Terran Borderworlds

A borderworld is a solitary world in a solar system whose planet and/or moons are only just beginning to be colonized, or have just become self sufficient. Borderworlds are usually characterized, by drastically varying governments, factions, and groups of people vying for control of the planet and its moons while having less infrastructure than a typical core-world.

You could have a strictly authoritarian city-state on one corner of a borderworld, then have a lawless "wild-west" colony on the other, with thousands of miles of untamed land between each of them. A sparse colony, trade route, supply depot, or military outpost being the only signs of civilized human life one would see between the two points.

Geography

Typically, borderworlds are worlds that are easily colonizable. This would mean the world has oxygen, earth-like gravity, plant and animal life, abundant natural resources, etc. In addition to this, natural weather systems and geographic activity must be relatively earth-like, as colonizing a planet with monster hurricanes every month followed by massive earthquakes would make life difficult for most humans. Other than these qualifications, planets can be nearly anything (and with the Terran's extensive knowledge and skill of agriculture, production, etc. even barren deserts or violent alien rainforest can be colonized).

Most of the time, little to no major terraforming is performed on borderworlds, mostly due to the cost and time of such events compared to simply creating space-stations around the star of a planet.

Fauna & Flora

Before colonization occurs, the planet must have at least have oxygen-producing flora, however the following are of definite use and are all factors in considering if a planet is viable as a borderworld or not:

1. Does the planet have useful fauna that can be domesticated?
2. Does the planet have useful flora that can be cultivated easily?
3. Is there anything on the planet that would be a focus for scientific research?

If a planet manages to meet none of these criteria, then it may as well be overlooked: as resources such as Iron, Nickle, Copper, Gold, etc. are all present on easily accessible asteroids present throughout the galaxy, and don't take nearly as much work to extract resources as does a planet's resources.

Natural Resources

The natural resources of a planet should always, to an extent, be earth-like or better. Large quantities or metal, stone, and agricultural goods are needed to sustain a large human population. If a planet is capable of harboring farms, and has resources that can be easily mined and refined on-planet, then it is a strong contender to become a future Terran borderworld.

Alternative Name(s)

Borderland

Type

Planet

Inhabiting Species

• Civilian/Worker Unit Gesir