Goldbluff
Star Type: G4V
Charge Time: 185 hours
Transit Time: 7.96 days
Position in System: 4th
Diameter: 10,000 km
Gravity: 1.1
Day Length: 27 hours
Satellites: 1
Atmospheric Pressure: Standard
Atmospheric Composition: Breathable
Surface Water: 50%
Equatorial Temperature: 26 C
Highest Native Life: Fish
Population: 110,000,000
Government: Parliamentary Oligarchy (Parnassus), Communist Dictatorship (Minerva), Confederacy (Ryerson)
HPG Class: none
Recharge Stations: none
USILR Classification:
Technological Sophistication: B
Industrial Sophistication: B
Industrial Output: B
Agricultural Dependence: B
Raw Material Dependence: B
Had it been located within the boundaries of the Inner Sphere, Goldbluff would have likely been considered a "garden world", one of the jewels of humanity, supremely well suited to colonization, rich with resources and lacking none of the natural hazards so common on the worlds mankind had found since leaving Terra. Instead, Goldbluff was a victim of its own isolation, lying roughly seven hundred light years from Terra in the coreward end of the Orion Rift, a region of space famous for its lack of habitable worlds.
Though flagged by early surveys as an ideal colonization site, its isolation from the inner sphere left it ignored until the early 25th century, when it came to the attention of a radical European organization calling itself the Minerva Collective. A constant political thorn in the side of the old Terran Alliance, and branded a terrorist organization by the Hegemony that followed, the Collective believed that this world would be an ideal home to build their planned utopia and plan for the ultimate downfall of the Hegemony. Acquiring transports and supplies (possibly with covert aid from the Hegemony itself, which was eager to see them gone), the Collective's supporters set out into the periphery, establishing their first colony in 2431 and proclaiming the formation of the People's Union of Minerva.
Of course, thoughts of Utopia and bringing down the Hegemony quickly crumbled against the day to day hardships of actually colonizing a new world. Though their new world was an ideal colony site, the new colonists had never really understood what was involved in surviving on even such an idyllic planet. Harsh policies put in place to husband scarce resources and maintain order over the unruly population led to institutionalized authoritarianism. Even as the colony struggled through the difficult early period and became fully self sustaining, the dictatorial Central Committee maintained its power. Dreams of spreading the "revolution" back to the worlds they left behind likewise faded, the teachings of early leaders rewritten to change a message of revolution to one of escaping from the corruption of the rest of mankind.
Though the People's Union imposed a policy of complete isolation over their world, this was largely for show (and may have been more intended to obfuscate that few ships would ever come to the planet). The Union had no actual ability to prevent ships from visiting the world, having few weapons and no spacecraft of their own. Instead, the Central Committee established exclusive control over offworld trade, passing the word along with the few ships that came through. In order to maintain their monopoly, the Committee paid those traders that came in gold, often at an extremely generous rate of exchange to ensure that they would not seek other deals among the populace. This worked well for nearly two centuries, and greatly enriched the Central Committee's individual members, however it also carried the seeds of their downfall.
These traders brought tales of a planet rich with gold (so rich as to give up large amounts for relative pittances) back to the Inner Sphere and near periphery. Hearing tales of "whole hills of gold, there for the taking", prospectors flocked to the world (now tagged "Goldbluff" on League charts) during the early Star League era. The first few groups were quickly rebuffed by the Central Committee, however the groups that followed, and the ships that brought them, quickly realized they didn't actually need the Committee's permission, and hundreds of illegal mining settlements began springing up all across the largely uninhabited Ryreson mountain range.
Though the tales of mountains of gold for the taking quickly proved even more exaggerated than first thought (with the name Goldbluff soon considered to be a joke), these mines still quickly proved profitable, producing a wide variety of metals and other minerals, and gradually spawning growing, self sufficient settlements around them. The Central Committee first chose to ignore the settlements, however, as they grew, began interacting with the Union's citizens, and flagrantly disregarded the Committee's authority, the Committee declared a state of emergency, conscripted an army, and went to war against the invaders. Though the Union had the advantage of population, the miners had access to far superior weapons and technology, as well as superior knowledge of the mountains they had claimed as their homes. Fifteen years of bloody conflict resulted in tens of thousands of dead (mostly on the Union side), the formation of the Ryreson Confederacy, and the downfall of the Union's Central Committee.
Though peace would be reached between the two sides, this would prove only temporary. The People's Congress that replaced the Union's Central Committee ultimately proved just as authoritarian and corrupt, and the Ryreson Confederacy quickly proved unstable and unwilling to negotiate. Several more wars would be fought between the two sides over the next two hundred years, resulting in few substantive gains by either side and little change in the planetary situation.
In the middle of this situation came a third group of colonists in the early 29th century, the majority of whom appeared to be fleeing the beginnings of the First Succession War. This group endeavored to avoid conflict with either of the powers already on Goldbluff, settling in the uninhabited southern end of the world's sole continent and requesting peacefull coexistence. Instead, they were met with hostility from both the Union and the Confederacy. Only their possession of a handful of battlemechs and a force of tanks allowed them to ward off the initial onslaught and establish themselves, organizing the nation of Parnassus.
For centuries since then, the nations of Goldbluff have been in an ever fluctuating state of war. Occasionally, one state will ally with another against their common enemy, though this rarely lasts long before any alliance breaks down. The People's Union of Minerva remains the most populous and theoretically most powerful of the states, though it is mired by corruption that keeps it from attaining a dominant position. The Ryreson Confederacy possesses great mineral wealth, as well as the inherent defensive advantages of their mountainous homeland, but they are relatively few in number, and lack unity due to their weak central government and independent nature. The Parnassus Republic until recently lay somewhere between the two states in power, perhaps most distinguished by their bitter resentment towards their neighbors and their belief in their own moral superiority. The balance of power between the three states had lasted for centuries, and might have lasted for centuries more if not for outside forces.
In 3105, word reached the Inner Sphere that Goldbluff, particularly the Parnassus Republic, had come under attack by the Rasalhague Dominion. Ghost Bear forces, composed of second line or Solahma troops, decimated Parnassus' conventional armies and seized control of the nation's major population centers for several weeks, casually fending off probing attacks from Ryreson and Minerva during the interim. The ensuing guerrilla war against the Dominion occupation inflicted considerable damage on the occupiers, and was met with almost casual brutality (more typical of the old Smoke Jaguars than the Ghost Bears) in response. After conducting extensive genetic surveys of the local population, the Dominion departed, having never explained why they had attacked the planet or what they were looking for. They left Parnassus devastated in their wake, and the Republic's neighbors wasted no time in claiming many of their outlying territories. In the decades since, Parnassus has struggled to endure, and it is only the ongoing conflict between Minerva and Ryreson that has kept either of these states from completely overrunning the country.
Gamemaster's Section:
Characters from Goldbluff may be generated as standard Independent: Generic characters, save that they have no domestic access to battlemechs, aerospace units, or battle armor.
Centuries of conflict and shifting alliances have resulted in a fairly uniform technological base among the three states. In the current era, each state relies on the Scorpion tank for their standard heavy combat vehicle, producing several variants based on it. APCs and an analogue to the Ferret are also commonly available. These troops are supplemented by large numbers of infantry (foot, motorized, or mechanized) equipped with fairly basic (tech level C) ballistic or missile weapons. The standard large military formation used by the three states is the Brigade, which is composed of five or more companies of troops. Dozens of brigades can be found onworld, though only a fraction contain significant armored forces (even so, there are nearly a thousand scorpion tanks or variants in service among the three states).
Though the planet lacks space-capable forces, each state maintains a large number of turbine-powered conventional fighters. Of these, the 25 ton skyracer operated by Parnassus is fairly typical. Also, though there are no operable battlemechs on planet, the Ryreson Confederacy manufacturers a small number of industrialmechs, and has assembled a handful of companies of their Digger combatmech.
Before the Ghost Bear attack on the planet, there was a clear balance of power, with Minerva fielding the largest military, Parnassus having the best equipped troops, and Ryreson having the advantage of training and terrain. Since the attack, however, much of Parnassus' former territory is now hotly contested by all three states with no sign of stabilizing. Both Ryreson and Minerva have been forced to expand well beyond their normal reach to keep the other from taking the same land, while the shattered remains of Parnassus' military has resorted to guerrilla warfare to try to drive the others out.
The Ghost Bear force that attacked the planet is known as the Oathkeeper cluster. Originally organized as an independent, watch affiliated unit before the original Clan invasion, the unit's purpose was to scout ahead of the main invasion force in search of signs of the lost Clan Wolverine, and at the time was an elite, hand picked unit. Years of finding nothing at all has gradually eroded their reputation, and their best warriors and equipment were gradually shifted back to the Inner Sphere and replaced with the dregs of the dregs of the Ghost Bear touman. By the time of the attack on Goldbluff, the unit was considered barely worthy of the Solahma moniker, and was kept in service purely as a dumping ground for those not even worthy of dying in battle. Years of neglect has created a bitter, heavy handed spirit among the unit's members, accounting for their brutality during the attack on Goldbluff, which was not atypical of their conduct while conducting their "investigations."
The Oathkeepers were drawn to Goldbluff by rumors that the third colonization (which resulted in the founding of Parnassus) included members of the Minnesota Tribe, however, they found no trace of Wolverine genes among the locals. A portion of the third colonization's refugees apparently did not come from the Inner Sphere with the rest, however IE's research suggests they may have actually come from the nearby world of New Sierra, which had fallen into a global nuclear war at about the same time. However, neither hypothesis has been confirmed or disproven.
