Encyclopedia Solarica



The ES Encyclopedia supplies an ever-growing body of short articles and descriptions of people, places and things that inhabit the world of The Eylau Sequence. It is a great help to those wishing for a better understanding of the background to current Eylau Sequence short stories and gaming. If there is a favorite entry that you would like to see added, please let us know.

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Sarrisa — The AU8 "Sarrisa" is built by Royce-Hontura of Darwin, Australia. Its hull is used primarily as a general combat platform, although there has been some discussion of using it as a test bed for reconaissance applications.

Like all other Med States and Australian MGV units, the AU8 is named after a type of blade.

Schmidt-Geissen — A Med States based company with headquarters on Malta and manufacturing facilities in Australia, Schmidt-Geissen is one of the smaller firms involved in the design and manufacture of MGV systems. Their most successful design is the EU3 Pike, which has seen widespread service.

Selangor — The formation of Selangor was arguably the most complicated of the post-glacial states. It began with a general invasion of Southeast Asia by the mainland Chinese government as it fought to maintain arable land for its enormous population well before comet Evers-Patel struck Earth. A surprise deal by the Singaporean government to receive virtually the entire Russian Pacific Fleet - which had been substantially cutoff from its own government to the west - sustained a balance of power at sea that allowed the Chinese to be halted along the Songkla-Hat Yai line.

Eventually an agreement was reached that allowed a specific number of mainland Chinese to enter the Southeast Asian real estate market. This agreement eventually fell apart as the planetary situation deteriorated and the entire region fell into civil war and communal violence. Mass southerly migrations into areas already in civil strife resulted in casualties on a titanic scale. The region was the longest in returning to normal daily life and even then only after draconian rule exerted by a joint authority based around the pre-glacial city-state of Singapore. The uneasy team of Chinese, Thai, Malay and Russian military personnel eventually worked together in order to survive, each adding their own unique aspects to the final totalitarian mix.

The interface between the state and private sectors of Selangor society are unusual in the world. In pre-glacial times, the government would have followed the normal pattern of totalitarian regimes. Having formed from the wreck of anarchism only after the advent of unbreakable network encryption and partially sentient computing, the resulting authoritarian oligarchy was forced to contract with increasingly powerful unions that were independently controlled. In past times this would have resulted in civil war until one side achieved victory. The poor condition of the planet by that time, as well as the scarcity of human and natural resources, did not allow for such a course and so a very rigid legalistic balance amongst the factions created what could be called an authoritarian diarchy, with each half of the "state" represented by government/military and private/corporate factions respectively. The result is an intensely bureaucratic structure that is heavily dependent on binding agreements which leave no room for contractual deviations. The system places severe limits on innovation, and so Selangor industry tends to focus on mass production of the few items which manage to survive the design process.

The "G" in Selangor is not a hard G, is it instead pronounced like the soft "NG" sound in the words "hangar" or "among."

Settlements — Settlements are population centers numbering less than 100,000 people that are independent of major nations or territories. Most settlements actually number less than 10,000 and it is very rare to find one over 25,000. Settlements typically have no services, little infrastructure and minimal defense systems. Much of the population may be mobile and capable of evacuating on short notice. Settlements tend to form near areas of short term commercial or security interest. Two unusually long lived settlements exist in North America, east of California: The settlements of Needa and Alamo Mountain are both well over two hundred years old. There are also numerous settlements in central Africa which are also nearly as old, mainly due to the rich local mineral resources.

Solar Navigation Commission (SNC)— The SNC is an internationally recognized organization that maintains traffic control facilities at all critical navigational exchange points throughout the solar system. Their largest installation is Terran Traffic Control which is in earth orbit and handles all civilian traffic to and from the earth-moon system. There are also major SNC traffic control stations at Lagrange Point 1 (hosted by Goddard Station, CA), Lagrange Point 5 (hosted by Kyoto Station, JP) and in Mars orbit (hosted by Jules Vernes Station, AU). All SNC facilities are considered neutral, and unauthorized penetration by military units of any nation is expressly forbidden. Violation of this law is subject to immediate fine without benefit of appeal, a system reinforced by large deposits left in trust to the SNC by member nations. Damage to SNC installations by orbital combat debris is also subject to fines depending on the nature of the damage and the offending party's actions.

Solar System — The solar system currently hosts a wide variety of human populations and their unmanned extensions. Early pre-glacial space exploration was persistent and far reaching, but it was not conducted with any sense of urgency. Comet Evers-Patel changed that, and a series of programs - planned and newly developed - were put into action. The pace has not changed much since, and a steady push beyond the asteroid belt has been the inevitable result. Major landmarks of the colonized solar system now include earth, with a total population of approximately 100 million; the moon with a population of 50,000, Mars with a population of 125,000, the L1 and L2 complexes with a combined population of 8,000 and the L5 complex (Japan) with a population of approximately 500,000. There are also major unmanned commercial operations on the Moon, Mars, Ceres and on numerous short period objects inside of Jupiter orbit. Not shown in the diagram below (which is not to scale) are the numerous research, commercial, military and tourist operations outside the asteroid belt, which are widely scattered and constantly changing.

The diagram above is not to scale. For example, the actual Sun-Earth L2 Point is 100 times farther from Earth than the Moon. Mars is roughly 1½ times farther from the sun than Earth.