Sandbox:Lavillastrangiato

Eridanian

H. Sapiens/Human

Home System: Epsilon Eridani

Homeworld: Eridani I, II, III, IV, V

Language(s): Sol Common/Tradeband/Freespeak

Political Entitie(s): Eridani Corporate Federation/Sol Alliance

The Eridani Corporate Federation is a decentralised corporatocracy set in the Epsilon Eridani system. While nominally part of the greater Sol Alliance as a whole, the Federation’s corporate government enjoys an unprecedented level of autonomy compared to other Solarian member states; very few of the Federation government’s policies align with those of the greater Solarian nation. Renowned and reviled across the Spur for the efficacy of its expansive private military groups and controversial treatment of its own citizenry, the Eridani Federation has become something of a pariah state in galactic affairs. Its main inhabited world, Eridani I, boasts some of the highest population density anywhere in the Spur.

Eridani I has an extremely small number of cities, only four; a result of the immense and rampant expansion of the largest urban centres, which ended up absorbing all other settlements in their path. These megacities are some of the most advanced, populated, and chic in the Spur, full of nightlife, shopping centres, and a vibrant party culture. Below the cosmopolitan urban centres, however, lies the main home of the Eridanian non-citizens, known as “dregs”. Most of Eridani I’s dregs reside in old and abandoned sewage, tunnel, and mining complexes, often forming their own makeshift societies and small “shanty towns” when space permits. Some of these dregs find their home above the surface in relatively abandoned patches of space far away from the urban centres, usually deserts or mountains – areas that are certifiably not profitable, and thus not settled by anyone else. None of Eridani I’s shining opportunities are present for Eridani I’s dregs and their living standard has often been described as miserable or extremely poor by independent observers – criticisms that do not matter, as this class does not officially exist.

As Epsilon Eridani was originally settled by colonists of West and Central African descent, human characters born in the Eridani Corporate Federation must have names and appearances consistent with the indigenous peoples of these regions, as any human moving to the ECF would assimilate into the dominant cultures and ethnic groups of the Federation. Eridani dregs have developed cultures of abstract or unconventional names, however, and this is tolerated. Only native Eridanians may select the Eridanian accents – employing the suit slang is how a non-native worker might look to integrate, not the accent tag in-game. This is enforceable by server moderators and admins.

Contents

History

Early Colonisation (2102 - 2175)

Epsilon Eridani I – originally referred to as Kamfulu, a name that has now been entirely forgotten except by dregs – was one of the first planets humanity set its sights on for colonisation. On the 6th of May 2102, the West African Colonisation Vessel Oshunmare, the flagship of the West African Union, touched down on the continent that would eventually come to be known as Ifihan. Prior to terraforming, Kamfulu was a mostly a humid world covered in jungles, with more boreal forests closer to the poles and deserts close to the equatorial continents of Ichida and Lukingo. By 2110, Kamfulu was one of the most developed Sol Alliance colonies that existed, with a high quality of life for its citizens and abundant natural resources. Shipping quantities of precious minerals, nuclear fuel, and wood and stone to the Jewel Worlds meant that economic development was prospering, all under the watchful eye of the Eridani Economic Council.

At the time, there were four heads of the EEC; Chidike Taha, Emem Ashikaye, Fariha Idowu, and Safiya Bayu. Each of them were corporate executives of various West African Federation corporations, and had been hand-picked by the president of the Kamfulu planetary government, Abraham Adobu. The council was subject to laws and regulations concerning minimising the disruption of the biosphere in the aftermath of Earth's climate disaster. Among the EEC, these environmental protections were agreed on to be a detriment to Kamfulu's blossoming economy. The planet’s thick vegetation was making it hard for the cities to continue expanding, and new colonists and a growing population needed accommodation. At the time, most settlements were dotted across small gaps in the planet's plentiful jungles, meaning travel also became costly in both time and resources. Mining operations and natural gas extractions were made even more costly with the limits of how much of the vegetation could be razed. With Governor Adobu unaware, the EEC collectively agreed that the regulations had to be loosened for Kamfulu to truly become a galactic economic powerhouse.

In parliament, the EEC quietly bundled in a motion accompanied by other laws that were proposed to the government; the motion would give the EEC's branch almost complete control over parliament. A scant few members of parliament noticed the deception, raising their concerns, but the majority ruled in favour of solidifying the Council's control over the planet's fate. Historians suspect that most of parliament's votes were bought by the Council, but the Eridani Corporate Federation remains tight-lipped on the subject.

On January 17th, 2175, several weeks after the motion was passed, Chidike Taha initiated a vote of no confidence against Abraham Adobu and his leadership. This vote too was passed, and with little to keep them in check, the EEC gradually solidified their grip on Kamfulu, doing away with the members of parliament that had disagreed with them and the laws that prevented their economic expansion.

The Golden Fist and the Interstellar War (2215 - 2290)

In 2215, the EEC struck a deal with Zeng-Hu Pharmaceuticals. In exchange for the keiretsu’s exclusive rights to Eridani II, the EEC purchased cutting-edge terraforming technology, which was used to achieve a more ideal average temperature of 25 degrees Celsius, and eradicate most of Kamfulu’s natural vegetation. The worker populace of Kamfulu, in the meantime, had their working hours increasing, with their pay dropping, especially obvious given the massive amount of development ongoing on the planet. Many colonists recognised that the EEC’s terraforming efforts were destructive in the same way Earth’s climate crisis had been destructive to their ancestors. Gradually, discontent grew, with many banding together to form loose unions or environmental groups; workers destroyed terraforming equipment, blockaded factories and construction sites, and went on strike to protest in the city of Ifihan.

But with little oversight from the colonial Solarian government, the EEEC was free to do as they desired with protestors. The Council hired ex-Solarian military personnel, and formed their own militias out of those who were eager to gain a paycheck in an increasingly unstable social climate. These militias and private military contractors were deployed en-masse against protestors, breaking strikes, disappearing the loudest dissenters, and restoring a blood-soaked order to the roiling planet. This culminated in the Midnight Riots of April 2219, where thousands of protestors, union members, and workers who may not have had anything to do with the original strikes were shot or detained.

After the Midnight Riots, the newly-cowed proletariat was back to work at development; while rare conciliatory pay increases from the Council meant that the economic situation was not quite as dire, the working class of Kamfulu was still beginning to fall through the cracks. When they did, they could be quickly replaced, either by an equally desperate colonist or a drone purchased from Hephaestus Industries or Einstein Engines. It was around this time that Kamfulu was renamed to Eridani I, an attempt to shed the influence of its original colonists and, according to the EEEC, turn it into a more “advertiser-friendly” world.

In the meantime, the military contractors hired to enforce order in Kamfulu were gradually adopted as the law enforcers of the state. Still paid handsomely off the selling of Eridani I’s natural resources, the ex-Solarian military contractors organised themselves into Ringspire. Meanwhile, those who had cut their teeth in the riots earlier on in the 23rd century founded Eagle Corp. Both Ringspire and Eagle Corp collaborated frequently to keep Eridani I “peaceful”, and began hiring themselves out across human space.

The EPMCs profited handsomely off keeping colonial populations in line during the Second Great Depression. The second Interstellar War saw Ringspire and Eagle Corp operating alongside strike teams and ground forces in the Solarian military, which also gave rise to Sekhmet Intergalactic. While both companies had their own medical response divisions, Sekhmet's creation involved the recruitment of specialist doctors, multi-pronged responses for both the groups, and an unscrupulous yet skilled and professional trauma response team to be sent out across the galaxy. During and after the war, Epsilon Eridani began to promote Eridani Private Military Contractors as the premier military contractors in the Orion Spur.

Eridani’s Century of Expansion (2295 - 2390)

All the while, resource extraction from Eridani I and the rest of its system continued. The systematic destruction of Eridani I’s flora allowed the largest urban centres to expand uncontrollably and absorb practically all cities in their wake. By 2300, only four cities – one per continent – remained on the surface of Eridani, containing 100% of the planet’s registered inhabitants: Ifihan, Tokura, Madiwa and Fantalu. Only planets or moons with extremely high population density such as Callisto can contend with Eridani I’s continent-spanning megacities in statistics such as gross domestic product. As the megacities approached this massive size, their names began to supplant their continents’ – and now, the continents are simply named after their respective megacity.

• this is when n4nl was founded and surveillance got worse
• first skrontact?
• warp gates
• now the sol alliance has no $$$, eridani is bigger and better than ever, bay bee
• gang war?

Modern Day

• woah index gets founded
• epmcs are being employed by nt to tell solarians to fuck off
• epmcs are everywhere during the great biesel independence conflict?
• something something adhomai
• eridani sucks and will suck for a long time. the end!

Environment

There are three planets and a singular moon in the Epsilon Eridani system; Eridani I itself, orbited by its moon Kianda, Eridani II, and Eridani III.

Eridani I

Eridani I possesses a humid, hospitable climate, with an average daily temperature of 35 degrees Celsius. In the early days of its colonisation, the temperature was considerably cooler, and man-made climate change and the razing of Eridani I’s natural biosphere is thought to have contributed to the wild weather and hot, humid temperatures.

The surface of Eridani I is home to four continents; Ifihan, Tokura, Madiwa, and Fantalu. Over the years of colonisation, the continents have become massive cities with selected plots of gardens being scattered about the cities. Heavy tropical storms are common on the coasts of the continents, and massive seawalls sit on their coasts to stave off the worst of the flooding. Leaking water tends to trickle down into the dreg communities in the bases of the cities, meaning dreg settlements rarely remain near seawalls.

Eridani I’s air quality is among the worst in the Spur, with most of the air purification being done artificially. Gardens and forests continue to exist in controlled environments in the megacities, but only in token amounts – and, of course, as tourist destinations. The most exclusive arboretums often function as meeting places for high-level executives who wish to not be interrupted by paparazzi looking for the latest scoop.

Kianda

Kianda is the moon of Eridani I. Small, rocky, and airless, it is slightly closer to Eridani than Luna is to Earth. Its most distinctive feature is the Olufu Crater, which houses the Idris Moonshine resort and the Idris base of operations for the Epsilon Eridani system. Massive advertisements are occasionally displayed on the service of the moon, and the billboards that track across its surface are coveted advertisement spaces for the holiday seasons. Also on Kianda is the Liberated Sea, a large stretch of plain that is taken up mostly by the Idris Incorporated databank centre. This complex houses millions upon millions of petaflops of banking data, all maintained by autonomous drones and remotely observed by Idris security units.

Eridani II

Eridani II is a gas giant with a distinct deep red colour, orbited by several mining stations and home to the largest industrial operations in the Eridani Corporate Federation. The largest station and where most of its population is centred is HIMS Kiava Delta, which dregs colloquially refer to as “The Pit”. Tonnes of gases and minerals are mined and refined from the giant and its asteroid belts, from helium-3 to cobalt. Kiava Delta is also home to the Pit Market, where brokers buy and sell hundreds of tons of raw and finished materials, making it one of the most central parts of Eridani’s commercial society. Kiava Delta is constantly being refurbished, added to, and built upon, with many communities taking up residence in older wings used for ore refinery and mining. Some wings have even been rented out by various corporations or private military contractors as sites for weapons testing. Many off-worlder humans live on Kiava Delta, and there is a constant stream of baseline humans transferred from Hephaestus Industries to work in the grinding machinery of corporate influence.

Eridani III

Eridani III, nicknamed “The Cell” by dregs, is a barren planet with an atmosphere primarily consisting of superheated chlorine and nitrogen. It is home to several of the ECF's private military company training and prison facilities, and the giant tri-towers of the Private Military Contracting Group known as the Triangle Compound. Each of the three towers manages a large portion of the planet’s private military forces, with one being devoted to monitoring naval/interstellar fleet operations, one being an additional training and management centre that specialises in prisoner management, riot control and policing for corporate security officers and mercenary soldiers, and the third being the headquarters of Eridani III’s extensive prison network. The planet’s prisons range from decrepit pits of suffering and darkness where convicts judged criminal by the Eridani system are thrown away and forgotten about, to high-rise skyscrapers for corporate offenders willing to pay a lavish fee to be imprisoned in more comfortable facilities.

The dregs of Eridani III are mostly ex-convicts of these prisons who had no way to leave the planet legally after their sentences had ended, and so have founded communities in the lower floors of the complexes that make up civilization. The largest of these is called Libanga and is built around an abandoned barracks and military base that once belonged to a long-bankrupt private military contractor. It is known by dregs across Eridani as possibly the safest dreg establishment in the system, with its murder rate kept low (by dreg standards) by a pseudo-police force armed with the decades outdated but still lethal equipment salvaged from the military base at the centre of the community.

Politics and Government

Despite being nominally a member-state of the Alliance of Sovereign Solarian Nations, the Eridani Corporate Federation is mostly autonomous and was exempt from the bevy of anti-megacorporation legislation and actions passed in the wake of the Sol Collapse of 2462. This is due to the odd, esoteric status that the Federation has in Solarian Law. After the takeover of the Epsilon Eridani Economic Council, several diplomatic deals were struck and contracts written with the Alliance government that ensured near-independence from the Alliance’s government except in matters of foreign policy, provided the ECF continued to supply the greater Alliance with goods, services, and resources. Even if the ECF refused to trade with the Alliance (unlikely, given inter-Alliance trade is Eridani’s largest economic market), Eridani’s current status is guaranteed by hundreds of pieces of legislation between itself and Sol. This ensures that if Sol wishes to revoke any of Eridani’s privileges, they must go through a very time consuming process of nullifying hundreds of contracts and agreements.

Eridani’s government is largely represented by the Board of Five - five representatives from various megacorporations. Each seat in the Board is tied to an administrative position which the chairman’s corporation has full control over. The positions in the Board are purchased, but also stay extremely consistent because it takes a 4 to 1 majority to dismiss a member, opening the position up for sale.

Positions in the Board of Five

Chief Financial Officer: The Chief Financial Officer is, in terms of weight and influence, the most powerful member of the Board and implicitly the head of state of the Eridani Corporate Federation. Their seat price changes with the times, but is estimated to be sold at a multi-trillion credit rate. They are responsible for the financial operations and megacorporate involvement within the state, as well as having the final authority on which nation-states to export Eridani’s goods and services to. While they are technically under the reign of a megacorporation, in practice the CFO’s alliance changes with the tides.

• Emanuel Alimayu, Einstein Engines: The current Chief Financial Officer, Emanuel Alimayu’s past is shrouded in mystery and he very rarely deigns to make public appearances, leaving most of his statements to be voiced by the board Speakers he has outlasted. It is not known how old he is (he ascended to CFO in 2421), but it is known that he is an incredibly calculating, crafty man who switches his allegiance from corporation to corporation seemingly at random, only for a critical shift in their operations to lift his new ally to unprecedented heights. He has thrown in his lot with Einstein Engines in 2462, after acting as a liaison for Hephaestus Industries. Many suspect he did so in response to the Solarian Corporate Authority being unable to affect Einstein’s profit margins.

Chief of System Security: The Chief of System Security is in charge of the operations of the Eridani Corporate Fleet and the chief executive officer of the conglomerate of Eridani Private Military Contractors. While they do not technically head non-Eridani PMCs, they are a significant shareholder in the other groups, and receive some of their profits. After the founding of the Private Military Contracting Group, it is suspected that the successor to the seat will also manage the contracting group.

• Kubra Mobolaji, Private Military Contracting Group: Chief of system security and CEO of the Private Military Contracting Group, Kubra Mobolaji rose through the ranks of Ringspire after displaying keen wit and intellect in the field and as a commander of a Ringspire task force. He played a prominent role in the Adhomaian theatre during the Second Revolution, where several of his strategies managed to keep his squad alive and mostly intact during Ringspire's pyrrhic victory against the advancing Adhomai Liberation Army. While he puts on the jovial, amiable front typical to Eridanian suits, no amount of friendliness hides a long and cutthroat history as a military contractor.

Chief Relations Executive: The CRO manages tourism and diplomacy in the Epsilon Eridani system with nation-states and the corporations that operate within them. Their department is also the department that accepts work visas and citizenships within Eridani, though naturally the CRO themselves will never directly oversee visa applications. They are considered to be both the mentor and the rival of the Speaker of the Board, and historically the Speaker has often purchased their seat to the chagrin of the CRO themselves.

• Eniola Sunmeila, NanoTrasen: The chief relations executive, Sunmeila has held her seat on the Board the second-longest, apart from Emmaneul Alimayu, thanks to NanoTrasen’s influence. More recent developments, such as the phoron scarcity and NanoTrasen’s gradually declining tourism stocks compared to Idris Incorporated, have seen her position become a little more shaky. Many suspect that her position may in time be usurped by Kali Akerele. Despite the rivalry between their respective corporations, Sunmeila and Emanuel Alimayu seem to be close allies, and perhaps even friends.

Chief Biomedical Officer: The CBO of the ECF has the rare position of actually maintaining the human workforce behind Eridani’s profits. They are the executive of thousands of hospitals across the systems, and drive initiatives which contribute to morale, public health, and far more valuable, research and development of biomedical technologies across the ECF.

• Francis Edembole, Zeng-Hu Pharmaceuticals: As chief biomedical officer, the looming figure of Francis Edembole shadows the ECF’s medical industry. A high-ranking executive of Zeng-Hu Pharmaceuticals even before his ascension to Board member, Edembole’s expressionless faceplate and monotone voice do little to assuage the allegations of unethical experiments and repossession of civilian augments at many hospitals and research facilities under his direct supervision.

Speaker of the Board: The most “junior” seat on the Board, the position of Speaker is charged to not only act as a mouth for the rest of the Board of Five, but manage news and the distribution of information within the Federation. While they may be (and often are) assigned diplomatic duties with the Stellar Corporate Conglomerate and Einstein Engines by the CRO, their area of expertise lies primarily within the system itself. Historically, the Speaker has bought out the seat of another member in the past after other members of the Board may or may not have covertly financed them to remove a rival; for this reason, a Speaker is seen with suspicion by much of the Board and their underlings, as they represent a potential shift in the status quo.

• Kali Akerele, Idris Incorporated: Speaker of the board Akerele is the youngest Board member, having been born in 2437, and the most recent to take the position in 2462. Her accent in official Eridanian broadcasts has led some to suspect she may be a reinstated dreg, but this would conflict with the official story that she is the daughter of two suits and has been friends with Lubanzi Idris, the CEO of Caishen Jewellers, since childhood. Always impeccably dressed in Idris teal with a perfect white-toothed smile, her elegant and precisely-enunciated broadcasts have become emblematic of the Federation since her purchase of a seat.

Voting

Each district in the Epsilon Eridani system is governed by an Administrator, who is technically voted for by the citizen population. In practice, an administrator’s ability to secure their seat is heavily influenced by cutting deals and making bribes with prominent figures, and performing the networking that is so common within Eridanian work culture. The “pre-election” campaign is overseen by a figure called the Master of Ceremonies. The master of ceremonies of a given district is either appointed directly by the Board of Five or with their implicit approval, and makes the decisions on which candidates have put forth their best face in the pre-election. Once the decision is made, all candidates who the master of ceremonies finds lacking are stripped from the running. Usually, this leaves citizens with one or two candidates to vote for; sometimes three, if the master of ceremonies desires a more competitive, theatrical election. Debates and elections are heavily commodified, with merchandise bearing the candidate’s face or slogans sold at voting booths and around the district when election month rolls around.

Economics

Prices in Eridani are controlled on an individual level, with the de-facto currency being the Solarian credit. Any type of digital currency is accepted within Eridani, with the Biesel credit taking second place among most-used currencies in the system. Eridani’s finance industry, in conjunction with Idris Incorporated, is its largest industry along with its service industry. The moon of Eridani, Kianda, is home to the bank data servers of Idris Incorporated; a massive, multi-level complex spanning the diameter of the Liberated Sea. Idris’ other base of operations, apart from the Moonshine Resort, is the Idris Customer Satisfaction Centre (or “the Pyramid”) in Fantalu. The office complex is a four-hundred metre tall pyramid of steel and tinted teal glass, home to three-quarters of Idris’ customer service and technical support staff. Calls from all over the Spur are directed to the massive halls of office cubicles, and the dull grind of work is reputed as painful even by Eridanian standards; a friendly, welcoming demeanour is expected even in the face of a customer screaming threats.

The service industry in Eridani is a job undertaken by the desperate. Many of these call centre workers are close to being unable to pay their citizenship dues and at risk of becoming dregs; the pay, while not especially good compared to “skilled labour” positions, is more than enough to keep an Eridanian’s bills paid and keep them away from the unenviable fate of becoming a dreg. Many fear the day they may become replaced by an IPC trained to do their job, though insider reports suggest that it is cheaper to maintain a human workforce than a customer service synthetic. In the past, Eridani I’s fresh water, jungles, and mineral resources were sold back to a dying Earth, but Eridani I’s sorry environmental state means its produce exports are largely grown in hydroponic bays and artificially constructed environments. Nowadays, the ECF is one of the largest producers of grown produce and seeds from Earth, Venus, and Silversun. Eridanian-grown produce is typically very cheap due to underpaid citizens and dregs alike harvesting the orchards– in recent years, some orchards have become entirely harvested by drones.

The ECF sells much of its Helium-3, mined from Eridani III, to Einstein Engines and the Sol Alliance. The asteroid belt surrounding Eridani III is rich with resources that make the Federation a fortune. Hephaestus Industries maintains several ship-building facilities on Fantalu, and most of Eridani’s imports are shipped by Hephaestus and NanoTrasen; Orion Express has no presence on the planet, and a statement alleged that the company had no plans to expand there.

Work Tourism

Eridani I’s status as a gigantic trade and labour hub means that it receives an immense flux of temporary foreign workers. On average, human workers remain in the Federation for six years, and may acquire a ten-year Eridanian passport if they are employed with one of the Eridani PMCs. Temporary foreign workers are referred to as “TFWs” or “work tourists” by Eridanians. Some work tourists end up incorporating suit slang into their vocabulary in order to fit into Eridanian society, but never end up quite submitting to Eridani’s crushing demands. Work tourists often work a similar work week to other planets in the Spur, which is shorter than the Eridanian work week of ten hours across six days. This leads to some resentment towards work tourists, and sometimes even jealousy. Eridanian opinions on this matter vary, but most of them recognize that they do bring in a good amount of credits.

The APEX Military Academy in Ifihan is the most prominent example of accommodations for work tourism. Shared by all EPMCs, it carries out a crucial function; it is not only where Eridanian native PMCs are trained, but also where foreign EPMC recruits must attend for at least one month in order to acclimatise to suit culture. This acclimatisation training is named the Contractor Foreign Hire Program, but is colloquially referred to as “the Internship”. A month-long program mandates Eridanian culture classes, as these employees will end up having to interact with Eridanian superiors and colleagues throughout their career. If the recruit requires further training in their field or specialty, their stay at the Academy will usually be longer, with an average of nine months spent at APEX.

A foreign hire is referred to as “pierced” by Eridanians if they have not passed their Internship, at which point they are referred to as “bought”. On occasion, native Eridanian PMCs may look down on “pierced” foreign hires as being a step below them. Hazing foreign hires during their Internship is common, particularly among Ringspire and Sekhmet Intergalactic students. For many Eridanians, this sentiment ends when a foreign hire passes the Internship, while others continue to look down on these foreign hires until they subjectively deem them as sufficiently integrated. If a foreign free IPC needs to travel to APEX Military Academy for training or otherwise to the Eridani Corporate Federation for company purposes, they will be transported there by the company with transportation costs deducted from their salary. This is permitted by a technicality in the Eridani Contractor Code, stating that since EPMCs function as the Eridani military, IPCs and aliens are in Eridani space when in transit and can legally transit through Solarian space even though the Sol Alliance outlaws their presence.

Work tourists can find it hard to break into Eridani’s insular culture, depending on their luck. It can be challenging to truly make a friend, be trusted or even be seen as an equal as a foreigner. Migrants and their communities end up forming nice attractions for Eridanians that wish to put a little spice in their day by partaking in a foreign culture; many work tourists make extra credits on the side (or network) through activities such as hosting cultural food stands in their district. In any case, nobody leaves Eridani I without changing slightly due to societal pressures; most that leave at the very least end up hungrier for credits than before.

The augmentation culture on Eridani is something many work tourists end up buying into, if only because the EPMCs heavily incentivise “renting” their augments to employees. The EPMCs will offer limb replacements, implants, and other enhancements for next to free, though the terms of an employee’s contract ensure that they do not truly own their augments (unless they are able to purchase said augments through extensive employment). A hire who has been fired from an EPMC with company-owned augments installed will have them swiftly repossessed, and the barest minimum of care is provided to ensure the ex-employee does not die in the process.

Eridani I is also a potential work exchange destination for Skrell, though with a price attached – Skrell are not used to the long hours and can find it particularly crushing to work in Eridani for a long period of time. Those with enough of an attraction for credits to accept a contract here, ironically, find it easier to be respected as a gear in Eridani’s machine than other work tourists: they are willing to work just as many hours, if not more than native Eridanians. This often leads to “healthy” workplace rivalries between Skrell and Eridanian colleagues in how much work can be done in one day, which Skrell often end up winning. Eridani is also often touted in the Nralakk Federation as a very challenging workplace, if excessively materialistic. Ifihan has the largest population of Skrell workers, with some of its environmental districts housing relevant biomes from Nralakk and other necessary facilities. Skrell native to the Sol Alliance are frequently encouraged to become temporary foreign workers in the ECF over Nralakk citizens, due to the bureaucratic process involved in bringing Federation Skrell to the Alliance. This is doubly beneficial for the Federation, as they regularly encourage Alliance-born Skrell to move to the Federation after their work tourism is over.

Culture and Demographics

Eridani is largely divided culturally between two groups; citizens and non-citizens. To have an Eridanian citizenship at birth, one must have their citizenship purchased by a parent or guardian when their birth records are officially codified. The fee of citizenship is monthly, and functions as a sort of tax upon the population; parents or guardians will usually pay for their child’s citizenship until the child turns eighteen, when they are then expected to begin paying for their own citizenship on the first January after their birthday. The population is primarily descendants of West and Central African colonists. Roughly half of citizens identify as atheists or agnostic, with the rest adhering to Islam, Christianity, and unorganised spiritism native to Western Africa. Actual mosques and churches are rare within the megacities; imams and priests tend to operate out of their own apartments and preach part-time, typically dedicating themselves to a job elsewhere or accepting donations from their congregation. Most of the practising religious population are the middle-to-lower class citizens who still have small amounts of time to dedicate to faith; high-ranking suits usually discard any religious practices or inclinations.

If ever a citizen cannot or refuses to pay their citizenship fee, their citizenship is stripped. Non-citizens are unable to rent apartments, are not provided the work protections and privileges (limited as they may be) that citizens have, cannot seek legal counsel, and cannot request services from most of Eridanian society, such as bank accounts. Non-citizens seeking to pay for goods and services using physical credits will have limited luck; Eridani is almost entirely digital payment, and without a bank account it is nigh-impossible for a non-citizen to purchase anything. Any augments that a non-citizen had while a citizen can and will be quickly repossessed by corporate agents, usually by forced surgical procedure. Non-citizens, referred to colloquially as “dregs”, function as a second-class population in Eridani. They live in squalor underneath the immaculate high-rises of the megacities, in constantly moving settlements, struggling to scavenge for basic amenities.

Corporate influence in the Eridani Federation is wide-ranging, penetrating every facet of life, no matter how unethical business practices become. Often, upcoming products are tested in the Federation before being shipped across the Spur, and some of these products never leave the system, meaning Eridanians enjoy a wide variety of highly-exclusive, cutting-edge technology. But privacy, particularly digital, is practically non-existent; data is constantly collected, sorted in massive algorithms, and distributed to advertisers, executives, and law enforcement. Even an abnormal Extranet search can result in one’s employers being alerted, which can lead to firing. Because of this, many Eridanian citizens consider being truthful or direct in public something of a taboo, and are generally very personally reserved.

While the transgressions of a very rich or successful citizen can be easily overlooked by the law enforcement of Eridani’s military contractors, those lacking the funds to force a blind eye will usually gather in informal “offgrid Extranet” groups on the regular. “Offgrid Extranet” routers are homemade Extranet routers disconnected from the vast network of Eridanian surveillance and data collection. Typically, the parts that make them up are stolen, sold or traded, and built into routers that allow anyone connecting to them to access taboo information that their employer or the policing forces may be alerted to. Offgrid groups might be covertly advertised in the undercities of Eridani and the hidden alleys of the city, inviting suit and dreg alike to work together on maintaining connection and ensuring that a modicum of freedom of information exists in the Corporate Federation.

Work is extremely easy to find in the Federation, and skilled labour often pays much more than labour elsewhere working for the same corporation. This, however, is often compensated by absurd working hours. Burnout, high blood pressure, and other circulatory complications are common medical issues amongst standard citizens of the federation because of this, and a cultural epidemic of stimulant abuse runs rampant amongst the population, dreg or suit. Dregs who are especially desperate for amenities will take up work in exchange for food and shelter in the many factories on Eridani’s surface, working in dangerous and unregulated conditions alongside bound synthetics and IPCs. The factories are only too happy to oblige; after all, a dreg is far less expensive to replace than a synthetic.

Augmentation is encouraged at every level of society; even the most body-purist of Eridanian citizens can sometimes be found with an ocular overlay laid behind one or both eyeballs. Advertisements in above-ground augments are often invasive and incessant – the fee to opt-out is generally so prohibitive that buying the product outright would cost less, and a user’s augmentations are often used as a vehicle to deliver adware directly into an employee’s field of view or hearing. Augmentations are frequently discounted, offered as grants, or subsidised by an employing corporation, as each new piece of metal or silicon installed in a worker is another part of them open to more state control. The private military sector is one of the heaviest investors in augmentation technology – free from undue regulation and ethical constraints, the Eridanian model of war as a business has led to the Federation leading the Spur in the field of combat augmentation. Subsidised augments are typically of exactly the grade required to increase performance, with corporations making bulk purchases to save on cost and augmentation of at least some degree being nearly universal among Eridani’s suit population. Dreg augments are usually appropriated and hacked from shipments, landfills, or factories; great effort is put into “de-suiting” the augments by painting them flagrant colours, welding new pieces of metal to it as decoration or for self-defence, and tearing out the advertisement modules and tracking beacons within.

Suit Culture

Eridanian citizens are colloquially known as “suits” outside of the Federation, a name that has been informally adopted among Eridanians themselves. This name was coined from dreg slang in reference to the white-collar office workers and high-ranking bureaucrats that dominate the upper echelons of the ECF’s economy, and act as the model citizenry for the Federation. Below the office workers and executives exist the working-class suits; servers, clerks, tailors, and others that make up the grinding machine of Eridani I.

Citizens usually work six days a week for ten hours a day, with an employee’s income carefully balanced against their expenditure to ensure little to no upward mobility unless decided by one’s manager. Suits are expected to purchase food and drink from their workplace, which will fluctuate wildly in price depending on the money the suit themself has spent during the work week. This is tracked through the individual’s bank account; spending more on personal luxuries means that food purchased at the office will be less expensive, while frugality will mean the prices rise. White-collar jobs are frequently mind-numbing and unimaginative; data entry, call centre work, and other rote tasks are emblematic of the Eridanian “career path.” Unsatisfactory performance leads to penalties imposed, automatically or otherwise, by an employee’s superiors – in extreme cases, a worker’s contract may even be terminated outright. Despite this, the ability to carefully slack off at work has become a practised art within certain office blocks, with many making use of illegal routers, smuggled food, and falsified payment records to reduce their actual working hours and spent money at work.

In many office buildings, there is a great value placed on socialisation by suits; a charming personality is seen as one of the key ways to secure a promotion and move upwards in the corporate ladder. People who do not socialise and only work are seen by Eridani society as shut-ins with poor networking skills and are often passed up for promotion because of that stigma. Conversely, those who can demonstrate themselves as not only diligent workers but also as charismatic business partners are welcomed in Eridani’s corporate landscape for their abilities to make connections and potentially make sales or deals on their personal magnetism. Talking about work in these off-work social situations is frowned upon as being poor form, but realistically, many social interactions be they parties, dinners, or social visits are at least in part motivated by a sense of advancing one’s prospects in business. Practically speaking as well, having connections and friendships means a suit may have more methods to solve any business or life-related problems that may arise, and as such, they are keen to build these bridges.

As a side effect of the culture surrounding socialisation, romantic relationships within the workplace are quite common. Despite this, public displays of affection are forbidden when on the clock, and even using a nickname for your partner could land you a meeting with your supervisor. One rare progressive policy within suit society is that the children of these relationships are subsidised and encouraged by the Federation government; new parents can expect paid parental leave of up to two months. Couples that adopt will also receive a smaller but still notable subsidy.

Dreg Culture

Dregs live a very difficult and uphill life, doubly so if they wish to remain dregs and refuse the few opportunities for reintegration that exist. They are the only ones on Eridani I to refer to the planet and its continents with the respective defunct names: Ekeke for Ifihan, Lukingo for Tokura, Ichida for Madiwa and Maluwashi for Fantalu. Using the modern names would mean bowing down to the culture that they despise. Dreg culture, much like Suit culture, varies on a settlement level and there are countless settlements to be found in Eridani I's underground.

Dregs have developed a web of superstitions and tutelary folk tales. Many dregs, even away from the Federation, might refuse to have their picture taken and are especially evasive about audio or video recordings being taken of them, owing to their suspicion of the massive surveillance network of the Federation. Spiritism and animism are common religious beliefs; many dregs inherit the spiritual beliefs of their ancestors, whether they originate from Isese (the beliefs of the Yoruba people), Islam, or Christianity. Broadly, dregs believe that all things are animated by a spirit or a force, and treating their possessions with care and diligence is how one appeases the spirit within the object. One might speak quietly or pray to an object to hold steady in a time of need, or merely to calm down. Among some dreg groups, colours and the “energies” associated with them are observed; deep indigo is seen as an auspicious colour that many dregs attempt to bring with them by dying their hair blue or wearing blue articles of clothing. Green and black are symbols of environmental richness and bounty (something impossibly rare in the undercities), but black on its own is a bad omen owing to its association with some of the Golden Fists’ uniforms. More than any shade, dregs avoid wearing white; it is associated with suits and their pristine clothes and buildings, seen as the representation of annihilation and nothingness. Some dregs are uncomfortable in hospitals because of this association, and colour symbolism is one of the many traits that must be trained out of a reinstated dreg working for Zeng-Hu Pharmaceuticals, Idris Incorporated, or NanoTrasen.

Dregs have a complex relationship with individualism; while it is believed that a dreg having unique tattoos and articles of scavenged clothing is good luck, a person putting their own needs before the needs of others is seen as suspicious and marks one as “suit-like”. Conversely dregs have strong ties to their family and friends, and even when away from Eridani I dregs will quickly become attached to their coworkers or new community. The dregs who choose to become “reinstated”, joining one of the EPMCs for a chance at citizenship and enfranchisement, are seen as pariahs by many dregs. Should a dreg attempting to reinstate wash out, they guarantee a target on their back if they return to the undercities.

Dregs have garnered a reputation for criminal unscrupulousness, wanton violence, and kleptomania in suit culture, and this perception is broadly common in the Sol Alliance and parts of the Republic of Biesel. Unfortunately, the lingering traumatic effects from their harrowing lifestyles mean that many dregs who leave Eridani develop hoarding compulsions, or complex post-traumatic stress disorder.

Reinstated Dregs

While the concept of social mobility is a largely foreign one to Eridanian society, it is not entirely absent. Some Eridanians who have lost their citizenship and the privilege of being a suit or who were born into the status of a dreg, have actively sought out ways to gain a better status in society once again, or for many, for the first time. Becoming Reinstated is a long and arduous process that many fail at despite their hardest efforts. Going from a dreg to a suit requires a corporate sponsor and extensive background checks along with sensitization programs aimed at stripping any reinstatement candidate of any dreg-like behaviours, names, customs, and speech patterns. A certain accent is even taught to Eridanian dregs wishing to return to suit life and culture. Even if a dreg completes these programs, many of which are paid for out of pocket, their reinstatement is still not assured. The only way for a dreg to become reinstated as part of the suit class is to obtain employment with one of the megacorporations which govern the ECF and advance beyond a low-level position.

Reinstateds are their own class within Eridani, but also have intrinsic links to both Suits and dregs. Many dregs see Reinstateds as traitors to the dreg communities where they came from or resided after their first falls from grace. Reinstateds are considered betrayers of their families and communities and those who even attempt to seek reinstatement are treated like pariahs by their communities. Violence against dregs seeking to become reinstated from other dregs is not unheard of and Reinstatement is a process that is greatly discouraged by dreg society. On the other hand, the suit view of Reinstateds is mixed. Some see Reinstateds as not genuine suits or as people who cannot live up to the standards of what suit life requires. They see them as better than dregs but certainly not their equals. Others though see Reinstateds as paragons of the hard work, self-motivation, and cutthroat attitude needed to survive in Eridani’s society and actively welcome them into their social circles and business partnerships. While debated in its truthfulness, a stereotype of Reinstateds among Eridanian suits are their risky investment strategies and business techniques that thrive in high-risk, high-reward situations and markets.

Partially because of their past-lives as dregs, many Reinstateds are employed by private investigative firms or security companies specialising in policing dregs or working with them in the numerous Eridanian undercities. Other Reinstateds have found themselves working as engineers or mechanics due to the lives of many dregs involving technology or machinery of some sort courtesy of the entirely urbanised wasteland where Dregs live and from where Reinstateds have left. Becoming reinstated does not just mean that a dreg finds a job with a megacorporation, it is returning to the fold to be a part of the corporate or "Suit" society of Eridani.

Aliens in Eridani

Unathi

See also: The Factory

Due to the Hephaestus Industries presence in the Epsilon Eridani system, many Unathi working for the megacorporation will temporarily reside in the Eridani Federation - and though adjusting to the Suit culture can be difficult, a rare few Unathi in higher positions have stayed on permanently, mostly on installations such as Platform 7 rather than on the planets of Eridani proper.

The most notable Unathi community in Eridani is the Aut'akh commune beneath Ifihan known as The Factory - a group of Aut'akh who fled from Hegemony space to the Eridani Federation, and rapidly came to view the Eridani system as a pit of spiritual evil - the epitome of everything that their religion's founders preached against. To the Aut'akh of the Factory, they are almost crusaders, descending into an earthly Chained Waste in the hope of building a better world in its place. They have settled into the underworld of Eridani I, forming ties with the local Dreg population - and though they despise the corporations that rule over Eridani, many of their members will seek work with them in the hopes of improving the life of their fellow commune members.

The Aut’akh of Eridani cooperate well with other species, having extended their philosophy of mutual aid to the local Dreg communities. They work closely with the group of Vaurcae known as the ‘Zinos’ often, with their work in similar fields leading them to cooperate for mutual gain. These exiled C’thur are known to be skilled cyberneticists, and often Aut’akh of the Factory will seek them out when even their best shamans and machinists are incapable of making a certain repair. However, not all Dregs have proven so welcoming to the Aut’akh, and as such the Factory is somewhat insular. They will provide their services to those who ask, but aliens must be considered to have proved their trustworthiness before they are allowed to enter the Factory - lest some rival gang decide to try and take the fragile existence the Unathi have built.

Vaurca

See also: Zinos

Many C’thur from a rogue delegation of Queen Xetl’s have found refuge in Eridani I's undercity, nesting themselves in what they consider ideal because of the little light and vast corridors. Called Cinos by dregs and Zinos by themselves, they are still at large unfamiliar with Eridanian society and culture, but share the disdain towards those that live above, especially the C’thur that have managed to find themselves jobs there.

A Zino is not a Dreg, but is familiar with the Dregs and their lifestyle. Usually pacifistic, they avoid gang disputes mostly because of their low number of Warriors brought with them. Zinos are known for dealing cheap augments, sometimes even going as far as looting those augments of any deceased in the Underworld.

Because there have been no official efforts by the Hives to promote a Freespeak translator to the voice modulators, Zinos have managed to create their own heavily garbled modulator, so incomprehensible that communique is often impossible. Zinos that, for some reason or another, are employed off-world typically trade their modulators for Tau Ceti Basic ones.

Dionae

Dionae are rare within the ECF, being seen as pests by most civilians. They were originally brought to the planet by Unathi of The Factory, and despite the hostile conditions of the Eridanian underworld have managed to create small colonies and a few gestalts which live and work amongst the commune. They are not permitted to live on the surface or become civilians.

Synthetics in Eridani

The vast majority of synthetics on Eridani I are owned by all sorts of corporations, whether domestic or foreign. Frames seen as “chic” such as Shells and Bishops are the only ones that can find their place at the top of the Eridanian hierarchy, either by being owned by wealthy Suits or CEOs as a status statement, by finding employment in Tokura’s Venusian-inspired nightclubs as bartenders, card dealers and so on, or by working in jobs that require excellent human-to-synthetic communication, such as offices or in the medical fields – Zeng-Hu especially hires many Shell doctors in its districts. On the other hand, Industrial frames and Baselines are almost always relegated to working in industrial, environmental or housing districts in engineering or maintenance fields, or alternatively in security fields for the various Eridanian PMCs. It is, of course, also possible for Shells and Bishops to hold security positions, even if they are of more expensive make. All of these IPC generally work non-stop hours, much more than even the most workaholic of Eridanians.

The only synthetics that exist outside the megacities are scrappers or outdated models that ran or were discarded. Generally they live solitary lives, leeching off of what little energy they can find, and do not usually mesh with dregs: it is much harder to have to care for an IPC as well, and the risk is not worth it for most communities that cannot spare any electricity for them. Additionally, many dregs still hold resentment over IPC due to being the arguable cause of their predicament, which is the result of IPC replacing a significant part of the Eridanian lower class workforce.

Food

Eridanian cuisine has a wrongfully gained reputation of being extremely soy based, to the point of caricatures of Eridanian figures often depicting them holding some form of soy based product. Despite this stereotype, this is not entirely true. While Eridanian cuisine as a whole typically makes heavy use of soy based products, other ingredients make up as much of a staple of the Eridanian diet as much as soy does. Plantains, tofu, farmed fish, yams, beans and rice are all staple ingredients of Eridanian cuisine both due to their ease of growth in a hydroponics heavy society as well as the cultural roots of the system as a whole. A major method of cooking is frying, with Eridanians being known to fry anything that can fit in the pan and even some things that can’t, being served with the everpresent soy. Some famous dishes from Eridani include:

• Puff-puffs, a fried dough ball with a crunchier outside than a donut. These are typically cooked in a pool of oil at the bottom of a pan, however the Eridanian version differs from tradition by adding ground ginger instead of the traditional pepper. Whether it’s acceptable to dip puff-puffs in synthetic cream is still a subject of fierce debate amongst all Eridanians.
• Fufu dumplings with soup, the dumplings are made of pounded plantains and shaped into a ball to be served alongside soup. The soups might contain any number of vegetables, but traditional meats from their earther counterparts are replaced with shrimp, tofu or yam.
• Joloff rice, long grain rice fried in groundnut oil with tomatoes, onions and hot peppers. Again fish and meat substitutes make an appearance here. The dish is a favourite amongst all due to the ease of cooking and the fact that it can be made in one pot.

Of course, not all food is made the same in Eridani. The communal lifestyle of Dregs lends itself better to creating these dishes in more traditional ways, however ingredients or food as a whole can often be scarce in the cutthroat Eridani underbelly. As a result, fresh food and traditional dishes are usually reserved for special occasions like birthdays and holidays, with the majority of the Dreg diet being composed of easy to produce and store soy-based foodstuffs. Suits often spend so much of their day at work that it’s preferred to buy their meals either ready or pre-prepared from a machine rather than home cooked. Learning to prepare ingredients and cook is often a skill that makes a suit, or the occasional reinstated dreg, very popular amongst their colleagues as it shows a dedication to a skill for the purpose of networking.

Fast food chains exist that are also exclusive to Eridani, such as Shrimp Republic, a location that can be found in almost any Eridanian food court or habitation block. The ingredients often consist of some form of fried shrimp as well as various kinds of skewer for easy and enjoyable eating.

Fashion

Eridanian fashion largely depends on the continent and economic group one is a part of. Among high-ranking suits, anodyne business wear such as suits, button-down shirts, pencil skirts, and slacks are the most common. Despite this, it is common for suits to have a “trademark” or “calling card” of accessory that is unique to them somewhere on their person. These can be custom cufflinks, a certain colour or hue of clothing that the suit in question will wear every day, or a style of jewellery. A suit’s “calling card” should ideally straddle the line between distinctive but not unprofessional, and what qualifies as “unprofessional” will usually depend on the workplace. Tattoos and facial piercings, however, are unambiguously unprofessional and can get a suit fired from their workplace due to resembling dreg behaviour.

In the megacities of Tokura and Madiwa, fashions are more colourful and distinctive from person to person, though this is mostly seen in the nightlife and outside of the office. Loose dresses in bright colours typically accessorised with a headwrap (called a gele on Eridani) are common wear for women, while men may dress in loose shirts and straight-legged pants. Madiwa in particular sees many wearing styles that are considered traditionally Chinese, such as qipao, owing to the large population of Earther Zeng-Hu employees who are on Eridani as work tourists.

Dreg fashion is far less distinctive than suit fashion, and the harsh life of this downtrodden underclass means that a centralised concept of fashion is generally irrelevant. Whatever distinct clothes they may wear are often scavenged or knitted together; when the option is available to them, however, dregs prefer bright, flashy clothing, jewellery, facial piercings, and LED tattoos. Face coverings and masks are usually employed to avoid tracking or surveillance by the Federation. A dreg given the opportunity prefers maximalism to suit minimalism, the better to avoid any association with something corporate and high-class.

Holidays

Eridani I has few holidays, in keeping with the monotony of suit culture. Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha are celebrated on varying days of the year, and much like on Earth are calculated based on the lunar calendar. Kianda has a twenty-day rotational period instead of a thirty-day one, so celebrations are not typically in line with other Muslim nations in the Spur. These celebrations are considerably more stripped down, and Muslims on Eridani I do not often fast before Eid al-Fitr.

Christmas Day is the only Christian holiday that is declared official by the state, and beyond religious purposes is something of an excuse to declare massive sales and special offers across the planet. Many view this holiday as a chance to express some sort of colour and flair outside or inside of their house with various levels of decorations found all over the planet. Christmas’ gift-giving tradition persists as well, becoming one of the main displays of friendship that Eridanians can truly afford to show. The days of Eid and Christmas are the holidays Eridanians use to visit their family; it is impossible for most to really interact with their family in any large capacity due to crushing work schedules, thus it is a good opportunity to go home and reconnect with one’s parents.

Original to the Federation is Diversity Day on the 6th of May. It can hardly even be considered a holiday, as Eridanians are still mandated to show up to work – however, most of the day is dedicated to lectures instead of one’s usual labour. This holiday mostly presents itself as an attempt to preserve some sense of Eridanian patriotism – it is basically mandatory for workplaces to hang up Corporate Federation flags and give long elegies on the nation, while praising foreign workers for their contribution towards the Eridanian ideal (this ideal is not elaborated on) and to the economy. Corporations often advertise secondary services such as mental wellbeing services in these lectures, but their rate of utilisation remains low – most Eridanians do not wish to be known as a troubled worker. Regardless, most of the planet’s populace is glad to spend their day away from an office cubicle, even if they must attend five or six lectures. Eridani’s corporations often attempt to sell Eridani Corporate Federation-branded souvenirs, such as Eridani scarfs, Eridani cloth masks for the pollution or Eridani sweaters, but these sales never break even a tenth of Christmas’ sheer output.

Holidays are rare within dreg groups and settlements, owing to the constant struggle for survival. Those who are Christian or Muslim may celebrate the holy days in conjunction with their suit counterparts (though with considerably less fanfare), and some may perform ceremonies to appease orisha, or spirits.

In Den, roughly every August the Reinstatement Tournaments are held, which most of the settlement’s dregs show up to watch. Some suits may even fund food, alcohol, and drugs to draw in participants. Apart from small settlement-wide dinners on Eid al-Fitr, Eid al-Adha, and Christmas, New Kivu often decides to celebrate New Years’ with whatever festival items its dregs can get its hands on. It is viewed as a bit of a bittersweet event; another year has been survived, and here’s to one more. Whichever stocks of alcohol the settlement’s dregs have managed to scrounge up over the course of the year are always popped open for this occasion, with many of the settlement’s inhabitants sharing this bittersweet moment with their friends and family. Less prominent in the community but still notable is Tales Day; hosted around January or February, it is a day in which the children of New Kivu gather in groups to listen to stories and folktales from an older adult of the settlement. Many of these stories manage to stay alive through oral retellings, as dregs rarely write information down and lack many of the tools for it.

Language

The official languages of the Federation are Sol Common and Tradeband. A few dregs hold onto Freespeak as a piece of cultural identity, though many regard it as a dying language in the ECF. Regardless of what languages they speak though, Eridani's inhabitants are well-known the Spur-over for their unique and distinctive slang expressions, examples of which can be found below.

Corporate Slang

Esteemed colleague - A friend or superior.

Colleague - Neutral term or an insult if the person is a friend or superior.

Blue sky thinking - A very good idea.

Dreg - A member of the lower social classes. Also used as an insult to anyone who is not a Dreg.

Stopgap - Derogatory expression used to refer to a Reinstated."

No can do - Polite form of "no".

That's a big N O - Neutral or negative form of "no".

Do lunch - To meet up or hang out.

Eight thirty res at Asmara - A humorous way of saying good bye/ the impossible, based on the extremely exclusive Asmara restaurant on Eridani I. E.g. "Gotta go, I have an eight thirty res at Asmara" or "uh huh, and I've got an eight thirty res at Asmara."

Call me - Dismissive form of "bye".

I'll call you - Friendly form of "bye".

You got it - Said in response to "Call me" or "I'll call you."

Pierced and Dyed - A dreg. Could be someone who lost everything/became poor. (“What happened to Mr. Holloway?” “Made a bad investment; now he’s pierced and dyed.”)

Ink under his/her/their suit - Associates with dregs more closely than is socially acceptable. It implies that under their nice clothes, their body is tattooed. Insult.

That is a shame - Don’t really care. “Oh, the dregs are going hungry? That is a shame.”

Out of my scope - Not my problem or, dismissively, “I can’t/won't help you.”

I would sign that - I’d bet on it/it’s a sure thing.

Blue dye thinking - A very bad idea. A play on “Blue sky thinking,” but “Blue dye” refers to dregs.

I’ll pen you in - Good/Positive response to “Let’s do lunch.”

I’ll have to check my schedule - Negative response to “Let’s do lunch.”

Read the fine print - Be careful/Stay safe.

Sign blindly - Dangerous or stupid. As in signing a contract without reading it.

Contract Expiry- A polite euphemism for death, as in "Unfortunately, colleague, the dreg's contract seems to have expired." "Fired" is also used, but is more crass and impolite.

Partner - Good friend/Significant other. From “Business partner.”

A good investment - A general compliment. Referring to someone as 'a good investment' can imply friendship, camaraderie, or even love. E.g. "You're a good investment."

To be across something - To understand something. "I'm across it" means "I understand."

(As) Per my last - A rude or arrogant way to indicate something was already said or proposed, often used for emphasis or out of frustration.

Bought a tie but shipped heels/Bought heels but shipped a tie - A way to describe a transgender person. Female to male and male to female respectively. Not used in a derogatory context.

Not worth a single credit - Not worth my time.

Clip-on - Fake or inauthentic. (From a clip-on tie). Usually refers to a person.

To have poor posture - To be outside the social norm

Proactive - Kind/thoughtful.

To engage with someone - To talk to/speak with some one.

To get the memo about something - To hear and/or understand something

To draft something - To write something

To push something forward - To act on a plan (i.e. "Let's push forward this deal" - "Let's get on with it.")

Tongue-pierced - Rude/Insulting. As in “He’s tongue-pierced” (He’s rude) or “Is your tongue pierced?” (Indicating that someone just said something rude, insulting, or like a dreg).

Thank you for your input - A dismissive expression used in response to information a speaker found useless or unproductive to a conversation. Akin to the standard expression, "Nobody asked."

I trust you understand - Intimidating / threatening version of "Listen to me". This can also be used in the sense of a warning.

Deal - Multipurpose expression for a "thing."

In plain writing/Plainly written - Simply put/Bluntly put

Foreign Merger - Interspecies relationship.

Subpar/Not optimal - Very bad/dire.

Ledger - Situation.

Black Ledger - Good/Great situation.

Red Ledger - Terrible situation.

Merger - Committed romantic relationship.

Temp work - Romantic fling.

Check your quarterlies - Be careful (About what you are doing.)

What are your quarterlies? - How have you been?.

Bank run - Sudden bad situation.

Hostile takeover - Murder.

To act like an intern - to act unprofessionally or in an unbecoming manner.

With Kindest Regards/Best Regards - "Fuck you." Can also be used as an expression of endearment between close friends/business partners or couples.

“I need to hang up.” - "I have to leave unexpectedly/attend to something urgently."

“I need to take a call” - I have to go for a moment.

“I’ll call you back,” - We’ll speak again later.

To move the needle - To work hard.

"Unseen collaboration," - Used to express getting less credit than deserved.

Dissolution or Liquidation - Bad breakup.

Reinstatement - The process of a Dreg re-entering Eridanian society.

To default - To go wrong. "It might default" - "It's risky/dangerous."

Sky High - High quality.

"A quarterly report’s worth of X” - A lot of something.

Portfolio - Reputation.

Examples:

"It's blue dye thinking, but I'll push it forward regardless. I trust you understand that it's out of my scope if this deal leaves you pierced and dyed." ("I think this is a bad idea, but I'll do it anyway. For the record, I won't help you out any further if this ruins you.")

"Plainly written, foreign mergers are simply poor posture. I'm not across why anyone would sign so blindly." ("To be frank with you, I think interspecies relationships are disgusting. I don't understand why anyone would involve themselves in one.")

"Did you get the memo? Aida's going to end up dyed after that deal -- I'd sign that." ("Did you hear? Aida's going to go broke after that deal she made -- I'd bet on it.")

"Is your tongue pierced? As per our last conversation, gossip isn't worth a single credit to me. If anyone has ink under their suit, it's the one engaging with me in poor posture." ("Excuse me? Like I told you before, I don't care about workplace gossip. If anyone's acting like an idiot, it's you.")

Dreg Slang

Boss - A highly insulting term for a superior or coworker.

Suit - A neutral or positive term for a superior.

Extra - A hacker.

Heavy - Serious or dangerous.

Plus - Good.

Rats - Food. Derived from "Rations".

Soy - Food. Eridanian cuisine is primarily made up of soy-based produce.

To chew the rats: To eat.

The office - Prison.

In my turf - Up in my business/In my face.

Pad - Place.

Boy/Girl - Male/female friend or associate.

Man/Woman - Male/female partner or romantic interest.

No phone - A derogatory response to a suit slang bye e.g. "I'll call you" "No phone boss."

Chief - A neutral or positive term for a superior.

To sign the dots - To be imprisoned/enslaved. Comes from the idea of signing a contract.

Tie and slacks/Leisure suit - Half-dressed in a suit i.e. a dreg that either associates with corps, or maybe a dreg who has a corp parent. Also used as a derogatory term refer to Reinstateds Either way, it’s a big dreg insult.

Sets lunch - A play off of the suit slang “let’s do lunch.” Basically someone who associates with suits (“Yeah, he's the type to set lunch.”)

Suit Smile/Suit promise - A lie.

Knabo/Knabino/Knab - A guy or gal.

Talpo/Talp - A shady person or a criminal.

Kroko/Krok - An outsider or non-Dreg.

Bov/Bovino - A very good friend or tight-knit pal. Can be considered rude or insulting when used with a person the speaker isn't good friends with.

Amo/Amino - Boyfriend/Girlfriend or significant other

To Verb/To Spit - To say, speak, or tell.

To gab (with someone) - To chat (with someone).

To Audit something - To hear or understand something.

To vide something - To see something.

To Scrib/Scribe - To write.

To tool - To fix (mechanically or technically) or conduct maintenance.

To map something - To understand or recall something.

Arctic/Slick/Ice - Cool, great.

Riccy - Rich, often used in a pejorative or derogatory sense.

Fek/Knob - Alternative, less-offensive variations of "Fuck."

To Debt - To work (a job).

No debts - No worries/No problem.

Bonny/Bones - Good.

Dolly - Kind/Nice/Sweet.

Creaky/Rusty - Dangerous. Can be used in the past tense to describe misfortune.

Pure/Straight/Right - Very. “Pure dangerous,” “Straight riccy,” “Right dolly,” etc.

Milk - General multipurpose replacement for "thing." Akin to the Suit word "Deal."

To cark (it) - To die. Not used when referring to murders.

To be creased - To be murdered.

To crease someone - To murder someone.

Arbo – A Dionae.

Serp/Serpo – An Unathi.

Rano – A Skrell

Borgo – An IPC or stationbound cyborg/android/robot.

Cino – A Vaurca.

Badge/Blue – A member of corporate security or other law enforcement.

Patcher – A doctor.

Wrencher – An engineer.

Mixer – A bartender.

Hopper – A Head of Personnel.

To bleed someone - To hurt someone/Make them pay.

Sniffs/Sniffers - Sniffs/Sniffers - Brown-nosers. Dregs who suck up or listen to suits/authority. Also for cops who are putting their noses in your business.

Band - Gang. Bando/Bandino would be a gang member.

Banded - Married/Life partners. Best friends, marriages, etc. Not a coincidence it uses the same root for gangs.

Idio/Drongo - Idiot.

Half-eared/Half-eyed - Hard of hearing/seeing. Mostly said out of frustration. “What the fek are you, half-eared?”

Just hands - Said of a person who can only communicate in sign language because they are either deaf or mute. Might be called No-eared or No-tongued, to mean Deaf or Mute, respectively.

Fair shake - Fair enough.

Pointed/Pointy - Horny. Mostly as a joke, to tell people to relax. “Don’t get all pointy”

Affirmed - Got it. Confirmed. “Did you set the engine?” “Affirmed, boss.”

Tick/Shake - Second or minute. Like “Hold on a tick” Or “Back in a hot shake.”

Biz - General multipurpose word that can be used to refer to almost anything. Akin to the typical slang usage of the word “Shit.” "Bad biz, I mapped that biz."

Callsign - Name.

Clacker/Starfish - Asshole. “Crank the rod from yer clacker” = Get the stick out of your ass.

Not(Ain’t) my prints - Not my fault. As in, my fingerprints aren’t on that.

Running your trail - Got your back/following you/I’m with you.

Dry as a suit’s wife - Boring, dull, lacking substance. It implies that suits barely have sex or are unfaithful to their romantic partners and have mistresses/paramours, though both meanings are widely accepted by most Dregs.

To Ice something - To vandalize or destroy something.

Wrong (shoes/boots) - A transgender person. “Born in the wrong shoes” meaning born in the wrong body. Not a derogatory term.

Night wishes - Dreams.

To spill honesties: To be earnest or truthful

Examples:

“You vide that rano mixer? Knab’s pure iced.” (Have you seen that skrell bartender? Guy’s real awesome.)

“Affirmed; right dolly, mixes plus brews.” (Yeah. Real sweet, and makes good drinks).

“Fekkin’ knob me sideways, that arbo boss is a pure badge sniffer. Ain’t even my prints that the biz got rusted.” (Fuckin’… fuck me sideways, that Dionae moron sucks up to the cops. It’s not even my fault that the shit went bad.)

“All bonny, amino; you ain’t signin’ the dots. Maybe rusty biz, but I’m runnin’ your trails, no debts.” (All good, love. You’re not going to prison. Maybe it’s uncertain(dangerous) shit, but I have your back, no worries.)

“Verbed with patcher Gonzales’ ma last debt; kickin’ pure bonny at my own ma fekkin’ off. Krok’s drier than a suit’s amino; spit riccy the max shake. Def sets lunch, though probbo suit-smilin’ about her biz.” (I talked with doctor Gonzales’ mom last shift; Makes me really glad that my own mom left. She’s dry as a suit’s wife; talked rich the whole time. She mixes with suits, though she’s probably lying about her business.”)

Crime

In a society as unregulated as the ECF, what qualifies as criminal acts is largely based on one’s status, and if one can avoid being caught in the act. Crimes such as theft and murder are naturally illegal within cities, but the courts are easily swayed by the promise of payment and kickbacks from corporate overlords. Fines are a common way to deal with misdemeanours, but even misdemeanours can bankrupt a middle-class Eridanian citizen, and have little effect on a high-ranking suit’s paycheck. Treason in Eridanian law is a highly variable charge, and is typically applied to those who have been found conspiring against their managers, expressed dissent with corporate influence, or collaborated or traded with dregs to skirt the draconian surveillance of the state.

Suit Crime

Theft from the workplace is by far the most common crime that an Eridanian office worker could commit. In many cases, these are petty crimes of stealing from vending machines and appropriating office supplies. Financial fraud is common and shockingly easy to perform; apart from hiring N4NL and perfunctory firewalls and tracking systems on an Eridanian employee’s extranet browser, many offices do not account for off-grid Wi-Fi, VPNs, and connection spoofing. A sufficiently skilled hacker will find it easy to open up private databases and expose them to the public, or find the login details of a suit’s bank account. Cybercrime has been on the rise since 2430, and many data analysts expect it will continue to grow until corporations can clamp down on their network security.

Smuggling, drug trafficking, and weapons trafficking in Eridani is not so much illegal as it is legally murky. The liaisons between Eridani’s branches of the megacorporations and the rest of the Spur’s branches often conceal the extent as to their smuggling using corporate profits; while this increases the bottom line of the company, any external discovery of explicitly illegal activity harms the corporation’s reputation, and may harm the careers of the Eridanian liaisons involved in shady dealings.

Dreg Crime

The very existence of dregs constitutes a criminal act; their scrounging for food and water is technically illegal under Federation law, and their lack of citizenship disqualifies them of any legal protections they might have. In the undercities there are threats from all sides; from the even more desperate raiders, to the bands of Eridani Private Military Contractors sent in to retrieve property or keep order, or even groups that have decided the best way to avoid being threatened is to become a threat. The latter class makes up most of the notable gangs in the undercities.

Notable Dreg Gangs

• The Teeth: The Teeth are a gang mostly centred in Fantalu, though some small cells work on the edges of Tokura. The Teeth fund themselves through protection tributes in the form of food or water, manufacturing and selling drugs, and distributing weapons. The Teeth paint their armour and clothing white, often attaching the teeth and sometimes bones of their kills to their masks or necklaces. To ascend through the ranks, an aspirant must kidnap an Eridani citizen and either pull out some of their teeth while alive, or kill them and then take the teeth. How an aspirant performs this task will usually codify their direction in the gang; an overly brutish and unsubtle prospect will be shunted to guard work and muscle, but an individual who can gain their prize without arousing too much suspicion is seen as a clever potential leader. While the Teeth do not have many non-human members, a few Unathi exist in the gang as lower-level grunts and leadership. If Teeth members do become reinstated, they are typically employed with Eridani private military contractors, such as Eagle Corp or Ringspire, where their talents for brutality can be put to paid use.
• Eridani Emancipation Movement: Typically code-named “Ems” or “Drummers”, the EEM is a gang of political anarchists, with many cells that are loosely affiliated across megacities. The largest cell operates out of New Kivu, and helps defend and supply the settlement, though they are not truly “in charge” of it. EEM is the gang that varies the most between megacities and their districts, with the only major agreement between various sects is that the current capitalist society of Eridani should be completely dismantled. Some Drummers have strong political opinions and plans for a future, anti-corporate government; others simply stand on the hill of killing or brutalising suits in revenge for their situation. Opinions on alien presence, IPC rights, and assisting other groups also vary wildly between cells of EEM; most, however, are generally comfortable with aliens and suspicious of IPCs. Despite their political beliefs, New Kivu Drummers often encourage their brethren to leave Eridani I and even join megacorporations, espousing the view that employment and travel around the Orion Spur will allow more awareness of the condition of dregs.
• Night Runners: A gang of grey-hat hackers and mechanically-inclined dregs that make a living by constructing off-grid Extranet, building and repairing prosthetics (and sometimes repairing IPCs), and targeting all manner of above-ground digital infrastructure. Night Runners are also occasionally hired by N4NL to dismantle a rival or dig up their dirty secrets without N4NL being implicated; while some hackers will do anything for some supplies or a chance at buying a ticket off-world, no questions asked, others have been known to backstab suits who employ them and expose the suit in question instead. Night Runners can be noticed in Den and New Kivu by their neon blue or neon green highlights on their clothes, and typically wear tinted goggles or have their eyes fully replaced with inhuman eye augments.
• TRINITY: Described as a “gang structured more like a cult”, TRINITY is a gang of transhumanists practising a variant of the Trinary Perfection. They believe that through sufficient augmentation, an organic can come to fully embody synthetic perfection and godhood. Its central figure is Akide Buhari, a charismatic man who has had many of his organs and limbs replaced with synthetic replacements, and undergoes frequent surgeries to fix them. TRINITY is largely notable because of the acts committed by its fanatical members; sculptures of twisted metal in settlements, the firebrand sermons and preachings of Edembole and his adherents, and in one very memorable case, the death of a suit by the hands of three TRINITY members, in which the suit was kidnapped and dismembered in an attempt by the group to replace their limbs and organs with “proper” prosthetics.

Military

See also: Eridani Private Military Contractors The armed forces of the Eridani Corporate Federation are split into two branches; the Federal Navy and the Federal Army. The armed forces of the Federation are composed of private military companies, which when not required by the state are contracted out across the Orion Spur. If a threat to Federation sovereignty arises, the Board of Five has the power to cancel these contracts. These contracted soldiers can be found in any situation ranging from active war zones to mere private security. The Chief of System Security and the Chief Executive Officer of all Eridanian private military operations is Kubra Mobolaji, with Chief Financial Officer Emanuel Alimayu having auxiliary powers over the forces.

Eridani private military contractors are recruited primarily from the Federation itself, with higher ranks being more immediately available to those able to pay. Five major companies make up the private side of the Eridani military, with different specialisations and backgrounds. They are, in order of founding, Ringspire, Eagle Corp., Sekhmet Intergalactic, N4NL Incorporated, and Index Security Solutions. These five companies are often referred to colloquially as the Golden Fist.

Equipment used by these private companies varies, though across all of them is a strong and fervent focus on the most modern technology, especially in the realm of combat augments and electronics. Contractors are often trained in using both lethal and non-lethal weaponry due to being employed both privately and publicly. Specialised combat augments include eyes with built in FoF (Friend or Foe) indicators, implanted drug injectors, and thermal vision. Contractors who are employed by megacorporations are rarely sent with proprietary combat augments in order to preserve their secrecy. The Eridani Federal Navy varies wildly in size and composition, with vessels and personnel being contracted as need arises from various internal and foreign sources. On average, it has about two fleets’ worth of craft employed at any given moment in peacetime. Unlike the Federal Army, the navy has a semi-permanent command structure which answers to the Board of Five as a whole.

Megacities on Eridani I

Eridani I’s megacities are a marvel of architectural engineering. They span for almost the entire length of their respective continent, and many districts are specialised in a certain role to make the most out of their space or position. Each megacity is divided into precisely 200 administrative districts, which are assigned a purpose by the megacity’s board of managers. The amount of a certain district in a megacity varies between each continent; Tokura, for example, has 68 industrial districts.

The most common district assignments are Industrial districts, housing districts, commercial districts and office districts. Industrial districts take the form of large, sprawling foundry or assembly complexes, often run exclusively by IPC or bound synthetics; housing districts are massive complexes of apartments, while others exclusively house villas; commercial districts house the Spur’s grandest and most exclusive shopping malls, and finally office districts are characterised by massive skyscrapers that function as office buildings, with many numbering in the hundreds of floors. Each administrative district is managed by its district manager, which is not elected by Eridanians but instead by the megacity’s board of managers. Districts also have varying levels of air quality: industrial districts are among the worst places in the Spur for air quality, whereas office districts are still polluted, but not quite as badly.

All megacities have a certain number of districts set aside for “environmental” purposes, mostly indoors due to air pollution, even if there are a few open-aired districts. Environmental districts are anything from jungles, forests, plains, or even deserts; they vary in being styled after the vegetation that used to populate Kamfulu, or biomes styled after the environments of other planets. Visegrad’s rainy forests, for example, are adapted quite faithfully in District 97 in Fantalu. They are sometimes a veritable adventure, with seamless transitions into different artificial biomes. They are a popular tourist destination, particularly for hiking and outdoor sports, and sometimes a cheaper venture for Solarians to see the natural sights of other planets rather than actually chartering a trip to the outer rings. CEOs, on the other hand, have made a habit of using secluded parts of these districts to carry out deals with clients, away from prying eyes. All of this for an entrance fee, of course.

Ifihan

Ifihan, formerly known as Ekeke, is the largest, most densely populated megacity and capital of Eridani I and where the Federation’s government is headquartered. It also hosts Einstein Engines’ Eridani headquarters, and APEX Military Academy. Being the capital, Eridanians from Ifihan are the most used to immigrants and tend to have friendly or at the very least cordial relations with them, in addition to often being familiar with various Human cultures. This has resulted in many Eridanians from Ifihan borrowing chic slang words or customs from work tourists. Owing to Little Persepolis, a community of many Elyran work tourists, Elyran Standard words have filtered into Eridanian Tradeband and Sol Common speech. As a result of having the largest foreign population, Ifihan also has the highest number of environmental districts at 12, all of which borrow elements and biomes from every single planet found across Human space. Beneath Ifihan is the Factory; the Au’takh commune that fled Moghes after the Contact War.

As the capital district of the planet, Ifihan’s architecture is what is generally thought of when one thinks of “Eridanian architecture”. The skyscrapers and buildings are built reminiscent of a traditional West African style, incorporating smooth, natural curves and bright, warm colours into the skyline. In environmental districts, the buildings tend to be designed after the architecture and style of the planets the environment is mimicking.

The APEX Military Academy is a key component of Ifihani culture, especially for foreign workers. More information on it can be found in the Work Tourism section.

Tokura

Tokura is the second largest Eridanian megacity and is home to a branch of Hephaestus Industries. Before the EEEC takeover, it was called Lukingo. It is mostly known for its two massive entertainment districts, Amethyst and Diadem, which play host to artificial beaches, nightclubs, bars, and restaurants. They were designed exclusively by Venusian artists and architects under the supervision of the board of managers, and as such much of the architecture in Tokura is Venusian-inspired. LED paintings cover walls and even pavement in these districts, proving to be quite a culture shock for a first visitor. The buildings are considerably shorter and blockier, with sharp edges and suspended ceilings, than the towering Afrofuturist skyscrapers of Ifihan. Tokura’s entertainment districts are very popular destinations for Eridanians wishing to blow off steam on their rare days off and make up a large part of the megacity’s revenue.

Diadem also hosts The Cube, a gigantic squarish structure that holds hundreds of bars and restaurants along with dancefloors and even residential housing for its employees. The Cube is a club which carries prestige across not just Eridanian space, but Human space as a whole.

Suits from Tokura have a reputation for being warmer and friendlier than their counterparts from other megacities, though some are reputed as manic and overly-indulgent in drugs. Tokura also hosts the largest number of industrial districts at 68, boasting a gigantic workforce employed in engineering or related fields. It is also the home of the Hephaestus Engineering Excellence Institute, a common destination for Hephaestus employees that wish to obtain further qualifications in a more competitive environment – while also experiencing Eridanian culture for the duration of their stay. Those that finish courses in this institute often obtain lucrative contracts in industrial fields in Eridani, or even abroad. A sizable portion of middle-level Hephaestus managers obtain their management certifications here. The 68 industrial districts are mostly run by Hephaestus, with many being staffed by both IPC, native Eridanians and foreign workers.

As a result of the large number of industrial districts, air quality in Tokura is the worst among the Eridanian megacities and many Eridanians there develop a habit of staying indoors more than usual. Thankfully, their favourite attractions – the Venusian nightclubs – are all indoors. Additionally, it has less housing districts to compensate for the large amount of industrial districts, leading to a large overcrowding problem. This is partially why Suits from Tokura are warmer towards others – it is impossible to leave your apartment complex without seeing or talking to a colleague.

Madiwa

Madiwa, formerly Ichida, is the third largest Eridanian megacity and home to a branch of Zeng-Hu Pharmaceuticals. It has the second highest number of environmental districts at 9, the most famous of which is the Diakite Garden; a brilliant metallic dome built around a brilliant variety of different trees, flowers, and grasses all precisely organised into a great botanical garden. The facility was built originally by Zeng-Hu Pharmaceuticals as a place to house plant samples, however after some years the company found it more profitable to charge people for entry and use it as a venue for “outdoor” business conferences and even expensive entertainment acts. Getting access to the Gardens is very difficult, with tickets going for thousands of credits and repeat-entry passes going for hundreds of thousands. This cost makes it quite the statement of power or status for one to hold a business meeting in the Gardens, and there are gazebo-esque facilities in parts of the dome made specifically for business. The architecture in Madiwa is heavily influenced by Earther Chinese architecture, owing to the number of foreign workers from China that work for a time on the planet. Skyscrapers are tiered like pagodas, and open spaces around buildings are ubiquitous. Buildings themselves use symmetry and often are structured in a very balanced manner.

Madiwa is a major medical and research centre and arguably hosts the planet's most advanced medical institutes and facilities. The Zeng–Hu Madiwan Polytechnic can be found in Madiwa, one of the premier Zeng-Hu polytechnic institutes. This university is where many graduates sponsored by Zeng-Hu find their home, both in Eridani and abroad, to be moulded into only the highest quality employees. At the same time, the Polytechnic is known for its soul-crushingly high standards, a result of the fusion between Zeng-Hu corporate culture and Suit workaholism. Many Zeng-Hu chief medical officers or hospital directors obtain further training in patient management at the Polytechnic institute.

Fantalu

Fantalu, which was once called Maluwashi, is the smallest Eridanian megacity, and hosts no megacorporations. As a result, it also has the smallest population of foreign workers, which are often not treated kindly. It is, however, the host of the largest Eridanian corporation, Eridani Energy, colloquially referred to as EriEn – an energy corporation specialising in the creation of fusion reactors at small scale – which hires exclusively Eridanian natives and natively assembled Eridanian IPC. It is known for having gruelling work hours, extreme recruitment standards, but unparalleled pay. Eridanians that do leave EriEn – often due to extreme burnout and typically after having earned a few years' worth of paychecks – have little trouble finding work abroad as their abilities, experience and dedication to their work are in high demand. In addition to engineering fields, EriEn also hires many middle-management level staff, mainly in accounting, human resources, personnel management or other such related fields. Fantalu is, as a result of all these factors, a significantly more Eridanian native-minded megacity than the rest. Its inhabitants often look down on Eridanians from other megacities and on them letting foreign influence run rampant. The examples commonly cited by Fantalu’s residents are Amethyst and Diadem, the two Venusian entertainment districts in Tokura. No entertainment districts are present in Fantalu and the megacity sponsors a very workaholic culture, making it an extremely unattractive prospect for anyone that wishes to spend their life in more than an office cubicle. Fantalu is also where the dreg settlement of New Kivu is situated, constantly on guard against raids from other settlements, potential crackdowns from the local military contractors, and organised dreg gangs. A common quip among Fantalu residents is that New Kivu is a more relaxed place to live than the city itself.

Dreg Settlements

The Eridanian megacities do not leave much space on the surface for dregs to even exist, which begs the question of where the majority of their population resides. The answer lies in a fault in Eridanian management: when the megacities absorbed smaller settlements, they never integrated existing tunnelling or underground systems, instead choosing to extend their own, as they were viewed as superior and less prone to failure. This has led to each megacity hosting its own unused complex network of tunnels, mining complexes, sewer systems and other such spaces underneath. These were interconnected by Eridani I’s dregs overtime, leading to the creation of two main underground settlements; New Kivu and Den. Many small settlements exist in the tunnels nonetheless. Large settlements have some semblance of a government, but it only extends insofar as informal leaders making decisions – there are absolutely no social programs, government-sponsored hiring or anything resembling a modern nation state.

New Kivu

New Kivu is the largest dreg shantytown on Eridani, and is situated in the undercity of Ifihan. It boasts something that almost no other dreg community in the Federation can match; a widespread pipe network delivering clean water courtesy of the town being built around a once-decommissioned water treatment plant. This has led to much of the dreg population of Eridani I flocking to New Kivu in hopes of living in a place with clean water. It is the dreg settlement with the highest standard of living, but even that is still rock bottom when compared to anywhere else in the Spur. New Kivu’s economy functions mainly on salvaging food and water scraps from above through pre-planned routes, which still gives it an immense tactical edge over all other settlements that are instead forced to hunt for scraps of food and water over hundreds of kilometres. This has led to dregs outside of New Kivu developing a large sentiment of jealousy towards the premier settlement, and it is often forced to defend its borders from poachers, raiders and bandits far more often than any other, and these raids are often quite devastating for the town’s populace. Typically, the Eridani Emancipation Movement and the combat-trained gang members are the ones to guard the settlement, and loosely help law the settlement through a council of regular residents and general public opinion. Despite being sworn enemies with the Teeth, the New Kivu-centric group of the EEM do not clash with the Teeth while they are within the shantytown’s fences, and leaders of the Teeth punish members who make trouble within the area.

Den

Den, on the other hand, is a much more different kind of settlement – if that label could even apply. Its culture is an extreme distortion of Cytherean and Suit culture where gambling, card games and other such activities play the main role in society. Knowing how to gamble, cheat, play cards and dice is an essential skill here as gambling is what the economy of Den runs on. What little food and water there is gets immediately gambled at makeshift bars or casinos, or becomes the price of admission in the Reinstatement Tournaments; clandestine competitions hosted by the wealthy Suits that run the nightclubs on the surface. Dregs that climb their way up and defeat Suit opponents are often given a chance to reinstate themselves, with the price of signing an extremely abusive contract with a nightclub as card dealers, baristas or professional card players; those who find their way out of these contracts by paying severance fees are often burnt out and end up leaving their megacity or Eridani altogether. A minority of the dregs that make it to the end of these tournaments view these contracts as an unacceptable hit to their pride and end up refusing them, choosing to remain in the underground instead.

These clandestine tournaments are very lucrative as well: many Suits place fairly high bets on their favourite candidate, as the payoff is extremely high. It is speculated that Den’s semblance of a “ruling government” is in close cooperation with the CEOs of the entertainment districts to provide them with an ever-flowing source of workers, and of course tournaments to sate their taste for extreme tourism.

Some of Eridani I’s dregs, however, live in completely desolate areas on the surface, primarily deserts that were not terraformed due to the land not being profitable. They live an even harder life than other dregs and their population has rapidly dwindled throughout the years due to the lack of any real source of food or water. They are the most isolated communities on Eridani I and entirely rely on raiding other underground dreg settlements for sustenance – a practice that has rapidly backfired ever since the creation of New Kivu’s mercenary system. Some find refuge underground and integrate into communities such as New Kivu or Den, while others continue to embrace this nomadic lifestyle. These dregs are known for being extremely superstitious to a fault, often judging how the course of a day will go from a simple observation in the morning. Additionally, they are the most religious community on Eridani I, with most of them believing in one deity or the other: makeshift places of prayer can be found dotted around their deserts for just about every human religion. Due to their origins as West African and Central African colonists, most of them follow the religions of Christianity and Islam.

Due to the entirely decentralised, chaotic and anarchic nature of these above-ground settlements, there are no large or static communities.