Sultonia
CASSITER-7
A frontier oasis, half-finished and halfway habitable
Planetary Survey
Sultonia is a young planet in an old solar system. When the star Cassiter evolved into a red giant, six planets – Sultonia’s siblings – were destroyed. Material released by that cataclysm accreted in the system’s existing asteroid belt until it formed a new planet, fortuitously located in the star’s habitable zone. In many ways, the very existence of Sultonia is something of a miracle.
Sultonia is relatively cool and stable for its age, with several competing theories as to why this may be. It has an atmosphere with a roughly even mix of hydrogen and helium. Carbon-rich sandy regions cover much of the surface. Trace acidic compounds and complex silicates within the planet’s mantle suggest that life might have independently arisen on Sultonia, given a few billion years in isolation.
Be that as it may, Sultonia is prime real estate in a region of space marred by conflict and crisis. Cassiter lies on the inner frontier of Alliance space, where skirmishes with SHADOW and THRONE forces are all too common. Sultonia was therefore prioritised for terraforming, to provide a home for refugees and casualties that have been evacuated from the front lines and a frontier port of call for Alliance vessels.
In more recent times, the planet has been chosen as the launch site for the ARDENT initiative. Many survival techniques developed to cope with Sultonia’s gestational climate have been adopted into ARDENT protocols for manned visits to uninhabitable planets, and the planet’s location makes it ideal for departures into the unknown.
Sultonia has three natural satellites, called (in order of size) Denali, Menlale and Begguya [CASSITER-7.1, CASSITER-7.2, CASSITER-7.3]. All three act as shepherd moons for the planetary ring, which is made of stellar material and asteroids that were not absorbed during the planet’s formation.
E/I/R
Economy
Sultonia is the beneficiary of Alliance funds and materials, with little economic activity beyond subsistence and internal development.
Research
Sultonia has attracted scientific interest as a rare case study into the development of young planets, and the rapid terraforming of same. Survival techniques honed on the dunes of Sultonia have become Alliance standard procedures for temporary settlements on semi-habitable planets.
Industry
Sultonia is an Alliance-sponsored terraforming effort. Chief industries are FABREP construction and a small amount of carbon-aggregate export.
Demographic Review
The inhabitants of Sultonia have been thrown together by circumstance. The population has risen precipitously as the planet has been developed, but it remains relatively underpopulated compared to other Alliance planets of its size. Dwellings tend to be communal, with a few outlying homesteads attached to farms or solar arrays.
Sultonians tend to be jacks of all trades, with the planet’s harsh seasons encouraging the settlers to play farmer, mechanic and nomad in turns throughout the year. There are few divisions of class or labour on the ground. The people of Sultonia have adapted to each other and to the conditions of their new world: it remains to be seen if the camaraderie that has developed here will survive the planet’s transition from a relief zone to an autonomous member of the Alliance.
Cultural Evaluation
Sultonians demonstrate a responsive stubbornness in all things: whether they are pushing through helium storms or working out land permits, they do so with clear heads and a focus born from survivalism. They are generally private, and dislike interference in their personal affairs. Sultonians do not have a problem with authority, but they also have no problem with pointing out when said authority is wrong.
Sultonian festivals are frequent if muted affairs, chances for communities to collectively decompress. They are for the most part descended from refugee traditions, the better to keep said traditions alive. Charity – born out of mutual survival – is a virtue, though it is often couched in terms of nothing being allowed to go to waste. There is much made of “paying it forward”, and of settling one’s debts.
As Sultonia approaches self-sufficiency, thoughts turn towards the day when it is no longer reliant on outside aid. Some wish to find lost home-worlds: others dream of new frontiers. The ARDENT launch is the catalyst for a generation of Sultonian navigators, scouts and survivalists to leave the hard soil and seek their places among the stars.
Diplomatic Positioning
Sultonia’s distance from other Alliance worlds and lack of centralized authority make it something of a neutral zone, and a target for smugglers. Alliance authorities have made extensive efforts to prevent the movement of core-region artifacts and unsanctioned tech through Sultonia, but crackdowns on contraband have mostly impacted legal exporters like Kessler and Viront Z85 – leading to tensions between Sultonia and the aforementioned planets.
