#AWP-01244: Tirem

Date: Fri, 17 Nov 1995 16:17:54 -0500 (EST)
From: Alvin Plummer <alvin.plummer@sheridanc.on.ca>
Subject: #AWP-01244: Tirem

Tirem (Glisten: Spinward Marches/2233)
B7B5A75-B   Fl Hi  B221 Re K5 V
g= .179 to .827 day=25:18:47.1  year(Imp) 979d 2:42:34.2 
                                  (Local) 928d 7:44:40.1 
atmos=.88, natural weather
temp=-169 (6/lat -151 to -211) (season +20 to -33, 8 deg lat)
daily temp range: +6 noom, -13 midnight 
Crystals; Parts, Consumables, Weapons
Conservative/Indifferent, Competitive/Neutral, Harmonious/Friendly
Legal=5-29922                          Tech:CB-CBBCC-BBBC-CC-F

Note: Orbit of Tirem is 6, tilt 33 deg

Tirem is just one of the larger asteroids in the Incalescens Belt: there 
are another 247 "asteroids" with a size between 1 and 8, orbiting as a 
belt around the primary, Kinkos.  According to the most common theory, 
the Belt is the result of the destruction of a small (size 22?) planet 
 - perhaps during the Final War - with the resulting fragments forming a 
mass of small planets in orbit around Kinkos. Navigation within the 
boundaries of the Belt is satisfactory throughout the Belt: however, gas 
traces of nitrogen and methane is thinly spread throughout the Belt, and 
may cause limited communication problems.

ON TIREM

Tirem is an elongated, misshapen brick of a world, with it's diameter 
varying from 3000 km to 22,000 km.  Long riddled with tunnels, it remains 
one of the greatest sources of nickel in the Regency: a few other items 
are here also, largely copper and iron.  The convoluted shape of the 
world - along with relentless "hollowing" by kilometer-wide mobile 
excavation complexes - contribute to the variable gravity on Tirem.

The 21.48 billion people who reside here include a large number of 
ex-Trini and "assimilated", dispossessed Aslans who couldn't afford to 
leave the Regency.  These immigrants, fleeing their homes with only the 
clothes on their back, have begun to reverse the grim atmosphere that 
pervades throughout the system, but even today face entrenched 
discrimination and suspicion by Natives.

HISTORY

Centuries of hard living has shaped both the culture and the lifestyles 
of Tirem.  Always overshadowed by Glisten, Tirem is where the hard-luck 
miners who can't afford Glisten anymore eventually migrate to.  Despite 
Tirem's evident natural wealth, the good times never seemed to stick 
around, and the only thing that was built for future generations was bad 
debts and old hatreds.  

The Tirema have an extremely strong family system, which long made the real 
dicisions on what happened here.  The Families divided up Tirem - and the 
rest of the system - to over 32,200 tiny, seperate, fiercely independent 
nations.  During good times - say, between 350 and 475, or from 1000 to 
1116 - this system provided a support system for all Tirema, providing an 
outlet for pride and mutual help.  When times were bad, the situation 
deteriorated to a war of All againast All, with truly ugly consequences 
(between 580 and 610, about 1/4 of the entire population died via warfare 
and its consequences).

Unfortunately, these cycles tended to coincide with the wealth of Tirem.  
When desperately poor, violence was pratically nonexistant, with
everyone desperately engaged in simply keeping the heaters operating and 
the air purifiers working for one more day.  As wealth grew, so did envy, 
eventually resulting in a cataclysmic civil war between every Family and 
every other Family - and impoverishing all in a very short period of time.

Tirem was still recovering from it's last nadir (at 1085) when the 
Rebellion swept over it in the late 1110's.  After the fall of Glisten, 
the Domain began to mass it's forces at Crout, just a parsec away.  The 
Aslan ihatel warships desired Tirem as a staging area to further press 
back the Regency, and fought a host of shirmishing actions and sharp, 
short battles here.  Crout faced a full scale assault three times - in 
1119, 1123 and 1125 - and each time the fighting spilled over to Tirem, 
ruining much of it's industrial base.  Ownership of Tirem itself changed 
hands 11 times (three times in 1120 alone) with the usual exorborant level 
of damage and tragedy as the price for being a battlefield.

When the Domain returned to stay in 1130, Tirem was in ruins, without a 
government and it's peoples largely in despair, helpless to prevent the 
destruction.  The Domain's arrival initally just worsened things, as 
billions of poor Aslan immigrants, fleeing Glisten and other occupied 
worlds, but unable to afford the pumped-up fares needed to return home, 
were just dumped on Tirem by the Domain.  Eventually, aid and repair 
funds arrived, and a government was installed by the newborn Regency, 
but not before several riots and urban battles were fought.  By the 
time another massive wave of immigrants arrived - over 4 billion from Trin, at 
1139 - the Regency was able to quickly provide housing and food, while 
stifling the local hotheads easily (via both political and militarily means).

By 1200, Tirem has rebuilt itself well, becoming definitely more richer and 
more stable than before the Rebellion.  The provisional All-Tiren 
government has become pernament, and, wonders of wonders, is even 
respected by the citizens.  Several new ports have been built, with the 
main port at CorkRock upgraded to "B" level.  Traditional freedoms are 
maintained, but the Tirema are no longer willing to permit the Families to 
destroy their hard-won semiprosperity for the sake of pretty promises.

MINING

The major mining concerns of Tirem revolve around bulk nickel mining and 
refining.  Massive 300,000 to 1,000,000 ton motherships slowly devour the 
smaller asteroids, with the miners looking like so many hyperactive ants 
as they devour the asteroid.  When that asteroid is finally emptied of 
valuable metals, the ship slowly coasts off to new pastures. 

The motherships slowly tow their cargo to the starport on CorkRock, and 
as they do so, the interior of the ship is consummed with the task of 
refining the nickel ore into useful bulk blocks.  After a journey that can 
take several months, the mothership arrives at CorkRock, where enormous 
Regency bulk carriers load on the blocks, to be taken to industrial and 
high-pop systems throughout the rimward Marches.

Almost all of these motherships are themselves hollowed-out asteroids, 
which rely on dangerous fusion rockets for transportation for themselves 
and their cargo (which can outmass the ship 20:1!) The folk on there are 
among the poorest folk of the Regency above TL 10, living short, dangerous 
lives: very few has ever known of any place other than their ship's, 
CorkRock (which is viewed as a temporary haven), and the Outer Rocks.  
The wealth of Glisten is only a week away via jumpspace, but as distant 
as Capital in it's effect on the lives of the people here.

CULTURE

Celtic influences are easily found in Native Tirema culture, but are most 
obvious in the language, songs and storytelling.  Most folk speak a form 
of Anglic and Aslan-influenced T'nair, which has endured from the 
original settlements of Tirem. Names like Rosann (Rose), Siun Ni Dhuibhir
(Susan O'Dwyer), and others are especially popular for girls, even among 
the Aslan (how many Aslan femals named Susan can be found outside of Tirem?)

The Aslan's have also influenced the locals - although the locals will 
vigourously deny this.  Aslan concepts of honour and tradition have begun 
to seep into local thought, and is rapidly intergrating itself into the 
fabric of society.  This has led to a lessening (!) of violence, and a 
greater rigidity in gender roles.

Dress for men tend's to be simple, sensible and close to the skin.  A 
skin-tight suit with 'pockets' that run down the legs is common apparel 
among the Tirema.  Women's fashion largely follows standard Regency 
mores, but with rather more modesty and with certain, aslan-influences 
touches (say, T'nair runes along their hems and edging their blouses).
  
Religions tend to be widely varied, and personal, with a general 
preference to the more "philosophical" faiths rather than the "supernatural" 
ones.  Every ship and even the most pitiful "tunnel rat" shacktowns has 
at least one Shrine or Temple, which are lavishly decorated and perfumed.

Several local priesthoods are famed for having having their "bone" skull 
replaced by a "glass" skull.  It's rather... disturbing... to see those 
veins just pounding away, but the locals don't seem to mind at all: if 
anything, the average local finds it "cute"!

Robots are among the few things absolutely forbidden: the descendents 
of the Trini will tolerate nothing less.  Even cybernetically enhansed 
people will be casted out of the better eating extablishments, and 
brutalized by young thugs if the enhansement is obvious. (And believe 
me, these folk carefully watch strangers for even the slightest sign of 
artifical anything!)

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Alvin Plummer
"Preserve what we created, Norris, and remember what we stood for."
                               - Strephon, 179-1126