Editing Stars Without Number: The High and the Mighty (section)

=== New Eden (Astaroth Tertius) ===
*Atmosphere: Breathable Mix
*Climate: Temperate
*Biosphere: Engineered
*Population: Two Billion Peasants. Two Hundred thousand Nobles. Two Hundred Thousand Psychics.
*Languages: English (common tongue), Mandarin, Hindustani, Spanish, Russian, Arabic, Japanese, French
*Tech Level: Baseline 4 with some pretech capabilities (Mech Interfaces, Limited Psitech capabilities, Basic TL5 energy weapons, Bio-Engineering.)
*Tags: Warlords, Regional Hegemon. Large areas of territory are controlled by different Noble families, and the Planetary Senate is minimally effective at anything but preventing all-out war. 
*Trade: +2 Luxury, +1 Sapient, -1 Pretech, -2 Biotech
'''History''': Unlike many less-fortunate colonies, New Eden was already paradisiacal when the Scream hit. They lost their psychics and their Gates, but disruption to the planetary culture itself wasn't too severe. They have spent the last thousand years expanding across the globe and refining their own culture and biosphere. Individual Estates, no less than 150,000 square kilometers, number around 100. Armed conflicts are strictly limited to small-scale, refereed engagements between hand-chosen mecha and a few support units. Peasants and Nobles are ruled by different codes of law are not treated as equals, although the governments of individual Estates can have substantial differences between them. Psychics are also prized, and are given special privileges over Peasants. Psychic abilities are much more common among the Nobility, but do not give an rank exalted among their peers. All Nobles are expected to be extraordinary; psychic capability is merely one possible expression of their excellence. 

Recently, a spike-drive-equipped exploratory mission from another world visited New Eden and landed, in order to make contact. They eagerly shared the secrets of FTL technology with the people of New Eden, who had previously only made System craft for purposes of asteroid mining and the like. 

Their generosity may prove to have been ill-advised.