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<center>[[File:Luna_pixel.png|link=]]</center>
{{Infobox Planet
|Name = Luna
|System = Sol
|Image = Earth's Moon.jpg
|Sector = [[The_Orion_Spur#Jewel_Worlds|Jewel Worlds]]
|Capital = Harmony City
|Species = Humans, Skrell, IPCs
|Languages = Sol Common, Tradeband
|Demonyms = Lunan, Lunarian
|Nation = [[Sol Alliance]]
}}


==The 22nd Century==
Earth’s only natural satellite, '''Luna''' was the first extraterrestrial body ever visited and colonized by humanity, with the first humans landing in 1969 and the first permanent colonists arriving as 21st century climate refugees. It is the oldest, richest, and grandest of the Alliance’s colonies, and is the location of many government and corporate headquarters. Lunarian cities are known as dome cities due to their domed structure, and are surrounded by rings of subordinate cities known as satellite cities. While the richest here have wealth beyond measure, the Lunarian working class has historically suffered as the moon’s industries have moved abroad and cheaper synthetic labor has replaced them. Above them the middle class toils away at the endless task of maintaining the Alliance’s huge bureaucracy, and worries about losing their livelihoods and being forced into the working poor.


<center><i>“We now join hands as brothers to usher in a bold new era for the good of all humanity, and place our previous divisions behind us,”</i> - Except from the Founding Charter of the Alliance of Sovereign Solarian Nations, 2132.</center>
==History==
[[File:Old Sol.png||thumb|The flag of the pre-Interstellar War Solarian Alliance, the single largest state in the Spur's history. The three stars represent the Northern, Central, and Southern Solarian Frontiers.]]
While humanity has been obsessed with Earth’s moon for untold millennia before the invention of the most primitive spacecraft, historians generally regard the modern era of Luna as beginning on July 16th, 1969 - when American Apollo 11 astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin were the first humans to ever land upon another celestial body. These pioneers were quickly followed in late 1970 by the Soviet N1/L3 Soyuz 7K-LOK “Pervoprohodets” mission, which landed the third group of humans on the Moon. The “Moon Race” would continue for the rest of the 20th century and result in the first permanent settlement on Luna by the early 1980s - the Soviet “Zvezda” moonbase. The Moon Race ended in an arguable draw in the early 21st century, due to increasing economic instability on Earth.
===2132: The Founding of the Alliance===


The founding of the Alliance on 15 June, 2132, marked a new era for humanity. The influence jockeying and bickering which had defined humanity for much of its existence, particularly the 21st and early 22nd centuries, was effectively brought to an end following years of negotiations between the involved parties of Earth with the exception of Switzerland. Conflict between East and West, capitalist and communist, and the associated space agencies of each party was brought to an end, and a new era dawned. One of peace, cooperation, and nearly unimaginable expansion into the Stars.
Luna was mostly ignored by a humanity more obsessed with survival at home until 2070, when colonists from United Orbital Enterprise (a unified space agency between the USA, China, France, and Mexico) landed on its light side. Colonists from Cosmonaut Enterprises (a successor to the Soviet space program of the 20th century) landed on the dark side of Luna in 2072. With this the colonization of Earth’s moon had formally begun, and it would see significant use as a waystation for other points in the [[Sol|Sol System]] over the course of the upcoming decades and centuries. Due to its low gravity, the Soviets and UOE used Luna as a major shipyard and proving ground for deep-space equipment.


Humanity was now unified under one flag. A feat equaled by nine since, and perhaps never to be replicated.
Further colonization to Luna took place during the 21st and 22nd century as climate damage gradually worsened, with many wealthy families and companies simply moving off-world to Luna when able to do so. With Earth's economy rapidly deteriorating the rich families of the planet found themselves in need of a new home in a very short order with very few good options: [[Mars]] suffered from many of the same problems as Earth, orbital stations were often too impractical, and Luna was -- aside from some way stations built upon it in the late 21st and early 22nd century -- mostly uninhabited. Luna was chosen by most rich refugees fleeing Earth due to its close position to Earth and the perceived ease of development on Earth's only natural satellite compared to the cost of producing dozens of semi-private stations for rich families and businesses.


===2180: The Solarian Frontier===
A great deal of manpower and money was required to create this new home for the Earth's richest and brightest as Luna, unlike Mars, was built without the use of cyborg-based labour. To do this hundreds of thousands of well-trained engineers, technicians, and other personnel were employed by the climate refugees to build their new home in exchange for a place on it when the refuge was completed. As such Luna, despite its original conceptualization as a climate refuge for the richest and most notable of Earth, has had a working class from its first days. As settlement continued and more domed cities were created the "lower class" of Luna expanded to include a variety of miners brought by [[Einstein Engines]] in order to exploit Luna's natural Helium-3 and titanium deposits. Though these deposits have since dried up the descendants of these miners can be found on Luna even today, and often still work for Einstein Engines -- though now as engineers and bureaucrats rather than miners.


By the late 22nd century the Alliance held firm dominion over what it referred to as the Solarian Core, which itself consisted of three rings: Inner, Middle, and Outer. While already a significant power which had grown rapidly thanks to the earlier invention of practical warp technology the Alliance had far greater aims than simply existing in what it had already claimed through colonization, both with and without warp technology. A plan was drafted to exploit data from its fleet of Discovery-class exploration drones and colonize dozens of systems using their data, then expand outwards from those colonies into the broader Spur which seemed to be entirely free of sentient life aside from humanity.
The booming economy of Luna created an environment in which corporations could easily succeed. In 2155 Einstein Engines, using the foundation provided by Lunan Helium-3 mining, created the first practical mass-market warp engines and became the first modern megacorporation. Luna’s prosperity has continued since then, and it remains one of the wealthiest planets in the Sol Alliance to this very day, despite its small size and small population. The Luna of today is, in many ways, the ideal colony. Rich, prosperous, and unfailing in its loyalty to the Sol Alliance.


The Solarian Frontier Initiative, as it is commonly known today, remains the greatest colonization effort undertaken by humanity. What had once been the three rings was rapidly increased by the addition of the three Solarian Frontiers: North, Central, and South. Efforts were spared from the east where few, of any, colonizable worlds had been found. Though not clear to the Alliance at the time, many contemporary scholars postulate that the relative lack of data from the Eastern Spur was a deliberate effort by the skrell to conceal themselves, or the drones simply finding planets wiped of life by Glorsh and rightfully reporting back a lack of inhabitable worlds. So barren were some of these original scans that early stellar cartographers of the Alliance came to informally refer to them as the “Roanoke Stars,” due to all life seemingly having disappeared from them, investigations into them, which were originally slated for the 2260s, are interrupted first by the Second Great Depression and then by the Interstellar War, which permanently canceled the venture.
==Environment==
Luna is a large moon, larger than [[Pluto]] — the ninth planet in the [[Sol|Sol System]]. It has roughly one sixth of the [[Earth|Earth’s]] gravity, which necessitates the use of artificial gravity in its settlements and led to it becoming an early center of Solarian shipbuilding. Arrival gravity in Luna’s cities generally brings the area up to 85% of Earth’s gravity, leading to the typical Lunarian being taller than most Solarians but more awkward in Earth-level gravity. The lunar surface is dominated by lunar dust, which is highly abrasive and can cause damage if inhaled — necessitating the use of large, often multi-stage, airlock systems whenever a Lunarian must venture outside of a dome. The surface is also heavily bombarded by cosmic radiation due to the thin lunar atmosphere, and some cities must use specially treated materials to have their outer shells  resist both dust, radiation, and the occasional meteoroid.


==The 23rd Century==
Luna is locked in a synchronous orbit with Earth, leading to both a near side — which always faces Earth — and a far side — which always faces outwards. Lunarian settlements have historically been centered on the near side due to ease of resupply and a desire by early Lunarians to view their home planet. Of the five great dome cities only Gagaringrad is on the far side of the moon, which has earned it the nickname of the “Shaded City” by Lunarians. When viewed from Earth, Luna’s dome cities and their satellite cities create a vision not unlike viewing humanity’s homeworld from orbit. Despite early attempts to sync the Lunarian calendar to lunar months, colonizing governments — then the Alliance — insisted on using the standard Terran calendar for convenience, and this example has been followed across the Spur.


<center><i>“By the 2250s the Alliance covered more territory than any other nation in known history, including the Nralakk Federation. But it was a giant with feet of clay,”</i> - Excerpt From <i>Charter to Interstellar War</i>, a common Xanusui-produced textbook on Solarian history from 2100 until 2300.</center>
==Culture==
[[File:Luna - Final.png|The government flag of Luna. The crescent represents Luna itself, and is meant to remind viewers of Selene's headpiece.|thumb]]


===2204: Creation of the Credit===
Lunarians are a tightly-knit and somewhat insular people wracked by stark class divisions between the rich, middle, and working class. The rich here are more wealthy than perhaps anywhere else in the modern Spur, but the working poor are just as poor as anywhere else. The richest Lunarians are part of families which have  lived on Earth’s only moon since the 21st century and originally arrived as climate refugees, and upper-class families are known to spend extravagant sums of money to have their entire family trees charted out and known. Members of the middle and working class lack the obsession with pedigree, having neither the desire nor the resources to carry out these projects.


With the creation of colonies further afield from the Sol System and its surrounding Jewel Worlds in the later part of the 22nd century, such as Xanu and the colonies of Tau Ceti, there was great need in the Alliance for the creation of a standardized currency usable across all of its planets and colonies. The Solarian Credit was the solution to this problem. Controlled centrally from Earth’s financial center of Chicago and tied to energy for its price, the Credit quickly rose to prominence across the Alliance during the pre-Interstellar War era where it reached its maximum extent. All human galactic currencies in significant amounts across the Spur can trace their origins to the Solarian Credit, though many have since shunned the use of the currency as a symbol of Solarian colonial rule over them.
Regardless of class, Lunarians tend to have certain physical characteristics due to their shared origin on the moon. Due to the lower gravity of the moon, Lunarians tend to be taller than most humans — such as the residents of Earth or [[Republic of Biesel|Tau Ceti]] — and can struggle with adjusting to Earth-level gravity, much like [[Callisto|Callisteans]] or other moon-originating humans. Lunarians also tend to be paler than their Earthborn counterparts due to many living in partially-recessed dome cities where natural light can be rarer, and the Lunar day-night cycle, where most locations have 14 days of light followed by 14 days of darkness — though earthshine (light reflected from the Earth) ensures these nights are brighter than Terran ones. Many develop sunburns more quickly than other humans, and “Lunarian-proofed” sunscreen is a common sight in starports across the current and former [[Sol Alliance|Alliance]].


===2233: The Galatea Project===
Most Lunarians have membership in class-specific clubs and fraternal organizations, which can range from drinking clubs for dockworkers to clubs for politicians where all participants must wear stylized masks. Almost every one of these organizations are invitation only . As all things on Earth’s moon, some are far more prestigious than others, and the most prestigious of these – such as the Oakheart Club of Harmony City, a fraternal order for Solarian Navy flag officers – can and do influence the political culture of the entire moon (and perhaps the broader Alliance). Many prominent Lunarian social clubs have been accused of involvement in the secret societies alleged to run Luna from behind the scenes through proxies, patsies, and fronts. Most clubs will have some form of special, often opaque, gesture or ritual associated with their activities, ranging from handshakes to seemingly occult rituals involving the burning of sacrificial effigies. Many a B-list Venusian crime film has involved a plucky detective investigating a Lunarian fraternal organization, only to find it is not-so-secretly a cover for something supernatural or evil.


While the Solarian Frontier had been firmly established and divided into three large sectors, by the 2230s it had become clear to the Solarian Department of Colonization that the entire frontier had a weak link: a lack of easily-inhabitable worlds in the Inner Solarian Frontier, now the Weeping Stars, aside from the trade hub of Gadpathur. To counter this, the Alliance opted to launch a massive project which has to this day not been surpassed in its scale or ambition: the Galatea Project. Intended as an initiative to terraform roughly three dozen worlds into inhabitable planets similar to pre-War Gadpathur, the responsibility of designing the platforms was given by the Alliance’s government to Einstein Engines and Zeng-Hu Pharmaceuticals, who developed a functional design by the mid-2240s with some assistance from the Solarian Navy and Hephaestus Industries.
===Social Classes===
[[File:Navy graduation.png|Throughout history, members of the Lunarian upper class have made up a large portion of the Solarian Navy's officer corps.|thumb]]
Sitting at the top of Lunarian, and perhaps the entire Alliance’s, society are its most wealthy citizens. Sometimes known as Sol’s aristocracy, or — more derisively, and often by non-Solarians — as the Solarian nobility, the Lunarian upper class is per capita the richest group of humans in the modern Spur. These Lunarians can trace their origins to the original climate refugees, often already rich themselves, and to the early executives of successful corporations such as Einstein Engines. They are obsessed with their pedigrees and their family histories, and few marry outside of Luna or the upper class; though an up-and-coming upper middle class family may find itself aligned to one of these venerable families by marriage, it is an uncommon thing. Genetically-engineered children, even cloned children, are not uncommon, and Zeng-Hu Pharmaceuticals is always willing to provide its services, though Galatean firms have long plied their trade on Earth’s moon. The extent of genetic editing the Lunarian upper-class experience before and after birth ensures they live longer, healthier lives than most other humans in the Spur. It is often joked Luna contains not just the greatest concentration of wealth in its upper classes, but the greatest collection of centenarians anywhere in the modern Spur.


The platforms themselves, and their accompanying vessels, were launched to the Inner Solarian Frontier from the Sol System itself in 2455 to much celebration across the Alliance’s member states. A new future for humanity was, for Solarians of the time, forming right before their eyes! The Alliance, it seemed, was powerful enough to bend even nature to its indomitable will.
Wealthy Lunarians are massively influential in its political and economic environment, and many conspiracies — both on Luna and throughout the Alliance — swirl around their wealth and dominance. Some hold membership in secret or semi-secret societies they are rumored to use in efforts to further their influence and dominance, and some claim these societies far predate the founding of the Alliance or the colonization of Luna. The richest Lunarians are an exclusive class and zealously guard their homes in the central domes from intrusion by those deemed beneath their notice or unworthy of the privilege, with secret covenants between rich and influential Lunarians to make their neighborhoods more exclusive not being unheard of. Further increasing their exclusivity is their unusual accent: rich families will teach their children, and sometimes upper-level assistants in their employ, how to speak in a refined, learned dialect known as Formal Lunarian. Formal Lunarian, or FL, must be taught from birth as the way one learns Solarian Common for it to be passable to those who have also learned the dialect to birth. This makes it both hard to passably fake and marks someone as an outsider in a community when they speak, ensuring they may never fit in.


===2259: Apotheosis of Solarian Hegemony===
The Lunarian middle class makes up the majority of the moon’s population following the decline of its working class populace, and forms the backbone of the modern Solarian central bureaucracy. Most live in satellite cities and work in government buildings of the central dome, performing the endless duties of an interstellar bureaucracy under the watchful eye of the upper class. Often seen as a colorless and boring people due to their line of work, a common Solarian joke claims the stereotypical middle-class Lunarian is a Solarian government bureaucrat who wears a suit to work, commutes by train, and only feels joy when completing paperwork. Though typically wealthy in their own right, many of the middle class suffer from impostor syndrome and drive themselves into debt attempting to follow the trends of those richer than themselves. They are frequent travelers abroad, with middle-class Lunarians having a higher purchasing power off of Luna than on it due to their high wages being needed to match the moon’s cost of living. These Lunarians also form the middle management of Luna-centric corporations such as [[Einstein Engines]], [[Zeng-Hu Pharmaceuticals]], and [[Zavodskoi Interstellar]].


The Solarian Alliance of the mid-23rd century controlled more territory than any other nation ever has in the history of the Spur. Its influence stretched from the Jewel Worlds to the edge of known space and it held dominion over hundreds of colonies ranging from highly developed settlements such as Xanu and Biesel to small mining platforms and fledgling settlements on worlds across the Spur. The Alliance’s Navy ensured what it controlled was stable and productive, and its corporations were powerful enough to transform entire planets for their purposes. Humanity arguably still lives in the long shadow of the Solarian hegemony as no nation has ever come close to its grandeur, even the Alliance itself.
The Lunarian working class, in contrast to the upper and middle classes, is not flush with wealth. Once almost the equal of the middle class, the working class has seen its size shrink and influence fade away as Lunarian industries have moved abroad from the moon and a new invention has been brought in to replace those they have retained: positronic-based robots known as [[IPC|IPCs]]. Many working-class Lunarians have moved abroad, often to [[Callisto]] or to another colonized world in the [[Sol|Sol System]], and those who have chosen to remain must often make do in poorly-maintained and run-down satellite cities filled with rotting industrial infrastructure that serves as a reminder of the better life their parents and grandparents once lived, with the fading names of these once-great industrial companies now serving as epitaphs to the working-class life that was. These Lunarians are some of the most anti-IPC citizens of the Alliance, viewing them as having taken their well-paying factory jobs before and now threatening what service industry jobs they desperately hang onto, hoping to not be forced into insolvency. Working-class Lunarians who work in mechatronic-focused industries such as ship production take pride in a culture of technical ingenuity and non-positronic automaton maintenance which ensures they can keep positronics out of the workplace, even if their equipment is often slower and less efficient than a positronic-only factory.


But despite its grandeur the Alliance’s economy was in a difficult situation during its peak. Terraforming projects, such as what transformed Eridani and Persepolis, had wracked its budget and the sheer size of its territory had stretched its government and military to the breaking point. In 2259, at the same time it reached its territorial peak, the Alliance stood upon a dangerous economic precipice that it would find itself falling off of within a mere year.
===Holidays===
The '''Zhongqiu Jie Festival''' is an extremely popular holiday on Luna said to date back to the 2070s. The holiday is originally rooted in the Lunar New Year, itself imported by East Asian immigrants to Luna, but has since grown to be a common holiday designed to celebrate the success of humanity’s first interstellar pioneers. The Zhongqiu Jie Festival takes place on the same date as its Earthbound variant; the fifteenth day of the eight month of the traditional lunar calendar.


===18 June, 2260: The Second Great Depression Begins===
'''Apollo Day''' is another common holiday, taking place on the sixteenth of July. Similarly to Danza de la Luna, this holiday celebrates the success of humanity’s interstellar pioneers. However, this one celebrates the success of Apollo 11 specifically rather than explorers more generally.


The primary cause of the Second Great Depression is debated by historians. Some believe it was simply a case of the Alliance's size – which remains the largest nation in the Spur’s known history – simply outstripping the ability of its economy and infrastructure to keep up. Others believe the massive engineering of the 23rd century Alliance strained the economy to the point where it could no longer function, thus collapsing under its own weight. Still others blame it on a myriad of financial factors ranging from a loss of consumer confidence in the Solarian Core to issues with Lunan insider trading. Regardless of what primarily caused the Great Depression, the result remains the same: on the 18th of June, 2260, markets in Chicago and on Callisto buckled under strain and began crashing at a rapid pace, causing other markets to follow behind them as the Alliance’s economy began to shrink for the first time in its history.
A variation on Apollo Day named '''Pervoprohodets Day''' is instead celebrated in Soviet-colonized areas, with this holiday instead taking place on the fifteenth of December - the date the USSR’s LK lander touched down on the Lunar surface.


Panic gripped the central government on Earth and emergency measures were undertaken, but none stopped the contraction. In an act of true desperation, with all other options exhausted by the Alliance, the Emergency Colonial Taxation Measure was invoked in 2265. The ECTM dates to the initial founding of the Alliance and was designed to bring it exactly out of this kind of crisis by raising taxes on the colonies in order to ensure the Core remained stable. Eventually, ideally within a decade, the ECTM would be revoked and taxes on the colonies would be cut. All they needed to do was last one decade and the Alliance would be restored. There was hope!
==Life in Dome Cities==
[[File:New_Odesa.png|A map of New Odesa and some of its satellite cities' rail infrastructure (click to enlarge).|thumb]]
Lunarian settlements are known as dome cities due to their original shape: as one would expect, they are large, domed structures designed in the early 2100s to replace the primitive early structures from humanity’s first settlements on Earth’s moon. The term “dome city” refers to the original dome, which most Lunarians see as the heart of their settlement and the most prestigious location to live, though only the ultra-wealthy can afford it. Central dome cities are ringed by satellite cities that serve as its neighborhoods and suburbs, and are connected by underground rail and highway lines often built into the moon’s long-dormant lava tubes. The quality of a satellite city can vary wildly depending on its original purpose and which individuals now inhabit it, with the best satellite cities resembling the central dome – though less prestigious – and the worst being decaying industrial areas which would not look out of place in a rough area of [[New Hai Phong]] or pre-Violet Dawn [[Mars]]. As all things on Luna, the quality of where one lives is generally determined by the economic strata they are born into.


But due to factors beyond Earth’s control in the colonies, this salvation was not to be.
The central domes of dome cities are extremely exclusive locations, with only the wealthiest of already-wealthy Lunarians being found here, living alongside corporate headquarters buildings, fine dining and shopping, government buildings, and public buildings. Their residents are corporate executives, high-level government bureaucrats, and members of Luna’s most prestigious families and dynasties. These individuals will typically work to make the central dome even more exclusive through the creation of formal and informal compacts designed to ensure only those they deem sufficiently worthy. Further worsening one’s chance of ascension into the inner dome are restrictions placed on new constructions – or modifications – by organizations known as Municipal Development Compacts, or MDCs. A unique feature of central domes, MDCs are part social club and part homeowner’s association, and often involve local government officials. Unless one is a member – or has enough money to pass the exorbitant fees they charge – they have no chance of getting into the central dome. MDCs are, of course, always invite-only, further working to exclude new members.


===18 January, 2275: Secession of the Coalition===
Satellite cities have no such associations, though some richer ones have close equivalents, and are home to the vast majority of Luna’s population. Often connected to the central dome – where many satellite city dwellers work – by underground rail lines or highways, satellite cities can vary greatly in their quality and in what they contain, and their fates were often determined by how they were originally zoned by the early Lunarian government. Industrial-zoned satellite cities, due to the decay of Luna’s industrial sector, have fared the worst, but residential or commercial ones have fared much better. The typical middle-class satellite city is full of mixed commercial and residential zoning, and often has a high population density reminiscent of Callisto or New Hai Phong due to the height restrictions placed on expansion due to the presence of the dome. They can sometimes extend much further underground, both vertically and horizontally, with the most premium space being in the center of the satellite city where natural light reaches the streets at most times of the Lunar day. Typically they are laid out in a grid pattern, with government and high-rise buildings at the center – the tallest point of the dome – and structures becoming smaller as one approaches the edge of the dome.


The declaration of secession by the Coalition in 2275 was the greatest threat to the Alliance’s authority until the Second Solarian Civil War in 2462. Efforts by the Alliance to sustain its ambitions through colonial taxes backfired: they fanned the flames of anti-Sol sentiment which had grown over the past decade and a half due to the woes of the Second Great Depression, and an enraged Solarian Frontier viewed the Central Alliance as caring more for itself and its massive projects than the welfare of its colonies. Secessionists seized this public frustration and turned it into revolts against Solarian authority.
==Economics==
The Lunarian economy has undergone significant changes since colonization. Luna’s economy was initially based around heavy industries deemed non-viable on Earth: shipbuilding and He-3 mining and refining. With the earliest of humanity’s vessels having been made in Earth’s orbit, where collisions with abandoned space objects were a constant risk, shipbuilding forms were quick to rebase to Luna, with many concentrating on the near side of the moon and establishing facilities on the outskirts of climate refugee settlements: arguably, these were the first satellite cities. On the far side of the moon the Soviets were quick to establish a settlement of their own — Gagaringrad — and the Union’s insatiable urge for Helium-3 to power warp technology caused mining operations to follow. First the Soviets, then the rest of Earth, staked out mining operations for themselves. For its first few decades, Luna was a very working-class colony: home to those building the new future of humanity. Dinged and scuffed Soviet monuments to the conquest of the Stars on Luna built in this era can be found across its surface, though many are in disrepair and few can read their dated script.


The clumsy nature of 2200s interstellar communication ensured the Solarian response to this crisis was delayed and, when it came, confused. By the time the Alliance was fully aware of the issue the Coalition had formed in opposition to it and, despite promises of negotiation, both sides had begun sliding down a funnel ending in the Interstellar War as Solarian forces refused to leave what they viewed as Solarian territory, while others quietly began to support the secessionists they were meant to protect against.
But the early Lunar economy was not to last. As humanity expanded beyond the Sol System and congealed into the Alliance, the need for new ships and more fuel rapidly outpaced what Earth’s moon could produce. Shipbuilding moved further away to larger, purpose-built facilities further out in the Sol System — now a few hours’ travel away instead of weeks — and He-3 operations moved to Pluto, where the Soviets applied everything they had learned on Luna to create the still-largest producer of Helium-3 in the modern Spur, and one with the nearly-unlimited resources of the Oort Cloud rather than Luna’s already-depleted reserves. Shipyards, factories, and refineries began to shutter across the moon’s satellite cities. Skilled labor fled abroad and those who stayed behind suffered from unemployment, with many turning to crime or accepting lower-paying jobs in the now-growing service industry. Some instead chose to work for a growing employer on the moon: the Solarian government, whose bureaucracies were migrating to Luna’s domed cities from a decaying Earth.


===25 March, 2278: Outbreak of the Interstellar War===
The modern Lunarian economy is heavily based around the government and its service sector, though many previously human-worked service jobs are being supplanted by positronic units owned by corporations or the government. Middle-class Lunarians typically work for the Solarian government or in office roles for corporations with facilities on Luna — with most corporations having a regional headquarters here, [[Hephaestus Industries|Hephaestus]], [[Orion Express]], and [[NanoTrasen Corporation|NanoTrasen]] excepted. Rich Lunarians work in the same sectors as their middle-class colleagues, but tend to be in senior-level positions rather than the middling ones occupied by the middle class. Working-class Lunarians are left with what remains: most work in the service industry, with a minority being employed in government-run blue collar jobs such as Navy shipyards and urban maintenance. They have significantly less purchasing power than other Lunarians and often live paycheck to paycheck, with the creeping growth of synthetics in their traditional jobs having caused many to migrate abroad, often to Callisto, in hopes of a better life.


(Put an image insert here of the Martian revolt’s flag and describe how that was a problem for Sol too)
===Corporations===
Luna is home to headquarters — or regional headquarters — for many corporations based inside and outside of the Alliance. Of the megacorporations Einstein Engines, Zavodskoi Interstellar, and Zeng-Hu Pharmaceuticals are most prominent on the moon. However, dozens of other corporations — from [[Empire of Dominia|Dominian]] engineering firms to [[Coalition of Colonies|Coalition]] shipping companies to Solarian industrial companies — have regional headquarters here, and establishments frequented by corporate employees for their breaks can be a whirlwind of dialects and languages, with [[Federal Technocracy of Galatea|Galatean]] firm representatives working out deals with Solarian businesses over food well outside the purchasing power of many Lunarians. Most of these companies have their headquarters on the near side of the moon in Harmony City, with only Zavodskoi Interstellar stubbornly remaining on the far side in Gagaringrad, in a building known locally as the Obelisk.


To this day the Interstellar War remains the most devastating conflict in Galactic history, with millions of Solarians and billions of Coalitioners dead and both the Coalition and Alliance left in economic ruins after its end. The Interstellar War is rightfully viewed by many nations as the defining moment in the history of the modern Spur as it crippled the Solarian Alliance’s ability to control its corporate actors, while also ending its expansive colonial ambitions, causing it to eventually lose the entire Solarian Frontier outside of the three rings of the Solarian Core. It additionally brought an end to some of the Alliance’s most ambitious ventures, such as the Galatea Project, due to economic hardships and territorial loss. Furthermore, it led to a dramatic uptick in interstellar crime due to the reduction of naval forces as a result of both combat losses and desertions.
[[Einstein Engines]] is the de facto kingmaker of the Lunarian corporate world, and any company with a desire to be successful on Earth’s moon will find themselves interacting with the oldest megacorporation sooner or later. Based on Harmony City, Einstein is unofficially regarded as the Lunarian corporation, and many in its upper management come from the moon. Most still-functioning heavy industries on Luna are connected to EE or one of its affiliates, and most facilities previously operated by NanoTrasen have been bought out by Einstein at below market prices using their connections to the Lunarian government. Most synthetics on Luna are produced by Einstein in one of its facilities, which has led to growing resentment from the Lunarian working class in recent decades. The famed Suzuki-Zhang Hammer Drive was invented in the Robert H. Goddard Administrative, Commercial, and Research Facility, an Einstein Engines proving ground located in a satellite city of Harmony City.


Many have waxed polemically regarding the “what ifs?” of 2275-78 and ponder as to what a modern Spur united under the Alliance’s flag would resemble. Would the Coalition struggle regarding its infrastructure, due to no longer lacking the gates made during the Warp Project of the 24th century? Would Dominia have been stabilized by the Alliance, preventing the destruction of Fisanduh’s democracy by the Empire’s autocracy? Would it have protected the Elyran Coalition against its long-standing issues regarding its neighbors? Would the unathi and tajara have prospered under the stewardship of the hegemonic Alliance rather than being exploited by powerful corporations which destroyed both of their homeworlds? And what of Tau Ceti, now ruled by corporations and becoming an overextended empire of its own?
[[Zavodskoi Interstellar]] is, alongside Einstein, one of the prominent corporations on Luna. Based mostly on the far side of the moon in Gagaringrad, unwritten rules between ZI and EE have seen Zavodskoi’s domain in Gagaringrad mostly untouched by Einstein in exchange for unknown concessions. Zavodskoi, to the chagrin of [[NanoTrasen_Corporation|NanoTrasen]], often works alongside Einstein — sometimes in the same facilities — and is a major supplier of the Lunarian Public Safety Bureau, providing the moon’s police with everything from bulletproof vests to their service weapons to tear gas. Like Einstein, much of Zavodskoi’s upper echelon is dominated by Lunarians. However, recent decades have seen a steady encroachment by Dominian staff, with more and more ZI board meetings on Luna having at least one Morozian present.


But such things are more the realm of fanciful dreams than reality.
[[Zeng-Hu Pharmaceuticals]] controls much of the medical industry on the moon, though through the corporation’s unique keiretsu structure instead of direct oversight. Medical facilities across Luna are controlled by ZH’s tendrils, and the keiretsu is likewise dominated by Lunarian staff. Many graduates from Luna’s universities go straight into Zeng-Hu’s staff, where they have historically succeeded in its competitive environment. ZH’s generic medicine divisions readily provide their services to the Lunarian upper and middle class, and it is not uncommon for Lunarians to live significantly longer than average Solarians as a result — a lucky genetically engineered Lunarian may live well over a century.


===8 October 2278: The Bombing of Gadpathur===
==Politics and Government==
The Lunarian government is dominated by the richest of its population, with political dynasties having always influenced the moon’s politics. The amount of wealth one needs to enter into the moon’s political scene is prohibitively expensive, and acts as a barrier against non-dynastic political actors entering into politics. Without a significant wealth reserve or a powerful backer, a prospective candidate will simply not have enough cash on hand to get their name out to be heard, and thus voted in. Some seemingly independent actors do enter into its politics, but a savvy Lunarian will easily uncover these seeming independents often have connections to the political dynasties and are only pretending to be free of their influence — a trick often used to subvert a dynasty’s rivals through subterfuge.


The orbital bombardment of Gadpathur is considered by some to be the point of no return for Solarian hegemony. The bombardment, which was ordered by hardline Solarian loyalist Admiral Terrence Hopper, is the single most devastating day of the entire Interstellar War in terms of deaths and is believed to account for 10-15% of its total deaths. The event horrified the Coalition and the regions of Sol which heard of the incident before Navy censors suppressed the stories. Even today the Alliance often denies or downplays Gadpathur and it is not discussed in history textbooks outside of the college level. Many Solarians simply have no idea the incident even took place.  
Conspiracies have long swirled around the moon’s political dynasties, with some claiming their influence over the moon includes control over the various Solarian government agencies headquartered here, and that the Alliance’s direction is largely chosen ahead of time by a cabal of Luna’s ultra-wealthy. Other, more outlandish, conspiracies claim the dynasties are in league with demonic forces, are an outgrowth of Earther conspiracies such as Majestic 12, are shapeshifting aliens (distinct from [[Skrell|real aliens]] met by the Alliance), or are supernatural creatures such as vampires. The Lunarian government has long not entertained these claims, deeming them too ridiculous to even be worth denying.


Gadpathur itself was nearly completely destroyed and has yet to recover its prewar population even today, though it has dramatically reinvented itself into a hardline anti-Solarian planet. Refugees which escaped the bombardment spread throughout the Coalition and some retain their traditions today. For many in the Coalition Gadpathur remains a rallying cry against the Alliance and all it stands for, and was a major motivator behind its intervention in Tau Ceti in 2464. Ironically, the saturation bombing of Gadpathur ultimately damaged the Solarian Navy more than the Coalition as the Solarians could no longer rely on its ports as a refueling point.
The current governor of '''Luna is Dietmar de Esterházy von Galántha'''. Governor de Esterházy von Galántha, known as E-V-G by many Lunarians, is the patriarch of a venerable Lunarian political dynasty with historical ties to the Solarian government, particularly its diplomatic service, and Harmony City’s branch of Luna’s local police agency, the Lunarian Public Safety Bureau. The governor has connections to most political dynasties on the moon and is rumored to be one of the most powerful men in the Alliance, though such theories often bear an edge of conspiracy. Dietmar is old, past eighty, and it is expected he will retire when the current term expires in 2480, having served as the moon’s governor for thirty years, surviving ATLAS, Frost, the coup, the civil war, and its aftermath. What dynastic family will replace him, or if one of his relatives will be elected, remains to be seen.


===2287: Treaty of Xansan and the Collapse of Solarian Hegemony===
In addition to local politics Luna is home to most of the Solarian government’s agency and department headquarters, and millions of civil servants are either Lunarians or work on Luna, toiling away at computers or filing cabinets as part of the endless struggle to ensure the Alliance’s labyrinthine and massive bureaucratic apparatus does not collapse under its own weight. Most government bureaucrats on Luna are drawn from its middle class, though the long reach of the upper classes cannot be entirely escaped as they often head local offices or the departments of offices. Government work is an honest life for many Lunarians, and local residents take pride in their moon’s status as the beating heart of the Alliance’s government and its bureaucracy. Many say that Unity Station has ideas, but it is Luna which makes them into reality.


The signing of the Treaty of Xansan in Geneva on 28 November, 2287 did not only end the devastating Interstellar War. It ended the era of Solarian hegemony the human Spur had lived under for well over a century, and fractured its former territory into varying competing states with little desire to cooperate for the good of humanity as a whole. Entire colonial regions of the Alliance were lost or written off in its north and east, where it retreated and the Coalition failed to fill the vacuum left behind. Regions formerly considered formerly to be solidly under Alliance control fell into anarchy and many fledging colonies, already strained by the decade-long Interstellar War, collapsed entirely.
Lunarian law enforcement is handled by the '''Lunarian Public Safety Bureau''', or '''LPSB'''. One of the most well-funded public security services in the Solarian Alliance, it is regarded as one of the better policing agencies in the Sol System by middle and working-class Lunarians. However, the LPSB operates on a pay-to-play system of corruption with rich Lunarians where crimes, assuming they are not completely egregious, can be deemed a non-issue if one pays enough. The moon’s wealthy political dynasties exert an immense amount of control over the LPSB and de facto run the Bureau, with its upper ranks dominated by those affiliated with the ultra-rich. The police officers of the Bureau are known as public security agents, or PSAs, and the officer in charge of an entire satellite city is known as a chief director. The officers of the LPSB are typically recruited from the Lunarian working or middle class. They are well-trained and well-equipped, often having instructors affiliated with [[Zavodskoi Interstellar]] or the [[Solarian Armed Forces]] and utilizing the most cutting-edge equipment, ranging from laser-based weaponry to [[San Colette|Colettish]]-produced police drones. Zavodskoi is known to recruit many ex-LPSB officers into its ranks, though this source of qualified manpower has started to dry up as Solarian attitudes have shifted to be anti-corporate in a post-2462 Spur.


The economy was devastated by the war and its armed forces were nearly spent. Millions had died for a war which was ultimately lost, and the Alliance’s formerly grand projects were abandoned in favor of simple rebuilding and rearming ventures. The Galatea Project, slated to transform the region now known as the Alliance DMZ into a beacon for humanity, was simply abandoned. Megacorporations, once firmly under Alliance supervision, began to exert more and more influence over the failing economy of the Alliance. What started as their patriotic, if profit-seeking, venture would eventually change the Spur forever, but such would not be realized for decades.
Compared to other Solarian police forces, the LPSB uses a larger number of [[IPC|synthetics]]. Industrial units serve as backup for IPC-qualified officers and as riot suppressors, Bishops serve in technical or intelligence roles, and shells do much of the LPSB’s clerical work, but none serve in patrol roles. These IPCs are often secondhand units from the Solarian military or corporate security, though some have been purchased directly by the Bureau itself, and often with the assistance of wealthy backers.


====The Terms of the Treaty of Xansan====
==Major Dome Cities==
'''Harmony City''' is the capital of Luna and the beating heart of both its political life. Here, the political deals that will run Luna for decades are made in the private rooms of high-end establishments. Situated in the Mare Insularum, it has a unique feature not found in any other dome city: a coastline situated in Mare Luistania, an artificial lake built out of an asteroid crater inside the dome city. The center of this lake is an artificial island known as the Isle of Harmony where the government buildings of Luna’s central administration are found. The Isle of Harmony can only be accessed by appointment if one is not a government employee or elected official, ensuring the government remains out of practical reach for many Lunarians. Harmony City is home to the headquarters of Einstein Engines and many of the megacorporation’s employees live here, giving the city a reputation as the de facto capital of the megacorporation as well as Luna. Notable sights in Harmony include the Museum of Aeronautics and Astronautics, where the original landers of the Soviet Union and United States of America were moved after the city’s establishment. Most of Harmony City’s satellite cities are home to corporate employees or employees of the Lunarian government itself, and few were designed for industrial use. Residents of Harmony City are often negatively stereotyped by other Lunarians as social climbers and backstabbers who are all too willing to betray even their family for minor political or social gain.


'''I. The cessation of hostilities between the Alliance and Coalition.'''
'''Nouvelle Caen''', originally settled by French climate refugees, is the heart of Luna’s culture and home to many of its corporate offices. Known for its art galleries and high society functions, the residents of ''Le Nouvelle'' – as they often refer to their dome city – pride themselves on being the highest echelons of modern Solarian culture, and on enjoying the finer things in life. The city’s government has taken the unusual step of turning all of its former industrial satellite cities into upper- and middle-class housing, making Nouvelle Caen the only dome city without any industrial satellites. It is home to most of Luna’s small Dominian expatriate noble population, and is the only dome city to have an Imperial consulate aside from New Odesa. Sights in Le Nouvelle include its entertainment district, where one can find theaters, opera houses, and playhouses in an architectural style known as Nouveaux Beaux-Arts which deliberately calls back to French history, and its numerous art galleries, some of which are the only galleries in the Sol System to feature prominent non-human artists. It is the richest dome in terms of raw wealth, and many Venusian stars have homes away from home in its satellite cities. Residents of Le Nouvelle are stereotyped as foppish and somewhat aloof by other Lunarians, and it is commonly joked that most speak French – a dead language – at home, and Solarian Common only when inconvenienced by those not of Le Nouvelle.


With this, the Treaty ended the Interstellar War formally. While ceasefires had been in place for much of its negotiation period they were often violated by both sides and fighting continued in several areas, particularly in the Central Solarian Frontier. This fighting ceased with the Treaty.
'''Hangzhou''' is Luna’s academic center, and traces its origins to a joint project between NASA and the Federal Republic of China’s Space Agency. Viewed by many as the Alliance’s brain, the central dome city of Hangzhou trades conventional Lunarian styles of zoning for a number of universities, student houses, and laboratories. More middle-class Lunarians live in Hangzhou’s central dome city than in the rest of Luna’s central domes combined, and some rich Lunarians from elsewhere on the moon look down at Hangzhou residents as unworthy of the prestige of living in a central dome. The dome city has a large Solarian military presence due to numerous proving grounds and testing facilities, some originally built by the Solarian Armed Forces and some seized from corporate actors in 2463. Hangzhou is a key medical research hub in the Orion Spur due to housing the Lunar University of Medical Science, the city’s largest employer, and many Zeng-Hu Pharmaceuticals facilities. Zeng-Hu. Residents of it often brag they may not be the richest dome, but they are undoubtedly the longest-lived. Hangzhouers are stereotyped by other Lunarians as shy intellectuals who are issued a pair of glasses and a degree at birth by the city’s government.


'''II. The immediate withdrawal of Solarian forces from the Coalition.'''
'''Gagaringrad''' is the largest dome city founded by the Soviet Union and the largest dome city on the dark side of the moon. It was the heart of the moon’s mining and refining industries before the USSR moved most of these operations to [[Pluto]] as the city’s Helium-3 deposits began to dry up, causing Gagaringrad to fall on hard times as thousands emigrated to Pluto, returned to Earth, or became unemployed on Luna. Many Lunarians see Gagaringrad as a dome city on its last legs, only one economic shock away from total collapse, with many of its once-proud industrial satellite cities now being abandoned relics of a better time. The high unemployment rate of the city has led to a rise in crime, and Gagaringrad is unofficially known by many Lunarians as the moon’s crime capital. The one remaining bright spot for the moon’s Soviet city is the presence of a still-active shipbuilding industry affiliated with the Solarian Navy, and the domes associated with this industry are home to the last remnants of the Lunarian Soviet man. Residents of Gagaringrad are stereotyped as gloomy, due to living in darkness for most of the year, and easily irritable people who may or may not have organized crime links.


Solarian Navy forces had, since 2278, occupied much of what now constitutes the modern Coalition’s territory. While they did withdraw following the Treaty, many Navy officers, acting without permission but with the unsaid approval of the government, went to great lengths to sabotage useful stellar infrastructure from territories they occupied. Forces under Admiral Terrence Hopper were some of the most destructive, and left little for the Coalition to use after their withdrawal. Coalition profests fell on deaf ears, and this sabotage campaign is viewed by many as a major reason for the Coalition’s stunted economic growth.
'''New Odesa''' is the administrative hub of the [[Sol Alliance#Government|Solarian government]] on Luna, and is home to literally millions of government bureaucrats and most of the moon’s foreign embassies. Abroad, it is rumored by some to be the heart of the Lunarian conspiracy to control the Spur, a claim Odesans find absurd. The youngest satellite city, it is the moon’s transit hub and has a twice-hourly shuttle to Unity Station utilized by many Solarian government employees and elected officials. It is also home to Yuri Kondratyuk Shuttleport, the moon’s primary interstellar shuttleport. It is also home to the headquarters of Pan Solarian Interstellar. New Odesa’s central dome has the lowest population of any dome city as most of its space is taken up by government offices, though its population rises during the week as many bureaucrats are known to sleep overnight in government-owned dormitories. Most workers commute from its satellite cities and suited bureaucrats asleep on high-speed trains are common sights. Sights in New Odesa include the Zvezda Museum, which chronicles early colonization of the moon, and New Lviv Satellite City, which has been carefully zoned to ensure all buildings are in the antique Hustul Secession style of architecture. Odesans are stereotyped by other Lunarians as underslept and overworked bureaucrats twitching from caffeine (or stimulant) abuse in their desperate struggle to conquer the Alliance’s endless tide of paperwork.
 
'''III. The recognition of the Coalition as a sovereign state by the Alliance.'''
 
A humiliating blow to the Alliance, recognizing the Coalition additionally meant renouncing its claims over it and its nearby frontier sectors. A major part of the Alliance slipped from its grip due to a single piece of paper, and revanchist Solarians have long pushed to annul this aspect of the Treaty regardless of how practical it is to do so.
 
'''IV. The creation of the Alliance Neutral Zone.'''
 
In order to ensure the terms of the treaty were honored by both sides, the creation of a neutral buffer zone was deemed appropriate by the Coalition and Alliance. The Alliance Neutral Zone, which came to encompass the entirety of the Inner Solarian Frontier (now known as the Weeping Stars), was the result of this compromise. The ANZ was intended to be free of military forces and facilities from either side and was, due to being relatively underdeveloped, not viewed as a loss by either side. The neutral status of the ANZ lasted nearly a decade until it was violated by a Coalition force dispatched to aid Gadpathur in 2291, which prompted a retaliatory Solarian Navy patrol, which brought with it a Coalition observation outpost in the ANZ, which was matched with a Solarian observation station, which culminated in back-and-forth escalation continuing until 2462, at which point the Coalition formally — and illegally, in Solarian eyes, — annexed the ANZ.
 
===18 May, 2289: Naval Coup Attempt===
 
Organized along patriotic lines by officers such as Admiral Terrence Hopper who believed the Interstellar War could have been won if the Navy had been given more power to restore military governance without the oversight of the civilian government, the Revolt of the Officers ultimately further undermined the Solarian right to hegemony over the Spur. Much of the Navy’s goodwill, particularly in regions of the Solarian Frontier which has remained loyal to the Alliance, dissolved as the Solarian public saw a barely-thwarted attempt by the Navy to overthrow an institution which many of their relatives and associates had fought and died for barely a year prior. Hopper, once again evading justice, would go on to found the Solarian Patriotic Front, a barely-disguised fascistic organization viewed by many historians as the precursor of what would come to be ATLAS and Solarian Restoration Front.
 
While the quick actions of Solarian Army units saved the Alliance from what many believe would have been a devastating civil war, the damage done to public trust was permanent, and only grew worse when the Navy was barely punished for its actions. Far from restoring Solarian greatness, the coup moved the Alliance yet further into the long shadow of its once-hegemony, setting the stage for the further expansion of corporate power and additional collapses of Solarian authority as the 24th century dawned.
 
===2298: The Martian Terraforming Disaster===
 
While the Galatea Project had done much to advance the science of terraforming, it had done little to improve already-existing projects such as the Martian terraforming efforts which, instead of being run off of one central platform, ran off of a multitude of smaller terraforming stations scattered across the surface of a planet. The Martian terraforming project was the last of these still active and had been both delayed and damaged by the Martian World War which coincided with the Interstellar War. The project had suffered from issues over the 2280s and 2290s but had not suffered catastrophic issues. In 2298, it would be brought to a tragic conclusion.
 
What would cause a decade of uncontrollable climate disruption and millions of deaths is believed by most to have started with simple human error in the management of the Martian terraforming network which, unlike a Galatea Platform, had no corresponding backup network or safeguards. Only four technicians, all of whom had connections to the Red Coalition, were arrested and the Solarian Government officially blamed Martian separatists for the Disaster. The Red Coalition was declared to be a terrorist organization in the Alliance and its symbol was banned from public display, though it continued to be shown in private on Mars. No efforts were undertaken by the economically-strained Alliance to repair the Martian environment, which had been set back by a century. Mars itself had still not fully recovered from the Disaster at the time of the Violet Dawn Catastrophe in 2462.
 
==The 24th Century==
 
<center><i>“The Coalition and Elyrans laugh at us! They call us the dying embers of a great nation! No more, I say! We will rise from the ruins!”</i> - Doctor Ernesto Castrejon (2298-2386), regarding the Warp Gate Project (c. 2362).</center>
 
===2302: Elyra’s Secession and the Collapse of the Southern Solarian Frontier===
 
Though not directly touched by the Interstellar War, the Southern Solarian Frontier, consisting of the regions now known as the Sparring Sea, Valley Hale, and Badlands, had been badly economically mauled by it and the Second Great Depression. Economic woes and a lack of public trust in the Navy meant to protect it caused discontent to build in the Elyran Coalition, the Alliance’s lynchpin in the region due to its relative wealth. The Elyrans had been badly neglected during the postwar period due to the ravages of the Second Great Depression and discontent reached a boiling point in 2301. A student demonstration turned bloody sparked the Elyran Revolution, and on the first of January 2302 Elyra ceased to be part of the Alliance. Economically and logistically unable to fight another colonial war, the Alliance was forced to simply watch helplessly as its colonies drifted away from it.
 
The Elyran Revolution was a crippling blow to the entire Southern Solarian Frontier and is now seen by many historians as the end of the Alliance’s ambitions of re-established hegemony. The loss of the Elyran Coalition and much of the Navy force assigned there made the Alliance’s position in the Sparring Sea and Badlands untenable, and the decision was made to withdraw from the regions. Some stubborn colonists remained, particularly on the edge of Solarian control — now the modern Empire of Dominia’s Imperial Frontier — but most fled the region for the Inner, Middle, and Outer Rings of the Alliance. Piracy and banditry would soon establish themselves as the new rulers of both regions as Elyra began to exert its own influence over Valley Hale. The power vacuum left in both regions by the Alliance’s retreat has yet to be filled even a century and a half later.
 
===2355: The Warp Gate Project===
 
The last gasp of the Alliance’s massive pre-Interstellar War project was the Warp Gate Project of the mid-24th century. Intended to link the three rings of the Alliance together to both promote trade and make military responses to hostile actors easier, the Warp Gate Project was the brainchild of scientists in [[San Colette]] who advocated ferociously for it. The project centered around both San Colette, which filtered travel from the Outer Ring inwards, and Callisto, which became even more of a trade hub. The economy, still recovering from the Interstellar War and Second Great Depression even nearly a century later, was to benefit immensely from the Project, and every member state was to receive a warp gate by the century’s end.
 
But the Alliance’s plans did not come to fruition, and may have contributed further to its decline over the centuries. By the late 2300s the Project was far from completed and its fiscal reserves, which had never regained the peaks reached in 2259, were stretched to the breaking point. Desperate for income, it began to sell more and more rights to the increasingly-powerful megacorporations it had once firmly controlled, causing its influence over them to further atrophy. While some member states, such as Callisto and San Colette, easily met their warp gate goals, many never received a single gate and the project ultimately remained incomplete until the Solarian Collapse of 2462, at which point it was announced to be suspended until further notice.
 
==The 25th Century==
 
<center><i>“I worry at times that we are a nation haunted by the memories of our history, and that we shall never be rid of this legacy for as long as we live,”</i> - Admiral Michael Frost addressing an officer, mid-2457.</center>
 
===2452: The Secession of Biesel===
 
By 2450 megacorporate dominance of some systems, such as Tau Ceti, had become strong enough to formally challenge the government and win. In the system of Tau Ceti NanoTrasen, which had subverted the already-corrupt government of the system by 2450, opted to formally have its proxy declare independence in 2452. The Alliance mobilized to stop it but found its economy held captive by Nanotrasen’s dominance of the phoron market, which many sectors relied entirely upon. Thus, the Alliance found itself forced to sign the Tau Ceti Accords in 2452, which formally broke Tau Ceti off from the Alliance These treaties were seen as a humiliation by much of the Alliance and contributed greatly to the rise of far-right fringe groups, such as the Hopper-inspired ATLAS, over the following decade. Tau Ceti itself saw a notable population decrease as the remaining non-NT businesses and their affiliates fled for the broader Alliance, and some speculate its renowned xenophilia is a result of this brain drain.
 
The bitterness of the Tau Ceti Accords has yet to leave Solarian society even over a decade later.
 
===2462: The Solarian Civil War===
 
The Solarian Civil War has become, alongside the Interstellar War, one of the defining events in the history of the Orion Spur. While many view the Collapse as the result of the Violet Dawn catastrophe on Mars, the truth is far more complicated. It is the result of decades, if not centuries, of mismanagement by the Alliance following its defeat in the Interstellar War. It is the result of megacorporations ballooning in power after the Interstellar War and meddling in the affairs of nations which are meant to regulate them. It is the result of a Navy which long concerned itself with past glory rather than current realities. But above all, beyond all other factors, the Civil War is the result of corruption. Corruption at a massive, intergalactical scale which was fueled by mismanagement, by the Navy, by corporations, and by the simple desire to enrich oneself at the expense of one’s neighbors.
 
Now the Alliance, reduced to only its Jewel Worlds and its most loyal adherents, must work its way back to a shadow of what it once was. The goal of the Alliance, which once ruled the Spur, is now to simply reclaim its borders of 2462 rather than 2259. Gone are the days of the long shadow, and here are the days of desperate survival.
 
==Historical Solarian Sectors and Regions==
 
===Inner Solarian Frontier (Weeping Stars)===
 
Once considered to be the most important sector of the Alliance during the creation and early implementation of the Galatea Project, no region was more devastated by the Interstellar War than the Inner Solarian Frontier. This area was the subject of intense fighting between both sides during the entire War and still bears the scars of conflict even today, with many planets ruined by either abandoned terraforming efforts or the fighting itself. Few of the colonies established here survived the War intact, and much of the region is still uninhabited. The scars of war, ranging from disabled ships to entire abandoned colonies, litter this region and have long attracted salvagers to it. This region, now known as the Weeping Stars, would go on to form the Alliance Neutral Zone and would only fall entirely out of the Alliance’s influence in 2462 as a result of the Solarian Collapse.
 
===Central Solarian Frontier (Central Coalition)===
 
One of the most prosperous sections of the Solarian Frontier prior to the Interstellar War, the Central Solarian Frontier would go on to form the Central Coalition following brutal fighting during the War. Historical documents declassified in the mid-2300s show that the Alliance had planned to use Xanu as the center of a bold new era of colonial expansion to the Spur’s west in the late 23rd and early 24th centuries, but this was not to be. Little exploration has been carried out since the Interstellar War, either by the Coalition or the Alliance. Solarian control of this region was formally lost as a result of the treaty of Xansan.
 
===Outer Solarian Frontier (Rebel’s Reach)===
 
Situated comfortably between the Northern and Central Solarian Frontiers, the Outer Solarian Frontier was a heavily-patrolled trade route of the Alliance prior to the Interstellar War. The Outer Solarian Frontier was spared from most of the fighting that devastated the Inner and Central Solarian Frontiers during the War due to both the dogged defense of the Coalition and the logistical strain operating this far from the Solarian Core placed on the Solarian Navy. Like the rest of the modern Coalition, the Outer Solarian Frontier was lost in the treaty of Xansan.
 
===Northern Solarian Frontier (Crosk Plains)===
 
The now-decivilized Crosk Plains were once the Northern Solarian Frontier, a region of relatively new colonies and industrial projects at the time of the Interstellar War’s outbreak. This region was abandoned by an overstretched and badly strained Alliance following the Interstellar War and the Coalition has yet to fill the void left behind, even in the late 25th century this region remains entirely free of notable settlements. The twisted remains of abandoned colonies and stations can be found throughout this region.
 
===Riphean Frontier Sector (Arusha)===
 
What is now known as the untamed region of Arusha was once known as the Riphean Frontier Sector of the Alliance, and was intended to be its next region of expansion after the Second Great Depression ended. This next colonial expansion was intended to bring the resources of the region firmly under Solarian control in anticipation of even further expansion following the launching of updated, and faster, Discovery-class drones from the Central Solarian Frontier’s capital of Xanu. This expansion was never to be one reality due to the outbreak of the Interstellar War, and the Riphean Frontier was lost by the Alliance following the treaty of Xansan.
 
This sector’s name was derived from the Riphean Mountains, which the ancient Greeks and Romans considered the boundary of the known world. The name itself was something of a boast by the Alliance, which intended to colonize far beyond it. But it remains the frontier of the known Spur and is, perhaps as a result of this, still a popular name for Arusha even in the 25th century.
 
===Arcadian Frontier Sector (The Badlands)===
 
Now known as the Badlands due to its inhospitable wildlife and terrain, the Arcadian Frontier Sector was considered by the Alliance to be a fascinating area with high levels of ecological diversity. Thousands of scientific expeditions were dispatched to the region for the purpose of cataloging hitherto unknown alien life. Settlements in this region, such as those in modern Elyra, were often scientific in nature and many orbital platforms were constructed by the Alliance to study the region’s ecology without putting it, or its scientists, in danger. Abandoned by the Alliance following the Elyran Revolution, the gardens of Arcadia out of Elyra’s control have long since withered away. The remains of many research platforms can still be found floating in this region, loyally awaiting long-dead staff which will never return.
 
This sector’s name was derived from the mythological garden of Arcadia, which was chosen as a name due to the region’s abundance of life.
 
===Baltian Frontier Sector (The Sparring Sea)===
 
Now known as the Sparring Sea for its ceaseless conflicts and widespread piracy, the region once known as the Baltian Frontier Sector during the height of the Alliance has fallen far from its pre-War stability. Part of the reason behind the Baltian Sector’s collapse was due to it being in a relatively early stage of colonization by the Alliance prior to the Interstellar War and the War’s effects quickly cut colonies in it off from vital resources. Some, such as Novi Jadran, survived at great cost to themselves despite this. This frontier was abandoned by the Alliance following the Elyran Revolution, and most colonies in it were abandoned. Even now the region is dotted by abandoned Solarian facilities and colonies, many of which have been seized by pirates or local nations.
 
This sector derived its name for a mythical island known as Baltia. The name was chosen due to a widespread belief further worlds suitable for settlement could be found in the region. Ironically, [[Moroz]] and its associated Empire would prove this name accurate.
 
===Lemurian Frontier Sector (Light’s Edge)===
 
The Lemurian Frontier Sector was the maximum distance reached by Discovery-class probes in the southwestern Spur prior to the Interstellar War, and few large-scale efforts have been made to explore the region now known as Light’s Edge due to its lack of major stars and the longstanding rumors which surround the region. Even during its height the Alliance made few efforts to colonize planets in Lemuria due to its remoteness and poor prospects for future expansion. This frontier sector was lost by the Alliance through the Treaty of Xansan. Considered to be devoid of colonies by both the Coalition and Alliance, the reemergence of [[Assunzione]] from Lemuria surprised many observers.
 
The name of this sector was derived from the mythical continent of Lemuria.
 
===Roanoke Stars (Nralakk Federation)===
 
A mostly uncharted region until first contact was made with the skrell, no colonization efforts were made by the Alliance in the Roanoke Stars due to the region being — according to data from their probes — almost totally lacking habitable worlds. Whether this lack of data was due to deliberate manipulation by skrell who did not wish to be discovered or the aftermath of Glorsh’s atrocities is a subject of debate among many Solarian historians.
 
Deprived of life as it seemed to be to many contemporary Solarians, it is unsurprising the Roanoke Stars were named after a vanished colony.


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Latest revision as of 03:53, 19 January 2026

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Major Factions Solarian Alliance · Republic of Biesel · Empire of Dominia · Coalition of Colonies · Eridani Federation · Serene Republic of Elyra · Nralakk Federation · The Golden Deep
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Important Locations








    • Races







    • Human Lore
    General Interstellar Relations · Notable Humans · Timeline of Humanity · Offworlder Humans · Human Wildlands · Human Piracy · Human Entertainment Media · Human Social Media · Human Ideologies and Governments · Human Educational Institutions
    Republic of Biesel Tau Ceti · Biesel · Valkyrie · New Gibson · Caprice · Mictlan · Port Antillia · Odin · Corporate Reconstruction Zone · Tau Ceti Armed Forces · Biesellite Security and Law · Biesellite Culture and Society · The Trasens · Tau Ceti History
    Sol Alliance Sol System · Earth · Mars · Luna · Venus · Jupiter · Callisto · Europa · Pluto · New Hai Phong · Silversun · San Colette · Visegrad · Solarian Reconstruction Mandates · Sol Alliance History · Solarian Armed Forces · Solarian Security and Law
    Empire of Dominia Keeser Royal Family · Moroz · Fisanduh · The Lyod · Novi Jadran · Sun Reach · Dominian Culture · Moroz Holy Tribunal · The Great Houses · Dominian Society · Dominian Imperial Military · Council of Imperial Governors · Dominian Security and Law
    Eridani Federation Eridani I · Eridani Federation Military
    Republic of Elyra Persepolis · Damascus II · Medina · Aemaq · New Suez · Elyra Military · Elyran Government and Politics · Elyran Culture, Law, and Society
    Coalition of Colonies Xanu Prime · Himeo · Galatea · Vysoka · Stolitism · Scarabs · Gadpathur · Assunzione · Luceism · Burzsia · Konyang
    Luna
    Sol System
    Sector: Jewel Worlds
    Capital: Harmony City
    Species: Humans, Skrell, IPCs
    Common Languages: Sol Common, Tradeband
    Demonyms: Lunan, Lunarian
    Part of: Sol Alliance

    Earth’s only natural satellite, Luna was the first extraterrestrial body ever visited and colonized by humanity, with the first humans landing in 1969 and the first permanent colonists arriving as 21st century climate refugees. It is the oldest, richest, and grandest of the Alliance’s colonies, and is the location of many government and corporate headquarters. Lunarian cities are known as dome cities due to their domed structure, and are surrounded by rings of subordinate cities known as satellite cities. While the richest here have wealth beyond measure, the Lunarian working class has historically suffered as the moon’s industries have moved abroad and cheaper synthetic labor has replaced them. Above them the middle class toils away at the endless task of maintaining the Alliance’s huge bureaucracy, and worries about losing their livelihoods and being forced into the working poor.

    History

    While humanity has been obsessed with Earth’s moon for untold millennia before the invention of the most primitive spacecraft, historians generally regard the modern era of Luna as beginning on July 16th, 1969 - when American Apollo 11 astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin were the first humans to ever land upon another celestial body. These pioneers were quickly followed in late 1970 by the Soviet N1/L3 Soyuz 7K-LOK “Pervoprohodets” mission, which landed the third group of humans on the Moon. The “Moon Race” would continue for the rest of the 20th century and result in the first permanent settlement on Luna by the early 1980s - the Soviet “Zvezda” moonbase. The Moon Race ended in an arguable draw in the early 21st century, due to increasing economic instability on Earth.

    Luna was mostly ignored by a humanity more obsessed with survival at home until 2070, when colonists from United Orbital Enterprise (a unified space agency between the USA, China, France, and Mexico) landed on its light side. Colonists from Cosmonaut Enterprises (a successor to the Soviet space program of the 20th century) landed on the dark side of Luna in 2072. With this the colonization of Earth’s moon had formally begun, and it would see significant use as a waystation for other points in the Sol System over the course of the upcoming decades and centuries. Due to its low gravity, the Soviets and UOE used Luna as a major shipyard and proving ground for deep-space equipment.

    Further colonization to Luna took place during the 21st and 22nd century as climate damage gradually worsened, with many wealthy families and companies simply moving off-world to Luna when able to do so. With Earth's economy rapidly deteriorating the rich families of the planet found themselves in need of a new home in a very short order with very few good options: Mars suffered from many of the same problems as Earth, orbital stations were often too impractical, and Luna was -- aside from some way stations built upon it in the late 21st and early 22nd century -- mostly uninhabited. Luna was chosen by most rich refugees fleeing Earth due to its close position to Earth and the perceived ease of development on Earth's only natural satellite compared to the cost of producing dozens of semi-private stations for rich families and businesses.

    A great deal of manpower and money was required to create this new home for the Earth's richest and brightest as Luna, unlike Mars, was built without the use of cyborg-based labour. To do this hundreds of thousands of well-trained engineers, technicians, and other personnel were employed by the climate refugees to build their new home in exchange for a place on it when the refuge was completed. As such Luna, despite its original conceptualization as a climate refuge for the richest and most notable of Earth, has had a working class from its first days. As settlement continued and more domed cities were created the "lower class" of Luna expanded to include a variety of miners brought by Einstein Engines in order to exploit Luna's natural Helium-3 and titanium deposits. Though these deposits have since dried up the descendants of these miners can be found on Luna even today, and often still work for Einstein Engines -- though now as engineers and bureaucrats rather than miners.

    The booming economy of Luna created an environment in which corporations could easily succeed. In 2155 Einstein Engines, using the foundation provided by Lunan Helium-3 mining, created the first practical mass-market warp engines and became the first modern megacorporation. Luna’s prosperity has continued since then, and it remains one of the wealthiest planets in the Sol Alliance to this very day, despite its small size and small population. The Luna of today is, in many ways, the ideal colony. Rich, prosperous, and unfailing in its loyalty to the Sol Alliance.

    Environment

    Luna is a large moon, larger than Pluto — the ninth planet in the Sol System. It has roughly one sixth of the Earth’s gravity, which necessitates the use of artificial gravity in its settlements and led to it becoming an early center of Solarian shipbuilding. Arrival gravity in Luna’s cities generally brings the area up to 85% of Earth’s gravity, leading to the typical Lunarian being taller than most Solarians but more awkward in Earth-level gravity. The lunar surface is dominated by lunar dust, which is highly abrasive and can cause damage if inhaled — necessitating the use of large, often multi-stage, airlock systems whenever a Lunarian must venture outside of a dome. The surface is also heavily bombarded by cosmic radiation due to the thin lunar atmosphere, and some cities must use specially treated materials to have their outer shells resist both dust, radiation, and the occasional meteoroid.

    Luna is locked in a synchronous orbit with Earth, leading to both a near side — which always faces Earth — and a far side — which always faces outwards. Lunarian settlements have historically been centered on the near side due to ease of resupply and a desire by early Lunarians to view their home planet. Of the five great dome cities only Gagaringrad is on the far side of the moon, which has earned it the nickname of the “Shaded City” by Lunarians. When viewed from Earth, Luna’s dome cities and their satellite cities create a vision not unlike viewing humanity’s homeworld from orbit. Despite early attempts to sync the Lunarian calendar to lunar months, colonizing governments — then the Alliance — insisted on using the standard Terran calendar for convenience, and this example has been followed across the Spur.

    Culture

    The government flag of Luna. The crescent represents Luna itself, and is meant to remind viewers of Selene's headpiece.

    Lunarians are a tightly-knit and somewhat insular people wracked by stark class divisions between the rich, middle, and working class. The rich here are more wealthy than perhaps anywhere else in the modern Spur, but the working poor are just as poor as anywhere else. The richest Lunarians are part of families which have lived on Earth’s only moon since the 21st century and originally arrived as climate refugees, and upper-class families are known to spend extravagant sums of money to have their entire family trees charted out and known. Members of the middle and working class lack the obsession with pedigree, having neither the desire nor the resources to carry out these projects.

    Regardless of class, Lunarians tend to have certain physical characteristics due to their shared origin on the moon. Due to the lower gravity of the moon, Lunarians tend to be taller than most humans — such as the residents of Earth or Tau Ceti — and can struggle with adjusting to Earth-level gravity, much like Callisteans or other moon-originating humans. Lunarians also tend to be paler than their Earthborn counterparts due to many living in partially-recessed dome cities where natural light can be rarer, and the Lunar day-night cycle, where most locations have 14 days of light followed by 14 days of darkness — though earthshine (light reflected from the Earth) ensures these nights are brighter than Terran ones. Many develop sunburns more quickly than other humans, and “Lunarian-proofed” sunscreen is a common sight in starports across the current and former Alliance.

    Most Lunarians have membership in class-specific clubs and fraternal organizations, which can range from drinking clubs for dockworkers to clubs for politicians where all participants must wear stylized masks. Almost every one of these organizations are invitation only . As all things on Earth’s moon, some are far more prestigious than others, and the most prestigious of these – such as the Oakheart Club of Harmony City, a fraternal order for Solarian Navy flag officers – can and do influence the political culture of the entire moon (and perhaps the broader Alliance). Many prominent Lunarian social clubs have been accused of involvement in the secret societies alleged to run Luna from behind the scenes through proxies, patsies, and fronts. Most clubs will have some form of special, often opaque, gesture or ritual associated with their activities, ranging from handshakes to seemingly occult rituals involving the burning of sacrificial effigies. Many a B-list Venusian crime film has involved a plucky detective investigating a Lunarian fraternal organization, only to find it is not-so-secretly a cover for something supernatural or evil.

    Social Classes

    Throughout history, members of the Lunarian upper class have made up a large portion of the Solarian Navy's officer corps.

    Sitting at the top of Lunarian, and perhaps the entire Alliance’s, society are its most wealthy citizens. Sometimes known as Sol’s aristocracy, or — more derisively, and often by non-Solarians — as the Solarian nobility, the Lunarian upper class is per capita the richest group of humans in the modern Spur. These Lunarians can trace their origins to the original climate refugees, often already rich themselves, and to the early executives of successful corporations such as Einstein Engines. They are obsessed with their pedigrees and their family histories, and few marry outside of Luna or the upper class; though an up-and-coming upper middle class family may find itself aligned to one of these venerable families by marriage, it is an uncommon thing. Genetically-engineered children, even cloned children, are not uncommon, and Zeng-Hu Pharmaceuticals is always willing to provide its services, though Galatean firms have long plied their trade on Earth’s moon. The extent of genetic editing the Lunarian upper-class experience before and after birth ensures they live longer, healthier lives than most other humans in the Spur. It is often joked Luna contains not just the greatest concentration of wealth in its upper classes, but the greatest collection of centenarians anywhere in the modern Spur.

    Wealthy Lunarians are massively influential in its political and economic environment, and many conspiracies — both on Luna and throughout the Alliance — swirl around their wealth and dominance. Some hold membership in secret or semi-secret societies they are rumored to use in efforts to further their influence and dominance, and some claim these societies far predate the founding of the Alliance or the colonization of Luna. The richest Lunarians are an exclusive class and zealously guard their homes in the central domes from intrusion by those deemed beneath their notice or unworthy of the privilege, with secret covenants between rich and influential Lunarians to make their neighborhoods more exclusive not being unheard of. Further increasing their exclusivity is their unusual accent: rich families will teach their children, and sometimes upper-level assistants in their employ, how to speak in a refined, learned dialect known as Formal Lunarian. Formal Lunarian, or FL, must be taught from birth as the way one learns Solarian Common for it to be passable to those who have also learned the dialect to birth. This makes it both hard to passably fake and marks someone as an outsider in a community when they speak, ensuring they may never fit in.

    The Lunarian middle class makes up the majority of the moon’s population following the decline of its working class populace, and forms the backbone of the modern Solarian central bureaucracy. Most live in satellite cities and work in government buildings of the central dome, performing the endless duties of an interstellar bureaucracy under the watchful eye of the upper class. Often seen as a colorless and boring people due to their line of work, a common Solarian joke claims the stereotypical middle-class Lunarian is a Solarian government bureaucrat who wears a suit to work, commutes by train, and only feels joy when completing paperwork. Though typically wealthy in their own right, many of the middle class suffer from impostor syndrome and drive themselves into debt attempting to follow the trends of those richer than themselves. They are frequent travelers abroad, with middle-class Lunarians having a higher purchasing power off of Luna than on it due to their high wages being needed to match the moon’s cost of living. These Lunarians also form the middle management of Luna-centric corporations such as Einstein Engines, Zeng-Hu Pharmaceuticals, and Zavodskoi Interstellar.

    The Lunarian working class, in contrast to the upper and middle classes, is not flush with wealth. Once almost the equal of the middle class, the working class has seen its size shrink and influence fade away as Lunarian industries have moved abroad from the moon and a new invention has been brought in to replace those they have retained: positronic-based robots known as IPCs. Many working-class Lunarians have moved abroad, often to Callisto or to another colonized world in the Sol System, and those who have chosen to remain must often make do in poorly-maintained and run-down satellite cities filled with rotting industrial infrastructure that serves as a reminder of the better life their parents and grandparents once lived, with the fading names of these once-great industrial companies now serving as epitaphs to the working-class life that was. These Lunarians are some of the most anti-IPC citizens of the Alliance, viewing them as having taken their well-paying factory jobs before and now threatening what service industry jobs they desperately hang onto, hoping to not be forced into insolvency. Working-class Lunarians who work in mechatronic-focused industries such as ship production take pride in a culture of technical ingenuity and non-positronic automaton maintenance which ensures they can keep positronics out of the workplace, even if their equipment is often slower and less efficient than a positronic-only factory.

    Holidays

    The Zhongqiu Jie Festival is an extremely popular holiday on Luna said to date back to the 2070s. The holiday is originally rooted in the Lunar New Year, itself imported by East Asian immigrants to Luna, but has since grown to be a common holiday designed to celebrate the success of humanity’s first interstellar pioneers. The Zhongqiu Jie Festival takes place on the same date as its Earthbound variant; the fifteenth day of the eight month of the traditional lunar calendar.

    Apollo Day is another common holiday, taking place on the sixteenth of July. Similarly to Danza de la Luna, this holiday celebrates the success of humanity’s interstellar pioneers. However, this one celebrates the success of Apollo 11 specifically rather than explorers more generally.

    A variation on Apollo Day named Pervoprohodets Day is instead celebrated in Soviet-colonized areas, with this holiday instead taking place on the fifteenth of December - the date the USSR’s LK lander touched down on the Lunar surface.

    Life in Dome Cities

    A map of New Odesa and some of its satellite cities' rail infrastructure (click to enlarge).

    Lunarian settlements are known as dome cities due to their original shape: as one would expect, they are large, domed structures designed in the early 2100s to replace the primitive early structures from humanity’s first settlements on Earth’s moon. The term “dome city” refers to the original dome, which most Lunarians see as the heart of their settlement and the most prestigious location to live, though only the ultra-wealthy can afford it. Central dome cities are ringed by satellite cities that serve as its neighborhoods and suburbs, and are connected by underground rail and highway lines often built into the moon’s long-dormant lava tubes. The quality of a satellite city can vary wildly depending on its original purpose and which individuals now inhabit it, with the best satellite cities resembling the central dome – though less prestigious – and the worst being decaying industrial areas which would not look out of place in a rough area of New Hai Phong or pre-Violet Dawn Mars. As all things on Luna, the quality of where one lives is generally determined by the economic strata they are born into.

    The central domes of dome cities are extremely exclusive locations, with only the wealthiest of already-wealthy Lunarians being found here, living alongside corporate headquarters buildings, fine dining and shopping, government buildings, and public buildings. Their residents are corporate executives, high-level government bureaucrats, and members of Luna’s most prestigious families and dynasties. These individuals will typically work to make the central dome even more exclusive through the creation of formal and informal compacts designed to ensure only those they deem sufficiently worthy. Further worsening one’s chance of ascension into the inner dome are restrictions placed on new constructions – or modifications – by organizations known as Municipal Development Compacts, or MDCs. A unique feature of central domes, MDCs are part social club and part homeowner’s association, and often involve local government officials. Unless one is a member – or has enough money to pass the exorbitant fees they charge – they have no chance of getting into the central dome. MDCs are, of course, always invite-only, further working to exclude new members.

    Satellite cities have no such associations, though some richer ones have close equivalents, and are home to the vast majority of Luna’s population. Often connected to the central dome – where many satellite city dwellers work – by underground rail lines or highways, satellite cities can vary greatly in their quality and in what they contain, and their fates were often determined by how they were originally zoned by the early Lunarian government. Industrial-zoned satellite cities, due to the decay of Luna’s industrial sector, have fared the worst, but residential or commercial ones have fared much better. The typical middle-class satellite city is full of mixed commercial and residential zoning, and often has a high population density reminiscent of Callisto or New Hai Phong due to the height restrictions placed on expansion due to the presence of the dome. They can sometimes extend much further underground, both vertically and horizontally, with the most premium space being in the center of the satellite city where natural light reaches the streets at most times of the Lunar day. Typically they are laid out in a grid pattern, with government and high-rise buildings at the center – the tallest point of the dome – and structures becoming smaller as one approaches the edge of the dome.

    Economics

    The Lunarian economy has undergone significant changes since colonization. Luna’s economy was initially based around heavy industries deemed non-viable on Earth: shipbuilding and He-3 mining and refining. With the earliest of humanity’s vessels having been made in Earth’s orbit, where collisions with abandoned space objects were a constant risk, shipbuilding forms were quick to rebase to Luna, with many concentrating on the near side of the moon and establishing facilities on the outskirts of climate refugee settlements: arguably, these were the first satellite cities. On the far side of the moon the Soviets were quick to establish a settlement of their own — Gagaringrad — and the Union’s insatiable urge for Helium-3 to power warp technology caused mining operations to follow. First the Soviets, then the rest of Earth, staked out mining operations for themselves. For its first few decades, Luna was a very working-class colony: home to those building the new future of humanity. Dinged and scuffed Soviet monuments to the conquest of the Stars on Luna built in this era can be found across its surface, though many are in disrepair and few can read their dated script.

    But the early Lunar economy was not to last. As humanity expanded beyond the Sol System and congealed into the Alliance, the need for new ships and more fuel rapidly outpaced what Earth’s moon could produce. Shipbuilding moved further away to larger, purpose-built facilities further out in the Sol System — now a few hours’ travel away instead of weeks — and He-3 operations moved to Pluto, where the Soviets applied everything they had learned on Luna to create the still-largest producer of Helium-3 in the modern Spur, and one with the nearly-unlimited resources of the Oort Cloud rather than Luna’s already-depleted reserves. Shipyards, factories, and refineries began to shutter across the moon’s satellite cities. Skilled labor fled abroad and those who stayed behind suffered from unemployment, with many turning to crime or accepting lower-paying jobs in the now-growing service industry. Some instead chose to work for a growing employer on the moon: the Solarian government, whose bureaucracies were migrating to Luna’s domed cities from a decaying Earth.

    The modern Lunarian economy is heavily based around the government and its service sector, though many previously human-worked service jobs are being supplanted by positronic units owned by corporations or the government. Middle-class Lunarians typically work for the Solarian government or in office roles for corporations with facilities on Luna — with most corporations having a regional headquarters here, Hephaestus, Orion Express, and NanoTrasen excepted. Rich Lunarians work in the same sectors as their middle-class colleagues, but tend to be in senior-level positions rather than the middling ones occupied by the middle class. Working-class Lunarians are left with what remains: most work in the service industry, with a minority being employed in government-run blue collar jobs such as Navy shipyards and urban maintenance. They have significantly less purchasing power than other Lunarians and often live paycheck to paycheck, with the creeping growth of synthetics in their traditional jobs having caused many to migrate abroad, often to Callisto, in hopes of a better life.

    Corporations

    Luna is home to headquarters — or regional headquarters — for many corporations based inside and outside of the Alliance. Of the megacorporations Einstein Engines, Zavodskoi Interstellar, and Zeng-Hu Pharmaceuticals are most prominent on the moon. However, dozens of other corporations — from Dominian engineering firms to Coalition shipping companies to Solarian industrial companies — have regional headquarters here, and establishments frequented by corporate employees for their breaks can be a whirlwind of dialects and languages, with Galatean firm representatives working out deals with Solarian businesses over food well outside the purchasing power of many Lunarians. Most of these companies have their headquarters on the near side of the moon in Harmony City, with only Zavodskoi Interstellar stubbornly remaining on the far side in Gagaringrad, in a building known locally as the Obelisk.

    Einstein Engines is the de facto kingmaker of the Lunarian corporate world, and any company with a desire to be successful on Earth’s moon will find themselves interacting with the oldest megacorporation sooner or later. Based on Harmony City, Einstein is unofficially regarded as the Lunarian corporation, and many in its upper management come from the moon. Most still-functioning heavy industries on Luna are connected to EE or one of its affiliates, and most facilities previously operated by NanoTrasen have been bought out by Einstein at below market prices using their connections to the Lunarian government. Most synthetics on Luna are produced by Einstein in one of its facilities, which has led to growing resentment from the Lunarian working class in recent decades. The famed Suzuki-Zhang Hammer Drive was invented in the Robert H. Goddard Administrative, Commercial, and Research Facility, an Einstein Engines proving ground located in a satellite city of Harmony City.

    Zavodskoi Interstellar is, alongside Einstein, one of the prominent corporations on Luna. Based mostly on the far side of the moon in Gagaringrad, unwritten rules between ZI and EE have seen Zavodskoi’s domain in Gagaringrad mostly untouched by Einstein in exchange for unknown concessions. Zavodskoi, to the chagrin of NanoTrasen, often works alongside Einstein — sometimes in the same facilities — and is a major supplier of the Lunarian Public Safety Bureau, providing the moon’s police with everything from bulletproof vests to their service weapons to tear gas. Like Einstein, much of Zavodskoi’s upper echelon is dominated by Lunarians. However, recent decades have seen a steady encroachment by Dominian staff, with more and more ZI board meetings on Luna having at least one Morozian present.

    Zeng-Hu Pharmaceuticals controls much of the medical industry on the moon, though through the corporation’s unique keiretsu structure instead of direct oversight. Medical facilities across Luna are controlled by ZH’s tendrils, and the keiretsu is likewise dominated by Lunarian staff. Many graduates from Luna’s universities go straight into Zeng-Hu’s staff, where they have historically succeeded in its competitive environment. ZH’s generic medicine divisions readily provide their services to the Lunarian upper and middle class, and it is not uncommon for Lunarians to live significantly longer than average Solarians as a result — a lucky genetically engineered Lunarian may live well over a century.

    Politics and Government

    The Lunarian government is dominated by the richest of its population, with political dynasties having always influenced the moon’s politics. The amount of wealth one needs to enter into the moon’s political scene is prohibitively expensive, and acts as a barrier against non-dynastic political actors entering into politics. Without a significant wealth reserve or a powerful backer, a prospective candidate will simply not have enough cash on hand to get their name out to be heard, and thus voted in. Some seemingly independent actors do enter into its politics, but a savvy Lunarian will easily uncover these seeming independents often have connections to the political dynasties and are only pretending to be free of their influence — a trick often used to subvert a dynasty’s rivals through subterfuge.

    Conspiracies have long swirled around the moon’s political dynasties, with some claiming their influence over the moon includes control over the various Solarian government agencies headquartered here, and that the Alliance’s direction is largely chosen ahead of time by a cabal of Luna’s ultra-wealthy. Other, more outlandish, conspiracies claim the dynasties are in league with demonic forces, are an outgrowth of Earther conspiracies such as Majestic 12, are shapeshifting aliens (distinct from real aliens met by the Alliance), or are supernatural creatures such as vampires. The Lunarian government has long not entertained these claims, deeming them too ridiculous to even be worth denying.

    The current governor of Luna is Dietmar de Esterházy von Galántha. Governor de Esterházy von Galántha, known as E-V-G by many Lunarians, is the patriarch of a venerable Lunarian political dynasty with historical ties to the Solarian government, particularly its diplomatic service, and Harmony City’s branch of Luna’s local police agency, the Lunarian Public Safety Bureau. The governor has connections to most political dynasties on the moon and is rumored to be one of the most powerful men in the Alliance, though such theories often bear an edge of conspiracy. Dietmar is old, past eighty, and it is expected he will retire when the current term expires in 2480, having served as the moon’s governor for thirty years, surviving ATLAS, Frost, the coup, the civil war, and its aftermath. What dynastic family will replace him, or if one of his relatives will be elected, remains to be seen.

    In addition to local politics Luna is home to most of the Solarian government’s agency and department headquarters, and millions of civil servants are either Lunarians or work on Luna, toiling away at computers or filing cabinets as part of the endless struggle to ensure the Alliance’s labyrinthine and massive bureaucratic apparatus does not collapse under its own weight. Most government bureaucrats on Luna are drawn from its middle class, though the long reach of the upper classes cannot be entirely escaped as they often head local offices or the departments of offices. Government work is an honest life for many Lunarians, and local residents take pride in their moon’s status as the beating heart of the Alliance’s government and its bureaucracy. Many say that Unity Station has ideas, but it is Luna which makes them into reality.

    Lunarian law enforcement is handled by the Lunarian Public Safety Bureau, or LPSB. One of the most well-funded public security services in the Solarian Alliance, it is regarded as one of the better policing agencies in the Sol System by middle and working-class Lunarians. However, the LPSB operates on a pay-to-play system of corruption with rich Lunarians where crimes, assuming they are not completely egregious, can be deemed a non-issue if one pays enough. The moon’s wealthy political dynasties exert an immense amount of control over the LPSB and de facto run the Bureau, with its upper ranks dominated by those affiliated with the ultra-rich. The police officers of the Bureau are known as public security agents, or PSAs, and the officer in charge of an entire satellite city is known as a chief director. The officers of the LPSB are typically recruited from the Lunarian working or middle class. They are well-trained and well-equipped, often having instructors affiliated with Zavodskoi Interstellar or the Solarian Armed Forces and utilizing the most cutting-edge equipment, ranging from laser-based weaponry to Colettish-produced police drones. Zavodskoi is known to recruit many ex-LPSB officers into its ranks, though this source of qualified manpower has started to dry up as Solarian attitudes have shifted to be anti-corporate in a post-2462 Spur.

    Compared to other Solarian police forces, the LPSB uses a larger number of synthetics. Industrial units serve as backup for IPC-qualified officers and as riot suppressors, Bishops serve in technical or intelligence roles, and shells do much of the LPSB’s clerical work, but none serve in patrol roles. These IPCs are often secondhand units from the Solarian military or corporate security, though some have been purchased directly by the Bureau itself, and often with the assistance of wealthy backers.

    Major Dome Cities

    Harmony City is the capital of Luna and the beating heart of both its political life. Here, the political deals that will run Luna for decades are made in the private rooms of high-end establishments. Situated in the Mare Insularum, it has a unique feature not found in any other dome city: a coastline situated in Mare Luistania, an artificial lake built out of an asteroid crater inside the dome city. The center of this lake is an artificial island known as the Isle of Harmony where the government buildings of Luna’s central administration are found. The Isle of Harmony can only be accessed by appointment if one is not a government employee or elected official, ensuring the government remains out of practical reach for many Lunarians. Harmony City is home to the headquarters of Einstein Engines and many of the megacorporation’s employees live here, giving the city a reputation as the de facto capital of the megacorporation as well as Luna. Notable sights in Harmony include the Museum of Aeronautics and Astronautics, where the original landers of the Soviet Union and United States of America were moved after the city’s establishment. Most of Harmony City’s satellite cities are home to corporate employees or employees of the Lunarian government itself, and few were designed for industrial use. Residents of Harmony City are often negatively stereotyped by other Lunarians as social climbers and backstabbers who are all too willing to betray even their family for minor political or social gain.

    Nouvelle Caen, originally settled by French climate refugees, is the heart of Luna’s culture and home to many of its corporate offices. Known for its art galleries and high society functions, the residents of Le Nouvelle – as they often refer to their dome city – pride themselves on being the highest echelons of modern Solarian culture, and on enjoying the finer things in life. The city’s government has taken the unusual step of turning all of its former industrial satellite cities into upper- and middle-class housing, making Nouvelle Caen the only dome city without any industrial satellites. It is home to most of Luna’s small Dominian expatriate noble population, and is the only dome city to have an Imperial consulate aside from New Odesa. Sights in Le Nouvelle include its entertainment district, where one can find theaters, opera houses, and playhouses in an architectural style known as Nouveaux Beaux-Arts which deliberately calls back to French history, and its numerous art galleries, some of which are the only galleries in the Sol System to feature prominent non-human artists. It is the richest dome in terms of raw wealth, and many Venusian stars have homes away from home in its satellite cities. Residents of Le Nouvelle are stereotyped as foppish and somewhat aloof by other Lunarians, and it is commonly joked that most speak French – a dead language – at home, and Solarian Common only when inconvenienced by those not of Le Nouvelle.

    Hangzhou is Luna’s academic center, and traces its origins to a joint project between NASA and the Federal Republic of China’s Space Agency. Viewed by many as the Alliance’s brain, the central dome city of Hangzhou trades conventional Lunarian styles of zoning for a number of universities, student houses, and laboratories. More middle-class Lunarians live in Hangzhou’s central dome city than in the rest of Luna’s central domes combined, and some rich Lunarians from elsewhere on the moon look down at Hangzhou residents as unworthy of the prestige of living in a central dome. The dome city has a large Solarian military presence due to numerous proving grounds and testing facilities, some originally built by the Solarian Armed Forces and some seized from corporate actors in 2463. Hangzhou is a key medical research hub in the Orion Spur due to housing the Lunar University of Medical Science, the city’s largest employer, and many Zeng-Hu Pharmaceuticals facilities. Zeng-Hu. Residents of it often brag they may not be the richest dome, but they are undoubtedly the longest-lived. Hangzhouers are stereotyped by other Lunarians as shy intellectuals who are issued a pair of glasses and a degree at birth by the city’s government.

    Gagaringrad is the largest dome city founded by the Soviet Union and the largest dome city on the dark side of the moon. It was the heart of the moon’s mining and refining industries before the USSR moved most of these operations to Pluto as the city’s Helium-3 deposits began to dry up, causing Gagaringrad to fall on hard times as thousands emigrated to Pluto, returned to Earth, or became unemployed on Luna. Many Lunarians see Gagaringrad as a dome city on its last legs, only one economic shock away from total collapse, with many of its once-proud industrial satellite cities now being abandoned relics of a better time. The high unemployment rate of the city has led to a rise in crime, and Gagaringrad is unofficially known by many Lunarians as the moon’s crime capital. The one remaining bright spot for the moon’s Soviet city is the presence of a still-active shipbuilding industry affiliated with the Solarian Navy, and the domes associated with this industry are home to the last remnants of the Lunarian Soviet man. Residents of Gagaringrad are stereotyped as gloomy, due to living in darkness for most of the year, and easily irritable people who may or may not have organized crime links.

    New Odesa is the administrative hub of the Solarian government on Luna, and is home to literally millions of government bureaucrats and most of the moon’s foreign embassies. Abroad, it is rumored by some to be the heart of the Lunarian conspiracy to control the Spur, a claim Odesans find absurd. The youngest satellite city, it is the moon’s transit hub and has a twice-hourly shuttle to Unity Station utilized by many Solarian government employees and elected officials. It is also home to Yuri Kondratyuk Shuttleport, the moon’s primary interstellar shuttleport. It is also home to the headquarters of Pan Solarian Interstellar. New Odesa’s central dome has the lowest population of any dome city as most of its space is taken up by government offices, though its population rises during the week as many bureaucrats are known to sleep overnight in government-owned dormitories. Most workers commute from its satellite cities and suited bureaucrats asleep on high-speed trains are common sights. Sights in New Odesa include the Zvezda Museum, which chronicles early colonization of the moon, and New Lviv Satellite City, which has been carefully zoned to ensure all buildings are in the antique Hustul Secession style of architecture. Odesans are stereotyped by other Lunarians as underslept and overworked bureaucrats twitching from caffeine (or stimulant) abuse in their desperate struggle to conquer the Alliance’s endless tide of paperwork.

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