Eridani Federation
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The Sovereign Solarian Nation of the Corporate Federation of Eridani, often referred to as the Eridani Corporate Federation or simply Eridani, is a decentralized corporatocracy set in the Epsilon Eridani system. While nominally part of the greater Sol Alliance as a whole, the Federation’s corporate government enjoys an unprecedented level of autonomy compared to other Solarian member states; very few of the Federation government’s policies align with those of the greater Solarian nation. Renowned and reviled across the Spur for the efficacy of its expansive private military concerns and controversial treatment of its own citizenry, the Eridani Federation has become something of a pariah state in galactic affairs. Its three inhabited worlds boast some of the highest population density anywhere in the Spur, with tens of billions of inhabitants calling the Federation their home.
REGION - JEWEL WORLDS | ||
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This location is centered in the Jewel Worlds region. | ||
Centered in the heart of the Sol Alliance and largely safe from any common galactic dangers, the Jewel Worlds are the pride of Humanity to some, and a massive bane to others. Here is where the first colonization from Humanity arose, and where the Interstellar War was powered, producing an extremely polarized mindset against it amongst the Colonial territories. Nearly sixty billion Humans can be found here with an undetermined amount of aliens. Among the Jewel Worlds are the entirety of the Sol star system, Epsilon Eridani, New Hai Phong, and Silversun. The Jewel Worlds possess two bluespace gates, one from Sol to Konyang - which is in the process of being dismantled - and another from Epsilon Eridani to Qerrbalak.
Earth, Venus, Luna, Mars, Jupiter, Pluto, New Hai Phong, Silversun, and the planets of the Eridani Federation are considered Jewel Worlds. |
As Epsilon Eridani was originally settled by colonists of West and Central African descent, human characters born in the Eridani Corporate Federation must have names and appearances consistent with the indigenous peoples of these regions, as any human moving to the ECF would assimilate into the dominant cultures and ethnic groups of the Federation. Eridani dregs have developed cultures of abstract or unconventional names, however, and this is tolerated. Only native Eridanians may select the Eridanian accents – employing the suit slang is how a non-native worker might look to integrate, not the accent tag in-game. This is enforceable by server moderators and admins.
History
Originally colonized in 2095 by settlers from the West African Union (UAO), the near-Sol system of Epsilon Eridani stood out as a prime location for early extrasolar settlement. The UAO secured the foundation of the Eridani Federation in 2095 when it secured the sole rights to colonize the Epsilon Eridani system. Most Eridanian Suits are descended from the West African settlers of the UAO’s colonial program, and the Federation maintains warm relations with the UAO to this very day. Modern Eridanian Tradeband is descended from French and some indigenous languages found in West Africa. The UAO has longstanding ties with Hephaestus Industries, which contributed greatly to its colonization effort of Eridani I-- the first planet in Epsilon Eridani. Colonization of the system continued through the assistance of Zeng-Hu Pharmaceuticals, who loaned genetically modified crops to the UAO in exchange for rights to build labs and construct research facilities on Eridani III. This business deal progressed into long-term development of Eridani III and the system as a whole as Zeng-Hu money was used to develop genetic research projects on the planet. Presently, the UAO maintains a very close economic relationship with the Eridani Corporate Federation, though politically they have drifted apart over cultural differences, with many citizens in the UAO decrying the ECF’s treatment of the Dreg Underclass and the eradication of almost all West African culture that may have once existed in the ECF.
Government
Eridani’s government is largely represented by the Board of Five - five representatives from various megacorporations. Each seat in the Board is tied to a sector, which the chairman’s corporation has full control over. Presently, however, all of the five sectors only include one planet. The positions in the Board are simply purchased, but they also stay extremely consistent because it takes a 4 to 1 majority to dismiss a member, opening the position up for sale - the current arrangement of seats hasn’t changed since the 23rd century. Sector Alpha is considered the most valuable, and its seat is the most expensive, and sector Epsilon is the least valuable of the five.
Sector α (Eridani I) - Hephaestus Industries
Sector β (Eridani II) - Zeng-Hu Pharmaceuticals
Sector γ (Eridani III) - Zeng-Hu Pharmaceuticals
Sector δ (Eridani IV) - Einstein Engines
Sector ε (Eridani V) - Einstein Engines
Eridani is by far the most autonomous nation within the Sol Alliance and was exempt from the bevy of anti-megacorporation legislation and actions passed in the wake of the Sol Collapse of 2462. This is due to the odd, esoteric status that the Eridani Corporate Federation has in Solarian Law. The Federation is independent from Sol in almost all matters aside from foreign policy, however is technically a sovereign solarian nation like many others in the Alliance. A near-endless rabbithole of bureaucracy and contracts seek to ensure this, with Eridani’s current status being guaranteed by hundreds of pieces of legislation between itself and Sol, a tactic which seeks to ensure that if Sol wishes to revoke any of Eridani’s privileges they must go through a very time consuming process of nullifying hundreds of contracts and agreements rather than only a few.
Population and Planets
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With tens of billions of inhabitants strewn across five inhabited worlds, the most striking thing about an Eridanian citizen’s daily life is how little variation there is. Eridani’s five worlds are all but indistinguishable from one another at ground level; a citizen could be plucked from one of their smog-choked cityscapes and dropped into another without noticing much more than a change in the local gravity. Extensive and heavy-handed terraforming has rendered each of Eridani’s planets monotone but perfectly habitable, imposing upon their biospheres a carefully curated environment free from undue weather patterns of extreme temperatures. These "office worlds" are perhaps what Eridani is most famous for aside from the subcultures of its people.
The sheer scale of urban development that has come after Eridani's colonization, however, has had a profound effect on the terraforming project’s success. After two centuries of runaway construction and the unregulated exploitation of Eridani’s natural resources, the atmosphere of each respective world is heavy with smog, which clings close to ground level in a soupy mass of various colors. Across the surfaces of each world, skyscrapers rise out of the thick fog into the inky blackness of the sky above, their colossal air-conditioned interiors providing a breathable atmosphere to their citizenry. The pollution of Eridani’s worlds has eclipsed even that of New Hai Phong, and outdoor work is now pursued exclusively by robotic workers or those without any other option.
The Eridanian skyscraper, therefore, has become more than just a workplace for the Federation’s citizenry. Formally known as ‘habitation units’, they incorporate residential floors and areas alongside office complexes and call centers, ensuring that the Eridanian citizen has no theoretical need to ever leave their building of birth. The habitation units themselves are further organized into megacorporate ‘cities’, generally held and owned in their entirety by one specific corporate subsidiary. Work is generally just one elevator ride away from an employee’s living and leisure space, which maximizes productivity for the corporation at the top of the chain. The Federation’s focus on so-called corporate ‘non-jobs’ has drawn increasing criticism over the past decades, but as the population continues to sprawl across the grey, drab surfaces of each Eridanian world, the crushing weight of office bureaucracy continues to expand. At the base of these city-structures are often cities in themselves, living and breathing communities cobbled together out of maintenance shafts and tunnels created or inherited by Eridani's dreg population. These areas are notoriously hazardous, with sources of danger being both their ramshackle environments and the less savory inhabitants of Eridani's lawless undercities.
While almost entirely indistinguishable at a cursory glance, the various worlds of Eridani do have some things that stand out about them.
Eridani II
Eridani III
Eridani IV
Eridani V
The Dembele Cloud
Society
Each individual planet is practically under the free reign of its respective corporation. Unbound by law, megacorps can conduct any business - no matter how unethical, as they have to respond to nobody. This has a dramatic effect on an average Eridanian’s life - and not solely negative. Many research facilities are set up here, in the heart of corporate activity. Upcoming products are tested and enjoyed here first, and some of them don’t even leave Eridanian borders. Many Eridanians relish in this luxury and exclusivity.
Going up the corporate ladder, however, other difficulties start to arise in the life of a typical Eridanian. Corporations having absolute control over its citizens means that there is absolutely no privacy - everything that one does is collected as data, and then processed by advertisers, HR managers and law enforcement. Even a slightly odd Extranet search may earn one quite an unpleasant talk at work, which may often end in an employee’s dismissal. Because of this, most Eridanian citizens avoid even slightly falling out of the norm, being lawful as well as visually and verbally inoffensive - though transgressions are increasingly overlooked the wealthier or the more well-connected one is.
Work is also extremely easy to find, and often it pays somewhat better than average, even when working for the same corporation, in other governments. This, however, is often compensated by absurd working hours. Burnout and high blood pressure are common medical issues amongst standard citizens of the federation because of this, and a cultural epidemic of stimulant abuse runs rampant amongst the population, dreg or citizen.
Of course, there are people who also choose to go to the surface simply out of spite towards the large corporations. They usually become the leaders of various criminal communities found all across the Federation. These communities often form settlements underground, or if they are especially lucky, in abandoned buildings or manufacturing plants. Some are welcoming to newcomers while others are fiercely territorial and even violent. A sense of rebelliousness is a common ideal in these settlements within the Eridanian undercity, with many choosing or being convinced to express it with outrageous appearances, extreme body modifications, and even criminal activity. This life, however, is not fit for everyone - and those who aspire to better things often leave their communities or Eridani itself via smuggling operations or try to reintegrate back into Eridanian corporate society by trying to find megacorporation work or even going as far as to attempt to return to the corporate class culturally.
Eridanian Citizens
Known as Suits to the rest of the Spur, the life of a model Eridanian citizen is simple and regulated. Work takes place six days a week for ten hours a day, with an employee’s income carefully balanced against their expenditure to ensure little to no upward mobility. Prices in Eridani are controlled on an individual level, and everything is paid for in the great Solarian credit. An employee’s consumption of every resource is monitored by the state’s vast surveillance apparatus; the food they eat, the fluids they drink, and the air they breathe are all accounted for and deducted accordingly from their pay. The elevator one rides to work each day comes with a charge, and so does the electricity they use at their workstation. Jobs are frequently mind-numbing and unimaginative; data entry, call centre work, and other rote tasks are emblematic of the Eridanian ‘career path’. Unsatisfactory performance leads to penalties imposed, automatically or otherwise, by an employee’s superiors – in extreme cases, a worker’s contract may even be terminated outright, resulting in expulsion from the habitation unit onto the smog-choked concrete outside.
Despite the corporate and work-focused lifestyles of Eridani suits, there is a great value placed on socialization in Eridani Suit society. People who do not socialize and only work are seen by Eridani society as shut-ins with poor networking skills and are often passed up for promotion because of that stigma. Conversely, those who can demonstrate themselves as not only diligent workers but also as charismatic business partners are welcomed in Eridani’s corporate landscape for their abilities to make connections and potentially make sales or deals on their personal magnetism. Talking about work in these off-work social situations is frowned upon as being poor form, but realistically, many social interactions be they parties, dinners, or social visits are at least in part motivated by a sense of advancing one’s prospects in business. Practically speaking as well, having connections and friendships means a Suit may have more methods to solve any business or life-related problems that may arise, and as such, they are keen to build these bridges. An unexpected side-effect of this is that romantic relationships within the workplace are far more common than in other systems. Despite this, workplace romance is still considered heavily forbidden when on the clock, and even using a nickname for your partner could land you a meeting with your supervisor. Suit families are often tightly knit organizations which center around specific departments in the megacorporations where they work, and having children is something that is usually subsidized and encouraged by the corporate authorities of Eridani. Maternity and paternity leave are granted to parents that have children, with the rationale being that children mean more future workers for Eridani’s corporate economy.
Augmentation is encouraged at every level of society, and even the most body-purist of Eridanian citizens can sometimes be found with an ocular overlay laid behind one or both eyeballs. Due to a lack of regulatory control, advertisements are often invasive and incessant – the fee to opt-out is generally so prohibitive that buying the product outright would cost less, and a user’s augmentations are often used as a vehicle to deliver adware directly into an employee’s field of view or hearing. Augmentations are frequently discounted, offered as grants, or subsidized by the employing corporation (although the cost is always recouped down the line), as each new piece of metal or silicon installed in a worker is another part of them open to more state control. The private military sector is one of the heaviest investors in augmentation technology – free from undue regulation and ethical constraints, the Eridanian model of war as a business has led to the Federation leading the Spur in the field of combat augmentation. Subsidized augments are typically of exactly the grade required to increase performance, with corporations making bulk purchases to save on cost and augmentation of at least some degree being nearly universal among Eridani’s Suit population.
Eridanian Non-Citizens
Aside from the Federation’s official citizenry, however, a sizable minority population of billions of non-citizens live outside the confines of the crushing corporate system. Referred to as Dregs by the Spur at large, the term has been co-opted by many as a badge of honor rather than a pejorative. Whether an individual was born outside the great Eridanian skyscrapers or sent there following the loss of their job, Dreg society is the polar opposite of their Suit counterpart. Without corporate control or any form of governance from the Eridanian state itself, the Dregs largely inhabit their own sprawling, slum-like conurbations all across the surface of Eridani’s terrestrial worlds. Categorizing their form of governance is impossible, as the disposition and inclinations of one Dreg community can be strikingly different from those of its neighbors. Anarchist communes, miniature despotisms, and even some functional democracies have spread themselves from Eridani I to Eridani V, and the Dreg world now consists of an immeasurable number of unrecognized micro-states, all of which are mostly ignored by the central Eridanian authorities. The attitude of each of these micro-states can vary considerably, as can the attitude of each corporate ‘city’ towards their officially unrecognized neighbors. Some Dreg and corporate communities are known to engage in limited cooperation, however uneasy; some others, however, are engaged in all-out bloody warfare to undermine or eradicate the other. Naturally as corporations fight one another, so have Dregs been known to.
The life of the ‘average’ Dreg, therefore, contrasts sharply with that of their Suit counterpart. The air is thick with smog, technology is often backwards and archaic, and independent observers estimate life expectancy to be somewhere in the low forties as a mean average, with dregs dying between their twenties and sixties on average. This has led to older dregs being rarer, and respected for surviving so long. Even so, living outside the hellish Eridanian corporate system comes with its own invaluable upsides – Dregs enjoy personal liberty the likes of which very few Suits will ever see, and passage off-world is (ironically) much easier to secure for many Dregs to acquire than a Suit under constant, crushing surveillance. What little remains of the colonists’ native African culture is kept alive in Dreg communities across Eridani, and although much of it has diverged significantly from what the Africans originally brought to the system, it often forms a important aspect of life in Dreg society, as well as acting as a symbol of defiance against the oppressive, corporate non-culture the authorities look to enforce. Some dregs have sought to economically become people once again though have still kept their Dreg culture and have landed jobs with megacorporations and regained their citizenship, though almost all of these positions are low-level or hazardous.
Unlike the professionally-focused lifestyles of the corporate suits, dregs are known to form close families of either blood family or found family. Family comes before all in dreg communities, and it’s not uncommon for extended family up to one’s cousin to live under the same roof in compound-like shanty homes. These homes might consist of a central courtyard as well as rooms around the edges, with families eating in the courtyard.The only thing that could possibly even hope to match family bonds are community bonds, with even gangs typically helping their immediate community regardless of their known brutality. Recruitment for gangs happens most often inside of these community bubbles as a result. While individual communities are very close and work well as units, Dreg communities are usually suspicious of other dreg communities and are known to be fiercely territorial. Gang warfare or even low-intensity armed conflicts between dreg settlements isn’t unheard of as they vie for the limited resources found in the Eridanian underbelly. This has led to the suit stereotype of depicting Dregs as violent criminals who will even kill members of their own class, though of course suits are also known to kill each other in “extralegal business disputes.”
Similarly to suits, dregs will usually take their augmentation seriously, having an even closer bond to their roboticist and rarely picking a new one unless it would be geographically impossible to return. Due to outward migration by Dregs, either through smuggling or legal travel after a dreg has reobtained citizenship, this attitude is fairly well known in roboticist circles and is regarded with either charm or suspicion, depending on the attitude of the roboticist.
Non-citizen Dregs cannot be employed on the Horizon due to the SCC refusing to employ them, however characters who are culturally Dregs or from Dreg communities who also hold Eridani Citizenship are employed by the SCC. Even if a Dreg is born a non-citizen they automatically obtain citizenship in Eridani by simply getting a job with a megacorporation. This does not mean they have been Reinstated as they have not re-embraced the Suit culture. This means that all canon player-made Eridani Dreg characters played on the Horizon who do not possess a citizenship of another country or faction are Eridanian Citizens.
The Reinstated
While the concept of social mobility is a largely foreign one to Eridanian society, it is not entirely absent. Some Eridanians who have lost their citizenship and the privilege of being a Suit or who were born into the status of a Dreg, have actively sought out ways to gain a better status in society once again, or for many, for the first time. Becoming “Reinstated,” is a long and arduous process that many fail at despite their hardest efforts. Going from a Dreg to a Suit requires a corporate sponsor and extensive background checks along with sensitization programs aimed at stripping any reinstatement candidate of any Dreg-like behaviors, names, customs, and speech patterns. A certain accent is even taught to Eridanian Dregs wishing to return to Suit life and culture. Even if a Dreg completes these programs, many of which are paid for out of pocket, their reinstatement is still not assured. The only way for a Dreg to become reinstated as part of the Suit class is to obtain employment with one of the megacorporations which govern the ECF and advance beyond a low-level position.
Reinstateds are their own class within Eridani, but also have intrinsic links to both Suits and Dregs. Many Dregs see Reinstateds as traitors to the Dreg communities where they came from or resided after their first falls from grace. Reinstateds are considered betrayers of their families and communities and those who even attempt to seek reinstatement are treated like pariahs by their communities. Violence against Dregs seeking to become reinstated from other Dregs is not unheard of and Reinstatement is a process that is greatly discouraged by Dreg society. On the other hand, the Suit view of Reinstateds is mixed. Some see Reinstateds as not genuine Suits or as people who live up to the standards of what Suit life requires. They see them as better than Dregs but certainly not their equals. Others though see Reinstateds as paragons of the hard work, self-motivation, and cutthroat attitude needed to survive in Eridani’s society and actively welcome them into their social circles and business partnerships. While debated in its truthfulness, a stereotype of Reinstateds among Eridanian suits are their risky investment strategies and business techniques that thrive in high-risk, high-reward situations and markets.
Partially because of their past-lives as Dregs, many Reinstateds are employed by private investigative firms or security companies specializing in policing dregs or working with them in the numerous Eridanian undercities. Other Reinstateds have found themselves working as Engineers or Mechanics due to the lives of many dregs involving technology or machinery of some sort courtesy of the entirely urbanized wasteland where Dregs live and from where Reinstateds have left. Becoming reinstated does not just mean that a dreg finds a job with a megacorporation, it is returning to the fold to be a part of the corporate or "Suit" society of Eridani.
Synthetics
Due to both the costs of living and the lack of any laws governing the self-purchase of synthetics, the majority of legal IPCs in circulation are property. Within the upper echelons of Eridani society, synthetics are recognized as property with the ideas of synthetic rights being found mostly in the lower levels of the megacities. Due to this, free-thinking and non-subservient IPCs tend to stand out within the cities.
Synthetics are used by the companies to cater to a wide set of needs such as customer service, logistics, and even traffic. These IPCs are often used as a showcase for the latest products, with Shell and Bishop receptionists and Mobility Frame traffic officers being the most visible additions to the labor force.
IPC personnel are commonplace in Eridani with high-end leisure and entertainment establishments, including the famous Asmara, being known to operate IPC employees. Informally, synthetics are viewed as a contest with corporations participating in an unspoken competition to surpass the other in terms of the beauty and service that their IPCs can provide. Critics often proclaim that the quality and innovation of an Eridani-made IPC is surpassed only by that of their Venusian counterparts.
Synthetics exist in the lower levels of Eridani as well. They are often used by and against dregs, performing tasks that would be harmful for a human on the polluted surface of the planet. Owing to these capabilities, IPCs still constitute as luxury goods in the lower levels, often being smuggled for sale to Dreg communities or to be sold as parts. Synthetics that manage to acquire their freedom commonly find themselves joining gangs to protect themselves from repossession or disassembly, or forming gangs of their own, the most notable types being the Scrappers.
Augmentation
Suit Augments
Cybernetic modification is an integral part of Eridani’s cultural ideal. Simple tracheal augments are usually the first and the mildest step into augmentation, as they are needed for a lot of people to simply survive with Eridani’s thoroughly polluted air. Having other bionic enhancements is considered a symbol of wealth and prestige. Most electronics in the Federation are specifically designed to interact with augmented eyes - but they are also very functional on their own. A typical Eridanian eye implant can completely replace, or even surpass, a typical hand terminal in functionality - being used to browse the Extranet, communicate on chat relays, and more. As is typical for Eridanian technology, it is also swarmed with ads and is proven to constantly send data about the user’s activity to advertisers, making them somewhat unpopular outside the Federation. Augmentation is so tailored to the workplace in corporate society that people often find difficulty retraining if made redundant, as their augments will have to be replaced in order to suit their new job title. This adds a steep financial barrier to changing professions, and works to prevent upwards mobility without corporate sponsors. In extreme examples, hands may be given an extra finger in order to increase typing speed on legacy systems, at the cost of removing much of their dexterity for other tasks such as handwriting. These augments are often removed by the time the corporate citizens are able to find work outside of Eridani, being seen as too unsightly and off putting to clients. In some cases, synthskin is a requirement for reassignment to certain regions of the spur.
Dreg Augments
Dreg societies take the Eridanian fascination with augmentation technology to an extreme. While a typical Corporate may have no more than an augmented respiratory system, bionic eyes and a few neural implants, a Dreg may maim themselves to replace their flesh with superior, more durable metal - often at the expense of looking presentable. Sleek eye augmentations are removed from former workers by barely qualified surgeons to be replaced with crude prosthetics that do not aim to imitate the human form, but to simply provide functionality - often being, for example, completely filled with one color, or having colored scleras. The more brave may opt into removing their limbs for a metal replacement, which is often made “in the house”, with lower quality parts but higher maintainability. Dregs in general are largely proponents of “right to repair” when it comes to prosthetics, shunning branded augments in favor of ones that can be repaired at home or by their favorite roboticist. Function over form is another one of the more unusual ideologies of dreg augmentation, with dregs often caring little about how attractive their augments are so long as they outperform their original limb. As such, dreg roboticists have gained a rightful reputation for making insane or seemingly random choices with their parts lists that give their augments a unique charm, creating a niche market of enthusiasts who share a mindset. Simultaneously though, these creations have led to the creation of a stigma around Dreg mechanists in some circles which paints them as uneducated and mentally unstable people who should not be trusted with something as important as prosthetics or IPC repairs.
Eridani Federation Life
Food
Eridanian cuisine has a wrongfully gained reputation of being extremely soy based, to the point of caricatures of Eridanian figures often depicting them holding some form of soy based product. Despite this stereotype, this is not entirely true. While Eridanian cuisine as a whole typically makes heavy use of soy based products, other ingredients make up as much of a staple of the Eridanian diet as much as soy does. Plantains, tofu, farmed fish, yams, beans and rice are all staple ingredients of Eridanian cuisine both due to their ease of growth in a hydroponics heavy society as well as the cultural roots of the system as a whole. A major method of cooking is frying, with Eridanians being known to fry anything that can fit in the pan and even some things that can’t, being served with the everpresent soy. Some famous dishes from Eridani include:
- Puff-puffs, a fried dough ball with a crunchier outside than a donut. These are typically cooked in a pool of oil at the bottom of a pan, however the Eridanian version differs from tradition by adding ground ginger instead of the traditional pepper. Whether it’s acceptable to dip puff-puffs in synthetic cream is still a subject of fierce debate amongst all Eridanians.
- Fufu dumplings with soup, the dumplings are made of pounded plantains and shaped into a ball to be served alongside soup. The soups might contain any number of vegetables, but traditional meats from their earther counterparts are replaced with shrimp, tofu or yam.
- Joloff rice, long grain rice fried in groundnut oil with tomatoes, onions and hot peppers. Again fish and meat substitutes make an appearance here. The dish is a favorite amongst all due to the ease of cooking and the fact that it can be made in one pot.
Of course, not all food is made the same in Eridani. The communal lifestyle of Dregs lends itself better to creating these dishes in more traditional ways, however ingredients or food as a whole can often be scarce in the cutthroat Eridani underbelly. As a result, fresh food and traditional dishes are usually reserved for special occasions like birthdays and holidays, with the majority of the Dreg diet being composed of easy to produce and store soy-based foodstuffs. Suits often spend so much of their day at work that it’s preferred to buy their meals either ready or pre-prepared from a machine rather than home cooked. Learning to prepare ingredients and cook is often a skill that makes a Suit, or the occasional Reinstated, very popular amongst their colleagues as it shows a dedication to a skill for the purpose of networking.
Fast food chains exist that are also exclusive to Eridani, such as Shrimp Republic, a location that can be found in almost any Eridanian food court or habitation block. The ingredients often consist of some form of fried shrimp as well as various kinds of skewer for easy and enjoyable eating.
Music
Corporate music is considerably more well-documented than Dreg music when it comes to what is popular, the data algorithms gathering all instances of listening as well as attention spans to songs to form the perfect bands to be fed to the public en-masse. As a bizarre byproduct of this feedback loop of attention, two major genres have emerged in Epsilon Eridani, at least amongst the citizens. The first of these has been deemed EriR&B, a slower, gentler form of R&B music which has risen in popularity for its ability to help the average Eridanian unwind after a long day at the office. Song subjects vary, but are usually about professional achievement, taking pride in one’s deeds, and of course, love with songs about forbidden office romances shooting to the top of the Eridanian charts. These songs usually incorporate fairly large productions and aim to create a dreamlike soundscape for the listener to entice relaxation and comfort. Though he is now in his seventies, the Reinstated Eridanian singer Patrice Ouedraogo is widely considered to be the best artist to have graced the genre and is known by many as "The King of EriR&B." Throughout his career his music has had broken record after record for sales and streams inside Eridani and have even brought him success outside of the system with his songs about his struggle to reintegrate into Eridanian corporate society and odd status as a Reinstated striking a chord with many listeners. He and his music are despised by Eridanian Dregs for this reason however. He’s known outside of Eridani and has performed concerts in Callisto, Luna, Silversun, Venus, Biesel, Xanu Prime, and is one of the handful of Solarian artists that has been allowed to perform in Elyra. Despite Ouedraogo's success in popularizing the genre outside of Eridani though, many EriR&B singers fail to break out of the Eridanian market.
The second genre of music that has become popular among Eridani's suits is a form of Electronic Dance Music known as Cubic Mix which, as the name may imply, originated from The Cube nightclub on Eridani I. It is notable for having very strong, percussive beats mixed with riffs of twinkling synthesizers that often come in waves, never really having a “drop” but simply escalating and falling with varying levels of intensity around a central motif or theme in the music called the "skyline" in popular parlance. Some speculate that this music format was made to keep clubbers in nightclubs longer and be easy to listen to while one works, but regardless, it has been influencing Suit music tastes for nearly a decade. The most popular Cubic Mix DJ is a 36-year-old Suit transman named Ata Kumaa Nuamah who goes under the stage name Playmaker. He is widely credited with pioneering the genre ten years ago along with his fellow DJ’s Cecille Daako and Artur Danjuma, stage name simply Danjuma, while the three worked at The Cube. The three have collaborated often in the past and have sold out some of Eridani’s largest venues. Neither Nuamah nor his contemporaries have yet to see success outside of Eridani. Along with music, or sometimes instead of music, many Eridanian corporates listen to podcasts. These typically are about news, business, and general happenings in Eridani society and are made to be best listened to at one’s desk. More can be read about these podcasts here in the Human Entertainment Media page.
On the other end of the spectrum, dregs have taken to two more stereotypical favorite genres for an underclass, rap and punk. Both genres tend to focus on life in Dreg society, either the massive amounts of death and poverty, or blaming the system they live in for said death and poverty. While the two genres rarely mix, it isn’t uncommon for them to share lyrical patterns and chord progression. Generally, Eridanian punk is unusual from other genres of punk due to its heavy usage of distortion pedals, electronic instruments and synthesizers. Punk bands in Eridani last for years at a time, but are known to have extremely messy breakups when they get famous, assuming they ever leave their extremely localized sphere of influence. Eridanian rappers on the other hand tend to make a large spectacle of themselves once their music leaves their sphere of influence, hoping to get famous outside of Eridani and hopefully be able to escape. The most famous of these cases is Mister-Shifter, a duo of two Eridanian Dreg rappers from Eridani II named Abdou Sillah and Danielle Jata who have made a very successful career for themselves as a traveling act in the Sol Alliance, Republic of Biesel, and Sol-Common speaking parts of the Coalition of Colonies. Their songs usually contain subject matter about the difficulties of dreg life, their perseverance, and their home communities. These themes are paired with a minimalistic production and a very fast, hard hitting lyrical delivery that is filled with Dreg slang, making their style very unique and distinctive when compared to other popular rap acts.
Film & Holovision
Movies and holovision shows made in Eridani occupy a fairly insular market, with specific tastes of the local audience being unsuccessful outside of the system and vice versa. This is largely credited to the extreme use of “Cast Characters” within their filmmaking, a set of norms which has by-and-large been accepted almost universally across nearly all Eridanian film and holovision studios.
- Anti-corporate activity should always result in the demise of the anti-corporate.
- Non-citizen dregs may only appear as antagonists, sympathy is allowed in cases of redemption at the end of the production.
- The protagonist should not show any form of anti-corporate sentiment, except when portraying their darkest hour.
- Members of corporations may only be shown as villains in the event that they are acting against the best interests of the corporation
These norms often mean that anything made outside of these parameters has no hope of being profitable, and so much of Eridanian film production has consolidated into a few main genres which have shown to be profitable (if not guaranteed to succeed) among the Eridanian viewer demographic while avoiding corporate scorn or sanctions: Corporate dramas, action movies starring PMCs as the protagonists, adaptations of literature already popular within the ECF, and long-running office romance serial soap operas.
Video Games
Video games in the ECF are a popular pastime for younger citizens and dregs alike, with both imported titles like the Dominian “Reign of Steel” and domestic titles like “Fleet Commander”. Domestically made Eridanian games are rife with microtransactions however, making them unpopular for export outside of niche groups and emigrants. Typically the games are a subscription model, paying weekly or monthly to the developer for access to your account with different payment models covering different benefits. Premium accounts are almost essential to doing well in games, and it’s not uncommon for the highest tiers of account to be allowed to use external programs to cheat in the game. As a result, cheating is rife within Eridanian space, leading to both advanced cheat menus and highly skilled players who are able to outperform cheaters in certain popular titles.
Language
The official languages of the Federation are Sol Common and Tradeband. A few dregs Dregs hold onto Freespeak as a piece of cultural identity, though many regard it as a dying language in the ECF. Regardless of what languages they speak though, Eridani's inhabitants are well-known the Spur-over for their unique and distinctive slang expressions, examples of which can be found below.
Corporate Slang
Dreg Slang