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| The
ES Encyclopedia supplies an ever-growing body of
short articles and descriptions of people, places and things that inhabit the
world of The Eylau Sequence. It is a great help to those wishing for a
better understanding of the background to current Eylau Sequence short stories
and gaming. If there is a favorite entry that you would like to see added,
please let us
know. |
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J
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Japan — Of the long difficult centuries just
past, the tale of the Japanese is probably the most extraordinary. They were
the only people who managed to evacuate their home planet en-masse when
planetary relocation became nearly impossible. And they did so in a manner
which would probably have been impossible had it been attempted by any other
nation.
Old Japan was one of the first few pre-glacial countries to
recognize the pending threat at face value and to take drastic action. Indeed,
their response was so robust as to be scarcely believable to anyone who didn't
know Japanese culture. The Japanese government implemented a series of staged
"decisions" which had actually been agreed upon in advance, the end result of
which guided the country through a spartan escape program which less than two
percent of the population could survive. In surprisingly traditional Japanese
fashion, a vast majority of the country enthusiastically supported the program
and went to work on the space stations at the expense of the entire national
economy and its inhabitants. Pre-glacial Japan literally destroyed itself in
order to place 80,000 lucky colonists into several huge space stations that
were eventually positioned at Lagrange Point Five via a series of construction
centers built at the L2 point, using the moon and earth orbit as staging areas.
Early completion of the stations allowed an extra 2,500 people to be evacuated.
The wisdom of this drastic course of action was reflected in numerous
ways. For one, Japan would have lost huge portions of their population anyway,
so their loss as part of a national effort resulted in less social disruption.
Also, because construction of the stations proceeded as the rest of the world
fell into disorder, Japan maintained a more stable technology base. The means
by which Japan managed the systematic starvation and death of a majority of its
population is better recorded elsewhere, but it can be noted that as food
supplies fell, those portions of the population least instrumental in the space
station work were cut out of the government food program which supplied nearly
100% of available food in the Japanese islands. Of those whose time had come,
most committed suicide but a few formed "starvation communes" where the dying
could spend their last days in relative calm.
Even before their
establishment at L5, the Japanese had embarked on another no less critical
venture. Unwilling to remain forever dependent on artificial gravity systems in
the depths of space, a vast majority of the population was placed on a course
of permanent adaptation to weightlessness. This is actually still underway, and
one notable difference between the Japanese and the rest of humanity is their
shorter lifespan of roughly 117 years and their different physique and
musculature.
Japan remains by far the most technologically advanced of
nations today, and their relations with other planetary powers are increasingly
tenuous. Only California is in any sort of regular contact with the Japanese,
although the Med States and Australia still maintain consular exchanges with
L5. |
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| Alexander Station — The primary military
installation in that the Med States has in earth orbit, little is known about
the station, which is typical for military facilities. |
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