components | locations.

the pilgrimage to zoan.

A largely defunct planet right on the fringes of core planet territory, Zoan was the site of the very first landing of the fleet of human colonizers and, consequently, a failed result of the terraforming process. It is a largely desert and sand planet, with scorching heat and one, very small biodome of a city. To commemorate both the destruction of Earth-Prime and the bravery of the human spirit even after doomed failure, Zoan is site of a heavy flow of pilgrimage to its biodome, supposedly built on the very spot humanity's first ship touched down. Its sister moons, Antioch and Tadmor, were also unsuccessful terraforming attempts, and are largely reminder and commemoration to the first settlers.

Or rather, it was, before it all blew up. Two other planets along the belt were also destroyed; not trade-hubs, but high in population number regardless. While the chain reaction was the result of restarting Zoan's failed terraforming process by Hathor in the hopes of making it successful, the implosion of the planet (and its moons) was seen as a political attack, and Hathor rerouted its blame to random citizens.

aren.

People from all walks of life find themselves living in Aren. A core planet of importance to terraforming trade and Hathor Industries, its primary goods come from security, commerce and strides forward in technology (both biomedical and manufacturing), though as a backbone of planetary industry surprisingly little has been done to curtail its atmospheric pollution. While its cityscape isn't anything new, being one of the first and primary producers of security software packages has seen the development of an extensive black market underneath all that production. Keeping both instances of industrial espionage and general criminality in check is Hathor Industries, whose headquarters operates on one of Aren's six moons, Lystra. Aren has a relatively small land mass and to compensate, has large, towering skyscrapers of apartments; the higher up/the more ocean you can see, the better off you are financially, is the unspoken rule. Understandably, its (legitimate) commercial forces are often curtailed by a powerful but secretive collective of hackers and free agents that buck Hathor authority through illegal trade of drugs, pleasure packages, and other goods in their black market.

Being in such close proximity to Hathor headquarters also means that they bear both the full brunt of of their law, and every so often security measures will tighten as a form of population control. You can find literally anything in Aren, but you're also guaranteed to find trouble in some shape or form.

core planets.

There are four core planets; Aren, Gerasa, Elim, Babylon, and a space station/hub of trade named Terminus.

Gerasa and its capital city, Arcadia, is more or less a goldilocks planet come to fruition. Its primary trade comes in government, medicine, and the arts, and has been the hub of most human life in the modern AE. Those that do not have the wealth to live in Aren, or rather, do have the wealth to live anywhere but Aren, live here, and is a relatively upper-middle class/white collar planet. It's home to those that do not care or choose not to notice what is happening on planets like Aren. Everything on Gerasa is very white and very green. Development has been limited to specific regions, leaving much of the planet in its natural state to preserve it, and low terraforming processes on its founding as a planet have led to even lower rates of neurogenics being born here.

Babylon is a 'vacation planet', though modern talk is more honest in calling it a pleasure planet. Originally built as a resort colony, the island city of Elysium is the planet's crown jewel. People who live permanently here are either high ranking members of government that have decided not to live in Gerasa, or work in entertainment. Its climate is warm and breezy, but its occasional pockets of humidity are seen as worthwhile sacrifices to its otherwise temperate way of living.

The planet Elim, and its famous walled city (referred to as the Barrens), has an incredibly high population rate and an extremely large land mass, but has primarily mined all its planetary resources. Once a place of high employment and high productivity, the last thirty years have seen it plummet into poverty, resulting in high criminality, drug use, and creation of walled cities like the Barrens. There is increasing cry in legislation happening in Arcadia to have Elim 'kicked out' of the core planets.

Space Station Terminus is a run-down, semi-seized space station that is almost as old as Aren's founding. Orbiting a gas giant and nearby refinery, Terminus is a convenient refueling depot for passing starships. It's a privately owned facility, defended from attempted takeovers by outside factions with its own security service, including a small fleet of armed vessels. This ensures its status as neutral ground. Officially, they don't conduct any illegal business themselves, but everybody knows that without the illegal trade that comes through here as an offshoot of Aren production, the entire place would come to a screeching halt.

Most of the crew of the Nostra, when not on-board, calls Terminus home.

&misc.

Most core planets, and their settled moons, are named after biblical place names. The further out you get into the black, where agriculture and terraforming is still within its first two centuries of settling, there is a lesser reliance on old-school names and technology. There are only one or two 'restricted' planets outside of the core belt, including Verglas, a frozen tundra planet known for minerals, strange ruins, and experimental research.