The Grand Concourse

Extracts from the New Omnibus Mandaean Almagest and Dataset [NOMAD] 3172 CE


Grand Concourse, NOMAD 129.628.100.100, is the common name for the planetary system of Baarda's Star, a G-type main sequence star in the local group.  The system is notable for having six planets in the habitable zone, a circumstance likely made possible by the absence of Jupiter-sized planets in the sytem.  Today, the Concourse is the political and commercial hub of the Empire of Humanity, with influence spread over a thousand member systems.  From the bustling avenues and financial markets of the Novy Kyiv, to the embassies and chambers of the Parliament of Humanity in Pasargadae, one can encounter humanity in all its diversity.

The Grand Alliance exploratory vessel Challenger first visited the system, then known as Beta Canum Venaticorum, in 2112, just ten years after the invention of superluminal ghostdrives. The Alliance realized at once the value of a system just 27 lightyears from Old Home Earth with so many habitable planets.  They renamed the star Baarda's Star, in honor of Mareike Baarda whose work in theoretical physics made ghostships possible.  Human colonization began that same year with the settlement of New Arizona, the fifth planet in the system by distance from Baarda's star. 

A member of the Grand Alliance, the United States, made a claim of soverienty over the entire Concourse based on financing the expedition of the Challenger.  However, other members of the Grand Alliance contested this clam, and ultimately colonization rights were allocated to various members of the Alliance.  This resulted in dozens of different cultures from all over Old Home Earth settling in the Concourse, giving it the ethnic and linguistic diversity found nowhere else in known human space.

Grand Concourse, NOMAD 129.628.100.100.1, Xīn Zhōngguó, the first planet in the Grand Concourse as measured by distance from Baarda's star.  The capital is Fēngfù (Abundance in the native language). The current population is estimated 473 million people, and the primary language is Mandarin.  The primary industries include mining, heavy manufacuturing, and cybernetics. The planet is an net exporter of food to the rest of the concourse.  The planet was originally named New Florida by the first settlers, but was later renamed when it was allocated to China by the Grand Alliance.  A small ethnic enclave of 1.2 million inhabitants still speak a dialect of Inglish. 

Grand Concourse, NOMAD 129.628.100.100.2, Patrie, the second planet in the Grand Concourse as measured by distance from Baarda's  star.  The capital is Nouveau Marseille.  The current population is estimated at 256 million people, and the primary language is French.  The planet's extensive habitable lands have a temperate climate and as many as three growing seasons each year.  Unlike other planets in the Concourse, metal ores are in deep reserves that are difficult to mine, so the planet has instead focused on agriculture as its main commercial activity and is known as the breadbasket of the Concourse.  In addition, the main university, known as the Sorbonne for historical reasons, is renowned throughout the Empire of Humanity for it's biological and agricultural research. 

Grand Concourse, NOMAD 129.628.100.100.3 Baardalân, the third planet in the Grand Concourse as measured by distance from Baarda's  star.  Named for Mareike Baarda by the orignal expedition who regarded it as the primary location for colonization due to it's orbit placing it in the center of the habitable zone.  However, the main continents are clustered in the north polar region, and the planet has been locked in an Ice Age for at least the last hundred thousand years.  Today, the primary industry is tourism, primarily for winter sports, which supports a population of three million inhabitants. The planet is self-sufficient in food, and exports local delicacies like smelt and sardines.  The language is a diallect of Inglish, inherited from the orginal settlers who came from an area of the old United States known as New England.  The capital is in Bastin.

Grand Concourse, NOMAD 129.628.100.100.4, Nova Europa, the fourth planet in the Grand Concourse as measured by distance from Baarda's  star.  The capital is Centrum, and the current population is estimated to be 1.2 billion.  The planet was settled by various nationalities from the Eurpean Union on Old Home Earth, and includes over four dozen languages and even more cultures.  The common tongues are Inglish, French, and Deutsche, but significant minorites speak Italian, Ukrainian, Polish, and Catalan.  Nova Europa is the financial hub of the Empire of Humanity, with exchanges and banks located mostly in the Thesitee, but places like Dublin and Novy Kyiv also play central roles.  With over a billion inhabitants, the planet is the most populous in the human space. It has a diverse economy, including finance, banking, mining, manufacturing, and ghostship construction. The planet's robust agricultural industry exports grains, wines, and other food products. The planet is also a mecca for scholars and students from across human space, with private universities such as Oxford and Harvard being among the most elite in the Empire of Humanity.

Grand Concourse, NOMAD 129.628.100.100.5, New Arizona, the fitth planet in the Grand Concourse as measured by distance from Baarda's  star.  The capital is Pasargadae, which is also the adminstrative and political capital of the Empire of Humanity.  The current population is estimated 573 million people, and the primary language is Inglish, with substantial minorities speaking Arabic, Hindi, and Bantu.  Archaic English is still spoken in by less than half a million inhabitants of an isolated enclave in the Yellowstone Mountains and is officially an endangered language.  The current population is notable for its multiethnic character which results from early settlers arriving from such varied Old Earth locations as Africa, North America, and south Asia.  The primary industries include government, pharmacology, and medical technologies.  The planet is self-sufficient in food resources, and local cuisine is reknown for its use of spices.  Like Nova Europa, the planet is also known for scientific research, carried out at public universities like the Tata Institute, Unilagos, and Iowa (named for Old Earth counterparts) and in private entities, like the Emporer Gregor Academy in Pasargadae and the Jamieat Alqahira located in the delta of the Nyl Alnyl.

Grand Concourse, NOMAD 129.628.100.100.6, New Alaska (Dommièstèi}in the native Yakusian), is the sixth planet in the Grand Concourse as measured by distance from Baarda's  star.  The planet's distance from the star and it's axial tilt of 38 degrees make its climate the most challenging for human occupants of all the Concourse worlds.  Originally settled by immigrants from north Asia on Old Home Earth, the population during the height of the Grand Alliance never exceeded two million.  During the Great Disintegration, the population collapsed to fewer than ten thousand humans.  Today, the planet has over eighty thousand inhabitants.  The primary language is Yakusian, which appears to be a hybrid two languages originating on Old Home Earth, Yakut and Russian.  The primary economic activity involves automated mining of various ores and their export to the industrial worlds of the Concourse.  The government is organized as a Commune, with common ownership of planetary resources.  The capital is Başkent, but most of the population still lives in the small, self-sufficient nomadic groups that survived the Great Disintigration.