
Society

   Notable among the Vincenzi metroplexes are Kehmed (the capital city),
   Burke (the newest of the metroplexes), Markel (dominated by SuSAG
   industrial concerns) and Willis. All of the metroplexes include scores
   of arcologies, domed cities and satellite gravitic cities that hover
   above the Vincenzi ocean, serving the ore transportation and trade
   interface needs of their undersea cohorts. Kehmed, far and away the
   most populous metroplex, includes an astounding 77 gravitic cities
   within its dominion. The gravitic cities come in numerous shapes and
   sizes and generally serve specialized purposes. Melchen, for instance,
   primarily serves the tourist and entertainment sectors, while Malin
   Tekhar and Dumorov are more industrial in nature. Remote Foxhunter, an
   irregular-formation gravitic city, inhabits Vincennes' horse
   latitudes, avoiding the worst of the planet's weather by deftly
   increasing its altitude during the summers. Many of the gravitic
   cities are lowered to the surface of Vincennes during the more stable
   winter and spring seasons. During these periods, ores and manufactured
   products are easily shipped from the undersea metroplexes to the
   floating gravitic cities via submersible.
   
   The solitary archipelago of the world, known as The Shoal, is sparsely
   inhabited. Due to seismic instability and heavy erosion during the
   summers, its rocky surface supports very few permanent habitations.
   Only Vincennes Down Starport and its surrounding community maintain a
   large permanent presence. During the stormy summers, landings at
   Vincennes Down would be nigh-impossible if it weren't for advanced
   Vincenzi manipulator technology that enables the starport to
   gravitically guide starships to safety.
   
   The proliferation of high-tech among Vincenzi citizens has resulted in
   a unique society. Vincennes' advanced communications and computer
   technology enable most Vincenzi to perform business completely from
   their homes. An entire world of telecommuters maintains contact with
   one another using holographic meson communications equipment. Entire
   board meetings of some Vincenzi corporations are held in virtual
   boardrooms that exist only in the conceptual sense. Holographic
   representations of one's business associates may be projected so that
   they appear to be in the same room, even though they may be on the
   other side of The Shoal, the planet or even the outer system.
   
   Most Vincenzi have managed to acquire at least a moderate amount of
   personal wealth. While Vincenzi society is hardly utopian, it can
   accurately be said that advanced technology on Vincennes has paved the
   path for most of the planet's inhabitants to build at least a small
   personal fortune.
   
   During the pre-Rebellion era, advanced robotics were employed to
   perform virtually all dangerous or undesirable tasks on Vincennes,
   including mining operations, zero-G ops in orbit of Vincennes and
   deep-sea construction. The antirobotic hysteria that swept the Regency
   after the appearance of Virus greatly injured the Vincenzi robotics
   industry. Native Vincenzi, however, were not willing to give up the
   advantages their robots gave them. Instead, they have willingly
   submitted to RQS regulations that limit offworld exportation of
   Vincenzi robotics technology. Since then, technology-sharing
   agreements with advanced robotics research groups on Rhylanor and HRD
   have spawned astonishing advances in Virus-proofing techniques. These
   developments, along with decreasing antirobotic sentiment and
   aggressive lobbying by `G' (Vincennes' largest and most powerful
   distributor and exporter of high-tech equipment) and several Vincenzi
   industrial consortiums has resulted in a gradual thawing of the RQS
   regulations. Within the last decade, Vincenzi robotics construction
   and exportation has reached about 25 percent of its pre-Rebellion
   level.
   
   Because of the Vincenzi tendency to utilize high-tech communications
   for most of their interpersonal contact, offworlders will discover
   that most of the people they meet on Vincenzi streets are other
   offworlders. Just because Vincenzi tend to be reclusive doesn't mean
   they're entirely unfriendly, however. While actual person-to-person
   contact is not common, when Vincenzi do get together, they tend to
   hold gala events, parties and festivals that rival any in the Regency.
   In the spring, Vincennes' gravitic cities retract their roofs and
   millions of people gather in plazas, parks and the streets to engage
   in spring festivals and celebrations.
   
   Crime has traditionally been a remarkably small problem on Vincennes.
   Due to the Vincenzi tendency to operate from their homes, reduced
   interaction between people and relative economic well-being have
   prevented the criminal turmoil that plagues most high-population
   Regency systems from developing on Vincennes. The moderate influx of
   refugee population and arrival of several discreet white-collar
   criminal organizations, however, has tainted Vincennes' crime-free
   reputation since the Collapse. Many offworlders attribute these
   problems to the resurgence of the notorious Humbolt family on
   Vincennes, whose criminal tendencies are legendary. Vincenzi natives,
   however, generally point their fingers at opportunistic offworlders,
   who are all too eager to reap the financial rewards of doing business
   on Vincennes and frequently resort to criminal pursuits to do so.

