Visions of irid'An

 I have made a small breakthrough in how I want to portray the capital world irid'An:

volmcano.

I've always conceptualized this planet as an archipelago world in my head, but I've struggled a little to give it its own unique flair. This is a small detail to add, but I think giving the islands these volcanic craters will really help flesh them out a little more. It also holds narrative meta-significance!

The majority of the Rosa system's population lives on irid'An, I think - a large number of tertiary economy, sorta upper-middle-class people that live generally well-off lives. Any big population center will have some lower-economy stuff like manufacturing, maybe some light farming - think the inner rings of human geography models. Obviously useful work is done here, but not much dirty work - aquaculture, produce/market gardening, "dairy" (still need to figure out what animals we have), etc. are the basest industries here. The lower parts of the economy, like ranching, field crops, mining, and heavy manufacturing, take place on pr'Sefone and Orus.

irid'An features big bustling marketplaces down in the crater floor where all the perishable goods are traded and sold; wholesale & retail happen as you move higher up the wall, with big business headquarters and stuff mostly in the uppermost city - again, tertiary sector of the economy.

A lot of technological development happens here, and much of the system's research is based on irid'An - a very utopian Tomorrowland kind of vibe here. New communications equipment (advances in radio transmission to allow more than just telegraph-type signals!! Wowie!!) is a big deal these days, and designing computer tech that can handle Rosa's intense radiation bursts is always a point of interest. Medicine and domestic tech is also developing well. However, some grittier research, like aircraft/spacecraft propulsion & heavier-than-aircraft design, takes place over on Orus, and of course that world famously houses ASMC, which has an entire division dedicated to mining tech.

Overall, despite the utility of the research done on irid'An, and the vaguely self-sufficient gardening and aquaculture and such, the population of this world is vey sheltered. Physically, they live in pretty little bowls with walls on all sides; narratively, they are shielded from the rest of the system and its social issues. pr'Sefone and Orus have distinctly dystopian attributes in plain sight - the destruction of those natural environments and poor labor conditions. irid'An's dystopia is more subtle: the people here are simply quite clueless about how bad things are outside, and the information is kept from them very efficiently.

ASMC's headquarters are based here, and Marion, Noira, and her friends will travel here for a special event: a Worlds Fair (no apostrophe!), showcasing new developments from around the Rosa system. It is here that Noira will start to gain unsettling inklings of the true nature of the work she's been doing...