Campaign:NHNE/Worlds/New Earth
New Earth is the main planet of the New Earth System
Astrography[edit]
see: New Earth System for astrographical context
New Earth is a planet that orbits the star Flare-Bright at 2.15 AU. It take 1030 days to do so.
Planetology[edit]
Summary[edit]
New Earth A865877-A N Cx, Ga, Ph, Ri
Note that this map shows only the 9 largest cities and the starport at Touchdown. The Ice Caps shown are at the maximum extents of these in winter. In summer, these are Tundra or Ocean.
Starport[edit]
New Earth has a Class A Starport, an excellent quality installation which includes all the expected amenities including refined fuel for spaceships, brokerage services for passengers and cargo, and a variety of ship provisions. There are several shipyards capable of doing annual maintenance, overhauls and other kinds of repair, and construction of both starships and non-starships. The port has some Highport and multiple Downport locations of which the largest is Touchdown Spaceport.
Size[edit]
New Earth is a Meso World some 13,100km in diameter. The world has a standard gravity of 1.00G. The horizon appears about 5.1km away.
n.b. Vessels with 1G of thrust should check with local starport authorities before attempting to land because of the need to use emergency power.
Time[edit]
New Earth rotates once every 28 hours. i.e. dawn will occur 4 hours later each calendar day per the definition of Fleet Time.
| Fleet Day | Local Dawn at Equator |
|---|---|
| 1 | 00:00 |
| 2 | 04:00 |
| 3 | 08:00 |
| 4 | 12:00 |
| 5 | 16:00 |
| 6 | 18:00 |
| 7 | 20:00 |
| 8 | 00:00 |
This has the effect that New Earth only has 6 periods of daylight in each week of Fleet Time.
In addition, the planetary surface being round, each location has a local offset of one hour additional per 12.85 degrees east or west of any reference point.
And finally, the planet has an axial tilt of 28 degrees that causes the length of daylight to vary through the seasons at most points on the globe.
Geography[edit]
- See Map in 300 and Places on New Earth
The world is split into a number of continents
- Okamiland: Occupied by the states of Okami and Adeland
- Landing: Occupied by multiple states and separated from Okamiland by the Western Strait
- Walthersland: Walthersland occupies the eponymous island. This is 1000km wide and 3000km long and partially blocks the Western Strait. It is separated from the Cloud Republic by the shallow Rebel's Passage.
- Maria: A 2,000km by 3,000km minor continent with a range of hills across that push out into the seas at each end making the ridge 5,000km from end to end. The Western Strait splits north and south around Maria opening into the Meridian Ocean.
- Barrier: This continent reaches from Arctic icecap to Antarctic icecap and separates the Meridian Ocean from the Eastern Ocean.
There are also a large number of smaller island mini-continents and even smaller island chains and atolls. These are scattered across the northern Meridian Ocean.
In general, the planet is not endowed by a large number of tall mountains. There is rifting along the north coast of Landing, and this rifting is also present across the south coast of that continent. The longest mountain chain runs across Barrier in Highlands and Greenway. The most impressive gap in that range being where January-Lango intercepts the passing traffic.
Atmosphere[edit]
New Earth has a pressure of 1.0 atmospheres. The oxygen/nitrogen Standard Atmosphere does not require survival gear and will likely be easy for most sophonts to breathe.
Hydrosphere[edit]
54% of New Earth's surface is covered by salt-water.
Population[edit]
The Planet of New Earth has a population of approximately 900,000,000. An exact count is not feasible because of the multiple political divisions of the planet.
The growth rate in system has been averaging 3.1% per annum and, although there is some sign that this rate has been slowing slightly in recent years, the population has been doubling every 25 years, or so.
Demographics[edit]
About 55% of the initial settlers of New Earth were of Indo-European descent; 20% of Far-Eastern and Pacific descent and 25% of African descent.
Expansion has been rapid, and various techniques for cloning and machine-supported external-pregnancy were and are used by various states - although the practice is now declining as populations have started "Filling up the land".
There are small communities of non-humans (Dolphin and Great-Ape descendants) that have been genetically modified for greater intelligence. Such modification is now illegal in most states.
Settlement Patterns[edit]
There were, by the year 50, some 29 settled regions (i.e. Planetary Hexes with 1 or more towns). The greatest concentration was on the land route from Campaign:NHNE/Places/Touchdown City to Vita with Prayerhouse, Prayerhouse, Lobengula, Llama Island and its nearby shore being the other centres on that continent. Okami Port and Adehome were settled as were January-Lango,Kenya City and Hoffenstat. The islands of Freetown and Outback were growing and Santa Maria, Walthersland and Cloud City. The German-Speaking settlement at Neustadt was also in being at this time.
Government[edit]
The surface and low orbits of New Earth have multiple governments.
The New Earth Council acts as a diplomatic forum for all recognised Governments within the New Earth System, and the chairman of that forum wields considerable influence, but little actual power.
The Fleet Court acts as a dispute resolution and arbitration service and its judges can influence Governments, but not all of its judgements are enforceable.
Law[edit]
The law applicable on New Earth is territorial and dependent upon the specific territory - but generally private carrying of firearms in built-up areas is considered anti-social at best and illegal at worst. The stated level is that prevalent in the majority of port facilities.
| Law Level | State |
|---|---|
| 3 | New Fiji |
| 4 | Highlands |
| 5 | Nairobi;Freetown;Matabele |
| 6 | Llamas;Okami;Outback |
| 7 | Touchdown;Adeland;Hoffenstat |
| 8 | Cloud Republic;Walthersland;Shelter |
| 9 | New Heaven;Greenway |
| A | Oudhbaru; Santa Maria |
Technology[edit]
The world of New Earth is part of a single-system culture that is somewhere between TL–9 and TL–12 but is mostly at TL–10. The key omission from this tech level's definition is that there is no interstellar traffic as no means of making this transition has been discovered (although by year 300, stories are circulating that this is no longer true).
Biology & Ecology[edit]
Native Biology[edit]
The native biology of New Earth while quite extensive in the oceans and rivers of the planet was limited to single-celled creatures or mats on land. This had resulted in a primitive soil that the introduction of Earth Flora could readily utilise.
Thus, the land flora is now that of the Sol system.
All land fauna is from Earth. Some question why certain types were revived (notably mosquitos).
Native aquatic forms were firmly entrenched and have proved resilient in the face of introductions from Earth and Poseidon- surviving along side them. Heptid (and abbreviation of Hepta-Squid) have even found a place on the Human food-plate.
Transplanted Biology[edit]
Nearly 1,000,000 species of flora and fauna were brought from Earth. This included all the standard food crops and the micro-flora necessary to grow them. It also included all the required pollinators for these.
At sea, the most obvious success story in respect to the introduced species are hard corals. These are starting to form significant reefs which are both providing improved habitats for Terran marine species but also for more adaptable native ones.
The Terraforming of the land and seas of New Earth is one of the greatest objectives and unifying forces of the inhabitants of this world.
Bioengineering[edit]
Several species of plant and animal have been bioengineered to create chimeras between the Earth and New Earth biological domains.
Military[edit]
The size and equipment of the militaries of New Earth are much smaller than might be expected for a series of states of their size. There have been a number of skirmishes, but no global war. Most military clashes have been more police actions than invasion or last-ditch defence. That is not to say that Military forces do not exist, nor that they are not used - but the availability of resources, and potential for utter destruction, has meant that those clashes have (to date) been relatively restrained.
However, the existence of military forces does mean that they are tempting tools, and several coups, counter-coups and bandit-wars have occurred. New Earth's total armed forces can be viewed as the equivalent of about 150 battalions of front-line troops and 10 squadrons of system defence boats.
Economy[edit]
The economy of New Earth is that of a rich, garden world that is the political capital of the system, and on the crux of becoming a high population world. It has managed to ensure that the most polluting industries have been kept off planet and thus it's atmospheric quality has been preserved.
Touchdown City is still the largest city in the system with a population of 16 million people.
The planet has a GWP of approximately 9 Trillion Credits per annum. It is over 90% of the total GWP of the entire system.
Culture[edit]
Despite the diversity of governments and backgrounds, the culture of New Earth is remarkably homogeneous. The key factors in driving this were the fact that there was a continuous availability of effective telecommunication during the early settlement years and that the size of the community, during the first half-century of settlement, remained below half a million.
That is not to say that there were not various sub-cultures. The largest groups were those that originally spoke English as a native language, but there were groups that used English as a second language that preserved their primary tongues - if only at family levels. English is still the language in which schools teach, but not exclusively the language taught.
The initial culture was heavily dependent on automation, and the colony was well endowed with the machine-tools to continue that level of automation through the replacement of parts. Where the colony found early difficulties was in the provision of those heavy-industries that allowed the materials for the manufacture of those parts to be provided. This was, in part, alleviated by the appearance of metals and other minerals from the Belt - but sustaining the material culture on such a meagre workforce was touch and go - particularly in the period from year 70 or so, when the original settlers finally died off. This lent the culture a deep reliance on other settlers, but allowed specialist communities to form (with their own governments) within that overall network.
One of the key areas of cultural diversity is the song-culture of the planet. Even in the absence of instruments people would sing. While other forms of music were continued from Earth, the songs about the colonial life and the day-to-day tribulations of work, love, and the human condition thrived. Many colonists took up sculpture. The super-abundance of fleece and the dwindling supply of man-made fibres started the wool and cotton industries which were diverted into decorative uses as well as practical. The first man-made fibres didn't return to the colony for nearly 30 years.
History[edit]
New Earth was first landed on in year 1, and the first crops were grown on planet within a year of touchdown. It was that initial success that founded the fantastic growth that the system has sustained in the subsequent years.