So last part we mapped out the Core worlds, known as the more developed, richer and city-like
planets. The Union of Allied planets operates from this system and sits at the centre of
the 34Tauri2020 cluster. Around which orbits two more solar systems, Georgia and Red Sun.
Having looked into the first of these Border systems, we’re now moving into the Red Sun
system, so if you’ve started this journey with this video, be aware that we’re already
well underway. The Red Sun Systems was also called the Red
Phoenix, Zhu Que. Jiangyin was the first planet and had three moons, Tongyi, Dangun and Rhilidore.
Jiangyin was the planet on which River and Simon were kidnapped and held by desperate
hill-folk. New Melbourne was the next out and had a strong fishing economy, so there’s
a useless fact for you. Then there was an asteroid belt known as Motherlode
next, I wonder why they called it that? Likely this suggests it’s a resource rich belt.
Greenleaf is next and is called such due to its tropical jungle climate. Dyton is its
moon and the original home of the Criminal Boss, Badger. Harvest is the next planet and
has two moons. Faraday and Higgins’ Moon. The latter has the town of Canton of which
the Merc Jayne Cobb was considered a local folk hero.
St Albans is the next out and one of the coldest terraformed planets, it primary export is
mined minerals. This was the planet Tracey Smith was buried on in the episode, The Message.
It has one moon, Pi Gu. Anson’s World was the next out and It had three moons. Jubilee
was the next out, with its satellite, Covenant. There was another converted Brown Dwarf, Protostar
called Himinbjorg. It had an angled orbit and was orbited by four planets. Aesir, with
its moons, Bestla, Borr and Odin, Moab with Red Rock and Mesa, guess the ditched the Nordic
theme there. Then there was Brisingamen, orbited by Freya, Alberich and Beowulf. Anvil had
a single moon, cleverly named Hammer. Then, even further out from the Red Sun was
Heinlein, another helioformed protostar. It also had four orbiting bodies, Triumph, Paquin,
Lazarus and Silverhold. Triumph was the dusty planet where Malcolm Reynolds accidentally
married Saffron, and it had one moon, Mycroft. Paquin had three moons, Shinbone, Clawthorne
and Port Chester. Lazarus was orbited by Dora and Silverhold was host to Beggar’s Tin.
Judging by the state of Triumph, these planets seem very poor and some of these names do
suggest more inhospitable climates. This system, along with Georgia marked the
two border systems and where the majority of the show takes place, with the crew of
Firefly occasionally dipping into and out of the core worlds, but never too close to
the Alliance. Interesting observation, most of the film serenity takes place even beyond
these systems, indicative of the desperate nature of the crew as they fly out further
from the Alliance. The boundaries of these two systems bare host
to a number of Alliance Deep Space stations that mark the outer edge of the Boarder space.
These stations are usually very well equipped though operate strictly for the benefit of
the Alliance military. Beyond this is the Rim where the alliance
maintains very little presence. As much as life is hard on the Border, it takes a special
kind of hardy to live in the Rim systems. We’ll start with the Kalidasa Star, the
Black Tortoise, Xuan Wu. Settled in 2433, the planets here are the most numerous for
the systems with a total of 18 planets and 40 moons. A great deal of factories exist
on the rim that manufacture and supply the core and, hence the high level of traffic
and trade through the border worlds. There is, unfortunately little information
on most of these worlds, but starting from the centre, we have the Sho-Je Downs with
its moons, Miyazaki and Kuan Lo. Next is Verbena with Lassek and Barrmend, home to Blue Suns
Corporation factories, though they have a strong presence all throughout the ‘Verse.
The planet Constance was a setting for a heist in the comic, “Those Left Behind” and
it had two moons, Barrowclough and Disraeli. Next is Glacier with its moon, Denali, likely
as cold as it sounds. Vishnu is orbited by Ganesha and Rama. Heaven is the sixth planet
but is a Gas Giant. It is orbited by four moons, but its unknown if any of them are
actually inhabited. Angel is next out, but shares its orbital path with Zephyr and two
maintain an equal distance from one another due to Zephyr sitting in Angel’s L4 Lagrangian
point, a point in a planet’s orbit where the orbital forces, create a centre of balance.
Objects here are basically being pulled equally in different directions and therefore stationary
in relation. After this rare phenomena is Delphi is next
out with three moons, Clio, Thalia and Calliope. Then there is New Kasmir, the site for a large
battle during the Unification War. It has one moon, Skardu. Whittier, a highly oceanic
planet is orbited by Ita, which is a tiny moon where terraforming failed because it
was too small. My guess is that it couldn’t retain an atmosphere, even with gravity alteration.
Then there is a new Protostar, Penglai. It has three former moons, Beylix, Newhall and
Oberon. Beylix was seen in the episode “Trash” as the meeting place for Captain Reynolds
and Monty. It had three moons, Charity, Cinote and St’ Lucius. Newhall has large fresh
water refineries, useful for supplying water to worlds that need it, and three moons, Severance,
Darcke and Mohenrichia. Oberon is orbited by Puck, Quince and Bottom. Sounds like a
dream. There was formerly, a planet with satellites called Pacifica which was obliterated by failed
terraforming efforts. Now only a debris field remains along with one of its moons, Lear,
which maintains a subterranean colony. Then there is Ghost, orbited by Inferno and
Xibalia. The Thirteenth planet, Aberdeen is orbited by its moon, Vesta. Then there is
Zeus, a blue gas giant with seven moons. Beaumonde is considered the capital of the Kalidasa
system and had two moons Hastur and Geneva. It has a bustling port that was seen in the
film “Serentiy” and its capital was New Dunsmuir. Djinn’s Bane is another gas giant,
orbited by six moons, Illat, Hilal, Hubal, Sin, Ta’lab and Wadd. Salisbury is the outer-most
world of this system and it has one moon. Like I said, although it is the biggest system,
there is little information on it but this might be due to the fact that many of its
worlds are yet to be truly inhabited. We see a lot of terraforming failures here and it
does give the impression that we’re moving further away from the more desirable planets
primed for conversion into colonies. We’re entering the dregs as it were, where the only
large scale occupations tend to be exporting resources or goods back into the core.
But the ‘Verse expands further still. Beyond this system lies one last star, but dangers
worse than the environment are present in this space too. The final video will explore
this last system, it’s secret, its dangers as well as the layout of the Cortex planets.
Thanks for watching, and like I mentioned in my last part, I apologise for any mispronunciations
of some of these names. This series of videos ended up being far more expansive than I thought
it would. I originally thought, hey, Firefly, there can’t be too much to that, its only
14 episodes and a film. Here I am 68 planets later and I don’t know how many moons.
Thanks again, and I hope to see you back for the last part, stay Shiny. Goodbye.