From whose womb did the ice come forth, and who has given birth to the frost of heaven? Job 38:29Welcome to what I am calling Stellaris: RefugeIn this game we will tell the story of humanity fleeing a dying earth and living amongst the stars. Well, I hope so anyway. I have quite a few mods active in order to achieve the sort of gameplay I wanted for this playthrough.
If anyone would like to participate by stepping into the shoes of a character in the game, feel free to post who you'd like and, within reason, what their actions should be. There will be some roleplaying and storytelling involved so we can accommodate some things that wouldn't fit within Stellaris normally. Similarly if you'd like to write some lore or something that is fine too, I'll do my best to incorporate it. I enjoy collaborative storytelling so don't be shy.
If you don't know Stellaris well, don't worry. I'll work with you to translate what you want to do into gameplay terms and just tell you what is relevant. If there is enough interest we can even get some politics and roleplay going amongst you, but if there is little interest then I'll just keep playing slowly and annotating what happens.
PreludeWhen the end came, it came so swiftly that most people didn't realize the Earth had died. Things had been getting worse for years, but the changes were so gradual that most people just got used to them. Every year the temperatures climbed a little higher, the warnings from scientists got a little more dire, but by and large the people just got on with life.
Then one day, a cold wind began blowing across the land. Everywhere it was the same, a sudden cold front sweeping across the world. Satellite imaging showed that the Gulf Stream, long the subject of worried speculation, had finally dissipated. Without that life-giving ocean current bringing warm water up from the Caribbean, weather patterns the world over were disturbed and the natural cycles of the world began to spiral out of control. Record high and low temperatures were recorded in the weeks following the barely-perceived event, and it was months before anyone connected the sudden weather phenomenon to the removal of the gulf stream. It was months more before people began to realize just how bad things were going to get, and that the point of no return had been crossed.
Even at this point, with temperatures of -50c recorded in Spain and 62c in Libya, pundits were talking about 'fixing' the planet. People adapted and kept on living their lives, remarkably little changed. Governments diverted more and more funding to crash research programs centered around esoteric topics such as weather control, better heating or cooling. Some fringe elements attempted to 'restart' the gulf stream using controlled detonation of nuclear weapons. Our every effort was roundly ignored by a planet which had already become a corpse.
It wasn't until 2185 that the subject of evacuation began to receive serious consideration. At this point about 10% of the previously inhabited landmass on the planet had been evacuated or overcome due to temperature fluctuations so extreme as to render the land barren. Spontaneous wildfires due to high temperatures had become common at the equator while the same area would flash freeze overnight. A program was devised by the governments of the world which retained spaceflight capability. In cooperation with several private entities, the human race began enacting a final desperate contingency in secret, all activity carefully screened from the public so as not to incite mass panic. They called it project Refuge.
Refuge was a disaster from the start. No nation could agree on common designs, standards of measure, or even who should contribute which resources. Due to mismanagement and bureaucratic hold-ups, it was several years before the first launch was achieved. By 2188 the first orbital construction platform had finally been constructed, and promised to put Refuge back on schedule. Most of Africa and Central America had been rendered uninhabitable at this point, countries around the world were choking on refugees fleeing the uninhabitable temperatures baking the equator. The northern latitudes had the opposite problem, facing a freeze so deep that the snows never stopped. Aside from some scattered communities, nothing had been heard from Canada in several years and by 2189 Chicago had been swallowed by the encroaching ice and snow.
Billions lay dead beneath the encroaching ice, unable or unwilling to flee. By 2192 the world's population had been reduced to an estimated 5 billion. At this point Refuge consisted of several poorly designed orbital habitats circling the sun, plastered with solar power modules and minimal amenities. Most world governments had collapsed or simply turned insular, isolating themselves from the world and busy with their own contingencies. Some attempted to burrow below the ice, moving to massive underground vaults in a desperate bid to survive. Project Refuge was now headed almost entirely by Russia, China, and the US. The project had become public at some point, unintentionally, but by this time the people of Earth were so desperate that the reaction was hope rather than panic. A global refocusing of effort on Refuge gave the huddled masses a new purpose. Most knew they would never get out in time, but they worked anyway for the hope of saving the species. Support poured in from all corners of the world which still held human life and project Refuge saw a sudden burst of activity and renewed life.
The work completed on Refuge between 2192 and 2199 outstripped any human engineering project in recorded history. By the year 2200 Refuge was a thriving community of human habitation. Over 3 million people lived and worked in space-based habitats and expansion was rapid. New technologies for solar energy collection and asteroid mining were birthed out of desperate need for resources. Importing material from Earth was tedious, costly, and entirely too inefficient to sustain Refuge's growth. Four primary habitats housed most of the population at this point:
Port Markov - Originally a russian-built habitat, Markov has been expanded into a true city and houses many of the citizens of Refuge. This has become the de-facto center of Refuge government and operational support.
Lochburn Station - The citizens of Lochburn are primarily of scottish and british nationality. The habitat has specialized itself as a foundry, developing new zero-g technologies for processing raw material and churning out large scale production of structural pieces needed to build new habitats.
Khotraat Habitat - A chinese-built habitat, Khotraat was designed as a manufacturing complex. Essentially a massive zero-g factory, this habitat turns out 95% of all consumer goods in Refuge. From toiletries to personal computers, almost everything used by the citizens of Refuge comes from Khotraat. The habitat is quite insular, not accepting of outsiders.
Yuanwei Stacks - Housing more than half of the Refuge citizens, the 'city' of Yuamwei is the primary cultural and social hub of the swarm. Most private business and social events occur here. This is also where the Reserve is maintained. The Reserve is a massive storehouse in space which serves two purposes. First, it is a huge stockpile of food. Until space-based food production matches the needs or Refuge, imported foodstuffs from earth are being used to make up the difference. The second purpose is more hopeful, a section of the Reserve has been given over to a large cryogenic storage facility where genetic samples of plants and animals from Old Earth are kept, in the hopes of one day returning and recolonizing the planet.
Five other stations exist in the swarm at this time. Two dedicated to solar power collection, two to material acquisition via asteroid mining, and one primarily given over to laboratory space in order to develop new technologies for Refuge.
It is at this point that a new governmental body is established on Refuge, much to the consternation of the still-extant governments on 'Old Earth' as it has come to be known. This body is described as a 'temporary controlling authority' and generally referred to simply as the 'refugee state'. Strict rationing is enforced on Refuge, as food imports from Earth are becoming more and more scarce. Population controls are similarly draconian, as Refuge can barely afford to house and feed the citizens it has while more refugees arrive daily, evacuated from Earth on launches that never stop.
The SwarmLochburn StationPort Markov