View source for Atopia


== Intro ==
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A concise 2–5 sentence summary of this subject.
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== Overview ==
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* (board game, ATIC News I, ATIC News II)
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* ATIC administered
* Sits at the heart of the galaxy
* Has two suns – is situated close to the primary sun
* Map – in images
* Capital planet of ATIC
* Seat of the ATIC Council.
* Mineral rich
* The height of technological, cultural, and economic sophistication
* Also has economic inequality, political machinations, and a turbulent history of expansionism. 
* Simultaneously the ideological leader of ATIC, an aspirational model for peoples of all worlds, and a symbol of the evils of excess.
* Currency – credits. Bolocards for spending. 100 credit note, 10 credit coin. 
* High orbit – orbital space around Atopia is more damaging to DNA than standard shields can handle. Micro-rations were engineered to repair low-level DNA degradation.
* Merchant fleet – in orbit around Atopia, a steady flow of ships breaking away and returning
* Thinks of itself as definitely the best planet in the Consociation.



== History ==
* Magi – early in Atopian history the Magi ‘came from the west’ (possibly off-world) and shared knowledge with the Atopians – but are no longer present. 
* There were protests at the ATIC history exhibition in SQ34113 by Truth For Atopia, claiming Atopia is not owning up to its part in the military history of ATIC and the consequent strained relationship with Minak. The protestors stated it was no longer safe to be Minak on Atopia. The protests continued for 4 subquarters, resulting in a full lockdown from the government lasing 11 subquarters. There were severe restrictions on movement that were stricter on Minak and non-Tirwanians.  The unrest spread outside of Tirwan, leading to further restrictions. The lockdown ended with Shah X disbanding the government and calling a new election. 



== Places ==

=== Colash ===
[[File:Colash - Continent.jpg|thumb|left|400px|Map of Colash]]
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* Continent
* Colash combining ceremony is the equivalent to a marriage ceremony

=== Tirwan ===

==== Details ==== 
* Population 14,815,136 in SQ34119
* Hosts people from over 400 different cultures
* Capital city of Atopia – spaceport city
* On the continent of Colash – up in the leafy areas
* Divided by the river Ho
* Draws visitors from across the galaxy
* Juxtaposition of towering skyline vistas (space-scrapers) and slums
* Newspapers - The Daily Magus

==== Places ====
* '''Tirwan Zoo'''
* '''University of Atopia''' – built in early SQ33000s. Includes law and business studies - the latter is Atopia’s favourite higher education subject. Is the top educational institute in ATIC (after the Traxinian Academies). Has academics from all cultures. In SQ34119, consists of:
** '''The Quad''', surrounded by authoritative architecture. Arrows in the Quad point to the medical district, university library and transportation hub.
** '''University library''' – has a door at one side under a sign that says ‘Sowers of the Next’. There’s a robo-librarian, stacks and a digicard rolocatalogue
** '''Sowers of the Next reading room''' – quiet room, comfy chairs, huge selection of books, rack of pamphlets under ‘Sowers of the Next’ sign – provided as open doors to thought and hope. 
* '''Royal gardens''' – a natural oasis. Built in early SQ33000s. Renovations begin in SQ34113 in honour of the birth of Princex Kogo - taking 8 quarters, 200 gardeners, 200 tonnes of cement and 842 fence posts. The renovations are interrupted by a flock of rare Kayna birds found nesting in the gardens in SQ34117. At that point they are only 10% over their renovation budget. The gardeners incorporate the birds into a nature centre in the gardens with a Kayna viewing hut, delaying the opening of the gardens. 
* '''Shah’s palace''' – situated on a hill, above The Pink. The palace is opulent, it gleams. There are enormous pillows are everywhere, draped with glittering members of the court. There are Elite Guard stationed at every corner, wearing stylish Talat House armour. Viziers are robed in purple. The private gardens are at the back of the palace
* '''The Pink''' – an elite/wealthy district, including a large park. Situated down the hill from the Shah’s palace. Across the park lies the Imperial Museum
* '''Imperial Museum''' – next to The Pink. Its pre-ATIC baroque entrance is bigger than a ship hangar. 
** In SQ34119 - To one side is a special exhibit: The Russellians, Shadows of the Past. It contains photos of ruins from all over the consociation. A hologram drones facts at you. A “Museum Personnel Only” door leads to a service hatch into a back alley, along a dead-end street to the south, which goes under the river via a service tunnel
* '''Space port''' – there is an overwhelming amount of holo-advertising on approach to the port from space. Contains:
** Tirwan Transportation Hub – travellers must go through this to enter the city
** Shipyard – for interstellar travellers. Full of hangers and local impulse engines
** Atopian Orbital Command – equivalent to Air Traffic Control for orbit around Atopia
* '''Medical district''' – completely enclosed in a dome. Services kiosks are everywhere. Sleek clinical facilities in silvers and whites. Includes:
** A hospital
** A genosplicing facility
* '''Cantina district''' – has the pre-fab gloss of a slick corporate promo. This is where most spacers drink and socialise between gigs
* '''ATIC headquarters''' – has a vaulted atrium lobby. Contains big, important offices and small, unimportant offices, as well as:
** '''ATIC members lounge''' – this is for citizens who have distinguished themselves in some way. There’s free coffee (largely known as the worst coffee ever) and a Flo-Nut vending machine
* '''Business district''' – south of the river. The heart of ATIC economy, full of grand commercial buildings in silvers and whites, including:
** '''Talat fashion house'''
** '''Commodities Market''' –  a bustling corporate facility with Orni-trucks at loading bays and shiny-suited traders.
** '''Marketplace''' – a bustling shopping district filled with overwhelming vibro-branding and holotizing
** '''Bank of Atopia''' – has withdrawal branches on some other planets as well
* '''Entertainment district''' – huge screens float everywhere blasting video-tainment and MegalaDrama shows. Crowds are dressed to the nines. The noise is deafening. Includes:
** '''Imperial Stadium''' – built in early SQ33000s
*** Has a holofield with a game board
*** In SQ34113 – a new exhibition opens, co-sponsored by the University of Atopia. It covers 430 Standard Quarters of ATIC history (back to the founding of ATIC). There are plans for the exhibition to tour the whole consociation. However, the exhibition causes protests against Atopia not properly portraying its involvement in the military history of ATIC, and later riots by splinter groups who want Atopia to split from ATIC.
*** In SQ34119 it’s Octackle Season
* '''Police compound''' – In SQ34119 policing on Atopia is famously fair but protects property over people. Police violence is almost non-existent and the friendliness of APD (Atopia Police Department) officers is unsettling to those not used to it. There is a hoverlift up to the compound. 
* '''Sewage system''' – runs under Tirwan, full of tiny openings and random pipes, with street level sewage grates
* '''Salmet park''' – sits on the outskirts of Tirwan, bordering Salmet. 

=== Salmet ===
==== Details ==== 
* Not a good area
* Directly next to Tirwan – technically it is a district of Tirwan but people can get very particular about whether they’re from Salmet or Tirwan proper
* The streets are narrower and more congested than Tirwan, the drivers more reckless
* Burglaries are common and prosecutions low

==== Places ==== 
* There’s '''a rough-looking residential area''', all greys and browns, including:
** CubiCondo-brand residential flats 
** The housing blocks are grey, the sky is brown
** There are no children or young adults on the sooty streets. 
** There is a footpath to utility precinct. 
** The entrance to Salmet is to the north 
** One house (the uncle’s house in board game) has a broken bulb in the entryway, windblown detritus piles in corner, a grimy video doorbell and plasmatic-scan lock (scans palm to unlock). Inside, there is urban charm
* '''Utility precinct'''. Consists of:
** '''Concrete utility hubs'''. No birds. 
** '''Electrical substation''', full of huge junction boxes and the hum of electricity from massive transformers and coupling cabinets
** '''AI Governing Dampener Substation''' – provides quantum dampening of AI utility for Salmet. Field stabilization piping runs in and out of AI utility organoid hubs
** '''Sewer substation''' – stinky
** '''Signs''' for different zones.

* '''Casbah''' – to the east. Infamous. Has an archway entrance (on the west side of the Casbah, to the north). The Casbah is a carnival of market stalls and neon. There are no maps in this part of town. Consists of:
** '''A busy market area''' (west of food market, north of a dark alley, east of the Casbah entrance)
** '''A side street''' (south from the entrance, on the west side of the Casbah, west of food market) – A dark and narrow street where condensation drips from signs looming overhead. Contains Discount Grocery on the west side of street, a business with a hand-lettered sign stating “CHEAP MICRO-RATIONS”
** '''A dark alley''' (southeast of the side street) reeks of garbage – high chance of mugging
** '''A quiet street''' (turn right from the Casbah entrance. In the north on the west side of the Casbah, south of the side street) – this contains fewer stalls
*** east is a quiet, blue-lit area - surrounded by the filthy backs of multi-story high rises. An eerie blue light fills the quiet dead-end. Scrawled on the wall in phosphorescent pen: This galaxy wouldn’t exist without: Captain Robert Chorley, Pamela Williams, Hero of Risivius Prime, Mustafa “The One” Shabib, Peter M. Wilberding, OAE, Dr. J. Doyne Farmer
** '''Food market''' – (south of the cloth market, east of side street, east of busy market area). Full of the sounds of animals, cages of game birds, roiling buckets of Hisperian eels, fermented muckrum stalls, steamed farcakes – this is where the folks of the Casbah buy their groceries. Has food stalls that are the heart of Casbah life. 
** '''Odd alley''' (east of the food market). Has a strangely ominous building with dark windows and glimpses of strange, animal figures within. Insider there are Atopian thugs and geno-mals. Don Fabu’s house is also in the alley.
** '''The Purple Martin''' – (north of food market, close by. West of junk maze). Has external lights that flood the area in a warm purple glow. Inside, deep violent neon drenches this lovely old bar in ominous dank. The music is moody. The floor and booths are crowded. It has a swanky bathroom that smells like lavender and has wall graffiti stating ‘The universe is under no obligation to make sense to you. But always remember, no matter where you go… there you are.’ The back door of the bar leads to yellow lantern alley
** '''Narrow alley''' yellow-lit by paper lanterns (behind The Purple Martin, east of the dark alley). The alley leads north and is full of bins with a scary-looking offshoot going west. One corner is very still, hypnotic and dangerous (prime area for muggings). The alley follows a dark bend in the street to the southwest.
** '''Cloth market''' - (North of the food market). Canyons of clothes and bolts of fabric line this narrow block. It is very crowded. Also contains the Casbah Graft Mod Salon (to one side of cloth market), a filthy garage space turned into low-budget bio-mod shop that supplies a small selection of grafts and implants
** '''Junk maze''' – (north-east of food market, close by. East of Purple Martin)  – piles of neatly stacked machine parts. Also contains:
*** '''A narrow alley''' between rising scaffolding and brick walls, no sky visible above, most doors boarded over, one spooky house at the end (Tuto Paza’s House)
*** '''Lula Werm’s Fixit shop''' – sign says Lula can fix anything. Repair menu has a recharged Intention Pod for only 200 credits.

=== Brejbas===
* In Colash
* A conservative area

=== Naelco ===
* The main city in North Colash
* Competes with Salmet for the least liveable area on the continent

=== Parmat ===
* In Colash
* A mid-sized city, not too far from Tirwan
* Inhabitants – Parmatians
* Parmat Council
* Known for its close-knit communities and its challenges with crime and social issues
* It’s a joke that Parmat is where petty criminals graduate to once they’ve made enough money to escape the slums of Tirwan
* Has a small Investico branch
* University of Parmat - includes business studies (Atopia’s favourite higher education subject).

=== Andressa === 
A coastal village not too far from Parmat

=== Others ===
* Manzia

== Inhabitants ==

=== Atopians ===
* One of the earliest space faring civilisations
* Rapidly expanded outwards after developing spaceflight once the Traxians made contact with them
* Consider themselves fighters for freedom – but swiftly resort to authoritarianism and are blind to their own partiality when dealing with other peoples
* Atopians see themselves as self-important in the workings of the universe. Have a sense of exceptionalism that is tied to the Magi mythology. Were shaken by the arrival of Traxinian ships, but normality of self-importance restored within 200 SQs
* '''The House of Shah'''
** The royal family of Atopia
** Are believed to be direct descendants of the Magi (but that could be a lie to justify their rule)
** A disaster around SQ34074 wiped out most of the Shah family, leaving Shah Mila as the sole heir, becoming Shah X (the tenth Shah)
** Shah X has a baby in SQ34113 – Princex Kogo
** Have a private secretary and personal stylist
** Holds ceremonial events with Atopian, ATIC, Minak etc leaders, to help keep peace and bolster relations. 
* '''Elite Guard''' – guard the Shah and the Palace of the Shah
* '''Sowers of the Next''' – Hopers, doers of good, agents of change, committed to the siblinghood of all life, embrace progressive attitudes towards idea and thought, seek better technology whilst being aware of the dangers it may present. Not religious, their beliefs are secular. They have an important member hiding on Minak – Rominex Shaboonie
* '''Atopian Genosyndicate''' – thugs, criminals, full of geno-mals

=== Magi=== 
Early in Atopian history the Magi ‘came from the west’ (possibly off-world) and shared knowledge with the Atopians – but are no longer present. An ancient peoples. Knowledge from the Magi led to the formation of many aspects of Atopian culture. Potentially their offspring became the Shah. Religious leaders call themselves Magi, but they are not the same as the ancient Magi.

=== Others ===
* Phorgansian
* Dog-sized squirrels
* Squirrel-sized dogs
* Cat-koalas
* Fish
* Larvossums
* Kayna birds
** Rare, endangered status (species 146)
* Tatfish
* Space Jelly
** An enormous neon jelly, in orbit around Atopia, tries to swallow ships
* Boaf
** A cow-like animal (also used as an insult ‘total boaf’)

== Naming Conventions ==
* First and second names e.g. Jafa Kiri, Alana Toro.
* Magi names - Southern European inspired e.g. Magi Alabar
* Everyone is referred to as S. Surname. S. = Ser, with Ser being an all-gender term for a person, replacing Miss/Ms/Mrs/Mstr/Mr

== Religion ==
* There are Magi temples for regular meditation, spiritual guidance and contemplation – religious leaders are called Magi ie Magi Alabar
* Gardens of the Magi – a blessed afterlife
* Religion was affected negatively by arrival of Traxian ships due to proof of intelligent life and their advanced technology. The Magi belief systems had a conservative reaction, other Atopians distanced themselves from traditional cosmologies
* New metaphysical belief systems and more naturalist philosophies sprang up and attracted adherents.
* Sect of the Listeners was founded 200 SQs after the Traxinians arrived. Their first tenets revolved around rejection of transcendental forces and the oneness of all being. Their philosophy evolved in response to questions about consciousness, changing into the religion’s modern form and the belief in the Demiurge – that all individual consciousness is segmented from a larger capacity for consciousness that is waiting to emerge from the universe itself (Universal Consciousness). The current organisation places hope for this Demiurge in the development of AI machine sufficiently powerful for the laws of physics and logic to awaken and speak to us. Listener mystics believe the Demiurge will act as a guide to being and usher in a permanent era of wellness, spread throughout the universe and unite even distant galaxies


== Politics ==
=== ATIC council ===
Headed by the ATIC Governor

=== Truth for Atopia === 
A protest group for the decolonisation of Atopian history. Established SQ34110 in response to recent crackdowns on the truth by the government, also to challenge fake news and give a voice to all people. They protest at the ATIC history exhibition in SQ34113. They are dismayed at Atopians being pitted against Minak and Traxinians and say it’s no longer safe to be Minak on Atopia. The protests continue for 4 SQs. 

=== The Atopian Front ===
Right-wing party that were briefly in power on Atopia – their unofficial slogan is ‘Atopia First’. Started by Jafa Kiri and a few others, relatively recently to SQ3412. They rose in popularity in the quarters leading up to SQ34113. Gain a majority in SQ34117 and are led by Jafa Kiri. They reject changes to Atopian culture and want Traxinians to integrate. They separated parents from children and attempted to deport Minak without any convictions. Their government was dissolved by the Shah in SQ34117 (after only 3 quarters in power) due to civil unrest and disastrous decisions. Their three main policy priorities were:
* Strong rule of law and a well-funded police force to ensure the safety of Atopians
* Technological security 
* Enforce neutrality of the Shah – they are disappointed with her partisan views and want her to remain in a ceremonial position and uphold the values, tradition and history of Atopia, without meddling in politics. Their bid to remove the Shah’s power to step in when all other legal recourse has failed was defeated for the third time in SQ34117

=== Atopian People’s Front ===
A protest group, claim responsibility for the protests in SQ34113-34117 but were likely just responsible for the riots.

=== Others ===
* ATIC guard

== Technology ==
* Holovid - creates pictures
* Vidmach - makes videos
* Robo-librarian 
* Digicard rolocatalogue
* Space port 
* Holo-advertising - holotizing
* Genosplicing facility 
* Vibro-branding 
* Huge floating screens blasting video-tainment and MegalaDrama show 
* Hoverlift 
* AI Governing Dampener 
* Bio-mods - grafts and implants.
* Spaceflight - gifted by Traxinians.
* Orbital cam-bot - a camera in orbit around Atopia, used by ATIC to watch the space.
* Plasmatic-scan - scans palm to unlock house doors in Salmet. Linked to geno-metrics at city hall.
* Sheeksy footwear - have jetpacks on the soles that allowed you to levitate a half-span off the ground. 
* Handheld - personal computer.
* Orni-trucks - delivery trucks.

== Food ==
* Jawas
* Kishko kababs, leech blockos, pickled fungaloid soup, marberry freezums, finger fish zalsa, barbequed Pucara – all sold on food stalls in Salmet Casbah 
* Game birds, roiling buckets of Hisperian eels, fermented muckrum stalls, steamed farcakes – in food market in Salmet Casbah
* Blue lardenberry – drink in The Purple Martin
* Coffee
* Micro-ration cubes – cost 20 credits

== Media ==

=== Galactic Date ===
Reality TV show. 

=== ATIC Glamour ===
Quarterly fashion magazine.

== Sports ==
* Octackle
* Paceball
* Expanding Universe

==	Plants ==
* Wurzel root
* Antic branches
* Trintic root
* Pinotte – has bark that peels off in strips in the hot season

== Metals == 
* Gallerium - very strong, impervious, used for weapons, can be welded

== Rituals ==
* Passing ceremony – equivalent of a funeral

== Other Details ==
* The Atopian education system has magisters 
* Natal registration form (birth certificate) 
** Record guardian/s at birth
* Citizen ID

[[Category:Planets]]