What's your Headcanon?

[KSK]

Okay then.

I have quite a lot of KSP headcanon, so I'll try and keep this to the Cliff's Notes version.  

Like @jimmymcgoochie, I've chosen to ignore the lack of in-game cities on Kerbin as a limitation of the game engine rather than trying to explain it in my headcanon. Likewise, I've ignored the small size and high density of the in-game planets and the Easter Eggs. So my version of Kerbin is approximately Earth sized (with distances to the Mun and Minmus scaled appropriately), with towns, villages, farms and all the rest of it, on the surface.

In my headcanon, kerbal technology is roughly on a par with human technology of the 80s and 90s. They have decent computers, fairly advanced manufacturing and materials technology, and air travel is common. What my kerbals didn't have is a Cold War and all the other human-style geopolitics that kicked off our Space Race. As a result, rocketry was pretty much an academic curiosity and no sane kerbal had seriously contemplated the idea of spaceflight. Until, that is, a researcher at the Kerbin Aeronautical Institute, one Wernher Kerman, decided to show his hobby project rocket engine to his graduate student, one Jebediah Kerman.

Realising what Wernher's toy rocket engine could become, Jeb founded the Kerbin Interplanetary Society; a bunch of enthusiastic amateurs who set themselves the grandiose goal of putting a kerbal into space. The difficulties though, as the KIS quickly found, were formidable. After many years of repeated failures, most of the KIS members gradually drifted away leaving a stubborn core of six who refused to let their dream of spaceflight die. They were: Jeb, Bill, Bob, Wernher, Lucan, and Geneney and they finally built and flew a cobbled together, crewed suborbital capsule on top of an equally cobbled together rocket.  Bill had the presence of mind to take his camera along and his photographs of Kerbin from 35 kilometres up fired the imaginations of an entire generation. 

Kerbin's Space Age had begun. And not a moment too soon.

My version of Kerbin is inhabited by two sentient species - the kerbals and the Kerm trees. The Kerm are key to everything about kerbal society, its organisation, its institutions, its past, its present... and its future.

Very briefly, the Kerm can manipulate their local ecology to protect themselves much as plants do on Earth. They can communicate with their kerbals via a form of contact telepathy and they've developed a symbiotic relationship with them in which they provide very efficient, very 'green' agriculture, in exchange for protection, seed carrying, and companionship. After all, without eyes, you miss out on a lot of the world and its wonders. However, that symbiotic relationship comes with a price. Two ancient laws: the Law of Territory and the Law of Thirty Seven were codified in the aftermath of Kerbin's greatest disaster. They form the bedrock of all kerbal society, the consequences for breaching them are extreme, and ultimately, they were responsible for driving kerbalkind to the stars.  For their part, through their long and turbulent history with the Kerm, the kerbals have developed into two loose castes: the agrarian Kermol who do most of the farming and tend to the Kerm, and the urbanite Kerman, who are more technologically inclined. Relationships between the two castes are cordial, not least because any kerbal wishing to raise a family will need to 'go Kermol' at some point during his or her life.

And that's my KSP novel in a nutshell - the story of how telepathic trees drove a space program.  Along the way there are bits and pieces on kerbal daily life, architecture, food and drink, medicine, funeral rites, socioeconomics, language, sporting events and much more. And of course, the Space Program itself, from its humble origins to its greatest triumphs.

Spoiler

Watch now as the Rockomax Type 6 booster, complete with its outsized payload fairing, soars into the afternoon sky. See it arc out over the Northern Ocean, followed avidly by hundreds of watching eyes, until it disappears out of sight. 

Hear the commentary from Mission Control, the controllers doing their best to project an air of detached competence. Just another launch, another day working for the KSA.

Hear the tension beneath their familiar phrases. A momentary stutter here, a report snapped out just a little too promptly there.

Because this is not just another launch. This is a rocket built against all the odds. A rocket built despite war and loved ones lost, despite hunger and rationing, despite supply chains and trade routes almost crippled by fear. 

A rocket for all the people of Kerbin.

Young and old. 

Engineers and agronomists. 

Kerman and kermol. 

The quiet heroes across the world who stood with Lodan Kerman and the Kerbin Space Agency in their hour of greatest need.

No. This is not just another launch.

———————

Appropriately, given her duties, the bow lookout aboard the Shield of Kolus was the first to spot the unusually shaped cloud. For a split second she froze, fearing an airborne attack, but when the oddity showed no sign of movement she lowered her binoculars and signalled the officer of the deck.

“Unidentified aerial object dead ahead, sir. No movement, no aircraft sighted!”

The officer of the watch felt his commander’s eyes on his back as he picked up the phone. “Tactical. We have a UFO dead ahead high. Are you seeing anything? No? Thank you - please send Hankin up to the bridge.” He squinted at the cloud. “Nothing on radar, ma’am. I’m calling this a tentative AP.”

“It certainly looks like a cloud,” the captain agreed. She turned her head as her meteorology officer hurried onto the bridge, boots ringing on the steel flooring. “Ah, Mister Hankin.” She gestured at the sky. “Your analysis please.”

Hankin studied the cloud, eyes narrowed. Then his face cleared. “Dispersing high altitude hypersonic vapor cone, ma’am. KSA launch out of Foxham I expect.” 

The corner of his captain’s eye twitched. “Thank you, Mister Hankin. Radio, please confirm with Fleet Command.”

“By your orders ma’am.”

The officer of the deck’s eyes widened. “How the Kerm did they manage that? And what on Kerbin are they launching? We would have heard about any new assets going up.”

“Indeed. A civilian payload then.” The captain fought to keep her voice level. Hankin frowned. 

“Surely all the civilian launches are on hold? The logistics alone with all the seed inspections going on…” His voice trailed away. “Hold that. Didn't they send up a test flight a few months ago? You don’t think…?”

“I think it takes more than a war to stop our fellow Kolans,” said the captain, the steely pride in her voice carrying across the bridge. The radio operator broke the sudden silence.

“Fleet confirms launch out of Foxham. Flight path outside of our theatre of operations so we weren’t advised. Fleet are not aware of the payload at this time, ma,am.”

Well that settles it. “I expect we’ll be informed if and when the KSA report an operational spacecraft. Thank you, Radio.” The captain turned to her officer of the deck, who took an involuntary step back at the expression on her face. “I have no idea how they managed it, Mister Jenfry. But by all the Kerm and the first Grove, it’s finally happening!”

——————

See the SK1P engines flame out, the strap-on boosters around the core stage falling away in a perfect cross. Watch the exhaust plume from the colossal main engine, the SK2-M “Mainsail”, fanning out in a great golden plume. Hear the crack of explosive bolts as the core stage finally falls away, it’s fire spent.

Smell the tension in Mission Control as the second stage engine ignites, the moment of truth fast approaching.

And now, see the sunlight. Watch the halves of the oversized fairing tumble away from the speeding rocket, revealing the spacecraft beneath. A spacecraft which is but one part of a vastly larger craft, itself a precursor of a still larger vessel to come. A vessel conceived through a melding of ambition and dire need unmatched since the Age of Sail.

Along the horizon the rocket speeds, following Kerbin’s curve, continents and oceans falling away behind it. The engine nozzle flexes, wobbles, suddenly deprived of the fiery torrent keeping it taut. 

Silently, the rocket stage is set free. A pause. Then sparkling trails of frozen vapour nudge it end-over-end, before the last of its essence is vented into space. Soon it will meet a glorious end, stretching a trail of shooting stars across the sky. 

Leaving the spacecraft it once carried to finally spread its wings. 

Nacelles along its flanks split open like cocoons, revealing the butterflies beneath. Hinged panels of wires and shining silicon unfurl, turning slowly to face the sun. Deep within, batteries begin to charge, life-giving energy coursing through a myriad of systems.

Now hear the roar! Hear the thunder of jubilation, blended with no small amount of relief, at the sight of four lines of text on a screen.

> boot up sequence complete
> vehicle designation: Tenacity
> vehicle type: Starseed test module

 

> system set

 

 

Edited August 25, 2020 by KSK

[Kerminator K-100]

53 minutes ago, KSK said:

And that's my KSP novel in a nutshell - the story of how telepathic trees drove a space program.  Along the way there are bits and pieces on kerbal daily life, architecture, food and drink, medicine, funeral rites, socioeconomics, language, sporting events and much more. And of course, the Space Program itself, from its humble origins to its greatest triumphs.

Hmm, I just realized I don't have any stuff like that. Adding it to my notes!

Looking through your links, I can see that you have sent a lot of work on this, it looks amazing and super detailed!

Edited August 25, 2020 by Kerminator1000

[KSK]

3 hours ago, Kerminator1000 said:

Hmm, I just realized I don't have any stuff like that. Adding it to my notes!

Looking through your links, I can see that you have sent a lot of work on this, it looks amazing and super detailed!

Thanks! Some of it just happened as part of the story but the bits I wrote to answer questions from people were the most fun.

Impromptu worldbuilding - you can’t beat it.

[Souptime]

The year is 5402, the humans have been exploring the orion spur for generations. An agency named "squad" come across the MARVIN K43143 system, seeing as its only 1 billion years old the planets are still very small. The gas giant is the size of earth and a promising planet is found between a purple one and a red one. They descend on their dropships planting multiple monoliths throughout the system to make their presence known, If intelligent life evolves they have small green ones to find some sort of tech to advance them and find out planeted these strange structures. Nearly 2 billion years pass, the humans exctinct due to some sort of major pandemic. 

We see a small-bodied, light green species on MARVIN K43143-C. They call their planet "Kerbin"

Their species: kerbals

After nearly 4 million years they develop an interest of rockets, Seeing as they're pretty stupid i can see why they like space-candles

They find the green monoliths and finally...

The kerbal space program has formed! and here we are today... 

 

 

Fun fact there was some sort of official backstory to KSP by novasilisko. But it couldn't be implemented for some reason: https://pastebin.com/3vvjushy

[Bej Kerman]

On 8/8/2020 at 6:42 PM, Lewie said:

Because they evolved from plants, they feel a need to travel as far as possible from their point of origin, as to spread their ‘seeds’ this is why when a kerbal dies you see a puff of dust. The ‘dust’ are microscopic pores that’ll grow into new kerbals.

That explains why the KSC never runs out of recruits even when there's no visible holes leading to underground tunnels or on-surface civilisations on Kerbin - new Kerbals just grow out of the soil and immediately get enlisted in the space program as soon as they find the astronaut facilities.

[Lewie]

1 hour ago, Bej Kerman said:

That explains why the KSC never runs out of recruits even when there's no visible holes leading to underground tunnels or on-surface civilisations on Kerbin - new Kerbals just grow out of the soil and immediately get enlisted in the space program as soon as they find the astronaut facilities.

Yep! And that’s why that when kerbals die, you see a cloud of dust. The dust are spires from which cute ‘lil baby kerbals will grow from. 

1 hour ago, Souptime said:

Fun fact there was some sort of official backstory to KSP by novasilisko. But it couldn't be implemented for some reason: https://pastebin.com/3vvjushy

Holy cow, this is amazing! It’s a shame that it didn’t make it into the game.

[Bej Kerman]

1 hour ago, Lewie said:

2 hours ago, Souptime said:

Fun fact there was some sort of official backstory to KSP by novasilisko. But it couldn't be implemented for some reason: https://pastebin.com/3vvjushy

Holy cow, this is amazing! It’s a shame that it didn’t make it into the game.

"Of course, this whole "plan" never really left my head, apart from a few brief teasings that I had a plan! I believe this is the first time I've ever really talked about the full extent of the ideas for a sort of narrative behind the easter eggs (although IIRC I may have touched upon it in past forum posts, like the idea of the monoliths failing and creating kerbals instead of proper intelligent life). Maybe one day I'll resurrect this plan, maybe as part of Alternis, or even in a different game."

This is my favourite bit about the pastebin, I want to see Nova's plan materialize one way or another.

[Avery616]

On 9/5/2020 at 5:59 PM, Bej Kerman said:

This is my favourite bit about the pastebin, I want to see Nova's plan materialize one way or another.

Agreed, while the lore-less KSP we got is fun for theorizing having an actual game lore to follow would be quite intresting .

And who knows, with KSP 2 we might just get lucky...

[0something0]

The last name "Kerman" isn't an actual last name, but merely a title.

[Kerminator K-100]

12 hours ago, 0something0 said:

The last name "Kerman" isn't an actual last name, but merely a title.

So do you earn it by flying in space or something like that?

[0something0]

On 9/14/2020 at 10:33 AM, Kerminator1000 said:

So do you earn it by flying in space or something like that?

I don't really have any ideas on how it plays into the wider culture but perhaps there is a rite of adulthood that earns you the "Kerman" title. Or more darkly, perhaps the KSC could be in a conservative caste-based society, where only the Kerman caste get to be kerbalnauts. Maybe the kerbals had a history of such a society, but now everyone gets to be a "Kerman" thanks to civil rights. 

I would even go as far as to say that if different countries or equivalents exist, other countries might not even have the Kerman title. 

[Kazkar]

In whatever way you explain the "Kerman" name or title, don't forget about Wernher von Kerman!