With over ten million inhabited systems under its control and a further several million used as remote or automated research, material extraction or interstellar survey, the Draconid Imperium utilises a comprehensive planetary classification system to take into account a wide variety of factors.
With the importance of industry being a cornerstone element of the Imperial fabric, planets are classified using a three-point code that explains the scale of settlement, a planet's primary economic output and the scale of local industry. For example a planet with a large population of two billion that specialises in manufacutring will be a Class IV-MG-C while a small frontier that acts as the breadbasket for a larger region using robotic farm-hands would be registered as a Class II-AG-D.
As well as worlds the Imperium has colonised or annexed, the system is also used to classify various pre-contact planetary societies under the Imperium's purview and even foreign planets.
Scale of Settlement[]
Uninhabited | No recognised intelligent population is planet-side. Planet may either be unoccupied or occupied by an entirely machine labour population. | ||
Pioneer | Very small or spread out populations are supported. If natively inhabited, these populations are commonly found as tribes. Regardless of the population's origin, large proportions of the planet will be wilderness | ||
Outpost | Small populations that might surround a single hub, or a handful. If colonised, local industry will be highly automated using artificial or manual labour | ||
Settled | Populations are scattered, but a number of large hubs exist. Native populations will use these hubs as the centres of multi-region societies, colonial populations will use the hubs as a port of call for the exchange of supplies. | ||
Expansive | Numerous hubs exist planetside and population centres can be found on most parts of the planet, industry will be expansive and varied. Multiple hubs will likely have expansive mass transit networks for the transport of people and freight | ||
Enhanced | Large hubs form from the merging of several into conglomerations, post-industrial or service industry will begin to emerge and replace manufacturing work in the larger hubs | ||
Metropolitan | Hubs will occupy regions and feature comprehensive transit or freight networks, populations will be increasingly urbanised. Importing of goods from offworld becomes an important source of resources. | ||
Nexoid | Hubs can be continental in scale, majority of the planetary population will be urbanised, industry will be focused on interaction with other planets. Resource imports support the bulk of material demand |
Economic Preference[]
Not Applicable | Local industry is not considered extensive enough for greater economic involvement | ||
Agriculture | Majority of local industry is dedicated to the production of food or the harvesting of land, sea or airborne animals for meat products and materials. | ||
Extracted Materials | Majority of local industry is dedicated to the extraction of material from the lithosphere, typically ores, stone, sand, fissiles and useful gases. | ||
Manufacturing | Majority of local industry is dedicated to the processing of raw materials into finished products using refinement practices. | ||
Commerce | Majority of local industry is dedicated to providing economic services to local and visitor population. Such services can include entertainment, tourism, municipal services or financial services. |
Industrial Scale[]
Subsistence | Industry is primarily local populations harvesting or producing just enough to sustain small family-sized populations | ||
Communal | Rudimentary commercial practices that allow for a local division of labour to support populations of several thousand per hub. | ||
Continental | Industry involves regional or continental-scale dedication, with hubs acting as regional focal points for the processing of materials | ||
Industrial | Hubs will produce a significant output of goods, far more than they would use to support locally | ||
Global | Large areas of the planet will be reserved for the production of goods. A rudimentary orbital infrastructure would be used to support or enhance economic output | ||
Enhanced | Economic areas are continental in scale, much of the planet will be dedicated to the production of goods. Established orbital infrastructure can enhance production or assist in the transfer or processing of goods from offworld | ||
Extensive | Considerable dedication to the exploitation or production of resources. If the products are reproducible, output will be transferred into space to further increase the scale of production and ease the exchange of goods if the planet exports or imports. |
Composition[]
A fourth (typically not used in economic records) is a rating of the planet's physical composition. Unlike the other ratings, the composition rating is sued to define a planet's physical composition.
Sub-planetoid | Small enough to not be made spherical by the forces of gravity, usually applies to asteroids or tiny moons. | ||
Mini-body | Metallic core surrounded by a thick layer of solid minerals small enough to hold a gravitational constant of under 0.7G. Long term habitation may cause health issues for life forms more suited to heavier gravities. | ||
Typical Body | Metallic core surrounded by a thick layer of solid minerals, often called "terrestrials" for their scale and compositional similarities to words like Alcanti | ||
Super-boy | Large bodies similar to rocky body worlds that due to their size posses a gravitational constant above 1.5G, long term habitation may be unhealthy for life-forms suited to lighter or more typical life-forms without medical support | ||
Vapour Titan | Planets with a rocky or metallic core surrounded by a thick layer of heavier-than-helium gases. Substantially larger than terrestrial planets but physically not too dissimilar from gas giants. | ||
Gas Titan | Planets with a rocky or metallic core surrounded by a thick layer of hydrogen or helium, with a soup of heavier elements nearer the core. Prized as key sources of Helium-3 |