Unnamed Mothership Setting: Solar Gazetteer

Jakub Rebelka

Part two of my Unnamed Mothership Setting.

Planets were generated using Mephit James' repurposed Traveller tables with some extra aide from the Stars Without Number and Red Tide tags. Distances between stars came from Space Engine which is terribly helpful in general.

For the sake of space, I'm not going to detail every single planet that was rolled up. There are a whole lot of indistinct dwarf rockballs and asteroids out there, so unless there's something particularly interesting about them, they shall be elided. Planets will be listed in order outwards from their sun, with the orbital region in parentheses. Moons will be listed in italics under their parent planet.

Some Handy Terminology

• Epistellar - Really close to the star.
• Inner - Close but not that close to the star.
• Outer - A sizable distance from the star.
• Terrestrial - .02-5 Earth Masses
• Helian - 3-15 Earth Masses
• Vesperian - Tidally locked 
• Pelagic - Ocean world
• Bathypelagic - By God that's a lot of ocean
• Panthallassic - Even the sky is ocean.
• Gelidian - Frozen 
• Pelagic-Gelidian - Frozen crust surrounding subsurface ocean.
• Post-Gelidian - Cooling tectonic world, subglacial oceans.
• Cytherian - Venus-like
• Arid - Mars-like
• Amunian - Terrestrial ammonia worlds 

 

Sol - G2V

Home sweet home. Even the posthumans still have a certain fondness for it, living out in the Oort cloud or in micro-Dyson-swarms. Every major body in the solar system has been settled by this point, though much of the activity has moved outwards towards Jupiter and Saturn: interstellar ships are much more likely to stop off at Callisto or Titan, with their goods launched towards the inner system via mass driver. Venus is home to thousands of aerostat nations, Earth is coming out of centuries of environmental reclamation, and Mars is heavily para-terraformed.

Proxima Centauri - M6V

The closest star to Sol and the cultural hub for spacers. All three planets and their orbits have been heavily settled and para-terraformed. Most of the system population is transient, but those who stay on permanently are a proud and stubborn community - corporate interests rarely reach far into Proximan doings, co-operatives and mutual aid organizations flourish.

Name	Description	Region	Moons	Life?
Gargarin	Rocky vesperian	Epistellar	0	Complex single-celled
Armstrong & Aldrin	Binary rocky dwarfs	Inner	0	No
Shen	Arid Methane	Outer	0	No

For visitors overwhelmed by the thousands of cantinas, hostels, shrines, and spaceports around Proxima, pay a visit to Clever Lu's in Shen orbit. It's got work, people, talk, drinks, whatever you're looking for.

Alpha Centauri - G2V / K1V binary

A prime example of what not to do. The original colonization attempt collapsed under incompetent leadership and construction by the lowest bidder, leading to a period of violent anarchy then replaced by a militaristic corporate-fascist police state. Over 60% of the system's habitats were built with faulty water purification and filtering systems (using proprietary hardware and legacy software from a defunct company with no documentation) that cannot be fixed without completely replacing them. The native environments of both Onwards and Prosperity have undergone catastrophic mass extinctions via industrial exploitation.

Name	Description	Region	Moons	Life?
Upwards	Panthallasic Helian	Outer	3	Single-celled producers
Onwards	Pelagic	Outer	N/A	Large macroscopic
Prosperity	Arid	Outer	1	Complex global ecology +potential proto-sapients

Barnard's Star - M4.OV

Barnard's Star has a single shining attraction: the planet Dorothy is a tropical paradise.  Some combination of the planet's air, water, and temperature triggers the human body to purge itself of stress and toxins. Locals have the highest non-augmented life expectancy in human space and some of the best health. The artificial islands of the planet are held up as a poster-child of environmentally-non-invasive colonization. Generations of such good living have made themselves manifest in the local population with a borderline-dangerous naivety of life outside the system and a complete disregard for measuring time.

Name	Description	Region	Moons	Life?
Dorothy	Pelagic Gaian	Inner	1	Large macroscopic
Alice	Amunian	Outer	0	Single-celled producers
Lirazel	Saturnian Dwarf-Jovian	Outer	1	No

Travelers might also wish to explore the bizarre daydream-cultures of Wonderland Arcologies of Alice and all the court machinations of the Chess Queens.

Sirius - AOmA1 + White Dwarf Companion 

With empty Epistellar and Inner orbits, the few bodies orbiting Sirius are cold and empty. Hardly befitting their namesakes, but the Dog Star needs its pack.

Name	Description	Region	Moons	Life?
Gelert & Guinefort	Binary icy dwarfs	Outer	0	No
Hachiko	Arid Methane	Outer	1	No
Laika	Cthonian Jovian	Outer	4	No

Most of the system's settlements are in the business of mining and volatiles. Of note are Lonely Glow, a partially-abandoned debtor's prison on Hachiko, and the feral autofactory General Product Production Installation 113 in Laika orbit.  

Epsilon Eridani - K2V

An economic powerhouse and the third most populated system in human space. Originally settled by ships of the Indian-Venusian Diaspora, it has since expanded into a bustling, diverse, and all things accounted for not terrible place to live. All major worlds in the system have been settled, and the few posthuman habitats seem to be oddly fond of the human population, inasmuch as they can be.

Name	Description	Region	Moons	Life?
Matsya & Kurma	Twin burning terrestrials	Epistellar	0	No
Parashurama	GelidianGaian	Inner	3	Simple global ecology
Rama	Campian (Hot, wet) Gaian	Outer	0	Complex global ecology
Krishna	Amunian	Outer	1	Complex multicellular
Buddha's Belt	Dust Ring	Outer	N/A	N/A

Of note to scientists is the extinction of any life on Parashurama outside of the subglacial seas due to swift cooling of the climate. Digs have revealed an extensive fossil record, and the planet is oft cited by those believers in ancient alien civilizations.

Ross 128 - M4V

Currently entrenched in a gamelike civil war of ritualized combat, fought in daily one-on-one combats broadcast openly, backed by an elaborate system of points and territories. The religious tension at the root of the conflict appears to have originated in political demographics that jumped over into belief systems. Dozens of minor faith-parties have emerged in the cracks, starting their own proxy conflicts.

Name	Description	Region	Moons	Life?
Radamanthus	Chlorine Vespirian	Inner	0	Single-celled producers
Aeacus	CryoNebulous Helian	Outer	2	No
Minos	Arid Ammonia	Outer	0	Complex multicellular

The majority of the system's settlements are in orbit around Aeacus, save Charon City on Minos, home to the Silicon Sepulchre - a library of memories and experiences from over half a billion androids from across human space.

Tau Ceti - G8Vp

With so little in the system, Tau Ceti is a more of a stopover location than a destination. Hou Yi and Chang'E are both settled, though not heavily. Of note are reports of unexplained freak geology below the clouds of Chang'E and the Hou Yi biotech and agritech industries - the system is the sole supplier for a panoply of exotic genengineered foods.

Name	Description	Region	Moons	Life?
Paris & Helen	Binary hephaestan dwarfs	Epistellar	0	No
Hou Yi Chang'E	Arid world with Cytherian companion	Inner	0	Single-celled producers / No

Luyten's Star - M3.5V

Contains almost nothing of note or importance. The very definition of a filler M-type.

Name	Description	Region	Moons	Life?
Lean	Jovian with icy moons	Inner	4	No
Lurch	GeoNebulous Helian	Inner	2	No
Lacrimosa	Bathypelagic	Inner	N/A	Single-celled producers

Weitown: A small settlement that mines volatiles from the moons of Lurch. Serves as a stop-over and refueling depot for interstellar travelers. Founded by ex-corporate soldiers abandoned without pay or pension. They aren't particularly fond of company, which leads to conspiracy theories of hidden wealth and dark secrets.

More Cowboy Bebop

82 Eridani - G6V

The Red Ash Plague (named for what it does to victim's skin) has crippled the system, and after years of work no one has been able to find a cure or an origin. it comes and it goes in cycles that follow no pattern, it is survivable one day and lethal the next. it has made the locals secretive and withdrawn, communicating with outsiders purely by masked broadcast and hiding their scarred faces.

Name	Description	Region	Moons	Life?
Moriarty	Thetusian Helian	Inner	1	No
Holmes & Watson	Cytherian + Pelagic	Inner	0	No / Single-celled producers
Adler	Arid methane	Outer	0	No

There is a running reward of a hyperelite's ransom for any clue to the cure or origin of the Plague, posted by the eccentric and short-sighted trillionaire behind the catastrophically failed Baker Street  adventure habitat. The habitat is still there and technically still in operation, the owner is still technically alive, the androids technically still keep to their roles but all have fallen into disrepair.

Delta Pavonis - G8IV

In the grips of a humanitarian crisis after a meteroite slipped through the detection net and struck Laozi, crippling the planet's infrastructure. Resettlement of refugees to Diogenes orbit is underway, but there are not enough ships and not enough space. With the loss of Laozi's solar farms, food production for the entire system finds itself in precarious position.

Name	Description	Region	Moons	Life?
Laozi	Rocky Terrestrial	Epistellar	3	No
Diogenes	Neptunian SubJoviam	Outer	2	No

The Lamp in Diogenes orbit serves as the governmental hub in the system. it is currently overwhelmed with desperate people looking to flee the system and the government's philosopher-parliament is overwhelmed.

Gliese 581 - M3V

Founded by Proximan anarchists driven out by the Centauri Wars, the system is the keystone world for autonomists in human space. In order to remain as independent as possible from capitalist interests the system does keep tight watch on who enters (especially with Gliese 667 so close by).

Name	Description	Region	Moons	Life?
Eat-the-Rich	Arid	Inner	1	Complex single-celled
No Gods	Thetusian GeoHelian	Inner	4	No
Liberty	Arid	Inner	N/A	Large macroscopic
No Masters	Hyperionic Geohelian	Inner	1	No
Responsibility	EoGaian	Inner	N/A	Complex global ecology

If one is feeling social, visit Lalu Lilalo's, in No Masters orbit. It can provide whatever entertainment you can want or need, from hanafuda to fighting games to just making friends with strangers / having sex with them.

Gliese 667 (Fu Xi / Nüwa / Shennong) - K3V / K5V / M1 trinary

The first two stars of this trinary circle each other closely, and so have cleared out their orbits of everything but some asteroids and a few rocky dwarfs. Gliese 667 C (Shennong) orbits A&B at a much greater distance, allowing it to maintain a stable system of its own.

Name	Description	Region	Moons	Life?
Huangdi	Halcyonic Helian	Epistellar	2	No
Leizu	Chlorine Vesperian	Epistellar	N/A	Single-celled
Zhuanxu	Twin Cytherians	Epistellar	0	No
Dì Kù	MesoGaian	Inner	2	Multi-cellular
Tang Yao	Cytherian	Inner	1	No
Great Shun	Arid Methane	Outer	5	Building Blocks

Despite its position, the system is second only to Sol in terms of population and economic output. It has little love for spacers and Company loyalty is strong. Asteroid kowloons filled with unfortunate poor pepper the region. A wide-spread crackdown on the makers of anti-government / anti-corporate VR interactives has, as of yet failed to dredge up the underground master-artist "CC540".

Fomalhaut - A3 V / K5Vp / M4V Trinary

Fomalhaut A is the only star of this trio to be settled thus far. Multiple dust rings make travel in the system difficult, stripping unprotected ships bare from friction.

Name	Description	Region	Moons	Life?
Atargatis	Arid terrestrial	Inner	1	Single-celled
Oannes	Pelagic-Gelidian	Outer	1	Small macroscopic
Dagon	Saturnian Dwarf-Jovian	Outer	3	No

The largest settlements in the system are Ahab on Oannes and Jonah in Dagon orbit, operated by rival family-owned companies. They've taken the system's economic downturn in stride, using the high unemployment to hire raiders to harass their competition's ships.

Arcturus - KOIII

A great curiosity among xenobiologists: a system where an old and expanded star has consumed or expelled all but two of its worlds, and both of those worlds are as overflowing with life as Earth in its prime, with multiple species on the cusp of sapience? A coincidence that ought be too good to be true.

Name	Description	Region	Moons	Life?
Tormance	Rocky vesperian	Inner	0	Complex global ecology + potential proto-sapients
Alppain	Bathypelagic	Outer	0	Complex global ecology + potential proto-sapients

For the protection of the local environments most of the population lives in orbit (Main stations Maskul and Nightspore), though small settlements do exist planetside. The initial colonists were of an esoteric neo-gnostic sect that has grown only stranger in the time since, often overlapping with the scientific demographic.

The word "uplift" is not bandied about lightly. It has a tendency to spawn riots.

comelms

Trappist-1 - M8V

A xenobiological grail: five planets with life, potentially with the same point of origin. Its distance from other major worlds has kept it at a relatively low population. It is home to  variety of exiled and heterodox religions, most being splinters from the Titantian Catholic Churchs, the displaced Martian Cathars, the Buddhislamic Fellowship, the Techno-Presbyteriat, and the Old Orthodox Xenodeists.

Name	Description	Region	Moons	Life?
Anthony	Cytherian	Epistellar	0	No
Augustine	Burning terrestrial	Epistellar	0	No
Benedict	Vesperian	Epistellar	0	Multi-cellular
Scholastica	Arid methane	Inner	1	Complex single-celled
Hildegard	Amunian	Inner	0	Single-celled
Dominic	Post-Gelidian	Inner	1	Single-celled
Francis	Pelagic-Gelidian	Inner	0	Complex multi-cellular

The primary settlement is Subiaco on Benedict, which is run by the ever-patient remnants of the officially-dissolved Jesuits.

Zeta Reticuli - G3-5V / G2V binary

A lively and populous system, famous for the heterocultural communes of Le Guin, the Domes of the Living Dead on Herbert (kill rabid flesh-eating gene-engineered clones for the entertainment of the streaming audience), the android-run habitat of Positronic in Brackett orbit, and Rocketman's Repose around Bradbury, the memorial of every known human to have died in space.

ZR-A

Name	Description	Region	Moons	Life?
Brackett	Cytherian	Inner	0	No
Verne & Wells	Dwarf Binary	Inner	0	No
Le Guin	Xeric Gaian	Outer	0	Complex global ecology
Herbert	Arid ammonia	Outer	1	Multi-cellular
Bradbury	Poseidonic SubJovian	Outer	2	No

 

ZR-B 

With little of interest beyond resources and some xenological studies, few ever visit Zeta Reticuli B. There are no permanent settlements in-system - automated fuel depots and comm buoys will be your only company.

Name	Description	Region	Moons	Life?
Barney & Betty	Binary Rocky Dwarfs	Inner	0	No
Niburu	Panthallassic Helian	Outer	0	Large macroscopic

Upsilon Andromedae (Titawin) - F9V / M4.5V binary

Located in a relatively unpopulated region of human space, Titawin serves as a sort of regional hub for explorers and travelers. It is home to the storied Academy of Astrogation in orbit around Majriti.

Name	Description	Region	Moons	Life?
Saffar	Hot Jupiter	Epistellar	0	No
The Dancers	Six Companion Dwarfs	Epistellar	0	No
Samh	SuperJovian	Inner	2	No
Majriti	SuprJovian	Inner	3	No
Salt	Arid	Inner	N/A	Large macroscopic
Zarqālī	MesoJovian	Inner	2	No

Upsilon Andromeda B is known to have a epistellar Vespirian orbiting it. An exploratory expedition is currently being crowdfunded and selection of the membership is underway.

Mu Arae (Cervantes) - G3IV-V

Home to the most Earth-like planet yet found, the system is a home for wanderers, dreamers, fools, and scientists (or so goes the stereotype). Corporate interests from Gliese 667 are present and active, but have been barred from interfering with La Mancha in any way by the initial settlers - no permanent surface colonization has yet been made. Like Titawin, the system serves as a hub for exploration further out beyond the Frontier Margin.

Name	Description	Region	Moons	Life?
Dulcinea	Hot Sub-Jovian	Epistellar	0	No
Rocinante	Water-rich Dwarf Jovian	Inner	4	No
Quijote	MesoJovian	Inner	3	No
La Mancha	Continental Gaian	Inner	N/A	Complex global ecology
Sancho	MesoJovian	Outer	1	No
Cardenio	Arid Methane	Outer	0	Small macroscopic
Dorotea	Arid	Outer	1	Multi-cellular
Marcela & Grisóstomo	EoGaian / MesoAmunian	Outer	0	Simple global ecology / Small Macroscopic

Map of Relative Locations

If distances seem weird, it's the Z-axis at work.

Trip Table / Distance in Light Years

Click for bigger version.

Yes, I Would Like More Planets to Add to This

• Gatecrashing, plus exoplanets featured in Farcast, Seedware, and H-REP.
• Expedition, Wayne Douglas Barlowe. The Discovery Channel adaptation is good too.
• Halo. That first game is unapologetically an Aliens ripoff and it's great.
• Known Space, Larry Niven. Creepy weirdo author, but he made some nifty space places.
• Hyperion, Dan Simmons. Damn, I love this book.
• Warframe, especially the new Fortuna expansion.
• All of Chris Tamm's space posts and Michael Raston's Blasphemous Roster.