Alternate Planets, Suns, Stars, and Solar Systems Thread
- Thread starter Pragmatic Progressive
- Start date
Hapsburg
Banned
Not nearly. The frontiers are an abstraction of the swathe of space that they claim to control. In actuality, their colonies (in both nations) span more like a tangled web of a hundred star systems each spread across a couple thousand light years. For instance, Earth might send a probe to map a star system 1,000 light years away, and claim it for the Terran Federation; that doesn't mean they have anyone living there, but it is legally considered their national frontier.
Not to mention, they usually just entirely skip star systems that don't have planets.
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That means human space is vary sparsely populated. I can imagine rebel groups hiding in isolated systems, ambushing conveys and such.
Hapsburg
Banned
For a certain value of "sparse", yes. Remember, most stars don't have planets, and even fewer have habitable worlds. It's only sparse if you consider every star system, but that wouldn't make much sense because most star systems are not really useful or suitable for settlement.
Yes, it become a thorn in the Terrans' side for centuries. In fact, a series of low-intensity conflicts in the extrasolar colonies, which is officially referred to as the Colonial Wars, comes to have the popular name of "the Thousand Years' War".
Hapsburg
Banned
While scientifically known as Kepler-452b, Nieuwvaalia is its common name.
First settled by humans in 2427 as the Trust Territory of the New Vaal, the planet is home to the richest biodiversity of any world in the Inner Colonies, and sustains its native life in equilibrium with introduced Earth species in most areas. The world also birthed one of the first "stone age" races discovered by humanity (First Contact was, luckily, made with a spacefaring species in 2401), dubbed the vaalkvolk by the Terran colonists. Conflict between the paleolithic natives and Terran colonists led to widespread violence and the near-annihilation of the vaalvolk by the mid-2500s. Accusations of genocide marred the settlement efforts, but the issue was decisively brushed under the rug after the feudal lord and proprietor of the colony, Pieter Marten, swore fealty to the new Terran Empire. Created as the first Duke of Nieuwvaalia, Pieter and his descendants would be hereditary governors of the planet for the next six centuries. The Martens were implicated in a conspiracy against the Crown in 3268, after the Duke, his brother, and his brother's family were killed in apparent shootout with fellow conspirators, ending the first dukedom. A second dukedom was created for George Francis Rothschild, the loyal Vice Foreign Minister of the Empire; after the Great War and the dissolution of the Empire, Nieuwvaalia was admitted as a member world of the new Central Galactic Union. While nominally led by the Duke, the government would be a directory of seven Lord Magistrates, relegating the Ducal throne to a symbolic role. This conveniently freed both George Rothschild and his later successor and daughter Hannah to carry out their other federal responsibilities.
Nieuwvaalia is roughly 50% larger than the Earth, but much more dense and massing at 5 Earth masses. Its gravity is a comfortable 1.5 g, considerably lower than originally expected. It is classified as a Type IIb Pelagic Garden world, in that it is dominated by a vast ocean and a warm climate. Geographically, it has one large, snaking continent dotted with large lakes, and coastlines rich in natural harbors and fjords (from a long-ancient glacial period), and millions of islands spread across its enormous world-ocean. Its climate is largely tropical to subtropical, with some tundra in the northernmost and southernmost latitudes. Ice caps cover both poles, though to significantly less extent that those of Earth.
Its highly amenable conditions, combined with its vast natural resources (due to its star's high metallicity), led to a flourishing population and a growing economy. The human population is around 7.75 billion on the world itself, and another 2.5 billion on the planet's two moons (Hartsmond and Krugersmond) and in orbital habitats. The planet continues to be an exporter of industrial resources, as well as a producer of luxury finished goods, and has a significant presence of developed, service-oriented industries such as finance, trade, and retail. Its economy is dominated by light industry, resource extraction, commerce, and agriculture. It is the Inner Colonies' largest exporter of precious and semiprecious stones. For all these reasons it is often thought of as the "Jewel of the Inner Colonies".
First settled by humans in 2427 as the Trust Territory of the New Vaal, the planet is home to the richest biodiversity of any world in the Inner Colonies, and sustains its native life in equilibrium with introduced Earth species in most areas. The world also birthed one of the first "stone age" races discovered by humanity (First Contact was, luckily, made with a spacefaring species in 2401), dubbed the vaalkvolk by the Terran colonists. Conflict between the paleolithic natives and Terran colonists led to widespread violence and the near-annihilation of the vaalvolk by the mid-2500s. Accusations of genocide marred the settlement efforts, but the issue was decisively brushed under the rug after the feudal lord and proprietor of the colony, Pieter Marten, swore fealty to the new Terran Empire. Created as the first Duke of Nieuwvaalia, Pieter and his descendants would be hereditary governors of the planet for the next six centuries. The Martens were implicated in a conspiracy against the Crown in 3268, after the Duke, his brother, and his brother's family were killed in apparent shootout with fellow conspirators, ending the first dukedom. A second dukedom was created for George Francis Rothschild, the loyal Vice Foreign Minister of the Empire; after the Great War and the dissolution of the Empire, Nieuwvaalia was admitted as a member world of the new Central Galactic Union. While nominally led by the Duke, the government would be a directory of seven Lord Magistrates, relegating the Ducal throne to a symbolic role. This conveniently freed both George Rothschild and his later successor and daughter Hannah to carry out their other federal responsibilities.
Nieuwvaalia is roughly 50% larger than the Earth, but much more dense and massing at 5 Earth masses. Its gravity is a comfortable 1.5 g, considerably lower than originally expected. It is classified as a Type IIb Pelagic Garden world, in that it is dominated by a vast ocean and a warm climate. Geographically, it has one large, snaking continent dotted with large lakes, and coastlines rich in natural harbors and fjords (from a long-ancient glacial period), and millions of islands spread across its enormous world-ocean. Its climate is largely tropical to subtropical, with some tundra in the northernmost and southernmost latitudes. Ice caps cover both poles, though to significantly less extent that those of Earth.
Its highly amenable conditions, combined with its vast natural resources (due to its star's high metallicity), led to a flourishing population and a growing economy. The human population is around 7.75 billion on the world itself, and another 2.5 billion on the planet's two moons (Hartsmond and Krugersmond) and in orbital habitats. The planet continues to be an exporter of industrial resources, as well as a producer of luxury finished goods, and has a significant presence of developed, service-oriented industries such as finance, trade, and retail. Its economy is dominated by light industry, resource extraction, commerce, and agriculture. It is the Inner Colonies' largest exporter of precious and semiprecious stones. For all these reasons it is often thought of as the "Jewel of the Inner Colonies".
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Thomas Johnson
Banned
View attachment 356216
Ichitsá Rýznttim zi Nixix Náffy.
The Kingdom of Infinite Peace
Fýga izí yi ni fyga izýf yi ni fyga yi ni izizy.
All there ever is, all there was ever was, all there ever will be.
Ichitsá Rýznttim zi Nixix Náffy, the Kingdom of Infinite Peace, lives up to only one of those. Peaceful, the Kingdom is, from the brimming homeward of Mitib to the distant orbitals in the Trojans of Ychilv. There has not been a major war in the system since before men knew of iron. But though the Kingdom is peaceful and ancient, infinite it is not. For a species that has been civilized nearly since we came down from the trees, the Tuzum are remarkably primitive, content to stay around Diaptaz, their red sun, until trillions of years from now, it burns out.
Though no technological insights are to be had from this remote, primitive backwater, they contain many societal insights. They have achieved a level of stasis and order that most sociologists believe impossible for humans. In a civilization of two hundred billions, they were thirty-seven murders last year, and other crimes are similarly low. Their economic and population growth is indistinguishable from zero. It seems that if uncontacted, Ichitsá Rýznttim zi Nixix Náffy might have remained unchanged for a billion years. Now, of course, that has all changed.
And the world
Diaptaz: Central sun, .35 solar masses
Mitib: .22 AU, 1.389 earth masses (homeworld)
Xíl: 571 AU, 1.629 earth masses (terraformed)
Frympiznt: 1.137 AU, .062 earth masses
Ivrk: 2.783 AU, .764 earth masses (terraformed)
Myzífiz: 7.193 AU, .066 earth masses
Ychilv: 20.537 AU, 3.656 earth masses (gas dwarf)
Ichitsá Rýznttim zi Nixix Náffy.
The Kingdom of Infinite Peace
Fýga izí yi ni fyga izýf yi ni fyga yi ni izizy.
All there ever is, all there was ever was, all there ever will be.
Ichitsá Rýznttim zi Nixix Náffy, the Kingdom of Infinite Peace, lives up to only one of those. Peaceful, the Kingdom is, from the brimming homeward of Mitib to the distant orbitals in the Trojans of Ychilv. There has not been a major war in the system since before men knew of iron. But though the Kingdom is peaceful and ancient, infinite it is not. For a species that has been civilized nearly since we came down from the trees, the Tuzum are remarkably primitive, content to stay around Diaptaz, their red sun, until trillions of years from now, it burns out.
Though no technological insights are to be had from this remote, primitive backwater, they contain many societal insights. They have achieved a level of stasis and order that most sociologists believe impossible for humans. In a civilization of two hundred billions, they were thirty-seven murders last year, and other crimes are similarly low. Their economic and population growth is indistinguishable from zero. It seems that if uncontacted, Ichitsá Rýznttim zi Nixix Náffy might have remained unchanged for a billion years. Now, of course, that has all changed.
And the world
Diaptaz: Central sun, .35 solar masses
Mitib: .22 AU, 1.389 earth masses (homeworld)
Xíl: 571 AU, 1.629 earth masses (terraformed)
Frympiznt: 1.137 AU, .062 earth masses
Ivrk: 2.783 AU, .764 earth masses (terraformed)
Myzífiz: 7.193 AU, .066 earth masses
Ychilv: 20.537 AU, 3.656 earth masses (gas dwarf)
Lovely thought experiment!
Don't think that is quite correct - as long as a monarch rules (whether absolute or constitutional, while I think you intended the former here), Ichitsá can be called a Kingdom. And "infinite" depends on your definition of the word. It is nearly infinitely stable, for example.
But I do also have question: On what planet did the Tuzum originate? I assume on Myzifiz?
What conditions prevail on the planet - temperature, length of day, gravity, climate, etc. pp.? What constitutes the biology of the Tuzum?
Some of my questions were of course already answered. The Tuzum originated on Mitib, and I also got the mass of the planet and the distance from Diaptaz. But what about the other questions?
Also, does one know what the last major war was about? What is the One World Government like - would we see it as benevolent or as a brutal totalitarian dictatorship? Is technology als static, or is it mainly societal change that is lacking? And what do you mean with "primitive" - at what tech level are the Tuzum?
Also, does one know what the last major war was about? What is the One World Government like - would we see it as benevolent or as a brutal totalitarian dictatorship? Is technology als static, or is it mainly societal change that is lacking? And what do you mean with "primitive" - at what tech level are the Tuzum?
Thomas Johnson
Banned
The Tuzum originated on Mitib, though their colonies on the other worlds are ancient beyond living memory. Mitib is a bit bigger and a lot colder than Earth, because it orbits a red dwarf (Diaptaz is a M3V, early Population II). Mitib averages about 276K, has a gravity of 1.06g. Climate was cold, icecaps halfway down to the poles. By now, it's been changed by the Tuzum substantially. The Tuzum themselves are interesting biologically, being amphibious in descent. Their distant ancestors were, essentially, octopi, though with a rather different inner structure. They themselves are land adapted, but still have some water adaptions, and a level of coastal clustering in their settlements we would call ridiculous (although the inner deserts on Mitib are quite harsh).
Thomas Johnson
Banned
The last major coup dates to roughly 8500 BC, and was an attempted, failed, military coup.
Their government is, by human standards, totalitarian beyond even the excesses of the soviets. As the Tuzum tend to communality, they mind it less, and there has been a fair bit of "breeding" done over the millennia.
Their technology is essentially static, and is, while advanced compared to modern day Earth, fairly primitive. They have fusions rockets, that have reached a local equilibrium, weak AI with further research banned, decent though heavily restricted genetic engineering, and no interstellar spaceflight. Historically speaking, they tended to be more cautious than humans, and their society has taken some steps to move them further in that direction.
Now that's an interesting planet... a world with an average temperature of 3 °C? Would we able to live there at all? And then amphibious in descent - did they evolve endothermy at some point at least?
And what changes on Mitib were done by the Tuzum? Global warming here, too? Or do you mean other notable changes?