 June 23, 2015 - 2:57am | Some ideas started here: http://sfus.starfrontiers.info/node/8699 using the Letter as the first letter in the name and grabbing a classic or popular name from sci fi as well Alpha: Altair, Arcturus, or Antares Beta: Beltegeuse or Betazed Delta: Deneb Epsilon: Eridani Gamma: Gliese Other names are possible as we have not exhausted the possibilities. Any of the As are good IMO though Altair harkens back to Forbidden Planet I'm partial to Beltegeuse over Betazed as Betazed is so obviously Star Trek Deneb was the only D I came up with though there are system in ficiton that star with Delta I simply avoided most of those when trying to put this list together and it probably not required that we avoid using the word for the Greek letter. Epsilon Eridani has turned up in fiction many times and is a real star however I think it best to drop Epsilon and just go with Eridani which almost always triggers a mind association with Epsilon Gliese is a real star with extra-solar planets and has been used by a few authors, Niven being one, I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
June 23, 2015 - 3:11am | RE: Colonizers Beta: is kind of obvious that it should be yazirian, I'd be all for Light or outpost population and a story that this is a new terraforming project by GODco and Fo1 except this time there will not be the pressure to do it fast and get the colonizers in as there was during the star exodus. the plan is to recreate Beta in the image of the Garden of Yazira thus it will only have outpost or light population and the economy code will be E for science or education. Also only good Fo1 adherents will ever be allowed there and there will be more of the no non yazirians crap the Fo1 enforces. The whole planet will be a temple to the spirit of their lost homeworld. Epsilon is kind of obvious that it should be vrusk however the name does not match vrusk naming conventions. Perhaps like Madderly's Star it was explored by humans or even dralasites and the industrious vrusk got there first Moderate to light vrusk population- all of the classicly vrusk named systems represent the basic economies- resource, industry, Ag, science/research with their economy codes so this one could be any, though I think more resource or Ag would be best. Alpha Delta, Gamma are abutting human space and would make sense as human colonies but Alpha and Delta are also close to Prengular and I feel like at least one of these shouls be mixed race colony like Gran Quivera economy codes could be any and populations light to mod but the mixed race colony might have heavy or mod. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
 June 26, 2015 - 10:56am | Actually, Altair, Antares, Arcturus, Betelguese, and Deneb are all real stars. Eridanus is a constellation (Epsilon Eridani is the fifth brightest star in that constellation) and Gleise is actually the name of an astronomer who compiled a catalog of stars (low mass and near the sun). There are literally hundreds of stars that bear that name plus a number (e.g. Gliese 229 - this one has the first detected brown dwarf, Gliese 229b, orbiting it). Although I would recommend using unique names to the setting, if you want other real star names to choose from:
There are a lot of "A" names becuase many of our names come from Arabaic and they liked that letter to start star names. Ad Astra Per Ardua! My blog - Expanding Frontier Webmaster - The Star Frontiers Network & this site Founding Editor - The Frontier Explorer Magazine Managing Editor - The Star Frontiersman Magazine |
 June 27, 2015 - 6:39pm | I could go with some of the worlds having names that start with the greek letters but not all of them. I think it feels too contrived. Likely, the vrusk work is not a fit and actually starts with some other letter, but when the designations were placed it was converted to greek to keep with the scheme. This should be true of one of the other worlds too so that it feels natural. Maybe one of the other worlds could even share a starting letter so that there was some debate as to which got the greek letter and which got the next available greek letter. -iggy |
June 28, 2015 - 3:06am | what if the "yasirian" world was not given the greek letter so as to make the scheme less contrived? New Yazira and the primary had a name that translates from yazirian as "star tree" or "spirit of yazira" or even "temple" I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
June 28, 2015 - 6:52am | No, once the MSO starts their permament quarantine the greek letters make sense. However before the MSO the original names should be different but a few starting with letters that map over to the greek letters to suggest the quarantine name system that leads the MSO to the idea. -iggy |
 June 28, 2015 - 12:13pm | I always felt the letter system reflected when the planets where quarantined... so Alpha would have been the first lost cause, Beta the second and so on... the names of the planets need not have anything to do with when the epidemic became to big for the UPF to handle, also note the planet's order of being quarantined may not have to do with when the infection first made planet fall but more to do with when it became a lost cause, the plague could have spread faster or slower on some worlds as it adapted to each environment and amongst different species. Thus the letter system shows which 4 planets in the order they gave up on not the order of infection. Alpha, Beta, Gamma & Delta are plague, Epsilon? Starmist as the source is from a alien spaceship that crashed on Starmist... it almost sounds like a new alien species ship crashed into Starmist, no one realized the problem till to late that a nasty was released and in a milder form, not really a Sathar trick. Does mesh with TSR having a few plague ships out in the 'verse though. So I figure Beta is Yazi, Alpha probably mixed species but with a Dral name, Gamma Human, Delta mixed with Vrusk or Dral or Human name. I have no idea why there is a fifth mystery planet but it should have a Vrusk name I think. Of course the idea that the UPF can not begin helping those planets X number of years out into the timeline is odd... I figure they are studying the problem or hiding their own misdeeds. If Gamma World & MA1 are any help on this for ideas it would be the plague is just a minor issue, you have societies that have collapsed to a scary brutish level, you have chemical, biological, new diseases & radioactive hazards on a large scale (as no one was around to take care of nuclear reactors, factories running on auto till stopping, chemical plants becoming unstable, gas lines exploding, massive toxic fires, and so on... when the guiding hand of intelligence disappears from taking care of dangerous stuff well it can go from bad to horrible really quick), new scary creatures on planets & mutated new intelligent life. We do not know if the UPF tried nuking or fire bombing planets to stop the spread of the disease as well and do not want the rest of the normal voting citizens (not high ranking Gov. guys) on all the planets knowing the politicians in the UPF didn't just quarantine the planets but tried the "outbreak" solution of destroying everyone in the hot zone, wiping out whole cities. (This could have made mutation rates higher on the planets and created new problems) Politicians are cowards and slimy by nature so figure they all want to be dead by the time that top secret vote becomes public knowledge so at least 200 years needs to pass before the quarantine is lifted as they will dead and won't care, this does not mean they couldn't help these poor planets only that they won't as they don't want to face what they did... attempted genocide of whole planetary populations tends to freak people out especially if a cure was found in retrospect, so they want a long time to pass. The outcomes of on each planet might be very different... there could be lifeless cities no intelligent life on one planet to a mutant wonderland on another. At any rate I am okay with each planet having it's own unique name not starting A through E. I was thinking of naming Gamma "Dawn" myself. We could fiddle with the various game designers name's and make planet names form them? Anything we do will be better than pretending A through E was the name of those systems and their planets. It is possible that one system Devco set up for blue plague survivors is receiving new refugees, the UPF could be quietly working on the problem all benevolent like but worried the unaffected people in the UPF will hurt the survivors from these worlds. It does not sound like many if anyone not part of the help the survivors out program go to the planet Cass, so they would have no idea what the UPF is actually doing... as it states these people lost their homes... what does that really imply? Communities do not tolerate people who have plague scars and kick them out? Or where the sick rounded up and shipped off world and after becoming survivors they had nothing left, or was it after a cure was found, an immunization found the survivors rounded up for looking ugly and stuck on Cass from the other worlds? Is the UPF trying to help anyone on the no go 4, if so they would need a relocation place, to isolate them. It does sound like there is a stigma for surviving that causes the people to loose everything and be stuck on what amounts to a reservation/prison planet does it not? Just some random thoughts on the problem of the Plague worlds... P.S. I think their quarantine should have had a bigger effect then noted in the Time Line to the UPF, the economic and resource loss would have been a big hit I think. "Never fire a laser at a mirror." |
June 28, 2015 - 1:24pm | What if the plague is xenomorph infestation? These planets became so infested they became a lost cause. When quarrentine was imposed Space Fleet was forced to destroy a few vessels lifting off. Now they just monitor to ensure no one goes looking for trouble on these planets. It does not have to be the classic xenomorph from aliens but the one from Species would work as well. Space Fleet hasn't employed orbital bombardment because the problem is still being investigated and the move would be unpopular with families still hoping lost loved ones on these planets might yet be alive. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
June 28, 2015 - 1:29pm | In fact with a xenomorph or species cause you could game out the start, spread, and imposition of quarrentine. Names like "Plague Front", " Plague Wind" and "Operation Quarrentine" come to mind for this. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
June 28, 2015 - 2:20pm | A vaccine does not fit the xenomorph idea. Also, why was is called blue plague? The timeline says it is because blue welts appear on the face and extremeties. This is something that microscopic. Maybe it attacks the brain and results in savage insanity for the victims before death. This also caused Hargut, Pale, and Gollywog to be quarentiend for a short time. Epsilon is a plague world on the map but the timeline does not list it as permament quarentine if one assumes the four referred to in the timeline are Alpha, Beta, Gamma, and Delta. -iggy |
June 28, 2015 - 2:43pm | With the xenomorph idea the Blue Plague would be a separate event. Or both happened concurrently and led to greater confussion and even bigger FUBARed situation. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
June 28, 2015 - 2:44pm | So we name 5 names no matter why they are no go places: Ystrad Hakin Kar Kirk Festinlog Blaenau Phangrang Tamky "Never fire a laser at a mirror." |
 July 22, 2015 - 11:13pm | The Blue Plague could be a micro organism that takes over the brain. The blue welts could be growths from the organism taking over. Maybe at some point they figured out a way to immunize most of the populations but couldn't make it to those lost planets in time. But once someone is past a certain point there is no recovery or way to get rid of the organism. So, those who were beyond hope were dumped on the plague worlds. No one was allowed off of them either. Maybe there was some environmental reason also that slowed the organism on some worlds and sped it up on others, so many possibilities. |
 August 9, 2015 - 11:48pm | Given the length of the life spans of the four core races most Frontier beings would know the names of the planets either from personal knowledge or from parents stories or from doing research for a history class paper. Probably no one wants to use the names because beings like to forget really bad things or don't want to discuss them. Here the Frontier wants to forget all the beings condemned to death when the planets were quarantined. That would be the uninfected who were forced to stay on the planets and caught the disease. Sounds like a great job but where did you say we had to go? |
August 10, 2015 - 5:55pm | Good point about the life spans of core four races. -iggy |
August 11, 2015 - 2:57pm | Good point about the life spans of core four races. Yeah, it something that is often overlooked when talking about the setting. For example, given the timeline, most of the people that lived through the first sathar invasion are probably still alive 60 years later when they Second Sathar War starts. It will be a first-hand memory for them.Ad Astra Per Ardua! My blog - Expanding Frontier Webmaster - The Star Frontiers Network & this site Founding Editor - The Frontier Explorer Magazine Managing Editor - The Star Frontiersman Magazine |
August 18, 2016 - 9:15am | Planets with ancient ruins are fun so what if we converted the plague systems to be devastated planets with ancient tetrarch ruins or ruins of suspected tetrarch origin? I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
 August 18, 2016 - 9:27am | Planets with ancient ruins are fun so what if we converted the plague systems to be devastated planets with ancient tetrarch ruins or ruins of suspected tetrarch origin? That works for me. Joe Cabadas |
August 18, 2016 - 10:04am | In fact, if those worlds were from an ancient civilization -- other than the Tetrarchs -- the Alpha to Gamma naming system might make a lot of sense. Someone else had this idea too, if I'm not mistaken. I've been searching the Forums for "Eorna" postings for something I'm working on and remember coming across that very idea. Joe Cabadas |
August 18, 2016 - 6:48pm | Just mud against the wall. If the plague worlds are ancient civilization ruins which are quarentined due to plague, it could be that the plague is an active part of their biospheres. It could be constantly mutating like the common cold does so they are all quarentied because the MSO would have to be making new vaccines each season for each world. A never ending task with a strange biology that is very harmfull to other biologies. This would imply that these worlds were bioformed to match each other by the ancients at a scale that GodCo can only dream of. The plague could have actually been dormant until the visits from the ship that went to Starmist happened and the Starmist vermin became the carrier species that allowed the plague to mutate such that it could cross species to the frontier races. I need to pose this to my friend in biomedicine research and see what he can come up with. -iggy |
August 18, 2016 - 6:55pm | Just mud against the wall. If the plague worlds are ancient civilization ruins which are quarentined due to plague, it could be that the plague is an active part of their biospheres. It could be constantly mutating like the common cold does so they are all quarentied because the MSO would have to be making new vaccines each season for each world. A never ending task with a strange biology that is very harmfull to other biologies. This would imply that these worlds were bioformed to match each other by the ancients at a scale that GodCo can only dream of. The plague could have actually been dormant until the visits from the ship that went to Starmist happened and the Starmist vermin became the carrier species that allowed the plague to mutate such that it could cross species to the frontier races. I need to pose this to my friend in biomedicine research and see what he can come up with. It could be an artificial plague, like the one introduced in the short-lived Crusade series. A nanotech, intelligent artificial virus that probes the victim species immune system until it hits on the right combination of things to kill it off. Joe Cabadas |
August 19, 2016 - 1:01am | The biosphere acts as an auto-immune system. Treating the explorers who visit as invading infection. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
August 19, 2016 - 7:42am | The biosphere acts as an auto-immune system. Treating the explorers who visit as invading infection. That may work for one world... unless the alien race terraformed the other worlds to their liking. I guess spacesuits are in order. Joe Cabadas |
August 20, 2016 - 4:09am | The biosphere acts as an auto-immune system. Treating the explorers who visit as invading infection. That may work for one world... unless the alien race terraformed the other worlds to their liking. I guess spacesuits are in order. Yeah, just spit balling here. This idea sounds like a Star Trek episode, "Dammit, Jim, I'm a Doctor not a terraforming engineer!" I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
