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 - 315 14 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, 14 Worlds, 1 Belts, 5 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
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
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.
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 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.
History
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 shouted down), with a heavily armed and supported surprise attack on the Rickard Central Command Headquarters in Rickard City.
Population and Government
Economy/Imports/Exports/Trade
Offworld Connections
People and Customs
Biology/Wildlife
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.
Planetary Map
System Astrography
Important NPCs
Explanatory Notes for Players
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 a 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 under Population and Government above regarding the interpretation of Law Level: 0 as applied in the Freehold system.
Player Notes (Past Involvement Here, etc)
| 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. |