Here is one of the more "elite" suburban habitats from Extropia's neighbourhood that I cooked up. Simply because I have a soft spot for Amber Macx, Ione Saldana and Aria T'Loak... Comments, opinions? %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% Diadem Station (aka. Diadem Principality, "The Pretty Burbclave", "Liechtenstein of the Solar System") Station Type: O'Neill Cylinder Allegiance: Independent (Extropian) Primary Languages: Lojban (Tengwar character set), English Population: 168,000 Motto: "Pact and Princess" Major Industries: Habitat Construction, Nanoengineering, Organic Farming History and Origins Diadem Station (DS) was constructed pre-Fall by Sterneisen, a hypercorp specializing in habitat design and construction, both as a company HQ and showcase of their technology, especially the new structural diamondoid composite intended for future McKendree cylinders. It was nearly complete, the cylinder pressurized with dry nitrogen atmosphere and the hypercorp making plans for moving the HQ to the station when the Fall struck. The Fall eviscerated Sterneisen management as one of the TITAN-manipulated factions nuked the original HQ at LEO and it took time for the corporation to regain it's balance under new leadership that astonished everyone: Anna von Eisenberg, teenage heiress who had inherited and otherwise acquired total of 52.06% of the voting stock after both of her parents and several relatives had been killed in the nuclear strike on the original corporate HQ. Many doubted the talents of the ridiculously young and untried new CEO and dissenters attempted her ouster triggering a corporate crisis, but Anna had several hidden "aces in the hole" in form of the offsite backups of high-grade corporate AGIs advisors loyal to her official position and valuable corporate data that had survived the destruction of the original Sterneisen HQ. Boardroom fights for hypercorporate control were bitter, resulting in liquidation or spinoff of many corporate properties and even entire divisions as intransigent stockholders were cashed out and lawyers paid, but in the end Anna was in undisputed control and personally owned what remained of the entire hypercorp. Including the nearly finished habitat. She renamed the corp Diadem Industries. As a result of this falling out, which included some of the big name Offworld Consortium oligarchs, Diadem Industries didn't participate in transition to the Planetary Consortium even as it could have claimed 1-2% stake in The Hypercorp Council. Instead, Anna loaded the habitat with as many Fall refugees as the hastily on-lined lifesupport system could bear and began the slow move of the Diadem Station towards the main belt. Given the partially-finished status of the habitat, life was rough. Most of the habitat interior was dull and lifeless (or shimmering and lifeless, depending) "diamond desert" at that point and the lifesupport system itself was only partially functional. This situation improved very slowly due to Anna's determination to "not cut corners" while finalizing the construction. This slow progress was one of the major points of friction between refugee population and station management. Anna declared independence in AF 3, when the station was safely away from Martian and cislunar space. She promised that those who found the new political situation unacceptable would be able to leave the station when it arrived in Extropia's neighbourhood in slightly more than year. The Declaration was followed by a revolt only few days later, instigated by a coalition of democrats, anarchists, scum and nearby evacuation barge under mutineer command. Anna crushed the rebellion hard with AI-controlled robotic security systems that the rebels had deeply underestimated. 23 people (17 security personnel, 6 rebels, including AGIs on both sides) were killed in the fighting and 34 rebels were executed after summary trials and their backups were wiped. The Executed rebels were officially convicted of murder of security personnel and conspiracy of same (truthfully guilty, though everyone knows this would have been "justified" if the rebels had won) as Anna felt that treason charge wasn't appropriate because nobody had officially or unofficially yet signed on the then-new social contract. Everyone else involved in the rebellion was put into medical stasis until their exile to Extropia. There are persistent conspiracy theories that Anna deliberately let the mutiny to fester in order to "catch all potential troublemakers", but Anna herself denies such and there is a distinct lack of solid evidence. (Sidenote: Even today there is a hauntingly beautiful park and a memorial monument inscribed with names and faces of the 17 killed security personnel, simply known as "Memorial Park" and "The Memorial". The Location has changed during architectural rearrangements, but the park and memorial has remained same. One of the persistent gripes from the Anarchists is that the memorial doesn't acknowledge the rebels at all: It unapologetically memorializes only the "foully murdered" security personnel. Those of Anarchist bent considering impromptu "graffiti art" or other "political statements", don't. Though unobvious and carefully hidden, the place has very tight security and local regulations have very sadistic sense of humor regarding the subject. A Handful of aspiring "graffiti artists" have been ritually humiliated by being forced to clean up and restore damage done to the memorial manually while wearing orange "prison overalls" as a prelude to their deportation. Some think that the place has the secondary purpose of being a deliberate honey trap for hothead anarchists with insufficient self-control.) Slightly more than year after the rebellion, on arrival to Extropia's neigbourhood in AF 5 and after the rebels and other undesirables had been ceremoniously exiled, each refugee was given a binary choice: Swear allegiance to the Princess and accept the newly-written Habitat Constitution and Habitat Law or go to Extropia like the exiled rebels. Closely aware of the manner Anna had crushed the rebellion along her demonstrably eccentric ideas, only 25,000 of 200,000 eligible refugees decided to stay even as the lifesupport and living conditions had dramatically improved with promise of eventual earthlike environment. Since then DS has been located in Extropia's neigbourhood. It's both famous and notorious for it's eccentric governance and "aesthetics regulations" which mandate that everything and every*one* in Diadem station must be beautiful and stylish. %%%%%%%% Diadem Station parameters Diadem Station layout is a bog-standard 32x8 kilometer three-window O'Neill cylinder with classic "petal" mirrors and a ring of agricultural stations surrounding the front end. Simulated gravity inside the cylinder is maintained at 1.0g. Attitude control is handled by gyroscope arrays located at endcaps and high-impulse fusion thruster installations. These installations, along with careful habitat design, allow for limited mobility and station-keeping at 0.001g acceleration. This mobility can be increased to up to 0.01g with internal reconfiguration (draining lakes into storage tanks, spinning down most of the gyroscopes, etc.), delicate lattice of fullerene cables and a carefully coordinated fleet of robot tugs. The Primary construction material of the habitat is an advanced diamondoid composite, a materials technology pilot project for McKendree Cylinders. "Window strips" are high-transparency diamondoid sandwiched with filtering metamaterials, carefully kept pristinely clean by armies of AI-controlled maintenance robots. The Reflecting surfaces of the mirrors are also thin multilayer films of metamaterial capable of selectively reflecting and absorbing the incoming sunlight (controlling IR heating, filtering out UV, etc.). Absorbed portions of the sunlight are converted into electricity and fed into station grid. Interior habitat climate is "idealized temperate", with seasonal cycle carefully engineered to match lost Earth at it's best: Cool (but not cold) winters with up to 30cm blankets of fluffy white snow (temperature minimum around -10 degrees celsius) and warm (but not hot) summers (temperature maximum around +30 degrees celsius). The Weather cycles are constantly being fine-tuned. Regular rainfalls, usually scheduled for habitat nights, are used to keep dust and atmospheric contaminants in check; there is a comprehensive set of sprinklers and weather-control equipment located at the central spar and around the habitat. Interior architecture and infrastructure are based on structural diamondoid composite, surfaced with other materials or smartmatter as necessary. Gross architectural changes and general maintenance thus require large numbers of maintenance servitors in comparison to more modern smartmatter systems, but DS has a *armies* of AI-controlled and teleoperated robots of all varieties, hierarchically coordinated via mesh. DS' original target population was 500,000, but current population is around 168,000 (+-1000) due to political issues and heavy reliance on advanced AI and robotics which many post-Fall people find disturbing. The Lifesupport is officially max-rated for 1,000,000 humans. There is a juicy C-type asteroid ("The Depot") less than 100 kilometers away of the DS, which is steadily getting dismantled and refined into raw materials for a future Hamilton cylinder along providing raw materials for the station itself. There are long-term plans to migrate entire station populace to the new Hamilton cylinder and to recycle the DS itself in timeframe of few decades. The Station itself is located in Extropia's neighbourhood, slightly over lightsecond away. This distance is carefully chosen: Short enough to allow permanent link to extropia's mesh (via firewalled wideband lasercom) but far enough for lightspeed lag to confound realtime hacking attempts. Short enough to make inter-habitat transport easy, but long enough to make any surprise attack impossible and exceed any reasonable directed-energy weapon- and cold-gas thruster range. And so on. %%%%%%%% Diadem Station Politics "Under the neo-royalist glitter and pageantry lies a political throwback to the bad old days of pre-space Terra which doesn't even pretend democracy like Planetary Consortium or Jovian Junta. However, they're not expansionist, don't try to export their crazy political system and the so-called 'Princess Anna' shows vague signs of personal competence. Those with enough glimmerings of sanity to question the system are allowed to freely leave without fuss. I Say let them fossilize in peace." --Lisa Meissner, Anarchist Commentator "Princess Anna's neo-royalist glamour and pageantry draws too much popular attention to her extropian-minarchist laissez-faire policies. We have a ludicrous situation where an absolute dictator rules more liberally than vast majority of consortium democracies and humorists are regularly making jokes about it. Uncomfortably large fractions of the middle-class Consortium populace, worried about the anarchy of Extropia, could easily get attracted to the idea of living there. Which makes the station an ongoing memetic problem." --Piter van Dusen, Oversigh Analyst "The true interest of an absolute monarch generally coincides with that of his people. Their numbers, their wealth, their order, and their security, are the best and only foundations of his real greatness; and were he totally devoid of virtue, prudence might supply its place, and would dictate the same rule of conduct." --Edward Gibbon, The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire "L'Etat, c'est moi." --Louis XIV The First and most important thing to understand about Diadem Station governance that it's Anna's private sandbox and that she owns it lock, stock and barrel. If you don't want to play by her rules, Extropia is about lightsecond away, shuttles leave regularly and nobody gets on the station without an escrowed return ticket. DS is a sovereign, independent nation-state. It's *de jure* an absolute monarchy, but *de facto* adds qualifiers "minarchist" and "laissez-faire". While Anna has absolute authority, she rarely exercises this power and works hard to minimize her interference in people's lives. Even though the Habitat Constitution is backed only by her solemn promise, she has never been known to violate it. The Station itself is fully owned asset of Diadem Industries, which is in turn solely owned by Her Serene Highness Anna of the House Eisenberg, aka. "The Diadem Princess". She's also unofficially known as "The Bitch", "Maximum Leader", "The CEO" and "The Landlord". For the ex-mutineers and their sympathizers, many of whom filtered to Locus after being exiled on Extropia, she is "The Terminator Princess". During the slow journey from cislunar space to Extropia Anna wrote up the Constitutional Edicts and Habitat Law, presumably with benefit of time-acceleration, alpha forking and advice from undisclosed sources. The Constitutional Edicts are a civil rights document, prescribing "negative rights" ie. what Anna personally promises *not* to do or to allow (fork-napping, cognitive violations, confiscation of property without recompense, change legislation without appropriate warnings, etc. standard stuff) along defining the basic principles of the legal system. The Habitat Law is the basic corpus of law, a constantly maintained and updated synthesis of Civil Law and Extropian legal tradition. Judges are appointed by Anna for defined periods and often contracted from Extropia on rotating basis; note that she maintains personal position as "the court of final appeal" even though she rarely decides to hear appeals. In general the Law and especially Constitution hasn't changed fundamentally, though there have been constant updates including some rather rapid "legal hotfixes" in response to revealed problems. Both Constitutional Edicts and Habitat Law are remarkably liberal by the standards of planetary consortium or even Titan, short and easy to interpret. The Law (and Anna) puts great weight into "judicial discretion" and "personal judgement", equally weighted down by "judicial responsibility", in order to avoid "abusive pharisaicism" which she feels to contaminate far too many Extropian legal systems. The Habitat Law and Constitutiona Edicts are also known as "the formal social contract" (or "The Pact" referred in habitat motto), which are ceremonially sworn into by both Citizen and Sovereign: There is a formal ceremony, followed by a party, every month or two. The Constitution and Law have also proved moderately popular and profitable as one of the Extropian legal codes, suitably expanded and licensed of course. Note that all forms of visa include boilerplate text about "respecting and obeying constitution and law" during the stay. Anna is a big fan of the concepts "enlightened absolutism" and old hackeresque "benevolent dictator for life". She's nearly universally praised for her demonstrated talent of setting clear rules, acting decisively when necessary, knowing when to listen to her advisors and (this is high praise grudgingly given by extropians) knowing when not to interfere. She's not infallible and has publicly acknowledged this on several occasions while reversing less-than-successful policies. As a specific point Anna maintains the right to personally declare any person, corporation or entity a "persona non grata", "at any time and without having to explain her decision", giving them up to 48 hours to leave the station and not to return until further notice ("permanently, but I reserve the right to change my mind"). This relatively rare "permaban" (aka. "banhammer" or "moderation privilege") is reserved for "foreign spies, agent provocateurs, persistent assholes and other undesirables". Note that this is not a judicial sentence; it is an administrative decree without appeal. Diadem Station maintains scrupulous neutrality in matters of external politics. Anna has exchanged embassies with all major and many minor powers of the system. The Formal embassies of foreign powers are hosted at "Official Diplomat Row" in Segment Alpha-Eight, near the Princely palace. Non-state actors are likewise represented: There is are noted anarchist networkers, organizational contacts and hypercorp representatives located at nearby "Un-Official Diplomat Row". %%%%%%%% Public Surveillance and Identification DS maintains an open and complete panopticon surveillance of all public locations with notable preference for hyperspectral imaging. Private locations (apartments, corp offices, etc.) are also monitored with few exceptions, but data from such areas is restricted to the leaseholder and public safety organizations, whose AIs don't divulge the data without specific circumstances and carefully log all requests. Any sapient access to this data is always carefully scrutinized and reviewed afterwards. Misuse is punishable. There are specific regulations and rules, mostly concerning safety, for setting up "unsurveilled zones" for those desiring extra privacy. These "private cabinets" are popular locations for conspiring, poker games, furtive sexual liaisons and so on; there are several local minor hypercorps, especially restaurants, renting such cabinets by the hour. DS possesses several districts with Angelnet coverage. These districts have, by definition, total panopticon coverage. DS ID system is based on multi-factor authentication and somewhat complex in comparison to more common systems and SAPIENT (visitors are recommended to run 3-hour introductory XP before entering) while providing somewhat greater security along several flavors of pseudonymity and anonymity. It's based on hierarchy of cryptographic identity keys, challenge-response authentication and one-time password lists stored in mesh inserts. As a unique flavor, the ID system eschews the use of nanotattoos and by default all morphs on habitat instead have a skinlink to allow digital authentication via mesh inserts. Biometric identifications, outside more involved brainprints, are officially untrusted and deprecated in all contexts. Mostly thanks to local penchant for cosmetic biosculpt. %%%%%%%% Economy Diadem Industries and station are debt free and thanks to Anna's personal paranoia likely to remain so. She maintains a laissez-faire attitude towards local economy, though there are few semi-autarkist policies regarding Diadem Industries' and Diamond Gardens' own operations in order to defend them against external manipulation and economic warfare. In general, the station economy can be best described as "stable" and "growing steadily". Analysts from Planetary Consortium and Extropia openly estimate that she could easily raise the profit margins of her operations considerably, but Anna's standard reply is that she thinks on longer terms than just next quarter or next election cycle and that much of the profits of her policies come in forms other than money. She famously and publicly deprecates "the narrowly-focused quarterly capitalism that hampers all too many Extropian and Consortium hypercorps". Neither Anna nor Diadem Station collect any taxes: She collects rent from inhabitants (the habitat fee) and industries (office space, lab space, fabber usage, etc.). This policy, combined with famous political neutrality, has attracted lot of hypercorps and ideologically less pure anarchist co-ops from across the system. %%%% Diadem Free Bank (DFB) Diadem Free Bank (DFB) is a fully-owned subsidiary of the Diadem Industries. A Highly conservative institution, it's youth and nature of it's location give many would-be investors a pause, but Anna and DFB are deliberately and steadily working up reputation for honesty, stability, reliability and discretion. It's regularly and publicly audited by multiple independent assurance hypercorps from Extropia, who have thus far found no significant problems. It's most important purpose is to handle the finances for Diadem Industries and Diadem Gardens along collecting the Habitat Fee. DFB maintains a HQ in Diadem Station (a neoclassical faux-marble building exuding sense of prosperity and reliability) and a branch office in Extropia (side-tunnel warren accessed from The Drag). All other branches are "virtual offices" in Solaris style. DB is famous for it's paranoid mesh security with high reliance on OTP encryption and unforgeable quantum authentication tokens. Remember that DFB is only about 1 lightsecond away from Extropia and wideband laserlink is available. Couple seconds of lightspeed lag is usually a trivial hindrance. %%%% Diadem Ducat The Official currency of DS is an anonymous, digital cryptocurrency ("Diadem Ducats") fully commodity-backed by a basket of various metals, carbon, deuterium, water and qubits. It's designed from the outset as a "diamond-hard currency". Note that there are no "legal tender" laws in DS and DFB cheerfully offers forex services for all sorts of currencies. However, DB seriously dislikes large and/or long-term holdings of foreign currencies or speculating with them; these assets are usually rapidly exchanged on Extropia for harder assets. Also, while paying the habitat fee with currency other than Diadem Ducat at current spot rate is usually a snap, exchange rates or even exchange availability are *not* guaranteed... Diadem ducats are divisible by 100 (1 ducat = 100 cents). They're issued as anonymous numbered accounts, keyed to encryption keys and one-time password lists. Unforgeable quantum authentication tokens, protected by the no-cloning theorem and linked to such numbered account, are available for Low cost. Note that many account details and protocols are negotiable in best Extropian tradition. However, DFB insists that all accounts must have explicit "termination protocols", which determine what happens to the account and it's contents if there is no activity in years, account holder dies permanently and so on. %%%%%%%% Diadem Station Industries The Flagship "princely" hypercorp on Diadem Station is Diadem Industries, a habitat engineering hypercorp specializing in structural diamondoid composites and heavy construction. Sterneisen constructs, refurbishes and updates habitats across the system for anyone willing and able to pay, from anarchists and brinkers to Planetary Consortium and Jovian Junta. The Other important "princely" industry is "Diadem Gardens", a small high-grade producer of "organically produced non-hydroponic" luxury products grown in surrounding agri-stations or on gardens and fields inside the habitat itself: Fruits, grains, cannabis, grapes, chili, coffee, tea, chocolate, etc. Large fractions of the crops are usually further processed into beer, wine, fruit preserves, hashish, etc. The "Diadem Gardens" brand is being steadily built up to mean top quality and refined taste. (Sidenote: Primary reason for the local organic farming focus is that the lifesupport engineering branch of Sterneisen was sold when recalcitrant stockholders were cashed out and there are several restrictive No-Compete- and Non-Disclosure Agreements that severely limit Sterneisen's participation in genemod- and lifesupport engineering market for many years into future. Organic farming is something of a loophole around these restrictive agreements, making any claims of No-Compete-, IP- or NDA-violations extremely difficult to pursue.) Due to storage- and shelf-life issues the fresh produce is rarely exported farther than Extropia, but refined and/or preserved products (wine, preserves, hash oil, etc.) along their nanotemplates are exported across the system. The "Flagship product" of Diamond Gardens today is a certified non-replicated organic sparkling wine, produced by the traditional method (aka. champagne method) and bottled in tamper-evidently sealed, cryptographically authenticated diamondoid bottles. It's a popular (and expensive: 250+ credits per bottle on Extropia and transportation costs from there add up very rapidly) luxury product exported across the entire system from mercury to pluto, popular for significant celebrations. Aside princely industries, Diadem Station is home to a significant number of hypercorps from both planetary consortium and extropia. Local highly earthlike environment, gravity and greenery can be especially attractive to those feeling nostalgia for old Earth. %%%%%%%% Diadem News Another fully-owned subsidiary, Diadem News is a small-ish mediacorp functioning as the primary PR outlet for Anna and Diadem Station. Diadem News makes no bones about it's partiality: The Masthead reads "Official organ of Diadem Principality and Sterneisen". Anna has publicly stated her belief for journalistic objectivity to be an impossibility. It mainly focuses on local news and also publishes Anna's personal blogs. Note that Diadem News doesn't have any sort of media monopoly at DS, though it has several intangible advantages like rapid interview access to Anna herself. There are also a number of "loyal opposition" newscorps with various political views, from "Rebel Worker" (Anarchist publication) to "Republican News" (Experia-owned mouthpiece for Planetary Consortium). %%%%%%%% Diadem Station Culture "A Shiningly beautiful, clean, wealthy and well-regulated community where beautiful people are polite to each other and a benevolent princess rules wisely with delicate touch. Beautiful architecture melding seamlessly into carefully manicured greenery. Even AR ads are subtle and polite. I still have nightmares about that place." --Max Rriot, Scum Activist Best description of Diadem Station's culture is simple: Obsessed with aesthetics and beauty. Diadem Industries owns and maintains all of the real estate, including office space and housing on the Diadem Station. It rents them to residents on temporary basis with renewal periods defined as maximum of one earth year. This arrangement allows for pretty blanket authority to enforce zoning and "aesthetics regulations" decreed by Anna. Buildings, roads, monuments... All are carefully and holistically integrated with precisely manicured parkland of equally careful design. AR advertisements are restricted to specific channels which can be turned off and physical business signs are muted, subtle, unobtrusive and aesthetically pleasing. These "aesthetics regulations" are not restricted to zoning and architecture: They extend to resident's morphs, clothing and even behaviour. On Diadem Station the fashion police (officially "Aesthetics Enforcement") is very real and bodysculpt surgery is covered by the habitat fee. Note that the aesthetic regulations are further subdivided into stylesets and some of the stylesets may be mutually exclusive. Someone wearing a female morph is not allowed to enter Rose Enclave, for example. Naturally these regulations are publicly available and a muse can easily advise it's owner on proper behaviour. While some rail vocally about DS' policies regarding morphological restrictions, Anna personally maintains that the restrictions are simply an elaborated version of old rule stating "no shirt, no shoes, no service". One of the few fundamental and official decrees in Constitution is that the official language of Diadem Station is Lojban, written with Tengwar alphabet. The Official reasons are Lojban's unambiguous and logical nature combined with Tengwar's beauty, morphological matching and lack of cultural baggage involved in more standard latin alphabet. Citizens are required to study and learn and become fluent in the language within year of gaining citizenship and prospective citizens are encouraged to study the language: Fluency is considered a big plus in citizenship application. Nevertheless, all government services are available in English, though visitor (and especially a fresh citizen) should be prepared for a degree of snobbery if his/her Lojban is inadequate. %% Diadem Districts, Hotspots and Subcultures Diadem Station notably hosts various defined subcultures, some of them highly stylized and formal. Some overlap only partially or not at all. *Lily Enclave: This enclave allows only female morphs and egos willing to conform to certain styles of behaviour. Notorious for being a hive of constant feminine gossip and intrigue, rivalries, feuds and blurring the lines between ARG and real life. Famous for hosting several all-girl schools, up to and including a branch of Diadem U. *Rose Enclave: The Male counterpart of Lily Enclave, operating on similar (though slightly different) ruleset. -Note that the "All Queer" network (Rimward p.161) regularly and fierily denounces both enclaves as "wretched hives of binary genderism and formalized stereotypes". Both enclaves consider these denunciations ringing endorsements... *Microgravity Zone: The Micro-g section along central spar. Noted for it's fashionable microgravity architecture. Even implying that "up" or "down" exist here is considered a faux pas and dressing properly is a must (skirts are a big no-no, for example). Bouncer morphs are allowed (and encouraged) to strut their stuff here. Local microgravity ballet is not to be missed and several troupes, both native and Extropian, perform here regularly. *Gourmet District: Some of the best "traditional and organic" cooking in the system. Many dishes offered here simply cannot be cooked, served and/or eaten properly in extropia's microgravity and the local patio tables are a systemwide attraction. *Drug Dens: In order to put some glamour to vice, Anna has (from behind several fronts) reintroduced discreet "opium-den" metastyle drug dens. Aside wide selection of recreational pharmacopeia (including organically-grown heirloom opium smoked with pipe in traditional style for the wealthy and discriminating customer) exceeded only by "The Pill Box" in Locus, these estabilishments offer privacy, discreet medical monitoring and other useful amenities. If you can't find the proper "set and setting" in these estabilishments, you aren't trying at all... *Diamond Beach: A Full-fledged luxury spa facility with beachfront and large lake suitable for swimming, with specifically tuned mirror section dedicated to ensuring proper sunshine. Famous for it's "beach sand" of carefully fabricated diamond grains, which give the beach it's unique iridescent-white color. While the beauty-obsessed Diadem Station has many spa facilities, this is considered the flagship installation. *City of Angels: Probably largest Angelnet in post-Fall Solar System (Bernoulli district angelnets in Extropia are not unified), covering several sectors. Expensive and probably most luxurious living space in entire system discounting virtual realities, apartment rentals in this district are auctioned separately. As Angelnets are notoriously vulnerable to Exsurgent virus and TITANs, local and surrounding security are top-notch, but even then this district is an important reason most paranoid plutocrats avoid Diadem Station. *Mesh Realities: Diadem hosts a number of mesh realities and a vibrant infomorph culture. Again, as a policy to prevent "virtual underclass" from forming, inhabitants must either own and maintain an acceptable physical body *or* hold a defined amount of other property. For infomorphs the habitat fee is considerably lower, reflecting on smaller maintenance needs. %%%%%%%% The Church Surprising to many, Anna has cultivated relations with the Roman Catholic Church despite her own Atheism. One of the most public signs of this relationship is "The Church", a neo-gothic cathedral of faux granite rented to the Congregation for break-even rate and certain concessions, most important of these being a promise to stay out of politics. This Church is, unsurprisingly, considered one of the most beautiful reconstructions of Old Earth's neo-gothic style cathedrals and many are of the opinion that the main reason for Anna's support for the Church is it's artistic and cultural heritage. Local priest, Father Anton Molson, works closely with his ostensible superior, Bishop Torrinos of Extropia. It's an open secret that Bishop Torrinos envies the facilities and laments being stuck on extropia due to demographics. Anna's personal opinion on the matter and possible promotion of the Church building to the status of a Cathedral was that "It's an internal church business and any possible violations of the Tenth Commandment are between the Bishop, his confessor and God". (Sidenote: Church confessional booths are explicitly exempt from panopticon surveillance and carefully wired with anti-surveillance technology. Diadem Station law fully recognizes the priest-penitent privilege and the RCC hasn't loosened the religious strictures regarding the Seal of Confession one iota.) Also note: Entrance to the church requires appropriately modest clothing and respectfully polite attitude is mandatory. %%%%%%%% Diadem University This is Diadem Station's contribution and connection to Argonauts. It's charter was signed in AF 8. While smaller and far less famous than eg. Martian MIT, Anna's goal is to build it into a system-class institution of highest quality. The University facilities are officially leased to Argonaut Institute at break-even rate. Diadem U:s charter spells out a mandate for hard sciences and specifically prohibits "Derridean deconstruction, grievance studies and all forms of postmodernist wanking" while mandating "stringent intellectual rigor" aka. "It's not science, if you can't prove it." Anna takes interest in the actions of the Diadem U, but doesn't interfere. Diadem U also has a law school with specialty on interfacing disparate legal systems and legal theory. Diadem U also operates, with Anna's support, one of the "mirror servers" of the Argonaut library. %%%% Firewall Relations Anna became aware of Firewall's existence during a rather messy affair involving Diadem Free Bank and a TITAN-leftover network warfare virus. She helped to mop up the incident and put out quiet feelers, which eventually made connection. She hasn't officially joined due to her refusal of putting an alpha fork of herself to the hands of others, but supports the network financially, industrially (black production at local robofac) and by running a identity remixer at Diadem Rehab. The Local Firewall proxy is hiding in the plain sight as one of the Diadem U professors. Anna is aware of her and said proxy is one of the very few transhumans in the entire solar system with Princess Anna's "batphone" commcode. %%%% Diadem Rehab A Nonprofit "Princely Charity" with friendly rivalry to Long Haul (Rimward p.87), Diadem R handles rescued infugees along burnouts and left-behinds who couldn't quite hack the Extropia. It offers a full range of therapy options up to and including intensive psychosurgery, basic and remedial education, vocational counseling, etc. The Costs are recouped with a work-study period and the whole process is officially (and truthfully) operated on a nonprofit basis. With exception of reputation and goodwill gains, of course. While some anarchists call it "hypercorp indenture lite", anyone with experience on real hypercorp indenture calls this claim bullshit. The Applicant pool is large and many customers have waited for months or even years in dead storage for their turn. Due to the ethical issues involved the Diadem R is regularly audited by independent assurance companies from Extropia. -There is notable patient swapping between Diadem Rehab, Long Haul and Titan regarding patients with specific ideological worldviews. Note that all of the three parties absolutely *refuse* to ditch patients to the tender mercies of inner system soul markets... -While Diadem R is officially a nonprofit, it also offers recently graduated wetsurgeons and other professionals an opportunity to gain real and valuable hands-on experience along rep. -Diadem R is a notable exception on normal residency restrictions. Patients may apply for Diadem residence normally and those who are rejected (or do not want to stay for some reason or another) are released on Extropia or egocast to destination of their choice. -With Princess' support Firewall operates a identity remixer at Diadem Rehab, specializing in creating fresh new identities for egos that are eg. wanted by ozma. It should be noted that any records of such new identities are not archived after issuance and deleted, including memories of relevant personnel. %%%%%%%% Diadem Station Layout DS layout is bog-standard O'Neill cylinder: Alternating strips of habitable land and windows. The Strips are "imaginatively" named Alpha, Beta and Gamma while window strips are Delta, Epsilon and Zeta. These strips are subdivided lengthwise into 8 "segments", equally imaginatively named "One" to "Eight", counting up from frontal endcap to rear. These 24 "segments" (4x4.2 kilometers each), officially 48 but very few people are usually interested in window strip areas, are further subdivided into sixteen "sectors" (4x4 grids) of 1 km x 1.05 km each. These designations are grouped sequentially (eg. "Sector Beta-Six-Twelve" or "Segment Gamma-one"). Central spar is likewise divided into segments (Spar-1 to Spar-8). In fashion that's deliberately diametrically opposed to Locus, people regularly use this coordinate system, though several areas have acquired semi-official nicknames. There are support towers connecting habitat surface with central spar. There are 3 sets of 3 towers, at segments 2, 4 and 6. Note that the towers themselves are solid and transport elevator rails are located at the outer surface of the towers. The View from transparent-walled elevator cars is quite breathtaking. The Living area is a careful and artistic blend of urban structures and parks, reminiscent of Erato in Luna though stylistically far more unified thanks to Anna's absolute zoning authority. DS living space and ecosystems are designed in "Old European" style and flavor instead of Erato's chinese foundations. The Favourite tree that designers use in DS is a heritage Oak (Quercus petraea), though other trees are very much present. DS parkland is carefully manicured with aesthetically pleasing layouts. Inhabitants are encouraged to use the parkland for refreshment (old-school picnics are especially popular), but remember that littering or damaging the environment is real bad for your rep along being punishable by heavy fines. The "Underground layer" between outer surface and inner surface consists mainly of a forest of space frame supports. The Adjustable supports allow for habitat surface shape adjustments (hills, depressions for ponds and brooks, etc.). The Transport pod network and various maintenance routes also run here. %%%%%%%% Transportation The Backbone of local transportation are "transport pods", individually routed 4-seat maglev cars running mostly in underground layer. The Network of transport pod routes and discreet access points is comprehensive: You can find one within 200 meters of any point in habitat living area. The AI-controlled routing system guarantees service in 2 minutes or less from mesh summons and maximum travel time between 2 access points of 20 minutes. The Local transport pod network is held as a shining example of equal-opportunity estabilishment, used by everyone from lowliest vacworker to Anna herself. There are rumours that Anna maintains unlisted private terminals in various locations, something she declines to comment upon. Aircars are reserved for emergency response only. "Frivolous use" is punishable for anyone and everyone. Station also has a network of roads. "Robot rickshaws" and simple walking are common. People transports larger than 4 are rare and always exceptional due to aesthetic regulations. Bicycles are rare and considered "inelegant". Note that the environmental regulations absolutely prohibit internal combustion engines. %%%% Citizenship, Residency and Habitat Fee Residency on Diadem Station is tightly controlled and citizenship is granted solely *jus officii*. Only citizens can live on station permanently: Visitors and tourists are restricted to maximum of 3-months per year and the visa regimen is strictly enforced. Children with one or more citizen parents are granted "provisional citizenship" which is upgraded to full citizenship on majority, "conditional of good behaviour". Note that Diadem Law includes parental responsibility for children's actions. Anyone may apply for citizenship for a Trivial non-refundable fee, but all applicants are carefully screened and interviewed for personal-, medical- and credit history along publicly expressed political views and "sociological fit". The Screening is intended to filter out "undesirables" and the criteria for "undesirable" is only partially public and deliberately vague. Known categories of "undesirables" include chronically poor credit risks, space pirates, religious fanatics, "idiots", supporters of various totalitarian ideologies and "people we don't think would fit in Diadem society". Character references from current citizens (handled via social networks) are generally considered a plus when applying. After processing (1 week max), the citizenship is either approved, denied or denied with prejudice. Denied applicants can re-apply and the reasons for denial in these cases are explicitly spelled out with encouragement to re-apply after deficiencies in question are corrected. Note that sometimes denial can result from factors *outside* person's control. Someone denied with prejudice can't reapply and although the reasons are *usually* spelled out, this is not a requirement. In many cases the real reasons for their rejection remain a mystery. Firewall *suspects* that several cases have involved identified asyncs... Diadem Station has some of the tightest entrance checks in system, at least for public habitat. Prospective entries are carefully and thoroughly screened at tin-can quarantine station few hundred kilometers from habitat, which also functions as a transshipment point. Only dedicated transshipment shuttles are allowed to dock with station proper, a quarantine that's enforced with lethal measures. (Sidenote: WARNING, illegal entry attempts are treated extremely harshly. Usual punishment is a serious fine, expulsion and automatic permaban, but repeated offense or endangering the habitat bumps this to death penalty.) DS collects a pretty standard "habitat fee" (High cost) every month. Citizens and visitors must maintain a 3-month deposit and a shuttle ticket back to Extropia in escrow (accrued interest is paid back to resident). In lieu of money the habitat fee can be paid in form of corvée labor for Diadem Gardens, public works, maintenance and similar; this obligation averages between three and four days of labor per month. This is pretty similar to "Autonomist Lifestyle" except that helping the habitat is more formalized and centrally controlled. For temporary visitors the visa (which must be paid for) includes similar services as for the citizens. (eg. more temporary hotel-style lodging, more relaxed and limited medical insurance and requirements, etc.) Services that citizenship includes are somewhat more extensive than usual along qualifying as "High" lifestyle (Transhuman p.104): *Full lifesupport (air, oxygen, water, maker feedstock allowance, fabber budget etc.). Fresh food is extra, of course. *Very basic backup insurance. As long as your stack was recovered on station and there is no reason to suspect eg. TITAN corruption, you'll get resurrected as an infomorph in station mesh and can make your own arrangements from there. Note that losing your morph isn't an excuse against morph requirements for citizenship and you're strongly advised to get a more comprehensive backup insurance policy unless you want to risk being dumped as one of the clanking masses on Extropia. *Full medical insurance and free access to healing vats. Bio-, nano- and cyberware cost extra. Mandatory Skinlink, Nanophage- and Clean metabolism mods are included, along regular cosmetic biosculpts. *Full mental health coverage. Criticized by some of the scum and autonomists, Diadem Station has a rather stringent (though objective and fair) criteria regarding sanity and mental health treatment. People suffering from severe enough mental health problems are quietly shuffled to Diadem Rehab or leave for Extropia. *Basic living space, a 150 cubic meter "standard apartment" with full complement of dumb furniture, modular reconfiguration capability, domestic servitor, a decent maker connected to feedstock pipes, etc. Bigger apartments in fashionable districts, smart furniture, office space, etc. are extra. -One of the persistent local fashions is taste for humaniform servitors (AI-driven or hired), synth-masked or pod. They're identified from "real people" by defined-metastyle Maid- and Footman uniforms. Ayah-pods are also popular for this purpose. --AGI- or transhuman ego-controlled servants are also a popular but very expensive (you have to pay them competitive salary) status symbols. Think less of a semi-skilled mexican maid or average PC indenture and more of a highly-skilled english butler... A Twist in aforementioned meta-style allows easy distinguishing of sapient servants from nonsapient servitors. ---Note the linguistic distinction: Calling servant a servitor is a *major* insult known to produce on-the-spot resignations and serious bad rep. *Access to nanofab capability and indexed library of authenticated Open Source blueprints, ready to go. DS doesn't officially respect PC IP rights, but subtly discourages blatant piracy to keep PC protestations at manageable level along supporting the Argonaut Open Source blueprints and indexed collections of such. -Desktop cornucopias are available, but most people find it easier to order items from station's industrial robofac via mesh. Rapid automated delivery is guaranteed and far greater capabilities of the full industrial installation usually more than compensates. *Transport pod access. *Basic protection and arbitration policy, compatible with most Extropian legal systems. As usual, more comprehensive policies are available for extra cost. %%%% Agri-Stations The Habitat itself is classically surrounded by a ring of agri-stations, which are used mostly to grow luxury foodstuffs under Diadem Gardens brand: Varieties of Chili peppers, spices, hemp, berries, fruits, some cereals, chocolate, coffee, tea, etc. While few staples (maize, wheat, peas) are grown, the focus is on luxury products and staple foods are maker-produced. Part of the produce is distributed to station inhabitants as "sampling allowance", an unabashed marketing exercise to advertise the produce, most of which is sold commercially as luxuries both on-station and in The Noodle in Extropia. Note that as a deliberately policy to prevent outside-dominated futures market from forming, produce is sold only after harvest in auctions. (Sidenote: Diadem Gardens recently managed to acquire and revivify samples of genuine Granny Smith apples originally recovered by a sharp-thinking salvage operator from Earth. All citizens received one ripe apple as a sample from the first harvest while the rest of the crop was auctioned off for obscene prices on station and in Extropia. Grand finale of this "Granny Smith Coup" was Anna personally donating a handful of cloned seeds along growing tips to anarchist Verdant co-op at Kanigawa Farms, Locus, for a major boost of @-rep. After the first harvest had been auctioned off, of course...) %%%% Local Defense and Law Enforcement DS has a rotating external defense contract which is currently held by Gorgon Defense, whose Extropian defense fleet can arrive in few hours if necessary. Aside the defense contract the station has a number of killsats and AKVs patrolling the station halo along a rather spiffy laser defense grid that mainly gets use as anti-meteoroid defense. Military defenses are consolidated under Diadem Defense Forces. Internal defense consists of Diadem Guard, a company-sized unit of native military (mostly a praetorian guard) and Gendarmerie, which covers civil defense, police, fashion police and other related functions. Personnel numbers are classified, but generally total personnel count is estimated to run around 900-1100. Routine policing (run-of-the-mill crime, domestic disputes, drunken brawls, etc.) is handled by sharply-uniformed Fury- or Guard-morphed personnel and light weaponry. More serious problems are handled by a SWAT team of Reapers with heavier weaponry. The Gendarmerie deliberately cultivates an institutional culture of professionalism, courtesy, stiff upper lip and (most importantly) style; do not make the mistake of thinking them as soft. Note that even SWAT team or palace guard doesn't have "habitat breaker" armament and there is an explicit official policy to "shoot first and interrogate cortical stacks later" if habitat integrity is endangered or such endangerment is suspected. The Notorious "Fashion Police" operates mainly by watching public surveillance feeds and maintaining a "snitch line" on mesh. Note that in general the "fashion criminals" are let off with warning ("get back to your home and change your clothes") along advice on "proper dressing"; real penalties are reserved for particularly egregious and/or repeat offenders. %%%% Weaponry Regulations As usual, WMDs and weapons that could structurally endanger the habitat are unconditionally banned. Personal weaponry is allowed, but aesthetics regulations frown on public displays of weaponry outside certain paradigms (eg. Security in uniform). Concealed carry, on the other hand, is permitted and even encouraged along discreet augmentations like eelware and cyberclaws. %%%% Morphological restrictions and Morph Availability Local body banks are good and well-stocked. However... Diadem Station has a relatively limited selection of morphs available: All morphs must be humaniform and conform to the aesthetic regulations. Note that these regulations are mainly superficial and concerned with external appearances. Masked Steel Morphs, Masked Synths and Pods (without those otherwise-common "seams") are available. Arachnoids, slitheroids, swarmanoids or others non-humaniform morphs are not available outside specialist applications (eg. vacuum maintenance) and are restricted to maintenance parts of the habitat. As a deliberate policy to prevent the formation of "clanking masses" underclass, anyone sleeving into these at Diadem must also own a more "presentable" morph. Usually non-humaniform morphs are employer-issued tools and the worker ego sleeves in one temporarily while their "real" morphs are kept in dollhouse or rented out. Bouncers are allowed, but aesthetics regulations require appropriate shoes while not in zero-g sections. The Habitat has a nice microgravity zone at central spar, where bouncers are encouraged to "strut their stuff". Neotenics have a specific aesthetics code. If you can't handle kawaii, lollipops, frilly dresses, loli and sailor fuku / gakuran you should probably get something else. Rusters and other humaniform exotics are rarely available simply due to low demand. ("You can order one from Extropia or have one grown here, but it'll be expensive and time-consuming and the end results probably run afoul of the aesthetic regulations. Wouldn't you rather be interested in looking up our value selection of no-frills splicers?") Uplift morphs are simply not available. Note that uplifts willing to sleeve into aesthetics-regulation humaniform morphs *are* allowed and welcome. As a matter of policy, AGIs and Uplifts have full civil rights in habitat, though they're equally restricted with aesthetics as all others. There are pre-Independence Sterneisen corporate AGI:s with grandfathered "exceptional" status entirely outside the habitat civil rights jurisdiction. Their number is estimated to be less than ten. %%%% Cybernetics and augmentations Cybernetics and augmentations are available, *if* they are hidden. Bioware, with same caveat, is also common. Following augmentations are *mandatory*: Basic Biomods (for biomorphs), Basic Mesh Inserts, Cortical Stack, Medichines, Skinlink, Nanophages and (for biomorphs) Clean Metabolism. Sex Switch is available, but remember that hermaphrodite- and neuter modes along crossdressing tend to run afoul of the aesthetics regulations. If you have that angle covered (eg. smartcloth- or multiple sets of clothing), go ahead... %%%% Local Mesh and Infomorphs Local mesh is somewhat troublesome: Hardwired with wideband optic fibers, large number of wireless mesh stations and high-performance server farms that are indispensable for management and coordination of the station infrastructure and requisite armies of servitors. In short, it's something of a TITAN bait. Deciding that since mesh security is vulnerable anyway, most of the security is focused in external quarantine while interior security is much looser. Thanks to the outdated mesh infrastructure and external security focus, Anna has allowed several enclaves to utilize a rare, extremely vulnerable luxury that was nearly entirely lost in the Fall: A Fully-functional Utility-Fog based Angelnet infrastructure. This vulnerability has raised Firewall interest, but thus far Crows have admitted that native anti-TITAN- and safety protocols are exemplary, and that The Diadem Princess takes the problem sufficiently seriously. Nevertheless, there are several ready-to-go "sterilization contigencies" extant. %%%% Robotic servitors A Quirk of native culture is deep reliance on automated servitors and disapprobation of manual labor. A Domestic servitor is part of the habitat fee and vast majority has several more. Diadem Station culture disapproves of sapient manual labor, which is supposed to be handled by non-sapient AI servitors. Even leisure hobbies like working in your own garden is seen as dubious. Many anarchists decry the "deliberate dehumanization" of local taste for human-faced robotic servitors, claiming that the local citizenry are being "conditioned to see nothing wrong in ordering people around". Locals, on the other hand, consider the humaniform servitors a simple "aesthetic choice". %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%