KARE11.com: Earth is outside its 'safe operating space for humanity' on most key measurements, study says

Earth is exceeding its “safe operating space for humanity” in six of nine key measurements of its health, and two of the remaining three are headed in the wrong direction, a new study said.

Earth’s climate, biodiversity, land, freshwater, nutrient pollution and “novel” chemicals (human-made compounds like microplastics and nuclear waste) are all out of whack, a group of international scientists said in Wednesday’s journal Science Advances. Only the acidity of the oceans, the health of the air and the ozone layer are within the boundaries considered safe, and both ocean and air pollution are heading in the wrong direction, the study said.

“We are in very bad shape,” said study co-author Johan Rockstrom, director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research in Germany. “We show in this analysis that the planet is losing resilience and the patient is sick.”

In 2009, Rockstrom and other researchers created nine different broad boundary areas and used scientific measurements to judge Earth’s health as a whole. Wednesday’s paper was an update from 2015 and it added a sixth factor to the unsafe category. Water went from barely safe to the out-of-bounds category because of worsening river run-off and better measurements and understanding of the problem, Rockstrom said.

These boundaries “determine the fate of the planet,” said Rockstrom, a climate scientist. The nine factors have been “scientifically well established” by numerous outside studies, he said.

If Earth can manage these nine factors, Earth could be relatively safe. But it’s not, he said.

In most of the cases, the team uses other peer-reviewed science to create measurable thresholds for a safety boundary. For example, they use 350 parts per million of carbon dioxide in the air, instead of the Paris climate agreement’s 1.5 degrees (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) of warming since pre-industrial times. This year carbon in the air peaked at 424 parts per million.

The nine factors are intermingled. When the team used computer simulations, they found that making one factor worse, like the climate or biodiversity, made other Earth environmental issues degrade, while fixing one helped others. Rockstrom said this was like a simulated stress test for the planet.

The simulations showed “that one of the most powerful means that humanity has at its disposal to combat climate change” is cleaning up its land and saving forests, the study said. Returning forests to late 20th century levels would provide substantial natural sinks to store carbon dioxide instead of the air, where it traps heat, the study said.

Biodiversity – the amount and different types of species of life – is in some of the most troubling shape and it doesn’t get as much attention as other issues, like climate change, Rockstrom said.

“Biodiversity is fundamental to keeping the carbon cycle and the water cycle intact,” Rockstrom said. “The biggest headache we have today is the climate crisis and biodiversity crisis.”

University of Michigan environmental studies dean Jonathan Overpeck, who wasn’t part of the study, called the study “deeply troubling in its implications for the planet and people should be worried.”

“The analysis is balanced in that it clearly sounds a flashing red alarm, but it is not overly alarmist,” Overpeck said. “Importantly, there is hope.”

The fact that ozone layer is the sole improving factor shows that when the world and its leaders decide to recognize and act on a problem, it can be fixed and “for the most part there are things that we know how to do” to improve the remaining problems, said Carnegie Mellon chemistry and environment professor Neil Donahue.

Some biodiversity scientists, such as Duke’s Stuart Pimm, have long disputed Rockstrom’s methods and measurements, saying it makes the results not worth much.

But Carnegie Mellon environmental engineering professor Granger Morgan, who wasn’t part of the study, said, “Experts don’t agree on exactly where the limits are, or how much the planet’s different systems may interact, but we are getting dangerously close.”

“I’ve often said if we don’t quickly cut back on how we are stressing the Earth, we’re toast,” Morgan said in an email. “This paper says it’s more likely that we’re burnt toast.”

"The reason people can believe that everything is going to be OK is because they have not taken the time to comprehend all the different things that are going wrong simultaneously, nor how seriously these things are going wrong."

-Marshall Brain

The Hidden Prehistory of Planet Earth.

by Daniel Wolfert. While researching my highly rated and positively reviewed book MENTAGENESIS: Free Your Mind To Create Your Future! I came across much information in the ancient historical texts and traditions of many different cultures (Sumerians, Egyptians, Greeks, Celts, Hindus, Native Americans, etc.) that indicates the Earth has a long and interesting history that modern academics deny…

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"the jedi don't have therapists-"

jedi philosophy, and in particular the practices and teachings that jedi were expected to implement in their everyday lives, was therapy. dialectical behavior therapy (dbt), to be exact. anyone who's familiar with dbt knows where i'm already going with this, but like genuinely look up the basic tenets of dbt and it's identical with what the jedi were doing.

dbt, to put it simply, is a specific therapy technique that was designed for ptsd and past trauma. it's pretty different from traditional talk therapy. it combines a few different environments (individual, group, etc.), recognizing that no single format of treatment can stand alone.

the key focuses of dbt include:

emotional regulation- understanding, being more aware of, and having more control over your emotions

mindfulness- regulating attention and avoiding anxious fixation on the past or future

interpersonal effectiveness- navigating interpersonal situations

distress tolerance- tolerating distress and crises without spiraling and catastrophizing

i'm sure it's already clear from that list alone how much the jedi teachings correspond with the goals of dbt. the jedi value, teach, and practice the following:

identifying and understanding emotions

mindfulness and living in the present

compassion, diplomacy, and conflict resolution (on interpersonal scales, not just planetary or galactic)

accepting and tolerating certain levels of distress or discomfort (particularly mental, such as discomfort at the thought of losing a loved one to death)

idk man seems almost as if jedi mental health practices and dbt are two sides of a completely identical coin. (fun fact: both star wars and dbt are products of the 70s.)

and guess what? dbt was specifically designed as a treatment for borderline personality disorder. remember that one? or, if you don't, maybe you remember a specific character, the one who was literally used as an example by my professor in my undergrad psych class when she was teaching us about bpd?

tldr: simply existing within the jedi community, practicing jedi teachings, surrounded by a support network of other jedi of all life stages, was the therapy for anakin. even when viewed through a modern lens. it was even, more specifically, the precise type of therapy that has developed in modern times to treat the exact types of mental issues he was struggling with.

« To mention the global loss of biodiversity, that is to say, the disappearance of life on our planet, as one of our problems, along with air pollution or ocean acidification, is absurd—like a doctor listing the death of his patient as one symptom among others.

The ecological catastrophe cannot be reduced to the climate crisis. We must think about the disappearance of life in a global way. About two-thirds of insects, wild mammals and trees disappeared in a few years, a few decades and a few millennia, respectively. This mass extinction is not mainly caused by rising temperatures, but by the devastation of natural habitats.

Suppose we managed to invent clean and unlimited energy. This technological feat would be feted by the vast majority of scientists, synonymous in their eyes with a drastic reduction in CO2 emissions. In my opinion, it would lead to an even worse disaster. I am deeply convinced that, given the current state of our appetites and values, this energy would be used to intensify our gigantic project of systemic destruction of planetary life. Isn't that what we've set out to do—replace forests with supermarket parking lots, turn the planet into a landfill? What if, to cap it all, energy was free?

[...C]limate change has emerged as our most important ecological battle [...] because it is one that can perpetuate the delusional idea that we are faced with an engineering problem, in need of technological solutions. At the heart of current political and economic thought lies the idea that an ideal world would be a world in which we could continue to live in the same way, with fewer negative externalities. This is insane on several levels. Firstly because it is impossible. We can't have infinite growth in a finite world. We won't. But also, and more importantly, it is not desirable. Even if it were sustainable, the reality we construct is hell. [...]

It is often said that our Western world is desacralised. In reality, our civilisation treats the technosphere with almost devout reverence. And that's worse. We perceive the totality of reality through the prism of a hegemonic science, convinced that it “says” the only truth.

The problem is that technology is based on a very strange principle, so deeply ingrained in us that it remains unexpressed: no brakes are acceptable, what can be done must be done. We don't even bother to seriously and collectively debate the advisability of such "advances". We are under a spell. And we are avoiding the essential question: is this world in the making, standardised and computed, overbuilt and predictable, stripped of stars and birds, desirable?

To confine science to the search for "solutions" so we can continue down the same path is to lack both imagination and ambition. Because the “problem” we face doesn't seem to me, at this point, to be understood. No hope is possible if we don't start by questioning our assumptions, our values, our appetites, our symbols... [...] Let's stop pretending that the numerous and diverse human societies that have populated this planet did not exist. Certainly, some of them have taken the wrong route. But ours is the first to forge ahead towards guaranteed failure. »

— Aurélien Barrau, particle physicist and philosopher, in an interview in Télérama about his book L'Hypothèse K

Cyberpunk anyone?

AU'S BABY, AU'S!

◁◀Details below▶▷ Warning: long.

Because im an obsessive, psychopathic insomniac with no supervision, on top of the mermaid AU I'm working on, I also decided that a murder drones cyberpunk AU needed to be real, and since no one's done it yet (I checked) I figured I might as well. This is that.

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◇Story Stuff (Currently limited)

JCJenson in SPAAAAAACE founded a residential colony on Copper-9. Revolutionary technology allowed Copper City to be the first human settlement on a once thought uninhabitable planet, thus earning the galaxy's praises. Millions moved to the planet once it was finished and the company's reputation soared. Unfortunately for JCJenson, that reputation would soon crumble with a series of increasingly catastrophic events befalling the planet.

First was the infamous "robot uprising" in which hundreds of worker drones began attempting to abandon the city, and some even attacked their owners. The situation quickly escalated to a full-blown war between the machines and humans. As Copper City was a stand-alone settlement on a distant exo-planet, it had no military, leading to a mixed bag of JCJenson security personnel and volunteer soldiers to lead the charge against the malfunctioning worker drones. Many lives were lost, and in the end, the rebelling workers were driven out of the city bubble and into the snowy wastelands.

The second happened only a few months after the end of the war. The ⬛⬛⬛⬛ Event was contained to the Copper-9 branch HQ building. During the event, several worker drones were infected with a virus named ⬛⬛⬛⬛. "Patient Zero" was terminated and from there, all ⬛⬛⬛⬛ activity was easily dealt with. The silver lining to this event was that JCJenson technician "Tessa Elliot" was able to salvage many of the previously infected worker drones and repurpose them to clean up the remaining defective worker drones out in the wastelands. After rigorous testing and development, the new "Dissasembly drones" were revealed to the public, and following their debut were then sent to work. Results have plateaued in terms of terminating the remaining workers in recent years since the workers have built themselves a bunker. Serial designation "J" assures that given enough time, they will find a way in and continue with the extermination as planned.

And finally, the third and most dangerous event: the core collapse. Due to the sheer incompetence of lower-level personnel responsible for monitoring the status of the planet's core as the surrounding area is mined, copper-9 narrowly avoided a core collapse. Such an event would have resulted in total planetary extinction had it not been stopped in time by an upper manager. At the time JCJenson had little to say other than that they were sorry and that the near disaster had nothing to do with the worker resistance or ⬛⬛⬛⬛. They also took the opportunity of the press conference to tease a new project that would make Copper City safer than ever. We would later find out that this was referring to the previously mentioned "Dissasembly drones".

Copper City has suffered many close calls during its time, but today the city is thriving. Surely after so much trouble, there must be a reason those who live here decide to stay, and that reason is the soul of the city. It Never sleeps- always alive with freedom and opulence. Truly, Copper City is everything visionaries had been dreaming of what the future would be like. (But is that a good thing?)

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◈ Extra Details

-Tessa was able to save many of the affected worker drones after Cyn went all cookoo crazy solver pants, but the company wanted them disposed of anyway. she proposed that they could be used to take care of the rogue worker drones and that's why they haven't been decommissioned.

-JCJenson higher-ups, demanded that they be disposed of after they had served their purpose. but Tessa plans to propose that theybe once again be repurposed into law enforcement when that day comes.

-After all why not? Tessa put a lot of work into making their modified murder drone bodies into effective, but pretty killing machines. If the public likes them, then they can be marketed. and though Tessa isn't the biggest fan of police in general, she'll take whatever she can get if it means her drones survive.

-JCJenson would love the idea anyway. Copper City is basically a corporate town already, just bigger. The human law enforcement is already in their pocket, so why not have literal robots loyal only to them carry out the law?

-Uzi would try to break into the city to gather intel and a power source for her rail gun.

-JCJenson still manufactures and sells worker drones, but since the war, they've modified the design so that they are much easier to deactivate if necessary.

-This design change is a literal off switch on the back of the head. Uzi does not have one since her parents built her and why the hell would they install one on their daughter? None of the drones at the bunker have an off switch. including those who fought in the war.

-Aside from that, all worker drones inside Copper City are digitally tagged upon purchase and activation. This makes it much easier for JCJenson and Dissasembaly drones to differentiate between a regular, legal worker drone and a rebellion worker that broke into the city.

-JCJenson's reputation suffered a lot during all that nonsense up there, so they really can't leave the workers alone. the public still perceives them as a threat. JCJenson does too, but more so for terrible solver demon reasons.

-That's one of the reasons that Tessa is okay with sending her friends off to commit genocide.

-Uzi is genocidal too though, so morality calls that a draw.

-I'm thinkin' that the Dissasebly drones probably have like, a roost or something inside the city that they can be deployed from. kinda like a cave of bats where they can recharge during the day.

-I think perhaps disassembly drones can go out during the day in the city, but only for a little while. and not at all outside of the city bubble.

-When I say "City bubble" just imagine the moon base from "Scooby-Doo Moon Monster Madness" cuz that's what it looks like.

______________

ANOTHER LONG POST, MY DAWG! I don't have a ton of the groundwork of this done, but it's fun to think about it and I'm happy with what I do have. hope you do too 💖

Thanks for reading.

How stable are planetary systems? Will Earth and its seven siblings always continue in their steady celestial paths, or might we one day be randomly ejected from our cosmic home? Physicists understand the rules that govern the orbits of two celestial bodies, but as soon as a third is added (let alone a fourth, fifth, or hundredth) the dynamics become far more complex. Unpredictable instabilities arise, in which an object may be randomly ejected into space or fall into its host star. The so-called "three-body problem" has troubled scientists for centuries (and more recently forms the premise of a bestselling series of science fiction novels and a new Netflix adaptation). One obstacle to understanding it has been that we know relatively little about how common it is for such catastrophic instabilities to arise. In a new study published in Nature, we and our colleagues have shed some light on this question. In a survey of nearby stars, we found as many as one in dozen pairs of stars may have devoured a planet, likely because the planet developed a "wobble" in its orbit and fell into the star.

Continue Reading.

In order to reach 350 ppm—the level we were at in 1988—we’d need to remove 500 billion tons of CO2 from the atmosphere. To hit the pre-industrial mark of 280 ppm, 900 billion tons. If we were to use plants to accomplish this, we would need them to add 138 billion tons and 249 billion tons of biomass, respectively. This is roughly the equivalent to 1.3 and 2.5 Amazon rainforests, respectively, if we count both above and below ground biomass. So, what can we do with all that carbon? As the Amazon analogy implies, growing more forests would do the trick. In the last 10,000 years, the Earth has lost 7.7 million square miles of forest, equal to 2.85 Amazons. So we can exceed our target for atmospheric CO2 removal by returning to the 57% forest coverage of Earth’s habitable surface that we had at the end of the last Ice Age. That was the climate that allowed for the vast expansion of humanity, so that approach holds a lot of appeal. Additionally, the Amazon analogy demonstrates that vast reforested areas can support human civilization beyond simply sucking down CO2. The Amazon itself is a vast food forest filled with edible species that were planted 4,500 years ago by its human occupants, who built a thriving civilization based on the readily available food surrounding them. A contemporary global reforestation initiative should also focus on edible species, thus serving the dual purpose of creating an abundant perennial food source and sequestering CO2. A mature food forest can yield at least 2,100,000 calories per acre with minimal inputs, enough to feed two adults. A stable climate PLUS more free food than all of humanity could possibly eat sounds pretty good. It goes without saying that climate change is not the only ecological catastrophe facing humanity. We have crossed six of nine planetary boundaries, any one of which could spell our doom. A globe-spanning food forest would help address those looming disasters, such as biodiversity loss and biogeochemical flows, as well. But there are challenges to the forestry approach. Environmental conditions have degraded immensely in the last 100 years, and it's possible that not all previously forested areas would now support trees. Some estimates put the possibility of reforestation at half of the 7.7 million square miles lost and argue it would take thousands of years to accomplish. I have doubts about these estimates, but it's important to be cautious. Additionally, the principle of redundancy is crucial in permaculture, and it's not hard to see how it applies here: we would not want to put all our eggs in one basket with the future of life on Earth at stake. So how can we move faster while diversifying our risk?

Unbelievable that people hate Thirteen's era. You see "every human has a dog alien soulmate who will save us during planetary catastrophe even though they think we're annoying" and you say "this sucks"? Something wrong with you

I think it’s narratively brilliant and tragic that Higgs ends up likely spending the equivalent of eternity in isolation when growing up in pain and isolation is certainly what made him malleable to the E.E.

and of course the other layer of tragedy is that he managed to crawl out of that childhood hell, still fucked up inside but willing to try living and connecting with others; the first rebirth.

even so, something would always be missing.

that missing part of his soul festered like an open wound, and was exploited.

the story of Death Stranding is on a planetary, likely cosmic scale. but Higgs and Amelie and the concept of extinction in this game also seems like a personal, human metaphor for the internal debate that happens in many people during suicidal ideation.

I think Higgs in DS2 is depicted as absurd as he is to contrast his previous catastrophic, suicidal nihilism. absurdism is arguably the ultimate antidote for nihilism.

maybe something happened to him on The Beach that triggered a second “rebirth”, and he went even more insane in an absurdist way, not in a “mass murderer who sees himself as a mercy killer/angel of death” way. so he possibly circled back around to being a kind of anti-hero.

but who knows how this fits into the still murky and mysterious lore…?

Excerpt from Cowboy Bebop: The Jazz Messenger - History (translation below)

HISTORY 西暦2022年、地球上空で開発中の位相差空間ゲートが大爆発を起こしたとき、すべては始まった。 爆発に巻き込まれた月の破片が地球に振りそそぎ、放射線汚染と環��の変化でもはや地表に人類は住めなくなってしまった。残された人類は地下シェルターでの生活を余儀なくされ、そこに入りきれない人々はほかの惑星へと移住せざるを得なくなった。幸い、研究段階にあったテラフォーミング技術が位相差空間ゲートにより実現のメドがたち、皮肉にも、人類はゲートにより地球から放り出され、ゲートによって地球以外の惑星で生活できるようになったのである。 国家は、なしくずし的になくなり、人種は入り乱れた。 西暦は終わり、宇宙暦が始まった。 時が経つにつれ、各惑星や衛星は独立国家へと姿を変え、 経済も徐々に復興し始める。スパイクたちの乗るような小型の宇宙船も、ぞくぞくと市場に出回ることになった(要免許) そのかたわらで経済格差も広がっていき、スラム街も増え、犯罪は増加の一方をたどっていく(とくに宇宙暦初頭は法もロクに整備されておらず、犯罪組織が暗躍する時代でもあった)。 激増する犯罪に対抗するため、各惑星はついに太陽系刑事警察機構（I. S. S. P. = Inter Solar System Police）を設立、国家を超えた犯罪者に立ち向かうと同時に、賞金制度を設け、賞金稼ぎに対して超法規的措置（犯罪者をとらえるためなら多少の違法行為も帳消しにされる)をとることも決定した。 ゲート事故から50年、「ビバップ」はそんな混沌とした時代の物語である。

HISTORY

It all began in the year 2022, when a catastrophic explosion ripped apart a hyperspace gateway(*1) under construction in Earth's orbit.

Caught in the blast of the large explosion, pieces of the moon rain down onto the surface of the earth, rendering the planet uninhabitable due to widespread environmental destruction and radioactive contamination. What remained of humanity was forced to live underground in shelters. Those that could not find room in these shelters, were forced to migrate off-world. Luckily, the terraforming technology that was still in its research phase gained traction after the hyerspace gateway incident. Though it was the destruction of the gate that had forced humans from Earth, it was thanks to this very same technology that humans were able to establish a new life on planets beyond Earth.

Nations ceased to exist, and the races of old Earth began to mix.

And so ended use of the Western Gregorian calendar in favor of the Space calendar(*2).

Over time, each planet and satellite became its own independent nation and the economy began to recover. Smaller spaceships, like the one used by Spike and his crew, flood the market in droves (license required).

At the same time, economic inequality was rampant, there were more slums, and crime continued to rise (especially in the early years of the Space calendar when there were few laws in place and criminal organizations thrived).

In response to the surge in crime, the I.S.S.P (Inter Solar System Police) was established on every planetary body to fight against these interplanetary criminals. At the same time, a bounty system was implemented that granted bounty hunters extrajudicial power (which allowed the execution of any illegal acts committed in the process of apprehending criminals).

The story of Bebop takes place during this chaotic era, 50 years after the hyperspace gateway incident.

*1: I think a closer translation for the Japanese word for this gate, 位相差空間ゲート, would be phase shift gate, as that seems to be the scientific phenomenon referred to with the Japanese name, however, since your average viewer likely doesn't know what ‘phase shifting’ is, I understand why translators would go with a more localized term like ‘hyperspace’ or ‘astral gate’.

*2: I couldn’t find any references for how 宇宙歴 is translated in the English version. It’s possible the term was avoided altogether if it never showed up in dialogue.

Major Spoilers for Armored Core VI:

Handler Walter: The Monster

Would you do something terrible for the ones you love?

Not many people are capable of being a monster for their own desires, but what if the only thing that can save the people you hold dear IS a monster? Are you willing to become something hateful in order to do what you think is right?

Enter the infamous Handler Walter, the man who would burn the Coral, commit planetary genocide on a sapient alien species and burn to cinders a whole world full of living people, to prevent what he sees as the single greatest existential threat to humanity's continued survival.

If he were to succeed, his sin would be orders of magnitude greater than all the atrocities of human history combined, all the brutality and unnecessary violence, the endless bloodshed over resources, the ceaseless bigotry, and the seeming unwillingness to treat other people as human beings worthy of love and respect. One man in a bid to "save" his species would destroy countless lives in a wave of searing heat and fire that would make the wrath of human gods seem pitiful by comparison.

Many of us would say he is wrong; there's a better way forward, one that has no need for unimaginable catastrophe and tragedy. But ask yourself one question: what if he had been right?

Would it be justified? If humanity were on the brink of annihilation and all it took to stop it was one person willing to be history's greatest monster, would you do it? Could you be the single worst person ever to live if it meant your species still had a chance?

Are all the songs, history, poetry, art and literature of humankind not worth some sacrifice? Doesn't every newborn babe and loving parent deserve a chance at life?

Is the future of the species not worth one great sin?

STC Battlefield Latrine, Reclaiming, Standalone: The Linchpin of Civilization, the Battlefield Latrine Reclaiming(BLR) stands as one of Mankind's greatest creations. A common sight to any Imperial citizen, usually in standard batteries of thirteen(13) by seven(7) high. In fact, it has replaced entire sanitation, chemical refining, transportation, and tithe-collecting systems throughout the Imperium. Without its ubiquity and reclamation capabilities, the Imperial Logistics Administratum would be catastrophically limited and the war effort crippled.

(Standalone shown with terrifyingly large xeno for scale)

The sight of a BLR means relief for any human(including all standard and nearly all advanced augmentations), biologically active servitor, sanctioned abhuman(including Ogryns and ratlings with standard step stool accommodations), and even many xenos regardless of status or currency. Except for mutants. They have to pay a cleansing fee.

The BLR solves so many of Humanity's needs that gifting its pattern is often sufficient to bring isolated planets into Compliance. Because of its rugged construction and virtually maintenance-free operation it is found on nearly all human settlements. The BLR is considered one of the oldest and most complete STC patterns known.

(Indicator lamps show this BLR is ready for retrieval and unoccupied. Universal Pure Water and Promethium connections allow for immediate usage)

BLR tithe-credits for reclaimed water and chemical production forms a significant portion of most planetary budgets. BLR arrays in hive cities provide nearly all promethium used by local planetary defense forces, with surplus forwarded to the Mechanicus for the war effort.

Battlefield Latrine, Reclaiming: TESTAMENT TO MANKIND'S DIVINITY!

I have a lot of thoughts about the Ing

They're the bad guys of Metroid Prime 2: Echoes. Creatures of darkness, born from a dimensional tear caused by a catastrophic meteorite impact. The evil, aggressive, warlike counterpart to the peaceful Luminoth. The Ing fought ceaselessly to take all of Aether's planetary energy for themselves. They cared not if the light world fell to ruin. They were monsters.

But I can't help seeing things from the perspective of the Ing. There's a lot we don't know about them; they don't leave logbooks behind like the Luminoth, or at least not ones we can read. What was it like for those first Ing who appeared upon the creation of Dark Aether? Did they have no memory of a life before? Did they have to build their society from scratch in a world that was already dying? Or, by some quirk of spacetime, did their world already retroactively exist well before the meteorite impact, when they suddenly found half of their planetary energy depleted?

The arrival of the meteor created an impossible situation for both the Luminoth and the Ing. Each had their own world, but there was only enough planetary energy to sustain one. They were doomed to never coexist peacefully. For one to survive, the other had to die.

If you were in the place of the Ing, would you have done any differently than them? Would you have not fought tooth and nail to keep your brand new world alive, when the only alternative is oblivion?

Pictured: A Warrior Ing just before the collapse of Dark Aether (source)

The Geese Stars.

Located along the southeastern periphery of the Imperium, it is home to the human diaspora that travel this collection of systems aboard a myriad of migratory fleets, farming cosmic resources for survival and trade from the asteroid belts, gas giants, and even surfaces of great stars.

Occasionally, they will attempt to mine or reclaim resources from planetary bodies, but the wide range of dangers and xenos threats often make these resource expeditions prone to failure.

Planets of note:

1) Kanossian-VII is an active Forge World that has suffered a Tyranid invasion and is struggling to rebuild. It is the only other currently inhabited planet in the Geese Stars.

2) Eucliktus-Omega is an abandoned Forge World due to an unknown disaster, and has descended into a feral state. It is a prime destination for expeditions to recover tech and supplies.

3) Anser Prime and its artificial moon, Cygnoides, was the Geese Stars' unofficial capital and were the victims of a catastrophe that laid waste to the planet and its orbiting moons. The rings that surrounded Anser are the remains of several moons reduced to rubble and asteroids kept in orbit around the planet. Cygnoides is a torn and seemingly hollowed out wreck, originally constructed as a naval base and network of shipyards.

Both these celestial bodies are covetted by salvage and reclamation expeditions.

4) The Astartes moon of Skein, in orbit around the gas giant Cinju Gigant, is presently under a quarantine order of unknown provenance. The Astartes Chapter whose fortress and base of operations rests upon this harsh moon, the Mist Hawks, are not very inviting.

Very little is known about the Mist Hawks and their Founding, but they have been observed to have black & yellow striping upon vambraces and greaves, winged blade heraldry and avian skulls decorating their power armour.

(Inspired by @woahspacewizards)

NOTE: May be used as a setting for Crucible 7's Wrath & Glory or Imperium Maledictum, any FFG Warhammer 40000 RPG, and your own tales of the Grim Dark.