1 reply to this topic

[Vortigern]

The year 2657.

Earth, the core planet of humanity, has long since become almost entirely administrative and more or less devoid of life. Most of the wildlife native to the Earth has been transplanted elsewhere, and much of the plant life used in making Mars habitable. Mars is the furthest planet from Sol that is currently inhabited, with only Earth and Venus similarly humanised.

Elsewhere in the galaxy, humanity has spread to encompass several more systems, with five more star systems in the main belt of systems, accessible by less than two weeks intradimensional travel (a form of development on the old theory of the Alcubierre drive. The new form takes the ship 'inside' space via what amounts to a series of shortcuts to emerge at the goal in a tiny fraction of the time needed across real space.) Two in the centre are highly civilised systems, based around the planets Ceres, Prometheus and Xeno in one and Constance (named for the new-born daughter of the discoverer ship's resident ecologist), Hera and Atlas, the colossal four-G world which supplied mankind with most of its mineral wealth. The other three systems are known as the fringe systems, where pioneers come seeking a new start, a clean break. The only planet in any of these that has developed a city of any respectable size is Persephone, a favourite of pirates and smugglers looking for a quick buck and a place to hide out from the law.

A new system, nearly seven weeks' worth of intra-d away, has been slowly adapted over the past twelve years, preparing it for human habitation, with four planets now appropriate for mankind, having been terraformed, sown with plant life and given a few wild animals to rove across the new plains and savannahs. Their distance from the core systems makes them unpopular with some potential colonists, but far more popular with others; there is absolutely nothing on the new worlds to remind them of home, which is exactly what some desire. The current population of the four planets is just under three hundred thousand.

[Vortigern]

The socio-political evolution of mankind since the 21st century.

In the year 2056, mankind first ventured out onto the surface of Mars. In the year 2341, mankind first ventured out onto the surface of their second alien world, Xeno, so named simply because it was foreign. After that initial conquest over nature, mankind bred like rabbits and emerged into their new worlds like a plague sometimes, and a blessing other times. The barren, fiery world of Prometheus was colonised for the value of its large mineral deposits, and was eventually completely terraformed by the year 2457, making it the fifth fully inhabitable planet of humanity.

Soon after this the Confederacy of Mankind was formed, a league of planets rather than nations, now that such minor things as nationalities were no longer an issue. The Confederacy established itself primarily on Ceres, the second inhabited planet of the Xeno system. It was also around this time that the invention of the intra-dimensional travel drive allowed for commerce between the Earth system and the Xeno system. This also led leading Confederates to suggest the possibility of colonising another nearby system, of which four were deemed suitable for terraforming or already habitable, ready for human life.

It was in the year 2472 that the planet Constance was discovered, and named after the daughter of the first man to set foot upon its surface, born aboard their ship only three hours before. Hera and Atlas were then terraformed, and finally openly inhabited in the year 2477, after much research and preparation had been done. Atlas, roughly the size of Jupiter and containing far greater mineral deposits than the Earth, exerted a gravitational pull four times that of the Earth, but by the second generation born there, the Atlans had become almost a separate species, squat, muscular and barrel-chested, perfect for working in the mining facilities of the planet and for residing generally on the planet. Hera was another giant of a planet, but with far smaller mineral wealth, to the extent that gravity was only slightly more powerful than on Earth.

Over a century passed before, in 2587, a massive expedition subsidised by the Confederacy led to the colonisation and expansion into the other three systems nearby. It took a long while before any large numbers of people began to move out towards them, as the standard of living on the new worlds was so high and so comfortable that it was simply not worth the effort of making a new start. In these fringe systems, Persephone is the only city of respectable size and population. The whole population of the fringe systems amounts to nearly one billion, compared to the twelve billion living on Xeno, nine on Prometheus and eight on Hera.

In the year 2614 the Arean Trade League was founded, based on the planet Ares, one of the more populous of the fringe systems. It promised to protect trade from the fringes to the core and vice versa from being charged appalling duties by the Confederacy and, essentially, became a trade union for merchants all across the systems. It was not long, though, before its authority was challenged by the newly-emerged Allied Traders of Hermes, based on an opposing world in the neighbouring fringe system, though still on the far side to Persephone. The ATH and the ATL began a bitter rivalry, which culminated early on in assassinations, slander and piracy against one another. On the front they became respectable political entities in rivalry, but deep inside they were at war, and would stop at nothing to see one another brought down. In turn, the Confederacy grew to despise them both and to resent the influence they wielded in the fringe worlds, and to some extent within the core systems, some of whom sympathised with their freedom of lifestyle, compared to the strictly controlled and scheduled living format devised for the Xenoese and the Promethean city-dwellers.

Twelve years ago, in 2645, the Confederacy launched a secret colonisation of a new system seven weeks' intra-dimensional travel away; far enough away never to be noticed by the fringe worlds and by the two vying trade federations. The colonists were almost completely cut off from home, and were almost entirely dependent on themselves for food and shelter and the Confederate-approved media for news of the core and fringe systems. This new system, based around the planet Bromelia (so named for an indigenous plant life form found growing widely across the surface of the planet which closely resembled the bromeliad plants of Earth), was designed to be a new experiment in colonisation from the Confederacy, avoiding other influences such as the trade leagues, pirates and emergent politicians. The launch was performed in utmost secrecy, and the residents of the new colony were all made to sign a strict waiver swearing they would not reveal anything of their new home to anyone back in the old systems until the Confederacy deemed it possible.