Indeed... We can say in these cases, and given that Ford holds and would always hold a leading position in Texas, that it is just followed by Toyota, which takes second place, but not far, given of its factory located on site....
Map Thread XXII
- Thread starter Balkanized U.S.A
- Start date
Solar system opera. The timeline covers most of the third millennium. In some ways, a reimagining of The Expansion with a little more realism. Without xenotech, strange alien substances and food from Ganymede.
Lots of maps. Lots of text. There are few neural network art.
The text was translated using Google Translator.
Expanse in freeze frames
First Steps. 2150.
Mid 22nd century. United humanity colonizes space. The asteroid belt and the Moon in priority. Their raw materials are needed by the suffocating economy of the Earth. Mars is the new frontier where the best engineers and scientists migrate. Mars has been explored enough to confirm the possibility of terraforming. And rich enough to start it.
Lots of maps. Lots of text. There are few neural network art.
The text was translated using Google Translator.
Expanse in freeze frames
First Steps. 2150.
Mid 22nd century. United humanity colonizes space. The asteroid belt and the Moon in priority. Their raw materials are needed by the suffocating economy of the Earth. Mars is the new frontier where the best engineers and scientists migrate. Mars has been explored enough to confirm the possibility of terraforming. And rich enough to start it.
Martian Revolution. 2267.
Several generations were born on Mars who have never seen Earth. The intellectual elites dream of independence. The planet has outgrown the management of the bone earth bureaucracy and has less and less in common with the rest of the UN.
When the Earth is on the other side of the sun, Mars raises a revolution and proclaims the Martian Republic. A technocratic hierarchical state with a strong civil society living the dream of terraforming.
The UN has nothing to answer. Earth has no army and no space fleet other than a police force to fight the pirates. New York can only declare an embargo, but that doesn't help. Soon Mars completely passes under the control of the revolutionaries.
Several generations were born on Mars who have never seen Earth. The intellectual elites dream of independence. The planet has outgrown the management of the bone earth bureaucracy and has less and less in common with the rest of the UN.
When the Earth is on the other side of the sun, Mars raises a revolution and proclaims the Martian Republic. A technocratic hierarchical state with a strong civil society living the dream of terraforming.
The UN has nothing to answer. Earth has no army and no space fleet other than a police force to fight the pirates. New York can only declare an embargo, but that doesn't help. Soon Mars completely passes under the control of the revolutionaries.
Confrontation. 2344.
Mars is too valuable a trading partner. The embargo is being lifted under pressure from business. Nevertheless, the Cold War is gaining momentum. Both sides are building up armies and space fleets.
Mars needs resources and tries to gain a foothold in the Belt. However, after several battles, the UN makes it clear that it will not tolerate the presence of others. The Martians make a surprise move and annex unclaimed Mercury, which is logistically less accessible but just as rich in minerals and "rightfully belongs to the Martian race" due to similar gravity. The Martians also go out into the outer system and build bases near the rings of Saturn from where they take ice for terraforming. Earthlings are forced to colonize the neighboring moon Tethys.
The first O'Neill Islands are being built in L4 Earth-Moon. These are 32 km cylinders with centrifugal gravity and a full-fledged biosphere. The richest people move here.
Vanadis Inc buys the right to colonize Venus and builds the first cloud cities.
Mars is too valuable a trading partner. The embargo is being lifted under pressure from business. Nevertheless, the Cold War is gaining momentum. Both sides are building up armies and space fleets.
Mars needs resources and tries to gain a foothold in the Belt. However, after several battles, the UN makes it clear that it will not tolerate the presence of others. The Martians make a surprise move and annex unclaimed Mercury, which is logistically less accessible but just as rich in minerals and "rightfully belongs to the Martian race" due to similar gravity. The Martians also go out into the outer system and build bases near the rings of Saturn from where they take ice for terraforming. Earthlings are forced to colonize the neighboring moon Tethys.
The first O'Neill Islands are being built in L4 Earth-Moon. These are 32 km cylinders with centrifugal gravity and a full-fledged biosphere. The richest people move here.
Vanadis Inc buys the right to colonize Venus and builds the first cloud cities.
First Solar War. 2424.
The escalation could not continue indefinitely. Another clash of patrols in the outer system suddenly escalates into the first solar war.
Mars is technologically superior to Earth but many times inferior in population and economy.. However, the Martian society is monolithic, the economy is autarky, and all power is in the hands of the military. The UN is hesitant to go to total war for fear of unrest and is critically dependent on imports from the colonies. Earth expects to win the war of attrition by flooding the enemy with meat and metal. Mars understands this and acts asymmetrically: sponsoring the Belt rebels, issuing letters of marque, using advanced stealth technology to strike at communications and trade routes. Mars also puts a lot of emphasis on propaganda, both in the colonies and on Earth itself. It blames the UN for suppression of local cultures, corruptions, strict environmental standards and birth control. This has already led to unrest on the Moon and a revolution at the Lagrange stations, which are suffering the most from disruptions in logistics. The exchange of nuclear strikes on the mother countries brings less damage to the Republic, since the Martian missile defense system is more perfect than the earthly one. For every nuclear mushroom on Mars there are five on Earth.
However, the Republic is gradually losing. Saturn is lost. Mercury's missile defense system has been broken and 200 Martians are desperately defending the last base in the northern hemisphere. The Republic has only succeeded in occupying a few Belt asteroids and completely disintegrating space trade.
Vanadis Inc remains neutral and moves its headquarters to Venus.
The escalation could not continue indefinitely. Another clash of patrols in the outer system suddenly escalates into the first solar war.
Mars is technologically superior to Earth but many times inferior in population and economy.. However, the Martian society is monolithic, the economy is autarky, and all power is in the hands of the military. The UN is hesitant to go to total war for fear of unrest and is critically dependent on imports from the colonies. Earth expects to win the war of attrition by flooding the enemy with meat and metal. Mars understands this and acts asymmetrically: sponsoring the Belt rebels, issuing letters of marque, using advanced stealth technology to strike at communications and trade routes. Mars also puts a lot of emphasis on propaganda, both in the colonies and on Earth itself. It blames the UN for suppression of local cultures, corruptions, strict environmental standards and birth control. This has already led to unrest on the Moon and a revolution at the Lagrange stations, which are suffering the most from disruptions in logistics. The exchange of nuclear strikes on the mother countries brings less damage to the Republic, since the Martian missile defense system is more perfect than the earthly one. For every nuclear mushroom on Mars there are five on Earth.
However, the Republic is gradually losing. Saturn is lost. Mercury's missile defense system has been broken and 200 Martians are desperately defending the last base in the northern hemisphere. The Republic has only succeeded in occupying a few Belt asteroids and completely disintegrating space trade.
Vanadis Inc remains neutral and moves its headquarters to Venus.
Martian Summer. 2489.
An absolute triumph. The golden age and the peak of the greatness of the Martian civilization.
The Republic's plan worked. The UN won a series of military victories, but internal pressure tore it apart. Mars is the hegemon of the solar system and dominates the economy, politics, and culture. The Republic maintains dominance by diplomacy and authority, not by military presence. Everyone is grateful to the Martians for the liberation from the tyranny of the UN. Victory Day is a holiday for the entire solar system. Earth was divided into a dozen states-civilizations: Pansax, Columbia, Eurobund, Slavia, Bharat, Nusantara, Han and others. They all admire Mars and thank for the liberation from the age-old Yoke. Pansax is the only exception as they have lost more than they have gained, but they are neutral at worst. For the next two centuries, the only opponents of the Republic remain Belt radicals and pirates beefed up during the war.
Phobos and Deimos changed orbits and became counterweights for space elevators. The flow of migrants fuels the rapidly growing Martian economy, prosperity reaches unprecedented heights. Terraforming brings its first fruits. A breathing mask is still needed, but the atmosphere is warm and dense enough to hold the seas. Along the turbulent rivers, the first forests grow on which the first rains fall.
Vanadis Inc. is inspired by the success of Mars and announces the beginning of the terraforming of Venus for a period of 400 years. The planet has become a popular negotiating platform since the peace treaty signed here by the MR and the successors to the UN.
An absolute triumph. The golden age and the peak of the greatness of the Martian civilization.
The Republic's plan worked. The UN won a series of military victories, but internal pressure tore it apart. Mars is the hegemon of the solar system and dominates the economy, politics, and culture. The Republic maintains dominance by diplomacy and authority, not by military presence. Everyone is grateful to the Martians for the liberation from the tyranny of the UN. Victory Day is a holiday for the entire solar system. Earth was divided into a dozen states-civilizations: Pansax, Columbia, Eurobund, Slavia, Bharat, Nusantara, Han and others. They all admire Mars and thank for the liberation from the age-old Yoke. Pansax is the only exception as they have lost more than they have gained, but they are neutral at worst. For the next two centuries, the only opponents of the Republic remain Belt radicals and pirates beefed up during the war.
Phobos and Deimos changed orbits and became counterweights for space elevators. The flow of migrants fuels the rapidly growing Martian economy, prosperity reaches unprecedented heights. Terraforming brings its first fruits. A breathing mask is still needed, but the atmosphere is warm and dense enough to hold the seas. Along the turbulent rivers, the first forests grow on which the first rains fall.
Vanadis Inc. is inspired by the success of Mars and announces the beginning of the terraforming of Venus for a period of 400 years. The planet has become a popular negotiating platform since the peace treaty signed here by the MR and the successors to the UN.
Before the Second Solar War. 2602.
Clouds are gathering over Mars. The era of universal adoration is a thing of the past. The Republic is the new oppressor for the Belt. The nations of Earth are disappointed. The tyranny of the UN has become history, and the disadvantages of separation are multiplying: climate, ecology, overpopulation, conflicts. The Republic made it clear that it did not want to interfere, and the earthlings realized that the Martians were only interested in the prosperity of Mars. The image of the liberator and beacon of hope dissipated.
New powers appear on the scene. The United Orbital Stations is an oligarchic republic, an alliance of O'Neill cylinders in the Earth-Moon Lagrange with a perfect climate and zero crime. Orbital is located outside the gravity wells, at the crossroads of trade routes and has nothing but human and financial capital, therefore it is entirely focused on production, trade and commerce. The Orbitals have inherited many of the Earth's assets in the Belt and Outer System, the best specialists have migrated here and the financial elites have settled here. Over the course of several centuries, they have grown significantly, have multiplied their capital many times over, and are now investing in the development of new horizons. Orbital will actively expand through the creation of holdings and subsidiaries. The Ophion Company is developing the helium of Uranus, the East Titan Company is developing the hydrocarbons of the moon of the same name. The Jovian Company initiated the colonization of Jupiter's moons, and so on. The largest, the West-Earth Company, deals with Terra. In exchange for the investment, the Orbitals gain control of the economy, buy out cities, and build a parallel corporate infrastructure that replaces existing government institutions.
They carry an ideology of extreme individualism and objectivism, in which they receive support from the natives, disillusioned with the statist bureaucracies of the era of decentralization. By the end of the 26th century, this made Orbital a great commercial colonial empire, able to compete for leadership in the system.
Despite friendly relations and close ties, the intersection of the interests of the Republic and the Orbitals was only a matter of time. Mars entered the race for the outer system and colonized Neptune and Titan. The Republic sabotaged the creation of the East Earth Company, entered into an alliance with the statists of Eurasia, deployed military bases and a navy on Earth to contain oceanic fleets of the Orbitals. The conflict became a matter of time.
The Orbitals are not ahead of Mars technologically and are many times inferior in population, but they are generally recognized gods of automation and extremely rich. Robotic asteroid shipyards build automated fleets that patrol trade routes. Droid armies guard assets throughout the system. Unlike the Republic, their civilization is critically dependent on space and entirely focused on it. Therefore, the fleet and army of the Orbitals is not inferior and sometimes even surpass the Martian ones. This is accompanied by a much higher standard of living and colossal financial opportunities. Through banks and various funds, they can influence not only the allies of Mars, but also some of the elites of the Republic itself
The first crisis was on Ceres - the most important world of the Belt. Mars prevented a corporate takeover at the last moment, smashed the Orbital forces and occupy the planetoid.
The second crisis broke out in the orbit of Callisto. The Republic fleet was destroyed in the battle. The Orbitals made it clear that they would not tolerate the presence of Mars in the Jupiter system.
The third crisis is going on right now. Uncertainty in the demarcation of certain areas of Titan has led to constant provocations and skirmishes. Both sides are building up forces in the Saturn system. Soon this local crisis will grow into a global conflict. The Second Solar War will begin.
Clouds are gathering over Mars. The era of universal adoration is a thing of the past. The Republic is the new oppressor for the Belt. The nations of Earth are disappointed. The tyranny of the UN has become history, and the disadvantages of separation are multiplying: climate, ecology, overpopulation, conflicts. The Republic made it clear that it did not want to interfere, and the earthlings realized that the Martians were only interested in the prosperity of Mars. The image of the liberator and beacon of hope dissipated.
New powers appear on the scene. The United Orbital Stations is an oligarchic republic, an alliance of O'Neill cylinders in the Earth-Moon Lagrange with a perfect climate and zero crime. Orbital is located outside the gravity wells, at the crossroads of trade routes and has nothing but human and financial capital, therefore it is entirely focused on production, trade and commerce. The Orbitals have inherited many of the Earth's assets in the Belt and Outer System, the best specialists have migrated here and the financial elites have settled here. Over the course of several centuries, they have grown significantly, have multiplied their capital many times over, and are now investing in the development of new horizons. Orbital will actively expand through the creation of holdings and subsidiaries. The Ophion Company is developing the helium of Uranus, the East Titan Company is developing the hydrocarbons of the moon of the same name. The Jovian Company initiated the colonization of Jupiter's moons, and so on. The largest, the West-Earth Company, deals with Terra. In exchange for the investment, the Orbitals gain control of the economy, buy out cities, and build a parallel corporate infrastructure that replaces existing government institutions.
They carry an ideology of extreme individualism and objectivism, in which they receive support from the natives, disillusioned with the statist bureaucracies of the era of decentralization. By the end of the 26th century, this made Orbital a great commercial colonial empire, able to compete for leadership in the system.
Despite friendly relations and close ties, the intersection of the interests of the Republic and the Orbitals was only a matter of time. Mars entered the race for the outer system and colonized Neptune and Titan. The Republic sabotaged the creation of the East Earth Company, entered into an alliance with the statists of Eurasia, deployed military bases and a navy on Earth to contain oceanic fleets of the Orbitals. The conflict became a matter of time.
The Orbitals are not ahead of Mars technologically and are many times inferior in population, but they are generally recognized gods of automation and extremely rich. Robotic asteroid shipyards build automated fleets that patrol trade routes. Droid armies guard assets throughout the system. Unlike the Republic, their civilization is critically dependent on space and entirely focused on it. Therefore, the fleet and army of the Orbitals is not inferior and sometimes even surpass the Martian ones. This is accompanied by a much higher standard of living and colossal financial opportunities. Through banks and various funds, they can influence not only the allies of Mars, but also some of the elites of the Republic itself
The first crisis was on Ceres - the most important world of the Belt. Mars prevented a corporate takeover at the last moment, smashed the Orbital forces and occupy the planetoid.
The second crisis broke out in the orbit of Callisto. The Republic fleet was destroyed in the battle. The Orbitals made it clear that they would not tolerate the presence of Mars in the Jupiter system.
The third crisis is going on right now. Uncertainty in the demarcation of certain areas of Titan has led to constant provocations and skirmishes. Both sides are building up forces in the Saturn system. Soon this local crisis will grow into a global conflict. The Second Solar War will begin.
Martian Autumn. 2711.
The Second Solar War is known as the Gentleman's War. The opponents did not hit the metropolises and critical infrastructure, respected the prisoners and civilians, declared festive truces and paid compensation for the damage caused. The war engulfed the entire solar system but was limited. The opponents intended to cut off supply lines, establish a blockade and impose more or less worthy peace conditions. The initiative changed hands for many years, but Mars won. Largely due to the entry of the moon into the war. But this did not lead to a new golden age.
The Republic retained its dominant position and the status of the only superpower, but it was no longer the same dominance as a century earlier. The war undermined the finances, the planet got into debt. The reputation of a liberator is gone. Orbital propaganda took off and Mars was now seen as an oppressor. Military presence, previously negligible, was now required throughout the system. Mercury and the Belt rebelled. The Republic is up to its neck in earthly affairs.
The completion of terraforming was an outlet. Mars has become a more comfortable world than Earth and the difference has been increasing every year. But the holiday soon turned into a value crisis. A society with a common dream for 500 years, a dream for which they made any sacrifice, suddenly found itself without a goal. The unrest turned into a sluggish civil war. Millions of veterans who returned from the earthly front exacerbated it. They saw first hand how overpopulation could destroy the originally living world and became the core of the movement that brought Mars to a new balance. From expansion and development, the Republic moved on to maintaining the achieved prosperity and flourishing Mars at any cost. Borders closed, strict birth control replaced pronatalism. The planet has isolated itself from the rest of the system. This has led to stagnation, a slowdown in social mobility and income stratification, greater reliance on state support, and the rise of populism.
Dissenters were offered to migrate to numerous Martian colonies: Mercury, Titan, Neptune, Earth. But there were few who wanted to. Ironically, the Martians turned out to be poor colonists because they were too attached to the world in which they had invested so much effort.
Orbitals didn't lose much. Under the Treaty of São Paulo, they lost corporate control over Earth, Jupiter and Uranus, but retained possessions in the Belt, Trojans and most of the assets, including those they owned on Mars. The Orbitals have abandoned their claim to sol system hegemony, but retained enough wealth to live a decent life.
The rules of war and gentlemen's agreements did not apply to Earth, where the largest massacre in the history of mankind unfolded. Earthlings, exalted by space propaganda, turned the conflict into an existential battle between objectivists and etatists. They massively used nuclear, biological and chemical weapons. Billions died, thousands of cities were destroyed, the climate went haywire. The oppressed biosphere degraded even more. In space, a relative parity of forces was maintained, but on Earth, the Republic's allies could not cope with the legions of droids and mercenaries armed with the advanced teachings of Objectivism. Mars sent a multi-million army in power armor to help and urgently gathered allies into the Earth Directory - a military organization under the temporary leadership of Mars, only for the period of the war. But the temporary turned out to be permanent. After the victory, the Directory took over the distribution of Republican loans, the expeditionary force maintained order, and the Martian navy continued to control the Earth's oceans. Stratospheric towers and terraced cities in the Himalayas and Andes were built for Martian soldiers and officials. Mars has moved the dirtiest industries here. East Asia and the Pacific have become a kind of Martian India.
Meanwhile, the earthlings became disillusioned with decentralization. The war showed why the UN was needed. There were many universalist TERRArist movements that fought against alien invaders. Terrorist attacks and riots forced the Martians to further increase military spending. Subsidies to satellites for keeping radicals out of power have become a constant expense item.
Lunar Republic was a poor, unstable state, with overpopulated caverns and cramped sublunar cities since independence. The government managed to restore order only shortly before the war. It adhered to neutrality to the last, fearing destabilization. But Mars found a way by promising investment and the Jupiter system, whose moons' gravity was perfect for the Lunarians. Lunar Fleet helped tie down the free forces of the Orbitals. Lunar Army helped capture important cylinders and close the blockade. All the forces of Luna are aimed at venting the population pressure into the new frontier since then. Several generations have already been born on the satellites that do not associate themselves with Luna. Ideas of a new, racial, identity are spreading among the lunar intellectuals. "Homo Selenicus" (also known as lowgraves) is a race that inhabits the six largest moons with similar gravity and living conditions. Selenism is a fringe ideology, but the number of its supporters is growing rapidly.
The system's eyes are fixed on Venus, where civil war is raging. Vanadis society has outgrown corporate governance. It tired of imposed monopolies and growing rents for oxygen, rain, sun and land. Surface settlers have rebelled against the corporate overlords and hereditary rentiers who live in luxurious automated cloud cities dating back to the age of hot Venus. On the side of the corporation there are droids, mercenaries and gigantic financial resources. On the side of the people - the number and horizontal coordination through innovative cortical interfaces. Martian settlements in the rings of Saturn experience the greatest costs. Venus has been the main consumer of ice for the last century and war does not help fulfill contracts.
The Second Solar War is known as the Gentleman's War. The opponents did not hit the metropolises and critical infrastructure, respected the prisoners and civilians, declared festive truces and paid compensation for the damage caused. The war engulfed the entire solar system but was limited. The opponents intended to cut off supply lines, establish a blockade and impose more or less worthy peace conditions. The initiative changed hands for many years, but Mars won. Largely due to the entry of the moon into the war. But this did not lead to a new golden age.
The Republic retained its dominant position and the status of the only superpower, but it was no longer the same dominance as a century earlier. The war undermined the finances, the planet got into debt. The reputation of a liberator is gone. Orbital propaganda took off and Mars was now seen as an oppressor. Military presence, previously negligible, was now required throughout the system. Mercury and the Belt rebelled. The Republic is up to its neck in earthly affairs.
The completion of terraforming was an outlet. Mars has become a more comfortable world than Earth and the difference has been increasing every year. But the holiday soon turned into a value crisis. A society with a common dream for 500 years, a dream for which they made any sacrifice, suddenly found itself without a goal. The unrest turned into a sluggish civil war. Millions of veterans who returned from the earthly front exacerbated it. They saw first hand how overpopulation could destroy the originally living world and became the core of the movement that brought Mars to a new balance. From expansion and development, the Republic moved on to maintaining the achieved prosperity and flourishing Mars at any cost. Borders closed, strict birth control replaced pronatalism. The planet has isolated itself from the rest of the system. This has led to stagnation, a slowdown in social mobility and income stratification, greater reliance on state support, and the rise of populism.
Dissenters were offered to migrate to numerous Martian colonies: Mercury, Titan, Neptune, Earth. But there were few who wanted to. Ironically, the Martians turned out to be poor colonists because they were too attached to the world in which they had invested so much effort.
Orbitals didn't lose much. Under the Treaty of São Paulo, they lost corporate control over Earth, Jupiter and Uranus, but retained possessions in the Belt, Trojans and most of the assets, including those they owned on Mars. The Orbitals have abandoned their claim to sol system hegemony, but retained enough wealth to live a decent life.
The rules of war and gentlemen's agreements did not apply to Earth, where the largest massacre in the history of mankind unfolded. Earthlings, exalted by space propaganda, turned the conflict into an existential battle between objectivists and etatists. They massively used nuclear, biological and chemical weapons. Billions died, thousands of cities were destroyed, the climate went haywire. The oppressed biosphere degraded even more. In space, a relative parity of forces was maintained, but on Earth, the Republic's allies could not cope with the legions of droids and mercenaries armed with the advanced teachings of Objectivism. Mars sent a multi-million army in power armor to help and urgently gathered allies into the Earth Directory - a military organization under the temporary leadership of Mars, only for the period of the war. But the temporary turned out to be permanent. After the victory, the Directory took over the distribution of Republican loans, the expeditionary force maintained order, and the Martian navy continued to control the Earth's oceans. Stratospheric towers and terraced cities in the Himalayas and Andes were built for Martian soldiers and officials. Mars has moved the dirtiest industries here. East Asia and the Pacific have become a kind of Martian India.
Meanwhile, the earthlings became disillusioned with decentralization. The war showed why the UN was needed. There were many universalist TERRArist movements that fought against alien invaders. Terrorist attacks and riots forced the Martians to further increase military spending. Subsidies to satellites for keeping radicals out of power have become a constant expense item.
Lunar Republic was a poor, unstable state, with overpopulated caverns and cramped sublunar cities since independence. The government managed to restore order only shortly before the war. It adhered to neutrality to the last, fearing destabilization. But Mars found a way by promising investment and the Jupiter system, whose moons' gravity was perfect for the Lunarians. Lunar Fleet helped tie down the free forces of the Orbitals. Lunar Army helped capture important cylinders and close the blockade. All the forces of Luna are aimed at venting the population pressure into the new frontier since then. Several generations have already been born on the satellites that do not associate themselves with Luna. Ideas of a new, racial, identity are spreading among the lunar intellectuals. "Homo Selenicus" (also known as lowgraves) is a race that inhabits the six largest moons with similar gravity and living conditions. Selenism is a fringe ideology, but the number of its supporters is growing rapidly.
The system's eyes are fixed on Venus, where civil war is raging. Vanadis society has outgrown corporate governance. It tired of imposed monopolies and growing rents for oxygen, rain, sun and land. Surface settlers have rebelled against the corporate overlords and hereditary rentiers who live in luxurious automated cloud cities dating back to the age of hot Venus. On the side of the corporation there are droids, mercenaries and gigantic financial resources. On the side of the people - the number and horizontal coordination through innovative cortical interfaces. Martian settlements in the rings of Saturn experience the greatest costs. Venus has been the main consumer of ice for the last century and war does not help fulfill contracts.
On the eve of the Third Solar War. 2807.
The economic crisis of the late 28th century hit the solar system painfully. Impoverishment led to a widespread rise in populism and radicalism.
The Republic is faced with an unprecedented increase in unemployment. Almost half of Martians depend on an unconditional basic income. Riots are raging in colonies where there are no social guarantees. Pirate activity in the Belt has increased significantly. The situation escalated to war in the newly annexed Martian Africa. Social and military spending is rising. Mars has just paid off his borrowings but is getting into debt again.
The Selenite Party won a majority, dissolved parliament, and reorganized the decrepit, corrupt Lunar Republic into the Selenite Federation, a racist ideocratic state whose goal was to lead the Lowgravs to dominate the solar system. The Selenites are experiencing an economic boom, terraforming Callisto, investing in science and expanding the army. They continue to multiply quickly, unlike Mars with its birth control. The Federation already surpasses Mars in femtotech, quantum AI and relativistic artillery - a new direction of military thought. Its fleet is still inferior to the Martian one, but is already capable of challenging the two-century hegemony of the Republic.
Vanadis Republic freed itself from the corporate yoke and became an economic superpower and the main creditor of the solar system. Neutrality, openness to innovation, and advanced socio-economic institutions such as cortical democracy and quantum capitalism have made the Vanadians extremely wealthy. Venusian goods are rightfully considered the best, and the economy is second only to that of Mars and is equal to that of Earth with a tenfold smaller population. The collapse of the Vanadian stock market due to the terraform derivatives bubble triggered a global crisis. However, the Vanadians were almost unharmed
The crisis has had the greatest impact on Earth. In Pansax and Bharat, the two strongest powers on the planet, moderate forces were replaced by radical anti-Martian movements dreaming of a united Terra. They strongly welcome the liberation struggle of Africa and are building up military forces, intending to solve internal problems with external expansion.
Interplanetary tension is growing, a new arms race has gained momentum. Despite the Republic's countermeasures, the Federation is catching up in the army and navy. The Selenites openly declare their intention to unite the "six homeworlds" including the Martian Titan. They enter into military agreements with the anti-Martian Earth movements and sponsor the Mercury and Belt rebels. Vanadis, meanwhile, opens credit lines to anyone. Venus shows that it does not intend to abandon the centuries-old policy of neutrality that has brought so many benefits.
Many expect a global war. But few people thought that it would begin in the same place as the previous one. Migrants from the Lunar Republic have long become the majority on Titan. Due to terrorist activity, the Martian administration limited the rights of the Selenites. This caused unrest, riots and the murder of a Republican minister. The performers and organizers fled to the Federation, which refused to extradite them and put forward counter-demands with the abolition of all restrictions for the inhabitants of Titan. While powers flex their muscles and hope that the enemy will blink first, the satellite is plunged into turmoil. The Third Solar War is at hand.
The economic crisis of the late 28th century hit the solar system painfully. Impoverishment led to a widespread rise in populism and radicalism.
The Republic is faced with an unprecedented increase in unemployment. Almost half of Martians depend on an unconditional basic income. Riots are raging in colonies where there are no social guarantees. Pirate activity in the Belt has increased significantly. The situation escalated to war in the newly annexed Martian Africa. Social and military spending is rising. Mars has just paid off his borrowings but is getting into debt again.
The Selenite Party won a majority, dissolved parliament, and reorganized the decrepit, corrupt Lunar Republic into the Selenite Federation, a racist ideocratic state whose goal was to lead the Lowgravs to dominate the solar system. The Selenites are experiencing an economic boom, terraforming Callisto, investing in science and expanding the army. They continue to multiply quickly, unlike Mars with its birth control. The Federation already surpasses Mars in femtotech, quantum AI and relativistic artillery - a new direction of military thought. Its fleet is still inferior to the Martian one, but is already capable of challenging the two-century hegemony of the Republic.
Vanadis Republic freed itself from the corporate yoke and became an economic superpower and the main creditor of the solar system. Neutrality, openness to innovation, and advanced socio-economic institutions such as cortical democracy and quantum capitalism have made the Vanadians extremely wealthy. Venusian goods are rightfully considered the best, and the economy is second only to that of Mars and is equal to that of Earth with a tenfold smaller population. The collapse of the Vanadian stock market due to the terraform derivatives bubble triggered a global crisis. However, the Vanadians were almost unharmed
The crisis has had the greatest impact on Earth. In Pansax and Bharat, the two strongest powers on the planet, moderate forces were replaced by radical anti-Martian movements dreaming of a united Terra. They strongly welcome the liberation struggle of Africa and are building up military forces, intending to solve internal problems with external expansion.
Interplanetary tension is growing, a new arms race has gained momentum. Despite the Republic's countermeasures, the Federation is catching up in the army and navy. The Selenites openly declare their intention to unite the "six homeworlds" including the Martian Titan. They enter into military agreements with the anti-Martian Earth movements and sponsor the Mercury and Belt rebels. Vanadis, meanwhile, opens credit lines to anyone. Venus shows that it does not intend to abandon the centuries-old policy of neutrality that has brought so many benefits.
Many expect a global war. But few people thought that it would begin in the same place as the previous one. Migrants from the Lunar Republic have long become the majority on Titan. Due to terrorist activity, the Martian administration limited the rights of the Selenites. This caused unrest, riots and the murder of a Republican minister. The performers and organizers fled to the Federation, which refused to extradite them and put forward counter-demands with the abolition of all restrictions for the inhabitants of Titan. While powers flex their muscles and hope that the enemy will blink first, the satellite is plunged into turmoil. The Third Solar War is at hand.
Second battle for Luna. 2817.
Many believed that the Third Solar War would be as gentlemanly as the Second. There is no need for civilized space nations to destroy each other. They were wrong. The Lunar-Martian War engulfed the entire solar system and became the bloodiest conflict in human history and was accompanied by war crimes, concentration camps, genocide, all-out bombing and the use of weapons of mass destruction.
Following the blitzkrieg strategy, the Martians quickly defeated the near-Earth flotillas of the Selenites and blockaded the Moon, hoping, like the last time, to convince the enemy to negotiate. However, this did not happen. The Federation evacuated the government, valuable specialists and industry to the Jupiter system and continued the fight. The landing on the Moon encountered fanatical resistance and uprisings in the occupied territories. The Martians were forced to switch to orbital bombardment and concentration camps. After several years of heavy fighting, the destroyed satellite, with its population reduced by a third, fell. Hopes for a quick end to the war were dashed.
Attempts by the Martian fleet to storm the Galilees ended in complete failure. Overprotected and too far from the support bases of the inner solar system, Fortress Jupiter proved invulnerable to Republic forces. The parties found themselves in a strategic stalemate. Unable to win directly, the Martians decided to isolate Jupiter from the Belt's raw materials and establish an energy blockade. The Republic controlled all developed sources of helium-3 - the basis of space energy, with the exception of Ophion, which remained neutral until the last. With no other options, the Martians occupied the moons of Uranus and created a puppet republic, cutting off the cloud cities from trade routes.
The Federation responds with a total mobilization of the economy. Urgently develops the resources of Io and the small moons of Jupiter. It is developing near-bottom industrial complexes on Europa that are invulnerable to Martian missiles and artillery. The entire population works at military factories, sometimes dying from the cold in the ice workshops: Io’s energy factories have not yet entered into operation, and scarce and expensive helium from Jupiter goes to the fleet. The Selenites respond to blockade attempts by dividing their forces into many maneuverable flotillas. They attack Martian properties throughout the system, aid the Saturn rebels, and even occupy Trojan asteroids. The Federation responds to lunar atrocities with relativistic artillery strikes on the cities of Mars. The Republic has no defense against these weapons.
There is a war going on on Earth. The Martian forces are much larger, but constrained by the need to control the colonies. Bharat built a defense along the mountain ranges and, by blocking all the entrances to the Indian Ocean, made it his own. This ensured the safety of space elevators in the Maldives. Similarly, Pansax and Brazil are clinging to the elevators in the Amazon delta with their teeth, preferring to surrender the north to Euroslavia, which is advancing through the once-arctic ocean.
Control over elevators prevents a total blockade from being established. Neutral Vanadis continues to actively trade through them and lends to both sides of the conflict. Mars is dissatisfied but too dependent on finances and imports from Venus. And its rapidly growing military forces, especially after the occupation of the moons of Uranus, warn the Republic against adventurous decisions.
Remnants of the pre-war Federal fleet stretch Republic forces throughout the system. At this time, in the crucible of the shipyards of Himalia and Lysithea, asteroids were processed and a new fleet was forged, for which the Selenites had worked and suffered hardships for the last few years. It has passed the Belt and is flying to liberate its ancient homeland. The Martians are gathering their forces near the Earth in response. The Second Battle of the Moon is approaching, which will decide the outcome of the war.
Meanwhile, the results of experiments on Pluto promise a new revolution in military affairs.
Many believed that the Third Solar War would be as gentlemanly as the Second. There is no need for civilized space nations to destroy each other. They were wrong. The Lunar-Martian War engulfed the entire solar system and became the bloodiest conflict in human history and was accompanied by war crimes, concentration camps, genocide, all-out bombing and the use of weapons of mass destruction.
Following the blitzkrieg strategy, the Martians quickly defeated the near-Earth flotillas of the Selenites and blockaded the Moon, hoping, like the last time, to convince the enemy to negotiate. However, this did not happen. The Federation evacuated the government, valuable specialists and industry to the Jupiter system and continued the fight. The landing on the Moon encountered fanatical resistance and uprisings in the occupied territories. The Martians were forced to switch to orbital bombardment and concentration camps. After several years of heavy fighting, the destroyed satellite, with its population reduced by a third, fell. Hopes for a quick end to the war were dashed.
Attempts by the Martian fleet to storm the Galilees ended in complete failure. Overprotected and too far from the support bases of the inner solar system, Fortress Jupiter proved invulnerable to Republic forces. The parties found themselves in a strategic stalemate. Unable to win directly, the Martians decided to isolate Jupiter from the Belt's raw materials and establish an energy blockade. The Republic controlled all developed sources of helium-3 - the basis of space energy, with the exception of Ophion, which remained neutral until the last. With no other options, the Martians occupied the moons of Uranus and created a puppet republic, cutting off the cloud cities from trade routes.
The Federation responds with a total mobilization of the economy. Urgently develops the resources of Io and the small moons of Jupiter. It is developing near-bottom industrial complexes on Europa that are invulnerable to Martian missiles and artillery. The entire population works at military factories, sometimes dying from the cold in the ice workshops: Io’s energy factories have not yet entered into operation, and scarce and expensive helium from Jupiter goes to the fleet. The Selenites respond to blockade attempts by dividing their forces into many maneuverable flotillas. They attack Martian properties throughout the system, aid the Saturn rebels, and even occupy Trojan asteroids. The Federation responds to lunar atrocities with relativistic artillery strikes on the cities of Mars. The Republic has no defense against these weapons.
There is a war going on on Earth. The Martian forces are much larger, but constrained by the need to control the colonies. Bharat built a defense along the mountain ranges and, by blocking all the entrances to the Indian Ocean, made it his own. This ensured the safety of space elevators in the Maldives. Similarly, Pansax and Brazil are clinging to the elevators in the Amazon delta with their teeth, preferring to surrender the north to Euroslavia, which is advancing through the once-arctic ocean.
Control over elevators prevents a total blockade from being established. Neutral Vanadis continues to actively trade through them and lends to both sides of the conflict. Mars is dissatisfied but too dependent on finances and imports from Venus. And its rapidly growing military forces, especially after the occupation of the moons of Uranus, warn the Republic against adventurous decisions.
Remnants of the pre-war Federal fleet stretch Republic forces throughout the system. At this time, in the crucible of the shipyards of Himalia and Lysithea, asteroids were processed and a new fleet was forged, for which the Selenites had worked and suffered hardships for the last few years. It has passed the Belt and is flying to liberate its ancient homeland. The Martians are gathering their forces near the Earth in response. The Second Battle of the Moon is approaching, which will decide the outcome of the war.
Meanwhile, the results of experiments on Pluto promise a new revolution in military affairs.
Long Winter. 2865.
The second battle for Luna was a disaster for the Martians. New Selenite asteroid battleships from the melted outer moons of Jupiter were invulnerable to Martian weapons. Events flowed like a river. The defeat in orbit was followed by an uprising and flight from the Moon. The orbital changed sides. Vanadis joined the conflict. Its fleet blockaded Mercury, and millions of Venusian soldiers landed throughout the western hemisphere to rescue the agonizing Pansax. Selenite technology and specialists flowed to Bharat. Vanadian and Federated forces were landing on holdings in the Belt. The entire colonial empire was under attack. Only now the Martian elites have realized how high the stakes are. They gave all power to the army, transferred the economy to a war footing and carried out total labor mobilization, as in the legendary era of the war with the UN. But time was lost. The noose was tightening. Soon the fleets of Vanadis and Selene entered orbit of Mars. The first landing failed, the Republic refused to negotiate. The Allies switched to an all-out bombardment, grinding cities into dust. New landing operations were more successful, but the Martians continued to cling to every city and crater. They used ancient bunkers built for the war with the UN and hoped to the last to somehow get out. Their calculations were not without foundation. The diplomats hoped to cause friction between the allies: to convince Venus that Selena was dangerous or to prove to Orbital that it would be the next target. Great hopes were placed on the wunderwaffe. The result of research into subtle physics on Pluto has become missiles that overcome missile defense through hyperspace. The technology was extremely crude. 99 out of 100 were lost, missed or exploded during the transition between dimensions, but even one was enough to cause monstrous destruction on Callisto and Ganymede. However, everything was in vain. The Allies remained united; warp strikes only increased the intensity of the bombardment. Soon Musk City fell and the Republic capitulated. The four-century era of Martian hegemony has ended.
The Allies shared the Republican heritage and established the League of Worlds. This was supposed to consolidate the post-war order and prevent the Fourth Solar War. This was successful, but contradictions between Selene and Vanadis, the superpowers of the new era, accumulated. Humanity has not only slipped into another Cold War and the risk of a new global massacre, but for the first time it has found itself vulnerable to threats of a much larger scale.
Source of inspiration
Basemap by slimysomething
The second battle for Luna was a disaster for the Martians. New Selenite asteroid battleships from the melted outer moons of Jupiter were invulnerable to Martian weapons. Events flowed like a river. The defeat in orbit was followed by an uprising and flight from the Moon. The orbital changed sides. Vanadis joined the conflict. Its fleet blockaded Mercury, and millions of Venusian soldiers landed throughout the western hemisphere to rescue the agonizing Pansax. Selenite technology and specialists flowed to Bharat. Vanadian and Federated forces were landing on holdings in the Belt. The entire colonial empire was under attack. Only now the Martian elites have realized how high the stakes are. They gave all power to the army, transferred the economy to a war footing and carried out total labor mobilization, as in the legendary era of the war with the UN. But time was lost. The noose was tightening. Soon the fleets of Vanadis and Selene entered orbit of Mars. The first landing failed, the Republic refused to negotiate. The Allies switched to an all-out bombardment, grinding cities into dust. New landing operations were more successful, but the Martians continued to cling to every city and crater. They used ancient bunkers built for the war with the UN and hoped to the last to somehow get out. Their calculations were not without foundation. The diplomats hoped to cause friction between the allies: to convince Venus that Selena was dangerous or to prove to Orbital that it would be the next target. Great hopes were placed on the wunderwaffe. The result of research into subtle physics on Pluto has become missiles that overcome missile defense through hyperspace. The technology was extremely crude. 99 out of 100 were lost, missed or exploded during the transition between dimensions, but even one was enough to cause monstrous destruction on Callisto and Ganymede. However, everything was in vain. The Allies remained united; warp strikes only increased the intensity of the bombardment. Soon Musk City fell and the Republic capitulated. The four-century era of Martian hegemony has ended.
The Allies shared the Republican heritage and established the League of Worlds. This was supposed to consolidate the post-war order and prevent the Fourth Solar War. This was successful, but contradictions between Selene and Vanadis, the superpowers of the new era, accumulated. Humanity has not only slipped into another Cold War and the risk of a new global massacre, but for the first time it has found itself vulnerable to threats of a much larger scale.
Selenite Federation
Fascist dictatorship. Superpower. The second economy and the first military force.
The 29th century became golden for the Federation. The party fulfilled all election promises. The Selenite race won the war, ending four centuries of Republic dominance and unifying the six homeworlds. The Federation has become the hegemon of the system, controlling the two largest planets, Mars and half of the Earth. Its fleet has no equal. Callisto is terraformed and can rival Venus in terms of comfort. Europa and Ganymede are coming. The monstrous losses and destruction of the Third Solar War have been overcome. The post-war demographic and economic boom, captured Republic technologies and new markets made the Selenites richer than ever. The entire solar system admires the blossoming of science and culture, monumental architecture and the revival of innovative geometric cities. This is the peak of the Selenite civilization.
The political life of the Federation is highly ideological and remains controlled by the Selenite party, whose legitimacy has been further strengthened. The economy relies on close partnerships between government and business, megaprojects like terraforming and the mass introduction of breakthrough quantum AI. The temporary capital on Callisto became permanent. The center of the Federation has finally shifted to the Jupiter system.
The victory proved the validity of the Selenite ideology. Gravitational racism lies at its foundation. This divides humanity into four races depending on the gravity of their native environment: highgraves (0.887-1g), midgraves (0.38-0.39g), selenite-lowgraves (0.12-0.18g) and nullgraves (0-0.05g). Selenism states that dominance over the system passes from the first to the next. From the most ancient, primitive and unadapted to expansion, locked in gravity wells, to the most innovative and close to space. Therefore, the midgraves of Mars became hegemons and defeated the highgraves twice, and that is why they fell at the hands of the lowgraves. Lowgraves are the pinnacle of human evolution. They optimally combine the “gifts of gravity” and proximity to space and therefore should stand at the head of humanity.
Ironically, gravitational racism dates back to the tactical task of Martian diplomats to justify Mars' claims to Mercury 500 years ago. Forgotten for centuries, it was brought back into discourse by lunar ideologists and turned into a mainstream scientific doctrine not only in the Federation but throughout the entire system.
Selene had an overwhelming military superiority over Vanadis after the end of the war. But the Federation was too exhausted by many years of total war. Among other things, Venus, unlike Mars, had relativistic artillery. Trade with Vanadis was profitable for too many of the Federation's elite. In the wake of post-war optimism, the powers decided to move to “peaceful coexistence” and “competition of systems.” They also hoped for a quick leap to the stars. However, Neptune, the Martian Crisis, the Earth War and conflicts in the Belt gradually escalated the situation. Interstellar travel remains a fantasy. Humanity has come to another Cold War, much more dangerous due to the emergence of delivery systems invulnerable to interception.
Selena views the new confrontation through the prism of the confrontation between two races. Outdated highgraves that drag civilization into the past. And the young Lowgraves, a space race that leads people into the future. Midgraves are by nature oppressors and imperialists. They are defeated and no longer pose a threat. The Nullgraves are a valuable ally in the process of liberation from offworld tyranny. Their prime is yet to come and poses no threat. Their abilities are limited to zero gravity and they have no "core". Therefore, they would not be able to build an empire and challenge the Selenites.
Ideologues chalk up the rise of Vanadis to foul play. Venus remained neutral until the winner was determined and became a superpower through deception. This means that in the long run it will undoubtedly lose.
Selenites respect augmentics due to their historically harsh environment. Their genetic research is usually aimed at overcoming the problems associated with low gravity.
Luna
Still in ruins. Many cavities are irreversibly damaged. Cities are easier to demolish than to rebuild. It is impossible to terraform the Moon. In the next war, it will again be on the front line and most likely will be destroyed. The Federation decided to transport the population to the Jupiter system, mainly to the inhabited Callisto and Ganymede. The Moon was turned into “Fortress Luna” - the most important military base of the Federation in the inner system, the sacred ancestral home of the Selenite race and a grandiose memorial.
Second Martian Republic
Occupied by the Federation. One-party dictatorship. Selena's loyal ally. Mars is morally crushed, has renounced the colonial past and condemns the crimes of the previous regime. The planet has not yet fully overcome the consequences of the war. The population has decreased by a quarter and continues to decline due to migration and the “Martian cross”. Space elevators have collapsed and some cities still lie in ruins. Much of the planet has returned to relatively normal life. The capital and coastal metropolises have returned to their former luster. But in the deep south, far from the ocean, anarchy still reigns. The population lives by subsistence farming and depends on humanitarian aid. The biosphere, the pride of the Martians, is going through hard times. The climate has gone haywire, the deserts are advancing. A new ice age has begun due to bombing and anti-relativistic orbital coal clouds. AI helps restore the economy, but makes it completely dependent on the Federation.
The Republic was completely demilitarized after the surrender. But Mars was allowed to partially restore the army and navy due to the growth of the military potential of Vanadis.
Despite all the bloodshed and disasters, the Martians have a positive attitude towards the Selenites. There was a risk of turning the occupation zones of Mars into separate states, with the prospect of subsequent planetary massacre. But the strong position of the Federation did not allow the Vanadians and the Orbitals to carry out their plans, and forced them to leave the planet.
Phobos and Deimos
Came out of areostationary orbit during the siege of Mars. Leased by the Federation for 99 years in exchange for the stabilization and restoration of space elevators. The elevator to Deimos has been restored. Phobos is a large military base.
Fascist dictatorship. Superpower. The second economy and the first military force.
The 29th century became golden for the Federation. The party fulfilled all election promises. The Selenite race won the war, ending four centuries of Republic dominance and unifying the six homeworlds. The Federation has become the hegemon of the system, controlling the two largest planets, Mars and half of the Earth. Its fleet has no equal. Callisto is terraformed and can rival Venus in terms of comfort. Europa and Ganymede are coming. The monstrous losses and destruction of the Third Solar War have been overcome. The post-war demographic and economic boom, captured Republic technologies and new markets made the Selenites richer than ever. The entire solar system admires the blossoming of science and culture, monumental architecture and the revival of innovative geometric cities. This is the peak of the Selenite civilization.
The political life of the Federation is highly ideological and remains controlled by the Selenite party, whose legitimacy has been further strengthened. The economy relies on close partnerships between government and business, megaprojects like terraforming and the mass introduction of breakthrough quantum AI. The temporary capital on Callisto became permanent. The center of the Federation has finally shifted to the Jupiter system.
The victory proved the validity of the Selenite ideology. Gravitational racism lies at its foundation. This divides humanity into four races depending on the gravity of their native environment: highgraves (0.887-1g), midgraves (0.38-0.39g), selenite-lowgraves (0.12-0.18g) and nullgraves (0-0.05g). Selenism states that dominance over the system passes from the first to the next. From the most ancient, primitive and unadapted to expansion, locked in gravity wells, to the most innovative and close to space. Therefore, the midgraves of Mars became hegemons and defeated the highgraves twice, and that is why they fell at the hands of the lowgraves. Lowgraves are the pinnacle of human evolution. They optimally combine the “gifts of gravity” and proximity to space and therefore should stand at the head of humanity.
Ironically, gravitational racism dates back to the tactical task of Martian diplomats to justify Mars' claims to Mercury 500 years ago. Forgotten for centuries, it was brought back into discourse by lunar ideologists and turned into a mainstream scientific doctrine not only in the Federation but throughout the entire system.
Selene had an overwhelming military superiority over Vanadis after the end of the war. But the Federation was too exhausted by many years of total war. Among other things, Venus, unlike Mars, had relativistic artillery. Trade with Vanadis was profitable for too many of the Federation's elite. In the wake of post-war optimism, the powers decided to move to “peaceful coexistence” and “competition of systems.” They also hoped for a quick leap to the stars. However, Neptune, the Martian Crisis, the Earth War and conflicts in the Belt gradually escalated the situation. Interstellar travel remains a fantasy. Humanity has come to another Cold War, much more dangerous due to the emergence of delivery systems invulnerable to interception.
Selena views the new confrontation through the prism of the confrontation between two races. Outdated highgraves that drag civilization into the past. And the young Lowgraves, a space race that leads people into the future. Midgraves are by nature oppressors and imperialists. They are defeated and no longer pose a threat. The Nullgraves are a valuable ally in the process of liberation from offworld tyranny. Their prime is yet to come and poses no threat. Their abilities are limited to zero gravity and they have no "core". Therefore, they would not be able to build an empire and challenge the Selenites.
Ideologues chalk up the rise of Vanadis to foul play. Venus remained neutral until the winner was determined and became a superpower through deception. This means that in the long run it will undoubtedly lose.
Selenites respect augmentics due to their historically harsh environment. Their genetic research is usually aimed at overcoming the problems associated with low gravity.
Luna
Still in ruins. Many cavities are irreversibly damaged. Cities are easier to demolish than to rebuild. It is impossible to terraform the Moon. In the next war, it will again be on the front line and most likely will be destroyed. The Federation decided to transport the population to the Jupiter system, mainly to the inhabited Callisto and Ganymede. The Moon was turned into “Fortress Luna” - the most important military base of the Federation in the inner system, the sacred ancestral home of the Selenite race and a grandiose memorial.
Second Martian Republic
Occupied by the Federation. One-party dictatorship. Selena's loyal ally. Mars is morally crushed, has renounced the colonial past and condemns the crimes of the previous regime. The planet has not yet fully overcome the consequences of the war. The population has decreased by a quarter and continues to decline due to migration and the “Martian cross”. Space elevators have collapsed and some cities still lie in ruins. Much of the planet has returned to relatively normal life. The capital and coastal metropolises have returned to their former luster. But in the deep south, far from the ocean, anarchy still reigns. The population lives by subsistence farming and depends on humanitarian aid. The biosphere, the pride of the Martians, is going through hard times. The climate has gone haywire, the deserts are advancing. A new ice age has begun due to bombing and anti-relativistic orbital coal clouds. AI helps restore the economy, but makes it completely dependent on the Federation.
The Republic was completely demilitarized after the surrender. But Mars was allowed to partially restore the army and navy due to the growth of the military potential of Vanadis.
Despite all the bloodshed and disasters, the Martians have a positive attitude towards the Selenites. There was a risk of turning the occupation zones of Mars into separate states, with the prospect of subsequent planetary massacre. But the strong position of the Federation did not allow the Vanadians and the Orbitals to carry out their plans, and forced them to leave the planet.
Phobos and Deimos
Came out of areostationary orbit during the siege of Mars. Leased by the Federation for 99 years in exchange for the stabilization and restoration of space elevators. The elevator to Deimos has been restored. Phobos is a large military base.
Republic of Vanadis
Superpower. Cortical democracy. The richest society in the solar system and the second military power.
Venus was inhabited by those who were tired of conflicts, instability or bureaucracy of other worlds. Scientists, inventors, financiers, orbitals migrated here after defeat in the Second Solar War and Martians who disagreed with the antinatalism of the Republic. Vanadis did not participate in astropolitics and reinvested in itself for 500 years. This made it the second, and after the war, the first economy of the system. Venus is a center of progress and innovation, with a genetically enhanced and augmented population living on a tropical terraformed world.
During the war, Vanadis enjoyed the exclusive privilege of trading with both sides until the end. The Venusians did enter the war only when the scales clearly tipped in favor of the Federation. They occupied Mercury, half of the Earth and a significant part of the Belt. In a couple of years they turned from a centuries-old neutral into a contender for world domination.
Venus is a world with an extremely high level of automation. A middle class family usually has at least three robots. The symbol of Mars was vactrains connecting the megacities of the equator. The symbol of Venus is mass flying cars with transonic cruising speed, which tied the planet together and predetermined the Venusian way of life. For historical reasons, all logistics are carried out by air. So Venus has no roads and no need to be tied to transport infrastructure. Vanadians spread across the Venusian expanses as widely as possible. The majority live in a sparse mosaic of autonomous houses in the middle of the jungle, mountains, forests, seas, islands, built around kilometer-long peaks of cultural and business downtowns.
The gravity of Venus is comparable to that of Earth, so augmentic and genetic modifications are aimed at expanding human capabilities, not at adapting to the environment like lowgraves. The radical reduction in the tax burden after the completion of terraforming led to another economic boom, which made the Vanadians even richer. Despite the relatively small population, Venus’s economy is one and a half times larger than the Federation and twice that of Earth.
It was not only neutrality and openness to innovation that helped achieve prosperity. The Republic relies on two advanced institutions: cortical democracy and quantum capitalism. The first is a network of neural implants that connects the brains of citizens, allows they to quickly make decisions, coordinate actions and come to consensus, with minimal bureaucracy. This brought self-government to a new level and made the legislative and judicial systems extremely adaptive. Quantum capitalism (aka capitalism+, capitalism 2.0) relies on a decentralized network of personal quantum computers, originally created to predict and prevent weather anomalies, much more dangerous in the dense Venusian atmosphere. It soon became clear that it could predict the behavior of other stochastic systems, such as the economy. The network collects data from the entire market, creates a model of it and predicts the next state, largely eliminating the problem of information asymmetry. This allows you to anticipate distortions, deflate bubbles, prevent shortages, determine promising directions and “simulations go broke for you.” Cyclical crises are not canceled, but their timing and depth are predictable. The system does not provide one hundred percent guarantees, especially at long intervals, but it also does not provide enough guarantees for superiority over other economies. But there is also a downside. Cortical interfaces are very expensive, which has become a natural limitation. Despite the subsidy programs, every fifth Vanadian does not have access to them, which means they are excluded from political life. Participating in the economy without a quantum computer is difficult. For this reason, Venusian migration laws are quite strict.
Terraforming is complete and extremely successful, but developed ecosystems have not been built everywhere. Ishtar is a fully developed subpolar continent and is considered the best place to live. Its biomes surpass the “gardens of Mars” in its best years. Aphrodite is a continent at the equator. A new frontier whose colonization has just begun. Two centuries of orbital rain ended just a couple of decades ago.
Vanadis does not have any global goal or messianic ideas other than democracy and collective prosperity. There is only highgravism that arose as a reaction to selenism. This is a vague doctrine that should unite the most important allies of Venus - the orbitals, earthlings and Ophionians. Highgraves are united by closeness to nature, an earth-like habitat, and a desire for freedom and democracy. Therefore, they must rule the solar system and guide humanity towards a brighter tomorrow.
The Vanadian fleet is technologically ahead of the federal fleet, but is objectively weaker and has less experience. However, the gap is rapidly closing. The Vanadis army is more effective on large worlds, but inferior on moons and asteroids. It can quickly mobilize tens of millions of home robots if necessary, as it already did in the beginning TSW.
United Orbitals
Wealthy democracy, financial center and ally of Vanadis.
Orbital entered the war on the side of Mars without much zeal. The orbital government changed after the Second Battle of the Moon and withdrew from the war. The next one came back but on the other side. The orbitals were engaged in supply and secondary fronts and only towards the end took part in the landing. This was enough to march through Mask City with the armies of Vanadis and the Federation. When the Martian field marshal saw a representative of the orbital at the signing of the surrender, he asked in surprise: did these also defeat us?
The headquarters of the new League of Worlds was located on one of the islands. Neutral Orbital became one of the three members of the Security Council. But soon the “highgrave party” won and UO joined Vanadis.
The Orbitals are known as wealthy burghers who live in picturesque cylinders, work in finance, automated industry, and drink wine from their own grapes in their free time. The standard of living is largely based on the capital accumulated over previous centuries. Centuries-old islands attract tourists, which contributes to the budget. Orbitals are conservative and not interested in innovation. For example, they do not switch to cortical democracy, preferring network democracy, and do not particularly monitor what is happening in the rest of the system. They are not ready to die in the Belt for a colonial empire bursting at the seams.
Union of Mercury
A corrupt state with high inequality and an unstable government that lives by selling resources. The criminal capital of the system. The Vanadis army liberated Mercury from the 500-year Martian yoke. Juntas and right-wing dictatorships have regularly replaced each other since then. Both of them are thoroughly pro-Venusian and keep a Vanadian passport in the stash. A world of contrasts. Megacities receive spaceships every minute, but are still not connected by a network of vactrains. Underground ghettos are adjacent to elite domes that are irrigated with Cereran water. Mercurians dream of terraforming, but budgets are stolen at the planning stage. The prime pensionary of Orbital once said: “Mercury is a world of a wonderful future, and will remain so forever.”
Many war criminals of Mars took refuge here.
Superpower. Cortical democracy. The richest society in the solar system and the second military power.
Venus was inhabited by those who were tired of conflicts, instability or bureaucracy of other worlds. Scientists, inventors, financiers, orbitals migrated here after defeat in the Second Solar War and Martians who disagreed with the antinatalism of the Republic. Vanadis did not participate in astropolitics and reinvested in itself for 500 years. This made it the second, and after the war, the first economy of the system. Venus is a center of progress and innovation, with a genetically enhanced and augmented population living on a tropical terraformed world.
During the war, Vanadis enjoyed the exclusive privilege of trading with both sides until the end. The Venusians did enter the war only when the scales clearly tipped in favor of the Federation. They occupied Mercury, half of the Earth and a significant part of the Belt. In a couple of years they turned from a centuries-old neutral into a contender for world domination.
Venus is a world with an extremely high level of automation. A middle class family usually has at least three robots. The symbol of Mars was vactrains connecting the megacities of the equator. The symbol of Venus is mass flying cars with transonic cruising speed, which tied the planet together and predetermined the Venusian way of life. For historical reasons, all logistics are carried out by air. So Venus has no roads and no need to be tied to transport infrastructure. Vanadians spread across the Venusian expanses as widely as possible. The majority live in a sparse mosaic of autonomous houses in the middle of the jungle, mountains, forests, seas, islands, built around kilometer-long peaks of cultural and business downtowns.
The gravity of Venus is comparable to that of Earth, so augmentic and genetic modifications are aimed at expanding human capabilities, not at adapting to the environment like lowgraves. The radical reduction in the tax burden after the completion of terraforming led to another economic boom, which made the Vanadians even richer. Despite the relatively small population, Venus’s economy is one and a half times larger than the Federation and twice that of Earth.
It was not only neutrality and openness to innovation that helped achieve prosperity. The Republic relies on two advanced institutions: cortical democracy and quantum capitalism. The first is a network of neural implants that connects the brains of citizens, allows they to quickly make decisions, coordinate actions and come to consensus, with minimal bureaucracy. This brought self-government to a new level and made the legislative and judicial systems extremely adaptive. Quantum capitalism (aka capitalism+, capitalism 2.0) relies on a decentralized network of personal quantum computers, originally created to predict and prevent weather anomalies, much more dangerous in the dense Venusian atmosphere. It soon became clear that it could predict the behavior of other stochastic systems, such as the economy. The network collects data from the entire market, creates a model of it and predicts the next state, largely eliminating the problem of information asymmetry. This allows you to anticipate distortions, deflate bubbles, prevent shortages, determine promising directions and “simulations go broke for you.” Cyclical crises are not canceled, but their timing and depth are predictable. The system does not provide one hundred percent guarantees, especially at long intervals, but it also does not provide enough guarantees for superiority over other economies. But there is also a downside. Cortical interfaces are very expensive, which has become a natural limitation. Despite the subsidy programs, every fifth Vanadian does not have access to them, which means they are excluded from political life. Participating in the economy without a quantum computer is difficult. For this reason, Venusian migration laws are quite strict.
Terraforming is complete and extremely successful, but developed ecosystems have not been built everywhere. Ishtar is a fully developed subpolar continent and is considered the best place to live. Its biomes surpass the “gardens of Mars” in its best years. Aphrodite is a continent at the equator. A new frontier whose colonization has just begun. Two centuries of orbital rain ended just a couple of decades ago.
Vanadis does not have any global goal or messianic ideas other than democracy and collective prosperity. There is only highgravism that arose as a reaction to selenism. This is a vague doctrine that should unite the most important allies of Venus - the orbitals, earthlings and Ophionians. Highgraves are united by closeness to nature, an earth-like habitat, and a desire for freedom and democracy. Therefore, they must rule the solar system and guide humanity towards a brighter tomorrow.
The Vanadian fleet is technologically ahead of the federal fleet, but is objectively weaker and has less experience. However, the gap is rapidly closing. The Vanadis army is more effective on large worlds, but inferior on moons and asteroids. It can quickly mobilize tens of millions of home robots if necessary, as it already did in the beginning TSW.
United Orbitals
Wealthy democracy, financial center and ally of Vanadis.
Orbital entered the war on the side of Mars without much zeal. The orbital government changed after the Second Battle of the Moon and withdrew from the war. The next one came back but on the other side. The orbitals were engaged in supply and secondary fronts and only towards the end took part in the landing. This was enough to march through Mask City with the armies of Vanadis and the Federation. When the Martian field marshal saw a representative of the orbital at the signing of the surrender, he asked in surprise: did these also defeat us?
The headquarters of the new League of Worlds was located on one of the islands. Neutral Orbital became one of the three members of the Security Council. But soon the “highgrave party” won and UO joined Vanadis.
The Orbitals are known as wealthy burghers who live in picturesque cylinders, work in finance, automated industry, and drink wine from their own grapes in their free time. The standard of living is largely based on the capital accumulated over previous centuries. Centuries-old islands attract tourists, which contributes to the budget. Orbitals are conservative and not interested in innovation. For example, they do not switch to cortical democracy, preferring network democracy, and do not particularly monitor what is happening in the rest of the system. They are not ready to die in the Belt for a colonial empire bursting at the seams.
Union of Mercury
A corrupt state with high inequality and an unstable government that lives by selling resources. The criminal capital of the system. The Vanadis army liberated Mercury from the 500-year Martian yoke. Juntas and right-wing dictatorships have regularly replaced each other since then. Both of them are thoroughly pro-Venusian and keep a Vanadian passport in the stash. A world of contrasts. Megacities receive spaceships every minute, but are still not connected by a network of vactrains. Underground ghettos are adjacent to elite domes that are irrigated with Cereran water. Mercurians dream of terraforming, but budgets are stolen at the planning stage. The prime pensionary of Orbital once said: “Mercury is a world of a wonderful future, and will remain so forever.”
Many war criminals of Mars took refuge here.
Earth
A united post-war Earth was a commonplace in the Allied position. The planet was once again in ruins, the soils were poisoned, the diversity of species had fallen to critical levels. Epidemics and famine raged. No single nation could solve these problems. The peoples of the Earth convened a constituent assembly at which they were supposed to develop the principles of the future Earth Union. However, several years of consultations led to nothing. It turned out that all earthlings want a single state and agree that the collapse of the UN was the main mistake since the Fall, but nothing more. It was not possible to determine either the form of government, or the administrative division, or the system. Pansax, Vanadis and Orbital insisted on democracy and federalism. Bharat and the Federation advocated a more centralized and statist approach.
The discord between Venus and Selena made the prospects for a unified state more elusive. Eventually, the Second UN was proclaimed in the territories controlled by Vanadis and its pan-Saxon allies: the New World, parts of Europe, Africa and Antarctica. Bharat controlled the rest of the planet and responded by creating Panterra. In Europe, the border passed through the ruins of Moscow, the capital of defeated Euroslavia. The two newborn states did not recognize each other and began to prepare for a new massacre.
The Earth War (the Fifth World War in local historiography) became the first conflict of the new confrontation and was only slightly less bloody than TSW. The battlefield became Europe and Africa. Panterra hoped to drive the enemy out of the Old World and in the initial offensive reached the Rhine. However, after Vanadis entered the war and the massive use of tactical nuclear weapons, it rolled back to the Volga and stabilized on the Oka - in the same place where it began. The movement of the front was even more chaotic in Africa. After several years of marking time and a billion dead, under pressure from the superpowers, the parties signed a truce. Panterra was able to reach the Gulf of Guinea and SUN captured Antarctica. The war became an unprecedented disaster for Europe and Africa. What little that survived TSW was destroyed. Vast territories were depopulated, cities were destroyed. A significant part of the population was evacuated. There remains an army, drones, mining enterprises and aborigines who live on subsistence farming, huddle in ruins and die from radiation sickness. Both sides complied with the unspoken agreement and did not hit critical infrastructure despite the meat grinder. The space elevators of the Andes, Amazon, Maldives and Java, as well as the metropolitan cities of the East Coast and Bay of Bengal, were practically undamaged.
WWV showed that the separation was here to stay. The states recognized each other and signed a number of agreements on climate, ecology, de-escalation and arms reduction. However, this does not prevent us from preparing for the next, Sixth, World War, which will certainly be the last. Earth remains the most uncomfortable and poorest world in the system. Its average temperature approaches that of Venus, and its economy is half that of Vanadis and two-thirds that of the Federation.
Second UN
An ally of Venus, the second most populous state in the system. Poor corrupt cortical democracy. Originated on Venusian bayonets. It imitates the previous incarnation in everything, right down to placing the capital in the long-destroyed and drowned New York. Highgravism found the greatest response here and became the official ideology: we need to follow our racial brothers in everything in order to become as successful as them.
After WWV, New York began a painful modernization that led to many distortions. The transition to cortical democracy in a country where neural interfaces can allow 0.5% of citizens meant the exclusion of the entire population from political life. Quantum capitalism provides significant bonuses, but the transition period is accompanied by the collapse of the previous economic structure and excesses on the ground, especially in a 12 billion state. With the exception of the fabulously rich, by earthly standards, coastal megacities, the population is extremely poor and sometimes on the brink of survival. Regular uprisings are suppressed by the Vanadian army. Reforms are being carried out under the supervision of alien specialists occupying half of the positions in the government. For assistance in WWV, Vanadis received a concession of space elevators and mineral deposits. It deployed many military bases with a permanent multimillion-dollar contingent at the request of New York. The Venusian naval fleet patrols Earth's oceans. Ironically, the inhabitants of the SUN consider themselves free and Panterra - fascist slaves of the Selenites.
Panterra
A fascist dictatorship with its capital in Calcutta - «New Venice». Selena's ally. The most populous state in the system. There are more inhabitants than in all of space combined. The panterrists of Bharat were inspired by the successes of the Selenite race since pre-war times. In their opinion, earthlings face similar tasks and they need to be solved in a similar way: through a strong central government and state capitalism. Ideologically, panterrism is closer to “earthly nationalism.” The Earth is unique. This is the birthplace of humanity, the only natural inhabited world. Earthlings do not need to look up to others or seek mythical racial solidarity. Nobody needs them except themselves.
Panterra is a little richer than the SUN. The most developed and relatively unaffected regions of the Earth Directorate were transferred to Calcutta. Martian industry and infrastructure are still functioning, and many Martian officials have retained their positions. The SUN calls Panterra the "Second Directorate". However, Calcutta is an independent military force because the Selenites are unable to function properly in Earth's gravity. The Federation does not have bases on Earth or low orbit; they only need counterweights from space elevators and a geostationary station. Moreover, they need earthly personnel and mercenaries to work in the extreme conditions of the giants and security. This gives Panterra quite wide freedom of action.
The SUN accuses Panterra of Indian nationalism - Hindi is the only state language, Hindus occupy leading roles in economics and politics. Panterra responds with accusations of pan-Saxon imperialism.
A united post-war Earth was a commonplace in the Allied position. The planet was once again in ruins, the soils were poisoned, the diversity of species had fallen to critical levels. Epidemics and famine raged. No single nation could solve these problems. The peoples of the Earth convened a constituent assembly at which they were supposed to develop the principles of the future Earth Union. However, several years of consultations led to nothing. It turned out that all earthlings want a single state and agree that the collapse of the UN was the main mistake since the Fall, but nothing more. It was not possible to determine either the form of government, or the administrative division, or the system. Pansax, Vanadis and Orbital insisted on democracy and federalism. Bharat and the Federation advocated a more centralized and statist approach.
The discord between Venus and Selena made the prospects for a unified state more elusive. Eventually, the Second UN was proclaimed in the territories controlled by Vanadis and its pan-Saxon allies: the New World, parts of Europe, Africa and Antarctica. Bharat controlled the rest of the planet and responded by creating Panterra. In Europe, the border passed through the ruins of Moscow, the capital of defeated Euroslavia. The two newborn states did not recognize each other and began to prepare for a new massacre.
The Earth War (the Fifth World War in local historiography) became the first conflict of the new confrontation and was only slightly less bloody than TSW. The battlefield became Europe and Africa. Panterra hoped to drive the enemy out of the Old World and in the initial offensive reached the Rhine. However, after Vanadis entered the war and the massive use of tactical nuclear weapons, it rolled back to the Volga and stabilized on the Oka - in the same place where it began. The movement of the front was even more chaotic in Africa. After several years of marking time and a billion dead, under pressure from the superpowers, the parties signed a truce. Panterra was able to reach the Gulf of Guinea and SUN captured Antarctica. The war became an unprecedented disaster for Europe and Africa. What little that survived TSW was destroyed. Vast territories were depopulated, cities were destroyed. A significant part of the population was evacuated. There remains an army, drones, mining enterprises and aborigines who live on subsistence farming, huddle in ruins and die from radiation sickness. Both sides complied with the unspoken agreement and did not hit critical infrastructure despite the meat grinder. The space elevators of the Andes, Amazon, Maldives and Java, as well as the metropolitan cities of the East Coast and Bay of Bengal, were practically undamaged.
WWV showed that the separation was here to stay. The states recognized each other and signed a number of agreements on climate, ecology, de-escalation and arms reduction. However, this does not prevent us from preparing for the next, Sixth, World War, which will certainly be the last. Earth remains the most uncomfortable and poorest world in the system. Its average temperature approaches that of Venus, and its economy is half that of Vanadis and two-thirds that of the Federation.
Second UN
An ally of Venus, the second most populous state in the system. Poor corrupt cortical democracy. Originated on Venusian bayonets. It imitates the previous incarnation in everything, right down to placing the capital in the long-destroyed and drowned New York. Highgravism found the greatest response here and became the official ideology: we need to follow our racial brothers in everything in order to become as successful as them.
After WWV, New York began a painful modernization that led to many distortions. The transition to cortical democracy in a country where neural interfaces can allow 0.5% of citizens meant the exclusion of the entire population from political life. Quantum capitalism provides significant bonuses, but the transition period is accompanied by the collapse of the previous economic structure and excesses on the ground, especially in a 12 billion state. With the exception of the fabulously rich, by earthly standards, coastal megacities, the population is extremely poor and sometimes on the brink of survival. Regular uprisings are suppressed by the Vanadian army. Reforms are being carried out under the supervision of alien specialists occupying half of the positions in the government. For assistance in WWV, Vanadis received a concession of space elevators and mineral deposits. It deployed many military bases with a permanent multimillion-dollar contingent at the request of New York. The Venusian naval fleet patrols Earth's oceans. Ironically, the inhabitants of the SUN consider themselves free and Panterra - fascist slaves of the Selenites.
Panterra
A fascist dictatorship with its capital in Calcutta - «New Venice». Selena's ally. The most populous state in the system. There are more inhabitants than in all of space combined. The panterrists of Bharat were inspired by the successes of the Selenite race since pre-war times. In their opinion, earthlings face similar tasks and they need to be solved in a similar way: through a strong central government and state capitalism. Ideologically, panterrism is closer to “earthly nationalism.” The Earth is unique. This is the birthplace of humanity, the only natural inhabited world. Earthlings do not need to look up to others or seek mythical racial solidarity. Nobody needs them except themselves.
Panterra is a little richer than the SUN. The most developed and relatively unaffected regions of the Earth Directorate were transferred to Calcutta. Martian industry and infrastructure are still functioning, and many Martian officials have retained their positions. The SUN calls Panterra the "Second Directorate". However, Calcutta is an independent military force because the Selenites are unable to function properly in Earth's gravity. The Federation does not have bases on Earth or low orbit; they only need counterweights from space elevators and a geostationary station. Moreover, they need earthly personnel and mercenaries to work in the extreme conditions of the giants and security. This gives Panterra quite wide freedom of action.
The SUN accuses Panterra of Indian nationalism - Hindi is the only state language, Hindus occupy leading roles in economics and politics. Panterra responds with accusations of pan-Saxon imperialism.
Belt.
The Belt is awakening. The asteroid colonies have grown enough to begin modernization and have a voice in astropolitics. They have outgrown the primitive Belt identity and racial self-awareness: too different destinies, cultures and historical paths. They have been replaced by Cerenan, Hygean and other nationalisms. Pan-Beltism is marginalized and has become the prerogative of small asteroids to protect against larger ones.
There are fifty states in the Belt now. The most ancient colonies such as Ceres, Pallas, Hygeia, Hector are small but independent forces. All Martian colonies have gained independence, but a quarter of the Belt remains an Orbital colony and worlds such as Vesta still struggle for freedom. The environment and harsh conditions incline the Belters towards collectivism. Their regimes are usually authoritarian, radically right or left.
The Belt remains the most important source of raw materials for which there is a fierce struggle. It often results in civil wars and proxy conflicts.
Ceres. A nationalist dictatorship with imperial ambitions based on the antiquity, population and size of the planetoid. Claims to be a leader not only in the Belt but also among all Nulgraves. Entered the war after the Second Battle of the Moon and captured several nearby Martian asteroids. It extracts heavy elements that are scarce for the planetoid and crushes the rebels. Power is in the hands of neo-feudal elites that trace their ancestry back to the UN administration.
It has the largest army and space fleet in the Belt. Ceres has maintained good relations with Venus since pre-war times and is now one of the most important allies. Adopts technology, but not the political and economic model. Spent the accumulated wealth on building an atmospheric dome and terraforming the surface. This catapulted the authority of the Cererans into space.
Pallas. Former colony of Mars. Liberated by the Vanadis army. The military dictator carries out modernization using harsh methods and adopts the economic institutions of Venus but ignores the political ones.
Hygeia. The Federation's main ally in the Belt. A nationalist dictatorship led by a charismatic tyrant who declared the asteroid a kingdom and himself as regent. One of the first to declare war on Mars and was immediately occupied. Liberated by the Federation and actively modernized.
Vesta. The crown jewel of the Orbital colonial empire, the second most important world of the Belt. Torn by a civil war between pro-Selenite supporters of independence and pro-Vanadian supporters of autonomy. The main conflict of the decade in which military experts from all over the system are involved. Ironically, the Cererans and Palladians are fighting to maintain orbital dominance over their Belter brothers. Panterra's and the SUN military are killing each other in the tunnels of a world they don’t care about.
Greek Federation
Selena's ally. Controls several dozen asteroids in L4 Sun-Jupiter. Here there was a small colonial empire under the protectorate of orbitals where the “Trojans” - the inhabitants of the largest asteroid Hector, exploited the “Greeks” - all the others. The “Greeks” fought as partisans for many years until, with the help of the Selenites, they captured Hector and now control the government, ignoring the locals. The Trojan opposition maintains relations with Orbitals.
Saturn Federation
Mars established many colonies, stations and bases in the rings and small moons of Saturn. They lived by exporting ice and became a “rust belt” when the terraforming of Venus was completed. Selenites never laid claim to the entire Saturn system. However, the moons quickly became a breeding ground for piracy, smuggling, and Vanadian agents. The Federation is forced to keep a large contingent here, including for the safe transit of helium-3 from the giant’s atmosphere.
Republic of Iapetus
A small peaceful dictatorship. A small world on the edge of existence. What is happening there? No one knows. The Iapetians helped the Selenites during the war. They remain allies even now.
The Belt is awakening. The asteroid colonies have grown enough to begin modernization and have a voice in astropolitics. They have outgrown the primitive Belt identity and racial self-awareness: too different destinies, cultures and historical paths. They have been replaced by Cerenan, Hygean and other nationalisms. Pan-Beltism is marginalized and has become the prerogative of small asteroids to protect against larger ones.
There are fifty states in the Belt now. The most ancient colonies such as Ceres, Pallas, Hygeia, Hector are small but independent forces. All Martian colonies have gained independence, but a quarter of the Belt remains an Orbital colony and worlds such as Vesta still struggle for freedom. The environment and harsh conditions incline the Belters towards collectivism. Their regimes are usually authoritarian, radically right or left.
The Belt remains the most important source of raw materials for which there is a fierce struggle. It often results in civil wars and proxy conflicts.
Ceres. A nationalist dictatorship with imperial ambitions based on the antiquity, population and size of the planetoid. Claims to be a leader not only in the Belt but also among all Nulgraves. Entered the war after the Second Battle of the Moon and captured several nearby Martian asteroids. It extracts heavy elements that are scarce for the planetoid and crushes the rebels. Power is in the hands of neo-feudal elites that trace their ancestry back to the UN administration.
It has the largest army and space fleet in the Belt. Ceres has maintained good relations with Venus since pre-war times and is now one of the most important allies. Adopts technology, but not the political and economic model. Spent the accumulated wealth on building an atmospheric dome and terraforming the surface. This catapulted the authority of the Cererans into space.
Pallas. Former colony of Mars. Liberated by the Vanadis army. The military dictator carries out modernization using harsh methods and adopts the economic institutions of Venus but ignores the political ones.
Hygeia. The Federation's main ally in the Belt. A nationalist dictatorship led by a charismatic tyrant who declared the asteroid a kingdom and himself as regent. One of the first to declare war on Mars and was immediately occupied. Liberated by the Federation and actively modernized.
Vesta. The crown jewel of the Orbital colonial empire, the second most important world of the Belt. Torn by a civil war between pro-Selenite supporters of independence and pro-Vanadian supporters of autonomy. The main conflict of the decade in which military experts from all over the system are involved. Ironically, the Cererans and Palladians are fighting to maintain orbital dominance over their Belter brothers. Panterra's and the SUN military are killing each other in the tunnels of a world they don’t care about.
Greek Federation
Selena's ally. Controls several dozen asteroids in L4 Sun-Jupiter. Here there was a small colonial empire under the protectorate of orbitals where the “Trojans” - the inhabitants of the largest asteroid Hector, exploited the “Greeks” - all the others. The “Greeks” fought as partisans for many years until, with the help of the Selenites, they captured Hector and now control the government, ignoring the locals. The Trojan opposition maintains relations with Orbitals.
Saturn Federation
Mars established many colonies, stations and bases in the rings and small moons of Saturn. They lived by exporting ice and became a “rust belt” when the terraforming of Venus was completed. Selenites never laid claim to the entire Saturn system. However, the moons quickly became a breeding ground for piracy, smuggling, and Vanadian agents. The Federation is forced to keep a large contingent here, including for the safe transit of helium-3 from the giant’s atmosphere.
Republic of Iapetus
A small peaceful dictatorship. A small world on the edge of existence. What is happening there? No one knows. The Iapetians helped the Selenites during the war. They remain allies even now.
Republic of Ophion
Rich democracy. The largest exporter of helium-3. Vanadis's most important ally in the external system. Miniature colonial empire.
The population of Ophion has been divided into two roughly equal groups throughout history. The Highgraves, descendants of the Orbitals, live in cloudy zeppelin islands so huge and picturesque that from the inside they can easily be confused with ancient Earth. They are rich, engaged in helium mining, science, high-tech and art. Nullgraves, descendants of belters, inhabit the moons, are engaged in mining, manufacturing, logistics and are quite poor. Their relationship had always been strained, but due to the weak resistance to the Martian occupation, it worsened even more. After the war, the Uranites deprived the moon of its subjectivity, essentially establishing apartheid. Civil liberties are abolished, governors are appointed by Uranus, the population is deprived of cortical interfaces and therefore excluded from political life. A military contingent recruited from the inhabitants of the clouds keeps order. This led to constant unrest and riots. Oberon, the farthest moon, has been living in anti-terrorist operation mode for many years and is actually not subordinate to the government. But the forces are too unequal, and so far the atmosphere controls space without any problems.
The Ophionians are fanatical supporters of Vanadis. They share the ideas of Highgravism, adopt political and economic institutions, conduct intensive cultural exchanges, and allow the construction of military bases on the outer moons. The special relationship is also due to the coincidence of the gravity of Venus and Uranus down to thousandths (aka 0887 club). Many consider them a separate subrace. Vanadis is also the largest importer of helium in the system.
However, this does not prevent Ophion from maintaining trade relations with Selene, the second importer of helium. Uranus claims that he suffered for the right to trade with whomever he sees fit and will not give it up now.
Ophion society is extremely rich. The economy and population are growing rapidly, the standard of living is only slightly inferior to that of Venus. Many migrants arrived here from the devastated inner solar system after the war. Now those who fear a new war are immigrating. Migration is also going on to satellites. Despite all the restrictions, the standard of living on the moons of Uranus is higher than in the Belt.
Laconia
Totalitarian dictatorship. A high-tech militaristic, ascetic society where the best sons of Mars retreated.
Named after Laconia - a giant artificial island in the atmosphere of the planet where half the population lives. Neptune is a harsh, hostile world. Its gravity is 15% greater than that of Earth, in this it is second only to Jupiter. Laconians are distinguished as a separate race of n-graves, famous for their strength, endurance and courage. Colonization was carried out by veterans of the earthly front. They have supplied the Republic with helium-3 and elite Space Marines since time immemorial.
The war bypassed Neptune - it was too far away and too well fortified. Admiral Duarte, the permanent leader of Laconia, shortly before the surrender, sent a secret message to the remnants of the Martian fleet guarding what was left of the Martian colonial empire:
They took what they could and retreated to Neptune. A day before the capitulation, Laconia declared independence and concluded a separate peace and mutual defense treaty with Venus. This became the cause of the first serious discord between the superpowers.
The Laconians continued to attract Martians from throughout the solar system after the war. The best scientists, engineers and officers of the Republic from those who remained faithful to the Martian spirit and way of life moved to Neptune.
Through the export of helium, human capital and high technology, the small Laconian society remains one of the wealthiest in the system. The space fleet is second only to the superpowers and comparable to the orbital ones. The Laconians are leaders in many fields of science and are one of the few that can enable hyperdimensional exploration. But they are known for their asceticism, utilitarianism and severity. Under the doctrine of Laconianism, most of the income is invested in science, the army, and maintaining technological autarky from the rest of the system.
Laconians are supremarsists. They idealize the society of old, red, Mars. They admire the courage, resourcefulness, thirst for research and self-reliance of the first generations of Martians. Terraforming is considered the biggest mistake in Martian history in Laconian doctrine. Space is hostile to man and thus makes him stronger. This must be accepted. The Republic, tempered by a hostile environment, was able to defeat Terra and the orbitals. When it made Mars like Earth, it signed its own death warrant. It killed the spirit of adventurism and turned the pioneers into ordinary people isolated from the outside world. Martians would have colonized the stars long ago if not for terraforming. The defeat of the pampered Republic from the more resilient Selenites and Vanadians is a logical result. But they too have taken the destructive path and will share her fate. Meanwhile, the harsh Neptune will forge a race destined to conquer the universe. Not surprisingly, the Laconians consider the Nullgraves to be quite promising. Some go even further in their anti-terraformingism. The idea of “asteroid deterrforming” of all inhabited worlds, including Earth, is circulating among Neptune intellectuals. Exclusively for the sake of liberating the spirit and creative potential of humanity.
Laconia is famous for its intelligence department, one of the best in the system. She is especially active in the Belt. This is an important region for Neptune and is deprived of heavy elements. The Laconians established control over some of the former Martian colonies through old connections and anti-terraformingism.
The Laconians explore all the moons of their home world. But the entire population is born and grows on Neptune to maintain “gravitational purity.” Unlike the late Republic, they adhere to an extremely pro-natalist policy. They population is growing faster than in other worlds. Triton stands apart. Centuries-old autonomy, it is inhabited by a race of t-graves - half-breeds of null and lowgraves adapted to 0.08g. The Laconians are aggressively assimilating them within the framework of the doctrine of building a single nation. They take mothers and children to Neptune, where they conduct experiments on pharmacological and genetic inoculation of tolerance to increased gravity. The Tritonians are waging a guerrilla war. However, they are not supported by any other race.
Laconia was a consistent ally of Vanadis. For a long time it did not even have diplomatic relations with the Federation. However, having grown stronger, Laconia began to move away from Venus and builds bridges with Selena. Obviously, Neptune expects to move to neutrality.
Kuiper Belt
Useless and hostile to any human activity. Has no valuable resources or energy sources. However, only here the gravitational field of the sun weakens enough so as not to interfere with the work of delicate instruments for researching hyperspace. Research bases filled the outskirts of the solar system after the war. Vanadis annexed Martian Pluto and gained access to all the scientific developments of the Republic. The Federation confiscated technical developments and documentation on Mars, but was forced to develop scientific infrastructure on Eris from scratch. Orbital and Laconia, which lured some of their former fellow citizens from Pluto to Makemake, joined later.
Despite the initial enthusiasm, it soon became clear that interstellar travel and the widespread use of warp drive were very far away. Hyperspace is more hostile than space, just as space is more hostile than Earth. Only the most advanced technology is capable of withstanding radiation, overloads, and spatial deformations that accompany transition and travel in the warp. An even smaller part of the technology is capable of not getting lost in hyperbolic space. It took researchers decades of work to deliver the probes to Alpha Centauri in one piece and with a miss of less than a light month. Propagandists dream of a human journey to another star, but this is impossible at this technological level.
However, the accuracy and reliability are sufficient for the exchange of hyperspace strikes between Venus and Selene. But at least the warp radars deployed in Kuiper will not allow them to be carried out unnoticed.
Recently, stories in which something in hyperspace noticed human activity and attacked the solar system have become increasingly popular. Based on some indirect evidence, such as a statistically higher frequency of probe disappearances than models predict, signals of an unknown nature and unexplained anomalies, it is believed that these fears are not unfounded. Perhaps people have found the reason for the great silence of the universe.
Rich democracy. The largest exporter of helium-3. Vanadis's most important ally in the external system. Miniature colonial empire.
The population of Ophion has been divided into two roughly equal groups throughout history. The Highgraves, descendants of the Orbitals, live in cloudy zeppelin islands so huge and picturesque that from the inside they can easily be confused with ancient Earth. They are rich, engaged in helium mining, science, high-tech and art. Nullgraves, descendants of belters, inhabit the moons, are engaged in mining, manufacturing, logistics and are quite poor. Their relationship had always been strained, but due to the weak resistance to the Martian occupation, it worsened even more. After the war, the Uranites deprived the moon of its subjectivity, essentially establishing apartheid. Civil liberties are abolished, governors are appointed by Uranus, the population is deprived of cortical interfaces and therefore excluded from political life. A military contingent recruited from the inhabitants of the clouds keeps order. This led to constant unrest and riots. Oberon, the farthest moon, has been living in anti-terrorist operation mode for many years and is actually not subordinate to the government. But the forces are too unequal, and so far the atmosphere controls space without any problems.
The Ophionians are fanatical supporters of Vanadis. They share the ideas of Highgravism, adopt political and economic institutions, conduct intensive cultural exchanges, and allow the construction of military bases on the outer moons. The special relationship is also due to the coincidence of the gravity of Venus and Uranus down to thousandths (aka 0887 club). Many consider them a separate subrace. Vanadis is also the largest importer of helium in the system.
However, this does not prevent Ophion from maintaining trade relations with Selene, the second importer of helium. Uranus claims that he suffered for the right to trade with whomever he sees fit and will not give it up now.
Ophion society is extremely rich. The economy and population are growing rapidly, the standard of living is only slightly inferior to that of Venus. Many migrants arrived here from the devastated inner solar system after the war. Now those who fear a new war are immigrating. Migration is also going on to satellites. Despite all the restrictions, the standard of living on the moons of Uranus is higher than in the Belt.
Laconia
Totalitarian dictatorship. A high-tech militaristic, ascetic society where the best sons of Mars retreated.
Named after Laconia - a giant artificial island in the atmosphere of the planet where half the population lives. Neptune is a harsh, hostile world. Its gravity is 15% greater than that of Earth, in this it is second only to Jupiter. Laconians are distinguished as a separate race of n-graves, famous for their strength, endurance and courage. Colonization was carried out by veterans of the earthly front. They have supplied the Republic with helium-3 and elite Space Marines since time immemorial.
The war bypassed Neptune - it was too far away and too well fortified. Admiral Duarte, the permanent leader of Laconia, shortly before the surrender, sent a secret message to the remnants of the Martian fleet guarding what was left of the Martian colonial empire:
Only one day is left
Only one day
We are leaving the others
We're going away
Today we all steal
Animals we are
Possession is lost
Our souls are from the wild
And wings to reach the sky
Let the sun fall into the ocean,
Let the Mars erupt in flame
It is enough to have the strength
And knowledge
To raise our dream machines
Into the sky
Let them sleep who do not know
The final day is here
The very last
And we leave at dawn
There is no force no money and no power
To stop us now and change our fate
Now every problem is destroyed
We raise our hands and bodies to the peak
Into the Universe - towards the stars we go
Only one day
We are leaving the others
We're going away
Today we all steal
Animals we are
Possession is lost
Our souls are from the wild
And wings to reach the sky
Let the sun fall into the ocean,
Let the Mars erupt in flame
It is enough to have the strength
And knowledge
To raise our dream machines
Into the sky
Let them sleep who do not know
The final day is here
The very last
And we leave at dawn
There is no force no money and no power
To stop us now and change our fate
Now every problem is destroyed
We raise our hands and bodies to the peak
Into the Universe - towards the stars we go
The Laconians continued to attract Martians from throughout the solar system after the war. The best scientists, engineers and officers of the Republic from those who remained faithful to the Martian spirit and way of life moved to Neptune.
Through the export of helium, human capital and high technology, the small Laconian society remains one of the wealthiest in the system. The space fleet is second only to the superpowers and comparable to the orbital ones. The Laconians are leaders in many fields of science and are one of the few that can enable hyperdimensional exploration. But they are known for their asceticism, utilitarianism and severity. Under the doctrine of Laconianism, most of the income is invested in science, the army, and maintaining technological autarky from the rest of the system.
Laconians are supremarsists. They idealize the society of old, red, Mars. They admire the courage, resourcefulness, thirst for research and self-reliance of the first generations of Martians. Terraforming is considered the biggest mistake in Martian history in Laconian doctrine. Space is hostile to man and thus makes him stronger. This must be accepted. The Republic, tempered by a hostile environment, was able to defeat Terra and the orbitals. When it made Mars like Earth, it signed its own death warrant. It killed the spirit of adventurism and turned the pioneers into ordinary people isolated from the outside world. Martians would have colonized the stars long ago if not for terraforming. The defeat of the pampered Republic from the more resilient Selenites and Vanadians is a logical result. But they too have taken the destructive path and will share her fate. Meanwhile, the harsh Neptune will forge a race destined to conquer the universe. Not surprisingly, the Laconians consider the Nullgraves to be quite promising. Some go even further in their anti-terraformingism. The idea of “asteroid deterrforming” of all inhabited worlds, including Earth, is circulating among Neptune intellectuals. Exclusively for the sake of liberating the spirit and creative potential of humanity.
Laconia is famous for its intelligence department, one of the best in the system. She is especially active in the Belt. This is an important region for Neptune and is deprived of heavy elements. The Laconians established control over some of the former Martian colonies through old connections and anti-terraformingism.
The Laconians explore all the moons of their home world. But the entire population is born and grows on Neptune to maintain “gravitational purity.” Unlike the late Republic, they adhere to an extremely pro-natalist policy. They population is growing faster than in other worlds. Triton stands apart. Centuries-old autonomy, it is inhabited by a race of t-graves - half-breeds of null and lowgraves adapted to 0.08g. The Laconians are aggressively assimilating them within the framework of the doctrine of building a single nation. They take mothers and children to Neptune, where they conduct experiments on pharmacological and genetic inoculation of tolerance to increased gravity. The Tritonians are waging a guerrilla war. However, they are not supported by any other race.
Laconia was a consistent ally of Vanadis. For a long time it did not even have diplomatic relations with the Federation. However, having grown stronger, Laconia began to move away from Venus and builds bridges with Selena. Obviously, Neptune expects to move to neutrality.
Kuiper Belt
Useless and hostile to any human activity. Has no valuable resources or energy sources. However, only here the gravitational field of the sun weakens enough so as not to interfere with the work of delicate instruments for researching hyperspace. Research bases filled the outskirts of the solar system after the war. Vanadis annexed Martian Pluto and gained access to all the scientific developments of the Republic. The Federation confiscated technical developments and documentation on Mars, but was forced to develop scientific infrastructure on Eris from scratch. Orbital and Laconia, which lured some of their former fellow citizens from Pluto to Makemake, joined later.
Despite the initial enthusiasm, it soon became clear that interstellar travel and the widespread use of warp drive were very far away. Hyperspace is more hostile than space, just as space is more hostile than Earth. Only the most advanced technology is capable of withstanding radiation, overloads, and spatial deformations that accompany transition and travel in the warp. An even smaller part of the technology is capable of not getting lost in hyperbolic space. It took researchers decades of work to deliver the probes to Alpha Centauri in one piece and with a miss of less than a light month. Propagandists dream of a human journey to another star, but this is impossible at this technological level.
However, the accuracy and reliability are sufficient for the exchange of hyperspace strikes between Venus and Selene. But at least the warp radars deployed in Kuiper will not allow them to be carried out unnoticed.
Recently, stories in which something in hyperspace noticed human activity and attacked the solar system have become increasingly popular. Based on some indirect evidence, such as a statistically higher frequency of probe disappearances than models predict, signals of an unknown nature and unexplained anomalies, it is believed that these fears are not unfounded. Perhaps people have found the reason for the great silence of the universe.
Basemap by slimysomething
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The level of detail and graphics is incredible but I think the population numbers are too high. Earth itself is expected to top out about 9 Billion in 2046 and then began to decline. Also, I am amazed no group built slower than light ships using planetoids or some other material to launch vessels outside the system.
Reference:
www.theguardian.com
Reference:
World ‘population bomb’ may never go off as feared, finds study
Population likely to peak sooner and lower than expected with beneficial results – but environment is priority
www.theguardian.com
The situation of the world as of Anno Domini 1936, immediatley prior to the outbreak of the Second Great War. The Central Powers, victorious in the Great War have gone their separate ways. Austria has fallen out with Germany over what they see as Berlin's meddling in their sphere in Poland and Ukraine, espacially the former with Germany foiling Austria's designs to annex Poland and unite the Poles under Habsburg rule. Ukraine with its Habsburg king having to kowtow to the Hohenzollern Kaiser is also a sore point between Karl and Wilhelm III. A resurgent Russian Empire seeks to reclaim its territory in the Baltics and Finland, having already reconquered the Alash Orda and the Turkestan Republic and forged alliances with Khiva, Bukhara, and Georgia. In the south, the Ottomans and Bulgaria turn their eyes towards each other, seeking western Thrace and Constantinople respectively. In the west, the restored Kingdom of France seeks to undo the failures of the Republic and the Empire by reclaiming Alsace-Lorraine, and Belgium grows increasingly restless under German dominance. In the midst of all this division, the Habsburgs and Romanovs have signed a secret treaty, the latter recognising Austria's influence in Poland-Lithuania and Ukraine in exchange for the former's support of the reclamation of the United Baltic Duchy and the Kingdom of Finland.
Everything come to a head on the 17th of June 1936. The Polish military, supported by pro-Habsburg forces in the civilian government and the Habsburg Monarchy, coup the German controlled Regency Council and place them into house arrest. The military and the Archbishop of Warsaw formally proclaim Kaiser-Konig Karl as King of Poland. On the same day, King Vasyl, supported by most of Ukraine, Russia, and the Habsburgs, declares the independence of Ukraine. On the 18th, Karl accepts the Crown of Poland and proclaims the unification of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth with the Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria. He also guarantees the independence of Ukraine along with Russia. On the 19th, Germany sends an ultimatum to Warsaw, Kyiv, and Vienna, demanding that the actions of the previous two days be reversed or face war. On the 20th, all three nations reject their ultimatum and Germany declares war. In short order, Russia has joined against Austria, France has joined Russia, Bulgaria has announced its support for Austria and Italy and the Ottomans are supporting Germany. Meanwhile in the east, the dormant Chinese Civil War has reignited, as the Anglo-German-Japanese supported Republic of China crosses the Line of Actual Control into the Habsburg/Romanov/Bourbon supported Empire of the Great Qing Dynsaty. The Second Great War has officially begun.
Feel free to ask questions about the lore and stay tuned for the sequel depicting the world immediatley after the SGW.
I recently looked back into the early pages of the thread and the currency map in the page 18 inspired me. So I applied the idea to my on and off timeline project thing.
1a. West African Mark is essentially the West African Franc of OTL. Established as the currency of the German protected/administrated International Concord Transitional Authority of West Africa as well as German colonies of Togoland and Dahomey. It was kept by all the succeeding states.
1b. German Cameroon/Kammerun, Congo and Gabon Colonies were also issued a common currency of the Middle African Mark, which following their independence as the Empire of Equatorial Africa was renamed Equatorial African Mark. Following the independence of Kamerun its government established a new currency but maintained the pegged exchange rate and common monetary policy. Following its independence from the Britannic Union Equatorial Guinea established Ekwele as its national currency which was pegged to the Equatorial African/Kamerun Mark to facilitate easier trade with their neighbours.
1c. Cabinda hadn't yet issued a new currency after its independence from Portugal at the time of the Congolese Invasion. Following the liberation of Cabinda by Coalition Troops and with German and Russian bases established on Cabindan soil both the Mark and the Ruble were adopted as legal tender. They were later replaced by the adoption of the Equatorial African Mark as sole legal tender.
2. Central African Pound/Livre has a similar history to the West African Mark, first established as the currency of the Turkish protected International Concord Transitional Authority of Central Africa and kept by Darfur, Chad and Central African Republic (thought the Central African Democratic Peoples Republic issued its own currency). Once Algeria, Hejaz-Levant and Union of Arab States became independent from the Ottoman Empire they adopted their own currencies pegged to the Ottoman/Turkish Lira. With Hejaz-Levant and Union of Arab States adopting a singular currency under the name Arabian Riyal, thought with different designs, which is pegged to the Turkish Lira 1-to-1. Eritrea's status as a hardline communist dictatorship even after the fall of the Britannic Union lead to the Turkish lead international intervention into Eritrea as well as the establishment of an International Concord Transitional Authority lead by Turkey. Following the end of the ICTA of Eritrea and the establishment of the Republic of Eritrea in 1997 a new currency, the Eritrean Lira, was introduced, which is pegged to the Turkish Lira. Following independence from Azerbaijan from Transcaucasia its new currency was also pegged to the Turkish Lira.
3. While Ireland, Jamaica, Guyana and Antillea adopted new currencies after independence from the Union of Britannic Syndicalist Commonwealths their currencies remained pegged to the Britannic and later the British Pound (with Guyana and Antillea adopting an unified currency under the name Eastern Carribean Dollar).
4. As only territories left under direct British Control while the UBSC existed the British colonies in Southeast Asia and the Pacific continued to use the Pound Sterling. With Australian reunification and Papua New Guinea being ceded from Australia to British Empire in Exile. With the final dissolution of the Britannic Union and restoration of the United Kingdom the British territories in the region were formed into the Dominion of Malaysia-Pacifica. While Aceh, Papua New Guinea, Micronesia, Polynesia and Pacifica later became independent (leaving Malaysia) and Brunei never was a part of it but all these states now use the Malaysia and Pacifica Pound as their common currency.
5. Originally South African Pound was the currency of South Africa and Namibia but after their independence from UBSC Botswana and Zimbabwe also adopted the currency.
6. Quebec became independent of the UBSC in 1989 while New England and the Maritimes became independent in 1990 (and unified in 1991). Quebec was quick to issue its own currency while New England only issued the New England Dollar in 1991, at which point the government decided to peg it to the Quebec Dollar to facilitate easier trade with its neighbour.
7. Indian Rupee is also legal tender in Nepal and Bhutan (and technically is still in use in the Islamic Republic of Hindustan, thought being phased out). Thought there are rumours that Bhutan is considering switching to Bengal and Assam Taka as the country is now isolated from India by Republic of Bengal and Assam.
8. Federal Republic of the Congo (and previously the Provisional Government of the Congo) has adopted the Russian Ruble as legal tender as the Zaire (currency under the Africanist Republic of the Congo) had become practically worthless, the Provisional Government was in no shape to issue new currency and Russians were the most significant foreign force in Congo (with the Provisional Government mostly held up by Russian guns) (thought it is likely that a new Congolese Franc will be issued soon). Similarly order in the newly liberated parts of South Sudan is mostly held up by Russian Military forces and as such the legitimate government, newly returned from exile, introduced the Ruble as an additional official currency. Especially as most of the country is controlled by the Social Republic of South Sudan.
9. Italian Lira is official currency in Vatican and San Marino as well as the Kingdom of Italy.
10. French Franc is official in Britanny and Andorra.
11. While the old Pacific Federation is no more it's currency is maintained by California and Utah as a common currency. It is speculated that the Pacific Dollar, Mexican Peso, United States Dollar and perhaps even the Canadian Dollar may be replaced by a common currency in the near future.
*1: Panama Canal Zone is administrated by the International Concord. Colombian Peso, Russian Ruble, German Mark, Turkish Lira, British Pound Sterling, Japanese Yen, Indian Rupee, Pacific Dollar, American Socialist Federation Dollar (or East American Dollar), Chinese Renminbi and United States Dollar are all recognized as legal tender (with the Colombian Peso being the most common). Reintroduction of Panamanian Balboa, replacing the myriad currencies is an oft suggested reform that has had hit walls with most great powers being unwilling to have their currencies replaced.
*2: West Zambia has issued a new currency of its own but Renminbi and Angolan Kwanza are also accepted as tender.
*3: Following the civil war and independence of West Zambia the Zambian Kwacha was heavily devalued. With South African Pound being adopted as a co-official currency.
*4: With the recent civil war (as well as the brief Congolese administration) having caused great damage to Uganda the value of Ugandan Shilling is very low. Therefore British Pound Sterling, Malaysia and Pacifica Pound, South African Pound, Australian Dollar, Tanganyikan Shilling and Kenyan Shilling currently accepted as legal tender.
*5: Social Republic of South Sudan has introduced a new currency but the old South Sudanese Pound remains in some use while Renminbi has also become an accepted currency.
Various retcons will/may happen and not necessarily be reflected in the posts or this index
Maps:
Partition of Laos
WW1 and WW2
WW1 and WW2, earlier version with small write up
WW2 ATL-1-1
WW2 ATL-1-2
WW2 ATL-2
WW2 ATL-3
WW1 ATL-1
International Concord
Political/Military Alliances
Political/Military Alliances 1975
Economic Blocs
Human Development Index
Forms of Government (Darfur retconned to being a Monarchy)
(Older map) Nuclear Powers, with nuclear umbrellas
Democracy Index
Most Popular Sports by Nation
PSA/Pacific Federation/California Elections
USA Elections
USSA/ASF Elections
Territorial Evolution of Malaysia(-Pacifica) (with CoA sketches and notes)
3rd Carrier Division World Tour
British Referendums
Timezones
Military spending as share of GDP
Flags:
3 Malaysian blue ensigns (Ones with supporters canon)
Ensign of the Britannic Revolutionary Navy
Updated East South Sudan, Socialist Australia, Socialist New Zealand (this South Sudan retconned, the other one is still canon)
Malaysian and Pacifican Blue Ensigns
South Sudanese Flags
Latest Flags of USSA and ASF
Flag of the International Concord
Rio de la Platan and Sudamerican Flags
Second Flag of Pacific Federation
PSA Flags (Pacific Federation Flag retconned)
Algerian Flag (the bottom one)
Flag of Ghana (the bottom one)
Flag of Chinese Social Republic
Flags of Sudan
Flag of the Republic of Nyasaland
Flag of Sri Lanka
Flag of Chad
Flags of the Baltic Kingdom
Flag of the Socialist Union of Central America
Flags of the Britannic Union and subdivisions
Flag of the United States Liberal Party
Royal Standard of the United Kingdom
Non-Map and Non-Flag Graphics:
Britannic Union Air Force Roundel
West French, Ottoman and Russian Roundels
Istanbul Pact Roundels
South Africa, Malaysia(-Pacifica), New England Roundels
PSA/Pacific Federation/California Roundels
Ghana Roundel
Indian and Sri Lankan Roundels
Warspite, under Britannic command, bombing the French
Coat of Arms of the Dominion of Pacifica (shark outdated)
Coat of Arms of the Dominion of Malaysia-Pacifica (1992-2008)
Malaysian CoAs, a blue ensign for Malaysia
Air Force roundels of DR Australia and Bohemia (New Zealand changed)
Air Force roundels of PR New Zealand/Aotearoa and Brittany
Text:
Commonwealth Roundels
List of the Leaders of Britannic Union (political parties and leaders mentioned in note 7 can be disregarded)
List of the Presidents of USSA/ASF (partially retconned check map for updated version)
List of the Presidents of USA
List of the Presidents of PSA/Pacific Federation/California
List of the Prime Ministers of the UK
List of Political and Military Leaders of the European Council and predecessor organisations
Rulers of the Romanov Realms
Political Parties of the Russian Empire
Political Parties of the Turkestani Federation
Political Parties of the PSA/Pacific Federation/California
List of Sovereign States
List of Dreadnought Battleships, Fast Battleships and Battlecruisers
List of Aircraft Carriers
List of Ballistic Missile Submarines
Primary Subdivisions of UBSC at its height (1972-1976)
Basic organization of the Union of Arab States
IC Great Powers
Notes and Ideas
Ideas and Thoughts on Britain
Socialist Symbols ITTL
Basic Historical Overview of Iran
Broad history of Balkan states
Monarchies and the titles of their rulers
History Exam: Japan from WW2 to 1970
Misconception of USSA Dictatorship
Treaty of Chicago, 1970 (Chicago could be District of Lincoln instead of Jefferson)
Rise and Fall of the Britannic Union
Revolutionary Armed Forces
Indian Battleships
Marine Royale Capital Ships
Some writing on parliaments of UK in exile, Malaysia-Pacifica, Restored UK and UAS
Ottoman/Turkish Navy ships trough the years
Ottoman Battleships
Maps:
Partition of Laos
WW1 and WW2
WW1 and WW2, earlier version with small write up
WW2 ATL-1-1
WW2 ATL-1-2
WW2 ATL-2
WW2 ATL-3
WW1 ATL-1
International Concord
Political/Military Alliances
Political/Military Alliances 1975
Economic Blocs
Human Development Index
Forms of Government (Darfur retconned to being a Monarchy)
(Older map) Nuclear Powers, with nuclear umbrellas
Democracy Index
Most Popular Sports by Nation
PSA/Pacific Federation/California Elections
USA Elections
USSA/ASF Elections
Territorial Evolution of Malaysia(-Pacifica) (with CoA sketches and notes)
3rd Carrier Division World Tour
British Referendums
Timezones
Military spending as share of GDP
Flags:
3 Malaysian blue ensigns (Ones with supporters canon)
Ensign of the Britannic Revolutionary Navy
Updated East South Sudan, Socialist Australia, Socialist New Zealand (this South Sudan retconned, the other one is still canon)
Malaysian and Pacifican Blue Ensigns
South Sudanese Flags
Latest Flags of USSA and ASF
Flag of the International Concord
Rio de la Platan and Sudamerican Flags
Second Flag of Pacific Federation
PSA Flags (Pacific Federation Flag retconned)
Algerian Flag (the bottom one)
Flag of Ghana (the bottom one)
Flag of Chinese Social Republic
Flags of Sudan
Flag of the Republic of Nyasaland
Flag of Sri Lanka
Flag of Chad
Flags of the Baltic Kingdom
Flag of the Socialist Union of Central America
Flags of the Britannic Union and subdivisions
Flag of the United States Liberal Party
Royal Standard of the United Kingdom
Non-Map and Non-Flag Graphics:
Britannic Union Air Force Roundel
West French, Ottoman and Russian Roundels
Istanbul Pact Roundels
South Africa, Malaysia(-Pacifica), New England Roundels
PSA/Pacific Federation/California Roundels
Ghana Roundel
Indian and Sri Lankan Roundels
Warspite, under Britannic command, bombing the French
Coat of Arms of the Dominion of Pacifica (shark outdated)
Coat of Arms of the Dominion of Malaysia-Pacifica (1992-2008)
Malaysian CoAs, a blue ensign for Malaysia
Air Force roundels of DR Australia and Bohemia (New Zealand changed)
Air Force roundels of PR New Zealand/Aotearoa and Brittany
Text:
Commonwealth Roundels
List of the Leaders of Britannic Union (political parties and leaders mentioned in note 7 can be disregarded)
List of the Presidents of USSA/ASF (partially retconned check map for updated version)
List of the Presidents of USA
List of the Presidents of PSA/Pacific Federation/California
List of the Prime Ministers of the UK
List of Political and Military Leaders of the European Council and predecessor organisations
Rulers of the Romanov Realms
Political Parties of the Russian Empire
Political Parties of the Turkestani Federation
Political Parties of the PSA/Pacific Federation/California
List of Sovereign States
List of Dreadnought Battleships, Fast Battleships and Battlecruisers
List of Aircraft Carriers
List of Ballistic Missile Submarines
Primary Subdivisions of UBSC at its height (1972-1976)
Basic organization of the Union of Arab States
IC Great Powers
Notes and Ideas
Ideas and Thoughts on Britain
Socialist Symbols ITTL
Basic Historical Overview of Iran
Broad history of Balkan states
Monarchies and the titles of their rulers
History Exam: Japan from WW2 to 1970
Misconception of USSA Dictatorship
Treaty of Chicago, 1970 (Chicago could be District of Lincoln instead of Jefferson)
Rise and Fall of the Britannic Union
Revolutionary Armed Forces
Indian Battleships
Marine Royale Capital Ships
Some writing on parliaments of UK in exile, Malaysia-Pacifica, Restored UK and UAS
Ottoman/Turkish Navy ships trough the years
Ottoman Battleships
Ayy, Venus was colonized. I wish such a cool location was thing to be explored in the books.
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good
Solar system opera. The timeline covers most of the third millennium. In some ways, a reimagining of The Expansion with a little more realism. Without xenotech, strange alien substances and food from Ganymede.
Lots of maps. Lots of text. There are few neural network art.
The text was translated using Google Translator.
Expanse in freeze frames
First Steps. 2150.
Mid 22nd century. United humanity colonizes space. The asteroid belt and the Moon in priority. Their raw materials are needed by the suffocating economy of the Earth. Mars is the new frontier where the best engineers and scientists migrate. Mars has been explored enough to confirm the possibility of terraforming. And rich enough to start it.
Martian Revolution. 2267.
Several generations were born on Mars who have never seen Earth. The intellectual elites dream of independence. The planet has outgrown the management of the bone earth bureaucracy and has less and less in common with the rest of the UN.
When the Earth is on the other side of the sun, Mars raises a revolution and proclaims the Martian Republic. A technocratic hierarchical state with a strong civil society living the dream of terraforming.
The UN has nothing to answer. Earth has no army and no space fleet other than a police force to fight the pirates. New York can only declare an embargo, but that doesn't help. Soon Mars completely passes under the control of the revolutionaries.Confrontation. 2344.
Mars is too valuable a trading partner. The embargo is being lifted under pressure from business. Nevertheless, the Cold War is gaining momentum. Both sides are building up armies and space fleets.
Mars needs resources and tries to gain a foothold in the Belt. However, after several battles, the UN makes it clear that it will not tolerate the presence of others. The Martians make a surprise move and annex unclaimed Mercury, which is logistically less accessible but just as rich in minerals and "rightfully belongs to the Martian race" due to similar gravity. The Martians also go out into the outer system and build bases near the rings of Saturn from where they take ice for terraforming. Earthlings are forced to colonize the neighboring moon Tethys.
The first O'Neill Islands are being built in L4 Earth-Moon. These are 32 km cylinders with centrifugal gravity and a full-fledged biosphere. The richest people move here.
Vanadis Inc buys the right to colonize Venus and builds the first cloud cities.First Solar War. 2424.
The escalation could not continue indefinitely. Another clash of patrols in the outer system suddenly escalates into the first solar war.
Mars is technologically superior to Earth but many times inferior in population and economy.. However, the Martian society is monolithic, the economy is autarky, and all power is in the hands of the military. The UN is hesitant to go to total war for fear of unrest and is critically dependent on imports from the colonies. Earth expects to win the war of attrition by flooding the enemy with meat and metal. Mars understands this and acts asymmetrically: sponsoring the Belt rebels, issuing letters of marque, using advanced stealth technology to strike at communications and trade routes. Mars also puts a lot of emphasis on propaganda, both in the colonies and on Earth itself. It blames the UN for suppression of local cultures, corruptions, strict environmental standards and birth control. This has already led to unrest on the Moon and a revolution at the Lagrange stations, which are suffering the most from disruptions in logistics. The exchange of nuclear strikes on the mother countries brings less damage to the Republic, since the Martian missile defense system is more perfect than the earthly one. For every nuclear mushroom on Mars there are five on Earth.
However, the Republic is gradually losing. Saturn is lost. Mercury's missile defense system has been broken and 200 Martians are desperately defending the last base in the northern hemisphere. The Republic has only succeeded in occupying a few Belt asteroids and completely disintegrating space trade.
Vanadis Inc remains neutral and moves its headquarters to Venus.Martian Summer. 2489.
An absolute triumph. The golden age and the peak of the greatness of the Martian civilization.
The Republic's plan worked. The UN won a series of military victories, but internal pressure tore it apart. Mars is the hegemon of the solar system and dominates the economy, politics, and culture. The Republic maintains dominance by diplomacy and authority, not by military presence. Everyone is grateful to the Martians for the liberation from the tyranny of the UN. Victory Day is a holiday for the entire solar system. Earth was divided into a dozen states-civilizations: Pansax, Columbia, Eurobund, Slavia, Bharat, Nusantara, Han and others. They all admire Mars and thank for the liberation from the age-old Yoke. Pansax is the only exception as they have lost more than they have gained, but they are neutral at worst. For the next two centuries, the only opponents of the Republic remain Belt radicals and pirates beefed up during the war.
Phobos and Deimos changed orbits and became counterweights for space elevators. The flow of migrants fuels the rapidly growing Martian economy, prosperity reaches unprecedented heights. Terraforming brings its first fruits. A breathing mask is still needed, but the atmosphere is warm and dense enough to hold the seas. Along the turbulent rivers, the first forests grow on which the first rains fall.
Vanadis Inc. is inspired by the success of Mars and announces the beginning of the terraforming of Venus for a period of 400 years. The planet has become a popular negotiating platform since the peace treaty signed here by the MR and the successors to the UN.Before the Second Solar War. 2602.
Clouds are gathering over Mars. The era of universal adoration is a thing of the past. The Republic is the new oppressor for the Belt. The nations of Earth are disappointed. The tyranny of the UN has become history, and the disadvantages of separation are multiplying: climate, ecology, overpopulation, conflicts. The Republic made it clear that it did not want to interfere, and the earthlings realized that the Martians were only interested in the prosperity of Mars. The image of the liberator and beacon of hope dissipated.
New powers appear on the scene. The United Orbital Stations is an oligarchic republic, an alliance of O'Neill cylinders in the Earth-Moon Lagrange with a perfect climate and zero crime. Orbital is located outside the gravity wells, at the crossroads of trade routes and has nothing but human and financial capital, therefore it is entirely focused on production, trade and commerce. The Orbitals have inherited many of the Earth's assets in the Belt and Outer System, the best specialists have migrated here and the financial elites have settled here. Over the course of several centuries, they have grown significantly, have multiplied their capital many times over, and are now investing in the development of new horizons. Orbital will actively expand through the creation of holdings and subsidiaries. The Ophion Company is developing the helium of Uranus, the East Titan Company is developing the hydrocarbons of the moon of the same name. The Jovian Company initiated the colonization of Jupiter's moons, and so on. The largest, the West-Earth Company, deals with Terra. In exchange for the investment, the Orbitals gain control of the economy, buy out cities, and build a parallel corporate infrastructure that replaces existing government institutions.
They carry an ideology of extreme individualism and objectivism, in which they receive support from the natives, disillusioned with the statist bureaucracies of the era of decentralization. By the end of the 26th century, this made Orbital a great commercial colonial empire, able to compete for leadership in the system.
Despite friendly relations and close ties, the intersection of the interests of the Republic and the Orbitals was only a matter of time. Mars entered the race for the outer system and colonized Neptune and Titan. The Republic sabotaged the creation of the East Earth Company, entered into an alliance with the statists of Eurasia, deployed military bases and a navy on Earth to contain oceanic fleets of the Orbitals. The conflict became a matter of time.
The Orbitals are not ahead of Mars technologically and are many times inferior in population, but they are generally recognized gods of automation and extremely rich. Robotic asteroid shipyards build automated fleets that patrol trade routes. Droid armies guard assets throughout the system. Unlike the Republic, their civilization is critically dependent on space and entirely focused on it. Therefore, the fleet and army of the Orbitals is not inferior and sometimes even surpass the Martian ones. This is accompanied by a much higher standard of living and colossal financial opportunities. Through banks and various funds, they can influence not only the allies of Mars, but also some of the elites of the Republic itself
The first crisis was on Ceres - the most important world of the Belt. Mars prevented a corporate takeover at the last moment, smashed the Orbital forces and occupy the planetoid.
The second crisis broke out in the orbit of Callisto. The Republic fleet was destroyed in the battle. The Orbitals made it clear that they would not tolerate the presence of Mars in the Jupiter system.
The third crisis is going on right now. Uncertainty in the demarcation of certain areas of Titan has led to constant provocations and skirmishes. Both sides are building up forces in the Saturn system. Soon this local crisis will grow into a global conflict. The Second Solar War will begin.Martian Autumn. 2711.
The Second Solar War is known as the Gentleman's War. The opponents did not hit the metropolises and critical infrastructure, respected the prisoners and civilians, declared festive truces and paid compensation for the damage caused. The war engulfed the entire solar system but was limited. The opponents intended to cut off supply lines, establish a blockade and impose more or less worthy peace conditions. The initiative changed hands for many years, but Mars won. Largely due to the entry of the moon into the war. But this did not lead to a new golden age.
The Republic retained its dominant position and the status of the only superpower, but it was no longer the same dominance as a century earlier. The war undermined the finances, the planet got into debt. The reputation of a liberator is gone. Orbital propaganda took off and Mars was now seen as an oppressor. Military presence, previously negligible, was now required throughout the system. Mercury and the Belt rebelled. The Republic is up to its neck in earthly affairs.
The completion of terraforming was an outlet. Mars has become a more comfortable world than Earth and the difference has been increasing every year. But the holiday soon turned into a value crisis. A society with a common dream for 500 years, a dream for which they made any sacrifice, suddenly found itself without a goal. The unrest turned into a sluggish civil war. Millions of veterans who returned from the earthly front exacerbated it. They saw first hand how overpopulation could destroy the originally living world and became the core of the movement that brought Mars to a new balance. From expansion and development, the Republic moved on to maintaining the achieved prosperity and flourishing Mars at any cost. Borders closed, strict birth control replaced pronatalism. The planet has isolated itself from the rest of the system. This has led to stagnation, a slowdown in social mobility and income stratification, greater reliance on state support, and the rise of populism.
Dissenters were offered to migrate to numerous Martian colonies: Mercury, Titan, Neptune, Earth. But there were few who wanted to. Ironically, the Martians turned out to be poor colonists because they were too attached to the world in which they had invested so much effort.
Orbitals didn't lose much. Under the Treaty of São Paulo, they lost corporate control over Earth, Jupiter and Uranus, but retained possessions in the Belt, Trojans and most of the assets, including those they owned on Mars. The Orbitals have abandoned their claim to sol system hegemony, but retained enough wealth to live a decent life.
The rules of war and gentlemen's agreements did not apply to Earth, where the largest massacre in the history of mankind unfolded. Earthlings, exalted by space propaganda, turned the conflict into an existential battle between objectivists and etatists. They massively used nuclear, biological and chemical weapons. Billions died, thousands of cities were destroyed, the climate went haywire. The oppressed biosphere degraded even more. In space, a relative parity of forces was maintained, but on Earth, the Republic's allies could not cope with the legions of droids and mercenaries armed with the advanced teachings of Objectivism. Mars sent a multi-million army in power armor to help and urgently gathered allies into the Earth Directory - a military organization under the temporary leadership of Mars, only for the period of the war. But the temporary turned out to be permanent. After the victory, the Directory took over the distribution of Republican loans, the expeditionary force maintained order, and the Martian navy continued to control the Earth's oceans. Stratospheric towers and terraced cities in the Himalayas and Andes were built for Martian soldiers and officials. Mars has moved the dirtiest industries here. East Asia and the Pacific have become a kind of Martian India.
Meanwhile, the earthlings became disillusioned with decentralization. The war showed why the UN was needed. There were many universalist TERRArist movements that fought against alien invaders. Terrorist attacks and riots forced the Martians to further increase military spending. Subsidies to satellites for keeping radicals out of power have become a constant expense item.
Lunar Republic was a poor, unstable state, with overpopulated caverns and cramped sublunar cities since independence. The government managed to restore order only shortly before the war. It adhered to neutrality to the last, fearing destabilization. But Mars found a way by promising investment and the Jupiter system, whose moons' gravity was perfect for the Lunarians. Lunar Fleet helped tie down the free forces of the Orbitals. Lunar Army helped capture important cylinders and close the blockade. All the forces of Luna are aimed at venting the population pressure into the new frontier since then. Several generations have already been born on the satellites that do not associate themselves with Luna. Ideas of a new, racial, identity are spreading among the lunar intellectuals. "Homo Selenicus" (also known as lowgraves) is a race that inhabits the six largest moons with similar gravity and living conditions. Selenism is a fringe ideology, but the number of its supporters is growing rapidly.
The system's eyes are fixed on Venus, where civil war is raging. Vanadis society has outgrown corporate governance. It tired of imposed monopolies and growing rents for oxygen, rain, sun and land. Surface settlers have rebelled against the corporate overlords and hereditary rentiers who live in luxurious automated cloud cities dating back to the age of hot Venus. On the side of the corporation there are droids, mercenaries and gigantic financial resources. On the side of the people - the number and horizontal coordination through innovative cortical interfaces. Martian settlements in the rings of Saturn experience the greatest costs. Venus has been the main consumer of ice for the last century and war does not help fulfill contracts.On the eve of the Third Solar War. 2807.
The economic crisis of the late 28th century hit the solar system painfully. Impoverishment led to a widespread rise in populism and radicalism.
The Republic is faced with an unprecedented increase in unemployment. Almost half of Martians depend on an unconditional basic income. Riots are raging in colonies where there are no social guarantees. Pirate activity in the Belt has increased significantly. The situation escalated to war in the newly annexed Martian Africa. Social and military spending is rising. Mars has just paid off his borrowings but is getting into debt again.
The Selenite Party won a majority, dissolved parliament, and reorganized the decrepit, corrupt Lunar Republic into the Selenite Federation, a racist ideocratic state whose goal was to lead the Lowgravs to dominate the solar system. The Selenites are experiencing an economic boom, terraforming Callisto, investing in science and expanding the army. They continue to multiply quickly, unlike Mars with its birth control. The Federation already surpasses Mars in femtotech, quantum AI and relativistic artillery - a new direction of military thought. Its fleet is still inferior to the Martian one, but is already capable of challenging the two-century hegemony of the Republic.
Vanadis Republic freed itself from the corporate yoke and became an economic superpower and the main creditor of the solar system. Neutrality, openness to innovation, and advanced socio-economic institutions such as cortical democracy and quantum capitalism have made the Vanadians extremely wealthy. Venusian goods are rightfully considered the best, and the economy is second only to that of Mars and is equal to that of Earth with a tenfold smaller population. The collapse of the Vanadian stock market due to the terraform derivatives bubble triggered a global crisis. However, the Vanadians were almost unharmed
The crisis has had the greatest impact on Earth. In Pansax and Bharat, the two strongest powers on the planet, moderate forces were replaced by radical anti-Martian movements dreaming of a united Terra. They strongly welcome the liberation struggle of Africa and are building up military forces, intending to solve internal problems with external expansion.
Interplanetary tension is growing, a new arms race has gained momentum. Despite the Republic's countermeasures, the Federation is catching up in the army and navy. The Selenites openly declare their intention to unite the "six homeworlds" including the Martian Titan. They enter into military agreements with the anti-Martian Earth movements and sponsor the Mercury and Belt rebels. Vanadis, meanwhile, opens credit lines to anyone. Venus shows that it does not intend to abandon the centuries-old policy of neutrality that has brought so many benefits.
Many expect a global war. But few people thought that it would begin in the same place as the previous one. Migrants from the Lunar Republic have long become the majority on Titan. Due to terrorist activity, the Martian administration limited the rights of the Selenites. This caused unrest, riots and the murder of a Republican minister. The performers and organizers fled to the Federation, which refused to extradite them and put forward counter-demands with the abolition of all restrictions for the inhabitants of Titan. While powers flex their muscles and hope that the enemy will blink first, the satellite is plunged into turmoil. The Third Solar War is at hand.Second battle for Luna. 2817.
Many believed that the Third Solar War would be as gentlemanly as the Second. There is no need for civilized space nations to destroy each other. They were wrong. The Lunar-Martian War engulfed the entire solar system and became the bloodiest conflict in human history and was accompanied by war crimes, concentration camps, genocide, all-out bombing and the use of weapons of mass destruction.
Following the blitzkrieg strategy, the Martians quickly defeated the near-Earth flotillas of the Selenites and blockaded the Moon, hoping, like the last time, to convince the enemy to negotiate. However, this did not happen. The Federation evacuated the government, valuable specialists and industry to the Jupiter system and continued the fight. The landing on the Moon encountered fanatical resistance and uprisings in the occupied territories. The Martians were forced to switch to orbital bombardment and concentration camps. After several years of heavy fighting, the destroyed satellite, with its population reduced by a third, fell. Hopes for a quick end to the war were dashed.
Attempts by the Martian fleet to storm the Galilees ended in complete failure. Overprotected and too far from the support bases of the inner solar system, Fortress Jupiter proved invulnerable to Republic forces. The parties found themselves in a strategic stalemate. Unable to win directly, the Martians decided to isolate Jupiter from the Belt's raw materials and establish an energy blockade. The Republic controlled all developed sources of helium-3 - the basis of space energy, with the exception of Ophion, which remained neutral until the last. With no other options, the Martians occupied the moons of Uranus and created a puppet republic, cutting off the cloud cities from trade routes.
The Federation responds with a total mobilization of the economy. Urgently develops the resources of Io and the small moons of Jupiter. It is developing near-bottom industrial complexes on Europa that are invulnerable to Martian missiles and artillery. The entire population works at military factories, sometimes dying from the cold in the ice workshops: Io’s energy factories have not yet entered into operation, and scarce and expensive helium from Jupiter goes to the fleet. The Selenites respond to blockade attempts by dividing their forces into many maneuverable flotillas. They attack Martian properties throughout the system, aid the Saturn rebels, and even occupy Trojan asteroids. The Federation responds to lunar atrocities with relativistic artillery strikes on the cities of Mars. The Republic has no defense against these weapons.
There is a war going on on Earth. The Martian forces are much larger, but constrained by the need to control the colonies. Bharat built a defense along the mountain ranges and, by blocking all the entrances to the Indian Ocean, made it his own. This ensured the safety of space elevators in the Maldives. Similarly, Pansax and Brazil are clinging to the elevators in the Amazon delta with their teeth, preferring to surrender the north to Euroslavia, which is advancing through the once-arctic ocean.
Control over elevators prevents a total blockade from being established. Neutral Vanadis continues to actively trade through them and lends to both sides of the conflict. Mars is dissatisfied but too dependent on finances and imports from Venus. And its rapidly growing military forces, especially after the occupation of the moons of Uranus, warn the Republic against adventurous decisions.
Remnants of the pre-war Federal fleet stretch Republic forces throughout the system. At this time, in the crucible of the shipyards of Himalia and Lysithea, asteroids were processed and a new fleet was forged, for which the Selenites had worked and suffered hardships for the last few years. It has passed the Belt and is flying to liberate its ancient homeland. The Martians are gathering their forces near the Earth in response. The Second Battle of the Moon is approaching, which will decide the outcome of the war.
Meanwhile, the results of experiments on Pluto promise a new revolution in military affairs.Long Winter. 2865.
The second battle for Luna was a disaster for the Martians. New Selenite asteroid battleships from the melted outer moons of Jupiter were invulnerable to Martian weapons. Events flowed like a river. The defeat in orbit was followed by an uprising and flight from the Moon. The orbital changed sides. Vanadis joined the conflict. Its fleet blockaded Mercury, and millions of Venusian soldiers landed throughout the western hemisphere to rescue the agonizing Pansax. Selenite technology and specialists flowed to Bharat. Vanadian and Federated forces were landing on holdings in the Belt. The entire colonial empire was under attack. Only now the Martian elites have realized how high the stakes are. They gave all power to the army, transferred the economy to a war footing and carried out total labor mobilization, as in the legendary era of the war with the UN. But time was lost. The noose was tightening. Soon the fleets of Vanadis and Selene entered orbit of Mars. The first landing failed, the Republic refused to negotiate. The Allies switched to an all-out bombardment, grinding cities into dust. New landing operations were more successful, but the Martians continued to cling to every city and crater. They used ancient bunkers built for the war with the UN and hoped to the last to somehow get out. Their calculations were not without foundation. The diplomats hoped to cause friction between the allies: to convince Venus that Selena was dangerous or to prove to Orbital that it would be the next target. Great hopes were placed on the wunderwaffe. The result of research into subtle physics on Pluto has become missiles that overcome missile defense through hyperspace. The technology was extremely crude. 99 out of 100 were lost, missed or exploded during the transition between dimensions, but even one was enough to cause monstrous destruction on Callisto and Ganymede. However, everything was in vain. The Allies remained united; warp strikes only increased the intensity of the bombardment. Soon Musk City fell and the Republic capitulated. The four-century era of Martian hegemony has ended.
The Allies shared the Republican heritage and established the League of Worlds. This was supposed to consolidate the post-war order and prevent the Fourth Solar War. This was successful, but contradictions between Selene and Vanadis, the superpowers of the new era, accumulated. Humanity has not only slipped into another Cold War and the risk of a new global massacre, but for the first time it has found itself vulnerable to threats of a much larger scale.
Source of inspirationSelenite Federation
Fascist dictatorship. Superpower. The second economy and the first military force.
The 29th century became golden for the Federation. The party fulfilled all election promises. The Selenite race won the war, ending four centuries of Republic dominance and unifying the six homeworlds. The Federation has become the hegemon of the system, controlling the two largest planets, Mars and half of the Earth. Its fleet has no equal. Callisto is terraformed and can rival Venus in terms of comfort. Europa and Ganymede are coming. The monstrous losses and destruction of the Third Solar War have been overcome. The post-war demographic and economic boom, captured Republic technologies and new markets made the Selenites richer than ever. The entire solar system admires the blossoming of science and culture, monumental architecture and the revival of innovative geometric cities. This is the peak of the Selenite civilization.
The political life of the Federation is highly ideological and remains controlled by the Selenite party, whose legitimacy has been further strengthened. The economy relies on close partnerships between government and business, megaprojects like terraforming and the mass introduction of breakthrough quantum AI. The temporary capital on Callisto became permanent. The center of the Federation has finally shifted to the Jupiter system.
The victory proved the validity of the Selenite ideology. Gravitational racism lies at its foundation. This divides humanity into four races depending on the gravity of their native environment: highgraves (0.887-1g), midgraves (0.38-0.39g), selenite-lowgraves (0.12-0.18g) and nullgraves (0-0.05g). Selenism states that dominance over the system passes from the first to the next. From the most ancient, primitive and unadapted to expansion, locked in gravity wells, to the most innovative and close to space. Therefore, the midgraves of Mars became hegemons and defeated the highgraves twice, and that is why they fell at the hands of the lowgraves. Lowgraves are the pinnacle of human evolution. They optimally combine the “gifts of gravity” and proximity to space and therefore should stand at the head of humanity.
Ironically, gravitational racism dates back to the tactical task of Martian diplomats to justify Mars' claims to Mercury 500 years ago. Forgotten for centuries, it was brought back into discourse by lunar ideologists and turned into a mainstream scientific doctrine not only in the Federation but throughout the entire system.
Selene had an overwhelming military superiority over Vanadis after the end of the war. But the Federation was too exhausted by many years of total war. Among other things, Venus, unlike Mars, had relativistic artillery. Trade with Vanadis was profitable for too many of the Federation's elite. In the wake of post-war optimism, the powers decided to move to “peaceful coexistence” and “competition of systems.” They also hoped for a quick leap to the stars. However, Neptune, the Martian Crisis, the Earth War and conflicts in the Belt gradually escalated the situation. Interstellar travel remains a fantasy. Humanity has come to another Cold War, much more dangerous due to the emergence of delivery systems invulnerable to interception.
Selena views the new confrontation through the prism of the confrontation between two races. Outdated highgraves that drag civilization into the past. And the young Lowgraves, a space race that leads people into the future. Midgraves are by nature oppressors and imperialists. They are defeated and no longer pose a threat. The Nullgraves are a valuable ally in the process of liberation from offworld tyranny. Their prime is yet to come and poses no threat. Their abilities are limited to zero gravity and they have no "core". Therefore, they would not be able to build an empire and challenge the Selenites.
Ideologues chalk up the rise of Vanadis to foul play. Venus remained neutral until the winner was determined and became a superpower through deception. This means that in the long run it will undoubtedly lose.
Selenites respect augmentics due to their historically harsh environment. Their genetic research is usually aimed at overcoming the problems associated with low gravity.
Luna
Still in ruins. Many cavities are irreversibly damaged. Cities are easier to demolish than to rebuild. It is impossible to terraform the Moon. In the next war, it will again be on the front line and most likely will be destroyed. The Federation decided to transport the population to the Jupiter system, mainly to the inhabited Callisto and Ganymede. The Moon was turned into “Fortress Luna” - the most important military base of the Federation in the inner system, the sacred ancestral home of the Selenite race and a grandiose memorial.
Second Martian Republic
Occupied by the Federation. One-party dictatorship. Selena's loyal ally. Mars is morally crushed, has renounced the colonial past and condemns the crimes of the previous regime. The planet has not yet fully overcome the consequences of the war. The population has decreased by a quarter and continues to decline due to migration and the “Martian cross”. Space elevators have collapsed and some cities still lie in ruins. Much of the planet has returned to relatively normal life. The capital and coastal metropolises have returned to their former luster. But in the deep south, far from the ocean, anarchy still reigns. The population lives by subsistence farming and depends on humanitarian aid. The biosphere, the pride of the Martians, is going through hard times. The climate has gone haywire, the deserts are advancing. A new ice age has begun due to bombing and anti-relativistic orbital coal clouds. AI helps restore the economy, but makes it completely dependent on the Federation.
The Republic was completely demilitarized after the surrender. But Mars was allowed to partially restore the army and navy due to the growth of the military potential of Vanadis.
Despite all the bloodshed and disasters, the Martians have a positive attitude towards the Selenites. There was a risk of turning the occupation zones of Mars into separate states, with the prospect of subsequent planetary massacre. But the strong position of the Federation did not allow the Vanadians and the Orbitals to carry out their plans, and forced them to leave the planet.
Phobos and Deimos
Came out of areostationary orbit during the siege of Mars. Leased by the Federation for 99 years in exchange for the stabilization and restoration of space elevators. The elevator to Deimos has been restored. Phobos is a large military base.Republic of Vanadis
Superpower. Cortical democracy. The richest society in the solar system and the second military power.
Venus was inhabited by those who were tired of conflicts, instability or bureaucracy of other worlds. Scientists, inventors, financiers, orbitals migrated here after defeat in the Second Solar War and Martians who disagreed with the antinatalism of the Republic. Vanadis did not participate in astropolitics and reinvested in itself for 500 years. This made it the second, and after the war, the first economy of the system. Venus is a center of progress and innovation, with a genetically enhanced and augmented population living on a tropical terraformed world.
During the war, Vanadis enjoyed the exclusive privilege of trading with both sides until the end. The Venusians did enter the war only when the scales clearly tipped in favor of the Federation. They occupied Mercury, half of the Earth and a significant part of the Belt. In a couple of years they turned from a centuries-old neutral into a contender for world domination.
Venus is a world with an extremely high level of automation. A middle class family usually has at least three robots. The symbol of Mars was vactrains connecting the megacities of the equator. The symbol of Venus is mass flying cars with transonic cruising speed, which tied the planet together and predetermined the Venusian way of life. For historical reasons, all logistics are carried out by air. So Venus has no roads and no need to be tied to transport infrastructure. Vanadians spread across the Venusian expanses as widely as possible. The majority live in a sparse mosaic of autonomous houses in the middle of the jungle, mountains, forests, seas, islands, built around kilometer-long peaks of cultural and business downtowns.
The gravity of Venus is comparable to that of Earth, so augmentic and genetic modifications are aimed at expanding human capabilities, not at adapting to the environment like lowgraves. The radical reduction in the tax burden after the completion of terraforming led to another economic boom, which made the Vanadians even richer. Despite the relatively small population, Venus’s economy is one and a half times larger than the Federation and twice that of Earth.
It was not only neutrality and openness to innovation that helped achieve prosperity. The Republic relies on two advanced institutions: cortical democracy and quantum capitalism. The first is a network of neural implants that connects the brains of citizens, allows they to quickly make decisions, coordinate actions and come to consensus, with minimal bureaucracy. This brought self-government to a new level and made the legislative and judicial systems extremely adaptive. Quantum capitalism (aka capitalism+, capitalism 2.0) relies on a decentralized network of personal quantum computers, originally created to predict and prevent weather anomalies, much more dangerous in the dense Venusian atmosphere. It soon became clear that it could predict the behavior of other stochastic systems, such as the economy. The network collects data from the entire market, creates a model of it and predicts the next state, largely eliminating the problem of information asymmetry. This allows you to anticipate distortions, deflate bubbles, prevent shortages, determine promising directions and “simulations go broke for you.” Cyclical crises are not canceled, but their timing and depth are predictable. The system does not provide one hundred percent guarantees, especially at long intervals, but it also does not provide enough guarantees for superiority over other economies. But there is also a downside. Cortical interfaces are very expensive, which has become a natural limitation. Despite the subsidy programs, every fifth Vanadian does not have access to them, which means they are excluded from political life. Participating in the economy without a quantum computer is difficult. For this reason, Venusian migration laws are quite strict.
Terraforming is complete and extremely successful, but developed ecosystems have not been built everywhere. Ishtar is a fully developed subpolar continent and is considered the best place to live. Its biomes surpass the “gardens of Mars” in its best years. Aphrodite is a continent at the equator. A new frontier whose colonization has just begun. Two centuries of orbital rain ended just a couple of decades ago.
Vanadis does not have any global goal or messianic ideas other than democracy and collective prosperity. There is only highgravism that arose as a reaction to selenism. This is a vague doctrine that should unite the most important allies of Venus - the orbitals, earthlings and Ophionians. Highgraves are united by closeness to nature, an earth-like habitat, and a desire for freedom and democracy. Therefore, they must rule the solar system and guide humanity towards a brighter tomorrow.
The Vanadian fleet is technologically ahead of the federal fleet, but is objectively weaker and has less experience. However, the gap is rapidly closing. The Vanadis army is more effective on large worlds, but inferior on moons and asteroids. It can quickly mobilize tens of millions of home robots if necessary, as it already did in the beginning TSW.
United Orbitals
Wealthy democracy, financial center and ally of Vanadis.
Orbital entered the war on the side of Mars without much zeal. The orbital government changed after the Second Battle of the Moon and withdrew from the war. The next one came back but on the other side. The orbitals were engaged in supply and secondary fronts and only towards the end took part in the landing. This was enough to march through Mask City with the armies of Vanadis and the Federation. When the Martian field marshal saw a representative of the orbital at the signing of the surrender, he asked in surprise: did these also defeat us?
The headquarters of the new League of Worlds was located on one of the islands. Neutral Orbital became one of the three members of the Security Council. But soon the “highgrave party” won and UO joined Vanadis.
The Orbitals are known as wealthy burghers who live in picturesque cylinders, work in finance, automated industry, and drink wine from their own grapes in their free time. The standard of living is largely based on the capital accumulated over previous centuries. Centuries-old islands attract tourists, which contributes to the budget. Orbitals are conservative and not interested in innovation. For example, they do not switch to cortical democracy, preferring network democracy, and do not particularly monitor what is happening in the rest of the system. They are not ready to die in the Belt for a colonial empire bursting at the seams.
Union of Mercury
A corrupt state with high inequality and an unstable government that lives by selling resources. The criminal capital of the system. The Vanadis army liberated Mercury from the 500-year Martian yoke. Juntas and right-wing dictatorships have regularly replaced each other since then. Both of them are thoroughly pro-Venusian and keep a Vanadian passport in the stash. A world of contrasts. Megacities receive spaceships every minute, but are still not connected by a network of vactrains. Underground ghettos are adjacent to elite domes that are irrigated with Cereran water. Mercurians dream of terraforming, but budgets are stolen at the planning stage. The prime pensionary of Orbital once said: “Mercury is a world of a wonderful future, and will remain so forever.”
Many war criminals of Mars took refuge here.Earth
A united post-war Earth was a commonplace in the Allied position. The planet was once again in ruins, the soils were poisoned, the diversity of species had fallen to critical levels. Epidemics and famine raged. No single nation could solve these problems. The peoples of the Earth convened a constituent assembly at which they were supposed to develop the principles of the future Earth Union. However, several years of consultations led to nothing. It turned out that all earthlings want a single state and agree that the collapse of the UN was the main mistake since the Fall, but nothing more. It was not possible to determine either the form of government, or the administrative division, or the system. Pansax, Vanadis and Orbital insisted on democracy and federalism. Bharat and the Federation advocated a more centralized and statist approach.
The discord between Venus and Selena made the prospects for a unified state more elusive. Eventually, the Second UN was proclaimed in the territories controlled by Vanadis and its pan-Saxon allies: the New World, parts of Europe, Africa and Antarctica. Bharat controlled the rest of the planet and responded by creating Panterra. In Europe, the border passed through the ruins of Moscow, the capital of defeated Euroslavia. The two newborn states did not recognize each other and began to prepare for a new massacre.
The Earth War (the Fifth World War in local historiography) became the first conflict of the new confrontation and was only slightly less bloody than TSW. The battlefield became Europe and Africa. Panterra hoped to drive the enemy out of the Old World and in the initial offensive reached the Rhine. However, after Vanadis entered the war and the massive use of tactical nuclear weapons, it rolled back to the Volga and stabilized on the Oka - in the same place where it began. The movement of the front was even more chaotic in Africa. After several years of marking time and a billion dead, under pressure from the superpowers, the parties signed a truce. Panterra was able to reach the Gulf of Guinea and SUN captured Antarctica. The war became an unprecedented disaster for Europe and Africa. What little that survived TSW was destroyed. Vast territories were depopulated, cities were destroyed. A significant part of the population was evacuated. There remains an army, drones, mining enterprises and aborigines who live on subsistence farming, huddle in ruins and die from radiation sickness. Both sides complied with the unspoken agreement and did not hit critical infrastructure despite the meat grinder. The space elevators of the Andes, Amazon, Maldives and Java, as well as the metropolitan cities of the East Coast and Bay of Bengal, were practically undamaged.
WWV showed that the separation was here to stay. The states recognized each other and signed a number of agreements on climate, ecology, de-escalation and arms reduction. However, this does not prevent us from preparing for the next, Sixth, World War, which will certainly be the last. Earth remains the most uncomfortable and poorest world in the system. Its average temperature approaches that of Venus, and its economy is half that of Vanadis and two-thirds that of the Federation.
Second UN
An ally of Venus, the second most populous state in the system. Poor corrupt cortical democracy. Originated on Venusian bayonets. It imitates the previous incarnation in everything, right down to placing the capital in the long-destroyed and drowned New York. Highgravism found the greatest response here and became the official ideology: we need to follow our racial brothers in everything in order to become as successful as them.
After WWV, New York began a painful modernization that led to many distortions. The transition to cortical democracy in a country where neural interfaces can allow 0.5% of citizens meant the exclusion of the entire population from political life. Quantum capitalism provides significant bonuses, but the transition period is accompanied by the collapse of the previous economic structure and excesses on the ground, especially in a 12 billion state. With the exception of the fabulously rich, by earthly standards, coastal megacities, the population is extremely poor and sometimes on the brink of survival. Regular uprisings are suppressed by the Vanadian army. Reforms are being carried out under the supervision of alien specialists occupying half of the positions in the government. For assistance in WWV, Vanadis received a concession of space elevators and mineral deposits. It deployed many military bases with a permanent multimillion-dollar contingent at the request of New York. The Venusian naval fleet patrols Earth's oceans. Ironically, the inhabitants of the SUN consider themselves free and Panterra - fascist slaves of the Selenites.
Panterra
A fascist dictatorship with its capital in Calcutta - «New Venice». Selena's ally. The most populous state in the system. There are more inhabitants than in all of space combined. The panterrists of Bharat were inspired by the successes of the Selenite race since pre-war times. In their opinion, earthlings face similar tasks and they need to be solved in a similar way: through a strong central government and state capitalism. Ideologically, panterrism is closer to “earthly nationalism.” The Earth is unique. This is the birthplace of humanity, the only natural inhabited world. Earthlings do not need to look up to others or seek mythical racial solidarity. Nobody needs them except themselves.
Panterra is a little richer than the SUN. The most developed and relatively unaffected regions of the Earth Directorate were transferred to Calcutta. Martian industry and infrastructure are still functioning, and many Martian officials have retained their positions. The SUN calls Panterra the "Second Directorate". However, Calcutta is an independent military force because the Selenites are unable to function properly in Earth's gravity. The Federation does not have bases on Earth or low orbit; they only need counterweights from space elevators and a geostationary station. Moreover, they need earthly personnel and mercenaries to work in the extreme conditions of the giants and security. This gives Panterra quite wide freedom of action.
The SUN accuses Panterra of Indian nationalism - Hindi is the only state language, Hindus occupy leading roles in economics and politics. Panterra responds with accusations of pan-Saxon imperialism.Belt.
The Belt is awakening. The asteroid colonies have grown enough to begin modernization and have a voice in astropolitics. They have outgrown the primitive Belt identity and racial self-awareness: too different destinies, cultures and historical paths. They have been replaced by Cerenan, Hygean and other nationalisms. Pan-Beltism is marginalized and has become the prerogative of small asteroids to protect against larger ones.
There are fifty states in the Belt now. The most ancient colonies such as Ceres, Pallas, Hygeia, Hector are small but independent forces. All Martian colonies have gained independence, but a quarter of the Belt remains an Orbital colony and worlds such as Vesta still struggle for freedom. The environment and harsh conditions incline the Belters towards collectivism. Their regimes are usually authoritarian, radically right or left.
The Belt remains the most important source of raw materials for which there is a fierce struggle. It often results in civil wars and proxy conflicts.
Ceres. A nationalist dictatorship with imperial ambitions based on the antiquity, population and size of the planetoid. Claims to be a leader not only in the Belt but also among all Nulgraves. Entered the war after the Second Battle of the Moon and captured several nearby Martian asteroids. It extracts heavy elements that are scarce for the planetoid and crushes the rebels. Power is in the hands of neo-feudal elites that trace their ancestry back to the UN administration.
It has the largest army and space fleet in the Belt. Ceres has maintained good relations with Venus since pre-war times and is now one of the most important allies. Adopts technology, but not the political and economic model. Spent the accumulated wealth on building an atmospheric dome and terraforming the surface. This catapulted the authority of the Cererans into space.
Pallas. Former colony of Mars. Liberated by the Vanadis army. The military dictator carries out modernization using harsh methods and adopts the economic institutions of Venus but ignores the political ones.
Hygeia. The Federation's main ally in the Belt. A nationalist dictatorship led by a charismatic tyrant who declared the asteroid a kingdom and himself as regent. One of the first to declare war on Mars and was immediately occupied. Liberated by the Federation and actively modernized.
Vesta. The crown jewel of the Orbital colonial empire, the second most important world of the Belt. Torn by a civil war between pro-Selenite supporters of independence and pro-Vanadian supporters of autonomy. The main conflict of the decade in which military experts from all over the system are involved. Ironically, the Cererans and Palladians are fighting to maintain orbital dominance over their Belter brothers. Panterra's and the SUN military are killing each other in the tunnels of a world they don’t care about.
Greek Federation
Selena's ally. Controls several dozen asteroids in L4 Sun-Jupiter. Here there was a small colonial empire under the protectorate of orbitals where the “Trojans” - the inhabitants of the largest asteroid Hector, exploited the “Greeks” - all the others. The “Greeks” fought as partisans for many years until, with the help of the Selenites, they captured Hector and now control the government, ignoring the locals. The Trojan opposition maintains relations with Orbitals.
Saturn Federation
Mars established many colonies, stations and bases in the rings and small moons of Saturn. They lived by exporting ice and became a “rust belt” when the terraforming of Venus was completed. Selenites never laid claim to the entire Saturn system. However, the moons quickly became a breeding ground for piracy, smuggling, and Vanadian agents. The Federation is forced to keep a large contingent here, including for the safe transit of helium-3 from the giant’s atmosphere.
Republic of Iapetus
A small peaceful dictatorship. A small world on the edge of existence. What is happening there? No one knows. The Iapetians helped the Selenites during the war. They remain allies even now.Republic of Ophion
Rich democracy. The largest exporter of helium-3. Vanadis's most important ally in the external system. Miniature colonial empire.
The population of Ophion has been divided into two roughly equal groups throughout history. The Highgraves, descendants of the Orbitals, live in cloudy zeppelin islands so huge and picturesque that from the inside they can easily be confused with ancient Earth. They are rich, engaged in helium mining, science, high-tech and art. Nullgraves, descendants of belters, inhabit the moons, are engaged in mining, manufacturing, logistics and are quite poor. Their relationship had always been strained, but due to the weak resistance to the Martian occupation, it worsened even more. After the war, the Uranites deprived the moon of its subjectivity, essentially establishing apartheid. Civil liberties are abolished, governors are appointed by Uranus, the population is deprived of cortical interfaces and therefore excluded from political life. A military contingent recruited from the inhabitants of the clouds keeps order. This led to constant unrest and riots. Oberon, the farthest moon, has been living in anti-terrorist operation mode for many years and is actually not subordinate to the government. But the forces are too unequal, and so far the atmosphere controls space without any problems.
The Ophionians are fanatical supporters of Vanadis. They share the ideas of Highgravism, adopt political and economic institutions, conduct intensive cultural exchanges, and allow the construction of military bases on the outer moons. The special relationship is also due to the coincidence of the gravity of Venus and Uranus down to thousandths (aka 0887 club). Many consider them a separate subrace. Vanadis is also the largest importer of helium in the system.
However, this does not prevent Ophion from maintaining trade relations with Selene, the second importer of helium. Uranus claims that he suffered for the right to trade with whomever he sees fit and will not give it up now.
Ophion society is extremely rich. The economy and population are growing rapidly, the standard of living is only slightly inferior to that of Venus. Many migrants arrived here from the devastated inner solar system after the war. Now those who fear a new war are immigrating. Migration is also going on to satellites. Despite all the restrictions, the standard of living on the moons of Uranus is higher than in the Belt.
Laconia
Totalitarian dictatorship. A high-tech militaristic, ascetic society where the best sons of Mars retreated.
Named after Laconia - a giant artificial island in the atmosphere of the planet where half the population lives. Neptune is a harsh, hostile world. Its gravity is 15% greater than that of Earth, in this it is second only to Jupiter. Laconians are distinguished as a separate race of n-graves, famous for their strength, endurance and courage. Colonization was carried out by veterans of the earthly front. They have supplied the Republic with helium-3 and elite Space Marines since time immemorial.
The war bypassed Neptune - it was too far away and too well fortified. Admiral Duarte, the permanent leader of Laconia, shortly before the surrender, sent a secret message to the remnants of the Martian fleet guarding what was left of the Martian colonial empire:
They took what they could and retreated to Neptune. A day before the capitulation, Laconia declared independence and concluded a separate peace and mutual defense treaty with Venus. This became the cause of the first serious discord between the superpowers.Only one day is left
Only one day
We are leaving the others
We're going away
Today we all steal
Animals we are
Possession is lost
Our souls are from the wild
And wings to reach the sky
Let the sun fall into the ocean,
Let the Mars erupt in flame
It is enough to have the strength
And knowledge
To raise our dream machines
Into the sky
Let them sleep who do not know
The final day is here
The very last
And we leave at dawn
There is no force no money and no power
To stop us now and change our fate
Now every problem is destroyed
We raise our hands and bodies to the peak
Into the Universe - towards the stars we go
The Laconians continued to attract Martians from throughout the solar system after the war. The best scientists, engineers and officers of the Republic from those who remained faithful to the Martian spirit and way of life moved to Neptune.
Through the export of helium, human capital and high technology, the small Laconian society remains one of the wealthiest in the system. The space fleet is second only to the superpowers and comparable to the orbital ones. The Laconians are leaders in many fields of science and are one of the few that can enable hyperdimensional exploration. But they are known for their asceticism, utilitarianism and severity. Under the doctrine of Laconianism, most of the income is invested in science, the army, and maintaining technological autarky from the rest of the system.
Laconians are supremarsists. They idealize the society of old, red, Mars. They admire the courage, resourcefulness, thirst for research and self-reliance of the first generations of Martians. Terraforming is considered the biggest mistake in Martian history in Laconian doctrine. Space is hostile to man and thus makes him stronger. This must be accepted. The Republic, tempered by a hostile environment, was able to defeat Terra and the orbitals. When it made Mars like Earth, it signed its own death warrant. It killed the spirit of adventurism and turned the pioneers into ordinary people isolated from the outside world. Martians would have colonized the stars long ago if not for terraforming. The defeat of the pampered Republic from the more resilient Selenites and Vanadians is a logical result. But they too have taken the destructive path and will share her fate. Meanwhile, the harsh Neptune will forge a race destined to conquer the universe. Not surprisingly, the Laconians consider the Nullgraves to be quite promising. Some go even further in their anti-terraformingism. The idea of “asteroid deterrforming” of all inhabited worlds, including Earth, is circulating among Neptune intellectuals. Exclusively for the sake of liberating the spirit and creative potential of humanity.
Laconia is famous for its intelligence department, one of the best in the system. She is especially active in the Belt. This is an important region for Neptune and is deprived of heavy elements. The Laconians established control over some of the former Martian colonies through old connections and anti-terraformingism.
The Laconians explore all the moons of their home world. But the entire population is born and grows on Neptune to maintain “gravitational purity.” Unlike the late Republic, they adhere to an extremely pro-natalist policy. They population is growing faster than in other worlds. Triton stands apart. Centuries-old autonomy, it is inhabited by a race of t-graves - half-breeds of null and lowgraves adapted to 0.08g. The Laconians are aggressively assimilating them within the framework of the doctrine of building a single nation. They take mothers and children to Neptune, where they conduct experiments on pharmacological and genetic inoculation of tolerance to increased gravity. The Tritonians are waging a guerrilla war. However, they are not supported by any other race.
Laconia was a consistent ally of Vanadis. For a long time it did not even have diplomatic relations with the Federation. However, having grown stronger, Laconia began to move away from Venus and builds bridges with Selena. Obviously, Neptune expects to move to neutrality.
Kuiper Belt
Useless and hostile to any human activity. Has no valuable resources or energy sources. However, only here the gravitational field of the sun weakens enough so as not to interfere with the work of delicate instruments for researching hyperspace. Research bases filled the outskirts of the solar system after the war. Vanadis annexed Martian Pluto and gained access to all the scientific developments of the Republic. The Federation confiscated technical developments and documentation on Mars, but was forced to develop scientific infrastructure on Eris from scratch. Orbital and Laconia, which lured some of their former fellow citizens from Pluto to Makemake, joined later.
Despite the initial enthusiasm, it soon became clear that interstellar travel and the widespread use of warp drive were very far away. Hyperspace is more hostile than space, just as space is more hostile than Earth. Only the most advanced technology is capable of withstanding radiation, overloads, and spatial deformations that accompany transition and travel in the warp. An even smaller part of the technology is capable of not getting lost in hyperbolic space. It took researchers decades of work to deliver the probes to Alpha Centauri in one piece and with a miss of less than a light month. Propagandists dream of a human journey to another star, but this is impossible at this technological level.
However, the accuracy and reliability are sufficient for the exchange of hyperspace strikes between Venus and Selene. But at least the warp radars deployed in Kuiper will not allow them to be carried out unnoticed.
Recently, stories in which something in hyperspace noticed human activity and attacked the solar system have become increasingly popular. Based on some indirect evidence, such as a statistically higher frequency of probe disappearances than models predict, signals of an unknown nature and unexplained anomalies, it is believed that these fears are not unfounded. Perhaps people have found the reason for the great silence of the universe.
Basemap by slimysomething
Mexico(Nahuatl Mehxico), officially the Mexican Republic(Nahuatl Republicah Mehxicoyotl) is a federal presidential republic bordered by the United States to the north and the Federal Republic of Isthmia to the south. Mexico’s history dates back centuries, with the country being home to the ancient Olmec, Maya, Teotihuacan, and Toltec civilizations. Mexico as it currently exists can trace its origins back to the migration of ethnic Nahuas from what is today the southeastern United States into the Valley of Mexico. On group of Nahuas, the Mexica(for whom the country is named) settled in the city of Tenochtitlan where, according to legend, they encountered an eagle standing on a cactus eating a snake, which to this day remains on the Mexican coat of arms. Tenochtitlan would form the Triple Alliance with the cities of Tetzcoco and Tlacopan, and began to expand throughout the Valley of Mexico. The Mexican Emperor Tlacaelel would reform the state religion to include mass human sacrifice allegedly to feed the Sun, which would be used by the nascent Mexican Empire as an excuse to wage wars against their neighbors and expand their territory.
The Flower Wars(Nahuatl xōchiyāōyōtl), as they were known, culminated with the invasion of Mexico by a Spanish outlaw named Hernan Cortes with the assistance of Imperial Mexico’s traditional enemies. The invasion would result in Cortes’ death during a failed siege of Tenochtitlan known to the Spanish as La Noche Triste and the conquest of the entirety of the Valley of Mexico. The Mexican Empire would proceed to establish trade relations with the rising Spanish Empire, trading their empire’s immense gold and silver wealth for Spanish guns and horses, with which they used to conquer both the Maya city-states to their south and the chichimeca tribes to the north, only stopping when pushed back by the superior cavalry skills of the Comanche and Apache. Perhaps the greatest impact of Mexcio’s budding relationship with Spain was the introduction of Christianity. Christianity is Mexico’s second largest religion, making up about fifteen percent of the population.
The new foreign religion would become wildly popular with the lower classes, becoming a form of rebellion against the Teotist[1] religion of the state and its constant raiding of the population of human sacrifices. The imperial government’s attempts to stop the spread of Christianity would erupt into the Prophet’s War in the 1670s, when a man simply calling himself “the Prophet” claimed he had been sent by God to overthrow the Emperor(who he claimed was the Antichrist) and pave the way for Jesus to return and rule from Tenochtitlan for a thousand years. After two decades of fighting, the Prophet’s forces were crushed and Mexico closed itself off from the outside world.
Mexico’s isolation would continue until the dawn of the twentieth century, when they were forced to accept how much the world had changed. As the United States expanded westward, many Mexicans would go north in search of jobs, often staying for a decently long period of time before returning home. Having witnessed the superior quality of life many Americans enjoyed, they often brought with them a desire to have the same thing back in Mexico. The area along the American border became a center of radicalism. These tensions would erupt in 1913, when the imperial government tried to crack down on the revolutionary Democratic People’s Party. Revolutionaries loyal to the DPP would, with American help, quickly overthrow the imperial government and install an American style republic under revolutionary leader Xihuichitl Tlilpotonqui. The new government would introduce a series of reforms, banning human and other sacrifice, slavery, polygamy, requiring Mexicans to take surnames(usually their father’s name), and redistributing land from the clergy and aristocracy to the peasantry.
In the 1990s, Mexico would rapidly industrialize as American corporations moves southwards were wages were lower and working hours were longer. Today, Mexico is a highly developed country, ranking highly in all metrics. It enjoys very close relations with its northern neighbor, which remains its closest ally and largest trading partner. The 2010s would see the biggest change in Mexican politics since the revolution with the DPP loosing an election for the first time in the country’s history to the socially conservative Mexican National Party under Zolin Matlalihuitl, who rolled back many of the staunchly secularist policies of his predecessors.
Tahuantinsuyo(Quechua Tawantinsuyu) is a federal theocratic absolute monarchy bordered by the Republic of Colombia to the north, the Empire of Brazil to the east, and the Republic of Platinea[2] to the southeast. Tahuantinsuyo’s history dates back centuries, but it’s modern history begins with the reign of King Pachacuti of Qusqu, who expanded throughout the Andes and became the first Sapa Inka. Pachacuti’s successors would continue to expand until the empire fell into a civil war which was won by the Sapa Inka Atahualpa, who establishes contact with the Spanish and Portuguese empires. To avoid another such civil war, Atahualpa reformed the system of succession. Atahualpa’s successors expanded southwards along the coast until they reached the ocean.
Tahuantinsuyo would go on to enjoy several centuries of prosperity. Tahuantinsuyo would be effected by changes outside their empire with the fall of the Spanish and Portuguese Empires, fighting a brief border war with the new Republic of Platinea that ultimately ended inconclusively. Unlike Imperial Mexico, Tahuantinsuyo’s Sapa Inka’s showed a distinct interest in European technology, building railroad to connect their empire while maintaining a theocratic and absolutist system which remains in place even today. Tahuantinsuyo is considered a developing country, but its economy is rapidly growing and the country is quickly modernizing. At the same time, Tahuantinsuyo’s human rights record has been frequently criticized and many Tahuantinsuyans have risked their lives trying to flee the country into Brazil or Platinea.
[1]TTL’s name for the Aztec religion, from the Nahuatl word teotl, which both means “god” and refers to the underlying principle of the universe
[2]A Portuguese version of Argentina founded by bandeirantes which speaks the Lingua Geral
Wow! Very detailed timeline, and I like the solar system mapping style!
Ashikaza Island - Home of Japan's largest desert by u/Kitzalkwatl
Japan's largest island and home to the near-extinct Ubara people, Ashikaza (previously known as Unada) is Japan's lesser known gem of the Pacific. Fully conquered and annexed by the Tokugawa Shogunate in 1606, the island had historically never seen much influence from its Yamato cousins up north, save for the northern coasts of the present-day Kasui, Hamara, and Kogoya Prefectures. With most of its coastline barred by snowcapped mountains and a vast, steppe-like interior devoid of major waterways, the imposing Toyomo Desert is the hottest part of Japan and home to the largest sand dunes outside of Tottori Prefecture. The largest city on the island is Noburu, an underdog in the face of the island's history, once a small Yamato settlement on Ashikaza's eastern shores and now a bustling port city rivaling Osaka in its size and influence. The culture and heritage of the Ubara people is preserved in the various inland villages, their architecture, and the growing archeological scene on the island. Ashikaza is also famed for its pork, alcoholic soy soup, and being the setting for multiple hit "Tokyo Western" movies of the late 1960s, telling the stories of the various brave samurai who braved the winds of the Toyomo during the Sengoku Period.
Map of Europe as of May 31, 1944 in the TL 1944: La France continue la guerre (France Fights On) which is being epically translated by @Wings here and here.
The Allied forces that landed in Normandy have joined forces with those of the Provence landing. Paris has finally been liberated after 4 years of German occupation and much of France is liberated as well.
In Italy the allies have gained some ground but the Gothic line continues to hold them back. In Yugoslavia, they're at the gates of Sarajevo as the AVNOJ partisans grow stronger and wreak havoc behind the German lines.
After the failure of the Warsaw Uprising, the line between German and Soviet forces in Poland remains stable, in the Carpathians however, the Soviet and Romanian forces prepare to flood Hungary and expel the German occupiers.
The death of the Reich is approaching.
Ashikaza Island - Home of Japan's largest desert by u/Kitzalkwatl
Japan's largest island and home to the near-extinct Ubara people, Ashikaza (previously known as Unada) is Japan's lesser known gem of the Pacific. Fully conquered and annexed by the Tokugawa Shogunate in 1606, the island had historically never seen much influence from its Yamato cousins up north, save for the northern coasts of the present-day Kasui, Hamara, and Kogoya Prefectures. With most of its coastline barred by snowcapped mountains and a vast, steppe-like interior devoid of major waterways, the imposing Toyomo Desert is the hottest part of Japan and home to the largest sand dunes outside of Tottori Prefecture. The largest city on the island is Noburu, an underdog in the face of the island's history, once a small Yamato settlement on Ashikaza's eastern shores and now a bustling port city rivaling Osaka in its size and influence. The culture and heritage of the Ubara people is preserved in the various inland villages, their architecture, and the growing archeological scene on the island. Ashikaza is also famed for its pork, alcoholic soy soup, and being the setting for multiple hit "Tokyo Western" movies of the late 1960s, telling the stories of the various brave samurai who braved the winds of the Toyomo during the Sengoku Period.
Are the Ubara alt-Ryukyuans, something even more ancient, directly descended from the Jomon, or completely unrelated to the Japanese, perhaps Micronesians?
Can't see any of the maps, but the story is good!Solar system opera. The timeline covers most of the third millennium. In some ways, a reimagining of The Expansion with a little more realism. Without xenotech, strange alien substances and food from Ganymede.
Lots of maps. Lots of text. There are few neural network art.
The text was translated using Google Translator.
Expanse in freeze frames
First Steps. 2150.
Mid 22nd century. United humanity colonizes space. The asteroid belt and the Moon in priority. Their raw materials are needed by the suffocating economy of the Earth. Mars is the new frontier where the best engineers and scientists migrate. Mars has been explored enough to confirm the possibility of terraforming. And rich enough to start it.
Martian Revolution. 2267.
Several generations were born on Mars who have never seen Earth. The intellectual elites dream of independence. The planet has outgrown the management of the bone earth bureaucracy and has less and less in common with the rest of the UN.
When the Earth is on the other side of the sun, Mars raises a revolution and proclaims the Martian Republic. A technocratic hierarchical state with a strong civil society living the dream of terraforming.
The UN has nothing to answer. Earth has no army and no space fleet other than a police force to fight the pirates. New York can only declare an embargo, but that doesn't help. Soon Mars completely passes under the control of the revolutionaries.Confrontation. 2344.
Mars is too valuable a trading partner. The embargo is being lifted under pressure from business. Nevertheless, the Cold War is gaining momentum. Both sides are building up armies and space fleets.
Mars needs resources and tries to gain a foothold in the Belt. However, after several battles, the UN makes it clear that it will not tolerate the presence of others. The Martians make a surprise move and annex unclaimed Mercury, which is logistically less accessible but just as rich in minerals and "rightfully belongs to the Martian race" due to similar gravity. The Martians also go out into the outer system and build bases near the rings of Saturn from where they take ice for terraforming. Earthlings are forced to colonize the neighboring moon Tethys.
The first O'Neill Islands are being built in L4 Earth-Moon. These are 32 km cylinders with centrifugal gravity and a full-fledged biosphere. The richest people move here.
Vanadis Inc buys the right to colonize Venus and builds the first cloud cities.First Solar War. 2424.
The escalation could not continue indefinitely. Another clash of patrols in the outer system suddenly escalates into the first solar war.
Mars is technologically superior to Earth but many times inferior in population and economy.. However, the Martian society is monolithic, the economy is autarky, and all power is in the hands of the military. The UN is hesitant to go to total war for fear of unrest and is critically dependent on imports from the colonies. Earth expects to win the war of attrition by flooding the enemy with meat and metal. Mars understands this and acts asymmetrically: sponsoring the Belt rebels, issuing letters of marque, using advanced stealth technology to strike at communications and trade routes. Mars also puts a lot of emphasis on propaganda, both in the colonies and on Earth itself. It blames the UN for suppression of local cultures, corruptions, strict environmental standards and birth control. This has already led to unrest on the Moon and a revolution at the Lagrange stations, which are suffering the most from disruptions in logistics. The exchange of nuclear strikes on the mother countries brings less damage to the Republic, since the Martian missile defense system is more perfect than the earthly one. For every nuclear mushroom on Mars there are five on Earth.
However, the Republic is gradually losing. Saturn is lost. Mercury's missile defense system has been broken and 200 Martians are desperately defending the last base in the northern hemisphere. The Republic has only succeeded in occupying a few Belt asteroids and completely disintegrating space trade.
Vanadis Inc remains neutral and moves its headquarters to Venus.Martian Summer. 2489.
An absolute triumph. The golden age and the peak of the greatness of the Martian civilization.
The Republic's plan worked. The UN won a series of military victories, but internal pressure tore it apart. Mars is the hegemon of the solar system and dominates the economy, politics, and culture. The Republic maintains dominance by diplomacy and authority, not by military presence. Everyone is grateful to the Martians for the liberation from the tyranny of the UN. Victory Day is a holiday for the entire solar system. Earth was divided into a dozen states-civilizations: Pansax, Columbia, Eurobund, Slavia, Bharat, Nusantara, Han and others. They all admire Mars and thank for the liberation from the age-old Yoke. Pansax is the only exception as they have lost more than they have gained, but they are neutral at worst. For the next two centuries, the only opponents of the Republic remain Belt radicals and pirates beefed up during the war.
Phobos and Deimos changed orbits and became counterweights for space elevators. The flow of migrants fuels the rapidly growing Martian economy, prosperity reaches unprecedented heights. Terraforming brings its first fruits. A breathing mask is still needed, but the atmosphere is warm and dense enough to hold the seas. Along the turbulent rivers, the first forests grow on which the first rains fall.
Vanadis Inc. is inspired by the success of Mars and announces the beginning of the terraforming of Venus for a period of 400 years. The planet has become a popular negotiating platform since the peace treaty signed here by the MR and the successors to the UN.Before the Second Solar War. 2602.
Clouds are gathering over Mars. The era of universal adoration is a thing of the past. The Republic is the new oppressor for the Belt. The nations of Earth are disappointed. The tyranny of the UN has become history, and the disadvantages of separation are multiplying: climate, ecology, overpopulation, conflicts. The Republic made it clear that it did not want to interfere, and the earthlings realized that the Martians were only interested in the prosperity of Mars. The image of the liberator and beacon of hope dissipated.
New powers appear on the scene. The United Orbital Stations is an oligarchic republic, an alliance of O'Neill cylinders in the Earth-Moon Lagrange with a perfect climate and zero crime. Orbital is located outside the gravity wells, at the crossroads of trade routes and has nothing but human and financial capital, therefore it is entirely focused on production, trade and commerce. The Orbitals have inherited many of the Earth's assets in the Belt and Outer System, the best specialists have migrated here and the financial elites have settled here. Over the course of several centuries, they have grown significantly, have multiplied their capital many times over, and are now investing in the development of new horizons. Orbital will actively expand through the creation of holdings and subsidiaries. The Ophion Company is developing the helium of Uranus, the East Titan Company is developing the hydrocarbons of the moon of the same name. The Jovian Company initiated the colonization of Jupiter's moons, and so on. The largest, the West-Earth Company, deals with Terra. In exchange for the investment, the Orbitals gain control of the economy, buy out cities, and build a parallel corporate infrastructure that replaces existing government institutions.
They carry an ideology of extreme individualism and objectivism, in which they receive support from the natives, disillusioned with the statist bureaucracies of the era of decentralization. By the end of the 26th century, this made Orbital a great commercial colonial empire, able to compete for leadership in the system.
Despite friendly relations and close ties, the intersection of the interests of the Republic and the Orbitals was only a matter of time. Mars entered the race for the outer system and colonized Neptune and Titan. The Republic sabotaged the creation of the East Earth Company, entered into an alliance with the statists of Eurasia, deployed military bases and a navy on Earth to contain oceanic fleets of the Orbitals. The conflict became a matter of time.
The Orbitals are not ahead of Mars technologically and are many times inferior in population, but they are generally recognized gods of automation and extremely rich. Robotic asteroid shipyards build automated fleets that patrol trade routes. Droid armies guard assets throughout the system. Unlike the Republic, their civilization is critically dependent on space and entirely focused on it. Therefore, the fleet and army of the Orbitals is not inferior and sometimes even surpass the Martian ones. This is accompanied by a much higher standard of living and colossal financial opportunities. Through banks and various funds, they can influence not only the allies of Mars, but also some of the elites of the Republic itself
The first crisis was on Ceres - the most important world of the Belt. Mars prevented a corporate takeover at the last moment, smashed the Orbital forces and occupy the planetoid.
The second crisis broke out in the orbit of Callisto. The Republic fleet was destroyed in the battle. The Orbitals made it clear that they would not tolerate the presence of Mars in the Jupiter system.
The third crisis is going on right now. Uncertainty in the demarcation of certain areas of Titan has led to constant provocations and skirmishes. Both sides are building up forces in the Saturn system. Soon this local crisis will grow into a global conflict. The Second Solar War will begin.Martian Autumn. 2711.
The Second Solar War is known as the Gentleman's War. The opponents did not hit the metropolises and critical infrastructure, respected the prisoners and civilians, declared festive truces and paid compensation for the damage caused. The war engulfed the entire solar system but was limited. The opponents intended to cut off supply lines, establish a blockade and impose more or less worthy peace conditions. The initiative changed hands for many years, but Mars won. Largely due to the entry of the moon into the war. But this did not lead to a new golden age.
The Republic retained its dominant position and the status of the only superpower, but it was no longer the same dominance as a century earlier. The war undermined the finances, the planet got into debt. The reputation of a liberator is gone. Orbital propaganda took off and Mars was now seen as an oppressor. Military presence, previously negligible, was now required throughout the system. Mercury and the Belt rebelled. The Republic is up to its neck in earthly affairs.
The completion of terraforming was an outlet. Mars has become a more comfortable world than Earth and the difference has been increasing every year. But the holiday soon turned into a value crisis. A society with a common dream for 500 years, a dream for which they made any sacrifice, suddenly found itself without a goal. The unrest turned into a sluggish civil war. Millions of veterans who returned from the earthly front exacerbated it. They saw first hand how overpopulation could destroy the originally living world and became the core of the movement that brought Mars to a new balance. From expansion and development, the Republic moved on to maintaining the achieved prosperity and flourishing Mars at any cost. Borders closed, strict birth control replaced pronatalism. The planet has isolated itself from the rest of the system. This has led to stagnation, a slowdown in social mobility and income stratification, greater reliance on state support, and the rise of populism.
Dissenters were offered to migrate to numerous Martian colonies: Mercury, Titan, Neptune, Earth. But there were few who wanted to. Ironically, the Martians turned out to be poor colonists because they were too attached to the world in which they had invested so much effort.
Orbitals didn't lose much. Under the Treaty of São Paulo, they lost corporate control over Earth, Jupiter and Uranus, but retained possessions in the Belt, Trojans and most of the assets, including those they owned on Mars. The Orbitals have abandoned their claim to sol system hegemony, but retained enough wealth to live a decent life.
The rules of war and gentlemen's agreements did not apply to Earth, where the largest massacre in the history of mankind unfolded. Earthlings, exalted by space propaganda, turned the conflict into an existential battle between objectivists and etatists. They massively used nuclear, biological and chemical weapons. Billions died, thousands of cities were destroyed, the climate went haywire. The oppressed biosphere degraded even more. In space, a relative parity of forces was maintained, but on Earth, the Republic's allies could not cope with the legions of droids and mercenaries armed with the advanced teachings of Objectivism. Mars sent a multi-million army in power armor to help and urgently gathered allies into the Earth Directory - a military organization under the temporary leadership of Mars, only for the period of the war. But the temporary turned out to be permanent. After the victory, the Directory took over the distribution of Republican loans, the expeditionary force maintained order, and the Martian navy continued to control the Earth's oceans. Stratospheric towers and terraced cities in the Himalayas and Andes were built for Martian soldiers and officials. Mars has moved the dirtiest industries here. East Asia and the Pacific have become a kind of Martian India.
Meanwhile, the earthlings became disillusioned with decentralization. The war showed why the UN was needed. There were many universalist TERRArist movements that fought against alien invaders. Terrorist attacks and riots forced the Martians to further increase military spending. Subsidies to satellites for keeping radicals out of power have become a constant expense item.
Lunar Republic was a poor, unstable state, with overpopulated caverns and cramped sublunar cities since independence. The government managed to restore order only shortly before the war. It adhered to neutrality to the last, fearing destabilization. But Mars found a way by promising investment and the Jupiter system, whose moons' gravity was perfect for the Lunarians. Lunar Fleet helped tie down the free forces of the Orbitals. Lunar Army helped capture important cylinders and close the blockade. All the forces of Luna are aimed at venting the population pressure into the new frontier since then. Several generations have already been born on the satellites that do not associate themselves with Luna. Ideas of a new, racial, identity are spreading among the lunar intellectuals. "Homo Selenicus" (also known as lowgraves) is a race that inhabits the six largest moons with similar gravity and living conditions. Selenism is a fringe ideology, but the number of its supporters is growing rapidly.
The system's eyes are fixed on Venus, where civil war is raging. Vanadis society has outgrown corporate governance. It tired of imposed monopolies and growing rents for oxygen, rain, sun and land. Surface settlers have rebelled against the corporate overlords and hereditary rentiers who live in luxurious automated cloud cities dating back to the age of hot Venus. On the side of the corporation there are droids, mercenaries and gigantic financial resources. On the side of the people - the number and horizontal coordination through innovative cortical interfaces. Martian settlements in the rings of Saturn experience the greatest costs. Venus has been the main consumer of ice for the last century and war does not help fulfill contracts.On the eve of the Third Solar War. 2807.
The economic crisis of the late 28th century hit the solar system painfully. Impoverishment led to a widespread rise in populism and radicalism.
The Republic is faced with an unprecedented increase in unemployment. Almost half of Martians depend on an unconditional basic income. Riots are raging in colonies where there are no social guarantees. Pirate activity in the Belt has increased significantly. The situation escalated to war in the newly annexed Martian Africa. Social and military spending is rising. Mars has just paid off his borrowings but is getting into debt again.
The Selenite Party won a majority, dissolved parliament, and reorganized the decrepit, corrupt Lunar Republic into the Selenite Federation, a racist ideocratic state whose goal was to lead the Lowgravs to dominate the solar system. The Selenites are experiencing an economic boom, terraforming Callisto, investing in science and expanding the army. They continue to multiply quickly, unlike Mars with its birth control. The Federation already surpasses Mars in femtotech, quantum AI and relativistic artillery - a new direction of military thought. Its fleet is still inferior to the Martian one, but is already capable of challenging the two-century hegemony of the Republic.
Vanadis Republic freed itself from the corporate yoke and became an economic superpower and the main creditor of the solar system. Neutrality, openness to innovation, and advanced socio-economic institutions such as cortical democracy and quantum capitalism have made the Vanadians extremely wealthy. Venusian goods are rightfully considered the best, and the economy is second only to that of Mars and is equal to that of Earth with a tenfold smaller population. The collapse of the Vanadian stock market due to the terraform derivatives bubble triggered a global crisis. However, the Vanadians were almost unharmed
The crisis has had the greatest impact on Earth. In Pansax and Bharat, the two strongest powers on the planet, moderate forces were replaced by radical anti-Martian movements dreaming of a united Terra. They strongly welcome the liberation struggle of Africa and are building up military forces, intending to solve internal problems with external expansion.
Interplanetary tension is growing, a new arms race has gained momentum. Despite the Republic's countermeasures, the Federation is catching up in the army and navy. The Selenites openly declare their intention to unite the "six homeworlds" including the Martian Titan. They enter into military agreements with the anti-Martian Earth movements and sponsor the Mercury and Belt rebels. Vanadis, meanwhile, opens credit lines to anyone. Venus shows that it does not intend to abandon the centuries-old policy of neutrality that has brought so many benefits.
Many expect a global war. But few people thought that it would begin in the same place as the previous one. Migrants from the Lunar Republic have long become the majority on Titan. Due to terrorist activity, the Martian administration limited the rights of the Selenites. This caused unrest, riots and the murder of a Republican minister. The performers and organizers fled to the Federation, which refused to extradite them and put forward counter-demands with the abolition of all restrictions for the inhabitants of Titan. While powers flex their muscles and hope that the enemy will blink first, the satellite is plunged into turmoil. The Third Solar War is at hand.Second battle for Luna. 2817.
Many believed that the Third Solar War would be as gentlemanly as the Second. There is no need for civilized space nations to destroy each other. They were wrong. The Lunar-Martian War engulfed the entire solar system and became the bloodiest conflict in human history and was accompanied by war crimes, concentration camps, genocide, all-out bombing and the use of weapons of mass destruction.
Following the blitzkrieg strategy, the Martians quickly defeated the near-Earth flotillas of the Selenites and blockaded the Moon, hoping, like the last time, to convince the enemy to negotiate. However, this did not happen. The Federation evacuated the government, valuable specialists and industry to the Jupiter system and continued the fight. The landing on the Moon encountered fanatical resistance and uprisings in the occupied territories. The Martians were forced to switch to orbital bombardment and concentration camps. After several years of heavy fighting, the destroyed satellite, with its population reduced by a third, fell. Hopes for a quick end to the war were dashed.
Attempts by the Martian fleet to storm the Galilees ended in complete failure. Overprotected and too far from the support bases of the inner solar system, Fortress Jupiter proved invulnerable to Republic forces. The parties found themselves in a strategic stalemate. Unable to win directly, the Martians decided to isolate Jupiter from the Belt's raw materials and establish an energy blockade. The Republic controlled all developed sources of helium-3 - the basis of space energy, with the exception of Ophion, which remained neutral until the last. With no other options, the Martians occupied the moons of Uranus and created a puppet republic, cutting off the cloud cities from trade routes.
The Federation responds with a total mobilization of the economy. Urgently develops the resources of Io and the small moons of Jupiter. It is developing near-bottom industrial complexes on Europa that are invulnerable to Martian missiles and artillery. The entire population works at military factories, sometimes dying from the cold in the ice workshops: Io’s energy factories have not yet entered into operation, and scarce and expensive helium from Jupiter goes to the fleet. The Selenites respond to blockade attempts by dividing their forces into many maneuverable flotillas. They attack Martian properties throughout the system, aid the Saturn rebels, and even occupy Trojan asteroids. The Federation responds to lunar atrocities with relativistic artillery strikes on the cities of Mars. The Republic has no defense against these weapons.
There is a war going on on Earth. The Martian forces are much larger, but constrained by the need to control the colonies. Bharat built a defense along the mountain ranges and, by blocking all the entrances to the Indian Ocean, made it his own. This ensured the safety of space elevators in the Maldives. Similarly, Pansax and Brazil are clinging to the elevators in the Amazon delta with their teeth, preferring to surrender the north to Euroslavia, which is advancing through the once-arctic ocean.
Control over elevators prevents a total blockade from being established. Neutral Vanadis continues to actively trade through them and lends to both sides of the conflict. Mars is dissatisfied but too dependent on finances and imports from Venus. And its rapidly growing military forces, especially after the occupation of the moons of Uranus, warn the Republic against adventurous decisions.
Remnants of the pre-war Federal fleet stretch Republic forces throughout the system. At this time, in the crucible of the shipyards of Himalia and Lysithea, asteroids were processed and a new fleet was forged, for which the Selenites had worked and suffered hardships for the last few years. It has passed the Belt and is flying to liberate its ancient homeland. The Martians are gathering their forces near the Earth in response. The Second Battle of the Moon is approaching, which will decide the outcome of the war.
Meanwhile, the results of experiments on Pluto promise a new revolution in military affairs.Long Winter. 2865.
The second battle for Luna was a disaster for the Martians. New Selenite asteroid battleships from the melted outer moons of Jupiter were invulnerable to Martian weapons. Events flowed like a river. The defeat in orbit was followed by an uprising and flight from the Moon. The orbital changed sides. Vanadis joined the conflict. Its fleet blockaded Mercury, and millions of Venusian soldiers landed throughout the western hemisphere to rescue the agonizing Pansax. Selenite technology and specialists flowed to Bharat. Vanadian and Federated forces were landing on holdings in the Belt. The entire colonial empire was under attack. Only now the Martian elites have realized how high the stakes are. They gave all power to the army, transferred the economy to a war footing and carried out total labor mobilization, as in the legendary era of the war with the UN. But time was lost. The noose was tightening. Soon the fleets of Vanadis and Selene entered orbit of Mars. The first landing failed, the Republic refused to negotiate. The Allies switched to an all-out bombardment, grinding cities into dust. New landing operations were more successful, but the Martians continued to cling to every city and crater. They used ancient bunkers built for the war with the UN and hoped to the last to somehow get out. Their calculations were not without foundation. The diplomats hoped to cause friction between the allies: to convince Venus that Selena was dangerous or to prove to Orbital that it would be the next target. Great hopes were placed on the wunderwaffe. The result of research into subtle physics on Pluto has become missiles that overcome missile defense through hyperspace. The technology was extremely crude. 99 out of 100 were lost, missed or exploded during the transition between dimensions, but even one was enough to cause monstrous destruction on Callisto and Ganymede. However, everything was in vain. The Allies remained united; warp strikes only increased the intensity of the bombardment. Soon Musk City fell and the Republic capitulated. The four-century era of Martian hegemony has ended.
The Allies shared the Republican heritage and established the League of Worlds. This was supposed to consolidate the post-war order and prevent the Fourth Solar War. This was successful, but contradictions between Selene and Vanadis, the superpowers of the new era, accumulated. Humanity has not only slipped into another Cold War and the risk of a new global massacre, but for the first time it has found itself vulnerable to threats of a much larger scale.
Source of inspirationSelenite Federation
Fascist dictatorship. Superpower. The second economy and the first military force.
The 29th century became golden for the Federation. The party fulfilled all election promises. The Selenite race won the war, ending four centuries of Republic dominance and unifying the six homeworlds. The Federation has become the hegemon of the system, controlling the two largest planets, Mars and half of the Earth. Its fleet has no equal. Callisto is terraformed and can rival Venus in terms of comfort. Europa and Ganymede are coming. The monstrous losses and destruction of the Third Solar War have been overcome. The post-war demographic and economic boom, captured Republic technologies and new markets made the Selenites richer than ever. The entire solar system admires the blossoming of science and culture, monumental architecture and the revival of innovative geometric cities. This is the peak of the Selenite civilization.
The political life of the Federation is highly ideological and remains controlled by the Selenite party, whose legitimacy has been further strengthened. The economy relies on close partnerships between government and business, megaprojects like terraforming and the mass introduction of breakthrough quantum AI. The temporary capital on Callisto became permanent. The center of the Federation has finally shifted to the Jupiter system.
The victory proved the validity of the Selenite ideology. Gravitational racism lies at its foundation. This divides humanity into four races depending on the gravity of their native environment: highgraves (0.887-1g), midgraves (0.38-0.39g), selenite-lowgraves (0.12-0.18g) and nullgraves (0-0.05g). Selenism states that dominance over the system passes from the first to the next. From the most ancient, primitive and unadapted to expansion, locked in gravity wells, to the most innovative and close to space. Therefore, the midgraves of Mars became hegemons and defeated the highgraves twice, and that is why they fell at the hands of the lowgraves. Lowgraves are the pinnacle of human evolution. They optimally combine the “gifts of gravity” and proximity to space and therefore should stand at the head of humanity.
Ironically, gravitational racism dates back to the tactical task of Martian diplomats to justify Mars' claims to Mercury 500 years ago. Forgotten for centuries, it was brought back into discourse by lunar ideologists and turned into a mainstream scientific doctrine not only in the Federation but throughout the entire system.
Selene had an overwhelming military superiority over Vanadis after the end of the war. But the Federation was too exhausted by many years of total war. Among other things, Venus, unlike Mars, had relativistic artillery. Trade with Vanadis was profitable for too many of the Federation's elite. In the wake of post-war optimism, the powers decided to move to “peaceful coexistence” and “competition of systems.” They also hoped for a quick leap to the stars. However, Neptune, the Martian Crisis, the Earth War and conflicts in the Belt gradually escalated the situation. Interstellar travel remains a fantasy. Humanity has come to another Cold War, much more dangerous due to the emergence of delivery systems invulnerable to interception.
Selena views the new confrontation through the prism of the confrontation between two races. Outdated highgraves that drag civilization into the past. And the young Lowgraves, a space race that leads people into the future. Midgraves are by nature oppressors and imperialists. They are defeated and no longer pose a threat. The Nullgraves are a valuable ally in the process of liberation from offworld tyranny. Their prime is yet to come and poses no threat. Their abilities are limited to zero gravity and they have no "core". Therefore, they would not be able to build an empire and challenge the Selenites.
Ideologues chalk up the rise of Vanadis to foul play. Venus remained neutral until the winner was determined and became a superpower through deception. This means that in the long run it will undoubtedly lose.
Selenites respect augmentics due to their historically harsh environment. Their genetic research is usually aimed at overcoming the problems associated with low gravity.
Luna
Still in ruins. Many cavities are irreversibly damaged. Cities are easier to demolish than to rebuild. It is impossible to terraform the Moon. In the next war, it will again be on the front line and most likely will be destroyed. The Federation decided to transport the population to the Jupiter system, mainly to the inhabited Callisto and Ganymede. The Moon was turned into “Fortress Luna” - the most important military base of the Federation in the inner system, the sacred ancestral home of the Selenite race and a grandiose memorial.
Second Martian Republic
Occupied by the Federation. One-party dictatorship. Selena's loyal ally. Mars is morally crushed, has renounced the colonial past and condemns the crimes of the previous regime. The planet has not yet fully overcome the consequences of the war. The population has decreased by a quarter and continues to decline due to migration and the “Martian cross”. Space elevators have collapsed and some cities still lie in ruins. Much of the planet has returned to relatively normal life. The capital and coastal metropolises have returned to their former luster. But in the deep south, far from the ocean, anarchy still reigns. The population lives by subsistence farming and depends on humanitarian aid. The biosphere, the pride of the Martians, is going through hard times. The climate has gone haywire, the deserts are advancing. A new ice age has begun due to bombing and anti-relativistic orbital coal clouds. AI helps restore the economy, but makes it completely dependent on the Federation.
The Republic was completely demilitarized after the surrender. But Mars was allowed to partially restore the army and navy due to the growth of the military potential of Vanadis.
Despite all the bloodshed and disasters, the Martians have a positive attitude towards the Selenites. There was a risk of turning the occupation zones of Mars into separate states, with the prospect of subsequent planetary massacre. But the strong position of the Federation did not allow the Vanadians and the Orbitals to carry out their plans, and forced them to leave the planet.
Phobos and Deimos
Came out of areostationary orbit during the siege of Mars. Leased by the Federation for 99 years in exchange for the stabilization and restoration of space elevators. The elevator to Deimos has been restored. Phobos is a large military base.Republic of Vanadis
Superpower. Cortical democracy. The richest society in the solar system and the second military power.
Venus was inhabited by those who were tired of conflicts, instability or bureaucracy of other worlds. Scientists, inventors, financiers, orbitals migrated here after defeat in the Second Solar War and Martians who disagreed with the antinatalism of the Republic. Vanadis did not participate in astropolitics and reinvested in itself for 500 years. This made it the second, and after the war, the first economy of the system. Venus is a center of progress and innovation, with a genetically enhanced and augmented population living on a tropical terraformed world.
During the war, Vanadis enjoyed the exclusive privilege of trading with both sides until the end. The Venusians did enter the war only when the scales clearly tipped in favor of the Federation. They occupied Mercury, half of the Earth and a significant part of the Belt. In a couple of years they turned from a centuries-old neutral into a contender for world domination.
Venus is a world with an extremely high level of automation. A middle class family usually has at least three robots. The symbol of Mars was vactrains connecting the megacities of the equator. The symbol of Venus is mass flying cars with transonic cruising speed, which tied the planet together and predetermined the Venusian way of life. For historical reasons, all logistics are carried out by air. So Venus has no roads and no need to be tied to transport infrastructure. Vanadians spread across the Venusian expanses as widely as possible. The majority live in a sparse mosaic of autonomous houses in the middle of the jungle, mountains, forests, seas, islands, built around kilometer-long peaks of cultural and business downtowns.
The gravity of Venus is comparable to that of Earth, so augmentic and genetic modifications are aimed at expanding human capabilities, not at adapting to the environment like lowgraves. The radical reduction in the tax burden after the completion of terraforming led to another economic boom, which made the Vanadians even richer. Despite the relatively small population, Venus’s economy is one and a half times larger than the Federation and twice that of Earth.
It was not only neutrality and openness to innovation that helped achieve prosperity. The Republic relies on two advanced institutions: cortical democracy and quantum capitalism. The first is a network of neural implants that connects the brains of citizens, allows they to quickly make decisions, coordinate actions and come to consensus, with minimal bureaucracy. This brought self-government to a new level and made the legislative and judicial systems extremely adaptive. Quantum capitalism (aka capitalism+, capitalism 2.0) relies on a decentralized network of personal quantum computers, originally created to predict and prevent weather anomalies, much more dangerous in the dense Venusian atmosphere. It soon became clear that it could predict the behavior of other stochastic systems, such as the economy. The network collects data from the entire market, creates a model of it and predicts the next state, largely eliminating the problem of information asymmetry. This allows you to anticipate distortions, deflate bubbles, prevent shortages, determine promising directions and “simulations go broke for you.” Cyclical crises are not canceled, but their timing and depth are predictable. The system does not provide one hundred percent guarantees, especially at long intervals, but it also does not provide enough guarantees for superiority over other economies. But there is also a downside. Cortical interfaces are very expensive, which has become a natural limitation. Despite the subsidy programs, every fifth Vanadian does not have access to them, which means they are excluded from political life. Participating in the economy without a quantum computer is difficult. For this reason, Venusian migration laws are quite strict.
Terraforming is complete and extremely successful, but developed ecosystems have not been built everywhere. Ishtar is a fully developed subpolar continent and is considered the best place to live. Its biomes surpass the “gardens of Mars” in its best years. Aphrodite is a continent at the equator. A new frontier whose colonization has just begun. Two centuries of orbital rain ended just a couple of decades ago.
Vanadis does not have any global goal or messianic ideas other than democracy and collective prosperity. There is only highgravism that arose as a reaction to selenism. This is a vague doctrine that should unite the most important allies of Venus - the orbitals, earthlings and Ophionians. Highgraves are united by closeness to nature, an earth-like habitat, and a desire for freedom and democracy. Therefore, they must rule the solar system and guide humanity towards a brighter tomorrow.
The Vanadian fleet is technologically ahead of the federal fleet, but is objectively weaker and has less experience. However, the gap is rapidly closing. The Vanadis army is more effective on large worlds, but inferior on moons and asteroids. It can quickly mobilize tens of millions of home robots if necessary, as it already did in the beginning TSW.
United Orbitals
Wealthy democracy, financial center and ally of Vanadis.
Orbital entered the war on the side of Mars without much zeal. The orbital government changed after the Second Battle of the Moon and withdrew from the war. The next one came back but on the other side. The orbitals were engaged in supply and secondary fronts and only towards the end took part in the landing. This was enough to march through Mask City with the armies of Vanadis and the Federation. When the Martian field marshal saw a representative of the orbital at the signing of the surrender, he asked in surprise: did these also defeat us?
The headquarters of the new League of Worlds was located on one of the islands. Neutral Orbital became one of the three members of the Security Council. But soon the “highgrave party” won and UO joined Vanadis.
The Orbitals are known as wealthy burghers who live in picturesque cylinders, work in finance, automated industry, and drink wine from their own grapes in their free time. The standard of living is largely based on the capital accumulated over previous centuries. Centuries-old islands attract tourists, which contributes to the budget. Orbitals are conservative and not interested in innovation. For example, they do not switch to cortical democracy, preferring network democracy, and do not particularly monitor what is happening in the rest of the system. They are not ready to die in the Belt for a colonial empire bursting at the seams.
Union of Mercury
A corrupt state with high inequality and an unstable government that lives by selling resources. The criminal capital of the system. The Vanadis army liberated Mercury from the 500-year Martian yoke. Juntas and right-wing dictatorships have regularly replaced each other since then. Both of them are thoroughly pro-Venusian and keep a Vanadian passport in the stash. A world of contrasts. Megacities receive spaceships every minute, but are still not connected by a network of vactrains. Underground ghettos are adjacent to elite domes that are irrigated with Cereran water. Mercurians dream of terraforming, but budgets are stolen at the planning stage. The prime pensionary of Orbital once said: “Mercury is a world of a wonderful future, and will remain so forever.”
Many war criminals of Mars took refuge here.Earth
A united post-war Earth was a commonplace in the Allied position. The planet was once again in ruins, the soils were poisoned, the diversity of species had fallen to critical levels. Epidemics and famine raged. No single nation could solve these problems. The peoples of the Earth convened a constituent assembly at which they were supposed to develop the principles of the future Earth Union. However, several years of consultations led to nothing. It turned out that all earthlings want a single state and agree that the collapse of the UN was the main mistake since the Fall, but nothing more. It was not possible to determine either the form of government, or the administrative division, or the system. Pansax, Vanadis and Orbital insisted on democracy and federalism. Bharat and the Federation advocated a more centralized and statist approach.
The discord between Venus and Selena made the prospects for a unified state more elusive. Eventually, the Second UN was proclaimed in the territories controlled by Vanadis and its pan-Saxon allies: the New World, parts of Europe, Africa and Antarctica. Bharat controlled the rest of the planet and responded by creating Panterra. In Europe, the border passed through the ruins of Moscow, the capital of defeated Euroslavia. The two newborn states did not recognize each other and began to prepare for a new massacre.
The Earth War (the Fifth World War in local historiography) became the first conflict of the new confrontation and was only slightly less bloody than TSW. The battlefield became Europe and Africa. Panterra hoped to drive the enemy out of the Old World and in the initial offensive reached the Rhine. However, after Vanadis entered the war and the massive use of tactical nuclear weapons, it rolled back to the Volga and stabilized on the Oka - in the same place where it began. The movement of the front was even more chaotic in Africa. After several years of marking time and a billion dead, under pressure from the superpowers, the parties signed a truce. Panterra was able to reach the Gulf of Guinea and SUN captured Antarctica. The war became an unprecedented disaster for Europe and Africa. What little that survived TSW was destroyed. Vast territories were depopulated, cities were destroyed. A significant part of the population was evacuated. There remains an army, drones, mining enterprises and aborigines who live on subsistence farming, huddle in ruins and die from radiation sickness. Both sides complied with the unspoken agreement and did not hit critical infrastructure despite the meat grinder. The space elevators of the Andes, Amazon, Maldives and Java, as well as the metropolitan cities of the East Coast and Bay of Bengal, were practically undamaged.
WWV showed that the separation was here to stay. The states recognized each other and signed a number of agreements on climate, ecology, de-escalation and arms reduction. However, this does not prevent us from preparing for the next, Sixth, World War, which will certainly be the last. Earth remains the most uncomfortable and poorest world in the system. Its average temperature approaches that of Venus, and its economy is half that of Vanadis and two-thirds that of the Federation.
Second UN
An ally of Venus, the second most populous state in the system. Poor corrupt cortical democracy. Originated on Venusian bayonets. It imitates the previous incarnation in everything, right down to placing the capital in the long-destroyed and drowned New York. Highgravism found the greatest response here and became the official ideology: we need to follow our racial brothers in everything in order to become as successful as them.
After WWV, New York began a painful modernization that led to many distortions. The transition to cortical democracy in a country where neural interfaces can allow 0.5% of citizens meant the exclusion of the entire population from political life. Quantum capitalism provides significant bonuses, but the transition period is accompanied by the collapse of the previous economic structure and excesses on the ground, especially in a 12 billion state. With the exception of the fabulously rich, by earthly standards, coastal megacities, the population is extremely poor and sometimes on the brink of survival. Regular uprisings are suppressed by the Vanadian army. Reforms are being carried out under the supervision of alien specialists occupying half of the positions in the government. For assistance in WWV, Vanadis received a concession of space elevators and mineral deposits. It deployed many military bases with a permanent multimillion-dollar contingent at the request of New York. The Venusian naval fleet patrols Earth's oceans. Ironically, the inhabitants of the SUN consider themselves free and Panterra - fascist slaves of the Selenites.
Panterra
A fascist dictatorship with its capital in Calcutta - «New Venice». Selena's ally. The most populous state in the system. There are more inhabitants than in all of space combined. The panterrists of Bharat were inspired by the successes of the Selenite race since pre-war times. In their opinion, earthlings face similar tasks and they need to be solved in a similar way: through a strong central government and state capitalism. Ideologically, panterrism is closer to “earthly nationalism.” The Earth is unique. This is the birthplace of humanity, the only natural inhabited world. Earthlings do not need to look up to others or seek mythical racial solidarity. Nobody needs them except themselves.
Panterra is a little richer than the SUN. The most developed and relatively unaffected regions of the Earth Directorate were transferred to Calcutta. Martian industry and infrastructure are still functioning, and many Martian officials have retained their positions. The SUN calls Panterra the "Second Directorate". However, Calcutta is an independent military force because the Selenites are unable to function properly in Earth's gravity. The Federation does not have bases on Earth or low orbit; they only need counterweights from space elevators and a geostationary station. Moreover, they need earthly personnel and mercenaries to work in the extreme conditions of the giants and security. This gives Panterra quite wide freedom of action.
The SUN accuses Panterra of Indian nationalism - Hindi is the only state language, Hindus occupy leading roles in economics and politics. Panterra responds with accusations of pan-Saxon imperialism.Belt.
The Belt is awakening. The asteroid colonies have grown enough to begin modernization and have a voice in astropolitics. They have outgrown the primitive Belt identity and racial self-awareness: too different destinies, cultures and historical paths. They have been replaced by Cerenan, Hygean and other nationalisms. Pan-Beltism is marginalized and has become the prerogative of small asteroids to protect against larger ones.
There are fifty states in the Belt now. The most ancient colonies such as Ceres, Pallas, Hygeia, Hector are small but independent forces. All Martian colonies have gained independence, but a quarter of the Belt remains an Orbital colony and worlds such as Vesta still struggle for freedom. The environment and harsh conditions incline the Belters towards collectivism. Their regimes are usually authoritarian, radically right or left.
The Belt remains the most important source of raw materials for which there is a fierce struggle. It often results in civil wars and proxy conflicts.
Ceres. A nationalist dictatorship with imperial ambitions based on the antiquity, population and size of the planetoid. Claims to be a leader not only in the Belt but also among all Nulgraves. Entered the war after the Second Battle of the Moon and captured several nearby Martian asteroids. It extracts heavy elements that are scarce for the planetoid and crushes the rebels. Power is in the hands of neo-feudal elites that trace their ancestry back to the UN administration.
It has the largest army and space fleet in the Belt. Ceres has maintained good relations with Venus since pre-war times and is now one of the most important allies. Adopts technology, but not the political and economic model. Spent the accumulated wealth on building an atmospheric dome and terraforming the surface. This catapulted the authority of the Cererans into space.
Pallas. Former colony of Mars. Liberated by the Vanadis army. The military dictator carries out modernization using harsh methods and adopts the economic institutions of Venus but ignores the political ones.
Hygeia. The Federation's main ally in the Belt. A nationalist dictatorship led by a charismatic tyrant who declared the asteroid a kingdom and himself as regent. One of the first to declare war on Mars and was immediately occupied. Liberated by the Federation and actively modernized.
Vesta. The crown jewel of the Orbital colonial empire, the second most important world of the Belt. Torn by a civil war between pro-Selenite supporters of independence and pro-Vanadian supporters of autonomy. The main conflict of the decade in which military experts from all over the system are involved. Ironically, the Cererans and Palladians are fighting to maintain orbital dominance over their Belter brothers. Panterra's and the SUN military are killing each other in the tunnels of a world they don’t care about.
Greek Federation
Selena's ally. Controls several dozen asteroids in L4 Sun-Jupiter. Here there was a small colonial empire under the protectorate of orbitals where the “Trojans” - the inhabitants of the largest asteroid Hector, exploited the “Greeks” - all the others. The “Greeks” fought as partisans for many years until, with the help of the Selenites, they captured Hector and now control the government, ignoring the locals. The Trojan opposition maintains relations with Orbitals.
Saturn Federation
Mars established many colonies, stations and bases in the rings and small moons of Saturn. They lived by exporting ice and became a “rust belt” when the terraforming of Venus was completed. Selenites never laid claim to the entire Saturn system. However, the moons quickly became a breeding ground for piracy, smuggling, and Vanadian agents. The Federation is forced to keep a large contingent here, including for the safe transit of helium-3 from the giant’s atmosphere.
Republic of Iapetus
A small peaceful dictatorship. A small world on the edge of existence. What is happening there? No one knows. The Iapetians helped the Selenites during the war. They remain allies even now.Republic of Ophion
Rich democracy. The largest exporter of helium-3. Vanadis's most important ally in the external system. Miniature colonial empire.
The population of Ophion has been divided into two roughly equal groups throughout history. The Highgraves, descendants of the Orbitals, live in cloudy zeppelin islands so huge and picturesque that from the inside they can easily be confused with ancient Earth. They are rich, engaged in helium mining, science, high-tech and art. Nullgraves, descendants of belters, inhabit the moons, are engaged in mining, manufacturing, logistics and are quite poor. Their relationship had always been strained, but due to the weak resistance to the Martian occupation, it worsened even more. After the war, the Uranites deprived the moon of its subjectivity, essentially establishing apartheid. Civil liberties are abolished, governors are appointed by Uranus, the population is deprived of cortical interfaces and therefore excluded from political life. A military contingent recruited from the inhabitants of the clouds keeps order. This led to constant unrest and riots. Oberon, the farthest moon, has been living in anti-terrorist operation mode for many years and is actually not subordinate to the government. But the forces are too unequal, and so far the atmosphere controls space without any problems.
The Ophionians are fanatical supporters of Vanadis. They share the ideas of Highgravism, adopt political and economic institutions, conduct intensive cultural exchanges, and allow the construction of military bases on the outer moons. The special relationship is also due to the coincidence of the gravity of Venus and Uranus down to thousandths (aka 0887 club). Many consider them a separate subrace. Vanadis is also the largest importer of helium in the system.
However, this does not prevent Ophion from maintaining trade relations with Selene, the second importer of helium. Uranus claims that he suffered for the right to trade with whomever he sees fit and will not give it up now.
Ophion society is extremely rich. The economy and population are growing rapidly, the standard of living is only slightly inferior to that of Venus. Many migrants arrived here from the devastated inner solar system after the war. Now those who fear a new war are immigrating. Migration is also going on to satellites. Despite all the restrictions, the standard of living on the moons of Uranus is higher than in the Belt.
Laconia
Totalitarian dictatorship. A high-tech militaristic, ascetic society where the best sons of Mars retreated.
Named after Laconia - a giant artificial island in the atmosphere of the planet where half the population lives. Neptune is a harsh, hostile world. Its gravity is 15% greater than that of Earth, in this it is second only to Jupiter. Laconians are distinguished as a separate race of n-graves, famous for their strength, endurance and courage. Colonization was carried out by veterans of the earthly front. They have supplied the Republic with helium-3 and elite Space Marines since time immemorial.
The war bypassed Neptune - it was too far away and too well fortified. Admiral Duarte, the permanent leader of Laconia, shortly before the surrender, sent a secret message to the remnants of the Martian fleet guarding what was left of the Martian colonial empire:
They took what they could and retreated to Neptune. A day before the capitulation, Laconia declared independence and concluded a separate peace and mutual defense treaty with Venus. This became the cause of the first serious discord between the superpowers.Only one day is left
Only one day
We are leaving the others
We're going away
Today we all steal
Animals we are
Possession is lost
Our souls are from the wild
And wings to reach the sky
Let the sun fall into the ocean,
Let the Mars erupt in flame
It is enough to have the strength
And knowledge
To raise our dream machines
Into the sky
Let them sleep who do not know
The final day is here
The very last
And we leave at dawn
There is no force no money and no power
To stop us now and change our fate
Now every problem is destroyed
We raise our hands and bodies to the peak
Into the Universe - towards the stars we go
The Laconians continued to attract Martians from throughout the solar system after the war. The best scientists, engineers and officers of the Republic from those who remained faithful to the Martian spirit and way of life moved to Neptune.
Through the export of helium, human capital and high technology, the small Laconian society remains one of the wealthiest in the system. The space fleet is second only to the superpowers and comparable to the orbital ones. The Laconians are leaders in many fields of science and are one of the few that can enable hyperdimensional exploration. But they are known for their asceticism, utilitarianism and severity. Under the doctrine of Laconianism, most of the income is invested in science, the army, and maintaining technological autarky from the rest of the system.
Laconians are supremarsists. They idealize the society of old, red, Mars. They admire the courage, resourcefulness, thirst for research and self-reliance of the first generations of Martians. Terraforming is considered the biggest mistake in Martian history in Laconian doctrine. Space is hostile to man and thus makes him stronger. This must be accepted. The Republic, tempered by a hostile environment, was able to defeat Terra and the orbitals. When it made Mars like Earth, it signed its own death warrant. It killed the spirit of adventurism and turned the pioneers into ordinary people isolated from the outside world. Martians would have colonized the stars long ago if not for terraforming. The defeat of the pampered Republic from the more resilient Selenites and Vanadians is a logical result. But they too have taken the destructive path and will share her fate. Meanwhile, the harsh Neptune will forge a race destined to conquer the universe. Not surprisingly, the Laconians consider the Nullgraves to be quite promising. Some go even further in their anti-terraformingism. The idea of “asteroid deterrforming” of all inhabited worlds, including Earth, is circulating among Neptune intellectuals. Exclusively for the sake of liberating the spirit and creative potential of humanity.
Laconia is famous for its intelligence department, one of the best in the system. She is especially active in the Belt. This is an important region for Neptune and is deprived of heavy elements. The Laconians established control over some of the former Martian colonies through old connections and anti-terraformingism.
The Laconians explore all the moons of their home world. But the entire population is born and grows on Neptune to maintain “gravitational purity.” Unlike the late Republic, they adhere to an extremely pro-natalist policy. They population is growing faster than in other worlds. Triton stands apart. Centuries-old autonomy, it is inhabited by a race of t-graves - half-breeds of null and lowgraves adapted to 0.08g. The Laconians are aggressively assimilating them within the framework of the doctrine of building a single nation. They take mothers and children to Neptune, where they conduct experiments on pharmacological and genetic inoculation of tolerance to increased gravity. The Tritonians are waging a guerrilla war. However, they are not supported by any other race.
Laconia was a consistent ally of Vanadis. For a long time it did not even have diplomatic relations with the Federation. However, having grown stronger, Laconia began to move away from Venus and builds bridges with Selena. Obviously, Neptune expects to move to neutrality.
Kuiper Belt
Useless and hostile to any human activity. Has no valuable resources or energy sources. However, only here the gravitational field of the sun weakens enough so as not to interfere with the work of delicate instruments for researching hyperspace. Research bases filled the outskirts of the solar system after the war. Vanadis annexed Martian Pluto and gained access to all the scientific developments of the Republic. The Federation confiscated technical developments and documentation on Mars, but was forced to develop scientific infrastructure on Eris from scratch. Orbital and Laconia, which lured some of their former fellow citizens from Pluto to Makemake, joined later.
Despite the initial enthusiasm, it soon became clear that interstellar travel and the widespread use of warp drive were very far away. Hyperspace is more hostile than space, just as space is more hostile than Earth. Only the most advanced technology is capable of withstanding radiation, overloads, and spatial deformations that accompany transition and travel in the warp. An even smaller part of the technology is capable of not getting lost in hyperbolic space. It took researchers decades of work to deliver the probes to Alpha Centauri in one piece and with a miss of less than a light month. Propagandists dream of a human journey to another star, but this is impossible at this technological level.
However, the accuracy and reliability are sufficient for the exchange of hyperspace strikes between Venus and Selene. But at least the warp radars deployed in Kuiper will not allow them to be carried out unnoticed.
Recently, stories in which something in hyperspace noticed human activity and attacked the solar system have become increasingly popular. Based on some indirect evidence, such as a statistically higher frequency of probe disappearances than models predict, signals of an unknown nature and unexplained anomalies, it is believed that these fears are not unfounded. Perhaps people have found the reason for the great silence of the universe.
Basemap by slimysomething
Agge hai... Dhaka te thaki particularly. Legit ei site e fellow Bengali der paowai jai naProfile dekhei seta bojha jachche
Fantastic stuff!Solar system opera. The timeline covers most of the third millennium. In some ways, a reimagining of The Expansion with a little more realism. Without xenotech, strange alien substances and food from Ganymede.
Lots of maps. Lots of text. There are few neural network art.
The text was translated using Google Translator.
Expanse in freeze frames
First Steps. 2150.
Mid 22nd century. United humanity colonizes space. The asteroid belt and the Moon in priority. Their raw materials are needed by the suffocating economy of the Earth. Mars is the new frontier where the best engineers and scientists migrate. Mars has been explored enough to confirm the possibility of terraforming. And rich enough to start it.
Martian Revolution. 2267.
Several generations were born on Mars who have never seen Earth. The intellectual elites dream of independence. The planet has outgrown the management of the bone earth bureaucracy and has less and less in common with the rest of the UN.
When the Earth is on the other side of the sun, Mars raises a revolution and proclaims the Martian Republic. A technocratic hierarchical state with a strong civil society living the dream of terraforming.
The UN has nothing to answer. Earth has no army and no space fleet other than a police force to fight the pirates. New York can only declare an embargo, but that doesn't help. Soon Mars completely passes under the control of the revolutionaries.Confrontation. 2344.
Mars is too valuable a trading partner. The embargo is being lifted under pressure from business. Nevertheless, the Cold War is gaining momentum. Both sides are building up armies and space fleets.
Mars needs resources and tries to gain a foothold in the Belt. However, after several battles, the UN makes it clear that it will not tolerate the presence of others. The Martians make a surprise move and annex unclaimed Mercury, which is logistically less accessible but just as rich in minerals and "rightfully belongs to the Martian race" due to similar gravity. The Martians also go out into the outer system and build bases near the rings of Saturn from where they take ice for terraforming. Earthlings are forced to colonize the neighboring moon Tethys.
The first O'Neill Islands are being built in L4 Earth-Moon. These are 32 km cylinders with centrifugal gravity and a full-fledged biosphere. The richest people move here.
Vanadis Inc buys the right to colonize Venus and builds the first cloud cities.First Solar War. 2424.
The escalation could not continue indefinitely. Another clash of patrols in the outer system suddenly escalates into the first solar war.
Mars is technologically superior to Earth but many times inferior in population and economy.. However, the Martian society is monolithic, the economy is autarky, and all power is in the hands of the military. The UN is hesitant to go to total war for fear of unrest and is critically dependent on imports from the colonies. Earth expects to win the war of attrition by flooding the enemy with meat and metal. Mars understands this and acts asymmetrically: sponsoring the Belt rebels, issuing letters of marque, using advanced stealth technology to strike at communications and trade routes. Mars also puts a lot of emphasis on propaganda, both in the colonies and on Earth itself. It blames the UN for suppression of local cultures, corruptions, strict environmental standards and birth control. This has already led to unrest on the Moon and a revolution at the Lagrange stations, which are suffering the most from disruptions in logistics. The exchange of nuclear strikes on the mother countries brings less damage to the Republic, since the Martian missile defense system is more perfect than the earthly one. For every nuclear mushroom on Mars there are five on Earth.
However, the Republic is gradually losing. Saturn is lost. Mercury's missile defense system has been broken and 200 Martians are desperately defending the last base in the northern hemisphere. The Republic has only succeeded in occupying a few Belt asteroids and completely disintegrating space trade.
Vanadis Inc remains neutral and moves its headquarters to Venus.Martian Summer. 2489.
An absolute triumph. The golden age and the peak of the greatness of the Martian civilization.
The Republic's plan worked. The UN won a series of military victories, but internal pressure tore it apart. Mars is the hegemon of the solar system and dominates the economy, politics, and culture. The Republic maintains dominance by diplomacy and authority, not by military presence. Everyone is grateful to the Martians for the liberation from the tyranny of the UN. Victory Day is a holiday for the entire solar system. Earth was divided into a dozen states-civilizations: Pansax, Columbia, Eurobund, Slavia, Bharat, Nusantara, Han and others. They all admire Mars and thank for the liberation from the age-old Yoke. Pansax is the only exception as they have lost more than they have gained, but they are neutral at worst. For the next two centuries, the only opponents of the Republic remain Belt radicals and pirates beefed up during the war.
Phobos and Deimos changed orbits and became counterweights for space elevators. The flow of migrants fuels the rapidly growing Martian economy, prosperity reaches unprecedented heights. Terraforming brings its first fruits. A breathing mask is still needed, but the atmosphere is warm and dense enough to hold the seas. Along the turbulent rivers, the first forests grow on which the first rains fall.
Vanadis Inc. is inspired by the success of Mars and announces the beginning of the terraforming of Venus for a period of 400 years. The planet has become a popular negotiating platform since the peace treaty signed here by the MR and the successors to the UN.Before the Second Solar War. 2602.
Clouds are gathering over Mars. The era of universal adoration is a thing of the past. The Republic is the new oppressor for the Belt. The nations of Earth are disappointed. The tyranny of the UN has become history, and the disadvantages of separation are multiplying: climate, ecology, overpopulation, conflicts. The Republic made it clear that it did not want to interfere, and the earthlings realized that the Martians were only interested in the prosperity of Mars. The image of the liberator and beacon of hope dissipated.
New powers appear on the scene. The United Orbital Stations is an oligarchic republic, an alliance of O'Neill cylinders in the Earth-Moon Lagrange with a perfect climate and zero crime. Orbital is located outside the gravity wells, at the crossroads of trade routes and has nothing but human and financial capital, therefore it is entirely focused on production, trade and commerce. The Orbitals have inherited many of the Earth's assets in the Belt and Outer System, the best specialists have migrated here and the financial elites have settled here. Over the course of several centuries, they have grown significantly, have multiplied their capital many times over, and are now investing in the development of new horizons. Orbital will actively expand through the creation of holdings and subsidiaries. The Ophion Company is developing the helium of Uranus, the East Titan Company is developing the hydrocarbons of the moon of the same name. The Jovian Company initiated the colonization of Jupiter's moons, and so on. The largest, the West-Earth Company, deals with Terra. In exchange for the investment, the Orbitals gain control of the economy, buy out cities, and build a parallel corporate infrastructure that replaces existing government institutions.
They carry an ideology of extreme individualism and objectivism, in which they receive support from the natives, disillusioned with the statist bureaucracies of the era of decentralization. By the end of the 26th century, this made Orbital a great commercial colonial empire, able to compete for leadership in the system.
Despite friendly relations and close ties, the intersection of the interests of the Republic and the Orbitals was only a matter of time. Mars entered the race for the outer system and colonized Neptune and Titan. The Republic sabotaged the creation of the East Earth Company, entered into an alliance with the statists of Eurasia, deployed military bases and a navy on Earth to contain oceanic fleets of the Orbitals. The conflict became a matter of time.
The Orbitals are not ahead of Mars technologically and are many times inferior in population, but they are generally recognized gods of automation and extremely rich. Robotic asteroid shipyards build automated fleets that patrol trade routes. Droid armies guard assets throughout the system. Unlike the Republic, their civilization is critically dependent on space and entirely focused on it. Therefore, the fleet and army of the Orbitals is not inferior and sometimes even surpass the Martian ones. This is accompanied by a much higher standard of living and colossal financial opportunities. Through banks and various funds, they can influence not only the allies of Mars, but also some of the elites of the Republic itself
The first crisis was on Ceres - the most important world of the Belt. Mars prevented a corporate takeover at the last moment, smashed the Orbital forces and occupy the planetoid.
The second crisis broke out in the orbit of Callisto. The Republic fleet was destroyed in the battle. The Orbitals made it clear that they would not tolerate the presence of Mars in the Jupiter system.
The third crisis is going on right now. Uncertainty in the demarcation of certain areas of Titan has led to constant provocations and skirmishes. Both sides are building up forces in the Saturn system. Soon this local crisis will grow into a global conflict. The Second Solar War will begin.Martian Autumn. 2711.
The Second Solar War is known as the Gentleman's War. The opponents did not hit the metropolises and critical infrastructure, respected the prisoners and civilians, declared festive truces and paid compensation for the damage caused. The war engulfed the entire solar system but was limited. The opponents intended to cut off supply lines, establish a blockade and impose more or less worthy peace conditions. The initiative changed hands for many years, but Mars won. Largely due to the entry of the moon into the war. But this did not lead to a new golden age.
The Republic retained its dominant position and the status of the only superpower, but it was no longer the same dominance as a century earlier. The war undermined the finances, the planet got into debt. The reputation of a liberator is gone. Orbital propaganda took off and Mars was now seen as an oppressor. Military presence, previously negligible, was now required throughout the system. Mercury and the Belt rebelled. The Republic is up to its neck in earthly affairs.
The completion of terraforming was an outlet. Mars has become a more comfortable world than Earth and the difference has been increasing every year. But the holiday soon turned into a value crisis. A society with a common dream for 500 years, a dream for which they made any sacrifice, suddenly found itself without a goal. The unrest turned into a sluggish civil war. Millions of veterans who returned from the earthly front exacerbated it. They saw first hand how overpopulation could destroy the originally living world and became the core of the movement that brought Mars to a new balance. From expansion and development, the Republic moved on to maintaining the achieved prosperity and flourishing Mars at any cost. Borders closed, strict birth control replaced pronatalism. The planet has isolated itself from the rest of the system. This has led to stagnation, a slowdown in social mobility and income stratification, greater reliance on state support, and the rise of populism.
Dissenters were offered to migrate to numerous Martian colonies: Mercury, Titan, Neptune, Earth. But there were few who wanted to. Ironically, the Martians turned out to be poor colonists because they were too attached to the world in which they had invested so much effort.
Orbitals didn't lose much. Under the Treaty of São Paulo, they lost corporate control over Earth, Jupiter and Uranus, but retained possessions in the Belt, Trojans and most of the assets, including those they owned on Mars. The Orbitals have abandoned their claim to sol system hegemony, but retained enough wealth to live a decent life.
The rules of war and gentlemen's agreements did not apply to Earth, where the largest massacre in the history of mankind unfolded. Earthlings, exalted by space propaganda, turned the conflict into an existential battle between objectivists and etatists. They massively used nuclear, biological and chemical weapons. Billions died, thousands of cities were destroyed, the climate went haywire. The oppressed biosphere degraded even more. In space, a relative parity of forces was maintained, but on Earth, the Republic's allies could not cope with the legions of droids and mercenaries armed with the advanced teachings of Objectivism. Mars sent a multi-million army in power armor to help and urgently gathered allies into the Earth Directory - a military organization under the temporary leadership of Mars, only for the period of the war. But the temporary turned out to be permanent. After the victory, the Directory took over the distribution of Republican loans, the expeditionary force maintained order, and the Martian navy continued to control the Earth's oceans. Stratospheric towers and terraced cities in the Himalayas and Andes were built for Martian soldiers and officials. Mars has moved the dirtiest industries here. East Asia and the Pacific have become a kind of Martian India.
Meanwhile, the earthlings became disillusioned with decentralization. The war showed why the UN was needed. There were many universalist TERRArist movements that fought against alien invaders. Terrorist attacks and riots forced the Martians to further increase military spending. Subsidies to satellites for keeping radicals out of power have become a constant expense item.
Lunar Republic was a poor, unstable state, with overpopulated caverns and cramped sublunar cities since independence. The government managed to restore order only shortly before the war. It adhered to neutrality to the last, fearing destabilization. But Mars found a way by promising investment and the Jupiter system, whose moons' gravity was perfect for the Lunarians. Lunar Fleet helped tie down the free forces of the Orbitals. Lunar Army helped capture important cylinders and close the blockade. All the forces of Luna are aimed at venting the population pressure into the new frontier since then. Several generations have already been born on the satellites that do not associate themselves with Luna. Ideas of a new, racial, identity are spreading among the lunar intellectuals. "Homo Selenicus" (also known as lowgraves) is a race that inhabits the six largest moons with similar gravity and living conditions. Selenism is a fringe ideology, but the number of its supporters is growing rapidly.
The system's eyes are fixed on Venus, where civil war is raging. Vanadis society has outgrown corporate governance. It tired of imposed monopolies and growing rents for oxygen, rain, sun and land. Surface settlers have rebelled against the corporate overlords and hereditary rentiers who live in luxurious automated cloud cities dating back to the age of hot Venus. On the side of the corporation there are droids, mercenaries and gigantic financial resources. On the side of the people - the number and horizontal coordination through innovative cortical interfaces. Martian settlements in the rings of Saturn experience the greatest costs. Venus has been the main consumer of ice for the last century and war does not help fulfill contracts.On the eve of the Third Solar War. 2807.
The economic crisis of the late 28th century hit the solar system painfully. Impoverishment led to a widespread rise in populism and radicalism.
The Republic is faced with an unprecedented increase in unemployment. Almost half of Martians depend on an unconditional basic income. Riots are raging in colonies where there are no social guarantees. Pirate activity in the Belt has increased significantly. The situation escalated to war in the newly annexed Martian Africa. Social and military spending is rising. Mars has just paid off his borrowings but is getting into debt again.
The Selenite Party won a majority, dissolved parliament, and reorganized the decrepit, corrupt Lunar Republic into the Selenite Federation, a racist ideocratic state whose goal was to lead the Lowgravs to dominate the solar system. The Selenites are experiencing an economic boom, terraforming Callisto, investing in science and expanding the army. They continue to multiply quickly, unlike Mars with its birth control. The Federation already surpasses Mars in femtotech, quantum AI and relativistic artillery - a new direction of military thought. Its fleet is still inferior to the Martian one, but is already capable of challenging the two-century hegemony of the Republic.
Vanadis Republic freed itself from the corporate yoke and became an economic superpower and the main creditor of the solar system. Neutrality, openness to innovation, and advanced socio-economic institutions such as cortical democracy and quantum capitalism have made the Vanadians extremely wealthy. Venusian goods are rightfully considered the best, and the economy is second only to that of Mars and is equal to that of Earth with a tenfold smaller population. The collapse of the Vanadian stock market due to the terraform derivatives bubble triggered a global crisis. However, the Vanadians were almost unharmed
The crisis has had the greatest impact on Earth. In Pansax and Bharat, the two strongest powers on the planet, moderate forces were replaced by radical anti-Martian movements dreaming of a united Terra. They strongly welcome the liberation struggle of Africa and are building up military forces, intending to solve internal problems with external expansion.
Interplanetary tension is growing, a new arms race has gained momentum. Despite the Republic's countermeasures, the Federation is catching up in the army and navy. The Selenites openly declare their intention to unite the "six homeworlds" including the Martian Titan. They enter into military agreements with the anti-Martian Earth movements and sponsor the Mercury and Belt rebels. Vanadis, meanwhile, opens credit lines to anyone. Venus shows that it does not intend to abandon the centuries-old policy of neutrality that has brought so many benefits.
Many expect a global war. But few people thought that it would begin in the same place as the previous one. Migrants from the Lunar Republic have long become the majority on Titan. Due to terrorist activity, the Martian administration limited the rights of the Selenites. This caused unrest, riots and the murder of a Republican minister. The performers and organizers fled to the Federation, which refused to extradite them and put forward counter-demands with the abolition of all restrictions for the inhabitants of Titan. While powers flex their muscles and hope that the enemy will blink first, the satellite is plunged into turmoil. The Third Solar War is at hand.Second battle for Luna. 2817.
Many believed that the Third Solar War would be as gentlemanly as the Second. There is no need for civilized space nations to destroy each other. They were wrong. The Lunar-Martian War engulfed the entire solar system and became the bloodiest conflict in human history and was accompanied by war crimes, concentration camps, genocide, all-out bombing and the use of weapons of mass destruction.
Following the blitzkrieg strategy, the Martians quickly defeated the near-Earth flotillas of the Selenites and blockaded the Moon, hoping, like the last time, to convince the enemy to negotiate. However, this did not happen. The Federation evacuated the government, valuable specialists and industry to the Jupiter system and continued the fight. The landing on the Moon encountered fanatical resistance and uprisings in the occupied territories. The Martians were forced to switch to orbital bombardment and concentration camps. After several years of heavy fighting, the destroyed satellite, with its population reduced by a third, fell. Hopes for a quick end to the war were dashed.
Attempts by the Martian fleet to storm the Galilees ended in complete failure. Overprotected and too far from the support bases of the inner solar system, Fortress Jupiter proved invulnerable to Republic forces. The parties found themselves in a strategic stalemate. Unable to win directly, the Martians decided to isolate Jupiter from the Belt's raw materials and establish an energy blockade. The Republic controlled all developed sources of helium-3 - the basis of space energy, with the exception of Ophion, which remained neutral until the last. With no other options, the Martians occupied the moons of Uranus and created a puppet republic, cutting off the cloud cities from trade routes.
The Federation responds with a total mobilization of the economy. Urgently develops the resources of Io and the small moons of Jupiter. It is developing near-bottom industrial complexes on Europa that are invulnerable to Martian missiles and artillery. The entire population works at military factories, sometimes dying from the cold in the ice workshops: Io’s energy factories have not yet entered into operation, and scarce and expensive helium from Jupiter goes to the fleet. The Selenites respond to blockade attempts by dividing their forces into many maneuverable flotillas. They attack Martian properties throughout the system, aid the Saturn rebels, and even occupy Trojan asteroids. The Federation responds to lunar atrocities with relativistic artillery strikes on the cities of Mars. The Republic has no defense against these weapons.
There is a war going on on Earth. The Martian forces are much larger, but constrained by the need to control the colonies. Bharat built a defense along the mountain ranges and, by blocking all the entrances to the Indian Ocean, made it his own. This ensured the safety of space elevators in the Maldives. Similarly, Pansax and Brazil are clinging to the elevators in the Amazon delta with their teeth, preferring to surrender the north to Euroslavia, which is advancing through the once-arctic ocean.
Control over elevators prevents a total blockade from being established. Neutral Vanadis continues to actively trade through them and lends to both sides of the conflict. Mars is dissatisfied but too dependent on finances and imports from Venus. And its rapidly growing military forces, especially after the occupation of the moons of Uranus, warn the Republic against adventurous decisions.
Remnants of the pre-war Federal fleet stretch Republic forces throughout the system. At this time, in the crucible of the shipyards of Himalia and Lysithea, asteroids were processed and a new fleet was forged, for which the Selenites had worked and suffered hardships for the last few years. It has passed the Belt and is flying to liberate its ancient homeland. The Martians are gathering their forces near the Earth in response. The Second Battle of the Moon is approaching, which will decide the outcome of the war.
Meanwhile, the results of experiments on Pluto promise a new revolution in military affairs.Long Winter. 2865.
The second battle for Luna was a disaster for the Martians. New Selenite asteroid battleships from the melted outer moons of Jupiter were invulnerable to Martian weapons. Events flowed like a river. The defeat in orbit was followed by an uprising and flight from the Moon. The orbital changed sides. Vanadis joined the conflict. Its fleet blockaded Mercury, and millions of Venusian soldiers landed throughout the western hemisphere to rescue the agonizing Pansax. Selenite technology and specialists flowed to Bharat. Vanadian and Federated forces were landing on holdings in the Belt. The entire colonial empire was under attack. Only now the Martian elites have realized how high the stakes are. They gave all power to the army, transferred the economy to a war footing and carried out total labor mobilization, as in the legendary era of the war with the UN. But time was lost. The noose was tightening. Soon the fleets of Vanadis and Selene entered orbit of Mars. The first landing failed, the Republic refused to negotiate. The Allies switched to an all-out bombardment, grinding cities into dust. New landing operations were more successful, but the Martians continued to cling to every city and crater. They used ancient bunkers built for the war with the UN and hoped to the last to somehow get out. Their calculations were not without foundation. The diplomats hoped to cause friction between the allies: to convince Venus that Selena was dangerous or to prove to Orbital that it would be the next target. Great hopes were placed on the wunderwaffe. The result of research into subtle physics on Pluto has become missiles that overcome missile defense through hyperspace. The technology was extremely crude. 99 out of 100 were lost, missed or exploded during the transition between dimensions, but even one was enough to cause monstrous destruction on Callisto and Ganymede. However, everything was in vain. The Allies remained united; warp strikes only increased the intensity of the bombardment. Soon Musk City fell and the Republic capitulated. The four-century era of Martian hegemony has ended.
The Allies shared the Republican heritage and established the League of Worlds. This was supposed to consolidate the post-war order and prevent the Fourth Solar War. This was successful, but contradictions between Selene and Vanadis, the superpowers of the new era, accumulated. Humanity has not only slipped into another Cold War and the risk of a new global massacre, but for the first time it has found itself vulnerable to threats of a much larger scale.
Source of inspirationSelenite Federation
Fascist dictatorship. Superpower. The second economy and the first military force.
The 29th century became golden for the Federation. The party fulfilled all election promises. The Selenite race won the war, ending four centuries of Republic dominance and unifying the six homeworlds. The Federation has become the hegemon of the system, controlling the two largest planets, Mars and half of the Earth. Its fleet has no equal. Callisto is terraformed and can rival Venus in terms of comfort. Europa and Ganymede are coming. The monstrous losses and destruction of the Third Solar War have been overcome. The post-war demographic and economic boom, captured Republic technologies and new markets made the Selenites richer than ever. The entire solar system admires the blossoming of science and culture, monumental architecture and the revival of innovative geometric cities. This is the peak of the Selenite civilization.
The political life of the Federation is highly ideological and remains controlled by the Selenite party, whose legitimacy has been further strengthened. The economy relies on close partnerships between government and business, megaprojects like terraforming and the mass introduction of breakthrough quantum AI. The temporary capital on Callisto became permanent. The center of the Federation has finally shifted to the Jupiter system.
The victory proved the validity of the Selenite ideology. Gravitational racism lies at its foundation. This divides humanity into four races depending on the gravity of their native environment: highgraves (0.887-1g), midgraves (0.38-0.39g), selenite-lowgraves (0.12-0.18g) and nullgraves (0-0.05g). Selenism states that dominance over the system passes from the first to the next. From the most ancient, primitive and unadapted to expansion, locked in gravity wells, to the most innovative and close to space. Therefore, the midgraves of Mars became hegemons and defeated the highgraves twice, and that is why they fell at the hands of the lowgraves. Lowgraves are the pinnacle of human evolution. They optimally combine the “gifts of gravity” and proximity to space and therefore should stand at the head of humanity.
Ironically, gravitational racism dates back to the tactical task of Martian diplomats to justify Mars' claims to Mercury 500 years ago. Forgotten for centuries, it was brought back into discourse by lunar ideologists and turned into a mainstream scientific doctrine not only in the Federation but throughout the entire system.
Selene had an overwhelming military superiority over Vanadis after the end of the war. But the Federation was too exhausted by many years of total war. Among other things, Venus, unlike Mars, had relativistic artillery. Trade with Vanadis was profitable for too many of the Federation's elite. In the wake of post-war optimism, the powers decided to move to “peaceful coexistence” and “competition of systems.” They also hoped for a quick leap to the stars. However, Neptune, the Martian Crisis, the Earth War and conflicts in the Belt gradually escalated the situation. Interstellar travel remains a fantasy. Humanity has come to another Cold War, much more dangerous due to the emergence of delivery systems invulnerable to interception.
Selena views the new confrontation through the prism of the confrontation between two races. Outdated highgraves that drag civilization into the past. And the young Lowgraves, a space race that leads people into the future. Midgraves are by nature oppressors and imperialists. They are defeated and no longer pose a threat. The Nullgraves are a valuable ally in the process of liberation from offworld tyranny. Their prime is yet to come and poses no threat. Their abilities are limited to zero gravity and they have no "core". Therefore, they would not be able to build an empire and challenge the Selenites.
Ideologues chalk up the rise of Vanadis to foul play. Venus remained neutral until the winner was determined and became a superpower through deception. This means that in the long run it will undoubtedly lose.
Selenites respect augmentics due to their historically harsh environment. Their genetic research is usually aimed at overcoming the problems associated with low gravity.
Luna
Still in ruins. Many cavities are irreversibly damaged. Cities are easier to demolish than to rebuild. It is impossible to terraform the Moon. In the next war, it will again be on the front line and most likely will be destroyed. The Federation decided to transport the population to the Jupiter system, mainly to the inhabited Callisto and Ganymede. The Moon was turned into “Fortress Luna” - the most important military base of the Federation in the inner system, the sacred ancestral home of the Selenite race and a grandiose memorial.
Second Martian Republic
Occupied by the Federation. One-party dictatorship. Selena's loyal ally. Mars is morally crushed, has renounced the colonial past and condemns the crimes of the previous regime. The planet has not yet fully overcome the consequences of the war. The population has decreased by a quarter and continues to decline due to migration and the “Martian cross”. Space elevators have collapsed and some cities still lie in ruins. Much of the planet has returned to relatively normal life. The capital and coastal metropolises have returned to their former luster. But in the deep south, far from the ocean, anarchy still reigns. The population lives by subsistence farming and depends on humanitarian aid. The biosphere, the pride of the Martians, is going through hard times. The climate has gone haywire, the deserts are advancing. A new ice age has begun due to bombing and anti-relativistic orbital coal clouds. AI helps restore the economy, but makes it completely dependent on the Federation.
The Republic was completely demilitarized after the surrender. But Mars was allowed to partially restore the army and navy due to the growth of the military potential of Vanadis.
Despite all the bloodshed and disasters, the Martians have a positive attitude towards the Selenites. There was a risk of turning the occupation zones of Mars into separate states, with the prospect of subsequent planetary massacre. But the strong position of the Federation did not allow the Vanadians and the Orbitals to carry out their plans, and forced them to leave the planet.
Phobos and Deimos
Came out of areostationary orbit during the siege of Mars. Leased by the Federation for 99 years in exchange for the stabilization and restoration of space elevators. The elevator to Deimos has been restored. Phobos is a large military base.Republic of Vanadis
Superpower. Cortical democracy. The richest society in the solar system and the second military power.
Venus was inhabited by those who were tired of conflicts, instability or bureaucracy of other worlds. Scientists, inventors, financiers, orbitals migrated here after defeat in the Second Solar War and Martians who disagreed with the antinatalism of the Republic. Vanadis did not participate in astropolitics and reinvested in itself for 500 years. This made it the second, and after the war, the first economy of the system. Venus is a center of progress and innovation, with a genetically enhanced and augmented population living on a tropical terraformed world.
During the war, Vanadis enjoyed the exclusive privilege of trading with both sides until the end. The Venusians did enter the war only when the scales clearly tipped in favor of the Federation. They occupied Mercury, half of the Earth and a significant part of the Belt. In a couple of years they turned from a centuries-old neutral into a contender for world domination.
Venus is a world with an extremely high level of automation. A middle class family usually has at least three robots. The symbol of Mars was vactrains connecting the megacities of the equator. The symbol of Venus is mass flying cars with transonic cruising speed, which tied the planet together and predetermined the Venusian way of life. For historical reasons, all logistics are carried out by air. So Venus has no roads and no need to be tied to transport infrastructure. Vanadians spread across the Venusian expanses as widely as possible. The majority live in a sparse mosaic of autonomous houses in the middle of the jungle, mountains, forests, seas, islands, built around kilometer-long peaks of cultural and business downtowns.
The gravity of Venus is comparable to that of Earth, so augmentic and genetic modifications are aimed at expanding human capabilities, not at adapting to the environment like lowgraves. The radical reduction in the tax burden after the completion of terraforming led to another economic boom, which made the Vanadians even richer. Despite the relatively small population, Venus’s economy is one and a half times larger than the Federation and twice that of Earth.
It was not only neutrality and openness to innovation that helped achieve prosperity. The Republic relies on two advanced institutions: cortical democracy and quantum capitalism. The first is a network of neural implants that connects the brains of citizens, allows they to quickly make decisions, coordinate actions and come to consensus, with minimal bureaucracy. This brought self-government to a new level and made the legislative and judicial systems extremely adaptive. Quantum capitalism (aka capitalism+, capitalism 2.0) relies on a decentralized network of personal quantum computers, originally created to predict and prevent weather anomalies, much more dangerous in the dense Venusian atmosphere. It soon became clear that it could predict the behavior of other stochastic systems, such as the economy. The network collects data from the entire market, creates a model of it and predicts the next state, largely eliminating the problem of information asymmetry. This allows you to anticipate distortions, deflate bubbles, prevent shortages, determine promising directions and “simulations go broke for you.” Cyclical crises are not canceled, but their timing and depth are predictable. The system does not provide one hundred percent guarantees, especially at long intervals, but it also does not provide enough guarantees for superiority over other economies. But there is also a downside. Cortical interfaces are very expensive, which has become a natural limitation. Despite the subsidy programs, every fifth Vanadian does not have access to them, which means they are excluded from political life. Participating in the economy without a quantum computer is difficult. For this reason, Venusian migration laws are quite strict.
Terraforming is complete and extremely successful, but developed ecosystems have not been built everywhere. Ishtar is a fully developed subpolar continent and is considered the best place to live. Its biomes surpass the “gardens of Mars” in its best years. Aphrodite is a continent at the equator. A new frontier whose colonization has just begun. Two centuries of orbital rain ended just a couple of decades ago.
Vanadis does not have any global goal or messianic ideas other than democracy and collective prosperity. There is only highgravism that arose as a reaction to selenism. This is a vague doctrine that should unite the most important allies of Venus - the orbitals, earthlings and Ophionians. Highgraves are united by closeness to nature, an earth-like habitat, and a desire for freedom and democracy. Therefore, they must rule the solar system and guide humanity towards a brighter tomorrow.
The Vanadian fleet is technologically ahead of the federal fleet, but is objectively weaker and has less experience. However, the gap is rapidly closing. The Vanadis army is more effective on large worlds, but inferior on moons and asteroids. It can quickly mobilize tens of millions of home robots if necessary, as it already did in the beginning TSW.
United Orbitals
Wealthy democracy, financial center and ally of Vanadis.
Orbital entered the war on the side of Mars without much zeal. The orbital government changed after the Second Battle of the Moon and withdrew from the war. The next one came back but on the other side. The orbitals were engaged in supply and secondary fronts and only towards the end took part in the landing. This was enough to march through Mask City with the armies of Vanadis and the Federation. When the Martian field marshal saw a representative of the orbital at the signing of the surrender, he asked in surprise: did these also defeat us?
The headquarters of the new League of Worlds was located on one of the islands. Neutral Orbital became one of the three members of the Security Council. But soon the “highgrave party” won and UO joined Vanadis.
The Orbitals are known as wealthy burghers who live in picturesque cylinders, work in finance, automated industry, and drink wine from their own grapes in their free time. The standard of living is largely based on the capital accumulated over previous centuries. Centuries-old islands attract tourists, which contributes to the budget. Orbitals are conservative and not interested in innovation. For example, they do not switch to cortical democracy, preferring network democracy, and do not particularly monitor what is happening in the rest of the system. They are not ready to die in the Belt for a colonial empire bursting at the seams.
Union of Mercury
A corrupt state with high inequality and an unstable government that lives by selling resources. The criminal capital of the system. The Vanadis army liberated Mercury from the 500-year Martian yoke. Juntas and right-wing dictatorships have regularly replaced each other since then. Both of them are thoroughly pro-Venusian and keep a Vanadian passport in the stash. A world of contrasts. Megacities receive spaceships every minute, but are still not connected by a network of vactrains. Underground ghettos are adjacent to elite domes that are irrigated with Cereran water. Mercurians dream of terraforming, but budgets are stolen at the planning stage. The prime pensionary of Orbital once said: “Mercury is a world of a wonderful future, and will remain so forever.”
Many war criminals of Mars took refuge here.Earth
A united post-war Earth was a commonplace in the Allied position. The planet was once again in ruins, the soils were poisoned, the diversity of species had fallen to critical levels. Epidemics and famine raged. No single nation could solve these problems. The peoples of the Earth convened a constituent assembly at which they were supposed to develop the principles of the future Earth Union. However, several years of consultations led to nothing. It turned out that all earthlings want a single state and agree that the collapse of the UN was the main mistake since the Fall, but nothing more. It was not possible to determine either the form of government, or the administrative division, or the system. Pansax, Vanadis and Orbital insisted on democracy and federalism. Bharat and the Federation advocated a more centralized and statist approach.
The discord between Venus and Selena made the prospects for a unified state more elusive. Eventually, the Second UN was proclaimed in the territories controlled by Vanadis and its pan-Saxon allies: the New World, parts of Europe, Africa and Antarctica. Bharat controlled the rest of the planet and responded by creating Panterra. In Europe, the border passed through the ruins of Moscow, the capital of defeated Euroslavia. The two newborn states did not recognize each other and began to prepare for a new massacre.
The Earth War (the Fifth World War in local historiography) became the first conflict of the new confrontation and was only slightly less bloody than TSW. The battlefield became Europe and Africa. Panterra hoped to drive the enemy out of the Old World and in the initial offensive reached the Rhine. However, after Vanadis entered the war and the massive use of tactical nuclear weapons, it rolled back to the Volga and stabilized on the Oka - in the same place where it began. The movement of the front was even more chaotic in Africa. After several years of marking time and a billion dead, under pressure from the superpowers, the parties signed a truce. Panterra was able to reach the Gulf of Guinea and SUN captured Antarctica. The war became an unprecedented disaster for Europe and Africa. What little that survived TSW was destroyed. Vast territories were depopulated, cities were destroyed. A significant part of the population was evacuated. There remains an army, drones, mining enterprises and aborigines who live on subsistence farming, huddle in ruins and die from radiation sickness. Both sides complied with the unspoken agreement and did not hit critical infrastructure despite the meat grinder. The space elevators of the Andes, Amazon, Maldives and Java, as well as the metropolitan cities of the East Coast and Bay of Bengal, were practically undamaged.
WWV showed that the separation was here to stay. The states recognized each other and signed a number of agreements on climate, ecology, de-escalation and arms reduction. However, this does not prevent us from preparing for the next, Sixth, World War, which will certainly be the last. Earth remains the most uncomfortable and poorest world in the system. Its average temperature approaches that of Venus, and its economy is half that of Vanadis and two-thirds that of the Federation.
Second UN
An ally of Venus, the second most populous state in the system. Poor corrupt cortical democracy. Originated on Venusian bayonets. It imitates the previous incarnation in everything, right down to placing the capital in the long-destroyed and drowned New York. Highgravism found the greatest response here and became the official ideology: we need to follow our racial brothers in everything in order to become as successful as them.
After WWV, New York began a painful modernization that led to many distortions. The transition to cortical democracy in a country where neural interfaces can allow 0.5% of citizens meant the exclusion of the entire population from political life. Quantum capitalism provides significant bonuses, but the transition period is accompanied by the collapse of the previous economic structure and excesses on the ground, especially in a 12 billion state. With the exception of the fabulously rich, by earthly standards, coastal megacities, the population is extremely poor and sometimes on the brink of survival. Regular uprisings are suppressed by the Vanadian army. Reforms are being carried out under the supervision of alien specialists occupying half of the positions in the government. For assistance in WWV, Vanadis received a concession of space elevators and mineral deposits. It deployed many military bases with a permanent multimillion-dollar contingent at the request of New York. The Venusian naval fleet patrols Earth's oceans. Ironically, the inhabitants of the SUN consider themselves free and Panterra - fascist slaves of the Selenites.
Panterra
A fascist dictatorship with its capital in Calcutta - «New Venice». Selena's ally. The most populous state in the system. There are more inhabitants than in all of space combined. The panterrists of Bharat were inspired by the successes of the Selenite race since pre-war times. In their opinion, earthlings face similar tasks and they need to be solved in a similar way: through a strong central government and state capitalism. Ideologically, panterrism is closer to “earthly nationalism.” The Earth is unique. This is the birthplace of humanity, the only natural inhabited world. Earthlings do not need to look up to others or seek mythical racial solidarity. Nobody needs them except themselves.
Panterra is a little richer than the SUN. The most developed and relatively unaffected regions of the Earth Directorate were transferred to Calcutta. Martian industry and infrastructure are still functioning, and many Martian officials have retained their positions. The SUN calls Panterra the "Second Directorate". However, Calcutta is an independent military force because the Selenites are unable to function properly in Earth's gravity. The Federation does not have bases on Earth or low orbit; they only need counterweights from space elevators and a geostationary station. Moreover, they need earthly personnel and mercenaries to work in the extreme conditions of the giants and security. This gives Panterra quite wide freedom of action.
The SUN accuses Panterra of Indian nationalism - Hindi is the only state language, Hindus occupy leading roles in economics and politics. Panterra responds with accusations of pan-Saxon imperialism.Belt.
The Belt is awakening. The asteroid colonies have grown enough to begin modernization and have a voice in astropolitics. They have outgrown the primitive Belt identity and racial self-awareness: too different destinies, cultures and historical paths. They have been replaced by Cerenan, Hygean and other nationalisms. Pan-Beltism is marginalized and has become the prerogative of small asteroids to protect against larger ones.
There are fifty states in the Belt now. The most ancient colonies such as Ceres, Pallas, Hygeia, Hector are small but independent forces. All Martian colonies have gained independence, but a quarter of the Belt remains an Orbital colony and worlds such as Vesta still struggle for freedom. The environment and harsh conditions incline the Belters towards collectivism. Their regimes are usually authoritarian, radically right or left.
The Belt remains the most important source of raw materials for which there is a fierce struggle. It often results in civil wars and proxy conflicts.
Ceres. A nationalist dictatorship with imperial ambitions based on the antiquity, population and size of the planetoid. Claims to be a leader not only in the Belt but also among all Nulgraves. Entered the war after the Second Battle of the Moon and captured several nearby Martian asteroids. It extracts heavy elements that are scarce for the planetoid and crushes the rebels. Power is in the hands of neo-feudal elites that trace their ancestry back to the UN administration.
It has the largest army and space fleet in the Belt. Ceres has maintained good relations with Venus since pre-war times and is now one of the most important allies. Adopts technology, but not the political and economic model. Spent the accumulated wealth on building an atmospheric dome and terraforming the surface. This catapulted the authority of the Cererans into space.
Pallas. Former colony of Mars. Liberated by the Vanadis army. The military dictator carries out modernization using harsh methods and adopts the economic institutions of Venus but ignores the political ones.
Hygeia. The Federation's main ally in the Belt. A nationalist dictatorship led by a charismatic tyrant who declared the asteroid a kingdom and himself as regent. One of the first to declare war on Mars and was immediately occupied. Liberated by the Federation and actively modernized.
Vesta. The crown jewel of the Orbital colonial empire, the second most important world of the Belt. Torn by a civil war between pro-Selenite supporters of independence and pro-Vanadian supporters of autonomy. The main conflict of the decade in which military experts from all over the system are involved. Ironically, the Cererans and Palladians are fighting to maintain orbital dominance over their Belter brothers. Panterra's and the SUN military are killing each other in the tunnels of a world they don’t care about.
Greek Federation
Selena's ally. Controls several dozen asteroids in L4 Sun-Jupiter. Here there was a small colonial empire under the protectorate of orbitals where the “Trojans” - the inhabitants of the largest asteroid Hector, exploited the “Greeks” - all the others. The “Greeks” fought as partisans for many years until, with the help of the Selenites, they captured Hector and now control the government, ignoring the locals. The Trojan opposition maintains relations with Orbitals.
Saturn Federation
Mars established many colonies, stations and bases in the rings and small moons of Saturn. They lived by exporting ice and became a “rust belt” when the terraforming of Venus was completed. Selenites never laid claim to the entire Saturn system. However, the moons quickly became a breeding ground for piracy, smuggling, and Vanadian agents. The Federation is forced to keep a large contingent here, including for the safe transit of helium-3 from the giant’s atmosphere.
Republic of Iapetus
A small peaceful dictatorship. A small world on the edge of existence. What is happening there? No one knows. The Iapetians helped the Selenites during the war. They remain allies even now.Republic of Ophion
Rich democracy. The largest exporter of helium-3. Vanadis's most important ally in the external system. Miniature colonial empire.
The population of Ophion has been divided into two roughly equal groups throughout history. The Highgraves, descendants of the Orbitals, live in cloudy zeppelin islands so huge and picturesque that from the inside they can easily be confused with ancient Earth. They are rich, engaged in helium mining, science, high-tech and art. Nullgraves, descendants of belters, inhabit the moons, are engaged in mining, manufacturing, logistics and are quite poor. Their relationship had always been strained, but due to the weak resistance to the Martian occupation, it worsened even more. After the war, the Uranites deprived the moon of its subjectivity, essentially establishing apartheid. Civil liberties are abolished, governors are appointed by Uranus, the population is deprived of cortical interfaces and therefore excluded from political life. A military contingent recruited from the inhabitants of the clouds keeps order. This led to constant unrest and riots. Oberon, the farthest moon, has been living in anti-terrorist operation mode for many years and is actually not subordinate to the government. But the forces are too unequal, and so far the atmosphere controls space without any problems.
The Ophionians are fanatical supporters of Vanadis. They share the ideas of Highgravism, adopt political and economic institutions, conduct intensive cultural exchanges, and allow the construction of military bases on the outer moons. The special relationship is also due to the coincidence of the gravity of Venus and Uranus down to thousandths (aka 0887 club). Many consider them a separate subrace. Vanadis is also the largest importer of helium in the system.
However, this does not prevent Ophion from maintaining trade relations with Selene, the second importer of helium. Uranus claims that he suffered for the right to trade with whomever he sees fit and will not give it up now.
Ophion society is extremely rich. The economy and population are growing rapidly, the standard of living is only slightly inferior to that of Venus. Many migrants arrived here from the devastated inner solar system after the war. Now those who fear a new war are immigrating. Migration is also going on to satellites. Despite all the restrictions, the standard of living on the moons of Uranus is higher than in the Belt.
Laconia
Totalitarian dictatorship. A high-tech militaristic, ascetic society where the best sons of Mars retreated.
Named after Laconia - a giant artificial island in the atmosphere of the planet where half the population lives. Neptune is a harsh, hostile world. Its gravity is 15% greater than that of Earth, in this it is second only to Jupiter. Laconians are distinguished as a separate race of n-graves, famous for their strength, endurance and courage. Colonization was carried out by veterans of the earthly front. They have supplied the Republic with helium-3 and elite Space Marines since time immemorial.
The war bypassed Neptune - it was too far away and too well fortified. Admiral Duarte, the permanent leader of Laconia, shortly before the surrender, sent a secret message to the remnants of the Martian fleet guarding what was left of the Martian colonial empire:
They took what they could and retreated to Neptune. A day before the capitulation, Laconia declared independence and concluded a separate peace and mutual defense treaty with Venus. This became the cause of the first serious discord between the superpowers.Only one day is left
Only one day
We are leaving the others
We're going away
Today we all steal
Animals we are
Possession is lost
Our souls are from the wild
And wings to reach the sky
Let the sun fall into the ocean,
Let the Mars erupt in flame
It is enough to have the strength
And knowledge
To raise our dream machines
Into the sky
Let them sleep who do not know
The final day is here
The very last
And we leave at dawn
There is no force no money and no power
To stop us now and change our fate
Now every problem is destroyed
We raise our hands and bodies to the peak
Into the Universe - towards the stars we go
The Laconians continued to attract Martians from throughout the solar system after the war. The best scientists, engineers and officers of the Republic from those who remained faithful to the Martian spirit and way of life moved to Neptune.
Through the export of helium, human capital and high technology, the small Laconian society remains one of the wealthiest in the system. The space fleet is second only to the superpowers and comparable to the orbital ones. The Laconians are leaders in many fields of science and are one of the few that can enable hyperdimensional exploration. But they are known for their asceticism, utilitarianism and severity. Under the doctrine of Laconianism, most of the income is invested in science, the army, and maintaining technological autarky from the rest of the system.
Laconians are supremarsists. They idealize the society of old, red, Mars. They admire the courage, resourcefulness, thirst for research and self-reliance of the first generations of Martians. Terraforming is considered the biggest mistake in Martian history in Laconian doctrine. Space is hostile to man and thus makes him stronger. This must be accepted. The Republic, tempered by a hostile environment, was able to defeat Terra and the orbitals. When it made Mars like Earth, it signed its own death warrant. It killed the spirit of adventurism and turned the pioneers into ordinary people isolated from the outside world. Martians would have colonized the stars long ago if not for terraforming. The defeat of the pampered Republic from the more resilient Selenites and Vanadians is a logical result. But they too have taken the destructive path and will share her fate. Meanwhile, the harsh Neptune will forge a race destined to conquer the universe. Not surprisingly, the Laconians consider the Nullgraves to be quite promising. Some go even further in their anti-terraformingism. The idea of “asteroid deterrforming” of all inhabited worlds, including Earth, is circulating among Neptune intellectuals. Exclusively for the sake of liberating the spirit and creative potential of humanity.
Laconia is famous for its intelligence department, one of the best in the system. She is especially active in the Belt. This is an important region for Neptune and is deprived of heavy elements. The Laconians established control over some of the former Martian colonies through old connections and anti-terraformingism.
The Laconians explore all the moons of their home world. But the entire population is born and grows on Neptune to maintain “gravitational purity.” Unlike the late Republic, they adhere to an extremely pro-natalist policy. They population is growing faster than in other worlds. Triton stands apart. Centuries-old autonomy, it is inhabited by a race of t-graves - half-breeds of null and lowgraves adapted to 0.08g. The Laconians are aggressively assimilating them within the framework of the doctrine of building a single nation. They take mothers and children to Neptune, where they conduct experiments on pharmacological and genetic inoculation of tolerance to increased gravity. The Tritonians are waging a guerrilla war. However, they are not supported by any other race.
Laconia was a consistent ally of Vanadis. For a long time it did not even have diplomatic relations with the Federation. However, having grown stronger, Laconia began to move away from Venus and builds bridges with Selena. Obviously, Neptune expects to move to neutrality.
Kuiper Belt
Useless and hostile to any human activity. Has no valuable resources or energy sources. However, only here the gravitational field of the sun weakens enough so as not to interfere with the work of delicate instruments for researching hyperspace. Research bases filled the outskirts of the solar system after the war. Vanadis annexed Martian Pluto and gained access to all the scientific developments of the Republic. The Federation confiscated technical developments and documentation on Mars, but was forced to develop scientific infrastructure on Eris from scratch. Orbital and Laconia, which lured some of their former fellow citizens from Pluto to Makemake, joined later.
Despite the initial enthusiasm, it soon became clear that interstellar travel and the widespread use of warp drive were very far away. Hyperspace is more hostile than space, just as space is more hostile than Earth. Only the most advanced technology is capable of withstanding radiation, overloads, and spatial deformations that accompany transition and travel in the warp. An even smaller part of the technology is capable of not getting lost in hyperbolic space. It took researchers decades of work to deliver the probes to Alpha Centauri in one piece and with a miss of less than a light month. Propagandists dream of a human journey to another star, but this is impossible at this technological level.
However, the accuracy and reliability are sufficient for the exchange of hyperspace strikes between Venus and Selene. But at least the warp radars deployed in Kuiper will not allow them to be carried out unnoticed.
Recently, stories in which something in hyperspace noticed human activity and attacked the solar system have become increasingly popular. Based on some indirect evidence, such as a statistically higher frequency of probe disappearances than models predict, signals of an unknown nature and unexplained anomalies, it is believed that these fears are not unfounded. Perhaps people have found the reason for the great silence of the universe.
Basemap by slimysomething
This is beautiful, wonderful work!Solar system opera. The timeline covers most of the third millennium. In some ways, a reimagining of The Expansion with a little more realism. Without xenotech, strange alien substances and food from Ganymede.
Lots of maps. Lots of text. There are few neural network art.
The text was translated using Google Translator.
Expanse in freeze frames
First Steps. 2150.
Mid 22nd century. United humanity colonizes space. The asteroid belt and the Moon in priority. Their raw materials are needed by the suffocating economy of the Earth. Mars is the new frontier where the best engineers and scientists migrate. Mars has been explored enough to confirm the possibility of terraforming. And rich enough to start it.
Martian Revolution. 2267.
Several generations were born on Mars who have never seen Earth. The intellectual elites dream of independence. The planet has outgrown the management of the bone earth bureaucracy and has less and less in common with the rest of the UN.
When the Earth is on the other side of the sun, Mars raises a revolution and proclaims the Martian Republic. A technocratic hierarchical state with a strong civil society living the dream of terraforming.
The UN has nothing to answer. Earth has no army and no space fleet other than a police force to fight the pirates. New York can only declare an embargo, but that doesn't help. Soon Mars completely passes under the control of the revolutionaries.Confrontation. 2344.
Mars is too valuable a trading partner. The embargo is being lifted under pressure from business. Nevertheless, the Cold War is gaining momentum. Both sides are building up armies and space fleets.
Mars needs resources and tries to gain a foothold in the Belt. However, after several battles, the UN makes it clear that it will not tolerate the presence of others. The Martians make a surprise move and annex unclaimed Mercury, which is logistically less accessible but just as rich in minerals and "rightfully belongs to the Martian race" due to similar gravity. The Martians also go out into the outer system and build bases near the rings of Saturn from where they take ice for terraforming. Earthlings are forced to colonize the neighboring moon Tethys.
The first O'Neill Islands are being built in L4 Earth-Moon. These are 32 km cylinders with centrifugal gravity and a full-fledged biosphere. The richest people move here.
Vanadis Inc buys the right to colonize Venus and builds the first cloud cities.First Solar War. 2424.
The escalation could not continue indefinitely. Another clash of patrols in the outer system suddenly escalates into the first solar war.
Mars is technologically superior to Earth but many times inferior in population and economy.. However, the Martian society is monolithic, the economy is autarky, and all power is in the hands of the military. The UN is hesitant to go to total war for fear of unrest and is critically dependent on imports from the colonies. Earth expects to win the war of attrition by flooding the enemy with meat and metal. Mars understands this and acts asymmetrically: sponsoring the Belt rebels, issuing letters of marque, using advanced stealth technology to strike at communications and trade routes. Mars also puts a lot of emphasis on propaganda, both in the colonies and on Earth itself. It blames the UN for suppression of local cultures, corruptions, strict environmental standards and birth control. This has already led to unrest on the Moon and a revolution at the Lagrange stations, which are suffering the most from disruptions in logistics. The exchange of nuclear strikes on the mother countries brings less damage to the Republic, since the Martian missile defense system is more perfect than the earthly one. For every nuclear mushroom on Mars there are five on Earth.
However, the Republic is gradually losing. Saturn is lost. Mercury's missile defense system has been broken and 200 Martians are desperately defending the last base in the northern hemisphere. The Republic has only succeeded in occupying a few Belt asteroids and completely disintegrating space trade.
Vanadis Inc remains neutral and moves its headquarters to Venus.Martian Summer. 2489.
An absolute triumph. The golden age and the peak of the greatness of the Martian civilization.
The Republic's plan worked. The UN won a series of military victories, but internal pressure tore it apart. Mars is the hegemon of the solar system and dominates the economy, politics, and culture. The Republic maintains dominance by diplomacy and authority, not by military presence. Everyone is grateful to the Martians for the liberation from the tyranny of the UN. Victory Day is a holiday for the entire solar system. Earth was divided into a dozen states-civilizations: Pansax, Columbia, Eurobund, Slavia, Bharat, Nusantara, Han and others. They all admire Mars and thank for the liberation from the age-old Yoke. Pansax is the only exception as they have lost more than they have gained, but they are neutral at worst. For the next two centuries, the only opponents of the Republic remain Belt radicals and pirates beefed up during the war.
Phobos and Deimos changed orbits and became counterweights for space elevators. The flow of migrants fuels the rapidly growing Martian economy, prosperity reaches unprecedented heights. Terraforming brings its first fruits. A breathing mask is still needed, but the atmosphere is warm and dense enough to hold the seas. Along the turbulent rivers, the first forests grow on which the first rains fall.
Vanadis Inc. is inspired by the success of Mars and announces the beginning of the terraforming of Venus for a period of 400 years. The planet has become a popular negotiating platform since the peace treaty signed here by the MR and the successors to the UN.Before the Second Solar War. 2602.
Clouds are gathering over Mars. The era of universal adoration is a thing of the past. The Republic is the new oppressor for the Belt. The nations of Earth are disappointed. The tyranny of the UN has become history, and the disadvantages of separation are multiplying: climate, ecology, overpopulation, conflicts. The Republic made it clear that it did not want to interfere, and the earthlings realized that the Martians were only interested in the prosperity of Mars. The image of the liberator and beacon of hope dissipated.
New powers appear on the scene. The United Orbital Stations is an oligarchic republic, an alliance of O'Neill cylinders in the Earth-Moon Lagrange with a perfect climate and zero crime. Orbital is located outside the gravity wells, at the crossroads of trade routes and has nothing but human and financial capital, therefore it is entirely focused on production, trade and commerce. The Orbitals have inherited many of the Earth's assets in the Belt and Outer System, the best specialists have migrated here and the financial elites have settled here. Over the course of several centuries, they have grown significantly, have multiplied their capital many times over, and are now investing in the development of new horizons. Orbital will actively expand through the creation of holdings and subsidiaries. The Ophion Company is developing the helium of Uranus, the East Titan Company is developing the hydrocarbons of the moon of the same name. The Jovian Company initiated the colonization of Jupiter's moons, and so on. The largest, the West-Earth Company, deals with Terra. In exchange for the investment, the Orbitals gain control of the economy, buy out cities, and build a parallel corporate infrastructure that replaces existing government institutions.
They carry an ideology of extreme individualism and objectivism, in which they receive support from the natives, disillusioned with the statist bureaucracies of the era of decentralization. By the end of the 26th century, this made Orbital a great commercial colonial empire, able to compete for leadership in the system.
Despite friendly relations and close ties, the intersection of the interests of the Republic and the Orbitals was only a matter of time. Mars entered the race for the outer system and colonized Neptune and Titan. The Republic sabotaged the creation of the East Earth Company, entered into an alliance with the statists of Eurasia, deployed military bases and a navy on Earth to contain oceanic fleets of the Orbitals. The conflict became a matter of time.
The Orbitals are not ahead of Mars technologically and are many times inferior in population, but they are generally recognized gods of automation and extremely rich. Robotic asteroid shipyards build automated fleets that patrol trade routes. Droid armies guard assets throughout the system. Unlike the Republic, their civilization is critically dependent on space and entirely focused on it. Therefore, the fleet and army of the Orbitals is not inferior and sometimes even surpass the Martian ones. This is accompanied by a much higher standard of living and colossal financial opportunities. Through banks and various funds, they can influence not only the allies of Mars, but also some of the elites of the Republic itself
The first crisis was on Ceres - the most important world of the Belt. Mars prevented a corporate takeover at the last moment, smashed the Orbital forces and occupy the planetoid.
The second crisis broke out in the orbit of Callisto. The Republic fleet was destroyed in the battle. The Orbitals made it clear that they would not tolerate the presence of Mars in the Jupiter system.
The third crisis is going on right now. Uncertainty in the demarcation of certain areas of Titan has led to constant provocations and skirmishes. Both sides are building up forces in the Saturn system. Soon this local crisis will grow into a global conflict. The Second Solar War will begin.Martian Autumn. 2711.
The Second Solar War is known as the Gentleman's War. The opponents did not hit the metropolises and critical infrastructure, respected the prisoners and civilians, declared festive truces and paid compensation for the damage caused. The war engulfed the entire solar system but was limited. The opponents intended to cut off supply lines, establish a blockade and impose more or less worthy peace conditions. The initiative changed hands for many years, but Mars won. Largely due to the entry of the moon into the war. But this did not lead to a new golden age.
The Republic retained its dominant position and the status of the only superpower, but it was no longer the same dominance as a century earlier. The war undermined the finances, the planet got into debt. The reputation of a liberator is gone. Orbital propaganda took off and Mars was now seen as an oppressor. Military presence, previously negligible, was now required throughout the system. Mercury and the Belt rebelled. The Republic is up to its neck in earthly affairs.
The completion of terraforming was an outlet. Mars has become a more comfortable world than Earth and the difference has been increasing every year. But the holiday soon turned into a value crisis. A society with a common dream for 500 years, a dream for which they made any sacrifice, suddenly found itself without a goal. The unrest turned into a sluggish civil war. Millions of veterans who returned from the earthly front exacerbated it. They saw first hand how overpopulation could destroy the originally living world and became the core of the movement that brought Mars to a new balance. From expansion and development, the Republic moved on to maintaining the achieved prosperity and flourishing Mars at any cost. Borders closed, strict birth control replaced pronatalism. The planet has isolated itself from the rest of the system. This has led to stagnation, a slowdown in social mobility and income stratification, greater reliance on state support, and the rise of populism.
Dissenters were offered to migrate to numerous Martian colonies: Mercury, Titan, Neptune, Earth. But there were few who wanted to. Ironically, the Martians turned out to be poor colonists because they were too attached to the world in which they had invested so much effort.
Orbitals didn't lose much. Under the Treaty of São Paulo, they lost corporate control over Earth, Jupiter and Uranus, but retained possessions in the Belt, Trojans and most of the assets, including those they owned on Mars. The Orbitals have abandoned their claim to sol system hegemony, but retained enough wealth to live a decent life.
The rules of war and gentlemen's agreements did not apply to Earth, where the largest massacre in the history of mankind unfolded. Earthlings, exalted by space propaganda, turned the conflict into an existential battle between objectivists and etatists. They massively used nuclear, biological and chemical weapons. Billions died, thousands of cities were destroyed, the climate went haywire. The oppressed biosphere degraded even more. In space, a relative parity of forces was maintained, but on Earth, the Republic's allies could not cope with the legions of droids and mercenaries armed with the advanced teachings of Objectivism. Mars sent a multi-million army in power armor to help and urgently gathered allies into the Earth Directory - a military organization under the temporary leadership of Mars, only for the period of the war. But the temporary turned out to be permanent. After the victory, the Directory took over the distribution of Republican loans, the expeditionary force maintained order, and the Martian navy continued to control the Earth's oceans. Stratospheric towers and terraced cities in the Himalayas and Andes were built for Martian soldiers and officials. Mars has moved the dirtiest industries here. East Asia and the Pacific have become a kind of Martian India.
Meanwhile, the earthlings became disillusioned with decentralization. The war showed why the UN was needed. There were many universalist TERRArist movements that fought against alien invaders. Terrorist attacks and riots forced the Martians to further increase military spending. Subsidies to satellites for keeping radicals out of power have become a constant expense item.
Lunar Republic was a poor, unstable state, with overpopulated caverns and cramped sublunar cities since independence. The government managed to restore order only shortly before the war. It adhered to neutrality to the last, fearing destabilization. But Mars found a way by promising investment and the Jupiter system, whose moons' gravity was perfect for the Lunarians. Lunar Fleet helped tie down the free forces of the Orbitals. Lunar Army helped capture important cylinders and close the blockade. All the forces of Luna are aimed at venting the population pressure into the new frontier since then. Several generations have already been born on the satellites that do not associate themselves with Luna. Ideas of a new, racial, identity are spreading among the lunar intellectuals. "Homo Selenicus" (also known as lowgraves) is a race that inhabits the six largest moons with similar gravity and living conditions. Selenism is a fringe ideology, but the number of its supporters is growing rapidly.
The system's eyes are fixed on Venus, where civil war is raging. Vanadis society has outgrown corporate governance. It tired of imposed monopolies and growing rents for oxygen, rain, sun and land. Surface settlers have rebelled against the corporate overlords and hereditary rentiers who live in luxurious automated cloud cities dating back to the age of hot Venus. On the side of the corporation there are droids, mercenaries and gigantic financial resources. On the side of the people - the number and horizontal coordination through innovative cortical interfaces. Martian settlements in the rings of Saturn experience the greatest costs. Venus has been the main consumer of ice for the last century and war does not help fulfill contracts.On the eve of the Third Solar War. 2807.
The economic crisis of the late 28th century hit the solar system painfully. Impoverishment led to a widespread rise in populism and radicalism.
The Republic is faced with an unprecedented increase in unemployment. Almost half of Martians depend on an unconditional basic income. Riots are raging in colonies where there are no social guarantees. Pirate activity in the Belt has increased significantly. The situation escalated to war in the newly annexed Martian Africa. Social and military spending is rising. Mars has just paid off his borrowings but is getting into debt again.
The Selenite Party won a majority, dissolved parliament, and reorganized the decrepit, corrupt Lunar Republic into the Selenite Federation, a racist ideocratic state whose goal was to lead the Lowgravs to dominate the solar system. The Selenites are experiencing an economic boom, terraforming Callisto, investing in science and expanding the army. They continue to multiply quickly, unlike Mars with its birth control. The Federation already surpasses Mars in femtotech, quantum AI and relativistic artillery - a new direction of military thought. Its fleet is still inferior to the Martian one, but is already capable of challenging the two-century hegemony of the Republic.
Vanadis Republic freed itself from the corporate yoke and became an economic superpower and the main creditor of the solar system. Neutrality, openness to innovation, and advanced socio-economic institutions such as cortical democracy and quantum capitalism have made the Vanadians extremely wealthy. Venusian goods are rightfully considered the best, and the economy is second only to that of Mars and is equal to that of Earth with a tenfold smaller population. The collapse of the Vanadian stock market due to the terraform derivatives bubble triggered a global crisis. However, the Vanadians were almost unharmed
The crisis has had the greatest impact on Earth. In Pansax and Bharat, the two strongest powers on the planet, moderate forces were replaced by radical anti-Martian movements dreaming of a united Terra. They strongly welcome the liberation struggle of Africa and are building up military forces, intending to solve internal problems with external expansion.
Interplanetary tension is growing, a new arms race has gained momentum. Despite the Republic's countermeasures, the Federation is catching up in the army and navy. The Selenites openly declare their intention to unite the "six homeworlds" including the Martian Titan. They enter into military agreements with the anti-Martian Earth movements and sponsor the Mercury and Belt rebels. Vanadis, meanwhile, opens credit lines to anyone. Venus shows that it does not intend to abandon the centuries-old policy of neutrality that has brought so many benefits.
Many expect a global war. But few people thought that it would begin in the same place as the previous one. Migrants from the Lunar Republic have long become the majority on Titan. Due to terrorist activity, the Martian administration limited the rights of the Selenites. This caused unrest, riots and the murder of a Republican minister. The performers and organizers fled to the Federation, which refused to extradite them and put forward counter-demands with the abolition of all restrictions for the inhabitants of Titan. While powers flex their muscles and hope that the enemy will blink first, the satellite is plunged into turmoil. The Third Solar War is at hand.Second battle for Luna. 2817.
Many believed that the Third Solar War would be as gentlemanly as the Second. There is no need for civilized space nations to destroy each other. They were wrong. The Lunar-Martian War engulfed the entire solar system and became the bloodiest conflict in human history and was accompanied by war crimes, concentration camps, genocide, all-out bombing and the use of weapons of mass destruction.
Following the blitzkrieg strategy, the Martians quickly defeated the near-Earth flotillas of the Selenites and blockaded the Moon, hoping, like the last time, to convince the enemy to negotiate. However, this did not happen. The Federation evacuated the government, valuable specialists and industry to the Jupiter system and continued the fight. The landing on the Moon encountered fanatical resistance and uprisings in the occupied territories. The Martians were forced to switch to orbital bombardment and concentration camps. After several years of heavy fighting, the destroyed satellite, with its population reduced by a third, fell. Hopes for a quick end to the war were dashed.
Attempts by the Martian fleet to storm the Galilees ended in complete failure. Overprotected and too far from the support bases of the inner solar system, Fortress Jupiter proved invulnerable to Republic forces. The parties found themselves in a strategic stalemate. Unable to win directly, the Martians decided to isolate Jupiter from the Belt's raw materials and establish an energy blockade. The Republic controlled all developed sources of helium-3 - the basis of space energy, with the exception of Ophion, which remained neutral until the last. With no other options, the Martians occupied the moons of Uranus and created a puppet republic, cutting off the cloud cities from trade routes.
The Federation responds with a total mobilization of the economy. Urgently develops the resources of Io and the small moons of Jupiter. It is developing near-bottom industrial complexes on Europa that are invulnerable to Martian missiles and artillery. The entire population works at military factories, sometimes dying from the cold in the ice workshops: Io’s energy factories have not yet entered into operation, and scarce and expensive helium from Jupiter goes to the fleet. The Selenites respond to blockade attempts by dividing their forces into many maneuverable flotillas. They attack Martian properties throughout the system, aid the Saturn rebels, and even occupy Trojan asteroids. The Federation responds to lunar atrocities with relativistic artillery strikes on the cities of Mars. The Republic has no defense against these weapons.
There is a war going on on Earth. The Martian forces are much larger, but constrained by the need to control the colonies. Bharat built a defense along the mountain ranges and, by blocking all the entrances to the Indian Ocean, made it his own. This ensured the safety of space elevators in the Maldives. Similarly, Pansax and Brazil are clinging to the elevators in the Amazon delta with their teeth, preferring to surrender the north to Euroslavia, which is advancing through the once-arctic ocean.
Control over elevators prevents a total blockade from being established. Neutral Vanadis continues to actively trade through them and lends to both sides of the conflict. Mars is dissatisfied but too dependent on finances and imports from Venus. And its rapidly growing military forces, especially after the occupation of the moons of Uranus, warn the Republic against adventurous decisions.
Remnants of the pre-war Federal fleet stretch Republic forces throughout the system. At this time, in the crucible of the shipyards of Himalia and Lysithea, asteroids were processed and a new fleet was forged, for which the Selenites had worked and suffered hardships for the last few years. It has passed the Belt and is flying to liberate its ancient homeland. The Martians are gathering their forces near the Earth in response. The Second Battle of the Moon is approaching, which will decide the outcome of the war.
Meanwhile, the results of experiments on Pluto promise a new revolution in military affairs.Long Winter. 2865.
The second battle for Luna was a disaster for the Martians. New Selenite asteroid battleships from the melted outer moons of Jupiter were invulnerable to Martian weapons. Events flowed like a river. The defeat in orbit was followed by an uprising and flight from the Moon. The orbital changed sides. Vanadis joined the conflict. Its fleet blockaded Mercury, and millions of Venusian soldiers landed throughout the western hemisphere to rescue the agonizing Pansax. Selenite technology and specialists flowed to Bharat. Vanadian and Federated forces were landing on holdings in the Belt. The entire colonial empire was under attack. Only now the Martian elites have realized how high the stakes are. They gave all power to the army, transferred the economy to a war footing and carried out total labor mobilization, as in the legendary era of the war with the UN. But time was lost. The noose was tightening. Soon the fleets of Vanadis and Selene entered orbit of Mars. The first landing failed, the Republic refused to negotiate. The Allies switched to an all-out bombardment, grinding cities into dust. New landing operations were more successful, but the Martians continued to cling to every city and crater. They used ancient bunkers built for the war with the UN and hoped to the last to somehow get out. Their calculations were not without foundation. The diplomats hoped to cause friction between the allies: to convince Venus that Selena was dangerous or to prove to Orbital that it would be the next target. Great hopes were placed on the wunderwaffe. The result of research into subtle physics on Pluto has become missiles that overcome missile defense through hyperspace. The technology was extremely crude. 99 out of 100 were lost, missed or exploded during the transition between dimensions, but even one was enough to cause monstrous destruction on Callisto and Ganymede. However, everything was in vain. The Allies remained united; warp strikes only increased the intensity of the bombardment. Soon Musk City fell and the Republic capitulated. The four-century era of Martian hegemony has ended.
The Allies shared the Republican heritage and established the League of Worlds. This was supposed to consolidate the post-war order and prevent the Fourth Solar War. This was successful, but contradictions between Selene and Vanadis, the superpowers of the new era, accumulated. Humanity has not only slipped into another Cold War and the risk of a new global massacre, but for the first time it has found itself vulnerable to threats of a much larger scale.
Source of inspirationSelenite Federation
Fascist dictatorship. Superpower. The second economy and the first military force.
The 29th century became golden for the Federation. The party fulfilled all election promises. The Selenite race won the war, ending four centuries of Republic dominance and unifying the six homeworlds. The Federation has become the hegemon of the system, controlling the two largest planets, Mars and half of the Earth. Its fleet has no equal. Callisto is terraformed and can rival Venus in terms of comfort. Europa and Ganymede are coming. The monstrous losses and destruction of the Third Solar War have been overcome. The post-war demographic and economic boom, captured Republic technologies and new markets made the Selenites richer than ever. The entire solar system admires the blossoming of science and culture, monumental architecture and the revival of innovative geometric cities. This is the peak of the Selenite civilization.
The political life of the Federation is highly ideological and remains controlled by the Selenite party, whose legitimacy has been further strengthened. The economy relies on close partnerships between government and business, megaprojects like terraforming and the mass introduction of breakthrough quantum AI. The temporary capital on Callisto became permanent. The center of the Federation has finally shifted to the Jupiter system.
The victory proved the validity of the Selenite ideology. Gravitational racism lies at its foundation. This divides humanity into four races depending on the gravity of their native environment: highgraves (0.887-1g), midgraves (0.38-0.39g), selenite-lowgraves (0.12-0.18g) and nullgraves (0-0.05g). Selenism states that dominance over the system passes from the first to the next. From the most ancient, primitive and unadapted to expansion, locked in gravity wells, to the most innovative and close to space. Therefore, the midgraves of Mars became hegemons and defeated the highgraves twice, and that is why they fell at the hands of the lowgraves. Lowgraves are the pinnacle of human evolution. They optimally combine the “gifts of gravity” and proximity to space and therefore should stand at the head of humanity.
Ironically, gravitational racism dates back to the tactical task of Martian diplomats to justify Mars' claims to Mercury 500 years ago. Forgotten for centuries, it was brought back into discourse by lunar ideologists and turned into a mainstream scientific doctrine not only in the Federation but throughout the entire system.
Selene had an overwhelming military superiority over Vanadis after the end of the war. But the Federation was too exhausted by many years of total war. Among other things, Venus, unlike Mars, had relativistic artillery. Trade with Vanadis was profitable for too many of the Federation's elite. In the wake of post-war optimism, the powers decided to move to “peaceful coexistence” and “competition of systems.” They also hoped for a quick leap to the stars. However, Neptune, the Martian Crisis, the Earth War and conflicts in the Belt gradually escalated the situation. Interstellar travel remains a fantasy. Humanity has come to another Cold War, much more dangerous due to the emergence of delivery systems invulnerable to interception.
Selena views the new confrontation through the prism of the confrontation between two races. Outdated highgraves that drag civilization into the past. And the young Lowgraves, a space race that leads people into the future. Midgraves are by nature oppressors and imperialists. They are defeated and no longer pose a threat. The Nullgraves are a valuable ally in the process of liberation from offworld tyranny. Their prime is yet to come and poses no threat. Their abilities are limited to zero gravity and they have no "core". Therefore, they would not be able to build an empire and challenge the Selenites.
Ideologues chalk up the rise of Vanadis to foul play. Venus remained neutral until the winner was determined and became a superpower through deception. This means that in the long run it will undoubtedly lose.
Selenites respect augmentics due to their historically harsh environment. Their genetic research is usually aimed at overcoming the problems associated with low gravity.
Luna
Still in ruins. Many cavities are irreversibly damaged. Cities are easier to demolish than to rebuild. It is impossible to terraform the Moon. In the next war, it will again be on the front line and most likely will be destroyed. The Federation decided to transport the population to the Jupiter system, mainly to the inhabited Callisto and Ganymede. The Moon was turned into “Fortress Luna” - the most important military base of the Federation in the inner system, the sacred ancestral home of the Selenite race and a grandiose memorial.
Second Martian Republic
Occupied by the Federation. One-party dictatorship. Selena's loyal ally. Mars is morally crushed, has renounced the colonial past and condemns the crimes of the previous regime. The planet has not yet fully overcome the consequences of the war. The population has decreased by a quarter and continues to decline due to migration and the “Martian cross”. Space elevators have collapsed and some cities still lie in ruins. Much of the planet has returned to relatively normal life. The capital and coastal metropolises have returned to their former luster. But in the deep south, far from the ocean, anarchy still reigns. The population lives by subsistence farming and depends on humanitarian aid. The biosphere, the pride of the Martians, is going through hard times. The climate has gone haywire, the deserts are advancing. A new ice age has begun due to bombing and anti-relativistic orbital coal clouds. AI helps restore the economy, but makes it completely dependent on the Federation.
The Republic was completely demilitarized after the surrender. But Mars was allowed to partially restore the army and navy due to the growth of the military potential of Vanadis.
Despite all the bloodshed and disasters, the Martians have a positive attitude towards the Selenites. There was a risk of turning the occupation zones of Mars into separate states, with the prospect of subsequent planetary massacre. But the strong position of the Federation did not allow the Vanadians and the Orbitals to carry out their plans, and forced them to leave the planet.
Phobos and Deimos
Came out of areostationary orbit during the siege of Mars. Leased by the Federation for 99 years in exchange for the stabilization and restoration of space elevators. The elevator to Deimos has been restored. Phobos is a large military base.Republic of Vanadis
Superpower. Cortical democracy. The richest society in the solar system and the second military power.
Venus was inhabited by those who were tired of conflicts, instability or bureaucracy of other worlds. Scientists, inventors, financiers, orbitals migrated here after defeat in the Second Solar War and Martians who disagreed with the antinatalism of the Republic. Vanadis did not participate in astropolitics and reinvested in itself for 500 years. This made it the second, and after the war, the first economy of the system. Venus is a center of progress and innovation, with a genetically enhanced and augmented population living on a tropical terraformed world.
During the war, Vanadis enjoyed the exclusive privilege of trading with both sides until the end. The Venusians did enter the war only when the scales clearly tipped in favor of the Federation. They occupied Mercury, half of the Earth and a significant part of the Belt. In a couple of years they turned from a centuries-old neutral into a contender for world domination.
Venus is a world with an extremely high level of automation. A middle class family usually has at least three robots. The symbol of Mars was vactrains connecting the megacities of the equator. The symbol of Venus is mass flying cars with transonic cruising speed, which tied the planet together and predetermined the Venusian way of life. For historical reasons, all logistics are carried out by air. So Venus has no roads and no need to be tied to transport infrastructure. Vanadians spread across the Venusian expanses as widely as possible. The majority live in a sparse mosaic of autonomous houses in the middle of the jungle, mountains, forests, seas, islands, built around kilometer-long peaks of cultural and business downtowns.
The gravity of Venus is comparable to that of Earth, so augmentic and genetic modifications are aimed at expanding human capabilities, not at adapting to the environment like lowgraves. The radical reduction in the tax burden after the completion of terraforming led to another economic boom, which made the Vanadians even richer. Despite the relatively small population, Venus’s economy is one and a half times larger than the Federation and twice that of Earth.
It was not only neutrality and openness to innovation that helped achieve prosperity. The Republic relies on two advanced institutions: cortical democracy and quantum capitalism. The first is a network of neural implants that connects the brains of citizens, allows they to quickly make decisions, coordinate actions and come to consensus, with minimal bureaucracy. This brought self-government to a new level and made the legislative and judicial systems extremely adaptive. Quantum capitalism (aka capitalism+, capitalism 2.0) relies on a decentralized network of personal quantum computers, originally created to predict and prevent weather anomalies, much more dangerous in the dense Venusian atmosphere. It soon became clear that it could predict the behavior of other stochastic systems, such as the economy. The network collects data from the entire market, creates a model of it and predicts the next state, largely eliminating the problem of information asymmetry. This allows you to anticipate distortions, deflate bubbles, prevent shortages, determine promising directions and “simulations go broke for you.” Cyclical crises are not canceled, but their timing and depth are predictable. The system does not provide one hundred percent guarantees, especially at long intervals, but it also does not provide enough guarantees for superiority over other economies. But there is also a downside. Cortical interfaces are very expensive, which has become a natural limitation. Despite the subsidy programs, every fifth Vanadian does not have access to them, which means they are excluded from political life. Participating in the economy without a quantum computer is difficult. For this reason, Venusian migration laws are quite strict.
Terraforming is complete and extremely successful, but developed ecosystems have not been built everywhere. Ishtar is a fully developed subpolar continent and is considered the best place to live. Its biomes surpass the “gardens of Mars” in its best years. Aphrodite is a continent at the equator. A new frontier whose colonization has just begun. Two centuries of orbital rain ended just a couple of decades ago.
Vanadis does not have any global goal or messianic ideas other than democracy and collective prosperity. There is only highgravism that arose as a reaction to selenism. This is a vague doctrine that should unite the most important allies of Venus - the orbitals, earthlings and Ophionians. Highgraves are united by closeness to nature, an earth-like habitat, and a desire for freedom and democracy. Therefore, they must rule the solar system and guide humanity towards a brighter tomorrow.
The Vanadian fleet is technologically ahead of the federal fleet, but is objectively weaker and has less experience. However, the gap is rapidly closing. The Vanadis army is more effective on large worlds, but inferior on moons and asteroids. It can quickly mobilize tens of millions of home robots if necessary, as it already did in the beginning TSW.
United Orbitals
Wealthy democracy, financial center and ally of Vanadis.
Orbital entered the war on the side of Mars without much zeal. The orbital government changed after the Second Battle of the Moon and withdrew from the war. The next one came back but on the other side. The orbitals were engaged in supply and secondary fronts and only towards the end took part in the landing. This was enough to march through Mask City with the armies of Vanadis and the Federation. When the Martian field marshal saw a representative of the orbital at the signing of the surrender, he asked in surprise: did these also defeat us?
The headquarters of the new League of Worlds was located on one of the islands. Neutral Orbital became one of the three members of the Security Council. But soon the “highgrave party” won and UO joined Vanadis.
The Orbitals are known as wealthy burghers who live in picturesque cylinders, work in finance, automated industry, and drink wine from their own grapes in their free time. The standard of living is largely based on the capital accumulated over previous centuries. Centuries-old islands attract tourists, which contributes to the budget. Orbitals are conservative and not interested in innovation. For example, they do not switch to cortical democracy, preferring network democracy, and do not particularly monitor what is happening in the rest of the system. They are not ready to die in the Belt for a colonial empire bursting at the seams.
Union of Mercury
A corrupt state with high inequality and an unstable government that lives by selling resources. The criminal capital of the system. The Vanadis army liberated Mercury from the 500-year Martian yoke. Juntas and right-wing dictatorships have regularly replaced each other since then. Both of them are thoroughly pro-Venusian and keep a Vanadian passport in the stash. A world of contrasts. Megacities receive spaceships every minute, but are still not connected by a network of vactrains. Underground ghettos are adjacent to elite domes that are irrigated with Cereran water. Mercurians dream of terraforming, but budgets are stolen at the planning stage. The prime pensionary of Orbital once said: “Mercury is a world of a wonderful future, and will remain so forever.”
Many war criminals of Mars took refuge here.Earth
A united post-war Earth was a commonplace in the Allied position. The planet was once again in ruins, the soils were poisoned, the diversity of species had fallen to critical levels. Epidemics and famine raged. No single nation could solve these problems. The peoples of the Earth convened a constituent assembly at which they were supposed to develop the principles of the future Earth Union. However, several years of consultations led to nothing. It turned out that all earthlings want a single state and agree that the collapse of the UN was the main mistake since the Fall, but nothing more. It was not possible to determine either the form of government, or the administrative division, or the system. Pansax, Vanadis and Orbital insisted on democracy and federalism. Bharat and the Federation advocated a more centralized and statist approach.
The discord between Venus and Selena made the prospects for a unified state more elusive. Eventually, the Second UN was proclaimed in the territories controlled by Vanadis and its pan-Saxon allies: the New World, parts of Europe, Africa and Antarctica. Bharat controlled the rest of the planet and responded by creating Panterra. In Europe, the border passed through the ruins of Moscow, the capital of defeated Euroslavia. The two newborn states did not recognize each other and began to prepare for a new massacre.
The Earth War (the Fifth World War in local historiography) became the first conflict of the new confrontation and was only slightly less bloody than TSW. The battlefield became Europe and Africa. Panterra hoped to drive the enemy out of the Old World and in the initial offensive reached the Rhine. However, after Vanadis entered the war and the massive use of tactical nuclear weapons, it rolled back to the Volga and stabilized on the Oka - in the same place where it began. The movement of the front was even more chaotic in Africa. After several years of marking time and a billion dead, under pressure from the superpowers, the parties signed a truce. Panterra was able to reach the Gulf of Guinea and SUN captured Antarctica. The war became an unprecedented disaster for Europe and Africa. What little that survived TSW was destroyed. Vast territories were depopulated, cities were destroyed. A significant part of the population was evacuated. There remains an army, drones, mining enterprises and aborigines who live on subsistence farming, huddle in ruins and die from radiation sickness. Both sides complied with the unspoken agreement and did not hit critical infrastructure despite the meat grinder. The space elevators of the Andes, Amazon, Maldives and Java, as well as the metropolitan cities of the East Coast and Bay of Bengal, were practically undamaged.
WWV showed that the separation was here to stay. The states recognized each other and signed a number of agreements on climate, ecology, de-escalation and arms reduction. However, this does not prevent us from preparing for the next, Sixth, World War, which will certainly be the last. Earth remains the most uncomfortable and poorest world in the system. Its average temperature approaches that of Venus, and its economy is half that of Vanadis and two-thirds that of the Federation.
Second UN
An ally of Venus, the second most populous state in the system. Poor corrupt cortical democracy. Originated on Venusian bayonets. It imitates the previous incarnation in everything, right down to placing the capital in the long-destroyed and drowned New York. Highgravism found the greatest response here and became the official ideology: we need to follow our racial brothers in everything in order to become as successful as them.
After WWV, New York began a painful modernization that led to many distortions. The transition to cortical democracy in a country where neural interfaces can allow 0.5% of citizens meant the exclusion of the entire population from political life. Quantum capitalism provides significant bonuses, but the transition period is accompanied by the collapse of the previous economic structure and excesses on the ground, especially in a 12 billion state. With the exception of the fabulously rich, by earthly standards, coastal megacities, the population is extremely poor and sometimes on the brink of survival. Regular uprisings are suppressed by the Vanadian army. Reforms are being carried out under the supervision of alien specialists occupying half of the positions in the government. For assistance in WWV, Vanadis received a concession of space elevators and mineral deposits. It deployed many military bases with a permanent multimillion-dollar contingent at the request of New York. The Venusian naval fleet patrols Earth's oceans. Ironically, the inhabitants of the SUN consider themselves free and Panterra - fascist slaves of the Selenites.
Panterra
A fascist dictatorship with its capital in Calcutta - «New Venice». Selena's ally. The most populous state in the system. There are more inhabitants than in all of space combined. The panterrists of Bharat were inspired by the successes of the Selenite race since pre-war times. In their opinion, earthlings face similar tasks and they need to be solved in a similar way: through a strong central government and state capitalism. Ideologically, panterrism is closer to “earthly nationalism.” The Earth is unique. This is the birthplace of humanity, the only natural inhabited world. Earthlings do not need to look up to others or seek mythical racial solidarity. Nobody needs them except themselves.
Panterra is a little richer than the SUN. The most developed and relatively unaffected regions of the Earth Directorate were transferred to Calcutta. Martian industry and infrastructure are still functioning, and many Martian officials have retained their positions. The SUN calls Panterra the "Second Directorate". However, Calcutta is an independent military force because the Selenites are unable to function properly in Earth's gravity. The Federation does not have bases on Earth or low orbit; they only need counterweights from space elevators and a geostationary station. Moreover, they need earthly personnel and mercenaries to work in the extreme conditions of the giants and security. This gives Panterra quite wide freedom of action.
The SUN accuses Panterra of Indian nationalism - Hindi is the only state language, Hindus occupy leading roles in economics and politics. Panterra responds with accusations of pan-Saxon imperialism.Belt.
The Belt is awakening. The asteroid colonies have grown enough to begin modernization and have a voice in astropolitics. They have outgrown the primitive Belt identity and racial self-awareness: too different destinies, cultures and historical paths. They have been replaced by Cerenan, Hygean and other nationalisms. Pan-Beltism is marginalized and has become the prerogative of small asteroids to protect against larger ones.
There are fifty states in the Belt now. The most ancient colonies such as Ceres, Pallas, Hygeia, Hector are small but independent forces. All Martian colonies have gained independence, but a quarter of the Belt remains an Orbital colony and worlds such as Vesta still struggle for freedom. The environment and harsh conditions incline the Belters towards collectivism. Their regimes are usually authoritarian, radically right or left.
The Belt remains the most important source of raw materials for which there is a fierce struggle. It often results in civil wars and proxy conflicts.
Ceres. A nationalist dictatorship with imperial ambitions based on the antiquity, population and size of the planetoid. Claims to be a leader not only in the Belt but also among all Nulgraves. Entered the war after the Second Battle of the Moon and captured several nearby Martian asteroids. It extracts heavy elements that are scarce for the planetoid and crushes the rebels. Power is in the hands of neo-feudal elites that trace their ancestry back to the UN administration.
It has the largest army and space fleet in the Belt. Ceres has maintained good relations with Venus since pre-war times and is now one of the most important allies. Adopts technology, but not the political and economic model. Spent the accumulated wealth on building an atmospheric dome and terraforming the surface. This catapulted the authority of the Cererans into space.
Pallas. Former colony of Mars. Liberated by the Vanadis army. The military dictator carries out modernization using harsh methods and adopts the economic institutions of Venus but ignores the political ones.
Hygeia. The Federation's main ally in the Belt. A nationalist dictatorship led by a charismatic tyrant who declared the asteroid a kingdom and himself as regent. One of the first to declare war on Mars and was immediately occupied. Liberated by the Federation and actively modernized.
Vesta. The crown jewel of the Orbital colonial empire, the second most important world of the Belt. Torn by a civil war between pro-Selenite supporters of independence and pro-Vanadian supporters of autonomy. The main conflict of the decade in which military experts from all over the system are involved. Ironically, the Cererans and Palladians are fighting to maintain orbital dominance over their Belter brothers. Panterra's and the SUN military are killing each other in the tunnels of a world they don’t care about.
Greek Federation
Selena's ally. Controls several dozen asteroids in L4 Sun-Jupiter. Here there was a small colonial empire under the protectorate of orbitals where the “Trojans” - the inhabitants of the largest asteroid Hector, exploited the “Greeks” - all the others. The “Greeks” fought as partisans for many years until, with the help of the Selenites, they captured Hector and now control the government, ignoring the locals. The Trojan opposition maintains relations with Orbitals.
Saturn Federation
Mars established many colonies, stations and bases in the rings and small moons of Saturn. They lived by exporting ice and became a “rust belt” when the terraforming of Venus was completed. Selenites never laid claim to the entire Saturn system. However, the moons quickly became a breeding ground for piracy, smuggling, and Vanadian agents. The Federation is forced to keep a large contingent here, including for the safe transit of helium-3 from the giant’s atmosphere.
Republic of Iapetus
A small peaceful dictatorship. A small world on the edge of existence. What is happening there? No one knows. The Iapetians helped the Selenites during the war. They remain allies even now.Republic of Ophion
Rich democracy. The largest exporter of helium-3. Vanadis's most important ally in the external system. Miniature colonial empire.
The population of Ophion has been divided into two roughly equal groups throughout history. The Highgraves, descendants of the Orbitals, live in cloudy zeppelin islands so huge and picturesque that from the inside they can easily be confused with ancient Earth. They are rich, engaged in helium mining, science, high-tech and art. Nullgraves, descendants of belters, inhabit the moons, are engaged in mining, manufacturing, logistics and are quite poor. Their relationship had always been strained, but due to the weak resistance to the Martian occupation, it worsened even more. After the war, the Uranites deprived the moon of its subjectivity, essentially establishing apartheid. Civil liberties are abolished, governors are appointed by Uranus, the population is deprived of cortical interfaces and therefore excluded from political life. A military contingent recruited from the inhabitants of the clouds keeps order. This led to constant unrest and riots. Oberon, the farthest moon, has been living in anti-terrorist operation mode for many years and is actually not subordinate to the government. But the forces are too unequal, and so far the atmosphere controls space without any problems.
The Ophionians are fanatical supporters of Vanadis. They share the ideas of Highgravism, adopt political and economic institutions, conduct intensive cultural exchanges, and allow the construction of military bases on the outer moons. The special relationship is also due to the coincidence of the gravity of Venus and Uranus down to thousandths (aka 0887 club). Many consider them a separate subrace. Vanadis is also the largest importer of helium in the system.
However, this does not prevent Ophion from maintaining trade relations with Selene, the second importer of helium. Uranus claims that he suffered for the right to trade with whomever he sees fit and will not give it up now.
Ophion society is extremely rich. The economy and population are growing rapidly, the standard of living is only slightly inferior to that of Venus. Many migrants arrived here from the devastated inner solar system after the war. Now those who fear a new war are immigrating. Migration is also going on to satellites. Despite all the restrictions, the standard of living on the moons of Uranus is higher than in the Belt.
Laconia
Totalitarian dictatorship. A high-tech militaristic, ascetic society where the best sons of Mars retreated.
Named after Laconia - a giant artificial island in the atmosphere of the planet where half the population lives. Neptune is a harsh, hostile world. Its gravity is 15% greater than that of Earth, in this it is second only to Jupiter. Laconians are distinguished as a separate race of n-graves, famous for their strength, endurance and courage. Colonization was carried out by veterans of the earthly front. They have supplied the Republic with helium-3 and elite Space Marines since time immemorial.
The war bypassed Neptune - it was too far away and too well fortified. Admiral Duarte, the permanent leader of Laconia, shortly before the surrender, sent a secret message to the remnants of the Martian fleet guarding what was left of the Martian colonial empire:
They took what they could and retreated to Neptune. A day before the capitulation, Laconia declared independence and concluded a separate peace and mutual defense treaty with Venus. This became the cause of the first serious discord between the superpowers.Only one day is left
Only one day
We are leaving the others
We're going away
Today we all steal
Animals we are
Possession is lost
Our souls are from the wild
And wings to reach the sky
Let the sun fall into the ocean,
Let the Mars erupt in flame
It is enough to have the strength
And knowledge
To raise our dream machines
Into the sky
Let them sleep who do not know
The final day is here
The very last
And we leave at dawn
There is no force no money and no power
To stop us now and change our fate
Now every problem is destroyed
We raise our hands and bodies to the peak
Into the Universe - towards the stars we go
The Laconians continued to attract Martians from throughout the solar system after the war. The best scientists, engineers and officers of the Republic from those who remained faithful to the Martian spirit and way of life moved to Neptune.
Through the export of helium, human capital and high technology, the small Laconian society remains one of the wealthiest in the system. The space fleet is second only to the superpowers and comparable to the orbital ones. The Laconians are leaders in many fields of science and are one of the few that can enable hyperdimensional exploration. But they are known for their asceticism, utilitarianism and severity. Under the doctrine of Laconianism, most of the income is invested in science, the army, and maintaining technological autarky from the rest of the system.
Laconians are supremarsists. They idealize the society of old, red, Mars. They admire the courage, resourcefulness, thirst for research and self-reliance of the first generations of Martians. Terraforming is considered the biggest mistake in Martian history in Laconian doctrine. Space is hostile to man and thus makes him stronger. This must be accepted. The Republic, tempered by a hostile environment, was able to defeat Terra and the orbitals. When it made Mars like Earth, it signed its own death warrant. It killed the spirit of adventurism and turned the pioneers into ordinary people isolated from the outside world. Martians would have colonized the stars long ago if not for terraforming. The defeat of the pampered Republic from the more resilient Selenites and Vanadians is a logical result. But they too have taken the destructive path and will share her fate. Meanwhile, the harsh Neptune will forge a race destined to conquer the universe. Not surprisingly, the Laconians consider the Nullgraves to be quite promising. Some go even further in their anti-terraformingism. The idea of “asteroid deterrforming” of all inhabited worlds, including Earth, is circulating among Neptune intellectuals. Exclusively for the sake of liberating the spirit and creative potential of humanity.
Laconia is famous for its intelligence department, one of the best in the system. She is especially active in the Belt. This is an important region for Neptune and is deprived of heavy elements. The Laconians established control over some of the former Martian colonies through old connections and anti-terraformingism.
The Laconians explore all the moons of their home world. But the entire population is born and grows on Neptune to maintain “gravitational purity.” Unlike the late Republic, they adhere to an extremely pro-natalist policy. They population is growing faster than in other worlds. Triton stands apart. Centuries-old autonomy, it is inhabited by a race of t-graves - half-breeds of null and lowgraves adapted to 0.08g. The Laconians are aggressively assimilating them within the framework of the doctrine of building a single nation. They take mothers and children to Neptune, where they conduct experiments on pharmacological and genetic inoculation of tolerance to increased gravity. The Tritonians are waging a guerrilla war. However, they are not supported by any other race.
Laconia was a consistent ally of Vanadis. For a long time it did not even have diplomatic relations with the Federation. However, having grown stronger, Laconia began to move away from Venus and builds bridges with Selena. Obviously, Neptune expects to move to neutrality.
Kuiper Belt
Useless and hostile to any human activity. Has no valuable resources or energy sources. However, only here the gravitational field of the sun weakens enough so as not to interfere with the work of delicate instruments for researching hyperspace. Research bases filled the outskirts of the solar system after the war. Vanadis annexed Martian Pluto and gained access to all the scientific developments of the Republic. The Federation confiscated technical developments and documentation on Mars, but was forced to develop scientific infrastructure on Eris from scratch. Orbital and Laconia, which lured some of their former fellow citizens from Pluto to Makemake, joined later.
Despite the initial enthusiasm, it soon became clear that interstellar travel and the widespread use of warp drive were very far away. Hyperspace is more hostile than space, just as space is more hostile than Earth. Only the most advanced technology is capable of withstanding radiation, overloads, and spatial deformations that accompany transition and travel in the warp. An even smaller part of the technology is capable of not getting lost in hyperbolic space. It took researchers decades of work to deliver the probes to Alpha Centauri in one piece and with a miss of less than a light month. Propagandists dream of a human journey to another star, but this is impossible at this technological level.
However, the accuracy and reliability are sufficient for the exchange of hyperspace strikes between Venus and Selene. But at least the warp radars deployed in Kuiper will not allow them to be carried out unnoticed.
Recently, stories in which something in hyperspace noticed human activity and attacked the solar system have become increasingly popular. Based on some indirect evidence, such as a statistically higher frequency of probe disappearances than models predict, signals of an unknown nature and unexplained anomalies, it is believed that these fears are not unfounded. Perhaps people have found the reason for the great silence of the universe.
Basemap by slimysomething
very nice
Ashikaza Island - Home of Japan's largest desert by u/Kitzalkwatl
Japan's largest island and home to the near-extinct Ubara people, Ashikaza (previously known as Unada) is Japan's lesser known gem of the Pacific. Fully conquered and annexed by the Tokugawa Shogunate in 1606, the island had historically never seen much influence from its Yamato cousins up north, save for the northern coasts of the present-day Kasui, Hamara, and Kogoya Prefectures. With most of its coastline barred by snowcapped mountains and a vast, steppe-like interior devoid of major waterways, the imposing Toyomo Desert is the hottest part of Japan and home to the largest sand dunes outside of Tottori Prefecture. The largest city on the island is Noburu, an underdog in the face of the island's history, once a small Yamato settlement on Ashikaza's eastern shores and now a bustling port city rivaling Osaka in its size and influence. The culture and heritage of the Ubara people is preserved in the various inland villages, their architecture, and the growing archeological scene on the island. Ashikaza is also famed for its pork, alcoholic soy soup, and being the setting for multiple hit "Tokyo Western" movies of the late 1960s, telling the stories of the various brave samurai who braved the winds of the Toyomo during the Sengoku Period.
Amazing work! I love almost anything dealing with the far future, and you crafted a great world!