FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

Core World Planets and Cultures:

Alpha Centauri System:

SecLand:

2nd planet from Alpha Centauri A

Population: 10 billion

Climate: 10-15% warmer on average than Old Earth, terraformed, multiple biomes.

Orbital Period: .874 Standard Years

Rotation: Accelerated to 24 hours

Government: Mixed Democracy/Oligarchy

History: SecLand, Terra Secundus, New Pallas, The Capital. The first exosolar planet colonized by terragen life and the center of the Federation of Human Species. The first seed ship to SecLand came from the Republic of Pallas in Sol System and immediately set to work building their settlement, known then as "Second Landing" and now as "SecLand Arcology", and a network of observatory satellites and orbital weapons platforms in case future colonists proved hostile, or the great foe that had reduced the Solar System to rubble found them. The second colony ship, this time from the Society for the Preservation of Parahuman Species from Vesta, arrived 25 years later. Hampered, as it were, by the cargo space taken up by their onboard gestation labs and war factories for an anticipated invasion. However, by the time of their arrival the Pallas colonists had built up defenses that gave the crew, already demoralized by the loss of Sol, sufficient pause to consider negotiations. After a quarter of the SPPS crew had been spaced it was agreed that they would set down on the far side of the planet from the Pallas arcology, and their scientists would turn their expertise in biology to terraforming the then-barren world while New Pallas built up their mutual defenses and infrastructure. The third and final colony ship, this one from Earth and carrying over a thousand live and fully grown humans, arrived fifty years after the first ship. This craft brought a wide range of skills and knowledge, living knowledge, to a planet whose inhabitants up until then had primarily only known life inside their half-built habitat structures. The humans emigrated nearly equally to both colonies, over the centuries they interbred with the parahumans, with the net result being that many SecLanders have less fur or their facial features are closer to human than many further colonies. Today pure-bred humans, and parahumans (excepting uplifts), are miniscule minorities on SecLand with only a couple million individuals. The average SecLander resembles a blend of at least half a dozen species of Terragen origin.

For centuries the two colonies lived in relative peace, New Pallas breeding like rabbits while the SPPS cloned new citizens in bulk. But when the terraforming of SecLand had reached the point where colonists could breathe the atmosphere tensions re-established themselves between the two old enemies. With terraforming nearing completion some wondered what use New Pallas could have for the SPPS, on both continents. To that end the SPPS began to covertly build weapons in their Arcologies while New Pallas shifted their orbital satellites slightly. The humans of both colonies made a brief attempt to broker a peace, but when the mass-produced faces of the SPPS met the yellow eyes and pointed ears of Pallas they realized that they no longer had much in common as well. It all came to a head when the SPPS concealed a lethal virus in food shipments sent from their farms to the cities of New Pallas, thousands died in the months that followed. By the time the New Pallas government realized what had been done every SPPS arcology had unveiled surface-to-orbit mass drivers that could shoot down their enemy's satellites. Even then, many arcologies were leveled by orbital strikes. Then the land battles began. The cybernetically augmented citizen-soldiers of New Pallas facing off against the bioprinted legions of the SPPS. The fighting raged on for months, then abruptly, it ceased less than a year after the war had begun. You see, the SPPS had underestimated New Pallas's skill with biotechnology, crafting a virus that could be deadly to all the diverse inhabitants of the Republic had been difficult, but a dirty little secret of many 21st century regimes were the techniques to engineer a virus that had disastrous effects when it interacted with a specific gene or genes. And the Society for the Preservation of Parahuman Species had only used a couple genotypes for their army, and even fewer for their ruling priest-scientists. Once the virus had been grown any SPPS unit that came into contact with the enemy was dead within a week, in a month the ruling class had been reduced to a few paranoid individuals who had sealed themselves in hermetic bunkers. Specialized by repeated cloning into an effective caste system, and their soldier castes suddenly extinct, the surviving SPPS arcologies found themselves helpless against New Pallas occupation forces. Their ancestral enemies crushed, the House of Silver turned their sights upward.

Tau Ceti:

Population: 8.4 billion

Climate: 10% colder on average than Earth, not terraformed, mirror amino native life

Orbital Period: 1.6 Standard years

Rotation: 30 hours

Gravity: 1.2 G

Government: Constitutional Monarchy

History: Shortly after Tau Ceti was settled an ideological movement that believed genotypes must be maintained to prevent homogeny from dooming the species emerged and grew to encompass a significant fraction of the population. The group's solution to the supposed problem was to separate each "species" of parahuman, based on their non-human gene donor, into different "clans" that would settle different regions of the planet. The clans grew in population rapidly, bumping up against the borders designated at founding in less than a century. War broke out. Clans rallied behind charismatic warrior-nobles and weaker clans swore oaths of fealty to stronger ones to save their own skins. These wars continued until contact with the first probe from the Centauri system, realizing that there was another civilization out there and that they were capable of interstellar travel the clan heads held a council to decide what to do about it. The majority ruled that they needed a single man to represent their world when the outsiders came in person, they elected King Hideo Fink of the feline clan as the official ruler of Tau Ceti. When the official diplomatic envoys and information merchants arrived he dealt with them, when the first stargate was constructed his grand-daughter negotiated the terms for the merger of the two world governments. But many in the major clans resented the loss of their sovereignty to first another clan who hadn't even had the courtesy of besting them in battle and now to these off-worlders? They re-organized their armies and led assaults on the Federation enclaves. Praetor Lirdrill did not tolerate this defiance and sent the first units of the newly mustered Federal Guard to suppress these rebels. Surprisingly, she and the king of Tau Ceti found unexpected allies in many of the minor clans subordinate to the rebels. These minor clans had been exposed to the democratic ideals of SecLand and saw an opportunity to gain some measure of independence in the brewing war. This set the precedent for future "interventions" in planetary government by the Federation. When the dust was settled the surviving rebel elements of the clans were deported beyond the present borders of the Federation and a parliament was set up to govern Tau Ceti. Each clan, major or minor, was represented equally in the upper house of parliament while the lower house represented geographical regions by population independent of clan. It has been that way ever since, despite grumbling by old conservatives and young romantics, both are free to leave for colonies where feudalism is still practiced.

Epsilon Eridani

Population: 4.2 billion

Climate: 30% warmer than old Earth, partial terraforming. High CO2 content

Orbital Period: .6 standard years

Rotation: 108 hours

Government: Technocracy

The third of the "Core" worlds, Eridani has been shaped by its long history just as much as its "sister" systems. Settled by one of the last colony ships out of Sol, the crew was left in a panic by the sudden destruction of the world they had left behind and thought they should keep running. However, their ship had only been designed for a one-way trip and could not hold out far beyond their intended destination of Epsilon Eridani, they not only would need to stop for refueling and repairs, they'd need to rebuild the ship entirely. They set up a colony on the most inhabitable (if barely) planet in the star system and dedicated as much of the infrastructure as possible to building a new starship. As the biofabbed workforce grew the crew realized that they could use the planet as a starting point for many more colony ships that could spread parahumanity across the cosmos. When the first new ship was complete half the original crew left aboard it, the other half stayed behind to direct construction of later ships and train the biofabbed (and their natural-born descendants) to crew them. Over the centuries more and more habitats were constructed to exploit new mineral deposits all over the star system and the population grew. Their single-minded purpose and the hostility of the natural environment made a totalitarian government seem a necessity, but the founders impressed upon them a necessity for the finest minds to be recognized. The government was essentially a single monopolistic company devoted to making starships, the highest ranked engineers decided the fate of the colony, promotion was, in theory, meritocratic. In practice Eridani became a familial oligarchy like so many others who came before them, half of whose highest echelons left the planet behind every generation. Dozens of colony ships were launched before contact with Centauri, Eridani colonies are still found every so often. It was a simple arrangement for the two worlds, Centauri had advanced propulsion and communication technologies, Eridani had a star system devoted to building ships, both wanted to spread their people out across the galaxy, they gave little trouble when the system was admitted to the Federation. Now, Eridani is the Federation's primary center for building starships, most of the Federal Guard's warships and countless mercantile craft were built there. The system has almost as many stargates as Centauri, freighters carrying rare elements for shipbuilding coming in from the frontier regions, and new freighters going out to their new owners throughout the Federation. However, a number of Centauri have emigrated to Eridani looking for work, whose democratic ideals threaten to shake the foundation of their technocratic society.