Cortium

System: Cortium

Hex Location: 1335

Star Type: Multiple, all main sequence

Number of Worlds: 8

Gas Giants: 7

Planetoid Belt: No, but lots of planetary debris scattered in odd orbits and clouds of dust, gas and ice

Starport Type: A

World Size: Earth-sized

Atmosphere Type: Earth-like

Surface Water: 47%

Population: Medium-large (700 million)

Political Affiliation: Bernese Monarchy, Emerus Marches

Tags: Industrial world, local specialty, dangerous solar system

Notes: While not the capital world of the Emerus Marches, nor the seat of its Margrave, nor the world with the highest population, Cortium is in some ways the heart of the colony. Agriculture and industry are prominent in the world, and provide for much of the rest of the colony, making its importance as a resource obvious. Among these resources are the spaceship docks, where ships are constructed for the entire colony and many worlds beyond, even, for that matter. Some of the ships constructed here have locally made navigational computers which are the best in all of the colonies, and highly sought after across the entire sector, even, making Cortium a significant exporter of these components, even to other worlds that otherwise have their own starship manufacturing capabilities. These navigational computers are so good, probably because the local manufacturers have had so many difficulties to overcome. Not only is Cortium still firmly within the Takach Nebula, which is difficult for navigation when it comes to bulk jumps, but the solar system of Cortium is also a hazard, making sublight navigational hazards routine. The nav computers of Cortium tend to handle these issues with aplomb, however.

Cortium is the only even vaguely Earth-like world in the system, and although it is a bit drier than Earth is, it's otherwise very similar in terms of its environments and range thereof. Ancient records suggest that this wasn't always the case, but Cortium was terraformed in the early days of the Old Kingdoms, as were most of the rest of the worlds nearby, into a very Earth-like state. However, at some point during the waning days of the Old Kingdoms or the early days of the Marian Empire, the world was practically abandoned, and when Bernese settlers came here, it was largely empty except for a tiny handful of explorers, smugglers or pirates—none of whom can claim convincingly to have been here since the time of the Old Kingdoms or the Marian Empire themselves either. Of all of the Bernese worlds in the southern half of the sector, Cortium has among the highest percentages of actual ethnic Bernese inhabitants; well over 90-95%, making the cultural homogeneity and therefore peaceful practice of their culture on the planet one that is quite notable. It is also one of the few worlds outside of the Bernese or Revanchist Mains where genetic research still happens in an almost industrial scale with the reptomammalians. This highly diverse clade of artificial animals was developed by the early Earth exiles, even before the Old Kingdoms were founded, and were engineered as part of their terraforming projects, to give recently terraformed worlds a range of wildlife (and not wildlife for that matter too; many of these animals were only ever developed for domestication). Combining features of reptilian, avian and mammalian genetics to give them the widest array of possible terrains to be suited for, these animals are sometimes broadly similar across many worlds that have undergone this ancient terraforming process, but Cortium is the only world for many parsecs that actually still develops new ones, and it is another of its regional industrial specialties; custom-engineered domesticated animals for unusual worlds is a market that still has some usefulness as modern nations spread across a sector that has mostly languished in the grip of a dark age since the fall of the Marian Empire.

The solar system is an unusual one. There isn't a single star, or even a twin or triple star, but rather a loosely arranged cluster. Cortium doesn't rotate around any of these many main sequence stars, nor do any of the many hydrogen planets, but they are rather suspended in strange gravitational relationships. Cortium is also therefore famous as a world without any night; none of the stars that make up the system rise and fall in a regular fashion, since Cortium's rotation is fairly slow. But from any point on the planet, several smaller sun-like local stars from the system can be seen in the sky; more distant than the Sun is from the Earth, but bright and hot enough collectively to keep the planet in a somewhat dim daylight across its entire surface at all times. The gas giants and other assorted space debris make up useful natural resources as well, although they also make the system somewhat hazardous for any ship not equipped with sublight nav computers that are capable of making their way through the system. All that this does is to keep visitation to a minimum, which the culturally homogenous Bernese on the planet prefer. It also works as a kind of economic protectionism; no cheap labor can migrate in to undercut their wages, no traders from outside can profit overmuch from industry on Cortium, etc.—almost all of the economic benefit of all economic activity on the planet benefits the Cortians themselves and not really much of anyone else. Even the Margrave, while he lives on Heastead, which is the capital, is fully Bernese himself and was born on Cortium and considers himself not just an Emerian from the Emerus Marches, but specifically a Cortian, and he therefore makes sure that the economic protectionism that the Cortians enjoy is one that he honors and maintains as well.