Introduction

Introduction to Terra Nova

The story begins in A.D. 6132 on a distant planet called Terra Nova, a world colonized by Earth during the 52nd century by Terrans from Earth. Terra Nova is one of the nine inhabitable planets discovered by Mankind during its dynamic renaissance after a terrible ice age. While the new world resembles earth in many respects, it features indigenous life forms (of no more than animal inteligence) that represent an all-too-real threat to the unprepared colonist. Still much of the Terranovan flora and fauna are edible and make survival of the human race in this inhospitable world possible. After so many centuries on this world, part of Mankind has indeed found a new home.

Despite its similarities to Earth, the former colony has a very different calendar. Days last 36 hours, not 24 and a complete year (called a cycle on Terra Nova) is around 168 days. One Terran year is equal to roughly 1.4 cycles. Tougher conditions have slightly shortened the average Terranovan lifespan and forced people to mature much faster than on Earth.

Leagues of Terra Nova

Terra Nova is also far more arid than Earth. There are no continents; most of the water is hidden in a series of underground tunnels called the MacAllen Network. The planet is divided in three regions: the mountainous and temperate northern hemisphere, the luxuriant tropical southern hemisphere; and the Badlands, which stretch out as a thick desert band about 1000 kilometers north and south of the equator. The city-states from the North have united into three leagues (the Northern Lights Confederacy, the United Mercantile Federation and the Western Frontier Protectorate), which together compose the Confederated Northern City-States (CNCS). The Southern city-states form four leagues (the Southern Republic, The Mekong Dominion, the Eastern Sun Emirates and the Humanist Alliance) united under the flag of the Allied Southern Territories (AST). The CNCS and the AST have radical cultural and political differences which often put them at different ends of the spectrum. Conflicts between North and South are frequent.

The Badlands

The Badlands, unlike the polar confederations, are fractious, and form no political entities to speak of. Only one city-state un the Badlands is truly respected by the polar confederation for its power and prestige: Peace River, a city built around Paxton Arms, the planet's most important weapons manufacturer. Paxton Arms remains neutral in the North-South conflicts, providing weapons and equipment to everyone indiscriminately. Almost on the other side of the planet, around the equator, a new coalition (NuCoal) of small city-states has recently been formed around Port Arthur and Prince Gable, the seat of the NuCoal Council of Trade. While NuCoal does not have a military component, the Arthurian Korps ensures no harm and that it's terriroty is repected by the polar confederations. Both Paxton and NuCoal are forces to be reckoned with, and while they have no formal alluance, political experts have advanced that they would likely coordinate a defense effort for the Badlands in the event of an interpolar war.

There are several other city-states in the Badlands, most of which serves as refuge for renegade soldiers or simple civilians fleeing the constraints of life in the hemispheres. Notorious among those cities, Khayr ad-Din - often referred to as the "Trash City" because it was built in the middle of a trash dumping area in the Badlands - has become the city where ex-Gear pilots go to become Duelists in the arenas. The rest of the Badlands is either populated by nomd bands of traders, bandits known as rovers, by hard-boiled homesteaders or by the mysterious Sand Riders, who live in the acidic sands of the Great White Desert.

The War of Alliance

In TN 1454 (A.D. 5790), an Earth-first goverment pulled back all its resources from the various colonies, leaving them to fend for themselves. In TN 1913 (A.D. 6118), it returned in force with the Colonial Expeditionary Force, strong with 400,000 highly trained men and supersoldiers (the GRELs), with the intent of reconquering those colonies. The CEF expected little resistance, having assumed that Terra Nova would have been devastated by the departure of Earth centuries ago. It never expected a planet with a strong technological civilization, and it certainly did not expect to encounter Gears., the characteristic humanoid combat units of Terra Nova. In TN 1917, after four cycles of warfare, the CEF retreated to another colony world, defeated. Thus ended the War of the Alliance, so named because it allied North and South against the invaders.

After fifteen cycles of détente following the war, the power brokers of Tera Nova are restless once again. The ever-present border wars between the two superpowers are escalating at an alarming rate. Ploliticians and generals are feeding the public inflammatory rhetoric. Rumors of hidden nuclear arsenals being mobilized are spreading like wildfire. The inhabitants of the planet hold their breath as the two political juggernaut lock horns with each other once again.

What has come before

Terra Nova's past is our future, a long tale of Humanity's quest to find a home in the stars. Thiss quest began when the home world seemed to do its best to eliminate the humans from its face. Around A.D. 2400, six thousand years oof civilization were about to be swallowed by a blanket of ice descending towards the equator. After a frantic (and fruitless) race to counter the coming Ice Age through technological solutions, and after several near-miss ecological disasters, everyone on the planet realized the fight was pointless and moved towards warmer climates of the equatorial countries to wait out the Ice Age.

Cultures were born and died during the rish towards the equator and old racial differences were largely broken down by global mixing. Millions died in the Emigration Wars, as overburdened equatorial countries did their best to keep the refugee convoys from entering their borders, and still the ice continued to creep forward. Brutal warlords sprung up with frightening regularity, but this peroid also saw some great social experiments. The socialist utopia of Greater Samarkand stood as the pearl of Earth until it collapsed until its own weight.

Great technological advances were made, especially in the field of genetic engineering, resulting in the fabled Prime Knight warriors of Kir Arya, a small country nested between warring giants. That success, however, was short lived and the Prime Knights were killed to the last during the 24th Crusade that also destroyed the fledging Kir Aryan society. Ultimately the population of Earth could only wait, one generation after the other, for the ice to retreat. It finally did in the 44th century, and brought a new hope with it.

A New Age of Discovery

In A.D. 4318, Professor Markus Tannhauser wrote his masterpiece, "Principia Universalis". His Unified Theory explained time-space discontinuities and their potential as gateways to the stars. Suddenly, this opened a wealth of new possibilities. As the Ice Age came to an end, a Second Renaissance on Earth marked the beginning of Humanity's return to space. A few centuries later, an exploration ship discovered Caprice, an Earth-like planet that could (barely) support human life. Almost a century later Terra Nova was discovered and a colonization effort began soon after.

The first colonists were sent by corporations and worked for the duration of their contract before returning home. Over time, however, many among them were enthralled by the beauty of this new world and chose not to leave Terra Nova when their contracts expired. They inistead settled down on a piece of land, sometiimes given resources by the corporation that hired them to help them out. After two centuries, many corporations put together support programs to help the new colonists get organized - it was advantageous to them since they have become "locals" and were no longer eligible for the outrageous wages paid to imported labor. An increasing number of workers built their homes on Terra Nova, and over the course of the following centuries, the planet became one fo the more successful colonies established by Earth.

The Colonization Effort

While the corporations contributed a fair share to the colonization effort, it was the Earth goverment itself that absorbed the lion's share of the expense. After centuries of investments, Earth's population was split on the topic of colonization. Some belived that investing in the colonies was a smart move in the long run, since the colonies would someday repayr Earth tenfold for its initial investment. Others felt that the colonies would never show any gratitude and claim indenpendance as soon as they were self-sufficient. In the end, Earth leaned towards that second option and decided to abandon all the colonies. By the end of the 58th century, the home world had pulled all its ships and resources away from the colonies and left them to fend for themselves. Thus began what would be called the Age of Isolation.

The period immediately followed Earth's departure became known as the Reconstruction. The remaining Terranovas scrounged through what Earth left behind to find resources to survive and rebuild some semblance of society. The resources being limited, several brutal confrontations erupted over the territories and scavenging sites. In the midst of this chaos Yuri Gropius rose and fought to unite several neighboring towns into one city-state. By late TN 1479, Gropius was elected mayor of the city-state which was to later bear his name. In TN 1482, he spearheaded the effort to unite several neighboring city-states into the first Terranovan league, the HUmanist Alliance.

During those times, elsewhere in the Badlands desert, a pacifist nammed Mamoud Khodaverti rose and laid the foundations of what would later become Revisionism, the most important religion on Terra Nova. In his later years, he moved to Massada wit his trusted companion, Nathani Reiss. After Mamoud's death, his son Jakob and Nathani disagreed on the principles behind Revisionism. Jakob remained in Massada to continue his father's work while Nathani moved to Sorrento in the North and founded his own branch of Revisionism. The schism between both branches remains to this day.

Age of Alliances

Some fourty cycles after the foundation of the Humanist Alliance, several northern city-states followed suit and formed the Northern Lights Confederacy (TN 1525). Almost on cue, several more alliances were formed in the following cycles: in the north, the Western Frontier Protectorate (TN 1527) and the United Mercantile Federation (TN 1551 and in the south, other leagues were forming: The Southern Republic (TN 1545), the Mekong Dominion (TN 1562) and the Eastern Sun Emirates (TN 1492). On the interstellar scale, limited contact was maintained with the other colonies. Unfortunately, each colony had its own problems and was largely unable to help its neighbors. Over time, most Terranovan began to ignore the other colonies' existance in their day-to-day lives.

In the South, in view of the Southern Republic's recent expansionist hiistory, the Mekong Dominion signed an alliance with its neighbor to avoid unnecessary (and unprofitable) bloodshed. The Southern Republic, its western borders secure, unleashed its armies onto ther Humanist Alliance and the Eastern Sun Emirates. In TN 1681, the Allied Southern Territories - mostly a facade confederation controlled by the Southern Republic - united the southern hemisphere.

In the North, unity came more slowly. In TN 1669, the NLC and the WFP attempted to invade Pioneer (In the UMF), only to be repelled by a regular military force complemented by makeshift combat walker its built from construction vehicules. The UMF victory demonstrated the validity of combat walkers and led to the design and production of the first Gear, the Hunter, in TN 1678. The expansionism of the South of the South and its sudden unification became a great concern for the northern leagues. In the NLC, discussions began about the unification of the northern hemisphere, but the United Mercantile Federation resisted the idea. When the UMF lost its Merchant War to the AST in TN 1688, unification finally became a possibility; it became fact in TN 1692 with the foundation of the Confederated Northern City-States.

St. Vincent's War

A cold war began between the polar confederations soon after the formation of the CNCS. While there was no outright conflict, both Northern and Southern forces clashed on a regular basis in the Badlands, fighting over resources, territory and allegiances. Caught in the middle with no military power to protect themselves, Badlanders were the helpless victims of two giant superpowers. Tensions grew between North, South and the Badlands, and the stage was set for the fiirst interpolar conflict, St Vincent's War. While fighting over the wreckage of a pharmaceutical ship (The St Vincent), Northern and Southern forces unwittingly released a virus into the atmosphere which caused St Vincent's Plague and killed 5% of the children on Terra Nova. The resulting conflict lasted six cycles before the economies of both confederacies collapsed and an uneasy peace was restored. With their economies at an all-time low, all borders were closed while the confederations attempted to rebuild their resources.

More than helping the development of Gears and warfare in general on Terra Nova, the St. Vincent's War also cemented the polar confederacies and strengthened their respective patriotic sentiments. A sense of natioinal identity emerged and contributed to the embitterment which has since then plagued North-South relations.

The War of the Alliance

The 18th and 19th centuries were mostly a period of cold war that gave some measure of peace to the Badlanders. There were several bloody skirmishes both internal and external to the polar confederacies, but in cmpariison to the St. Vincent's War, it had very little effect on the Badlanders themselves. New rivalries emerged. however, and several factions working on either side were about to sell out their own. The stage was set for a new interpolar war.

In TN 1913, Earth resurfaced after centuries of silence. When 400,000 soldiers and GREL supersoldiers were dropped on the surface of Terra Nova, the former colony realized that Earth had come to reestablish iits hold on the planet. In a historic move, both polar confederations put their quarrels aside and joined forces to repel the Colonial Expeditionary Force (CEF). The union between North and South gave the conflict its name: The War of Alliance. After four cycles of intense warfare and destruction, the intervention of Paxton Arms - which had remained neutral in the conflict - turned the tide in favor of the Terranovans with its Peace River Army and sent the invaders back to Caprice, where they had a base of operations. The cooperation between North and South helped forge some friendships between high officials. Despite their cooperation during the War of Alliance, however, old rivalries resurfaced and the interpolar relationship cooled down once more.

In the Badlands, Paxton Arms established the Paxton Protectorate, a "safe zone" where Peace River's new Defense Force would protect residents from bandits and marauding polar armies. While the AST and CNCS largely respected these new boundaries during the early cycles of détente, it is now more theory than fact. Paxton Arms does not have the resources to forcefully maintain this zone and Northern and Southern forces no longer hesitate to take up "strategic positions" in the region. Nonetheless, many in Peace River feel it is Paxton's responsability to protect the whole of the Badlands.