Origins

Origins of the planet Bohemia

In the year 2530, a space-faring merchant by the name of Caedmon O’Tuathail discovered a minor planet in what is now known as the mid-risk zone of the MUD-controlled region of Galia. Caedmon had been the leader of a clan merchant company which went by the name of Clann Aodha Merchant Services. Individuals who identified themselves as being from Clann Aodha, a people descended from the Gaels of the ancient Terran island known as Ireland, composed the crew of the fleet of merchant ships. Specifically, they were from an ethnic minority of the Gaels known as the Irish Travellers. Much like in ancient Ireland, at the time that Caedmon discovered the planet of what eventually became Bohemia, the rest of the descendants of the Irish Travellers were a scattered and mostly impoverished ethnic minority within the greater MUD population. It was precisely because of their wandering spirit that the remaining Clanns of the Irish Traveller descendants had left Earth on the first MUD emigration.

Upon discovering the planet of Bohemia, Caedmon had known immediately that this was the planet which had filled his dreams throughout his life. He had a grand vision of how his Clann, and what was left of the remaining Clanns in the MUD faction, would be able to forge their own destiny on such a planet.

The planet that he eventually found in the mid-risk zone of the MUD-controlled region of Galia was identified as one that would make a suitable home because of its unique atmosphere, which closely resembled that of earth’s atmosphere. The planet was also covered in a mostly frozen ocean, however, they were able to melt most of it as part of their terraforming.

The Boheme discovered ancient alien architecture deep underground, but there were no remains of the species that had built these subterranean cities. The only life at the time of discovery were single cellular organisms.

Caedmon had then called a meeting of all the leaders of the fourteen major remaining Clanns. Caedmon spoke to them at length over three days. He spoke of his dreams; he spoke of his visions; he spoke of the planet he had found and his plans to terraform it into a recreation of the ancient land of Ireland. And finally, he spoke of the future that awaited them all should they choose to embrace it. They had many debates and arguments regarding the dangers and the costs involved in undertaking such a massive venture. Ultimately, after a further three days of debating, thirteen of the fourteen Clanns were so moved by his powerful oration and vision that they agreed to take part. Diarmait Mac Conboirne, the Clann leader from Clann Tomaltaigh, did not, however, agree to join and left on bad terms with those that remained after cursing their venture.

The early Bohemian settlers spent the first twenty odd years terraforming the planet and building the critical infrastructure that would become the foundations of the Bohemian civilisation.

Origins of the Boheme culture and the Bohemian Name

Caedmon’s singular vision was of a united people who shared a common Irish Gaelic ancestry. That being said, several significant factors, including his own connection with the ancient nomadic Irish Travellers coupled with his predilections for socialist philosophy and his wholehearted appreciation of a Bohemian approach to living life, significantly influenced the manifestation of this vision. For this reason, the Boheme culture is a fusion of various ancient Terran cultural traditions and philosophies.

Of note, whilst Caedmon had appropriated the names Boheme and Bohemia, as he felt like they expressed values he resonated with, such as free-living and creative way of life, the Boheme people of the planet Bohemia are in no way genetically related to the historical gypsies of Earth known as the Romani peoples. Whilst the Irish Travellers and the Romani shared many things in common, such as their nomadic carefree lifestyle and a penchant for music and creative expression, they are genetically distinct as the Irish Travellers are genetically related to the indigenous Gaelic peoples of Ireland (a sub-group of Celtic peoples) whereas the Romani are genetically descended from Indo-Aryan peoples.

Caedmon was also a keen historian and a self-declared pagan. He was a practicing druid and highly respected the ancient Gaelic practices, religion and traditions that existed in pre-Christian Ireland. As a result of this, whilst the Boheme are technically descendants of the Irish Travellers, the cultural practices and traditions of the Boheme more closely reflect those of the ancestors of the Irish Travellers, who were the nomadic Gaels. The Gaels in turn were a sub division of the much larger Celtic peoples that once sprawled across much of Northern Europe on the planet of Earth.