Characters / Overheaven Venus

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Venus

The Amber Planet. A highly hostile environment, originally colonized via floating cities in the upper atmosphere. Noted primarily for being the main focus of colonization for the Warsaw Pact, via the Soviet Union's Interkosmos program, which helped other communist countries set up their own space colonies. Venus is the focus of the The Cosmic Twelve and Morning Stars updates.

• The Alliance: Interkosmos served as one with a focus on space.
• Arc Symbol: The Interkosmos logo, a stylized depiction of a rocket launching, shows up a lot in Venusian vexillology and iconography. Perhaps inevitably, the hammer-and-sickle is also common.
• Born in the Wrong Century: In the 2020s, Venus tends to attract people who would prefer to have lived during the Cold War.
• Color-Coded for Your Convenience: Most things to do with Venus tend to be yellow and red - yellow for the planet and red for communism.
• Commie Land: Colonized almost exclusively by the USSR and its allies. Even after Russia democratizes back on Earth, Venus remains socialist.
• Death World: It's Venus. The surface is superheated, the atmosphere is super-thick and it rains sulfuric acid. Until the planet is terraformed, the only colonies that can exist on the planet are Floating Continents in the upper atmosphere.
• Fossil Revival: The "Dinotekkers," the Earth subculture that succeeded in reviving dinosaurs, packed up and left for Venus in the mid-21st century when they started getting unwelcome on Earth. It's been hinted that they'll have a fair amount of influence on the post-terraforming ecology of Venus.
• Heroic Sacrifice: Valentina Tereshkova, leader of the original Soviet missions to Venus, dies in an accident on the very first Venusian colony. Her death is framed as this by the USSR, galvanizing the project to colonize the planet.
• Insistent Terminology: When Venusians use the phrase "market pragmatism," it means they don't want to admit they're doing something capitalist.
• Planet of Hats: And the hat's an ushanka - Venusians, as a rule, are communists and proud of it.
• Planetary Nation: Posts set in 2585 or 2385 occasionally make mention of a "Venusian Soviet." Apparently they're one of the more bioconservative planets.
• Playing Both Sides: The Venusians did this during the Geo-Martian Conflicts, since they had need for both Earthling resources and Martian terraforming knowhow.
• The Remnant: Of communism in general, after it falls out of favor on Earth.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Many immigrants to Venus are adherents to "exit socialism" - the idea that socialism should, or can only, be built from scratch, far away from capitalist Earth.
• Team Switzerland: Ironically given their ideological pedigree, Venus remained carefully neutral during the Space Cold War between Earth and Mars.
• Terraforming: Not nearly as straightforward a task as it is on Mars, but still entirely possible, and it's implied the Venusians eventually manage to do it.
• Why We Are Bummed Communism Fell: Far from unheard of ITTL - but if the reason you're bummed is because you want to live in a communist country, then Venus will be happy to have you.
• World in the Sky: Being the Death World it is, Venus could initially only be colonized by way of "aerostats" - essentially cities built into giant balloons.
• Zeerust: Many Venusian colonies have become almost like time capsules of the Cold War era.
• Zeppelins from Another World: Quite literally. Airships are the best way to get between aerostats, after all, and in the super-hot, super-dense Venusian atmosphere, both can be filled with breathable air instead of hydrogen.

The Cosmic Twelve

The colonies of the "main" twelve nations that participated in Interkosmos.

Confederation of Veneran Republics

The Soviet Union's Venusian colony, comprising 46 aerostats with a combined population of 5.3 million as of 2021.

• Commie Land: The original Venusian communist state and the one that set the model for the others.
• The Leader: The KVR is by far the largest and most successful nation on Venus. It's they who tend to call the shots.
• Naming Your Colony World: Named after the Soviet Venera missions, the first spacecraft (both unmanned and manned, in this universe) to explore Venus.
• Schizo Tech: The KVR still uses vacuum-tube computers. The higher-ups insist on keeping them around for economic planning.

Neu-Dresden Democratic Republic

East Germany's Venusian colony, comprising 2.3 million people.

• Nostalgia Filter: Ostalgie-stricken Germans tend to move to the NDDR.
• The Remnant: Claimed to be the rightful government of Germany for a few years post-Cold War. This apparently gave rise to a similarly short-lived Hollywood trend of "action movies in The '90s with East German terrorists from space as the bad guys."
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: The NDDR holds the dubious honor of being the first offworld colony to officially secede from its mother country. This happened in 1989, because they didn't want to reunify with the West.
• Undying Loyalty: Neu-Dresden held a lot of propaganda value to East Germany, so colonists were typically selected for their loyalty to the regime. Indeed, so loyal was Neu-Dresden that when Germany reunified, they decided to secede instead.

People's Republic of Hevelia

Poland's Venusian colony.

• Naming Your Colony World: Named for Johannes Hevelius, the 17th-century Polish astronomer.
• People's Republic of Tyranny: Averted Trope, since...
• The Republic: ...it's the most democratic and least authoritarian of the main 12 colonies on Venus, on account of the close relationship it maintains with Poland.
• Zeerust: Still "running on the retro socialist OS," as Ryzov puts it.

Republic of Santamaria

Cuba's Venusian colony.

• Former Regime Personnel: A lot of Cuban communists with skeletons in their closets decided to skip planets when the Castro regime came to an end. Now they're on Santamaria.
• The Remnant: Cuba became a democracy, but Santamaria stayed communist. The two still keep in touch, but Santamaria is of the opinion that Cuba is too close with the USA.

Socialist Republic of Infloria

Romania's Venusian colony, comprising five aerostats.

• Cloudcuckoolander: Broadly regarded as the Florida of Venus, and not without reason. It is apparently a widespread belief among Inflorians that Nicolae Ceausescu's soul boarded a UFO bound for Aldebaran.
• Cult of Personality: Even after his death, the Inflorians still idolize Nicolae Ceausescu.
• The Exile: When he was overthrown in 1989, Nicolae Ceausescu narrowly managed to be Spared by the Adaptation (the revolutionaries executed his Body Double) and fled to Venus, where he became the dictator of Infloria. He died in 1995, allegedly of sheer shock and anger from learning Romania had restored the monarchy. His son Valentin succeeded him.
• Our Founder: Portraits of both Ceausescus, Nicolae and Valentin, hang in nearly every room on Infloria.
• People's Republic of Tyranny: They have propaganda radios in every room that can't be turned off and weekly "community-strengthening" exercises that "totally don't resemble Five Minutes of Hate." Fortunately, they're more friendly than most examples of the trope.
• Puppet King: Ceausescu got a scepter and even a throne, but the real power lay, and continues to lie, with the preexisting colonial government.

Republic of Shar-Tsetseg

Mongolia's Venusian colony. Consists of only one aerostat - Mongolia has never been all that interested in space.

• The Exile: Yumjaagiin Tsedenbal, leader of Mongolia in The '80s, was in the habit of sending his political opponents to Shar-Tsetseg. Then the communists lost power in The '90s, and Tsedenbal's old enemies were unexpectedly joined by some of his more nostalgic supporters.
  "Life's funny that way."
• Naming Your Colony World: It's Mongolian for "Yellow Flower," referring to Venus.

Czechoslovak Republic of Novy Usvit

Czechoslovakia's Venusian colony.

• The Engineer: It's practically their hat. On Novy Usvit, the engineers run the government.
• Emperor Scientist: Their socialism has taken on a somewhat technocratic bent. It's worked out well for them - Novy Usviti scientists and engineers were the ones to perfect the process of easily and cheaply synthesizing carbon nanotubes.
• Naming Your Colony World: It means "New Dawn."

Republic of Nadezhda

Bulgaria's Venusian colony.

• Planet of Hats: Nadezhdans are obsessed with electronics and computers. They extensively computerize their planned economy and the flag of Nadezhda even has a "wreath" of vacuum tubes on it. They're also the source of most of Venus' Effective Knockoff products - homegrown versions of the Nintendo 64, that sort of thing.

Socialist Republic of Mauvang

Vietnam's Venusian colony.

• Didn't Think This Through: Dismantling the economy of the capitalist South after winning the Vietnam War meant that Vietnam didn't have much of an economy to work with in the years that followed. As such, they didn't focus much on space, so Mauvang is a fairly minor colony.

Confederation of Borostyan

Hungary's Venusian colony.

• In Name Only: Very into "market pragmatism," to the point of barely being communist at all anymore.

Democratic Republic of Bactria

Afghanistan's Venusian colony, comprising three aerostats.

• Culture Chop Suey: Bactria is actually proportionally much more diverse than Afghanistan, as the ruling party of Afghanistan encouraged members of about a dozen different ethnic and religious minorities to settle there. Conservative Afghans resent it, but Bactria and modern Afghanistan aren't really on speaking terms anyway, since Afghanistan isn't communist anymore.

Shukra Federation

India's Venusian colony, comprising a population of 1.2 million.

• Emperor Scientist: Shukra is a technocracy. Engineers and scientists dominate the political hierarchy, to the point of forming a new pseudo-caste of "technologist Brahmins."
• The Republic: A democracy, at least on paper.
• War Refugees: Shukra has taken in a lot of Pravasi. They wish they could take in more, but they'll need to build more aerostats to do so.

The Morning Stars

Six colonies that resulted from a Soviet program to recruit left-wing dissidents and defectors from capitalist countries. These tend to lean rather stranger than the Cosmic Twelve.

People's Republic of New America

The American Morning Star republic. The largest of the six, but that's still only 24,118 people.

• Cult Colony: Founded by the People's Temple. Yes, that one.
• Cult of Personality: Jim Jones' image is still venerated by many in the PRNA.
• Dead Guy on Display: Jim Jones' body was interred in a glass coffin, just like Lenin.
• Historical Hero Upgrade: Rather than have his cult commit mass suicide, Jim Jones had them defect to the Soviets ITTL. They subsequently moved to Venus. Jones died of natural causes in 1995 and remains well-regarded by some American leftists.
• People's Republic of Tyranny: The PRNA is a de facto one-party state.
• Puppet King: New America is currently run by Jim Jones' son, but he's suspected to no longer hold any real power.

People's Republic of Aumbria

The British Morning Star republic. Population: 18,262.

• Culture Chop Suey: Still very British, but they've taken on some Russian characteristics - to give an example, there's pubs on Aumbria, but the only thing they sell is vodka.
• The Fashionista: Downplayed, since fashion on Venus tends to be rather subdued, but the Aumbrians have become leaders in Venusian fashion ever since they figured out how to turn carbon nanotubes into synthetic yarn.
• Gilded Cage: John Lennon is still alive in 2021 and lives on Aumbria, but it's become this for him. Yoko Ono has long since left him, and while he's got all the groupies he could want, he has no friends or family on Venus. He's quite depressed.
• Naming Your Colony World: From a Middle English word for "amber."

Revolutionary Union of Guernica

The Spanish Morning Star republic, which also took in many Portuguese, French and Italian leftists. Population: 14,500, across three connected aerostats.

• Cloudcuckoolander: Even among the Morning Stars, Guernica has a reputation for being harmlessly odd. Being a Home Nudist is the norm there, and many Guernicans believe firmly that aliens are not only real, but socialist and watching over us.
• Esperanto, the Universal Language: It's the national language on Guernica.
• No Blood Ties: The Guernicans raise their children communally and have been trying to abolish the nuclear family unit, to mixed success.

Socialist Republic of Jinyun

The Chinese Morning Star republic... such as it is. Founded by pro-Soviet dissidents from the PRC. Population: 92.

• Close-Knit Community: Again, there's only 92 people on the aerostat. They'd have to be.
• Control Freak: Jinyun micromanages everything to build their ideal society. Even dissent is on a schedule, so that there isn't a wait-list for the solitary confinement box. Life on Jinyun is monotonous and largely without luxuries, but it's also stable and peaceful.

Syriza Democratic Republic

The Greek Morning Star republic... sort of. Population: 2589.

• AstroTurf: The original purpose of Syriza was to be something like this. Ethnic Greeks from Ukraine, Russia and Georgia were recruited to start a colony in hopes of attracting dissidents from Greece and thus scoring a PR victory...
• Epic Fail: ...and not a single Greek citizen actually signed up. Turns out, Greek space colonists were much more interested in Luna and Mars.
  • That being said, this wound up being a Subverted Trope - the Soviet Greeks on Syriza have done quite well for themselves.

People's Republic of Akatsuki

The Japanese Morning Star republic... but don't tell them that.

• Boomerang Bigot: One of the founding groups of the colony was the Anti-Japan Armed Front, an organization of Japanese leftists who believed Japanese culture was inherently imperialist and had to be destroyed. Even the rest of Akatsuki thought they were nuts, especially because they enjoyed preaching their ideology whilst patrolling the halls with katanas in hand. Eventually, the worst of them got caught plotting a coup and were killed for their trouble. The rest moderated somewhat, but still greatly resent the culture they came from.
• Culture Chop Suey: The Anti-Japanists have deliberately cultivated this, introducing numerous English and Russian loanwords into their dialect of Japanese and even switching to the Cyrillic alphabet.
• Naming Your Colony World: It's Japanese for "Dawn."

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