The Confederation Handbook

The Confederation Handbook

Peter F. Hamilton

The
Night’s Dawn trilogy has been one of the most triumphant works
of science fiction to appear in decades. Swiftly gathering a
worldwide readership, this masterwork of cosmic imagination and
storytelling amounts to more than 1,200,000 words in total, and has
brought to life an entire galaxy of diverse planets and astonishing
civilizations.

At the core of this vast
creation is the Confederation itself: an assembly of human and alien
colony worlds whose cultures, conflicts, and turmoils are described
over a Timeline of nearly six hundred years.

The Confederation
Handbook
is Peter F. Hamilton’s essential companion guide
to the diverse elements of the massive universe he has created. Here
we have his personal exposition of the Adamist and Edenist cultures;
numerous alien races; a battery of starships, weapons, and other
technology; and a vast confederation of planets and settlements. Also
included is a full list of characters and their roles and, of course,
details of the Timeline itself.

Peter F. Hamilton began
writing in 1987 and published a number of short stories as well as
three SF/detective novels before he wrote
The Reality Dysfunction
and its sequels. He was profiled by
Locus
magazine in 1998.

From the arcologies of Earth to the shards of the Ruin Ring, uncover
the...

MYSTERIES OF THE NIGHT’S
DAWN UNIVERSE

Why is the Kulu Intelligence
Service so feared?

What are the differences
between blackhawks and voidhawks?

Why can’t the Weeping
Rose be grown anywhere except on Norfolk?

Why are Cosmoniks so
modified, and are they all still human?

What do Kiint really look
like?

Why is the Jiciro world
off-limits?

Why did the Nyvan colony
collapse into war and anarchy?

Why is life better in the
Halo than on Earth?

The answers to these and
many other questions are contained in a companion guide as wondrous
and revealing as only the epic scope of The Night’s Dawn could
provide...

 

There are two major human
cultures at this time: the Adamist and the Edenist.

They are split by their
different attitudes towards the affinity gene.

Adamists define themselves
as normal humans, a classification governed by their lack of an
affinity gene. The name derives from the biblical Adam, who was first
and therefore untainted. It was also an obvious choice, given that
those who possessed an affinity gene were principally living in the
habitat Eden at the time (2090) when the two cultures began to
diverge (
A Second Chance at Eden
). In general, Adamists live
on colonized terracompatible planets and in asteroid settlements. A
small number live in the five independent (non-Edenist) bitek
habitats.

Thanks to genetic engineering (geneering), average Adamist life
expectancy is approximately 115 years, though this can vary wildly.
Most Adamists are now the recipients of geneering performed between
2050 and 2200, with descendants of European, North American, and
Pacific Rim nations benefiting from the highest level of
enhancements. There are three Confederation planets which are settled
entirely by humans who have no genetic manipulation in their
ancestry, all of which have pastoral- or religious-based
constitutions. Some enclaves of “pureâ€

Nanonic technology is
widespread in Adamist culture. It is a broad-ranging term covering
both artificial neural circuits and cellular-replacement systems, as
well as medical packages. The most common are as follows.

Neural nanonics, a web of neural-amplification circuits that are
meshed directly with the brain, providing a datavise link with
electronic circuitry. Most Confederation processors have a datavise
facility, enabling an operator to interface directly with equipment,
spacesuits, vehicles, etc.; this also provides a link with local
communication nets. Other principal functions include neuroiconic
displays, imprinting data directly into the brain; enhanced memory
capacity; control over implants; and physiological and medical
monitoring. Neural nanonics also receive entertainment shows in the
form of sensevises, and can play sensenviron memories immersing the
recipient in a total artificial environment that has video, audio,
tactile and olfactory components, allowing complete immersion in
fantasy worlds. The most popular flek recordings are mood fantasy
albums produced by artists such as Jezzibella, which can also be used
through direct optical interfaces, although these lack the full
impact of a direct sensevise. Inevitably there is always a big market
for bluesense fleks everywhere in the Confederation.

This technology is extremely
prevalent, with something like 75–80 percent of Confederation
Adamist adults on developed planets fitted with neural nanonics. They
are implanted only when the brain has stopped growing, i.e. at
sixteen to eighteen years old. For anyone involved in up-to-date
aspects of modern society they are essential: fewer and fewer
technological systems are being built with manual interfaces, and
professions such as medicine or starship crewing cannot be conducted
without them.

The distaff side of neural
nanonics is sequestration nanonics, which can be used to infiltrate a
person’s cortex and puppet the entire body. These systems are
highly illegal, and on most worlds their possession or use entails
high penalties.

Government Intelligence
agencies and the police forces of more authoritarian planets also use
debrief nanonics, which can probe the brain’s memory centers,
extracting information directly.

Edenists do not use neural
nanonics.

Medical nanonics come in packages of varying sophistication, which
can be used for anything from patching up wounds in the field to
complex deep-penetration operations. They consist of microfilaments
with various functions, capable of treating individual cells. These
include adding or extracting chemicals and proteins, filtering blood,
knitting cells together (along a wound), and destroying and
withdrawing malignant growths. Whereas first-aid packages can be
operated by almost anyone with access to a controlling processor, the
more complicated uses have to be supervised by qualified medical
personnel. Medical packages are not autonomous.

These are industrial
asteroid personnel whose bodies have atrophied due to extensive
periods spent in zero-gee (“Astrophiedâ€

Despite the relatively
stable interstellar situation policed by the Confederation, soldiers
for hire are still a large business. Although there are no longer any
land wars or interstellar invasions, the requirement for limited
“special forcesâ€

Perfected in 2065 so that
couples with fertility problems could have children, they were almost
immediately adopted by wealthy women to avoid the physical strains of
childbirth and the limitations it temporarily placed on their
lifestyle. Exowombs played an important role during the divergence of
Adamism and Edenism, and still remain important to the expansion of
both cultures.

Their first large-scale use
was by the Edenists following Eden’s declaration of
independence in 2090, when they were employed to increase the
populations of Eden and Pallas with germ plasma bought from Earth.
This breeding program saw the start of comprehensive geneering for
Edenists, improving everyone on an equal basis. It was also an
opportunity to give every future Edenist an affinity gene.

They are not widely used on Earth in 2600, although Adamists began
utilizing the technology after the onset of interstellar
colonization. Exowombs are employed quite extensively by Adamists
during the mid-term stage of a planet’s colonization. This is
when the purely agrarian phase is being left behind and they are
moving towards full industrialization, always a time of large
expansion and raised horizons. Families of these eras can have
typically eight to twelve children without placing repeated
childbearing stress on the mother.

Asteroid dwellers and
starship crew-members tend to deposit large quantities of germ plasm
in storage once they reach adolescence. Radiation exposure during
flight is still a problem—certainly accidental exposure—and
exowombs give them the opportunity to have “normalâ€

On all advanced worlds and asteroid settlements this consists almost
entirely of didactic laser memory imprints: subject matter is loaded
directly into the brain, the rate being varied according to an
individual’s ability to absorb it. School for Adamist children
consists of a weekly didactic memory-absorption assessment, and then
the imprint of a new memory. This leaves children with considerable
time on their hands, creating a large industry of day clubs to keep
them occupied through organized games and events, and helping to
develop their social skills. Basic education is completed at around
age sixteen, after which brighter children, nominally 70 percent,
have the opportunity to go on to universities, which employ a
combination of didactic imprints and traditional tutorial sessions or
research projects aimed at developing students’ intellects and
analytical abilities. For the remainder there are job-related
specialization imprint courses, where appropriate, e.g. maintenance
and machine operation, which the average citizen will continue to
take throughout their working life.

There are as many variations
of government as there are colonies. The Confederation embraces
almost every ideology and religious society possible, from
interactive democracies to absolute dictatorships, religious
orthodoxies, monarchies, company fiefdoms, anti-tech pastoral and
anarchies, rich and poor. This variety is a source of some perplexity
and bemusement to Edenists (and presumably to the Tyrathca and
Kiint). However, the vast majority of Adamist governments are
democratic republics along the original Western European and North
American mold.

Adamists still follow the major religious beliefs of Christianity,
Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, and Shintoism, as well as every minor
orthodoxy. On Confederation worlds, types of faith vary in accordance
with the ethnic origin of the population. After the unrest
experienced on the initial multiethnic colonies, subsequent colonies
(post-2130) tended to derive their population from just one ethnic or
religious group, thus giving the majority of Confederation planets a
single religion, and adherence to it is often an immigration
requirement. Sacred cities and shrines such as the Vatican, Mecca,
Amaterasu, and Mt. Abu remain the centers of their respective faiths.

Christian evangelical
movements and Islamic fundamentalism have declined to negligible
proportions; both of these religions have mellowed considerably since
the twentieth century, especially among their followers on Earth, and
there is even speculation on an eventual total unity, although this
must still be several centuries distant.

Of more immediate concern to
current religious leaders is the declining numbers of the faithful.
The impact of a technological society on the tenets of basic faith
has never let up. At the start of the twenty-seventh century, less
than 5 percent of the population now attends regular worship.
Ironically, on Earth, the most technology-intensive planet in the
Confederation, the massive population base supported by the
arcologies means that this same 5 percent gives the major religions
there a larger following than at any time since the early twentieth
century.

The Christian Unification of 2044 means that all Christians now have
access to the confessional, priests are both male and female, and
celibacy is no longer practiced, while contraception is actually
endorsed, especially on Earth.

Cult religions continue to
flourish, although these tend to center around their own founder, and
diminish after that founder’s death unless an even more
charismatic successor can be found.

Adamists have colonized 861
terracompatible planets, and an average of five new planets are
opened up for colonization each year. Settlement rights belong to the
discoverer (provided the discovery is filed with the Confederation to
establish a legal claim), although most scoutships are owned by
either institutions or governments. Establishing a colony is not a
cheap proposition, and requires considerable financial backing which
few individuals can provide. Thus, independently owned scoutships
usually sell on the settlement rights to institutions. The criteria
for establishing a settlement are as follows.