Absalom Station

A sprawling, densely inhabited space station, filling a similar orbit the forgotten planet Golarion once held around The Sun. Absalom Station is inhabited primarily by species descended from the natives of Golarion, making it the last relic of the lost planet remaining in the Golarion System. It is also a focal point of the galaxy due to the Starstone, a powerful magical artifact that acts as an immensely potent Drift Beacon that allows travel to Absalom Station from nearly anywhere via The Drift in under a week.

History

Its history stretch back centuries into the span of lost history known as The Gap.

Pre-Gap

The station's origins, builders, and even its purpose, are lost to the amnesia of the Gap. It occupies the same orbit as pre-Gap Golarion, and records have linked the name "Absalom" to a city from the missing planet's pre-Gap history. This, along with the presence of native Golarion peoples on the station, have led to the assumption that the station was built by mortal natives of Golarion.

After-Gap

Immediately after The Gap, the station's residents were suddenly without a homeworld, history, or even societal structures, leading to anarchy and violence. A nearly catastrophic atmospheric systems malfunction, moved the station's residents to end their period of lawless violence through the formation of the Syndicsguild, a governmental council formed by the leaders of the rampant gangs, and elect its inaugural Prime Executive, Loqua Tem. This decision brought much needed stability to the station and the Syndicsguild and Prime Executive continue to run the station today.

Triune's gift of Drift travel in 3 AG thrust the station into the galactic limelight. The Starstone that powers the station's Starstone Reactor serves as a powerful Drift Beacon that drew in newly Drift-traveling visitors from across the galaxy, turning Absalom Station into the busiest port in the Golarion System.

In 7 AG, the Bone Sages of Eox launched the Magefire Assault in an attempt to capture the station by force. Absalom Station's powerful defensive batteries, however, held off the undead fleet.

After Vesk incursions into the Golarion System in 36 AG, officials from Absalom Station, Verces, and Castrovel called for the formation of a system-wide defense and governance pact to counter this new threat. The Absalom Pact was signed soon thereafter and named after the station. This created the new Pact Worlds government for which the station was chosen as its capital.

Recent History

After the birth of the Outer God known as The Newborn in 324 AG on Aucturn, the inhabitants of Absalom Station (along with the rest of the people of the Pact System) experienced psychic visions and dreams, with the telepathic species such as Lashuntas and Formians hit particularly hard. Soon thereafter, the Midwife Amnieka traveled to the station to leech power off the Starstone in order to free the Newborn from its restrictive placenta. She couldn't breach the artifact's defenses, but she was able to draw off some power through the Charity Substation reactor near the Little Akiton neighborhood, while activating and drawing people into the Ghost Levels. Several months later, scavengers calling themselves Ghost Couriers entered these levels to save those trapped within.

Geography

The station is five miles in diameter, but densely populated with over two million permanent residents. It has artificial gravity in most places, where "down" is always perpendicular to the plane of the disk in the direction of the technomagical generators in the tip of the Spike. Its environment seems to have been designed to accommodate humanoid residents. Lights in many of the sectors are set to a 24-hour light and dark cycle.

Sectors

The standard of living tends to increase as you move from the station's radial arms into its central districts

• The Arms

  • Radial arms that are home to the station's many docking bays and hangars. Each is controlled by the neighborhoods in the main part of the station to which it connects.

• The Eye

  • The transparent central dome of the station houses its most upscale residents, largest businesses, and most prominent organizations. Amongst the skyscrapers, hundreds of stories tall, one can find the Plenara, home of the Pact Council, along with centers of learning like the Arcanamirium and Kemanis University. The Eye is surrounded by a green stretch of park land known as Jatembe Park.

• The Ring

  • Corridors that connect the Arms to the central Eye, forming middle-class neighborhoods.

• The Spike

  • These slums and gang warrens fill space beneath the Eye, extending down to the heavily defended Starstone Reactor.

• The Armada

  • A flotilla of spaceships, many of them semi-permanent structures made of several ships rafted together. The Armada forms a transient and chaotic neighborhood surrounding the station that is the fifth unofficial sector of Absalom Station.

Inhabitants

Humans are the largest population group on Absalom Station, but its status as the Pact Worlds system's primary hub for interstellar travel means that even the rarest of species can be found here.

Humans

They make up 40% of the population, by far the most populous inhabitants. Having lost their homeworld, they take pride in the station, and its ancient pre-Gap records as an important part of their cultural identity. Unlike the Dwarves who have their Star Citadels, and the Elves, who retreated to Castrovel, the humans of the Pact Worlds System have no other place they can truly call home. Many humans on the station will adopt the cultural identity and religious practices of Golarion's ancient human ethnic groups, even if they are not their genetic descendants. This is at odds with a group known as the Second Age philosophers who believe that the amnesia of the Gap gave human cultures a chance to reinvent themselves in whatever manner they choose, and create a utopia unburdened by the past.

Organizations

• Starfinder Society is headquartered at Absalom Station and launches frequent expeditions into the unknown.
• Arcanamirium, a magical university that has good reputation for training exceedingly skilled technomancers.
• Cosmonastery, where solarians study their trade.
• Eyeswide Agency that employs psychic investigators.

Factions

One of the most dangerous factions of late is the Strong Absalom movement, which believes the Starstone should only be used free of charge by the species who can trace their origins back to the lost planet Golarion in compensation for the loss of their homeworld. Any other species would be highly taxed for using it as a Drift beacon, or it should be barred from its use entirely.

Religions

The station contains major temples to Iomedae and Abadar, but it overall remains religiously pleuralistic with countless churches and shrines to numerous deities.