Chapter 6: SETTING

 

An overview of the Algo star system as of AW 3010


MOTAVIA: States of attraction

A millenia old conflict finally comes to an end with the destruction of a supernatural alien intelligence, no more dangers will threaten the continued existence of the Algo star system... no more dangers, except the consequences of such conflict itself.

The Bio-Monsters, in their disruption of the natural order continue unadvertidely extinguishing more species year after year. At this moment, almost 20% of Motavia's original fauna is gone (alarming taking into account that 70% of the fauna are insects). To day, specimens from the remaining species are being collected for clonation, in an attemp to preserve the fauna, even if it is known that monsters can ravage them way faster than they can produce them.

Palma, a thousand years after its destruction, is slowly taking the toll of its abscence. Lacking the planet on its inner extreme, the planetary system suffered a perturbation in its planets' respective orbits. The first change experienced during this millenia was an increasing distancing process on the part of Motavia; with years of subtle distancing from its sun, Motavia's temperature gradually decreased worldwide and, lacking the constant maintenance of the Motherbrain to prevent it, the planet's artificially maintained ecosystem slowly started withering away, reverting to the desertic state it was before the arrival of the earthmen. More than 60% of the land surface is covered by desert as of today, a fact that only worsens the temperature conditions, having nights of down to zero (0°C) as the norm.

Classified:

Motavia's orbit is actually in an erratic state. 3 years ago a series of violent earthquakes started erupting throughout the planet, a thread of telluric movements that hasn't finished actually. Even now, small telluric movements are observed on a weekly basis all around Motavia. Whatsmore, the government's research point out that the earthquakes will slowly increase in intensity again over the course of the following decades; it is also estimated that before the next 50 years there is a very high possibility of the planet resuming most of the volcanic activity worldwide. The planet is estimated to keep experimenting changes until a new state of acceptation arrives for the planets' orbits, a thing that may happen within the next 10,000 years more or less, but it is also estimated that Motavia's civilization may prove unable to keep up with the constant changes before the next 200 years.

SOCIETY

   

everal years without mayor conflicts, society has gotten along more or less well. Having to adapt to an increasingly colder climate, the avergace citizen carries on most of his activities indoors. While in the Equatorial regions temperature can still go up to a confortable 18°C in summer, the rest of the human inhabitants have to rely either on heavy clothing or thermal fibervests most of the year. Most of the inhabitants have become increasingly tolerant to cold temperatures though.

Demographic Distribution

  People is as People are    
                 
 

Given the planet's actual conditions, most of the human population has concentrated on the Equatorial regions of the planet while the motavians, native to desert, but with bodies covered by fur, are far more tolerant to the cold than humans. As one goes farther away either to the north or south, human prescence gets more scarce, to the point where in the northern regions the populations consists entirely of motavians.

The Government

   
 

Centuries of former unrest made a lot of motavian people to cry once more for a centralized government. Having its home in Paseo, the government takes all relevant decisions of the administration. However, unlike the times of the Motherbrain, palman government no longer exherts influence all over Motavia, existing now on four mayor cities only: New Paseo, Piata, Thermi, and Aiedo. The distance between each of these cities is long, being distributed all along the equatorial region of Motavia.

The four government cities are populated almost entirely by humans (95% humans, 5% numans). Motavians occasionally visit government cities but never stay too long, finding them unpleasantly artificial. Palmans and motavians get along nicely though.

  Government Agent      
                 
                           
  Transportation and Space Travel                  
  One of the best perks since the discovery and full imlementation of gravity induction was indeed the goodbye to the need of fossile fuel. Skycars made their appearance 60 years ago, but wheeled cars are still common (56%). Public transportation exists in all government cities in the form of The Palman Subway, which connects every sector in a given city. For travel between cities there is the Mota-Express, a bus-like transport that hovers a meter or two over the ground and travels at a cruising speed of 300km/h. The Express is quite old a transport, but as travel between cities is not as common as one might think, the government hasn't felt any compulsion to improve it.      
             
 

On AW 2095, the motavian government finally lift the sanction on space travel. After finishing their first ion-propulsed engines, the first travels were conducted by the government itself in order to find, if the millenia-old rumors were true, their lost brethern on Dezoris. On AW 2098, dezorian and motavian palmans meet each other again after more than 3000 years, their civilization as prosperous as Motavia's own. Over the course of the years palmans and dezorians somehow lost interest on keeping in touch with each other, and palmans on Dezoris started crowding all within one single city, Alysa (there is still a 1% of dezorian population on Alysa though) . The exploration trips became even more scarce as the temperature dropped even colder over the course of the years, the surface becoming more unhospitable for human life with each passing year, all exploration gradually reduced to ore mining and otherwise resource gathering. However, dezorian palmans managed to survive and prosper, their city now a dome-enclosed metropolis bigger in size than Paseo. By joining forces with dezorian palmans, Motavia managed to perfect their ion engines, making them faster and more efficient. As of today, travel between Motavia and Dezoris takes a mere three days.

Computers, Communications, and the Net

Having passed through the information age almost a century ago, palman society now enjoys the full potential of wireless communications and the Net. Every government's citizen is connected to one another via telecomm and almost every device is connected to some degree. Motavians get to use connect every now and then when they have contact with palmans.

More than twenty years ago, the concept of “computer” per se was completely abolished from the average population when computer evolution reached its final step, the step when a computer no longer looks like one or when people are no longer able to tell when they are using one, because EVERYTHING has a CPU built inside and most devices are connected to the Net to some degree... you can leave food in the microwave and, using your cellular phone, command it from your car to start cooking for the food to be ready and waiting just in time for you to arrive home to a hot meal. That cool jacket you're wearing with the <<insert beverage brand here>> logo changes constantly the image on your back because of a miniaturized CPU... and guess what? its wireless connection to the Net constantly update the images you see. That girl over there checking her mail with her Surfing Pal device is a complete computer illiterate, so is 98% of the modern-day population. Families watch TV, and pay the bills by talking to the screen of their home terminals, and they don't know either they are using “computers”.

After a joined effort of Motavia and Dezoris' palmans, a vast number of satellites were sent into space, and in the third day of AW 3003, Motavia and Dezoris stablished a permanent communications link through the Net, merging both Nets into one. Motavia and Dezoris' palmans are now only a Comm call away one from another.

Public Security, the Army, and the Hunter's Guild

     
                           
  Serve, protect, and Enrich my pockets

Finally enjoying 50 consecutive years without conflicts or civilian unrest, the government could finally afford the luxury of thinning the army's numbers. The cities' security is now entrusted to robotic units called Guardian EYES, just like in the days of the motherbrain. Each city still has an army, but current day's armies are but a fraction of the armies of old days, more like a symbolic army than anything else. Missions that still require of “the human touch” make use of soldiers or agents. Soldiers are specially used in outposts beyond the government's territories where is less expensive to maintain humans than afford robotic maintenance. As police job is concerned, agents are employed pretty much as a mix between police detectives and intelligence operatives, while the EYES are employed for patrolling and regular law enforcement. A special brand of the Guardian EYES is employed by the government as a backup for the military.

     
                       
 

One of the many changes the government has experienced along the centuries was the privatization of public security. For starters, the prisons are in the hands of The Motavian Company, a group allied with Thermi Robotics, the company in charge of manufacturing the Guardian EYES. Thermi Robotics charges a monthly fee to each of the cities districts to pay for the public security service (ie the EYES' rental). Individuals convicted for crimes are taken to prison, where he must pay an anual fee for the prison's expenses or work inside the prison to pay for them. In the second case, according to the convict's profile, aptitudes, and former jobs.

The Motavian Company has ties with many other companies interested in hiring unexpensive work. From the salary the convicted earns while working inside the prison, 40% goes to pay for the jail, 35% goes to his family, and the rest is kept as a fund that is handed back to the convict when his sentence is served (In case the convict has no familiy that depends on him for sustenance, 70% of his salary goes to The Motavian Co. and the rest goes to his retirement fund). As an alternative to the security service provided by the Guardian EYES, some districts rather hire the services of the hunter's guild.

While the army has been diminishing over the last years, the hunters guild has remained pretty stable. Strange as it may be, Motavia's society still has a place for this rouguish group of mercenaries. Having its main headquarters in Aiedo, the guild has a minor base in each of the remaining government's cities. The guild's bases serve as a meeting place for hunters of the city, board for announcing available jobs, and a place for registering oneself when taking a job. The guild's databases as well as all important data is stored in clusters on all the cities.

Having to comply with the government, the guild has gone through a lot of changes. For starters, the guild is no longer just an organized group of mercs as it used to be in old days, but more like a replacement for a now virtually abolished police force. Agents are scarce, and are more into Intelligence stuff than into '”serve and protect” the populance (however, contrary to hunters, agents that witness a crime in process are still under obligation of arresting the criminal and processing him to the nearest jail), and the Guardian EYES' job is mainly patrol, chase, and capture. As “police substitutes”, all guild members must work within Motavian laws... still, Motavian laws have relaxed somehow regarding “police procedures”, specially as concerned to violence... for example, a hunter that kills the criminal in the process of a job is rarely convicted for murder.

When employing hunters for public security, upon the district's proper bureaucratic procedures, the designated hunters assigned to the district recieve a temporal license to uphold the law within said district's confines for as long as the contract remains in force. The hunter's guild also offers a number of services besides security: missing persons, private investigation, bodyguards, and almost any service that a “licensed bounty hunter” would do. However, a hunter's operations are restricted to his assigned job, any hunter that operates beyond the scope of his current contract or without a contract is regarded as guilty as any criminal; the only exception to this are criminals that escape justice, such criminals, once reported to the government, have a price put on their heads. Criminals with a price on their heads are automatically fair game for any hunter interested in the reward.

NUMANS

More than a thousand years after the creation of the first Numans in the first bio-systems lab, Numans have become, even if still a minority, almost as common as any racial group. Several hundred years passed, people have come to accept this minoritarian group, if not completely. For starters, Numans are generally discriminated from things such as long-term jobs because their unpredictable life expentancy makes them unreliable, so most Numans work as freelancers. This “I may not see tomorrow's dawn” dilema usually makes the average Numan to either live as care-free as he can or to harbor a disdainful attitude towards life. A surprising number of Numans work as Hunters and bodyguards.

MONSTERS

Sharing a similar case as Numans, a thousand years since the first Bio-Monsters broke out of the first bio-systems lab and started breeding in the wilderness, the event have since spawned an unnatural increase in Motavia's fauna. This disruption in the foodchain and the natural order is another thorn in a dying Motavia's side. To top it all off, monsters seem to be adapting to Motavia's changing conditions, thing that the rest of the fauna isn't. It is estimated that by the end of the century, with the exception of insects, all of Motavia's original fauna will have disapeared, leaving nothing but monsters to take its place.

A QUICK NOTE: Monster vs Bio-Monster

As you may note, the term “Bio-Monster” is no longer used, refering to them as just “monster”. This is mainly because monsters are no longer genetic aberrations created in a lab, but they live, feed, and are born within the ecosystem. Besides, one thousand years of breeding have made the original Bio-Monsters to stop mutating, giving their organisms enough stability to stop being considered active “mutants”, but new life forms. Generically speaking, the term “Bio-Monster” is only applied to newly genegineered creatures with enough modifications to be considered “mutants”, said creatures' offsprings will also be considered Bio-Monsters up until their 50th generation, when the newborn creatures are considered from that point on legitimate new life forms.

SCIENCE AND SOCIETY

Robots and Androids.

     
                           
 

With the return of robotics and knowledge about expert systems to Motavian civilization, it was only a matter of time before robots were manufactured again. The new, intelligent servants and assistants proved to solve much troubles. From the little ones in charge of the menial tasks to the imponent Guardian EYES. However, the ones that captivated the people's attention the most were the androids: robots that imitated in every way humans. As AI development improved and became more complex, androids became more complete and their behavior more human (if never completely human). The pinnacle of expert systems evolution came on AW 2911 when the first AIs finally attained self-awareness.

But there was a problem. The system designers didn't anticipate for the long-term behavior of the new AIs: True, new models are always coming, and old models are constantly being recycled... but still there was a lot of people who didn't report their androids for recycling for one reason or another:

  Adopt an android today...no.      
  • The government cut the budget for office X, no meseta for new droids.

  • The kids are too used to the nanny.
  • This droid works just fine, why change it?

Over the course of decades, AIs evolved beyond the original scope of the designers: the androids became a bit too human; at first the populance was just awed at how life-like the “bots” were able to behave, but soon the problem became too evident to ignore. Debates started about wether a sentient machine should be considered alive, and wether it was correct to create life.

The human rights advocates protested against the “irresponsible people who plays God”. Also, extremist pro-palman groups rised their fist in anger, seeing androids as a mockery to the gift of life itself, the same pro-human groups that rised against Numans before the adjustment to the civilian rights bill (formerly the palman rights bill) in AW 2550. Zeeb Leda, Congressman of the government took this situation of unrest to his advantage, secretly organizing a faction of androids to revolt in an attemp to usurp power, attemp that was destined for failure; such conflict took place in AW 2950 and upon its end, Zeeb Leda was arrested and then subjected to capital punishment. Many androids that took place in the conflict, however, were spared by the government upon individual confession of their crimes during the conflict, and after another adjustment to the civilian rights bill, attained citizenship. The government prohibited the manufacture of androids for the following 50 years and, after that, the government prohibited the manufacture of autonomous androids, all requiring to have a “master”, who would be held responsible for the android's actions.

GM's note: All android player characters are assumed to be built before AW 2950, being effectively of the remaining free-willed androids. Androids created as player characters can choose to be as human-like (Wren/Mieu/Demi like) or machine like (PSO like) as their personal tastes.

Biosystems Inc.

On AW 2960, a few years after the re-flourishing of genomics, an incident involving the clonning of historical figures caused what is now known as the third world-class crisis. When the crisis ended, such was the tragic aftermath of the incident that the government decided to close all bio-system labs until further notice... a further notice that never arrived.

Years passed and, even with all the efforts from the scientific community to convince the government to re-open the research programs, the government was still just too busy reconstructing itself (again) as to listen to their pleas. It was until AW 2982 that a contingent of scientists led by Alan Osto presented a request on behalf of most of the scientific community, requiring authorization to re-start researching with independent sponsoring separate from the government. Resourceful and enterprising, Osto used his renowed father's name to open himself the doors necesary to have audiences with Motavia's richest bussinessmen, offering them ten years of unreleased research projects (some of them not his own): whole new medic therapies, drugs, etc, and enticing them with the bussiness potential of commercializing all those wonders. After getting the necesary fundings (and loosing some friends whose work he stole), he used his family's fortune to become the company's head inversionist, and after a year and a half of planning, he recruited half of the most pretigious members of Motavia's scientific community to his side, and together they presented the aforementioned request to the government, and the project of Biosystems Inc. To this day, Biosystems Inc. possesses the patents of more than 90% of all medical breakthroughs developed in the last 30 years.

Medicine, Genomics, and Population growth

The re-discovery of genomics marked the begining of the end for disease in Motavia. Enjoying a disease-free existence, the life expectancy of the average government's citizen is now 138 years. Even populations beyond the scope of the government benefit from the medic achievments, as every year motavian government sends vaccination campaigns to foreign settings.

These days population growth is strictly controlled by the government. Married couples need license from the government in order to have babies, and they are restricted to a maximum of two (and the second license is quite hard to get).

With disease almost completely out of the way, the medic community is now turning its attention on investigation, specially on the fields of genomics and genegineering. Today's motavian medicine can restore even missing limbs and organs. Even with the Numans now stablished as a legitimate race, Numans are occasionally created in labs for testing new drugs or treatments (something that pro-Numan rights organizations are still trying to prevent). The governnment has authorized biosystems Inc. The creation of Numans or even humans from previously-altered DNA for research purposes, but due to an incident that caused the third world-class crisis 50 years ago, direct cloning of specific individuals is strictly prohibited.

Forces

It took Algo's civilization one thousand years to recover from the loss of the motherbrain. The knowledge finally recovered, Algo resumed the studies on the psychic abilities. Years passed, scientists finally managed to completely map the parts of the genome involved in the development of psionics. With this new knowledge, they started breeding individuals specially genegineered for high psionic force (hence the nickname “Force” applied to individuals of strong psionics). Through this individuals, the scientific community explored all possible applications of psychic abilities to the deepest extents, more than at any point in Algo's history.

Over the last years, new applications of psychic abilities started permeating nearly every aspect of Algo's life (even if in a reduced basis): Medics tending wounds and illness with little more than high healing techniques and medical knowledge, psi-mechanics enhancing their manual dexterity with powerful telekinesis and doing they alone the work of a whole tech-team, and even bodyguards that could completely protect a person literally in the blink of an eye and react lightning fast with lethal force. Most Forces are Numans, but human Forces are also created, as the true point of the research is the evolution of psionics in humans. However, as the creation of humans is not taken kindly by the public opinion, human Forces are rare at best, and those few are carefully advised to be as discreet as possible.

In this part of the PS timeline, “Forces” are still a new phenomenon, at this point all Force characters are bred in a biosystems lab, and most likely they are still working for it to some extent. Even the Force mercenaries that have started showing within the Hunter's Guild are still affiliated to the lab that created them; in fact, many labs researching uses of Telekinesis convince their Forces to work as Hunters in order to “field test” their new achievements: The Force mercenary enjoys autonomy to do, come and go as he pleases, but he has to report with the lab on a monthly basis.

Rogue Forces and “Espers”

Not all Forces are happy being the guinea pigs of Biosystems. This happens specially with Forces that spend their lives confined within labs or those with mistreating patrons. These last two years, a number of Forces have decided to run away from the control of their respective labs and become runaways. These rougue Forces keep as low a profile as possible and wander around doing more or less as they please. A lot of these runaways make a living as rougue mercenaries or as bodyguards and hit men for the underworld.

Some of these Forces, having knowledge about the lengends of the past and the folks tales, have even started nomadic lives, claiming themselves wherever they go to be members of the long lost group of the Espers: and despite what one could think, some of them (the human ones to be precise) are being quite succesful at convincing the townsfolk; after all, they have vast, unseen powers, and an insane amount of psychic strenght... more than enough to convince the commoners.

In any case, rougue forces are regarded as highly dangerous criminals by the Motavian government, being either treated with the full force of the law or terminated outright; a lot, if not all, rougue Forces have a price on their heads in the Hunter's Guild, those considered specially dangerous being wanted Dead or Alive.

PASEO, A QUICK WALKTHROUGH

The following is a quick walkthrough of Palman government's capital city, Paseo.

  You are HERE  

Paseo is palman government's administrative center. Situated in the equatorial region on the center continent, the palman's capital city is surrounded by the remnants of a tropical forest.

As no true native animal has been seen in that part of the center continent in nearly two centuries, Paseo's citizens have gotten used to monsters as they would with regular animals (regularly savage and agressive animals, that is). With the exception of the centinel outposts and the scarce Motavian settlements (which are few and far between), no palman activity is registered outside the city's outskirts . Between the monsters and the weekly small telluric movements, the people of Paseo is not used to travel outside the city, so they rather stay inside, recieving the regular visitors from other cities and outside settlements.

With the exception of Blueful, the whole city's security is on the hands of the Guardian EYES.

Whitill is The centric point of the city, Withill has the largest aglomeration of malls, restaurants, bussinesses, and otherwise places to be. It is also in Whitill where Paseo's Hunters Guild can be found, as well as Biosystems Inc. Sales & Customer attention department.

In the Blackard district is where most palman's factories flocked over the course of time. Workers come and go 24 hours a day, seven days a week. However, its proximity to Blueful turns it into a place not many people would like to visit afterhours.

Redria is a place for residential areas mostly. While not truly quiet, it's not bustling with activity as whitill. In Redria reside people from middle to upper middle class.

Greyloom is a place for bussiness. Office buildings, laboratories, and skyscrapers are the main lanscape in Greyloom. Slowly but steadily, Greyloom is becoming a corporate battlefield between Equinox Research and Star Laboratories.

Viridia is the heart of Paseo, housing the Government Tower and nearly all government's offices. Viridia is guarded by Guardian EYES as well as by patrolling agents.

Pinkal is the district where Paseo's upper class lives. The fact that Pinkal is guarded by as many Guardian EYES as Whitill makes Pinkal fairly safe the 24 hours.

Blueful is a sad story indeed. During the first days of the Guardian EYES and the Hunter's Guild as the new police-for-hire, the lower class there eventually saw itself unable to pay for its own public security. It was truly sad, but being the first days of the public security's privatization, Blueful was to become an example of what happens when a district refuses to pay the bills. To date, Blueful is still forsaken by the government's law, being as close to an urban no-man's land as it can be.