Kaliban

The Star Kaliban and its satellites form the Capital System of the Directorate and the seat of its power. The central planet, Kaliban IV, boasts a very high population of 13 billion people and one of the highest population densities, although there are many planets with larger numbers of inhabitants overall. The system as a whole is easily the most prosperous and populace in Directorate space, containing fully five worlds each supporting several billion humans, while a total of 11 out of its 17 planets are permanently inhabited and the remaining 6 support significant orbital infrastuructures populated by thousands of workers. Kaliban is the political, economic and ideological heart of mankind's greatest empire.

Kaliban IV [Terra Nova]
The fourth planet of the star, typically called Kaliban IV but officially named "Terra Nova" [New Earth] while the Directorate was still in its infancy, is the capital of the Kaliban System and thus the capital of the entire Directorate. This world is the new cradle of human civilization, like Earth before it, and it is here that the Directorate was formed by Terran settlers almost a millenium ago. Kaliban IV is a large, cold, high-gravity world of vast planet-spanning forests and huge freshwater lakes - it has no seas or mountain ranges. 98% of the planetary population lives in one of Kaliban's seven vast cities, named for the seven hills of Ancient Rome: each one far larger than any city on present day Earth. They are so large, in fact, that they can be seen from well outside the planet's atmosphere even on the day side. The largest metropolis is the Palantine, capital city of the Directorate and the home of several billion people. The other six cities are as follows: the Aventine, the Caelian, the Capitoline, the Esquiline, the Quirinal & the Viminal. Tradition holds that the Palatine is built upon the original landing sight of the first colonists to arrive on the planet from Earth, where the Olympus Mons complex now stands. However, this cannot be conclusively proven, as all seven cities existed when the Directorate was created and were not assigned their current names until after its creation, during a riot of renaming things in Romanesque fashion after Latin was declared the Directorate's official language.

Kaliban III [Mavortius]
Kaliban III is known as Mavortius, or "Son of Mars", for its resemblence to the 5th planet of the Sol System. It is a reddish, hot world of tempermental seas and craggy, uneven dry landscapes. Kaliban III is the seat of the Directorate Navy and its entire economy is devoted to three huge orbital shipyard complexes ringing the entire planet around its equator, called the Iron Halos. These centuries-old production yards built the first warships of the Directorate that set out to unite the Human-settled Galaxy, and continue to produce more capital ships than any other single facility in Directorate space. Kaliban III's gravity well is constantly swarming with millions upon millions of transport ships, bringing an endless stream of raw materials to feed its great foundries. Thousands of vessels, from landers and attack craft to humanity's mightiest warships, are produced here on a daily basis.

Kaliban V & Kaliban VI [Byzantium & Pompeii]
The fifth and sixth planets of the system are the sister worlds of the capital, Kaliban IV, and all three planets are extremely close together. They are so near to each other, in fact, that they exert moderate gravity upon one another and maintain near-constant positions relative to one another. In its infancy, the Directorate was able to spread colonists to these two worlds from Kaliban IV using solid fuel rockets similar to the Saturn rockets of 20th century Earth. Kaliban V and VI resemble the capital planet in many ways but are colder and have more tempermental weather. Their populations are also more spread out, as they lack the massive and deadly forests of their sister planet. Each boasts major cities of its own, thriving economies and several billion inhabitants.

Kaliban VIII [Suecia]
Suecia - which was also the Ancient Roman name for Sweden - is a large, frigid world covered almost completely in ice. Nearly the entire surface of the planet is a landscape resembling Antarctica. However, a belt of reasonably habitable - although still extremely cold and bleak - land exists around the equator, and is home to just under 3 billion permanent residents. At any given time, however, billions more are living on the planet temporarily, working in the vast heavy industrial complexes that comprise the planetary economy. Suecia is one of the Directorate's most resource rich worlds, despite having been systematically exploited since being settled just after the Directorate's founding almost a millenium prior to the current date. Suecia is one of the few Directorate planets from which the outflow of resources is as profuse and profitable as asteroid mining.