BARD PAPER: OPAL8651 | Home | Traveller | BARD | OPAL |
BARD PAPER: OPAL8651 | Home | Traveller | BARD | OPAL |
Before the Collapse Ronsard was a fishing colony settled to harvest the bounty of its extensive seas. But during the Abandonment its climate, and proximity to the Frontier, made it a primary terminus for refugee ships. The population has balloned almost a hundred fold since then. The majority of the world is covered by a globe spanning ocean, and land is severely rationed to permit agricultural cultivation. Investment by groups on nearby Pikha allowed the construction of man-made islands and floating habitats to alleviate some of the crowding, but it has also made the world a junior trading partner reliant upon the Pikhan economy.
The local economy is still primary industries that fish, farm and mine the world for export to Pikha and its allies. Little resentment exists over this arrangement, however, as the Pikhans have boosted the local tech level to stellar levels, and promise to continue improving local infrastructure, and expanding educational access to Ronsardians in Pikhan universities. The opening of the Frontier is likely to make it a high-population world in its own right, and the expanded offworld competition will boost Ronsard further.
Ronsard's capitol city of Le Croix is unique in being entirely afloat, and is typical of local oceanic architecture. These are built of individual floating structures, conjoined by piers and couplers into large conurbations that resemble gridiron jellyfish or other free-floating oceanic life. This enables maximum stability in the face of storms, but allows for the breakup into individual structures in case of structural failure. All local downports are built in water, and ships make landings directly into the ocean. Ronsard is one of two Denebian worlds, the other being Petrarch(Deneb 1712) that is named for a Solomani poet from Terra's Renaissance period.