Earth
Home to nearly 10 billion people, Earth is a world in chaos.
The Nations have waned in power, but most of their citizens do not really understand the change.
The Corporations are the new rulers, but they are concerned with themselves and their Colonies;
the administration of Earth's billions means little to them.
In the gap between the power of the Nations and the will of the Corporations, society is falling apart.
Large areas of Earth have become lawless, as some Nations have lost the ability to control their own citizens.
Ethnic, religious, and social minorities have seceded from many of the weaker Nations, and have established their own small states.
Wealth and social status on Earth range from the most desperate poverty and oppression in history to unprecedented levels of riches and power.
Those who rule the Corporations have every possible trapping of wealth, including mansions, resorts, travel, obedient servants, private armies and more.
They even have vast numbers of people to feel superior to: the masses of Earth.
Beyond the Corporate preserves and the houses of the rich, there are many millions of people who live uneasy middle-class lives in a world with few certainties.
And next to their simple communities, surrounding the places where they work, are the dispossessed;
billions of people who work at menial jobs or survive on government subsidies, or who prey on others.
The range of social environments on Earth makes it an ideal place for role-playing adventures.
Players can move quickly from contacts with rich Corporate personnel into the harsh streets, where poverty, squalor, roving gangs, and sudden violence are common.
The possible duties for Starmarines1) (or jobs for Mercenaries and other Character groups) are endless.
There are areas in civil chaos, where it might be vital to restore order or to evacuate special personnel or equipment, while other areas operate under complete fascism and the Characters would face entirely different challenges.
Many ethnic groups and fringe religions have established their own small nations, sometimes with Corporate backing, and the safety of people and facilities in those areas could easily be imperiled.
There are even areas where there is no law;
where local wars have erased all government and the Nation or Nations who own the land have given up on the attempt to administrate.
Worlds [20200.1.3.9]
