Echiste (world)

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Alien Moon 91b-0 Small.jpg
Echiste/Lanth (Spinward Marches 2313)
Classic Era (1116)
C53A313-A
StarportC Routine: No Construction, Major Repair, Unrefined fuel
Size5 Medium (8,000 km, 0.40g - 0.57g)
Atmosphere3 Vacuum (very thin)
HydrographicsA Water World 100%
Population3 Low (7 thousand)
Government1 Company/Corporation
Law3 Low Law (no automatic weapons)
Tech LevelA Early Stellar (jump drive)
See also UWP
System Details
Primary G4 V
Planetoid Belts 2
Gas Giants 0
style="width: 220px; height: 250px;"
Jump map from Travellermap.com [1]

Echiste is a low-population water world, which has 90% or more of its surface covered in an ocean of water and a population of less than 10,000 sophonts.

Description (Astrography & Planetology)[edit]

Stellar Data[edit]

Echiste has a solitary primary star.

  • It is a yellow main sequence.
Echiste has a solitary primary star.
Primary
Solitary G Type.jpg Type Category Mass (Sol) Temperature (K) Luminosity
G4 V Main Sequence (Dwarf) 0.985 5660 - 5680 0.94848
Unit Diameter Safe Distance Habitable Zone Jump Shadow M-Drive Limit
AU 0.0092 0.0808 0.93 - 1.65 0.92 9.2
Orbit #  *  * 3 3 7
Remarks

System Data[edit]

The worlds of the system have been surveyed. They consist of:

Mainworld Data[edit]

Mainworld Size (S)[edit]

Echiste is a Meso World between 7,200km and 8,800km in diameter. The world has a standard gravity between 0.4G and 0.57G. The horizon will appear about 4km away.

Mainworld Atmosphere (A)[edit]

Echiste has a pressure of 0.10 to 0.42 atmospheres. The very thin pressures require a respirator or Oxygen Mask. TL–5 or more advanced survival gear is required to settle this world.

Mainworld Hydrosphere (H)[edit]

Echiste has 95-100% of its surface covered by liquid water with only a few islands and archipelagos. Wilderness refueling is possible. Such worlds are Water Worlds or Ocean Worlds.

Water World Ocean 08.jpg

Mainworld Geography and Topography[edit]

A map of Echiste showing the oceans. Significant features include the Grande Fosse, a region of shallow water, and the Grande Sineuse, an enormous reef that marks its edge. Benese Starport is located on a large artificial island within the Grande Fosse. Mont Gros, an active volcano in the southern hemisphere, is the single largest landmass on the world and continues to expand every year -- other active volcanic archipelagos are marked in red. The southern port of Villeneuse is heavily involved in ocean management and aquaculture.

World Map Echiste Basic.jpg

Native Lifeforms[edit]

Extensive native life. Surface ecosystems are subdivided into fixed and mobile. Both rely on sunlight for their energy. Fixed ecosystems obtain their mineral from bottom-dwelling plants, whereas mobile ecosystems are based on floating mats of plant life which extract minerals from the water. Even land-based communities rely on the ocean for reproduction.

Flora:

Virtually all plants on Echiste are aquatic -- the volcanic islands are too few to support a broad land-based ecology. Some genera have adapted to an amphibious existence, but all are capable of surviving underwater.

  • Champs dorée: A higher-order plant with broad yellow fronds. It is found growing in vast mats floating on the surface, where is can entangle both swimmers and small vehicles. A mat provides food and shelter to a bewildering variety of life forms.
  • Églantine: Grows in the shallows. It roots on the bottom, sending long fronds floating toward the surface.
  • Grìmpante: One of the few amphibious plants. A large rubbery stem grows horizontally along the ground, anchored periodically by strong roots.
  • Ronces: A semi-mobile plant. After sprouting, it is free-floating. When nearing maturity, it grows long tendrils and eventually takes root in a sheltered spot.

Fauna:

One native animal order uses a jet-sac to expel water; these are relatively stationary species. Free-ranging species typically use more energy-efficient flukes or tails to propel themselves.

  • Gougeon: One of the planet's largest animals; specimens have massed over 40 tons. They are herbivorous marine grazers.
  • Helicon: A gentle grazer, relying on speed to escape its enemies. When cornered, or during the breeding season, they can also defend themselves with sharp spikes on their cranial structure.
  • Ménée: A small amphibious siren, one of the few animals on Echiste to be domesticated. In the wild, it attracts prey by both olfactory and sonic lures.
  • Poisson-fue: The most notable export of Echiste, large marine hunters that cannot be bred in captivity. Live animals fetch premium prices.
  • Teteux de fonds: A pouncer inhabiting the champs dorée. It hunts by concealing itself within a clump of champs dorée with only its head exposed. When prey draws within range, it contracts its jet-sac and grasps the prey with its limbs.
  • Vermine: An ubiquitous scavenger, rather like the Terran rat. Schools of vermine have been known to attack wounded swimmers without waiting for them to die, but the main danger is economic. The vermine are in direct competition with Humans for Echiste's resources.

History & Background (Dossier)[edit]

Comp-Prog-Dav-R-Deitrick-Starter-Trav-Page-16 16-July-2018a.jpg

Echiste holds the Marches record for greatest number of failed outposts. There doesn't appear to be any reason other than an extraordinary run of ordinary bad luck for the failures. The current planetary development company, Echiste Corporation, LIC, is the eighth in eight centuries to try its luck.

Recently Oberlindes Lines instituted regular jump-5 passenger service to Rhylanor, and the IISS are studying the feasibility of making Echiste a link in a new jump-5 X-boat connection between Regina and Rhylanor. The company hopes that increased jump-5 traffic between Regina and Rhylanor will improve Echiste's own trade and attract more business and more settlers.

History[edit]

The second to last attempt to settle Echiste was made in the early 800s by employees of the Société d'Echiste, which obtained an Imperial exploitation charter in exchange for colonizing the planet. The Société d'Echiste was founded by Alexandre Dumont, who believed that the Poisson-fue, a large submarine hunter, could be sold as a delicacy on Rhylanor. He was right, and the young Société prospered.

To convince people to settle on the fledgling world Dumont created a mystique of the frontiersman, drawing heavily on the Norwesters of Terran history and picturing them as heroic explorers. The romance of this vision (and a grant of stock) persuaded enough settlers to immigrate that the colony survived.

Early overfishing led to a better understanding of Echiste's complex ecology. Echistiens now nurture and guard their stocks as well as hunt them. A generation later, the Dírecteurs of the Société decided to expand the world's resource base. A project to mine the rich volcanic ores for metals and minerals from the planet's mantle was begun. This plan was carried out until 881, when the vent of Mont Gros exploded, destroying all the young Société's mining equipment.

Despite initial successes, the Société's population failed to grow to a level acceptable to the Colonial Office, and in 1113 the Office revoked the Société's exploitation grant and awarded it to a new company. The Société still has political power, but no longer receives Colonial Office subsidies. Negotiations between the Société and the new company about how to coexist are underway.

World Starport (St)[edit]

Echiste has a Class C Starport, an average quality installation which features amenities including unrefined fuel for starships, some brokerage services for passengers and cargo, and a variety of ship provisions. There is a shipyard capable of doing maintenance and other kinds of repair. Ports of this classification generally have only a downport, unless this is a trade port or system with an hostile environment mainworld.

World Population (P)[edit]

Echiste has a population of 7,000 sophonts (thousands).

  • This is a Low Population World and the population would be too low to sustain itself without a little outside assistance. This may represent the home base of a sizable but mostly transient population such as the base of a major starship expedition, the last generation of a dying colony, the first generation of a new colony, or a large outpost that will probably evolve into a colony if not stopped.

Urbanization[edit]

The inhabitants live on archipelagos and islands.

Water World Islands 12.jpg

Linguistic Topography[edit]

The most commonly heard languages are:

World Technology Level (T)[edit]

Echiste possesses a Technology Level of TL–10 or TL-A in Hexadecimal Notation.

World Government (G)[edit]

Echiste is governed by a Corporate Polity, having a single corporation with a typical corporate structure as a government. Essentially, this is a "company town" (or world). The typical corporate-run world usually has a single purpose. Examples include mining, agriculture, or other kinds of resource extraction. But rather than a simple base of operations, there are facilities for housing workers and their families, including hospitals, schools, and other infrastructure. How, or if, the children of the workers are incorporated into the workforce varies with companies. The corporation running the world may be a subsidiary of a larger interstellar corporation.

World Law (L)[edit]

Echiste has a low law level. There are few laws, covering only important areas. There may be few or no law enforcement officers, the expectation is citizens will bring law breakers to the attention of the Judicial system. Legal proceedings will be fast, with few people involved. For interactions outside of the framework of the laws, cultural norms dominate. Machine guns, other automatic weapons, portable energy weapons, and other military weapons, body pistols, explosives, and poison gas are typically regulated or prohibited.

Imperial Landed Nobility[edit]

Echiste, as a member world of the Third Imperium has a member of the Imperial Landed Nobility who acts as an Imperial representative to the world.

Trade Data[edit]

  • Importance: 0 (unimportant)

World Economy[edit]

  • Resources: 7 (few)
  • Labor: 2 (hundreds)
  • Infrastructure: 0 (non-existent)
  • Efficiency: -3 (poor)

World Culture[edit]

  • Heterogenity: 1 (monolithic)
  • Acceptance: 3 (xenophobic)
  • Strangeness: 2 (typical)
  • Symbols: 7 (somewhat concrete)

World Timeline[edit]

Major events that have affected this world and the wider region that it lies within:

References & Contributors (Sources)[edit]

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This list of sources was used by the Traveller Wiki Editorial Team and individual contributors to compose this article. Copyrighted material is used under license from Mongoose Publishing or by permission of the author. The page history lists all of the contributions.
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