Columba Zion

Columba Zion and its banner.

Columba Zion – Columba Zion is a Terra Class planet occupying the second orbit of the Bountiful B System. It has a single large moon called Jeremiah.

• Geography – Columba Zion has three large continents (Angola, Corihor, Joshua) three large oceans and numerous seas. Its oceans have a dark purple hue to them. Regions of the planet include New Battanea, New Auranitis, New Ephesia, New Galatia, New Iturea, New Samaria, New Judea, New Idumea, New Trachonitis, New Perea, New Decapolis, New Galilee.
• Culture - 3.5 billion people live on Columba Zion. Its largest city is Fort Joseph Smith, home to 14 million people. Its capital is Jordan. Columba Zion was first colonized in 4186, when the Governor of Bountiful Colony dispatched 600 colonists to settle the planet, in order to create a landhold claim there. They settled on the banks of the Sidon River and built a settlement which they called “New Jordan,” which later became the planet’s capital. The planet is a major trading center for the resources of the moons of Desolation, and the headquarters of some of the major shipping and transport companies for the tri-system. Jeremiah Station, a spaceport orbiting its moon, is third largest orbital facility in the New Commonwealth.  It is also a major banking and investment hub. The planet has well-developed energy, transportation, and telecommunications infrastructure.
• Columba Zion had been garrisoned during, and after the Colonialist – Federalist wars by both Colonial and Federal Troops as well as cyborg Commonwealth Peacekeepers. People who don’t understand military culture very well would assume this led to a lot of wars. The case was precisely the opposite. The leaders of the military organizations cooperated throughout the era of the Great Silence to keep peace on the planet and guide its development. Their military transports continued to function for centuries after the collapse and visited other planets and moons on a regular basis until the automated fuel refinery on Moab became inoperable. All of Columba Zion’s major cities grew up around military installations. (Fort Joseph Smith, Fort Brigham Young, Fort Charlie Sierra). Eventually, the military factions lost their  Commonwealth Era designations and became the Defenders (Colonialists), Guardians (Federalists) and Protectors (Commonwealth). The former military rivals were also integrated into Columba Zion’s tri-partite Government in the form of a 21-member Martial Board with delegated powers and authority along with the Legislature and the Council.  Military honor and discipline became deeply ingrained in the planet’s culture, as well as sport and completion. Most of the population can trace its lineage to one of the military sects (although, not so much the cyborgs because many of them didn’t have reproductive organs.) This lineage is celebrated in both the wearing of martial colors (black for the colonialists, mint-green for the Federalists, orange for the Commonwealth Peacekeepers), and in the colors of the Zionian flag.  The Zion Olympiad, held every four years in the Megiddo Citadel, became a systems-wide competition in SY 6956
• Reference: Commander Corian Trawick of the Explorer Ship Naphtali is a native of Columba Zion. (Book 11 - Charlemagne)