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This article is a collection of information on Gateway, a minor world in the Dashwood system. Originally this article was part of my notes on Dashwood, but I chose to expand them for use as a plug-in elsewhere during my own campaign. I've presented Gateway here in its' original form.

Ruler: Magian Oligarchy
Cathedral: The Church of the Manifest Flame
Agora: Magian Oligarchy
Garrison: 5
Capital: Gateway Prime
Jumps: 3
Adjacent Worlds: The Duat, Vera Cruz (dayside); Orestes (parallel).
(The Dashwood system, which holds Gateway, is a Lost World. The above is based on what was known at the time of the Fall. Which jumproutes are actually open and, of those, which have known coordinates will depend on how the system is to be introduced to the game. In the following history, it is assumed that all the jumproutes are open.)
Solar System: Helios [Sun], Taliesin 1, Dashwood (Oracle + 4 minor moons) 2, Asteroid Belt - the Magis' Path (Gateway) 3, Balthazar (9 moons) 4, Melkhior (4 moons) 5, Gabriel (Uriel) 6, Sandalphon 7, Jumpgate
Tech: 5-7
Human Population: 5 million (Gateway: 3 million+, the others are scattered through-out the Magis' Path asteroid belt)
Alien Population: 20,000+ (18,000 Obun and Ukar, small numbers of other sentient races)
Resources: Raw Materials (iron, nickel, tungsten), chemicals, food (vat-grown and natural), archeotech, environment suits, solar collectors, starships
Exports: Currently none. If contact is re-established with the Known Worlds or the Kurgan Caliphate any of the above.

Gateway, like the other habitats in the Magi's Path, is an artificial ecosystem carved from the heart of a ferrous ore asteroid. The city was originally designed to form the recreational centre for the Magi's Path asteroid mining facilities, but was also expected to pay its way by providing Dashwood and the other worlds with iron. As time went on its' role as a ship construction and re-supply dock also grew and it expanded facilities accordingly.

The city of Gateway takes the shape reminiscent of a cored apple. The centre is hollowed out and covered to a depth of several metres in soil derived from carbonaceous asteroids and imported bacteria. The ends of the cavity are capped at both ends. At the sunward pointing end are giant windows which, along with the solar mirrors running from one end of the asteroid to the other, provide the inner surface with light. At the other end are the heavy industries of the station; atmospheric filters, space docks and ship fabrication facilities. The station spins slowly to give a gravity of approximately Earth-normal. The majority of the inhabitants live in the warren of tunnels below the inner surface of the city, thus maximizing the space available to grow crows and keep livestock (goats and rabbits in the main).

Second Republic

3600s - Gateway created by Monlux Stellar Industries as a mining and recreational centre
3670 - Gateway opened by reigning Prince of House Justinian
3800s - Choronese mathematico-religious cult (see Mayac Choro for more on this organisation) establishes itself on Dashwood and in Gateway
3998 - Church of the Celestial Sun recognised as state religion of the Second Republic

New Dark Ages
4000 - Fall of the Old Republic
4101 Patriarch Benedict III brings the Cleansing Flame to the Duat
4102 - Choronese mathematico-religious cult goes underground to escape Avestite pogroms which spread to Dashwood. Cult is hidden in mine workings on Gateway.
4235 - House Justinian leads armada against Temple Avesti
4400 - Hazat begin to exert pressure on House Justinian over Dashwood
4407 - War for control of the planet between Justinian and Hazat begins, the Justinian Governor of Gateway surrenders the station sooner than see it destroyed by the Hazat fleet
4411 - Justinian loses war for Dashwood to Hazat. Jumpgate closed!

The Isolation
4412 - Stranded noble houses begin to fight over control of Dashwood again
4415 - Hazat Governor of Gateway is overthrown by natives of the station and the remainder of the Hazat fleet is captured. The Gateway Provisional Government declares itself neutral in the struggle for Dashwood
4418 - Gateway withdraws from any contact with Dashwood. Desperate re-tooling to supply domestic needs occupies the next ten years
4430s - Gateway establishes political and economic hegemony over other mining colonies in the Magis' Path.
4440s - Religious squabbles divide Gateway's Crafter families into mutually hostile factions
4460 - Religious council beats out points of theological deivision on Gateway. Church of the Manifest Flame established
4490s - Otto Brenner, a prominent Crafter on Gateway, establishes a popular democracy and proposes that contact be re-established with Dashwood. His rule is short-lived as the other Crafters combine against him, preferring to remain big fish in a little pond
4520s - Gateway unilaterally increases prices for its services. Belter families complain vigorously
4529 - Belters demand a larger share in governing Gateway. Crafter families refuse this offer, confident in their position
4530 - Belter embargo on Gateway established.
4531 - Embargo forces Gateway to the bargaining table. Magian Oligarchy established as a compromise solution between Crafters and Belters
4535 - Magian Oligarchy announces plans to colonize Ezekial - one of the moons of Balthazar, and a rumoured source of glacial oxygen
4542 - First touchdown on Ezekial. Contact with the first-down party is lost soon after landing and never re-established. A rescue team from Gateway lands on Ezekial later that year. Contact is lost soon after landing. All plans for further flights to Ezekial are scrapped
4723 - Timon Euripides' short-lived theocracy "Kingdom of the Manifest Flame" is quashed. Church appointments become subject to approval of Steering Council of the Oligarchy
4782 - Melkhior Abromovich claims to have recieved visions from "...a higher intelligence residing in the outer reaches of the solar system. A power which impells me on pilgrimage to bring light to the outer dark". He gathers a group of believers and flies towards the reputed position of the jumpgate. Neither he nor his ship is ever heard from again. Flights from Gateway without the permission of the Steering Council of the Oligarchy are banned
4783 - Abromovich's movement is accused of having connections to Obun and Ukari minorities on the Gateway. A pogrom forces them all off the station over the next few years
4830s - The doctrine of Magian Uniqueness is proclaimed. According to this dogma only the states of the Magian Oligarchy still preserve humanity in the known universe. The Steering Council takes full control over all aspects of life on Gateway "...for the benefit of all."

Living in a station like Gateway is utterly different from living on a planet. Space, air, food and water are all at a premium and must be carefully rationed. Waste is an anti-social crime. All aspects of life on Gateway are governed by rules laid down "...for the benefit of all." by the various committes of the Steering Council of the Magian Oligarchy. As this Council is composed of representatives of the clans which provide all the raw materials, goods, services and religious consolation to the people of the station there is little people can do to protest, and after several centuries of rule in this fashion they have little idea the world could be any other way.

Gateway is, despite the acres of golden crops and the flocks of hopping bunny rabbits on the inner surface, a very bleak and soulless place. Only members of the Steering Council are allowed homes on the inner surface of the asteroid, and the lower one's social position, the further from the surface they live. The lowest of the low are the helots, effective serfs living in the mines below (although the institution of Generational Contracts was never established on Gateway, being clanless is a ticket to serfdom!).

If you are a member of a ruling clan life is a little more comfortable than that of the helots, but only marinally so. Your life is devoted to stepping on those around you, sucking up to those above you and watching from daggers from below. By the time a person gains a seat on the Steering Council they are usually so bitter, jaded and devoid of moral scruples that they are all but the simplest acts of human decency anymore. If supplies are running short it's an easy matter for the Steering Council to close a few helot tunnels and have all the air pumped out, "...for the benefit of all." of course!

It is possible that the Magian Oligarchy is one of the few places where Obun and Ukar actually live together in peace! After the ill-fated Abromovich Expedition in 4783 all Ukari and Obun were forced off Gateway and out into the Magis' Path belt. Although many died in the ill-equipped, leaky and over-crowded spacecraft grudgingly granted them by the Steering Council some survivors managed to gather on a derelict colony asteroid and eventually make the scrapped Republican facility there livable. Their home was named Shurstrat's Blessing, in an ironic nod to a figure common to Obun and Ukari mythology, and the two races did their best to mend their differences and live together. As they were more interested in getting one over on their human oppressors than in settling ancestral scores this proved remarkably easy and to this day Shurstrat's Blessing is the one place of hope, light and laughter in the whole Oligarchy.

Note: I envisioned Gateway as a claustrophobic cross between Calvin's Geneva, Communist Russia and Tokugawa-era Japan, the starkest possible contrast to life on Dashwood itself. On Gateway: Big Brother is watching you, twisted double-think is the norm and you have very little say in how your live is run. The fossilized society presented by Gateway is just waiting for the right group of PCs to lead a social revolution! Just be careful the Steering Council don't blow the solar windows sooner than lose control though. :-)

Despite the monolithic appearance and behaviour of the Steering Council of the Oligarchy there are in fact two major and distinct social groups which compose the ruling clans of Gateway. The interests and objectives of these two groups are explained below.

The Crafters

The various Crafter families of Gateway consider themselves the 'patricians' of the Oligarchy. In many cases they can trace their ancestry back to the founding of the Gateway Provisional Government of 4415 and sometimes earlier. Despite this snobbery the Crafters have never really departed from their origins as hard-nosed plutocrats and they maintain interests in their various businesses to this day.

• Brenner - The core of the religious establishment on Gateway since the Euripides incident in 4723, the Brenners are amongst the most stringent followers of the Church of the Manifest Flame as well as a sizable chunk of the Steering Council's Ethical Committee. Any deviation from the Steering Council's current religious or moral line is likely to be punished by public confession and penence at the very least!
• Abromovich - The largest ship-builders on Gateway, since the Ezekial fiasco they have been careful to confine themselves stricly to the manufacture of void-going ships. Although the plans for atmosphere and landing capable craft still exist the penalty for accessing them without permission of the Steering Council's Trnasportation Committee is excommunication and spacing!
• Euripides - Owners of the rights to the minerals of Gateway the Euripides are stringest in their control over the productivity and efficiency of their holdings and all but own the Steering Council's Industrial Committee. They are infamous amongst the clans for trying to diversify into other areas of production, to the great annoyance of the clans concerned. The selective eradication of helots is often used as a means of keeping Euripides in line.
• Caspari - Claiming descent from a noble house of the Old Republic the Caspari are, in many ways, still landed nobility. They own most of the agricultural land and hydroponics farms on Gateway and form the core of the Steering Council's Sustenance Committee.

The Belters

Although they pride themselves on being both more hard-bitten and more spiritual than their Crafter associates, in many ways the Belters of Gateway are as hidebound and jaded as anyone. They have carved up the external business of the Magian Oligarchy with ruthlessness that wouldn't disgrace the Crafter clans.

• De Vatha - Rumoured to be descended from star-pilots who (whisper this heresy) flew between solar systems by the power of the mysterious jumpgates, the De Vatha retain a stranglehold on shipping around most of the Magian Oligarchy. If it isn't run by a De Vatha, it probably isn't a profitable route.
• Hessen - The premiere merchant family of the Oligarchy the Hessens are used to being able to dictate terms to the 'brother states' of the Magis' Path. If the smaller colonies are unwilling to play ball with them they have the full backing (read: compose most of) the Steering Council's Trade Committee.
• Gupta - The Gupta's were the most ruthless, piratical and ultimately successful claim-jumpers of the 'Asteroid Rush' in the late Republican period, and remain the largest mining family to the present. Since the consolidation of the trade of the Magian Oligarchy under the Belter families the Gupta's have taken up their old ways again as leaders of the Steering Council's Consolidation Council.

This file last modified 1/03/2000.