of Chronostatic Radiation and the star drive. The forerunners were located all through this section of the galaxy some 4.5 million years ago; they developed the original rejuvenation technology;


 * Early 22nd century
 * We discover several functional rejuvenation chambers on a planet orbiting Tau Ceti. The first human experiments take place about 4 years later, using convicted criminals. After about 30 years, we are able to reproduce the chambers by an exact-copy process, although we still do not entirely understand how they work. In particular, the software can only be copied--we are only beginning to learn to understand that.


 * 2147, Contact Day: Discovery of the Drakonians. Friendly relations established.

Child Classes
Children can be rated in two formats. For regular children when interacting there is a social hierarchy which gives rejuvenated children authority over each other based on type, these types are listed below.
 * 1) Innocentatas
 * 2) Medicalos
 * 3) Prisoner of War
 * 4) Kindern
 * 5) Voluntaras
 * 6) Debtora
 * 7) Completas
 * 8) Soft Time Penny
 * 9) Hard Time Penny
 * 10) Broken Circle
 * 11) Black Circle

Races
As the human race has progressed out into the stars we have encountered surprisingly MANY inhabited planets, covered in teeming life of all varieties but only a handful of what we would define as Sentient lifeforms. Lifeforms capable of technology, infrastructure and agriculture. With such a late start as the human race had however it turned out to be innevitable that these other races would find us first.

Cultural Development
The advent and sudden appearance of Rejuve technology while a major boon in terms of healing, extending life and changing the way society operated as a whole came with a number of drawbacks or social side-effects that had been unforeseen at the time.

During the early days soon after the discovery of Rejuvination Technology rejuves were originally treated as adults, even though they were in children's bodies. This turned out to be a mistake. Many of the early rejuves got into trouble and stayed there. They were unprepared for the emotional roller coaster of adolescence, and had none of the necessary support, guidance and discipline they needed. Additionally there came about another concern, how to identify rejuvenated children from normal children. Surprisingly easy to fix it became common practice to mark all children born and rejuved with a mark stating exactly why they are a child.

Special Punishments
Part of the life of every Pennitant, especially hard time pennies, get unearned spankings but these are regulated with limits of how many you can get, the severity and what implements are used. There are exceptions.

On special days, days that traditionally should be fun for children Pennies get special Days. On special days even though corrections still set the rules the limitations are lifted. Children who cannot normally be blistered are, spankings are extreme and spank counts go up and up. With all the different cultures there are many holidays and special occasions and not all pennies have the same special days. Most have their birthday and chistmas. They usually get two more, which ones depending on their culture and upbringing. Always there's at least four, but some are worse than others.

Games and Amusements
In a world oriented around spanking it was pretty much a sure assurance that children with nothing to bet but their bums would end up playing games that involve spanking. While there are a large number of games that can involve spanking most of them are variations of ordinary non-spanking games that have simply been adjusted to include punishments. It's like gambling on the outcome of a game. Only while non-pennies get to gamble more solid things like food, favours, chores and dignity the average penny child by tradition is expected to gamble their rump.