Cutting Room Floor: Li system

Originally published October 21, 2013

GURPS Handbook of the Planets Inputs: Personal user number 416; System number 530

A loosely aligned network of solar systems, the Sojourner Collective represents perhaps the threat to the Federation. While an aggressive military campaign is unlikely, the Sojourner Collective is cavalier about the use of advanced technology which has the possibility to alter humanity fundamentally. The Li system's City of Shadows represents one face of that threat.

It is unknown how many minds "live" in the city on the moonlet named Mount Tai, which circles the third planet of the Li system. These digital intelligence are a mixture of digital recordings (Ghosts) and emulations (Shadows) of dead minds from across the Collective. Over a century ago, Ghosts were given legal status in what was then called the city of Jade. They soon outnumbered the living and came to dominate politics and society.

With their rise has come greater status for Shadows. Once considered toys or deluded AIs, these emulations have become a way for Ghosts to replace those who those were unable to be digitally recorded either because of accidents or the lack of necessary technology. They now have limited rights, like those of a minor. Some shadows and their supporters have begun clamoring for more legal rights and there is an underground movement to also recognize non-biologically derived intelligences as citizens.

The City of Shadows itself rises from the surface of Mount Tai like some relic from the Old Earth. Thin spires of steel, glass and nanofibers stretch kilometers into the black sky. At street level beneath a translucent dome, the smart surfaces of these structures blaze with an endless display of advertisements, artistic displays and images of the past. Most of this is missed by the inhabitants who have taken to an increasingly virtual existence. Android shells are still used by the richer digitized inhabitants who enjoy a bit of reality. But the live-able spaces themselves however are mostly empty. Only a few hundred physical people live or work in the city. Including the androids (which often sit in storage areas, like the infrequently used vehicles of ancient city dwellers), the number of beings wandering the streets is less than 40,000.

The rest of the Li system function around an energy economy, with massive mining operations around the inner most planet, a massive gas giant rich in Helium-3. This material is then shipped to destinations like the Han and Zhou systems in exchange for art, minerals, and technological advancements. Most of this work happens remotely, the proceeds supported the so-called Living Worlds, a set of moonlets orbiting the 7th planet.

There roughly a hundred thousand live and work. Many hope to make their fortune and secure an opulent eternity at the City of Shadows. Others see the city as parasitic, a realm of ghosts leaching off the living. The recent advancements of AI to acquiring rights of their own, reinforce these notions that the City is corrupt and decadent. The City for its part has massive wealth, the result of many "lifetimes" of work by its citizens.

Game Aspects (using the Fate system):

City of Shadows: Haunted By the Digital Dead, Copious Wealth, High Tech Museum

The Living Worlds: Save Up for Death, Plenty of Power, Generational Tensions

System Details:

Li: a M7 V class star, roughly 7.5 billion years old.

Li I: A massive gas giant, saturated with He-3 circling the dim central star in a close orbit.

Mount Tai: a tiny icy moon circling the third planet of the system.

The Isles of the Living: A series of size icy moons surrounding a chilly gas giant at the edge of the system.