Welcome to the United Planets!

Welcome, visitor!

The United Planets is an alliance of worlds that spans the galaxy. While the UP is dedicated to peaceful coexistence, our coalition includes diverse societies with sometimes divergent values. Please review this document carefully while we decontaminate the outer hull of your time bubble.

The borderlands

These planets on the fringes of the UP  are allowed to function as social laboratories or safety vents by the UP core worlds.

Rimbor: This former mining colony has grown into a megacity that covers the entire planet. Corruption and gang activity are endemic in the raucous, profit-driven atmosphere.
Lythyl: Described by its boosters as a libertarian paradise and its critics as a slave state, this harsh planet continues to attract visitors who seek out the promised treasure at its heart.
Travel advisory: Lythyl contract law supersedes many provisions of UP sentient rights. Be careful what you sign.
Talok VIII: One of the more recent worlds to join the UP, this desert planet is divided between decadent city dwellers and traditionalist nomads. The Talokians are protected by a matrilineal line of champions dating back more than a thousand years.
Xanthu: This hypercompetitive frontier world is wild about superheroes, producing more superpowered defenders than any other planet except Earth.

The throwbacks

These worlds have rejected modernity entirely, a viable plan in a universe where magic exists (and varies heavily with local conditions).

The Sorcerors’ World: The most integrated into UP society, the Sorcerors' World serves as an academy for training mages and a haven for those whose gifts are not welcome on their homeworlds.
Avalon: This pastoral planet was recently discovered by the UP and liberated from the sorceror Mordru.
Orando: This feudal society chose to move to another dimension rather than remain in the UP after the UP failed to protect it from a supercriminal takeover.

The authoritarians

Though their internal politics have caused some consternation, these worlds are valued for the goods and services they provide to the rest of the UP.

Colu: This scientifically advanced society is run by technocrats as calculating and inflexible as the artificial intelligences who once ruled them.
Imsk: Militaristic, combative, prone to valorize hunting and warfare, and riven by internal dissent from even more militaristic separatists. Miniaturized Imskian soldiers are a terror to the enemies of the UP, but they also pose a threat to their neighbors.

The libertines

These worlds are playgrounds for the superrich and repositories for wealth produced on other planets.

Ventura: The famous casino planet where the house always wins.
Travel advisory: Contrary to earlier reports, Ventura no longer accepts Barakian living money or any other form of sentient currency.

Kathoon: A resort world whose eternal nights attract lovers and honeymooners from all over the UP.
Venegar: This tropical planet has become a vacation hotspot following the deposition of the self-proclamed "Emerald Empress."

The service worlds

These planetoids were created to fulfill functions that could not be restricted to any single member world for reasons of security or equal access.

Weber's World: This artificial planet houses much of the UP bureaucracy, moving from system to system as it is needed.
Brande's planetoid: Legendary industrialist and solarformer R.J. Brande remade this asteroid into his personal estate.
Takron-Galtos: Safely isolated from the inhabited systems, the prison planet holds the most dangerous felons in the UP.
Shanghalla: The memorial asteroid serves as the final resting place for heroes from hundreds of worlds.

The core worlds

These planets were the founders of the UP, and their societies are (or were) central to its operations. Though not without their challenges, these worlds have achieved levels of stability and prosperity that previous generations could only dream of.

Winath: The breadbasket of the UP, this agroworld's soil is as fertile as its inhabitants. Twins are the norm and sexual expression is uninhibited on this world of plenty.
Travel advisory: Many areas of Winath are clothing-optional. Signs are posted in Interlac.
Braal: Once the foundry of the UP, this industrial planet fell on hard times when the expansion of the UP slowed. Braal is now suffering from massive unemployment and experiencing significant emigration of young citizens.
Titan: The telepathic inhabitants of Saturn's largest moon are empathetic and communitarian but highly respectful of privacy. Titanians staff the UP bureaucracy and the Science Police, viewing civil service as a social good.
Daxam: Highly advanced but isolationist, especially following its attack and cooptation by ancient religious extremists. Their terraforming experiments have finally been reversed.
Naltor: The inhabitants' precognitive gifts have made this matriarchal world technologically advanced and fantastically wealthy, the center of the UP financial industry.
Earth: The homeworld, the mediator, the pluralistic society in which all these tendencies meet and were born.

Bismoll: Bismoll.


Marc Singer is professor of Ancient Literatures and Graphic Cultures at Howard University in Metropolis (Columbia Sector), Earth.