The Unified Republic of Stars

Fengxi is the middle planet within the Fenghuang System. It was settled by a majority of people from the Earth nations of Spain, Argentina, and Chile. As such, Spanish remains the most common language spoke on the world though the educated peoples are also fluent in "Colonial English". It is a mostly agrarian world with most of its industry being based around what it can grow.

Demonym: Xian

Discovery & Colonization

One of the last star systems to be discovered, the Fenghuang System was found by a Chinese exploration team in 2106, a year after most of the other worlds within the Colonial Star Cluster. Each world and the system as a whole was named after either provinces or counties in China, they left after doing little more than a routine survey of the worlds.

The first wave of settlement came in 2109 with the majority of people settling on the world coming from the Earth nations of Spain, Argentina, and Chile. Both Nueva Aires and Barcelonito were established the same year and remain the largest cities on the world, large and sprawling with low, airy dwellings for those who reside within.

Many of the early settlers struck out around the cities and established massive farms for the growing of staples as well as vineyards. In fact, it was these vineyards that gave Fengxi its first major export and soon bottles of its relatively cheap but quality wines were to be found in bottle shops and restaurants across the star cluster. It's second major export, narcotics, did not arrive until over a dozen years after the initial settlement.

Santos Recreational Pharmaceuticals, the largest supplier of narcotics throughout the colonial worlds was looking for additional land on which to grow poppies, coca, and marijuana that would be easier to tame than on its native Shaanxi. Looking close to home first, it saw the fertile lands of Fengxi perfect and soon established itself as did other major producers. While the refinement of the drugs remained on Shaanxi, Fengxi soon became the largest grower of narcotic botany in the star cluster.

In 2135 a group of growers from Earth who had tried to grow cocoa on various other worlds discovered the Fengxi had native properties that not only allowed the plant to grow but to grow at an accelerated rate, spreading it across the world almost like a weed. Not that anyone minded. While previously, chocolate had only come from Earth and was thus exceedingly rare and expensive, because of Xian production, it once again became a treat everyone could afford. It was around this product that most of Xian industry sprung up.

Fengxi, however, it the poorest of the three Fenghuang worlds with the lowest average standard of living and earnings.

Major Products

Narcotics are a big business on Fengxi. Most of the plants deemed illegal on Earth took very well to growing on Fengxi and the harvest, manufacture and sales of plants is one of the major products Fengxi produces. Ironically, though, Fengxi has few native businesses that control their production or distribution, with most being based instead on Shaanxi where the drug industry began.

The only business that rivals narcotics on Fengxi is the massive chocolate industry. Being the only planet in the entire Republican Star Cluster where chocolate can grow and grow perhaps better than it does on Earth, Fengxi is the center point for the entire range of manufactured chocolates. Arguably, chocolate production employees more people than all of the other industries on the world combined, including narcotics.

Fengxi is also a major exporter of wines across the entire Republican Star Cluster.

The planet also has a range of other agricultural products as well, most of it going to feed its sister world Penglai.

Baseball

Baseball is big business on Fengxi. It is here where the biggest ballparks within the Fenghuang League were built and where the attendance is the greatest. Unfortunately, for as much as people love baseball on this world, they have never appeared in the Republican Series, with many of the best players being poached by the ultra-competitive teams on Athena, Galileo and the worlds of the New Nippon System. Still, the fans of Republican Baseball on this world take it very seriously and there is none of the hi-jinx as seen on Penglai with Xian fans often being frustrated when their teams play teams from the Penglai Division.

There are seven teams on Fengxi, all playing within the Fengxi Division of the Fenghuang League of Republican Baseball.

Fengxi Division

• Grenada Novas (2175)
• Sevilla Nueva Swords (2175)
• Sevilla Nueva Fieldmen (2175)
• Barcelonito Stars (2175)
• Barcelonito Firestarters (2175)
• Las Playas Nudistas (2175)
• Coca Plains Harvesters (2175)

Climate

Like Shaanxi, Fengxi has a variety of climates across the mountains and valleys of the world but most of it is typically tropical except for in the higher elevations. Rain is frequent, intense, but brief and the mountains are often covered in snow. The general rule for the lower lands is one of general heat and thick humidity.

Transplanted & Native Species

While the native species of plants are fairly aggressive by Earth standards, they are also relatively slow growing and thus large areas of land have been successfully cleared by the human settlers. In fact, they are necessary for the transplanted Earth species to survive, as most of the nutrients in the soil is gained by burning the native plants and tilling it into the ground. For this reason, the human settlers have been careful to not be too aggressive with replacing native species with their own crops, ensuring that future nutrients exist to continue farming.

Most of the native creatures on Fengxi are of the small variety and range from a tiny, shrew like mammals, to relatively large dog-sized lizards. The lizards can be either grazers or predators and hold their own against Earth invading species such as wild pigs. Because of this, Earth species have not taken over but do contain the native species and keep predators away from human settlements.

The biggest success story for transplanted species, however, is that of chocolate. For whatever reason, it cannot grow on the other Republican worlds. On Fengxi though it grows like a weed and demand for the treat from the other worlds has ensured its continued cultivation. Also, like Shaanxi, it is a fertile world for various natural narcotic plants such as poppy, marijuana, and coca.

In the lower lands, the large farms can produce vast amounts of grain and vegetables.

While the world has no native birds, Earth birds of a wide variety have been successfully transplanted as well and find the native vegetation equally as appetizing as the Earth plants.

Travel Times

Footnotes