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BARD PAPER: OPAL8706 | Home | Traveller | BARD | OPAL |
The namesake capitol of Deneb sector orbits its blazing AIa primary from a distance of over 100 AUs away, giving the longest orbit on record for any former Imperial or current Regency world. Deneb itself would normally have been a cold, rocky cored outer zone world, but the high amount of radiation recieved raises its surface temperature enough to support primitive life. Given the star's short potential lifespan, that is the most it can hope to evolve. The world is geothermally dead, consisting of seas formed out of extensive former ice sheets and huge plateaus of black or blue gray meteoric rock. as it possesses a rotational period of only 13 hours, high winds and gales originating over dry land create ferocious seastorms that can last 2-3 days.
Deneb was one of the first major worlds settled in the early years of the Third Imperium, in the year 7. Hostile Vargr to coreward forced the Imperials to concentrate their interests along the curve of the Great Rift; Deneb fell naturally along this route, and the concentration of trade and communication routes here made it the "Gateway to the Claw." Growth of the world was rapid, attaining a population of more than forty million is less than a century. By the 300s it had a population of almost one billion, and was a growing industrial power as well as a dominant trade center. It was declared a sector capitol in 415.
During the first three centuries of its settlement, various planetary trading consortiums vied for control. After a bloody civil war in the 240s, the increasingly disenchanted population turned to the soothing ministrations of an obscure Gnostic religion called To Will One Thing. Preaching unity and compassion, the ministers of the church rallied citizens dispossessed by the unending wars and intrigue, and built a power base to wage holy war against the corrupt and indifferent factions. In 313 the most powerful faction adopted the Willies as their official faith, and by the middle of the century the world was unified under an ecclesiastical administration combining both religious and secular components.
Because their faith recognises that not all people may want to be taken into its fold, and understanding that religious hegemony might actually create more harm than good in the long run, the church hiearchy and its faithful are highly accepting and encouraging of offworld immigrants. Indeed only about half of the population actually are of the 'One', and half of them are apostates or syncretists who merge and mix parts of the theology with offworld beliefs or values in a way acceptable to the liberal minded clergy. The remainder of the population is equally divided between a dirtside culture known as the "Pollys" that live in the larger cities that surround the worlds dozen or so major starports, and the "Starmen" that live in the massive collection of habitats that orbit Deneb overhead, or lie in their own solar orbits.
Startown consists of about a hundred different manmade or hollowed asteroidal colonies ranging in size of up to 100 miles. Other than acknowledging the sovereignty of the religious government, each of Startown's habs are independent of each other with no intermediate government controlling them. For the most part they are aloof to conditions on the surface, as they are more advanced technologically (TL-15 with increasing 16), and are generally self sufficient thanks to trade with the wider Regency. The colonies are patrolled by Deneb Planetary Navy vessels who ensure they remain within the fold and continue to pay tax revenue to the Ecclesiastical Council. The old age of some of these habitats (see MTJ 2) is a cause of concern, and the expense for replacing or maintaining them can only be footed by the planetary government.
The Pollys refer to both the major Startowns and their inhabitants. Like the Starmen, their technological level is superior, and it includes Regency munition plants and low orbit shipyards known as the Cristobal Complex. These cities are enormous, largely because they are confined to relatively small parcels of land compared to the Marchlands and Cloisters. Most are built underground, but still possess soaring megastructures for commercial and industrial purposes. The Pollys are the primary business class, but are forbidden to organise any competing government structure, though strong commercial and family ties bind them together more cohesively than their orbital neighbors. In antebellum times they were patrolled by mercenaries hired by the Ecclesiastical Council; since the Collapse these have been replaced by patrols of the Flower of the One, the paramilitary arm of the To Will One Thing faith.
The Marchlands are regions that lead up to the Cloisters, and are primarily True Believers and Apostates in population. These areas are rural, with some small cities, where food is raised for consumption in the Pollys and Cloisters. These communities are highly insular and do not tolerate strangers. Most are policed by militias under the strict oversight of the Flower of the One. Agriculture is genetically grown grain, hothouse vegetables and fruit, and stem cell or Gene Vat horticulture.
The Cloisters resemble the Pollys in construction, though generally they are much more extensive in area, and have fewer subterranean warrens. Only True Believers, or the Heart of the One as they prefer to call themselves, are permitted residency in these areas. Because of their theology, education levels for these people are generally lower, with administrative and technical careers confined to those individuals raised within the core theology of the One. Local police supplement by the Flower of the One enforce strict observance of morality and civil codes at all times here, with work teams of convicted minor offenders everpresent in cleanup or construction work.