PART-II: Introduction
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What started with the excrucitating colonisation of Mars and Luna, and the Ender's final Exodus into the Jupiter belt has bloomed into a volatile era with the discovery of subspace.
The actions of the idividual could once again take epic proportions for the entire race in the right place and moment.
What once had been the hard earned privilidge and fire baptism of steely explorers became the boon of humanity. With the 'click' of a switch a ship could cross space that otherwise took months if not years to cross and cost billions of credits.
As the very fabric of space was torn apartthe Whiteside subspace drive, so the did fabric of society. The repressed masses of Terra poured into the Solar System leaving their overextended and polluted homeworld. Their endless waves cascaded with the masses of the sub-light explorers and terraformers. Lawless vagabodns clashed swords with the stern Ender warriors in the newfound freedom.
As the personal crisis rose to new heights the dormant ambitions of the Solar States awakened, and the powers rose up in arms to dominate the Solar System.
This foundry of Terran spirit was know as the Unification War, and forms the basis of the Terran bonding. The Titan Accord signed by all nations of the war is the modern equivalent of a constitution for the GTA, the first governing body to unite all of humanity under its banner.
The signing nations all had a different view of Freespace and the individual's place in society. Their ideals became the foundation for the different layers of Terran society.
Earth is the birhtplace of human civilisation with its wast resources and immesurable manpower. With its great variety of cultures Earth was never united before the Titan Accord, except for the brief interrim of the World Council that initiated the sub-light colonisation program. The council however coulnd't actually carry out any of its own agendas, since it held no true power, and if not for the horrors of the Great Uprising - also known as World War III - its questionable wheter it would have came to power.
The megacorporation - dubbed transnationals, since lesser countries were actually taken over - eventually overpowered the Council. It was the Lunar Rebellion that crippled the transnationals rule and from the ashes rose the United Nations of Earth - the first true unified governing body of the planet. However it couldn't steady its rule until the Titan Accord due ethnic and transnational tension.
The communist/socialist Martians, the founders of the Red movement, revolving around the inherent spirit environments, and the strongly nationalist Lunars, the first to rebel against the Earth based trasnational megacorporation based opression formed a very strong group preserving the left/right political movements even in the Subspace era. As the first ones to settle on hostile bodies of the Solar System the rivalising two nations are viewed as the pioneers of terraforming and space faring technologies. Their influence is so strong that it's still practice to call someone of different political view a Red-neck or a Loonie.
The politically not so conscous Enders (who also refer to themselves as 'Kin of the Stars') of the Jupiter belt with waster numbers gave birth to the 'space ethic' that's in place even during the Post-Capella era. Part of the first sub-light colonisation the Enders have ventured into the fartherst reach of space where no men has ever gone before. Their mining of the Jupiter belt, and the gas giants Jupiter and Saturnus was the basis of the post 3'rd World War economic boost, but their position was akin to the first American settlers under colonial opression. A bondign was formed between the Enders in this time without racial or ethic distinction.
The pirates of the Kupier belt and their 100 year long history serves as a warning, for even the most brilliant light casts shadows. These people were the onse historians mostly depict as the loosing part in the conflict. Without the resources of either the Earth sphere or the Jupiter belt, without the new found ideals of the sub-light settlers or the comradeship of space ethic these people were the lost souls who had nothing of their own.
Freespacer is a role-playing game that takes place in the Freespace Universe created by Volition for their game series with the same name. However most aspects of life weren't covered in the games, so the I used a lot from the timeline created by Eisthmo for the Unification War and the subsequent Terran-Vasudan War as well my own timeline for pre-Unification War events.
For those joyning the isse, I've started working on a Fresspace Role Playing game - the download is under the thread Freespace PnP (papaer and pencil).
This is the introduction for the manual.
