Helab was one of the first constellations in the Aridia region colonized during the time of the EVE Gate. The system in Helab colonized during that era was Soliara. As such, Helab has remained dominated by Soliaran culture/s.
Soliarans are more independent and conservative in the sense that we were only very recently added to the Amarr empire, and we hadn’t conquered worlds or taken slaves like the Amarr started doing with their Reclaiming; we were pre-slavery oldfashioned. We do have plenty of submissives and volunteers on our world, but few other than Holders who immigrated (or got stationed) here have actual slaves taken as captives and forcibly owned. Even those actual-slave owners, after working and living here a long while, tend to become very self-reliant, thus independence-minded like the rest of us.
Ever since the Jove made the Minmatar secession possible, we looked at the Triglavian invasion as a possible chance for our own restored independence; they were certainly distracting the ‘big four’ empires. The Amarr have never really given us much trouble, and we did not much resist them claiming us as part of their growing empire, but the thought still has crossed our minds. Why not?
Now you have the overall idea or thinking of the people of Helab. While each of our systems and worlds has a sub-culture all its own, together we remain a hardy and accomplished collective who accomplished many things far from, and off the radar of, the empire for a very long time. On every Soliaran-colonized world you go to, you’ll find people who are politely proud of this fact, regardless of what they do out there, or what their later-developed local culture is recently about.
Each of New Eden’s 68 regions had at least one colony in them pre-collapse, and some had several; of the ~8,000 star-systems, only ~1-8% had a colony on one of their worlds. This remained the case from ~8100 A.D. to 16,262 A.D.; that was the Dark Ages of this cluster of the galaxy, Space travel restored after. Here in Helab near the edge of New Eden, we Solarians are the colony that survived, and we have gone on to name all of our constellation’s neighboring systems after the (surnames of the) most-accomplished off-world explorers native to Soliara III.
Soliara was the first reached in our constellation, and the only colonized before gate collapse; of all the colonized places in our constellation, this system has been developed the longest (15 millennia and counting). While only ~60,000,000 residents/‘natives’ of Soliara III in modern times are involved in Space operations, millions more have migrated from our world to others, ferried and supported by those full-time Space workers.
- Soliara III is/was one of the easiest worlds to colonize, having numerous and distinct continents and oceans, a variety of climate zones and biomes, plenty of resources everywhere, mild polar regions, and no severe deserts or other challenging regions to deal with. It is known for its many canyon-based cities and dialects, and is home to ~six billion, including all the “old money” of the Helab constellation. (Why just six billion, when other temperate worlds in our constellation have more but were reached millennia later? Because this world is where millions keep migrating from in order to colonize, stabilize, and support those numerous other nearby worlds; it keeps causing significant dips in our population here.)
- Soliara VI: Our other temperate world is still fairly close to our star (another ‘inner’ planet), and has normal continents, oceans, and weather patterns, so it is chillier and snowier, but still very comfortable. It is dominated by sea-level and alpine taiga; biomes here are like the boreal/snow-forests of Earth, so winter sports are virtually everywhere on this world (think: hundreds of vast skiing and snowboarding resorts, with slopes and overall properties dwarfing anything on Earth) --and it snows almost year-round, so you won’t have any trouble finding or waiting for ‘fresh powder’ on the slopes. Soliara VI is now home to a few billion.
⦁ By the 17000s, we had reached every world and moon in this home-system of ours, and today there are Space stations in orbit around them all, as well as major cities on almost all of them (planet-side).
⦁ We have 10 planets, 67 moons, and 15 asteroid belts, all of which have been tapped into for resources. (~1 more of those reached every ~8 years)
⦁ ~13 billion people live in this system.
Nielez was the closest neighboring system to Soliara, and we reached it in the 16000s. Conveniently, it had the most temperate planets of all the systems in our constellation, giving us an easy first-era expansion and foothold; right off the back, at the start of New Eden’s post-Dark Ages Space-race, we Soliarans spread from one easily-inhabited world to five, almost no terraforming needed on any of them.
- Nielez IV (an ‘inner’ planet) has many continents, narrow oceans barely bigger than seas, a thick atmosphere, and lots of storms. Its lands are mostly grasslands and deserts. The culture that developed here is based on sprawling interconnected cities dating back ~7,100 years, bridge building, and wind energy. Air travel is less common here than land and sea travel due to the weather patterns; there are far more highways, trains, and short shipping lanes than airports. Several billion people live on this world.
- Nielez VII (an ‘inner’ planet) is mostly land with no true oceans or continents (everything is connected), only seas, and has a normal atmosphere with sporadic/few storms. Its lands are mostly dry/non-grassland plains. The culture that developed here is based on mining and air travel between the distant cities, and there is almost no sea travel, as there would be little point beyond recreational use out onto the small seas and big lakes. Several billion people live on this world.
- Nielez VIII (between the ‘inner’ and ‘outer’ planets, and with an orbit so eccentric that it is almost perpendicular to this system’s standard orbital plane) is roughly an even mix of continents and oceans under a thick atmosphere with lots of storms and almost constant cloud-cover. Its lands are mostly snow-dusted or tundra. The culture that developed here is based on indoor farming either in biodomes or bunker complexes, with lots of geothermal engineering and subways providing most of the traffic connections between cities. Many military and Space training facilities are also here, as conditions are comparably challenging (in terms of temperature, resources, and visibility) to those on barren and ice planets, moons, and the void of Space. A clear day/sky is a rare treat, and is often understandable grounds/reason for a day off work, whether for star-gazing or sunning/tanning. A couple billion people live on this world.
- Nielez XI (an ‘outer’ planet) is the opposite of Earth; ~71% continents, ~29% oceans, though its atmosphere is comparable, and there are only normal far-apart weather patterns. Its lands are mostly forests and jungles, with a few circular regions of mountain ranges. The culture that developed here is based on gathering food and other resources from the virtually endless forests, almost no farming necessary at all, and travel is predominantly based on aircraft, as there is little point in crossing the isolated bodies of water, and because the jungles make it difficult to lay highway connections. Several billion people live on this world. *It is believed that this world, at least, if not also Nielez VIII, underwent some degree of terraforming millennia ago; they are considered too far from the Nielez star to have naturally developed this way.
⦁ By the 18000s, we had reached every world and moon in this nearest system of ours, and having four colonized temperate worlds out here means the bulk of processing for not only the extracted resources of those non-temperate planets, moons, and asteroids, but also for the majority of those brought in from all other Helab sources, is done in this system.
⦁ 11 planets, 8 moons, 10 asteroid belts
⦁ ~24 billion people live in this system.
Afraghen was the next closest system to us, and we reached it in the 17000s, but it has no temperate worlds, so we started terraforming a couple of them, still in progress; 6 millennia in progress. The billions who migrated here are spread out fairly evenly in the Space stations and controlled-environment colony biodomes. In spite of the complications of maintaining a foothold in a system like this, especially during our earliest days of exosystem Space travel (before we had remastered/rediscovered the warp-drive), Afraghen, being so near our home-world, has been developed and patrolled as much as possible, its proximity alone keeping it strategic to us.
⦁ By the 19000s, we had reached every world and moon in this system, but with no temperate world as a local base of operations, this has not been a convenient system for us to tap into --though terraforming has stayed on schedule, proving promising for a later generation.
⦁ 8 planets, 24 moons, 6 asteroid belts
⦁ ~2 billion people live in this system.
Ajna: 18000s. It took us a millennia and a half to get to this fourth system of ours, the third we colonized after the Dark Ages. By that time, we were much better when it came to traveling (i.e. we’d spent generations improving our warp capability), so once a temperate world out here was confirmed beyond the kind of spectral analysis of starlight used in the Kepler Tally long ago… we sent waves of settlers in mid-sized ships carrying hundreds a piece. So many millions were ready and waiting to go, having established their families and businesses so well on multiple Nielez worlds.
- Ajna IV is an ‘inner’ planet a lot like Earth in terms of continents, oceans, and weather patterns, but its lands are low and predominantly marsh- or swamp-covered, and its oceans are shallow, making it difficult for large ships to traverse. The culture that developed here is based on gathering food and extracting medicine from the swamps, and on clearing and drying marsh land for towns. Mud-bath resorts are this world’s popular equivalent of hot-springs. Off-roading camps and contests are also popular. Off-shore oil-drilling and similar operations are catching on due to the shallow waters almost everywhere. Even though several centuries went by before we colonized this world, there were more of us when colonization began, and we had better technology, so a comparable number of citizens live here as on the temperate worlds of Nielez; several billion people call this world home.
⦁ By the 20000s, we had reached every world and moon in this system.
⦁ 8 planets, 54 moons, 9 asteroid belts
⦁ ~9 billion people live in this system.
Tukanas: 19000s. After spending two and a half millennia establishing our footholds in the previous four systems, we were ready to reach and colonize a fifth, and this one was the next on our list, always based on distance back then. There was only one world in it which was suspected of being habitable, so it became a funnel from many other worlds of the generation of this time; it is even more of a ‘melting pot’ than Ajna IV was.
- Like Earth, Tukanas V (an ‘inner’ planet) is mostly oceans, but its continents are more like zigzagging chains of state-sized islands, usually connected by city-sized lands, all of which are either grasslands or mud/muck (wet barrens, not a true swamp). It has a normal atmosphere and ocean depth, with storms rare (but more fog overall) and waves comparable to Earth’s. The culture that developed here is based on farming of clay, fish, seaweed, and temperate crops. ~Five billion people live on this world.
⦁ By the 21000s, we had reached every world and moon in this system.
⦁ 8 planets, 44 moons, 6 asteroid belts
⦁ ~6 billion people live in this system.
Fageras was reached in the 20000s, but has no temperates; terraforming started, 3 millennia in progress. This system is being made livable, and likely will be for many more generations to come. It is not yet certain how well our current terraforming will take hold, but we are hopeful and doing our best.
⦁ By the 22000s, we had reached every world and moon in this system.
⦁ 13 planets, 22 moons, 3 asteroid belts
⦁ ~1 billion people live in this system.
Sheri was farthest in our constellation, reached in the 21000s, just ~2 millennia before the Amarr arrived (a millennia after they reached Mishi, the first system in our region; Aridia, which their 51st Exploration Corps made it to). That was still time enough for us, with six other star-systems working together, to develop it enough to have cities and industries of its own. We do give due credit to the Amarr for dramatically accelerating its development in recent centuries, though, which brought it up to the levels and standard of living enjoyed by the rest of our systems with colonized temperate worlds.
- Sheri V is almost an oceanic ‘inner’ planet, all its continents being more like large islands, few connected in chains. Its lands are an even mix of forests and mountains, almost all of them like a wider version of Hawaii. Weather patterns are Earth-like, and the global ocean is deep, resulting in big waves during storms. The culture that developed here is based on browsing/skimming for jungle food and natural medicine while protecting island resources, and on coastal farming of fish and seaweed, few ever daring to venture out into the deeper/true oceans. ~Three billion people live on this world.
- Sheri VI is another almost-oceanic ‘inner’ planet, with even smaller and fewer lands than its temperate neighbor. It has slightly more storms, but its global ocean is an average to shallow depth, so waves are normal. The culture that developed here is based on building vertically to maximize productivity of the very limited space, and this includes indoor farming. Spreading civilization out onto the oceans via floating communities of detachable linked hexagonal ships is one of the most major industries. ~Two billion people live on this world.
⦁ By the 23000s when the Amarr were arriving, we had reached every world and moon in this system, so all Space stations and colonies out here are only a century or so old; they are practically brand new, and are the least-populated of all Helab settlements/facilities.
⦁ 9 planets, 20 moons, 6 asteroid belts
⦁ ~6 billion people live in this system.
We did not have the kind of constellation-leaving and region-crossing jump-gate or jump-ship technology the Amarr had when they arrived in our cul de sac (“pocket system”) of the cluster; this is why we had only made it into the systems of our constellation, not across other constellations and regions like the Amarr were. We did, however, quickly adopt it once we’d been accepted into their empire. We now understand it as well as they do, and have many ships which make use of it.
It has been estimated that there are 144,000,000,000,000 people living in New Eden. Averaged out across its ~8,000 star-systems, that would be 18 billion per system; ~2.117 trillion per region (or ~20.6 billion per temperate planet). In our constellation of Aridia, we have ~61 billion citizens, all considered part of the Amarr empire ever since the mid-22000s (though each Aridia system out from Mishi took a little longer to be claimed by the Amarr). The Amarr currently have ~40% of the cluster, at least in terms of systems, so ~57,600,000,000,000 people. Helab makes up less than 1% (~0.1059027; just over 1/10 of 1%) of that demographic.