by Demiurge Thu Apr 02, 2015 7:05 pmIt's the 27th century and Humanity has expanded beyond the gulf that separates the stars to colonise new worlds. The reasons for departure are as varied as human nature itself. Some went searching for spiritual enlightenment while others were looking for a new home where to settle down and avoid persecution. Some were tired of wars while others had dreams of new and perfect societies. Several countries wanted new worlds to exploit and assist in the sustenance of their fragile economies and greed, greed sent colonists to every asteroid and sterile and barren world in the galaxy. Private companies sending poor souls under slaving contracts to find new riches with which to adorn the great cities of what would become the Core Worlds. At first expansion was slow as slipspace engines had not yet been developed and Humanity relied on sleeper ships or generation ships, but as faster than light travel became available nothing could prevent an exponentially quick expansion.
After the Third Great War all countries held their hands together in the promise that the riches of the stars would suffice and prevent another calamity and thus peace prospered. Discrimination reached low levels never seen before as people voluntarily left Earth to found their own new and tolerant communities. Hundreds of planets were colonised. Some would become thriving ecumenopolis while others retained a more balanced distinction between urban and rural and natural areas. Whole worlds were given up to the office of farming while others, barren rocks covered with gigantic domes, had no other purpose but to be stripped of their mineral resources.
Communication was constant and commerce was fluid and aplenty, but then something happened. No one really knows where it came from nor how it infected its first victim, but it spread and where Humanity had prospered in peace and disarmament it now suffocated under the dependency of off-world trade. The disease, as it was initially called, spread like wildfire among the populace of many worlds carried from one to the other either by merchants or by refugees trying to find a safe haven. Whole colonies were ravaged by death and carnage, entire generations sapped before they could grow and mature and yet the horde pressed on: the disfigured and mangled corpses of the once living now feasting and gorging on the flesh of those not yet dead. Emergency measures were taken; planets were quarantined leaving millions of survivors stranded and helpless. Curses were cast and blood feuds declared, but to no avail. Death took them all in her embrace. Soon, one by one, contact between the Core Worlds and the colonies was lost as well as with outposts beyond and beyond. Humanity regressed to isolationism, each planet caring for itself and trying to survive on its own. The Solar System, being the farthest from the epicentre of the outbreak, managed to hold itself with reasonable bravery. Still, that didn't spare 20 million souls from meeting their maker when a ship carrying refugees from Alpha Centauri crash-landed in Buenos Aires and spread the Walking Plague to the cities of the southern American provinces.
Earth, by then known as Terra, and the Solar System weren't the only survivors of the cataclysm nor were they the most successful of political constructs that either survived or emerged from the apocalypse but it still retained a measure of power far surpassing most others and, after a century and half of isolation, an era of reclamation began. Planet after planet was rediscovered and brought back into the fold. Where some semblance of order had been maintained the government of the most powerful of Terra's political entities, the Union, negotiated their return into the flock. Where the planet had been entirely lost or consumed military conquest followed by colonisation ensued. A century of reclamation enabled the recovery of most relevant planets and opened the door to new colonisations in new areas of the galaxy.
That is where we stand now: on the brand new frontier of the Capricorn Expanse, a vast area of space located within the most ancient of astrological constellations. A few planets have already been colonised in this area of space with an abnormally dense number of habitable planets but many are yet to be found or explored.
Plenty of rumours abound that this is the trail to the fabled world of New Mecca as this is the general direction into which so many ships disappear in their quest of faith every year. Yet other kind of rumours thrive. Tales of strange geological formations resembling more constructs than piles of rock which supposedly pre-date the arrival of Humanity in this area of space. Strange signals in the sensors as well as the disappearance of explorer teams in distant moons with no trace of their presence being ever found.
The major political entity punching into this corner of galactic space is the Union, that amalgamation of Terra’s governments that succeeded the annexation of the States of America by the Union of Europeans upon the formers' defeat at the hands of the alliance between the Eurasian Orthodoxy and the Middle Empire. It alone now rules Terra and most of human occupied space and now strives to expand its borders even farther. Other governments also attempt to influence the future of the region either by the establishment of business ventures or through trade or espionage. There ought to be a reason for the Nippon Empire to have come out of its self-imposed isolation of four centuries, counting from the day all the Home Islands of Japan were abandoned and Mount Fuji was elevated to the skies, to establish an embassy in the new sector's capital planet.
After the Third Great War all countries held their hands together in the promise that the riches of the stars would suffice and prevent another calamity and thus peace prospered. Discrimination reached low levels never seen before as people voluntarily left Earth to found their own new and tolerant communities. Hundreds of planets were colonised. Some would become thriving ecumenopolis while others retained a more balanced distinction between urban and rural and natural areas. Whole worlds were given up to the office of farming while others, barren rocks covered with gigantic domes, had no other purpose but to be stripped of their mineral resources.
Communication was constant and commerce was fluid and aplenty, but then something happened. No one really knows where it came from nor how it infected its first victim, but it spread and where Humanity had prospered in peace and disarmament it now suffocated under the dependency of off-world trade. The disease, as it was initially called, spread like wildfire among the populace of many worlds carried from one to the other either by merchants or by refugees trying to find a safe haven. Whole colonies were ravaged by death and carnage, entire generations sapped before they could grow and mature and yet the horde pressed on: the disfigured and mangled corpses of the once living now feasting and gorging on the flesh of those not yet dead. Emergency measures were taken; planets were quarantined leaving millions of survivors stranded and helpless. Curses were cast and blood feuds declared, but to no avail. Death took them all in her embrace. Soon, one by one, contact between the Core Worlds and the colonies was lost as well as with outposts beyond and beyond. Humanity regressed to isolationism, each planet caring for itself and trying to survive on its own. The Solar System, being the farthest from the epicentre of the outbreak, managed to hold itself with reasonable bravery. Still, that didn't spare 20 million souls from meeting their maker when a ship carrying refugees from Alpha Centauri crash-landed in Buenos Aires and spread the Walking Plague to the cities of the southern American provinces.
Earth, by then known as Terra, and the Solar System weren't the only survivors of the cataclysm nor were they the most successful of political constructs that either survived or emerged from the apocalypse but it still retained a measure of power far surpassing most others and, after a century and half of isolation, an era of reclamation began. Planet after planet was rediscovered and brought back into the fold. Where some semblance of order had been maintained the government of the most powerful of Terra's political entities, the Union, negotiated their return into the flock. Where the planet had been entirely lost or consumed military conquest followed by colonisation ensued. A century of reclamation enabled the recovery of most relevant planets and opened the door to new colonisations in new areas of the galaxy.
That is where we stand now: on the brand new frontier of the Capricorn Expanse, a vast area of space located within the most ancient of astrological constellations. A few planets have already been colonised in this area of space with an abnormally dense number of habitable planets but many are yet to be found or explored.
Plenty of rumours abound that this is the trail to the fabled world of New Mecca as this is the general direction into which so many ships disappear in their quest of faith every year. Yet other kind of rumours thrive. Tales of strange geological formations resembling more constructs than piles of rock which supposedly pre-date the arrival of Humanity in this area of space. Strange signals in the sensors as well as the disappearance of explorer teams in distant moons with no trace of their presence being ever found.
The major political entity punching into this corner of galactic space is the Union, that amalgamation of Terra’s governments that succeeded the annexation of the States of America by the Union of Europeans upon the formers' defeat at the hands of the alliance between the Eurasian Orthodoxy and the Middle Empire. It alone now rules Terra and most of human occupied space and now strives to expand its borders even farther. Other governments also attempt to influence the future of the region either by the establishment of business ventures or through trade or espionage. There ought to be a reason for the Nippon Empire to have come out of its self-imposed isolation of four centuries, counting from the day all the Home Islands of Japan were abandoned and Mount Fuji was elevated to the skies, to establish an embassy in the new sector's capital planet.
