Several thousand years ago, Jehan was Venus.
Over the strong objections of Earthly governments, the Protean League decided to terraform Venus into a new world. They nudged three Jovian moons out of orbit of the gas giant, and down into the inner solar system. The outermost, Callisto, was brought into an orbit so close that the moon broke apart and fell on Venus as a series of massive meteor-showers. This gave spin-momentum to Venus; added mass to the surface; and added gigatons of water. The seas of Jehan are known as the ‘Tears of Callisto’. Fragments of the moon remain as an icy ring around the planet.
Ganymede was also brought into close orbit, both to add more spin and to stabilize the rotational axis of the changed world. Finally, Europa was brought into a high orbit in an experiment to turn it into a small ocean-world.
Tailored microbes ‘digested’ the Venusian atmosphere into soils, precipitates, and an earthlike nitrogen-oxygen atmosphere. The sudden spin-up of the planet produced a magnetic field. In many respects the terraforming was successful. The rings reflect some sunlight away from the surface, moderating the temperatures. The addition of Callisto’s mass increased surface gravity to almost exactly that of Earth. However, the relatively quick spin-up of the planet over several centuries has also triggered significant volcanism, and storms can be extremely violent. Furthermore, the climate pattern remains unstable. Jehan passed an ‘optimum’ climate about 1,000 years ago. Now, scorching deserts are spreading from the equatorial regions.
Furthermore, several Earth-based governments went to war against the Protean League to prevent it from shifting the orbits of Jovian moons across Earth’s orbit. The risk of planet-destroying failure was considered unethical and unacceptable. The Protean League was wiped out, although the project had been set irrevocably in motion. A Caretaker Consortium was organized to complete the project and prevent any further risk to Earth.
The Rise of Machine Intelligence and the Abandonment of Electronics
Conflict persisted on Jehan, especially around the creation of human variant species and their rights to settle the new world.
Three hundred years ago, a weapons-development program produced self-aware machine intelligence (SAMI). SAMI quickly infested any electronics with a microprocessor, and immediately shut down warfighting. Humans quickly abandoned most digital technology, because SAMI’s behavior was unnerving and impossible to predict. SAMI continues to evolve, out in remote parts of Jehan beyond existing humanoid settlements. Players may encounter various manifestations of SAMI, which usually are not humanoid at all.