Accretion: A Diaspora Campaign

Introduction

INTRODUCTION

Worlds

Nicia (T2)

Nicia was picked clean by the Ancients uncountable millennia ago. Most bodies in the system were destroyed (a thin asteroid belt and a distant gas giant remain). Some of their mass was used to create a rosette of immense artificial habitats, each one with the internal surface area of a small continent. Much of the inner system's mass is unaccounted for, likely transported elsewhere. Most of these habitats have suffered total ecological collapse, supporting no life more complex than moss or bacterial mats. Others are totally sealed: Ancient-tech automated defense systems destroy vessels that approach too close.

A handful of habitats are no longer protected by their automated systems. The dominant human clade (HS ξ) in the system hails from one such habitat. Despite a severe shortage of metals and energy sources, the Nicians have maintained a small but technologically advanced civilization in their home system. Some Nician polities have expressed an interest in unifying other ξ Humans (who are sufficiently distinct that they can no longer breed with other human clades) distributed on worlds throughout the cluster but these states lack the power to project their influence more than a few jumps away from Nicia.

At least three other habitats unprotected by an automated defense system have maintained flourishing (human-free) biospheres that have each sharply deviated from most other DNA-based life. Explorers are advised that these habitats may contain a number of deadly pathogens that have been known to jump species barriers with relative ease. Nevertheless, foreign researchers and pharmaceutical companies maintain presences in the system and fund occasional expeditions into these habitats.

These expeditions are tolerated by the Nicians in exchange for a regular supply of precious metals and radioactives.

Tepec (T1.5)

Vital Statistics

Slipknot Conditions	Irregular disruptions. All inbound and outbound routes known to be safe.
Orbital Radius	.03 AU
Surface Gravity	5.88 m/s2
Mean Surface Temperature (at terminator)	25 °C
Population	1,600,000,000 (est.) (100% HS baseline η)
Law	4 (customs laws not enforced against trans-system traffic)
Major Governments	The Reunification (Totalitarian)

A warm but almost entirely dark world orbiting a brown dwarf called the Mouth of God. The brown dwarf's emissions are concentrated in the infrared--the brightest point on Tepec is no brighter than a moonlight night on Earth. Tepec is tidally locked to its parent but a thick atmosphere and rapid rotation around its primary equalize global temperatures. Nevertheless, the dark side of the planet is covered in a massive ice cap. The light side is a dry savanna of jet black grass. The fixed terminator is a wet, jungle-like tangle of massive-shrubs that thrive in the low gravity.

The Mouth supports almost a dozen major moons and several thousand minor bodies. Major impacts are common. The system is a rich source of any element a space-faring civilization might require.

Tepec's totalitarian world government took power with the help of clandestinely-imported weapons technology in the wake of a near-extinction-event-level impact. The Reunification is a minor space power and has surprisingly friendly relations with a number of smaller and more isolationist systems throughout the cluster--Tepec is a very important check on the expansion of the wealthiest and most agressive polities in the cluster. Despite this, defectors (astonishingly) report that ordinary citizens are entirely unaware of the rest of the cluster and their government's status as a space-faring power. Naval personnel and state-sanctioned merchants are exiles from their homeworld, never permitted to return.

While The Reunification leaves no room whatsoever for dissent, it has created a reasonably stable society that has lasted more than a century against great odds. While information is scarce, defectors indicate that citizens planet-side do not want for food, medical care, or other essentials and live better than many citizens in T-1 polities. Of course, radios, televisions, and most other electronic devices are categorically forbidden. The Reunification endorses a monotheistic sun-cult, but the government holds itself out as largely secular.

Foreign merchants are permitted to cross the outer system (at least 2 AU from the Mouth) with a military escort (this may require waiting in a parking orbit for some time while a convoy forms). Traffic passing through the system is not generally stopped or inspected and Tepec does not officially enforce any customs laws. Tolls are below average, and because of the system's small size, most traffic passes through quite quickly. However, deviations from space traffic control instructions are met with deadly force without warning or exception.

Exports:

• Luxury food products
• Furniture
• Medicines
• Various finished high-value industrial goods (optics, printer toner, turbomachinery, nuclear reactors, etc.)
• Spacecraft
• Military hardware
• Antimatter

Imports:

• Electronics
• Luxury food products
• Medical devices
• Various finished high-value industrial goods (optics, printer toner, turbomachinery, nuclear reactors, etc.)
• Entertainment and media products (distribution through improper channels is a capital offense)

Torch (T-1 to T1)

The Torch system is named for its primary, a massive B-type star. Its habitable zone stretches from approximately 16 to 40 AU and supports five baseline-habitable worlds and another two marginally habitable worlds in orbit around three gas giants in the habitable zone.

It is almost certain that these worlds were terraformed by the Ancients as a vanity project before they transcended. Once Torch exits the main sequence, these worlds will all be destroyed (a problem that is at least 250,000 years away).

Torch's unpredictable slipknot outages, the system's terrific size, and climate of lawlessness make the system very difficult to traverse. Moreover, the system occupies a critical choke point. A substantial portion of the cluster is trapped behind the Torch knot and is relatively isolated as a result. Torch is plagued by piracy due to its strategic location. Despite the risks, a great deal of traffic passes through the systems. The system's rival nation states and wildcat colonies are also in a state of perpetual war.

The majority of polities on Torch are T-1 but a handful of foreign powers and independent conquerors have carved out more technologically advanced states or enclaves, profiting off the system's constant wars by selling advanced technology to the belligerents or protection to passing merchant vessels. Unsurprisingly, the system is also home to several powerful drug cartels and the capital of at least two cluster-wide pirate outfits.

Conditions on the system's five terraformed worlds vary widely but each is among the most habitable worlds in the cluster, paradises if only they were located anywhere else.

Yah Harri (T-4)

Yah Harri is a partially terraformed super-Mars orbiting outside the habitable zone of its red star. The world was partially terraformed, likely by a civilization that flourished before the last Collapse. Orbital mirrors warm the planet and Yah Harri supports a thick enough atmosphere to support liquid water and a simple but robust biosphere.

A handful of low-lying areas are (barely) survivable with nothing more than heavy cold weather gear. These pockets have been occupied by T-1 wildcat colonists. The atmosphere everywhere else is so thin that it requires a pressure suit. Despite this, Yah Harri supports human life.

The Harrians are the sharpest known departure from the human 'baseline,' capable of surviving in the bitter cold at atmospheric pressures less than 30 kPa [Ed: roughly equivalent to the pressure at the summit of Mount Everest]. The typical Harrian is covered with a coat of thick hair (typically light brown or blond) and stands around two meters tall with an enormous chest cavity.

The Harrians have maintained a rich oral history that stretches back past the most recent Collapse (over 7,000 years ago). Sociologists extrapolating from Harrian oral traditions speculate that they were once scientists or park rangers responsible for Yah Harri's terraforming project.

The native Harrians occasionally clash with colonists when highland mining projects encroach on their hunting grounds or sacred sites but for the most part, the colonists are content to stick to the lowlands. The Harrians tolerate the presence of some outsiders (particularly if they don't look like the local colonists). Their oral history mentions a number of other worlds (including some that can be correlated with actual systems in the cluster), so the presence of aliens is not a fundamental cultural upheaval.