
History
-------

   The Founders - who arrived here from Corridor in 151 - were originally
   a well financed group of several thousand colonists, led by about 30
   wealthy men. As they grew old - and the rapidly growing colony needed
   more manpower than either immigration or normal population growth
   could provide - these folk chose to solve the problem by generating
   hundreds of male and female clones of themselves offworld, and
   shipping them over to Borlund (solving both the manpower shortage and
   satisifying their infinite egos).
   
   By the 230's, over 80% of the resident population of 80,000 people
   were clones of the 30 colony leaders. As the non-clones swiftly fell
   in social status and wealth, the Truechildren - the clone's name for
   themselves - grew to dominate the economy and culture, of only of
   Borlund, but of the entire subsector. (Borlund was named the subsector
   capital in 302: the subsector was also renamed Borlund at the same
   time)

   At the system's height -- at about 700 ...

     (UWP at the time: Borlund Borlund:Deneb/1406 B454999-C N Hi Cp 101
     Im K8V M9V)

   Borlund was the dominant financial centre for Pretoria, Borlund and
   Antra subsectors. Borlund was also noted for its famed "Table Towns"
   (actually looking closer to mushrooms, to this scout's eyes).
   Basically, a Table Town was a 500m diameter plate suspended on a
   squat, 100m diameter base. On the plate you could put a small town, a
   landing field, or most any reasonably-sized building. The ruins of
   these Table Towns can still be seen, quietly disintegrating as the
   locals no longer have the tech to maintain them.
   
   Borlund's proudest achievement was in protecting its ecosphere: its
   easy mixture of high civilization and African-veldt feel was unique in
   the subsector, and one of the ways that made Deneb Sector *Deneb*. Now
   even that's gone: the immense increase of the population, coupled with
   bouts of large-scale starvation during the late 700s finished the old
   plains forever.
   
   Borlund started to fall apart at 721, when the upper classes started
   to take wives and sire children by normal means, rather than by clone
   tanks or by implanting cloned eggs. The regular folk, quite envious of
   this upper-class privilege, insisted that they should be allowed to
   have "Traditional" children too. The upper classes, supported by the
   government, said no: to have normal children between such
   closely-related parents took careful, very expensive, DNA level
   therapy and the government couldn't afford to provide this service to
   the entire population. Moreover, they didn't want to pay either the
   financial or social costs such a widespread change would cause (from
   at least temporary surge in unemployment to changing a host of laws to
   the need to import lots of very expensive equipment from the other
   side of the Claw.)
   
   Class acrimony and strife became rampant. In protest, many started to
   illegally remove their contraceptive implants, and bear large numbers
   of children in defiance of widely despised laws. Large numbers of the
   more well-to-do middle class learned to view their government as
   unjust and oppressive, and left, taking their skills and money with
   them. Still others shouted about "Reproductive rights", and began a
   series of confrontations with the government, eventually growing more
   and more violent. The end came suddenly, when in 757 a ship's boat
   from the S.S. Bride of the Stars - charted by covert terrorists -
   crashed into Desomi City, detonating the 20MT nuclear warhead in it's
   hold. With the capital gone, the government collapsed, replaced by a
   pro-birth revolutionary council. The population soared as everyone
   imitated the large families of the elite. Since so many were clones -
   and thus too closely related to have genetically normal kids - the
   population soon became dominated by physically and mentally
   handicapped people. Borlund's economy - and the economy of the entire
   subsector - soon started to sink like a stone, as the cost of caring
   for/adjusting to these people grew exponentially. The situation became
   so bad that the Sector Duke petitioned - and received - a massive
   amount of Imperial Aid in the early 800s to deal with "the Borlund
   Problem". The Imperium soon had to struggle against mass chaos,
   starvation, and sudden epidemics. The Imperium managed to restore some
   sense of order by the 820s, and even brought back the Tech level to
   11.
   
     NOTE: Because of Borlund's lack of genetic diversity, the system had
     always been prone to epidemics, but the chaotic situation made
     things a good deal worse.

   When the new Sector Duchess ascended to office in 828, however, one of
   her first acts was to cut Imperial involvement in the Borlund
   Sinkhole. She further signaled the Imperial abandonment of Borlund by
   shifting both the subsector capital and the subsector name to Lamas.
   
   Borlund simply could not afford to maintain a TL B standing: a major
   depression fell on the world as soon as the last Imperial Relief
   Freighter left, and the patched together coalition the Imperials left
   to rule the world quickly collapsed in savage infighting. After the
   Weeping War ground on for a decade (providing some of the most
   shocking war footage in Deneb Sector history), decisive battles were
   won by the Brandon fraction, and they finally secured overall
   supremacy in 839.
   
   The Brandoni were basically a cultural group who managed to create a
   working alliance between it's physically and it's mentally handicapped
   fractions, successfully using each group's strengths to cover the
   other's weakness. To their lasting credit, they managed to integrate
   AI, expert systems and old, abused robots to rebuild some semblance of
   a real civilization. As a culture, they eventually faded away, but
   their achievements remain the basis of current Borlund civilization.
   
   However, from about the Fourth Frontier War period to now, the
   Borlundlanders have turned away from contact from the outer world,
   which is quite hostile to them. Borlund endures, but does not grow.

