BY LETTER
Titawin Xenological Garden
under construction
Its heavily re-engineered planetary system contains seven gas giant planets, some natural and some artificial. Each of the six innermost giant planets have four terrestrial moons, plus a further two co-orbital planets at their trojan points, giving a total of 36 artificial terrestrial worlds.
By default, the worlds are airless terrestrials with caches of frozen volatiles. When one is selected for habitation, it is modified to provide a suitable environment for the inhabitants. Mass is removed or added to vary the surface gravity, an atmosphere is synthesized, and the surface temperature is fine-tuned by the addition of greenhouse gases. When additional material is needed, it can be taken from the other unused worlds; conversely, if there is surplus material, it can be stored on them.
The outermost gas giant planet, Majriti, is surrounded by an orbiting megastructure composed of 15,700 linked McKendree cylinders. In many ways, the Majriti habitat band is the true heart of Titawin, with a larger surface area and a greater population than all the inner worlds combined. Much of the surface area is devoted to recreations of garden world ecosystems, while the remainder contains a variety of inhabited regions where dozens of different environments are marbled together.
Official Xenological Garden policy dictates that every xenosophont species discovered by Terragens should have a suitably-remodelled world offered to it, though in practice the reality has turned out to be considerably more complicated. There are presently six categories of world: Unused, Xenosophont, Xenoprovolve, Wilderness (containing examples of garden world ecosystems rather than sophont populations), Reserved (for xenosophonts who have not responded to an invitation to join Titawin), and Unused. Additionally, there are some worlds that fall outside these categories, such as Ardun, which is inhabited by baseline and nearbaseline humans.
Indeed, Titawin is known as a polity of compromises and contradictions. Its original core goal, to include members of every xenosophont species so far discovered, has not been met, and in all likelihood never will be. Nor, following the discovery of Hildemar's Knots, has it even been able to fulfill the lesser goal of having a suitable planet reserved for every discovered xenosophont.
The xenosophont native cultures recreated on each planet will never be fully accurate due to the use of modern Terragen medical and communications technology, and are often dismissed as caricatures by more hardline authenticists. There is an ongoing and frequently acrimonious debate about which xenoprovolves should be offered one of the limited number of terrestrial worlds — a topic which has become even more fraught with the appearance of the sophont-free Wilderness category. Long term plans about how to continue once all 36 terrestrial worlds have been used remain unresolved, although there is a general consensus that the Wilderness worlds will have to be repurposed and their ecosystems moved to the Majriti habitat band.
While Titawin is sometimes considered to be affiliated with the Caretaker Gods, its status is in fact much more ambiguous. No explicit transapient rule has been observed in the system, and while motions to declare formal Caretaker allegiance have been frequently proposed, they have always been defeated. In rare cases, individual Caretakers have granted detailed ecosystem templates to the Xenological Garden when petitioned, but the significance of this is unknown.
First are the quasi-native cultures of the inner worlds. These planets contain multiple recreations of the appropriate pre-contact cultures. Often there are several significant examples from various points in a species' history, existing together anachronistically. For this reason, and because of access to Terragen medical, transport and communications technology, these are far from perfect recreations, and it is a matter if ongoing debate how far a society can reasonably stray from the original. Xenoprovolve-inhabited worlds naturally have no significant pre-contact culture to re-create, but instead tend to emulate the culture that arose immediately post-provolution.
Second are the ecumenical cultures of the Majriti band. These are more complex multispecies cultures, closer to the Terragen norm, yet still distinctive for being composed primarily of xenosophonts and xenoprovolves. There remains a strong tendency for authenticism, and most of the inhabitants retain their original forms. Consequently, the cities in the Majriti band are often complex affairs, with high pressure and low pressure, aquatic and terrestrial, high temperature and low temperature environments all marbled together in buildings.
Third are the Terragen visitor cultures. Like many systems in the Inner Sphere, Titawin Xenological Garden is a major tourist destination. Many visitors remain for long periods of time, living beside and interacting with the local inhabitants, forming an ephemeral, constantly-shifting culture of their own.
Finally, these strands come together to form Titawin's overall culture, which is distinguished by its strong authenticist streak, its autonomy, and above all, its vigorous politics of lively discussion, disagreement, and unending compromise.
System-wide issues, such as tourism, visitor restrictions, and particularly allocation of unused worlds, are handled by a complex mix of direct democracy and sortition (selection of decision-makers by lot). Proposals that gain enough support on the local net may be put to a plebiscite, while interest-based policy groups are formed by random selection of citizens, serving for terms as little as a day or as great as a decade.
The system-wide political scene is known for being particularly vigorous and fractious. The archives of past debates, full of acrimonious disagreement and even more acrimonious agreement, are considered interesting reading elsewhere in the Terragen Sphere, and witnessing live debates is almost as much of a tourist attraction as interacting with xenosophonts.
The original great disagreement in Titawin's political history, and the only one which resolved with a clear winner, was between the Generationists and the Authenticists. The former wanted to generate entirely new sophonts and ecologies, recreating newly-discovered xenosophonts as soon as their biology was well-understood. The latter wanted to invite existing xenosophont populations to live in the Garden, and avoid recreating examples of any who didn't respond to that invitation.
Ultimately, the Authenticists won, though this was perhaps less due to the strength of their position than the fact that xenosophont bodies could be recreated, virtually or physically, anywhere in the Terragen Sphere. The majority of the most devout Generationists left to pursue such opportunities, and the rest accepted the policy of invitation.
Since then, many different factions and political axes have emerged, none of which have been resolved so cleanly. Some of the more notable positions include:
-Cultural-Authenticist, which supports living in traditional xenosophont cultures, vs Creolisationist, which supports living syncretic cultures derived from various xenosophont and Terragen influences. These two positions exist in relative harmony, with the former focusing on the inner worlds and the latter focusing on the Majriti band.
-Reserve-Completionist, which supports the original policy of reserving a world for every discovered xenosophont, vs Reserve-Pragmatist, which adopts a more flexible position based on how likely given xenosophonts are to respond. The most recent success of Reserve-Pragmatists was to prevent a separate world being reserved for the Wayfarers.
-The NatEvo Bloc, which argues that the primary goal of the Xenological Garden should be to provide worlds for naturally evolved sophonts. Presapientist NatEvo favours the inclusion of xenoprovolves derived from presapient species, while Sapientist NatEvo only supports species that have evolved sophonce naturally.
-Wilderness-Inclusionist, which supports placing notable ecosystems on the inner worlds. Its failures vastly outnumber its successes, and yet those few successes have had a large impact on the the Xenological Garden, leading to the creation of a Wilderness category for worlds such as Micrystis and Empire of Tides.
-Menomorph-Authenticist vs Rheomorph-Authenticist. The latter is a more flexible interpretation of the old Authenticism, and has successfully argued for allowing Menexenes (who could not have arrived any other way) to engenerate into Titawin. It also supports the inclusion of xenosophont-derived uploads, and is arguing for the creation of a virtual environment to support Hildermar's Knots.
-Autonomist, which supports the old ideal of Titawin Xenological Garden as an independent polity, governed "by xenosophonts for xenosophonts", vs Terragenist, which sees Titawin primarily as part of or derived from Terragen civilisation.
-Sortitionist vs Plebiscitist, a division between those favouring one method of system governance over the other.
In 3090, the Titawin Whales began an ambitious project to reshape the system, moving the original gas giant planets further from the star with mass streams and mining them for materials to make terrestrial planets in order to construct a Raymond Rosette, a configuration expected to be stable over geological time periods.
Construction continued until 4300, at which point Saffar, Samh, Jayyani, Zarqali, plus their terrestrial moons and co-orbiting planets, were in place. At this point, the project faltered as the culture of the Titawin Whales shifted. The majority of the inhabitants uploaded and soon after fell into the hedonic sink, enjoying a solipsistic existence of maximal bliss in a moon brain orbiting Upsilon Andromedae B, Titawin's distant red dwarf companion. They remain in such a state to this day, now known as the Titawin Sunk.
A number of small polities derived from Haloists colonised Titawin, and remained for the next few centuries, doing little to change the new planetary arrangement.
Discovery of the To'ul'h in 3831 and the subsequent appearance of Smoking Mirror in 4645 led to a reversal in Titawin's fortunes. A combination of statistical models and telescopic evidence suggested that Terragen civilisation would ultimately encounter other xenosophonts, and the idea to house them all in one place was proposed several times on the Known Net. Only one such plan survived long enough to have any effect, ultimately leading to the creation of the Xenological Garden Foundation in 4902.
The Foundation, itself having Semperist sympathies, found Titawin, with its many terrestrial worlds organised into a stable configuration, to be the ideal site. It issued an invitation to the To'ul'h and started Tohuliforming of the outermost moon of Saffar in 4980. While most of the Spacer To'ul'h had little interest, there were a few groups sufficiently nostalgic over the loss of their homeworld to respond to the invitation.
Paternalism inherent in the project soon led to tension between these To'ul'h groups and the foundation itself. Ultimately, after many discussions, the Foundation ceded control of its operations to the To'ul'h inhabitants, leading to the autonomist principle of governance "by xenosophonts for xenosophonts" that remains to this day.
Titawin Xenological Garden, as it now styled itself, began placing more terrestrial worlds around Aflah and Kammad, anticipating the need for colder environments.
Discovery of the Silent Ones in 6392, a species that evidently would never respond to any invitation, led to the great Authenticist-Generationist debates, which soon resolved in favour of the Authenticists.
The disappointment of having the second xenosophonts discovered refuse to join the Xenological Garden did, however, lead to a loosening of policy in other areas, with the result that the first xenoprovolves — Pspyders — were invited to join in 6500. The Xenological Garden request for a wormhole link in 6800 was granted in 7002.
First contact with Cthonids and Pipers, with members of both species settling in Titawin, led to a resurgence in the Garden's fortunes. Between 8000 and 9000, multiple xenosophonts and xenoprovolves joined, political issues became complex, and Titawin Xenological Garden took on its current form.
Saffar Mass: 0.8 * Jupiter
The original innermost planet, now much reduced in size and moved to a more distant orbit.
Saffar-i: New Natfaire
Xenoprovolve category. An ignean world, subject to significant tidal heating. The surface is covered with extensive lava flows, which are inhabited by Cherufes, Rheolithoid xenoprovolves.
Saffar-ii Presently unused.
Saffar-iii: New Scaramouche
Xenosophont category. New Scaramouche was reserved for the Riposte in 10270, when contact was announced on the Known Net. Ecoforming is near completion, and a group of 812 engenerated Riposte from the Circumplanetary Culture have been living in a pressure dome on the surface since 10380.
Saffar-iv: New Tohul
Xenosophont category. A little under half the To'ul'h population lives in rural environments, with an anachronistic mix between contact-era To'ul'h polyculture and recreations of earlier historical forms, though the majority of farmers also have access to fabricated foods to supplement their crops. Hundreds of cliff and ravine cities and thousands of smaller towns live in comfortable balance with their rural hinterlands. A small fraction of the population live in a recreation of the old skywhaler cultures, albeit under a more carefully managed system of resource usage.
Skyships and railways serve as the main system of medium-distance transport, but a network of vacuum-maglev subways covers the world and interfaces seamlessly with skyhooks and the orbital ring network.
L4: Drawn in Sulphur Wilderness category. Drawn in Sulphur holds a recreation of the Thiogenic biosphere of Liushan along with recreations of Thiogen ruins found in the Terragen Sphere. The visitor centre has multiple neogenic clades demonstrating how the Thiogens themselves may have looked.
L5 Presently unused
Samh Mass: 0.9 * Jupiter
The remains of an original gas giant planet, now much smaller in size and moved to a more distant orbit.
Samh-i: New Iridule
Xenosophont category. Inhabited by Pipers. The planetary ocean holds many aquatic cities. Most of the inhabitants use contact-era Piper technology, with ocean-current powered manufacturing, underwater ropeways, and a simple acoustic internet connecting fluidic logic computers. More advanced computronium, medicine, and high-speed transport via skyhooks and orbital rings, however, are available to all inhabitants.
With the native Piper culture on Iridule all but erased by its contact with Keterism, Titawin has become the default home for Authenticist Pipers, and holds on the largest populations of Pipers in the Terragen Sphere.
Samh-ii: New Alpha
Xenosophont category. Inhabited by the three subspecies of Limner. Some of the inhabitants live in primitive neolithic villages subsisting on aquaculture, though they have access to advanced medical technology and food production should they need it. The others live in hightech arcologies and cities modelled after those found on the Limner-A world. A significant population also lives in Limner-designed space habitats orbiting the moon.
Samh-iii
Reserved category. Reserved for the Meistersingers since 9290. An invitation has been issued, though there is no serious expectation of a response. Presently the world has been minimally ecoformed to mimic the temperatures and pressure in Meistersinger ships, but no ecology is in place.
As of 10350, the world has also been reserved for the Wayfarers, on the reasoning that the two species are seen in association and that it would be a waste to reserve two worlds when neither species is likely to accept the invitation.
Samh-iv
Presently unused.
L4
Reserved category. Reserved for the Silent Ones since 6400. There has been no response to the invitation.
L5
Presently unused.
Orbit 3
1.1 AU
Jayyani
Mass: 0.9 * Jupiter
An artificial gas giant using mass extracted from Samh.
Also, xenosophont category. Inhabited by Menexenes. Following first contact in 8862, the metallic hydrogen layer was Menexenoformed to have the appropriate pressure, temperature, levels of helium and neon, and magnetic fields. It currently holds a full MHD ecosystem. The inhabitants live in a complex social system of communities and guilds, buffered by an anti-militia. An energy/food net, telecommunications net, and global circulatory system all cover the mantle, and MHD engenerators allow the inhabitants to enter and leave.
Jayyani-i: New Seedworld
Xenosophont category. Inhabited by Jeepers. Being recent arrivals, the Jeeper community is small and has a relatively small datasphere. Aioids in the local infrastructure interface with the Jeepers to ensure their psychological wellbeing. Most of the surface is covered by cybernetic wilderness, with the Jeepers inhabiting a small section of the equator. While there is an orbital ring system, most transport to and from the surface uses native cybyotan fusion pulse craft.
Jayyani-ii: New Paula
Reserved category. Reserved for the Paulans since 5880. Several landlocked oceans have been created on the surface. Discussions with Metasoft to allow contact with the Paulans so an invitation can be issued have been stalled for over a millennium.
Jayyani-iii: New Gogandhu
Xenosophont category. Inhabited by Cthonids, and the oldest xenosophont world after New Tohul. Thousands of subterranean city-buildings are scattered across the surface, and several small space habitats are in low orbit.
The Cthonids responded enthusiastically to the invitation, seeing Titawin as a useful and safe outpost. Several nations sent colonists, initially causing some conflict over land rights, but this has long since settled down. The inhabitants are one of the more politically active groups in Titawin, but almost never vote as a bloc, with different communities taking different sides on most matters.
While visitors are allowed, they must declare their itineraries several days in advance, with deviations being forbidden.
Jayyani-iv: Ardun
Xenosophont category. Inhabited by baseline and nearbaseline humans.
Each of the four continents is modeled after a different period in Earth's development: The paleolithic/neolithic transition, the bronze/iron age transition, the early interplanetary age, and late Solsys golden age. All inhabitants have access to medical technology should they need it, and every continent has access to space elevators connected to an orbital ring network.
The creation of Ardun in 7700 was one of the most controversial decisions in Titawin's history. The final vote barely passed, due to a collaboration between the NatEvo Bloc, who noted that pure baseline humans were in a tiny minority among Terragens, and a rebel group of traditional autonomists who argued that "xenosophont" should be defined reciprocally, classifying humans as xenosophonts from the perspective of many of Titawin's inhabitants.
L4: New Kammerer
Reserved category. Reserved for Kammerer. The Caretaker protecting Kammerer has declined to respond to requests for access. While there is no expectation of the situation changing, several invitations have been issued on the Known Net, asking for Joker Leaf-ant colonists. None have answered so far.
L5: New Trees
Xenoprovolve category. Inhabited by provolved Pspyders, and the oldest inhabited world after New Tohul.
Skywrack forests cover most of the surface. Rural communities cultivate the locals trees. Elsewhere, there are cities in the form of sculpted spires; the spires serve as a substrate for the Pspyder webs and hold piped utilities and communication infrastructure.
Orbit 4
1.5 AU
Zarqali
Mass: 0.9 * Jupiter
A gas giant formed from material extracted from Samh.
Zarqali-i: Empire of Tides
Wilderness category. Modelled after Duxed. It has analogous extreme tides and extensive vermiform fauna.
Zarqali-ii: Micrystis
Wilderness category. Modelled after Macrystis.
Zarqali-iii: Could've Been
Wilderness category. Modelled after Tawattaran. Several complexes on the surface contain reconstructions of the nest-cities of the extinct Thyresta. There is an ongoing debate about whether to provolve the Thyresta Minor species as inhabitants.
Zarquali iv: New Chorus
Xenoprovolve category. Inhabited by Jade Chime Singers. New Chorus was reserved for the Jade Chime Singers in 8920 after a long sapientist-presapientist debate. While the Jade Chime Singers were invited immediately, several centuries passed before the first arrivals began to trickle in. Since 9600, a small but steadily growing community of Jade Chime Singers, along with some Faber reprogroups, has lived on New Chorus. It occupies two small regions around skyhook connections, each of which consist of a network of small villages linked by canals and railways.
L4
Presently unused.
L5: Drawn in Chlorine
Wilderness category. An example of a halogenic biosphere, modelled after Tytalus.
There has been some debate about whether to retain the current ecology since the Jade Chime Singers moved to New Chorus. Currently, the position is to retain it unless and until the space is needed by another candidate, in which case the current ecosystem will be moved to the Majriti band.
Orbit 5
4 AU
Aflah
Mass: 0.9 * Jupiter
A gas giant formed from material extracted from Samh.
Aflah-i: New Tannhauser
Xenoprovolve category. Inhabited by Walking Mountain provolves and modeled after Tannhauser. A shallow hydrocarbon sea covers large tracts of the surface, with the Mountains slowly migrating across it. Though slow, the mountains are quite talkative, and hold continual communal discussions across thousands of kilometres using subsonic sound waves.
Aflah-ii: New Samael
Reserved category. Reserved for the Samaelians. An invitation has been issued, but as yet there has been no response. New Samael is currently in the process of being ecoformed, though the demand for molybdenum is making the process slower than usual.
Aflah-iii: New Urqual
Xenosophont category. Inhabited by Soft Ones. The surface is composed primarily of ice sheets, overlaying an ocean composed of a eutectic mixture of ammonia and water. Many small independent towns are scattered across the ice, but there is little other significant infrastructure. Scheduled animal-hauled sleds are the primary form of surface transport. Skyhooks connect several places on the equator to an orbital ring system, but the settlements at their base are not significantly larger than elsewhere.
New Urqual had been reserved since 8380, but there was no expectation that the Soft Ones would answer the invitation. It was not until 10010 that several communities of Soft Ones, for reasons of their own, perhaps linked to the Epp War, migrated to Titawin. The inhabitants rarely participate in politics, usually only stepping in as a moderating influence, but they appear to be busily acquiring information about the other sophonts in Titawin, archiving it, and passing this information to the rest of Soft One civilisation.
L4: Echo of Oil
Wilderness category. Modelled after Uwa Mmanu.
L5: Nightflower
Xenoprovolve category. Inhabited by Lignosagittae. The inhabitants of Nightflower derive from the small number of Provolved Gnosags who did travel to the Lyra Ring Nebula. The surface of Nightflower is entirely ice, but the subsurface ocean holds many aquatic cities, with vacuum tubes anchored to the ice's underside.
Orbit 6
8 AU
Kammad
Mass: 2.6 * Jupiter
A gas giant formed from material extracted from Samh.
Wilderness category. Modelled after Ruach, with an aqueous-ammonia bisosphere in the upper atmosphere, and a supercritical hydrogen biosphere below it. Most of the planet is off-limits for habitation, but a community of Mirrored Owls occupy a north temperate band.
Kammad-i
Present unused.
Kammad-ii="
Presently unused."
Kammad-iii:= "New Muuhhome
Reserved category. Reserved for the Muuh since 8100. While some Muuh have replied to the invitation with appreciative and garrulous commentary, none have yet migrated to Titawin."
L4="
Presently unused."
L5=
"Presently unused."
Orbit 6="
14 AU"
Majriti=
Mass: ="15 * Jupiter
The original third planet, supplemented by mass extracted from Samh and moved to a much more distant orbit. Majriti is the primary population centre for non-authenticist xenosophonts and non-xenosophonts.
Conversion reactors in the lower atmosphere generate energy and transmit it to the megascale structure above.
A band of computronium encircles the planet orbiting at a radius of 1.2 million km. The band is 3 km thick and 2000 km wide, with a total volume of 22.6 * 10^9 km^3. This hosts the local archailect infrastructure.
A habitat band, composed of 15,700 McKendree cylinders connected in parallel, encircles the planet, orbiting at a radius of 5 million km. Each cylinder rotates at the same speed as, but in the opposite direction to, its two neighbours. The floors of neighbouring cylinders are in direct contact, and transport cabins can move directly from one cylinder to the next through the floor at the point of contact. This structure means all the main cylinders have the same surface acceleration of 0.8g. However, every cylinder contains a smaller cylinder, 500km in diameter, which rotates at a different speed to create a different surface acceleration.
The Majriti habitat band contains a large variety of different environments. Some cylinders contain a single environment, other contain multiple intertwined environments separated by air walls. Half of the habitat band holds a cosmopolitan multi-clade environment, though even here xenosophonts and their derived clades form a majority of the population. The other half of the habitat band contains recreations of the biospheres from additional garden worlds in the Terragen sphere."
]]
Titawin - Data Panel | |
| Current planetary system: | The original system has been extensively modified into a variant of the Raymond Rosette configuration. The three original planets were moved to more distant orbits, and an additional four gas giant planets (Jayyani, Zarqali, Aflah, and Kammad) have been constructed using material from Saffar and Samh. Heavier elements mined from the gas giants and the star were used to construct a total of 36 terrestrial worlds: Each of the innermost six gas giants have four terrestrial moons, plus two further terrestrial planets sharing their orbit at the trojan points. |
|---|---|
| Population: | 200 billion embodied |
| Population breakdown: | Xenosophont: 54% -Riposte: 1% -To'ul'h: 12% -Piper: 9% -Limner: 7% -Menexene: 8% -Jeeper: 1% -Cthonid: 9% -Soft One: 5% Xenoprovolve: 14% -Cherufe (provolved rheolithoid): 4% -Pspyder: 6% -Jade Chimer Singer: 1% -Gnosag: 3% Nearbaseline human: 4% Baseline human: 2% Xenotweak: 4% Tweak: 4% Other biont: 8% Vec: 6% Other: 4% |
| Travel: | Stargate: Connected, 1-1-72 Beamlines: 16 Lightways: 29 Internal: A standard mass beam network connects all the worlds of Titawin, with maximum transport times on the order of days. Most of the sophont-inhabited worlds have orbital rings with skyhooks, and vacuum maglev tubes on the surface. |
Overview
Titawin Xenological Garden is known firstly for its high population of xenosophonts, and secondly for its rich diversity of cultures unified only by vigorous and fractious democratic politics.Its heavily re-engineered planetary system contains seven gas giant planets, some natural and some artificial. Each of the six innermost giant planets have four terrestrial moons, plus a further two co-orbital planets at their trojan points, giving a total of 36 artificial terrestrial worlds.
By default, the worlds are airless terrestrials with caches of frozen volatiles. When one is selected for habitation, it is modified to provide a suitable environment for the inhabitants. Mass is removed or added to vary the surface gravity, an atmosphere is synthesized, and the surface temperature is fine-tuned by the addition of greenhouse gases. When additional material is needed, it can be taken from the other unused worlds; conversely, if there is surplus material, it can be stored on them.
The outermost gas giant planet, Majriti, is surrounded by an orbiting megastructure composed of 15,700 linked McKendree cylinders. In many ways, the Majriti habitat band is the true heart of Titawin, with a larger surface area and a greater population than all the inner worlds combined. Much of the surface area is devoted to recreations of garden world ecosystems, while the remainder contains a variety of inhabited regions where dozens of different environments are marbled together.
Official Xenological Garden policy dictates that every xenosophont species discovered by Terragens should have a suitably-remodelled world offered to it, though in practice the reality has turned out to be considerably more complicated. There are presently six categories of world: Unused, Xenosophont, Xenoprovolve, Wilderness (containing examples of garden world ecosystems rather than sophont populations), Reserved (for xenosophonts who have not responded to an invitation to join Titawin), and Unused. Additionally, there are some worlds that fall outside these categories, such as Ardun, which is inhabited by baseline and nearbaseline humans.
Indeed, Titawin is known as a polity of compromises and contradictions. Its original core goal, to include members of every xenosophont species so far discovered, has not been met, and in all likelihood never will be. Nor, following the discovery of Hildemar's Knots, has it even been able to fulfill the lesser goal of having a suitable planet reserved for every discovered xenosophont.
The xenosophont native cultures recreated on each planet will never be fully accurate due to the use of modern Terragen medical and communications technology, and are often dismissed as caricatures by more hardline authenticists. There is an ongoing and frequently acrimonious debate about which xenoprovolves should be offered one of the limited number of terrestrial worlds — a topic which has become even more fraught with the appearance of the sophont-free Wilderness category. Long term plans about how to continue once all 36 terrestrial worlds have been used remain unresolved, although there is a general consensus that the Wilderness worlds will have to be repurposed and their ecosystems moved to the Majriti habitat band.
While Titawin is sometimes considered to be affiliated with the Caretaker Gods, its status is in fact much more ambiguous. No explicit transapient rule has been observed in the system, and while motions to declare formal Caretaker allegiance have been frequently proposed, they have always been defeated. In rare cases, individual Caretakers have granted detailed ecosystem templates to the Xenological Garden when petitioned, but the significance of this is unknown.
Culture
Titawin has a highly diverse civilization, in which there are several key strands:First are the quasi-native cultures of the inner worlds. These planets contain multiple recreations of the appropriate pre-contact cultures. Often there are several significant examples from various points in a species' history, existing together anachronistically. For this reason, and because of access to Terragen medical, transport and communications technology, these are far from perfect recreations, and it is a matter if ongoing debate how far a society can reasonably stray from the original. Xenoprovolve-inhabited worlds naturally have no significant pre-contact culture to re-create, but instead tend to emulate the culture that arose immediately post-provolution.
Second are the ecumenical cultures of the Majriti band. These are more complex multispecies cultures, closer to the Terragen norm, yet still distinctive for being composed primarily of xenosophonts and xenoprovolves. There remains a strong tendency for authenticism, and most of the inhabitants retain their original forms. Consequently, the cities in the Majriti band are often complex affairs, with high pressure and low pressure, aquatic and terrestrial, high temperature and low temperature environments all marbled together in buildings.
Third are the Terragen visitor cultures. Like many systems in the Inner Sphere, Titawin Xenological Garden is a major tourist destination. Many visitors remain for long periods of time, living beside and interacting with the local inhabitants, forming an ephemeral, constantly-shifting culture of their own.
Finally, these strands come together to form Titawin's overall culture, which is distinguished by its strong authenticist streak, its autonomy, and above all, its vigorous politics of lively discussion, disagreement, and unending compromise.
Politics
Titawin is a self-governed, federal modosophont polity without direct transapient oversight. Each sophont-inhabited world retains primary control over its internal politics and domestic policy, as do each of the cylinders in the Majriti band.System-wide issues, such as tourism, visitor restrictions, and particularly allocation of unused worlds, are handled by a complex mix of direct democracy and sortition (selection of decision-makers by lot). Proposals that gain enough support on the local net may be put to a plebiscite, while interest-based policy groups are formed by random selection of citizens, serving for terms as little as a day or as great as a decade.
The system-wide political scene is known for being particularly vigorous and fractious. The archives of past debates, full of acrimonious disagreement and even more acrimonious agreement, are considered interesting reading elsewhere in the Terragen Sphere, and witnessing live debates is almost as much of a tourist attraction as interacting with xenosophonts.
The original great disagreement in Titawin's political history, and the only one which resolved with a clear winner, was between the Generationists and the Authenticists. The former wanted to generate entirely new sophonts and ecologies, recreating newly-discovered xenosophonts as soon as their biology was well-understood. The latter wanted to invite existing xenosophont populations to live in the Garden, and avoid recreating examples of any who didn't respond to that invitation.
Ultimately, the Authenticists won, though this was perhaps less due to the strength of their position than the fact that xenosophont bodies could be recreated, virtually or physically, anywhere in the Terragen Sphere. The majority of the most devout Generationists left to pursue such opportunities, and the rest accepted the policy of invitation.
Since then, many different factions and political axes have emerged, none of which have been resolved so cleanly. Some of the more notable positions include:
-Cultural-Authenticist, which supports living in traditional xenosophont cultures, vs Creolisationist, which supports living syncretic cultures derived from various xenosophont and Terragen influences. These two positions exist in relative harmony, with the former focusing on the inner worlds and the latter focusing on the Majriti band.
-Reserve-Completionist, which supports the original policy of reserving a world for every discovered xenosophont, vs Reserve-Pragmatist, which adopts a more flexible position based on how likely given xenosophonts are to respond. The most recent success of Reserve-Pragmatists was to prevent a separate world being reserved for the Wayfarers.
-The NatEvo Bloc, which argues that the primary goal of the Xenological Garden should be to provide worlds for naturally evolved sophonts. Presapientist NatEvo favours the inclusion of xenoprovolves derived from presapient species, while Sapientist NatEvo only supports species that have evolved sophonce naturally.
-Wilderness-Inclusionist, which supports placing notable ecosystems on the inner worlds. Its failures vastly outnumber its successes, and yet those few successes have had a large impact on the the Xenological Garden, leading to the creation of a Wilderness category for worlds such as Micrystis and Empire of Tides.
-Menomorph-Authenticist vs Rheomorph-Authenticist. The latter is a more flexible interpretation of the old Authenticism, and has successfully argued for allowing Menexenes (who could not have arrived any other way) to engenerate into Titawin. It also supports the inclusion of xenosophont-derived uploads, and is arguing for the creation of a virtual environment to support Hildermar's Knots.
-Autonomist, which supports the old ideal of Titawin Xenological Garden as an independent polity, governed "by xenosophonts for xenosophonts", vs Terragenist, which sees Titawin primarily as part of or derived from Terragen civilisation.
-Sortitionist vs Plebiscitist, a division between those favouring one method of system governance over the other.
History
Titawin was first colonised in 1340AT by a group of Gaian Whales. Little is known about the resultant inward-looking culture, save that it experienced a significant growth period in the 1500s, building many hundreds of spherical oceanic habitats and, judging by its intermittent requests for information, adopted a Semperist belief system by the early 2100s.In 3090, the Titawin Whales began an ambitious project to reshape the system, moving the original gas giant planets further from the star with mass streams and mining them for materials to make terrestrial planets in order to construct a Raymond Rosette, a configuration expected to be stable over geological time periods.
Construction continued until 4300, at which point Saffar, Samh, Jayyani, Zarqali, plus their terrestrial moons and co-orbiting planets, were in place. At this point, the project faltered as the culture of the Titawin Whales shifted. The majority of the inhabitants uploaded and soon after fell into the hedonic sink, enjoying a solipsistic existence of maximal bliss in a moon brain orbiting Upsilon Andromedae B, Titawin's distant red dwarf companion. They remain in such a state to this day, now known as the Titawin Sunk.
A number of small polities derived from Haloists colonised Titawin, and remained for the next few centuries, doing little to change the new planetary arrangement.
Discovery of the To'ul'h in 3831 and the subsequent appearance of Smoking Mirror in 4645 led to a reversal in Titawin's fortunes. A combination of statistical models and telescopic evidence suggested that Terragen civilisation would ultimately encounter other xenosophonts, and the idea to house them all in one place was proposed several times on the Known Net. Only one such plan survived long enough to have any effect, ultimately leading to the creation of the Xenological Garden Foundation in 4902.
The Foundation, itself having Semperist sympathies, found Titawin, with its many terrestrial worlds organised into a stable configuration, to be the ideal site. It issued an invitation to the To'ul'h and started Tohuliforming of the outermost moon of Saffar in 4980. While most of the Spacer To'ul'h had little interest, there were a few groups sufficiently nostalgic over the loss of their homeworld to respond to the invitation.
Paternalism inherent in the project soon led to tension between these To'ul'h groups and the foundation itself. Ultimately, after many discussions, the Foundation ceded control of its operations to the To'ul'h inhabitants, leading to the autonomist principle of governance "by xenosophonts for xenosophonts" that remains to this day.
Titawin Xenological Garden, as it now styled itself, began placing more terrestrial worlds around Aflah and Kammad, anticipating the need for colder environments.
Discovery of the Silent Ones in 6392, a species that evidently would never respond to any invitation, led to the great Authenticist-Generationist debates, which soon resolved in favour of the Authenticists.
The disappointment of having the second xenosophonts discovered refuse to join the Xenological Garden did, however, lead to a loosening of policy in other areas, with the result that the first xenoprovolves — Pspyders — were invited to join in 6500. The Xenological Garden request for a wormhole link in 6800 was granted in 7002.
First contact with Cthonids and Pipers, with members of both species settling in Titawin, led to a resurgence in the Garden's fortunes. Between 8000 and 9000, multiple xenosophonts and xenoprovolves joined, political issues became complex, and Titawin Xenological Garden took on its current form.
The Worlds of Titawin Xenological Garden
Titawin has a total of 7 gas giants and 36 terrestrial worlds. These can be listed by orbit: Orbits 1-6 each contain a gas giant orbited by four terrestrial moons, plus two terrestrial planets orbiting at the trojan points. Orbit 7 contains only a gas giant, Majriti, which is surrounded by a habitable megastructure.Orbit 1
0.4 AUSaffar Mass: 0.8 * Jupiter
The original innermost planet, now much reduced in size and moved to a more distant orbit.
Saffar-i: New Natfaire
Xenoprovolve category. An ignean world, subject to significant tidal heating. The surface is covered with extensive lava flows, which are inhabited by Cherufes, Rheolithoid xenoprovolves.
Saffar-ii Presently unused.
Saffar-iii: New Scaramouche
Xenosophont category. New Scaramouche was reserved for the Riposte in 10270, when contact was announced on the Known Net. Ecoforming is near completion, and a group of 812 engenerated Riposte from the Circumplanetary Culture have been living in a pressure dome on the surface since 10380.
Saffar-iv: New Tohul
Xenosophont category. A little under half the To'ul'h population lives in rural environments, with an anachronistic mix between contact-era To'ul'h polyculture and recreations of earlier historical forms, though the majority of farmers also have access to fabricated foods to supplement their crops. Hundreds of cliff and ravine cities and thousands of smaller towns live in comfortable balance with their rural hinterlands. A small fraction of the population live in a recreation of the old skywhaler cultures, albeit under a more carefully managed system of resource usage.
Skyships and railways serve as the main system of medium-distance transport, but a network of vacuum-maglev subways covers the world and interfaces seamlessly with skyhooks and the orbital ring network.
L4: Drawn in Sulphur Wilderness category. Drawn in Sulphur holds a recreation of the Thiogenic biosphere of Liushan along with recreations of Thiogen ruins found in the Terragen Sphere. The visitor centre has multiple neogenic clades demonstrating how the Thiogens themselves may have looked.
L5 Presently unused
Orbit 2
0.7 AUSamh Mass: 0.9 * Jupiter
The remains of an original gas giant planet, now much smaller in size and moved to a more distant orbit.
Samh-i: New Iridule
Xenosophont category. Inhabited by Pipers. The planetary ocean holds many aquatic cities. Most of the inhabitants use contact-era Piper technology, with ocean-current powered manufacturing, underwater ropeways, and a simple acoustic internet connecting fluidic logic computers. More advanced computronium, medicine, and high-speed transport via skyhooks and orbital rings, however, are available to all inhabitants.
With the native Piper culture on Iridule all but erased by its contact with Keterism, Titawin has become the default home for Authenticist Pipers, and holds on the largest populations of Pipers in the Terragen Sphere.
Samh-ii: New Alpha
Xenosophont category. Inhabited by the three subspecies of Limner. Some of the inhabitants live in primitive neolithic villages subsisting on aquaculture, though they have access to advanced medical technology and food production should they need it. The others live in hightech arcologies and cities modelled after those found on the Limner-A world. A significant population also lives in Limner-designed space habitats orbiting the moon.
Samh-iii
Reserved category. Reserved for the Meistersingers since 9290. An invitation has been issued, though there is no serious expectation of a response. Presently the world has been minimally ecoformed to mimic the temperatures and pressure in Meistersinger ships, but no ecology is in place.
As of 10350, the world has also been reserved for the Wayfarers, on the reasoning that the two species are seen in association and that it would be a waste to reserve two worlds when neither species is likely to accept the invitation.
Samh-iv
Presently unused.
L4
Reserved category. Reserved for the Silent Ones since 6400. There has been no response to the invitation.
L5
Presently unused.
Orbit 3
1.1 AU
Jayyani
Mass: 0.9 * Jupiter
An artificial gas giant using mass extracted from Samh.
Also, xenosophont category. Inhabited by Menexenes. Following first contact in 8862, the metallic hydrogen layer was Menexenoformed to have the appropriate pressure, temperature, levels of helium and neon, and magnetic fields. It currently holds a full MHD ecosystem. The inhabitants live in a complex social system of communities and guilds, buffered by an anti-militia. An energy/food net, telecommunications net, and global circulatory system all cover the mantle, and MHD engenerators allow the inhabitants to enter and leave.
Jayyani-i: New Seedworld
Xenosophont category. Inhabited by Jeepers. Being recent arrivals, the Jeeper community is small and has a relatively small datasphere. Aioids in the local infrastructure interface with the Jeepers to ensure their psychological wellbeing. Most of the surface is covered by cybernetic wilderness, with the Jeepers inhabiting a small section of the equator. While there is an orbital ring system, most transport to and from the surface uses native cybyotan fusion pulse craft.
Jayyani-ii: New Paula
Reserved category. Reserved for the Paulans since 5880. Several landlocked oceans have been created on the surface. Discussions with Metasoft to allow contact with the Paulans so an invitation can be issued have been stalled for over a millennium.
Jayyani-iii: New Gogandhu
Xenosophont category. Inhabited by Cthonids, and the oldest xenosophont world after New Tohul. Thousands of subterranean city-buildings are scattered across the surface, and several small space habitats are in low orbit.
The Cthonids responded enthusiastically to the invitation, seeing Titawin as a useful and safe outpost. Several nations sent colonists, initially causing some conflict over land rights, but this has long since settled down. The inhabitants are one of the more politically active groups in Titawin, but almost never vote as a bloc, with different communities taking different sides on most matters.
While visitors are allowed, they must declare their itineraries several days in advance, with deviations being forbidden.
Jayyani-iv: Ardun
Xenosophont category. Inhabited by baseline and nearbaseline humans.
Each of the four continents is modeled after a different period in Earth's development: The paleolithic/neolithic transition, the bronze/iron age transition, the early interplanetary age, and late Solsys golden age. All inhabitants have access to medical technology should they need it, and every continent has access to space elevators connected to an orbital ring network.
The creation of Ardun in 7700 was one of the most controversial decisions in Titawin's history. The final vote barely passed, due to a collaboration between the NatEvo Bloc, who noted that pure baseline humans were in a tiny minority among Terragens, and a rebel group of traditional autonomists who argued that "xenosophont" should be defined reciprocally, classifying humans as xenosophonts from the perspective of many of Titawin's inhabitants.
L4: New Kammerer
Reserved category. Reserved for Kammerer. The Caretaker protecting Kammerer has declined to respond to requests for access. While there is no expectation of the situation changing, several invitations have been issued on the Known Net, asking for Joker Leaf-ant colonists. None have answered so far.
L5: New Trees
Xenoprovolve category. Inhabited by provolved Pspyders, and the oldest inhabited world after New Tohul.
Skywrack forests cover most of the surface. Rural communities cultivate the locals trees. Elsewhere, there are cities in the form of sculpted spires; the spires serve as a substrate for the Pspyder webs and hold piped utilities and communication infrastructure.
Orbit 4
1.5 AU
Zarqali
Mass: 0.9 * Jupiter
A gas giant formed from material extracted from Samh.
Zarqali-i: Empire of Tides
Wilderness category. Modelled after Duxed. It has analogous extreme tides and extensive vermiform fauna.
Zarqali-ii: Micrystis
Wilderness category. Modelled after Macrystis.
Zarqali-iii: Could've Been
Wilderness category. Modelled after Tawattaran. Several complexes on the surface contain reconstructions of the nest-cities of the extinct Thyresta. There is an ongoing debate about whether to provolve the Thyresta Minor species as inhabitants.
Zarquali iv: New Chorus
Xenoprovolve category. Inhabited by Jade Chime Singers. New Chorus was reserved for the Jade Chime Singers in 8920 after a long sapientist-presapientist debate. While the Jade Chime Singers were invited immediately, several centuries passed before the first arrivals began to trickle in. Since 9600, a small but steadily growing community of Jade Chime Singers, along with some Faber reprogroups, has lived on New Chorus. It occupies two small regions around skyhook connections, each of which consist of a network of small villages linked by canals and railways.
L4
Presently unused.
L5: Drawn in Chlorine
Wilderness category. An example of a halogenic biosphere, modelled after Tytalus.
There has been some debate about whether to retain the current ecology since the Jade Chime Singers moved to New Chorus. Currently, the position is to retain it unless and until the space is needed by another candidate, in which case the current ecosystem will be moved to the Majriti band.
Orbit 5
4 AU
Aflah
Mass: 0.9 * Jupiter
A gas giant formed from material extracted from Samh.
Aflah-i: New Tannhauser
Xenoprovolve category. Inhabited by Walking Mountain provolves and modeled after Tannhauser. A shallow hydrocarbon sea covers large tracts of the surface, with the Mountains slowly migrating across it. Though slow, the mountains are quite talkative, and hold continual communal discussions across thousands of kilometres using subsonic sound waves.
Aflah-ii: New Samael
Reserved category. Reserved for the Samaelians. An invitation has been issued, but as yet there has been no response. New Samael is currently in the process of being ecoformed, though the demand for molybdenum is making the process slower than usual.
Aflah-iii: New Urqual
Xenosophont category. Inhabited by Soft Ones. The surface is composed primarily of ice sheets, overlaying an ocean composed of a eutectic mixture of ammonia and water. Many small independent towns are scattered across the ice, but there is little other significant infrastructure. Scheduled animal-hauled sleds are the primary form of surface transport. Skyhooks connect several places on the equator to an orbital ring system, but the settlements at their base are not significantly larger than elsewhere.
New Urqual had been reserved since 8380, but there was no expectation that the Soft Ones would answer the invitation. It was not until 10010 that several communities of Soft Ones, for reasons of their own, perhaps linked to the Epp War, migrated to Titawin. The inhabitants rarely participate in politics, usually only stepping in as a moderating influence, but they appear to be busily acquiring information about the other sophonts in Titawin, archiving it, and passing this information to the rest of Soft One civilisation.
L4: Echo of Oil
Wilderness category. Modelled after Uwa Mmanu.
L5: Nightflower
Xenoprovolve category. Inhabited by Lignosagittae. The inhabitants of Nightflower derive from the small number of Provolved Gnosags who did travel to the Lyra Ring Nebula. The surface of Nightflower is entirely ice, but the subsurface ocean holds many aquatic cities, with vacuum tubes anchored to the ice's underside.
Orbit 6
8 AU
Kammad
Mass: 2.6 * Jupiter
A gas giant formed from material extracted from Samh.
Wilderness category. Modelled after Ruach, with an aqueous-ammonia bisosphere in the upper atmosphere, and a supercritical hydrogen biosphere below it. Most of the planet is off-limits for habitation, but a community of Mirrored Owls occupy a north temperate band.
Kammad-i
Present unused.
Kammad-ii="
Presently unused."
Kammad-iii:= "New Muuhhome
Reserved category. Reserved for the Muuh since 8100. While some Muuh have replied to the invitation with appreciative and garrulous commentary, none have yet migrated to Titawin."
L4="
Presently unused."
L5=
"Presently unused."
Orbit 6="
14 AU"
Majriti=
Mass: ="15 * Jupiter
The original third planet, supplemented by mass extracted from Samh and moved to a much more distant orbit. Majriti is the primary population centre for non-authenticist xenosophonts and non-xenosophonts.
Conversion reactors in the lower atmosphere generate energy and transmit it to the megascale structure above.
A band of computronium encircles the planet orbiting at a radius of 1.2 million km. The band is 3 km thick and 2000 km wide, with a total volume of 22.6 * 10^9 km^3. This hosts the local archailect infrastructure.
A habitat band, composed of 15,700 McKendree cylinders connected in parallel, encircles the planet, orbiting at a radius of 5 million km. Each cylinder rotates at the same speed as, but in the opposite direction to, its two neighbours. The floors of neighbouring cylinders are in direct contact, and transport cabins can move directly from one cylinder to the next through the floor at the point of contact. This structure means all the main cylinders have the same surface acceleration of 0.8g. However, every cylinder contains a smaller cylinder, 500km in diameter, which rotates at a different speed to create a different surface acceleration.
The Majriti habitat band contains a large variety of different environments. Some cylinders contain a single environment, other contain multiple intertwined environments separated by air walls. Half of the habitat band holds a cosmopolitan multi-clade environment, though even here xenosophonts and their derived clades form a majority of the population. The other half of the habitat band contains recreations of the biospheres from additional garden worlds in the Terragen sphere."
]]
Appears in Topics
Development Notes
Text by Liam Jones
Initially published on 15 March 2025.
Notes: Raymond Rosette is a reference to Sean Raymond's Ultimate Solar System designs.
Initially published on 15 March 2025.
Notes: Raymond Rosette is a reference to Sean Raymond's Ultimate Solar System designs.
