Riesefels

System: RiesefelsHex Location: 1926

Star Type: Double K8 V, M4 IV Subgiant (distant)

Number of Worlds: 7

Gas Giants: 3

Planetoid Belt: Cometary and asteroid belt

Starport Type: X No services

World Size: Mars sized

Atmosphere Type: Earth-like

Surface Water: 90%

Population: Super-populated (12+ billion)

Political Affiliation: Carthen Colony (Revanchist Republic)

Notes: The ocean-planet of Riesefels was originally settled millennia ago by cetians; aquatic (more properly amphibious; they can survive out of water for a considerable amount of time if needed, and can breath oxygenated air) fish-people who are seen in many oceans across the sector and beyond. Riesefels is a great environment for them, and over the millennia they prospered; their eggs proliferated, the only predators capable of doing them any harm were their own beasts of burden gone feral, and they were occasionally—at least in the early years—supplemented by new settlers. The population exploded relatively quickly.

Political, cultural and religious realities as the colony progressed, especially during the dark years after the Wars of the Last Emperors and the fall of the Marian civilization, meant that these cetians eventually turned their back on the rest of the interstellar community, refused entry to any spaceships that came (although during the worst of the dark ages, none did) scrapped and salvaged their own ships and even the ports that they had previously built. Cultural and religious strictures enforcing isolation grew rigid.

Many years later, (although now several centuries ago) colonists from the Carrick also settled on Riesefels, although they initially avoided the oceans entirely, settling on the shores of vast interior lakes on the small, island-like continents that made up only a small portion of the surface area of the planet. In fact, they existed for decades without even being aware of the cetians under the ocean's surface, or vice versa. This was also a prosperous colony, rich in agriculture, if not industry, and the population grew here too. Until the two populations became aware of each other. The leaders of many cetian nations called a crusade to—if not wipe the land-people off the surface of the planet—to at least destroy their star ports and keep their world free from interstellar interference. After many years of fighting, they finally came to a cease-fire between the land and sea peoples—although as a condition, there are no starports at all on the planet, and ships that come here must simply land in whatever open space they can find. Luckily for these few visitors, the land population powers much of their cities with fission power; using lakewater (so as not to antagonize the sea-dwellers) as a primary fuel source, splitting the molecules of hydrogen and oxygen. This means that a side-effect of his is that unrefined fuel is usually available, and kept for exactly that purpose. The cetians suspect that more ships come and go than they are told, and tensions between the sea and the land are growing.

Although the human settlers came (mostly) from the Carrick and were culturally and ethnically Bernese, many felt that they were not supported sufficiently by the government on Lyrae VI (this was several decades ago now) and when some of the other systems nearby opted to secede and ally themselves (later to be officially integrated as Carthen Colony) with the Revanchist Republic, which was eager to claim territory in this subsector, far from their normal boundaries, but important in establishing space-lanes to yet more far-flung colonies elsewhere in the sector, the Riesefels colony joined them. This has maybe exacerbated tensions with the cetians, as the Revanchists are more interested in promoting their own agenda then they are in maintaining peace with what they consider subjugated people (a bit of a misnomer, because the cetians are neither subjugated to the Republic, nor do they even have any meaningful diplomatic relationship with them one way or another). As tensions between the Revanchists and the Bernese continue to grow across all of known space, this means that Riesefels has become tense with regards to both its foreign interstellar policy as well as with its domestic cetian/human interactions. As if that wasn't enough, many people of various other races have arrived since the absorption into the Republic, including Revanchist bureaucracy, some soldiers and more, and the original settlers are finding that their alliance with them may have been rather rash. Strong factions among the locals favor declaring independence from the Republic and realigning with the Carrick yet again.

The human (and other starfaring alien) population on Riesefels is large, but not abnormally so—about a billion people, spread across one roughly Greenland sized island continent and other much smaller islands. But this is primarily an ocean planet, and the cetians, should they ever be sufficiently roused to completely claim the entirety of the world, could surely do so, as their numbers are vast; more than ten times the number of air-breathers teem under the waves in many mighty kingdoms and nations.