Planet Marseille

[Hokan]

Marseille is an unspoiled oceanic paradise, with no landmass rising much further than sea level. The climate on the planet is relatively mild, with polar regions only slightly cooler than the equatorial regions that receive most of the sunlight. The thick atmosphere and deep oceans are in constant motion, forming an immensely complex hydrologic cycle that contributes to the unique climatic conditions. The planet's ocean life is abundant, with numerous species unlike any other organic life forms found elsewhere in Sirius. Creatures similar to Earth's echinoderms are very widespread in the upper oceanic layers. Several species of that group contain the symbiotic bacteria that generate the substance from which a powerful stimulant called Nox is derived. The bacteria extracted from their hosts are shipped to drug laboratories in frozen form, which is the only way pure Nox can be extracted. Attempts to cultivate these bacteria in space or on other planets have all failed. The bacteria cannot survive for long without their hosts, and symbiotic echinoderms require a very complex environment to live in throughout their life cycle.

Marseille is possibly the only planet in Gallia that was colonized earlier than the Crown sanctioned. Several ocean platforms were set up before the government greenlit construction of permanent oceanic settlements. These platforms and settlements, operating in somewhat a similar vein to the Zoner freeports of Sirius, began to appear in the deeper, more remote sections of Marseille, away from the watchful eye of the Royal Police. Despite the efforts of the Police in subduing such illegal construction, the various communities survived and thrived beneath the seas, eventually forming their own provisional government in a silent secession from the Crown. Any sort of census of these "sunken cities", as the illegal platforms were called, has never been taken.

By the 620s AGS, the first legal resort platforms appeared planetside. The platforms were initially designed to serve as high class resorts with high prices and even higher quality standards. Massive, city-sized ocean liners moved from island to island. Most Gallic nobles considered Marseille their number one choice of planetside resort destination, and the resort officials quickly partnered with Cannes to provide something of a monopoly on the highest luxury in Gallia. While it was never officially confirmed, it is rumored that even the Gallic monarchs themselves visited Marseille incognito multiple times.

Marseille is home to over four dozen resort settlements on the few suitable larger islands. This is not a large number compared to some of the other resort planets, but on Marseille’s are large and versatile, providing multiple types of entertainment concentrated into a central location. The planet is also home to one of the largest surface shipyards in Sirius, producing cruise liners, yachts, and a wide variety of service ships necessary to ensure safe and reliable operation of the planet's facilities. While safety and comfort were the number one priority for companies in charge of operating Marseille's resorts, the occasional rumor of Unione Corse and other "undesirable" elements being seen at the planet’s major spaceports persists, raising concern about the actual safety of vacationing on Marseille.

In 742 AGS, the Second Gallic War reached Provence. The Battleship Arles and her attendant ships, long-charged with what was considered a “cushy” position of defending second-rate nobles on their long beach vacations, now found itself squaring off against a Council task-force headed by the Battleship Oblique. The fighting was long and arduous, a cataclysmic confrontation that left both the Arles and Oblique destroyed outright, along with most of their attached fleets. In the aftermath of the Royal Navy’s pyrrhic victory, what few Royalist forces remained quickly fled the system along with the high-ranking government officials on Marseille, effectively abandoning the system to its own devices. The resulting debris from the engagement continue to rain down onto the planet to this day, creating a humanitarian crisis all its own as the unprepared luxury resort is bombarded by the aftermath of war.

Those sunken cities would come to the aid of les Marseillais, however. As the literal fallout from the Royalist abandonment of Provence rained down on their heads, those illicit platforms hidden below the depths re-surfaced, offering humanitarian aid and support to the bleeding resort-towns. As the situation stabilized and the people turned to their new saviors, they returned with their proclamation of their independent, libertarian state - the Syndicated Minarchy of Provence. Having operated in relative peace and silence under the oceans of Marseille for the better part of a century, they now offer the only form of legitimate government to the abandoned Marseillais, one that the populace has seemingly readily accepted. They remain closely tied with the Provençal Corse, and together have extended the Minarchy’s power from the depths of Marseille to the entire system of Provence de facto.

In the chaos that engulfed Gallia following the end of the Second Gallic War, the systems of Languedoc and Dauphine also aligned themselves with the Minarchy. At the first Parisian Assembly, the Minarchy was recognized as a legitimate governing body, gaining a seat at the negotiating table with the Republique of Gallia and the Grand Duchy of Burgundy. Militarily weakest of the three Gallic splinter states, they became the first signatories of the Terms of Gallic Confederation. As such, Marseille now enjoys its status as one of the three Capital worlds of the Confederacy's constituent states.