The WIck
30-05-2005, 20:29
Well I have decided to create a sort of encyclopedia on my nation, a place for those interested to learn about it. While I doubt anybody will read it or comment on it, it will exist if even only to let me write things down that exist only in my head. Well here we go, enjoy...comments are welcome to the few people that will ever read it lol...
THE PEOPLE
Circumstances Force How We Live: A description of WIckian space colonies.
In its heyday, the WIckian Commonwealth made possible the habitation of worlds that were only marginally capable of supporting a human population. Poisonous atmospheres were rendered clean and breathable. Dark, cold planets were warmed and lit by artificial suns. In rare cases, planets were replaced by their technological equivalent—huge space colonies. Capable of supporting thousands of adventuring pioneers who chose to make their living far from any planetary body, the space habitats arose for the benefit of corporations and the military at first, perhaps to mine a local asteroid belt or to provide a safe haven between worlds too distant for a single ship’s jump. Over time these floating colonies became a home to more than military troops or corporate miners.
Ravaged by war and piracy in the years following the fall of the WIckian Commonwealth to the Vagrant Clans, this therefore planets exist only as footnotes of past lore. Any evidence of the pre-fall Commonwealth are witness only by intrepid explorers to the scarred and pitted planets of the Ghost March, beyond the Periphery of the Raumreich.
Vaguely resembling Super-Dreadnaughts, these giant space stations generally hold a fixed position within a planetary system using station keeping thrusters or anchored within a Lagrange point. These habitats can provide a comfortable existence for thousands of people at once—though some habitats built in the Commonwealth’s heyday have been able to support populations of more than a million strong. The largest habitat station in current use floats just inside the orbit of a large asteroid belt in the TIconderogan system—located on the frontier between the former WIckian Commonwealth and the Vaku’s Dominion. Providing living space to just over 500,000 people, this station built upon the ancient designs found in the Amber memory core, the station boasts almost all the amenities of home, from large, apartment-style living quarters to a military barracks for the station’s marine defense force and light Mech’ battalion, to entertainment casinos and even a sports arena.
Life aboard an orbiting habitat is a curious mix between travel aboard a star-liner and existing in a close-knit urban neighborhood. The confined quarters aboard a spinning space habitat must be used as pragmatically as possible, and so most stations are rigidly organized into military, commercial and residential sectors. Entire decks serve as tightly packed apartment blocks, barely more luxurious than a typical two-bedroom apartment in a planet-bound suburb. Typically located in the central areas of the habitat, the residential sector is commonly bordered on each side by commercial districts that are themselves little more than a single, continuous strip mall of converted quarters—though larger habitats include other amenities, such as casinos, theaters and even sports stadiums. Industrial sectors, which include station machine shops, repair bays and the like, tend to border the opposite ends of the commercial zones, and may or may not be set within gravity-free sections of the station (as opposed to the spinning grav decks reserved primarily for residential and commercial zones). Military and administrative zones almost always are situated at the fore and aft of the station, where they can best defend and coordinate with the station command center in the bow and the engineering sectors in the aft.
Because few stations offer as much room as a sprawling, planet-side metropolis, most habitat dwellers know one another very well, like the people of a small rural town. Consequently, most habitat communities are close-knit and independent-minded, feeling genuine kinship only with others who spend most of their lives in the void of space or orbiting dead or inhospitable planets. Often simply called spacers, the inhabitants of space colonies tend to be friendlier toward the merchant marine of other nations or their own backwater space colonies, or whomever else also spends most of their time off-planet, than toward those who spend most of their lives on the relative safety of a planetary surface. Perhaps it is this proud independent mindset that may explain the WIckians animosity to the Valinor or those other nations of the Dominion that live more comfortable lives on planets with a breathable atmosphere.
Though often equipped with hydroponics gardens to grow vegetables and fruits, most habitat communities don’t have room for raising cattle or other livestock and are ill equipped to grow enough food for their entire population. Despite efficient recycling systems, water and air stores must also be replenished from time to time, so no habitat station can ever be considered truly self-sufficient. For this reason, every habitat maintains a brisk trade with nearby worlds in order to supplement the colonists’ basic food and water needs. This goes a long ways in explaining the close relationship between the TIconderogan Concordat and the Vernii Imperium.
Work aboard the space colonies also conforms to the colony’s needs. Because living room aboard a station is scarce and the inhabitants’ needs are many, most spacers perform multiple roles for their colony, usually maintaining a primary trade as merchants, marines, administrators or some such, while doubling as a part-time astechs or medics should the need arise. This practice further enhances the independent attitude of space colonists.
In the trying times since the Second Ortagan War almost 85% of the surviving WIckian population lives inside an Space Habitat or another form of space habitat be it an orbital farm, industry complex, shipyard, or similar military complex. It has become common to view the conditions that existed on these habitants before the destruction of the massive habitat complex in orbit of Thetis in the Second Ortagan War as luxurious, now the majority of the population that immigrated to the TIconderga System or one of the other far flung systems that survived the war live in quite Spartan conditions. Former industrial or commercial sections of the Habitats had been gutted to provide the most basic of quarters with the most basic of amenities.
Through the efforts of a few exceptional people education is being provided to the displaced and the families given work in the newly constructed industrial stations in Ticonderoga. Many among the youth are allured into service to the Concordat either as members of the Merchant Marine or the Armed Services, after all it promises a life away from the crowded habitats.
Hundreds of Space habitats exist now spread across the Raumreich, the largest concentration by far exists in the TIconderogan system, then in Gregor, dozens of other colonies are isolated in systems as far away as Sol or the Talbott Cluster, or in random points in deep space, or in uninhabited remote systems where only small mining bases previously existed. The one thing that should be made clear by the Wickians determination to live is such conditions is their determination to survive.
THE PEOPLE
Circumstances Force How We Live: A description of WIckian space colonies.
In its heyday, the WIckian Commonwealth made possible the habitation of worlds that were only marginally capable of supporting a human population. Poisonous atmospheres were rendered clean and breathable. Dark, cold planets were warmed and lit by artificial suns. In rare cases, planets were replaced by their technological equivalent—huge space colonies. Capable of supporting thousands of adventuring pioneers who chose to make their living far from any planetary body, the space habitats arose for the benefit of corporations and the military at first, perhaps to mine a local asteroid belt or to provide a safe haven between worlds too distant for a single ship’s jump. Over time these floating colonies became a home to more than military troops or corporate miners.
Ravaged by war and piracy in the years following the fall of the WIckian Commonwealth to the Vagrant Clans, this therefore planets exist only as footnotes of past lore. Any evidence of the pre-fall Commonwealth are witness only by intrepid explorers to the scarred and pitted planets of the Ghost March, beyond the Periphery of the Raumreich.
Vaguely resembling Super-Dreadnaughts, these giant space stations generally hold a fixed position within a planetary system using station keeping thrusters or anchored within a Lagrange point. These habitats can provide a comfortable existence for thousands of people at once—though some habitats built in the Commonwealth’s heyday have been able to support populations of more than a million strong. The largest habitat station in current use floats just inside the orbit of a large asteroid belt in the TIconderogan system—located on the frontier between the former WIckian Commonwealth and the Vaku’s Dominion. Providing living space to just over 500,000 people, this station built upon the ancient designs found in the Amber memory core, the station boasts almost all the amenities of home, from large, apartment-style living quarters to a military barracks for the station’s marine defense force and light Mech’ battalion, to entertainment casinos and even a sports arena.
Life aboard an orbiting habitat is a curious mix between travel aboard a star-liner and existing in a close-knit urban neighborhood. The confined quarters aboard a spinning space habitat must be used as pragmatically as possible, and so most stations are rigidly organized into military, commercial and residential sectors. Entire decks serve as tightly packed apartment blocks, barely more luxurious than a typical two-bedroom apartment in a planet-bound suburb. Typically located in the central areas of the habitat, the residential sector is commonly bordered on each side by commercial districts that are themselves little more than a single, continuous strip mall of converted quarters—though larger habitats include other amenities, such as casinos, theaters and even sports stadiums. Industrial sectors, which include station machine shops, repair bays and the like, tend to border the opposite ends of the commercial zones, and may or may not be set within gravity-free sections of the station (as opposed to the spinning grav decks reserved primarily for residential and commercial zones). Military and administrative zones almost always are situated at the fore and aft of the station, where they can best defend and coordinate with the station command center in the bow and the engineering sectors in the aft.
Because few stations offer as much room as a sprawling, planet-side metropolis, most habitat dwellers know one another very well, like the people of a small rural town. Consequently, most habitat communities are close-knit and independent-minded, feeling genuine kinship only with others who spend most of their lives in the void of space or orbiting dead or inhospitable planets. Often simply called spacers, the inhabitants of space colonies tend to be friendlier toward the merchant marine of other nations or their own backwater space colonies, or whomever else also spends most of their time off-planet, than toward those who spend most of their lives on the relative safety of a planetary surface. Perhaps it is this proud independent mindset that may explain the WIckians animosity to the Valinor or those other nations of the Dominion that live more comfortable lives on planets with a breathable atmosphere.
Though often equipped with hydroponics gardens to grow vegetables and fruits, most habitat communities don’t have room for raising cattle or other livestock and are ill equipped to grow enough food for their entire population. Despite efficient recycling systems, water and air stores must also be replenished from time to time, so no habitat station can ever be considered truly self-sufficient. For this reason, every habitat maintains a brisk trade with nearby worlds in order to supplement the colonists’ basic food and water needs. This goes a long ways in explaining the close relationship between the TIconderogan Concordat and the Vernii Imperium.
Work aboard the space colonies also conforms to the colony’s needs. Because living room aboard a station is scarce and the inhabitants’ needs are many, most spacers perform multiple roles for their colony, usually maintaining a primary trade as merchants, marines, administrators or some such, while doubling as a part-time astechs or medics should the need arise. This practice further enhances the independent attitude of space colonists.
In the trying times since the Second Ortagan War almost 85% of the surviving WIckian population lives inside an Space Habitat or another form of space habitat be it an orbital farm, industry complex, shipyard, or similar military complex. It has become common to view the conditions that existed on these habitants before the destruction of the massive habitat complex in orbit of Thetis in the Second Ortagan War as luxurious, now the majority of the population that immigrated to the TIconderga System or one of the other far flung systems that survived the war live in quite Spartan conditions. Former industrial or commercial sections of the Habitats had been gutted to provide the most basic of quarters with the most basic of amenities.
Through the efforts of a few exceptional people education is being provided to the displaced and the families given work in the newly constructed industrial stations in Ticonderoga. Many among the youth are allured into service to the Concordat either as members of the Merchant Marine or the Armed Services, after all it promises a life away from the crowded habitats.
Hundreds of Space habitats exist now spread across the Raumreich, the largest concentration by far exists in the TIconderogan system, then in Gregor, dozens of other colonies are isolated in systems as far away as Sol or the Talbott Cluster, or in random points in deep space, or in uninhabited remote systems where only small mining bases previously existed. The one thing that should be made clear by the Wickians determination to live is such conditions is their determination to survive.