Walking Through Eden Station
Note: The images used have all come from Pinterest and are meant only for storyboarding ideas.
We've talked a bit about the cult, but what about the station itself? This is a post walking through my take on Eden Station for the expansion project. This applies to all of my story expansion projects as a master worldbuilding walkthrough.
We know nothing about its interior design, but we do know this: it's a single station housing a populace size that four C.O.I. stations could barely hold.
I envision solar punk in space. They're so much more ergonomic than the C.O.I.'s brutalist scrap-like architecture. This is because Eden's populace isn't just by-chance Earth survivors, but highly-skilled, intelligent people whose families were purposefully sent to colonize Mars, before devolving into psychosis, and eventually, a cult.
Eden was initially sent out with loads of survival goods, machinery to support a thriving agriculture-based community, and even prototype terraforming units. Mankind was ready for Mars, but it all but vanished in the Quiet Rapture. Now, most of their machinery has been repurposed to work on the station itself.
Smooth, white walls. A spotless infrastructure, revered like a church. Serene and quiet. A complete contrast to the violent people it spawns. Any unlucky C.O.I. member to witness it would be in awe at its grandeur for however long they are able to survive inside.
Eden Station operates like a beehive: everyone plays a role, however specific. They have raiders, sure, but also farmers, cooks, scribes, technicians, and transport pilots just the same. They take care of their sick, albeit tend to call it quits early simply due to scarcity and death cult practices. They ritualize the deaths of their elderly, and their funerals feel more like... "celebrations", sometimes.
They have greenhouses, each assigned to a member on board in a rotational care system. Every Eden member knows the basics on keeping plants alive. If you can't figure it out? Disgraceful.
Okay, I'm pulling some ideas out of my ass here, so don't come at me for not being lore accurate. Just trying to think of ways to make this work logistically.
They'd make use of hydroponics using condensation from their oxygen-recycling units, and since every room has to have one of these running at all times, they're doing pretty OK on water, albeit seemingly always one fuck-up away from losing out on valuable crops. They use everything they generate and a little then some:
Of course, their technology is further along than even what the C.O.I. have access to (one of the reasons why the C.O.I. freaked out when Eden started becoming antagonists and stopped trading with them.) Their recycling units have most likely been modified to collect as much water from the air as possible. The water is then utilized for hydroponics, evaporates back into the air over time, and continues to cycle in the environment that way.
This means that their water rations are lower than what would be healthy, but they are good on food, and their vegetable and fruit-based meals would contain water itself.
Some rooms would have the lights off or dimmed to conserve power. Some of the only rooms fully lit would be the actual crop rooms:
Then you've got living spaces, makeshift for most of them, as the station was initially designed for a much smaller colonization crew before people started to populate on-board. Some rooms might have access to day-night simulated "windows" synced to a universal clock, tuned to Mars rotation:
Rooms would be small, free of clutter as the Father is a narcissist and wouldn't let his station be ruined by a slob. The cult actively works to keep their station absolutely grand, as it was repurposed to be a vessel for their god.
One will notice that the clothes and personal belongings of an Eden Cultist are not at all reflective of the station itself. The station is an illusion of grandeur, holding onto an extremely frail ecosystem able to provide the barest of necessitated food and water for survival. I have some visual ideas for other cultist attire. Things that Simon would have seen other people wear on the station:
Clothing made out of stronger materials would have lasted longer.
Utility jumpsuits would have to be patched less as they are durable
People dress warm. Space is cold, and many of their space heaters were taken to be utilized for greenhouses. Lots of layers (note Simon's attire and inability to handle extreme heat.)
Casual clothes have become family heirlooms, worn until they are rags, and then patched again. Over and over. There's a lot of "Ship of Theseus" clothing items around.
Agriculturists have taken to wearing kneepads and gloves to protect themselves from the frequent and repetitive motions of digging in soil, untangling roots in the hydroponics rooms, and harvesting crops. It also slows them down from getting dirty, so they don't have to use water as often to clean themselves as a resource preservation tactic.
Oranges, greens, beiges (usually from clothes that were once white), greys, black, brown, etc. <- Base color palette
Bright colors, like purple, red, true white, etc. are reserved for the Elite, like the Father.
There is so much more I could talk about, and what these things imply regarding Simon's upbringing, but this post is getting way too long, so I'm going to break this up. If I spawn any ideas, please reblog and tell me! I need to build on this and discussing with you all is the best way to do so.
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