• In a nebula known as Kerberos, in a solar system of five planets orbiting an orange sub-giant star are two Earth-like planets. One orbits just on the closer edge of the habitable zone of the star, while the other orbits in tandem with it on the further edge of the habitable zone, meaning one planet’s climate is slightly warmer than the others. They are the 3rd and 4th planets in the solar system. In numerical order, those planets are Maperga, Imununcu, Nemiidi, Taesthi and Priuspubus. The star they orbit is called Etirtu. Aside from Nemiidi and Taesthi, the other planets in the system are barren rock worlds.
    These two Earth-like planets, Nemiidi and Taesthi, are currently inhabited by human colonists from Earth, and have been now for many generations. They have a Bi-Global system of government, a massive system of satellites surrounding the two planets, a fully immersive, interactive wireless data-sharing system that evolved from what Earth knew as the Internet.
    When mankind finally destroyed its home world beyond repair and well past livable conditions, they sent out many unmanned probes and located many Earth-like planets throughout the entire universe. Those probes would send back data which the scientists would go over, and if there were any evidence of life currently existing on the planet it would be disregarded. They were looking for planets with similar atmospheres but no inhabitants.
    When the time finally came to send the shuttles up, people all around the world were chosen to board the shuttles to different new colonies. The process of selection ensured a proper mixture of racial backgrounds and a binary gender ratio of 50/50% men to women. It wouldn't be long now, those excited travelers would murmur to their families, a new planet with a clean ecosystem and maybe some new animals, plants and elements to encounter! Once they replaced the nuclear fusion reactors in space shuttles with more efficient Thorium-based ones humanity was able to build crafts capable of breaking light speed, making long-distance space travel a much quicker thing.

    Those destined for the twin colonies of Nemiidi and Taesthi had the additional knowledge that, on Nemiidi, the warmer planet, were the signs of an ancient civilization long extinct. Foolishly, they believed they could go and explore and study those ruins. They didn't know the supposed dangers their new government would deem too big a risk to allow it. After the new government built their colonies in empty areas using Arcology theory they set up laws seriously restricting terrestrial travel.
    These massive Arcs they build, spanning to the upper atmosphere in height and the width of Earths New York City from coast to inland border both east-west and north-south, were to be run on a democratic-capitalist system, very much like the one used in what used to be the United States of America when they were on Earth. Once these Arcs were built the politicians labeled the ruins “too dangerous” for people to go near due to heavy volcanic activity in many areas of Nemiidi, and made leaving the Arcs very difficult for anyone not on official business to another Arc. Those on official business would be shuttled by government workers either to other Arcs on their new home planet or to the neighboring colony of Taesthi which, due to the shared government, had all of the same regulations for leaving the Arcs. With good cause, too, as Taesthi has an inordinate amount of polar radiation meaning leaving the Arcs and going exploring could result in sickness and death in the most literal sense.
    The joint government meets, these days, in a specially designed space station and gives the illusion that their debates are all streamed via the Bi-Global Wireless Information and Simulation Matrix (or, for short, the BGW) when in reality a lot more of the decisions and debates take place when the cameras are offline. Even on a brave new world you can't avoid corruption and lies in positions of power.

    Because they are two different planets, of course, their politicians felt it necessary that each planet should have its own flag. Nemiidi has a rectangle with three stripes of dark gold, deep red and sea green and the emblem of the setting sun and a harp overlayed. Taesthis is a gonfalon (or banner) with three stripes of golden-brown, deep green and silver and the emblem of a pair of eyes with a quarter moon. These flags are purely for “patriotism” which the revivalist politicians claim “worked so well for the USA on Earth in bygone days.” No one, of course, understands the irony of that statement.

    Nemiidi is host to eight beautiful moons of various sizes, coloration and distances. This causes its tides to be extreme. Some beaches recede backward for hundreds of kilometers on low tide, a few recede by thousands of kilometers. When the tide recedes and returns it can happen so quickly that it would straight up drown you, no questions asked and no chance to even realize what hit you. The over all nastiness of the oceans, of which Nemiidi is made up of fifty-six percent oceans, lakes and rivers, means that any travel by water would not only be impossible, but also incredibly stupid to even consider trying.
    Taesthi, by contrast, has only two moons. These moons rotate not too far from each other, on a similar path, and therefore the forty-five percent of the planet that is covered in water is far more tranquil than its turbulent sister planet. These twin planets have rounded off to thirty-four hour days and have an almost perfectly circular orbit. A full orbit rotation for the twin planets works out to roughly 3.5 Earth years, making a year 1277.5 days long.

    The Arcs on these planets leave so much untouched despite their massive size. In total about sixty-six percent of the two worlds are left as wilderness, serene and unsullied. The animals they've encountered on both planets haven't been so different from animals back on Earth (some of which they did bring with them and house on special floors of the Arcs). They found animals similar to elk, large cats, squirrels and beavers, many mammals that evolved very similarly to the ones of Earth due to the similar environments. However there are many places left unexplored and many species have gone uncatalogued due to the travel bans, and that isn't even including the uncatalogued species' that might be found under water.

    When the Arcs' politicians brought their collective heads together for law making, they decided to make the punishment for certain crimes to be exiled from all of the Arcs and left to die outside. This didn't work quite so well as those politicians intended, as many of the exiles were capable of adapting to their surroundings and now there are many generations of humans who were born outside the Arcs' walls. Because the offspring of exiled criminals have themselves committed no crimes, they are allowed access to the Arcs provided they subject themselves to rigorous testing and allow an Arc Citizen Passport or ACP to be created listing the Arc they have it registered at as their primary residence.
    These multi-generational exiles are referred to as “gypsies,” and much of the upper class regards them with disdain. These “gypsies” are the only people who are allowed to leave the Arcs without government escort; no one cares about their well-being enough to try to restrict them from going home. The upper and middle classes, and by spread of their rumors some of the lower classes as well, look at the gypsies with disdain. They aren't criminals themselves, and therefore shouldn't be treated like criminals, but at the same time they were raised by criminals and can't be trusted. It's a never ending cycle of hate.

    The floors of the Arcs are all designated for specific purposes. The higher up in the Arc your residence and place of work are located, the higher esteem you are regarded with, meaning those with money and talent and one foot in the door already get to live on the posher floors while those with less luck are left to the lower, less fancy floors.

    The BGW is a vast system of satellites and specially designed clothes made of hyper-thin sensory fabric that senses movements paired with hyper-thin glasses OR micro-thin bio-organic contact lenses that project the BGW directly into your every day Field of Vision. This FoV integration allows for use of the BGW from anywhere at any time on either of the two planets, or at any time while traveling between them, and uses encrypted log-in data tied to your ACP.
    All students, regardless of social standing, are given an aptitude test to see if they qualify for a job with the company tasked with keeping the BGW up and running. If a student has the potential, it is presented to them as a possibility, and it is the students decision if they want to pursue a position with that particular company. Those who turn down this offer generally receive many offers from many other varied companies, meaning to get high marks on this aptitude test basically ensures your ability to find a good job no matter what. BGW technicians are required to be both physically fit and mentally advanced, and the job requires an employee to be able to do literally all aspects of the job. The first time you go through university is free, any time after that must be paid for. The BGW technicians' additional degrees are paid for by the company because all of the degrees are necessary to the job, and those with the potential should not be allowed to go to waste on a less important job simply because they can't afford the schooling.
    The BGW technicians are required to work in rotation, going from various ground positions to space stations and back in cycles. They are required to be able to code, repair satellites both via troubleshooting or repairing damage from stray natural satellites that may fly by and strike them. They must be physically fit in order to go into and stay in the space stations for trips lasting about six months at a time, as well as being able to handle all of the tinkering and re-coding and updating and such that also comes with the job. They are literally all-in-one workers paid to maintain this vast system of information, simulation and communication.

    There is something, either in the genetic evolution of mankind or in the natural electrical fields of the planets, that allows for the use of magic. Anyone who has spent any time studying it under the name of “metaphysics” knows that magic was never like in the movies back on Earth. You couldn't say a couple of words, wave the right incenses around and suddenly your spell is cast with immediate results. Metaphysics was the use of gemstones or crystals, plants, and other “magnifiers” to help you get a message to the universal ether, which would make your spell happen if you were actively working toward it. It was basically a little cosmic “hey have a thing in exchange for this thing I want.” Whatever the difference between then on Earth and now on Nemiidi and Taesthi, magic is possible as more of an in between. Its a little bit like metaphysics, but its also more like old Earth movie magic. Results are more immediate, and more definite.
    Not everyone seems capable of manipulating whatever it is that allows for this, however. The percentage of people with the ability among the combined thirty billion inhabitants of Nemiidi and Taesthi is only two percent. Even so, this still makes for an estimated six hundred million people between the two worlds who are capable of magic. There are strict rules regarding use of magic, and a lot of the time all you get permitted to use it for is entertainment purposes. Penalties for breaking magic-related laws are anywhere from temporary imprisonment to permanent exile, so the majority of the time no one breaks these laws or they neglect to register themselves as a magic user and thus do not get tracked for magic-related anything. Its not really a huge issue and even many of those who do have the ability don't bother using it, what with all of the technology surrounding them in everyday life.

    Many, many years ago when humanity was still on Earth the switch was made that aside from natural sources like wind, water and steam power, the only other power source that was legal was designated world-wide as Thorium. For those of you that don't know, Thorium is a natural compound that can be used in a similar way to Uranium, but without the negative effects of Uranium. Thorium has no radiation levels, no waste other than what were at the time high demand medical isotopes that can now be found in abundance thanks to the Thorium reactors that had been built – in fact, the basement of every Arc has a built-in Thorium reactor and a storage room with so much Thorium stocked in that the humans spread across Nemiidi and Taesthi would be able to keep every Arc powered for an estimated four hundred and fifty million years. It sounds like a lot more Thorium than it actually is. It doesn't take a lot to power a major city the size of, for example, the city of Toronto in Ontario, Canada on Earth, you can fit enough to power a city that size for many, many decades just in the palm of your hand. With such a “perfect” power source, the Arcs' citizens don't notice or care when the odd Thorium power cell goes missing from the outside walls of the Arcs.
    However, even with the use of Thorium power the upper and middle class citizens who happen to live on the outside walls (that is, with windows and/or balconies looking outside of the Arc) still find it extremely “fashionable” to install wind or solar power systems as a status thing – much in the same way rich women on Earth used to carry little dogs and drive “Eco-friendly” vehicles as status symbols.

    We begin on Arc Nova Centauri on Nemiidi which is located in a massive clearing on the edge of an ocean and surrounded by a forest full of trees similar to Earth's coniferous, oak and maple trees. Similar, but not quite the same. The foliage, for instance, instead of being green appears to be pale blue on the coniferous trees, and aquamarine on the other kinds. Similarly, Nemiidi's grass is more of an almost orange color, and the sky and water look violet instead of blue. When the seasons shift, the aquamarine foliage changes to browns, greens and bright yellows.