Morningstar

Morningstar is a populated star system that represents one of mankind's strongest holdings in the outer colonies. Morningstar itself represents a curious anomaly: it is the only star in human space that shows signs of chromatic abberation. The southern pole of Morningstar burns blue, while the rest of the star burns yellow-white.  

Rhineland

One of the colonies of the Great Expansion, Rhineland is the second best success of terraforming after Proceka. Currently, Rhineland has a fully breathable atmosphere and has converted its largest continent for human habitation and supporting a life-sustaining ecosystem. Of the three other continents, two of them are in various staging of soil processing.   Rhineland's settled zone is known for its mountainous terrain, its heavy rains, and its many rivers. The planet has 1.15 Earth gravity, leading to a shorter, stockier people. The higher gravity also leads to increased infant mortality, and artificial hearts are commonplace on Rhineland, though the younger generations show adaptations that indicate that over time the Rhinelanders will evolve to meet the needs of their new home.   The higher gravity also means that launching ships and resources into orbit is much more costly for Rhineland, leading to their dependence on a trio of Space Elevators. These elevators form a tight bottleneck on Rhineland's ability to ship resources offworld.   Economically Rhineland draws wealth by being the best developed planet in its corner of human space, far from Sol and Alpha Centauri. As such, Rhineland grows much of the food that is supports the Outer Colonies, and sells its processed soil to countless stations and arcologies so that they can grow their own.   Culturally Rhineland is ruled by a representative government with a strong authoritarian bent. Many colonies begin with a militaristic structure and little social or political flexibility due to the nature of colony missions and the harsh realities of setting up on a new planet. Rhineland has continued this tradition and embraced it, leading to a people that culturally come off as stifled but dependable.   Rhinelanders earn their citizenship by picking from one of three mandatory service paths: the Military, the Ecobiologists (including both terraforming and farming), and the Engineers (building and maintaining the planet-nation's ships and infrastructure). This system ensures that each person commits at least two years to one of these essential services for the good of Rhineland, though many then make a full career out of it. Offworlders can earn Rhineland citizenship through a similar path, but for them the length of service is bumped up to five years.   Rhineland established the first independantly supported Spacy in the colonies, and became a military interstellar power as a result. While they are no longer the only such military power, Rhineland is generally considered the strongest military force in the colonies, and by far the best trained.    

The Sea of Morningstar

A water world with very few landmasses, the existence of both this planet and the oceans and rivers of Rhineland implies that there was a very high concentration of ice in the Morningstar system at the beginning. Half the size of Earth, Sea of Morningstar is currently undergoing filtration to remove the deadly heavy metals from the ocean and make it drinkable water. Ecobiologists from Rhineland are currently planning out a vast aquatic ecosystem to populate it with. Sea of Morningstar maintains close ties with the Sea of Navarro in Procyon, as they share similar terraforming goals and the data from one often benefits the other.