Uranus | Eldrich Host

Once thought of as gas giants like Saturn and Jupiter, Uranus and Neptune differ from the larger planets in that they contain large amounts of water ice, methane, and ammonia and have rocky cores at their centers. This region of the system is sparsely populated. Uranus orbits at a distance 10 AU beyond the orbit of Saturn, 20 times the distance of the Earth from the sun.

Uranus, the coldest planet in the solar system, is a blue-green sphere of ice and gas. Seen from afar, it is virtually featureless compared to Saturn and Jupiter, but up close subtle cloud formations and a tenuous ring system may be observed. Probably due to a collision with an Earth-sized world when the solar system was young, Uranus rotates on its side, such that one pole faces the sun for 42 years at a stretch, and its moons orbit at a sharp angle to the solar ecliptic.

At the time of Eclipse Phase, Uranus’s south pole is experiencing its mid-spring, during which thick methane clouds darken the polar atmosphere. It may be the unusual tilt of its axis and the accompanying strange seasonal weather that give rise to the unconfirmed rumor that the alien traders called the Factors have created a settlement hidden in Uranus’s atmosphere.

Habitat Chat Noir

Located on Oberon, this is the Uranian system’s primary long haul spaceport, with a permanent population of 8,000. Chat Noir has fairly advanced ego- casting, resleeving, and manufacturing facilities for a frontier outpost and is operated by several collectives of anarchists. The reason for all of the infrastructure is the Fissure Gate, the only Pandora gate in anarchist hands (despite several Planetary Consortium expeditions to wrest control of it).

Body Titania and Oberon

Uranus’s two largest moons are sparsely populated, with only about 10,000 transhumans living on each body. Most stations are mixed dome and beehive settlements and range from hypercorp communications and research outposts to autonomist freeholds. The pair are more chemically complex than most moons in the outer system, consisting of about 30% rock, 20% methane and similar carbonaceous ices, and 50% water. Titania is home to a spectacular canyon that rivals the Martian Valles Marineris.

Habitat Xiphos

One of two major strongholds of the ultimates, Xiphos is a Hamilton cylinder orbiting in the Uranian ring system. Though most of the tech underlying Hamilton cylinders is open source, the station’s frighteningly efficient weapon systems are not. Rumor has it the ultimates traded some major favors to Gorgon Defense Systems in the process of building this station. Where Aspis, the ultimates’ inner system habitat, is a relatively open place, used by the ultimates for contact with potential mercenary clients, Xiphos is off limits to anyone not of this faction.