ILLUSTRATED BY THE GUIDE TO LARRY NIVEN'S RING WORL D i. THE GUIDE TO LARRY NIVEN'S RING WORL D Kevin Stein Illustrated by Todd Hamilton James Clouse Design and Layout Kevin Stein Production Julian Jackson the Guide to Larry Niven’S Rincworld This is a work of fiction. All the characters and events portrayed in this book are fictional, and any resemblance to real people or inci¬ dents is purely coincidental. Copyright © 1994 by Bill Fawcett & Associates under license from New Frontier Entertainment All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form. A Baen Books Original Baen Publishing Enterprises P.O. Box 1403 Riverdale, NY 10471 ISBN: 0-671-72204-2 Cover art by David Mattingly First printing, February 1994 Distributed by Paramount 1230 Avenue of the Americas New York, NY 10020 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Stein, Kevin THE GUIDE TO LARRY NIVEN'S RINCWORLD p. cm. ISBN 0-671-72192-5: $20.00 1. Niven, Larry. Ringworld—Dictionaries. 2. Science fiction, American—Dictionaries. I. Niven, Larry. Ringworld. II. Title. PS3564.I9Z87 1994 93-35023 813’.54—dc20 CIP Though the Ringworld is a very Solar gravity-which is powerful enough to personal vision, it has always had collapse a real Dyson sphere-is balanced by an aspect of collaboration. I finished sunlight falling on the inside. You use all of the the calculations for its spin while visiting some output of the sun for industrial power-as with friends, borrowing their books to find the for¬ a Dyson sphere. The windows allow sunlight mulas. Lectured a Bay area science fiction club for the Ringworld, and also allow attitude con¬ on the structure, that night. A stranger in Wash¬ trol. ington, DC, proof-read the first edition ("The —Two weeks ago, at the second DCX rocket Niven/MacArthur Papers, volume 1") and test flight, one of the rocket scientists spoke to found an amazing number of mistakes for us. me thus. He and some companions believe that The back covers of the fanzine APA-L for many the proper diameter for the Ringworld is a months featured Ringworld puns, or million miles (width is optional, as usual). At Ringworlds with printing across the under¬ that size, a 24-hour rotation provides one grav¬ side. "One Ring to Rule Them All." "Occu¬ ity. You don't even need "scrith"; predictable pancy by more than 3x1015 persons is danger¬ materials, such as cable made from Fullerite ous and unlawful." carbon tubes, would be strong enough. At the 1971 World Science Fiction Conven¬ tion, MIT students chanted in the Hilton halls: As always, I most appreciate the reader who "The Ringworld is unstable!" gets the most out of the story. You never have The best hard-SF artists have tried their to stop with just reading the book. A story is an skills on the Ringworld. intellectual playground too; and I like to leave In 1970 the Ringworld was the strangest the gates open when I leave. engineering feat since Dante's Divine Comedy. I What can you do with the Ringworld, that feared it would be too off-the-wall. On the the author didn't think of? Don't violate my contrary, it seems just strange enough to stretch copyrights, please; don't break the equipment. most minds, and just simple enough that every¬ But it is a playground. So play. one thinks he can improve it. And the improvements flow in. —The flup/spillpipe/spill mountain system came from a high school class in Florida (and made Ringworld mining rights possible). —The shadow square system provides too much twilight. For proper day and night, use five long rectangles orbiting retrograde. —Why settle for shadow squares? Build a bal¬ loon out of solar power collector material, the size of the orbit of Mercury. No spin needed. Furnish with radiator fins, a power beam sys¬ tem, windows along the waist. The sun goes at the center. Table of Contents 9 Introduction to Ringworlds w History of Known Space 27 Major Races of Known space 76 Aliens of Known Space 101 The Ringworld 126 Races of Ringworld 161 Psionics 165 Equipment 182 Glossary INTRODUCTION to RINGWORLDS Ringworld is an artificial habitat that surrounds its sun. A good deal of sunlight is converted into energy for use on the sur¬ face of the ring. Other than Niven, there have been three other significant futurists who decided that any advanced industrial society must eventually build its own world surrounding its sun to gather the greatest amount of raw energy, the most important resource (other than matter and living space) to any expanding civilization. In 1895, Constantin Tsiolkovski envisioned in his Dreams of Earth and Sky a cloud of space cities built from asteroids given atmospheres and water. These bubble-domed habitats orbited around the sun, harvesting light for the benefit of the city's inhabit¬ ants. N.S. Kardeshev extended Tsiolkovski's ideas by creating subdivisions of technological societies: Type I, II, and III. Type I civilizations could reconfigure the surface of worlds, "terraforming" them for eventual population. Type II societies had the ability to transform solar systems. Type III civilizations could harness the matter and energy output of entire galaxies. Freeman Dyson said that, "One should expect within a few thousand years of entering the stage of industrial development, any intelligent species should be found occupying an artificial bio¬ sphere which completely surrounds its parent star." The idea of a Dyson Sphere has become a hallmark of science fiction, a hollow, spherical shell built around a star to make use of every photon of light. The mass of a planet the size of Jupiter could be used to create a Dyson sphere several meters thick with the diameter of one Earth orbit. The interior of a Dyson Sphere has billions of times the surface area of Earth. However, gravity generators must be emplaced all over the shell to ensure that nothing falls into the sun, including the atmosphere; there is no night, only the constant day of the sun overhead. The rest of the universe is hidden. Ringworld takes care of the major problems encountered with building a Dyson Sphere (other than the actual construction itself, of course). A ring built around the sun with the same re¬ sources would be tens of meters thick, a million kilometers wide, and a billion kilometers long. The surface area would still be im¬ mense, and the ring can be spun to create artificial gravity through centrifugal force. Building a ringworld also takes care of one more important problem close to every romantic's heart. You can see the stars. Introduction to Ringworlds The Guide to Larry Niven's Ringworld HISTORY OF KNOWN SPACE 11 History of Known Space 16 Timeline of Known Space 19 Maps of Known Space 21 Worlds of Known Space The Guide to Larry Niven's Ringworld History of Known Space HISTORY OF KNOWN SPACE One of the greatest discoveries of the late 20th century was the tenth planet, named Persephone. This inspired the newly uni¬ fied governments of Earth to begin further exploration of the cos¬ mos. They quickly discovered other planets around nearby stars. The stage was set for outreach. Space exploration was more than just rewarding, it was also an adventure. Theories on physiology and human behavior were overturned by some of the first long-range shuttle flights. Near¬ space industries, such as low gravity metallurgy, became more than curiosities. The asteroid belt was mined and inhabited by the re¬ sourceful and strong-willed. THE NEW WORLD ORDER The most prominent challenge to the governments of Earth was the fight against hunger, oppression, and illiteracy. This led to the rededication of the United Nations, which was not a figure¬ head board of "important" leaders from nations around the world, but a true league that kept sovereignty over the unified countries. One of the UN's hardest fights was with the Belters, who had declared independence from the Earth. The Belters and Earth waged economic war with each other until the UN recognized the Belt as a separate world government. This is not to say that the United Nations created a utopia. Many of the people once in power attempted to maintain their holdings through corruption and blackmail. There were incidents of nuclear terrorism. In the end, the strife that rose from the cre¬ ation of the United Nations served to strengthen its cause and purpose. THE ARM The Amalgamation of Regional Militia became the enforce¬ ment branch of the UN. As man's level of technology rose under the banner of the new age, the number of possible abuses of the technology rose exponentially. The ARM was there to make sure that nothing got out of control. ARM agents were often sent on missions outside the Earth system. The ARM performs two major functions. The first is the monitoring of technology. The second is the enforcement of the fertility laws, which kept the Earth from facing overpopulation. History of Known Space The Guide to Larry Niven's Ringworlcl famine, and economic disaster. The laws assured that the popula¬ tion stabilized at about eighteen billion people by the 22nd century. Originally, the ARM also ensured that the organ donation laws were not abused. It was very easy for someone to make a great deal of money by "procuring" organs for organ banks. Unfortu¬ nately, these types of donations were not usually voluntary. The ARM no longer needed to enforce these laws when organs were generated in labs. EARTH'S GOLDEN AGE The golden age lasted three centuries.