Whizbang Dustyboots
Gnometown Hero
Another world from my game, presented for your edification.
Focaline is a medium-population (700,000) ocean world in the Aramis subsector of the Spinward Marches. (It is inhabited by approximately 612,500 humans, 76,562 vargr, 9,570 bwaps and 1,368 members of other species.)
The planet is a non-industrial, agricultural Imperial world. Its primary industry -- indeed, dominating all other aspects of the economy and cultural life -- is groat-farming. Exports of groat cloth and unprocessed hair make up more than 70 percent of the planet's gross domestic product. Groat meat is considered a delicacy by the vargr, and the slaughterhouses of Focaline export great quantities of the meat off-world to Lablon and from there to the neighboring Firgr subsector as a result. The planet has three frontier starports, each at one of Focaline's major cities, although all three are incredibly primitive by Imperium standards.
More than half of the human population of Focaline is spread out on groat farms that cover all the low-lying regions of the planet's landmasses, while non-humans are concentrated in the cities of Dunedin, Napier and Nelson. Residents of each of the cities have incredibly strong opinions about the others -- Dunedin residents are said to be haughty artistes and scholars, Napier residents are work-obsessed bores and Nelson residents are said to be unwashed hillbillies -- but to outsiders, the cities seem more or less identical.
The mostly polite and friendly residents of the planet tend toward placid conservationism -- the universal democracy of Focaline is one of the least exciting human governments known -- and are proudly self-sufficient.
Focaline residents of all species are obsessed with the ancient sport of cricket, and each city has a league of its own, as does the "Regional" rural community. Each year, the top team from each league plays in a tournament to determine the best cricket team on the planet, and the two weeks of the Focaline Cup are more important to the cultural life of the planet than any holiday, religious or Imperial.
The isolation of residents has made the planet popular with recluses of all sorts. Heavily fortified highleaf farms lurk in the remotest valleys of the planet -- wandering down the wrong dirt road can be fatal.
In 1114, an apparent mass murder/suicide at the Peoples Autonomous Agricultural Collective, a utopian community with strong religious and philosophical beliefs briefly brought Focaline to unwelcome prominence around the Imperium. The collective's buildings were burned to the ground in the events of that year, and what exactly happened to the nearly 1,000 members of the collective remains something of a mystery to this day.
The planet is highly seismically active, with vulcanism completely reshaping the planet's surface every 1,000 years or so.
Focaline has two moons, Endymion and the smaller, reddish Aetolus, an asteroid captured shortly after the formation of the planetary system.
Focaline is a medium-population (700,000) ocean world in the Aramis subsector of the Spinward Marches. (It is inhabited by approximately 612,500 humans, 76,562 vargr, 9,570 bwaps and 1,368 members of other species.)
The planet is a non-industrial, agricultural Imperial world. Its primary industry -- indeed, dominating all other aspects of the economy and cultural life -- is groat-farming. Exports of groat cloth and unprocessed hair make up more than 70 percent of the planet's gross domestic product. Groat meat is considered a delicacy by the vargr, and the slaughterhouses of Focaline export great quantities of the meat off-world to Lablon and from there to the neighboring Firgr subsector as a result. The planet has three frontier starports, each at one of Focaline's major cities, although all three are incredibly primitive by Imperium standards.
More than half of the human population of Focaline is spread out on groat farms that cover all the low-lying regions of the planet's landmasses, while non-humans are concentrated in the cities of Dunedin, Napier and Nelson. Residents of each of the cities have incredibly strong opinions about the others -- Dunedin residents are said to be haughty artistes and scholars, Napier residents are work-obsessed bores and Nelson residents are said to be unwashed hillbillies -- but to outsiders, the cities seem more or less identical.
The mostly polite and friendly residents of the planet tend toward placid conservationism -- the universal democracy of Focaline is one of the least exciting human governments known -- and are proudly self-sufficient.
Focaline residents of all species are obsessed with the ancient sport of cricket, and each city has a league of its own, as does the "Regional" rural community. Each year, the top team from each league plays in a tournament to determine the best cricket team on the planet, and the two weeks of the Focaline Cup are more important to the cultural life of the planet than any holiday, religious or Imperial.
The isolation of residents has made the planet popular with recluses of all sorts. Heavily fortified highleaf farms lurk in the remotest valleys of the planet -- wandering down the wrong dirt road can be fatal.
In 1114, an apparent mass murder/suicide at the Peoples Autonomous Agricultural Collective, a utopian community with strong religious and philosophical beliefs briefly brought Focaline to unwelcome prominence around the Imperium. The collective's buildings were burned to the ground in the events of that year, and what exactly happened to the nearly 1,000 members of the collective remains something of a mystery to this day.
The planet is highly seismically active, with vulcanism completely reshaping the planet's surface every 1,000 years or so.
Focaline has two moons, Endymion and the smaller, reddish Aetolus, an asteroid captured shortly after the formation of the planetary system.
