Main Menu

From The Great Loss by Ali bin Tariq?:

With regards to Callisto, there were only two undebatable tragedies stemming from the Erased500Years?: The disappearance of its Towers, and the vanishing of the wonderous Trathala?. Some assert that the deaths of billions of slaves counts as a third tragedy, but this is at best a dubious claim. The births of the slaves was also undone by the Loss, bringing into question their alleged deaths; even if we acknowledge that claim, however, it is clear that the greater tragedy was the fact of their shackling.

The colony of Callisto was a protectorate of the Jovian Hegemony? for most of its history, though the lords' satisfaction with that status varied over time and from lord to lord. It was both the breadbasket of the solar system? and its penal colony. The lords of Callisto built their fortunes on the backs of the prisoners, most of whom were sent there for hard labor for the remainder of their (abbreviated) lives. The cruelty of the lords was legendary, and though a few individuals were claimed to be almost humane, this was only true in relation to the others. All used thought-record technology to subjugate their slaves. The vast majority of the slaves labored on the lords' plantations, producing grain and fruit. Only a few plantations produced the Trathala?, and the lords' zealous efforts prevented its cultivation on other planets, a direct factor in its vanishing in the Loss.

The Towers of Callisto, built by the lords, were simultaneously a symbol of their dominion and their primary form of competition. Though the architecture of each was unique, they continued to soar ever higher, with a few (those of the wealthiest, generally those who produced the Trathala?) actually stretching to slightly above Callisto's atmosphere immediately before the Loss.

While the Towers were one of the man-made wonders of the solar system, Jupiterrise was one of its natural wonders. Those nobles who remember it refuse to speak of it in any language save that of Heaven, and some continue to make return pilgrimages to experience the sight, though final stage of the journey across the World Ash is difficult.

SEE ALSO: Jovian Hegemony?, Trathala?

< Bright Race Of Mars | Lexicon 500 ABC | Chancels Legion >

This is a C entry in the Lexicon of the Lost 500 Years.