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Approved Submission Planet 188604

Zack

Zack

Inactive Member
Submission Type: Planet
Submission URL: https://wiki.stararmy.com/doku.php?id=planet:188604

Faction: Independent
FM Approved Yet? (Yes/No; Who, When)
Faction requires art? (Yes/No)

For Reviewers:
Contains Unapproved Sub-Articles? Yes ( https://wiki.stararmy.com/doku.php?id=planet:188605:algaeia )
Contains New art? Yes
Previously Submitted? No

Notes: Submitting this piece by piece, also which one is the appropriate 'work in progress' namespace I'm supposed to be using to start off with?

This is a planet for RP, and I intend to flesh it out with more details as the RP progresses. The star system that the planet is in is intentionally left off for the moment just in case plot determines the planet need to go else where. The only real requirement for the system location is that it is fairly out of the way. The sub-article approval thread is coming next.
 
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I can accept the planet's quirks, but 1.5 billion people seems an enormous stretch at best, especially when this planet apparently hasn't had any contact with anyone for about 40 years. Please reduce the population to something more reasonable, and also explain how they were not:

1. Rescued.

2. Able to send a request for rescue/supplies/whatever.

3. Get out themselves.
 
I'm intentionally leaving the 'way back when' part of the history vague largely for the same reason we don't mention Earth: It doesn't really contribute to the setting.

That aside, these were not the best of colonists, nor did they have the most resources. Those that could leave likely did, and a combination of poor management, bad luck, and limited resources slowly caused the colonies to fail. They build up, fall apart, and build up all over again as they slowly try and tame the planet.

They didn't get rescued, because no one really cares what happens to a bunch of stubborn/poor colonists.

They didn't get out a request for help because all their stuff got broke, yamatai was in a full-scale war, / the plauge / what have you.

And they didn't leave because those that could leave already did. Those that stayed either didn't have a ship or were too stubborn to move on.

It has been so long since the work to terraform this planet has started that the natives now genuinely consider it their home and they'd rather not leave.

---

1.5 billion also seems fairly reasonable. Earth has 7 billion and some change. Though live is hard on this planet, there is plenty of space and plenty of food and the colonists have had plenty of time to have lots of kids.

The idea is that the colonists arrived at the planet hundreds of years ago and the how and why they got there is not really a concern to anyone anymore. In that time they've had a lot of babies.

----

Algaeia is going to be the reason why the planet has slowly been getting better. It is a genetically engineered algae designed to terraform the planet. Of course, no one is really around to monitor the stuff anymore so it just kinda does its own thing.

Consider it the Neko of small green algae.
 
We have other reasons for why we don't mention Earth, and if you're going to fling around "sometime prior to YE 0" you need to be at least somewhat precise. Are they Nepleslians? Are they Sesestrans? Are they something else? These are questions that a player would reasonably want to ask, and that a stand-in GM might want to know.

The reasons for the colonists not leaving/being rescued are fine, but please add them with some detail.

As well, give us some kind of timeline as to how the planet started with (presumably) a few hundred thousand colonists and then got down to 1.5 billion people. Give this submission some level of historical context to justify the number you've got.

Who made algaeia?
 
- Added a brief overview in characteristics on the Algaeia page
- Changed the origin of the colonists to Nepleslia instead of unspecified, and gave a timeline of ~1000 years ago to put it in the same sort of implied colonization effort that founded Yamatai.
- Added 'those that chose to stay or were unable to leave' as an explanation for why the colonists didn't entirely abandon the world
- The 1000 years ago line should be sufficient to explain how the planet balloon'd up to 1.5 billion.
- Added 'the original settlers of 188604' as the creators of Algaeia.
 
My only hangup is the distance from Nepleslia, and the lack of contact with the planet before now.

Everything else looks good, but now we're left with the question of why Uso is the only one to basically visit the planet in hundreds and hundreds of years. Is it possible that others have come and gone? Or maybe that, since their tech level is so reduced, that they can't service ships which make the journey? That's what's got me right now.

Ideas?
 
There are lots of places right near the Kyoto sector that no one has bothered to visit. There are a bunch of reasons for this but basically I think it boils down to a combination of people not being interested in exploration, and being very distracted with local politics and whatever current war they've been fighting. The original location was all the way on the left side of the starmap for the planet but it could easily be moved further out. Possibly instead of being on the edge of the map, it could be moved a week or so worth of travel time off to the west on the map just to get that on the frontier feeling.

Uso knows about the planet but she was in tight with the Elysians prior to the fall of their last government (back when British Tom - Zakalawe was playing them) and the Elysians had stopped by the planet earlier. They cataloged it and moved on because it was a low tech world with nothing really that valuable.

When Uso decided to go take over a planet, she looked through what information she had available and settled on this one.

With so many other developed species popping up on the edge of the Kyoto sector, it makes sense that there are a bunch of other low-tech worlds right nearby as well. Just using human colonists instead of an alien species of the week makes things much simpler in terms of what I need to get approved and how to handle the RP itself.
 
The difference is that they came from Nepleslia. There's history. There's connections. When you've got billions and billions of people throughout a nation (now two nations), you'd expect some people to head that way again, and more than once.

Moving the location farther out helps some, but I wonder as well if information on the colony became much harder to find as the years went on. Things decayed. The Blacks finally were overthrown, but never really took on the Elysians anyway (until PNUgen, at least). The Elysians had been out that way, seen that planet, but decided not to interfere, instead just watching.

Something along those lines. See what I'm saying?
 
From the initial colonization of yamatai and other nearby systems, it took 1000 years for Nepleslia to venture out again and even then they only managed it with considerable outside help. Even Yamatai, which has plenty of technology, time, and resources, hasn't really bothered to do a grand tour of the Kyoto sector and map out everything.

Do other people know about the planet? Probably. There is also certainly a book about it somewhere in a bombed out Nepleslian Library. But do people visit it? No one has any reason to. Do people even take much of an interested in SARP ancient history? That also seems to be a 'not really' but if someone wanted to come play Indiana Jones and observe the locals while trying to find artifacts they certainly could. The idea for this place is that anyone who wants to could stop by and cause problems for the characters in the plot.

But as far as 'Wouldn't someone have come along by now to graciously give technology and guidance to this low tech would by now?' goes I don't think we have to worry about that.
 
I'm making you worry about it, as other players might ask the same questions.

Please add a section in there going into more detail about it. You can use what I said or come up with something more reasonable for yourself, but I don't want the question going unanswered.
 
Added a bit more explicit description to the history section.

It is pretty well implied that no one has cared to visit the planet again, and now it is explicitly stated.
 
I've replaced the line "The Vek-Hole (Vekimen Mining Operation)" with "The Alien-Hole (Alien Mining Operation)" - as the Vekimen were removed from the wiki - and fixed some grammatical and spelling typos.
 
RPG-D RPGfix
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