The Twelve Colonies

The Twelve Colonies was a federation of Arterian cities located on Polymede. A result of scientific migrations initiated by SpaceCorp, the colonies have over the centuries due to the great distance between them and their homeland (between 200 and 900 AU) evolved into a fully independent group, racially and culturally distinct from their homeland, which only the minority of those who landed ever saw. Officially, they were considered an autonomous asset of SpaceCorp, even though by the 7th century the mother company had little to no actual influence anymore here.

History

Although the existance of Polymede has been an astronomical fact ever since the first Arterian civilizations mapped it thousands of years before the start of the Standard Counting, the true history of the Twelve Colonies starts only in the year 376 SC with the discovery of life upon the planet by the monks Order of Saint Enzuş of the White Moon, a monastic order who own a monastic observatory on Selíni, Argo's only natural satellite. With the Arterians having exoflora on one of the moons of Konon in their own home system a century earlier, the posibility of the existance of fauna, or maybe even sentient life summoned much societal excitement on Argo, leading to the possibilities for an expedition being in the works nearly immediatly.

The Great Expeditions

In the year 402, the Executive-Secretary of the Trans-National Conglomerate of Space Corporations and Businesses, or the ExSec of SpaceCorp for short, would announce the construction of the ‘Jahto’, a ship that would take humanity outside the solar system for the very first time, an expedition to another star, another planet. Too large for any planetary launchsite, it was to be constructed in space itself, which made it the largest man-made object in space at the time. 6500 by 800 metres, housing 22.000 brave cosmonaut-colonists for the 25 year long journey to the new world. Four years later, it was time. In the great city of Kunda, millions watched the procession and subsequent blessing of the cosmonauts by the Holy Septrons of the church, before a hundred rockets took them up to their new home, never to set foot on the cradle of their species again. As the Jahto would set literal sail to the stars, nothing would be heard from it for years. 52 years, to be exact. In that year, a probe from the Jahto would be intercepted by a research station near home. The rapport? “Confirmation of sentient lifeforms in some form of alien civilization on Polymede”, as all had hoped, for now many more colonists would follow soon, the new Gold Rush, the Third Space Race.
Now, a second wave was close at hand, as in 468 SC 12 more generation ships, more modernised versions of the original 'Jahto' together called the 'Grand Fleet of Humanity', would set off for Polymede. They would arrive in planetary orbit by the year 493 SC, finding the original ship in an undisclosed state, although it seems that it was unable to make landing properly. Either way, the twelve original ships managed to gather closer intel on the planet, including but not limited to satellite photographs, geological, meteorological, biochemical and biological data. Which set the expedition up with enough data to plan their eventual landing, which they would do by that same year, in 263 SC, which is considered the founding year of the nation.

The Foundation

Settling on a tropical peninsula just south of the equatorial ridge of Polymede, the twelve generational ships landed spread apart over the 438.000 km² of the land they named 'Aqel', after the then Executive-Secretary of SpaceCorp who ordered the construction of the Grand Fleet back in 402 SC. The ships would be transformed to be the basis of a new city, a purpose for which they were purposefully built. The twelve ships, now to be twelve cities, would function as semi-independent citystates from then on, bound together in confederation under the flag of the Grand Fleet, which now would be known as the flag of the Twelve Colonies.
The first years were not without their tribulations, as the local flora and fauna proved quite dangerous at times resulting in the progression of the colonies being slowed by quite a lot. In more than one occasion, problems with noxious plant fumes proved such a problem that entire forests needed to be burned down to combat the effects, which is logged in quite some detail. What is not logged however is the early encounters between the colonists and the native populations. As a matter of fact any mention of intelligent life on Polymede is absence before the year 500 SC, after which they appear suddenly and without much ado, reinforcing the idea that some the information surounding the first contact between the Arterians and the native Cixusians and Ewuxi species was lost to time.

---

Lands & Territories

The Twelve Colonies originally landed quite spread out across the large Aqel peninsula, located on the southern slope of the equatorial ridge of the planet. Since their founding centuries ago, they have since spread out to encompass the whole peninsula. Still, with the distance between the cities varying between a few dozen and several hundreds of kilometres, the colonies are a geographical mix of urban cities, large scale industrial enterprises and untamed wilderness, some of which is protected.
The Twelve Cities
 

The CEZ

---

Government & Policies

Foreign Relations

 

Military