Belters

2085 (approximately): self-sufficient survivalist couples started taking old orbital cargo haulers and headed out to the asteroid belt that lies in orbit between Mars and Jupiter. Over about ten years the ‘Belter’ community grew, adopting the Australian ‘Outback’ approach to community.

In 2100, a peaceful religious group, assigning meaning to the date, went into the asteroid belt and by joining their many small ships, created the democratic colony of Aetherial, which orbits the Sun on the innerside of the Asteroid Belt on the inner side. They followed a modern version of the ancient polytheistic religion of ‘Elementals’, a reinvention of the Ancient Greek classical thought, now involving five elements.

Earth: Static and Passive. Rocks and minerals that provide vitality to life. Gold is the purest Earth.
Water: Transformative and Passive, from bringing life to plants to eroding rocks. Mercury is the Earth closest to water.
Fire: Transformative and Aggressive. It can be used to transform objects by force that wouldn’t otherwise come about. Iron from ore is brought by Fire and iron is the Earth closest to Fire.
Air: Static and Aggressive. Copper is the Earth closest to Air.
Aether: Outside the realm of the other elements, Aether concerns the mind. The soul is from the Aether and embodies the other elements in life. Electricity is the symbol of Aether and so metals are Aetherial Earths.

The religious group was completely open to all and did not believe in forcing their view on anyone, as they are basically space hippies. As they brought a new level of resource, they quickly became the hub of all Belter life, trade and tradition, allowing the colony to continually grow. Unusually for religious groups, their leaders were actually elected. The five leaders’ position were named after an element and each had equal power but their election terms of office were different. The place of governance is known as the ‘Table’, the time of governance is a ‘Period of Time’ and the governers are known as a ‘Chair’. Fire is elected every 1 year, Air every 2 years, Water every 3 years, Earth every 5 years and Aether every 7 years. Until 2100 there was no association with the elements and the prime numbers but the democratic process stuck. Additionally 2310 will be seen as a Holy year as it will be the first time all positions are up for election at once.

Although the elemental positions were often arbitrary to the politician elected, those seeking election would often try to imbue the element, most notably with Professor Leela Rai taking a sabbatical from her Aetherial University Philosophy Professorship to get elected in 2107 to the Aetherial Chair. Although she didn’t seek re-election in 2114 she was credited with being key to bringing about the Settlement Act 2109 and remains a key historical figure to all Belters.

2103 Gold Rush

Using the more advanced technology in an Aetherial mining ship, the pilot Fe ReOs discovered a pure gold asteroid, making both Aetherial (and himself with a 50% cut) very rich and sparking the largest gold rush in human history. Subsequently, the asteroid belt gained a state of affairs similar to the Wild West with most lawlessness on the geographically expanding rim of populated Asteroid Belt. The Belter population became very diverse, although most of the population was attracted to it by wealth prospects rather than the exquisit remoteness. For practical reasons however, most stayed around Aetherial and ended up adopting its customs. Also, as space is hostile to the biological human body, the ‘Outback’ retains close to its original survivalist culture.

During the gold rush, the rim expanded so fast, professional policing found it impossible to establish order quickly enough, so a process of deputising sheriffs was adopted. The process mostly empowered the existing ‘outback’ population to keep order but many people became sherifs, and a lot of them got shot, as even then, the law was always behind the rim. After the gold rush, the more nefarious groups moved to the unsettled Kuiper belt before the law could arrive.

2109 Independence

The Settlement Act 2109 declares that any population group of over 20,000, not claimed by an existing sovereign region (also known as a sovereign state, from prior to unification under the HA in 2087), automatically becomes a sovereign nation in its own right. Although federal law applies to all humans everywhere, when a region becomes a sovereign nation, the HA must oversee a free and fair democratic process and actively promote human rights. Aetherial, with a population of over 20,000 is immediately recognised as an independent state and so the HA upgrades the hospital facilities as well as establishing a HA hub to be ready to enforce individuals rights if the HA think they are violated.

2117 Ray Cats

Acetylene Lox was a Belter geneticist who saw many of ous friends get very sick from being near asteroids that contained large amounts of uranium. Inspired by folktales, ou illegally engineered Ray Cats, bringing the fictional animal into reality. Although vilified by many for breaking the law, which ou freely admitted would be true if ou had done it, no direct proof of ous action in making Ray Cats was found. The Ray Cats themselves being real animals were allowed to live and breed as normal cats would. Many people wanting companionship with cats, but until now couldn’t justify the expense of maintenance, adopted a Ray Cat. Over time may lives have been saved from early detection of radiation and Acetylene Lox has become a Belter hero.

A note on Acetylene Lox: ou chose to be, and was recognised as of being, of both genders (not either, both) and at various times had partners of all five Belter recognised genders (male, female, both, none and other). It was around this time the idea of applying genders to elements started to gain traction, resulting in five genders, male – air, female – earth, both – fire, none – aetherial and other – water). Most Belters view the ‘other’ gender as ‘religious nuttery’ as they feel everyone is encompassed by the other four. Also, all Belters can choose their own gender with most EI's opting for ‘none’ as the most accurate description of themselves, although many EI's choose male or female, especially when permanently ‘in body’ and created by biological humans. Most Elementals don't recognise any assignment of gender to the elements, including Aetherial (but it does recognise five genders).