Post by Kenneth New on May 17, 2014 17:06:51 GMT -5
The World of Pandora
The planet on the far side of the wormhole bears a remarkable resemblance to Earth in the cretaceous period (roughly 70,000,000 MYA). It’s a warm world, filled with jungles, swamps and dinosaurs. The area around Fort Necessity seems similar geographically to the area around the Earthside base, leading most experts to assume that the continents of Pandora are arranged the same as they were on Earth during this period.
For more information on Earth in this period see en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Campanian and en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flora_and_fauna_of_the_Maastrichtian_stage.
Human Settlements of Pandora
There are 10 human communities on Pandora. All of them are walled or protected in some other way from native fauna (especially the megafauna). Although Fort Necessity is technically in charge (as it controls the wormhole), each city is de facto autonomous.
Amalcor
Population: 2055
Government: corporate governor and board of directors
Location: mountains 500 miles north of Fort Necessity
Amalcor (uh MAL core) was created by Amalgamated Minerals Corporation as a local headquarters. Amalcor Platinum Base (also known as Platinum City) is the headquarters. It has a massive ceramacrete and steel wall with auto guns to keep away large predators. It sits near the Platinum River mine and has most of the refining and manufacturing capability of the colony. It has two working minifacs and extra parts for both of them.
Other communities are located near other mining and refining operations.
Aluminum Flats (population 500) is the second largest community in the colony. It’s located 250 miles west of
Platinum City. It produces and refines aluminum which is used in manufacturing ground vehicles and heavier than air craft.
Steelerville (population 300) is third largest community. It’s located south east of Platinum city and produces iron and steel for the colonies.
Coal Town (population 100) is the fourth largest community. It is only a few miles from Steelerville, the largest consumer of coal on Pandora.
Another 155 people are scattered throughout the colony in smaller sites.
The various sites in Amalcor are connected by roads that amount to little more than cleared and relatively flat paths. Trawlers move between the sites on a semi-regular schedule.
Amalcor is constructing a full sized Autofac at Platinum City. When this is complete, they will be able to produce anything they have a design for. Already, they are producing local variants on equipment that most colonies were used to getting from Earth.
Before evacuation day, Amalcor employees were able to travel back to Earth at the end of their duty assignments, so there were few families along compared to the number of inhabitants. Nearly 90% of the population consists of Amalcor employees. The current population of Amalcor is about 75% male, leading to an increase in certain types of societal trouble.
Amalcor derives power from a variety of sources, including solar, wind, biobutanol and biomethane.
The ethnicity of Fort Necessity closely mirrors that of the USA. Religious affiliation is about 48% Protestant, 20% Catholic, 2% Jewish, 4% Buddhist, 1% Muslim, 3.5% Other Christian (mostly UU), 0.5% Hindu and about 16% with no religious affiliation (although only 11% call themselves atheist or agnostic), 1% other (Buddhist, Muslim, Hindu, etc…).
The town uses a generic credit system, where credits are based on energy. For simplicity’s sake, one credit can be considered to be equivalent to $1.
Fort Necessity
Population: 8275
Government: military Governor (Colonel Kurt Harris), elected city council
Location: hills near the wormhole
Fort Necessity is surrounded by a sturdy wall with eight guard towers with machine guns and spotlights. A 1000 yard clearing is maintained around the wall so there is a clear line of fire. The town absorbed an extra 1600 people on evacuation day, including 91 minors. 1200 of them were military personnel, bringing his total up to 1320. In some ways, Fort Necessity has turned into a crowded military post. Most of the 1200 extra military personnel are currently being quartered in civilian housing with their occupants until more housing can be built.
Fort Necessity has a working minifac, which can barely keep up with production. There are plans to produce parts for another minifac as soon as the schedule will allow.
The town has the largest civilian population on Pandora at more than 8000. Although many people are engaged in farming the enclosed gardens, there are people covering all the occupations you would expect to find in a small town.
Fort Necessity is enclosed with an octagonal wall 8000 feet long, with a sentry tower each corner. The towers have powerful spotlights and 50 cal machine guns (M2 designed usually set to fire 5 round bursts). The area enclosed by the walls is 11 square miles. The population density is 747 people per square mile. Most of the inhabitants live inside the inner walls (4000 feet per side). This part of the town is 2.8 square miles, with a population density of 2986 people per square mile. The remaining land enclosed by the wall (8 square miles) is mostly given over to farming. It produces enough vegetables for the population of the town as well as some meat. Much of the meat for the town comes from killing large herbivores that come close to the walls.
Most of the power in the community is provided by methane produced in a biomass conversion plant. Another plant produces synthetic fuel (biobutanol) for use in vehicles.
The ethnicity of Fort Necessity closely mirrors that of the USA. Religious affiliation is about 40% Protestant, 22% Catholic, 5% Jewish, 4% Buddhist, 1% Muslim, 3.5% Other Christian (mostly UU), 0.5% Hindu and about 26% with no religious affiliation (although only 11% call themselves atheist or agnostic).
The town uses a generic credit system, where credits are based on energy. For simplicity’s sake, one credit can be considered to be equivalent to $1.
Greenway (Arcadia
Population: 1000
Government: self-perpetuating oligarchy (led by Dr. Tamiko Sato)
Location: on Verdant Isle, in the middle of the slow moving Grande River (about 500 miles downstream from Fort Necessity)
Verdant Isle is 5 miles long and about 1 mile in width. The upstream end of the island is dominated by a rocky uprising, while the downstream end is low-lying and fertile. Since the colony was founded, the Arcadians have constructed a reinforced ceramacrete retaining wall to prevent further erosion of the upstream end of the island. They’re currently constructing a long river wall to channel the force of the river away from the sides of the island (and to create still “pools” along the upper end of the island.
The founders of Greenway were dedicated to finding a way to live in harmony with the ecology of Pandora. They called their group the Arcadians. The colony is led by a council of 9 oligarchs. The charter allows them to invite new members to join them. Any decisions of the oligarchs must be approved by the Assembly of all adult citizens.
The island has a walled city (Greenway) located at the head. The downstream lowlands are dominated by local palms and plants that are edible by humans.
Pandora has a minifac of its own and pretty advanced biology labs. They are responsible for finding many native plants that are useful to humans. They have a power plant that generates energy from the force of the river flowing downstream.
Most of the protein for the colony is provided by fish caught in the river.
The Arcadians are mostly American, with some European, Latin American and Japanese members. Religious affiliation is about 40% Neopagan, 45% Buddhist, 20% Agnostic/Atheist, 5% Other (mostly Christian or Hindu).
The town uses a generic credit system, where credits are based on energy. For simplicity’s sake, one credit can be considered to be equivalent to $1. The economy is a mixed economy, slightly more socialist than the modern Swedish model.
Hunter’s Gulch
Population: 800
Government: participatory democracy with elected mayor and constable
Location: box canyon in the western mountains (about 400 miles northwest of Fort Necessity)
Hunter’s Gulch sits in a box canyon in the western mountains. It’s protected by a sturdy wall blocking the fingers, a pair of natural stone pillars that narrows the cavern about half a mile into the canyon. The sides of the canyon are fairly steep, making its secure against large predators. A narrow stream called Pebble Creek runs through the canyon.
The people of Hunter’s Gulch call themselves Free Men.
Most of the inhabitants live in scattered ranches through throughout the canyon, but there are two small towns. Sweet Water sits at the head of an artesian spring about a mile past the fingers. It has 200 people, mostly technicians and artisans with a sizable minority of goat herders. They’ve constructed a deep pond to retain water from the spring. They also produce fuel from algae tanks. This town is what passes for a capital.
At the far end of the canyon sits the small town of Digger Down. About half of its 150 inhabitants are involved in mining The Shaft. They are much more productive than their numbers would indicate since they use high tech equipment, including mining drones. The ore is processed in a chamber down in the mine and the slag is stored in another. The mine produces a variety of industrial metals that they trade to Fort Necessity for manufactured goods (since there is no minifac in Hunter’s Gulch).
The farms and ranches spread throughout the canyon raise cattle and grow grain.
The people of Hunter’s Gulch are rabidly individualistic and most people carry firearms. Their community is quite secure. A single guard (one of the deputy constables) keeps watch from a small house just inside the gate. In addition to the pay for being a deputy constable, the gate guard gets to keep any valuable parts from large dinosaurs he kills near the gate.
The inhabitants of Hunter’s Gulch are keen to get a minifac of their own, but that goal doesn’t seem very realistic in the near future.
Almost every ranch has windmills and solar panels, as well as small biobutanol distillers that run off of the methane from collected dung. The key word for the Free Men is self-sufficiency. They don’t like to be dependent on anyone outside their community.
The ethnicity of Hunter’s Gulch closely mirrors that of the USA. Religious affiliation is about 50% Protestant, 40% Catholic, 5% Agonostic/Atheist/Apatheist, 5% Other Christian (mostly UU).
The town uses a generic credit system, where credits are based on energy. For simplicity’s sake, one credit can be considered to be equivalent to $1.
Longshan
Population: 600
Government: appointed leader (Commissioner Yang Shenji)
Location: mountains
Longshan (Dragon Mountain) is the colony founded by the Chinese government. All the colonists chosen for the mission were ideologically “pure”. The colony is well-balanced between scientists, engineers, technicians, military and common settlers. The colony is located near a source of uranium, which the colonists were refining for Beijing. They’ve built terrace farms and hydroponic gardens. An interesting point about Longshan is that 100 of the inhabitants are toddlers (3 years old), since the Chinese government sent 100 pregnant women through the wormhole.
The government of Longshan is autocratic, but easy going. Only the military personnel (50) carry weapons and Commander Yang is determined to maintain ideological purity on this new world, especially since he doesn’t know what has happened back on Earth.
Placid Sound
Population: 3100
Government: elected mayor and part-time city council
Location: in an estuary on the east coast of the continent, almost 1000 miles from Fort Necessity.
The Estuary called Placid Sound is a complex estuary with several deep inlets and peninsulas. The people who live there call themselves Sounders. Placid Sound has beautiful pebbled beaches, broken by rocky outcroppings. The bay itself is deep and calm.
The town occupies Five Point Peninsula. A sturdy wall cuts across the peninsula at a narrow point (1200 feet). The end of the peninsula juts out into the bay. It’s roughly pentagonal, about 8 miles across at its widest point. The center of the peninsula is a rocky peak and there are 5 sheltered beaches along the side.
There is some farming on the island and a few chickens and pigs, but most of the food consumed comes from the abundant fish and other aquatic life caught in the estuary. Fish (including relatives of the modern tuna and bonito), eels (much thicker bodied, with an elongated but still fish-like shape), whelk, mollusks, cephalopods (ammonites and squid), shrimp, lobster, crab and marine reptiles (plesiomorphs and plesiosaurs) are all commonly caught in the region. Seaweed (and algae) is produced in large pools. Sea salt is also produced in a desalination plant.
Due to the long distances involved, only a small amount of fish is traded with the other colonies. Sea salt is a more commonly traded product owing to its low weight.
While Placid Sound has one working minifac (and two microfacs), some products are fabricated through more traditional methods. Most famous among these are the many products made from fish leather.
The ethnicity of Placid Sound closely mirrors that of the USA. Religious affiliation is about 35% Protestant (mostly United Methodist), 24% Roman Catholic, 15% Universal Unitarian, 10% Buddhist, 10% Agnostic/Apatheist/Atheist, 5% Jewish, 2% Hindu, 1% Muslim.
The town uses a generic credit system, where credits are based on energy. For simplicity’s sake, one credit can be considered to be equivalent to $1.
The planet on the far side of the wormhole bears a remarkable resemblance to Earth in the cretaceous period (roughly 70,000,000 MYA). It’s a warm world, filled with jungles, swamps and dinosaurs. The area around Fort Necessity seems similar geographically to the area around the Earthside base, leading most experts to assume that the continents of Pandora are arranged the same as they were on Earth during this period.
For more information on Earth in this period see en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Campanian and en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flora_and_fauna_of_the_Maastrichtian_stage.
Human Settlements of Pandora
There are 10 human communities on Pandora. All of them are walled or protected in some other way from native fauna (especially the megafauna). Although Fort Necessity is technically in charge (as it controls the wormhole), each city is de facto autonomous.
- Amalcor (population 2055)
- Fort Necessity (population 8275)
- Greenway/Arcadia (population 1000)
- Hunter’s Gulch (population 800)
- Longshan (population 600)
- Placid Sound (population 3100)
- Providence (population 1200) – religious community (Protestant Christian)
- Seneca Falls (population 1400) – hippy community is relatively safe mountain valley
- Westridge (population 1600) – mountain community; mining; terrace farms
- Yamato (population 200) – island colony (size of Puerto Rico with only one small town); mostly Japanese
Amalcor
Population: 2055
Government: corporate governor and board of directors
Location: mountains 500 miles north of Fort Necessity
Amalcor (uh MAL core) was created by Amalgamated Minerals Corporation as a local headquarters. Amalcor Platinum Base (also known as Platinum City) is the headquarters. It has a massive ceramacrete and steel wall with auto guns to keep away large predators. It sits near the Platinum River mine and has most of the refining and manufacturing capability of the colony. It has two working minifacs and extra parts for both of them.
Other communities are located near other mining and refining operations.
Aluminum Flats (population 500) is the second largest community in the colony. It’s located 250 miles west of
Platinum City. It produces and refines aluminum which is used in manufacturing ground vehicles and heavier than air craft.
Steelerville (population 300) is third largest community. It’s located south east of Platinum city and produces iron and steel for the colonies.
Coal Town (population 100) is the fourth largest community. It is only a few miles from Steelerville, the largest consumer of coal on Pandora.
Another 155 people are scattered throughout the colony in smaller sites.
The various sites in Amalcor are connected by roads that amount to little more than cleared and relatively flat paths. Trawlers move between the sites on a semi-regular schedule.
Amalcor is constructing a full sized Autofac at Platinum City. When this is complete, they will be able to produce anything they have a design for. Already, they are producing local variants on equipment that most colonies were used to getting from Earth.
Before evacuation day, Amalcor employees were able to travel back to Earth at the end of their duty assignments, so there were few families along compared to the number of inhabitants. Nearly 90% of the population consists of Amalcor employees. The current population of Amalcor is about 75% male, leading to an increase in certain types of societal trouble.
Amalcor derives power from a variety of sources, including solar, wind, biobutanol and biomethane.
The ethnicity of Fort Necessity closely mirrors that of the USA. Religious affiliation is about 48% Protestant, 20% Catholic, 2% Jewish, 4% Buddhist, 1% Muslim, 3.5% Other Christian (mostly UU), 0.5% Hindu and about 16% with no religious affiliation (although only 11% call themselves atheist or agnostic), 1% other (Buddhist, Muslim, Hindu, etc…).
The town uses a generic credit system, where credits are based on energy. For simplicity’s sake, one credit can be considered to be equivalent to $1.
Fort Necessity
Population: 8275
Government: military Governor (Colonel Kurt Harris), elected city council
Location: hills near the wormhole
Fort Necessity is surrounded by a sturdy wall with eight guard towers with machine guns and spotlights. A 1000 yard clearing is maintained around the wall so there is a clear line of fire. The town absorbed an extra 1600 people on evacuation day, including 91 minors. 1200 of them were military personnel, bringing his total up to 1320. In some ways, Fort Necessity has turned into a crowded military post. Most of the 1200 extra military personnel are currently being quartered in civilian housing with their occupants until more housing can be built.
Fort Necessity has a working minifac, which can barely keep up with production. There are plans to produce parts for another minifac as soon as the schedule will allow.
The town has the largest civilian population on Pandora at more than 8000. Although many people are engaged in farming the enclosed gardens, there are people covering all the occupations you would expect to find in a small town.
Fort Necessity is enclosed with an octagonal wall 8000 feet long, with a sentry tower each corner. The towers have powerful spotlights and 50 cal machine guns (M2 designed usually set to fire 5 round bursts). The area enclosed by the walls is 11 square miles. The population density is 747 people per square mile. Most of the inhabitants live inside the inner walls (4000 feet per side). This part of the town is 2.8 square miles, with a population density of 2986 people per square mile. The remaining land enclosed by the wall (8 square miles) is mostly given over to farming. It produces enough vegetables for the population of the town as well as some meat. Much of the meat for the town comes from killing large herbivores that come close to the walls.
Most of the power in the community is provided by methane produced in a biomass conversion plant. Another plant produces synthetic fuel (biobutanol) for use in vehicles.
The ethnicity of Fort Necessity closely mirrors that of the USA. Religious affiliation is about 40% Protestant, 22% Catholic, 5% Jewish, 4% Buddhist, 1% Muslim, 3.5% Other Christian (mostly UU), 0.5% Hindu and about 26% with no religious affiliation (although only 11% call themselves atheist or agnostic).
The town uses a generic credit system, where credits are based on energy. For simplicity’s sake, one credit can be considered to be equivalent to $1.
Greenway (Arcadia
Population: 1000
Government: self-perpetuating oligarchy (led by Dr. Tamiko Sato)
Location: on Verdant Isle, in the middle of the slow moving Grande River (about 500 miles downstream from Fort Necessity)
Verdant Isle is 5 miles long and about 1 mile in width. The upstream end of the island is dominated by a rocky uprising, while the downstream end is low-lying and fertile. Since the colony was founded, the Arcadians have constructed a reinforced ceramacrete retaining wall to prevent further erosion of the upstream end of the island. They’re currently constructing a long river wall to channel the force of the river away from the sides of the island (and to create still “pools” along the upper end of the island.
The founders of Greenway were dedicated to finding a way to live in harmony with the ecology of Pandora. They called their group the Arcadians. The colony is led by a council of 9 oligarchs. The charter allows them to invite new members to join them. Any decisions of the oligarchs must be approved by the Assembly of all adult citizens.
The island has a walled city (Greenway) located at the head. The downstream lowlands are dominated by local palms and plants that are edible by humans.
Pandora has a minifac of its own and pretty advanced biology labs. They are responsible for finding many native plants that are useful to humans. They have a power plant that generates energy from the force of the river flowing downstream.
Most of the protein for the colony is provided by fish caught in the river.
The Arcadians are mostly American, with some European, Latin American and Japanese members. Religious affiliation is about 40% Neopagan, 45% Buddhist, 20% Agnostic/Atheist, 5% Other (mostly Christian or Hindu).
The town uses a generic credit system, where credits are based on energy. For simplicity’s sake, one credit can be considered to be equivalent to $1. The economy is a mixed economy, slightly more socialist than the modern Swedish model.
Hunter’s Gulch
Population: 800
Government: participatory democracy with elected mayor and constable
Location: box canyon in the western mountains (about 400 miles northwest of Fort Necessity)
Hunter’s Gulch sits in a box canyon in the western mountains. It’s protected by a sturdy wall blocking the fingers, a pair of natural stone pillars that narrows the cavern about half a mile into the canyon. The sides of the canyon are fairly steep, making its secure against large predators. A narrow stream called Pebble Creek runs through the canyon.
The people of Hunter’s Gulch call themselves Free Men.
Most of the inhabitants live in scattered ranches through throughout the canyon, but there are two small towns. Sweet Water sits at the head of an artesian spring about a mile past the fingers. It has 200 people, mostly technicians and artisans with a sizable minority of goat herders. They’ve constructed a deep pond to retain water from the spring. They also produce fuel from algae tanks. This town is what passes for a capital.
At the far end of the canyon sits the small town of Digger Down. About half of its 150 inhabitants are involved in mining The Shaft. They are much more productive than their numbers would indicate since they use high tech equipment, including mining drones. The ore is processed in a chamber down in the mine and the slag is stored in another. The mine produces a variety of industrial metals that they trade to Fort Necessity for manufactured goods (since there is no minifac in Hunter’s Gulch).
The farms and ranches spread throughout the canyon raise cattle and grow grain.
The people of Hunter’s Gulch are rabidly individualistic and most people carry firearms. Their community is quite secure. A single guard (one of the deputy constables) keeps watch from a small house just inside the gate. In addition to the pay for being a deputy constable, the gate guard gets to keep any valuable parts from large dinosaurs he kills near the gate.
The inhabitants of Hunter’s Gulch are keen to get a minifac of their own, but that goal doesn’t seem very realistic in the near future.
Almost every ranch has windmills and solar panels, as well as small biobutanol distillers that run off of the methane from collected dung. The key word for the Free Men is self-sufficiency. They don’t like to be dependent on anyone outside their community.
The ethnicity of Hunter’s Gulch closely mirrors that of the USA. Religious affiliation is about 50% Protestant, 40% Catholic, 5% Agonostic/Atheist/Apatheist, 5% Other Christian (mostly UU).
The town uses a generic credit system, where credits are based on energy. For simplicity’s sake, one credit can be considered to be equivalent to $1.
Longshan
Population: 600
Government: appointed leader (Commissioner Yang Shenji)
Location: mountains
Longshan (Dragon Mountain) is the colony founded by the Chinese government. All the colonists chosen for the mission were ideologically “pure”. The colony is well-balanced between scientists, engineers, technicians, military and common settlers. The colony is located near a source of uranium, which the colonists were refining for Beijing. They’ve built terrace farms and hydroponic gardens. An interesting point about Longshan is that 100 of the inhabitants are toddlers (3 years old), since the Chinese government sent 100 pregnant women through the wormhole.
The government of Longshan is autocratic, but easy going. Only the military personnel (50) carry weapons and Commander Yang is determined to maintain ideological purity on this new world, especially since he doesn’t know what has happened back on Earth.
Placid Sound
Population: 3100
Government: elected mayor and part-time city council
Location: in an estuary on the east coast of the continent, almost 1000 miles from Fort Necessity.
The Estuary called Placid Sound is a complex estuary with several deep inlets and peninsulas. The people who live there call themselves Sounders. Placid Sound has beautiful pebbled beaches, broken by rocky outcroppings. The bay itself is deep and calm.
The town occupies Five Point Peninsula. A sturdy wall cuts across the peninsula at a narrow point (1200 feet). The end of the peninsula juts out into the bay. It’s roughly pentagonal, about 8 miles across at its widest point. The center of the peninsula is a rocky peak and there are 5 sheltered beaches along the side.
There is some farming on the island and a few chickens and pigs, but most of the food consumed comes from the abundant fish and other aquatic life caught in the estuary. Fish (including relatives of the modern tuna and bonito), eels (much thicker bodied, with an elongated but still fish-like shape), whelk, mollusks, cephalopods (ammonites and squid), shrimp, lobster, crab and marine reptiles (plesiomorphs and plesiosaurs) are all commonly caught in the region. Seaweed (and algae) is produced in large pools. Sea salt is also produced in a desalination plant.
Due to the long distances involved, only a small amount of fish is traded with the other colonies. Sea salt is a more commonly traded product owing to its low weight.
While Placid Sound has one working minifac (and two microfacs), some products are fabricated through more traditional methods. Most famous among these are the many products made from fish leather.
The ethnicity of Placid Sound closely mirrors that of the USA. Religious affiliation is about 35% Protestant (mostly United Methodist), 24% Roman Catholic, 15% Universal Unitarian, 10% Buddhist, 10% Agnostic/Apatheist/Atheist, 5% Jewish, 2% Hindu, 1% Muslim.
The town uses a generic credit system, where credits are based on energy. For simplicity’s sake, one credit can be considered to be equivalent to $1.