Ketenio Island Preserve

The Largest Island in the Northern Rim Archipelago, isolated by 70 nautical miles from the closest land mass. The total area of Ketenio is 138553.25 square kilometers.

The only structures known to the public are non-invasive monitoring cameras with highly efficient photosolar* panels to power them.

The entirety of the island is a Nature Preserve completely off-limits to all but Emergency Rapid Response teams and scientists maintaining the cameras. There is a small floating platform housing research and operations consisting of around 120 people about 8km off the northeast coast.

Lake Green was discovered here and then taken and grown on the island of Reitoru in New Cascade.

*A lab-grown semi-biological solar panel that uses an accelerated photo synthesis process to both sustain itself and power batteries/units.

While Jaladri may resemble Earth sometimes, the differences vastly outnumber these occurrences.

Many aspects of life on-world are very weird, some things are approaching the paranormal, depending on your opinion.

Rather than suppress this information, Leaders on Jaladri choose to just mundanely release it with all other bulletins/studies/announcements, albeit buried under boring bureaucratic data.

Of course there are many people who are fascinated by these findings, there are even communities who dedicate vast portions of their time to cataloging and archiving this information.

This gave way to a bit of on-world slang. The official designation of these findings is "Esoteric Misc". The community adapted this into a simple word: Eso.

Eso Waypoints are colloquially referred to as areas of known anomalies.

Jaladri's Landmass is almost entirely composed from the northwestern portion of a massive crater covering nearly 2/3rds of the planet which forms an extensive archipelago shaped like a broad crescent moon. The majority of this crater is submerged. The rest of the planet is almost exclusively oceanic. Hundreds of small islands dot the extremities of the land masses as a result of the extremely active volcanic nature of Jaladri.

Reitoru is the most populated and developed Island on the planet. Named after Earth's Reitoru ( or Te Pirehi) Atoll of the Tuamotu Archipelago in French Polynesia.

The First Landing occurred here in 1939. Reitoru Skyport was built on the footprint of the original space dock JP42 or "The Blue Incredible"*

The busiest Skyport in the area, Reitoru boasts massive industrial and commerce facilities as well as clean, cozy, and efficient civilian reception.

"The Blue Incredible" is a nickname given to the original space dock at First Landing. Located in the East side of New Cascade, it is still in use today. A Terrain Guidance Marshall, Ridge Nagata, aboard the ES La Brea chose the area for the First Landing based on proximity to the water, and easement of land. Upon breaking the atmosphere and finally seeing the ocean beneath them, Ridge's first comments on his comms rec were simply "that....is an incredibly blue ocean". This recording became somewhat of a national treasure as it was broadcast all over Earth. Ridge Nagata was given the honor of naming the body of water that encompassed the entire inner curve of the archipelago's crescent. He named it The Ocean Nagaoka, after his grandfather's friend, Physicist Hantaro Nagaoka, who had inspired him as a child and whom he credits for his interest in space. Nagaoka was previously honored with the name of a lunar impact crater on earth's moon named after him.

The abundant and profitable nature of a planet like Jaladri means that it's an area rife for corporate espionage. The most strict and severe laws protect the entire natural world of Jaladri as well as its human inhabitants. Device Security stations provide x-ray, thermal, and biological screening to Skyports, Transit Centers, and most buildings.

The emphasis is focused on keeping any non-authorized natural material from getting off-world. The only weapons on-world are non lethal, however there is a small detachment of drop troops located on a construction platform orbiting the planet. Malefactors such as The Mare Nubium Syndicate necessitate the presence of an Orbital Guardian Station.

Jaladri was once a much larger planet with no moons. Roughly 3.8 Billion years ago, much like Earth, Jaladri was impacted by a meteor that split the planet in pieces. The largest remained Jaladri and over time formed oceans over it's decimated surface while it began to "rebuild" itself through volcanic activity. The second largest piece became Jaladri's estuary moon Makahoa. The last piece remaining in orbit became the small foggy ocean moon Yūrei.

There are research stations and a small town on Makahoa. The only large facilities on the moon are Earth Bee Sanctuaries which enabled the complete repopulation of pollinators on Earth. Large shipments of mineral rich soil were brought to orbiting farm stations at first to bring quality fruit and vegetables to Earth, and then to facilitate research on more robust versions of our familiar flora to bolster Earth's wounded ecosystem and rekindle farming operations.

In 1986, surveying began for a large-scale, low-environmental impact operation in order to grow Lake Green in larger quantities for shipment to earth. Construction of an orbiting processing and shipping platform was started in 1992.

Amazingly, there are thousands of edible fruits, vegetables, nuts, and grains growing natively on Jaladri. Agrarian zones are meticulously researched to be placed in areas with sources of water, ample rain, plenty of sun, and natural irrigation , permitted only to grow species which are naturally abundant in the area.

Because of these parameters, Agrarian Zones are almost always very remote, and have strict guidelines to be followed.

Jaladri is powered 100% by solar, tidal, and wind energy. Pollution is verboten. However, before this infrastructure was in place, a massive solar array was built in orbit around the planet. "The Solar Brake" ("It Slows Down The Sun For Us!”) supplied the surface with power for 8 years while material was shipped and printed to build basic wind and solar complexes on-world.

Present day, it is used to power electric short range craft supplying the moons and orbital platforms.

Earth's Moon was colonized over the span of 2 decades between 1895 and 1915. By 1973, over 900k people, a major city and a neighboring smaller city occupied the planetoid.

Post Great War America was a very divided place. Those resistant to the unification of the planet joined with similar groups from the globe to form their own separate nation. Through the early 1900s they operated closer in resemblance to a megacorporation unbound by the environmental and social laws of the New Union. This megacorp was the primary benefactor of rapid moon colonization and had a monopoly on all moon-based commerce. Baronessa, the primary city on Earth Moon, has been compared to a post Great War, East Los Angeles.

The Mare Nubium Syndicate is a conglomerate of existing organized crime from Earth. Deeply entrenched in the corporate and political world, they are considered to be the prime threat to continuing the positive growth of the human race in the context of post war Earth.

The idea of "illicit substances" is a bit more confusing on Jaladri. Both on-world, and on Earth, natural substances are entirely legal. Psilocybin, Cannabis, Kava, and even a less processed form of Cocaine are all widely accepted and used. If anything, alcohol is probably the most frowned upon, while remaining legal. Among "eradicated" substances (on Earth), you can find opioids, heroin, dirty psychedelics, lab drugs, etc.

Medical advancement has eliminated the need for traditional pain killers as this can be alleviated at the cellular level almost instantly. The euphoric high of drugs like heroin and opioids never seemed to lose their fans. Over the years these substances were concentrated, perfected, and catered towards recreational use by shadow industries.

Modern day Jaladri (1994) is now at the point in it's human history where original colonists are now in their 3rd generation of family. There is enough economic and mental diversity in the population for The Mare Nubium Syndicate to find profit in the smuggling of illegal drugs.

People on Earth are fascinated by Jaladri. A literal paradise, a whole new "Earth" to explore. The planet is the subject of countless books, publications, movies, documentaries, and more.

However, those outside of corporations, researchers, scientists, and industry workers can not simply travel to Jaladri. Conversely, the majority of the population of Jaladri have never been to Earth.

Journalists make frequent trips to the planet. After extensive background screening and clearance level changes they are allowed on planet for no more than ten (10) weeks. Jaladri Leaders do not suppress any information or control the narrative, but journos are tagged and monitored and like everybody from Earth, have to pass Device Security upon entry and exit to Jaladri. The same rules apply to film crews, approved tourist pods, etc.

Imagine your local corner store, bodega, cassette station, or mini mart. Now imagine that is where you go to get your legal drugs…and organic groceries.

Nature shops are everywhere in Jaladri. Most people like to relax at the end of their day with a lozenge, a mushi microdose, or maybe an Indica Inhaler. Natural narcotics are all legal on Jaladri with a caveat. You are only allowed 3 "doses" a day. All "transactions" are tied to your ID lanyard. If you work the night shift, you are permitted to obtain Natural Narcotics in the morning when you get off, but not at night before work. And vice versa.

The same system is used for all natural, un-printed foods. There is no currency required for natural food or medicine. Just Employee Credits and Daily Allotments. Amounts are adjusted for families and multi-person households. Nobody wants for anything on Jaladri. Except illegal drugs and banned foods. (animal products)

Of course people have jobs and duties. This system was put in place to work in tandem with strict policies and laws protecting the natural wonder and long term stability of Jaladri.

Allotments are only required for things that grow in the ground. Everything else you can buy with credit or make at home including food, clothes, home cleaning and personal items, or if a different format is needed, stop by your local Print and Replication Center.

Cryosleep is rough. There have been advancements made, but it still isn't a perfect system. The ES La Brea, the first ship to land on Jaladri, took 7 years to get there traveling at the rough equivalent of the speed of a lightning strike. Current transit time (one-way) is roughly 2 years.

Some people wake up completely fine as though it was a normal night's sleep. Most people have mild "hangover" symptoms including sore muscles, headaches, nausea etc. Unlucky individuals sometimes require a medically induced coma to cope through severe symptoms.

On-World Acclimation is a part of any arrival to Jaladri. It’s a comfy and clean area where you can stay a couple hours, or a few days, depending on your exam.

Just because the planet "resembles Earth" does not take away from the fact that it's an entirely different world, a multitude of lightyears away.