Suly

Orbital shipyards at Suly

System: Suly
Hex Location: 2430
Star Type: Single K0 V
Number of Worlds: 8
Gas Giants: 1
Planetoid Belt: Cometary belt

Starport Type: A
World Size: Mars-sized
Atmosphere: Earth-like
Surface Water: 50%
Population: Large (c. 2 billion)
Political Affiliation: Independent
Tags: Oppressed Natives, Local Specialty, Primitive Aliens
Notes: (I do love the serendipity of the dice, sometimes.  I had decided before I even started rolling—and I didn't fudge any of the rolls other than to reroll one world tag that I just had in the last system—that this would be a Planet of the Apes world.  I had no idea that I'd roll up a Type A starport, oppressed natives or primitive aliens.  That actually kind of... makes it a little bit cliche.  The poor apes are the primitive, oppressed natives, who contribute labor to the local specialty—the making of starships; one of the few systems locally that does so—of all the systems developed in this area, Fotta Zonai and Miroon are the only A type starports are the only others, and both have issues that make them less desirable for some of the locals to shop at for ships.  Fotta Zonai makes many military ships more than commercial ships, and they are of Altairan designs and not for sale to other powers.  Miroon also makes some ships, but their industry is more of a very small, cottage industry bespoke type affair.  This makes Suly a truly unique place to shop for ships—at least until I roll up another Type A star port, if I do, at another system locally.  But still; I had imagined that I'd have a more or less advanced ape civilization, not a primitive one, but since I'm mostly unwilling to fudge dice rolls without good reason, well—this is what I got.)

Suly is an interesting world, and interesting especially as a colonial holding.  Small-bodied Sirian reptoids established contact with the world following the Dark Ages, and found that it had been heavily populated by Earth-extraction apes, genetically modified before even the time of the Old Kingdoms, to have human-scale intelligence (for the curious, the average IQ for the space-faring society that left Earth was about 105 with a 15 point SD; the apes are not quite that high.  With a 95 average IQ and a 13 point SD, they do tend to be a little less intelligent, but not nearly as much so as certain populations left behind on Earth.  For most people, the slightly lower average intelligence would rarely be particularly noticeable.

Suly is a basically Earth-like world, although a little smaller.  It has mild temperatures, very tiny permanent ice-caps, and has wide tropical belts and even wider subtropical and temperate zones.  While there is no asteroid belt in the Suly system, Suly itself has a large ring made up of nickel iron blocks that are presumed to be the remains of a decent-sized asteroid-like body or moon that broke up many millions of years ago.

Gor worker

Some of the cities on Suly and in orbit through the rings are reasonably cosmopolitan in nature, which works for the local government, which bills itself as a manufacturing source of choice locally for commercial and individual starships.  Many starships that operate in the Colonies were made back home, of course, or elsewhere, and only come to the colonies as the colonists bring them.  Many of these starships are quite old, lovingly and carefully maintained for generations before finally needing to be retired.  But for those who don't bring their ships from outside, and need new ones, and have the money to pick them up, ships manufactured in the shipyards of Suly are the most commonly found in the Carrick, in Carthen, in the Vorgan Than, and even through much of the "southern" portion of the Dhangetan Cartel.

The local government is a joint venture between Sirian reptoids (about 10% of the population) and the chiefs and clan leaders of the apes.  Many of the common-folk of the apes live relatively primitive lives, and are exploited for cheap labor, reaping very little benefit of the economic windfall that their higher social class betters roll in.  This doesn't bother most of them as much as one might think—in reality, the apes often prefer a simple life, and have developed the philosophical foundation that simple, rural agrarian clan life is the natural way of life God intended for the apes—and they don't much care what the genetic engineers who increased their intelligence intended for them either.  But many are exploited and do simple laborer work at poor wages.  Usually those who tire of this work leave and disappear back into their tribes and are replaced by others who want the experience—in reality, the wealth that they earn, while scanty, is sufficient to give them significant advantage back home.

This careful balance is maintained by the fact that few of the primitive apes on the planet are truly aware of the vast wealth disparity between their leaders (and the reptoids), and their somewhat Luddite philosophy makes them less inclined to care than some others might be.  As a safety valve for those whom it rankles, apes do on occasion leave the planet to join the larger, interstellar community.