Oceanus Home Page

<BODY> <!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//SoftQuad Software//DTD HoTMetaL PRO 6.0::19990601::extensions to HTML 4.0//EN" "hmpro6.dtd"> <HTML> <HEAD> <TITLE> </TITLE><LINK REL="STYLESHEET" HREF="../adastrastyle.css"> <BASE TARGET="_top"> </HEAD> <BODY VLINK="#FF0000" BGCOLOR="#000000"> <H1>Oceanus Colony</H1> <H4>Stellar Data</H4> <DIV> <TABLE WIDTH="75%" BGCOLOR="#000000" CELLSPACING="1" CELLPADDING="2"> <TR> <TD ALIGN="RIGHT"> <P>Stellar luminosity:</P></TD> <TD VALIGN="TOP" ALIGN="LEFT"> <P>0.21 x Sol </P></TD> </TR> <TR> <TD ALIGN="RIGHT"> <P>Stellar mass:</P></TD> <TD VALIGN="TOP" ALIGN="LEFT"> <P> 0.58 x Sol </P></TD> </TR> <TR> <TD VALIGN="TOP" ALIGN="RIGHT"> <P>Semi-major axis:</P></TD> <TD VALIGN="TOP" ALIGN="LEFT"> <P>64535000 km <BR>0.43 AU<BR>215 light seconds</P></TD> </TR> <TR VALIGN="TOP"> <TD ALIGN="RIGHT" VALIGN="TOP"> <P>Orbital period:</P></TD> <TD VALIGN="TOP" ALIGN="LEFT"> <P>11676280.032 seconds<BR>0.37 Standard Years<BR>33.05 Local Days</P></TD> </TR> <TR> <TD ALIGN="RIGHT"> <P>Orbital Eccentricity:</P></TD> <TD VALIGN="TOP" ALIGN="LEFT"> <P>0.020</P></TD> </TR> <TR> <TD ALIGN="RIGHT"> <P>Planetary Orbital Velocity:</P></TD> <TD VALIGN="TOP" ALIGN="LEFT"> <P>??? m/sec</P></TD> </TR> <TR> <TD ALIGN="RIGHT"> <P>Travel Time To Transit Points</P></TD> <TD VALIGN="TOP" ALIGN="LEFT"> <P>?? T-days (Magsail)<BR>?? T-days (NSWR)</P></TD> </TR> </TABLE></DIV> <H4>Planetary Data</H4> <DIV> <TABLE WIDTH="75%" BGCOLOR="#000000" CELLSPACING="1" CELLPADDING="2"> <TR> <TD ALIGN="RIGHT" VALIGN="TOP"> <P>Diameter:</P></TD> <TD VALIGN="TOP" ALIGN="LEFT"> <P>14421 km</P></TD> </TR> <TR> <TD ALIGN="RIGHT" VALIGN="TOP"> <P>Mass:</P></TD> <TD VALIGN="TOP" ALIGN="LEFT"> <P>9.0237 * 10<SUP>24</SUP> kg<BR>1.51 Earths</P></TD> </TR> <TR> <TD ALIGN="RIGHT" VALIGN="TOP"> <P>Density:</P></TD> <TD VALIGN="TOP" ALIGN="LEFT"> <P>~5.85 gm / cm<SUP>3</SUP></P></TD> </TR> <TR VALIGN="TOP"> <TD VALIGN="TOP" ALIGN="RIGHT"> <P>Surface Gravity:</P></TD> <TD VALIGN="TOP" ALIGN="LEFT"> <P>11.679 m/sec/sec<BR>1.19 g</P></TD> </TR> <TR VALIGN="TOP"> <TD VALIGN="TOP" ALIGN="RIGHT"> <P>Escape Velocity</P></TD> <TD VALIGN="TOP" ALIGN="LEFT"> <P>??</P></TD> </TR> <TR VALIGN="TOP"> <TD ALIGN="RIGHT" VALIGN="TOP"> <P>Inclination of Planetary Axis</P></TD> <TD VALIGN="TOP" ALIGN="LEFT"> <P>20.79 °</P></TD> </TR> <TR VALIGN="TOP"> <TD ALIGN="RIGHT" VALIGN="TOP"> <P>Orientation of orbital major axis:</P></TD> <TD VALIGN="TOP" ALIGN="LEFT"> <P>20.79 °</P></TD> </TR> <TR> <TD ALIGN="RIGHT" VALIGN="TOP"> <P>Hydrologic Surface</P></TD> <TD VALIGN="TOP" ALIGN="LEFT"> <P>79.2%</P></TD> </TR> <TR> <TD ALIGN="RIGHT" VALIGN="TOP"> <P>Atmospheric Pressure (Sea Level)</P></TD> <TD VALIGN="TOP" ALIGN="LEFT"> <P>840 millibars<BR>84% of Earth's</P></TD> </TR> <TR> <TD ALIGN="RIGHT" VALIGN="TOP"> <P>Atmospheric CO<SUB>2</SUB></P></TD> <TD VALIGN="TOP" ALIGN="LEFT"> <P>0.11 millibars</P></TD> </TR> </TABLE></DIV> <H4>Demographic Data</H4> <DIV> <TABLE WIDTH="75%" BGCOLOR="#000000" CELLSPACING="1" CELLPADDING="2"> <TR> <TD ALIGN="RIGHT" VALIGN="TOP"> <P>Population (2200 survey):</P></TD> <TD VALIGN="TOP" ALIGN="LEFT"> <P></P></TD> </TR> <TR> <TD ALIGN="RIGHT" VALIGN="TOP"> <P>Principle Demographic Breakdown</P></TD> <TD VALIGN="TOP" ALIGN="LEFT"> <P>73% Pacific Islanders <BR>18% Caucasian<BR>6% Asian<BR>3% Other</P></TD> </TR> <TR> <TD ALIGN="RIGHT" VALIGN="TOP"> <P>Birth Rate</P></TD> <TD VALIGN="TOP" ALIGN="LEFT"> <P>3%</P></TD> </TR> <TR VALIGN="TOP"> <TD VALIGN="TOP" ALIGN="RIGHT"> <P>Immigration Rate</P></TD> <TD VALIGN="TOP" ALIGN="LEFT"> <P>???? immigrants/T- year.</P></TD> </TR> </TABLE></DIV> <H4>Survey Writeup</H4> <P> The system of BD-05°1844 (A) contains, amongst its other features, the planets of Oceanus and Mares. Together they form a twin body planetary system. Both are large, high gravity worlds, with neither able to be classified as a moon. The smaller of the two, Oceanus, is a biosphere capable world.</P> <P>The planets orbit each other at a distance of 154,230 km, roughly 39.4% of the distance between Earth and the Moon. Both planets are tidally locked to each other; their days and orbital periods coincide, giving a daytime regimen of 98 hours, 7 minutes and 44 standard seconds. </P> <P>Due to tidal locking, the other planet in the pair is only visible from one hemisphere of the viewing planet. The planets appear twelve to thirteen times the size of the Moon when viewed from the other, or about the size of a softball when viewed at arms length. At night, each appears one thousand times brighter than the Moon in the night's sky - about as bright as a table lamp viewed from 1.5 metres away, meaning night never really falls on the facing hemispheres of the two planets. </P> <P>Oceanus, the inhabitable half of the twin, is a pelagic world. Mares, it's twin, has evidence of a runaway carbon locking cycle, and most of its free oxygen has bonded with surface elements, much as happened with Mars in the Solar system. </P> <P>Oceanus itself has a number of factors that make it less than ideal to inhabit over large regions, but unmodded humans can live on the surface at sea level. Originally named Magnus Oceanus, and shortened to just Oceanus, it is larger planet than Earth, with a diameter of a diameter of 14,421 km and a mass 51% more than that of Earth. This gives it a surface gravity almost 20% greater than on Earth, and very near the upper limit of what humans find livable. </P> <P>This gravity, combined with planetary age, and a reduction in tectonic activity (other than tidal stresses from Mares) have limited the growth of mountain ranges upon Oceanus, giving a maximum land altitude of 4232 meters for the highest peak. </P> <P>Oceanus is almost 80% ocean, with most of the land surface in the Southern Hemisphere of the planet, on Mares-facing hemisphere. Its atmosphere is much thinner than Earth's, roughly half the thickness expected for a planet of its mass, and is symptomatic of a carbon locking cycle, where most of the carbon is bound into carbonates on the floor of the ocean; one of the jobs of the Planetary Oversight Board is monitoring green house gasses in the atmosphere for long term trends. At sea level, the atmospheric pressure on Oceanus is roughly comparable to an altitude of ???? km on Earth (Sample City Here).</P> <P>While BD-05°1844 (A) is smaller and dimmer than Sol, it puts out more of its radiation in the near IR; at its median orbital distance, Oceanus recieves approximately 103% of the instellation that Earth does from Sol. The average global temperature it 26.2 degrees centigrade (78.8 F). Equatorial regions swelter around an average 35 C all year around, while even the poles average 6 C. Oceanus possesses no polar ice caps, lowering planetary albedo. Even in the dead of winter, the surface temperature at the poles never drops below 0 degrees C for more than a local day or so. The vast oceans of Oceanus provide good heat circulation to the poles, providing general temperature moderation. Oceanus cimate regime is roughly tropical, or a bit warmer. Within roughly 30° latitude of the equator, the temperatures are endurable, but far from comfortable, for unprotected humans; as the lattitude drifts further towards the poles, the climate eventually runs to cold-and-dank as a model, within the arctic and antarctic circles. </P> <P>Due to the long orbital period, daytime temperatures vary more than seasonal temperatures, and the immediate impact on local weather is driven more by the long day length than seasonal variations in trade winds. In the climate around <Insert Capital City here, with latitude and longitude>, the long afternoon features strong sea breezes -- gale force in the spring, and near daily thunderstorms, as heating over land draws in marine air, and further heating causes it to rise forming cumulonimbus clouds. As a result, the differences in daytime temperatures exceed the differences in seasonal temperatures -- a winter afternoon will nearly always be hotter than a summer night on Oceanus.</P> <P>Oceanus' low tectonic activity (and concomittantly weaker planetary magnetic field) are balanced by the cooler star. It is very difficult to get a severe sunburn on Oceanus.</P> <P>Oceanus sister planet, Mares, is observed in the "canary in the mines" sense. Officially named Mares Oceanus by a survey officer with a dubious sense of humor, Mares is an inhospitable world with evidence of friendlier past. Larger than its twin, Mares has a diameter of 16,484 km, a mass around 2.4 times that of Earth's and a surface gravity of 1.45 g. Once similar to Oceanus in atmosphere and hydration, at some stage in its history it suffered a major catastrophe. Its atmosphere is perilously thin, equivalent to that of Earth's at around 13 kilometres, while surface water totals only about 1%, compared to Oceanus' 79%, and almost all of that is locked up in the polar ice caps. Temperatures vary wildly, from nearly 50 C° on average at the Equator to around -70° C at the poles, and even these temperatures swing wildly through the year. At the relatively stable equator, they swing from roughly 40° C to around 56° C. The poles rises as high as -13 C before plummeting to almost -120 C. The dry conditions make the diurnal swings enormous, from as hot as hell during the day to freezing cold at night. </P> <H4>Colonization History</H4> <P>The Oceanic Consortium was founded in the mid 21st century, as a response to climactic changes throughout the Oceanic and South Pacific regions of Earth. With many of the member nations facing devastation due to rising sea levels, and greater extremes in tropical weather patterns, the Consortium started out as a political pressure group within the UN, trying to transplant refugees from islands that were simply shrinking under rising sea levels. Some were resettled in nearby countries. Others were determined to stay on their islands, resulting in dikes and massive seabreak construction projects, as well experiments in hypercoral growths. Other nations ceased to be in all but name. By the mid 2130's, many member nations were suffering civil unrest, or economic exhaustion or both. More than one generation had been born with no homeland of their own, and there was a great feeling of loss and anomie eroding the common cultural base. One solution presented itself when the UN announced the confirmation of two habitable planets, the first since Alpha Centauri. One was around 41 Arae, and was to be used by the UN to resettled refugees. The other was around BD-05°1844 (A).</P> <P> At first there was little interest in this second planet. The cost to establish an interstellar colony was exhorbitant, and many of the regions of Earth were still digging out of the economic hole they'd made with Pontenomics 60 years before. While the initial discovery of an Oxygen-Nitrogen line had provoked interest, the lack of any climatological data, and the fact that any planet would have to be in the stellar tidal lock zone, or would be near the outer edge of the liquid water zone, limited most inquiries into BD-5°1844. Faced with few alternatives, the Oceanic Consortium made a bid on the planet which proved to be uncontested, due to the land-sale opening of Antarctica for off-shore mining and development rights by the UN. </P> <P> Negotiations were undertaken over a few months, and in the end, the Consortium agreed to pay a staggering sum for exclusive rights to colonize the system, a good chunk of which came back to member nations in the form of relocation grants, a decision which still generates good will towards the UN on Oceanus. </P> <P>The hyperspace links were surveyed in 2139, and the first detailed survey of the planetary system came back. The first wave of colonists arrived in 2144, 5 years later, aboard a fleet of colonization freighters leased from the UN and from Daimler Spatiale.</P> <P>The heat, insolation and long diurnal cycle led to a semi-underground construction for the initial base-camp, named Hermitage. Hermitage never quite evolved into a capital city, retaining a feel somewhere between a small rural college town and a government outpost, rather than a thriving metropolis. It retains its importants in Oceanic culture primarily for its nodal nature; many of the regional cities and towns have larger populations, and most have a pleasanter climate. </P> <P>Subsequent waves of colonists arrived upon Oceanus through the 2160s, then, as more desirable real estate opened up, the colonization boom began to dwindle. Most of the new immigres were settled on small subcontintents or island chains, allowing them to recover a degree of independence lost back on Earth. </P> <P>While modern communication techniques were available, a conscious decision was made to give each region a fairly large amount of autonomy, resulting in a wide variety of local governments, and a few inter-region "police actions", characterized by one off-world anthropologist as "Moari bride-raids conducted with hydrofoils". </P> <P>While in theory, each region appoints a representative to the Consortium Board, in practice, local affairs matter so much more than planetary ones that entire swathes of the planet will fail to send a delegate for years at a time; it is something of a truisim that a regional government only sends a representative to the Board meeting when it has a problem with its neighbors, or it needs something from off-planet.</P> <P>While there is a strong trend towards federalizing the government of Oceanus, particularly in recent years, the Old Guard, made up of First Families, has taken to blocking the formation of a stronger government in the Board meetings through parliamentary tricks. Their intention is to preserve the status quo, rather than have their reconstructed culture eaten once again by "Western" ideals. While well short of a civil war, the conflict has managed to create a population of full time politicians on Oceanus. The Culturalist and Constitutionalist debates provide much of the backdrop at Hermitage, with the Culturalist factions trying to sway new representatives to them, and the Constitutionalists accused of being cat's paws for outside interests.</P> <P>The other major political faction in Oceanic politics is the 23rd Century Party, which is primarily concerned with having Oceanic society prepared for the end of exclusivity in their colonization lease; the Century Party often provides the swing votes in the Consortium Board.</P> <P> Technically, the Executive of the Oceanic government is appointed by the Consortium back on Earth, with UN approval. In the first 50 years since colonization, the Executive visited Oceanus from Earth a total of 10 times; for the most part, and was promptly ignored again once they'd left. Finally, in 2195, Oceanus succeeded in getting a native daughter appointed as the Executive, and sent to Earth to facilitate agreements in Oceanus' behalf with the Earth-based half of the Consortium, which had been witnessing the slow erosion of its prestige to other Earther politicking, and the Sino-Indian war. While Oceanus was not formally recognized as an independant country, it had become clear that the colony and the homebound factions had shifted in their relative importance to one another.</P> <H4>Demographic Data</H4> <P> The majority of Oceanians are from Pacific island nations inundated by global warming, and are scattered in ethnic enclaves across Oceanus. The remainder are from Australia and New Zealand, two of the principle "Westernized" backers of the Consortium, with a significant minority of Malaysians and Indonesians from the fallout of the New Bharath colonization fiasco.</P> <P>The predominant culture around Hermitage is a melange of Enzedd and Aussie, who refer to themselves as "Westerners", even though Hermitage is just east of the planetary dateline. The area around Hermitage tends to be more strongly multicultural than the various archipelagos.</P> <P>The Westerners are the principal demographic base of the Constitutionalist Party, and technically, have no homeland of their own, though that is one of the principal bargaining points in Board sessions at the dawn of the 23rd century.</P> <H4> Culture</H4> <P>There broad categories of culture on Oceanus: The Westernized culture around Hermitage, and the scattered cultural enclaves of the Archipelagos. It is important for an offworlder to understand that these cultures represent the ends of a spectrum; as the local population gets more "rural", it becomes less Western in nature.</P> <P>Visitors, especially Western visitors, have a hard time coming to grips with the gift-culture that is dominates much of the regional ethnicities of Oceanus, and heavily influences the Consortium Board in Hermitage. </P> <P> Within a gift-culture, a man's wealth is measured not by what he owns, but what he gives away. To many Westerners, this is often interpreted as bribery. </P> <P>The gift culture of Oceanus arose from a number of influences in its colonization history. The first was a deliberate attempt to recreate the Pacific Island cultures as they'd been thought to exist prior to contact with Europeans; it is this aim that forms the crux of the Culturalist movement in the Consortium Board. Another influence was the relatively communal nature of the first waves of colonists; most came with very little in the way of personal possessions, and making a "lending library" out of community assets was a simple matter of practicality. </P> <P>The third influence was the local environment. With high gravity, high temperatures, long days and wild weather, it was easy to get into trouble. Being prepared to rely on others was critical to colonial survival, and the being reliable was a measure of status within the community. The truism was that person you saved from the storm today might save you from the storm tomorrow. As the ethnicities spread to their archipelagoes, this tendency reinforced itself. Many of the early Oceanic settlements were subterranean and communal in nature, which reinforced the gift-culture. Historically, prosperity has destroyed gift cultures, and done so rapidly. This fact is not lost upon the Culturalist faction of Oceanic society, and is the kernel of their resistance to the Constitutionalists; the fact that the enthic enclaves are isolated, and (for now) tend to be bountiful in terms of natural resources has aided their political goals, even against the greater political activity of the Constitutionalists.</P> <P>Hermitage has a less obvious gift-culture than the out-lying islands and archipelagos. </P> <P> There are a number of side-effects on this style of culture, some good and some bad. Crime, in a sense, is lessened. People "borrow" from one another all the time, but expect it to happen in return. Street crime happens primarily in Hermitage, where the distribution of wealth has a steeper gradiant between the haves and have-nots. </P> <P>While there are a number of businesses and neighborhoods in Hermitage that handle Westernized transactions of payments for services, they provide the exception rather than the rule. In most places on Oceanus, giving a "payment" is seen as a gift, and the demand for a specific item or service in return is seen as rudeness; foreigners are advised to be patient in their expectations.</P> <P>The other principal change in culture on Oceanus deals with the length of the day -- Oceanians don't "live on the clock" as the Western cultures do. With a local day of 98 hours and seven minutes, this is nearly impossible to do. </P> <P>As a result of this, the primary region that concerns itself with timekeeping in anything but the more general sense is Hermitage, and the local blue-water sailing concerns. This lack of appreciation for clocks, combined with the gift-culture, has led to accusations of corruption, bribery, and laziness. (The fact that afternoons are roughly a day long, and virtually require immersion in water and/or air conditioning in the "temperate" regines is lost on most foreigners, until they experience one directly.)</P> <H4>Economics</H4> <P>The vast majority of the Oceanian economy is focused internally, with trade happening via sailing vessels (and some small planes in the more technologically adept regions) from archipelago to archipelago. </P> <P>What little does get exported from Oceanus tends to be luxury items, such as hardwood furniture carved from near oak, a local tree with a higher mineralization content to deal with the higher gravity.</P> <P>Unlike later colonies, the Consortium Board did not have an oversight committee dictating ecological policies, leaving such decisions to regional autonomy. The results have been varied. Much Oceanian sea life is edible, although lacking in fats, and many Oceanian plants are edible, although higher in cellulose, making Earth stocks are preferred for taste.</P> <P>Because of the patchwork nature of Oceanian ecological control, common animal life varies from archipelago to archipelago, with some having very little Earthstock animal and plant life, and others being overrun by wild boar and pseudo-moa.</P> <P>In general, animals on Oceanus tend to be lower in fat and leaner than those raised on Earth. This applies to humans as well; with 70 years of colonization history to fall back upon, the most successful immigrant to Oceanus has been the Yellowfin Corsair in the oceans, and the various breeds of pig that have gone native.</P> <P>Local Oceanian surface fauna tends to be low slung and heavy boned, very little of it is arboreal. Due to the higher local g, most local life tends to be oviparous, saving the females of the species from the rigors of live birth. It is because of the egg laying nature of most local animals that the wild pigs have succeeded, finding the nests easy eating.</P> <P>Oceanian aquatic life is much more diverse; much of it appears, to environmental evolutionists, to be the result of land creatures moving back into the waters to take over evacuated ecological niches.</P> <P> Much of Oceanus' economy was agricultural in nature. Farming, grazing and especially fishing employed large numbers amongst the Islanders. Besides feeding themselves, they fed Hermitage, which in turn-supplied technical, medical and manufacturing support to the islands. The majority of exports were the Yellowfin Corsair, a large aquatic animal that is a delicacy back on Earth, replacing the almost extinct fish stocks on Earth, and noak furniture, often hand-carved. Other exports include minerals, manufactured goods and medicines. While self-sufficient in terms of food, they still depended heavily of Earth for many other goods. </P> <!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//SoftQuad Software//DTD HoTMetaL PRO 6.0::19990601::extensions to HTML 4.0//EN" "hmpro6.dtd"> <HTML> <HEAD><LINK REL="STYLESHEET" HREF="adastrastyle.css"> <TITLE></TITLE> </HEAD> <BODY> <P> <FONT SIZE="-2"><B>| <A HREF="index.html">Home</A> | <A HREF="games.html">Our Games</A> | <A HREF="universe.html">Universe</A> | <A HREF="discus.html">Forum</A> | <A HREF="playtesting.html">Playtesting</A> | <A HREF="downloads.html">Downloads</A> | <A HREF="new.html">What's New</A> |</B></FONT></P> <P><FONT SIZE="-2">All contents copyright © 2000, 2006 Ad Astra Games.</FONT></P> <P><FONT SIZE="-2"> Any unauthorized reproduction or third party alteration of the content, including redirection or addition of hyperlinks, will be prosecuted as a violation of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.</FONT></P> <P><FONT SIZE="-2">Contact <A HREF="mailto:design@adastragames.com">design@adastragames.com</A> if you encounter any difficulties.</FONT></P> </BODY> </HTML> <P><I><FONT SIZE="-2">Last Modified on: Wednesday, 14-Nov-2007 16:02:03 MST </FONT></I></P> </BODY> </HTML> </BODY>