Factions

In the distant future of Solstice humanity has begin to spread itself throughout the Solar System.  This page will encapsulate the back story for the various factions involved in humanity's first interplanetary conflict.

Mars:  First planet to be terraformed and colonized by humanity.  As the Solar System's preeminent military power Mars serves as a deterrent to Earth's imperialist interests.  Mars has long been seen as the leader of cultural movements and is the Solar System's chief exporter of entertainment and manufactured goods.

Earth:  Earth has long been the place on which all other colonies depend.  Recent advances in technology as well as the degradation of Earth's natural resources have seen this planet pass its hay day as the cultural and economic center of the Solar System.  Earth's massive corporations have turned on each other as their alliances with extra-terrestrial powers have made them competitors.

Venus:  The second planet to be colonized by humanity. With much less hospitable conditions than Mars the terraforming process on Venus is still far from completion.  To compensate for this the people of Venus have long practiced genetic modification to adapt themselves as well as flora and fauna to their new home.

C.I.B. (Colonists of the Inner Belt):  The generations that left the earth in pursuit of a better future did not all settle on planets.  The CIB was founded by the rebellious descendants of space faring workers who helped build the infrastructure necessary to move into the outer Solar System.  They appropriated space colonies and asteroid mines that speckle the Inner Asteroid Belt as their own during the collapse of Earth's influence.  Earth considers them traitors and thieves, while they consider themselves liberated from over a century of indentured servitude to greedy corporations.

Jupiter: ??

Keiper Belt:  Mysterious colonists of the Outer Asteroid Belt.  Little is known about their technology or motives.
 
Short mission statement-The world which we are creating is meant to be an illustration of the division of classes within modern society.  We will highlight the nefarious acts of violence executed by various militaries, terrorist organizations and espionage agencies against one another and the peoples whose interests they claim to protect.  In essence: What would happen were the US and Europe to suddenly be removed from their place as world superpowers and be at the mercy of nations like Pakistan, a nuclear capable country whose civilians have had quite enough of Us drone strikes?  Would the US learn to live as just another nation, or would it drag the entire world down with it in an attempt to regain the power it perceives itself to have lost?  It will be important to remember as we design each society that each of these worlds or people is  a designed world, an engineered people.  These societies were meant to be controlled and each must illustrate a method or series of methods of social control.  This can range from the direct such  as propaganda or contaminating a societies drinking water with antidepressants to social ideas like the concept that every single person has the opportunity to become a millionaire regardless of birth, intelligence or skill set.  While each of these colonies (except Venus) has escaped the grasp of their former leaders we will explore how these nations are still controlled by banking cartels and foreign intelligence agencies manipulating marketplaces and making demands of changes to internal economic policies to suit the needs of the powerful and manipulated to depress the economies of the colony nations to keep them weak.  I want our stories to focus on civilians and diplomats in a world torn apart by giant robot wars.  Giant robots are terror weapons, analogous to predator drones or cruise missile strikes.  They are warfare in human form, an anthropomorphic  metaphor for humanities capability to commit acts of unfeeling harm upon dehumanized others.  We need to depict these things as terrifying gigantic monsters of mass destruction.  Gundam often had a habit of declaring the awfulness of war but not really showing it.  Half the human race dies before the series begins yet we never see so much as a mass grave.  The show contrasts combat with the beauty of nature; despite the fact that Earth is supposed to be slowly dying it has lush green jungles and forests.  The concept is the same but I want to offer a more visceral experience and capture an empty haunting kind of beauty.  Our warfare will more often resemble the first world war with rampant radiation sickness replacing rampant infection and with long sequences of tension slowly building to sequences of frantic explosive terror .  Our beauty shots will be vast, soft and bleak.  Space will not contain lush clouds of color like the pictures from the Hubble.  It will be black and huge and silent.    I would compare the directorial bent with the films of Danny Boyle especially 28 Days Later and Sunshine.

Mars-  If not the eldest of extraterrestrial colonies, Mars represents the passing of the greatest hurdle for humans hoping to live and work in space; the successful terra-forming of an entire planet.  This greatness of achievements is reflected in the Martian culture's obsession with might, power, and glory.  Bigger as better is ingrained into every aspect of Martian life from the overwhelming overproduced power ballads of Martian pop music to their big dumb action flicks which play to packed Martian theaters loaded with big guns, big tits, bulging biceps, fast cars, manly heroes leaping from explosions, manly heroes walking slowly away from explosions, exploding heads, bad puns and trashy music, to colossal geodesic dome cities supported by hundreds of spidery buttresses coming together to rest atop a circle of mighty megaliths, to the vast Martian army: legions of tanks, mechs, tank-mechs, tank carriers and tank mech-carriers, aircraft, spacecraft, and the largest single standing infantry army in the entirety of human existence.   Martian society follows a highly regimented structure which divided into hierarchical classes dictates  everything about a Martian's life from what and how much he eats, to where he works; assigned based on evaluated skills and carefully steered through an educational system which seamlessly moves students from school to university to workplace, to where he lives; decided based on evaluations of convenience of commute to work, size dictated by what class of society he has earned his way to attain, to who he can marry, only one of equal social class, to how much data usage and entertainment is allowed; while quite generous regarding the distribution of action movies, slasher flicks and porn, the Martian government has never been exactly eager to provide its citizens with easy access to news, information, or each other.  Mars is an agricultural and industrial powerhouse.  With the decline of Earth's reach into space, the only factor preventing Mars from growing into the dominant superpower it has the potential to be is the thirst of its industry.  Without fossil fuels or easy access to geothermal power, Mars is reliant on trade with the Moon and Gas Giants to provide the fuel it needs to continue the growth and stability of its economy.  In return for the fuels it needs Mars provides food to its trade partners; most of the growth in the extraterrestrial sphere, especially the population growth, is  made possible by the Martian industrial mega farms.  Martian society was designed to award achievement, promoting its best and brightest to its higher ranks where they will be better provided for.  However while the path from student to engineer  to leader is an easy path to trace, the majority of the population who fail to test as well find themselves removed from class to train for agricultural work and while achieving the rank of overseer or foreman is a potentially foreseeable goal, there is little opportunity for advancement beyond lower middle class.  Unless of course on joins the military.  Yeah the military, they seem important.  They get respect.  Joining the military guarantees a two rank advancement in social class.  I've seen it in the movies.  The government entertainment agency who makes all the movies would never lie to the people.

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