We'll be starting the game on Titan, one of the moons of Saturn. Titan is one of the most interesting places in the Solar System. It has an atmosphere, weather, rivers and lakes, and is full of naturally occurring hydrocarbons- organic building blocks. The lakes are full of liquid methane, not water. It is very cold. There is cryovolcanism and hydrocarbon rain. The sky is filled with a weird orange haze. But if humanity ever does spread to fill the solar system, Titan is full of resources that could make human survival in space viable.
It's also one of the places we've actually landed probes, so we have real photographs of the Titanian surface from the Huygens probe.
It's also one of the places we've actually landed probes, so we have real photographs of the Titanian surface from the Huygens probe.
In our transhuman future, Titan is well positioned for a prominent role. Self sufficient research installations were established here prior to the fall, and Titan is distant from the Inner System, both of which shielded Titan from the worst effects of the Fall. The research installations have now grown into a distinct Titanian society, the technosocialist Commonwealth of Titan. The Titanians continue to be leaders of science and research, more so now that the survival of transhumanity is now totally dependent on technology. The Titanian Autonomous Univerisy, or TAU, is based on Titan.
Titan has two major cities, Aarhus and Nyhavn, as well as a number of outlying settlements. Large populations of Norwegian and French Canadian scientist-colonists were followed by larger populations of refugees and datastores of infugees. As everywhere else, there are far more stored personalities than there are bodies available to them, but one of the goals of the Commonwealth is to provide physical form to as many infugees as possible.
Nyhavn
With twelve million inhabitants under its four domes, Nyhavn is the gem of the Commonwealth and the largest transhuman habitation rimward of Mars. Rising from the hills of the Xanadu region, Nyhavn was sited for proximity to the equator and to the plateau of nearby Mt. Kristiansund, an ideal site for eventual construction of a space elevator. Viewed from a distance through the planetary carbon haze, Nyhavn’s domes, with their constant air traffic, remind those who can remember of jars of fireflies, set out by a child to ward off the dark.
Aarhus
Under the spreading boughs of an immense, bioengineered oak on the campus of Titan Autonomous University squats a blocky, gray-white dumb matter hab module. Now roped off and marked with a plaque, it was the first human structure built on Saturn’s moons, and your Firewall contact Professor Ming's home (along with twenty-two of his colleagues) for five years. Aarhus, city of universities and hydrocarbon powerhouse of the south polar region, now boasts three hab domes, each a kilometer and a half in diameter, housing five million citizens.
Titan has two major cities, Aarhus and Nyhavn, as well as a number of outlying settlements. Large populations of Norwegian and French Canadian scientist-colonists were followed by larger populations of refugees and datastores of infugees. As everywhere else, there are far more stored personalities than there are bodies available to them, but one of the goals of the Commonwealth is to provide physical form to as many infugees as possible.
Nyhavn
With twelve million inhabitants under its four domes, Nyhavn is the gem of the Commonwealth and the largest transhuman habitation rimward of Mars. Rising from the hills of the Xanadu region, Nyhavn was sited for proximity to the equator and to the plateau of nearby Mt. Kristiansund, an ideal site for eventual construction of a space elevator. Viewed from a distance through the planetary carbon haze, Nyhavn’s domes, with their constant air traffic, remind those who can remember of jars of fireflies, set out by a child to ward off the dark.
Aarhus
Under the spreading boughs of an immense, bioengineered oak on the campus of Titan Autonomous University squats a blocky, gray-white dumb matter hab module. Now roped off and marked with a plaque, it was the first human structure built on Saturn’s moons, and your Firewall contact Professor Ming's home (along with twenty-two of his colleagues) for five years. Aarhus, city of universities and hydrocarbon powerhouse of the south polar region, now boasts three hab domes, each a kilometer and a half in diameter, housing five million citizens.
Situated on the shores of the immense Ontario Lacus and closely proximate to dozens of other sizable hydrocarbon lakes, Aarhus is fantastically wealthy in energy and exotic chemicals. Yet the native preservationist movement is so strong that almost none of the city’s energy comes from hydrocarbons. Aarhus’s domes are arranged in a triangle, with the northeast and southeast domes directly on the lake shore, while the western dome faces a smaller lake, Holmgard Lacus. The southern run of the North Xanadu—Aarhus maglev rail runs through the western dome to its terminus in the southeast dome.
Aarhus’s readiness in case of renewed hostilities with the TITANs is a mixed bag. The militia is as good as any city’s, but thanks to extremely low crime, the Aarhus Police have more experience breaking up student parties that get out of hand than responding to serious emergencies. To Aarhus’s benefit, though, an unusual number of Firewall agents base themselves here.
We begin on Titan.
Each of you, with all of your own specialized skills, is secretly a sentinel of Firewall, the organization that seeks to protect transhumanity from serious existential threats like the TITANs. You either arrived on Titan for business of your own, or are located on a station close enough to participate in a meeting virtually. Up to you, but I'll assume you are present physically unless you tell me otherwise.
Shortly after arrival, you each received a message with the proper Firewall encryption and protocols. Professor Magnus Ming, a Firewall Router, requests that all of you come to meet him at his TAU office, where he serves as Professor of Computational Archaeology. Unless some of you have linked your backstories, this is likely the first time you've met- it is not unusual for a group of strangers to be activated like this, as Firewall protects itself through secrecy. Sentinels typically have little contact with one another except through their Router and as their missions require. Firewall expects that their sentinels will lay aside transient rivalries and work together to fulfill their higher mission.
The meeting is to take place within 24 hours. This is where we will start.
