Sansterre: History

5167-5250AD Stability

The period of well-managed growth went on long after the original colonisation plan was complete. The controlled society on Sansterre, with its carefully designed checks and balances lasted for centuries. Society evolved its own safety valves.

For example, the game of rollerball was invented. Based upon a game portrayed in a 20th Century work of fiction, it had violence and conflict and soon became hugely popular.

Sansterre never went through a low technology period. The rigours of its unique environment required technology for the maintenance of everyday life. In the early years a great deal of reliance was put on material which had been imported from Amondiage. Within a few decades a respectable local manufacturing capability had developed.

The Seeds of Conflict

As the population of the colony grew, the council began to find it harder and harder to maintain strict discipline. Dissatisfaction amongst the youth of the colony began to turn into a real problem. Gangs became established, and violent crime began to spiral out of control. The Council’s response was to become more and more authoritarian.

By now, population growth meant that the Council was finding it hard to maintain control over its widely scattered citizens. Boat technology had developed sufficiently that a family group could disappear into the vastness of the World-ocean and not return for generations.

Whales

Several species of huge reptile live in Sansterre’s oceans. The largest can be up to a hundred metres in length. The earliest colonists had never seen such large creatures; the largest animal on Amondiage is a herbivore about the size of an Earth horse.

Before long, many nomads were living in the wake of the whale; following the migratory paths of the mighty beasts. Like their Earth namesakes, the whales of Sansterre provided the nomads with many of their needs. Meat for eating, leather for clothes and even sail cloth, blubber for fuel and lubrication, sinews for ropes and lines, teeth and bones for tools and construction. Moreover, the nomad fishermen came to trust the whales’ intuition regarding shoals of fish.

The whales of Sansterre are so similar to the whales of Earth that they even sing to each other over distances of thousands of kilometres. Nomads have developed acoustic signalling systems based on the whale song.