Brigium

System: Brigium

Hex Location: 0326

Star Type: Single White dwarf A4 VII

Number of Worlds: 11

Gas Giants: N

Planetoid Belt: N

Starport Type: E Frontier Star Port

World Size: Larger than Earth

Atmosphere Type: Dangerous; completely unbreathable and corrosive

Surface Water: 63%

Population: Medium, c. 500 million

Political Affiliation: Bernese Monarchy, Bechtel Marches

Tags: Xenophobia, Forgotten, Oppressed natives

Notes: While I tend to see the Bernese as a "protagonist" nation, the way the system rolled up made this one where the Bernese simply had to be the oppressors. Sometimes people leave their own nation because they cannot stand the social mores and morality of their own people and want to live according to their own ideas, which are not tolerated. And rightly so; in the case of Brigium, the Bernese settlers found a world which had been forgotten during the Dark Ages after the fall of the Marian Empire. The natives, once human, had undergone rather radical genetic surgery to make themselves able to live on the harsh world; high gravity and with an unbreathable, corrosive atmosphere. The bulky transhumans who are the natives have incredibly thick dermal layers, and even transparent bone structures that cover the sensitive tissues of their eyes, and have developed filtering membranes over their noses. They now see themselves as the pinnacles of evolution, although they had lost not only the technology to leave their world or to undergo further genetic refinement; luckily the changes carried down to future generations since they are now present in their genetic code.

The Bernese who found this world were little more than pirates with delusions of grandeur, and they set up a state where they were the undisputed rulers of this planet, using their modern military technology and warlock magic to enforce their rule. Luckily for the natives, the Bernese were more interested in exploiting the natural resources of Brigium rather than the transhuman resources. The acid vapor that makes the atmosphere so corrosive also covers portions of the surface in lakes and ponds and bubbling springs, and has incredible industrial flexibility. It is most often used in small, portable yet powerful antimatter batteries, and the Bernese have a thriving industry devoted to antimatter battery acid processing from Brigian acid.

The vast majority of the population are technically Bernese citizens, although few have much knowledge of what's going on off-world or even ever see anyone who's not a native, and the actual Bernese people are a small, elite minority that maintain themselves apart from the natives in gravity-magicked fortified outposts. They have a strange melancholy, feeling trapped in their fortress-cities, and awaiting the inevitable extinction of their caste; their numbers have declined for generations due to various insurrections, wars, succumbing to depression and the harsh environmental conditions, and simply failure to procreate; they now number less than a million.