Roselight

Roselight

(City)

Titles

The Cerise City

World

Liavara

Population

54,000

Demographics

35% human, 30% barathu, 8% ysoki, 6% android, 2% lashunta, 1% haan, 1% sarcesian, 1% vesk, 16% other

Government

Autocracy

Alignment

Lawful neutral

Ruler

Confluence

Source: Pact Worlds, pg(s). 114

Roselight is a gas mining platform located in the atmosphere of Liavara.

Geography

Roselight is a platform of steel and polycarbon capped with transparent aluminium domes floating in the atmosphere of Liavara. These domes catch the light filtering through the gas giant's clouds, causing the city to shimmer like peach-coloured bubbles. Each dome is considered a district: the Core District containing the original settlement, the Gold District containing most business headquarters, the Saints District where the elite live, and the Sundown District where the poor scrape by. Due to the tight restrictions, everything in Roselight must be recycled. Most humanoids regard the city as beautiful, but barathus dislike the ham-fisted addition of horizontal surfaces to their traditional architecture.

Government

All commerces on Liavara are overseen by the Office of Commercial Interests on Roselight, ostensibly a barathu administration under Confluence's control that issues permits that give access to Liavara's resources and punishes lawbreaking companies. In truth, the OCI is funded by and listens to 'advisors' from the Corporate Authority, a group of a dozen gas mining corporations. The barathus and advisors constantly struggle for control, and the OCI has ruled as a capitalist dictatorship for more than two centuries. Under the barathus' control, Roselight grew as a city invested in art and philosophy, while under the corporations, workers' right are slashed. Even at their worst excesses, the two sides turn a blind eye toward each other: the corporations control the other inhabitants' freedom but leave the barathus alone, while the barathus never look closely at industrial facilities that do not touch protected sites. The current leader of the OCI is Wiodraoe Li Ashtea, who is rumoured to have allied with the Xenowardens to undermine the corporations in the OCI to heighten barathu control, which have led to tensions between the two groups.

The Liavaran headquarters of the Stewards, the Xenowardens (called the Rose Garden) and the Starfinder Society (the Dreamer Lodge) are all located in Roselight. The Stewards are ready to be deployed anywhere on Liavara or its moons at a moment's notice, while the Xenowardens support the planet's protectorate status and oppose gas-mining companies that threaten the environment. The Aspis Consortium also maintains an office in Roselight, called Silver Drake. They claim to help police against illegal mining operations, but their office is believed to be just a cover for their own clandestine activities. While neither the barathus nor the corporations want to acknowledge the authority of the Stewards (and the Pact Worlds by extension), they also need the resources provided by the Stewards to combat dream poachers and illegal miners.

History

Roselight was founded many centuries before the Gap by the second group of barathus that arrived on Liavara, and was little more than a rest stop and seasonal camp where the barathus observed the Dreamers; it likely expanded into a proper colony during the Gap. In 57 AG, after spending decades escalating policing efforts against the poachers that entrenched on a nameless moon (which would become Upwell), the barathus formed the Office of Commercial Interests.

Roselight expanded into a true city under the leadership of Karobel Hark, CEO of Fairwinds and the first human to occupy the OCI's executive chair. Hark invested a vast fortune in house parks, theatres and museums, attracting ecologists and artists, while retrofitting barathu buildings with humanoid amenities.

People

In contrast to the harsh, industrial Upwell, Roselight centres around the aesthetics of environmentalism and peace, an attitude that hails from both barathu preservationists and rich gas barons who make their home in the city. The elite wander wide avenues, sip genetically-modified teas and tend gardens of xenoblossoms. They spend no expenses importing all kinds of artists, and Roselight's festivals, theatres, galleries, holidays and parties attract wealthy tourists. Many artists flock to Roselight in search of a rich patron, only to find themselves struggling with a thankless job until they could save enough to leave.

The miners who make their home in Roselight are a diverse lot. As social restrictions are almost non-existent and no species holds a majority of the population, life in the city is rather rough-and-tumble but surprisingly equitable, if a bit lawless and lacking in high culture. These workers who live in tiny flats in the peripheral bubbles, are forbidden from entering certain distrcts, and need a transit permit (which often comes with an exorbitant cost) to leave the city.

Since money comes easily in Roselight (to those who already have it), the true currency in the city is information. Every secret is naturally for sale, and those seeking blackmail material can easily look at Roselight's shadowy supper clubs.

Roselight's truly unique resource, which influences both art and finances, is prophecy. The barathus administer, protect, record and publish the Dreamers' song, but sell the choicest bits. Corporations bid and backstab to learn economic forecasts, while artists incorporate Dreamer songs into their creations or are inspired by their musings, movement and appearance. Mystics and the mystically-inclined also claim to hear the same songs as Dreamers do, and sell their own predictions. Divinatory practices discredited elsewhere, like astrology, are seen as legitimate in Roselight.