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the promised Space Mining worldbuilding post... its a big one... but i tried to make everything as clear and hopefully interesting as possible, and am really happy with the result... everything under the read more + a small drawing i made for the occasion. love big rugs

i was a bit conflicted on where to start. i think the best place is the concept of the world itself; its not as much alternative history as its a completely different world deeply based on ours. Think of the world of Fear and Hunger, as it works on a very similar basis to it. Discos titular Elysium was a significant inspiration as well, though that one is much, much more original with its worldbuilding. Space Mining is above everything very rooted in the communist history of Poland and the transformation era and is taking a lot from it. Its also very Cowboy Bebop inspired; Space Mining is a space opera genre wise, but it takes a lot from Cowboy Bebop (and also Trigun to an extent. list of inspirations is at the bottom) with bounty hunting elements. And its a comedy. fundamentally at least. Its very importantly not a sci fi, as there is very little actual science in it. Also its not a solo story, as im making it with @makowcy !

I should also prefix this by clarifying the basic term — in the setting of Space Mining, the term "space colony" is more like a leftover from the early space colonization era, than an actual colony as understood in english language. A space colony is a settlement or a group of settlements in space that is more or less able to function independently. Different space colonies could create their own space colonies without any problems (especially early on in the colonization everything was a bit of a wild west so to speak. at the time of the plot its much more regulated). Although theyre called colonies, there is often no colonial power that controls them; the term is just a leftover from the colonization era. That doesnt mean space colonies cant be colonies in the... well, colony sense, because they can and some of them are. And some of them arent, but that doesnt mean theyre fully independent either, which was the case for the colony Space Mining takes place in.

(illustration by @makowcy)

And all of this is to say — Space Mining takes place in a space colony consisting of an entire different solar system, formerly known as Srebro-Kolonia*. It was created unspecified amount of years before, durning the space race and space colonization era following it. While the exact dates arent clear, id say its just... a significant amount of time, enough for there to be people living in space for generations. It used to be a part of a league-like structure of space colonies (a military alliance; think Warsaw pact maybe). Autonomous, but also restricted, always having to take into account not even the alliance as a whole, but its hegemon — a significant amount of the colonys raw mining materials for example was exported to it for ultimately very little. It held economic and political power over Srebro and the alliance as a whole. And due to it being a rather… technologically backwards place, in its hopes to both become more independent and to progress, it became indebted to the "outside" (capitalist) world, which became kind of a nail in the coffin for the colony. In a world deeply afraid of war, with the threat of it constantly looming over everyone, this debt (that the colony wasnt even prepared to pay off very well; the money borrowed turned out not to return quickly, with the colony not being able exactly to maintain or even properly introduce new technologies into its sectors. It was a try that succeeded in some places, but generally considered a poor choice in the long term and a failure…) became something to exploit, with the outside world abusing it to gain power over the alliance as a whole, even when the situation inside the colony became very dire for the everyday people living in it. It was a preffered choice in the fight for domination, hoping that the poverty, terror and threats of civil war would break a part of it down.

This debt led to what is considered in the story as Years of Crisis (spanning about two decades before the eventual fall; it preceedes the Recent era or the Present era, i tend to use both of these terms. very intuitive!), which were well, the years of crisis. A time of shortages, stress, political terror and general struggle of everyday life. Years of crisis are remembered by many, especially in the vast and everpresent mining sector, by their injuries and even deaths of their colleagues — overworking to meet the quota mixed with the healthcare quality getting lower and lower, regulations getting loose. Despite it being a "workers nation", worker rights and health were not as protected as the colony claimed it was, especially as the Years of crisis came. Workplace medical sites started getting worse (drug and machinery shortages, technological setbacks) and sometimes disappearing, 8 hour working days were again allowed to turn into 12, workers encouraged to take up more hours for more pay when the cost of living has raised significantly; the debt of the colony really got to its citizens, and trying to pay it off as quick as possible meant abandoning values it was fundamentally meant to follow. Although not exactly related, but still unseparable from the debt, was the threat of foreign invasion, not as much from the "outside" world, as from the other members of the coalition. Since poor working conditions, the rise of cost of living, food and everyday item shortages in many settlements, and political terror led to protests, in such a heavily militarised plrace, it wasnt uncommon to use not only "everyday" police (milita) violence to silence protesters, but also the military, including foreign coalition military, which had its stations all over Srebro. It was very much a very stressful time.

In the recent era, like many structures, those military based are mostly abandoned, because the colony has inevitably fallen, with the former government unable to keep its power. It is after the fall of socialism (or whatever was left of it at that time) that the story takes place, but events that led up to it are still present in it, haunting the setting a bit; it is because of those two decades and the fall that the world looks the way it looks even 15 years later. The system change is the reason why everything feels so lawless and corrupted, with organised crime being so everpresent. The colony, now under a (mostly) new govnerment, slightly unprepared, enters infant capitalism in a rather... chaotic way. Considered a strange, poor and somewhat lawless place, slightly isolated from all its neighbours, with its people left generally disillusioned, with little trust left for everyone — its own government, new and old, the "outside" world, considered by many both a cruel and promising place, and the foreign, former hegemon colony-state. I dont think they really like anyone, themselves included, but its been 15 years and although the new reality is a much more chaotic and weird one, life has to keep going after that. That was the very long backstory section...

*(it translates to silver-colony; in polish language the word kolonia in the naming pattern [name]-Kolonia means a kind of remote settlement (consisting of usually just a few homes) away from the main part of formerly existing settlement (a city or a village). In this case its meant to highlight the origin of the colony as a branch of something bigger and something remote, generally unimportant on its own)

Srebro consists of a few main settlements scattered around different planets, as well as in space itself (in the form of space stations and smaller structures), with the biggest one being Rosa - the only settlement inside of the colony to grow so rapidly, and also consisting of a mostly interconnected cluster of cities on one planet. Its the most populated part of the colony, and it can be considered its "capital", or just the main settlement. Its name is both a reference to memories: magnetic rose, and polish for "dew", which is a bit how the planets surface looks from afar, with all the dome-cities on it. The way permament settling on a planet works, as there is no natural oxygen, is through two main methods: the older one, typical for the early stage of the space colonization, still prefered in some places (especially on otherwise unlivable mining sites, or research sites, or military sites, and so on), in which the colony was actually made underground with little, isolated and sometimes covered structures on the surface, and the newer, much more common in the recent era — the construction of domes, under which Earth-like fields, villages and cities can be built. Different domes or dome complexes have different names, to differenciate them from each other; the names provided here are one of the planets, not the specific domes themselves. By "settlement" i roughly mean all domes and other livable places on the planet

so, other notable settlements include:

Sad — literally translating to "orchard"; also known as the Green Giant. known mostly for its giant fields and smaller, very pretty looking town-y settlements, but also for its somewhat... ominous feeling, with the clouds always looking strange, the fog that often comes and the giant pillars in the distance. Due to just how vital this entire planet it for the colony, the access to it is secured; no un-authorized personel is allowed in the "green" sectors of the colony that are responsible for food. Bliźnięta — Gemini or literally "the Twins", which is how im going to refer to it here. Name comes from the big, now destroyed moon that was orbiting it. They look similar, or at least probably used to, before something destroyed the moon long before humanity evevn thought of space. or thought at all. Known for being very beautiful, with it basically always being a purple-pink "sunset" and frequent meteor showers, but also a very expensive place Wola — tricky one to explain; in settlement names in real life Wola meant a new settlement that didnt have to pay tributes to royalty for a few years. It used to also mean "freedom", nowdays it almost exclusively means "will" or "volition". Its a somewhat ironic name considering Wola is a settlement built on forced labour; known for its cold and for nothing being there

There is also, obviously, Earth. The mother-planet of human race, always refered to with respect, but less like a place we have to love and take care of, and more like a... spiritually important, but otherwise obsolete planet. Its a bit ruined and run down, and little people live there anymore, which shows. Its not exactly a place prepared for depopulation. Its also pretty easy to get out of there and its somewhat expected of people to move to spaces "greener pastures". But it is a one of a kind place, and people who live there tend to love it dearly.

In the world of space mining, space is full of a matter impossible to see, hear or smell, known commonly as simply the cold or coldness. Its somewhat destructive, with ships and space structures having to be monitored constantly and often repaired, as the cold wears them down them over time. Its possible to feel it (thats how it got its name...). Some people are especially sensitive to it, and it can cause headaches. While it is managable "inside" of the colonys system, it poses a big threat and obstacle to space exploration as a whole. Travel between colonies is only really possible on giant ships prepared for extremely long voyages (up to few years), known commonly as a Galaxy Express. Due to the nature of the journey, getting on a ship like this requires different tests and a significant amount of money, so it isnt very accesible - its easier to get in than it is to get out, anyway. Or at least it used to be. Not to mention the amount of general junk floating in space, especially on the "outskirts" (kind of like a world border... of space trash that is slowly being eaten away. It tends to find its place on the "borders" and settle there. Space trash in between settlements is being cleaned up more properly!) If i had to compare it to something, id say it looks a bit like the magnetic rose. Travelling between planets and space structures is much easier and much quicker, mostly due to space gates inside of it, creating some form of a highway, though it still takes a significant amount of time to travel from one place to another - at best as little as a week or few, at worst it can be counted in years. So even though getting a spaceship of your own isnt extremely expensive (they can be copared to a weird car... i dont know if price wise exactly, but definitely in terms of usage), most of these arent really fit for true long term travel. For that there are special, bigger than commercial ones multi-pilot ships that can trasfer civilians from one place to another on set routes. There are also interstellar trucks (see Cowby Bebops Heavy Metal Queen... thats my favourite episode...) and entire ships that belong to specific companies for the transport of different goods, and space trains that can do both.

Travel from Earth to Srebro (important, as a few characters do come from there) is unspecified-but-very-long. Even though they definitely can travel faster than light (they kind of have to...) its not few-hours fast, or even few-days fast. Takes a substancial amount of time — sometimes even up to years. Like i mentioned, that kind of travel is very costly; fuel, protection from the cold and other dangers, making the Express livable (those things are giant and could be compared to cities in their own right). Besides their enormous size, theyre also just built differently to support this kind of fast travel. Im not very good at drawing ships, so imagine a mix of the transatlantic ocean liners and Triguns sand steamer... in space... While small ships are generally affordable (and there is a substancial amount of people who do have them, and who live on their ships; although those are small, not full on multi-pilot space houses), many also dont need them (most people dont just go off-planet for no reason... and if they want to travel somewhere, there are more affordable public transport esque options avilable!). Theyre also made differently and would not be able to withstand the dangers of long term fast travel, not to mention the cold itself.

Most settlements originated as mining settlements, which is one of the fundamental parts of the idea of a space colony in itself, being very important to spacian culture, both in the time of space colonization and long after it; and especially after the mining rebirth of the recent era, caused by the discovery of something... unexpected. There is no life forms found in the discovered and reached parts of the universe other than humans and a rather peculiar organism named stelite — a rare, maybe fungi-like organism, long dead in its most commonly found form, resembling less a living being and more a mineral. It can be found deep under the surface of many different, unrelated planets and moons, all throughout the known universe but also significantly far away from Earth, and is considered to have died long before people started the space colonization for an unknown reason. It quickly became the most important discovery of the recent era, with stelite becoming a luxury item due to its unique nature and pretty apperance (its compared to a night, starry sky) and a subject of research. Its very hard to extract on its own, and needs specialized space robots — the only use for mechs in the world of space mining is for mining!

Although considered "long dead", its not actually the case; fully alive stelite can be found, and so can be dying one. But it is a very rare thing. As the years progress in the story this changes, but id like to focus on worldbuilding itself, and not the plot of Space Mining!

While different colonies were able to outgrow their mining origins, for Srebro it was always the most important aspect of the colonys identity. Its even reflected in the name; Srebro means silver. Thats what its known for (other than... well the less flattering things), and it definitely delivers in it, with mining education being strong, and there being many schools and courses preparing teenagers and young adults for work in the industry (many of them very prestigious still, or at the very least considered so. Education doesnt focus on mining techniques alone, but goes into a lot of different mining-related fields, like engineering, geology, geophysics, mechanics, and the dream job of every child born in a miner family — mech piloting and all the mech constructing and maintenance related to it). Speaking of education, the system is the same in all parts of the colony, as are most things. After the fall theres been a rise of private schools, but theyre seen as very bourgeois and kind of stupid among many. But they exist so well there is definitely a substancial amount of people who support them. Public education is free universities included, and after the fall universities really skyrocketed in the amount of people who want to get in, as education was considered the basis of employment in the new system, plagued by high unemployment. Mining engineer is still considered to be one of the best careers one could aim for. It all ties both to the colony roots, as well as it being somewhat responsible for the mining rebirth of the recent era — its people from this colony who first discovered Stelite.

But its not the only thing characteristic to the culture of this setting. A very big part of it is the rise of bounty hunting as something public and more... show-y. The concept of bounties and bounty heads was known even before the crisis, but it tended to be a more secretive thing handled only by specialized, government force. Opinions on it were (and still are) rather divided, especially considering the very faulty justice system, and its association with the milita, a force with very negative connotations, remembered for its brutality. In the recent era however, after an influx of both items and the popular culture from the "outside" world, mixed with significant changes in different structures and the general... feeling of lawlessness of the freshly capitalist state, it became something more present in peoples minds, and also something they could in theory do themselves, with the concept of a bounty hunter quickly becoming very popular, even if it never stopped being a divisive topic. From that point on, besides a (now rather public, often televisioned and show-y) specialized government force, there was a possiblity for anyone to independently become a bounty hunter (in theory at least, since in practice its a very tasking job nearly impossible to do without some sort of backing). Many have mixed feelings on it, but there is a significant amount of "fans" and people who enjoy the spectacle, as well as people critical of it, seeing it mostly for what it is — a post-transformation re-branding. Though, as a proffession, bounty hunting is separate from both police work and military. Bounty hunters (mostly affiliated with the cosmo police-militia, but in some cases also the private ones) are also one of the only profession groups allowed to use firearms. While firearm training was obligatory in schools (with security education starting in elementary school, and firearm training and maintenance present as young as 14 years old; the whole fear of war thing everpresent in all parts of the colony), and many are familiar with it, it also stopped being a widespread thing about 15 years before the plot, with the fall of the colony. And even then legally owning a gun required a lot of paper work, a good reason (job or sports related, mostly) and few tests, though their quality was questionable. In the recent era its similar. Owning a gun is very much uncommon, most people dont have a weapon, and if they do, theres not a small chance they obtained it illegally. Not to mention oftentimes regulations arent too closely followed either, and with corruption being rather rampant, its not that hard to avoid consequences — just costly. This is also why a lot of characters in space mining use different, sometimes strange weapons (other than it just being fun...)

since the colony itself is huge, consisting of multiple settlements on multiple planets and moons, even those beyond what could be considered a naturally habitable zone, as well as few in space stations, there is one universal and official language in use (an artificial one, but in our terms its something based on west slavic languages... inter-west-slavic if you will. i dont know. all spacian characters speak the same one, thats the important part). There are some "regional" languages still in use. That does not mean the general culture across the entire setting is similarly this universal; different settlemens have different origins and purposes, and due to their more or less isolated nature, they all developed a bit differently, even if on paper they were all meant to progress the same and be generally more uniform. So they are similar, but not the same. Even the space mining aspect isnt all that universal across the settlements (with some not being tied to mining in any real way, like Sad), although colony wise its one of the most important aspects of the culture. Its easier too explain on the example of food — they all have the same what can be considered staple foods (like potatoes, turnips, and kasha; in terms of protein id say chicken meat and chicken eggs are most common), but each place varies in what they do with it. In bigger and richer settlements, like the capital-ish Rosa and the Twins, accesing a good variety of products, including fresh vegetables and fruits isnt hard (the latter planet is even known for its fish farming; its the only place in the colony that does it, making fish meat accesible and not a luxury food item. Sad, as the colonys kitchen, also cant complain about fresh food), and because so many people move there from different parts of the colony and the universe as a whole, the everyday dishes and culinary culture there is much more diverse. Sad is known for its orchards, as the name suggests, but also for its giant fields in general, and so is the home for many different jams and baking goods. Bread capital of the colony. While on Wola, because of its more isolationist nature, small size, generally unpleasant weather conditions and just how far away it is from the rest, dishes resemble early colony days. A lot of heavily processed foods, preserved, specifically pickled (often in very creative ways), with goulash-like dishes dominating kitchens. that place is also the drinking capital of the colony (known mostly for homemade alcohol from potatoes), despite its small size, though alcohol is popular everywhere. All that being said i imagine the colonys overall cuisine to be very salty and sour; all the bread kvases, pickling and preserving.

There are also foods none of them really have and that are unknown to many, like certain fruits and vegetables, cocoa, coffee, certain spices, like cardamom, ginger and cinnamon. They might have gotten more "popular" with the arrival of the recent era, since thats when Srebro opened up more for more influence from other colonies, but they are avilable in very few places and are very much considered a luxury item. While climate isnt really that much of a problem, the main issue is lack of avilable space. It takes a lot of time, resources and money (that it just historically doesnt really have) to terraform and create new "green" zones or at the very least specialized space stations. While in-colony trade is everpresent and fundamental, food trade between different colonies is something that is above everything very time consuming and requires intercolony relations, that are, in Srebros case, rather poor at that time. Colonies are also just fundamentally built to be self-sufficient; settlements and space stations are meant to all work together, and each individual piece is also expected to, in theory, survive on its own, though that is oftentimes not the case anymore. In that case they are less comparable to a country, and more to an entire region. A very important part of the kitchen is salt, but the access to table salt is a bit more complicated than on earth and requires more processing to make it... well, edible and accesible, since it either comes from halcite (which comes from dried out saltwater, that can be mined millions years later, like on earth) or from ice planets, where it exists in a much harder too access, semi-liquid slushy form, or in the form of weird salty ice. Salt Mining... I imagine that it tends to taste differently from our salt, like many things in space do. I dont know if it actually would in real life but id like to imagine a different taste. Besides that main ways of preserving food (besides obviously vacuum packaging, freezing it or drying it. or more scientific food modifying ways...) is through sugar (jam/jelly making) or vinegar (pickling also), but not wax, so vegetables and fruits in more "altered" forms are more common, and "fresh" fruits especially tend to be more expensive in many places. thats a lot of food talk

I should also mention, that although Srebro is no longer a socialist state, due to the way it existed for a long time, some parts of it are impossible to privatize — even though people can try with healthcare and the mining sector (with both of them being a mix of private and state-owned), the green zones responsible for crops and farms have not undergone a wave of privatization, even though there were definitely tries to do it, and some small amount of them has been sold to private companies. Instead, there have been some green zones and specialized space constructs built specifically by private companies, but they are separate from the state-owned zones

Its a setting that has significantly changed not only in terms of politics but in every day life, still somewhat stabilizing. A very dynamic, challenging and weird time, with crime and unemployment being rather high, but that has also overcome some consequences of the crisis from about 15 years ago. Id say the main thing is that in space time seems to slow down. Everything feels like it lasts longer, both the good and the bad. Since its 90s based, the internet is still in its infant form, with vast majority of people not familiar with it whatsoever, and with the access being far more restricted. Main source of information is through radio first and then TV, with the first one behaving... strange, sometimes, if not tuned properly it might catch signals lost to time, playing sounds from years ago. Similar in feeling to how space telescopes can take pictures of objects so far away that they might not exist anymore. Speaking of time, i believe time and calendar in space is somewhat standardized; theres probably two "clocks", with one being the standard, earthian-originated time, and the other being local time that differs from place to place. I imagine that in itself would probably get confusing to the people living there, as some places have a vastly different day-night cycle (and the Twin settlement not having a day or a night at all), but well thats how they live. Music wise its a mix of whatever (since i tend to associate a lot of 80s music with space mining as well, even if it would be closer to the 2000s), but i couldnt omit the very real world 90s-2000s popularity of both hip hop (i mean i dont think i need to give a hip hop example out of all things but well ouuh) and disco polo (which apparently originated in Poland... thats well nice i suppose... people really dont like it nowdays). i think those two are in-universe very popular. but i also do have a space mining playlist that serves less as in-universe music and more as OST. does that make sense

Well all of this to say space mining is fundamentally a space opera and has very little to do with actual science. i study history not astrophysics or geology and know very little about space in general so well treat it more like space fantasy. because thats what it is. space opera... what a wonderful thing... the height of our astro scientific research is reddit, some nasa news and pirating universe sandbox (in which all my planets exploded!). Well then here are all the non-historical inspirations-recommendations now (besides obviously hermitcraft, as it has originated as a HC au). Even the title is a reference to On the silver globe. though i wouldnt say i like that movie. either way here is the list of works that helped me shape the world, the story or characters. If you have read through all of this thank you and i hope it was at least a bit fun! I really wanted to explain the world of the characters ive been drawing for the past almost year... that is all

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