The Shepherd's Trail, Part 1: New Jerusalem

 Posted on July 25, 2023  |   6 min  |   1250 words  |   DP9 Contributors

Hello, everyone! Today, we start off on our road to exploring New Jerusalem in preparation for their arrival in Heavy Gear Blitz and the Roleplaying Game. The way this is going to work is that each week for the foreseeable future I am going to post a bit about New Jerusalem’s history, peoples, geography, etc, so we can explore this new world together. We will also have a quick little story to go along with the lore of each one.

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Categories: background  Tags: Astronomy 101 

The Shepherd's Trail, Part 2: The Founding of the Church

 Posted on August 1, 2023  |   7 min  |   1410 words  |   DP9 Contributors

The history of the Jerusalemite faith dates to the beginning of the Second Ice Age. Officially starting in 2422, this ice age was the harshest in the geological record. Humanity’s population was devastated, and the results of the mass movement of people towards the equator would fundamentally change human society. Mass famine and conflict over the remaining accessible resources reduced the human population to 2.2 billion by the year 2850. This led to a rise in religious sentiment across all of humanity. Many found solace in the faiths of their ancestors. Nations which had generally pushed back against religious influence in government now found religion taking on a more central role in politics. In 2835. the nations dominated by ancient religions formed the Council of True Faith. Not everyone attached themselves to an existing faith, and new religions sprouted up during the ice age’s early centuries. Described as ‘doomsday cults’ by many, the truth is more nuanced. These new faiths tended to focus on the near apocalyptic nature of the ice age and humanity’s response to it. Some were offshoots of existing faiths which believed their prophesized doomsday had come and gone, while others focused more on the idea that a person is not promised a tomorrow. This latter group was comprised mainly of ultra-survivalists, ready and willing to do what must be done to survive. By the 29th century, these new faiths had become dominating forces in many nations. Three months after the Council of True Faith was declared, the Compact of Revelations was formed to counter it. 

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Categories: background  Tags: Theology 101 

The Shepherd's Trail, Part 3: Timekeeping

 Posted on August 2, 2023  |   4 min  |   656 words  |   DP9 Contributors

New Jerusalem orbits the start Nereus approximately every .97 Earth years. This single rotational cycle is called a year, which is divided into 375 days. These are broken into 12 months, each of 31 or 32 days. The months are Nisan, Iyyar, Sivan, Tammuz, Ax, Elul, Tishri, Marheshvan, Kislev, Tevet, Shivan, and Adar. The months of Tammuz, Marsheshvan and Adar each have 32 days and the rest have 31. Days are grouped together into 7-day weeks, and the names of the days are consistent with Earth’s. Seasons are approximately three months, with Nisan being the start of the northern hemisphere’s summer.

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Categories: background  Tags: Timekeeping 101 

The Shepherd's Trail, Part 4: Colonization

 Posted on August 8, 2023  |   5 min  |   1001 words  |   DP9 Contributors

The initial colonization of New Jerusalem was sparse, focused mostly on Church personnel with a goal of setting up habitation areas for future waves of colonists. Calling upon their relationships with various companies, the Church was able to negotiate large purchases of equipment and hardware to ship to the fledgling colony. Workshops were set up in orbit and on the surface to maintain and support the new infrastructure. Eventually negotiations led to actual production facilities on New Jerusalem, allowing the Church to independently sustain its colony.

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Categories: background  Tags: Theological Reentry 401 

The Shepherd's Trail, Part 5: The Economy

 Posted on August 9, 2023  |   5 min  |   880 words  |   DP9 Contributors

From an economic perspective, the Church determined early in its colony planning to focus on agriculture. New Jerusalem’s climate, with its fertile soil (compatible with all forms of Earth plant life after some modification) and massive network of rivers, made it an ideal farming colony. Vast fields of crops and herds of animals spread over the planet, with the occasional hub for the residents to turn in crops and products as well as receive services. These hubs would eventually form the core of the cities that would later dot the world. The Church maintained complete control of interplanetary trade. Anything that went off world or came to New Jerusalem was handled directly by the Church. Raw materials were collected, processed, packaged, and mostly shipped back to Earth or the other colonies. What was left was used to provide food to the population. Metals and other geological resources were also shipped off-world, but a larger portion were used to produce machinery, parts, and other critical equipment. The materials shipped out were sold, and the funds were used to bankroll new colonist waves and the purchase of materials that could not be produced locally.

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Categories: background  Tags: Economics 101 

Shepherds Path, Part 6: The Local Wildlife

 Posted on August 15, 2023  |   5 min  |   982 words  |   DP9 Contributors

New Jerusalem was home to a flourishing ecosystem upon discovery, although the nature of the wildlife took explorers by surprise. The most common form of native animals appeared analogous to Earth polychaete worms. They tend to have long, segmented bodies, with each segment having at least one set of appendages. Their heads contain an annular mouth with teeth composed of mineralized chitin. Though they are technically boneless, cartilage and collagen form an internal structure. For land animals this structure is usually ossified. The two largest classes of native wildlife are referred to as ‘Wyrms’ and ‘Maggots’.

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Categories: background  Tags: Xenobiology 301 

Shepherds Path, Part 7: Colonial Economics

 Posted on August 16, 2023  |   4 min  |   820 words  |   DP9 Contributors

New Jerusalem settled into what could be described as an agricultural technocracy. The colony was heavily focused on agriculture and food production. The standard of living, while comfortable, was missing many of the more advanced technologies seen on the other colonies. Farms, deep forest outposts, and other more rural establishments dominated the planet. The Church maintained a large degree of control over the industrial and urban areas, where it oversaw the processing and distribution of products and services. Church members with the rank of priest or other titles would go their entire career without leading a worship service, and instead would become managers and bureaucrats. 

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Categories: background  Tags: Agricultural Feudalism 301 

Shepherds Path, Part 8: Colonization

 Posted on August 22, 2023  |   5 min  |   1062 words  |   DP9 Contributors

For over 370 years, the people of New Jerusalem have carved out a life for themselves and their descendants on a new world. Events on a distant world many have never been to threaten all of that.

The colonization program was viewed by many on Earth as a solution to the resource scarcity that had loomed over humanity for many years. Offworld colonies would be able to harness the resources of new planets and send some of those resources back to Earth. While shipments from the colonies did arrive, exports to the colonies were needed for their continued survival. It is impossible to simply start a modern existence from nothing, and colonies would need long term support before they were fully independent. As the waning years of the 6th millennium wore on, social pressure turned into political pressure to address this support. Many on Earth began to view the colonies as resource pits which consumed more than they produced, or even as leeches and freeloaders. A low level of discontent eventually turned into political action which threatened to cut the colonies off from Earth.

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Categories: background  Tags: Negotiation 101 

Shepherds Path, Part 9: The Collapse

 Posted on August 23, 2023  |   6 min  |   1081 words  |   DP9 Contributors

The withdrawal of the gateship fleet and Concordat support was the result of a movement that had been building for some time. Despite this, many questioned how serious the movement’s leaders were, and how quickly they would cut off support if they did at all. The answer was unfortunately a quick removal almost immediately after taking political power. The Church attempted diplomacy to maintain contact. After all, New Jerusalem foodstuffs were being consumed on Earth, and the colony desperately needed the trade goods it got from Earth. In many people’s eyes there was no reason to cut off contact. As events moved closer and closer to a full abandonment of the colonies, the Pope personally went to Earth to discuss the situation and plead his case. During the following months, the isolationist policy took effect. The Pope did not return.

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Categories: background  Tags: History 201 

The Shepherd’s Path, Part 10: Exodus

 Posted on August 29, 2023  |   5 min  |   917 words  |   DP9 Contributors

As the Church began to dissolve, many of the middle-level members were torn on what to do. The upper-level leadership was embroiled in what looked to be the start of a religious civil war, while many laborers and workers were taking to the streets over various issues. Small groups began to form, which linked up to larger groups aiming to escape the coming devastation. These refugees needed a place to flee to, and to find that place they raided the Church archives. Using passcodes stolen from Church officials, they dug deep into the records of the Church. What they found was surprising and concerning. The Church had been hoarding much of the technology and equipment that it had acquired by selling Jerusalemite products to the rest of the Concordat. Scores of warehouses and depots full of advanced technology, medical supplies, and even weapons were scattered across the planet. Each warehouse was well hidden and had numerous layers of security to keep out the unwelcome. Later analysis would reveal even more irregularities in Church finance and other related areas. The refugees fleeing the collapse saw these places as safe havens and places where materials and resources could be acquired; things they would need to survive what they believed was coming. They downloaded as much as they could and deleted everything on the Church’s data servers. No one would be able to follow them.

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Categories: background  Tags: Bookkeeping 101