Welcome To Alflolol - Setting

Setting

The planet Alflolol, or Technorog as it is known by its human settlers, 28th century. Alflolol is a yellow/orange planet surrounded by a rocky asteroid belt. The planet has at least one ocean and a desert from which fierce sirocco winds blow across the surface. It rotates on its axis once every 60 Earth days. It has a single moon that rotates every 30 days.

The native Alflololians are few in number due to spontaneous birth control practices and are arranged in familial groups. Their life spans are very long compared with humans – approximately 25,000 Earth years. Each Alflololian is born with an individual paranormal gift, such as telepathy or telekinesis, which first begins to manifest during childhood at around 2,500 to 3,500 years old. When this happens the young Alflololian's name changes to include a description of the gift – e.g. Argol, He-Who-Has-The-Gift-Of-Speaking-In-Minds. It is an important right-of-passage for a young Alflololian male to hunt and kill one of the cruel Furutz that swim in the ocean. Although highly intelligent, Alflololians generally have little interest in wealth or material goods and even less interest in work. They are, however, curious about other cultures and periodically leave their homeworld, in spacecraft pulled from the soil of Alflolol by their ancestors, to visit other worlds. These journeys can often last for thousands of Earth years and usually the entire population leaves together leaving their homeworld deserted.

The human settlers from Earth have come to Alflolol, which they have named Technorog, attracted by the valuable natural resources it offers. To provide protection, they have placed huge electro-magnetic relay beacons on the asteroids in the belt that rings the planet. When activated these beacons generate an impenetrable shield around the planet. Ingress and egress is only permitted to authorised spacecraft through a narrow channel that can be opened in the asteroid belt. Alflolol's harsh atmospheric conditions are harmful to humans if exposure to them is prolonged so they live under domes and wear protective clothing when working outside. The domes also simulate an Earth-like cycle of day and night. The capital city they have constructed is called Technorogville and it lies on a hill on the ancestral burial site of Algol's family. Nearby is a forest, known as Ananil to the Alflololians, which leads to the shores of the sea, named Magnet Ocean by the humans, where the settlers use floating platforms to extract magnetic salts which fuel the ultra-light motors of Galaxity's spacecraft. In the surrounding mountains, gigantic mines extract rare metals which are processed and used in manufacturing in the colossal factories that lie on the plains near the desert. Great hydroponic plantations are required to feed the workers who keep this vast enterprise going. The planet is administered by a technocrat Governor who reports to a council representing the business interests on the planet.