[cartography]United Nations Worlds

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Artemis
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[cartography]United Nations Worlds

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Sol System

Inner Sol


The Core (Mercury, Venus)


Mercury and Venus are both unclaimed and unsettled, as they both are extremely uninhabitable - Mercury because of its static nature, Venus because it is too unstable. However, plans to terraform Venus have been underway for almost a century, and Mercury represents a very rich source of resources, namely metals, rare in other parts of the solar system.

The United States of America, the Russian Confederacy, the New Republic of China, the Republic of Utopia Martia, and many independent corporations (predominantly the Cameron Company) are involved in influencing the Core's institutions, namely the mining industry and solar power generation platforms on Mercury, but it is universally agreed that it may be another hundred years before either of these worlds are considered anything other than orbital tourist attractions or giant mines.

Terran Sector

Earth is the single most influential planet in the UN, and one of the most powerful worlds in the galaxy. Earth is dominated by the New Republic of China, The United Kingdom, The United States of America, Japan, the Northern European Combine, the Russian Confederacy, New Ivory Coast, and Australia. Earth houses a quarter of humanity’s population all by itself, and there are more independent nations on the Homeworld than in the rest of the UN put together; however, while the birth-death ratio remains stable, immigration to Mars, the Outer System, and even to Three Paradises and Telemachus are causing Earth’s population to drop noticeably in the last quarter-decade. Most of Earth’s population lives in metropolises such as New York City and Calcutta, dominated by arcologies and other self-sufficient structures, while there is a significant population also living on oceanic colonies, especially in the Indian Ocean.

Earth’s moon, which goes by all manner of names, is jointly owned by the USA (the Sea of Tranquility), the NRC (the polar regions), and the Russian Confederacy (the Sea of Serenity), as well as being the domain of at least a dozen major corporations. It is a large source of energy in the form of helium-3 deposits - small amounts when compared to the gas giants, but its proximity to Earth makes it just as valuable to the homeworld. It is also one of the largest wharves in the galaxy, producing military and civilian craft in equally staggering numbers.

There are four space station complexes in Terran orbit: Arthur C. Clarke, Isaac Asimov, Gene Roddenberry, and William Gibson, each internationally governed, though the USA, the NRC, New Ivory Coast and the UK are the largest contributors in funding and personnel. Roughly one-tenth of Earth’s population of 12 billion lives in one of these complexes.

Martian Sector

Mars is rapidly growing, and many predict it will soon be able to rival Earth in influence and population (soon meaning in the next two hundred years or so). The population lives within sealed arcologies and subterranean cities, working to create a naturally habitable Mars with terraformation efforts which, while still very slow, are progressing on schedule. Mars is dominated by the Republic of Utopia Martia, though other nations include the benevolent communist community Red Heaven, the merchant state of New Sumer, and the highly militaristic Democratic Republic of Tir Phiangire. Due to labor needs and more liberal immigration policies than most of the rest of Inner Sol, Mars has the largest Klashnoi population, both citizens and visa workers, in the UN. Almost all of Mars’ economy is based on mining operations, especially in enormous iron deposits and uranium.

Deimos is jointly owned by Utopia Martia and the Cameron Company, and is the mass counterweight for the Martian space elevator as well as hosting a large population of its own, while Phobos and the dozen or so space stations near it are run by the New Bengali League. There are two independently-governed space station complexes in orbit over Mars, these being the Ray Bradbury SSC and Kim Stanley Robinson SSC.

The Belt (Ceres, Vesta, Eros)

Splitting Inner Sol with Outer Sol is the asteroid ring that orbits around the middle of the system, typically referred to as the Belt. It is one of the most economically rich sectors of Sol System, with more than a hundred corporations and just as many minor governments competing over tridents of space within which lie resource-rich asteroids and dwarf planets.

The only real power within the Belt is the Republic of Ceres, located on the dwarf planet it gets its name from. Ceres has been built up by fusing other asteroids and a massive artificial infrastructure both inside and over Ceres. However, there is just too much space in the Belt to cover for Ceres to do much in the way of stabilization, and the Republic itself is prone to corruption and bureaucratic molasses.

The other major world in the Belt is Eros, a free trade zone regulated by Ceres, Utopia Martia, and the Jovian Alliance. However, Eros is deeply entrenched with Jacks and other outlaws, and if something gets smuggled between Outer Sol and Inner Sol, it probably came through Eros first.

Vesta is jointly owned by the Cameron Company and Hayubase Energy, mostly as halfway offices between the Inner Sol headquarters and the major endeavors in the Jovian and Saturnine Sectors, as well as Far Sol and beyond.

Jovian Sector

The Jovian Alliance Moons (Europa, Io, Callisto)

Among the first worlds to be settled by Terrans after the discovery of Second Space, Europa and Callisto are both large, icy moons of Jupiter. They were first settled by a mixture of pilgrims fleeing Earth and the Electric Sun movement, seeing it as an unnatural advancement and wanting to clear themselves of it. Though they did not have the room or the resources of Mars, the Jovian moons managed to do quite well for themselves, becoming a major manufacturing center for spaceship parts and as a trading partner to both Earth and Mars. In the year 2180 they formed the Jovian Alliance.

Io is a recent addition, and its population is still quite small, as Io is not nearly as hospitable as her larger sisters. It does, however, provide cheap and effective geothermal energy to the entire Jovian Alliance via a system of microwave transmitters and freighter carrying batteries between the worlds.

The Alliance also owns a great deal of the smaller moons of Jupiter, most of them mining colonies, military bases, or scientific outposts. The Alliance has also recently completed the infrastructure for the Orson Scott Card space station complex over Europa, and its population is rising rapidly as people immigrate from Callisto and Europa. The Jovian Alliance worlds and domains are almost purely Terran demographically.

Ganymede

Outside the influence of the Jovian Alliance lies the domain of its cultural, economic, and, occasionally, military rival, the Community of Ganymede. The largest moon in Sol System, Ganymede’s population is just barely lagging behind that of Europa, and it is rising exponentially as the birth rate continues to increase and immigration shows no sign of slowing down. Ganymede is also more developed than any world in the Jovian Alliance, as almost all of the Community's money goes into building new cities and orbital infrastructure, as well as putting away the nest egg of terraforming the moon.

Along with Ganymede, the Community owns the Robert Heinlein SSC, one of the largest in the UN, with a higher population than all of Ceres, and almost half that of Ganymede itself. Both territories are major centers of trade, culture, and diplomacy for the whole of the UN.

Jupiter

The gas giant Jupiter, the largest non-Solar body in Sol System, is not owned by the Jovian Alliance, though it does fall within their sphere of influence. Rather, its upper atmosphere is populated by floating platforms and cities, almost all of them corporate-owned and independently-operated. Legally, Jupiter itself is considered an international free trade zone by the UN. Unsurprisingly, the Cameron Company has a significant influence here, as it owns many of the gas mining and scientific platforms. There are a lot of rumors about what goes on deeper in Jupiter’s atmosphere, and there are plenty who are willing to believe there are secret projects being implemented beneath the swirling clouds, but as to who might be doing whatever down there, no one is entirely sure.

Saturnine Sector

Titan

The Federated States of Titan are the premier power in the Saturnine Sector, as well as the Outer Sol worlds - it is to the Jovian and Saturnine Sectors what Earth is to Inner Sol. Titan is the farthest along in terms of terraformation of all the worlds in Sol System, and its 14 States are all very prosperous and advanced. The FST has the range and influence to affect affairs everywhere past the Belt, and it lets no one forget it - the only power that could effectively rival it is the Jovian Alliance, and the two nations are on fairly friendly terms.

Among the States are the Phillip K. Dick and Spider Robinson space station complexes, which together make up a quarter of the FST’s population. They own a few of the smaller moons of Saturn, though these have very small populations and are often jointly-owned with private corporations or with the Pandoran Conglomerate.

Enceladus

The small, icy moon of Enceladus is the home of the pan-Islamic Enceladan Caliphate, and is a very densely populated world for its size - barely wider in diameter than the British Isles, yet boasting more than five times the population of that land mass. It is therefore more influential than a world this size might be considered, as both a cultural and economic player. The Cryovolcanic properties of the moon allow it to export geothermal energy much like Io, and the banks and small companies based on Enceladus are excellent partners to those interested in doing business in the Saturnine Sector.

Iapetus

Owned by a group of corporations hailing from the FST, Iapetus is currently the site of a technology testing center for a variety of experiments, with civilian and military applications alike. Iapetus is governed by a Board of Directors, with the federal government of Titan owning a constant 25% share. Iapetus is covered in domed cities and filled with subterranean installations, most of them under the moon's massive equatorial wedge. Because of the somewhat secretive nature of what happens on Iapetus, and its connection to a past technology testbed project, Iapetus is commonly called Skunk World.

The Pandoran Conglomerate

All of Saturn’s tiny non-independent or non-FST-owned moons, including the ring system, are part of the Pandoran Conglomerate. The PC is often considered to by the Outer Sol version of the Belt, a resource-rich but mostly lawless region regulated only so far as the police and military watching over it can do so without being bought off or, occasionally, disappeared.

The PC is a loose confederation of states, sultanates, protectorates, corporations, and free societies, all supposedly dedicated to keeping the peace among the moons and rings. However, the PC is extremely corrupt at almost every level, and more often that not the FST has to step in to enforce UN law.

Other Moons

Saturn is home to several other major natural satellites, too large to count as minor moons as those claimed by the Pandorans. None of these are currently home to any major settlements, though Hyperion is used as a dry dock for the FST Space Forces. Rhea has been chosen as the site for a new colony, but most outward-looking colonists are focusing more and more on the untapped resources of Three Paradises, and so it may be awhile before the Saturnine Sector has any new members.

Saturn

The upper atmosphere of Saturn is jointly owned by the FST and the Enceladan Caliphate. Gas mining platforms, scientific stations, and radiation collectors dot the “surface” of the gas giant. It is also home to a large number of luxury floating hotels and condominiums, positioned over the violent, but beautiful storms that rage near both of Saturn’s poles. Up close, it is said that this is the most breathtaking sight in the entire Solar System.

Far Sol

Uranusian Sector
Most of the endeavors around Uranus focus on the huge helium-3 mining operation there, based on floating platforms under the ownership of Hyubase Energy, one of the Cameron Company’s few competitors in Sol System. Some of Uranus’ moons, all of them quite small, are used as control bases and power stations for the platforms over Uranus. Titania and Oberon are owned by Hyubase, except for a group of arcologies, little more than a city-state, located in Midsummer Canyon on Titania. This nation is called the Democratic Republic of Titania, and is mostly made up of Italian-Martian colonists wanting to escape the political pressure of Utopia Martia.

Neptunian Sector

The largest power in Far Sol is the United Provinces of Varuna, based on Triton, the only moon of Neptune with enough mass and resources to warrant a colony. It is a largely Indian nation, based on secular law but with a predominantly Hindu-based culture. The UPV is a moderate economic and military power, though it is quite young for a Sol System government, formed in the early days of the T-K War. The UVP controls the gas mining in Neptune’s atmosphere and the metal mining of the captured asteroids and small moons. There is some influence as well from Hyubase Energy.

The Plutonian Quartet, the Sol Oort Cloud, and Nemesis

Pluto and its moons Charon, Nix, and Hydra, are all under the jurisdiction of the Plutonian Quartet, a nation that many suspect of being under the influence of large corporations, namely the Cameron Company and Hyubase Energy. Because of this unstable government, it is a good target for Jacks and other criminals. Also because of this, the UPV and, on occasion, even the FST is forced to step in to control the problem lest it spread farther in-system. Similarly, Pluto is home to a large population of space gypsies, and Charon is a frequently-used port world for these vagabonds, and the more martial of these folk will often square off against Jacks to protect their holdings and their livelihood.

The Oort Cloud is still being fully explored, but progress has been picking up lately as corporate interest has been piqued thanks to large numbers of resource-rich comets and planetoids located here, including the “gas dwarf” named Nemisis. Only twice as large as Earth, it has a similar composition to that of Uranus, and is thus rich in helium-3. Nemesis’ existence has been predicted ever since the 20th century, though it was believed to be a dwarf star responsible for knocking comets out of the Oort Cloud into Inner Sol. Once directly observed, however, it was not nearly as large as was believed. Nemesis is currently unclaimed, though Hyubase Energy has put forth a contract to the UN to give it similar influence as it has over Uranus.




Three Paradises System

The Bardo

The Crown

The Crown is an inner asteroid belt that circles the Three Paradises star, named Genesis. Unlike Sol’s Belt, the Crown is extremely dense and filled mostly with smaller asteroids, not relatively large planetoids. Their orbit is similar in distance and yearly revolution to that of Mercury in Sol System. Most of the Crown is made up of carbon-rich asteroids, though there is a significant proportion of icy rocks as well. When hit by direct sunlight from Genesis, the steam that rises from them gives the Crown a nebulous, cloud-like appearance. The Crown is mined by several small firms under regulation by the Olympian Federation. It is much thanks to the Crown that much of Genesis’ harmful radiation does not strike the Three Paradises in any great amount.

Bardo

Image

Bardo is a planet roughly the size of Mars, in both density and mass. Also like Mars, Bardo is very much a dead world. Its atmosphere is dominated by carbon dioxide and vaporous sulfates, it is not tectonically active (though geological survey suggests it once was), and it has few usable resources beyond the oxygen bout up in its soil. Nonetheless, domed colonies have been set up on Bardo under the ownership of mining firms that work in the Crown, which are used as command bases and, at times, refineries for what useful resources can be found on Bardo.

The Heavens

Olympia


The first of the Three Paradises. Olympia is a warm, mostly tropical planet dominated by island chains and small, Australia-sized continents. It is slightly smaller than Earth, though just as massive as it has a slightly denser core. Olympia is home to four sovereign nations, these being the Trans-Olympian Federation, the Republic of New Okinawa (usually shortened to Nokinawa), the Dulcimer Islands Confederacy, and the United States of Midway. Delphi is jointly owned by the Cameron Company and the Douglas Adams SSC. The world is a major cultural power, and Olympia has become the new home of the Terran entertainment and publishing industries. Olympia is also one of the most densely populated worlds in the UN, not in small part due to the refugee population rushing in from Avalon during the T-K War, many of whom never moved back.

Delphi, Olympia’s moon, is roughly the size of Enceladus and of similar composition, including a liquid ocean under an icy surface. At times during Olympian summer, the first layer of surface ice will melt and Delphi will trail a comet-like tail of ice crystals behind it. There is a small collections of space gypsy towns and colonies on the firmer areas of Delphi’s crust, but none of them are organized into any cohesive government.

Avalon

Avalon is one of the most multinational worlds in the UN, hosting not one, or a few, but more than two dozen nations, ranging in size from the dominant United Kingdom of Avalon to the small but influential New Kurdistan and the Republic of Morganna. It has a diverse climate and landscape, similar to Earth but with a very large equatorial desert that sets it apart. Its mass, and therefore local gravity, is slightly greater than that of Earth. Many parts of Avalon are still recovering from the partially-successful Klashnoi invasion during the T-K War, and the various nations of Avalon are putting forth a lot of resources to rebuild the population centers and repair the natural and cultural damage done during the war.

Avalon has two natural satellites, both ruled by a single government, these being Camelot, roughly the size of Earth’s moon, and Merlin, believed to be a large asteroid knocked out of the Crown and into Avalan’s orbit, are owned by the Dominion of Camelot. The DC makes itself useful by providing helium-3 and iron to the rest of Three Paradises System. The independently governed Alfred Bester SSC is the largest trading post in the inner system, and has a wildly varied population.

Asgard

The premier military power in Three Paradises is the Republic of Asgard, set up by a mixture of neo-pagan colonists and tough survivalist groups, both factions forming the Republic for mutual benefit during the settling of this harsh, though habitable, planet. Asgard is a major mining center, with its mountain-dominated landscape rich in gold, silver, iron, uranium, and other valuable elements. Much of this goes toward either creating or financing the Asgard Expeditionary Corps and the Asgard Expeditionary Fleets.

Valhalla is a captured planetoid similar in size to Ceres, probably falling into Asgard’s orbit when Eden, and thus the Scythe, passed close to Asgard. It is not quite spherical, but it is good enough to use as the base object for the Muspelheim fleet yards, the largest orbital construction facility in UN space. Asgard does not have an orbiting space station complex, unlike Olympia and Avalon, but it does have a large network of smaller stations, mostly used for planetary defense and customs service.

Eden Sector

The Scythe

Instead of a system-wide asteroid belt splitting the terrestrial worlds with the jovian worlds, the gas giant Eden trails a long arc of asteroids and mid-sized planetoids behind it in a curved shape that spans about a quarter of Eden’s orbital track. It was nicknamed the Scythe, and is mined by the Republic of Asgard, the Protectorate of Faerie, and many independent corporations. There are a few pockets of Jacks, smuggler bases, and other illegal groups within the Scythe, but they are constantly on the run from the Expeditionary Fleets and the Asgard Customs Service. Eden’s smaller moons were probably knocked around and pulled into the Scythe, explaining the relatively sparse area around Three Paradises’ largest planet.

Faerie

Faerie is of similar composition and properties as Io, but it is larger and exists far enough outside Eden’s radiation belt to be slightly more habitable. Like Io, it is a major source of geothermal energy, which is exploited by the ruling government of the Protectorate of Faerie to sell for cheap to independent ships. The Protectorate of Faerie also owns the Octavia Butler SSC, which follows it closely along its orbital track.

Faerie was invaded during the T-K war for its geothermal energy supplies, and the results of the invasion and the subsequent resistance efforts destroyed a great deal of the infrastructure of Faerie, which is only now become fully active again.

Enoch

Enoch has a thick atmosphere held down by a very dense core of iron, and terraforming efforts have made the lower atmosphere breathable to humans, provided they have a filter to remove toxins and they wear very warm clothing. While not as hopefully habitable as Titan in Sol System, Enoch is nonetheless home to the highest population in the Eden Sector. However, despite its habitability Enoch has few natural resources beyond its upper atmosphere of mostly hydrogen. This means that the United Colonies of Enoch are forced to rely on the primary Three Paradises planets for support, as well as what mining they can manage in the Scythe and Eden’s upper atmosphere.

Nirvana

Nirvana is not a single moon, but six large, Vesta-sized planetoids in the Scythe that are held together in nigh-perfect balance by mutual gravitic attraction which, together, became massive enough to be pulled closer to Eden until it established a stable orbit of its own. It has been physically linked by internal and external structures to form a single, quite large satellite. It is the hub and main construction site of the Strugatsky Brothers SSC, and Nirvana is technically under its rule. The miles-long tunnels and miniature terraformed caves makes Nirvana an excellent place to form small communities, and at least a million space gypsies live in Nirvana, venturing into the Strugatsky Brothers to do business or find adventure.

Eden

Eden, a gas giant mostly golden in color, is slightly more massive than Jupiter, though noticeably less dense, and has a much calmer atmosphere. It is just as rich in valuable gasses, however, and there are plenty of parties with mining operations in its upper atmosphere. Interestingly, it appears that deep within Eden’s atmosphere there may be a liquid water layer, heated by an internal core and the greenhouse effect of the surrounding atmosphere. If it is confirmed to exist, then it will be the largest body of water in the known galaxy. Eden has four ring arcs, similar to Neptune’s, which tend to “blur” when they interact with the Scythe before coming back out the other side.

The Dreamlands

Gilead

Gilead is an interesting oddity, a Mars-like terrestrial world between the orbits of the gas giants Eden and Ice Palace. Most theories suggest that whatever cataclysm created the modern-day incarnation of Ice Palace billions of years ago blew Gilead out of its orbit, where it accumulated mass from the Scythe and grew to its current size. There are several settlements allied into the Affiliation of Gilead. Most of Gilead is devoted to mining resource-rich regions, probably ancient impact sites of asteroids from the Scythe, but it is also a place of cultural intermixing and trade with the Klashnoi Confederation, who mostly left them alone during the war. The Affiliation is a close ally of the United Kingdom of Avalon, and a great deal of trade goes back and forth between the two worlds. Gilead is largely responsible for keeping an eye on the Dreamlands, and as a result their military is stronger than might be expected from such a small nation.

Ice Palace

Sometime, billions of years ago, during the formative stages of the planet that is today known as Ice Palace, some cataclysmic detonation or other event occurred that shot the oxygen-hydrogen atmosphere of the planet out in great spikes and ripples. These elements fused into water, which promptly froze in the cold of space far from Genesis, capturing Ice Palace’s moons and ring system within huge towers of ice, some almost a full AU high from Ice Palace’s core to its endpoint. Strangely enough, this process also seems to have created life, which has thrived inside the hollow towers, insulated with the planet’s internal heat by the dense ice, like igloos. Ice Palace is now home to a huge multi-Superpower exploration endeavor, drawing the best minds from the UN, the Klashnoi Confederation, the Commonwealth, and even the Carepakeh Empire. There are not many traditional resources to be found here, but it is believed that studying Ice Palace could unlock all manner of secrets regarding planetary formation, and by extent, terraforming, not to mention the fascinating xenozoological studies that could be undertaken here.

Ambar Sector

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Ambar is named after the planet on which Middle-Earth existed in J.R.R. Tolkien’s literary works. Unlike most gas giants, it does not have a helium-3 rich atmosphere, for reasons still unknown, but its major moons (named after locations in Middle Earth), Rohan, Rivendell, Mordor, and Isengard, are all quite interesting and valuable. All of the worlds are run by the Ambar Confederation, a nation not unlike the Jovian Alliance in organization, if not politics. When the population grows larger, the Confederation will likely split and the individual moons will become more independent. Following Isengard in its orbit is the Frank Herbert SSC, a self-governing complex focusing mainly on interplanetary trade and spacecraft production.

Atlantis Sector

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Atlantis is a Neptune-like planet on the edge of the Dreamlands, the common name for outer Three Paradises. It is mined by the Ambar Confederation and the Affiliation of Gilead for valuable gasses, and its upper atmosphere is home to the Stephen Baxter SSC. This complex has colonial jurisdiction over the moons of Atlantis, (named for characters in the literary works of Robert E. Howard), Conan, Solomon, Sonja, Kull.

Three Paradises Oort Cloud

Similar to Sol System, Three Paradises has an outer cloud of comets, planetoids, and gasses. It is still being explored, and only one good-sized planetoid has been discovered and utilized to any extent, a Pluto-sized irregular world called Purgatory that is being mined for helium-3. Beyond that, the Oort Cloud has yet to be fully charted.

Telemachus System

Inner Telemachus

Bacchus

Bacchus is similar to Venus in size, composition, and distance from its home star. It is a pale orange in color, due to its world-spanning sulfur-infused cloud layer, dotted with blemishes of red and ash gray from the constant volcanic eruptions on Bacchus' surface. The high levels of heat and pressure have generated a huge concentration of diamonds on Bacchus, which has drawn the attention of mining corporations and independent prospectors alike, but Bacchus' unwelcoming climate makes mining here a very dangerous prospect. The Bacchanal Sector is technically owned by the Herodotus League, but that body does almost nothing with the holding aside from patrolling it and using it as an orbital anchor for a few small skipways.

Pallas

The most habitable world in Telemachus System, Pallas is, on the whole, a little too hot to be completely comfortable, and its gravity is barely .8 Eg. On the other hand, that's better than anything else in the system, and the temperate polar regions are home to a quarter of a billion people, almost half of Telemachus' total population. It is, along with Czernobog, one of only two planets in Telemachus that have nations sitting on the U.N. Security Council, those nations being the bankers and traders of the Herodotus League and the military and agriculture power of the Republic of Deccan, both located on Pallas' south pole. The tropical zones are dotted with city-sized independent states, agricultural collectives, and similar minor powers, loosely allied into the Confederation of Pallas, who make a name for themselves as a place where “anything goes,” which attracts its fair share of Space Gypsies, Jacks, and less definable semi-legal groups and individuals.

Pallas has one moon, Aeneas, larger and denser than Earth's moon and with a much more irregular orbit, resulting in violent sea storms and unpredictable flooding on Pallas. Aeneas is jointly-owned by Deccan and the moon-based Nova Roma Wharves, a ship-building firm and the largest corporate entity native to the Telemachus System. Aeneas is also a major tourist draw thanks to Paulsen's Dive, a fourteen-kilometer deep, as-yet-unexplained hole near the terminator point between Aeneas' “light” and “dark” sides. Thrill-seekers and extreme spelunkers from all over the galaxy come to visit and take a jump down Paulsen's Dive.

The Alexei Tolstoy space station complex, the largest in Telemachus, also orbits Pallas, and is home to roughly ten percent of Pallas Sector's population. It is governed by an independent communist body tightly allied with the Confederation of Pallas, and is primarily a manufacturing and trade center, as well as a very active skipway.

Penelope

Penelope is a lush, green world that at first appears perfect for habitation, were it not for the barely-there atmosphere. The plant-life that dominates Penelope is anaerobic, subsisting entirely off Penelope's rich soil and light from Telemachus. Despite this, Penelopean life is consumable by most races, and many plants have interesting medicinal and recreational qualities, making the planet a major draw for pharmaceutical companies, herbalists, cooks, and less-scrupulous druggists from all over the galaxy. The perpetual nighttime on the planet, combined with the abstract patterns that Penelopean plants grow in has also made the planet a popular artist's retreat, though most don't stay for long – it's difficult to sketch or paint very well in an environment suit.

Buyan Sector

Czernobog

The gravitational axis of Buyan Sector is located roughly halfway between the two terrestrial planets Czernobog and Bielobog. Czernobog is the slightly more massive of the two, and has a stronger magnetic field, making it slightly more habitable. However, the gravitational duet Czernobog is locked into with Bielobog causes widespread meteorological chaos, with winds sitting steady at more than 250 kph and constant lightning storms which in turn set fires that are then spread by the winds. Czernobog is a violent planet, but it has the room and resources to justify colonization. The twelve subterranean city-states of the Czerna Collective run through the planet's crust, powered by massive wind farms on the surface and geothermal extractors farther down. Czerna is a major military influence in Telemachus, and is responsible for providing protection from Jacks and rebels to the rest of the system, as well as being a major industrial world, providing for most of the Mid-System's basic goods. Czernobog is also infamous for being home to the six largest penitentiaries in the United Nations, and a sentence to Czernobog is reserved for the most hardened and dangerous of criminals. These prisons, collectively nicknamed the Malebolge, are the source of many conspiracy theories and urban legends due to their harsh, secretive nature.

Bielobog

Bielobog, the smaller partner to Czernobog, is similar in composition to icy worlds like Ganymede and Europa, though it is much closer to Earth in size. The planet-spanning subterranean ocean is teeming with life, which is harvested by hundreds of aquaculture farms tethered to the surface's dome cities. There is no real centralized government on Bielobog, with each city being more or less self-sufficient, and none of them having a population greater than 2 million. Should the cities ever combine into a single government, they would likely be a formidable power in the system, but it would take a lot to change the citizens' spirit of independence and isolationism. Bielobog is the bread basket, or perhaps more accurately the shrimp bucket, for Telemachus, with even Pallas as a major customer.

Utrenyaya

The moon Utrenyaya is owned by the Czerna Collective, and is the home of the Czerna Navy and Marine Corps. Fully half the moon is covered in defense clusters, training centers, starports, and other military infrastructure. It is the pulsing heart of the Czerna military, but truth be told, that's really all the moon is known for – its not even a good source of helium-3, and if not for its proximity and barren, easy-to-build-over landscape, Utrenyaya would probably just be left entirely alone.

Vechernyaya

Vechernyaya is the largest of the Buynan Sector's three moons, and is vastly different in composition to the other worlds in the sector, suggesting that it was once a free planet that was caught in the duet's gravity in a fairly recently epoch. It is a very active moon, pulsing with cryovolcanic activity, and it is just massive enough to hold a thin, fuzzy ring of water and methane ice around itself. Vechernyaya has a very small population (less than three million), all located in Takezawa City, the only settlement on Vechernyaya, and its primary role is as a starport and distribution center for various corporate interests in Telemachus.

Polonuchnaya

In vast contrast to the rest of the Sector, Polonuchnaya, the smallest moon in Buyan Sector, is a lively, culturally-diverse world, and the largest trade center in Telemachus. This trade, however, is mostly unregulated, despite attempts by Czerna, Herodotus and Deccan to enforce law. Polonuchnaya is home mostly to Space Gypsies, who are adamant about keeping their world as free as they are, and even the Czerna Navy lacks the resources to fully drive them off the moon. Polonuchnaya itself is a great source of helium-3 and iron, and has an active magnetic field to protect it from the worst solar radiation – however, it does not possess a breathable atmosphere, and so all settlements are either subterranean or domed.

Polonuchnaya is the orbital anchor for the Warren Ellis space station complex, one of the main reasons why the rest of Telemachus leaves Polonuchnaya alone – Warren is one of the most heavily-armed space station complexes in U.N. space, and its primary purpose is as a starport for Space Gypsy ships, themselves often armed. Aside from being a fortress, Warren is also a major source of food for Polonuchnaya, thanks to an entire Bernal Sphere dedicated to hydroponic farms.

Scylla Belt

While it technically extends far beyond Buyan Sector, the Scylla Asteroid Belt's path is close enough to Buyan that most people consider the two bodies inseparable. Scylla is similar to Sol's Belt, though it has a larger number of, on average, smaller planetoids, the largest of them barely half the size of Vesta. Unlike Sol's Belt, Scylla is relatively free of Jacks and other criminals – the combined forces of the Deccan and Czerna Navies and Polonuchnaya's ragtag peacekeepers have scared off all but the sneakiest and most desperate such individuals. On the other hand, there isn't much else out there, either – aside from a few independent mining operations and minor skipways, Scylla has yet to be exploited or colonized.

Middle Telemachus

Saraswati

Ganesha

Anansi

Coyote

Astarte

Hecate Sector

Maiden

Mother

Crone

Hecate

Charybdis Belt

Main Cluster

Nicodemus

Jotun Sector

Baldur

Skuld

Wyrd

Hel

Fenris

Other Moons

Jotun

The Seven Sisters Oort Cloud

Halcyon

Celano

Tagayta

Merope

Asterope

Elektra

Maya
"The universe's most essential beauty is its endlessness. There is room and resources enough for all of us. Whether there is room for all of our passions is the question, and the problem that we work tirelessly to find a solution to."

-Qhameio Allir Nlafahn, Commonwealth ambassador, during the signing of the Kriolon Treaty.
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Re: [cartography]United Nations Worlds

Post by Artemis »

Expanded World Profile: Olympia

Image
Olympia, with Delphi (with artificial aurora light show, celebrating the premiere of the new Dorotea Holmes film) and the Douglas Adams SSC visible. In the lower left, Kren'ha, the Klashnoi home-star, can be seen.

Olympia is the second planet from its sun, in the Three Paradises star system, so named for its three Earth-like worlds, of which Olympia is one. It is smaller but denser than Earth, giving it a similar gravity (.92eG), and has a predominantly sub-tropical climate, though it also has a large number of mountain ranges and deserts. Its oceans are very shallow compared to Earth, barely a sixth in depth, and as a result there are thousands of island chains that dot the planet's surface. It boasts both a ring system and a moon, called Delphi, roughly the size of Ceres, both of which help to maintain the tides, though the ring does create an omnipresent shadow across Olympia's equator, causing much cooler temperatures there, and giving rise to subsequent meteorological effects, the most infamous of these being massive typhoons.

Olympia, unlike Avalon and Asgard, the other Paradise worlds, has only the most basic of animal life, no more advanced than invertebrate sea-creatures, and various fungi and algae species, though the planet's flora displays itself in a dizzying variety of trees, grasses, and vast subterranean vegetable masses which UN biologists have nicknamed "gnomeroots." As a result, at last census 74% of Olympia's inhabitants, citizens of the Trans-Olympian Federation, the Republic of Nokinawa, the Dulcimer Islands Confederacy, and the United States of Midway, are either vegetarian or vegan, as the cost of imported food animals and animal products is considered prohibitive.

Olympia is widely considered to be the new capital of the entertainment industry, replacing Terran hot-spots Hollywood and New Zealand. Its vast array of untamed environments, cheap land, slightly lower gravity, and beautiful skies are enough to make any movie producer salivate, and the many studios and independent films provide ample jobs to Olympians, from actors to assistants, carpenters to caterers, from makeup artists to maquette makers. Between the movie biz, tourism, trade, and light agriculture, Olympia does very well for itself, economically.

Olympia is still suffering from the scars of the Terran-Klashnoi War, though in a very different way than Avalon. The TOF and Nokinawa are still burdened by tens of thousands of refugees from Avalon who still have yet to be processed and sent home, and anger over this slow process has led to isolated, but violent acts of domestic terrorism, and people stowing away or being smuggled onto ships heading to Avalon is a major security concern - Olympia has the highest rate of stowaway cases in Three Paradises by more than 600% over the runner-up, Gilead. Compounding this, Nokinawa and the US of F are major industrial competitors, and this has led to several border clashes between Nokinawan border security and Midway civilian militia. The Dulcimer Islands are believed to be the planetary home to several infamous Jack crews, and many suspect the Dulcimerian government to be practically bought and owned by these criminals and pirates.

Olympia has the lowest population ratio of non-Terrans among the Three Paradises, with only one non-Terran for every two thousand Terrans. Tekks are not included in this, as most Olympians support Tekk rights and most just lump them in with the Terran population, despite their vastly different genome, except for the Republic of Nokinawa, who don't count Tekks in their population reports at all. The few non-Terrans who do live on Olympia are predominantly Algians and Hamechels, who are both well-suited to Olympia's climate and gravity, and make up the bulk of the crews on Commonwealth trade ships, and are the most likely to retire to this world. Krioli, who are normally more than happy to immigrate to the UN and live on their worlds, rarely find the humid, hot Olympia to their liking, though a fairly large number of them live in Douglas Adams SSC and in Delphi. The Saryan Technocracy has bought seventeen square miles of land in Midway's Schuster Desert, and have established a monastery-laboratory there, which has become the most advanced hub-matter research facilities in the galaxy. There are fewer than a hundred Klashnoi or Carepakeh on the planet, the former because there is still a massive resentment towards the Klashnoi for the war, even more so than on Avalon, and the latter because the Carepakeh simply have no interest in Olympia, save for half a dozen trading vessels that stop through Olympia Sector when it's not too out of their way.
"The universe's most essential beauty is its endlessness. There is room and resources enough for all of us. Whether there is room for all of our passions is the question, and the problem that we work tirelessly to find a solution to."

-Qhameio Allir Nlafahn, Commonwealth ambassador, during the signing of the Kriolon Treaty.
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Re: [cartography]United Nations Worlds

Post by Artemis »

Added the framework for the worlds of Telemachus System, and the first chunk of worlds. Also added world art for Bardo, Ambar and Atlantis.
"The universe's most essential beauty is its endlessness. There is room and resources enough for all of us. Whether there is room for all of our passions is the question, and the problem that we work tirelessly to find a solution to."

-Qhameio Allir Nlafahn, Commonwealth ambassador, during the signing of the Kriolon Treaty.
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Re: [cartography]United Nations Worlds

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Expanded World Profile: Ceres

Ceres is the most massive object in Sol's asteroid belt, and its most highly-populated world as well. While there are almost fifty tiny, independent nations in the Belt, Ceres is the only significant power besides the Cameron Company, and as a result, Ceres has the unenviable role of playing big brother to one of the largest sectors of U.N. space. The fact that Ceres is neither politically nor militarily powerful doesn't make its job any easier - Ceres' citizens' main interests lie in mining their world and the surrounding bodies in the Belt, maintaining order in their own sphere or influence, and maintaining amiable ties and, at the same time, economic and cultural independence from the Inner Sol worlds and governments and those in the Jovian Sector.

Ceres was first settled in 2072, with colonists coming predominantly from the north-eastern United States, rural England, and the Belarus and Kazakhstan region of the Russian Confederacy. Four colonies were founded, these being New Trenton (which was chosen as the capital of the new Republic of Ceres), Steeplechase, Williamsburg, and Bogdanov City, with each city connected by the CRT (Ceres Rapid Transit or Ceres Rail Train) subway grid. These cities descend down into Ceres' sub-crustal liquid water ocean, where massive watermills split the water down into oxygen and hydrogen, providing air and power for the entire world. Descending even deeper than that are mining pylons, huge submarine elevator systems that that connect Ceres' surface to its rocky, mineral-rich mantle. The mining of these resources makes up 43% of all jobs on Ceres, and it is considered something of a point of pride for Cererians to be able to claim a career in the mines that keep Ceres alive. Ceres' surface is dotted with starports and starlifts connected to skipways in orbit, through which countless people and goods pass on their way through Sol System. The largest skipway is Carousel Station, which is large enough to count as a standalone major city.

Ceres is much larger today than it was when it was first settled. Enough Belt material, including comets and other asteroids, have been fused to Ceres so as to increase its mass by roughly 23% (increasing local gravity to .17eG) , and the rapid sprawl from the six major cities (Greenchester, the newest and smallest, was founded in 2112) , as well as the incorporation of new "suburb" cities, has repainted the world's surface, decreasing its albedo and thus warming it - mean equatorial temperature is now 340 Kelvin. Ceres, like most colonies without a significant atmosphere and magnetic field, has a series of 12 satellites in polar, geosynchronous, and equatorial orbits generating an electromagnetic shield strong enough to protect Ceres from solar radiation and rogue meteors.

Ceres' government greatly resembles that of the United States, though there is no House of Representatives, only a Senate (each independent city is represented by three senators, for a total of 84 Senators), and there are only three Justices on the Supreme Court. Each city has a mayor, and some of the smaller suburbs have chosen to elect governors whose job is to unify and incorporate the local smaller cities, though those cities still maintain their independence. Elections for governors and senators both take place every Cererian year (4.6 Earth years), while mayoral and presidential elections are held every three years. Governors and senators have no term limits, but mayors and presidents may only hold one term of office. There are three major political parties on Ceres, these being the labor-focused Union Party, the fiscal conservative Republican Party, and the self-explanatory Socialist Party. Unfortunately for Cererian citizens, all three parties, not to mention the dozen or so minor parties, have some of the highest corruption ratings in Sol System, a result of ties with both the Cameron Company and various shipping and mining firms, and the prevalence of dynastic "political families" such as the Tiernovs and Castellans of the Socialist party, and the Union Party's O'Fallons. Elections tend to be rather cutthroat, and political races tend to resemble cage matches and high school popularity contests in about equal measure. To make matters worse, the Martian nations of Utopia Martia and New Sumer, as well as the Jovian Alliance, frequently meddle in Cererian political affairs, much to the chagrin of the patriotic miners, dockers, and construction workers.

The Ceres Space Services, a combination navy, customs, and rescue force, consists of three capital ships (Jupiter-class CSS Bruce Springsteen, Uranus-class CSS Harvey Pekar, and Saturn-class CSS Leonard Cohen) and seventeen frigates of various classes, as well as the attending corvettes, shuttles and fighters. Ceres has no standing army (the Space Services do have a fairly-well-equipped Marine Corps), but members of the various police forces make up the Ceres Star Security Forces, and are trained for militia operations. Today, many Ceres cops are veterans of the T-K War. The Ceres Office of State Security, or COSS, exists as both an internal and foreign intelligence agency, and despite its lack of funding and often having to deal with their own corrupt government, COSS agents have the grudging respect of their fellow ICECOM agencies.

Terrans make up 99.4% of the Cererian population, with less than three thousand non-Terrans (who are still often referred to as the outdated, politically-incorrect term "aliens) holding citizenship. Most of these are Krioli or Klashnoi, though the latter suffer from heavy prejudice and only live on Ceres because of the ample mining jobs. Ceres contributed far more of its citizens to the war effort than Ceres small population would suggest, either with the CSS or as privateers, predominantly fighting on Avalon and Asgard, and when the war ended suddenly and without clear victory, much of the public outrage in the U.N. came from Ceres, more of it seemingly directed at the Commonwealth than at the U.N.'s enemies in the Klashnoi Confederation. To this day, Ceres is one of the greatest hotbeds of Terranist philosophy outside the Jovian Alliance, from the relatively moderate TerraStar minor political party, to extremist "kill 'em all" lynch mobs and street gangs. Star Security and COSS do their best to curtail such action, but its hard to do so when many of their own officers and agents are, publicly or privately, members of these movements.

Despite all its problems and hardships, Ceres is home to a proud, patriotic and hard-working population, most of them with humble ambitions but big hopes. Perhaps the best way to describe the world and its people are the words of journalist and popular historical novelist Karl Ornisov, of Steeplechase: "Ceres is the Coney Island of Sol System, with all the rough-and-tumble, rusted-out, chipped-paint toughness and, yes, magic, that used to embody that little strip of land off the coast of New York. The USA to this day wonders where the American Dream went, where it got off to after the Mexican Wars. The truth is, like so many of its citizens from the rapidly-disappearing Rust Belt, the American Dream immigrated to Ceres, and became the Cererian Dream. And its alive and well, thank you very much."
"The universe's most essential beauty is its endlessness. There is room and resources enough for all of us. Whether there is room for all of our passions is the question, and the problem that we work tirelessly to find a solution to."

-Qhameio Allir Nlafahn, Commonwealth ambassador, during the signing of the Kriolon Treaty.
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Re: [cartography]United Nations Worlds

Post by Siege »

Wow, that's like, quick, dude. And the Bruce Springsteen returns, albeit in a different form! As an avid Boss fan I of course aprove, and it's remarkable to see how much of that brief profile bit I wrote made it in there. That just warms my heart :). Interestingly I kinda saw Ceres as New Jersey in space, and you picked Coney Island. Different patch of next-to-New-York, I suppose, but they both have the same vibe for me at least so that's sweet. The rough and gritty frontier, now with extra rust in space! I like it a lot!
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Re: [cartography]United Nations Worlds

Post by Artemis »

I was going for the Rust Belt as a whole, from the Great Lakes to Appalachia, so there's bits of both Coney Island and New Jersey in there, but also some Buffalo, Philadelphia, Cleveland, and Detroit, with smatterings of post-Soviet Russia and blue-collar England and Germany. I'm thrilled you like it, since its largely thanks to Dwight's recollections in Spirit Jericho that gave me an idea as to what Ceres would be like!
"The universe's most essential beauty is its endlessness. There is room and resources enough for all of us. Whether there is room for all of our passions is the question, and the problem that we work tirelessly to find a solution to."

-Qhameio Allir Nlafahn, Commonwealth ambassador, during the signing of the Kriolon Treaty.
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