A wiki for Chaos is Eternal.
Location: Sol☀️System
The Gas Cities of Jupiter and Saturn are massive, floating urban centers that mine the rich atmospheres of these gas giants for Fuel Gas, the primary energy source used across the Sol System. These cities hover high above the crushing pressures of the planets’ deeper atmospheres, sustained by powerful anti-gravity technology and nanotech. They are the leading exporters of Fuel Gas, a vital commodity used to power everything from nanotech machinery to spacecraft propulsion systems and even augmented individuals.
Fuel Gas Monopoly: The atmospheres of Jupiter and Saturn are composed of nearly pure Fuel Gas (though often in impure forms), which has made the Gas Cities on these planets the economic powerhouses of the system. Their dominance over the Fuel Gas trade makes them central to both energy production and nanotech-based economies.
Key Exporters: These cities supply Fuel Gas and Fuel Gel to the entire Sol System, with massive fleets of fuel tankers constantly transporting refined gas to stations, planets, and colonies across the system. Their economic power gives the ruling elites of these cities significant influence over interplanetary politics.
Augmented Workers’ Freedom: One interesting cultural paradox is that the augmented workers in these cities—who rely on Fuel Gas as a breathable substance and fuel source—actually have a form of freedom that the wealthy elite cannot experience. While the elite must wear heavy protective suits to survive outside the safety of their climate-controlled habitats, augmented individuals can simply wear goggles and dust masks, making the hazardous environment more livable for them.
Dystopian Life: Despite the economic power of the cities, life in the Gas Cities is often dystopian for the workers. These augmented individuals, though more resistant to the toxic atmosphere, are exploited for their labor in extracting and processing Fuel Gas. The cities themselves are ruled by corporate oligarchies or wealthy families, who live in luxury while the workers toil in dangerous conditions. There’s a stark class divide, where the augmented are essential to production but remain at the lower rungs of society.
Glider Races: For recreation, augmented individuals participate in thrilling activities such as riding gliders through the hazardous atmosphere outside the Gas Cities. They navigate the intense winds and dangerous currents, gliding between the towering structures that make up the cities. This experience is something the elite can never partake in, giving the augmented workers a sense of freedom and pride in their ability to survive and thrive in the dangerous conditions that others cannot.
Augmented Culture: The Gas Cities have developed their own subcultures around the augmented workers. Their ability to breathe Fuel Gas and survive the extreme atmospheric conditions makes them distinct from non-augmented individuals, fostering a culture of self-reliance, risk-taking, and community among the working class.
Jupiter’s Gas Cities are the largest and most economically powerful fuel-exporting centers in the system. These cities, suspended in the upper layers of the gas giant’s atmosphere, rely on immense anti-gravity platforms and thrusters to maintain their position. The vast Fuel Gas processing facilities onboard these cities refine the gas into Fuel Gel, which is then transported across the system.
Cityscape: The cities on Jupiter are sprawling, with massive refining stations, docking ports, and towers that stretch upward into the clouds. Workers here live in tightly packed quarters, with industrial facilities dominating much of the landscape.
Economic Power: The sheer volume of Fuel Gas extracted from Jupiter’s atmosphere has allowed the Gas Cities to wield enormous economic influence, giving them leverage over other planets that depend on their exports. This has made Jupiter’s cities a key player in system-wide politics.
Corporate Oligarchies: The ruling class of Jupiter’s cities consists of powerful corporations and their executives. These oligarchs live in luxury, isolated from the working class who extract and process the gas. Corporate warfare, both economic and physical, is common as companies compete for control over the most lucrative extraction zones.
Saturn’s Gas Cities, while smaller in scale compared to Jupiter’s, are known for their technological innovation and engineering marvels. These cities rely heavily on nanotech advancements to refine Fuel Gas more efficiently, making them a rival to Jupiter’s cities in terms of fuel production quality.
Cityscape: Saturn’s cities are considered more aesthetic than Jupiter’s, with sleek architectural designs and advanced nanotech facilities. The ruling elite of Saturn’s cities take pride in the appearance and efficiency of their floating urban centers, often boasting about their advancements in Fuel Gas refinement.
Fuel Gas Innovation: The Gas Cities of Saturn are pioneers in Fuel Gas refinement, developing new methods to create purer forms of Fuel Gas and Fuel Gel, which command higher prices on the market. Their cities are also home to some of the most advanced research into nanotech applications of Fuel Gas, making them centers of scientific progress.
Rivalry with Jupiter: While not as large or powerful as Jupiter’s cities, Saturn’s Gas Cities maintain a fierce rivalry with them, competing for market share and technological superiority. This rivalry often results in economic conflicts and technological races to control the Fuel Gas trade.
In both Jupiter and Saturn, the augmented workers form the backbone of these floating cities. Their reliance on Fuel Gas as breathable air sets them apart from other classes. For them, Fuel Gas is not just an energy source, but a way of life.
Fuel Gas as Survival: The augmented workers rely on Fuel Gas for survival, as their nanotech augmentations allow them to breathe the gas as if it were normal air. This biological enhancement has given them an advantage in the harsh conditions of the gas giants’ atmospheres, where non-augmented individuals must wear protective suits to avoid suffocation.
The Divide: Despite their essential role in the Gas Cities’ economies, the augmented remain part of the working class, laboring under dangerous conditions to extract the very fuel they depend on for survival. The elite live in well-protected areas of the cities, far removed from the harsh reality of the workers’ daily lives.
The savants of Lua (Earth’s moon) have recently discovered a method for synthesizing Fuel Gas using algae in water, which threatens to upend the dominance of the Gas Cities over the Fuel Gas trade. This new technology could allow planets and colonies to produce their own Fuel Gas, making them less reliant on the exports from Jupiter and Saturn’s Gas Cities.