Achelia

“They say that from the wind's first sigh
Achelia glistered in the sky,
But as greed grew and business flourished
Its natural riches were malnourished.
The brutal planet went to battle
For promises of wealth and chattel.
But this greed was soon elided;
Achelia - a world divided.”

• Achelia consisted of a solar system with one settled planet and an assortment of surrounding planetoids, asteroids and other celestial bodies not fit for long-term habitation.
• Before the war, Achelia was a corporate hellhole filled with sweatshops and greedy businesses.
• The Tungsten Roses allied with Kedalion to change that, executing a swift revolution against Klaycorp.
• Several years after the war, Kedalion exerts some control over Achelian affairs. Roses, among others, are making an effort to resist Kedalion industry.

It often comes as a surprise that Achelia didn't begin as a simple business venture; most people assume that the planet famed for its mineral wealth has always been a production base for the raw materials that power the Seven Systems. Originally, however, people settled for the planet's natural beauty and the captivating manner in which surface crystals shone in the darkness, making Achelia appear as a giant gemstone in the sky. It was only later, when the first settlements grew into a phase of heavy industry, that Achelia gained its reputation as a harsh, greedy planet. Once people realised that their planet's mineral wealth could be traded away for a profit, all bets were off - in a cutthroat dash to pick the world clean, corporations sprang up practically overnight. The successful stayed in power for centuries, whilst those who failed were destined to become Achelia's lower classes, toiling away in sweatshops for their former competitors.

By the time the Ananke Conference was held, Achelia was under the control of its moguls. A nominal government had been put in place; the so-called 'Regulators' acted as a diplomatic organisation and a trade watchdog, supposedly ensuring that Achelia's businesses would be protected whilst also giving its working class a tolerable living standard. To no-one's surprise, the group was corrupted. People soon stopped asking if government officials were on a corporate payroll, and instead started wondering which corporate payroll they were on. With vast wealth disparity now the planetary norm, the downtrodden needed someone to turn to - and that salvation came in the form of the Tungsten Roses. Initially a grassroots artistic movement, young sculptors, architects and metalworkers banded together to try and bring creativity back to Achelia, by combining the brutalist style of the planet's mass accommodations with the vibrant colours of idealised planets like Kybele. For the Roses, the Ananke Conference was an opportunity to show to the Seven Systems that Achelia was no longer merely one vast factory.

After the conference, the Roses really came into their own. A deal made with Kedalion gave them an edge over Klaycorp in exchange for some concessions over industrial rights. Although the revolution was fairly bloody, it was also quick, and peace and prosperity settled over the planet. However, before too long Kedalion began exerting more control. Initially this was just over Achelian industry, but there has also been a push to promote Kedalian culture and values – and an equal push back from large sections of Achelian society, in part due to the trend of psYber glasses spurring people’s valuation of nature.

Internally, there has been a great deal of strife over the past 20 years. The Tungsten Roses, formerly just an artistic movement, banded together to make a concerted and organised effort towards resisting corporate control, and after a few years, they even managed to gain majority control of the planet, vastly improving the quality of life for the average Achelian.

However, while the Roses had some help from the Kybele Blue Carnation house, their triumph was largely due to Kedalion support, and in exchange Kedalion corporations were allowed to set up shop in all of the former Klaycorp factories. This also led to far greater cultural integration between the two planets, though it is notable that the Kedalian Enhanced technology did not catch on so much in Achelia, in part due to the common availability of psYber glasses.

Tension between the natives of Achelia, in particular the Tungsten Roses, and Kedalion have risen in recent years as Kedalion corporate control grows. While living conditions are significantly better than they were previously, many are concerned about a potential return to Achelia’s corporate past. Even those who trust that Kedalian automation will protect people’s general wellbeing see the mechanisation as stifling creativity and personal freedom.

Shortly after defeating Klaycorp, the Tungsten Roses began to distribute psYber branded glasses. These glasses share many qualities with the psYberware that forms part of the Enhanced technology, with the key difference that it can be switched off simply by removing the glasses.

The glasses have several effects, but the major one is the application of an artistic ‘filter’ to the way their wearers see the world. This filter shows the world in brighter, almost psychedelic colours, bringing beauty to the ordinary world and, in particular, the natural world. This has led not only to a boom in artistic creativity, but also to an increase in environmental awareness on the planet, with people banding together and uniting to try and find ways to reverse the pollution caused by the heavy industry on the previous centuries.

The newfound environmental awareness has, however, only led to an increase in tensions as care for the environment does not fall within the Kedalian way of operating. The Tungsten Roses have led a few strikes on Kedalion factories - mostly taking the form of industrial action and suspiciously convenient industrial accidents in the most offending sites.

Achelia is less divided than it has been in centuries, but that does not mean its people are a unified mass. The division now lies most starkly between those who stick to the Tungsten values of creativity and freedom, and those who prefer the ease and comfort of Kedalian optimisation. A significant proportion of the population work in factories and mines, though generally as overseers to the sea of machines that waves across the planet’s surface. In addition to this, Kedalion has established several 'embassies' and 'security centres' on the surface of Achelia, to encourage co-operation from the general population.

That isn’t to say that the Achelians have been subdued, however: industrial skirmishes, always a feature of corporate life, have been growing into a larger movement headed by the Tungsten Roses, who have only grown in power and influence. Many of them are now based in beautifully formed asteroids and moons, away from the watchful eyes of the Optis, from which they send out regular broadcasts and instructions.

Achelia is also home to a growing community of Kedalian expatriates who wanted to avoid the increasing integration of human and machine happening on their homeworld.