Sacnoth Atmospheric Taint?

[AlHazred]

My players are heading to Sacnoth, and I got to thinking about the nature of the "atmospheric taint." As far as I can tell, Sacnoth has been listed as having an atmosphere of "Standard, Tainted" from the beginning, but up until G:T, nobody had defined it. In the GURPS Sword Worlds book, it's listed as a taint of unknown nature.

Sacnoth's great mystery is its "atmospheric taint." No one is even sure that the planet has one, but there are signs.

The lifespans of Sacnoths are noticeably shorter than those of other Sword Worlders. Anyone who has lived on Sacnoth for more than a decade in total starts making aging rolls five years earlier than normal..., with the later breakpoints also advanced by five years.

Why this happens is unknown, but an environmental cause is suspected. People of Sacnoth descent who live on other worlds are not affected, and those from other worlds who live here are. Over the last 1,200 years, countless studies have been made of the phenomenon, but no explanation has ever been found. Whatever it is. it must be complex, for no one cause would have resisted analysis for so long. The Imperial Scout Service has chosen to call it a taint so as to best fit within its planetary coding system, but there is not even any evidence that the atmosphere is responsible.

Mongoose has copied this in their Sword Worlds book.

[Sacnoth's] standard atmosphere is noted in the navigational databases as having a taint but none can be detected by any means. However, there is definitely something in the air on Sacnoth; those who live there seem to suffer age-related sickness sooner and random ill health more often than inhabitants of other worlds. People who move away from Sacnoth to live elsewhere do not seem to take the tendency to early aging with them and those who immigrate start to display it after a few years. No cause has ever been determined but many theories have been put forward over the centuries.

Obviously, this is great GM-fodder for ideas. I'm currently considering the idea that some psionic something on Sacnoth is "draining" the psionic energy of the people who live there; not by a huge amount, but constantly and consistently, with the end result that people deteriorate faster. Sacnoth's population of 8.3 billion would make it a great place to "harvest" psionic energy.

There is a psionic institute operating openly on Sacnoth in 1100 when my campaign takes place (this is not specifically mentioned in the Mongoose materials, as far as I can tell, but it's called out in GURPS Sword Worlds) so my thought is, that might have been started as a research institute to investigate a psionic cause for the Taint. On the other hand, I could see it being the source of the Taint; perhaps something was discovered on Sacnoth when it was first settled, and some psionically-trained individuals figured out that they could pull energy from the populace on the planet in order to boost their own psionic strength?

I'm still toying with ideas. Has anybody come up with their own idea for the source of the Sacnoth Taint? And if so, did it come up in game? How did it go?

 

[AlHazred]

I had a further thought. The Sacnoth Psionics Institute seems (from GURPS SW) to be set up to generate psionic assassins. Perhaps the "atmospheric taint" is the explanation scientists came up with the explain deaths that were actually caused by the students practicing their "Mental Stab" technique on the populace? I guess in CT terms it would be the result of the Telepathy "Assault" ability.

 

[Condottiere]

If it's Terra, it's pretty easy, smog and industrialization.

However, that's artificial, and you'd have to check if that took place, and, presumably, how far back in it's history it occurred, and if it's cleared up since then.

Could be some added gas molecule in the atmosphere, beyond oxygen/nitrogen mix.

Or, different ratios.

Then, there would be an organic origin, like volcanic activity.

Or, cow flatulence.

 

[Rupert]

If it's Terra, it's pretty easy, smog and industrialization.

However, that's artificial, and you'd have to check if that took place, and, presumably, how far back in it's history it occurred, and if it's cleared up since then.

Could be some added gas molecule in the atmosphere, beyond oxygen/nitrogen mix.

Or, different ratios.

Then, there would be an organic origin, like volcanic activity.

Or, cow flatulence.

All of that can be tested for, and provides an easy explanation, not a mystery. Given its subtlety, I would expect the 'taint' to be biological, but only in part. Some ubiquitous enzyme native life uses that ever so slightly damages humans (and probably other terran-origin life, but as most of that has much shorter lifespans it wouldn't be readily noticeable), but only when combined with constant and long-term exposure to some other environmental factors. So, multi-factorial, with each factor being very subtle and not harmful in itself.

To make it really subtle, change it slightly so it has very little effect on people not using ultra-tech medical longevity support (not anagathics - just the normal life-extensions you get from high/ultra-tech medicine), but it blocks the effects of this medical support. So the higher the TL, the more the effect become noticeable, not because locals live shorter lives than their lower-TL forebears, but because their lifespans haven't increased as much as those of their contemporaries on other worlds of similar wealth and TL.

 

[whartung]

Actually if they can't detect it in the atmosphere, it may not be a taint at all.

The only way to check that is to work on a controlled experiment where the natural atmosphere from the planet is used in an off world environment with, perhaps, test animals that can be monitored to check for effects.

Perhaps instead its some kind of radiation emanating from the planet body itself, but historically, folks have just said "it's something in the air here" so the taint is more of a folklore than an actual atmospheric effect.