Gemini
Gemini: State of Affairs
Thoughts on Running/Playing in Gemini
From the introduction to “A Contemporary History of Gemini”, by the Royal Historian Lucius Marius Sallinator of Lycurgus:
The Gemini, also called Castor and Pollux, Romulus and Remus, Winter and Summer, and numerous other names, are a pair of binary stars and their respective subject bodies. These include, for the system which I will refer to from hereon as Pollux, 14 planets (10 habitable), roughly forty moons (30 habitable), and 4 comets of varying periodicity, and for the system refered to from hereon as Castor, 6 planets (2 semi-habitable), 11 moons (0 habitable), 2 asteroid belts, and 3 comets of varying periodicity.
Gemini exists today in a state that can be best described as an uneasy peace. In order to understand what is meant by this, it is necessary to understand the political and economic forces that have been at work in the twin systems since their first colonization by man. It is my intention to give a brief description of these elements in this introduction, so that when, in subsequent chapters, each is examined in detail, the reader may place each component as a puzzle piece contributing to the organic whole.
It is said that from their first colonization, The Gemini prospered. Many megacorps established themselves within the system, making their homes on the most hospitable and beautiful planets in Pollux, those called Diomedes, Menelaus, and Odysseus. Here, they built great cities, massive spaceports, and complex factory works. In time, the three planets could not bear the weight of the prosperity of the system, and thus Aeneas was colonized, along with many moons which are too numerous to name in this introduction. The inner planets, Briseis and Chryseis, remained unterraformed but were turned over to hydroponic farming and energy farming, to feed the hunger of the middle planets. The outer planets and the Castor system became the seat of industry, mined, farmed, fished, and harvested for all the needs of human society at its peak. Priam, our own homeworld, was given over to a mixture of industries, and the system's military garrison was established there.
All was well, and would likely have continued thus, if not for the Sundering. Although my predecessors have disputed the issue at length, it remains unclear whether it was war or problems in space-jump that initiated the Sundering, and I do not make claim to be able to distinguish the greater truth in either. Regardless, it is clear that contact with any place outside the Gemini was lost.
What followed was Chaos. Why only our own world, Priam, remained calm in those times, is the subject of this history, and so I shall not endeavor to explain it in its entirety in the introduction. But the great centers of power, the middle worlds, collapsed into disorder, strife, and civil war. From the ashes of the three First Planets, the megacorps asserted their dominance, making a mockery of true government. On Aeneas, war raged longer than elsewhere: thus, in the end it was a military dictatorship that filled the void and finally united their decimated peoples. On Priam, though there was strife, cooler heads prevailed, and the two republics were founded, while our own glorious monarchy was left intact.
It was during this time that many fled the confusion and bloodshed for the outer worlds, and even for Castor. They took with them what they could carry, and established new lives amongst the myriad moons and planets that had been little more than resources to the megacorps of old.
Once the upheavals subsided, all went their own way for many years. The planets of the megacorps, forming a loose economic alliance, began once again their endless game of trading, buying, selling, and manipulating. Despite their losses, they completed what they call their “restructuring”, and once again began to build up their cities, sending envoys, trade vessels, and crews to the frontier worlds to once again bring profit to the corps. The Aeneans recovered more slowly, 75-80% of their population having been decimated in their wars: yet their goals then were as determined as they are today, and though none knew it then, it is clear that they began building their industry and military almost as soon as they had peace. Thus it should have come as no surprise when, on a pretext of the riots which seized Troy, they attacked this one prosperous planet in the Castor system and subjugated it. They would have continued on to Calchas, but their losses taking the cavernous hive cities of Troy were very heavy, and they had to content themselves with accepting the tribute of Ajax and Patroclus, two planets in the Pollux system. With the loss of the initiative, they settled back into a peaceful state, although both we and the megacorps suspect that they would not have it so if they could.
As I have stated, peace remained in our lands, but seeing the danger of the Aeneans, both the republics chose wisdom over pride, and chose peacefully to become vassals of our own great state. Our own Knights began at this time to see great employ, for fear of the threat of the Aeneans, even amongst the frontier worlds, which have always held the greatest prosperity in Artifacts, and thus have much to fear from the Aeneans...
Player's Summary
Setting: Binary Star System called the Gemini
System 1: Pollux
14 planets, from inner to outer:
Chriseis: energy farming
no moons
Briseis: energy farming, hydroponic food production
no moons
Priam: 3 factions: two democratic republics and one feudalistic monarchy
two moons: Hector and Agammemon: Hector is primarily a training ground for the monarchistic military, while Agammemnon is a luxury vacation destination.
Diomedes (see Menelaus): smallest megacorp planet, no moons
Aeneas: highly organized, militaristic dictatorship. One moon: Ascanius.
Menelaus: two moons, Helen and Paris. Megacorp planet The Megacorps.
Odysseus (see Menelaus): four moons: circe, penelope, eumaeus, telemachus. Megacorp planet
Ajax: two moons, telamon and Athena. Tributary semi-frontier/semi-corp world to the Aeneans.
Patroclus: one moon, Sarpedon. Tributary semi-frontier/semi-corp world to the Aeneans.
Nestor: eight moons, Nestor 1-8. no land masses on Nestor 1, but hugely productive fisheries. All other moons are frontier worlds with high productivity. Nestor itself is not habitable (gas giant)
Andromache: 5 moons, Andromache 1-5. All frontier worlds. Planet is borderline habitable (high G forces).
Idomeneus: uninhabitable. 6 moons. Good source of precursor artifacts
Cassandra: 5 moons. Uninhabitable. Good source of precursor artifacts.
System 2: Castor
6 planets, from inner to outer:
Troy: controlled by Aeneans. Penal colony/mining center. Uninhabitable: all cities are in the form of huge underground hive cities. These cities are much vaster than needed, since it appears that they housed many more people before the Sundering.
Calchas: a semi-habitable frontier-esque world dependent upon mining and trade with the megacorp planets. Two moons, calchas 1 and 2 also have extensive mining operations. Like most of Castor's planets, has a significant piratical presence.
Glaucus: uninhabitable mining world: appears to have been habitable at one point but the surface is completely destroyed. All habitation is in underground hive cities.
Castor 4-6: These planets have large, eratic orbits around Castor's sun, and are difficult to reach. Castor 4 is close to the first of Castor's two asteroid belts, this planet has some precursor sites. Castor 5 and 6 have the most precursor sites of anywhere in the Gemini, and Castor 6 is also the only known source of the Catalyst, a critical ingredient in the manufacture of psycho-navigation apparatus.
There are also three moon-like structures, called the three Fates, at some distance from both systems. They are not thought to be inhabited, but have not been visited in known memory.
Travel: Prior to the sundering, nearly all space travel may have been (hard as it is for the people of the Gemini to believe) via Space-Jump, a technically complex, energetically expensive, and incredibly dangerous means of transportation allowing a ship to cross vast distances over the course of a few hours. It is clear, though, that Space-Jump largely relied on a series of “beacons” in space, and since there are no more functional beacons in Gemini, Space-Jump has become 100 times more dangerous than before, relying now entirely on the practice called psycho-navigation. This process, seen by most as black magic at best, allows some very daring or desperate captains to still cover large distances in decent time. All other travel is by conventional engines and takes between days (between the middle planets), weeks (to the inner or outer planets), to months (between the two systems).
Political Situation: There are three main political “forces” in the Gemini. The Aeneans are the most organized, as a militaristic dictatorship, and, although they do not have nearly the resources of the megacorps, their control of Troy in the Castor system has led to their rapid technological and industrial increase. They are the only political force that actually maintains a space-navy. The megacorps are extremely disorganized but very wealthy, controlling the “best” planets and having exploitative trade agreements with basically every frontier world. Each corp does have a limited space-navy, but these are not organized into a true military force. The Lycurgans, one of three factions on Priam, are a feudal monarchy. They have a citizen military that acts as a powerful and well trained group of mercenaries throughout the systems (and are employed extensively by the megacorps). The other two factions on Priam are democracies that are tributaries of the Lycurgans. The Lycurgans do maintain space ports, but do not have a space-navy: their battles are land/sea battles. All frontier worlds have a variety of factions, government systems, etc. Most of them engage in heavy trade with the megacorps for all of the essentials that their worlds cannot supply.
Technology: I think the general tech level will approximate that found in Cyberpunk 2020. There is much more advanced tech, but none of the materials needed to maintain/make it existed in-system, and thus these things have taken on the status of hallowed relics while those who own them desperately try to replicate them. Even more important are precursor artifacts, “ancient” techno-archeological sites of human or even possibly alien (depending on who you ask) where examples of super-high-tech can be found and then either used or studied. Unfortunately, these sites are rare and incredibly hard to reach, so that despite their value, none of the major powers devote significant resources to this when it is much easier for them to let poor frontiersmen/women do it. Unless you are very wealthy (see below), you will not reap much benefit from whatever super-high-tech has been appropriated.
Economics: Those that run the corps are very wealthy, as are the citizens of Lycurgus. Everyone else ranges from moderately to desperately poor. Sometimes, those who wish to improve their lot seize some opportunity and set out for the stars in some small, nearly un-space-worthy craft, determined to seek out treasure, steal it from someone else, or prove their worth to someone who will show their appreciation with credits...
Laws: The corp planets have a puppet government which, through the copious use of lycurgan mercenaries, is charged with upholding 'laws' that all the corps agree are worth having (those regulating military weapons, murder, theft, serious drugs, and slavery). The lycurgan laws are derived from the king and his council. Aenean law is very extensive, although whence it derives is not understood by outsiders.
Specifically in regard to slavery (since I was asked about this), the laws vary significantly: slavery is technically totally illegal on the corp worlds: nevertheless this is not strictly enforced everywhere. Nevertheless, most corp planet citizens have extensive data on them in corp databases, which makes enslaving these citizens difficult (since they can easily prove their identity) on planet. Thus, what slaves there are on the corp planets are usually obtained off-world. The lycurgans allow slavery, as do the Aeneans, and both rely heavily upon it economically. Slaves are typically obtained by mercenaries as part of their payment (captured enemies), as a form of criminal punishment, through birth (children of slaves, or occassionally children sold into slavery by desperate/crazy parents), or through raids. Those taken in raids are typically sold as far away from the First Planets as possible, where their identity and any proof of it will have minimal value. Pirates and Mercenaries are the most typical slavers, who then sell slaves to slave trading rings, of which there are several spread out through both systems. The best protection against slavery is identity: Non-criminals will, if given proof of a slave's "free" identity, release that slave (criminals, of course, don't give a shit). Again, this is not strictly enforced, although Lycurgans, who take slavery very seriously and who are all over the place (and not known for diplomatic solutions), will enforce it very strictly. As it happens, the poorer you are, the less "identity" you have, and the easier it is to delete or hide. Thus, poor people traveling interstellarly (or even on-planet) can fall in with unscrupulous sorts who will enslave them and take their travel fare. This is not a common occurrence, and those who do it must tread carefully: honest passenger captains have been known to hire assassins or mercs to terminate "occult slavers" in order to protect the reputation of their profession.
Slaves are most commonly taken from frontier worlds, where little identity exists beyond those people who know you directly. Most people who buy slaves are not keen to inquire into the identity of the slaves they buy (with the exception of most lycurgans), and thus it is certain that many slaves have been 'wrongfully' captured, perhaps even more than are there through some 'just' mechanism.
Religion: Religion in the Gemini varies widely. The Aeneans have a dualistic religion similar to modern christianity, although their devil figure, an embodiment of Chaos, is much more closely matched in power to their God figure, an embodiment of Order. Theirs is a "fire and brimstone" religion based primarily on fear: as far as outsiders can tell, the religion predicates that both Order and Chaos are omnipotent beings, who essentially only do not accomplish their respective goals because they hold one another in check. However, mankind is, so to speak, the straw on the camel's back, that may tip the scales in either direction. On the Megacorp planets, every religion that has ever passed through human minds is represented, with old school christianity, Islam, hinduism, buddhism, etc. being represented. The most common religion found among the masses is a Pantheonic and completely chaotic religion in which the gods of various historical religions are essentially united in a mass. This religion is extremely complex and has almost as many forms as there are sources for it. The lycurgans also have a pantheon, but it is fairly small and oversees, so to speak, a system of ancestor worship that differs greatly from family to family. On the frontier worlds, many communities represent a religious unit from one faith or another. Recently, a significant religious movement, denounced by the Aeneans as Satanism or Nihilism or something of the sort, has picked up speed in Castor, but nothing is known or even really believed about this group, which is seen largely as another paranoid-schizophrenic "cry-wolf" from the Aeneans.
Here is the very, very rough draft of character creation. There is still a bunch of stuff missing here, notably advantages/disadvantages, which, like in the iliadic game, represent a HUGE portion of character customization. The rules system will essentially be cyberpunk. Also, nothing yet on ship/loot building, which will take me a LOT of time to do right, so I don't plan on defining it unless I actually run this game. Sorry.
