Sheol (Galian Moon)

Sheol is a penal colony located in the Hela-Sator system of the Empire of Galia. Originally founded as a mining colony, the extremely harsh nature of the planet's geography made its continued mining prohibitively costly following the rise of the Galian Empire, and subsequent mineral extraction boom. Today the moon exists as one of the largest prisons in the galaxy, officially hosting over six-hundred million Class-A prisoners, though the surviving population is suspected to be much lower.

## History

### Pre-Settlement

Sheol was discovered along with the entirety of the Hela-Sator system in 2317 by pre-warp scouts from Terra. The Colonization of Hela-Sator began in the mid 2400's, during which time Sheol would be mostly ignored, classed as too hazardous for mining operations by the early settlers of the region. It wasn't until mid 2500's that Sheol would see its first serious human presence, when miners from Kuana and Sion would begin surveying and eventually mining from the moderately rich planet.

### Early Penal-Colony

By the late Systems Alliance period Sheol had become a major mining hub, with various mining corporations from across the Galian Systems Alliance operating out of the planet. With the growing importance of mineral extraction to the GSA's economy, the need for massive amounts of on surface labor became increasingly apparent. During the Late Systems Alliance period in the 2600's and early 2700's the GSA slowly began to adopt the system of Debt-Bondage and forced labor which would evolve into the Imperial system of serfdom known as "Villeinry".

Seeking to maximize profit margins on the world by entirely eliminating labor costs, a coalition on mining corporations on the world lobbied the system administration of Hela-Sator to establish a penal colony on the moon, allowing their companies to utilize prisoner labor for free. The system administrator, having received a massive series of bribes, agreed to this proposal, and shortly after established the moon's first penal colony, consisting of 15,000 Class-A Criminals. The colony proved an immense success, as the prisoner population, consisting only of murderers, terrorists, traitors, and other high criminals were widely considered disposable by the local mining consortium, and thus were able to greatly increase local productivity. Along with the massive expansion of profits, coincidentally increasing bribes led to the further growth of the prison to the nearly 100,000 inmates by the mid 2700's.

### Imperial Period

Following the fall of the Galian Systems Alliance in the 2750's and the subsequent civil-war the prison complex on Sheol was massively expanded, soaring as high as 2,000,000 inmates by the end of the war. In addition to becoming one of the major Class-A prisons, the newly formed Galian Empire established the custom of imprisoning war-criminals, and traitors on the scorching hot world. Viewing it as the most secure holding facility in the Empire, and seeing as how Galia did not maintain a death penalty on moral grounds, imprisonment on Sheol was viewed as the closest alternative, since an individual could be sent away to the hellish moon, and reasonably be expected to never see any real chance of escape. Also occurring during this time was a massive explosion in mineral exports from Galia, largely coinciding with the formalization of the system of Villeinry, and the establishment of a permanent class of serfs. The rapidly growth of the mineral export industry led to a subsequent price collapse, which ultimately doomed mineral exports from Sheol, which were expensive owing to the extreme temperatures, and specialist equipment required on the world.

With mineral extraction drying up, the prison system became Sheol's sole value and its main focus. Assigned a title of County, the new administration of Sheol immediately set out to expand and upgrade the planet's prison infrastructure, building new holding facilities across the moon, guard stations, and import zones sealed away behind immense fortifications. Most importantly the moon was made to be somewhat self sufficient, as geothermal power plants, immense water purification systems, and a network of underground hydroponic farms were installed across the moon, operating largely off of prisoner labor. With a new purpose, and some ability to maintain itself with only minimal food and water imports required, the population of Sheol rapidly ballooned to nearly 40,000,000 people by the mid 2900's.

### Condemnation

The downfall of Sheol would come not long after its golden age however. By the 2960's, the Prison had become infamous across the Empire for its brutal treatment of prisoners, and equally harsh environment. Both inhumane conditions, including interior temperatures rarely getting below 27°c, and high mortality for prison guards and inmates alike had led to a degradation in public opinion on the prison. However, conditions on the moon would continue to worsen during the Antonine Tyranny, as the increasingly paranoid Emperor Antonio, and his secret police force Section 12 would rapidly expand the population of Sheol through the mass imprisonment of political dissidents, eventually resulting in the designation of Sheol as the sole holding facility for Class-A criminals. Antonio hoped that by moving all Class-A criminals to one location, he could more easily watch those he deemed especially dangerous to his regime. Ultimately, however, the rapid and uncontrolled explosion of population on the moon instead rendered it virtually uncontrollable.

Following the death of Antonio, Emperor Icaro ordered all guards on Sheol to retreat to designated locations, and secure the moon. Icaro's hope was that, by establishing secure staging points, the Imperial Guard on the planet could reoccupy the prisons proper, using their newly constructed fortresses as their central operations hub. Emperor Icaro's reign was cut short by a Palace Coup (Believed instigated by Section 12). His replacement, Emperor Cesare, chose instead to abandon Sheol's prisons entirely, ordering all Guardsmen to maintain their fortresses, leaving the vast majority of the moon's surface to the prisoners, and instead focus their efforts on monitoring airspace, and ensuring no one enters or leaves.

Today Sheol remains much like it has been since its condemnation by Cesare in the late 2900's and early 3000's. It remains the sole Class-A prison in Imperial space, and has seen its population explode to a shocking 600,000,000 individuals (Though it is suspected as few as 200,000,000 survive). The surface outside of the immense Guard-Fortresses has been left to the prisoner populations, who have taken to establishing their own governments, cities, and have even created their own complicated internal economy, using water as their primary (But not sole) currency. Sheol is one of the most heavily guarded stellar bodies in the Empire, with both a substantial population of 300,000 guards, but also an entire Imperial Fleet orbiting above in Anchorage Asmodeus, forever vigilant over the "Moon of the Damned".

## Geography

Sheol is a highly volcanically active moon, featuring tens of thousands of known active volcanoes, which dot the surface of the moon and contribute substantially to the moon's toxic atmosphere, and scorching climate. Sheol features an average surface temperature of 93°c, though typically ranging from 82-104. Additionally much of Sheol's atmosphere is composed of sulfur, carbon monoxide, and dioxide primarily emitted from the numerous yearly eruptions across the planet. These gasses contribute to the incredibly inhospitable climate of the world, on which a human can expected to survive no more than an hour when provided substantial amounts of water and a re breather. Without water one could survive at most 10 minutes with oxygen, or mere seconds without.

The atmosphere of Sheol is almost entirely dry, allowing for humans to survive for extended periods of time even under such substantial temperatures. This is particularly useful for the prisoners of Sheol, as it allows for prisoners to perform some amount of hard labor outside if necessary, so long as they are provided with water and some form of cooling such as a fan, or air conditioned suit. Long term survival on Sheol has required the creation of large, air conditioned, and air filtered facilities largely extending from the original Imperial prison complexes, which now form the hearts of massive, sprawling prison cities.

## Imperial Government

Sheol is entitled as a County, and is given a single seat of representation in the Imperial Senate. Currently under the rulership of Ct. Aristeo Cervi, the office of the County of Sheol is based in Akari, as the Count has chosen not to operate his government out of the holding, largely thanks to the extremely dangerous nature of the moon. Unlike most holdings of its size, Sheol has no existing Baronial or lower titles, instead all lands are in ownership of the Count of Sheol, or the Department of Detainment, Holding, and Remuneration.

### Planetary Guard

Sheol is monitored by around 300,000 guards employed by the Department of Detainment, Holding, and Remuneration. Officers of the DHR are known as "Planetary Guard", and are largely responsible for operating Imperial corrections facilities. On Sheol, the Planetary guard operate 10 major outposts, built near the largest prisoner population centers. The purpose of these outposts are to act as staging points should any interventions into the prison be needed, and to provide secure landing zones for the 29th Fleet, should a full invasion of the prison be deemed necessary.

### Anchorage Asmodeus

Located in orbit above Sheol is Anchorage Asmodeus. One of the two Anchorages in the Hela-Sator system, Asmodeus is home to the 29th Fleet of the Imperial Navy, and provides orbital security and monitoring for the prison colonies of Sheol. Primarily tasked with monitoring the planet's orbit, and ensuring no vessels may enter or exit the moon without authorization, Asmodeus is commonly referred to by its nickname, "Hell's Gatekeeper".

## Prison Colony

In the years since the condemnation of Sheol, several massive cities have emerged around the original prison complexes of the moon, in addition to new facilities forming around abandoned mining outposts and quarries. These settlements are predominantly self sufficient, producing much of their own food, power, and even purifying water internally. A basic economy, including international trade has even developed around the largest of these colonies, as specialist goods, and valuable metals are exchanged via roving caravans.

### De Toro's Castle

The largest of the prison cities is De Toro's Castle, a city of around fifteen million built around the largest of the former prisons, from which its name is derived. De Toro's Castle is immense, being nearly 48 kilometers in width, and descending and unknown depth into the surface of Sheol, especially toward its center where an abandoned mining crevasse was located. De Toro's Castle has no formal government to speak of, and is instead divided into over 60 "districts", each with its own governing body, usually a gang, but sometimes an individual warlord or even an elected council.

Alongside the 60 districts of De Toro's Castle, there is a substantial amount of "No Man's Land", or areas of the city that have largely been abandoned by all but the most desperate residents, and now exist in a near constant state of warfare, and each individual district fights for supremacy over its section of the city. Largely thanks to this constant warfare, and the slowly and ever shifting conditions of the political landscape many of the districts operate their own military forces, and have even formed alliances and mutual defense pacts. Most important for these districts, is the control of vital points in the city, especially those that produce vital goods or services, such as workshops, hydroponics farms, mining facilities, power generators, climate control centers, and most importantly of all: Water purifiers.

### Economy

The increasingly complicated societies that have developed on Sheol have forged an increasingly complicated economy, featuring what you would expect from any developed world. Residents of the Prison Cities work in exchange for pay, and offer goods and services in exchange for currency. Most of Sheol's settlements operate on some form of barter economy, however water has earned a position as a near universal currency, accepted everywhere unconditionally.

Extremely specialized workers, such as power plant operators, engineers, atmospherics technicians, and mechanics tend to be highly sought after, and skilled individuals can make a substantial amount of money for their extremely limited and important skills. Similarly some individuals make rather substantial fortunes by taking on the extremely dangerous, yet lucrative, task of peddling goods, and facilitating long distance trade. Transport of goods from one prison city to another is possible thanks in large part to the emergence of an economy of locally manufactured vehicles, capable of traversing the great distances between colonies on Sheol, while keeping their occupants safe from the scorching lunar heat. Such individuals make their money primarily moving manufactured goods from larger settlements to smaller ones, in exchange for metals and other resources which may have largely been depleted in larger population centers.