Campaign:SBRD/Library/Freehold (world)
Freehold (RD 2825)/Urlaqqash Subsector/Reavers'_Deep_Sector
(Note: This article is about the SBRD campaign setting in the year 3731 AD, during the Long Night.)
Freehold (RD 2825) A555820-A Ag Ri In Ex 1 - 311 6 In G6 V Cool
Size: 8000 km (5), Atmo: Thin, Hydro: 50%, Climate: Cool
Pop: 300 M, Participating Democracy, LL: 0, TL: A
Star(s): G6 V, 6 Worlds, 1 Belts, 1 GGs, Orbit 4
Independent, Trading Post
Rickard Colony was founded during the Interstellar Wars period by settlers from Terra. Later Reaver attacks forced a militarization of society and totalitarian government. The Revolution in 3457 (allegedly supported by legendary Reaver Captain Blackjack Duquesne) resulted in the current government by participatory democracy of all citizens. The system is well developed, and also well defended. Only 80% of the system's population actually lives on the mainworld; the rest live in assorted space colonies and habitats throughout the system.
Freehold (as it is called since the Revolution) is famous for the Libertarian views of its people and government. In fact, the government only exists to provide for system defense, to resolve disputes between citizens, and to regulate and authenticate voting for the all-inclusive high-tech participatory democracy that is the decision-making arm of government. With a Law Level of 0 and extensive industrial base and port facilities, Freehold is known as a place where almost anything can be gotten for a price.
Trade Classifications of Industrial, Rich, and Extreme are included because of Freehold's busy Trading Post and extensive system development (including many Extreme worlds), plus its extensive industrial development in comparison to the size of its population.
Conditions/Environment[edit]
The low hydrosphere number (50%) means that the larger landforms tend to have large inland deserts where rain rarely, if ever, reaches. These deserts are almost lifeless even of native life; vast areas of sand, mountains, and rocky flats where nothing grows or lives.
The Cool climate means that icecaps extend down to about 60 degrees latitude, further reducing available liquid surface water; however, this also means that the equatorial regions are quite comfortable for Humans.
The ecosystem on land has been almost completely taken over by Terran imports - see Biology/Wildlife below.
Starport and Transport Infrastructure[edit]
In addition to the mainworld's Class A starport, with a full range of shipyard services for construction, maintenance or repair of both starships and STL spacecraft, there are a number of secondary spaceports scattered throughout the system with facilities almost as complete.
The primary starport has both highport and downport components, known as Freeport High and Rickard Down, as the downport is adjacent to the original colony site of Rickard City. Due to the amount of trans-shipping that occurs through this system, the highport is much more extensive than the downport, which handles mostly traffic to and from the mainworld itself. Freeport High is also considered the Trading Post for the system.
System traffic control and customs inspections are both devoted primarily to the safety of the citizens of Freehold. Freehold makes the bulk of its income on port, fuel, transshipment, and warehousing fees, and does not charge duties or tariffs on any goods. Weapons of mass destruction or other goods that may be a danger to the people of Freehold are likely to be sealed or assigned an escort as deemed appropriate by the customs office, but are unlikely to be confiscated. Traffic control is concerned with preventing accidents or hazardous conditions, not keeping track of who goes where or giving instructions other than as necessary for safety. The Freehold military has a good detection network scattered around the system, and traffic control has access to this, so taking lightspeed delay into account they have a pretty good view of what is going on insystem.
Business and commercial transport on the mainworld is almost entirely by grav vehicles of various sizes, including suborbital transports using a modified M-drive for rapid transit from point to point around the globe. As the landing fields for the suborbitals are also suitable for landing of most other kinds of spacecraft, there are effectively mini-downports all over the inhabited parts of the mainworld, although lacking in the support infrastructure of the main downport.
Maglev railroads exist in a few locations where regular transport of heavy and bulky loads make them more efficient than grav transports, but for the most part the cities and towns of Freehold are connected only by air.
There has been some exploration of the oceans, and grav vehicles adapted for underwater operations are easy to find in coastal cities, but most water traffic is for pleasure only, with the minor exception of the Monster Hunting industry.
History[edit]
Rickard Colony was settled in 2205 AD by colonists from Terra seeking a home away from the turmoil of the Interstellar Wars. The new colony offered sanctuary for refugees and was soon inundated by immigrants from older Terran colonies in the war zones. By the time the Wars ended and the Rule of Man united Vilani and Terrans under one government, Rickard had a population of almost 50 million spread out in small cities, towns, and farm regions around most of the fertile parts of the globe (those receiving sufficient rainfall or with available seacoast for desalinization facilities).
One of the blackest days of Rickard/Freehold history was an attack by one of the earliest forces of Reavers in the Deep, an outlaw fleet of renegade Vilani who refused to accept that the Wars were over. The Edishanna Fleet out of Zarushagar Sector had made its way down into Riftrim Deep and was attempting to establish a base of operations to continue the war against the Rule of Man, which the Edishanna admirals regarded as an illegal Terran usurpation of the rightful rule of the Ziru Sirka. In 2320 the Edishanna sent a large fleet element to Rickard to demand supplies, colonization equipment and machinery, and workers to come and labor for the Edishanna. When the people of Rickard refused and resisted, the Edishanna (who lacked the troops to actually invade) punished them with a nuclear bombardment of two major cities (not the starport, because they wanted it intact), then went away promising to return after the people had time to think over their situation. Over three million people were killed in the bombings, and another two million died of radiation poisoning and related illness afterward. Fortunately for Rickard Colony, the Edishanna Fleet was tracked down, broken up, and mostly destroyed by the Imperial Navy of the Rule of Man before they could come back and make good on their threats, but the attack left a lasting impression on the people and culture of Rickard.
Rickard Colony invested as much as it could afford in defensive armaments and SDBs, and requested but was denied an Imperial Naval Base. Despite this attitude in favor of a strong defense, the colony again proved helpless when another Reaver attack came, just over 500 years later in 2825, during the Twilight years of the collapse of the Rule of Man. Although overall a smaller force than the Edishanna, the Marumba Fleet included in addition to its naval forces a large number of assault transports loaded with troops and military vehicles, and a well-planned strategy for their use. The Marumba had obviously scouted Rickard in detail before the attack, because their forces quickly and efficiently eliminated the most immediately threatening of the Rickard space defenses, and mounted an effective high guard to deal with any SDBs that attempted to interfere while the Marumba troops systematically attacked and looted major industrial cities and transport centers. The Marumba attack lasted less than a week, but did tremendous economic damage to the whole colony.
The shift in Rickard politics and culture was immediate. Political demagogues made much of how the existing government had failed to sufficiently learn the lessons of the Edishanna attack, leaving Rickard vulnerable to the invasion of the Marumba. Various extreme splinter parties pointed out that with the imminent collapse of the Rule of Man, Rickard must be able to stand on its own without relying on any outside assistance for defense. As these splinter parties united on areas of common agreement, and more and more of the populace came over to their point of view, the united Rickard Defense Party was formed, and quickly took control of the representative democracy government of the planet.
The new government raised taxes to improve the planetary defenses, built up a vast industrial complex devoted to production of weapons and warships, and required mandatory periods of service from all citizens aged 18 to 25. It also nationalized all major media and information services, invested in an extensive propaganda and meme-manipulation service, and enforced mandatory education programs to indoctrinate young citizens to their duty to support and defend the state. Soon the reprentative government was replaced with an Impersonal Bureaucracy dedicated to running the military-industrial complex that dominated all of Rickard society.
The military-industrial complex of Rickard did prove effective in turning away future Reaver attacks, and by the 31st Century Rickard was known as a place to avoid. Of course, a military-dominated culture with no enemies to fight has a tendency to go out and look for other potential enemies and other places in need of protection, and Rickard soon found both, as it extended its political reach throughout the coreward half of the Urlaqqash subsector, calling this area of hegemony the Rickard Protectorate.
But not all citizens of Rickard were happy with the government or with the militaristic culture. A substantial underground persisted through the centuries, passing down and preserving ideas of individual freedom and self-determination in opposition to the memetic manipulations of the government. Several times small revolts broke out over some government atrocity, but were quickly put down. Progress finally came when some members of the underground established an exile community at Blackjack Duquesne's base of operations on Drellesarr and convinced the ageing Reaver Captain to support their cause by smuggling in arms and supplies and even mercenary troops to support the underground.
The Revolution was declared on July 4, 3457 (those who wanted to wait 19 years for an even more symbolic date were quickly overruled), with a heavily armed and supported surprise attack on the Rickard Central Command Headquarters in Rickard City, while warships rumored to be from Drellesarr made strategic strikes against targets in orbit. The military high-command was also fatally surprised by the amount of insurrection in ranks it encountered, as units either refused to suppress the Revolution or else actively joined in supporting it. The most intense fighting took only a week, although mopping-up operations and recall of outsystem units throughout the subsector took more than a year. (Ironically, some naval units, loyal to the high command but finding that they had no one left to whom to report, fled further into the Deep and turned to Reaver activity to support themselves. Even now, almost 300 years later, aged and battered former Rickard Protectorate Navy ships are still encountered among Reaver bands.)
After the Revolution, much of the mysterious military support that had enabled the underground to win simply disappeared. Rumors abounded that the mercenaries and naval units had been supplied by Blackjack Duquesne, but the leaders of the underground refused to discuss the subject. To replace the government that had virtually enslaved the populace to serve the military-industrial complex in fanatic defense of the system, the leaders of the Revolution proposed an amazingly efficient system of participatory democracy, with multiple regional levels and discussion forums for proposed rules and legislation, and a system of encrypted voter-registration codes backed up by DNA records to ensure that every citizen had a chance to speak his points, propose legislation, and then vote on items of legislation that achieved the necessary levels of popular support. One thing that the leaders promised in setting up the system was that the system could be used to abolish itself and change to some other form of government, if that was the will of the people.
The world now renamed Freehold has prospered under this system since the Revolution, has received floods of immigrants from Daibei Sector swelling the system population to over 300 million, and has maintained the advanced Tech Level that the previous government worked so hard to achieve. With its Law Level of 0, Freehold is sometimes painted as a nest of criminals, pirates, and even Reavers, but the populace of the system seems remarkably happy with the life they have built for themselves.
Population and Government[edit]
The population of Freehold includes nearly every major genetic from Terra, as a result of the early colonization and later immigration of refugees from other Terran colonies. There is also a substantial Vilani element from more recent immigration from Daibei Sector, making Freehold overall a very cosmopolitan place featuring a mixture of many cultures.
The government of Freehold is a puzzle to political scientists throughout the region. The original participatory democracy put into place after the Revolution continues to this day, modified as needed to support a constituency that has spread throughout the Rickard starsystem (the original name for the star and its system were retained after the Revolution, although the government of the entire system is based on Freehold). The will of the people (guided no doubt by the philosophy of the original revolutionary underground) has taken a decidedly Libertarian slant, setting up a minimalist government designed to fulfill three major functions: defense of the system, resolution of disputes between citizens, and operation of the ubiquitous voting network that is the real government.
Permanent government offices are rare, as most officials are elected on an ad hoc basis to resolve particular problems, and the office is abolished when the problem is resolved. Those few permanent offices required for operation of the government are subject to constant scrutiny and the possibility of recall votes to replace the office-holders, and both the officials and government workers are regarded as employees of the public, not masters to tell the public what to do.
Law Level Zero and the Justice System[edit]
Outsiders often comment on the lawless Freeholder society, but in actuality what exists is a system of elected magistrates (at the local level, regional appellate level, and systemwide appellate level) who decide cases based on what seems right to them, and have reference to archives of non-binding caselaw to research and seek out the wisdom of past magistrates in similar situations. The magistrates are not required to have any particular education or certification, but the system of public comment and open records for elections has proven to select mostly competent jurists (and where the election system fails there is the recall system as a backup).
Law Level Zero does not mean that anyone can do anything he/she wants, but only that the government is not in business to poke into anyone's affairs or entangle them in regulations. Any dispute between citizens, including those that would be considered criminal matters in most legal systems, can be brought before the appropriate magistrate for resolution. Most magistrates and the large body of common law are extremely protective of individual rights to privacy and freedom from abuse, injury, murder, or theft, although fraud-type crimes often require a higher standard of wrongdoing on the part of the perpetrator and the exercise of some common sense on the part of the offended party.
It is true that there are few official police, and those only serving specialized agencies to serve specific limited functions. There are many private security firms that can be contracted long-term or called for specific problems, and some of these will even patrol and make pickups without any specific complaint if they feel they can make a case stick before a magistrate and collect a reward or bounty for their work. If they are overzealous, however, they can find themselves penalized by those same magistrates.
Most disappointing to many first-time visitors to Freehold, and especially to Freeport High, is that despite a Law Level of 0 they will be the subject of great disapproval by many citizens if they attempt to carry weapons that may pose a hazard to public safety, and that this disapproval may take the form of direct action against the offenders, or of calling security guards to arrest the offenders and haul them off to the nearest magistrate.
One aspect of Law Level Zero that is most offensive to other worlds is that Freehold absolutely refuses to do anyone else's policing for them, taking the position that any other system's sovereignty extends only as far as its reach. Freehold will not enforce warrants, bounties, declarations of contraband, writs of attachment, judgments, or any other form of legal, judicial, or criminal process other than its own. This has led to accusations of harboring criminals, pirates, smugglers, and Reavers. The Freeholders may be insulted by that last accusation, but otherwise will shrug and tell other folks to do their own policing in their own systems.
Those few other governments that have gotten the idea of forcing the Freeholders to obey their idea of a lawful society are soon reminded that it wasn't so long ago that Freehold was the center of a multi-system military-industrial complex and that Freehold still has quite sufficient naval and military forces to defend its own system.
Economy/Imports/Exports/Trade[edit]
Freehold would ordinarily be classed as only an Agricultural world according to its natural resources and population. It has earned its Industrial trade classification in part because of its intensive industrialization in proportion to population, its many industrial complexes in orbital stations or on other worlds and moons within the system, and also the high volume of industrial finished goods that passes through its Trading Post. Freehold's ports are both a good market for raw materials for industry, and a good source of finished goods for export to Non-Industrial worlds. Those same ports and system-wide industrial complexes also qualify Freehold for the Rich and Extreme Environment trade classifications.
Freehold's history makes it an especially good source of high-tech weapons and military supplies, as the formerly government-run military-industrial complex has been privatized since the Revolution. Prices on such goods at less than TL 10 receive an extra -1 DM when buying or selling here; TL 10 or better goods use the regular price rules.
Although Freehold is so well known as a trade and transit center that many visualize it as only the orbital facilities of Freeport High, in fact the world is well-developed as an agricultural center as well, supplying many Terran-standard crops and livestock, as well as native seafood. Worthy of special note are Freehold's famed "Monster Hunters", who use armed and armored submersible grav vehicles to hunt some of the larger and more dangerous species of native sealife for their exotic meats, hides, and glands that produce unique chemical compounds.
Offworld Connections[edit]
By policy, Freehold keeps its official offworld connections to a minimum, avoiding all forms of binding treaties and multi-world associations. Unofficial commercial connections are encouraged, however, particularly those that smooth the flow of trade through Freehold's ports.
Since the invasion and takeover of Drellesarr by the Iltharan Empire in 3536, there have been occasional sentimental and romantic movements to reward the rumored participation of Blackjack Duquesne in the Freehold Revolution by going back and freeing his home base from the Iltharans. Such movements never amount to much, for several reasons: 1) although Duquesne has legendary status on Freehold, none of his alleged assistance in the Revolution has ever been documented; 2) Duquesne's base on Drellesarr was a single city-state surrounding the starport, while Iltharan immigration has been so high that the population of Drellesarr is now mostly Iltharan (or their subjects, the Tring and Akakhad); and 3) while Freehold is considered too tough a target for Iltharan forces to attack, the entire Freehold military against the entire Iltharan military would be a very uneven fight, with the odds against the Freeholders.
People and Customs[edit]
The value of privacy and minding one's own business.
The sanctity of the Deal.
Admiration for those who excel at making Deals.
Biology/Wildlife[edit]
Initial settlers of this world found an almost ideal ecosystem for colonization. There was primitive plant life on land, with metabolic functions similar to Terran plant life, providing an oxygen atmosphere and nutritious fodder for Terran-imported livestock. There was aquatic life that was developed enough to provide tasty seafood (although with a few nasty predators in the mix), but land lifeforms were no more advanced than primitive arthropods similar to insects, arachnids, crustaceans, and myriapoda. Some had nasty bites or stings, but none proved to be serious problems for the settlers.
Where imported Terran lifeforms were introduced, they almost entirely replaced the native lifeforms, to the extent that settlers wanting to preserve something of the original nature of the planet have had to set aside large preserve areas utilizing various methods to attempt to keep Terran lifeforms out.
Exotic sealife, including Monsters!
Planetary Map[edit]
System Astrography[edit]
Important NPCs[edit]
Explanatory Notes for Players[edit]
Freehold in many ways is inspired by and resembles the planet and system Jackson's Whole in Lois Bujold's stories of Miles Vorkosigan, but with some key differences. First, the system population is not nearly as large as that of the Jacksonians, nor is the "government" made up of competing criminal-dominated Great Houses. Instead, the Freeholders have a participatory democracy in which they go to great extremes to make sure that every voice is heard and considered. Second, there is none of the rampant gengineering and cloning of Humans and other sentients that is so much a part of Jackson's Whole. Nor is "justice" completely for sale to the highest bidder, although those not studying the Freehold justice system in detail may miss the key differences.
Primary similarities are in the Freeholder sense of the importance of the Deal and enforcement of same; indifference to the troubles, legal demands, laws and regulations of other worlds and systems; and emphasis on services for those who are willing to pay or work.
See notes above regarding the interpretation of Law Level: 0 as applied in the Freehold system.
Player Notes (Past Involvement Here, etc)[edit]
| This article is specific to the SBRD Reavers' Deep Campaign, which is set during the Long Night, beginning in year 3731 AD (-787 Imperial). This information may not be correct for the typical Traveller campaign set during the time of the Third Imperium. |