The following are my (IMTU) expansions on the Wiki description of Collace/District 268 (SM 1237): Content in turquoise is quoted from the Wiki entry.
Historical Data
Collace was the site of a Sindalian Empire mining colony that was cut off by the fall of the empire. The population was in serious decline when it was found by Darrian scouts in -1310. The Darrians provided enough technological advice to let Collace develop a stable, self-sustainable infrastructure that would keep them alive.
The Darrians also started a terraforming project that is still ongoing. The first phase was to seed the world’s oceans with bacteria that generate greenhouse gases (methane, CO2,etc.) in order to enhance the planet’s greenhouse effect. This and airborne fallout from the scheduled meteorite impacts comprise the atmospheric taint. The atmosphere was already tainted when the Darrians arrived due to residual pollution from Sindalian mining, and the surviving Collacians weren’t particularly concerned over what little of the planet’s ecosystem remained. They still don’t care, but instead look forward to the eventual completion of terraforming a couple of centuries from now.
Over the past two millennia, Collace has experienced steady growth and its population now stands at approximately a billion. Population pressure could well have become a problem, given the planet's large population and relative lack of dry land on which to build. However, this problem was solved by housing most of Collace’s inhabitants in arcologies, often built in clusters. A baneful consequence of “clustering” is that the middle- and upper-classes have tended to gravitate into newer, more expensive, high-security arcologies, leaving the older and less expensive structures to the working class and poor. Many of the lower-class arcologies have become increasingly run-down and experience high levels of criminal activity, much of it ‘run’ by organized criminal gangs.
Population density isn’t quite as severe as described above. The arcologies were constructed mostly for economies of scale in environmental control and gravitics, and partially due to resistance from the food production sector which did not want to give up their farming domes to expand residential space. The GINI coefficient (inequality) has increased significantly since the economic lull after the Fourth Frontier War, though much of society either doesn’t accept that this has happened or is beginning to think it is a positive development. The prior egalitarian cultural norms that held from Rescue (-1310) through The Building Years (989-1085) persist in principle, but decreasingly so in practice.
Cultural Extension:
Heterogeneity 6: Slightly less than baseline heterogeneity. There are shared consensus values and culture, but sometimes merely as ideals rather than concrete reality.
Acceptance 13: They are very tolerant of individual differences, and xenophilic as a legacy of the world’s rescue by the Darrians.
Strangeness 2: Collacian culture is very similar to Imperial culture, aside from the lack of institutionalized nobility. If you’re prior-service IISS, you’ll be perfectly at home here.
Symbols 10: They use weird iconography, and the political structure is a bit opaque. When a Collacian talks about “Freedom” or “Unity,” they probably aren’t saying what you think they are. It's familiar once you figure out what they're really talking about, though.
Despite this, Collace is the wealthiest and most important world in District 268. It has the largest population in the subsector, is a major industrial world renowned for producing low-cost, high-tech goods, and is also the site of a major SuSAG pharmaceutical factory. Moreover, settlers from Collace have colonized Inchin and Avastan, which occupy strategic positions on the J-1 main running between the Glisten and Five Sisters subsectors (though Collace’s government has effectively disowned their governments). Collace is the prime candidate for permanent subsector capital (replacing the temporary one at Mertactor) if and when District 268 is integrated into the Imperium.
Collace has sought to join the Imperium and hosts the largest Imperial scout base in District 268. Indeed, the term “scout base” does not accurately convey the vast scale of the IISS presence, which includes facilities (training sites, supply depots, early warning stations, etc.) on half a dozen other planets and satellites in the system in addition to the main base on Kirkton -- Collace’s principal moon. The intimate relationship between the Imperial and local military is demonstrated by the fact that elements of Collace’s armed forces provide ground and close orbit defense for both themselves and the IISS facilities.
This is also a significant factor in Collace’s embrace of Imperial accession. The egalitarian and meritocratic structure of the IISS is very compatible with Collace’s cultural ideals, and interaction (and interdependence) with the IISS has been the world’s primary experience with the Third Imperium. If they cannot moderate standard Imperial policy for integrating client states, they may be in for a rude shock. On the other hand, the Scouts here have largely “gone native,” and will exert a great deal of effort to keep the Imperium’s rigid hierarchy separate from Collace’s societal structures. Much of Collace’s politics involve the terms under which Imperial Accession will occur; for example, whether there needs to be a formal planetary Nobility, and if so whether those positions will be hereditary, appointed, or elective. It’s worth noting that the political coalition in power at Accession will be gifted a tremendous incumbency advantage, which greatly raises the stakes of elections.
The only reason why Collace has not yet joined the Imperium is the opposition of nearby Trexalon (Spinward Marches 1339) - with which it is in a state of "cold war." Trexalon is dominated by the Trexalon Technical Consortium (TTC), a large interlocking corporate trust which controls the starport and has monopoly on industry in that system. The TTC is vociferously anti-Imperial because it perceives the Imperium as an impediment to its expansionist ambitions in District 268. Since the Imperial authorities are reluctant to risk inflaming the situation, Collace’s admission to the Imperium has been "put on the back burner."
One of the key points of contention between Collace and Trexalon is the Pavabid (Spinward Marches 1238) system, which lies directly between them just one parsec away. Ever since iridium deposits were discovered there, the TTC and Collace have been competing for influence with the ruling religious dictatorship to secure mineral exploitation rights. To date, however, the xenophobic offshoot of the Church of the Stellar Divinity on Pavabid has rejected both parties’ advances due to fears that introducing large numbers of off-world miners would irrevocably pollute its pure theocratic society.
There's more backstory involving Pavabid... see next post.
Historical Data
Collace was the site of a Sindalian Empire mining colony that was cut off by the fall of the empire. The population was in serious decline when it was found by Darrian scouts in -1310. The Darrians provided enough technological advice to let Collace develop a stable, self-sustainable infrastructure that would keep them alive.
The Darrians also started a terraforming project that is still ongoing. The first phase was to seed the world’s oceans with bacteria that generate greenhouse gases (methane, CO2,etc.) in order to enhance the planet’s greenhouse effect. This and airborne fallout from the scheduled meteorite impacts comprise the atmospheric taint. The atmosphere was already tainted when the Darrians arrived due to residual pollution from Sindalian mining, and the surviving Collacians weren’t particularly concerned over what little of the planet’s ecosystem remained. They still don’t care, but instead look forward to the eventual completion of terraforming a couple of centuries from now.
Over the past two millennia, Collace has experienced steady growth and its population now stands at approximately a billion. Population pressure could well have become a problem, given the planet's large population and relative lack of dry land on which to build. However, this problem was solved by housing most of Collace’s inhabitants in arcologies, often built in clusters. A baneful consequence of “clustering” is that the middle- and upper-classes have tended to gravitate into newer, more expensive, high-security arcologies, leaving the older and less expensive structures to the working class and poor. Many of the lower-class arcologies have become increasingly run-down and experience high levels of criminal activity, much of it ‘run’ by organized criminal gangs.
Population density isn’t quite as severe as described above. The arcologies were constructed mostly for economies of scale in environmental control and gravitics, and partially due to resistance from the food production sector which did not want to give up their farming domes to expand residential space. The GINI coefficient (inequality) has increased significantly since the economic lull after the Fourth Frontier War, though much of society either doesn’t accept that this has happened or is beginning to think it is a positive development. The prior egalitarian cultural norms that held from Rescue (-1310) through The Building Years (989-1085) persist in principle, but decreasingly so in practice.
Cultural Extension:
Heterogeneity 6: Slightly less than baseline heterogeneity. There are shared consensus values and culture, but sometimes merely as ideals rather than concrete reality.
Acceptance 13: They are very tolerant of individual differences, and xenophilic as a legacy of the world’s rescue by the Darrians.
Strangeness 2: Collacian culture is very similar to Imperial culture, aside from the lack of institutionalized nobility. If you’re prior-service IISS, you’ll be perfectly at home here.
Symbols 10: They use weird iconography, and the political structure is a bit opaque. When a Collacian talks about “Freedom” or “Unity,” they probably aren’t saying what you think they are. It's familiar once you figure out what they're really talking about, though.
Despite this, Collace is the wealthiest and most important world in District 268. It has the largest population in the subsector, is a major industrial world renowned for producing low-cost, high-tech goods, and is also the site of a major SuSAG pharmaceutical factory. Moreover, settlers from Collace have colonized Inchin and Avastan, which occupy strategic positions on the J-1 main running between the Glisten and Five Sisters subsectors (though Collace’s government has effectively disowned their governments). Collace is the prime candidate for permanent subsector capital (replacing the temporary one at Mertactor) if and when District 268 is integrated into the Imperium.
Collace has sought to join the Imperium and hosts the largest Imperial scout base in District 268. Indeed, the term “scout base” does not accurately convey the vast scale of the IISS presence, which includes facilities (training sites, supply depots, early warning stations, etc.) on half a dozen other planets and satellites in the system in addition to the main base on Kirkton -- Collace’s principal moon. The intimate relationship between the Imperial and local military is demonstrated by the fact that elements of Collace’s armed forces provide ground and close orbit defense for both themselves and the IISS facilities.
This is also a significant factor in Collace’s embrace of Imperial accession. The egalitarian and meritocratic structure of the IISS is very compatible with Collace’s cultural ideals, and interaction (and interdependence) with the IISS has been the world’s primary experience with the Third Imperium. If they cannot moderate standard Imperial policy for integrating client states, they may be in for a rude shock. On the other hand, the Scouts here have largely “gone native,” and will exert a great deal of effort to keep the Imperium’s rigid hierarchy separate from Collace’s societal structures. Much of Collace’s politics involve the terms under which Imperial Accession will occur; for example, whether there needs to be a formal planetary Nobility, and if so whether those positions will be hereditary, appointed, or elective. It’s worth noting that the political coalition in power at Accession will be gifted a tremendous incumbency advantage, which greatly raises the stakes of elections.
The only reason why Collace has not yet joined the Imperium is the opposition of nearby Trexalon (Spinward Marches 1339) - with which it is in a state of "cold war." Trexalon is dominated by the Trexalon Technical Consortium (TTC), a large interlocking corporate trust which controls the starport and has monopoly on industry in that system. The TTC is vociferously anti-Imperial because it perceives the Imperium as an impediment to its expansionist ambitions in District 268. Since the Imperial authorities are reluctant to risk inflaming the situation, Collace’s admission to the Imperium has been "put on the back burner."
One of the key points of contention between Collace and Trexalon is the Pavabid (Spinward Marches 1238) system, which lies directly between them just one parsec away. Ever since iridium deposits were discovered there, the TTC and Collace have been competing for influence with the ruling religious dictatorship to secure mineral exploitation rights. To date, however, the xenophobic offshoot of the Church of the Stellar Divinity on Pavabid has rejected both parties’ advances due to fears that introducing large numbers of off-world miners would irrevocably pollute its pure theocratic society.
There's more backstory involving Pavabid... see next post.
