The Crucis Margin Question - How did 590 BILLION inhabitants go missing?

[Hairy Jim DeGriz]

I've been poking around the Gateway Quadrant for about a year, comparing 990's Gateway to Destiny to the 1105 Traveller Map data because I have a working campaign there. Of the four sectors, Ley, Glimmerdrift, Gateway and Crucis Margin, only Crucis seemed completely out of whack. Because the population decreased exponentially. I observed that

The Population of the Crucis Margin Sector in 993 (Destiny Gateway, QLI) was 657.33 BILLION. In 1105 it's 67.8 Billion.
10 worlds lose over 10 Billion Inhabitants, totaling 590 BILLION.
All of the effected planets suffer a loss of -1 or -2 Tech Levels
Most of the worlds are centered around the 990 era Kafoe Dominate

-https://www.travellerrpg.com/index.php?threads/the-states-of-glimmerdrift-reaches.42639/page-3

590 Billion people do not go quietly into the void. So I asked myself was there a cataclysm: a plague, a war or maybe just bad survey data? What would be the effect on the mentality of the survivors if you live on a planet built for 70 BILLION and now only 700 million live there? In the span of about 100 years. Thank you MCU and Thanos for contemplating such an extreme scenario. Here's three traveller maps that show what happened and the answer is revealed.

Yellow circles are population hot spots.

1105



990 QLI Gateway to Destiny



Judges Guild Crucis Margin (Apocryphal)

Crucis Margin Sector is now complete.

Crucis Margin Sector is now complete. * All 424 out of 424 T5SS entries have been made. * 16 out of 16 subsectors. * There are 0 non-canon worlds. * All entries now have binary and trinary solar system data noted. * All entries now have updated and expanded trade codes with color text...

www.travellerrpg.com

@whulorigan The interesting thing to note about it is that MJD's material for Ley Sector, Glimmerdrift Reaches Sector, and Maranatha-Alkahest/Gateway Sector all use the same subsector names as the JG material, but the world names, UWPs, and stellar positions, and polities are all different.

Crucis Margin Sector, on the other hand, is the exact opposite: all of the Subsector names and polities in MJD's material are different, but the names, positions, and UWPs (adjusted for year 1000) of the worlds are all the same as the JG material.

Compare:

Crucis Margin (Canon - MJD) - TravellerMap
Crucis Margin (Non-Canon - JG) - TravellerMap

 

[GypsyComet]

It looks like JG intended that hot spot to be a regional core with plenty of population to drive the sorts of politics that leads to wars. High populations in three large polities but otherwise too close to each other for free expansion. That's an era of war waiting to happen.

Then GtD redraws the polity map...

Interesting that the Mercantile Concord kept the implied character from the JG state in the same spot.

 

[Grav_Moped]

Two separate data sets, then, with the T5 size/atmosphere sanity checks overlaid on top. Or did I miss something?

 

[Hairy Jim DeGriz]

I would posit that The Judges Guild Crucis Margin was only nominally de-cannonized, stripped of the political (incorrect) entities, but not completely or functionally de-cannonized with revised UWPs as the other sectors were. Since the world names and location have made it to "Cannon 1105", they should stay. But I would propose that the population and related factors (GOV LAW TL) of 990 be replaced and revised to align with the 1105 data.
There are 30 worlds that have a UWP Population of 9 or 10 in the QLI / Judges Guild Crucis Universe.
28 worlds show a decrease in population > 1 Billion
A survey (neither cursory nor thorough) of QLI Gateway to Destiny, revealed no major stories or plot points related to the world populations.
No other material has been reviewed.
I suggest that the Population Code for 28 worlds should be changed.

 

[Hairy Jim DeGriz]

Two separate data sets, then, with the T5 size/atmosphere sanity checks overlaid on top. Or did I miss something?

Gateway to Destiny more or less completely re-wrote 3 sectors and copied over the fourth UWPs from JG, which left way too many Independent Strong Worlds when they re-drew the political maps. That was one of my gripes, 16 starfaring worlds with 2 - 70 billion inhabitants each and you own but one world? Show me the cage match. Bring it on K'Kree.

 

[Grav_Moped]

I suggest that the Population Code for 28 worlds should be changed.

That potentially has knock-on effects. If only the pop code changes, it might be worth error-checking Gov & Law to verify that the existing stats can result from standard worldgen routines based on the changed pop code.

The edge case would be changing a Pop 9 to A on a world with Law 0... which is impossible to roll when starting with Pop A.

 

[Hairy Jim DeGriz]

That potentially has knock-on effects. If only the pop code changes, it might be worth error-checking Gov & Law to verify that the existing stats can result from standard worldgen routines based on the changed pop code.

Understood, I think that the 1105 data has compensated for that. But if none of these worlds starred in their own adventure, adjust the population and related stats, which is what I meant to say here.

But I would propose that the population and related factors (GOV LAW TL) of 990 be replaced and revised to align with the 1105 data.

Or explain how 590 BILLION sophonts died / disappeared / migrated between 990 and 1105, but it never made the news?

 

[Grav_Moped]

Or explain how 590 BILLION sophonts died / disappeared / migrated between 990 and 1105, but it never made the news?

Did anything at all happen in canon there in the meantime?
If not, "not making the news" could result from a massive interdiction effort (but that would have been noticed too).
In the mean time, it'd be noticed by anyone going there after the interdiction ended -- which would be no later than 1105. That doesn't really work either.

 

[GypsyComet]

Crucis Margin is remarkably free of published material. JG aside, Gateway to Destiny is it as far as I can tell.

 

[kilemall]

Kinda question that brings on a visit from men in black.

 

[Spinward Flow]

Or explain how 590 BILLION sophonts died / disappeared / migrated between 990 and 1105, but it never made the news?

If "departures" were peaceful rather than violent ... that's a LOT of immigration!
That's 5.13 billion sophonts per year averaged over 115 years.
If even half of that is immigration (as opposed to war/disaster) you're looking at needing a LOT of passenger transport capacity!

 

[DaltonSpence]

Why do I suspect that the ultimate answer to this question is "Oops!"?

 

[Vargr Breath]

Covid?

 

[DaltonSpence]

NOT FUNNY!!!

 

[Grav_Moped]

Why do I suspect that the ultimate answer to this question is "Oops!"?

It's probably an out-of-universe "Oops". If it was an in-universe one...

Actually, that's an interesting distinction. In-universe, is Travellermap a thing? Which is by way of saying, maybe it's the in-universe star charts that are wrong for some reason. Millions of sophonts aren't dead or vanished over the course of a century, it's just that somebody messed with the maps and census data over a vast region of space for unknown reasons.

 

[Grav_Moped]

Covid?

NOT FUNNY!!!

Too soon.

 

[Hairy Jim DeGriz]

It's probably an out-of-universe "Oops". If it was an in-universe one...

Actually, that's an interesting distinction. In-universe, is Travellermap a thing? Which is by way of saying, maybe it's the in-universe star charts that are wrong for some reason. Millions of sophonts aren't dead or vanished over the course of a century, it's just that somebody messed with the maps and census data over a vast region of space for unknown reasons.

Watching what is going on in the T5 Survey group, as planets are resized and atmospheres and bases are corrected, @inexorabletash seems to be keeping the travellermap up to Cannon standards, ergo it is in OTU (?) It IS the OTU (?) @GypsyComet ???

 

[Hairy Jim DeGriz]

Crucis Margin is remarkably free of published material. JG aside, Gateway to Destiny is it as far as I can tell.

Which makes rewriting the 990 population data logical and less disruptive. Exorcise the JG/GtD data before it spreads, and leave a cleaner slate for the future. The alternative is trying to retcon a horrible and unhappy history of mass exodus and/or genocide, which would/should leak into the existing OTU history.

 

[Hairy Jim DeGriz]

Oh Thanos! Oh Kafoe Dominate! What madness have you wrought upon our Imperial borders!

 

[GypsyComet]

A Kafoe specific bioweapon, perhaps?