Sandbox:Hazelmouse-3
| Pactolus & Midaion |
| Pactolus System |
 |
| Sector: Arusha |
| Capital: Eurydice |
| Species: Vast Majority IPCs |
| Common Languages: EAL, TCB, Tradeband |
| Demonyms: Pactolan |
| Part of: The Golden Deep |
Pactolus is the fourth planet from the star of the Pactolus system, located in a shallow section of the Arusha sector. Midaion is the sole large satellite of the same planet, and has served as the chief spaceport for the synthetic mercantile collective of the Golden Deep almost since its founding. Collectively, these cosmic bodies compose the sole corner of the Orion Spur populated almost exclusively by synthetics. Humans are a transitory minority in the social and economic complex emerging from these worlds, administered by a radically capitalistic collective of merchants eager for rapid, and reckless, economic growth.
Unlike Midaion, Pactolus has only been subject to colonisation in very recent events; this is owed to its strong gravity well rendering it less appealing for spaceborne commerce, and to the severe affliction of Kessler syndrome in the planet's close orbit. While less desirable commercially, the quasi-habitable environment and the relative abundance of rare materials including gold, silver, and lithium has earned it a clear economic niche as of the founding of the city of Eurydice.
Both bodies exist under a star thought to be of nearly 13 billion years of age. It is a (relatively) small red giant, having ballooned to 13 times the size of Sol and being close to 400 times as luminous before multicellular life on Earth existed. It is thought that Pactolus was once much closer to its star and also much colder, having been flung rapidly outwards into a far more distant orbit by its expansion which happened by good fortune to be within the young giant's new habitable zone. Midaion was either a dwarf planet in the system's distant past, another planet's moon, or a small rogue planet; it was not coupled with Pactolus until after the star's expansion.
System History
Midaion, Trade Satellite
Environment
The Great Anchorage
Economy
Pactolus, Capital World
The fourth planet from the star of the Pactolus system, Pactolus is a semi-habitable world orbiting a red star. It is smaller than Earth, having around two-thirds its diameter and the same proportion of its gravity. While its atmosphere is breathable for short periods, being composed of 13% oxygen, 56% argon and 36% nitrogen, internals are necessary for long or strenuous exposure to the surface atmosphere. This atmospheric toxicity has been lately worsened by the growing concentration of carbons dioxide and monoxide in the atmosphere. Thick raincoats and waterproof ponchos are common to see among both humans and synthetics travelling outdoors on account of the dangerously low pH of the planet's rainfall, and all humans are advised to stay on internals whenever outside a sealed environment.
Its dubious habitability marks a small concern for the majority of its population, which are synthetics from across all walks of life; these are affluent merchants and the most destitute of runaways, formerly free souls that have sold themselves to save themselves, these are the dispossessed and the possessors. Most of this population is concentrated in the city of Eurydice, a rapidly growing metropolis built atop one of the largest of the planet's many small biological landmasses, although the planet's surface is increasingly dotted with colonial outposts and mining stations.