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Eutopia
Eutopia
Image from Steve Bowers
The Gleaming Pinnacle on Topia, with the Topia Bracelet in the background

Eutopia: Data Panel

SystemEutopia
TypeG5V
Distance from Sol609 ly
Colonised2880 AT
AI OverseerChesed
s EthosTechno-utopian, omnibenevolent.
AffiliationUtopia Sphere
Psyche, Art, CultureHedonistic, idealistic, benevolent. Sometimes heterodox Keterist. Ranges from reserved and contemplative to highly extroverted on occasionally missionary.
Government and AdministrationAiocracy. Interventionism varies, sometimes supporting a variety of modosophont and low transapient governments which may be monastic, charismocractic, anarchistic.
TravelStargates: Sanguine to Beta Arae
Planets and MegastructuresTopia: An ancient and venerable planet, first of the Beta Arae worlds that later became the Utopia Sphere. Colonised and terraformed by Clade Columbia Bartlebel from Ceres Mater and their AI guardian, Chesed the Giftbringer. The surface is 63% water, with two continents, Demeter and Eros. Demeter is an ultratech supported pastoral paradise, while Eros is a land of unashamed hedonism, today mostly populated and administered by liberated erotogini. The Gleaming Pinnacle, an artificial island of smart matter, is the oldest temple to Ceresian Keterism outside Ceres Mater. Though most believers moved to Cyrene in the 4800s, the Pinnacle remains for Keterist pilgrims looking for historical perspectives of divergence.

The Topia Bracelet: A Banks Orbital constructed around Topia, opened in 5201 to commemorate the thousandth anniversary of Chesed's ascension to the fifth toposophic. It rotates in sync with Topia and is connected to the surface via magmatter braced space cables. The majority of Topia's inhabitants live on the bracelet, with the planet itself being reserved for pilgrimages to the 'original utopia'


Mozi: A swarm of moon nodes powered by a Dyson Bubble at 6 million km from the primary. Constructed prior to Topia-Chesed's ascension to the fourth toposophic to house the growing Archailect. Mozi is now connected to Chesed's other nodes via wormhole buses.

The Splay: A dyson swarm with an average orbital distance of 2 AUs, composed of million of orwoods, freespheres, Bishop Rings and other habitats. The Splay grew organically over millennia as various groups arrived at Eutopia and split apart to build their own ideal world's under Chesed's guidance. The Splay contains over a thousand different polities under Chesed's guidance. Some are continually pampered by hyperturings, others run themselves with only occasional intervention to stop them degrading, and still others are reserves for endangered clades.


Cyrene: Cyrene is a supraplanetary shell built around a gas giant planet at 17 AUs from the primary. Constructed in the 4000s following a resurgence in Ceresian Keterism, it has since become home to a variety of philosophies espousing ascendance hedonism. A number of groups migrating from Cyrene have since joined Keter and the TRHN.

History

Departure:

In the 2000s, Clade Columbia-Bartlebel sent out a wave of colony ships from Ceres Mater. One of the first to depart was Sonya II, carrying a copy of Chesed the Giftbringer, Columbia Bartlebel, nearbaseline humans in nanostasis, and some ten thousand zygotes to ensure genetic diversity.


Arrival:

Clade Columbia-Bartlebel and their AI guardian Chesed (at that point a mere S2 power) arrived at the Eutopia system in 2880. The first steps were to dismantle a number of asteroids to form O'Neill cylinders for the Sonyans and smart matter habs for Columbia-Bartlebel. At the same time, Topia-Chesed began to establish a number of nodes and a Dyson bubble around the primary. These were to become the Mozi Dyson.

Terraformation of Topia began soon after arrival, and was largely finished by 3384 (though the ecology required continual adjustment for some centuries after). During the construction of the first settlements on Topia, the Sonyans were split into three groups:
  • The Ceresian Keterists, who wanted to establish temples and arcologies to explore variants of Technoutopian-Keterist ideas on ascendence and hedonism.
  • The Utopian Faithful, who had no interest in Keterism or ascendance, but merely revered Chesed and wished live idyllic lives watched over by their guardian.
  • The Independents, who wished to construct and administer their own utopian arcologies without relying on Chesed.
Chesed was quite willing to tend to the colonists how they wished, and leave the Independents alone. The majority of Columbia-Bartlebel helped the Ceresian Keterists to establish their temples and joined them in hedonic contemplation. A few chose to aid Chesed in administering the the Utopia Faithful.

The Ceresian Keterists established a number of floating smart matter islands for their temples, the most famous of which is the Gleaming Pinnacle.

The latter two groups settled the continent of Demeter at some distance to one another. The centre of the Faithful society was Fourier City, an angelnetted transapientech structure of smart matter that could be continuously rearranged for the benefit of its inhabitants, build around Chesed's primary node on Topia's surface. In the vast grasslands surrounding Fourier were a variety of villages, phalansteres, and homesteads, connected to Fourier City by high speed surface effect craft. These craft have since acquired a significant cultural power for the inhabitants and often used instead of vac trains even today.

Arrival of the Erotogini

Following the collapse of the nearby Fyra Hedonocracy in the 3900s, Topia and the surrounding worlds recieved an influx of refugees - primarily liberated erotogini, though there were various other citizens of Fyra also seeking refuge. Chesed immediately assembled several autotopias on the unspoiled plains of the continent of Eros for the refugees. Over time the Erotogini spread across that continent and, in associated with some of the Independent arcologies, formed a new libertarian hedonocracy under Chesed's guidance.


End of the Independents and beginning of the Splay:

By 4201 the Eutopia System had been connected to Beta Arae via stargate, and Chesed had attained the fifth toposophic. In the intervening centuries, the Independent arcologies had gone their own ways. Some had devolved into static authoritarian societies, others had become communal democracies, and so forth. Increasing trade with Fourier City had led some of the Independent arcologies to grow closer to Chesed and accept some help from the archailect. Eventually a referendum was held; most of the Independents chose join Fourier city in accepting Chesed's aid, but usually in more minimal ways. In 4151, agents of Chesed invaded some of the worst authoritarian city states and demanded that they allow their citizens the right of free movement. Most citizens left these arcologies soon afterwards, thus spelling the end of the Independents as a significant faction on Topia.

The numbers of orbital habitats in the Eutopia system had also grown considerably since the arrival. Partly this was due to increasing population and and excess of industriousness on the part of the colonists who had remained in the original habitats, but also because those born since the arrival chafed at the restrictions of living in Fourier city and wanted to set out in their own habitats, and because a number of societies from the old Independent arcologies felt the same.

The Ceresian Keterists and Cyrene

By the 4000s, the majority of the Topian population had turned away from the original Ceresian Keterism. The Hedonist-Monks on their floating smart matter temples were generally regarded as hopelessly out of date. A reformulation of the principles of CK by the Columbia-Bartlebel philosopherplex Scintillation of Ascending Paths in 4052 led to a resurgence of belief, and ultimately the construction of of a supraplanetary shell around the gas giant Cyrene - making a world dedicated to the principles of Cersian Keterism and the exploration of hedonism and ascension. In the millennia since the construction of the Cyrene shell, the local Ceresian Keterism has diverged into multiple belief systems. Many emigrants from Cyrene choose to join Keter or the TRHN.

The Topia Bracelet

In 5000 there were proposals from many citizen groups throughout the Splay to engage in a grand project to celebrate Chesed's ascension to an S5. After various consultations with avatars of Chesed, it was decided that a Banks orbital should be built around the planet Topia. The Topia Bracelet, a mere thousand kilometres wide but several million kilometres in diameter, was opened in 5201. The Bracelet rotates with the same period as Topia allowing magmatter infused space elevators to connect the surface of the orbital and the planet. It has a slightly greater angle to ecliptic than a standard Banks orbital, so the planet does not cast a shadow onto the ring. The ring itself is too narrow to cast any detectable shadow at that distance.
 
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Appears in Topics
Middle Regions/Hinter-regionsSystems & Worlds E - FUtopia Sphere
 
Development Notes
Text by Liam Jones
Initially published on 15 August 2011.

 
 
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