WORLD INFORMATION.
ABOUT ATARAXION.Characters do not know this information unless specifically told by an NPC. Some of this information may be discoverable in-character, if you ask the right questions... but for the most part, this is OOC data meant to flesh out the player's understanding of the universe in which Ataraxion takes place. This is also not mandatory OOC knowledge! You won't be penalized somehow for not knowing any of this, and we're not trying to burden you with irrelevant knowledge; this is simply here in case players are curious about certain aspects of the universe of Ataraxion.
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QUICK FACTS
LOCATION: ANDROMEDAN SYSTEM
RELATIVE LOCATION: 200 LIGHTYEARS FROM SOL
STAR: BETA ANDROMEDAE | MIRAX
SPECTRAL CLASS: M0 (RED GIANT)
NUMBER OF PLANETS: 6
INHABITABLE PLANETS: 3
POPULATION: 19 BILLION (est.)
GOVERNMENT: PARLIAMENTARY DEMOCRACY
RULING PARTY: NEW ALLIANCE PARTY
PRIME MINISTER: HENDRIK VAN RIJN
CAPITAL: INDEPENDENT ORBITAL COLONY JIUTIAN
ADMINISTRATIVE DIVISIONS: 3 PLANETS, 14 MOONS, AND 26 INDEPENDENT SPACE STATIONS AND ORBITAL COLONIES
LEGAL SYSTEM: COMMON LAW
OFFICIAL LANGUAGES: ARABIC, ENGLISH, FRENCH, HINDI, MANDARIN, RUSSIAN, SPANISH
MAJOR RELIGIONS: NON-RELIGIOUS BELIEFS, ATHEISM, CHRISTIANITY, HINDUISM, ISLAM, BUDDHISM
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WORLD OVERVIEW
In the most general terms possible: this is an entirely new solar system to you, full of terraformed planets and moons and independent, life-sustaining space stations. The solar system as a whole is governed by a representative democracy ruling sovereign over the solar system. The seat of government is located on an orbital space station over a planet called Alexandria, located on the inner rim of the solar system near the sun. The location was chosen to avoid the appearance of favoritism among the new settlers, as the space station-and every other space station in the system-is considered an independent entity, similar to the District of Columbia. There are three habitable planets in this solar system, each surrounded by a varying number of terraformed moons, and three more planets which are either wholly unconducive to human life or prohibitively difficult to terraform. Registered, independent space stations in the system number somewhere in the upper twenties, while the unregistered, much less legal stations are considerably more plentiful, especially in the farther reaches of the system.
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NAME: HYPERION
PRIMARY EXPORTS: INDUSTRY
SYSTEM POPULATION: 4.5 BILLION (est.)
MOONS: 5
HYPERION
Hyperion is the closest inhabitable planet from the sun, Mirax, and therefore the hottest. It consists mostly of desert, and a great deal of its water is found underground, where the majority of the population lives and works. The close proximity to its wealth of natural resources (oil, minerals, and metals, predominantly) has propelled Hyperion to the top of the line where industry is concerned, making it the material export capital of the three planets. Unfortunately, this has also made it the labor capital of the Miraxian triad, and as a result, sports a worryingly large divide between lower and upper classes ("upper" being the mercantile and corporate classes, or those who preside over the lower, working class.) Hyperion has the highest turnout of mechanical engineers in the system, and its orbit is also where most of the government's ships, ship components, and space stations are built; they are then shipped to Alexandria to be fitted with the latest tech specs.
All of Hyperion's moons have been terraformed, but in recent years, they have been mostly evacuated do to extreme drought and other severe living conditions. Those who do live there do so under very harsh circumstances, and their subsequent outposts are considered prime black market spots for various pirate guilds. The government isn't too fond of this development, and as a result there is a continuously high military presence on Hyperion in order to deter pirates and black marketeers from setting up shop. None of this exactly helps Hyperion's reputation as a wretched hive of scum and villainy, and most citizens object strongly to being lumped in with the pirates and gangsters squatting in the disused outposts. Unfortunately, no one else much cares.
( note: ) Resnik grew up on Hyperion, but received her higher education on Alexandria.
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NAME: ALEXANDRIA
PRIMARY EXPORTS: INFORMATION AND TECHNOLOGY
SYSTEM POPULATION: 8 BILLION (est.)
MOONS: 2
ALEXANDRIA
Like its namesake, the former capital of Egypt and center of scholarship in the ancient world, Alexandria is the hub of knowledge and technological development in this solar system. The planet as a whole is far more white-collar than either Hyperion or Pasiphae, and as a result, Alexandria is by far the wealthiest and most technologically-advanced of the three inhabited planets despite also being the most heavily-populated. The surface of Alexandria resembles the traditional science-fiction city-planet archetype, with gleaming, impossibly tall towers and elegant spires covering most of the planet's surface. These cities are dotted with sprawling, extremely well-protected compounds operated by the largest and most profitable corporations and research laboratories on the planet... under the purview of the system government, of course. Alexandria's climate is also the most varied of the Miraxian triad, cycling through hot, dry summers and very cold winters as a result of its relatively extreme axial tilt.
In addition to producing the vast majority of the most important technological breakthroughs of the past century or so-including the jump drive found in the Tranquility-Alexandria is also the main producer of popular entertainment, thanks to its moon Bellerophon. Alexandrians tend to be the most ardent supporters of the unified system government-which is understandable, as the government tends to unintentionally privilege the more "developed" Alexandria over either Hyperion or Pasiphae. This perceived naivete, in combination with the high level of mechanization and automation present on Alexandria, means that Alexandrians are generally seen as out-of-touch and soft by both Pasiphaeans and Hyperians.
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NAME: PASIPHAE
PRIMARY EXPORTS: AGRICULTURE
SYSTEM POPULATION: 3 BILLION (est.)
MOONS: 7
PASIPHAE
Pasiphae's temperate climate is, for the most part, perfect for agriculture. Unsurprisingly, the planet's surface is covered in farms; Pasiphae produces the majority of the solar system's food supply. There are a few small cities, generally located around the equator, in order to facilitate interplanetary shipping, but for the most part Pasiphae is extremely rural. The relatively low tectonic movement present in Pasiphae's history means that the land is relatively even across all of its continents; Pasiphae's highest mountains are really more like gently rolling hills, and the vast majority of the land found on-planet is grassy prairie or temperate forests-what hasn't been taken over for farmland, anyway.
To the rest of the solar system, Pasiphae and its assorted moons are seen as the middle of nowhere. It's relatively underpopulated, especially when compared to the relatively massive cities on Alexandria and Hyperion, and generally has a lower technological level than either of the other populated planets. On the other hand, being in the middle of nowhere has its perks. For the most part, Pasiphae is left alone by the system government-provided that it still manages to meet its supply quotas, of course-and as a result, "frontier justice" tends to be rather popular, especially in the more rural areas. This practice doesn't help Pasiphaeans' reputation as violent, xenophobic hicks, of course, but Pasiphaean natives see it as a more efficient and practical way of dealing with their problems than the official justice system... and they may be right.
( note: ) Ward is from Ceres, one of Pasiphae's moons. It's basically as far from everything civilized as it is possible to get without leaving populated space.
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HISTORY
Once upon a time, the Earth’s population outgrew its resources, and human beings were forced to facilitate interstellar travel or die in their little corner of the universe. You know the story: humans meet technology, humans fall in love with technology, humans use every scrap of that technology to either solve their problems or run from them as fast as they possibly can. As a result, the human race subsequently colonized the moon; this was a temporary move, as experts realized that even a terraformed moon couldn’t hold their numbers for very long. Consequently, they invested quite a lot of time and money in building generational colonization ships that could last for many, many years-and then, when humans had zeroed in on a similar habitable solar system, they deployed their ships and began their journey.
Hundreds of years later, several solar systems have been colonized and terraformed, and many deep-space and solar-orbital space stations built as both homes and outposts for government and independent travelers. Despite humanity’s reach, both First Contact and FTL travel had never been accomplished. According to the laws of relativity, lightspeed or near-lightspeed travel is impossible; the G-forces would rip a human apart, and the structural integrity of any ship until that date simply wasn't designed for that kind of strain. Therefore, scientists had to think above and beyond the traditional methods of physical travel in time and space; the wormhole theory had of course been previously postulated, but scientists remained unable to implement it, let alone conclusively prove the existence of wormholes.
Dr. Magdalena (better known as Lena, thank you) Clarke was the first scientist to discover that it was possible to manually generate wormholes at certain points where the curvature of space-time was thinner than normal. These points, which naturally appear scattered throughout the known universe, were coined “jump points” by Dr. Clarke, or “Clarke Points” by her multiple research prizes in physics. Each Clarke Point, or CP, can be located based on whichever galaxy is closest; the coordinates are numbered starting from the Galactic Center (or supermassive black hole), radiating outward, with additional locational information (such as the nearest solar or celestial body). For example, a sample CP located in the Milky Way Galaxy would be marked as: CP Sgr A* 001 Perseus Arm M1. This would indicate the first jump point heading away from the Milky Way’s Galactic Center, or Sagittarius A-star (Sgr A*), located in the Perseus Arm, somewhere in the vicinity of the Crab Nebula (M1).
The exact location of a jump point is sometimes impossible to obtain, so general areas are specified and left to exploration. In fact, most jump points are located in between galaxies. Dr. Clarke noted this in several of her papers, illustrating that “... though the number of natural singularities located throughout our own galaxy is incredibly high, we must consider the quantity of singularities residing in intergalactic space, in the voids and supervoids, between the filaments that shape the observable universe-singularities that have not and will never be charted.”
Until the government began a project to create a ship that could realistically traverse a jump point, Dr. Clarke’s theory remained untestable, though incredibly scientifically sound. The nearest point, according to her calculations, was just beyond the orbit of Pasiphae’s farthest moon.
This prompted the government's immediate investment in the development of Clarke's Drive, the mechanism that would allow FTL travel to occur within each CP. This development stage (or Helios I project) was considered top secret, and took more than ten years to implement. The drive was built first, and then placed within a specially-built and fitted ship constructed on one of Hyperion's moons; the first ever of its kind. It was named the Solitude, and was sent off in complete secrecy.
The Solitude's journey was considered a complete success, and construction began on a larger, generational ship (named the Helios II project) that could easily spread the human population across the stars. The Tranquility was launched, staffed to the gills... and was never heard from again.
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PRACTICAL ASPECTS
Interplanetary commerce is roughly triangular in nature, with each planet's main products being shipped out to the other two and distributed to moons and local space stations from the planet's surface. Naturally, black marketeers tend to bypass this method of regulation in favor of delivering goods to wherever they might make a profit. These unregistered merchant ships tend to focus most of their commerce on space stations, especially the more lax privately-operated and unregistered stations.
Government-licensed space stations tend to be much more tightly-regulated than the alternatives, which has both benefits and drawbacks. Crime rates are low, employment is high, and inhabitants feel safe… but on the downside, government-operated space stations are incredibly stifling to any ideas that may challenge the status quo, and they're all incredibly samey in design. Needless to say, the Tranquility will be avoiding government-operated space stations if at all possible.
Privately-owned space stations, on the other hand, tend to be much more heterogeneous than the government stations. The free market-or a comparatively free market, anyway-leads to a relatively diverse environment, and privately-owned space stations' individual policies, appearances, and armaments vary widely. What is acceptable on one space station may not be passable on another, and the corporate overstructures present on the stations are often fragile due to takeovers, buyouts, or other economic instabilities. The Tranquility will try to avoid these stations if possible, but they're often the best (or only) way to refuel in a given area.
Unregistered space stations tend to be most prevalent near the outer rim of inhabited space, even extending beyond Pasiphae's orbit into the nearby asteroid belt. These space stations, which tend to be cobbled together from remnants of other space stations, parts of shuttles, and anything else that could be used to make a floating, functional station. These stations tend to be hotbeds of criminal activity, since even living in an unregistered space station is a crime itself, and black-market commerce tends to flourish in areas like Pasiphae's outer rim and Hyperion's moons. The government will often overlook the smaller unregistered stations, since they don't hurt the system economy much, if at all, but if a station becomes too large, the government will often swoop in and dismantle it-with bullets.
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NAVIGATION