Ùrtamh
Ùrtam was the first settlement that the Earther colonists built upon Tellus. A pre-conceived community, Ùrtamh was a marvel of urban planning. Incorporating small farms into each neighborhood, for instance, and maintaining water and waste facilities locally, underground, allowed the colonists to maintain their own infrastructure. Power was distributed wirelessly throughout each community via coils located centrally.
The Many far flung neighborhoods were all intertwined through a network of roadways, trams, and instant communications. Each home had its own, personalized psi Crystal to stay in touch with family and friends, indoor plumbing, and surprisingly low-tech air conditioning. These communities eschewed tall buildings for single family homes, although more cosmopolitan areas had inevitably arisen surrounding the larger power generators.
Demographics
The population here started out entirely Progenitor human, but the confluence changed the entire world, and Ùrtamh was no exception.
The peoples of Ùrtamh after the events of the confluence were split nearly evenly between humans, and high elves; but some few who came to later be known as Halflings were also evident. The other races would have emerged elsewhere, from other settlements and shelters around Tellus.
Government
Led by an elected board of trustees, the leadership of the colonies rotated every six years. A regional governor would disseminate the will of the people to the board, who would then get to work. Justice was the key word, for the Earthers. They had seen their home planet destroyed, and had no stomach for war with each other.
Most disputes were handled personally, with a local magistrate getting involved in the affair if necessary. This magistrate varied from neighborhood to neighborhood; some were called 'mayors', or 'aldermen', but one and all they mostly officiated at weddings, funerals, and business grand openings.
The population of each neighborhood policed itself; sometimes with a hired guard service, sometimes with informal posses. In either case, they were incredibly effective.
Defences
The larger power generators were designed in such a way as to be able to withstand tsunamis and other natural disasters with powerful domes of protective force that they were able to muster when necessary. This was because the nature of the power plants was very volatile if the safety mechanisms were destroyed while they waere running. This could have sent an entire facility into a meltdown, which would have resulted in an explosion that would have left a large crater below a mushroom cloud. They knew this, and designed the domes to not only protect the power plants from the outside, but to protect the outside from whatever was happening inside the power plants.
Industry & Trade
Both industry and trade were much simplified in Ùrtamh, as much of the manufacturing work could be, and was, offloaded to automated systems. The people concentrated on hand-made goods, and high quality craftsmanship. However, their real love was music. Every houosehold had musical instruments in it somewhere, even if they were just stashed in a convenient closet. Every neighborhood had daily concerts, and open jam sessions in public parks and spaces. Dancing was encouraged throughout the seasons of one's life, based around rituals meant to express joy and carefree moments. Music was traded and enjoyed and loved by all; music instruction was one of the more honorable trades one could take up.
Infrastructure
Water supplies, food storage, and long term shelters were built and maintained by society at large, funded and approved by the local Boards of Trustees. Roads, bridges, dams and nautical ports were all well built and in good repair, and public buildings were evident in every neighborhood. Mass transit and luxury travel were also available, of course.
Districts
Each neighborhood was its own, self governing, district, with plenty of open space between them. They had names such as New Providence and Shoretown, to give some examples, and new ones were under construction almost every day. It was a quickly growing population center.
Guilds and Factions
The Odd Fellows say that they can trace their origins all the way back to the Earthers.
History
The communities and neighborhoods of Ùrtamh had been thriving, and growing, for thirty years. Much of the planet's terraformation, which had been taking place in small stages over the previous three decades, had been completed. Only some final, finishing touches needed to be applied, and the operators of the powerful terraformation devices were planning a party for afterwards. They set their machines to work, when suddenly, a massive, blue-black hole in the sky appeared far above them. The people all stopped, and stared. All of the people, that is, except some few knew a threat when they saw it.
A beam of lightning-veined blackness shot out of the hole, resolving into six massive tentacles made of some shadowy plasma, which began to converge on the planet on a scale so huge the people of Ùrtam were doomed, and they knew it. Nonetheless, some few of them urges action. Run! Flee to the power plants! They are our only hope! Flee! Leave your things, abandon your meals! Flee! To the power plants! The message was blared across neighborhoods and communities at large, through sound systems designed for music and stolid announcements. It was shouted at people through doors and windows. And, soon, all of the people of the local communities had gathered around their power plants.
Meanwhile, the six massive tentacles that fit through the as yet limiting hole in the sky were under attack, being driven back by six flying reptiles that had followed the tentacles through the invasive hatch. Dragons, they would come to be called, named for legendary creatures from the Earthers' past. The peoples of Ùrtamh stood round their power plants for seven hours as the creatures fought the tentacular nothingness that was invading their reality.
Seven hours, they watched silently, intuitively knowing the dragons were fighting for them. It was a sobering thought, and a terrifying time, and still they stood and watched, silently, as the Travelers fought back nothingness on an epic scale, throwing their very lives at it again and again, until the tentacles were pushed back, the hole in the sky was closed, and the dragons embraced each other before falling out of the sky.
The power plants' defenses did their jobs, and the vast majority of the people were saved. The landscape, however, was forever changed and scarred. What once had been lush jungle and tropical forests, were now arid wastelands of slag and shattered stone. Craters, sunk to the bedrock as asteroids had been thrown at the tentacles of annihilation, had ejected debris that was still falling six hours later, and the impact of the dragons themselves had released so much energy that the sand of the natural plains around them had fused into a great sea of glass, burying the people and cutting them off from the light of the sun, initially.
But, the people persisted, and dug themselves out. Their power plants were now burnt out, the infrastructure to support them was destroyed, and the means to manufacture new parts had likewise been pulverized. It took them almost three weeks to dig themselves out, but they did it, and they once again sang in the light of day. They had survived, and that was a joyful thing!
RUINED SETTLEMENT
72213TK
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