Terrans

**Terrans**, also known as *Earthers*, are born and raised on planet Earth, humanity’s first home. With a population of nearly 30 billion, Earth’s megalopolises are hopelessly overcrowded, its natural resources depleted, and its people widely split between those with opulent wealth and those with little to nothing.

Though the roots of many cultures still exist, globalisation has long since led to those cultures become intermingled and barely distinct. Some people hold tightly to their traditions, while others fully embrace the future and borrow bits and pieces from everywhere. Terrans have greater muscle and bone density from being raised in a gravity well, making them healthier and more broadly built than Belters or even native-born Martians, but in space they need regular exercise and medical treatments to avoid muscle atrophy and bone density loss.

## Origin Variants

### Basic

The majority of Earth’s population is unemployed and lives on government-provided welfare: Basic Assistance (generally known as being “on Basic”), which provides for their essential food, housing, and medical needs, but little else. Many of these people dream of a better, wealthier life, but with the sheer amount of people and the general availability of automation there are simply not enough jobs for everyone on the planet. As a result, most people live in severe poverty, dependent entirely on those that are employed to drive the economy.

People on Basic are generally uneducated and contribute little to Earth’s official economy, but they do engage in a vibrant barter economy among themselves, creating their own grey market industries and unlicensed services that are small enough to function without attracting much attention from the government. The only way off Basic is to get a job or an education. There are uplift programs that provide educational or job training opportunities for people on Basic who are self-taught or can meet strict entrance requirements, but they are highly competitive and waiting lists to earn a spot in a vocational program can be upwards of ten years long. As a result, these programs are only an option for a select few. The only other option is the Lottery, a planet-wide random selection, which provides a rare few with a corp-sponsored route to employment. For most people, life on Basic is the only one they will ever know, the news feeds, dramas, and pornography on their terminal screens their only escape from the boredom of their existence.

* *Origin Bonus: +1 BODY, +1 EMP*

### Laborer

For those lucky enough to be employed, jobs still don’t mean a drastic improvement in quality of life. Most workers are on the lowest rung of the ladder: working in factories, space docks, construction, low-level desk jobs, or, if they’re particularly talented, in the military. Still, a salary above Basic Assistance brings with it the opportunity for better status amongst the rest, and extensive propaganda campaigns have cemented the belief in most that, so long as they’re better than those on Basic, they don’t need to feel worse than the upper class. These beliefs keep the working class in line, and makes sure people stay divided enough to not feel compelled to change the system.

Laborers are usually those promoted via the lottery, via the recruitment shortlists, or via connections within existing job opportunities (most commonly by birth). Typically, no matter the job, there is education and training at a higher level involved (above and beyond the basic education that is compulsory for all Earth citizens).

* *Origin Bonus: +1 TECH, +1 INT*

### Corpo

Corpos are the uppermost class of Earth society. Politicians, corporate executives, and generally anyone with the wealth to not only live comfortably for their entire life, but to throw money around to garner influence. In the current state of the system, you don’t become a corpo by merit, you’re born into it. Gaining the money to be one legitimately is pretty much impossible, both because the jobs are rarely available, and because the megacorps will put you down before you can. Early life for a corpo is typically tied up in corporate culture, most likely due to family members who built their lives around a company in some fashion. That family might be influential stockholders or include powerful executives, and they typically expect their children to follow in their example.

Corpos are most at home in board rooms, conference chambers, penthouses, and the towering skyscrapers of Earth’s greatest cities. They’re accustomed to a life of luxury, and never struggle with material hardship, though this is not to say the life is without its own troubles. The corporate political world is a ruthless and stressful one, that takes a considerable amount of wittiness and delicate diplomacy to navigate.

* *Origin Bonus: +1 COOL, +1 INT*

### Badlander

The Third World War very swiftly escalated to nuclear bombardment, leaving behind large swathes of nigh uninhabitable sectors outside the major cities. These areas, known as Badlands or Hot Zones, are rife with radiation, chemical spills, and acid rain from massive pollution. All of this guarantees nothing natural will grow here anytime soon, perhaps ever. Instead, large portions of the land nearest to the cities are taken up by automated power plants, factories, protein farms, and greenhouses, while the remainder is a derelict wasteland of deserts, plains, and ruins.

Despite all this, for many people these lands still count as home. Often escaping poverty and homelessness in the cities, these people become nomads, travelling from place to place in ragtag fleets of cars, vans, busses, and RV’s, looking for supplies and spare parts in the places where society no longer exists. The cancer meds might be expensive, but there’s a lot of pre-war relics in the wastes that collectors pay a lot of bank for.

* *Origin Bonus: +1 TECH, +1 WILL*