NewCeres

System: New Ceres

Hex Location: 1128

Star Type: Single G2 V

Number of Worlds: 8

Gas Giants: 4

Planetoid Belt: Kuiper and asteroid belt

Starport Type: E Frontier

World Size: Earth-sized

Atmosphere Type: Earth-like

Surface Water: 20%

Population: Small ~ 2 million

Political Affiliation: Independent

Tags: Local specialty, Balkanization, Xenophobia

Notes: New Ceres is an unusual world in that the population is very mixed, and large percentage of unexpected races of xenohumans live here. While the population isn't large, about a third of it is Psarian, although they are not recent arrivals with the Republic colonists, and seem to be somewhat distantly related genetically to Republic Psarians, and another third is Ubrai, the green-skinned human race that can process sunlight through limited photosynthesis, so therefore need to eat less. The other third seem to be genetically very similar to the Cilindareans, but they have little to none of the Cilindarean culture. Some theorize that they were an outcast clan, or otherwise simply lost their connection to their heritage, but the truth of how they got here is lost in the mists of time; they were here when colonists rediscovered them as space lanes were recreated or reopened as the Dark Age started to brighten just a tad.

While not necessarily hostile to each other, these three populations live without much cosmopolitanism and tend to stick to themselves. And within those population groups are smaller communities that don't necessarily interact all that much with each other either. There really isn't much in the way of government other than a few modest city-states, warlords and their small gangs, and semi-official protectors; marshals, sheriffs and localized semi-volunteer judges, mayors, and others. At least half of the population lives on isolated homesteads. These more isolated ones tend to be more friendly only to their relatively immediate neighbors, regardless of which race they come from, but are deeply mistrusting of anyone that they don't know, or who doesn't come highly recommended from someone that they do know and trust.

New Ceres has heretofore been overlooked by Colonials and others alike. The Outremer crusades weren't interested, the Republic and Bernese conflicts have passed them by, and the Cilindareans haven't shown much interest, in spite of the obvious fact that some of their people live here (perhaps because they lost their culture, for whatever reason, they don't consider them worth bothering with.) However, they are surrounded in near space by the Machesk Frontier (a Bernese colony), the Calder Settlements (a Revanchist colony), the Broone Democracy (an independent two-system polity loosely allied with the Republic), the Principality of Tan Kajak (an Imperial colony) and the world Pentase (a Cilindarean world.) They are also close to their "sister" system, New Pluto. When Ceresians do travel, which they tend to do infrequently, they are often quite friendly with all of these neighbors, and often are on the lookout for something that they can bring back home to enhance their quality of life without fundamentally altering it. Few of them have the wanderlust to give up homesteader life and leave New Ceres. More likely are those passing through the system who are less welcome. While it's far enough away from the Reaver systems to worry about their predation, plenty of other bandits, smugglers, pirates and others find the sparse, no government environment here to their liking. But they find that the Ceresians are not the hapless and helpless farmers and peasants that they sometimes expect; they're fiercely independent and refuse to be bullied by the scum of the space lanes, and their rugged individualism is easily put on hold if someone is causing that kind of trouble; they'll band together fairly quickly to drive off unwanted attention. Many of them in fact do drills somewhat regularly as militia, just to make sure that they are prepared for that kind of threat. But it comes up often enough to be constantly on the minds of the locals, who take a dim view of visiting troublemakers of any kind.

New Ceres is a dry world, although not completely desertified. Modest lakes, seas, rivers and streams cross its surface. While not overly volcanically active, the world has an abundance of dark volcanic basalt-like rocks near the surface, sometimes just under a layer of oxidized, rust-colored sand. Sparse, tough vegetation grows across the surface, and some of it is farmable; in fact, it shows signs of having been seeded or gone feral as part of ancient terraforming, and has genetic compatibility with common genetically engineered crops that the ancient colonists from the early days of the Marian Empire, or even earlier, developed. Much of the wildlife shows this same imprint; it's likely that before terraforming, New Ceres was uninhabited by any complex life, and uninhabitable. Some even believe that the terraforming is only "half done" given the dryness of the world and the lack of diversity of wild flora and fauna. Plenty of water-ice comets and Trojans wander the system, and these theorists argue that in a fully terraformed world, more of these would have been brought to the surface to create a richer, wetter environment.

However, these genetically engineered plants and animals are often genetically unstable if gone feral, and mutations proliferate among them, and hybridization occurs naturally at a high rate. Almost without exception, these mutations are not beneficial to the organisms; they tend to be crippling birth defects and susceptibility to disease, and other problems. But on an extremely rare occasion, something that is useful comes from this genetic instability; a mutation or change that is desirable. In the case of New Ceres, one of their grain plants has developed an unusual and rich golden berry-like soft kernel. This makes it a poor candidate for grain-like products, such as flour or bread, but it is a fascinating stand-in for fruits like berries or grapes, and has a highly desirable taste to the palate of every human race that's come across it. In addition to being eaten fresh or cooked in foods, it can also be turned into a rich wine that has a very high reputation across the subsector. And while it's called "wine" it isn't necessarily alcoholic; drinks of various makes are made from the Ceresian wheatberry. It can even be dehydrated and ground up into a fairly delicious seasoning or spice. Some Ceresians travel as traders to nearby systems, and some outsiders are welcomed in turn as traders, as this local specialty brings some much appreciated small wealth and luxury to the system. But by and large, the Ceresians are noted for their practicality and modesty; they don't love wealth and luxury to quite the degree that many others do, and are notable for extoling the virtues of small community and simple homesteader life over that of the wealthy urbanite, which is a kind of bogey-man of sorts in their folklore.