Submissions

European Union

Battuta (Peel)

New European Millenium (+2,500 military, +applications, +morale, -Rim relations)

Postwar Depression (+logistics, +2,500 military, +100 CIP, +200 PIP, --wealth)

Drastic Military Reformation (++doctrines, +technology, +200 CIP, -2,500 Military)

Reganomics (+100 wealth, -debt)

Eventually the Berber EU states got together to found a colony. It was a productive symbol of North African progress, but overinvestment into the war economy has caused persistent economic difficulties in the aftermath. Rather than undertake the painful conversion back to normality, the new administration has elected to increase military spending and institute a drastic modernisation programme, with which to fulfill the jingoist rhetoric that aided their rise.

Perun (Peel)

Credits to Society (+60 Pop, +wealth, +morale, -military)

Ignore the War (+200 wealth, +120 Pop, -logistics)

Keep 'em Flying (++logistics, ++cargo)

Multinational Slavs on a world with intense weather patterns. It invested itself little in the Zodiac war directly, but worked to support the effort at the front.

Kemal (Peel, translating from S1)

Bureaucracy as Usual (+60 Pop, +100 PIP, +logistics, -debt)

Regulated Economic Market (+100 CIP, +200 PIP, +morale, -debt)

Native Legionnaires (+ground tech, +2,500 military, +ground doctrines, +logistics)

Populism (+morale, -relations)

Turkey was always a steadfast adherent to the doctrine of stauss-kaserism, and populism on Kemal during and after the war has steepened suspicion of transgenes on the colony. They were furious with the settlement of the war that gave ZOCU almost everything they wanted, which has strained relations with the homeland on top of already poor relations with the Zodiac.

Chinese

Xiaomen (Peel)

Garden World

A New Old World

Limited Precursors

No Drones

Observation Posts

Strategic

China

Second Stage

Headcount Increase Exercise

People Power

Nodal Reaction Forces

The New Taiwans

Confucian Collapse

China is #1!

Reconquista

Brain Drain

Got a PLAN

Junta

The six-pathed world of Xiaomen was always a jewel in China's empire, and the key gateway to the complex region at the end of the arm. Unfortunately, even the major forces stationed there were unable to prevent social collapse at the end of the Breakdown, and anarchy reigned. Come the reconnect, China moved in force back up the Arm and the critical world of Xiaomen was one they were sure to retrieve. The New Taiwans look apprehensively at the gigantic PLAN force stationed there ready to surge south and reclaim China's empire, but also with interest at the unruly population that China's ham-fisted reconquest has failed to pacify.

Yuànwàng (FBH)

Garden World

Xenomorphs (+ 2,500 military)

Quiet (+ 100 Wealth, + 60 population, + 2 SP)

Military Action -> Feral Drone Attack (+ 2,500 military)

Collapse of the Middle Kingdom -> Shoot it repeatedly

Running Back into the Fold (+ 100 CIP, + 100 Wealth, + 60 Pop)

Outsystem Research Facility (+ 100 CIP, + Weapons application, + Common application)

Steel Dragons (+ ground doctrines, + air doctrines, + fleet doctrines, + mecha application)

Yuànwàng was one of China’s best and most prosperous colonies before the breakdown, the home of many might universities and research systems, as well as several major PLA bases to counter several particularly hostile species of local wildlife, especially the highly intelligent, venomous raptor like Zhenniao, who’s prolific breeding and frequent attacks on the colony required the deployment of military troops to combat.

All went well until the breakdown, when the colony found its self isolated and facing a sudden attack by Feral Drones, as well as a renewed invasion of local Xenomorphs. In order to both space based drones and ground based xenomorphs (and inspired by several peltasts purchased from ZOCU merchants) Hope’s extensive research facilities were forced to convert numerous cargo loaders and other orbital vehicles into battle machines that could function both on the surface and in orbit.

Yuànwàng eagerly rejoined China at the end of the breakdown and is now a large PLA base onces again, with its own combat walker troops (now developed into mature combat machines joining the PLA divisions stationed there.

Idiqut (Renamed) (FBH)

Mixed (+ Transgene +10 SP)

Late National (+ 60 pop)

Resource Rich World -> Simple Ores

The Collapse of the Middle Kingdom -> Sudden Change of Government (+ morale, + 100 PIP, - 100 CIP, + 2 SP)

Still Free (+ 2,500 Military, + Logistics, + Morale, + CIS relations, - Chinese Relations)

Financially Independent (+ 60 Pop, + 100 Wealth, + 100 PIP)

Supersoldier Factory (+ 100 application, + transgene, ++ supersoldiers)

Space Monarchy (+ 2,500 Military, + 100 PIP, +20 Transgene, + 1 SP)

Idiqut (then New-Anhui) was subject to large scale migration by various rich families, mostly of Uyghur descent in the decades leading up to the breakdown. Due to the rather nationalistic tone of the political pronouncements of many of these groups, China took steps to ensure a more mixed population.

During the breakdown the various Uyghur families, many of them heavily transgenic took power, and built up a successful military machine based on cybernetic and genetically enhanced soldiers to deal with the Han population who numbered almost as many as they did.

With the Breakdown ended Idiqut faces an uncertain future, but has managed to stay free and won the backing of several powerful groups in the non-Russian CIS, ensuring it’s independence, at least for now.

PACT

Aztlan (Peel)

Late National (+100 pop)

Broken Down/Isolated

Civil Unrest?

Corporate Direction

Transhumanize!

The Spanish-speaking nations of the Americas were outstripped by Brazil over the course of the 21st century, but as the 22nd rolled in they managed a collaborative effort to establish a colony (with support, as typical for the arm, from some helpful corporations). The system was unfortunately not catapulted before the breakdown hit, and in the social chaos that ensued the corporate assets on-world were able to exert their power over the crumbling central government. The largely non-southamerican upper echelons did not possess the same social mores as their workforce, and by the time the world was reconnected had already begun augmenting their children, a policy that was continued through to the modern day. The general public and the colony's national backers are upset, but their formal government is weak, and the rest of PACT is more happy to allow augmentation on the planet in exchange for hearty cooperation.

Espinhaço (Peel)

Early National

Terraformable World

Artifact Rush

Artifacts

Relic Dust

Catapulted

Hyperdrive Repair Research

Corporate State

Center for Research/Arms Production Center

Area 52

Brazil, apex power of the South, was eager to join the rush to colonise. Their colony was built on a world ripe for terraforming and riddled with rich veins of physics-bending precursor dust. Governments, universities and corporations built vast research infrastructure to study this, which paid rich dividends in the fields of pulse/beam weaponry and FTL travel. Investment has only increased since the Zodiac War and the demonstration of the power of 'theotechnology'.

Neve Yisra'el (Zeke)

Longshot Mission

Dominantly Baseline

Terraformable World

Get To Work

Quiet

Military Action

Superpower Squabble

Catapulted

ARROWs Staging Area

Sign the PACT

Hope and Change

Postwar Depression

Beta Carbon Samurai

Corporate Direction

Found Religion

In the chaos of the 2050s, Israel found itself caught up in the bloody and complicated conflicts raging through the Middle East. Once the longshot missions were proposed, many Israelis volunteered to depart, disavowing Zionist belief for the relative peace and security of the Expanse, founding the colony of Neve Yisra'el. Many followed once the colony was recontacted by ships of the UN Stargazer fleet, moving to their new home as part of PACT-funded colonization groups. The world remained relatively quiet until the 2120s, when rogue drones began to attack the outlying PACT worlds, becoming a supply base for PACT vessels fighting the early stages of the Long War.

The supply infrastructure developed at this time would later make New Israel an attractive base for ARROWs cutters staging out into the Breakdown-wracked Expanse. The Zodiac War would later cause a five-year economic boost before the inevitable collapse came. Local industrialists soon moved to exploit this, purchasing and reopening weapons plants to provide jobs and stimulus to the colony and making a great deal of money in the process. Many of the locals have come to resent their new corporate overlords, but none can agree what course the world will chart from there.

CIS

Alpha Mensae (Peel)

Early National (+100 CIP)

Dominantly Baseline (+logistics, +60 pop)

Terraformable World

Get to Work (+60 pop)

Crisis Situation (+stockpiles)

Privatize it! (+100 wealth)

Transgene Migration (+20 transgene, +60 pop)

Catapulted (+100 wealth)

Trade Hub (+100 wealth, +100 PIP)

The CIS, and the Future

Whatever the Cost (+120 pop, +morale, +20 transgene, -100 wealth)

Resurgent Economy (+200 wealth, +morale)

Soldier of the Future (++ground doctrines, +cybernetics, +ground application)

Alpha Mensae was not a first choice for colonisation, but Russia never recieved the first choice. Despite the painful cost required, they clawed the temperature down to liveable levels and invested heavily in the colony's human and dry infrastructure. When the breakdown hit, they were the first stop on the viable routes out to Eastern space and reaped the benefits. Now in the new era, their large acclimatised population and developed economy stand as testament to Russia's superior readiness for the challenges ahead.

Chirikov (Peel)

Late National (+60 pop)

Mixed (+10 SP, +transgene)

Hell World

Make Do (+morale)

Artifacts (+100 dust)

Relic Dust (+100 dust)

Military Action (+2500 military)

Miner Beatdown (+100 PIP)

Catapulted (+100 CIP)

Catapult Construction (+100 dust, +100 PIP)

The CIS, and the Future

Sovetskiy Soyuz (+5000 military, +200 PIP, -China relations)

Industrial Heartland (+200 PIP, +100 CIP)

Big Gun Lobby (+shipbuilding, +fleet doctrines, +2500 Military, +100 PIP)

Chirikov is noted for being probably the worst planet settled by a Core national effort. Russia opted to brave the volcanism, sulphur and liquid nitrogen to get at the dust needed for its catapult programme, and never stopped investing. In modern times the extensive industry and dust has found a less mercantile purpose - arming to defend against Chinese aggression.

League

Finnegan's Folley (Shrike, converted by Peel)

Hell World

Tough It Out

Limited Precursors

No Drones

Honeypot

Strategic

UN Authorised

Inner Rim

Genetic Tensions

Regulated Market

Pioneers

Corporate Sponsorship

Specialists

Natural Disaster

Plague on Both Your Houses

Communist Manifesto

Cut Off

Stand Alone Complex

Make My Own Bloc

Still Alive

Basketcase

Battlefield World

Single Party Governance

The Weak Perish

Finnegan's Folley is aptly named and arguably the most unlucky world in the Sphere. A planet host to a particularly vicious biosphere, it was settled to get at the Theta dust in several posthuman constructs. Continued problems arose and the colony barely outputted enough Theta dust for a single cruiser a decade until the Breakdown and the Magnate invasion. The Magnates were well aware of the presence of the Theta dust on Finnegan's Folley and it was one of the many worlds attacked for this precious resource. The conflict was long and grinding, with the Magnates unable to pacify the world or meaningfully wear down the locals, though they soon were exporting Theta dust back to their homeworld. Eventually the Magnates were removed by League forces, and Folley put back into some semblance of shape, though to this day it remains a poor world with its primary export being a trickle of Theta dust for the League.

The decades-long warfare hardened the locals into, in the words of one League general, 'the hardest asses to ever ass hardly.' Finnegan's Folley secondary export is hardened fighters for the League.

Jinnah (Peel)

Terraformable World

Artefact Rush

Extensive Precursors

Limited Drones

Posthuman Observation Posts

Routed

UN Authorised

Inner Rim

Control Them

Primarily Primary Industry

Pioneers

Civilian Government

Whoever We Could Get

Political Crisis

Perpetual Revolution

Economic Progression

Cut Off

Stand Alone Complex

Make My Own Bloc

Evil to Fight Evil

Black Market Hub

Magnate Killteams

Multiparty Democracy

Demographics: >90% Pakistani, significant transhuman population of mixed generic templates.

Economic and regional problems meant Pakistan was unable to move strongly into space until the 22nd century, and its eventual colony was situated quite far from Earth. Jinnah established itself as a wobbly but resilient dust-based democracy. It rarely made the news back on Earth save for a scandal about experiments on humans in the late 2130s, which started a cycle of almost annual government collapse which continues to this day now the War Coalition has been dismantled. When the Magnate War came it aligned itself with the League, but also reopened those old files and quietly began determining how to meet Magnate superhuman force with force. The transport bottleneck of Breakdown warfare meant the highly-augmented troops proved effective, but it nevertheless remains a contentious policy both on and off world.

Ares (Peel)

Terraformable World

Artefact Rush

Limited Precursors

Limited Drones

Nano-Factories

Backwater

UN Authorised

Inner Rim

Genetic Tensions

Regulated Market

Pioneers

Charitable

Fleeing Transgenes

Warfare

Regime Changed

Cut Off

Fire Upon the Deep

Make My Own Bloc

Law of the Gun

JITTerbugs

Battlefield World

Junta

Bombed Flat and Angry About It

Demographics: Mixed. Asian and African dominated, with large European and PACT transgene minority.

Ares was named for obvious reasons. The planet was remarkably similar to Mars, though larger, and with a significantly higher atmospheric pressure and oxygen content. More remarkable however were the forests and scrublands of red vegetation still clinging to life in some regions, and the small resilient fauna that milled around them. Observation confirmed fears. Humans had arrived at Ares just in time to watch it die as Mars itself had done so much longer ago.

Luckily for the planet's inhabitants, the planetologists also confirmed commercially viable dust deposits and, more importantly, apparently abandoned posthuman fabricators. Charitable investment from the Xenolife Foundation funded the colonisation, with the stated goals of commandeering the local relic technology for humanity's use and the restoration of the planet's biosphere. Unfortunately, it was not to be. Local policy errors and Stauss-Kaserist governors exacerbated tensions between the augmented and unaugmented residents, which worsened until the government was seriously threatened and forced to call in external peacekeepers. And then the breakdown hit.

The Breakdown produced a period of unpleasant internicine struggles as various groups sought control over the planet. The coming of the Magnates ended that, initially, and representatives of all factions agreed to Ares joining the League as a unitary member. The Magnates themselves however were not fooled by this show of unity, and exploited the divisions to support the transgenes against the other factions and divide opposition. Ares, which had been resisting quite ably with the presence of their legacy Core equipment, suddenly found itself divided and on the back foot.

It wasn't fatal, either to interfaction relations or the war effort. But even today, after the dust has cleared, bitter memories of invasion, treason and oppression hamper efforts to turn the planet into a success like Sarreva.

Pilgrim's End (MJ12)

Late National (+60 Pop)

Dominantly Baseline (+60 Pop, +Logistics)

Terraformable World

Get to Work (+60 Pop)

Quiet (+100 Wealth, +60 Pop)

Quiet (+100 Wealth, +60 Pop)

Isolated (+100 PIP)

Juche (+100 PIP, +Morale)

Make My Own Bloc (+100 PIP, +Logistics)

Still Alive (and out there!) (+200 PIP, +100 dust, -2 Global Tech Level)

Mao Mode (+2,500 military, +100 PIP, +doctrines, +2,500 stockpiles, +morale, -100 CIP, -2 Global Tech Level)

Scrap Heaps (+100 PIP, ++Logistics, +5,000 military, +doctrines, -Applications)

Shoot the Scientists (+Applications, -2 Global Tech Level)

Multiparty Democracy (+Morale, +Application (common), + 100 Wealth)

Infrastructure Totals: +300 Pop (600), +600 PIP (1100+300), -100 CIP (400+300), +300 Wealth (800+300), +100 Dust (350), +++Logistics
Other Totals: +7,500 military (32,500), +2,500 stockpiles, +Application (common), +++Morale, ++Doctrines, -6 Global Techlevel

A quiet world on the edge of the Rim settled by a private venture. The planet itself was terraformable but not terribly hospitable-the terraforming effort took a lot of time and industry, meaning that the world didn't develop the high-quality educational infrastructure needed to "keep up with the boonies", and relied on imports and technical assistance to keep its quality of living equivalent. With the Breakdown, they didn't have any of that and thus had to depend on very simple, robust equipment.

On the other hand they were huge and industrialized, and their mighty industry allowed them to contribute masses and masses of tanks and ships for the League, making up for their technological disadvantages with skillful tactics, numbers, and extreme valor. Even now, they're still backwards but now they're backwards settlers who don't want to be bothered, and have a military large enough to ensure they won't be.

Magnate

Axial (Peel)

Planning for the Long Term (+stockpiles, +PIP, +CIP, +mothball fleet)

"We come in sixpacks." (+++pop, +PIP, +CIP)

Evangelical Transhumanism (++military, +doctrines, ++logistics)

Axial is a planned society. The gradual expansion of the population, disposition of genetic tendencies and evolution of the culture is laid out in the annual Blueprints from the Chief Directorate Council, who consult the latest research and run endless simulations before preparing their next Blueprint. As part of their long outlook, they are disinterested in the desire to expand inwards into the crowded Expanse, instead preferring to maintain peaceful relations with the central powers while expanding into the Rim. Once the Core's influence reaches those far reaches, they will be presented with the control of the Rim by many established, prosperous Magnate-derived societies as a fait accompli, and will have nothing else to do but watch the superior models of the Magnates advance away from them until they adopt similarly sensible government.

Escargot (Peel)

Voice for Peace (+tech, +pop, +wealth, +dust)

THINK HARDER! (++TL, +doctrines, +common tech, +CIP)

Reverse Engineering (+mecha tech, +tech, +ground doctrines, +air doctrines, +CIP)

Tyranny

My Toaster hit Singularity (+dust, -CIP)

Unlike many Magnate systems Escargot is not (currently) an attempt to create an ideal society, instead remaining primarily dedicated to advanced cognitive and transhuman research. However despite their general disinterest in transhuman evangelism, the scientists of Escargot were a critical part of the Magnate war machine. They were the first to develop and deploy the superlatively capable 'Aleph' superhumans, and key in the reverse engineering of the potent weapons deployed on the ZOCU front.

The society of Escargot is distinctively unhappy among the Magnates. The founder Dr. Laura Lopez, feeling overshadowed by her peers, made some attempts to adapt her research into making an 'ideal society', but disinterest and distraction led to repeated reenactments of the Brazilian Debacle. The 'citizens' of Escargot huddle in simplistic cities, ranging from the almost-normalised to the completely anarchic, tended and controlled by robotic overseers from the gleaming Facilities. There have been many calls for the whole sorry situation to be wiped in favour of a better organised and prepared social model, but Dr. Lopez has resisted so far in the hopes that interesting science will emerge from the chaos.

More (Peel)

Perfected Society (+pop, +CIP, +doctrines, +transgene)

A Truly Managed Society (+transgene, +population, +wealth, +PIP, +morale, Managed Society)

The Science of War (+transgene, +logistics, ++doctrines, +morale)

Future Government (++morale, +transgene)

More is perfect. There is a place for every citizen, and every citizen is in that place, with optimised genes and precise socialisation to ensure they live a happy and productive life. The application of science has solved the problems of society. While not the most powerful world, More is something of a spiritual leader and exemplar of the Magnates.

Sige (Peel)

Diplomatic Cunning (+stolen tech, +secret stuff, +logistics, +SP)

Exhumanize! (++transhuman, +++supersoldiers)

Face Dancers (++sneaky stuff, +stealth tech, +CIP, +military)

Where More pursues the One Perfect Society, Sige seeks to explore the full extent of sociological space. Dozens of organisational principles are modeled on its surface in the various arcologies, then eliminated when the time comes to make way for a new experiment. The analysts of Sige can understand any culture, and produce optimised agents to infiltrate, subvert and if necessary unravel it.

Unity (MJ12)

Resource Base (+100 PIP)

Dominantly Transgene (++Transgene)

Resource Rich World

Simple Ores (+100 PIP)

Prosperous (+2500 Stockpiles, +Morale)

Transgene Migration (+60 Pop, +Transgene)

Magnate (+Morale)

Perfected Society (+60 Pop, +100 CIP, +doctrines, +Transgene)

We Come in Sixpacks (+180 Pop, +100 PIP, +100 CIP)

The Science of War (+Transgene, +Logistics, ++Doctrines, +Morale)

Future Government (++Morale, +Transgene)

Unity is a nation with purity of purpose-you are born in a caste, never questioning what you might do. Whether you're one of the diminutive and agile warriors, the thinkers with atrophied bodies which exist solely to support their bulging minds, a heavily muscled laborer, or one of the nonsentient drone breeders, you are born with a purpose, instinctual knowledge telling you what you must do, and understand that you will be doing this until you die. The society is everything, and you solely exist to serve it, the subspecies living in symbiosis, optimized for their task and nothing more. Efficiency is everything-why does a thinker need to move, when there are laborers who can move him and feed him? Why must a breeder consume art, or work, when it would be far more efficient if his or her sole purpose was to reproduce? Why do warriors need the ability to have sex, to enjoy entertainment, to sympathize with the enemy, when that only distracts them from fighting?

Vigor (MJ12)

Longshot (+100 Fabers)

Dominantly Transgene (++Transgene)

Garden World

Xenomorphs (+2500 military)

Military Action (+2500 military)

Feral Drone Attack (+2500 military)

Military Action (+2500 military)

Feral Drone Attack (+2500 military)

Magnate (+Morale)

Diplomatic Cunning (+Stolen Tech, +Secret Stuff, +Logistics, +SP)

Exhumanize! (++Transgene, +++Supersoldiers)

Reverse Engineering (+Mecha Tech, +Tech, +Ground Doctrines, +Air Doctrines, +100 CIP)

My Little Lacus (+Transgene, +military)

Vigor is a colony where the flesh is exalted and that which emulates it is put on a pedestal-the world seeks out and hunts feral drones, searching for a method to create machinery entirely of flesh and nanotech, vessels that are truly alive and capable of living, reproducing, and going freely in deep space. It is necessary to remove our dependence on technology, to become creatures finally adapted to the hostile beauty of the universe, and if a few sacrifices need to be made for this, so be it.

Mandrake (MJ12)

Longshot (+100 Fabers)

Dominantly Transgene (++Transgene)

No Suitable World

Build Our Own (+100 PIP)

Artifact Find (+100 Dust)

Reverse-Engineerable (+Tech)

Crisis Situation

Innovate Madly (+100 CIP)

Magnate (+Morale)

Front Lines (+100 PIP, +5,000 military, +Logistics)

THINK HARDER! (+4 Global Tech Level, +doctrines, +Common tech, +100 CIP)

Holy Shit It's The Clans (+4 Global Tech Level, ++Tech, + 100 CIP)

Corporate Coalition Direction (+100 Wealth, +100 CIP, +Tech)

Development Hell (+2 Techlevel, -Tech)

At Mandrake testing technology to destruction is the name of the game. Mandrake itself is a hostile world, but its rewards are significant. Although too hostile to colonize, with heavy protection the highly augmented can survive on the world for enough time to mine its rich mineral deposits, and the sheer hostility of such an environment make it perfect to test state of the art military equipment-if it works there, it'll work anywhere else. Similarly the sheer amount of posthuman artifacts imply that the posthumans might have thought something similar, leaving various machinery there.

Magnate itself is primarily run by a coalition of all major Magnate powers, as its research and development pays significant dividends. The best and brightest minds in the Continuum come here to pore over posthuman ruins, develop new machines of war, and test them in hostile environments or mock battles. The best designs are selected through trial after trial, an emulation of natural evolution on a grand scale. The ones which don't cut it are left by the wayside.

Mandrake was ironically on the front lines of the Magnate War and was attacked repeatedly by the League, forcing the world to fortify significantly. With the Magnate War being fought over the span of decades, the long-term research dividends Mandrake could theoretically churn out were a strategic resource as important as industrial might, and treated as such. Even today significant Magnate Joint Operations units are stationed at Mandrake, as deterrence if war comes again.

Sable (Kerrus)

Voice for Peace (+Tech, +Pop, +Wealth, +Dust)

We're People Too (+Relations, +Logistics, +2GTL, +Dust)

War Winner (++Theta, +Common Tech, +Doctrines, +Logistics)

Relena's Rules (+Wealth, +Pop, +Morale, -Military, -Logistics, -Pacifist)

Sable exists as an attempt at creating a society without the drive for agression based warfare- and stands as a testament to the success of those ideals. While it participated in a limited standpoint during the Magnate War, it primarily served as a diplomatic party- negotiating ceasefires and withdrawals, as well as providing medical support to the line troops. Despite their distaste for warfare, they are still able to defend themselves- and maintain a small military for just that purpose. While most Magnate polities either won their part of the Magnate War through aggressive attacks or were fought off by the defending League, Sable managed to negotiate a successful truce between several of the involved polities, as well as procuring a quantity of the highly valuable Theta Dust in exchange for these and other services.

Conquests

Make Do (Peel)
The residents of Make Do chafed for years under the iron rule of Duke Wander. Then the Magnates came, with schools and hospitals and roads and ID chips and a new gospel for progress. The people accepted these gifts - so far.

Melian's Hope (Peel)
Melian's Hope minded its own business, building a new and honest life distant from the squabbles and corruption of Earth. Then the Magnates came, with their sterilisation virus, and now the slowly aging population builds boulevards and factories ready for Dr. Cuevere's New Men.

Miranda (Peel)
The population of Miranda are kept docile with airborne chemicals. Unfortunately these have caused productivity and population growth to plummet. Most work is performed by carefully-supervised groups freed from the regular doses of gas, which has rendered development painfully slow. But the Pharmaceutical Working Group is nothing if not patient, and has obtained much valuable data.

Tao (Peel)
Tao's cramped and crowded arcologies house millions of suffering workers, who strain to prove their loyalty, ethics and talent so that they will qualify for genetic recombination and a new life in the idyllic countryside of the Exterior.

Resignation (MJ12)
Some still remember this colony by its former name, but the old nickname of this "good enough" world has stuck. After the targeted retrovirus killed 99.8% of the women and rendered the rest permanently sterile, the Magnate invasion force hit a society already in economic and political collapse. Now they exist as a control for the other social experiments, a conquest used as a control against the other societal experiments.

Rim

Extend (Peel)

Posthuman Structures (+dust)

Home of the Dust Engineers, who live in a series of diamondoid kilostructures and constantly war with defence drones over access to crucial fabricators and delta fountains. Explorers who brave the space perimeter find eager traders whose technology is dust-laden but generations out of date and whose bodies have been altered by persistent exposure to posthuman nanotechnology.

Merchants & Transnationals

International Association for Xenology
The International Association for Xenology (IAX) was founded in the early days of interstellar exploration as an umbrella group covering numerous extraterrestrial conservation and biological science groups. Since then it has expanded in influence and prestige to become a major organisation devoted to the study and preservation of extraterrestrial life. Notably its stance is not wholly conservationist, and it has on several occasions endorsed or sponsored efforts to reverse natural decline and promote biodiversity, such as on Ares. The replication of biospheres by the Precursors has also been used to justify destructive investigation.

IAX is also a sponsor of Velan studies.

The Footsteps Foundation
The Footsteps Foundation was established in the late 21st century by the will of an american businessman whose son became one of the Uploaded. Over the next century it supported and facilitated hyperanthropology and theoengineering across the sphere, and was a major sponsor and coordinator of Breakdown recovery efforts. Unfortunately after the end of the Breakdown the Footsteps Foundation has found itself branded a 'Core Organisation' by advanced ZOCU states eager to protect their technological advantage, and the science remains split.