(Guess which series I've been watching recently? --Mal)
PACEM
Galactographic name: Epsilon Murcheson IV
Polity: Humanx Commonwealth
Population: 134,000,000
Planetary capitol: New Rome
Pacem is one of the original Earth Alliance interstellar colonies, founded shorty after First Contact after purchasing hyperdrive systems from the Centauri. The original colonists came from the remnants of rural Europe; France, Italy, Spain, and southern Germany.
Pacem is a deliberately pastoral world - heavy industry was forbidden from the surface, and only light industry is available in the rest of the Epsilon Murcheson system, mainly helium-3 mining to support trade traffic. The colonized surface is covered with a patchwork of farms and windmill power stations to support the important modern necessities like lights, plumbing and cable HV. The majority of vehicles outside the capital city are animal-powered (clone stock horses, oxen, aurochs, etc.), mainly to cut down on the need for expensive imported vehicle goods. Despite all this enforced rusticism, however, Pacem is a very wealthy colony. The farm country is a net exporter of produce to nearby urban worlds like Neo-Edo and Renaissance Vector, as well as supplying food to Peaceforce and the MMG and providing "authentic Earth wines" to the luxury market.
Along with produce, Pacem's other major export is religion. The original colonists all came for heavily Catholic areas of Earth, and the migration did nothing to dim their faith. Catholicism, which almost died out several times during the Fall and the CEGA era, experienced a resurgance of sorts on Pacem, and quickly grew to be the dominant religion on the planet. The last Commonwealth census noted that some 90% of the population were Catholic, with Foundationists making up the majority of the remaining 10%. Catholic activity on Pacem exceeds anywhere else - so far the only reason the Vatican hasn't been offically moved from Earth is a sense of inertia among the Curia - and is expected to hold out in that system for a good long while.
While the head of the Church doesn't officially reside on the planet (the Pope does, however, have a "summer home" in New Rome where he spends a good three-quarters of the year on average.) a number of official and semi-official church offices have made their home there. The most influential Spiral-wide of these is the STN Organization. Loosely affiliated with the Psi Corps, Stormwatch and the 3WA, STN is the Church's arm for dealing with Talents, particularly those whom the Church deems as having "demonic" power[*]. Most of their operatives have some low-level psi skill, and STN's occult archive is second only to the Galactic Library in terms of completeness. The organization doesn't have any real official standing within the Humanx Commonwealth (their direct connection with the Church making this impossible) but is usually called in unofficially when a more routine operation turns up occult activities. Recently STN has been making overtures towards other like-minded groups across the Spiral to network and share information related to occult activities, but has so far not met with much success. (And a rather vicious rebuttal from the Manticore-based Hellsing Group, but that's a story for another time...)
[*] A side note: It should be noted that, after a good deal of wrangling by the Pope et. al. the Vatican finally decided that not all Talents are "demonic." Psis, mages, and metas can all be good Catholics and still use their powers. The Church defined "demonic" as generally being an absolute bastard with the Talent, or using it in accordance with known dark rituals. The definition is a bit on the vague side, so while STN assistance is determining occult characteristcs of a crime are appreciated, nobody on the law-enforcement side trusts them enough to let them go out on a field op unchaperoned, if only to protect innocent Talents from overzealous STN agents.
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S. "Mal" Breen
aka Mr. Fnord, Map Boy and Chief Vorlonologist
http://fnord.sandwich.net/
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