Read The Confederation Handbook for Free Online Page A

nesting grounds for voidhawks.
Both Corellstal and Bagarasnin have ring systems which are used by
Edenists to propagate voidhawks, though Saturn still produces the
majority of these ships.

The Hundred Families
    Thus are named the original
commercial enterprises involved with developing voidhawks, and the
term now refers to both the voidhawk and human branches of the
endeavor. On its human side each family is basically a loosely tied
merchant house trading as it pleases, with He3contracts distributed
on an equal basis. Their combined fleet strength is currently in
excess of 400,000 voidhawks.
    Originally there were only a
hundred different types of voidhawk—one each per family. But
genetic refinement by Saturn’s bitek laboratories as well as
crossbreeding has improved the species considerably. New improvements
are still being made, with most of the research focusing on how to
extend the life of the patterning cells and therefore the overall
lifespan.
    The humans of the hundred families have undergone extensive geneering
to adapt their bodies for prolonged periods of spaceflight. Although
they don’t have to endure the kind of free-fall exposure
experienced by Adamist starship crews, they have nonetheless followed
similar lines of physiological development, and given themselves
physiques resistant to atrophy and organ decay, capable of
withstanding high-gee acceleration, and immunity to zero-gee
sickness. They do not suffer from spatial disorientation, although
like all humans they prefer a visual horizon; and they have a high
level of radiation cancer immunity.
    After a voidhawk matures,
the family will fund construction of its mechanical systems, which
the captain will pay off, typically, in ten to fifteen years. There
is no formal requirement to serve in the Confederation Navy, though
most captains chose to serve at least one tour of duty, lasting seven
years.
    Voidhawk crews are
traditionally chosen from Saturn’s indigenous population,
though not exclusively.

The Atlantis Islands
    The only actual planet colonized by Edenists is Atlantis, which is
completely oceanic, there being no land mass at all. The inhabitants
live on floating bitek islands of polyp, 2km in diameter, typically
supporting three major accommodation towers, various civic buildings,
and a central park. Six hundred and fifty such islands have been
grown so far, each capable of supporting a population of 6,000, and
they are a derivative of the original orbital habitat technology.
They do not have food-synthesis glands other than for purifying
water, but given the abundance of food in the surrounding ocean such
a system would be completely irrelevant. They are not equipped with
any form of propulsion, and simply drift where the current takes
them. However, if one island were to be caught in the polar region
for too long, the inhabitants would use tugs to tow it out into a
current which would take it back into a warmer climate.
    Energy is provided from a
combination of systems. One is photosynthesis, where every external
surface is covered in a layer of photosynthetic cells, helping to
supply the essential organs with nutrients, although this is very
much a secondary system. Another is organic thermal-exchange cables,
which dangle below the island as it drifts along, exploiting the
temperature difference between the surface and bottom of the ocean to
generate an electric current; this energy is mainly used by the
mechanical and electronic systems in the accommodation towers. The
main supply of chemicals for the organs to synthesize comes via large
external gills that ingest plankton. These provide enough raw
material to sustain the island’s polyp structure, and maintain
its growth.

Economy
    The small amount of industry on these islands is almost solely
concerned with shipbuilding. There is a respectable tourist trade,
split fifty-fifty between Adamists and Edenists, both of whom seem to
find the prospect of a planetary ocean