Solaris
Sarna News
(References to Solaris)
Solaris is a system on the Lyran border to the Free Worlds League. Its planet, Solaris VII, is famous throughout the whole Inner Sphere for its BattleMech fights, which are operated there as a sport.
On the fourth planet is a large mining colony.
Contents
The Gaming World
Solaris VII is known across the galaxy for its 'Mech fights. Gamblers place exorbitant amounts of money on longshot bets, and fortunes are won and lost daily. Solaris City, in particular, hosts six major arenas and numerous MechWarrior stables. Every year there is a Grand Tournament, which culminates with the naming of the year's champion (notable champions include Gray Noton and Kai Allard-Liao). However, the games were all but suspended following the breakout of inter-House hostilities within Solaris City in 3063, resulting in numerous casualties and precipitating the FedCom Civil War.
Solaris City
The capital and beating heart of the Game World, Solaris City is the home of the movers and shakers of Solaris VII. The city, which is home to some five million people, is divided into six districts and, with the exception of the International Zone, each of those is considered property of one the five Great Houses. They are the Black Hills (Davion), Cathay (Liao), Silesia (Steiner), Montenegro (Marik), and Kobe (Kurita). Each of the districts hosts a Class Six arena, where the top twenty MechWarriors battle each year to determine the championship. Residents of the sectors are actually still considered citizens of their respective nations, so Solaris City finds itself the home of many individuals who are persona non grata in their home nations, but still wish to remain citizens. Because of this phenomenon, the residents of Solaris City are often unrepresentative of the people from their parent nation.
Solaris City is ringed by a suburb known as Xolara, which itself is surrounded by Burgton. To the northeast in Roland Fields, while Bracken Swamp is to the southwest. Many native Solarans live in these suburbs, while Rasalhagians tend to live in Xolara. Periphery natives often call the outer suburbs home.
Arenas
There are Class One through Class Five areans scattered throughout Solaris VII, but the five Open Class (or Class Six) arenas where the most important duels on Solaris are fought are in Solaris City.
Boreal Reach
The Davion arena uses holographic technology, coupled with advanced environmental controls, to produce virtually any setting a person can conceive of. It takes its name from one of the more popular such settings, a polar glacier. The arctic environment provides challenging footing, while enabling MechWarriors the push their 'Mechs to the limit, thanks to the extreme cold.
The Factory
The Marik battlefield began its life as a shuttle manufacturing plant large enough to accommodate IndustrialMechs. The decrepit facility features multiple levels, and elevators and ramps to move between them.
Ishiyama
The Kurita area is actually a series of tunnels dug into a man-made mountain. Stone Mountain provides a hide-and-seek style engagement. There is also electromagnetic interference from the materials that the mountain is made of, making any fight here unpredictable. The "mountain" was built in 3007 in Kobe District.[1]
The Jungle
This parcel of land was originally planned as a Buddhist monastery, but the Liao government decided to designate it as their official "arena." The battle area in this open tract is demarcated by a series of beacons. Extra beacons located inside the battlefield can be activated to shrink the area of the field down to a quarter of its full size.
Steiner Coliseum
The arena in Silesia was designed with a Roman-esque facade. The battlefield of the arena is largely featureless, utilizing walls that can be raised or lowered to provide variety.
Geography
Solaris VII is the largest planet in the system and a rainy water-rich world consisting only of two continents.
Grayland, which is heavily populated, owns large lakes and wide rivers. It features a vast taiga in the north and open grassland in the south, seperated by large coniferous forests in the middle. The climate in the center of the continent, the location of Solaris City, is wet and cool. The rainy season there lasts almost all year in contrary to the temperate climate of the south coast.
Equatus, the second continent, is dry and mountainous.
History
The Early Time
Solaris VII has always been a highly industrialized world and as such was a natural choice for BattleMech factories and testing areas. At the time of the Star League competing BattleMech manufacturers began to let their new models fight each other in front of high Star League representatives to encourage the purchase of the 'Mechs (The first fight took place between the Phoenix Hawk and the Sentinel in 2695). It was not long until the Events where broadcasted on the planet and bets were placed on the outputs of the fightings in a big way. Mercenarys used Solaris as training Ground and the Gunslingers and Ronin used the World as a neutral place for their bitter fighting during the Hidden War. The popularity of the fighting grew steadily and at the time of the Amaris Coup Solaris was already famous for its Duels, some of them shown around the Inner Sphere.
Manufacturing Centers
- Blue Shot Weapons
- Innovative Design Concepts
- Norse-Storm Technologies Incorporated
- O'Neil BattleMechs
- Omnitech Industries
- Silver Wyrm, Ltd.
- Solaris Arms
- Vining Engineering and Salvage Team
Owner History
- 2750 - Free Worlds League
- 2822 - Lyran Commonwealth
- 2864 - Lyran Commonwealth
- 3025 - Lyran Commonwealth
- 3030 - Lyran Commonwealth
- 3040 - Federated Commonwealth
- 3052 - Federated Commonwealth
- 3057 - Lyran Alliance
- 3062 - Lyran Alliance
- 3067 - Lyran Alliance
- 3130 - Lyran Commonwealth
Nearby Planets
Planets within 2 jumps (60 light-years). Closest planets first:
References
- ↑ Warrior: En Garde, p. 287: The host of Pregame Palaver, Kevin Johnson, gives backgound information on Ishiyama for the Xiang/Capet fight on May 20th, 3027