   
Introduction
------------

   Borlund is on the edge of the coreward border of the Regency, and
   directly faces Virus. However, RQS security at the recently
   established RQS base is only 'average': no Virus ship has crossed the
   boundary in over 20 years, and the subsector is rather on the
   low-tech, low-importance side. Indeed, considering the low esteem that
   Borlund is held throughout Deneb, some people feel that it would be no
   great loss if security on Borlund slipped up one day: others say that
   the Borlundlanders wouldn't even notice if Virus DID take over...
   
   As you arrive at Founder's Harbour, you are rather shocked by the
   extremely small port, the only one on Borlund. It's barely enough to
   hold 5000 disp of ships (This, in a world of 200 billion people!)
   
   As you look around, you note that just about everyone resembles
   everyone else: not clones, but almost. Also, just about everyone seems
   to be a cripple of some kind or another: some suffer from mental
   handicaps, others from physical ones, and still others suffer some
   hideous combination of both.
   
     REFEREE: For people and star travellers who probably have *never*
     seen a handicapped person in their entire lives, Borlund is
     extremely repulsive and alien. Most traders absolutely will not
     visit Borlund, for this reason as well as the very thin amount of
     trade available.
     
     When generating Borlundlanders, remember to deduct 3 points of every
     attribute, to model the effects of extensive inbreeding.
   
   Everyone seems to avoid you, except a very few "Customs" personnel:
   they treat you more like Aliens from Outer Space, but seem a lot more
   smarter and intact than their brothers - even if they insist on
   wearing bulky TL 9 space suits, complete with oxygen backpack and
   bubble helmet, tinted coal black.
   
   Almost all traders to Borlund are chartered by the Borlund government,
   carrying specific freight.: Speculating on cargo is vigourously
   discouraged on Borlund, as the government wishes to discourage as many
   visitors and traders from coming to Borlund as possible. The visitors
   - when they can resist gawking at the natives, who will be openly
   gawking at them - will have a very difficult time finding room and
   board. They will also have severe communication problems: the
   Borlundlanders have developed their own language over the centuries
   [Called "Words", it only contains 300 words], which has no relation
   with Anglic at all. Still, it's possible that they may come across
   someone whose handicapped only in the body, not the mind. Such people
   speak a convoluted, difficult-to-decipher form of Old Anglic.
   
   There is very little for the adventurer to do in this overcrowded
   asylum: the world is dirt poor, and - after a while - the
   entertainment/shock value of so many handicapped folk wears off. There
   is precious little to be traded: Borlund's entire industrial product
   is used simply to maintain the current standard of living. Moreover,
   the starport is on an island, hundreds of kilometers from the
   mainland: the only connection is by zeppelin transit.
   
   For the sociologist, however, there are interesting - if subtle -
   jewels to discover about Borlund. Most obviously, how can such a group
   of the blind, the insane, and the lame keep a TL 9 society going? What
   disaster happened that shaped Borlund to what it is today?

