Eden
Eden is a colonized exoplanet and is the third planet found within the Ra solar system. It was first discovered in 5428 A.D. and purchased by the Udunar Corporation within the same year. While once considered a paradise world, after the fall of the Human Concordant and the 1st Tannhauser Accident, it now consists of Neo-feudal societies. It has two natural satellites, Elom and Soma.
History & Background
Discovery of Eden
The discovery of Eden began with the Human Concordat coming out of recession and began exploration of a third Tannhauser gate within the Atlantis gate system. An approximate 22,370 light years away from Earth was a planet under the moniker of NP5670W. It was a planet situated near the middle of the ecosphere around its star. Then as exploration teams started the mapping of NP5670Ws surface, there was a highly promising find. Visual scans showed a stable atmosphere, enormous amounts of ocean water, and pockets of flora on its landmasses.
Soon after, an exploration team was sent down to the planets surface following the weeks of discovery. This team started establishing multiple research laboratories across the planets surface. The data that was collected showed within the first few months, that the planet was a semi-tropical world with similar natural resources and life to that of Earth. The planet featured shallow seas that covered most of its surface, providing abundant habitat for a carbon-based ecosystem. Impressed with the findings, the exploration team reported their findings on NP5670W back to the Concordat.
Udunar's Purchase
Following the report soon after, the Udunar Corporation purchased the planet, with Udunar being the sole bidder for NP5670W. In a corporate press conference on October 5428 A.D., Udunar President Faenir Assaym named the planet Eden. Udunar then mobilized teams from Earth to Eden to begin the terraforming process, eager to begin their application of planetary science.
After the purchase of Eden, Udunar executive officers saw the perfect opportunity to test their ecological models. The required industries for planet colonization had already been under development at Udunar a century prior. In combining nano-genomic bioengineering, artificial intelligent networking, drone development, drone manufacturing, xeno-botany, xeno-zoology, and general planetary science, Udunar was ready to begin a detailed six-year survey. This survey would begin cataloging and classifying Eden's geology, geography, and ecology. Udunar simultaneously began transporting staff and equipment to Eden, establishing colony stations on Eden's island-like continents.
Terraforming Eden
Terraforming the colony began soon once the bulk of Udunar's terraforming staff settled on Eden. Applying Udunar's theories of Nano-Genomic Modeling, scientists started the process of altering the planet's ecosystem over the following years. Aiding in the terraforming process was a peering network that linked scientists together to supervise the planet's evolutionary progress via drones running on centralized AI systems and networks. The networked drones monitored the terramodeling process, sharing and arranging data through the main AI datacores within six primary colony stations. Colonists began introducing genetically engineered nano-rhinoviruses called RNAVs into specific animal and plant specimens. These RNAVs, working as evolutionary catalysts, introduced new genetic sequences, forcing a much of the life on Eden to begin an accelerated evolution, molding Eden into Udunar's paradise world. The work of terraforming Eden was proving to be hugely successful, turning Eden into a lush garden world tailored to human settlement within a generation. A seemingly unlimited supply of plant and animal resources could completely sustain an independent colony.
Along with abundant food supplies, Eden's vast oceans also provided fuel reserves to the colonists. Enormous reserves of methane hydrate were found under Eden's oceans within a vast network of undersea shelves. This could provide huge energy reserves to the colony, readily accessible through mining and processing. This prompted large-scale mining operations on Eden extracting the hydrated gas, deploying fuel throughout the colony. This industry would lead to eventually powering nearly all of the colonies economic and terraforming infrastructure.
Migration to Paradise
Stories of Eden's paradisaical success began to make rounds on Earth, inspiring visions of wonder and bliss in thousands of people. Many of them would sell everything they had in hopes of being able to afford the cost of making it to this paradise of a planet, despite its expensive traveling cost. Jumping across six star systems before reaching Eden was costly for interstellar travel, at the same time the same cost would also apply from Eden to Earth. Keeping the flow of of interstellar travel between Eden and Earth meant that Udunar ended up having to subsidize much of the traveling expense. This put much strain on Udunar's monetary resources on Earth. Many travelers would come impoverished from Earth, fortunate for them, Eden was easily able to accommodate the coming travelers each year thanks to its abundance of local resources. The expensive cost and distance to Eden was able to keep immigration to Eden at a minimum, allowing Eden to grow it's population steadily. This steady influx of new colonists meant that Udunar could set them up with work, helping to build more infrastructure on the colony. Eden's population would continue to grow and become more crowded, building a more complex economic society.
Udunar's Collapse
Udunar executives on Earth were hard-pressed to support the corporation's cash flow. The distance from Earth and the other colonies limited Eden in being a contributor in interstellar trade. Despite this, Udunar continued to send support to Eden to continue with the colonization process. Something that could assist in providing a profit to Udunar however, was Udunar's intellectual property. The first decade of colonization of Eden had Udunar introducing genetically manipulated Terran plants and animals which thrived in Eden's new environment. This lush environment contrasted with Earth with its depleted resources and high strain from the burgeoning population. The same ecological modeling tested on Eden seemed to be the perfect opportunity for Udunar to sell it's services in an effort to terraform Earth itself.
In the following years, Udunar began to spearhead environmental projects to reshape Earth's ecosystem, outsourcing much of the work to outside companies. Udunar hoped that it could secure income from its patents alone, leaving the cost of operation to other companies. One of these companies was Elite Genome Labs which shared Udunars environmental vision for improving the quality of human life. This investment strategy was marginally successful but protesting from the Catholic Church against genetically modified organisms as well as unstable economic conditions began to roadblock Udunar from its financial objectives. This roadblock in conjunction with the expense of supporting Eden began to drain Udunar of it's monetary resources. The corporation was losing money year after year, exhausting its capital assets until Udunar eventually declared bankruptcy in 5456 A.D. Local investments of Udunars were soon sold off for pittances to pay off debtors. All of these projects closed down, with the partnering companies securing patent rights for themselves.
Colonists of Eden, with the support of ex-Udunar executives, found a legal loophole in Udunar's colonial contract with the Concordat. This loophole allowed the colonists to purchase Eden for themselves. While fought in Earth's courts over the decades that followed, the colonists were eventually able to legally purchase Eden for themselves. The colonists were able to buy Eden from the remnants of Udunar for less than one percent of its estimated value that same year. A single cargo fleet carried the payment of minerals and luxury goods from Eden to Earth with the Human Concordat funding the expense of the transport. This outcome did not sit well with the Concordat but any retribution to enforce proved too costly to be worthy of paying. The Concordat did not see a point in bothering.
Eden's Independence
After breaking off from Udunar following its collapse. Eden's vibrant ecology and open culture continued to dissolve disparity of wealth and wanton impulses continued to diminish. Because of this idyllic transition, Eden grew out of the ills that plague most societies, doing away with poverty and malicious desires. Eden's lush environment created a blissful milieu for primitive and modern societies to flourish alongside each other, allowing Edenites to fully enjoy life of their own choosing. These societies would develop into distinct super-cultures. The first being the Gleanei, dedicated to living purely off of Eden's ecology. The second being the Roh'im, a technologically advanced culture centered on developing technology to improve the standard of living on Eden to be even higher. With Udunar's corporate government being dissolved and colonists being unable to agree on any form of government, Eden began shifting towards a form of cooperative anarchy instead of any formalized colonial government. To Eden's colonists, they had achieved the dream of building a paradise world that did not require the protections afforded by a centralized government.
From the years of 5458 A.D. to 5512 A.D., no contact between Eden and Earth had occurred. Except for a passing Explorer Corp vessel, it was over half a century before the next Gateship would arrive in the Ra solar system. Travel to Eden was still expensive and without Concordat subsidies, only Gateships that had secure economic incentive would make the journey to Eden. Even then, these Gateships began decreasing nearly every decade. Gateships would arrive, bringing a cargo hold of hopeful colonists. Of these handful of Gateships that arrived, all of them would begin their return trip back to Caprice, taking cargo and supplies to make their trip worthwhile. In 5515 A.D., a small diplomatic government was globally ratified to serve as a representative voice to the Concordat.
Beginning in 5790 A.D., more news came with another influx of colonists that the Human Concordat was facing severe political challenges with an increase in "Earth First" policies. With this also came rumors that Earth's economy was in danger of complete collapse. This seemed to be of little consequence to Edenites who felt that they were living in paradise. One Gateship, the HCS Salus with it's fleets of ships even decided to remain within the Ra solar system and its crew deciding to settle on Eden rather than return to Caprice. The commanding staff of another Gateship was powerless to prevent the mutinies aboard the Salus, that Gateship left the system, returning to Caprice with the intent to report the mutany to the Concordat. Edenites had little notion that the Gateships from Earth and Caprice would never return. Two visits by Atlantean Gateships occurred in 5799 A.D. and 5809 A.D. but afterwards would disappear as well, to never return. Within another generation, Eden society had assumed that the Human Concordat and the other colonies had either collapsed or lost interest in Eden. Few if any Edenites cared, those were the problems of others to deal with and not them. The small government to Earth would soon dissolve and be dismantled.
1st Tannhauser Incident
Eden reached the point it could rightfully claim the title of the most beautiful planet humanity had ever found. The Udunar Corporation had even made it more beautiful by genetically evolving plant and animal life better suited to human habitation. The only reason it did not achieve an even higher level of prominence was its distance from Earth. However, several key events changed Eden from a genetically perfected ecosphere, to a world struggling with itself and everything they became.
The first event was something which developed slowly over decades. As they continued to perfect genetically modified plants and animals to help them sustain the balance of life on the planet, they found sustaining their own lives to be relatively easy. This allowed them to dedicate more time and energy to science and space exploration. Indeed, they would eventually go on to further explore the outer space around them and develop space assets that rivalled Earth’s, with automated factory satellites and fleets of exploration ships.
As Eden became more and more bountiful, the inhabitants needed less and less support from the outside, even before they began developing a space fleet. They evolved in this way until they merely did not need any support from anyone. When the Udunar Corporation went bankrupt and faded away into the annals of history, the Edenites were simply not fazed. When the Earth pulled support from all the colony worlds, the Edenites didn’t even notice. They had become completely independent. But they had also become isolated in their own hubris.
Through scientific arrogance, they experimented with interstellar gates past the realm of known parameters. As they competed with each other to see who could open the smallest interstellar gate, also known as Tannhauser Gates, they set into motion an accident of catastrophic proportions. One failed experiment resulted in a massive explosion of gravitational forces that expanded out through the system. As the gravitational force collided with a large asteroid belt, the Ophidian Asteroid Belt, it sent tens of thousands of asteroids accelerating randomly throughout the system. This in turn led to swarms of comets deluging the inner planets. The planet of Eden was struck by dozens of asteroids, six of which were massive. These six were ultimately responsible for killing 90% of the population and instantly changing the biosphere. The landscape was changed from a lush, unending resource carefully crafted from endless hours of bioengineering, to a nightmare-hellscape of ruin and debris. Eden was a paradise no more. This event is referred to as the 1st Tannhauser Accident.
As they came out of those apocalyptic times, hundreds of years ago, a sense of hierarchy led to families taking power and being pronounced as noble houses. Dozens of these noble houses came into existence. The greatest of them forged seven kingdoms; The Seiath Empire, Duchy of Rama, Bhagath Protectorate, Monarch of Reisling, Tiamaut Sovereignty, Merchant Houses of Kur (MHK), and the Audu’uth Kingdom. The Gan Eden Confederacy (GEC) is a governing body that was developed almost a century ago as a neutral meeting place. All the kingdoms have representation here and debate the future of Eden. The GEC does its best to promote a sense of peace and unity among Edenites.
The planet healed in time. But the days of a perfectly balanced ecosphere were gone. Most of the ruined structures of the old world have been grown over by flora and fauna that are no longer carefully managed by geneticists. However, this new wilderness of Eden holds treasures yet to be found. Expeditions continue to come across wonderous ruins, strange animals, mysterious floating islands, and craters with rare ores. Salvaging is now a very common profession on Eden.
Twelve consortiums also came up to operate as independent entities. Many of them are privateers on the open seas, but some of them perform more militant or specialized duties. Several have pledged loyalty to noble houses and act as an extension of their kingdom’s military forces. A few specialize in piracy.
These kingdoms and consortiums came into conflict with each other and even waged war during the last few hundred years. And, while Edenites tend to promote compromise and peace, due to past events, Eden has more recently gone through a political upheaval, threatening the stability of their global economy. While greatly abhorring needless loss of life, war was yet again looming.
As a result of the 1st Tannhauser Accident, the Ophidian Asteroid Belt remains unstable to this day. Asteroids continue to break from their orbital patterns. As they do so, some of them eventually collide with the planets in the system. It has been estimated that Eden has been hit by over a thousand asteroids since the 1st Tannhauser Accident. While they are generally small and usually land in the great oceans that cover 4/5ths of the planet, modern Edenites constantly debate what should be done about the asteroid strikes. Some demand a new world order to unify their actions to better deal with the threat. Others suggest leaving Eden in order to find another planet for everyone to inhabit. These debates strained the GEC.
CEF Invasion & the 2nd Tannhauser Incident
When the Earth’s Colonial Expeditionary Force (CEF) showed up 11 years ago, several things happened which changed ‘what could have been’. First, as the CEF capital ships came through the interstellar gate, they somehow triggered a 2nd Tannhauser Accident. As before, this destabilized large portions of the Ophidian Asteroid Belt, sending asteroids accelerating throughout the system yet again. Several of these asteroids hit Eden, causing global devastation. These asteroids were not as large as the ones that struck the planet during the first accident. Even though, their many impacts still resulted in 10% of the population dying and a global emergency that the Edenites struggled to manage.
As the planet reeled from the devastation of the asteroid strikes, the CEF invaded. The noble houses of Eden initially tried to repel the invasion, but they were woefully scattered. Trying to respond to a planetary emergency and repel a CEF invasion force at the same time created a very desperate situation. The CEF had a significant advantage.
During the initial fighting, the CEF noted that the Seiath Empire had the largest and most capable military force on the planet. With lessons learned from Utopia, CEF Command was quick to promise the lion’s share of support if the Empire would capitulate. After less than a week of fighting, the Seiath Empire was the first to swear fealty to the CEF. Soon after, all the other kingdoms fell in line or else they suffer the wrath of the CEF with dwindling support from their neighbors. Eden officially became another colony world reclaimed by Earth less than two weeks after the invasion began.
The CEF then set out to destabilize any alliances that could prove resistant to continued subjugation of the planet. They immediately presumed authority over the GEC. And, using the Seiath Empire’s desire to re-acquire the Duchy of Rama and the Bhagath Protectorate, who had broken off from the Empire in a violent revolution decades prior, the CEF assisted the Seiathians in simultaneous invasions of the two kingdoms. The invasions of these smaller kingdoms were quick and brutal. Both kingdoms swore fealty back to the Seiath Empire within hours, their nobles becoming lesser vassals to the Empire’s nobles as part of the terms of surrendering.
This returned some agricultural and industrial assets back to the Seiath Empire, but more importantly it sent a message to the rest of the planet. The noble houses of the Seiath Empire held the most power from their alignment with the CEF. 10 years ago, the CEF tasked the Empire with organizing the entire planet’s military resources into an invasion force to assist them with their efforts to reinvade Terra Nova. While many wanted to resist, none wanted to become the next victim of the Empire’s sudden ambitions of world dominance.
However, not everyone on the planet went along completely. Militants from the Monarch of Reisling, the Tiamaut Sovereignty, and the Audu’uth Kingdom secretly waged guerilla warfare against the CEF. Their operations mostly focus on hit and run tactics, where the insurgent forces couldn’t be captured or identified. The Audu’uthian forces became bolder over time, hitting harder targets and performing riskier raids. Unbeknownst to the rest of the kingdoms, the Audu’uthians had developed a secret arrangement with Black Talon forces which had emboldened their efforts.
It was only a matter of time before the CEF started connecting the dots. Eventually, two Black Talon operatives were captured and brutally interrogated until they gave up information about Audu’uth’s dissent. Armed with this information, and looking to make an example of insurgent activity, CEF capital ships opened fire with an orbital bombardment, wiping Audu’uth’s capital city of Edim off the map. Hundreds of thousands of people died, including the Kingdom’s governing body, the Triumvirate Monarchy, along with Lady Hermione Beauford, the Kingdom’s enigmatic leader.
This act was performed as a show of force by the CEF and highly propagated publicly to have been required in order to rid the planet of terrorists bent on destroying Edenite freedoms and safety. While some were convinced, many saw through the propaganda. The CEF also underestimated how most Edenites detest such outright devastation. Even the Seiath Empire is concerned with the brutality of the attack and what it means for their future.
However, the legacy of Audu’uth is far from over. Lady Hermione Beauford and her noble house, House Beauford, had already put plans into motion even before the arrival of the CEF. With the Dragoon Marei Consortium, Audu’uth’s privateer navy, they had been paving the way for space exploration for years. They were even secretly refurbishing automated factory satellites (autofacs) hidden in orbit around a planet called Mekavah, farther out in their system, the Ra System. These autofacs were long forgotten marvels from the time before Eden’s major apocalypse hundreds of years ago. When Black Talons arrived in the Ra System, it was here that first contact was made. And it’s the Dragoon Marei Navy that continues to secretly host their operations.
Lady Gabrielle Esperanz of the Dragoon Marei Consortium, who was personally knighted by the Triumvirate Monarchy on Edim, is currently supervising Audu’uthian operations for the hidden space autofacs. She was originally tasked with building up an exploration fleet, using the autofacs’ capabilities. While the autofacs are far from fully operational, she has a sizeable military force at her disposal. Upon hearing the news of the CEF orbital bombardment of Edim, where most of her family resides, she immediately swore revenge. As she has the autofacs retooled to make weapons of war, she also looks to the Black Talons as partners for increased military operations against the CEF, and even against the Seiath Empire should they ever get in her way.
The Monarch of Reisling, Tiamaut Sovereignty, and the Merchant Houses of Kur (MHK), while not aware of the autofacs and the full extent of Black Talon operations, have secretly pledged support. However, they are reluctant to perform any operations which may identify them as terrorists or insurgents, especially after what happened to the city of Edim and all the people living there.
Geology
Eden is one of two planets that revolve in the ecosphere of Ra, the other being Kain. Eden is situated near the middle of the life support zone of 1.77 AU. Having an equatorial radius of 5740 kilometers, Eden is more dense than Earth, having an Earth mass of 0.9 with the estimated density of 793 kg/m3. As such, Eden has the surface gravity of 1.11 at sea level. Because of Edens higher gravity compared to Earth or Terra Nova, Eden’s mountains are slightly lower in elevation. The tallest mountain on Eden is Mount Ebech at 7.2 km in elevation above sea level. The small radius of Eden reduces its horizon distance to roughly 2.9 km. Due to Eden’s axial tilt being only 2.4 degrees, it has little temperature variance between seasons.
Society & Culture
Timekeeping
During Eden’s early colonial period, the settlers developed a local lunar calendar that tracked the movements of Edens two moon, relative to the ocean tides. Like other colonies, the edenite calendar began on year one, coinciding with its discovery. This is referred to as the Tiel Calendar or TL. This calendar is consists of six months within an Edenite year or tiel (she-el) in Edenite Anglic. These months consist of Janu’r, Feib’r, Maurk, Apier’l, Mauya, and Ju’un. The first five months are made up of 56 days, followed by the last month having 54 days. Each month then is made up of eight 7-day weeks, each week similar to that of Earth, going from Sunday to Saturday. Eden rotates every 28.2 Earth hours along its axial tilt, to keep with the familial convention of 60-minute hours, Eden minutes are counted at 60.43 seconds. This change is done so that a hours can be rounded up to 28 hours within an edenite day. Edenite years are based on the synodic convergence of Elom and Soma, with the two moons converging every 334.28 days. In order to maintain a consistent yearly count of 334 days with every eight years, a system of alternating leap years was established. Leap years on Eden are four years apart, adding one or two days to the last week of the last month. Leap years or either 335 days or 336 days will alternate between each other every four edenite years. While sidreal year calendars were created, none ever took root. This is due to colonist appreciating how close the Tiel calendar was to Earths own calendar and yearly cycle, as well as colonist relying on the close ties of the Tiel calendar to the tides of Eden’s oceans. This relationship helps with aids in fishing, shipping, and other sea based industries. Edenite calendar formatting are done by year, month, and day. As such an edenite date would be expressed as TL 781 Apier’l 11 (33 Summer TN 1947 or June 1, 6142 A.D.).
Gallery
Emblem representing Eden
Map of Eden
References
DP9-072 Life on Eden, Dream Pod 9, 2002.
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