Shoji

First visited in GSC 203 by an expedition led by Zoe Bonnard, Shoji (From 諸寺 in Japanese, meaning various temples) was a barren, airless world a little larger than Earth.  It was named for its many sites of natural, if desolate beauty.  Shoji also had many rich veins of valuable minerals, and the Planetary League decided to terraform and settle it.

Shoji lacked an active core, so an electromagnetic ring was constructed around the planet (an immense undertaking that required decades to complete), and atmospheric conditioners were set up.  Various mining interests came for the resources, and tourism to see the planets various natural wonders formed the backbone of the colony's economy.

Years passed, and Shoji flourished, a complete biosphere was established, large cities sprang up, and many industries came to call Shoji home.

In GSC 836, an event happened that would forever shatter the tranquility of Shoji.  A group of bio-prospectors, laden with samples from Mefitis, on their way to a Cosmid laboratory accidentally contaminated the planet with a variety of diseases from Mefitis due to poor containment practices. 

The Mefitis Plague ravaged the population, turning most of the inhabitants into mindless, shambling zombies.   Various attempts were made to contain the contagion, including such drastic measures as nuclear and chemical weapons.  All attempts failed, and the once thriving world was left in ruin.  The planet was placed under strict quarantine, and its name was changed to 所持, meaning possession, but which is also written and pronounced Shoji in English.  The Planetary League maintained a naval blockade of Shoji to enforce the quarantine, until all ships were recalled late in the Great Reckoning.

Shoji became a chaos world early in Era-2, and the Galactic Republic destroyed the planet after the War of Galactic Unification.

The Lucifer System

The Lucifer system was named after its tragic secret was discovered by explorers from the Planetary League.  Later, the Lucifer system was the location of an important battle in the War of Galactic Unification.

Tragic Secret

The first scout from the Planetary League reached the Lucifer System in GSC 190. The scout noticed that Lucifer 4 seemed to have the right conditions for life, and left a beacon orbiting Lucifer 8 to alert future explorers. On GSC 201.24, Captain Zoe Bonnard and the PLS Excelsior arrived in the system and made a series of discoveries.

Weak radio signals around the system belonged to a number of simple exploratory probes.

One planet had a small research outpost that still contained the remains of an exploration team.

There was a black hole about as massive as a planet that orbited in the star's habitable zone.  Apparently someone on the planet had discovered how to create a black hole artificially, and the creation had swallowed the planet and all its inhabitants.

System Details

Lucifer is a middle-aged orange star (K-class).

Lucifer Prime:  a rocky, Chthonian planet close to the star, lightly explored with a few probes.

Lucifer 2:  A rocky planet.

Lucifer 3: Ice giant world.

Asteroid ring

Lucifer 4:  Once inhabited by a technological civilization, it was swallowed by an artificially created black hole.

Lucifer 5: Rocky, airless world, had an inhabited research outpost before the 4th planet was destroyed. There were no survivors of this outpost.

Lucifer 6: Gas-giant, had a few probes.

Lucifer 7: Ice giant.

Lucifer 8:  Gas-giant, with many moons.

New Promise

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Geography

New Promise is a temperate world with two main moons, Wen ( short for Wenchang Wang: 文昌王 ) and Caishen  (財神).  The planet itself is dominated by two major east-west oriented continents ideal for farming with most of the land consisting of gently rolling plains, punctuated by numerous river deltas.

  The Capitol of the Planetary League settlement was Annan City (named for Kofi Annan, an early leader of the United Nations).  The major cities in Planetary League territory included Annan City, Alexandria, New Clinton, Franklin City, New Denver, Union Delta, Port Sushi, Key Center, and New Alvarez.

Annan City was the first city in human-controlled space to achieve a population of over one billion.  Port Sushi was named for the abundant, high-quality seafood found nearby, off the coast.

History

First reached by human explorers in GSC 130, New Promise is a very Earth-like world.  It was the first world discovered by the Planetary League that was immediately suitable to agriculture. New Promise was discovered at a time when the human population was exploding, and agricultural lands were straining at their limits to feed everyone.  Upon discovery, various scientific surveys and studies were rapidly undertaken before starting full-scale agriculture.  Where possible, care was taken to preserve local ecosystems, but the nutritional needs of the core-worlds dominated the development of the planet.

New Promise was settled before any official contact had been made with intelligent alien species.  First contact was made as a result of the First Convergence War, a conflict between the settlers (backed by the Planetary League) and a group greys from the Convergence who had set up an outpost nearby.  The Convergence was trying to dissuade human settlement because of the radio noise that comes along with human settlements, and interferes with their hive-minds.

At the height of the war, during the Battle of Key Center, the Planetary League battleship Le Guin fired her massive dispersion gun while still technically below the horizon at the Convergence mother-ship, instantly carving 100 Meter Canyon (named for the exact width of the dispersion beam, which, not coincidentally, is also the width of the canyon) in the flank of the Burton Range, south-west of Key Center.

The 100 Meter Canyon

The Edenites set up a colony and nature preserve early on, called Silvernote Hollow.  The capitol was Potterton, named after Beatrix Potter.

The rogue planet Dogur-dann was discovered in the vicinity of the New Promise system in GSC 138, the home-world of the Dogarri that had been flung out of its original system.  This led to the passage of the Alien Assistance Act of GSC 139.

Over time, New Promise developed many other industries beyond agriculture, and large cities grew there.  New Promise was the location of the first city in human-controlled space to house over one billion people, Alexandria.

New Promise was the birthplace of Zoe Bonnard, one of the most famous explorers of the Planetary League.

The economy relied too heavily on automation and robotic labor, leading in time to several robotic uprisings inspired, and encouraged by the Cult of Troniac.

New Promise remained an important agricultural world throughout Eras 1,2,and3. 

Notable Native Life-forms

Fire-grass is a plant that bursts into flames when it comes into contact with uric acid.

Glogvine is a small plant with edible seed-pods, found in highland areas.

Pixielamp is a short grass with bioluminescent flowers.

The Squidbeast is a large predator. The biggest populations of which live on the arid steppes between Franklin City, Annan City, and Alexandria.

Bonnard's World

History

Discovered by Zoe Bonnard early in Era-1, Bonnard's World orbits Bonnard, an F-class star, in its habitable zone.  

Bonnard's World had a simple ecosystem consisting of single-celled organisms based solely on RNA.  After discovery, the Planetary League set up a research station.  

After considerable study, it was determined that the planet would be ideally suited for a terraforming project to recreate the conditions of the Triassic Period as part of an initiative to restore extinct species.

A local economy grew up around the Triassic nature preserve, and several areas were set aside as hunting grounds where people could hunt dinosaurs for a fee.

During the Great Reckoning, as the Planetary League was crumbling, Bonnard's World joined the Midori Republic.  

For a period in the run up to the War of the Empires, the Holy Empire of Man did capture Bonnard's World, but the Midori Republic took it back during the War of the Gods.

During the War of Galactic Unification, Bonnard's World joined the Galactic Republic by popular vote.