Flag of Luna

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Da Flag
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A black flag with a blue stripe at the bottom (representing Earth) and a white representation of Luna.

There are eight variants or "phases" of the flag of Luna. Full Moon, Waxing Gibbous, First Quarter, Waxing Crescent, New Moon, Waning Crescent, Last Quarter and Waning Gibbous. All of these flags can be used to represent Luna, but the Full Moon variant is used by Luna's government, the Selenite Republic. Additionally, advances in materials science mean that there are versions of the Selenite Flag which are animated, and portray the moon alternating between all eight phases.

Depending on where you are on Luna, different "phases" are more popular than others. The natives of Barbenfoulis, for example, prefer the Waning Crescent, while folks living on the Farside often prefer the New Moon phase.

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Da Lore
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Of all the worlds of Sol, Luna is the one with the second-richest history. More than simply a natural satellite of Earth, Luna is truly a world unto itself. From Masonic Apollo cultists and clans of French werewolf cyborgs, to the megacities of the Nearside, the paraterraformed domes of the Farside, and the "Grey" nomads who alternate between these two worlds.

Luna's historic role as the first site of large-scale space colonization, and contemporary role as a transport hub for interplanetary trade and travel, has made it home to many different cultures and Luna is widely regarded as a melting pot. The strongest influences are a very heavy blending of American, Euro, Russian and Chinese language, culture and religion, all mixed together beyond recognition. Japanese influence was once very significant and can still be found here and there, but aside from the city of Tsukino, most Selenites of Japanese descent ended up migrating either to Mars or Ceres in the mid-21st century, after Japan was forced to cede much of its off-world territories to China. Because of its close proximity to Earth, all spacefaring nations established at least one colony or outpost on Luna during the Space Boom of the 1980's. Over time, the smaller cultures were assimilated into the larger Selenite mega-culture. Whole settlements were absorbed into the larger sprawling megacities and preserved their local character as neighborhoods, while others were left out in the Lunar wilderness to grow more and more insular.

Today, most Selenites speak English and live in large megacities on the Nearside, which which dominate the Ocean of Storms, Sea of Tranquility and Sea of Serenity. Where one megacity ends, another begins. Very little of the Lunar lowlands is still visible from Earth, and the lights of these cities are visible from Earth at night. The Farside, meanwhile, is dominated by sprawling spaceports and shipyards, long-decommissioned mega-telescopes, laser communication facilities, and lots and lots of domes. Some of these craters have been para-terraformed underneath these domes, giving the Lunar Farside vast tracts of forest, grassland and lakes. And slicing northern and southern Luna in half is the Jules Verne Memorial Gun. More commonly known as the "Verne Gun" or "Columbiad", this is a gargantuan elevated mass-driver wrapped around the Lunar equator, which launches tens of kilotons of raw materials into high Earth orbit every day. At its height, the Verne Gun shot hundreds of kilotons into Earth orbit, but the march of technology has seen the Verne Gun slow down over the last century, as advances in spacecraft design have rendered it a relic of another time. Though it does get to fire off light show every July 20th, in celebration of the human footsteps on the moon.

Luna has a population of around two billion. Mostly regular humans - and by "regular", I mean very high rates of cybernetic augmentation. Lots of somatic cyborgs, including more exotic/downright weird cyborg varieties, such as the Cube Monks or the Garou (the aforementioned French werewolves). Mind-uploading technology originally developed on Titan has found use on Luna, where permanently-shaded craters at the Lunar south pole reach temperatures as low as -397F, which is perfect for managing the waste heat associated with such high-output computation processes as copying and emulating entire human minds. There are around six million pneumatic cyborgs/ghosts on Luna. There are sizable populations of neodogs, and an almost uncountable number of turingrades, both in meatspace and virspace.

Economically, Luna is home to a number of high-tech industries, with a history of being the birthplace of revolutionary advances in fission reactors, the advent of commercial fusion, as well as critical biomods necessary for the existence of lograv and micrograv-adapted humans, such as osetoinhibitor genes. Luna also competes with Mars as the Solar System's premier builder and exporter of spaceships, and is one of only two places where ISV's are built. And finally, Luna is a major source of raw materials for the Exonesian polities in high and low Earth orbit, and via its agreeable delta V relationship with Ceres, Luna is in a somewhat privileged position to trade with the Main Belt.