ps21000_eclipsephase_4thprinting

splicer or synthmorph or, for a slightly higher cost, a unwanted intrusion. The first is largely absent from the .3.3.3.3.3.3.3.3.3.3
generic exalt morph. Habitats or worlds with unusual lives of most people in the present day. Anyone who
requirements, like Mars, Europa, or the various zero-g uploads anything to a non-private portion of the mesh A TIME OF ECLIPSE
stations offer rusters, bouncers, or other morphs mod- understands that anyone who wishes to do so can gain
ified for specific local conditions. These morphs can be access to it. Likewise, anyone who spends time in a
used for up to a week without difficulty, and using one public place understands that anyone can learn where
for up to a month is usually possible with sufficient they went, what they did, and what they said due to the
negotiation and payment. Meanwhile, the traveler’s ubiquity of meshed, sensor-enabled devices. As a result,
previous morph is kept in medical stasis back in their everyone’s public life, both on the mesh and in person,
home habitat, waiting for their ego to return. can be transformed into an easily searchable database.
Almost everyone keeps such a record of their own lives,
Another technique is morph trading by people from commonly known as a lifelog. Most people allow their
different habitats who know each other and who are lifelogs to be public, understanding that anonymity is
traveling at the same time. A few people do this with now an archaic concept.
strangers they meet on the mesh, but vids and other
entertainments are filled with tales of people having While the interiors of private dwellings remain
their morphs or their identity stolen. A few of these free from continuous surveillance, almost all habitats
horror stories are based on actual accounts. Very few have emergency sensors in every building providing
people are willing to let anyone they do not know and a full record of events to emergency service workers
trust use their body, and many people simply will not and AIs in case of problems such as a dangerous
lend out their morph to anyone at all. chemical leak, a sufficiently large fire, an explosion,
loss of air pressure, or some other equally dramatic
Some people, however, are willing, for a fee, to act and potentially dangerous event. Both the events of
as a living “taxi” for a visiting infomorph, carrying the Fall and the fact that almost all of transhumanity
it around with them. In these cases the “ghostriding” now lives in habitats surrounded by hostile environ-
infomorph is not permitted to control their host’s ments mean that such sensors are standard fare. A few
morph directly and is simply a passenger along for habitats do not allow emergency sensors in private
the ride, issuing directions and communicating with dwellings, but most people regard these habitats as
their transporters electronically. potential death traps. These emergency sensors do not
record anything other than the absence of potential
Travelers who wish to either immigrate to a new dangers if they are not triggered by specific events.
habitat or visit one for several months or longer must This limitation allows individuals privacy within their
acquire their own morph. Usually, they reduce the cost own residences—as long as they are certain no one
of acquiring a new morph by selling their previous has planted a secret recording device in their home.
morph to a body bank. Alternately, some individuals Ultimately, remaining unobserved is a matter of both
sleeved in expensive custom-designed morphs who are care and trust, and everyone understands that most
traveling relatively short distances will rent a generic of the time everything they do will be part of the vast
shell for several weeks and arrange to have their old public record.
morph shipped to them on a fairly rapid freighter.
Doing this is rarely more than a moderate expense, In vivid contrast, the freedom to avoid unwanted
which makes it less expensive than the costs of buying intrusion is carefully prized by the inhabitants of the
or replacing high-end custom modified morphs. post-Fall era. Unwanted personal or data intrusion
into someone’s private dwelling or personal electronic
PRIVACY files is a serious crime in most habitats. Also, while
both the mesh and augmented reality are filled with
Privacy is a prized possession for most inhabitants of all manner of AI-mediated adware, most of it has
the solar system, but it is so rare that for many people it evolved to be relatively benign and to provide non-
might as well be a foreign concept. In the 20th and early intrusive suggestions about goods, information, and
21st century, privacy consisted of two concepts that services that are likely to be of legitimate interest to
are now completely separate—the ability to remain
unnoticed or anonymous and the ability to avoid

SOLARCHIVE SEARCH: INCAPACITATING INPUTS

During the Fall, the attacking TITANs into attacking their fellows or simply Despite rumors and fears of so- .3.3.3.3.3.3.3
used a variety of AR and online intru- instigated mass panic. More advanced called “basilisk hacks”—visual or
sions that interfered with or even inca- versions targeted the empathic ele- other sensory-input attacks that alleg- 49
pacitated their targets. The most basic of ments of AR, triggering fear or other edly subverted transhuman minds by
these were deceptive AR illusions made emotional responses. Still others blasted exploiting the way brains processed
to convince people that their physical their targets with overbearing sensory such data—no credible reports have
environment was very different from input, so strong that it bypassed filters been verified.
what it actually was. This fooled people and inflicted neurological damage.

SYNOPSIS the targeted person. An individual’s muse filters out effectively or to otherwise cause trouble for the
WELCOME TO FIREWALL unwanted advertising. While it is certainly possible to people who control them. In much of the outer system,
create advertising that can hack through any muse’s the existence of zeroes is considered one of the great-
A TIME OF ECLIPSE filters, doing so is usually illegal. est crimes against transhumanity perpetrated by the
GAME MECHANICS Planetary Consortium and the Jovian Republic.
CHARACTER CREATION Unwanted AR intrusions are similarly limited.
SAMPLE CHARACTERS During the early days of AR technology, there were LIFE, DEATH, AND MORPHS
SKILLS serious problems with users being overwhelmed with
ACTIONS AND COMBAT unrequested and distracting input—as many said, the While death is no longer a certainty for transhumanity,
MIND HACKS mist got very thick indeed, so both law and custom it remains a possibility. During the decade preceding
THE MESH changed to prevent such invasions. Today, most people the Fall, most of transhumanity was growing used to
ACCELERATED FUTURE expect to only experience data that they are looking for the idea that immortality was in their grasp. Then, in
GEAR or that they might be interested in and that any data just a few short years, the TITANs wiped out more
GAME INFORMATION they are not interested in will quickly vanish. Being than ninety percent of us. Faced with the horror of
REFERENCE surrounded by a large amount of unwanted AR data so much needless death, efforts to insure the lives of
is not just annoying and distracting, it is also deeply surviving transhumans became a top priority. Now,
50 frightening, because it means that there is a serious the technology of immortality—uploading, cortical
problem with either the habitat’s mesh or the person’s stacks, and other related wonders—is commonplace.
electronics—it could even mean that the entire habitat
is under direct attack by infowar weapons. Today, most of the residents of the solar system
have adjusted to this fact (except for the most extreme
LOW-TECH EXISTENCE bioconservatives); everyone expects both to live forever
and to have their friends, loved ones, and enemies do
More than ninety-five percent of transhumanity the same. While death is rare, though, it is still possible.
inhabits artificially created morphs. Most of them also Severe accidents can destroy someone’s cortical stack
possess basic implants, and the vast majority of the as well as their brain, and egos can also be wiped away
rest wear ectos with retina displays and other simple in punishment for sufficiently heinous crimes—though
peripherals that allow the user to fully perceive and the process of execution is considerably more difficult
interact with the vast network of information around than it had been a few decades earlier.
them. However, slightly less than four percent of the
remaining population inhabit flats or splicer morphs For most people (with the exception of those too
without basic implants and also lack access to ectos poor to afford a new morph), non-permanent death is
and other basic technologies. an annoyance equivalent to events that most people in
the late 20th century regarded as moderate misfortunes,
Since an ecto is both a relatively trivial expense and like a bad stomach flu or a broken arm. In almost all
a piece of equipment vital to existence in the solar habitats, if anyone is responsible for someone’s tempo-
system, the only individuals who lack such technolo- rary death, either accidentally or on purpose, they are
gies stand on the very lowest rungs of the social ladder. also responsible for paying for the person’s resleeving
A few are the poorest members of the most marginal in an identical morph, especially if that person does not
habitats, but most are slaves or the next best thing. have some form of resleeving insurance. People who
The lowest social classes in the Jovian Republic lack have temporarily died can expect to receive visits from
personal infotech access, as do people indentured to everyone they are at all close to after their resleeving,
the hypercorps and the Planetary Consortium, partic- as well as a host of e-cards and perhaps a few gifts
ularly on Luna and Mars. These individuals are either from their acquaintances and colleagues, all expressing
indentured criminals or people sufficiently lacking in sympathy at their death and welcoming them back to
useful skills that they are assigned mindless physical the world of the physically embodied. Exchanging such
tasks that cannot be more efficiently performed by AIs. “life gifts” is an accepted part of belonging to many
professions such as emergency service workers, where
The lack of mesh access makes these unfortunate members regularly risk temporary death.
“zeroes” into mental and social cripples, unable to per-
ceive the vast wealth of AR that most people take for Deliberately choosing to change morphs or to tem-
granted. They are also unable to communicate with porarily become an infomorph is treated differently.
anyone beyond the range of their voice or to access People typically spend at least a day or two between
almost all information, including traffic signals and deciding to change morphs and actually doing so.
shop displays. When necessary, the managers and During this time, it is considered polite for someone
overseers in charge of groups of zeroes allow them to inform everyone they know well or work with
access to handheld meshbrowsers. These devices about their upcoming resleeving. Along with personal
resemble the handheld terminals common in the early visits, as well as calls and e-cards detailing the time
21st century and have limited functionality, typically of the upcoming event, the person who is resleeving
forbidding communication and restricting mesh is expected to include an image of what their new
research to carefully filtered topics. morph will look like, so people they know will be
able to easily recognize them. However, it is consid-
Because of their inability to access AR or the mesh, ered gauche for someone who is upgrading to a better
zeroes are almost completely isolated from every- morph to include details about their new morph.
one else, meaning they are also unable to organize

LOST LORE .3.3.3.3.3.3.3.3.3.3 .3.3.3.3.3.3.3

The accumulated knowledge and media of Earth, A TIME OF ECLIPSE 51
spanning the history of transhuman intelligence,
is a vast and impressive amount. Even before the
Fall, many orbital settlements had acquired com-
plete records of all previous transhuman lore and
creativity, including copies of every book, paint-
ing, song, film, TV program, console game, news-
paper, and magazine article that had ever been
translated into digital format, as well as backups
of Earth’s entire internet archives. Numerous
destructive programs unleashed during the Fall
corrupted much of this information, however, in
some cases permanently wiping it from existence.

This means that what remains of Earth’s archived
history and data is patchy and incomplete. Much
survives, but some treasures have been lost. In
particular, media from the era of the Fall itself is
particularly hard to come by, given the consistent
attacks the TITANs were making on information
systems. Proprietary data that was withheld from
the public domain behind electronic gates on
Earth is even more likely to have been lost, except
for a few hypercorps that managed to transfer
their Earth-bound data offworld in time.

Retrieving lost data is a lucrative task for scav-
engers and archeologists, though looting the
dangerous confines of Earth or derelict habitats
destroyed during the Fall is a risky proposition. n

Within a few days of resleeving, a “resleeving party”
is typically held to introduce everyone they know
to their new morph. Depending upon how well-off,
well-known, and social the individual is, these parties
range from lavish affairs held in hotel ballrooms to
small intimate gatherings in the person’s home.

Permanent death is treated very differently. Because
it is both relatively rare and no longer expected, the
old funerary rituals surrounding death have faded
and new traditions have grown in their place. Since
every death reminds many people of the billions who
permanently died during the Fall, most of the few
funerals that are held honor both the person who just
died as well as the victims of the near-apocalypse.

ENTERTAINMENT AND MEDIA

A substantial amount of media survives the Fall of
Earth, and a significant number of modern transhu-
mans make their living creating new songs, stories,
reports, or other media. All of this is easily and swiftly
accessible through any basic implant, ecto, or (on very
rare occasions) archaic handheld terminal. However,
most of this media is not to the taste of any particular
individual, and vast amounts of it are mediocre. As
a result, most humans keep two layers of evaluation
between them and anything they might consider
exposing themselves to.

SYNOPSIS The first layer is based on popularity and criti- completely different worlds. The one force that
WELCOME TO FIREWALL cal reviews. Every piece of media has a rating, often works against this separation is the fact that many
weighted by the opinions of critics with high rep scores people wish to follow the lives and opinions of those
A TIME OF ECLIPSE who comment on their virtues and faults. Specialized with the highest reputation scores. In many cases, a
GAME MECHANICS AIs also evaluate the responses of consumers, so indi- large portion of these individual’s high rep scores
CHARACTER CREATION viduals can use reviewers they trust or they can seek comes from their interest in and willingness to inter-
SAMPLE CHARACTERS out media that is either widely or specifically popular act with (or at least acknowledge) a wide variety of
in their particular demographic and subcultural niche. different sources of information. As a result, listen-
ing to opinions by a high-rep celebrity can expose
The second filter layer is the individual’s muse. people to information that they might never encoun-
Muses learn their owner’s tastes and moods and ter otherwise. Also, in many habitats, AIs responsible
automatically search out and recommend various for media distribution tag some news as being suf-
sorts of media. Individuals can do everything from ficiently important that it should be immune to filter-
asking their muse to select something they will enjoy ing by muses. This tagging is a regular and expected
to asking for a something that will challenge their occurrence in some habitats, while in others it is
opinions or looking at all current events news that will reserved for only the most important and potentially
be of interest to them. Muses use their understanding life-saving information. Bypassing muses for any less
of their user’s preferences, mixed with ratings and important reason in these stations is considered a
reviews, to make their decisions. Individuals can even gross invasion of privacy or even a crime.
set their muses to edit the media itself so that it better
fits with the person’s interests and preferences. In the POPULAR TYPES OF ENTERTAINMENT
most extreme cases, this process can twist and edit
news so that it bears no relation to real events. This The most popular forms of electronic entertainments
same process is used to make the characters and dialog are vids, vid games, VR worlds, XP, and AR games.
in novels and vids more appealing. More commonly,
the muses merely edit out aspects of a news story or VIDS AND VID GAMES
article in which the individual is not interested.
Vids are high-resolution audiovisual entertainment
Ratings, reviews, and muses allow individuals that can be augmented with fully immersive sensa-
to avoid media overload, but they also reinforce tions such as smell, touch, and taste from the point
subcultural barriers. A great many people only seek of view of one of the major characters. Viewing them
out media and news that reinforces their existing purely via sight and sound is much like watching an
opinions and beliefs. Xenophobic individuals who old 20th-century film, except that it’s interactive and
distrust all non-humans, from uplifted octopi to the in 3D. In contrast, full sensory viewing is like being
Factors, regularly view news stories and AR dramas present in the story.
about evil aliens and devious uplifted animals who
commit heinous crimes. Similarly, individuals who are Most modern vids have variable theme and prefer-
only interested in their own habitat have all external ence settings enabling viewers to adjust the content of
news altered by their muses so that it refers only to what they are watching, including the level of violence,
the effects outside events will have on their station. the amount and type of sexuality they prefer, and the
appearances of some or all of the major characters. In
In a very real sense, individuals from radically addition, many vids have alternate endings for people
different subcultures and demographics inhabit who prefer happy, bittersweet, or grim endings. Two

SKILLS METACELEBRITIES
ACTIONS AND COMBAT
As the culture industry quickly discov- morph, but the person sleeved within never traveling anywhere without her
MIND HACKS ered, biotech and resleeving technology that morph often changes. The actress iconic pair of glowering smart leopards.
THE MESH clashed with the media’s ability to focus Angelique Stardust, for example, once Actors taking on a metacelebrity role
the spotlight on specific icons. When existed as a real person, but is now often undergo psychosurgery to better
ACCELERATED FUTURE everyone can be bodysculpted, the a character who has been played by play the part.
GEAR beautiful people need to be more than over a dozen people since the original
glamorous faces. More to the point, the rose to stardom in AF 3 and promptly Metaceleb personas are strictly
GAME INFORMATION public’s interest in celebs faltered when sold off her celebrity character rights managed and marketed as a media
REFERENCE famous people repeatedly changed to Experia. Likewise, award-winning product to appeal to specific consumer
their looks and were no longer immedi- heart-breaker Juan Nguyen is a con- groups. Though they play an active
52 ately recognizable. structed persona based entirely on the role within hyperelite circles, many of
action hero star who died and was lost the genuine glitterati view them with
One of the ways big entertain- during the Fall. Many metacelebrities humor at best, disdain at worst—
ment has responded is to promote are modeled on fictional characters; though some have learned the hard
“metacelebrities”—icons based on notorious bad girl Sun Mi Hee is no way not to underestimate or mess with
characters rather than real people. different offscreen than the ass-kicking the small armies of media engineers
Each metacelebrity has their own villain role that brought her to fame, behind each metaceleb’s carefully
(very expensive) unique customized crafted image.

people watching the same vid could have very differ- identify or even fall in love with them. In addition, .3.3.3.3.3.3.3.3.3.3 .3.3.3.3.3.3.3
ent experiences if they use radically different settings. individuals who access XPs from a single person often
enough sometimes begin to mimic various habits and A TIME OF ECLIPSE 53
Vid games are like vids, except they are much more figures of speech. Particularly popular X-casters are
flexible. In vid games, the viewer not only experiences commonly disturbed when they see tens of thousands
the story with the protagonist—they become the pro- of people imitating one of their more idiosyncratic
tagonist, shaping the story through their own actions, expressions or habits.
similar to sophisticated early 21st-century console
games. Some games allow the participation of up to a A few serious fans—known as Xers (pronounced
dozen individuals or link thousands of players via the “ex-ers”)—alter their morphs to resemble their favor-
mesh, while others are designed for a single player. ite X-caster. Some obsessive Xers actually attempt to
The degree of freedom in vid games varies. Some are contact and stalk certain X-casters, perhaps hoping
almost fully interactive realms similar to VR worlds to become part of an actual XP clip. In most habitats
with all but a few characters controlled by AIs, while and subcultures, Xers are widely regarded as having
others are considerably simpler and more limited particularly dull and meaningless lives. Hardcore
with player interaction limited to a few crucial deci- Xers are often viewed as being insecure and poten-
sions. The precise dividing line between vids and vid tially unstable.
games is blurry, but together these media remain the
most popular forms of entertainment, with scenarios AR GAMES
set on Earth before the Fall being especially prevalent.
Augmented reality (AR) games involve players inter-
XP acting both with events in the physical world and
augmented reality imagery that recasts the people
Experience playback (XP) is a specialized type of and objects the players see. For example, instead of
media that consists of the recorded sensory impres- seeing another player in a splicer morph and ordi-
sions of a single individual. Almost all of the inhab- nary clothing, a player of an AR game might see a
itants of the solar system lead relatively quiet and horrific rotting zombie, a bizarre alien life form, or
risk-averse lives and are naturally eager to be able a well-armed soldier. These games tend to be locally
to vividly experience adventures such as climbing focused within a particular habitat or city so players
Olympus Mons, spending a day in one of the most can interact when they are within physical proxim-
luxurious and exotic private habitats, going on a scav- ity, but some games link habitats within the same
enging mission to Earth, or gatecrashing. There is also cultural region.
a thriving fringe market in less savory XP, including
records of people committing all manner of violent The nature and intensity of these games varies
or dangerous crimes and XP of actual gun battles widely. Long-term games might involve people
between well-armed criminals and law enforcement playing the role of deep cover spies or some other
personnel, which often end with the death of the exciting and unique role for months on end. Players
morph providing the point of view. may pretend to be anything from time travelers
attempting to prevent some horrible disaster to
Anyone with mesh inserts can create XP of their covert agents attempting to uncover plots by TITAN-
experiences, and anyone with an ecto or mesh inserts infected people on their habitat who happen to be
can access the sensory recordings. Selling a particu- camouflaged as snack designers, personal assistants,
larly exciting XP, such as a record of the first meeting and other mundane citizens. During their daily lives,
with the Factors, can bring in a lot of money or rep. players exchange messages with each other as well as
Most XPs consist of both sensory recordings and the with the people running and maintaining the game.
surface thoughts of the individual who made them. Some of these long-term AR games have gone on for
Many people who access XP are only interested in many years, with the oldest being almost twenty years
the sensory recordings and feel that having another old, predating the Fall.
person’s recorded thoughts and emotions in their head
is intrusive and uncomfortable so they filter them out. Short-term AR games, on the other hand, last
However, some hardcore XP aficionados feel that between several hours and several days. The people
accessing the full XP, including the recorded thoughts running these typically rent out a hotel or a park
and emotions, makes the experience more immersive and various public buildings for the duration. These
and real. games are almost always highly dramatic and consist
of everything from the players having to deal with
A significant minority of XP fans becomes fasci- a massive zombie attack or alien invasion to them
nated with one or two daring people who regularly participating in some simulation of an event on Earth,
sell XP, known as X-casters, viewing all of their clips, like the storming of the Bastille during the French
including both the experiences and the accompany- Revolution. While such AR games can be consider-
ing thoughts. Some of these XP fans become more ably less detailed than VR worlds or vid games, many
interested in the person who recorded the clip than players value the “realism” of being physically present
in the individual experiences, and they often come during the game.
to believe that they have a special, clear understand-
ing of this person, to the point where they strongly Since participants in AR games take actions in the
real world, including actions that could be disruptive

SYNOPSIS or even dangerous, designers of AR games take great PHYSICAL ENTERTAINMENT
WELCOME TO FIREWALL care to prevent problems. In some early AR games,
most of which took place more than twenty years In addition to a vast array of electronic and electroni-
A TIME OF ECLIPSE before the Fall, players were occasionally seriously cally mediated entertainments, people also still enjoy
GAME MECHANICS injured. A few unscrupulous AR game designers used a wide variety of physical sports, ranging from soccer
CHARACTER CREATION their scenarios as cover for actual robberies or acts to new sports like low-g air races, where the par-
SAMPLE CHARACTERS of terrorism that were abetted by unwitting players ticipants strap on wings and engage in tests of speed
SKILLS who thought their actions were simply part of a game. and acrobatics. The ability to both fix any injury in
ACTIONS AND COMBAT Since that time, law enforcement observation drones a healing vat and to remove a cortical stack from a
MIND HACKS have kept careful track of people playing AR games. dead or dying body and place it in a new morph has
THE MESH In almost all habitats, people running AR games must given rise to a new variety of extreme sports. Starting
ACCELERATED FUTURE register their games with local law enforcement or a decade before the Fall, various individuals realized
GEAR face serious fines. that, barring unlikely circumstances, they could not
GAME INFORMATION die unless they wanted to. This set off a brief trend
REFERENCE VR WORLDS in extreme sports and even a few wealthy suicide
hobbyists who repeatedly killed off their current
Virtual reality (VR) worlds involve the creation of a morph in a variety of unusual ways. The Fall and
large and highly immersive simulated environment— the permanent death of more than ninety percent of
a simulspace—where the major characters are played transhumanity greatly reduced the interest in playing
by transhumans and NPCs by AIs. Unlike vids or vid with death for many years. Killing yourself just to
games, simulspaces are specifically designed for a experience death is considered mildly distasteful
large number of participants. VR worlds consist of to most, and many believe such actions belittle the
everything from duplicates of various eras of Earth mass deaths of the Fall. Though interest in risking
history to elaborate and strange fantasy worlds with death in the line of entertainment has been growing,
magic, dragons, and similar wonders. All manner of deliberate suicide remains an eccentric and dubiously
alien worlds or settings based on oddities like time regarded hobby.
travel are also common. As is the case with vids, the
most popular simulspaces are those set on Earth some In some subcultures, dueling has been a popular
time before the Fall. fad for almost a decade. Swords, knives, and pistols
firing single-shot soft lead bullets are all popular
VR worlds can have from dozens to tens of thou- choices, because none of these weapons poses any
sands of participants. For the best experience, many threat to a cortical stack and most do not instantly
users prefer to access simulspaces through hardwired kill someone hit by them. However, there are other
server connections as they offer better quality and more exotic options, including aerial duels with
less disruptions than accessing wirelessly via the microlights fitted with blades on their wings. On
mesh. Since people immersed in virtual reality are cut rare occasions, duels take place in space, with the
off from their bodies and often thrash around, most participants wearing non-armored vacuum suits.
users ensconce their morphs in a tank or special couch Certain criminal groups make money with under-
for the duration. VR parlors typically offer private ground dueling circuits, pitting biomorphs against
hardwired pods for participants to physically jack in. robots against uplifts. The seedier circuits engage
Many habitats also have hardwired systems used just in pit fights featuring illegally acquired backups
for this purpose, so users can experience VR from the sleeved into non-sapient animals, often outfitted
comfort of their own dwellings. with lethal cybernetics. Such creatures are typically
quite mad.
Due to distance and communication lags between
habitats, even the most popular online simulspaces Dangerous non-combative sports are also popular.
run each habitat as a separate realm, limiting interac- The highest levels of competitive rock climbing on
tion with users in other habitats/realms. The popular- Mars are regularly done with no safety equipment.
ity of VR worlds like Gilded Empire, set in England There are similar climbing competitions in many
in the 1880s, means that someone moving from one habitats using artificially constructed climbing walls
habitat or world to another could continue playing in as well as regular free-running competitions through
the same game, albeit with a new set of players. almost every city and habitat. Also, there is an entire
class of sports, including both diving and parachut-
One of the other unusual features of VR settings is ing, where perfection of form is seen as a far more
that a large number of infomorphs, including many important goal than avoiding injury or even death.
infomorph refugees, play these games. As a result, As a result, current high dive records for morphs not
while even most novice players can learn to easily tell specially modified to survive high impacts are held by
the difference between a character played by an AI individuals who required either time in a healing vat
and one played by an actual person, there is no way or resleeving immediately after their successful break-
to know if the person playing a character has a physi- ing of a previous record.
cal body or not.

54

POLITICS AND POWER rebellion and widespread dissent complicate these .3.3.3.3.3.3.3.3.3.3 .3.3.3.3.3.3.3
interests, the hypercorps are also adept at making
Politics is just as important in the colonies spread certain the inhabitants of the habitats and planetary A TIME OF ECLIPSE 55
throughout the solar system as it was back on Earth, settlements they control are safe, relatively content,
but it is also radically different. Each habitat or cluster and, ideally, unable to cause serious problems.
of stations is a separate political entity, and many of
these habitats are fiercely independent. The only loca- By extension, the second goal means they also help
tions where large political entities can exist are on the protect the surviving transhuman population against
marginally habitable worlds of Mars and Titan, and any repeat of the Fall. As the largest and most well-
the population of Titan is significantly smaller than organized entities in the solar system, the Planetary
that of many of the largest pre-Fall cities on Earth. Consortium and other inner-system governments are
in an excellent position to protect the people living
THE INNER SYSTEM in their habitats and settlements. This protection,
however, comes at the price of freedom. The transi-
Though nations no longer exist, they have been tional economies (p. 62) used in hypercorp-controlled
replaced by new political-economic entities that may settlements ensure that most citizens are relatively
well have been on the road to dominance even if the well off and need not fear starvation or serious want.
Fall had not occurred. While there are many indepen- Many hypercorps strongly oppose bioconservatism
dent habitats and settlements in the inner system, it is (with some exceptions, notably among the Lunar-
largely under the thumb of the hypercorps. To reduce Lagrange Alliance), and so anyone who can afford
conflict between themselves and promote the survival various augmentations or morphs is free to obtain
of transhumanity, some of the hypercorps formed an them as long as none are equipped with weaponry
alliance known as the Planetary Consortium. This that can be used to harm a habitat or large numbers
entity governs most of Mars and is in charge of the of its inhabitants. In return for safety and relative
ongoing terraforming project. It also controls dozens prosperity, however, citizens give up the ability to
of other habitats throughout the rest of the inner voice more than token criticisms of the hypercorps.
system (and even a few in the outer system). This
means the Planetary Consortium rules over more than THE POWER OF THE HYPERCORPS
forty percent of the surviving transhuman population, AND THE PLANETARY CONSORTIUM
making it the dominant power in the solar system. The
other major polities in the inner system, the Lunar- The Planetary Consortium is the only major non-local
Lagrange Alliance and the Morningstar Constellation, political entity in the solar system (with the possible
are also heavily influenced by hypercorp interests. exception of the Autonomist Alliance, which is more
of a mutual aid pact than a unified polity). All of the
In the aftermath of the Fall, the hypercorps others are based in a single specific location.
established three important goals: rebuilding the
solar system, protecting themselves from any further Likewise, the various hypercorps transcend loca-
attacks (either by the TITANs or any other threats), tion. Though some are quite large, rivaling the old
and growing in both wealth and power. The hyper- megacorporations of Earth in size, the majority of
corps and the Planetary Consortium are exceedingly hypercorps are small and specialized with few physical
skilled at attaining all of these goals. Since popular assets, leveraging the capabilities of AIs, infomorphs,
and robotics and communication technologies. Some

SYNOPSIS maintain staff and work forces large enough to popu- habitats all either possess their own security forces
WELCOME TO FIREWALL late multiple habitats, but most rely on few employees, or have some form of defense contract with a private
instead contracting with freelancers or other hyper- security company, such as Direct Action or Medusan
A TIME OF ECLIPSE corps. Many business projects consist of multiple Shield, who agree to protect the inhabitants against
GAME MECHANICS hypercorps networked together; temporary and even potential threats by agents of the TITANs, fanatical
CHARACTER CREATION ad hoc business alliances are a common affair, with saboteurs, and other threats.
SAMPLE CHARACTERS multiple hypercorps partnering towards common goals.
SKILLS These same security forces also protect the hyper-
ACTIONS AND COMBAT Thousands of dedicated hypercorp manufacturing corps from any threats to their interests. In most of
MIND HACKS and processing installations can be found on Mercury, these habitats, residents have fairly open freedom
THE MESH Venus, and other equally resource-rich locations scat- of expression and biological self-determination.
ACCELERATED FUTURE tered throughout the solar system. Well-known facili- However, all potential threats to the hypercorp and
GEAR ties include Starware’s vast shipyards, the largest of its personnel, ranging from attempted sabotage to
GAME INFORMATION which are located on Luna and the asteroid Vesta, and simple civil disobedience, are dealt with quite harshly,
REFERENCE Omnicor’s huge antimatter factory orbiting Mercury. with serious offences resulting in forced indenture and
There are many other lesser-known facilities, includ- occasionally forced mental editing (see Psychosurgery,
56 ing the automated mines that the mysterious Zrbny p. 229). Almost all of these habitats use a transitional
Group maintains in the Main Belt and Saturn’s rings economy (p. 62) and most residents have a high stan-
and the qubit factory Nimbus maintains in Mars dard of living to compensate for the limits on their
orbit. Many hypercorps eschew macro-manufacturing behavior. Many inhabitants of the more independent
and instead focus on developing new technologies and colonies in the belt or the outer system complain
new cornucopia machine templates. about the repressive nature of the hypercorp-con-
trolled stations, but residents of these habitats prefer
Aside from the numerous public hypercorp factories the safety and security found there to the intimidating
and labs, there is an impressive number of secure and freedom of the outer system.
often secret research installations, some of which are
so well hidden that they are normally only accessible To help reduce dissent, residents of settlements
via highly secure egocaster connections. All manner and habitats controlled by the Planetary Consortium
of mysterious and often highly dangerous research (and similar hypercorp-dominated polities) can vote
occurs in such locations, ranging from experiments on a wide variety of issues. The results of these votes,
with the relics of the TITANs to attempts to create however, are only binding on issues that are not
self-replicating nanotechnology or artificial miniature considered “matters of habitat survival,” “corporate
black holes. Vids and vid games are filled with stories policy,” or “security concerns,” which effectively
of exotic disasters in such research stations and of includes anything related to the profits and pro-
heroic thieves stealing amazing wonders from them. ductivity of the hypercorps involved. Votes on these
While the reality of secret corporate research bases matters are purely advisory, meaning that they are
is normally far more prosaic, sometimes wonders are utterly ignored when the results are at odds with
created—and there have been occasional disasters, hypercorp agendas.
often involving TITAN artifacts.
While residents of these settlements and habitats can
Some corporate headquarters are similarly secure vote about adding a new holiday to honor some impor-
and secret, including the corporate headquarters tant figure or the location and design of a new park,
of the fabled Zrbny Group. There are a wealth of laws regulating indentures, colony security, law enforce-
rumors and stories about such locations. Intrepid ment, or other important concerns remain under the
spies, thieves, and reporters regularly attempt to gain control of the hypercorps. This does not mean, however,
access to these facilities, generally without success. that the results of elections are completely disregarded.
Many attempts, especially by would-be thieves and If more than two-thirds of the population strongly
spies, end with distinctly negative consequences, supports a particular issue, the Consortium or the
including the thieves’ temporary (and on some occa- hypercorp controlling the habitat usually finds ways to
sions permanent) deaths. modify their current policies to address these concerns
without harming their own interests. In contrast, if only
Hypercorps also own and manage a number of a small number of residents are upset by certain policies,
habitats. Many are primarily homes for hypercorp then these wishes are ignored and corporate security
employees, but in others large portions of the popula- forces keep an eye out for possible civil disobedience or
tion are ordinary (non-employee) residents. Though other forms of resistance.
far less controlled than hypercorp research or manu-
facturing facilities, these colonies are also subject Outside of these dedicated installations and wholly
to greater regulation and security than some of the owned habitats, many hypercorps maintain offices and
autonomist-controlled habitats on the edges of the mesh presences in stations and planetary settlements
solar system. belonging to other polities. The larger hypercorps
have offices and branches all over the solar system,
These stations are exceptionally safe places to live. serving the needs of people from Pluto to Mercury
Residents have access to all of the latest products and all places in between, while even smaller outfits
produced by the ruling hypercorp (or conglomerate advertise their services via the mesh on any habitat
of smaller hypercorps) and its corporate allies. These

they can. Almost every habitat has a Nimbus office except for the most important or difficult problems, .3.3.3.3.3.3.3.3.3.3 .3.3.3.3.3.3.3
with a farcaster and, in the case of larger colonies, QE local directors deal with all local matters on their own,
communicator facilities for instantaneous communica- reporting any unusual or potentially problematic deci- A TIME OF ECLIPSE 57
tion. Both facilities are open to anyone who can pay sions afterwards.
Nimbus’s fees. Hypercorps offering ubiquitous services
and products like environmental systems, cloning, THE OUTER SYSTEM
body bank services, banking, spacecraft maintenance
and repair, and so on can be found on most habitats. Out beyond the orbit of Mars, the influence of the
In smaller habitats, these offices are unobtrusive, if not hypercorps and the Planetary Consortium is far more
entirely virtual, and managed by limited AIs or inden- limited. With the exception of the rigidly authori-
tured infomorphs. While postings in small habitats are tarian Jovian Republic, the inhabitants of the outer
often rather dull, the infomorph usually has a contract system have considerably more freedom than those
guaranteeing them a morph and resleeving in the living in the inner system. However, even out here
habitat of their choice in return for a term of service, the struggle between the desire for freedom and the
which typically ranges from three to five years. longing for safety forms an important part of the
political discourse.
Every habitat interested in interacting with the rest
of transhumanity has at least one automated Experia THE LIBERTARIAN AND UTOPIAN LEGACIES
media node (among other news and entertainment
outlets). Most Experia media nodes are managed by Various forms of anarchism and similar libertarian
indentured infomorphs that monitor the local news- ideologies were quite common among the first trans-
finding AIs and keep track of any important or inter- humans who settled space in the two decades before
esting developments. Experia and similar news sources the Fall. Many settlements in the outer system have
rely heavily on crowdsourced journalism, paying small inherited this legacy of freedom. The new frontier
amounts for live feeds from any freelancers that happen opened by space colonization presented a fantastic
to be on-site reporters as important events occur. opportunity for those with a strong desire to avoid
the authoritarianism of the hypercorp-controlled
Similarly, all but the smallest habitats have offices inner system and Earth to pursue social organizations
where individuals can hire security consultants, body- more based in equality and collective action or even
guards, or even mercenaries from hypercorps such as to simply experiment with new political models. Out
Medusan Shield, Direct Action, or their thousands of beyond the belt, hypercorp influence was weak and
competitors. These contracted security personnel range preoccupied, giving resourceful colonists a chance to
from simple AIs and guardian angel bots to highly explore their interests unmolested. The more radical
trained mercenaries in fully equipped fury morphs. of these elements grew out of or maintained ties to
While additional forces can be farcast in, many of progressive, anti-authoritarian, and left-wing social
these security specialists are locals who live on the movements and insurgencies on Earth, drawing
station and sometimes hire short-term contractors support where they could. Others simply stole hyper-
to help with especially large or difficult assignments. corp resources from the inner system and smuggled
Skilled mercenaries may eventually be hired full-time them to their secret projects. In a few cases, entire
by larger corps like Medusan Shield or Direct Action, ships or stations mutinied, refusing corporate orders
but since contractors are usually given the most dan- and pursuing their own path. It was rarely feasible for
gerous and thankless parts of any assignment, many the hypercorps to pursue and punish such subversion.
soon lose interest in hypercorp freelance work.
Even among these radicals, differences existed, so
Other employees working out of local hypercorp that those adhering to similar sociopolitical tenden-
offices range from nanofabrication programmers to cies tended to group together. Over time these have
for-hire scientists and technicians to personal finan- developed into four rough groupings: the anarchists
cial and media advisors to the wealthy and powerful. of Locus, the technosocialists of Titan, the anarcho-
In important habitats and planetary settlements, as capitalists and mutualists of Extropia, and the
much as twenty percent of the population consists of nomadic free-for-all societies of the individualist scum.
hypercorp employees or private contractors who are These factions form a loose alliance, a united front
hired on a short-term basis when the local workload against the hypercorps and Jovian Republic—or as
exceeds the capacity of the regular population. These they call it, the Jovian Junta—and a pact for mutual
workers are in the unique position of having dual aid and support, known as the Autonomist Alliance.
loyalties—to both their habitat and their employer.
Despite what hypercorp propaganda preaches, the Among the more anti-capitalist habitats, the cen-
two interests do not always overlap. turies-old doctrine of “from each according to their
ability, to each according to their need” is a living and
Because of the delays involved in normal communi- vital philosophy. The ready availability of cornucopia
cation, local heads of hypercorp offices usually have a machines ensures that no one wants, and the use of
great deal of autonomy, since asking for instructions reputation systems encourages people to be active par-
from their superiors on another habitat or installation ticipants towards the common good. Equitable access
requires either dealing with a time-lag or using expen- to morphs and augmentations is also available for resi-
sive qubits for instant QE communication. As a result, dents, though the demand from so many infomorphs

SYNOPSIS in need of a body means that infugees must contribute Other habitats choose their leaders by random lot,
WELCOME TO FIREWALL and build up social capital. However, even for an info- with every adult who can pass a relatively easy com-
morph, egocasting across the solar system is expensive, petency test being eligible to be the colony’s leader
A TIME OF ECLIPSE and the Planetary Consortium produces large amounts for a period that usually ranges from six months to
GAME MECHANICS of propaganda about the dangers of these habitats to five years. A few habitats are governed by powerful
CHARACTER CREATION discourage infugees from considering escape. specialized AIs, which in very few cases are actually
SAMPLE CHARACTERS hyper-intelligent AGIs. Several colonies populated
SKILLS Many autonomists consider themselves to be by purely informorph or synthmorph inhabitants
ACTIONS AND COMBAT engaged in an ideological conflict with the inner use special high-bandwidth connections to give their
MIND HACKS system, a memetic cold war that sometimes extends to members access to each other’s surface thoughts
THE MESH physical actions. Some willingly pursue campaigns of and emotional reactions, allowing them to hold vast
ACCELERATED FUTURE sabotage and subversion against hypercorp and other democratic political meetings where everyone present
GEAR authoritarian interests, such as smuggling cornuco- can feel the general emotional reactions of all of the
GAME INFORMATION pia machines into habitats where nanofabrication other members as easily as they can feel their own.
REFERENCE is strictly regulated, like among the Jovian Republic.
The hypercorps and their allies occasionally strike There are a vast number of different types of gov-
58 back, though open conflict is rare. Even though the ernment, many of which have never existed before,
inner system and Jovian Republic could theoretically moving (and sometimes fumbling) ahead in the outer
field enough military might to subdue the autonomist system. Some work far better than others, allowing
factions, an uneasy détente exists. Rumors abound successful colonies to thrive and making much of the
that the anarchists have some sort of card in their outer system a vast and complex political laboratory.
pocket that keeps their opponents at bay, perhaps
even some threat of mutually assured destruction. KEEPING THE PEACE

Concerns over security and potential future attacks Each habitat is responsible for dealing with its
by the TITANs also impact matters in the outer system, internal affairs. As a result, standards of justice
but most people resist attempts to seriously restrict their vary widely from the oppressive police state of the
personal freedoms in any manner not directly related to Jovian Junta to the free market judicial courts of the
maintaining their safety. Inhabitants of the outer system Extropians in the belt to the community justice poli-
still remember how the old governments’ demands cies of the anarchists out beyond Saturn. Travelers
of adherence to bioconservativism and allegiance to are strongly encouraged to check up on the legali-
distant and often unresponsive leaders did nothing to ties and policies of stations they are visiting so as
prevent the Fall from happening, and that memory to avoid unfortunate incidents, though muses are
fuels their mistrust of those states. Those powers were generally quite good about maintaining awareness
undone by failing to deliver what they promised—when of local conditions so that they can warn their users
they could not provide the security that they claimed before straying into gray or illegal territory.
their authoritarian measures would bring, the seeds of
their defeat in the outer system were planted. In the inner system, standards of justice and law
enforcement tend to be uniform and very familiar to
SPACE FOR EXPERIMENTATION the majority of the population that lived on Earth
prior to the Fall, where most nations had relatively
Both social and political experimentation are common similar arrangements. Across the entire solar system,
in many of the smaller habitats of the outer system. similar policies can be found. Though local laws may
Because collective decision-making is fairly easy in differ, there is widespread respect for the idea that
stations with populations of less than ten thousand, punishments for religious or ideologically based laws
direct democracy is a common method of govern- only apply to residents. Visitors who violate such
ment. The combination of collective decision-making, restrictions or other minor laws are simply deported
radical ideology, and experimentation has also led to to their home and forbidden to return. Standards of
some habitat populations adopting unusual forms of evidence for criminal investigations are also common.
government (or non-governmental organization). Modern forensic technology makes collecting and
analyzing DNA and other trace evidence an excep-
The individual variants that have been tried are tionally swift and easy process. Likewise, with almost
too numerous to list, though they generally fit into all habitats having what amounts to total surveillance
a few general categories. A few relatively small habi- of all public places, any potential offenses committed
tats employ limited forms of authoritarianism. Some there can be carefully analyzed.
have a single leader who has great power, but who is
(ideally) kept from abuse or excess through the use Standards of privacy vary widely from one habitat
of limits such as a list of constitutionally guaranteed to another, so during emergencies or crime investiga-
rights or the ability of a relatively small number of tions, law enforcement officials may or may not have
people to call an election or a vote of confidence. total access to detailed recordings of the events in any
Some colonies using this model have elected dictators portion of the habitat including data from sensors in
who serve for a limited term, while others are ruled private dwellings. In some stations, law enforcement
by a single charismatic leader who transforms their officials can compel everyone who might have been
habitat into a cult of personality.

present during an alleged crime to provide downloads LAW ENFORCEMENT
of their sensory experiences from the time of the crime.
While individuals can edit their memories, discrepan- Law enforcement in the solar system consists of a
cies between various people’s sensory recordings are vast patchwork of separate jurisdictions, occasion-
just another form of evidence. Requiring sensory ally united by various treaties. Most habitats have
downloads from witnesses and suspects is common signed the Treaty of Uniform Security that requires
practice in habitats controlled by the Planetary either extradition or on-site trial of criminals who are
Consortium, the Jovian Republic, and most hyper- accused of especially serious crimes such as attempted
corps. However, in most habitats in the outer system, habitat destruction, use of incapacitating infoware
law enforcement officials have no access to such (including basilisk hack attacks), or any attempt to aid
records and can only compel sensory recordings from the agents of the TITANs in taking over or destroying
people who have been charged with serious crimes. a habitat. Only the Jovian Junta and a few especially
antisocial or anarchic habitats have not signed this
The power of modern forensics is such that a treaty, but many habitats in the outer system maintain
sufficiently careful examination of people and the right to try offenders accused by other habitats
places can often determine the nature of a crime rather than extraditing them. Most habitats also
and the perpetrator(s) with relative ease. Decisions require a significant amount of evidence before they
of innocence or guilt rarely rely upon suppositions, are willing to extradite one of their residents.
circumstantial evidence, eyewitness testimony or
any of the other notoriously unreliable forms of Outside the Treaty of Uniform Security, there is
evidence common in past centuries. The best way for nothing remotely resembling a uniform code of justice
someone to avoid being convicted of a crime is to and no widely recognized police force. Instead, each
either prevent anyone from learning about the crime habitat or cluster maintains their own legal code and
or to make certain that no one suspects them as the cadre of law enforcement officers. In most areas, law
perpetrator. Once someone guilty of a crime becomes enforcement is a respected and honorable profession
a suspect, there is a very significant chance that law paid for by the government, but in a few, the only
enforcement officers will be able to uncover reliable options are private security agencies that only protect
evidence connecting them to the crime. However, if individuals who subscribe to their services. Among the
there is no obvious evidence connecting a specific anarchists and scum, residents are largely responsible
suspect to a crime, the criminal has a greater chance for their own protection, which means they may be
of escaping discovery. constantly armed when in public (depending on local
conditions). Depending on the stations, the most

.3.3.3.3.3.3.3.3.3.3 .3.3.3.3.3.3.3

A TIME OF ECLIPSE 59

SYNOPSIS someone who is the victim of a crime can do may be organizations from the outer system can sometimes
WELCOME TO FIREWALL to go after their attacker or post a bounty. In others, pursue subjects to habitats controlled by the various
mechanisms exist for community or collective problem- hypercorps or the Planetary Consortium. Doing so
A TIME OF ECLIPSE solving that often involve assembling an ad-hoc group- requires background checks, security screenings, and
GAME MECHANICS ing of peers to assess the situation, offer non-biased often moderately large payments.
CHARACTER CREATION judgment, and sometimes pursue collective action.
SAMPLE CHARACTERS PUNISHMENT
SKILLS The only widely accepted law enforcement offi-
ACTIONS AND COMBAT cers that attempt to maintain jurisdiction across the Among the autonomist colonies, forced exile or repay-
MIND HACKS solar system are bonded investigators and security ing the victim with an equitable amount of goods or
THE MESH consultants from companies such as Medusan Shield labor are the principle punishments for all but the most
ACCELERATED FUTURE or Direct Action. Both organizations have contracts heinous crimes (those being attempted mass murder,
GEAR with various hypercorps and inner system stations to habitat destruction, attempting to create seed AIs or
GAME INFORMATION provide security. However, in the outer system and in similarly extreme actions). In the collectivist anarchist
REFERENCE other regions not controlled (directly or indirectly) by habitats, antisocial behavior typically involves expul-
the hypercorps, the status of these officers is far more sion or reputation penalties, though solutions that
60 tenuous. In habitats that do not have security con- involve making amends and rehabilitation are often
tracts with their organization, the best these agents pursued over standard punishments. At the other end of
can do is act as bounty hunters. the spectrum, people convicted of more serious crimes
in the most violent and lawless habitats are executed
Due to extensive stories of excesses in the inner and all of their known backups destroyed. In many
system, many colonies frown on freelance bounty others, exceedingly serious crimes are usually dealt with
hunters—often referred to as ego hunters—and may by giving the criminal a choice of forced uploading into
ban them entirely. Others allow agents from licensed a humanely outfitted but isolated computer prison or
security hypercorps to act as ego hunters, but forbid mandatory personality modification—assuming that
them from extraditing or otherwise restraining or someone has not simply killed the criminal before
punishing the criminals they are pursuing. Instead, they were brought to justice (such killings are gener-
agents are required to turn over evidence so that the ally treated as matters of self-defense). Mandatory
habitat’s own judicial system may hold a trial, in personality modifications are generally limited to the
which case a convicted person may be remanded to absolute minimum necessary to prevent the individual
the agent’s custody. Law enforcement officers expe- from repeating similar crimes.
rience similar difficulties attempting to apprehend a
suspect who has fled to another habitat. At the other extreme, punishments in hypercorp-
controlled habitats and settlements controlled by the
Closely allied habitats in the outer system usually Planetary Consortium range from fines paid in either
allow full or at least limited legal powers to visiting money or labor to periods of involuntary indentured
law enforcement officers from their allies. There are servitude ranging from several months to many years.
also various small private security organizations that Violent crimes, especially ones threatening either
work closely with local law enforcement offices to important hypercorp employees or the habitat as a
provide inter-habitat security between colonies that whole, also result in mandatory personality modifica-
are not closely allied. The members of these organiza- tion. Such modifications often include the creation of a
tions attempt to maintain sufficiently high rep to earn strong sense of loyalty and obedience to the hypercorp.
the respect of all the habitats with which they work.
They act as both bounty hunters and unbiased inves- Punishments are even more draconic in the Jovian
tigators in situations that can sometimes involve mul- Republic, where permanent execution and the destruc-
tiple legal systems. Most of these security companies tion of all backups is the most common punishment
are located in the outer system and their jurisdiction for serious crimes against the leaders or large groups
tends to be limited to a single region, like the middle of the populace. Since the rulers of the Republic
belt or the Saturn system. Organizations that attempt are strong bioconservatives, personality editing and
to grow larger usually come into direct competition forced uploading are rarely used. Forced indenture is
with larger hypercorps such as Medusan Shield and very common, however, as are more standard forms of
Direct Action and are subsequently either bought out imprisonment. The Republic is one of the last places
or undercut and discredited. in the solar system that has physical prisons.

Bounty hunters and private investigators are also The vast majority of other habitats fall somewhere
available on many autonomist habitats, some of between these extremes. Punishments for non-violent
whom are highly reliable. Others are known for their crimes consist of enforced repayment, where the
extreme moral and ethical flexibility, especially if the offender must work off a debt to their victim(s) or
pay is sufficiently high. On some stations and scum face more serious punishments. Instead of enforced
ships, these private contractors can be hired to simply indenture, offenders usually must only work between
go on board and abduct or execute a resident as long five and twenty hours a week for their victims and
as this person has a low enough rep. Attempting only need to do so until the crime has been suitably
to abduct or kill a respected member of the com- repaid. The typical repayment is between two and
munity, however, rapidly earns the ire of the entire three times the value of the good or service taken
habitat. The various small-scale or private security from the victim.

THE ECONOMY citizens have more options, but the residents must still .3.3.3.3.3.3.3.3.3.3 .3.3.3.3.3.3.3
pay to obtain goods that are essentially free for the
Leaving aside the struggles of bands of primitives to corporations or government to produce. A TIME OF ECLIPSE 61
survive on the ruins of Earth, all of transhumanity has
at least some access to the wonders of nanotechnology. In the present day, almost no one willingly lives in
This access is highly variable and the economic ben- old economy societies. Very few individuals even visit
efits it produces can be divided into three broad cat- such societies. The oppressive Jovian Republic holds
egories—the old economy, the transitional economy, most of the remaining old economy societies in the
and the new economy. solar system. The few other surviving examples are
totalitarian regimes where the wealthy elite maintain
THE OLD ECONOMY absolute control of all cornucopia machines and
private ownership of one is a very serious crime. Since
The old economy is essentially the same sort of indus- cornucopia machines can be used to create more
trial consumer capitalism that has been in place since cornucopia machines, maintaining strict control over
the late 19th century, a system centered on manufac- them requires constant vigilance.
turers who create material goods and sell them to
consumers. Modern manufacturers now make their Residents of old economy societies tend to look at
goods in cornucopia machines instead of factories, but the people of transitional and new economy societ-
the essential pattern is the same one that has existed ies with envy, while citizens of both transitional and
for over two hundred years. Due to the high level of new economies look upon old economy habitats
inefficiency and unfairness in this economic system, with a mixture of horror and pity. Since the Fall,
poverty is relatively common. The poorest individuals almost a third of the remaining old economy-based
often face hunger, homelessness, lack of medical care, habitats have transformed into transitional or new
and similarly dire problems. economies by various means, often involving violent
revolution. Most social scientists predict that unless
Ordinary members of this society never have direct there are further catastrophes, all but the most
access to cornucopia machines. Instead, they pur- repressive old economy societies are almost certain
chase their goods from corporations, governments, to transform to transitional economies within
or wealthy individuals who control them. Some old twenty to thirty years.
economy societies have planned economies, where the
corporations or the state determine what options the Old economy societies are unique in that money is
citizens may choose or occasionally what goods they the society’s only acceptable means of exchange. While
must have. Others claim to have a free market, where reputation networks exist, they are informal and serve
as an unsanctioned means of exchanging favors.

SYNOPSIS THE TRANSITIONAL ECONOMY more dangerous than knives, clubs, or similar primi-
WELCOME TO FIREWALL tive armaments. Everything from firearms to plasma
The transitional economy is a far more stable and weapons requires restricted cornucopia machines and
A TIME OF ECLIPSE easily maintained system than the old. Transitional exotic materials to manufacture. The proliferation of
GAME MECHANICS economies blend old and new economies, and habi- these items is strictly controlled.
CHARACTER CREATION tats using this system feature both private ownership
SAMPLE CHARACTERS of cornucopia machines as well as public fabbers Some habitats in the outer system have transitional
SKILLS and makers that are freely accessible. These public economies because residents prefer the safety that
ACTIONS AND COMBAT machines are strictly limited in the goods they can comes from centralizing control of potentially dan-
MIND HACKS produce and the raw materials for various complex gerous technologies. Other habitats have transitional
THE MESH goods are also strictly regulated. Mars, Venus, and economies by default, because they have limited
ACCELERATED FUTURE Luna are all examples of transitional economies, as is stocks of many of the more rare elements required
GEAR most of the rest of the inner system. for manufacturing various complex modern tech-
GAME INFORMATION nologies. Regardless of the reason, outsiders from new
REFERENCE For the inhabitants of a transitional economy, economy habitants often see them as somewhat poor
creating food, non-smart clothing, furniture, and and deprived, while many residents of transitional
62 most other simple, non-formatible objects is a economies consider new economy societies both
trivial matter. However, the public nanofabrication exceptionally wealthy and somewhat frightening.
machines can only create objects that either contain
no electronics at all or contain only simple circuits Despite these differences in perception, both eco-
that report on the object’s condition and location. nomic societies have a great deal in common. Food,
Manufacturing any of these items requires little more clothing, and similar goods are easily available to
than the machine and a supply of carbon, hydrogen, all residents. An individual’s status, taste, wealth,
oxygen, nitrogen, silicon, iron, aluminum, and tiny and reputation are measured by the kinds of cloth-
amounts of various trace materials. All of these mate- ing, food, and furnishings they possess. While there
rials are sufficiently abundant that acquiring them is are a vast number of templates for different styles of
easy and inexpensive. food and consumer goods, forward-thinking design-
ers develop new designs every month and use copy
Using the elements that are freely available to all protection on these designs to keep them from being
tax-paying citizens, nanofabbers can produce a vast pirated for at least a month or two (and often longer).
array of goods like exquisite suits of silk clothing, As a result, for the first few months after their release,
tables with the appearance of finely polished ebony the only people who can gain access to new designs in
and mahogany, beautiful colored glass goblets, or clothing, tableware, food, or similar goods are those
painted porcelain tea cups. They can also create a who pay a premium to the designer to download the
gourmet dinner and a set of fine plates and cutlery on templates that allow their cornucopia machine to
which to eat the meal. To pay for the small amounts manufacture the item.
of energy and resources needed to create these goods,
all inhabitants pay a small tax. Since one way of defining a transitional economy
is a system where both reputation and money are in
Once the usage tax has been paid, food, clothing, widespread use, most have developed ways to accom-
furniture, and similar goods are all free. Raw materials, modate both forms of payment. While residents pri-
old, worn-out or unwanted goods, and various waste marily use money for purchasing goods, purchasing
products are recycled into new goods. Residents of cornucopia machine templates involves rep, especially
transitional economies need never experience hunger among residents who regularly visit new economy
or any of the many other sorts of deprivation that societies or have significant contacts there.
much of humanity faced before the mid-21st century.
Additionally, basic medical care is free in almost all THE NEW ECONOMY
transitional economy societies, to help insure that the
populace is healthy, content, and productive. Less than forty percent of the transhuman population
lives under some version of what social scientists refer
While many goods are freely available, there are to as the new economy. In the outer system, alterna-
also goods that residents must purchase from corpo- tive economies are becoming increasingly rare. New
rations, their government, or other producers. Smart economies are much better than old or transitional
clothing and smart furniture that can change shape, economies at supporting a decentralized populace,
color, and pattern, depending upon the user’s wishes, which has led to more than half of all new habitats
cannot be manufactured in any of the personal nano- and settlements adopting this model.
fabricators. Any goods made from highly durable
composite materials, batteries, electrically powered In new economy societies, individuals can freely
devices (including many augmentations), and all manufacture and use almost anything they want,
nanotechnology must be acquired in the same fashion. assuming they can acquire the correct templates and
These goods are considerably less common as they raw materials. As a result, the residents’ need for food,
require access to an unrestricted nanofabricator and/ clothing, medical care, information access, and other
or exotic raw materials. basic needs are all easily met. However, there are
still items of value that individuals work very hard
Transitional economies tend to be relatively safe to obtain. Though these are commonly described as
places, since inhabitants cannot manufacture weapons

RESTRICTING variety of ways, but the most common involves either
being considered a strategic asset due to some singular
DANGEROUS expertise, performing an exceedingly valuable service
to the habitat, or working for the habitat for some
TECHNOLOGIES period of time. Once an individual is a citizen, the
energy, living space, and raw materials they use in the
Most societies in Eclipse Phase restrict access course of their daily lives are all freely available.

to exceptionally dangerous goods, especially In many collectivized habitats, residents are
expected to pull their weight by contributing to
military hardware. Few people living in a sealed ongoing public works in the habitat, typically
requiring between four and eight hours every week.
habitat surrounded by hard vacuum enjoy the Depending on the nature of the colony, this work
may be selected by the government, the collective
idea of easy access to biowar plagues or devices syndicates that oversee the management of resources,
or by a high rep individual who controls access to
that can make large holes in their habitat’s outer large amounts of energy and raw materials. Unless
someone has especially valuable skills, this labor is
hull. Though such incidents are quite rare, the often dull but safe work that can be done more easily
by transhumans than AIs, such as checking the habitat
memories of horrors like the recent Branson- for flaws and performing maintenance tasks.

Vesta disaster are still quite fresh. In that incident, Assuming an individual has acquired citizenship
or put in their share of work for the collective well-
a radical bioconservative cult manufactured being of the station, they will have access to a supply
of energy and raw materials that allows them to use
several plasma bombs and accidentally destroyed their cornucopia machines to manufacture what
they need. Visitors are generally also allowed access,
the entire habitat when their attack on the though anyone staying long is expected to contribute
to the habitat if they don’t want to see their reputa-
local government caused a cascading blowout, tion slashed.

cracking the spinning habitat in half. More than VALUE AND SCARCITY IN NEW ECONOMY SOCIETIES

50,000 residents had to be resleeved and 400 per- While basic citizenship allowances cover most
necessities and even some luxuries, this has limits.
manently died when their backups and cortical With the allowance, individuals receive a quota
of goods and energy they can use every day. This
stacks were destroyed in the explosions. usage is impressively lavish by 20th century terms,
allowing residents to create a dozen suits of clothing
Standard procedure is to restrict access and and provide food for half a dozen people every day.
Creating elaborate food, furniture, and tableware to
heavily encrypt templates needed to create serve a party of a dozen people is within the means
of any individual. However, doing the same thing for
military-grade weapons and similar dangers, a party of two hundred people is outside the bounds
of the basic allowance.
though sufficiently dedicated individuals can
Individuals who wish to exceed their basic citizen-
eventually decrypt or reverse-engineer such ship allowance can either use rep to obtain more
access to resources and energy or they can pool
designs. Even nanofabricators in anarchist habi- their resources with others to accomplish their goals.
There are many goods that are fairly complex to
tats may be blocked from creating such things create—including many of the best morphs and highly
specialized and intricate pieces of gear like advanced
or at the very least will alert the local public augmentations—that exceed the resources available in
a basic citizenship allowance.
mesh if anyone instructs them to do so. Habitats
The allowance also limits the amount of travel that
that possess almost no other laws regarding residents can easily undertake. Residents of most
new economy habitats own good quality spacesuits,
possession of various objects and devices usually and many can use their rep to create a small and
very minimally equipped travel pod to visit a nearby
have laws against weapons that can do serious habitat. However, even the smallest actual spacecraft
are far too large and difficult to create to be available
harm to the habitat. on an ordinary citizenship allowance or even on the

Many dangerous technologies are specifically

designed to make use of various exceptionally

rare or transhuman-made elements, including

radioactive elements and artificially created

transuranic elements. Therefore, many habitats

will restrict access to these elements to limit the

manufacture of these weapons. Since detecting

radioactive elements is simple using standard .3.3.3.3.3.3.3.3.3.3

environmental sensors located throughout every A TIME OF ECLIPSE

habitat, security authorities can easily learn when

someone has acquired significant quantities of

such elements or catch them if they attempt to

bring them on board. n

“post scarcity” societies, some types of scarcity remain .3.3.3.3.3.3.3
very real.
63
In most new economy habitats, common goods
are freely available to all residents—or at least to
all residents who meet certain criteria. These criteria
usually take one of two forms: citizenship or public
works. In wealthy and prestigious habitats, free access
to all common goods is offered to residents who have
official citizenship. Citizenship can be earned in a

IRREPRODUCIBLE GOODS

In an age when digital material is easily copied and In response, some manufacturers, designers, and
physical goods are reproducible with nanofabrication, artists attempt to produce goods that are irrepro-
concepts like copyright, trademark, and intellectual ducible—and thus more highly valued. Possible
property are fighting a losing war. Despite the best approaches include transgenic living sculptures with
methods of encryption, DRM, and similar anti-piracy built-in obsolescence and terminator genes, energy art,
measures, very little escapes the clutches of pirates for items made from extremely rare materials (e.g., a chair
long. It’s not unheard of for copies/blueprints of new crafted from titanium mined from the Mead crater on
goods to be shared on pirate networks before they’re the harsh Venusian surface), or intangibles such as
even officially released. skilled performances.

SYNOPSIS amount of rep an ordinary individual can acquire in a a habitat must be manufactured and the process of
WELCOME TO FIREWALL reasonable amount of time. building or expanding a habitat is far from simple,
space is at a premium. The only exceptions to this
A TIME OF ECLIPSE In addition to large-scale uses of resources and scarcity are Europa and Mars, which can be inhabited
GAME MECHANICS difficult-to-manufacture goods, there are items that by properly adapted morphs without the necessity of
CHARACTER CREATION are intrinsically scarce, such as relics of Earth and complex life support or the danger of vacuum waiting
SAMPLE CHARACTERS handmade crafts. While exact copies of everything just outside every exterior wall. As a result, owning a
SKILLS from the Mona Lisa to a pressed daisy are exception- larger dwelling space in a habitat is worth a signifi-
ACTIONS AND COMBAT ally easy to acquire, genuine physical relics of Earth cant amount, and large villas and private asteroids are
MIND HACKS are prized possessions. The vast majority of refugees luxuries possessed by only the highest rep individuals.
THE MESH could take nothing with them, but almost everyone
ACCELERATED FUTURE wishes to have some token to remind them of Earth. A While transhuman labor has become cheap due
GEAR single dried flower, coin, or piece of stone from Earth to the large number of infugees who must sell their
GAME INFORMATION can be exchanged for almost any morph or other services or indenture themselves to obtain morphs
REFERENCE good that is moderately difficult to create. Actual and habitat space, skilled labor is far more expensive.
historical artifacts, like a famous person’s hat or auto- A unique custom morph design, for example, crafted
64 graph, are worth far more, as are original works of by a skilled genehacker, can cost as much as a small
art by famous artists. Two years ago, one of the last spacecraft depending on how much this morph
three remaining paintings by Leonardo da Vinci was deviates from standard models. The same is true for
traded for a large and well-equipped spacecraft, and everything from custom-designed clothing to complex
a small piece of the Liberty Bell was traded for both pieces of technology designed for a single specific
a custom-designed morph and a fully outfitted one- usage. While the actual manufacturing costs of these
hectare villa in one of the more prosperous habitats items is no more expensive than any other similar
orbiting Saturn. item, the time and effort needed to design them can
make them exceedingly expensive.
While less expensive than Earth relics, handmade
goods also command a high price and are in great The final commodity that is both scarce and valu-
demand by the wealthy. Though most people cannot able is novelty. While anyone can drink a fine wine or
distinguish between a fine wine grown on one of the wear a wide range of designer clothing, other com-
Martian vineyards and a duplicate of the same wine modities are kept deliberately scarce. Cutting-edge
produced using an average cornucopia machine, some fashion, new music, and even haute nosh (bold, exclu-
connoisseurs claim they can taste the difference. There sive snack food designs) are harder to find because the
is also much prestige to be gained by serving hand- templates needed to manufacture them are encrypted
grown food. Hand-produced wine is a rare good that and cannot be copied. The copy protection used on
can only be enjoyed by a few, and thus it commands the templates for newly created goods automatically
a moderately high price. In almost all cases, hand- expires within three years at most, and most habitats
made goods are expensive because of their rarity and reduce this to one year. In addition, this copy pro-
because many people enjoy the status associated with tection is never perfect; someone always manages
owning and using them. to create pirated versions of these new goods within
two to six months. However, from the time templates
There are three other items that are scarce and are created until the time that someone pirates them,
thus quite valuable: living space, skilled sapient labor, these items are only available to individuals who are
and novelty. The majority of transhumanity lives in willing and able to pay for them. Popular new tem-
standard-sized dwelling units, which typically range plates command a good price in the new economy,
from one hundred cubic meters on smaller or poorer and a large number of transhumans make their living
habitats to two hundred cubic meters on wealthy designing and marketing such templates.
and prosperous habitats. Since each cubic meter of

THE ECONOMY AND INFOMORPH REFUGEES to find that their employer either kept finding ways to
delay or reduce the payment or vanished before they
During the last phase of The Fall and the evacuation of delivered on their promise. As a result, slightly more
Earth, more than four hundred million refugees were than twenty percent of the original infomorph refugees
uploaded and egocast to orbital databanks through- remain infomorphs; some by choice, but most because
out the solar system. They were forced to flee Earth they have not been able to acquire the means to resleeve
without any of their possessions, even their bodies. themselves or are still working long contracts to gain
Instead, they became infomorphs who had nothing their morph. The problem with obtaining bodies for
beyond their minds and memories—the most destitute these infugees goes beyond simply providing a new
group of refugees ever to exist in transhuman history. morph for resleeving; living beings require living space
In the years since the Fall, large numbers of these infu- as well as a steady supply of consumables. For this
gees have been resleeved. Anyone with valuable skills reason, many infugees have been morphed in synthetic
was first to gain a morph, followed by anyone with shells and housed in areas inhospitable to biomorphs,
friends or relatives already living in orbit who could such as the unenclosed portions of Venusian aerostats.
take responsibility for the person’s resleeving. With space in short supply, the waiting list for infugees
looking for a habitat to call home is quite long.
Those two groups accounted for only half of the
refugees. The remaining found themselves in a far more Both the hypercorps and the Planetary Consortium
difficult situation. Lacking either personal contacts or were quick to make use of this vast labor pool, espe-
vital skills, they had no one else to help them. In the cially on Mars. Mars has large amounts of open space
first few years, many of these infugees signed contracts and resources and is sufficiently close to habitable that
promising their labor or other services in return for Mars-adapted morphs like the ruster are inexpensive
resleeving and a guarantee of some form of income to create. As a result, the Planetary Consortium has
sufficient to support them. Because of the critical labor been responsible for the employment of almost half of
shortages in the first five years after the Fall, another all remaining infomorph refugees. For the past decade,
thirty percent of the refugees managed to regain bodies the vast majority of infomorph refugees who want
(usually cheap synthmorphs). These indentured ser- bodies have found that indenturing themselves to the
vants performed all manner of critical tasks, ranging Planetary Consortium or one of the associated hyper-
from scavenging ruined habitats for useful devices to corps involved in Martian terraforming is the most
mining or asteroid herding. Others became servants or reliable way to find both a morph and housing, since
bodyguards for the rich or performed less moral ser- both are guaranteed at the end of the contract. The
vices for criminal syndicates. Most took on orbital con- work involved is particularly difficult, however, and
struction jobs, helping to build the new habitats that the contracts are normally quite long. The Planetary
would eventually become their homes. Some infugees Consortium is also particularly adept at adding
found work performing services like data-mining, mon- charges that prolong indenture—though most inden-
itoring automated factories, or other jobs that could be tures carry five to twenty year contracts, in reality
done by infomorphs. After the Fall, infomorphs were these indentures typically last between eight and
used to take over numerous tasks previously handled twenty-five years; some go on even longer. This large
by AGIs, who were no longer trusted. population of indentured servants on Mars—many
of them now free and resleeved—is becoming a force
Unfortunately, some infomorph refugees made bad
or unlucky deals and ended up working for years only

.3.3.3.3.3.3.3.3.3.3 .3.3.3.3.3.3.3

A TIME OF ECLIPSE 65

SYNOPSIS in its own right, adhering to the Martian wilds and HABITATS
WELCOME TO FIREWALL rural areas and disdaining the elite hypercorp domes.
Adopting the name Barsoomians from an old Earth With Earth now uninhabitable, transhumanity sur-
A TIME OF ECLIPSE fiction series, this resentful lower class is increasingly vives in a variety of offworld habitats. There are two
GAME MECHANICS becoming a thorn in the Planetary Consortium’s side. major types of these habitats: settlements on planets
CHARACTER CREATION or large moons, such as those on Luna, Mars, Venus,
SAMPLE CHARACTERS Even though it is highly automated, terraforming Europa, or Titan, and space habitats that are built on
SKILLS and agricultural work on Mars is both tedious and or near an asteroid or other useful source of raw mate-
ACTIONS AND COMBAT physically demanding labor. Indentured employees are rials. Most of these space habitats spin themselves to
MIND HACKS regularly sent into the regions that were most affected provide gravity, with Earth and Mars gravity being
THE MESH by the Fall. As a result, these employees occasionally the two most common choices. There are also a large
ACCELERATED FUTURE face attacks by life forms mutated by the TITANs, nan- number of zero-g or microgravity habitats, consisting
GEAR otech war-swarms, or similar still-active and danger- of either non-spinning habitats or stations built into
GAME INFORMATION ous exotic technologies. Indentured employees are not small asteroids or moons.
REFERENCE charged for damage to or destruction of their morphs
caused by such dangers, but the experience of even PLANETARY SETTLEMENTS
reversible death from such causes is highly traumatic.
The Martian and Lunar city-states and other plan-
Other refugees found that they enjoyed life as info- etary settlements contain environments most familiar
morphs, reveling in complex simulspaces and otherwise to refugees from Earth. This similarity is one reason
living up the virtual life. Some found work that paid for that two-thirds of all infomorph refugees live on
the ability to egocast throughout the solar system. Ten Mars, Luna, or Titan. The exact type of settlements
years after the Fall, there is a thriving infomorph culture. depends on the planet or moon on which they are
While exact data is difficult to obtain, many research- located, with some being far more similar to Earth
ers believe that at least a third of all current infomorph cities than others. Most Lunar settlements, like those
refugees have no plans to place themselves into a morph, on Ganymede, Mercury, Titan, and Callisto, consist
instead enjoying the freedom of virtual existence. These of a network of subsurface tunnels and chambers
infomorphs have become increasingly involved in excavated with plasma drills. These tunnel settle-
habitat politics, especially in the outer system; many ments differ slightly from one world to the next. In
habitats have officials who are infomorphs. Most most of these tunnel cities, the floors of all open
researchers predict this infomorph culture will increas- areas and many dwellings are composed of geneti-
ingly diverge from physical cultures as time progresses. cally modified grass designed for both comfort and
durability. Light panels cover the ceiling and provide
THE CLANKING MASSES bright full-spectrum lighting.

With so many infugees acquiring cheap synthmorph A few of these buried cities further enhance their
shells—particularly cases and synths—and unable natural appearance with trees and, in some cases,
to afford anything better, synthmorphs have become specially engineered ecosystems, in both public areas
associated with poverty throughout the solar system. and private dwellings. A few of these urban tunnel
This lowest strata of the poor are often referred to as forests and jungles are home to numerous flower-
“the clanking masses” and compose one-sixth of the ing vines and bright tropical butterflies. In a small
transhuman population. Most of these people strongly number of settlements on both Titan and Luna, colo-
desire a biomorph sleeve, even if it is only a splicer or nies of small monkeys and parrots with metabolisms
worker pod. Their omnipresence is now viewed with and habits modified for modern ideas of cleanliness
distaste, especially in elite social circles. Even those and sanitation thrive, giving some of these tunnel
who have expensive, lovely, custom-designed synthetic cities the feel of a buried jungle.
morphs fitted with all of the latest augmentations are
considered to be eccentrics with poor taste. All of the older or more prosperous tunnel cities
also contain large open areas that are typically
The social stigma against synthmorphs is strength- between one and twenty hectares, with ceilings at
ened by the fear that, in the event of another attack least ten meters high. Some are parks, others are
by the TITANs, their robotic shells could be rapidly public plazas, but all offer the residents of the tunnel
co-opted to become a deadly TITAN-controlled cities a chance to experience open spaces. Also,
army. This has led to some habitats going so far as with the exception of Mercury, all of these tunnel
to actively segregate their synthmorph populations, cities are on moons where gravity is no more than
rationalized by the fact that shells can easily inhabit one-sixth of a g. Some of these open spaces are con-
unheated and unpressurized portions of various habi- structed with roofs between thirty and one hundred
tats. This segregation and social stigma, however, has meters high and are designed so that residents can
produced the beginnings of an emergent synthmorph use them for flying by strapping on a pair of specially
culture. There are already numerous habitats where designed wings.
all of the inhabitants are sleeved in synthetic shells
and conventional life support exists only for the few The cloud cities of Venus are among the most
visitors wearing biomorphs. unusual habitats in the solar system. Their exotic
nature is enhanced by the chance to observe the many

66

recently introduced floating and flying life forms to create habitats suitable for hundreds of millions .3.3.3.3.3.3.3.3.3.3 .3.3.3.3.3.3.3
modified to live in the clouds. Though located almost of infugees.
fifty kilometers above the most deadly environment in A TIME OF ECLIPSE 67
the solar system, life in these cloud cities is among the During this era, several thousand torus habitats
most Earth-like anywhere in the solar system, with and cluster colonies were created throughout the
gravity, temperatures, and atmospheric pressure all solar system. Many of these habitats were created
being very near normal Earth levels. by automated mining machinery that had been
repurposed to create colonies. Due to the limitations
By contrast, the settlements on Mars look the most of these automated mining rigs, most these habitats
like the cities of lost Earth, built on the surface rather were small, holding between one thousand and one
than underground or in the skies. Some of the more hundred thousand inhabitants. Twenty percent of
recent settlements are designed for use by inhabitants the system’s inhabitants live in such habitats. During
in ruster morphs or synthmorphs and feature no life the past decade, various small organizations, cults,
support. Older Martian cities and other settlements and subcultures have left the larger habitats they
are typically covered with low domes of flexible poly- lived in and created their own small habitats, few
carbonate and filled with a completely breathable, if of which were designed to hold more than ten thou-
somewhat low pressure, atmosphere. Some, however, sand residents.
are collections of sealed skyscrapers, connected by
skywalks and tunnels. If current terraforming efforts The development of the new nanotech Hamilton
continue on schedule, the last sealed Martian cities cylinders has lead to a new interest in large habi-
will be opened to an atmosphere breathable by stan- tats and in habitats that can easily expand in size
dard biomorphs within sixty years. to accommodate an increasing population. The
expense and difficulty involved in expanding existing
The most unusual planetary settlements are the habitats or building new ones is one of the principle
ocean cities of Europa. These are among the most reasons that more than forty million infomorph refu-
exotic locations in the entire solar system and are gees still do not posses morphs. Although none of
quite disorienting for individuals not used to under- the existing Hamilton cylinders has finished growing,
water living. From a distance, most appear to be they are both highly regarded by their residents. This
complex Christmas tree ornaments hanging down one same technology is also likely to produce a low-
hundred meters or more below the ice crust above. A cost method for creating small habitats, where the
few are built deeper, plunging under the icy surface creators merely need to seed an asteroid with the
near the various hydrothermal vents that host the appropriate advanced nanotech generators and wait
native Europan life clusters. a few months.

Many of the residents of the Europan cities find SCUM BARGES
them familiar because they previously lived in one
of the underwater cities on Earth and so were used At the opposite extreme from the Hamilton cyl-
to both the conditions and to living in an aquatic- inders are the infamous scum barges. Most are
adapted body. Europan cities all contain sealed spacecraft built before or during the Fall that were
buildings with normal atmosphere, both because used to help with the early stages of the evacuation,
some activities work best in air instead of water and ferrying people away from the doomed Earth. Many
because the cities often host visitors without gills. of these refugee ships were unable to find anywhere
However, these regions make up only ten percent to unload their transhuman cargo, becoming a sort
or so of most of these cities. The remainder looks of permanent traveling refugee camp, sometimes
vaguely similar to many zero-g habitats, except that succumbing to mutinies. They eventually joined up
the structures are considerably sturdier and are with pre-existing scum ships and swarms, adopting
located underwater. Buildings are designed to be their nomadic, free-wheeling, anarchistic lifestyle.
accessible in all three dimensions, so going from one In contrast to egocasting or the faster and more effi-
floor to another usually involves swimming out a cient fusion drive ships, so-called scum barges offer
large opening in the wall and down a level. In almost a floating city alternative to space travel. These
all of these aquatic cities, large fusion generators heat ships function as roving black markets and carni-
the surrounding water, so that the entire city exists vals of the bizarre—lawless zones where anyone can
in a region of water that is far warmer than the sur- find whatever they want or need for the right rep
rounding frigid Europan sea. or price.

SPACE HABITATS Most scum barges have fusion-powered plasma
drives and hold between two hundred and five
With the exception of the private habitats of the thousand inhabitants. The worst barges are excep-
wealthy and powerful described below, the vast tionally overcrowded, with aging life-support
majority of space habitats hold between twenty- systems struggling to maintain a breathable (but still
five hundred and one million inhabitants. Almost foul-smelling) atmosphere under the strain of too
two-thirds of these habitats were built during the many passengers. The larger and more prosperous
first seven years after the Fall, when huge portions scum barges are often fitted with various modern
of the system’s surviving infrastructure were used conveniences, including large cornucopia machines

SYNOPSIS and vast stores of pirated manufacturing templates. Some of the more unusual small habitats include
WELCOME TO FIREWALL Some are thriving utopianist enclaves, while others dimly lit, spooky landscapes filled with perpetu-
are mobile dens of smugglers and thieves that would ally leafless trees or thick, continually regenerating
A TIME OF ECLIPSE have been destroyed long ago except for the fact that cobwebs, and other similar macabre touches. Others
GAME MECHANICS large and powerful organizations find their existence are gleaming colonies of shining citadels made from
CHARACTER CREATION occasionally useful. Living conditions on the scum quartz and steel. Some are huge interconnected
SAMPLE CHARACTERS barges range from overcrowded refugee camps or arcologies where any sort of personal privacy is rare,
SKILLS thriving, egalitarian anarchist enclaves to relatively while in others every family or even every person has
ACTIONS AND COMBAT modern habitats outfitted in barbaric splendor by a separate dwelling that is rarely seen by outsiders.
MIND HACKS successful organized crime gangs. Since the populations of these stations are relatively
THE MESH small and the vast majority are not major economic
ACCELERATED FUTURE A DIVERSITY OF FLOATING WORLDS centers, travel to and from these smaller habitats is
GEAR infrequent, which further increases their insularity
GAME INFORMATION The use of cornucopia machines and smart materials and idiosyncrasies.
REFERENCE means that the interiors of all but the poorest and
most destitute habitats can be reshaped according THE LARGEST HABITATS
to the whims of their inhabitants. When the number
of inhabitants is small enough or their aesthetics Extropia, the huge Martian city-states, and some of
are uniform enough to all share the same tastes, the the largest Lunar stations hold between one million
results can be both unique and strange. Large-scale and twenty million inhabitants. There are many
fads occasionally sweep through even the largest and smaller settlements containing between one hundred
most cosmopolitan habitats, making some of the thousand and one million residents. These habitats
bigger colonies almost as odd. are considerably less idiosyncratic and exotic than
the smaller colonies. Almost all contain a cosmo-
Several habitats closely resemble terrestrial jungles, politan and diverse population from a wide variety
with an entire rainforest canopy growing from the of subcultures. Because of this diversity and the
slowly rotating outer shell and all dwellings and difficulty of forming any sort of consensus with a
pieces of high technology nestled in the branches large population, these settlements tend to be remi-
or hollows of these vast gene-engineered trees. In niscent of the cities of Earth. All of them have their
these living marvels, genetically engineered monkeys, own unique character and feel, but the differences
iguanas, and tree sloths wander amidst the inhab- between one habitat and another are rarely over-
itants—some of these creatures are wild animals, whelming. In addition, all of these stations are large
while others are controlled by AI servitors and act enough to hold offices for all of the major hyper-
as maintenance or observation drones. Some habi- corps, who further promote uniformity by providing
tats resemble other scenes from old Earth, including the same services from identical hypercorp offices.
more than a dozen water-filled habitats hosting some Since most of these habitats are major centers of
of the aquatic inhabitants of the now-destroyed commerce, travel between them is frequent, so there
underwater cities. In most of these marine habitats, are various facilities for travelers such as hotels and
the actual buildings are either placed amidst a living sports clubs that help reduce the disorientation of
coral reef filled with fish and other creatures or are travel by offering identical experiences, regardless of
actually built into the coral reef itself. There are their location.
many other habitats duplicating other environments,
such as Afrique—a large Cole habitat with a popula- MICROGRAVITY HABITATS
tion of two hundred thousand, where the habitat is
made to resemble the African savanna. In Afrique, Zero-g habitats are very different from those that
the two ends of the habitat are shaped into snow- use rotational gravity. Most consist of networks
capped mountains, and the inhabitants mostly live in of tunnels drilled through an asteroid—similar to
several large cities built in the savannah. the tunnel cities of Luna and Titan—but some are
considerably more exotic. Like most other habitats,
While nostalgia for Earth is a powerful force in almost all microgravity colonies are built in, on, or
habitat design, there are many other options. A few next to one or more asteroids containing a large
exotic habitats resemble fantastic cities from various amount of useful raw materials. They typically
vid games or older forms of entertainment, includ- feature a gravity less than 0.01 g that has very little
ing a handful of small and eccentric habitats where effect on the daily lives of the inhabitants. Near-
the inhabitants all appear as strange humanoid alien weightless environments allow for some interesting
beings. In many, the inhabitants have cosmetically and unusual habitat designs as there is no up or
modified themselves to fit in with the setting. down, enabling the creation of structures that would
be too fragile even in low gravity. The habitats of
One of the most common differences between Nova York, (p. 97) and Nguyen’s Compact (p. 103)
small and large habitats is that the residents of are both examples of this, among many others.
smaller stations often share a common ideology or
sense of aesthetics and so are far more eccentric.

68

PRIVATE HABITATS exceptionally lavish. Almost every surface is made .3.3.3.3.3.3.3.3.3.3.3.3.3.3.3.3.3
of formatible smart materials and there are several
The most rare and exotic of all of the types of habitats large general-purpose cornucopia machines avail- A TIME OF ECLIPSE
are the luxurious private ones owned by exceedingly able for the use of every resident.
wealthy or high-rep individuals. Most private habitats
are small but still give each of the residents several By using these nanofabricators and the smart mate-
thousand cubic meters of personal space. rials to their fullest, residents can completely change
the interior of the habitat in only a day or two—trans-
A typical private habitat is either a cylinder one forming a sterile and crystalline array of shining metal
hundred fifty meters in diameter (the minimum and glass buildings into a thriving forest, inhabited by
necessary to produce Mars gravity at a rate of rota- a variety of wild animals. The mesh is filled with vids
tion slow enough to avoid problems in all morphs) and XPs about the lives of the most famous residents
and between fifty and two hundred meters long or of the solar system. Almost everyone has seen the inte-
a zero-g sphere one hundred to two hundred meters rior of one of these vast space mansions many times,
in diameter. These habitats are always tethered to though only a tiny percentage of the inhabitants of
a small collection of raw materials, consisting of the solar system will ever have a chance to actually
chunks of silicate, nickel-iron, and water-containing visit such a location. Many gatecrashers, scaven-
carboniferous asteroids with a mass equal to at gers who travel to Earth, and others who engage in
least that of the habitat. The majority of private similarly daring endeavors hope to be able to obtain
habitats are inhabited by between half a dozen and information or objects sufficiently valuable to allow
three dozen morphs, most of which may be AIs them to retire to their own private habitat.
or indentured servants. Life in a private habitat is

69

SYNOPSIS FACTIONS voting initiatives that statistically fare better. A few
WELCOME TO FIREWALL are anarcho-capitalist or mutualist companies origi-
One would have thought a cataclysmic event such nating from Extropian enclaves, though these often
A TIME OF ECLIPSE as the Fall would bring the surviving elements of suffer from a bias when making deals with inner
GAME MECHANICS transhumanity closer together, jointly dedicating system powers.
CHARACTER CREATION themselves to the repopulation of the solar system
SAMPLE CHARACTERS and continued prosperity. Instead, the remoteness The solar system boasts thousands of hypercorps;
SKILLS and physical isolation of transhuman colonies and a few of the more prominent and interesting are
ACTIONS AND COMBAT habitats stretched across the solar system, as well as noted below.
MIND HACKS the effects emerging technologies have had on trans-
THE MESH human economies and social lives, have promoted COGNITE
ACCELERATED FUTURE the evolution of a wide spectrum of philosophies,
GEAR agendas, and political models. Major Industries: Cognitive Science, Mental
GAME INFORMATION Implants, Psychosurgery, Nootropics
REFERENCE THE HYPERCORPS
Major Stations: Thought (Venus orbit), Phobos
70 To some economists, the Fall and the numerous (Mars moon)
crises that predated it on Earth can be viewed as an
extinction event, the end of the line for the massive A pioneer in the field of cognitive science, Cognite
transnational megacorp dinosaurs, financial giants (pronounced cog-neet) drives forward the cutting edge
that supported their monolithic frameworks on out- of research into understanding the transhuman mind.
dated economic models and industrial technologies. Well known for their mental augmentations and the
The hypercorps are their evolutionary descendants: original menton morph design, Cognite also special-
slimmer, faster, meaner, and more flexible, eagerly izes in psychosurgery and nootropics. Their elitist
embracing the possibilities of new technologies and and aloof image was not aided by their scandalous
never afraid to toss the old aside to take advantage involvement with the projects to raise accelerated
of the new. It was the hypercorps that drove transhu- growth children that became known as the Lost
manity’s expansion into space and who continue to generation (p. 233), nor rumors that they engage in
push the technological envelope, guiding transhuman- research involving TITAN-influenced incapacitating
ity towards new horizons—always with profit as their input attacks. Nevertheless they remain a key member
driving goal. in the Planetary Consortium.

Most hypercorps are decentralized, non-asset-based PSICLONE
legal entities. Complete automation, advanced robot-
ics, morph technology, and cornucopia machines To: Proxy-99
allow the hypercorps to abstain from mass employ- From: <Encrypted>
ment for labor or production services. The need for
physical labor has mostly been reduced to tasks I’m enclosing some data I recently
associated with habitat construction, terraforming, or acquired from an inside source regard-
deep space mining. Infomorphs and AIs are heavily ing a so-called “Project Psiclone”—
employed (or more accurately, owned) as drone some type of black budget research
operators or virtual workers, and many administra- initiative pursued by Cognite, possibly
tive tasks are performed online via augmented reality, with involvement from other Planetary
virtual private networks, and simulspace nodes. Some Consortium interests. Their work seems
hypercorps are in fact entirely “virtual,” with no to focus strongly on the Watts-MacLeod
physical assets and each employee acting as a mobile strain of the exsurgent virus—with
office. A few major hypercorps literally consist of only some alarming results.
a dozen transhuman personnel. Though some hyper-
corps are massive and diversified, most specialize in COMET EXPRESS (COMEX)
particular fields or services. This results in both an
intricate system of partnerships to develop, produce, Major Industries: Courier Services, Shipping,
and market products and services and a large-scale Logistics
tendency to internally contract special services from
other hypercorps. Many hypercorps also pool their Major Stations: Nectar (Luna), Olympus (Mars)
resources and talent into cooperative research initia- Comet Express specializes in delivery services, inter-
tives, project centers, or shared habitats. stellar logistics, supply chains, and shipping. They
maintain a presence on almost every transhuman
Most hypercorps are traditional capitalist in habitat in the solar system, often via local subcontrac-
outlook, though many have adopted alternative tors. Despite the wonders of nanofabrication, many
business philosophies and management models. This resources must still be imported. ComEx focuses on
might include basing decisions on internal forecast managing supply and trade routes and making sure
market trends, groupthink consensus models, or physical shipments reach their destinations. For that
ditching management entirely in favor of staff polling/ purpose, ComEx maintains orbital hubs equipped
with slingshot accelerators at strategic waypoints

throughout the system and a fleet of cargo vessels Rumors persist that ExoTech continues to carry out .3.3.3.3.3.3.3.3.3.3 .3.3.3.3.3.3.3
and courier drones. For reasons unknown to the research and even production of AGIs.
public, ComEx is viewed with hostility by the Jovian A TIME OF ECLIPSE 71
Republic, who have standing orders to shoot down EXPERIA
ComEx vessels.
Major Industries: Media (AR, VR, XP), News,
DIRECT ACTION Entertainment, Memetics

Major Industries: Security Services, Major Stations: Elysium (Mars)
Military Contracting Living up to its name, Experia dominates the solar
system’s news, media, and entertainment market seg-
Major Stations: Hexagon (Earth-Luna L5) ments, generating controversy not only with its pub-
Descended from the remnants of several pre-Fall licly expressed pro-AI stance or inviting an AGI to its
national military forces and private military contrac- board of directors, but also by proficient use of hyper-
tors, this hypercorp made a name for itself in the viral marketing and sophisticated XP-programming.
period immediately following the Fall, where they Another core segment is the production of educa-
helped manage refugee populations among various tional XP and infomorph or AI tutors, some of the
habitats and vessels while shattering any sign of latter regularly ascending to pop-culture icon status.
unrest immediately and with full force. Direct Action Experia is the Planetary Consortium’s prime authority
today is known for its highly efficient shock troops on designing and deploying customized viral memes,
and superior combat morphs, providing security and developed to counter anything posing a threat to
public police services to self-governing habitats or the Consortium’s interests. The corp has automated
hypercorp installations. Shifting political alliances nodes and VR centers on many habitats throughout
between habitat clusters, corporate rivalry, and the the solar system, and it contracts thousands of free-
constant fear of TITAN agents cater to Direct Action’s lance lifeloggers as live, roving, citizen journalistas.
paranoia-inducing marketing. The corporation main- Claims by some infomorphs that Experia has illegally
tains several habitats as physical training facilities and subjected indentured infomorphs to never-ending
armament depots. simulation experiments for forecasting and intelli-
gence analysis purposes remain unsubstantiated.
ECOLOGENE
FA JING
Major Industries: Environmental Systems, Genetics
Major Stations: McClintock (Mars orbit) Major Industries: Mining, Energy, Biotech,
Ecologene specializes in living systems, environmental Industrial Manufacturing
genetics (with a specialty in insects), smart animals,
bioarchitecture, and environmental nanotech. They Major Stations: New Dazhai (Mars)
design and maintain the ecosystems inside numer- The industrial giant Fa Jing is a powerhouse in the
ous habitats and tunnel colonies. One of Ecologene’s mining and energy production markets and also
notable projects is building and maintaining a massive boasts a remarkable presence in the fields of biotech
genetics archive of all life forms, though this endeavor and industrial equipment manufacturing. The former
was nearly crippled by the Fall. For unknown reasons, megacorp has quickly adapted to the new economic
Ecologene seems to be favored by the Factors. Some environments and reputation-based systems, thanks
speculate that Ecologene has some sort of blackmail partly to its dedication to network building and sharing
material in hand, while others believe Ecologene social responsibility, epitomized in concepts like dàtóng
is trading away transhumanity’s genetic secrets in and guanxi. Often considered insular and close-minded,
exchange for a few xeno-tech gifts. its internal communal and protective mindset is a
strong contrast to its manipulative and monopolist
EXOTECH business attitude. Fa Jing is engaged in mining opera-
tions throughout the asteroid belt and the Trojans and
Major Industries: Uploading, AIs, Electronics, maintains significant corporate assets on Mars.
Software
WAR CRIMES
Major Stations: Starwell (Main Belt)
Often regarded as the personal technocratic pulpit of To: MeshLeaks Newswire
the infamous media mogul Morgan Sterling, Exotech From: <mesh ID does not exist>
emerged from the Fall almost unscathed, any signifi-
cant losses absorbed by corporate assets in peripheral You asked for it: verifiable evidence
market segments, while ruthlessly buying out troubled proving Direct Action’s war crimes during
competitors or think tanks unable to adapt to the the Fall <link failure>. Go ahead, take it
transitioning economy. Nowadays, Exotech remains public. The Planetary Consortium elites
a predominant designer of high-end electronics, AIs, will find you, kill you, and erase your
and mesh presence software systems. ExoTech also backups. Go ahead. Test them.
continues to pursue an uncompromising progressive
agenda with its research in mind emulation, uploading,
and resleeving, as well as infomorph ego simulation.

SYNOPSIS GATEKEEPER CORPORATION arms suppliers to autonomist and brinker stations.
WELCOME TO FIREWALL Their subsidiary Medusan Shield offers private secu-
Major Industries: Gatecrashing, Research, XP Media, rity services in direct competition to Direct Action.
A TIME OF ECLIPSE Exoplanet Colonization While Direct Action is known for its expertly trained
GAME MECHANICS soldiers, Medusan Shield is known for their elite
CHARACTER CREATION Major Stations: Gateway (Pandora) cadre of highly trained and aesthetically enhanced
SAMPLE CHARACTERS Initially born from the merger of several scientific female combat morphs. It is suspected that several
SKILLS institutions and their corporate financiers, this prominent assassinations have been the work of
ACTIONS AND COMBAT hypercorp made a name for itself overnight when it agents contracted through Medusan Shield.
MIND HACKS announced the successful decoding of the wormhole
THE MESH gateway discovered on Saturn’s moon Pandora. Under NIMBUS
ACCELERATED FUTURE the leadership of the eccentric but charismatic xeno-
GEAR archeologist Xander Rabin, the consortium funds Major Industries: Electronics, Mesh Systems,
GAME INFORMATION gatecrasher explorations through the Pandora Gate, Farcasting, Communications
REFERENCE paying a small share of the revenue to the explorers
but otherwise retaining all-encompassing rights on Major Stations: Octavia (Venus)
72 any discoveries made—as well as the marketing and Nimbus produces key components for mesh infra-
distribution of the highly popular gatecrasher XP structure, from spime microradio and sensor systems
recordings. Aside from scheduled explorations, the to ectos, servers, and laser links. Nimbus also domi-
consortium offers high-risk gatecrasher scouting and nates the network of farcaster links throughout the
discovery trips for the bold or desperate, selected system, due to several breakthroughs in this tech-
through a random lottery system. nology (some claim that Nimbus purchased these
advances from the Factors). Rumors that Nimbus
GO-NIN GROUP controls a secret Pandora gate or that they engage
in illicit ego-smuggling (or even that they are secretly
Major Industries: Banking, Agritech, Robotics, transferring stolen egos to experimental exoplanet
Services colonies) regularly circulate through the mesh but
remain unconfirmed.
Major Stations: Tsukomo (Luna)
Considered a relic of Earth’s capitalist market economy, OMNICOR
the Go-nin Group is a traditional Japanese keiretsu, a
conglomerate of companies with interwoven relation- Major Industries: Nanofabrication, Chemicals,
ships and shareholdings, horizontally integrated across Energy, Anti-Matter
several industries (and sometimes vertically integrated
within a business sector as well), and centered around Major Stations: Monolith-3 (Mercury), Feynman (Luna)
the long-lived Tamahashi enterprise consultancy firm. A descendant of the pre-Fall megacorporate giant
Tamahashi evolved from an influential corporate lobby Monolith Industries, Omnicor specializes in the fields
to a diversified bank holding major equity in the group’s of nanotech design and fabrication, chemical refining,
partners; it now controls the group’s assets and directs alternative fuel, and antimatter research. Omnicor
the partnership’s overall business strategy. Through its managed to secure research-oriented key assets from
member corps, the Go-nin Group has a sizable presence its twin rival Starware in a violent conflict during
throughout the entire system and—without dominat- the Fall, leading to an ongoing enmity that might be
ing a specific industry—own significant market share
in fields such as banking, agritech, robotics, and ser- UNION BUSTING
vices. Any difficulties in adapting to evolving economic
models due to its rigid structure are compensated by To: OmniSec Alpha
unscrupulous exploitative behavior and a bottom-line From: OmniSec 837302
attitude, earning the group the reputation as the most
ruthless hypercorp of the inner system. Go-nin cur- Surveillance has confirmed it. The biosleeved
rently controls a Pandora gate on Eris, (p. 109), secured workers at our secure Didenko facility are indeed
by a contingent of ultimate mercenaries. communicating with outside autonomist interests
and discussing militant free union organizing
GORGON DEFENSE SYSTEMS tactics and even a wildcat strike. Their primary
complaints concern the 30-hour workdays and
Major Industries: Miltech, Security, Military mandatory drug regimens enforced to keep the
Contracting staff at our required levels of productivity. We
recommend the immediate insertion of a counter-
Major Stations: Extropia insurgency squad and implementation of standard
Gorgon is one of the most significant Extropian union-busting protocols, including but not limited
success stories. Based out of the anarcho-capitalist to loyalty testing, chemical pacification, tactical
freehold, Gorgon has become a major name in the psychosurgery, selective excision of leadership
design and manufacture of weapons, vehicles, sensors, nodes, memetic counterstrikes, and replacing the
and other defense technologies. Their product range workforce with modified backups. The entire oper-
includes personal weapon systems, spacecraft arma- ation will take place using a purported mission to
ments, and habitat defense systems. While prominent root out a Starware infiltration as cover.
in the inner system, Gorgon is also one of the main

better termed a corporate war. Despite its progressive SKINTHETIC .3.3.3.3.3.3.3.3.3.3 .3.3.3.3.3.3.3
technological outlook, Omnicor retains a conservative
corporate structure with strict internal regulations Major Industries: Genetics, Cloning, Biotech A TIME OF ECLIPSE 73
and controls as a defense against Starware’s repeated Major Stations: Extropia
infiltration and sabotage attempts. Among the hyper- Skinthetic is also a lead designer of morphs, but with
corp’s major assets are an antimatter research facility a much sleazier reputation and not just because of
orbiting Mercury. their anarcho-capitalist roots. Specializing in exten-
sive and often radical biomodifications, the hyper-
PATHFINDER corp pushes the envelope in exotic pod and biomorph
designs under the mantle of morphological freedom.
Major Industries: Exoplanet Colonization, Mining, Bioconservatives have condemned the corporation’s
Research business practices and ethics and have even leveled
accusations that Skinthetic is experimenting with
Major Stations: Ma’adim Vallis (Mars) xenogenetic materials acquired from the Factors.
Pathfinder is one of the first hypercorps to dive into Skinthetic’s cavalier attitude actually makes them
galactic expansion, claiming new territories beyond popular in many parts of the outer system, and they
the Pandora gates and establishing numerous colonies. are know as the biotech corp to go to if you want
Taking advantage of desperate infugees and gatecrash- something weird.
ers, Pathfinder offers transportation to an exoplanet
and a new morph in exchange for indentured labor. SOLARIS
The corp has established several offworld mining and
resource exploitation projects, much to the chagrin of Major Industries: Banking, Insurance, Investments,
preservationists. Though Pathfinder has but a small Futures Markets, Info Brokerage
presence in the solar system, it is a frequent target of
eco-terrorist attacks. Major Stations: None
Solaris is the solar system’s leading banking and
PROSPERITY GROUP financial investment hypercorp, dealing in insurance,
info-brokerage, and high-risk investment on cultural
Major Industries: Agriculture, Aquaculture, and social experimental speculation. A member of the
Pharmaceuticals Planetary Consortium, Solaris advises many habitats
on regulating their transitional economies. Solaris has
Major Stations: Ceres, Lu Xing (Mars) no offices or physical assets; each banker is a mobile
The Prosperity Group ascended into the hypercorp virtual office. Solaris is rumored to maintain a secret
ranks before the Fall, meeting the high demand base where the corporation runs simulations on the
many new stations had for microgravity agritech, development of the entire solar system’s macro-econ-
aquaculture, hydroponics, and other sources of food. omy, constantly adjusting its own strategies based
Expanding into pharmaceuticals as well, Prosperity is on the dynamics of this big blueprint. Fueling these
considered the lead supplier for the poor man’s food rumors, Solaris is known to hire “independent consul-
and drugs. Their cultured faux-meats and protein- tants” to tip the balance in politically or economically
enriched nutrition additives are in high demand. This profitable high-risk investments.
corp earned some sympathy when it lost an entire
habitat to some sort of resurgent TITAN outbreak a SOMATEK
few years after the Fall, though some have suggested
this was just a cover story to hide an unfortunate Major Industries: Uplifts, Pharming,
accident resulting from experimental drug testing on Pharmaceuticals, Genetics
an unwitting populace.
Major Stations: Clever Hands (Luna)
SKINEASTHESIA Somatek is a leader in the art and science of uplift-
ing animal species, pioneering several major break-
Major Industries: Genetics, Cloning, Biotech throughs in cognitive enhancement and genetic
Major Stations: Ptah (Mars) modification. The hypercorp also engages in extensive
As the leading designer of biomorphs, Skineasthesia animal pharming—producing and extracting phar-
enjoys system-wide popularity and respect for its maceuticals from transgenic critters—and markets
sophisticated products, especially high-end custom- numerous products and services related to smart
ized models. Best known for its breakthroughs in animals and chimerical creatures. Despite the educa-
genetic engineering and enhancements, the hyper- tional and training programs it offers to uplifts and
corp’s interest in sophisticated combat morphs or the fact that much of its workforce consists of uplifts,
stylized pleasure pods are lesser-known facts and Somatek is controversial among mercurials who dis-
often sold through a network of seemingly unaf- approve of their methods (which often involve strict
filiated shell corporations or local distributors. controls on uplift reproduction), the lack of input
Skinaesthesia emphasizes environmental adaptations uplifts are given in their modifications and develop-
and useful cybernetic enhancements, increasing trans- ment, and the focus on anthropocentric mind-sets
humanity’s chances for survival and further prosper- “enforced” on uplifts.
ity. Experimental morphs are sometimes offered to
desperate infugees for field testing.

SOLARCHIVE SEARCH: ZBRNY LIMITED + CONSPIRACY

The secretive Zbrny Group is the center itself is claimed to have been caused outsiders are conducted exclusively via
of many recurring conspiracy theories by the TITANs or a powerful underworld a spokesperson AGI. To this day, Zbrny
and horror tales. Though varying in syndicate to which CEO Krystof Zbrny drones continue to mine asteroids for
detail and plausibility, most rumors was indebted. Barely acknowledging minerals and ores, supplying the com-
claim that an outside attack on the the system failures, Zbrny headquarters pany’s processing stations. According
former Eastern European hypercorp’s ordered all non-affected stations to be to rumors, an attempt by brinker pirates
asteroid mining and processing stations abandoned, the personnel either laid off to board a Zrbny outpost resulted in the
caused a major blackout and complete or transferred to the affected stations. station’s self-destruction. The compa-
shut-down of life support systems Since then, no one has seen or commu- ny’s AI-piloted massive bulk freighters
over an extended period of time. nicated with any employees of the mys- are notoriously non-responsive, earning
Depending on the source, the attack terious hypercorp—negotiations with them the nickname “zombie ships.”

SYNOPSIS STARWARE programmed infomorph agents into the local popu-
WELCOME TO FIREWALL lation of any oppressive regime that will pay their
Major Industries: Robotics, Aerospace Engineering, price. While many view Stellar as the brainwashing
A TIME OF ECLIPSE Habitat Construction and secret police arm of the Planetary Consortium,
GAME MECHANICS the hypercorp offers its services to almost any other
CHARACTER CREATION Major Stations: Korolev Shipyards (Luna), Vesta (Belt) faction or individual.
SAMPLE CHARACTERS Another remnant of the pre-Fall megacorp Monolith
SKILLS Industries (like Omnicor), Starware is a leading manu- TERRAGENESIS
ACTIONS AND COMBAT facturer of robotics, spacecraft fusion drives, satellites,
MIND HACKS and entire pre-fab habitats. Despite its financial success Major Industries: Terraforming, Ecosystem
THE MESH and resources, Starware’s ongoing blood feud with Management, Environmental Data
ACCELERATED FUTURE Omnicor denies both corporations full membership
GEAR privileges in the Planetary Consortium. Starware makes Major Stations: Caldwell (Vulcanoids), Ashoka
GAME INFORMATION heavy use of AI workers in robotic shells, having suf- (Mars), Elegua (Earth orbit)
REFERENCE fered a few too many labor disputes with disgruntled
Lunar workers. In fact Starware grows increasingly Built from the remains of several pre-Fall South
unpopular with its Lunar neighbors and has been African and Southeast Asian corporations who
forced to bring in extra security due to frequent sabo- engaged in geoengineering projects and sought
tage attempts. Recent negotiations with the Factors to relieve Earth’s ecological crises, TerraGenesis’s
have spurred theories that Starware might be acquiring expertise is in developing sustainable biospheres
Factor aid for building a lighthugger starship. and eco-systems via aggressive industrialized ter-
raforming. TerraGenesis is different in that it is a
STELLAR INTELLIGENCE worker-owned cooperative, with workplace councils
in local offices and an elected cooperative congress
Major Industries: Intelligence, Data Mining, handling management. It maintains several habitats
Info Brokerage, Espionage on Mars and a small number of research stations in
orbit around Earth, collecting data for simulations
Major Stations: Memory Hole Torus of Earth revitalization projects. The latter initiative
(Martian Trojans) is strongly supported—and possibly financed—by
prominent reclaimers. TerraGenesis’s work on Mars,
Born from the ashes of the UN-governed Terran however, is often targeted by preservationist saboteurs.
Intelligence Cooperative (TIC), surviving personnel Thanks to their possession of the Vulcanoid Gate
and assets were collectively uploaded during the (p. 88), the cooperative has a growing presence on
Fall and quickly regrouped under the name Stellar various exoplanets that are ripe for terraforming or
Intelligence. Emerging as a virtual collective, most of geoengineering.
Stellar’s employees remain loyal to the corporation
and its director, the reclusive infomorph known as POLITICAL BLOCS
Syme. Stellar offers an impressive array of intelligence
services, including data mining, analyst think tanks, Transhumanity’s social, cultural, and ideological diver-
retro-quantification (bringing old secrets/data to light), sity, combined with its scattered and isolated presence
memetic mapping, and more. Its services also extend in habitat clusters throughout the solar system, gives
to surveillance, data theft, espionage, media manipu- rise to a wide range of political memes and factions
lation, and infiltration. The hypercorp’s specialty is advocating equally diverse organizational models.
pre-empting civil insurgencies and preventing political Many of these have banded together into larger politi-
memes and movements from destabilizing a habitat’s cal entities to further mutual goals and act in coopera-
or sector’s regime. Criticized by civil rights movements tive self-interest.
and especially anarchists, Stellar is known to embed

74

JOVIAN REPUBLIC old-fashioned, and too caught up in romanticizing .3.3.3.3.3.3.3.3.3.3 .3.3.3.3.3.3.3
the past. Lunar-Lagrange Alliance stations maintain
Memes: Bioconservatism, Fascism, Security simmering tensions and an ongoing rivalry with the A TIME OF ECLIPSE 75
Main Stations: Liberty (Ganymede) Planetary Consortium, particularly those colonies
Exploiting the chaos of the Fall, a group of stations in the Lunar-Lagrange neighborhood. One main
and habitats were seized in a military coup and the source of contention is the quarantine of Earth, as
Jovian Republic was born. Combining terrestrial South the Lunar-Lagrange Alliance is a stronghold for the
American dictatorship with U.S. American political lob- reclaimer movement. The Lunar-Lagrange Alliance
byism, this regime quickly brought the entire Jovian does, however, benefit from hypercorp support of
military-industrial complex under its control. its own, particularly the Go-nin Group, Starware,
and the influential Lunar banking consortiums.
Widely referred to as the
Jovian Junta by the rest In addition to scientific research stations, mineral
of the outer system, the processing and refinery stations make up the major-
Republic’s authorities ity of the Alliance’s habitats, dependent on the Lunar
hold a strict biocon- mining and water extraction industries. These stations
servative stance against took the brunt of the refugee influx during the Fall.
many transhuman sci- Many remain overcrowded with strained resources,
entific and technological large masses of impoverished workers, and thriving
developments. Exploiting criminal syndicates.
fears engendered by the Fall,
the Republic restricts access to MORNINGSTAR CONSTELLATION
sophisticated technologies such as nanofabrication,
cloning, forking, and even uploading, and is one Memes: Venusian Sovereignty
of the few old economies left in the system. Public Main Stations: Octavia
communication channels are subjected to extensive The system’s newest political bloc, the Morningstar
censorship and travel privileges are extremely limited. Constellation is an alliance of aerostat habitats float-
Both uplifts and AGIs are strictly forbidden and ing in Venus’s upper atmosphere. Formed
treated as property without civil rights. Diplomatic after a recent series of joint vetoes from the
relations to progressive factions remain cold; heavily major aerostats against hypercorp
modified transhuman emissaries or visitors are viewed governance initiatives intended to
with suspicion or simply denied access. Despite con- limit aerostat self-governance, the
tinuous reports of heinous acts of government oppres- Constellation’s joint political
sion, the Republic’s intimidating military assets keep statement and agenda are
any other factions from intervening. still being discussed. While
the Planetary Consortium views
LUNAR-LAGRANGE ALLIANCE the formation of this new power
bloc with bemused resentment,
Memes: Reclaiming Earth the Barsoomians on Mars and
Main Stations: Erato (Luna),
INNER SYSTEM POLITICS
Remembrance (Earth orbit)
This small cluster of habitats [Incoming Message. Source: Anonymous]
stationed around Earth’s [Public Key Decryption Complete]
Lagrange points and on
or in orbit around Luna It’s easy for Firewall agents to get
formed an alliance of caught between the agendas and maneu-
necessity, rather than vers of rival factions. The Lunar-Lagrange
joint political or social Alliance resembles the power of old, a
agendas or cultural roots. shadow of transhumanity’s former glory.
In fact, individual stations On and above Mars—transhumanity’s new
are quite diverse and sometimes homeworld—the Planetary Consortium is
polarized, as many of them cling to old Earth cultural the dominant usurper, the hypercorps ruling
and national identities. Due to their relative proxim- from behind the curtain while portraying
ity, members share basic resources and services and themselves as the only bulwark between
have signed mutual assistance agreements in case of transhumanity and the dark between the
an emergency. stars. The Morningstar Constellation has
the potential to become the new and future
Before the Fall, many of these habitats were power bloc, but only if they get their act
considered some of the most influential off-Earth together before the Planetary Consortium
bases. Since the Fall and the subsequent rise of starts sending Stellar Intelligence agents to
the Planetary Consortium, however, the Lunar- destabilize them.
Lagrange Alliance has become a second-rate dimin-
ished power and is often viewed as conservative,

SYNOPSIS the outer system autonomists view the Venusians as THARSIS LEAGUE
WELCOME TO FIREWALL free-thinking reformists rather than anti-hypercorp
radicals. The population reportedly enjoys great League Members: Ashoka, Elysium, Noctis-Qianjiao,
A TIME OF ECLIPSE liberties in morph and enhancement technologies as Olympus, Valles-New Shanghai, plus over a
GAME MECHANICS well as freedom of social and political expression. The dozen others.
CHARACTER CREATION aerostat of Octavia has emerged as the Constellation’s
SAMPLE CHARACTERS designated voice. Memes: Martian Nationalism
SKILLS A loose coalition of the planet’s major independent
ACTIONS AND COMBAT PLANETARY CONSORTIUM settlements, the League’s elected members form a
MIND HACKS committee representing the population in matters
THE MESH Hypercorp Council Members: Cognite, Direct concerning or affecting the majority of its habitats
ACCELERATED FUTURE Action, Experia, Fa Jing, Olympus Infrastructure and settlements. Prominent debates revolve around
GEAR Authority, Pathfinder, Prosperity Group, Solaris, the scientific approach of the ongoing terraforming
GAME INFORMATION Stellar Intelligence, plus a dozen others process as well as trade and taxation restrictions ini-
REFERENCE tiated by the Planetary Consortium and its member
Memes: Cyberdemocracy, Hypercapitalism, Eugenics, hypercorps. The League’s committee is rarely united in
Security, Expansion its agenda and opinion and tensions are increasingly
on the rise. The cities with strong hypercorp ties are
Main Stations: Progress (Mars orbit) accused of dominating council affairs, manipulating
Evolving from an alliance of hypercorp interests into matters behind the scenes, failing to do anything
transhumanity’s most powerful body politic, the about the TITAN Quarantine Zone (p.  94), and
Planetary Consortium today controls several habitat selling out Martian interests to the hypercorps and the
clusters throughout the inner system, primarily in and Planetary Consortium (of which many are also part).
around Mars, Luna, and Earth orbit. The impressive In response, the non-Consortium cities are condemned
space station Progress is the official seat of govern- for advocating anti-hypercorp initiatives, passively
ment and has become the symbol of the Consortium’s blocking terraforming measures, and for maintain-
influence and power, even though few congress or ing ties to the Barsoomians—the Martian underclass
council meets take place in the flesh. resistance living in the desolate and unstable outskirts.

The Consortium applies basic democratic prin- AUTONOMIST ALLIANCE
ciples supported by a real-time voting system for
all registered citizens. The congress and executive The outer system presented an opportunity for people
bodies feature a rotating cast of hyperelite politicos, who wanted to set up a way of doing things that was
gerontocrats, socialites, and even media icons. It’s drastically different from the authoritarian politics
a known fact that despite this political façade of a and sham democracies of Earth and the inner system.
democratic republic, the members of the secretive Far from the reach of governments and hypercorps,
Hypercorp Council are the true powers behind the this frontier was populated by political radicals, social
Consortium. These hypercorps are major proponents dropouts, and people who just
of the transitional economy, the interdiction of Earth, wanted to experiment or do their
and expansion beyond the gates. own thing. These initial habitats
drew the interests of insurgents
Aside from economic interests, the Consortium from Earth, scientists and
advocates the imperative of eugenics as social
responsibility and for transhumanity to reclaim its
former strength and prosperity—a campaign some-
times accused of euphemizing discrimination against
unmodified humans, indentured infomorphs, uplifts,
and the clanking masses.

76

technicians who didn’t appreciate being on CALL FOR SOLIDARITY .3.3.3.3.3.3.3.3.3.3
a corporate leash, indentured vacworkers
who sought to escape their oppressive terms To: Malatesta Prime A TIME OF ECLIPSE
of service, and even criminals fleeing hyper- From: Shevek
corp justice or forcibly expelled from inner
system habitats. Their ranks swelled with Check this out. Residents of the autono-
every act of inner system injustice, though mist Red Jupiter habitat just put out a call
life on the fringe was often harsh and deadly. for support and solidarity from @-listers in
Despite occasional hostilities with nation- the regional neighborhood. Apparently the
state military units or hypercorp security, station’s citizen councils granted asylum to
the expense of reining in these radicals and a group of AGIs seeking refuge from Jovian
expats was too high. To some degree, their Republic counter-AI ops. The Junta has
presence was useful to the powers-that-be. labeled the AGIs as dangerous criminals
researching upgrades that would propel
Breakthroughs with nanofabrication them to seed AI status, contrary to system-
brought these anarchists and fringers the wide resolutions. The AGIs are claiming
edge they needed to keep their autonomy that they escaped from a secret Jovian
over the long-term. Once cornucopia research project. They say they pursued
machines were widely available, anyone self-programming research to bypass
had the means to support and defend Jovian-inflicted restrictions that violated
themselves without relying on outside or their rights as autonomous and sapient
higher authorities. Already an outpost for entities and that they are facing persecu-
open source and free culture activists who tion due to anti-AI biases. This could be a
fought restrictions on ideas, media, and chance for us to kick some Jovian ass and
digital content, the outer system became look into non-standard AGI programming
a haven for sharing nanofab designs and at the same time. You in?
circumventing the controls the hypercorps
attempted to place on their software and ANARCHISTS
other digital goods.
Memes: Anarchism, Anti-capitalism,
During the Fall, many outer system Communism, Direct Democracy,
habitats opened their doors to refugees Mutual Aid
from Earth. Distance and the high cost
of egocasting curtailed these efforts, Main Stations: Locus (Jovian Trojans)
however, as did inner system reluctance to Anarchists eschew power and hierarchy,
send potential recruits to their ideological promoting horizontal and directly demo-
opponents. Simple overcrowding and lack cratic methods of organization. Individual
of resources drove them to push many empowerment and collective action are
refugees to the outer system, however, cornerstones of their philosophy, as is
though the hypercorps weeded through economic communism enabled by equal
their virtual infugee mobs and sent those access to cornucopia machines and shared
with the highest risk of criminal tenden- resources. In anarchist stations, private
cies or discontent with inner system life. property has been abolished above the
level of personal possessions—nobody
Though the outer system habitats run owns anything, it’s all shared. There are
the gamut of the socio-political spectrum, no laws and no one to watch over what
four primary tendencies have emerged. you do—reputation networks encourage
The stations and swarms adhering to these positive behavior and anti-social acts are
ideas have bonded together under a loose
autonomist alliance, a mutual aid pact .3.3.3.3.3.3.3
to help each other in times of crisis and
present a united front against the inner 77
system powers and Jovian Junta. There is
little formal structure to this alliance as an
entity unto itself; it primarily exists as an
assortment of joint resolutions agreed to
by its various member habitats and a few
ad hoc task forces dedicated to addressing
a particular problem or issue and then
dissolving. Delegated ambassadors act as
negotiators with outside powers, but these
have limited authority and are held strictly
accountable.

SOLARCHIVE SEARCH: CARNIVAL OF THE GOAT

Aside from the stationary scum station on the Carnival are said to be some of the
Fresh Kills near Earth’s L5 Lagrange point, best in the system. According to rumors,
the most notorious scum barge may well residents sometimes experiment with
be the Carnival of the Goat, a combina- multiple simultaneous sleeving, ego-
tion artist colony and den of unfathom- mingling, and other mentally dangerous
able hedonism, dedicated to exploring activities. Led by a rotating residents’
chaos, creativity, self-discovery, and council, the Carnival prides itself on
coupling in every conceivable iteration. being a bleeding-edge social experiment
Residents are known for their consistent and maintains top-of-the-line facilities
and rapid morphological changes, includ- for morph customization, resleeving, and
ing regular resleeving. The biosculptors psychosurgery.

SYNOPSIS likely to draw a response from locals or even the handling management. This puts the Extropians in
WELCOME TO FIREWALL entire populace, with disputes handled through ad a remarkable position where they interact heavily
hoc community conflict resolution. The mesh and with both the hypercorps and autonomists but are
A TIME OF ECLIPSE various networking tools are used extensively to not fully trusted by either.
GAME MECHANICS strive for group consensus decision-making in real-
CHARACTER CREATION time. AIs and robots are relied on for most mundane In Extropian society, law and security, like every-
SAMPLE CHARACTERS and demeaning tasks. Various self-organized col- thing else, are contracted services. When entering an
SKILLS lectives, syndicates, worker’s councils, and affinity Extropian habitat, you purchase defense insurance
ACTIONS AND COMBAT groups, often with rotating membership, take on from a local contractor such as Gorgon Defense
MIND HACKS different tasks and services that are important to a Systems, who maintains automated drones and
THE MESH habitat’s community, including everything from com- freelancers throughout the station who can come
ACCELERATED FUTURE munications and space traffic control to backup and to your aid if threatened. Likewise, the only law
GEAR resleeving services. Participatory militias organize that exists is what’s put into writing between two
GAME INFORMATION collective defense against external threats. contracted parties. In case of disputes, both parties
REFERENCE resort to a pre-agreed legal contractor to settle the
Among the anarchist stations there are many varia- matter. Some Extropian colonies utilize AGIs for
78 tions and permutations on how things are organized, facilitating contracts and legal matters, such as
as everything is fine-tuned at the local level by whom- Nomic on Extropia.
ever is involved. Larger decentralized confederations
handle inter-habitat affairs and resource-sharing, even SCUM
trading with the hypercorps. Though a hypercorp
presence is allowed on some habitats, they are treated Memes: Individualist Anarchism, Morphological
just like everyone else. Freedom

EXTROPIANS Scum are nomadic space gypsies, traveling from
station to station in heavily modified barges or
Memes: Anarcho-capitalism, Mutualism, swarms of smaller space vessels, mostly former colo-
Self-Ownership nial ships. The term “scum” has been gleefully appro-
priated from its original derogatory usage. Despite
Main Stations: Extropia (Main Belt) their reputation as criminals and scam artists, their
Though a smaller tendency, the Extropians are temporary presence is often tolerated in many habitats
notable because they ride a line between inner and for the entertainment they bring in the way of exotic
outer system ideologies. Extropians believe in an performances and storytelling, both of which offer
economic free market with the absence of a binding change and relief from the isolation of remote habi-
legal system, so that all relations and transactions are tats and clusters. Their thriving black markets are an
based on individual contracts agreed on by all parties open secret but shut down only in the most oppressive
involved or affected. Contrary to the anarchists, the regimes, as citizens returning with illegal goods must
Extropians very much support private property and pass their station’s security anyway.
personal economic wealth; Extropian-owned cor-
porations actively participate in the solar system’s The scum themselves comes from all manner of
hypercorp economy. Many of these corporations are backgrounds. They are rejects, anarchists, criminals,
worker-owned cooperatives, with workplace councils societal dropouts, wanderers, artists, eccentrics,
in local offices and an elected cooperative congress and more. As a culture, however, they embrace
experimentation and an “everything is permissible”

attitude. Many are ardent practitioners of extreme SOCIO-POLITICAL MOVEMENTS .3.3.3.3.3.3.3.3.3.3
transhuman modifications. Long-time scum are
sometimes scarcely recognizable as having once Aside from sectarian political factions, a number of A TIME OF ECLIPSE
been human. Scum economies are transitional rather socio-political movements are widespread throughout
than new, due to their constant interaction with the solar system.
other habitats, though among long-term residents an
underground new economy often flourishes. ARGONAUTS

TITANIAN COMMONWEALTH Memes: Open Source Society, Information Freedom,
Social Responsibility, Technoprogressivism
Memes: Technosocialism, Cyberdemocracy
Main Stations: Titan Main Stations: Mitre Station (Lunar Orbit), Markov
Titan was originally settled in the late 21st century by (Kuiper Belt), Hooverman-Geischecker (Sun)
a European academic consortium, making it the only
major body in the system colonized primarily by non- The group calling themselves argonauts is a public
hypercorp interests. The social organization of Titan organization advocating the socially responsible use
is rooted partly in the Scandinavian social democra- of technology. The group chose its name from the
cies of Earth and partly in the open economy. On one pre-Fall JASON, an advisory group that consulted
hand, citizens of the Titanian Commonwealth eschew for the US government on matters of scientific and
the use of currency for mundane needs, participat- technological progress and its possible dangers. The
ing in the reputation economy used by much of the argonauts likewise offer consultation services to
outer system. On the other, upon reaching the age political and economic powers throughout the solar
of majority, citizens of Titan agree to a literal social system, but strictly refuse to be drawn into the solar
contract. A portion of their economic productivity system’s political affairs in any way. Despite a pre-Fall
is quantized as social money, which is then tithed break with many hypercorps before the Fall, which in
to microcorp-administered social projects such as some cases included expropriating corporate data and
gateless interstellar exploration, physics research, resources, the argonauts re-earned favor by providing
neuroscience, developing mental health memes, their expertise in combating the TITANs to all during
defense, public resleeving, and habitat construction. the Fall.
The monetary unit used for this purpose, the Titanian
Kroner, is currently pegged to the common market The argonauts are strong proponents of the open
price of a terabyte of qubits. source movement, advocating open access to technol-
ogy and information. In their view, providing equal
Unlike old Earth socialist regimes, there are no state access to transhumanity’s knowledge and achieve-
monopolies and no central planning. Anyone able to ments will further growth and security, so that all of
garner enough votes in the Plurality (the Titanian transhumanity is more prepared for future threats
cyberdemocracy) can start a social money-funded and challenges. Thus the argonauts often insist that
microcorp and compete with other microcorps. payment for their services come in the way of releas-
Microcorps are owned by the Commonwealth, and ing otherwise unobtainable information—hypercorp
profits are disposed of by the Plurality. Microcorps proprietary secrets, research data, nanofab blueprints,
are required to be transparent as administrative enti- hidden pre-Fall archives, and so on—to the public
ties, and the Plurality votes on whether to transfer mesh. The argonauts maintain several open databases
discoveries to the open source domain. Regulatory and archives for this specific purpose.
matters are handled by AI and AGI bureaucrats (red
tape still exists, but it doesn’t slow things down … While primarily an open organization, the argo-
much). The main reward for individuals in this system nauts are rumored to ultimately report to an elite
is rep. Titanians who invest a lot of time or resources inner circle. Supporting this theory is the existence
in a given field gain rep rewards for doing so. of the medeans, the organization’s clandestine para-
military wing, bodyguarding high-level argonauts and
protecting the group’s assets. .3.3.3.3.3.3.3

BARSOOMIANS 79

Memes: Anti-Slavery, Martian Independence,
Martian Nationalism, Terraforming Control

Main Stations: Ashoka (Mars)
The Barsoomians (taking their name from some old
Earth pulp adventure novels) are a broad movement
comprised of the Martian underclass. Harboring a
growing resentment over the hypercorp domination
of Mars, Barsoomians advocate for a more egalitar-
ian social structure. Heavily influenced by autonomist
currents, the Barsoomians demand local control
of terraforming projects, an end to the widespread
practiced of indentured servitude, and control of the
Martian Gate. The majority of Barsoomians are or

SYNOPSIS were indentured infugees, though a significant amount NEO-PRIMITIVISTS
WELCOME TO FIREWALL were also original Martian colonists/indentures whose
habitats do not share the economic prosperity of the [Incoming Message. Source: Anonymous]
A TIME OF ECLIPSE favored hypercorp cities. Many Barsoomians occupy [Public Key Decryption Complete]
GAME MECHANICS rusters or synthetic morphs and actually prefer to live
CHARACTER CREATION a nomadic lifestyle in the Martian wilds. A few radi- Neo-primitivists are a potential threat that
SAMPLE CHARACTERS cals have taken up arms and engaged in violent strikes all Firewall sentinels should keep an eye on.
SKILLS against hypercorp holdings, which are typically fol- Their neo-luddite philosophy advocates the
ACTIONS AND COMBAT lowed by reprisal raids to decapitate the Barsoomian abolition of technological society and a return
MIND HACKS leadership, thus breeding further hostilities. to a wild and free hunter-gatherer lifestyle,
THE MESH free from technological control or oppression.
ACCELERATED FUTURE BIOCONSERVATIVES Considered an extremist element of both the
GEAR bioconservative and reclaimer movements,
GAME INFORMATION Memes: Bioconservatism, Primitivism, Natural Order neo-primitivists are known to engage in acts
REFERENCE Main Stations: Vo Nguyen (Earth orbit) of sabotage against transhuman society.
Bioconservatives are strongly suspicious and criti- Though some neo-primitivists have made
80 cal of the transhuman direction the human race is certain concessions to their ideology, taking
taking. They are strong proponents of limiting tech- on ruster morphs and pursuing an indepen-
nological development due to the threat it manifests dent lifestyle in the wilds of Mars, most hope
to existing social orders. Bioconservative positions to return to Earth and re-establish a non-
range from right-wing cultural conservatives to left- technology-based society there. A few advo-
wing environmentalists. Though its prominence is cate finding a new, unspoiled world beyond
shrinking, bioconservatism has a strong base among the Pandora gates and founding a primitivist
some religious groups, the Jovian Republic, and society there.
certain extremists.
EXHUMANS
Bioconservatives are opposed to nanofabrication,
genetic modification, cloning, cognitive modifica- Memes: Adaptability, Hyper-Evolution, Singularity
tions, artificial intelligence, uplifting, and forking Main Stations: Unknown
among other technologies. Some are even opposed to More than any other faction, exhumans seek to take
backups, uploading, and resleeving, dismissing them the capabilities of self-modification to the absolute
as unnatural, an affront to god’s will, or a technol- limit and become posthuman. Typical exhumans see
ogy that transhumanity is not yet mature enough to the Fall as either a missed evolutionary opportunity
handle. They oppose expansion beyond the Pandora and/or as an example of transhumanity’s inferiority
gates on the grounds that transhumanity is not ready and unworthiness. Though specific ideologies differ
to deal with what they might encounter. Most biocon- between exhuman packs, as a whole they seek to self-
servatives support the old economy. evolve to a more advanced state of being. To some,
this means genetically transforming themselves into a
The bioconservatives gained many converts and top-of-the-food-chain, super-smart, survive-anywhere
much ground after the Fall, a cataclysmic event predator that can out-compete all other life forms
that served as a direct example of the dangers they for dominance. To others, it means bootstrapping
warned against. Still, the appeal of technology and their intelligence to the levels of the TITANs through
the numerous advantages it provides work against extensive genetic modifications and pharmaceutical
them. As a result, some disgruntled biocons have
turned to sabotage and acts of terrorism in support SOLARCHIVE SEARCH: OUT’STERS
of their ideology.
Linked only by their remote locations in the
BRINKERS Oort Cloud rather than a common social
construct or political system, the out’sters
Memes: Isolationism are a loose association of habitats, clusters,
The vast reach of the solar system enables groups and swarms. Little is known about them, as
with their own particular ideology or agenda to they avoid communication and interaction
establish their own isolated society far from the rest even with the handful of scientific outposts
of transhumanity. Commonly referred to as brinkers, and research stations in the Oort Cloud. The
these habitats extend the gamut of the imagination. remoteness of their location and their self-
Social or political experiments, gender-based societies imposed isolationist behavior fuels para-
(or lack thereof), political extremists, religious groups, noid rumors regarding the group’s purpose
exiles, secret criminal/hypercorp operations, extended and agenda.
families, cults, or simply people who prefer to live in
the system’s backwater areas—all are possible. Many
of these are self-isolated and will refuse to interact
with outsiders, while others are happy to have occa-
sional visitors.

treatments or going infomorph and modifying their as anthropocentric, arguing that uplifts should be free .3.3.3.3.3.3.3.3.3.3
programming. A few are singularity seekers, hoping to develop their own unique non-human modes of
to find some TITAN relic that will allow them to behavior, thought, culture, and social organization— A TIME OF ECLIPSE
transcend their current transhuman limitations, or even going so far as to establish their own habitats
even to find the TITANs themselves and be absorbed to do exactly that. A minority of extremists insist that
into their super-consciousness. humans have no right to uplift animals at all and that
it is a great conceit to insist that doing so is in their
Exhumans are universally mistrusted by many, and best interest, rather than being free to evolve on their
for good reason. Typical exhumans engage in modi- own over time. These ideas have been punctuated
fications that are extreme and untested, sometimes with acts of sabotage and terrorism against hyper-
fringe science at best, often resulting in horrible fail- corps like Somatek.
ures and disfigurement, but more commonly driving
the subject insane—or into a completely alien or feral AGIs: Due to the fear and paranoia engendered
mindset. Though individual exhumans pursue their by the Fall, the largest challenge facing AGIs is
own paths, they are known to band together in the widespread prejudice and restrictions on their activ-
Kuiper Belt and other remote areas. Several packs ity or even existence. Despite some AGIs retaining
of exhumans have taken their loathing for inferior status as system-wide media icons and efforts by
transhumanity to an extreme, declaring war on their AGI groups to lobby for understanding that AGIs
former species and launching brutal raids and pirate are not a threat—even going so far as to hire inner
attacks on isolated outposts. system memeticists and PR agencies—a significant
portion of the solar system considers them a risk.
MERCURIALS Similar to mercurials, some AGI activists work
against the behavior modifications and socialization
Memes: Species Autonomy, Uplift Rights AGIs go through to adapt them to human society
Main Stations: Glitch (Neptune), Hidden Sea (Ceres), more, insisting that AGIs should be in control of
new AGI developments. A few radicals argue that
Mahogany (Neptune) AGIs should be free of any programming restrictions
The term mercurial has become a common term for whatsoever, but given the climate these opinions are
the non-human part of the transhuman family— rarely supported.
uplifts and AGIs—reflecting their changing nature. In
particular, the term mercurial has been adopted by NANO-ECOLOGISTS
uplifts and AGIs with a specific agenda to delineate
mercurial culture and interests from human ones. Memes: Nano-Ecology, Nanotechnology,
Though the particular issues faced by uplifts and Environmentalism, Technoprogressivism
AGIs differ, they have some similarities, and so they
are often lumped together. Notably, both portions of Main Stations: Viriditas (Mars)
the movement have human supporters as well. Nano-ecologists are pro-technology environmental-
ists. Active in the terraforming of Mars and several
Uplifts: The most common issue addressed by exoplanets, nano-ecologists specifically advocate the
uplifts is the issue of civil rights and autonomy. Many use of nanotechnological means for terraforming
uplifts decry the second-class status they are given or other intrusions in an existing ecosphere. In their
(in some cases even treated as pets or property rather view, nanotechnology allows for a less invasive, highly
than full citizens); in particular, the breeding restric- accurate, more efficient, and non-pollutive approach
tions and forced servitude many uplifts are saddled towards all kinds of adaptive processes and projects,
with by the hypercorps that create them. Some activ- circumventing the need to expose an environment to
ists advocate that uplifts should be in control of their massive and drastic changes when transforming it for
own genetic futures, rather than suffering the manipu- transhuman population. This ecologically conscious
lation of human scientists. At the radical end of the approach seems an appealing compromise between
spectrum, certain uplifts oppose the manner in which the extreme ends of the solar system’s political
their brains are modified and their children socialized

SYBILS

[Incoming Message. Source: Anonymous] these sybils have used multiple false identities to issue .3.3.3.3.3.3.3
[Public Key Decryption Complete] warnings of an impending attack or disaster, such as the
We’ve verified that the warning issued before this latest life support system failure that resulted in the Delphi sta- 81
incident did indeed originate from a sybil attack—all of tion’s evacuation. So far none of these sybils have been
the rep network sources were forged identities. Given the successfully traced, nor are their intentions known. Their
number of incidents we’ve recorded that have followed documented pre-knowledge of pending events indicates
this same pattern, we now suspect that a heretofore some level of complicity or collusion in bringing these
unknown AGI sub-faction is responsible. In each case, events to pass, so caution is recommended.

SYNOPSIS landscape—the hypercorp and the biocon factions— and the ability to buy almost anything or anyone
WELCOME TO FIREWALL and has developed a momentum of its own, evolving leads to all sorts of interesting adventures. Naturally,
into a growing political movement. these socialites form into constantly shifting cliques
A TIME OF ECLIPSE and webs of allegiances, complete with affairs, scan-
GAME MECHANICS PRESERVATIONISTS dals, intrigue, and backbiting.
CHARACTER CREATION
SAMPLE CHARACTERS Memes: Preservationism, Environmentalism ULTIMATES
SKILLS Main Stations: Muir (Luna)
ACTIONS AND COMBAT Preservationists are environmentalists who call for Memes: Asceticism, Eugenics, Individualism,
MIND HACKS a no-impact, hands-off approach when it comes to Militarism, Social Darwinism
THE MESH inhabiting new worlds. They are extremely protective
ACCELERATED FUTURE of naturally intact biospheres that might have any Main Stations: Aspis (Main Belt), Xiphos (Uranus)
GEAR semblance of life, no matter how microbial, hoping The ultimates are a controversial movement that
GAME INFORMATION to keep them from despoilment or contamination. In embraces a philosophy of human perfection. Decried
REFERENCE addition to opposing terraforming and expansion by some as immoral or even fascist, ultimates are typi-
through the Pandora gates, they are often opposed to cally viewed as elitists. The ultimates have established
82 fusion and antimatter power. several habitats to pursue their ideal society and were
a driving force behind the development of the remade
RECLAIMERS biomorph design.

Memes: Reclaiming Earth The ultimates advocate the use of applied eugen-
Main Stations: Vo Nguyen (Earth orbit) ics, strict physical and psychological training, and
The Reclaimers pursue one ultimate goal—the recla- asceticism in order to improve their overall mental and
mation of Earth as transhumanity’s primary habitat. physical stamina and environmental adaptability. Their
In addition to calling for the quarantine of Earth to be social traits and entire subculture visualizes life in the
lifted, they engage in scientific research and running universe as an evolutionary battle for survival and is
virtual simulations on how to best cleanse and reclaim built around the victory of the superior transhuman
their contaminated and polluted planet. Despite the over both its opponents and peers. Their movement
interdiction to enter Earth’s atmosphere, the reclaim- is heavily militarized, and experienced ultimates offer
ers are suspected of sponsoring perilous and high-risk their services as mercenaries and private security forces
ventures onto the planet’s surface to gather scientific to hypercorps, independent city states, or wealthy indi-
data or even to establish terraforming colonies. viduals in need of additional protection.

SOCIALITES RELIGIOUS GROUPS

Memes: Art, Culture, Hedonism, Immortality Despite having survived the Fall, the concepts of
Main Stations: Valles-New Shanghai (Mars), Elysium religion and religious belief underwent changes as
fundamental as transhumanity itself. While Earth’s old
(Mars), Noctis-Qianjiao (Mars) religions were already in decline in the face of techno-
Uploading and resleeving effectively grant immortality logical immortality, religious traditions ingrained after
to those who can afford it. This has created a shift millennia of worship were incorporated to varying
among the exclusive rich and economic elites of the degrees in the solar system’s myriad political, social,
inner system, whether they be the heads of hypercorps, and cultural models.
old Earth dynasties, or other displanted oligarchs. The
top ranks of the wealthy and influential need never PRE-FALL RELIGIONS
fear death, allowing them to plan for the long-term.
Some of these were among the first to acquire longev- The rigid structures and dogmas enveloping
ity treatments when they became available on Earth Christianity and Judaism prohibited these religions
and are now approaching two centuries in age. from adapting to the cultural, philosophical, and espe-
cially scientific/technological changes transhumanity
Where once these power brokers would have passed underwent. Today, they are mere shadows of their
their riches on to their family and descendants, however, former glory, with many practitioners seen as pitiful
their heirs now face a situation where they have more- individuals unable to let go of their earthbound delu-
than-comfortable lives and access to massive fortunes, sions. Islam, while still holding some controversial
but no chance that they will ever control those fortunes
or rise to the levels of their elders. Even the nouveau
rich who become wealthy on their own often find
themselves excluded from this influential club—at least
until they put in a good fifty years.

Rich and bored, with no responsibilities but the
solar system at their reach, a new culture of elite
socialites has risen. These glitterati indulge in eccen-
tric lifestyles and excessive parties, covered by the
media in all its superficial and polished glory. Private
habitats and ships, lavish soirees, armies of servants,

views and values, managed to adapt by accepting a fraud, identity counterfeiting, ego trading, data theft, .3.3.3.3.3.3.3.3.3.3 .3.3.3.3.3.3.3
more liberal and even secular view. It also benefited and forknapping. Information on the syndicate’s
from being more widespread among early space origins was lost during the Fall, but the ID Crew is A TIME OF ECLIPSE 83
colonists and survivors of the Fall. Hinduism also believed to have grown from several hacker gangs
prevailed to a limited extent, considering resleeving assimilated under the leadership of an infomorph
technology an element of reincarnation and rebirth consortium. Their skilled use of memory manipu-
and integrating the various types of morphs available lation software and mesh intrusion suggests they
into the religion’s caste system (with synthmorphs benefit from the help of sophisticated AGIs, however
becoming the “untouchables”). Overall, followers of it is unknown if these voluntarily assist the syndicate
the pre-Fall religions mostly populate small habitats or if they are somehow threatened into cooperation.
isolated from transhumanity through both physical Due to its service sector, the ID Crew maintains a
and philosophical distance. minimalist physical profile but can be found linger-
ing in the dark recesses of almost any habitat or
NEW RELIGIONS station mesh. Its somewhat specialized services and
activities allow them to mostly stay clear of triad
The Fall sparked the birth of new beliefs, essentially or Night Cartel operations, though they have an
embracing both transhumanity’s technological ongoing rivalry with the Nine Lives syndicate.
achievements as well as the devastating cataclysm
of the Fall as evidence for the existence of a greater NIGHT CARTEL
cosmic power.
Major Stations: New Sicily (The Belt)
Neo-Buddhism is the only pre-Fall religious When affiliation to one of the many multi-ethnic
philosophy that enjoys a steady popularity. Neo- habitats replaced the concepts of ethnicity and
buddhists assert that transhumanist technologies are nationality, cultural heritage and traditions faded
decreasing suffering and increasing happiness and with them into history. Several pre-Fall ethnic
that they will also allow the continual progression syndicates formed a careful alliance of necessity at
of transhumanity’s understanding of the universe first, but uploading and morphing soon after tore
through successive lives. down any remaining social codes or racial prejudice.
Progressive in both entrepreneurial and criminal
Technocreationists believe that the destruction of vision, the Night Cartel emerged from the remnants
Earth was a sign from God, showing transhumanity of Earth’s underworld syndicates, merging the best
the error of its ways. They believe that through tech- qualities of each.
nological advancement and social engineering, trans-
humanity will achieve co-existence with its diverse self The Night Cartel holds legitimate hypercorp status
as well as with extraterrestrial intelligences, thereby in certain habitats while clearly working outside the
finding new purpose and, eventually, enlighten- law in more law-abiding or less corrupt regimes. The
ment. Attracted by the similarities to the brahman of Night Cartel is involved in a number of traditional
Hinduism, the highest cosmic spiritual being, techno- crime outlets: racketeering, extortion, kidnapping,
creationists enjoy a steady influx of converted hindus. pod slavery, and prostitution. They have also adapted
well to the latest technological developments and
Xenodeism is another new—though relatively compete with the triads in the electronic stimulant,
minor—ideology that begins to show religious attri- drug, and nanofab piracy markets. Like the triads, the
butes. Xenodeists worship the Factors and Iktomi as Night Cartel sometimes operates though legitimate
emissaries or prophets of a great godlike race that hypercorp fronts.
laid the seeds of creation throughout the universe
millions of years ago and therefore are the ultimate NINE LIVES
creators of transhumanity.
Major Stations: Legba (Main Belt)
CRIMINAL FACTIONS This widespread network of soul-traders specializes
in acquiring, trading, and trafficking transhumans.
Technological progress and social and behavioral Their primary market lies in ego-trading: stealing
experimentation did not root out crime or criminal backups, forknapping, kidnapping and forced
tendencies among transhumanity. As long as there uploading, and so on. Nine Lives are known to run
are inequalities and restrictions, criminal syndi- illegal infomorph-slave colonies as well as orga-
cates are likely to flourish and even adapt new nize pit fights using a variety of physical bodies
technologies to expand their operations through- (biomorphs, synthmorphs, animals) loaded with
out the solar system. Though small criminal outfits all manner of consciousnesses (transhuman, AI,
of every flavor exist from habitat to habitat, a few animal, etc). Only the truly desperate look towards
larger organizations with influence across the solar the syndicate to be smuggled out of a habitat or
system deserve mention. hypercorporate indenture. Their ruthlessness in
acquiring egos has earned them a fearful reputa-
INTELLIGENT DESIGN CREW (ID CREW) tion among the transhuman population as well as
in infomorph societies.
Major Stations: Rhea (Kronos Cluster)
The ID Crew specializes in electronic crimes and
information brokerage, including credit and rep

SYNOPSIS PAX FAMILAE large triad groups worthy of mention. Each of these
WELCOME TO FIREWALL wields enough influence to engage in system-wide
Major Stations: Ambelina (Venus) criminal activities. Traditionally they operate through
A TIME OF ECLIPSE Though similar to the Night Cartel in that Pax Familae small to medium-sized gangs local to a specific habitat
GAME MECHANICS holds legal offices and outposts in several habitats or use their legal outfits as a font for their endeavours.
CHARACTER CREATION while working underground in others, the difference
SAMPLE CHARACTERS between the two syndicates couldn’t be bigger. The The 14K Triad controls a large part of the casino
SKILLS entire Pax Familae organization goes back to one industry and various forms of illegal gambling,
ACTIONS AND COMBAT person, Claudia Ambelina, the syndicate’s founder and betting, and rigged lotteries. Through their Galaxy
MIND HACKS matriarch. Relying excessively on cloning and forking Entertainment Group, a legal casino and gambling
THE MESH technologies, each individual member of the syndicate hypercorp, the 14K maintains tight connections to
ACCELERATED FUTURE is a descendant or variant of Claudia. Biomorphs are politicians, celebrities and influential entrepreneurs in
GEAR cloned from Claudia’s original genetics or sexually several habitats and can afford the luxury of a private
GAME INFORMATION produced offspring (thanks to sex-switching biomods), police force, the Pai Gow (Double Hand). Using the
REFERENCE while egos are forks. All members are utterly loyal to casino business for money laundering, they are also
Claudia (since they all are Claudia) and show their heavily involved in loan sharking and credit/ID fraud.
84 family affiliation with pride and arrogance. Individually,
each remains slightly but notably different, though all The Shui Fong—though smaller than the 14K—
are calculating and ambitious. Regular reassimilation caters to the vices and addictions of indentured
of forks and XP updates are used to keep each variant habitat workers, miners, and other laborers, supplying
aware of each of the other’s activities—once you’ve met drugs, narcoalgorithms, and illegal XP, running pros-
one version of Claudia, the others will know you. titution rings, and arranging pit fights and gambling
tournaments. The origin of the Shui Fong’s fierce
Pax Familae engages in a wide assortment of legal, rivalry with the 14K lies in the ruins of Earth’s pre-
dubious, and illegal operations, each tailored to the Fall history, but the hatred between the two factions
needs of the particular habitat in question. Common was carried into space and continues to simmer.
projects include venture capital manipulation, repu-
tation network gaming, financial consultation, info The Sun Yee On once ranked second among
brokerage, stock manipulation, banking fraud, and Earth’s biggest triads, with over 25,000 suspected
loan sharking. members. They profit primarily by selling cheap
copies of nanofab blueprints and rigged makers
PIRATES and fabbers. Legal products are distributed through
their Wushuang Corporation, while illegal goods are
Most pirates attack automated cargo ships and long- patched together by enslaved infomorphs in virtual
range supply convoys, with the occasional raid on an sweatshops in remote corners of the mesh. The Sun
asteroid mining station, research outpost, or brinker Yee On’s second main profit source are fake Earth
habitat. On rare occasions they have been known nostalgia items, such as jewelry, documents, coins,
to attack commercial cruisers to rob the wealthy or and other collector’s items.
kidnap socialites. Many pirates take advantage of
scum fleets as cover, trading with them and using their The Big Circle Gang is the smallest of the four
limited maintenance capabilities. Quite a few also triad factions with approximately 8,000 members.
make sideline profits as smugglers and/or free traders, They run a large part of the solar system’s drug trade,
often utilizing connections to one of the crime syndi- producing organic drugs, smart drugs, and narcoalgo-
cates or political outcasts. rithms of all kinds in secluded habitats or abandoned
asteroid mining and processing facilities converted
TRIADS into drug labs.

Major Stations: Qing Long (Martian Trojans) FIREWALL
The only major Earth syndicate to survive the Fall
almost unscathed, the triads dominate the solar sys- Firewall has been on the forefront of the secret fight
tem’s underworld by their sheer membership size and to save transhumanity since the Fall. Firewall is an
a history of centuries of economic and political influ- independent network of cells and individuals recruited
ence. Having evolved into legit enterprises and small from all sorts of factions, cultures, backgrounds, and
economic consortiums already before the Fall, the habitats. Potential new recruits are approached in
triads followed the masses of Chinese workers into secret and told they possess skills or knowledge of use
space, gaining a foothold during the early years of to a clandestine network seeking to secure transhuman-
colonization. After the Fall, they used their influence ity’s continued survival. Firewall’s agenda is simple: to
to spread to numerous habitats, taking advantage of protect transhumanity from threats of existential scope,
the disparities in wealth and restrictive refugee poli- regardless of whether such risks emerge from within
cies to create flourishing gray and black market enter- transhumanity or are of external, alien origin.
prises. Part of their success lies in their continued use
of ethnic Chinese social cues to ensure their insularity. Firewall operatives—known as sentinels—are
encouraged to act independently and utilize their own
Though numerous small triad outfits exist, each resources. Sentinels are connected by a social network
claiming a particular station or region, there are four known as the Eye, which they can use to acquire help
and additional needed skills or resources. A sentinel’s

i-rep on this network indicates how much they are Each proxy’s means of contact, mission briefing, and .3.3.3.3.3.3.3.3.3.3
trusted and will be a factor in determining what aid overall methodologies differ greatly.
they can call in. Firewall also takes care of large A TIME OF ECLIPSE
expenses and logistics when necessary, such as ego- PROMETHEANS
casting and resleeving needs. Sentinels are guaranteed
resurrection, either via cortical stack or by backup, if A prominent topic among conspiracy theorists is the
they lose their lives on a Firewall op. existence of a group of seed AIs calling themselves
Prometheans. Rumors of these entities predated the
Sentinels are generally expected to be on-call—when Fall and occasionally flare up as some new evidence
something comes up in their vicinity or that their par- comes to light, though such evidence is almost always
ticular specialty might call for, they’ll be brought in on discredited soon after. According to some theories,
a job. Sentinels are usually grouped into ad hoc special the Prometheans predated the TITANs and may even
ops teams appropriate to each mission. Though many have been responsible for bringing the TITANs into
sentinels pursue their own agendas after completing a existence. Others postulate that the Prometheans were
mission for Firewall, it is not uncommon for sentinel a TITAN splinter faction that broke off and attempted
teams to remain in contact, share information or con- to counteract the TITANs activities during the Fall.
tinue to work together on Firewall-related assignments Still others whisper that the Prometheans are not of
over a longer period of time. transhuman origin at all and are actually a digital alien
mindform that found Earth and now actively interferes
Firewall operations are organized and managed by with transhuman affairs. Whether the Prometheans
proxies, agents who maintain Firewall’s decentral- are hostile, friendly, or indifferent remains a matter of
ized infrastructure. Proxies possess more informa- much conjecture and contention. Prominent organi-
tion than individual sentinels and will dispense such zations like the Planetary Consortium discount such
information as they deem necessary to the mission, rumors or otherwise remain silent.
according to each sentinel’s i-rep and need to know.

PROJECT OZMA

[Incoming Message. Source: Anonymous] discern the whereabouts of the TITANs of Firewall or maybe their agenda is .3.3.3.3.3.3.3
[Public Key Decryption Complete] in the galaxy. Shortly afterwards, entirely different. I’ve heard some spec-
You won’t find this group mentioned however, Project Ozma dropped from ulation that they’re tasked for preparing 85
on the conspiracy boards—Consortium view, wiped from all public mention in for and handling alien contact. All we
security is too tight to allow slip-ups. inner system mesh servers. Consortium know is that they operate at the deep
If you haven’t heard of Project Ozma officials simply claim that the project black budget level and they have insane
before, consider this your warning. was folded into other departments. amounts of resources at their beck and
call. They’re also vicious as fuck, the
Project Ozma was the name of an Firewall doesn’t know what Project type to shoot first and question your
international collaborative SETI project Ozma is, but we know they’re still backup later. SOP if you run counter
before the Fall. It briefly entered public around—and they seem to have similar to a Project Ozma op is to bail out fast
discourse after the Fall and the discovery interests. We’ve butted heads a few and stay hands off. We’ve lost dozens of
of the first Pandora gate as a Planetary too many times for it be a coincidence. agents to them already.
Consortium initiative to attempt to Perhaps they’re the Consortium’s version

SYNOPSIS SYSTEM GAZETEER HABITATS
WELCOME TO FIREWALL
Transhumanity has extended out from its lost home- Habitats in Sol’s corona face challenges more extreme
A TIME OF ECLIPSE world and colonized not only the solar system but than those anywhere else in the system. Transhumanity’s
GAME MECHANICS various exoplanets as well, thanks to the discovery only means of shielding a habitat from the heat and
CHARACTER CREATION of the Pandora gates. This section provides an over- radiation emitted by a G2 star is to generate strong
SAMPLE CHARACTERS view and incomplete sampling of transhumanity’s electromagnetic fields. Even then, the dangers posed by
SKILLS settlements. solar flares and coronal mass ejections—massive explo-
ACTIONS AND COMBAT sions that jettison coronal material tens of thousands
MIND HACKS SOL (THE SUN) of kilometers out into circumsolar space—mean that
THE MESH the sun’s polar regions are the only safe space in which
ACCELERATED FUTURE The solar system was formed billions of years ago to position habitats. As such, circumsolar habs require
GEAR through the accretion of material remaining from the extraordinary expense to build and maintain, and two
GAME INFORMATION formation of its star, Sol, the sun. Locked ever since in of the three major circumsolar stations are heavily
REFERENCE its orbit, the history and present disposition of virtu- backed by distant organizations.
ally every object within two light years is shaped by
its relationship to this body. The sun is a bright G2 The outer layers of circumsolar habitats are covered
main sequence star, theoretically on the hot end of the with thousands of electromagnetic dynamos drawing
continuum of stars able to give rise to life. For most power from the sun itself. These dynamos generate
of its history, transhumanity fueled its rises and falls the powerful fields necessary for shielding. Within
with the sun’s energy, first as stored in materials like are intermediate layers filled with liquid water that
hydrocarbons, later directly with solar converters. capture ionized particles, teeming with nanobots that
collect the ions and vent them into space. The water
Today the sun remains a crucial source of energy, must be regularly replaced from captured iceteroids
but its outer reaches have also become home to some. that are imported using heavy electromagnetic shield-
The adaptations required to dwell here make these ing of their own. Within the water shield is a cluster
Solarians one of transhumanity’s most unusual offshoots. habitat, an array of modules on a framework follow-
ing a roughly spherical plan.
SURYAS AND SALAMANDERS (CORONAL MORPHS)
A QUICK PRIMER ON
Perhaps an example of transhumanity’s most extreme TRANSHUMAN HABITATS
neogenetic creations are the morphs adapted to live
in the sun’s corona. Suryas, named after a hindu sun Habitats are covered in detail starting on p. 280.
deity, are large, whale-like, and uniquely adapted to A quick overview is provided here:
dwell in the brilliant, superheated plasma cloud of the
sun’s outermost layer. Each surya is like a miniature • Aerostats are massive cities floating in the upper cloud
version of a circumsolar habitat. Their metabolisms layers of Venus.
generate powerful magnetic fields that shield them
from the sun’s heat and radiation, while acting as • Beehives are tunnel warrens inside asteroids and moons.
magnetic sails and scoops by which they sail on the
currents of the solar wind and extract elements carried • Bernal Spheres are artificial bubble worlds spun for gravity.
on it. Suryas are protected by layers of liquid water
“blubber” that capture harmful ions, which internal • Clusters are microgravity habitats consisting of intercon-
medichines extract and eject, while maintaining useful nected modules.
elements such as oxygen and hydrogen, from which
more water can be synthesized. They communicate • Cole bubble habitats are hollowed-out asteroids, ter-
using patterns of dark and light coloration on their raformed on the inside, and also spun for gravity.
exterior skins and are extremely sensitive to the helio-
seismic soundwaves that are the sun’s pulse, using • Dome habitats are massive domes built on the surface of
these vibrations to predict and avoid heavy weather moons, asteroids, or Mars.
in the coronal atmosphere.
• Hamilton cylinders are self-building advanced nano-
A second type of coronal morph is the salamander, tech habitats designs.
a tiny humanoid morph with gas jets on the back and
chest for maneuvering in vacuum. Salamanders have • O’Neill cylinder habitats are like huge soda cans over a
very similar metabolisms to suryas, but are unable to kilometer wide and several kilometers long. The interior is
survive unprotected in the corona. They subsist on the terraformed and the entire cylinder is spun for gravity.
chemicals and energy extracted from the corona by
Ukko Jylinä, the only habitat where they are found. • Reagan cylinders are an inefficient type of O’Neill
cylinder, built by hollowing a cylinder within a spinning
Both suryas and salamanders communicate either asteroid, and used in the Jovian Republic.
via transmissions from their implants or by “sunspot-
ting”—shifting dark and light patterns on their skins • Tin can habitats are small, cramped, cheap, modular
to form language. boxes, typically used in early space colonization.

• Torus habitats are big donuts or wheels, spun so that the
outer rim has gravity. The interior spokes are zero g. n

86

THE SOLAR SYSTEM
SOLAR SYSTEM MAP not to scale

.3.3.3.3.3.3.3PLUTO

87 JUPITER JOVIAN TROJANS
locus station
liberty station
CERES
SOL URANUS ERIS
fissure gate discord gate

JOVIAN TROJANS

SATURN extropia station NEPTUNE TROJANS
pandora gate (44 nysa)
TITAN INNER SYSTEM
NEPTUNE
NEPTUNE TROJANS MERCURY

.3.3.3.3.3.3.3.3.3.3 EARTH MARTIAN
remembrance station TROJANS
A TIME OF ECLIPSE
SOL erato station
LUNA

octavia station MARS

VULCANOIDS VENUS martian gate
vulcanoid gate
progress station

MARTIAN
TROJANS

qing long station

SYNOPSIS Coronal habitats are easily detectable at a great dis- a small team of prospectors from Venus discovered
WELCOME TO FIREWALL tance because of the bow shock preceding them and a Pandora gate. Now controlled by TerraGenesis,
the plasma tail left behind in the solar wind. Caldwell was used primarily for exoplanet research for
A TIME OF ECLIPSE several years, though the hypercorp is now engaged
GAME MECHANICS ATEN in several alien world terraforming and geoengineer-
CHARACTER CREATION ing projects. TerraGenesis regularly sells gate access
SAMPLE CHARACTERS Operated by a consortium including hypercorp to other hypercorps and organizations. Caldwell is a
SKILLS interests and the University of New Shanghai, Aten remarkably smooth, spindle-shaped asteroid about
ACTIONS AND COMBAT supports a population of about 12,000 transhumans. four kilometers long and half a kilometer in diameter
MIND HACKS Rumors abound that military research is a major at its widest point. Called the Vulcanoid Gate, it is
THE MESH component of this habitat’s mission. Aten is heavily situated at the bottom of a deep crag near one of the
ACCELERATED FUTURE policed and difficult to visit. The most publicized dis- asteroid’s narrow poles.
GEAR coveries from this habitat involve propulsion systems
GAME INFORMATION and new solar energy collection technologies. MERCURY
REFERENCE
HOOVERMAN-GEISCHECKER The closest planet to the sun has a mass comparable
to Luna but is a great deal denser due to its iron-nickel
The argonauts and Titan Autonomous University are core. Mercury rotates slowly and has no atmosphere,
the major supporters of this habitat, which supports a so that its day side is hot enough to melt most metals,
population of about 4,000. In contrast to Aten, access while its night side is bitterly cold. Because it lacks
to this habitat is relatively open. Major avenues of many of the elements needed for transhuman colonies
research include pure science and research into to be self-sufficient, Mercury is sparsely inhabited,
corona-adapted morphs. save for a handful of solar power relays, a few under-
ground mining stations, and a single large surface
UKKO JYLINÄ mining concern, Cannon.

Ukko Jylinä is the name used by outsiders for the RESOURCES AND ECONOMICS
suryas’ safe harbor. In the surya tongue, the name for
the place is a common sequence of helioseismic vibra- Most of Mercury’s economy is based on mining.
tions. When transposed fifteen octaves upward into Iron, nickel, and other metals make up 70% of the
the usual range of transhuman hearing, this sound is planet’s mass, making it the richest source of ferrous
a chaotic rumble to most ears, but the suryas consider metals outside of the asteroids. Mercury also does a
it one of the most beautiful sounds the sun makes. brisk business in relaying solar power and serves as a
jumping-off point for solar research concerns unwill-
Ukko Jylinä is more of a camp than a hab, an area ing or unable to support stations in the solar corona.
of refuge for suryas during severe solar weather. It Mercury has limited helium-3 deposits, although these
also serves as a place for suryas to socialize and mate, are predominantly mined for local use. It is an open
replenish water from imported iceteroids, and egocast secret that several powers have antimatter production
or resleeve. The population therefore fluctuates a stations here. Officially, these stations are massive
great deal, usually hovering around 300, but swelling solar power relays, but the immense toroid particle
to 3,000 (nearly the entire surya population) during accelerators and large spherical magnetic containment
heavy weather. Ukko Jylinä also has a few modules in units required for antimatter production and storage
which non-surya morphs can survive. are nearly impossible to disguise.

Very little of Ukko Jylinä consists of enclosed hab CALORIS 18
modules. Instead there are many utility modules with
their access ports open to space. Bereft of the solar The only known site of TITAN activity on Mercury
wind, suryas within the camp generally wear gas-expel- during the Fall, Caloris 18 was a sparsely crewed
ling maneuvering harnesses or resleeve in salamanders solar power relay station belonging to Lukos, a
if they need to do work requiring fine manipulation. now-defunct Russian corporation. Vanya Ilyanovich,
the AGI administering the facility, rounded up all of
VULCANOIDS the station’s transhuman inhabitants and fused their
morphs into a gigantic, centipede-like abomination
The Vulcanoids are a population of asteroids that lie before destroying itself in a failed attempt to merge
between Mercury and the sun. Based on the predic- consciousnesses with all of the minds in its creation.
tions of early 21st-century science, the number of Since then, Caloris 18 has been under strict quarantine.
Vulcanoids is unexpectedly small.
CANNON
V/2011-CALDWELL
Mercury’s largest surface settlement is a city-scaled
Discovered in the early 21st century and subject to solar satellite-powered mobile mass driver that crawls
a flyby by a Japanese solar research mission in the along the cool side of the planet, flinging apartment
2020s, V/2011-Caldwell was nothing but a line on building-sized ingots of extracted metal into space.
astronomers’ catalogs, notable only for the virtual lack
of cratering on the one side that was photographed.
Then, a few years after the dust settled from the Fall,

88

The habitat is owned almost entirely by the hypercorp Nonetheless, transhumanity has come to Venus and, .3.3.3.3.3.3.3.3.3.3 .3.3.3.3.3.3.3
Jaehon Offworld, which built Cannon with backing with it, debate over how to make use of the planet.
from Lunar banks looking to diversify in anticipation Venus has no permanently inhabited surface settle- A TIME OF ECLIPSE 89
of a post-He3 Lunar economy. Most of the 10,000 ments other than a few mining camps and equipment
inhabitants are Jaehon employees, and security is tight. and supply caches used by planetside researchers.
Cannon makes a long loop of the heavily mined Caloris Despite difficulties, transhumanity has found survival
basin during the long Mercurian night before following strategies that work here. The most surprising of these
a route that takes it around the planet’s northern hemi- are the aerostats, lighter-than-carbon dioxide habitats
sphere, avoiding the blasting rays of the sun. Along the that float in the thick Venusian atmosphere. Aside
way, it stops at a series of mining operations, collecting from a few independents or ones loyal to the Planetary
the gigantic ingots for launch into orbit. Consortium, these aerostats are the base of the new
Morningstar Constellation power bloc. Notable for
VENUS their research labs, nanofab design houses, software
studios, and luxury resorts, the Constellation’s
Venus is Earth’s closest neighbor and the planet most aerostats are increasingly at odds with Planetary
like it in terms of size and geology. It is a rugged world Consortium and Lunar-Lagrange Alliance interests.
of volcanic mountains, canyons, high plateaus, and
sweeping volcanic planes crisscrossed by river-like On some aerostats, areas populated only by inden-
magma channels. Much of the surface is basaltic rock. tured synthmorphs are open to the Venusian atmo-
The climate of Venus is one of the most inhospitable sphere. Some 5,000,000 transhumans live in aerostat
in the solar system. Perhaps only the hideous radiation habitats and another 10,000 on the surface. Roughly
of the inner Jovian moons presents a more difficult 350,000 transhumans live in habitats orbiting Venus.
challenge to transhuman colonization. The Venusian
atmosphere is a superheated maelstrom of carbon Though the Planetary Consortium is consider-
dioxide and sulfuric acid, with an atmospheric pres- ing the launch of a Venusian terraforming project,
sure at its surface equivalent to that five kilometers this plan is actively opposed by the Morningstar
below the surface of Earth’s oceans. Venus also lacks Constellation. The Constellation’s aerostats see the
more than trace amounts of hydrogen, meaning that terraforming proposals—which include massive com-
water must be imported in the form of iceteroids from etary bombardment or building a planet-sized sun
the outer system. shade to cool the atmosphere—as not only unwork-
able but disruptive to their lives and profits.

Venus is a fascinating place for climatologists, top to bottom, going from a diameter of almost 300
geologists, and other planetary scientists. The discov- meters at the base of the dome, to 15 meters wide at
ery of Venusian protobacteria created a new branch the very bottom. A huge counterweight tethered to the
of life sciences overnight, though so far the practical bottom of the structure prevents the habitat from cap-
applications for organisms with such radically differ- sizing during storms. Atmospheric craft and shuttles
ent metabolisms from terrestrial life have been limited. from orbit may land at flight decks near the base of
the outriggers. 500,000 people live aboard Octavia.
GERLACH
APHRODITE PRIME
Gerlach is an O’Neill cylinder supporting about
120,000 transhumans. Generally recognized as the One of 20 smaller aerostats, Aphrodite Prime hovers
research powerhouse of Venus, Gerlach is also one of 54 kilometers above Aphrodite Terra. It is a center for
the strangest places in the inner system. The inhabit- Venusian tourism; fully a quarter of this aerostat is a
ants have strong ties to the argonauts, sympathies for resort for wealthy offworld visitors. Aphrodite Prime
the outer-system autonomists, and are strong propo- is also the primary research station for the design and
nents of morphological freedom, cognitive experimen- creation of life forms adapted to live in the Venusian
tation, and open innovation. Gerlach’s main activities clouds. This aerostat has a population of 300,000 and
are planetside research and exploration, hostile envi- features closed-environment test aviaries populated
ronment morph design, and aerostat construction. with clouds of air plankton and schools of recently
designed flying squid and balloon fish.
SYNOPSIS OCTAVIA
WELCOME TO FIREWALL EARTH
Octavia is the most successful aerostat habitat to
date and the political center of the Morningstar Ecologically devastated and infested by the weird
Constellation. It maintains an altitude of roughly 55 spawn of the TITANs, transhumanity’s homeworld
kilometers above the northern highlands of Ishtar doesn’t get many visitors. Earth’s once-populous
Terra. Octavia resembles an immense, mushroom- urban regions are massive sprawls ruined by war and
shaped skyscraper, 450 meters tall, ringed at its center heavy weather, infested with dangerous artificial life
by four radial outrigger spars, each ending in a stabi- and the occasional survivalist gang. Elsewhere, irradi-
lizing gas envelope filled with helium. The cap of the ated blast zones and desolate wasteland prevail. Due
mushroom is a hard, translucent dome that provides to harsh climatic conditions, the wilderness has been
an open, park like space while also serving as the main slow to reassert itself. Vast swaths of dead forest or
gas envelope (oxygen, which is much lighter than the burned grassland are common sights.
CO2 making up most of Venus’s atmosphere, is the
main source of buoyancy). The habitat is fluted from Even from orbit, Earth shows deep scars. Breaks
in the sooty cloud cover created by orbital bombard-
A TIME OF ECLIPSE VENUSIAN RUMORS ment during the Fall reveal continents ravaged by
GAME MECHANICS coastal flooding, desertification, and radical tempera-
CHARACTER CREATION [Incoming Message. Source: Anonymous] ture shifts. The only known detonation of an anti-
SAMPLE CHARACTERS [Public Key Decryption Complete] matter bomb within a planetary atmosphere, cen-
SKILLS We need you to investigate some odd rumors tered on what was the Chicago-waukee Metroplex
ACTIONS AND COMBAT circulating about activity on the Venusian in North America, left a crater over 200 kilometers
MIND HACKS surface. According to reports, an Omnicor wide wherein most matter was instantly vaporized.
THE MESH research team went missing about a week Craters left by mass driver bombardment dot the
ACCELERATED FUTURE ago. Unlike many Venus surface teams, these surface as well. Mass die-offs of lynchpin species
GEAR weren’t teleoperated bots but actual synth- like honey bees and krill destroyed entire ecosys-
GAME INFORMATION morph-sleeved researchers operating away tems, leaving vast swathes of barren land and sea
REFERENCE from the safety of an aerostat’s tether—which inhabited by only the most adaptable species. Most
is suspicious behavior itself. Search parties of Europe is sub-artic; much of Africa and North
have turned up no sign of the missing morphs, America, desert. Ironically, transhumanity’s deploy-
but scuttlebutt says they ran into signs of ment of nuclear weapons against TITAN surface
recent TITAN activity that have them freaked installations arrested the effects of global warming
out. I haven’t found any evidence to back this by creating a nuclear winter. Nuclear attacks against
up, yet—it could just be some misinformation Earth have ceased, but the Lunar mass drivers still
to keep people from digging around that part occasionally hurl captured asteroids at suspected
of the surface. I’ve heard that some security surface works created by remaining TITAN war
corps have some quantum data caches buried machines. In any case, the damage from humanity’s
away down there. Looking into this may warming of the globe was already done. The patterns
require getting a hold of some heat- and of life on Earth, and the very face of the planet, have
pressure-resistant synthetic morphs. been irrevocably rewritten.

Earth once had multiple space elevators in opera-
tion, but with exception of the Kilimanjaro beanstalk,

90

the others were destroyed during the Fall, wrapping also become home to squatters, some of them with .3.3.3.3.3.3.3.3.3.3 .3.3.3.3.3.3.3
around the planet as they crashed to Earth, leaving criminal intent, others just looking to escape the
swathes of destruction. squalor of life in the overcrowded Lunar-Lagrange A TIME OF ECLIPSE 91
habitats, even if it means taking a risk.
POPULATION
FRESH KILLS
Earth’s population is a matter of speculation. The
reclaimers and Lunar authorities, both of whom Essentially an armed-to-the-incisors scum barge,
spend a great deal of effort monitoring Earth, agree Fresh Kills is a salvage base near the edge of the
that surface energy emissions suggest a population of Earth-Luna L5 point. The base is built around a
about one million once-humans living as servitors to huge central docking spindle with moorings for
the TITANs, although these numbers assume patterns small craft and habitat modules in the center and
of energy usage similar to those of pre-Fall humanity. massive weapons batteries at either tip. Scavengers
can moor their own craft or, at considerable expense,
Though the Planetary Consortium claims that no egocast in, resleeve at the facility, and hire shuttles
survivors remain on Earth, reclaimer estimates guess for excursions. The gun batteries are articulated such
that between 20,000 and 100,000 free transhumans that any craft showing signs of trouble can be hastily
remain. These numbers are hard to formulate, given jettisoned and destroyed. 2,000 transhumans live on
the limited number of remote areas where trans- Fresh Kills, although the population is transient and
humans could remain undetected while obtaining fluctuates a good deal.
enough food to subsist. Some areas likely to conceal
sizable remnant populations include the highlands of PARADISE
Papua-New Guinea, the Ozark Mountains of North
America, and the jungle uplands of Vietnam and Laos, Situated in a halo orbit at the Earth-Sun L1 point,
though it is also possible that certain underground Paradise was an exclusive spa and resort station
and undersea settlements survive. Attempts to make for the ultra-rich before the Fall. In the wake of the
contact with survivors universally end in disaster. Fall, Paradise fell on hard times, swarmed as it was
with refugees and no longer an ideal vacation spot.
During the Fall, thousands of people unable to Recently, however, Paradise fell back in favor with the
escape Earth resorted to having themselves backed inner system glitterati, who undertook measures to
up and transmitted off-planet. Many of these—along expel many of the lingering squatters and refurnish
with some who had no backups—also put their bodies it as an elite social space. Recent rumors suggest the
in cryogenic storage, hoping to wait out the Fall for Consortium’s Hypercorp Council use Paradise for
rescue. Some reclaimers have speculated that dozens important face-to-face meetings.
of these cryogenic facilities may still be functional.
VO NGUYEN
HABITATS
The reclaimers maintain this station in high geosta-
Earth had a mature orbital industry sector and a con- tionary orbit, monitoring Earth and making plans
siderable population in orbit at the time of the Fall, for potential geoengineering efforts. Vo Nguyen is a
with over a billion people living full-time in space. small O’Neill cylinder hidden in a dangerous cloud of
Earth orbit was one of the fiercest battlegrounds of space junk and protected by swarms of killsats, gun
the Fall, however, and hundreds of habitats and other emplacements, and drones. It is occasionally used as a
installations were destroyed or rendered unusable. As jumping-off point for secret surface expeditions.
such, Earth orbit and the Lagrange points are littered
with the detritus of pre-Fall humanity. Derelict habi- LUNA
tats can mean tidy profits for intrepid scavengers, but
many are also infested with TITAN spawn and hostile The first planetary body to host permanent human
nanoswarms, making them incredibly dangerous. habitation, Earth’s sole moon competes with Titan
for the second largest population on a planetary body
To make matters worse, someone or something has in the solar system and remains a lynchpin of culture
unleashed a large number of autonomous killsats in and economic activity. Lunar history has been shaped
Earth orbit to interdict would-be visitors. Some of dramatically by the Fall. Before the need to evacuate
these are repurposed pre-Fall military hardware, while Earth arose, it was expected that Luna would remain
others are newer constructions. So far, no one claims largely an automated mining concern, never attain-
responsibility for them. The Planetary Consortium ing a population of more than a few million. Luna
is suspected, as they support and sometimes enforce was never seen as an economically viable location for
a quarantine of the planet, but the possibility exists colonization, the focus instead falling on Mars and
that the killsats may be TITAN relics or the efforts of the outer system.
another agency.
When the Fall came, every polity that couldn’t
Despite the chaos of Earth orbit, numerous habi- hope for a shot at Mars or elsewhere set its sights
tats remain active here, many of them participants in on Luna. The Indians were the only great power
either the Planetary Consortium or Lunar-Lagrange that had invested heavily in Luna. The other three
Alliance. Dozens of formerly derelict habitats have

major settlements, Erato, Nectar, and Shackle, were HELIUM-3 MINING
multinational and hypercorp concerns with no strong
national affiliations. These three cities swelled over- Although it’s not the richest place to mine He-3, Luna
night into polyglot refugee camps, while the Indian has such good infrastructure for extraction and dis-
settlement, New Mumbai, was nuked black by the tribution that it more than makes up for the fact that
corps when it became apparent that a TITAN infec- Luna is very poor in hydrogen for more conventional
tion had taken hold there. forms of fusion. Unlike the vast reserves of the gas
giants, however, the amount of readily extractable
Bereft of nationhood, Lunars developed their own He-3 in the Lunar regolith is finite. Some of the
resourceful, tough-minded culture that emerged as a richer deposits are already tapped out, and concerned
counterbalance to the radicalism of the outer system Lunars consider their world’s future after these depos-
and the excesses of Mars. its are exhausted a major issue.

Transportation on Luna is largely by suborbital FINANCE
rocket, although trans-sonic bullet trains also operate
along shorter routes. The major space port is at The Lunar banks are the oldest (and thus richest) in
Nectar. There is also a skyhook—a massive orbiting the system, though hypercorps like Solaris are close
satellite spaceport that drags a massive tether, which on their heels. Interestingly, the rise of the reputation
acts as a space elevator along a track running across economy in the outer system has not presented as
the Lunar surface south of the equator. As a result, much of a problem for these banks as one might have
many smaller cities lie along the skyhook track. expected. Lunar banks got hip to the reputation game
long before the Martian financial institutions and
FASHION/DESIGN moved in to capitalize on it immediately. By the time
Martian banks knew what was going on, Lunar finan-
Nectar is one of the three fashion/design capitals of cial institutions had struck deals with the Extropians
the system (along with Noctis on Mars and Extropia). and dominated all of the points of exchange where
The Lunar design houses have two major advantages: favors could be bartered for cold, hard cash between
an inventive population and a low planetary gravity inner system corp types and outer system anarchists.
that makes it easier to design for the low gravities The same genius fueling Lunar design created a
that prevail in much of the system. Some habitats else- complex barter-to-cash network that almost everyone
where in the system even choose a rotational speed uses. While some autonomists find it infuriating that
that simulates Lunar gravity in order to get the great- they have to deal with a monolithic banking system
est benefit from Lunar designs. to get by in the inner system, others are simply happy
to deal with the Lunars instead of the Martians for
SYNOPSIS TILION’S JUPITER BRAIN this service.
WELCOME TO FIREWALL
ERATO (ERATOSTHENES)
A TIME OF ECLIPSE [Incoming Message. Source: Anonymous]
GAME MECHANICS [Public Key Decryption Complete] Erato (population 5 million) is a major mining center
CHARACTER CREATION Our investigation into codename: TILION’s consisting of a series of heavily shielded surface domes
SAMPLE CHARACTERS Lunar research activities has confirmed our and a vast underground city. Erato is centered around
SKILLS suspicions. The hypercorp is engaged in experi- the Eratosthenes crater on the southern edge of the
ACTIONS AND COMBAT ments to convert confined spherical masses in Mare Imbrium (Sea of Showers), in the northern
MIND HACKS the Lunar interior into testbed micro-Jupiter hemisphere of the Earth-facing side of Luna. Erato has
THE MESH brains. The silicate-rich Lunar crust makes access to both the rich titanium deposits of the Mare
ACCELERATED FUTURE the locations they have chosen ideal for the Imbrium and fields of helium 3-abundant regolith.
GEAR project. Though we have not verified it, we
GAME INFORMATION believe that TILION not only followed the trail Erato is one of the oldest mining settlements on
REFERENCE of TITAN research into this area, but is in fact Luna and one of the first to become commercially
in possession of a small cache of TITAN-made viable. As such, many of the Lunar banks are cen-
computronium. There is no saying what the tered around this city. The vaulted heights of the
TITANS may have been using this cache for, Great Cavern of Erato, originally excavated by a
what it may store, or what may occur if TILION Sino-European conglomerate, reach a height of 1.5
completes the project and brings the micro- kilometers at the apex, leaving room for a teeming
Jupiter brain online. Fortunately, time seems to city of gardens and towers grown from Lunar silicates
be on our side, and we have several weeks if and industrious nanobots, lit from above by sunlight
not months before any significant part of the entering via great mirrored vents.
project is activated. We will continue to infil-
trate and learn more, but we strongly suggest NECTAR (NECTARIS)
an erasure squad be moved into position and
placed on standby. Nectar (population 9 million) lies about 100 kilo-
meters due east of Theophilus crater on the Mare
Nectaris (Sea of Nectar) in Luna’s southern hemi-
sphere. Nectar is a design powerhouse, home to the
great Lunar design houses that set fashion and design

92

trends for much of the solar system. Due to its loca- plant life is a long-term project that will take several .3.3.3.3.3.3.3.3.3.3 .3.3.3.3.3.3.3
tion relatively close to the Lunar equator, Nectar also centuries to produce a fully breathable atmosphere,
hosts Luna’s primary long-haul space port and is on but the nigh-immortal transhumans of Mars are pre- A TIME OF ECLIPSE 93
the pickup path for the Lunar skyhook. pared to be patient. A new homeworld is worth the
wait. Research into new plants and micro-organisms
NEW MUMBAI CONTAINMENT ZONE capable of releasing oxygen and nitrogen into the
Martian atmosphere at an ever-accelerating pace is a
The incineration of the New Mumbai colony with major focus of economic activity.
nuclear weapons during the Fall to prevent the spread
of TITAN infection left a scorch mark roughly 100 In the meantime, the red planet is a place of star-
kilometers in diameter on the face of Luna that is tling contrasts, from the stark beauty of its mountain
still visible from high orbit. The colony was a heavily ranges and high desert to the slowly greening bot-
automated helium-3 mining station, located in the tomlands of the equatorial Valles Marineris canyon
midst of rich helium-3 fields on the edge of the Mare system. In these bottomlands, oxygen levels are
Moscoviens. It remains a heavily patrolled quarantine slowly rising, and liquid water can now be found in
zone to this day. canals that had already been dry for millions of years
when transhumanity’s ancestors came down from
SHACKLE (SHACKLETON-NEW VARANASI) the trees. Mars is a popular destination for travel-
ers from around the system. Many Martians accrue
Shackle (population 6 million), built in and around wealth by operating lavish hotels, offering tours of
the south polar Shackleton crater, is centered on one historical sites, and leading wilderness expeditions to
of two major water extraction operations on Luna. the rugged highlands and vast deserts of the untamed
New Varanasi, the city of temples, is the most impres- Martian frontier.
sive section of the city. Shackle was the other major
site of old Indian influence on Luna, and with the Mars now sports five vast, domed cities, mostly in
destruction of New Mumbai holds special importance the equatorial regions, along with numerous smaller
to descendants of the Indian diaspora. New Varanasi settlements. Settlements are connected by surface
is a monumental artificial cavern complex with an roads, a network of near-sonic maglev trains, and
intricate canal system fed by melted ice from the polar air/spaceports from which suborbitals, airships, and
caps above. As a source of lifegiving water, it now near space rockets fly on regular schedules. Thanks
holds the same importance to the hindu faith once to the abundance of methane fuel and gravity only
ascribed to the River Ganges on old Earth. Survivors one-third of Earth’s, transhumans on Mars finally got
of other Indian religions, such as the jains and sikhs, their flying cars as well, and all settlements have well-
have also made their temples here. This makes Shackle delineated rights-of-way for these vehicles. Meanwhile,
a major pilgrimage site; tourism is the major indus- in the wild uplands, planetologists and terraforming
try after water extraction. A small herd of Indian engineers dwell in small villages, living the simple life
elephants is a major attraction, and the elephant god in ruster morphs while seeing to the continued devel-
Ganesha, Remover of Obstacles, is extremely popular opment of the Martian climate and atmosphere.
on Luna, even with non-hindus.
As a partially terraformed planet with vast tracts
MARS of unused land, Mars is one of the few places that
can offer new sleeves to infomorph refugees. Martian
Earth was the cradle of transhuman civilization, but brokerage houses do a brisk business in the purchase
Mars, with a population of 200 million, is now its and resale of infugee contract labor, with agreements
heartland. When humanity began its spaceward dias- (for some) leading to eventual sleeving. This has led to
pora, Luna was its first stop. Yet while Luna boasts a a sizable Martian underclass, however, organized as a
sizable population, Mars was the first world humans growing resistance movement under the Barsoomian
settled where they could thrive entirely on locally banner (though the hyperelite socialites disparagingly
available resources. During the first few decades, call them “rednecks”).
the early Martian settlers dwelt in tin can hab units,
extracting methane from the local atmosphere for REGIONS
rocket fuel and water from the Martian permafrost,
farming in inflatable greenhouses, and eventually Mars is broadly divided between the lowlands of the
manufacturing enough greenhouse gases to warm the north and the highlands of the south, which in many
planetary climate to the point where transhumans places are separated by dramatic cliffs up to two kilo-
could walk the Martian surface unprotected, save for meters high. Mars has seasons just as Earth, and both
oxygen respirators. north and south poles have permanent ice caps that
persist despite transhumanity’s success in warming the
The second phase of the great project of terrafor- planet. Both regions present obstacles to terraforming.
ming Mars—husbanding plant life and microbes The northern plains are open and windswept, while
engineered to rapidly replace atmospheric carbon the rugged southern uplands remain a difficult terrain
dioxide with oxygen—was already underway at the for life to gain a foothold. Even so, tough Earth
time of the Fall. A belt of orbital mirrors helps to heat species like cacti and succulents are able to grow in
the planet by focusing the sun’s rays. The spread of the best spots.

SYNOPSIS Ma’adim Vallis: This deep canyon system on Mars may reach heights of 180 meters in the low Martian
WELCOME TO FIREWALL holds one of the Planetary Consortium’s most treasured gravity). 75% of the transhuman population of Mars
possessions: the Martian Gate. This Pandora gate lives in this region, giving it the highest density of
A TIME OF ECLIPSE was originally discovered by nomadic Barsoomians, transhuman habitation in the solar system.
GAME MECHANICS then violently wrested from their hands by hypercorp
CHARACTER CREATION troops—an event that still rankles the rednecks. As The Zone: Officially labeled the TITAN Quarantine
SAMPLE CHARACTERS different hypercorps themselves nearly came to blows, Zone, the TQZ is a large area stretching from the
SKILLS the Hypercorp Council was forced to step in and offer smooth plains of Amazonis Planitia (between the
ACTIONS AND COMBAT a resolution that all could agree to. A new hypercorp Tharsis and Elysium volcanic areas) and southeast to
MIND HACKS was founded—Pathfinder—which would control Arsia Mons (just west of Noctis). This zone is known
THE MESH exploration and exploitation of the gate and resources to be crawling with leftover TITAN machinery:
ACCELERATED FUTURE beyond, with special privileges and rights given to warbots, nanoswarms, and other dangerous things.
GEAR Planetary Consortium members. The Martian Gate is Several devastated habitats lie in this region, includ-
GAME INFORMATION now a staging point for numerous exoplanet colonies, ing the former Islamic stronghold of Qurain. Few
REFERENCE though some fear the prospect of keeping a presumed- dare venture here, though some rumors suggest that
TITAN artifact operational on transhumanity’s most Barsoomian smugglers make use of the Arsia Mons
94 populous planet. caves and even scavenge for TITAN tech, despite the
risks. Planetary Consortium drones keep a vigilant eye
Olympus Mons: Mars’s most notable landmark is on the Zone’s borders, though for unknown reasons
the mighty shield volcano Olympus Mons, on which the TITAN relics rarely stray beyond its bounds.
the first—and still principle—Martian space elevator
was constructed. Similar in shape and origin to Earth’s ASHOKA
Hawaiian Islands, but now dormant, Olympus Mons
is one of the highest mountains in the solar system, Ashoka is located in a crater in the Ares Vallis region
rising 27 kilometers. about 3,000 kilometers northeast of Valles-New
Shanghai, not far from the landing sites of the early
Olympus, the settlement in the volcano’s caldera Viking and Pathfinder probes. The town is a popular
around the base of the space elevator, was once the spa and spiritual retreat for Martians wanting to
chief city of Mars, but waned in popularity as a place revisit their pioneer roots. It is also an active terra-
to live when terraforming made other regions more forming station and a major point of contact between
attractive. A maglev train from Olympus takes a little the semi-nomadic Barsoomian culture of the high
over three hours to reach Noctis; air travel is even desert and the settled Martians of the equatorial
quicker. Despite the waning of the city, the space canyonlands. 10,000 scientists, historians, terraform-
elevator still sees heavy use. ing workers, and spiritual gurus live in the town and
surrounding area. A major attraction is a museum
Valles Marineris: Most of transhumanity’s ter- housing the Pathfinder lander and the Sojourner rover
raforming efforts center around the winding Valles (which was still operational when humans landed and
Marineris canyonlands, which twist and turn over discovered it circling endlessly in a crater). The Viking
4,000 kilometers east-to-west along the Martian lander is in another museum a short monorail ride
equator. In these relatively warm bottomlands, liquid from town. In a move that infuriated historical purists,
water is becoming abundant and the land is green all three machines were given modern hardware
with hardy plant species like crab grass, dandelions, upgrades when discovered and now house AIs who
and towering Douglas firs (which botanists estimate

act as historians of early Mars exploration. Sojourner Image is everything here, and to visitors it may seem .3.3.3.3.3.3.3.3.3.3
is particularly friendly and sometimes leads lucky as if everyone in this city is either blindingly beautiful
groups on walking tours of early landing sites. or calculatedly ugly. The most successful performers A TIME OF ECLIPSE
and entertainment tycoons live lives of glittering
ELYSIUM privilege that would make the richest gerontocrat in
New Shanghai mildly envious. Everyone else, from
Located in the Elysium and Hyblaeus Chasma in up-and-coming game producers to virtual ero per-
the north of the Hesperia region in Mars’s eastern formers, has to hustle constantly.
hemisphere, Elysium is the entertainment capital of
the system and the largest Martian city outside of NOCTIS-QIANJIAO
the canyonlands of the equator. It is also the most
physically remote of the large Martian cities, though With a population of 13 million, Noctis-Qianjiao is the
transhumanity’s advanced transportation technology major metroplex in the west of the Valles Marineris
(suborbital flights and rocket flight from habitats region, an area known as Noctis Labyrinthus.
above) make this remoteness a trivial quality. Although not as hospitable as the Eos region in which
Valles-New Shanghai lies, Noctis Labyrinthus is con-
Elysium and Hyblaeus Chasma together make up sidered prime real estate for its gorgeous scenery and
a 250-kilometer long canyon system in the shadow well-developed river systems. The metroplex boasts
of Elysium Mons, a 14-kilometer mountain located two major domes: Qianjiao, on the northern bank of
about 200 kilometers northeast of the city. In between the River Noctis, and Noctis City (normally just called
is the Zephyrus Fossae, an undulating, windswept “Noctis”) to the south. Connecting the two domes and
lava plain. The city was the vision of one person, spanning the river is a sprawling network of lesser
Zevi Oaxaca-Maartens, an eccentric entertainment domes and souks, although these have been pushed
magnate who was intrigued by the close proximity of north and south over the years as the planet warms
the eminently terraformable Chasma to the unspoiled and the river grows wider.
Hesperian terrain.
Noctis-Qianjiao is the center of the Martian
The city is only 30 years old but already boasts design and fashion industries, which in the abundant
a population of 9 million transhumans. Elysium is Martian economy arguably makes the city as impor-
mostly built into the canyon walls of the Chasma, tant as the much-larger Valles-New Shanghai. This
sprawling over a 75-kilometer stretch, all of which settlement’s proximity to the Zone sometimes alarms
has been domed over. Unlike the big domed metro- visitors, but there have been no public incidents to
plexes of the south, Elysium takes advantage of the cause concern so far.
canyon walls, which are close enough together that
rather than building free standing domes, the builders OLYMPUS
have simply built great enclosing arches to completely
cover the canyon. These expand northward year by Olympus, with a population of 1 million living
year as the city grows. From low orbit, it looks like a in a space designed to accommodate 6 million, is
great, glistening serpent. something of a ghost town. The former principal
city, built in the caldera of Olympus Mons around
The Martian city of Elysium is the spiritual succes- the space elevator, is now fallen into disuse. As the
sor to old Earth’s Los Angeles as the entertainment temperatures rose and the climate improved in the
capital of the solar system. Glamorous stars and Valles Marineris canyonlands, most of the popula-
blood-drinking producers coupled with a healthy tion left the windswept caldera for more hospitable
dose of outrageous (if often vapid) transhuman surroundings. Olympus is not and never was a large
creativity have made Mars an unrivaled media pow- domed city, consisting instead of a souk-like network
erhouse. Elysium may boast more exalt and sylph of minor domes and antiquated tin can hab modules.
morphs per capita than any other transhuman city.

MARTIAN MANHUNT

[Incoming Message. Source: Anonymous] A week ago, a nomad known as back. The ego hunter showed up in Zim .3.3.3.3.3.3.3
[Public Key Decryption Complete] Hassan Naceri rolled in. He’s a regular, and Naceri lost it. He killed the ego
word is that he runs a lone courier service hunter and everyone else in the room. 95
Those deaths you asked me to look for the Barsoomians. On this recent visit,
into? It’s looking worse than we feared. though, his behavior was off. He was We found a spime’s sensor records
nervous and agitated. He told one drink- that show Naceri transforming. He also
I took a buggy car out to the Zim ing buddy that he’d been forced to hide killed half a dozen people simply by
settlement. It’s just a collection of out in the Zone for a few days and the looking at them.
tin can modules, supporting a small experience had put him on edge.
terraforming ecostation and facilities That’s right. This bugger’s infected.
for nomadic rednecks. On average, Turns out Naceri had run off with a The Martian Rangers are hot on his
it’s home to 150, if you count the 20 ruster morph without working out his trail, but they don’t know what they’re
or so pleasure pod AIs that serve as full indenture to Fa Jing a few years dealing with. So we’re off to try and
local “entertainment.” catch him—it—first. Wish us luck.

SYNOPSIS Low atmospheric pressure and bone-freezing temper- roughly bisected by the twisting Ares, an artifical river
WELCOME TO FIREWALL atures at the city’s altitude of 27 kilometers mean that that helps regulate the dome’s climate. Near its center
most transhumans venturing outside the souks and is an almost brick-for-brick duplicate of the original
A TIME OF ECLIPSE hab modules still need the equivalent of light vacsuits Bund from the destroyed Earth city of Shanghai.
GAME MECHANICS to survive. Martian Alpiners, a rare morph found in
CHARACTER CREATION few other places, are not uncommon here due to the The other four domes are Little Shanghai (a newer,
SAMPLE CHARACTERS harsh conditions. smaller dome adjacent to the Bund), Valles Center
SKILLS (a business and financial center that rivals the Lunar
ACTIONS AND COMBAT The city center is well maintained and carefully banks of Erato and Nectar), New Pittsburgh (also
MIND HACKS overseen by the Olympus Infrastructure Authority, called the Burgh, a hub of research and planet-side
THE MESH a minor hypercorp that operates the space eleva- industry), and Nytrondheim (housing major entertain-
ACCELERATED FUTURE tor. The outskirts are economically depressed and ment districts).
GEAR sometimes dangerous, mostly deserted and popu-
GAME INFORMATION lated by squatters, indentured downloads on the Valles-New Shanghai is transhumanity’s wealthiest
REFERENCE run, and other people who really want to be left population center, a hotbed of art and culture, and
alone. Occasional outbreaks of dangerously mutated one of the system’s great centers of hypercorp activity.
96 artificial life are one of the few reasons for which The populace includes an extremely high percent-
the Authority bothers to intervene in the outskirts. age of gerontocrats, but their stifling influence on
Otherwise, the old tin can habs and their strange culture, economic mobility, and the legal system is
inhabitants are left to decay. only one force among many in a city of 37 million
people. The city has expanded so much to accom-
PROGRESS (DEIMOS) modate its exploding population since the Fall that
new construction is a constant. Crime and corruption
Progress is one of the largest Cole bubbles in the are widespread, though the worst of it is contained
Solar System. With 8.5 million residents, it is second to Little Shanghai. Valles is a place where dreams are
in population only to Extropia in the belt. Progress made and broken every day, if not every hour.
was created when Fa Jing evicted all of the former
residents from the Martian satellite of Deimos, exca- MARTIAN TROJANS
vated the inside of the moonlet, and used a massive
solar array to convert it into a bubbleworld. From an Not to be confused with the much larger Jovian
engineering standpoint, Progress is a wonder. It was Trojans, the Martian Trojans are a small group of
the first successful use of new methods to create a mostly rocky asteroids trailing and preceding Mars at
Cole habitat after several previous attempts to create its L4 and L5 points.
bubbleworlds resulted in the asteroid or moonlet
breaking apart. QING LONG (AZURE DRAGON)

Progress is nonetheless an impressive habitat, home Qing Long, with a population of 2 million, is the
to hypercorp glitterati and an outpost for a host of largest O’Neill habitat in the system. It is situated
major political and economic concerns. Its sister among the Trojans at the Martian L5 point. Qing
moon, Phobos, remains a warren-like tunnel habitat Long has its roots in the Chinese effort to colonize
due to the presence of multiple legal interests unable Mars. Despite its exceptional size, it is one of the
to agree upon the disposal of the satellite. oldest habitats of its type, having been built almost
entirely from metal-rich asteroids mined near its
VALLES-NEW SHANGHAI present location.

The principal city of Mars, Valles-New Shanghai is Qing Long is a major underworld haven. The habi-
transhumanity’s largest planetary metroplex, with 37 tat’s administration is beholden to several criminal
million inhabitants. Valles-New Shanghai lies in the organizations who normally refrain from killing one
heavily terraformed Eos region in the east of the Valles another. The habitat nominally obeys some hyper-
Marineris canyon system. The metroplex is comprised corp principles, such as limited access to cornucopia
of five major domes connected by a network of machines, forking, and AGIs. However, thriving grey
Martian souks. The souks are a unique architectural and black markets enable people with the right con-
feature of large Martian cities, consisting of covered nections to acquire just about anything here.
thoroughfares and galleries lined with bazaars, eater-
ies, and squats. It is said one can find anything if one ASTEROID BELT
spends enough time walking the souks.
Spread out over a massive region between the orbits
The domes themselves are tamer, with artificial of Mars and Jupiter, the Main Belt contains a few
waterways (many of which now connect to the hundred asteroids greater than 100 kilometers in
tenuous rivers etching the surface of the Eosian diameter, over a thousand objects greater than 30 kilo-
bottomland), grand architecture, residential mini- meters in size, and countless smaller ones. Despite this,
arcologies, entertainment complexes, and hypercorp the total mass of asteroids in the belt is only a fraction
conference centers. The most impressive by far is the of one of the inner planets, meaning that asteroids are
Bund, the larger and older of two domes making up spread out over great distances. A spacecraft flying
the city of New Shanghai proper. New Shanghai is through the belt is highly unlikely to encounter an
asteroid unless it deliberately navigates toward it.

RESOURCES AND ECONOMICS NOVA YORK (METIS) .3.3.3.3.3.3.3.3.3.3 .3.3.3.3.3.3.3

The rich, easily accessible mineral deposits in the One of the more unusual near-weightless habitats is A TIME OF ECLIPSE 97
Belt were a major link in transhumanity’s first steps Nova York, the main city on Metis, a large nickel-iron
toward the outer system. Automated mining and and silicate asteroid located in the main belt. Nova
high-impulse ion boosters enabled outer system York, the third largest habitat in the main belt, is a
colonists to move metal-rich Main Belt asteroids thriving metropolis of 500,000, with the main portion
into the orbits of Jupiter, Saturn, and beyond, where of the city located in a spherical cavern approximately
metallic asteroids are much scarcer. This activ- four kilometers in diameter, the top of which is two
ity continues to this day as transhumanity pushes hundred meters beneath the asteroid’s surface. Lit
further out into the system. during the day by a series of huge light tubes in the
outer walls, at night the lights of the buildings cause
HABITATS the surface of this sphere to resemble an enormous
geode. The habitat’s basic design consists of many
Hundreds of small habitats, mostly involved in pros- thousands of exceptionally tall and fragile-looking
pecting activities, dot the belt. Distant from Earth, buildings that extend between one hundred and fifteen
settlements in the belt were largely spared the devas- hundred meters above the surface, as well as a few
tation of the Fall. Both hypercorp and autonomous buildings that stretch from one side of the cavern to
outposts flourish here. Derelict habitats abandoned the other. In Metis’s minute gravity of 1/140th of a g,
when nearby asteroids were boosted into the outer up and down have little meaning, and even relatively
system or depleted are common here as well, though fragile buildings are in no danger of falling down. The
some of these are now occupied by residents who are vast majority of the buildings, including ones more
best left to their solitude. than one kilometer tall, are made from thin plastic
panels over a durable supporting framework. These
CERES buildings jut out at all angles from the sphere.

One of the system’s dwarf planets (along with the Many inhabitants of Nova York move from one
likes of Pluto and Eris), Ceres is almost 1,000 kilo- building to another by jumping, and a single leap can
meters in diameter and hosts a population of almost a carry someone many hundreds of meters. Residents
million. Unlike most Main Belt asteroids, Ceres has an do not worry about falling—the combination of air
icy crust with a layer of liquid water beneath it, like resistance and exceedingly low gravity means that
a miniature version of Jupiter’s moon, Europa. With even someone falling from the top of the cavern to
its abundant water, Ceres has a major role in resup- the bottom is in no danger of injury. In this environ-
plying other stations in the belt. Similar to Extropia, ment, the only real meaning of up and down is that
Ceres operates largely along anarcho-capitalist lines. down is where you look for objects to come to rest
However, the Hidden Concern, a cartel run entirely (as long as an air current does not pick them up and
by uplifted octopi, holds sway in the sub-crustal sea blow them around).
and maintains a stranglehold, as it were, on water
extraction operations. Cerean octopoid morphs are JUPITER
specially adapted to survive in the ammonia-rich
waters of the Hidden Sea. Large enough that it could almost have formed the
nucleus of a protostar in its own right, Jupiter’s
EXTROPIA (44 NYSA) massive size makes the Jovian system one of the most
challenging places in the system to colonize. Jupiter’s
This massive beehive habitat is a major crossroads powerful magnetic field means that its inner moons—
and anarcho-capitalist/mutualist marketplace. and the outer ones, when their orbits pass through its
Extropia is a neutral free city whose infrastructure immense magnetotail—are bombarded with enough
and social fabric is maintained by a loose associa- ionizing radiation to kill transhumans not protected
tion of anarcho-syndicalist affinity groups. Extropia’s by the heaviest of shielding within a matter of hours.
neutrality hinges on strategic alliances between key There are sixty-three moons and moonlets in the
local figures, their networks, and an unusual array Jovian system, but only the well-explored, populous,
of outside interests that include the Lunar banks, regular moons are described here.
technolibertarian factions, and outer system colonies
dependent upon raw materials exported from the RESOURCES AND ECONOMY
belt. The hypercorps use Extropia as a tax shelter and
a haven from which to do illicit business. There are Jupiter’s powerful gravity well is a major hindrance to
no laws or government as such; visitors are advised gas mining in the planet’s atmosphere, as even craft
to register with an insurance and security provider. that do not succumb to the violent, centuries-long
Named after one of the first transhumanist move- atmospheric storms can only achieve escape velocity
ments, Extropia is considered a utopia for trans- with the most powerful propulsion systems. Given the
humans looking for body modifications. AGIs and need for heavy shielding on such craft, gas mining on
forking are accepted and allowed here. The transhu- Jupiter is not nearly as efficient as on Saturn. Jupiter
man population is nearly ten million. has a tenuous ring system, much less dense than

SYNOPSIS Saturn’s, which extends out for 20,000 kilometers
WELCOME TO FIREWALL around the planet, encompassing the orbits of its two
closest moonlets.
A TIME OF ECLIPSE
GAME MECHANICS Jupiter’s gravity, however, is also a valuable
CHARACTER CREATION resource. Craft bound for Saturn and beyond can
SAMPLE CHARACTERS slingshot themselves outward by circling the planet
SKILLS to pick up velocity, cutting months or years off their
ACTIONS AND COMBAT trips. The heavily militarized Jovian Republic levies
MIND HACKS tolls against all spacecraft using Jupiter’s gravity to
THE MESH pick up velocity, including asteroids under propulsion.
ACCELERATED FUTURE This protection money is the Junta’s primary source of
GEAR revenue. Planetary Consortium ships generally accept
GAME INFORMATION the payment as part of operating expenses. Other fac-
REFERENCE tions are not so cooperative, and the Junta regularly
seizes or destroys blockade runners.
98
HABITATS AND MOONLETS

Most of Jupiter’s moons are really captured asteroids,
lacking the size and geological complexity of plan-
etary bodies. All are occupied. Some were converted
to habitats; others host only Junta military and mining
outposts. The Jovian moonlets consist mostly of car-
bonaceous rock, poor in metal, with some of the larger
moonlets having layers or even cores of ice. Beehive
habitats and Reagan cylinders predominate in the
Jovian system. Reagan cylinders (called “sarcophagus
habs” by other factions) are an inefficient variation on
the O’Neill cylinder in which excavators hollow out
an immense, cylindrical cavern in a rocky asteroid and
then alter the asteroid’s rotation with external thrust-
ers to simulate gravity.

Other habitat types are rare in Jovian orbit,
especially within 2 million kilometers of the planet,
where the radiation is strongest. For a bioconserva-
tive faction unwilling to adopt radiation-resistant
morphs, the Junta is in a poor location. Shielding their
populace beneath tons of rock is a necessity. Despite
its military hegemony, the Junta can’t control all of
Jovian space, and there are things it can’t do on its
own—like exploring Europa. A number of unaligned
habitats and surface settlements exist in the ring
system and the orbits of the Galilean moons.

The Jovian Republic has renamed Jupiter’s moons
after various neo-conservative heroes from Earth’s
history. From closest to most distant, the moonlets are
Metis (Bush), Adrastea (Fairway), Amalthea (Solano),
Thebe (McAllen), Leda (Chung), Himalia (Pinochet),
Lysithea (Friedman), Elara (Buckley), Ananke (Nixon),
Carme (Kissinger), Pasiphae (Schilling), and Sinope
(Garcia). All are tiny, between 5 and 100 kilometers
in diameter.

AMALTHEA (SOLANO)

The largest of the moonlets, hollow Amalthea is prob-
ably the most livable sarcophagus habitat due to the
large lake created from its icy core. Living on Solano
carries some prestige among Junta citizens. Rumor has
it that most of the residents are well-placed RAND
think tank personnel, most of whom work on defense
projects. A fusion-powered axial light tube illuminates