Lost Worlds of FTL:2448: Snapshot: Fomalhaut V: New America

Name New America, AKA Fomalhaut V
Orbital Radius: 6.1 AU
Orbital Period: 9.53 Years
Orbital Eccentricity: 0.035

Moons: 3
Moon 1: Washington
Lunar Radius: 700 KM
Lunar Orbit: 37,400 KM
Lunar Density: 1.2
Lunar Mass: 0.002
Lunar Gravity: 0.167 G
Lunar Year: 19.68 hours

Moon 2: Franklin
Lunar Radius: 70 KM
Lunar Orbit: 40,800 KM
Lunar Density: 1.2
Lunar Mass: Negligible
Lunar Gravity: Negligible
Lunar Year: 20.27 hours

Station: Alverez Station
Station Orbit: 53,000 km
Station Orbital Period: 30 hours

Moon 3: Jefferson
Lunar Radius: 400 KM
Lunar Orbit: 102,000 KM
Lunar Density: 1.2
Lunar Mass: 0.0003
Lunar Gravity: 0.074 G
Lunar Year: 3.39 days

Planet: New America
Radius: 6,800 KM
Density: .96 Earth
Mass: 1.18 Earth
Gravity: 1.04 G
Escape Velocity: 1.05 Earth
Axial tilt: 22°
Day: 30 hours
Composition: Iron-nickel, medium metal core
Tectonic Activity: PLATELET TECTONIC: the crust is thinner, plates smaller and the plates recycle themselves much faster. This world has much volcanic activity.
Magnetic field: .1 Gauss
Base Temp: 256 K
Average Temperature: 293 K, 20.03° C
Day: 300 K, 27.4° C
Night: 286 K, 12.7° C
Hydrosphere: 77%
Atmosphere composition: N2 73% , O 20%, CO2 4%, CH4 3%
Atmosphere pressure: 1.18 Atmospheres
Albedo: .98
Life: Single celled forms and some lichen
Population: Human: 297,973; Blox: 344,023; Kendak: 28,433
Languages: Mongolian 30%; Deitsch "Pennsylvanian Dutch" 15%; K'Blox
51%; Signe 4%; Loglan 60%

New America was the first world to be settled in the Fomalhaut system in 2105 by a mixed group of Amish and Mongolian peoples. Both groups represented the most strictest interpretation of their cultural beliefs: The Amish were know as "Old Order Amish" and consisted of three groups situated in Pennsylvania and Ohio regions of the former United States of America, while the Mongols were a group from the former Autonomous Region of Inner Mongolia in the former People's Republic of China. They found that the traditional Mongolian way of life was being turned into a tourist attraction and many of their children were abandoning their way of life in preference to integrating into the Chinese culture.

Separately, these two groups petitioned ISCO to provide a colony world that they could call there own. Altogether, ISCO found it had to find a colony for 38,000 people. Then the reports from Alverez expedition came back, and ISCO was able to field 8 Homesteader class ships to move the colonists and their belongings to Fomalhaut V, which they later found out had been named "New America" by the Alverez expedition.

Of the 38,000 people, 10,000 were Amish, 28,000 were Mongolian. The two groups stayed separate on the voyage out and upon arrival at New America, they claimed different portions of the world. However, this proved to be impractical.

At the time, the atmosphere on New America only had 5% Oxygen in it, with high levels of Methane and lethal levels of CO2. The colony ships carried experimental Terraforming biotics: mainly two kinds of algae, one for seeding the oceans and an airborne version that was seeded high in the atmosphere. Both plants were designed to thrive in the type of environment that was provided by the planet New America.

The atmosphere was not toxic to plant life, so while the plants thrived, the first settlements were under inflated domes and the farmers had to wear breathers or environmental suits when they workied their farms. The Mongols had brought yaks and horses and the Amish brought chickens and cattle, as well as frozen embryos for other species. The two very different groups found that they had to work together to make this world a new home.

When the Alverez Colonial Corporation colony arrived, the Amish and Mongols banded together to force these interlopers off their world. But the deep seated beliefs of the Amish overruled banning the new colony from rotating people down to the planet. But in those early years, resources were tight, the plants had yet to establish themselves, and any extra mouths to feed could not be supported.

However, because the Amish and Mongols were now very dependent on technology and the Stationers were the only close source of technology, they altered their ways of life to accommodate a small number of them on their world and to run the ground port.

It took a hundred years before the air around the settlements became breathable, though there are areas on New America where the atmosphere is still lethal with high levels of CO2. Free of their domes, the colony went through a growth spurt and increased in size, as the colonists celebrated their new found freedom.

In this one hundred years, the two disparate cultures, Amish and Mongolian, merged, creating a new, unique culture never before seen. There were two Amish only settlements that forsook all technology as soon as they could as well as any contact with other colonists, and at least one Mongol only settlement that also did not mingle, but the vast majority of the Amish Mongols were new breed of people, mixed culturally as well as genetically.

Amish Mongols have a eurasian appearance, with hair color across the spectrum of normal human coloration. Culturally, they still do not use much in the way of modern technology, they only use that technology that doesn't violate their beliefs of work and humility before God. They are all pacifists, but more along the line of "I won't bother you, unless you bother me, and if you do, may the lord help you..."

Technologically speaking, they are practitioners of sustainable technology, they only use that technology that can be simply maintained and operated without a massive infrastructure. Though one observer has noted that while the Amish Mongols do not have a massive technological infrastructure on their planet, they "borrow" their infrastructure from the one in orbit about their world in the form of Alverez Station.

In 2246, two colony ships arrived from Blox. On board where several thousand K'Blox, a Bloxian ethnic minority, seeking a new haven to live and maintain their culture. K'Blox are the heavy world version of the Blox, and have thicker limbs, and a lighter body than their Bloxian brethren.

Culturally, they were not that different from the Amish Mongols, so they were welcomed into the existing enclaves and allowed to settle. A small group of a hundred or so K'Blox decided to setup their own settlement, did not join the rest of the colony.

The K'Blox were followers of the Karmook Quornk prophet. Karmook had preached the simpler life, he even preached against the intense bureaucracies that had formed on Blox. This alienated the Karmooka, as the K'Bloxian and Bloxian followers were called, from the mainstream Bloxian society.

While the Bloxian Karmooka had large enclaves on Blox, similar to those the Amish had on Earth, the K'Bloxians did not. They were few in number and were getting fewer. Emigrating to America was their only choice as they saw it.

At first they were strange blue balls of talking fur, but after while, and with more than one barn raising, the K'Blox have become indispensable members of American society.

Finally, in 2398 a Kendak named Bob arrived at America. There were about 5,000 of Bob on the colony ship. The Bob Hivemind had taken on the personality of an Amish man it had met on Earth. Bob now sought the simple life for itself, and America beckoned. Not knowing what to do with such a creature, the Amish Mongols and K'Blox held a council and debated over allowing such a being... beings... whatever, to settle on America.

When several of Bob were invited to speak, they proved to be well informed about traditional Amish ways, and beliefs. They also proved to be hard workers, the worker drones of Bob could work in perfect unison when it came to barn raising, or constructing Solar Cell platforms. After a month of discussion, the council decided to allow Bob to settle.

Bob made a decision, and broke into five hiveminds, Bob, John, Paul, George, and Abby. Each one settled near a different Amish Mongol Karmooka community. The Abby hivemind stayed near the ground port and has changed its name to Rosa and has taken on the personality of Rosa Alverez, the wife of the head of the Alverez family.

Today, visitors must get a visa to land on America, and they are not allowed in several communities. America is the breadbasket of the Fomalhaut system, supplying much of the food eaten or sold on Alverez Station and other orbital facilities.

The sky has a faintly green tint, due to the airborne algae and its constant battle with the many active volcanoes on America. Much of the native life on Fomalhaut is gone, except for the deep ocean extremophiles and various forms of anaerobic bacteria that still thrive in geysers and thermal vents. Grasses cover 40% of the planet's land, while forests only occupy 10%. The rest is arid, lifeless lava plains and basaltic rock.