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Lunion/Lunion
Nov. 21st, 2017 09:33 amI recently was alerted to the existence of a program called Explanator. This is a world-building aide for Traveller, which takes the extended Universal World Profile (UWP), a string of numbers and letters that give the raw details of a system, and expands them into rough prose. An amazing tool for both a little gear-heading and a more readable text-based description of the world.
And when I say rough, I mean rough. The output needs a ton of cleaning and revision. Because the program essentially takes raw data and plants it in an assigned place. But still, the depth of information generated is gratifying to a busy game master.
To test it out, I turned to one of my favorite planets, Lunion, capital of Lunionmarch and crossroads of the Marches! Lunion is a large, heavy world with a thick atmosphere choked with pollutants and dust. Several billion people live there, enjoying a fair government and high technology.
Now to flesh it out. Reading the "first impressions" block, I got a vision of a world of mostly dry wastelands. With only 47%of the surface covered by water, there isn't much of a heat trap to drive weather. So much of the world away from the isolated seas and lakes are dry as a bone, and the dense atmosphere holds dust in a perpetual haze. A 38-degree axial tilt means that during the summers and winters, heating is going to be drastically uneven, causing powerful windstorms. At the Great Southern Ocean, summer brings real weather to the region.
Lunion has life, although it is primitive. Great mats of a yeast-like organism are found on most of the seas and lakes. These yeast-analogs, called Glien, form the basis of Lunion's food supply. Small shrimp-like critters feed on the mats but aren't eaten by humans because they are toxic to humans. Large mollusks can be found in most tidal areas. Their shells are highly prized by artists since they incorporate the dissolved metals found in the ocean water. Life on land is more limited, with some mosses and lichens which are mainly found in the southern hemisphere.
The planet is home to 8.589 billion sapients. Due to the harsh conditions, the vast majority of the population live in giant arcologies known as "Urbs." The five largest Urbs house over a billion residents each. Massiurb, the largest of the five great urbs, sprawls over 41,000 square kilometers and its towers rise several kilometers into the sky. A small percentage of the population lives outside the urbs. These are mostly the members of the population involved in harvesting Glien from the oceans.
Government is a civil service bureaucracy operated as a strict meritocracy. Testing is a fact of Lunionese life. Ever step in life requires testing; from advancement in school, to getting a promotion at work, even as far as gaining government office. The idea of patronage or nepotism is anathema to Lunion's idea of a perfect society. Testing involves not only examination of academic and physical qualifications for the position being sought, but psychological testing as well.
The actual governing functions of society are carried out by councils. Between the local neighborhood councils in the urbs to the Executive Committee that runs the system, there are thousands of councils running every aspect of the government. The councils hold legislative and judicial powers over their area of responsibility. The execution of those regulations and rulings are in the hands of police forces. Rulings from the highest level councils override lower council decisions. But travelers should be aware that the laws can change wildly from place to place, even inside one urb.
In general, the laws and law enforcement are very light-handed. Police are there to maintain the peace. While carrying weapons of most types is technically allowed, anyone doing so will find themselves being asked to leave commercial areas and attracting the attention of law enforcement. "Disturbing the Order" is a common offense visitors find themselves charged with.
The consent pressure of testing, and the fear of unending review, has left most Lunionese somewhat tense. Dealing with a Lunionese business can be exhausting, as everyone rushes around making sure that they show that they are doing their best to welcome the visitors and conclude their business quickly. Lunionese work long hours, rarely take breaks and are cut-throat when it comes to winning favor with their superiors. Because there's always a dark rumor that the tests can be manipulated.
Lunion is an industrial powerhouse, with multiple shipyards in orbit and extensive manufactories on the surface. Some of the smaller urbs are nothing but the housing for a single industrial plant. Lunion produces much of the heavy equipment used in the neighboring subsector.
And when I say rough, I mean rough. The output needs a ton of cleaning and revision. Because the program essentially takes raw data and plants it in an assigned place. But still, the depth of information generated is gratifying to a busy game master.
To test it out, I turned to one of my favorite planets, Lunion, capital of Lunionmarch and crossroads of the Marches! Lunion is a large, heavy world with a thick atmosphere choked with pollutants and dust. Several billion people live there, enjoying a fair government and high technology.
Now to flesh it out. Reading the "first impressions" block, I got a vision of a world of mostly dry wastelands. With only 47%of the surface covered by water, there isn't much of a heat trap to drive weather. So much of the world away from the isolated seas and lakes are dry as a bone, and the dense atmosphere holds dust in a perpetual haze. A 38-degree axial tilt means that during the summers and winters, heating is going to be drastically uneven, causing powerful windstorms. At the Great Southern Ocean, summer brings real weather to the region.
Lunion has life, although it is primitive. Great mats of a yeast-like organism are found on most of the seas and lakes. These yeast-analogs, called Glien, form the basis of Lunion's food supply. Small shrimp-like critters feed on the mats but aren't eaten by humans because they are toxic to humans. Large mollusks can be found in most tidal areas. Their shells are highly prized by artists since they incorporate the dissolved metals found in the ocean water. Life on land is more limited, with some mosses and lichens which are mainly found in the southern hemisphere.
The planet is home to 8.589 billion sapients. Due to the harsh conditions, the vast majority of the population live in giant arcologies known as "Urbs." The five largest Urbs house over a billion residents each. Massiurb, the largest of the five great urbs, sprawls over 41,000 square kilometers and its towers rise several kilometers into the sky. A small percentage of the population lives outside the urbs. These are mostly the members of the population involved in harvesting Glien from the oceans.
Government is a civil service bureaucracy operated as a strict meritocracy. Testing is a fact of Lunionese life. Ever step in life requires testing; from advancement in school, to getting a promotion at work, even as far as gaining government office. The idea of patronage or nepotism is anathema to Lunion's idea of a perfect society. Testing involves not only examination of academic and physical qualifications for the position being sought, but psychological testing as well.
The actual governing functions of society are carried out by councils. Between the local neighborhood councils in the urbs to the Executive Committee that runs the system, there are thousands of councils running every aspect of the government. The councils hold legislative and judicial powers over their area of responsibility. The execution of those regulations and rulings are in the hands of police forces. Rulings from the highest level councils override lower council decisions. But travelers should be aware that the laws can change wildly from place to place, even inside one urb.
In general, the laws and law enforcement are very light-handed. Police are there to maintain the peace. While carrying weapons of most types is technically allowed, anyone doing so will find themselves being asked to leave commercial areas and attracting the attention of law enforcement. "Disturbing the Order" is a common offense visitors find themselves charged with.
The consent pressure of testing, and the fear of unending review, has left most Lunionese somewhat tense. Dealing with a Lunionese business can be exhausting, as everyone rushes around making sure that they show that they are doing their best to welcome the visitors and conclude their business quickly. Lunionese work long hours, rarely take breaks and are cut-throat when it comes to winning favor with their superiors. Because there's always a dark rumor that the tests can be manipulated.
Lunion is an industrial powerhouse, with multiple shipyards in orbit and extensive manufactories on the surface. Some of the smaller urbs are nothing but the housing for a single industrial plant. Lunion produces much of the heavy equipment used in the neighboring subsector.
