User:NewOriginalSchwann/Sandbox

Aemaq is an Elryan frontier world with a population hovering around five-hundred million permanent residents, making it one of the less populated worlds in the Republic itself. The planet is located in the al-Wakwak system, and dwells fairly close to the system’s star - resulting in a quite hot, hard to inhabit environment on a planet dominated by vast chemical seas that cover upwards of ninety-five percent of the planet’s surface. The oceans of Ameaq are home to a vast amount of valuable chemicals and exotic maritime life, leading to the planet being fairly wealthy (if hazardous) and prosperous. The cities of Aemaq are built aboard hovering anti-gravity magpulse platforms that hold them above the chemical seas, and they are shielded from the chemicals in the air by use of massive energy domes that protect the floating cities. Below these floating cities is an ocean teeming with life despite the chemicals, some of which can grow to titanic sizes. However, the oceanic life of Aemaq is remarkably docile towards humanity, with floating cities and massive sea creatures living side-by-side in the oceans.

The Aemaqian capital of Rumaidair houses nearly forty million inhabitants in its massive floating city, which has come to be viewed as the premier example of floating cities on the planet in the Republic of Elyra and beyond. Utilizing magpulse drives similar to those found on Medina, Rumaidair floats a comfortable hundred meters above the Aemaqian Seas as it travels around the planet. The city itself is renowned throughout the Orion Spur as a key area for the chemical industry, with it being able to produce extremely rare chemicals in numbers unreachable elsewhere due to massive chemical “scoops” that draw materials from the seas themselves. All cities are like Rumaidair, with hundreds of magpulse plates holding them aloft above the ocean - each plate steadily pulsing and readjusting itself as the ocean swells below it.

Aemaq lacks any natural satellites, and has an odd appearance when viewed from orbit - light reflecting off of the planet’s oceans leads to the world appearing to be a dark bluish-purple hue.

History

Medina’s colonies started early as a large-scale mining effort of rare materials in early 2330, under the Coalition of Elyra. Its geological activity provided obscene mineral wealth, with many ores never before seen unearthing themselves from the rock below. While the geology of Medina was and still remains a mystery, the harvesting of this wealth was an immediately apparent goal. Permanent settlements were impossible, and vessels large enough to field any decent material output were much too slow to be viable. The Coalition at the time sent their best, and these scientists toiled for nearly twenty years before the invention of the famed Magpulse drive.

In 2360, the magpulse drive had met its first test runs, with the first platform - known as Drifa (now capital of Medina) - being established in the southern hemisphere of the planet. While the first prototypes were rudimentary and overpowered to contrast the planet’s Earth-like gravity, the warp technology they harnessed would go on to develop more efficient drives that permitted the extremely rapid expansion of the planet’s surface colonies.

By 2375, individuals from across the Coalition of Elyra were migrating to Drifa and other newly-founded extraction platforms, and in this rush, the planet became a boomtown.

With little, if any failures, the suspended and floating cities of Medina continue to hover over the planet’s surface to this day. Thousands of settlements have made a home for themselves here.

An image of Medina from orbit, displaying its rather dull features from a glance.

Culture

Art

The social culture surrounding Medina is one of perfection and art, and the planet itself has built an astounding reputation for quality in its exports. Medinean goods are valued galaxy-wide and especially in the Republic of Elyra. The quality of goods can be attributed to the immediate availability of almost every planetside resource imaginable short of biological. Little needs to be imported to Medina thanks to this, making the vast majority of products entirely local. As a result, in the floating cities, creation is as deeply rooted in one’s basic routine as eating or drinking may be. As extracting materials grows more automated, the creation of all manner of commodities proliferates.

With the above said, art is a key factor of Medinean culture. The Republic’s greatest artists find themselves often starting out on Medina, drawn to the freedom such unfathomable resources provide.

Individuals born planetside tend to grow on a colorful mindset, seeing artistic liberties as an absolute necessity to take when confronting invention. Every invention, from the most luxurious hovercar to a simple kitchen appliance is seen as its own contained canvas upon which the absolute boundaries of the creator’s imagination must be pushed. This mindset usually boils down to “If something can not be beautiful, why make it?”

The Phoron Bulletin

The Phoron Bulletin is a rather new entry to Medina, having only been formed in early 2430. However, since then, it has been responsible for countless millions of offworlders seeking the planet’s booty.

This bulletin is essentially a bounty system established by the Elyran government for the sake of outsourcing massive workloads to external parties of all varieties. These workloads include but are not limited to phoron location and extraction, and is a highly dangerous form of work. While forms of travel are granted by Elyran officials in the way of hover-barges and extraction vessels, the usual Bulletin hunter is found using their own ships or even daring to make expeditions on foot.

The craggy surface of Medina obscures the real rules of the bulletin. The areas outside of the floating cities are miniature free-for-alls, where individuals fight for phoron supplies and sites are hidden from view purposely. The Elyran government, while aware of this, is blatantly unable to do much about it - seeing as a worldwide sweep for phoron is enough effort on its own, sourcing it to the shady external parties doesn’t seem so bad when they get their phoron anyway.

Life on Medina

The floating cities of Medina generally contain a healthy variety of people from all walks of life. While there is no major distinction between offworlders and people born planetside, the lifestyles may vary tremendously.

The majority of offworlders coming to Medina seek one of two things ; the Phoron Bulletin’s bounties, or the wonders of the Medinean industry. Natives, on the other hand, tend to be born to middle-class families on the galactic scheme of things - the quality of life is comfortable for almost all natives. The dangers of the Bulletin are apparent to them, and thus natives tend to avoid this.

The industrial niche that Medina fills in being able to manufacture a wide variety of local goods leads to a fantastic economy in the modern age. As such, natives find themselves on equal footing financially with preconceptions of a divide between rich and poor being sometimes just lost to them.

Offworlders seeking the Phoron Bulletin are often surprised by the cutthroat nature of other phoron bounty hunters. Others who hear stories of how things work come prepared, knowing full well that the next deposit may spell disaster in a skirmish with other hunters.

Environment

Planetside, the environment of Medina is highly unpredictable. The extent of the earthquakes and tremors which perpetually plague the planet make any sort of stationary settlement impossible to sustain. As well, travel by ground is incredibly dangerous, and every form of traffic is in some way aerial in nature. Even the native wildlife has long adapted to the nature of the planet, with only birds of prey and small flying creatures being the extent of notable fauna found. Stationary flora has proven to be nonexistent.