Gravs

= Gravs =

Gravs, or grounders, are the planet-bound citizens of a Faction or Independent settlement. They make up the vast majority of the human population. They work to produce goods, provide services, pay taxes, run the bureaucracy and everything else that makes civilization work. These are the everyday people of the Star Traders Union. One of the biggest legal distinctions between Gravs and spacers is that Gravs are full Faction citizens, with all the rights and obligations that entails. These include privileges such as being able to take out loans.

Unlike a Star Trader Captain, Merchant or Prince, many Gravs will likely never see a single Credit, instead using lower denominations of the standard currency, such as the mark (1/1000th of a Credit) and shilling (1/100th of a mark).

Gravs and Spacers
While Spacers are drawn from the ranks of ordinary Gravs, and whole industries exist to cater to the needs of starships and their crews, there are some very strict cultural divides between gravs and spacers. The most common view of spacers held by gravs is that they are a crazy, dangerous lot, sometimes even feared or disdained despite their reliance on each other for trade, support, and defense. This can be most clearly seen in the fact that, while Star Trader vessels have the legal right to make planetfall or dock with an Orbital, spacers are restricted in where they can and cannot go, typically the Spice Hall, Spacer Exchange, medical facilities and docks.

Some gravs see becoming a spacer as a way to better their lot in life or escape from trouble, and will sign onto a crew, setting aside their rights and privileges as citizens to sail the stars.