Star: Theta Persei Type: F7V Luminosity: 2.82 x Sol Distance from Sol: 36.6 ly (2000 epoch) Companion: Theta Persei B. class M1V red dwarf 250AU distance Inhabited Planet: (Theta Persei III) Bourgatov Type: Eogaian terraformed to Eugaian
Formerly one of the most populous systems of the Inner Sphere, at its height home to 34 billion humans, splices and vecs. Became one of the most well known and cosmopolitan systems of the time, perhaps because of its early adoption of the Concord Ontology.
Politically Bourgatov was divided into a number of nations, which may have been the reason for the original blight. The Bourgatov blight was really a kind of evolving hunter-seeker virus that one faction (to this day nobody knows which, but everybody blames their favourite villains) tried to use to take over. It was intended to breach the security surrounding the system council and give them access, as well as wiping opposing AIs. But it got out of hand, assimilated and grew into a wildly unstable and malign software blight.
Eventually it suffered a hyperbolic Denebola collapse, but at that point much of the essential infrastructure was wrecked, backups eaten by nanoswarms, the nets crammed with junk signals and transapients either dead, corrupted or hiding. By now the nanoimmune systems were failing, and the ordinary goo was happily growing, and the the population had to abandon of the system. After a few centuries the blight seemed to have worked itself out. From a population of 34 billion, only 490 million survived, mostly refugees in the habitats surrounding the nearby gas giant Magnitogorsk.
For more details of the history of Bourgatov see here.
Although the region is still considered mostly uninhabitable, it is thinly populated by Radiation Nation tweaks, various scavengers and archaeologists. Remnants of the Bourgatov clan may still be found in exile in the Corona system; a thriving population of sophonts claiming descent from the inhabitants of this world can be found at New Magnitogorsk in the Middle Regions.
Denebola Collapse - Text by M. Alan Kazlev A type of hyperturing nanotech blight, as illustrated by the Denebola Incident.
Iota Persei - Text by Anders Sandberg Minor star Iota Persei is surrounded by an asteroid belt that came to be inhabited by refugees, many from the nearby system of Bourgatov. This belt, colloquially known as The Iota evolved from a squatter camp The waning economy led to emigration, which in turn hastened the decay. The last (known) inhabitants left in 9300.