[OOC] The Myrlian Belt ~ Harmonious Network ~ Open To All

The Myrlian Belt

Insanity, chaos, opportunity, all these words have been used to describe the Myrlian belt.  A region of space defined by its four inhabitable systems and numerous terraformed words, the belt was once the site of an extensive, and expensive, colonization campaign.  The Directorate of Myr, a government within the greater Harmonious Network, put enough capital into the project that many considered the belt to be a prospective hub of commerce and development.  The only problem was that the project became so expensive the Directorate ran out of funds.  Taxes higher than any in the network were leveled within the Directorate to address the crises, but ultimately political pressure demanded the entire effort be abandoned forty three years ago.

Isolated on the distant outer rim of the Harmonious Network, with only the most developed system having a way station, the Myrlian Belt fell apart.  Paychecks stopped arriving and then laws stopped being enforced.  Billions of credits worth of weaponry went missing as soldiers abandoned their posts and took 'severance packages' with them, aiming to turn a hefty profit.  Those weapons found their way into the hands of individuals who aspired to be the new lords of the belt, and soon war became a constant in the life of those foolish enough to have moved to a once shining beacon of civilization.

Without easy transport millions were trapped to live in a new kind of hell.  Those on the less developed planets were the luckiest; for the most part they were free to live out bucolic, unimportant, lives away from the ravages of war.  However, even on those dusty, half terraformed, and easily forgotten worlds, law had become a thing of the past.  Pirates, raiders, mercenaries, the Myrlian belt had forever become a haven and utopia to them all.

The Systems of the Myrlian Belt:

Agrel was once the capital of the fringe, the golden system of the Myrlian Belt.  Now the skyscrapers that pierced the clouds of Agrel Prime are bombed out sniper perches.  With the only way station in the whole of the belt, the system is both the most civilized and the most dangerous.  Civil war between dozens of factions has made the space of the system a near constant warzone, and the planets below fare little better with their people staving more often than not.  Even so, if one wants advanced medicine, technology, or information from the outside galaxy, they go to Agrel.
Agrel Prime
A long time ago Agrel Prime was the hub of the Belt, a world that was the gateway to the new fringe and the poster boy of Network expansionism.  Now?  Agrel Prime, with its vast cities and dense temperate rainforests, is undoubtedly the most war torn planet in the whole of the Network.  With its enormous propaganda value the planet has never been subjected to serious bombardment like Sebet, but it has never been unified either.  Divided between dozens of warlords both local and from abroad, the world is an endless battleground.  Still, Agrel Prime plays host to the only waystation in the Myrlian Belt.  If one wishes to have any claim to the belt as a whole they must control Agrel Prime and the way station that serves to link the belt to the rest of the universe.
 
Sebet
All the planets of the Agrel system have suffered from more than four decades of endless war, but few have the scars that Sebet does.  In the days before the Directorates withdrawal the planet was an unassuming business world host to an uncommon and growing human majority population.  Now it remains a Human majority world, but not a single building stands on its surface.  In the immediate aftermath of the Directorate's withdrawal Sebet’s humans blamed the collapse of society on the aliens of the belt; a societal madness took hold and soon the mobs that set about ‘rectifying the problem’ with a disturbing passion were all that remained.  The xenophobic regime that spawned from such mobs took control of Sebet and defended its people against the new warlords of the Agrel system, but toxic philosophy compelled the regime to go further than mere self defense.  An endless war against the alien menace has all but consumed the world of Sebet.  First it was industry, then the population centers, now everything and everyone has been relocated to the immense network of subterranean bunkers that were built to survive the near endless long range bombardment the surface has sustained.  On Sebet nothing lives above ground but the moss that grows in great craters.

Hebyr was an agricultural system when times were good, and it remains one today.  The only difference is in who owns what.  Before the Directorate abandoned their project the worlds of Hebyr were the subject of vast terraforming experiments aimed towards the creation of new edens. Hyper fertile worlds with unnatural and fantastic ecosystems, the many planets and moons of Hebyr became the sole source of an uncountable number of organic luxury goods.  Yet it was the people of Hebyr who suffered most from the collapse of Directorate control.  Slavers descended upon the system and took its people as expendable chattel, useful only for working the fields and harvesting the systems rare natural riches until they could work no longer.  Once a promising system, it is now said Hebyr is where the damned go to die.
Pale Harbor
The frozen moon of an ice giant, Pale Harbour is a harsh place for humanoids. Temperatures sit just under freezing in a tropical summer; elsewhere they are much lower. The atmosphere is Himalayan at best, and worldwide aurora mark the passage of cosmic rays through an unprotected sky.

Nevertheless it is heavily forested by translucent 'trees', and supported a bountiful terrestrial and atmospheric ecosystem before the introduction of heavy agriculture. Its native fauna, largely invertebrates, are raised in cramped billions using containment domes, factory farms, and advanced stock-herding robots. The indigenous people are treated little better.

Watching slavers ship their planet away one freezer crate at a time, the Skippers click their claws and thump the ground, praying that their gods will send them opportunity.

Terveni
Trees that pierce the clouds, megafauna that leave craters where they walk, Terveni is a world as dangerous as it is bountiful.  At one point the world was the site of an experiment in the creation of more efficient lifeforms, but even before the withdrawal of the directorate the effort had been abandoned.  The risk had outweighed the reward.  The creatures of Terveni had certainly become more efficient with the directorates tampering, but they had used that abundance of energy to grow to staggering scales.  Combined with a strange and frighteningly aggressive new set of behaviors, the life of Terveni simply became too hazardous to study.  However, the slaver overlords of Terveni have managed to set up a different sort of operation from their tree cities.  Slaves are used to hunt for and harvest the flora and fauna of the strange world.  Acting as both labor and a food source for the local wildlife, the slaves of Terveni have it worse than most.

When the directorate left the belt they left their project incomplete, and nowhere is this more evident than the Regen system.  There exist no fully terraformed worlds in the system, but rather a number of half finished planets full of desert, dust, ice, what lord knows what else.  With such unappealing locales, Regen is where the wanted hide.  As to the systems people, there are few.  Farmers eek out a peaceful existence where they can, but the land is harsh and for every year of peace there is another where whole towns will be levelled by rampaging bounty hunters.
Anne’s Hope
Annes Hope is at once one of the most livable planets within the Regen system, and one of the most avoided.  The world is horribly arid, sparsely vegetated, and scorched by a relentless sun.  To wander the dunes and badlands of Anne’s hope is to court death.  Thankfully, the world has more than arid windswept lands.  The planet’s surface is marred by a massive network of seemingly bottomless canyons, and this is where the world's paltry slice of civilization exists.  Most cities and towns on Anne’s Hope are built into the sides of the canyons where the air is cooler; strange multilevel constructions carved into the walls of canyons and strung together with bridges, the settlements are odd by any standard.  In areas where the canyons are shallower there exist rare communities built on the banks of what few rivers Anne’s hope plays host to.

Where Agrel fell to warlords, Yente fell to criminals.  Perhaps a nicer place to live than Agrel, Yente's development has been stifled but not stopped.  The syndicates that rule the systems planets do as they please, but when it benefits them they do contribute to the society they run.  Still, on Yente there are only those in the syndicates and those who are not.  Living in perpetual poverty with few rights, the people of Yente's worlds have been left with no hope but to help their rulers build their palaces and manufacture their drugs.
Beroz
Beroz is a world that required only the bare minimum in terms of terraforming.  While many native species died in the effort to make the planet habitable, it is also one of the few worlds in the belt that still hosts truly alien life.  In particular, an odd moss as dense as ironwood grows on Beroz.  With millions of years to cover the planet's surface this moss has grown to be hundreds of meters thick in some areas.  Huge structures made of the plant mottle the surface of Beroz, and most of the world's cities are built in the immense natural tunnels left in the wake of the floras growth.  Wandering down any of these tunnels without the proper equipment could spell death as the shifting nature of the moss can leave unwary travelers stranded.  The labyrinthine character of the planet makes it perfect for the many syndicates of Yente.  Used as a production facility for whatever might be illegal wherever, the planet is a massive exporter of all things illicit.

What You Need To Know!

-The Myrlian Belt is a chaotic utopia for mercenaries, pirates, slavers, outlaws, and the general scum of the universe!

-There is no central authority in the Belt.  You might get in trouble with one of the hundreds of factions in the star cluster, but generally nobody except for them them will care.  Murder and pillage away.

-While the Myrlian Belt is in the Harmonious Network, anyone can play around here.  This is just a setting.  Take the first shuttle to the best worst place in the universe today!

-The general Expanding Horizons rules apply, but I'm not going to be reporting anyone for excessive violence or any other sort of non-pornographic content.  The Myrlian Belt is a terrible place and things happen.  That said, use your heads Mmkay?

-IMPORTANT: Anyone can contribute a planet or setting to the Myrlian Belt.  The ones you see here are only the starting locations!  I'd prefer it not get ridiculous but a few more planets per system is 100% acceptable and in fact desired.
[OOC] The Myrlian Belt ~ Harmonious Network ~ Open To All

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Quetzalcoatl Mildly Interesting House Plant

Lmpkio Kaiju Expert

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Lmpkio Kaiju Expert

Lmpkio Kaiju Expert

Lmpkio Kaiju Expert
