Rubilith


The Planet

Physical

Rubilith is an old human colony world, located 18.77 parsecs from Earth. It is a small tide-locked planet, situated just far enough from its sun, the M2 V star named The Skillet, that most of its sunward face is a livable temperature. The relatively thick atmosphere and abundance of water help heat circulation. The climate ranges from hot, semi-arid at the sunward point, through temperate moist to cold moist near the terminator to tundra and permanent ice cap on the night side.

Much of Rubilith's day side surface is covered in reddish iron-rich rocks and dirt. Vast dust storms often loft this material high into the atmosphere giving the planet its famed ruby colour when seen from space.

Biological

Rubilith has a full complement of oxygen-producing photosynthetic microbes, and no other native life. Humans have imported fairly standard Earthly flora and fauna. With no seasons, or even day or night times, plant and animal behaviour has changed markedly over the few hundred years since colonisation.

Civilisation

Rubilith houses a population of 1.6 billion humans and a substantial number of aliens. Settlements are scattered evenly over most of the day side land area, petering out towards the arid and arctic zones.

Economy

Rubilith is essentially self-sufficient in most things, and has an abundance of industrial metals, particularly iron, which make the bulk of its exports. Rubilith is a major shipbuilding planet and also exports other finished industrial machinery and robots.

Imports are basically restricted to luxury goods and offworld specialties. Rubilith does not have a very large artistic community (some psychologists speculate this is partly because of the lack of sunsets!), so entertainment industry goods are particularly welcome.

Politics

Rubilith is nominally governed by a constitutional monarchy, but in practice the Parliament has little more power than the purely figurehead monarch, currently Queen Natasha IV. The real powerbrokers of the planet are the various mining, commerce, agricultural and industrial manufacturing companies which operate Rubilith's efficient economy. Most people have jobs in one of these sectors, or at least in a minor sector controlled typically by a monopolistic company, and such employees are cared for by their employer.

The major companies operate health, education, and law enforcement services for their employees. Over the years, these practices have undermined the authority of the nominal government, such that hardly anyone takes it seriously any more.

Queen Natasha, however, is young, ambitious, and recently arrived on the throne after the death of her lethargic uncle, King Wilhelm. Rubilith political analysts are warning of potential turmoil and conflict if Natasha sees fit to restore the relevancy of the government.


GURPS is Copyright © by Steve Jackson Games Incorporated.

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