Board Thread:Custom Lore Development/@comment-26535281-20170825225616

Space zoos people!

Within the Empire zoos are a common sight. They are able to show off the vastness of the Empire to the crowds and show the Empire's dominance over both beast and man as a politician probably once said. Within these zoos are both beasts and for the larger zoos sentient captives (normally of feral or exotic nature) They tend to live in large open exhibits that give the semblance of their homeworld to the point that some don't even notice they're in a zoo.

Zoos come into two forms public/state zoos and private Menageries for the rich. Public zoos are rather well funded and another of the 'free institutions' available to the public. They are literally built to show case Imperial dominance, size, and power with both large exhibits, large statues, and exotic creatures from across and beyond the Empire.

Menageries are private zoos/enclosures for the rich generally in which they keep 'fancy', exotic, or down right weird animals to show off their wealth and to brighten up the law or atmosphere. Generally these are smaller then public zoos, but far more lavish being a common meeting place for the rich and their friends. Like come on who doesn't want to have tea over the shrieking of animals?

To acquire these animals a vast network of hunters, poachers, and slavers (for the sentient beasts) is happy to serve this trade usually also collecting hides, furs, and other collectibles from less 'desirable' prey they come across (double profits after all). Hunters tend to be of larger guilds some legal, some illegal, and others border line spread out across and outside the Empire.

Zoos themselves are serviced by armies of slaves to feed the beasts, maintain the enclosures, and watch out for escape beasts, animal rights activists, and thugs trying to wreck havoc by letting out a beast or two. To keep this individuals from doing these acts Zoos have large security forces generally heavily armed with close combat and medium range weapons with a few specialist weapons for certain beasts. 