The Planet


Nubia is a chilly ocean world with no land surface at all. An important stepping stone to worlds further from Earth, it was colonised in the first human expansion wave with massive floating arcologies. Some 34.42 parsecs from Earth, Nubia orbits on the cold edge of the life zone of the G8 V star Elniaf.

A little larger than Earth, Nubia has a slightly higher gravity but about the same atmospheric pressure, with a mix comfortable to humans. The weather, unfortunately, is almost always unpleasant, resembling a North Atlantic storm over most of the planet most of the time.


Besides the important micro-organisms, Nubia is populated by a variety of filter-feeding aquatic lifeforms similar to jellyfish, which can reach sizes up to several metres across, and a few specialised carnivores which prey on them. The carnivores are also jelly-like and devour prey by enveloping them. Rumours of larger and more vicious carnivores in the ocean depths remain unsubstantiated.

Human have imported a few species of fish, which do reasonably well in the ecosystem without overwhelming it. Xenobiologists monitor the interactions closely and are currently reluctant to approve any further species introductions to the wild.


Nubia's 183 floating arcologies each sustain from 1-2 million humans, giving the planet a population just over 310 million. Additional arcologies are always being built to handle the population growth, and the two main arcology companies employ some 16% of the population between them.


The greatest resource of Nubia is the amount of noble metals suspended in its ocean. Chemical extraction techniques are amongst the best in human-space, and produce commercially exportable quantities of gold, silver, platinum and iridium.

Nubia is self-sufficient in food, but needs to import machinery and computing technology. Most of the structure of the arcologies has been shipped in from other worlds due to the difficulty of mining industrial metals. Nubia thus sees a lot of trade, but is not particularly wealthy.


Nubia is governed by a league of corporations who, for the most part, cooperate to ensure the wellbeing of the population. The only route to political power is via the boards of directors of the governing companies. New companies may petition to join the ruling league, and occasionally a corrupt corporation will be ejected. Each company in the league elects a number of ministers proportional to the number of people it employs, and one senator, forming two political houses to check the balance of power. Since employing people means more representation, companies on Nubia are always eager to hire new recruits, and offer good wages and social services to entice prospective employees.

Nubia does not have the manufacturing base to sustain a significant military space fleet. Trade agreements and alliances with neighbouring worlds are the main methods through which Nubian citizens feel safe from interstellar attack. Because of this, Nubians are quick to assert their rights and those of other soveriegn worlds when dealing with other planets.

GURPS is Copyright © by Steve Jackson Games Incorporated.

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