Egon

Egon is a system located in region 8.4 of Echo Sector.

Egon's atmosphere contains a gas that is inert in darkness, but becomes poisonous and corrosive when exposed to more-than-minimal visible light. The planet is tidally locked, allowing a sizeable population to exist on the planet's dark side.

Egon has significant geothermal activity; numerous surface vents of varying sizes maintain the temperature of the dark side at levels capable of supporting human life and an extensive native biome. The organisms of Egon have evolved to sense their environment without light, and some species have developed forms of weaponized bioluminescence to defend themselves or hunt their prey.

Light is illegal on Egon. Most political and legal institutions are devoted towards the maintenance of darkness within the hemisphere - fire prevention (aided by Egon's wet, tropical and subtropical climate), the confiscation of offworld goods capable of producing light, technological innovation to prevent light and to improve human life without it, and the policing of forbidden gas-sealed light dens where the unscrupulous gather to watch movies or to see the faces of their loved ones. The production of light is the only crime on Egon met with severe, sometimes brutal, punishment.

For those willing to live in complete darkness, Egon can thus come to represent a relative safe haven in the sector, with relatively broad civil freedoms, limited corporate exploitation or state violence (excepting the policing of light), human-compatible environment, and manageable if often-dangerous fauna. Its nickname "the night garden" is sometimes used in earnest, and sometimes in morbid irony.