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BARD PAPER: OPAL8619 | Home | Traveller | BARD | OPAL |
Kauai is the fourth of seven moons around the gas giant Turquoise. Its dry land is primarily volcanic island arcs created when moving oceanic crust passes over hot volcanic plumes rising from the world's core. This geology and the world's pleasant tropical climate inspired Solomani colonists to name the world after a member of the Hawaiian chain on Terra. Many of the islands are pleasantly tropical, which further reinforces the comparison.
The world was originally settled by agronomists eager to exploit its climate for the cultivation of tropical crops whose rarity BTC made very valuable to its neighbors. The landholders quickly divvied up the available land, barring most future immigration. After the Collapse however, it became clear that specialised agricultural economies would no longer sustain the world in the face of Virus. In a move that was nearly unprecedented, the local landholders voted themselves out of power in 1140, and set aside a growing portion of their land for offworld settlement. The holders did not want to go the other extreme of selling all of their land, and allowing Kauai to become an eyesore, and the succeeding planetary assembly is bound by charter to uphold community standards that permit fewer than ten thousand people per year to own land.