The Origins of Maneau
A New Home (2 AF)
On Saturn’s moon of Enceladus, a group of refugees land to build their community; their sanctuary amongst the chaos of The Fall. This place to be settled is nestled within a valley surrounded by a huge fractured glacial ice field, active volcanoes which emit volatiles and condense into a dense lake of methane, carbon, ect. A constant ice storm spanning hundreds of miles across icy plains cuts them off from easily traversable terrain. And an aurora borealis lights the night sky every evening.
The colony began by preparing a hydroponic bay and settling the children into a recreation area. These buildings are climate controlled with stores of oxygen for life support and the colonists organized themselves into an egalitarian commune. Power stations were constructed to harvest lightning from the constant ice storm and a group of lesbians prepared musical theatre and plays to boost morale. An omen of good fortune, a leaf seen within the aurora was spotted the night before a strange hole appeared. One of the children, Timmy, began exploring and discovered what appeared to be some old, deactivated technology, long metallic snakes were found wrapped up within the icy walls of the hole. Once the power station was complete, the colonists began constructing a husky replication laboratory (now used to prepare new morphs). This allowed every member to have a husky if they so desired.
A meeting hall began construction alongside comfortable housing, and a medical/repair bay. However, while these projects were being undergone, a faction of synths separated from the group. They left and built shelter within the ice storm, frustrated that the bio-based colonists would not listen to their needs. Meanwhile, the mysterious hole began expanding and huskies began disappearing nightly. Over the next few months, a fuel depot was constructed, initially to prepare a weapons stockpile, but which was eventually directed to become a shipyard. Additionally, strange synthetic ice crocodiles emerged from the hole, alongside a giant head with wires coming out of it. Possibly TITAN technology, the crocodiles and head had secretly been controlling the colonists who began worshipping them, led by their spiritual leader Sylvan. Timmy was also in on it and the first year ends with an enslaved population of pets for the ice crocodiles. However, Timmy’s brother, Jimmy, began mustering support to prepare a terrorist cell and free the people from their crocodile overlords.
Maneau Today (10 AF)
Today Maneau is a cluster of domed habitats, each connected either via subsurface tunnels or domed passageways. Now the second largest settlement on Enceladus, it had a rocky start. Just after the fall, a group of refugees settled the area only to find themselves taken hostage against newly awakened synthetic crocodiles. Initially created as a secret military project, these early attempts at modifying and uplifting animals went horribly wrong. The project was abandoned and all evidence was buried underneath the ice to (hopefully) never be found again. Unfortunately, anomalous tectonic activity unearthed them and they were unleashed upon the unsuspecting refugees. It took the heroic efforts of one of the enslaved children, Jimmy, and the military support of the Titanian commonwealth to free the people.
Now, Maneau is a port city of about 1.5 million transhumans connecting the orbital habs of Saturn and the network of Bathysphere settlements scattered around Enceladus’ subsurface ocean. It is part of the Titanian Commonwealth, a direct democracy which reinvests the profits of its microcorps into socialized services. The colony’s economic output is that of a generalized cultural, industrial, and commercial hub; primarily harvesting and refining raw mineral resources and water-ice. There is also a strong community of creatives focused on the old Earth practice of “theatre” and houses laboratory offices to microcorps developing new morphs.