NEW KOUROU

New Kourou is the first and largest ExoHuman settlement on VOI 700 D, anchored in the steamy heart of the Asari Region (Eastern Equatorial Section) of the Habitual Belt. Founded on 8 August 2625 during the Beta Age only a few kilometers on foot from the landing-site base for the colony ship Last Frontier, it quickly became the capital of the Free State of Settlers and later of the Federal Confederation.

• Population (2635 census): 14 000 residents
• Factory hub: highest concentration of industrial plants on VOI 700 D
• Status quirks: first settlement, largest population, seat of federal power, a few kilometres from the original Last Frontier crash zone

New Kourou nestles inside dense Tropical Forest between the Tijonara and Atrana Mountain massifs, whose walls blunt both the furnace-winds from the east and the chill draughts from the west. Heavy, year-round rains cycle through the Arla and Orlanda River gorges; stacked canopy layers breed pocket micro-ecosystems and make navigation a sweaty maze. The frontier town of Hope lies 80 km to the north.

New Kourou was the gateway capital. Population surged as settlers funneled through for land draws, factory jobs, and council business; many stayed to anchor families and shops while others rotated onward to frontier posts.

• Households & Children: Built to host families from the outset. Children were a visible part of town life; schooling grew quickly from tent lessons into the primary/high school beside the Last Frontier University building.
• Gender & Tenure: Closer to gender balance than frontier towns. Many residents settled for multi-year stretches, though a steady stream of short-term workers and traders kept churn high.
• Workforce Mix: Broad and civic-heavy: council clerks and permit offices, trade houses, teachers and medics, factory crews, couriers, and market vendors — not dominated by heavy industry.
• Automation footprint: Service Bots and drones were ubiquitous in depots and factories, but people ran governance, trade, and education; bots handled bulk movement, cleaning, and repetitive shop work.

As capital of the Federal Confederation, New Kourou is the most family-friendly settlement: stable neighborhoods, full schools, and dense public services, with migration spikes tied to agency rotations and university terms.

• Households & Children: Families are common; children attend the full ladder of schools up to the Danah Wanah University of New Kourou. Parks, libraries, and Federal Allotment Centers (1–4) support daily life.
• Gender & Tenure: Near parity overall. Many posts are multi-year; some residents cycle through agency secondments, but neighborhoods feel established.
• Workforce Mix: Centered on administration and services (ministries, courts, logistics), education and healthcare, with significant light manufacturing and recycling plants; couriers and markets keep the hub buzzing.

Formal parties hadn’t formed yet. New Kourou felt like a salvage yard turned capital: assemblies under tarps, sleeves rolled, decisions made by whoever could keep lights on and mud out. Survivors carried two memories at once — the sleek comfort of shipboard life and the shock of the crash — so debates swung between restoring lost sophistication and embracing frontier pragmatism. Policy was hammered out in crowded halls of the Settler’s Council, by raised hands, persuasive plans, and the promise of “we can deliver by next week,” more than by ideology.

New Kourou is a rocksolid Communard Party stronghold. Communard candidates have dominated every ballot since the Confederation’s founding, with Individualist hopefuls drawing only token support.

Beta Age

• Local government: Annually elected Contact Person of New Kourou
• Law enforcement: Guarding Troopers Headquarters

Gamma Age

• Local government: Mayor of New Kourou
• Law enforcement: Federal Sheriff’s Department (doubles as local police)

In the Beta Age:

New Kourou sprawls beneath a violet-grey, never-ending twilight: rows of mismatched hull-plating huts, cargo-crate kiosks, and tarp-roofed cantinas jam every ring like a spaceship graveyard turned bazaar. Clattering Service Bots weave around ox-sized pack-mounts pulling wooden carts, while fusion-powered factories belch ozone beside dirt tracks rutted by tropical downpours — no concrete, just churned red mud. The air thrums with drone rotors, hammer presses, and the babble of newcomers queuing for land deeds, job boards, or tonight’s ration draw. Every hour fresh settlers roll in from jungle trails, barter for gear, then vanish again toward farms or frontier towns, giving the streets a restless, boarding-gate energy. Neon scrap signs flicker over stall fronts selling river-fish skewers, quantum-battery trinkets, and hand-rolled cigarettes made from alien leaf.

In the Gamma Age:

The salvage maze remains, but stricter order trims its chaos. Boxy mycelium-block landmarks — the Federal Council and Federal Allotment Centers — rise like smooth white punctuation amid patched-metal shacks, hinting at a tidy future that hasn’t quite arrived. The settlement feels less like a roaring gateway and more like a giant, humming logistics locker: still improvised, still mud-soaked after a downpour, but every scrap panel and cargo box now sits where some spreadsheet says it should.

• Beta Age – Everything that could be unbolted from Last Frontier became walls, roofs or scaffold; hull-plating shacks, cargo-crate shops and aluminium walkways dominated, patched by canvas and polymer tarps.
• Gamma Age – Under the Federal Settlement Plan new builds use mycelium-block panels faced with recycled alloys. Key symbols — Federal Council Building, Allotment Centres — stand in shining fungi-stone, while older salvage structures are steadily retro-fitted rather than razed.

New Kourou has followed a six-ring, concentric layout since its founding under the Human Settlement Plan. Two main axes — Unity Street (formerly West–East Road) and Harmony Avenue (formerly North–South Road) — bisect the rings, creating four quadrants. In each outer ring (all except the Central Core) runs a continuous Ring Road bearing that ring’s name, all interconnected via Unity Street and Harmony Avenue to facilitate smooth circulation.

Under the Federal Settlement Plan (Gamma Age), the six‐ring pattern was formalized and modernized:

• Main Axes Renamed: Unity Street and Harmony Avenue were officially christened to embody ideals of cooperation.
• Building Materials Mandate: All newly constructed buildings were required to use mycelium-composite blocks; existing Beta Age structures were only retrofitted with mycelium panels when undergoing major renovation.

New Kourou’s addresses adhere to a quadrant–street–number format:

• Quadrant Prefixes: SW, SE, NW, NE.
• Main Axes: Unity Street/Harmony Avenue (West-East Road and North-South Road in the Beta Age) begin at 1 in the Central Core (e.g., Unity St 1, Harmony Ave 1). As they extend, numbering increases outward (e.g., West Unity St 2, North Harmony Ave 2).
• Ring Roads: Each outer ring’s road is named after its zone (e.g., Public Services Ring Rd 3) and numbered sequentially along its circumference.
• Sequential Numbers: Buildings along any street or ring road are numbered increasing in the quadrant’s direction, ensuring every address is unique and navigable.

• A house located on the eastern segment of the Education Ring in the northeast quadrant might carry the address NE Education Ring Rd 4.

• Beta Age: Settler’s Council building & Local Community Center of New Kourou
• Gamma Age: Federal Council Building and Unity Park.

• Beta Age: Land Allocation Office of the Free State of Settlers, Guarding Troopers Headquarters, Headquarters of the Central Bank of the Free State of Settlers, Coin Press and Money Printing House of the Free State
• Gamma Age: Federal Court, Federal Attorney, Federal Sheriff Headquarters, Federal Housing Agency, Federal Health Agency, Federal Administrative Service, Federal Allottment Agency, Office of the Mayor of New Kourou, Mayor's Council Building.

• Beta Age: Headquarters of the Weber Communication Company and Broadcasting Services, New Homeland Bank, Medical Station of New Kourou, Hospital of New Kourou, Pharmacy of New Kourou, Schmitz Funeral Home, New Horizon Funeral Services, New World Hotel, G-Bar, Geisha's Inn, Space Market, Asari Inn New Kourou, Headquarters of the Trade Guild of New Kourou, New Kourou Courier Station, Mandala’s Mounts, New Kourou Food Market, Headquarters of the Office for Special Operations
• Gamma Age: Federal Library, Medical Station, Federal Sewing Shop, Funeral Home, Federal Allotment Center, Federal Courier Service Headquarters and Courier Station, Federal Hostel and Saloon, Federal News Building (Federal News Agency HQ, Federal Printing Office, Weekly Gazette Editorial Office)

• Beta Age: Modular container housing and tent cities for settlers.
• Gamma Age: Apartment buildings for 14,000 residents, Harmony Park, Federal News Lounge of New Kourou 1, Federal News Lounge of New Kourou 2

• Beta Age: Last Frontier University Building, New Kourou Primary and High School
• Gamma Age: Danah Wanah University of New Kourou and New Kourou Junior High and High School, New Kourou Elementary School

• Beta Age: Quantum Fusion Recalibration Station (QFRS) of New Kourou, New Kourou Primary Energy Redistribution Node (ERN-1), New Kourou Relay Station, Factory of the Schreder Pharmacy Inc., Headquarters of the New Kourou Robotics Syndicate, Space Drinks Inc. Headquarters, Plant of the Karabulut Garment Manufactory, Plant of the New Kourou Shellac Corporation (NKSC), Headquarters of the Frontier Supply Company, Manufactory of Bermuda Inc.

• Gamma Age: Federal Garbage Collection Center, Federal Organic Waste Recycling Plant, Federal Textile Recycling Plant,Federal Technological Recycling Plant, Federal Garment Manufactory, Federal Personal Care Plant, Federal Pharma Manufactory, Federal Shellac Manufactory (FSM)

• New Horizon's Rest Cemetery New Kourou

The town wall of New Kourou was built provisionally from old spaceship parts at the beginning of the Great War, in 2629, to protect the local population from attacks by the Native Tribes.

After the end of hostilities and the signing of the Peace Treaty, the town wall took on a new role, adapting to the mobility restrictions set forth in the treaty and Section 5 of the Civil Code of the Federal Confederation. It now serves as a controlled point of exit and entry in accordance with these legal guidelines.

• Town Gate: Located on the east side, facing the Trade Route to Firetown.
• Watchtowers: Four, positioned at cardinal points for monitoring.
• Hidden Airlocks: Reserved for federal operations.

• Location: Central Core, Unity Park (opposite Federal Council)
• Dimensions: 10m height, diameter: 20m
• Description: Symbiosis Monument is intended to be a place of reflection and education, emphasizing the importance of peace and cooperation between different cultures and ways of life, all in harmony with nature.

• Location: Public Services Ring, SE Public Services Ring Road 3 (opposite Federal Allotment Center 1)
• Dimensions: 5m height, diameter of the base bowl: 2m
• Description: The Monument to the Just Harvest is crafted primarily from sustainable mycelium blocks, a mushroom-based building material, emphasizing the ecological ethos of fair and sustainable food distribution.

• Location: East Educational Ring on the exterior wall of the Auditorium Maximum of the Danah-Wanah-University, North-East Enlightenment Lane 1
• Dimensions: 25 in length and 6m in height
• Description The mural The Symphony of Society is a vivid representation of the collective effort required to keep the Federal Confederation alive. It uses the metaphor of an orchestrated piece of music in which each instrument, no matter how large or small, is essential to the perfection of the entire work.

• The Vanishing Lottery Man — A coordinator at the Land Allocation Office of the Free State of Settlers has been skimming bribes and rigging draws. On the morning his seals don’t match the ledger, he disappears — along with the cash box. The General Trooper at the Guarding Troopers Headquarters quietly hires the PCs to find him before outrage boils over into street riots …

• Pieces in the Bale — During off-load at the Federal Garbage Collection Center of New Kourou, a “Trash-Tony” bale ruptures — spilling exohuman body parts. The Federal Sheriff’s Department seals the floor and deputizes the PCs to investigate discreetly. Trace the custody chain — gate ledgers, route tickets, seal stamps, baler-press logs, weighbridge cards — then retrace the cart’s loop and interview the paired Trash-Tonis and line crew. Was the corpse planted mid-route, swapped at a transfer dock, or hidden in pre-sorted salvage? Follow the stamped seals to the source before the killer shreds the rest of the evidence.

Beta Age

• Beta Age
• Free State of Settlers
• Human Settlement Plan
• Exohuman Settlements in the Beta Age
• Exohuman Settlement and Housing Conditions in the Beta Age

Gamma Age

• The Gamma Age
• The Federal Confederation
• Communardism
• The Federal Settlement Plan
• Exohuman Settlements in the Gamma Age
• Exohuman Settlement and Housing Conditions in the Gamma Age

Exohuman settlements:

• Arla Town (Asari Region | Beta Age only)
• New Kourou (Asari Region)
• Firetown (Ralar Region)
• Hope (Asari Region)
• Morningstar (Asari Region)

Other settlements in Asari:

• Trandon (Asari Region | Trando Tribe)