Just a little bit of lore I wrote up when I was bored, sort of a primer or traveler’s guide to high sec Black Rise. If it’s liked, I could possibly write up more.
Onnamon:
Onnamon serves as the seat of administration for the CEP in Black Rise, with the State War Academy at Onnamon I being the bureaucratic through-point for policy coming to and from Lonetrek. It also serves as the local academy for Caldari citizens seeking service in the State, both going on to serve the CEP administration, or to their own respective corporations.
While it doesn’t have the largest population of permanent residence in Aokinen, it does have the biggest transient population, with hundreds of thousands if not millions of traders, soldiers, and colonists moving through per day. As such, it is quite a target for pirates, even with considerable corporate funding for security. The Guristas regularly use the system both for training, and for operation planning. An old derelict Amarr research station is said to be a popular waystation for pirates and other lowlifes.
Ichoriya:
Ichoriya is Black Rise’s secondary administrative hub, with both the Caldari Navy basing their logistical and operational groundwork here from the station in orbit of Ichoriya V, plus Kaalakiota’s corporate hub directing operations further within Black Rise from their own station orbiting Ichoriya VI.
Having no temperate planets with a breathable atmosphere, the majority of the system’s population lives either in orbital and space-born colonies and stations, or in sparse subterranean or aquatic habitats on planets VII and II, respectively. But, owing to the sensitive nature of Caldari Navy operations on various planets within this system, civilian colonization there is heavily restricted, and capsuleer colonization is entirely forbidden.
Uchomida:
This system has few outstanding features, apart from being mineral and ice rich. Large mining operations are very common here, but relatively few people actually live in system, and outside of the mining stations there are no known major settlements among law-abiding citizens. For criminal elements however, it is a popular place since they are rarely bothered, so long as they keep their hands off the property of the profitable and high-profile mining corporations.
Rohamaa:
Rohamaa, though lacking any major Corporate or governmental space stations, is still a major population center. It’s two temperate planets host populations into the billions.
Planet V is the metropolitan and trade center of the system, and produces large amounts of consumer goods within it’s cities, along with processing a good deal of the trade that comes through Black Rise. All major Caldari corporations have enclaves of various sizes here, but it is, at least on paper, controlled by Kaalakiota.
Planet IV is more sparsely populated than V, but is likewise integral to the upkeep of the Aokinen constellation, and indeed most of Black Rise. The planet is a breadbasket, with vast swaths of the southern continent being devoted to crops, whether grown on the relatively rare flat land, or grown in towering greenhouse buildings, with each floor dedicated to growing food. Kaalakiota owns most of the farms, with Wirkomi owning the second largest number of them.
Tsuruma:
One of the three major mining systems in Black Rise highsec, Tsuruma hosts a number of baseliner spacebound colonies, alongside capsuleer facilities. In the distant past, a small moon broke off from Tsuruma IV’s orbit and drifted out into the depths of space, towards the outer rim. Rediscovered some millions of years later by humans during the colonization of Black Rise, the rogue moon was found to contain vast riches of rare minerals. As such, a massive mining operation was enacted on it, ultimately reducing it to what it is now; a broken field of asteroids and scrap mining equipment after the site was picked clean and abandoned. Some of the larger pieces of the once-moon are inhabited by brinkers, pirates, small corporate concerns, and wildcat mining operations hoping to strike it rich before their funds run out.
Astoh:
Astoh is the rallying point for the Caldari Navy in Black Rise. The system is relatively restricted from baseliner colonization outside of the temperate planet, Astoh IV. A large section of the planetside population centers are devoted to housing Navy personnel and providing manufacturing and amenity services for the Navy. The Caldari Navy also maintains a repair and re-arm station for the ships of the Caldari State, and a constant stream of everything from frigates to cruisers to battleships, and even the occasional capital ship. A high-ranking officer has even taken permanent residence in the system to co-ordinate capsuleer efforts in assisting the State.
Uuhulanen:
Check any parcel of minerals that come out of Black Rise, and there’s an approximately 40% chance they come from Uuhulanen’s massive corporate mining concerns. The system is one of the most populated day to day, though mostly from other systems coming here to mine. The lack of a good temperate planet means almost all population centers are spacebound, and that limits the maximum population of the system quite a bit. That being said, it is still one of the largest space-born habitated systems in Black Rise.
Lai Dai maintains their corporate security base of operations in Uuhulanen, providing security services for a steep cost to the various smaller corporations not under Lai Dai’s massive umbrella. Indeed, much of the administrative operations flow from this station too, and high tier corporate officers are fond of hosting meetings from the rather spartan yet subtly opulent boardrooms that give a spectacular view of the planet-wide storm that blankets Uuhulanen X.
The Navy keeps a presence in the system, courtesy of the Naval Logistic Support facility orbiting planet VIII, a gas giant of moderate size. The main purpose of this station is to act as a repository and supply port for the various Caldari Navy battlegroups and any CalNav manufacturing that goes on in the area.
Ahtila:
Though it has no spaceborn industry of note, Ahtila is in fact the planetside economic backbone of Aokinen. Ahtila V, or Makra as it’s known, is the largest population center of Black Rise, and has easily over 7 billion people inhabiting it. Many individuals who try their luck in lowsec find themselves returning here, longing for the safety and security of the towering skyscrapers and bustling cities that sprawl across it’s surface. While passed over by most capsuleer traffic, it is vastly important to the baseliner population and much of the consumer trade coming into Black Rise flows here.
Samanuni:
Last, but far from least, Samanuni acts as a bastion of civilization on the frontier. Samanuni VI, otherwise known as Kysoma, is a major population center and the location of Wiyrkomi’s largest planetside administration and bureaucratic department. It’s the gateway to the Kurala constellation, and thus receives much of the trade that comes from that sparsely populated area. Samanuni’s space-born trade is second to that of Ichoriya, but it’s market is still strong, and it is the manufacturing center of the constellation. The minerals mined in Uuhalanen are often brought to the factories of Samanuni, where everything from ships to space stations are produced and exported either to Jita, or further out to the Black Rise region.
Only one of Samanuni’s two temperate planets are populated, owing to planet IX’s rough terrain, sparse islands, and the regular storms that buffet the surface. Besides the occasional research station or entrenched factory, there’s little civilian activity that goes on on this planet.
Caldari Constructions maintains a base here, where it produces many of the commercial goods required for frontier development and colonization.
The Navy has a warehouse in system, ensuring that it’s supply lines are well strengthened where they’re needed and used as a staging point for venturing further into lowsec.
Wiyrkomi owns much of the system, but while it has vast manufacturing facilities planetside and owns a major factory station in system, the actual administration heart of the megacorp in the region lies in lowsec, in the system of Prism. It is the only mega out of the three major powers in Black Rise to have it’s main region governmental base in lowsec.