Heastead

System: Heastead

Hex Location: 1433

Star Type: Double star close, K5 Ia, K3 V

Number of Worlds: 10

Gas Giants: 5

Planetoid Belt: Two asteroid belts and comet belt

Starport Type: C standard star port

World Size: Earth-sized

Atmosphere Type: Toxic, but not fatal; makes most humans sick to breathe without filters within moments

Surface Water: 75%

Population: Large (~1.5 billion)

Political Affiliation: Bernese; Emerus Marches

Tags: Flying cities, trade hub, pilgrimage world

Notes: Heastead is the capital of the Emerus Marches, and seat of Margrave Hugh Longonz, and an important stop within the Nebula. It is a world of great interest to many, because of the ruins and monuments on it that date all the way back to the Old Kingdoms, where it was considered an important hub world. It has been continously inhabitated since that time, although in the dark ages after the fall of the Marian Empire, the populaton shrank considerably, only growing as it was added to the Bernese colonies with more modern populations. That said, the Old People, genetically divergent descendents of those who have been here all along, still linger, with a unique physical appearance; very bronzed skin colors, red eyes, and dull greenish or bluish hair color. Adding epicanthic folds, which are unusual in the xenohumans and the population of Earthlings that left earth, and they are an unusual looking bunch, although they do tend to stay more in the outback, having developed a resistance if not outright immunity to the taint in the atmosphere that makes everyone else sick without a filter of some sort.

These old ruins and other sites seem to imply that—contrary to the official narrative of every known government in the galaxy—that psionic knights existed before the plague which ushered in the Dark Age and altered the genetic alterations in the population that allow for using dark matter energy biologically. If this is true, and most believe that it can't possibly be, then it calls into question many things about the nature of the plague, and the history of the galaxy for that matter, that people in all cultures and populations believe to be pretty settled.

This tainted gas in the atmosphere is quite dense and clings very low to the ground. It also impedes visibility, serving as a kind of greenish fog in the lowlands and valleys, while the majority of the population (minus the natives) live on higher ground, on tepuis, mesas and plateaus, or even in floating cities that are above the surface entirely. Up here, the air is somewhat cooler, bordering on cold, but it is perfectly breathable by everyone without needing any kind of mask or filter. The planet is also enveloped in a kind of high altitude haze of sorts. This is slightly yellowish in color, which combined with the orange light of the strange double K-class stars at the center of the solar system, give everything a kind of golden sunset-like glow the entire time that there is daylight. The plant life higher up has less chlorophyl and other chemical compounds that are not green to process sunlight. The grass the trees are often orange or yellowish in color, which along with the light filter because of the high atmosphere haze, creates a soft golden glow over the entire vista. Bernese and other settlers have often been entranced by the natural beauty of the world, calling The Golden Planet, or the Planet of Neverending Autumn or any number of other poetic names. Many of the pilgrims who come looking for answers to the mysteries of psionics are really little more than tourists come to enjoy the scenery, or at least they often become that, finding more peace and happiness in doing that than in whatever pilgrimage initially inspired them to come through.

In addition to the golden skies and landscape, like many worlds located in the nebula, the nighttime sky is also beautiful as colored clouds of gas and dust in space fill much of the sky. It's a bit subtle, not brightly glowing, and slowly falling stars are commonplace in the night sky. Heastead really is one of the most beautiful colony worlds. And at all times, the extremely large and ringed moon of Heastead makes the sky beautiful and dramatic.

Heastead has a fairly steady stream of visitors of many cultural and ethnic varieties, but by far the greatest number are Bernese, of course. Less so than any other Emerus Marches world, Heastead is OK with that; the remainder of the colony often sees itself as somewhat besieged and therefore untrusting of outsiders. This isn't entirely true; open war has not come to Heastead in many generations. That said, it is certainly bracing for the cold war like vibe that it finds itself in, and it is surrounded by various territories that verge from being indifferent to outright hostile. Most of the outsiders that the Emerus peoples want to see are other Bernese, who they feel bolster their future attempts to maintain their freedom when the inevitable cold war has outbreaks of hot zones here and there, as well as making them less desirable targets in the first place. Because the nebula also impedes travel into and out of th nebula, most of the Emerus worlds trade only with each other, but Heastead is the hub of this, as well as the place where goods and even services from outside of the colony are most likely to be recruited and brought to the other worlds in the colony.