Argano

The ringworld of Argano, from a passing spacecraft.

The ringworld of **Argano** is a major world of Marakat and capital of the Argano Prefect of that nation. Constructed by the MIU shortly after passage through the wormhole to the vicinity, Argano is widely known as a beacon of prosperity. It is located around the F-type star of Garanka and orbits like a planet, rather than being centered on the star as a larger-scale ringworld would be.

## Government

Argano is directly governed by the Local Government of the Argano Prefect, of which it is the capital. It thus has an outsize influence on local politics. The populace of the megastructure is given a greater voice in government by way of the Argano People's Council, a committee based in the city of Forzak near the offices of local government. The Argano People's Council consists of randomly chosen people interested in helping govern the megastructure and helping it become more prosperous, and it is given an advisory position in the Local Government.

## Notable Locations

Argano, due to its huge size, has a likewise large population. As populations do, they concentrate around certain areas, creating various points of interest along the ring.

### Forzak

Forzak is the largest city on the ring of Argano and home to the offices of the governance of the Argano Prefect. It is also the capital city of the megastructure, and has a population of over a billion individuals. The city of Forzak is primarily populated by Poreltids, although there is a small minority of Rorazals.

Forzak is also home to the offices of the Argano People's Council as well as the largest spaceport on the megastructure. The city is large enough to be governed separately from the rest of the ring of Argano, a unique position. Also located in Forzak is quite possibly the largest museum in the entire MIU, a common tourist attraction from across the galaxy.

### Nurassa

Nurassa is the second largest city of the ring of Argano, and is constructed in a rather unorthodox way. Positioned against the north rimwall of Argano, roughly 1/8 of Nurassa's structure is beneath the water and is home to the largest population of Salakela in the region. Nurassa is actually built rather vertically, as it is filled with structures bolted to the rimwall, climbing all the way to the top to the vacuum of space. As such, Nurassa is home to the second largest spaceport of the Ring.

## Population

The population of the Ring of Argano is upwards of 80 trillion people. However, up to two thirds of that number can be found in various habitats that are holding position near the Ring. Roughly 2/3 of the population of Argano consists of Poreltids and Rorazals, and half of the rest is of the Filrena species, although they mostly keep to themselves on the far side of the ring from the two main cities. The remaining sixth of the population consists of the Salakela and other species from across the galaxy.

## History

### Initial Assembly & Colonization

A few bedraggled colony ships passed through the split-second wormhole to the Garanka System in 51,388 CE, finding nothing but a star and a very thick disk of asteroids. The sensitive equipment of their FTL drives was destroyed by passage through the wormhole and the wormhole itself was somehow destabilized, so they were trapped in the system unless willing to endure hundreds of thousands of years of travel through the interstellar void.

Luckily, essentially nothing else was broken, and the would-be colonists began unpacking mining equipment. Each colony ship bolted itself to a nearby asteroid and began extracting resources from it to assemble megastructures for habitation. Over the next hundred years, the ships assembled a ring roughly 1 million km in radius, set to spin once a day. This ring was soon terraformed to allow for habitation, and the crew finally set foot on the ground of something larger than a room for the first time in over a century.

They then disassembled the colony ships to assemble the first cities of Argano. One such city was the original Forzak, which is preserved in the modern city's Old Town district. There was also a group of people which went off to assemble a town on the edge of the rim wall, to serve as a large spaceport. This town would become the city of Nurassa, the second largest city of Argano.

After Garanka's exact position relative to the Marakat heartland was charted, more and more colonists came to the region. The population of the Ring and surrounding space rapidly spiked into the trillions, and Marakat established full control of the region. As the population of the area expanded, it was eventually made into a new prefect and given its own seat in the Marakat Senate. However, soon after this occurred, the largest war in memory broke out.

### War of Saiheran Succession

At the beginning of the war, the populace of Argano itself was mostly opposed to taking part in a massive war to gain a few light-years of territory, although the general consensus in the prefect as a whole disagreed.

As such, the citizens of the Ring refused to allow themselves to be drafted into the military, and the MIU sent in regiments to subdue the protests. Because of this, any armies that passed through the territory were instructed to leave Argano alone, because to attack it would be to galvanize its population and add to the size of the enemy armies. Thus, Argano was almost entirely undisturbed over the course of the war.

Towards the end of the War of Saiheran Succession, the Great Ring was the site of an intense round of negotiations between the three remaining heirs to the throne. Karnak had gone missing by this time. Although these negotiations soon degenerated into brawling, they were a crucial step in ending the brutal war that had ravaged the galaxy for so long.

At the end of the war, the citizens of Argano staged a great celebration, possibly the largest in the history of the entire region. One can still find confetti in the streets to this day.

### Marakat Civil War

Although the galaxy was at peace after the end of the war, for Argano, this peace was not to last. A radical minority party known as the Arganan Liberation Front gained power in the prefect's legislature via heavy gerrymandering and passed a law which made the entire prefect independent. This law was vetoed by then-governor of the prefect Tharo Everas, a member of the Centrist party who opposed any such ludicrous measures.

The ALF owned several right-wing news channels and put them to use in this instance. They rapidly drummed up support for their endeavor, and as much as 70 percent of the population in extremely rural areas rose up in support of the independence of the prefect, completely ignoring the fact that the majority of the population strongly disliked that idea. Part of the party manifesto involved ousting any "illegal immigrants", which meant any immigrants, from the Argano Prefect, and murders of non-Poreltids spiked massively at this time.

Everas had just enough time to call in support from the rest of the Marakat military before his room was flooded with fluorine gas, giving him an agonizing death. Thus, the coup was complete. The ALF leadership took control of the military and destabilized the wormhole leading to the main territory of the MIU. At this point, the Argano prefect became a new nation. However, the capital was actually set at the moon of Kosi, as Argano was deemed to be filled with "radical leftists" and unsafe for government.

To stamp out what they saw as a hive of sedition, a large band of ALF supporters bolted a set of bombs on the underside of the ring and detonated them. These bombs blasted a hole in the ring, causing the air to begin draining out. However, a hasty operation by citizens of Argano patched the hole, saving the population. This horrible event caused the ALF to lose favor across the Prefect.

However, they refused to leave office. Unexplained arrests and indefinite detention were commonplace for any who did not agree with their mission. The Marakat military returned from the rural areas to finally oust them however, but they would not go without a fight. The ALF began firing long-range weapons originally meant for orbital bombardment left over from the war at the fleet, but this did not stop them. They then landed on the surface of Kosi to arrest the ALF senators and governor, and the insurrection was over.

In the modern day, the Ring of Argano has become incredibly prosperous. The giant hole was paved over, and today Argano is among the most high-quality living spaces in the nation. The ALF is gone, but not forgotten, and the inhabitants of the ring remain vigilant against the specter of fascism.