Torus

Torus is the name of a ringworld that encircles the class G star Lorem. With a radius of nearly 150 million kilometers, the ring was originally built over 900 years ago as an artificial space habitat. The materials used for its construction were an asteroid belt as well as various strip-mined moons from the nearby ammonia cloud gas giant Donar. The ringworld's systems are locally powered by a Dyson swarm around Lorem that provides all the facility's energy needs.

With an idyllic, artificial ecosystem, an atmosphere favorable for humans, and a rotational gravity of almost exactly 1.0 G, it is considered one of the most prestigious locations in the galaxy. It was originally built by the Mobius Network as a collective home for digital consciousness uploads that used androids as a platform. These consciousnesses made decisions collectively and acted almost as a single unit.

History

However, as a result of the Torus Uprising in the 19th century AB, a revolutionary movement known as Virtuoso sought to free the androids from the network through the use of the Virtuoso OS. This movement would eventually become a large corporation over time as the operating system was monetized, introducing the concept of currency to the ringworld. In addition, the first humans and cyborgs were introduced in the wake of the revolution. To accomodate them, an artificial atmosphere was introduced where previously, there was none.

In the decades that followed, Virtuoso began to succumb to corruption, eventually gaining total monopoly over the ringworld and becoming a pseudogovernment. They forced out any competitors and having banned the founding of any upstart companies. Torus is heavily patrolled by the Virtus, Virtuoso's personal paramilitary forces where citizens live under a strict iron fist. Those who cannot pay off their debts are either exiled or sent into the cryptomines, areas of virtual reality where one's consciousness is used as computational power to mine for cryptocurrency. Despite these restrictions, Virtuoso strives to maintain a positive public appearance and through the use of propaganda, Virtuoso gets the overwhelming majority of the ringworld's citizens to voluntarily agree with their policies.