Two great Ladies
will catch your fall
For They are the Ones that catch us all
Their children kept Them far apart
The Lady Light, The Lady Dark
Dark broken, light storm
Dead spoken, dreams torn
And we will bring you home.
Rusta is the local name for GD 394 I, an earthlike planet in a tidally-locked orbit around a white dwarf star three weeks away from Earth via rocket. Rusta orbits GD 394 once every 300 standard Earth days. Rusta's lunar situation is rather interesting; see The Moonhanger below.
Because of its tidally-locked orbit, Rusta has a light side and a dark side. The two Sides have different political structures, and have been at war for many, many years.
The Light Side of Rusta is the side facing the sun. They thus live in eternal daylight.
The Light Side is ruled by Governor Twist, an overweight, effeminate hypochondriac of a man who is as tired of the war as anyone but worries more about his own health than about ending the war. He does nothing to improve either.
The economy on the Light Side is mostly agrarian. There are a few cities, but they are mostly commerce centers or seats of government.
Weather on the Light Side is controlled by millions of 2-meter-diameter metal spheres called regulators. They float about 50 meters in the air, and there is one about every 500 meters. They have existed for over 10,000 years. Nobody really knows who built and installed them. Because there are so many of them, some are always in need of repair. Fortunately, they are usually rather easy to fix.
As expected, the Dark Side is in eternal night. Storms rage along the border of the Light and Dark Sides, since the Dark Side has no regulators.
King Joist is the ruler of the Dark Side. He is an aging man, slightly frail but still stong-willed and well-respected.
Since little food can grow on the Dark Side, farm raids near the border of the two Sides are fairly common. They are most common near the cracks that have developed in the Wall, and dwindle to almost nothing about 15 miles away on the Light Side.
There are a few points of interest that are on the border between the two Sides:
The Wall was built about 500 years ago by Lightsiders to keep the Darksiders out. Many believe that this was the cause of the formal war that exists between the two Sides today. There are a few formal gates in the Wall, but these are heavily guarded on both sides to keep out the people on the other Side. Most travel (i.e. raiding parties) happen through the numerous cracks that have appeared in the Wall over the years.
The Keep is a massive prison, built just inside the Dark Side's borders. It holds not only Rusta's most hated criminals, but many of the rest of the Republic's most hated criminals as well.
The warden is Osh, a hulking behemoth of unknown race. He holds the position of warden because of a unique ability of his: mucus secreted from a gland in his mouth halts the aging process when ingested by another being. He is thus supremely qualified to make sure prisoners who have received prison terms of far longer than one normal lifespan live to carry out their entire terms. Fortunately for the prisoners, this mucus only needs to be ingested once every ten years.
The Seminary is where the Davids, eunuch messengers between the two Sides, live and are trained. It is also the main religious training center for all religious types on the planet. It is another massive building, built just inside the Light Side's borders.
I made this part up.
There are many smaller gates in the Wall, but there is only one Main Gate.
I need to come up with some more interesting stuff about the Gate.
I made this part up too.
The main deities on Rusta are known as The Two Ladies. One appears dressed all in black; she is The Lady Dark. Likewise, The Lady Light is dressed all in white. Both Lightsiders and Darksiders worship them both; they are almost never seen separately.
They don't seem to do much overtly; their visitations almost always come in the forms of omens, visions, dreams, and other modes prone to be confused with hallucinations.
The Moonhanger is a very mysterious figure in Rustan mythology. His relationship with The Two Ladies is unclear; some say he is their father, some say their brother, some say their lover. Most say nothing about him at all.
His main method of showing his existence is changing the number of moons Rusta has! The usual number is two (the larger one is called Jandra and the smaller, Iophenur); however, there are sometimes three, four, one, or even seven! Both Jandra and Iophenur have been the missing one at various times. It is said that the Moonhanger has never taken both moons away at the same time.
Scientists have been unable to determine where the extra moons come from, or where the two usual ones go when they disappear. There have been no scientific studies underway when one of the main ones disappear, and the only time an extra one has shown up was right before scientific equipment designed to track the moons arrived via rocket on Rusta... and it disappeared again right before the equipment was all set up. Those who follow this sort of thing believe that it was the Moonhanger's way of confounding the scientists.
I'll work on this.
The TV show is in the year 3040 AD; the game takes place in 3030 AD, ten years earlier.
One Rustan year is approximately 82% of an Earth year. Native Rustans seem to live, on average, about 200 Rustan years.