Adapted from The Flaming Eye
Taksarrgh was originally colonized by the Vilani during their initial expansion
among the stars, long before the First Imperium was founded. It later fell
victim to Vargr pillaging once the Ziru Sirka began its decline. With the
Solomani busy figuring out how to run an interstellar empire, a pemanent
settlement of Vargr came to fruition.
When the Ngath Confedration arrived, the locals enthusiastically welcomed them.
The promise of improved trade conditions lifted the spirits of this backwater
world. Unfortunately, as is wont among Vargr, the many packs in the system have
been bickering over control of the asteroids. While the Confederation
disapproves of the unrest, several corsair captains have voiced their support
for one particular charismatic leader to rule the system rather than the
bureaucrats who operate out of the capital.
Adapted from The Flaming Eye
A dead system for most of history, surveys picked up deposits of highly refined
lanthanum and thulium over a kilometer deep in the planet's crust. Located a
mere 0.2 AU from the its primary, the surface of Dathsuts is a brutal
600°F. Drilling through the outer rock under these conditions took several
years. The geologists dispatched from the Scout service were at a loss to
explain their findings.
After the Scouts cleared out what they could reach, several belters moved in to
continue the excavations. While a few have come away wealthy, reports have
surfaced about strange, unexplainable events and deaths. These claims have been
dismissed as psychosis induced ramblings brought about by too much time spent
in the mining tunnels.
All communication with the worlds in the system ended after the Ngath
Confederation moved in and claimed them.
Adapted from The Flaming Eye
Back during the First Imperium, the Vilani brought in the Tagi, a
silicon-based sapient, to mine ores that held commercial value. After a
millenium, the veins were tapped out and the Vilani stopped coming. The
asteroids are mostly worthless, the worlds uninhabitable to carbon-based life,
and there aren't any gas giants. The Tagi have been on their own ever since.
The system lay mostly ignored for centuries before the Ngath Confederation took
over. Now it serves as a fueling station; the fuel coming from comet harvesters.
Being assigned to Rronaetuts is typically considered punishment. The Vargr are
unaware of the Tagi as the latter live in tunnels a kilometer below the surface.
The current monarch, Anmaa Ugarun, knew her people didn't stand a chance against invading corsairs. A shrewd woman, she recognized who was backing the corsairs that ruthlessly attacked her world. Rather than let her people be slaughtered, and the royal bloodline terminated, she welcomed the Ngath Confederation's invitation for statehood. While an "advisor" is present to guide the queen in extraterritorial relations, she is free to continue running her world as she sees fit. The move has also proven beneficial to Ugarun's economy as their exports are more in demand in the Confederation than they were in either the Imperium or the Ziru Sirka.
This is a hot world where most of the surface is uninhabitable desert. Dust
storms make filter masks required equipment. The world's water is divided
between two polar oceans, each quite salty. Respite comes to higher latitudes in
the winter time. Days are temperate while nights are sub-freezing due to the
thin atmosphere's inability to retain heat. The one settlement lies on an island
in the southern polar ocean.
Zigaadig makes its money through the exploitation of the system's two asteroid
belts and myriad moons that orbit the three gas giants. Before the war, Ling
Standard ran the mining operations, paying royalties to Zigaadig. Now Naasirka
calls the shots and has unilaterally renegotiated said contract to less
favorable terms for the Zigaadigians.
Adapted from Vilani & Vargr
In 1104, corsairs hired by a faction of the Church of the Chosen Ones invaded
the system and overwhelmed its defenses. It is unknown as to why the Imperium
chose to ignore the invasion of what was a client state at the time. It is
believed that the pre-Fifth Frontier War unrest in the Spinward Marches
diverted Imperial attention away from Newcastle.
In 1111, corsairs from the Ngath Confederation drove the Church from power. Its
agricultural wealth now serves the Confederation. While analysis of traffic
patterns has determined that a base lies in the system, its location is unknown.
Although the presence of the military dictatorship is undeniable, Newcastle
itself is free of a base.
Adapted from The Flaming Eye
This sparsely populated world provides the foodstuffs for the belters that plumb
the two asteroid belts in the system. It's a simple, quiet life. Starship fuel
is provided by ice tugs as there are no gas giants in the system.
The Confederation showed up on their way to invade Gemid and declared to the
locals that Zannokh was now under their control. Not seeing the small population
as a threat, they left them alone and built a base near the starport.
Unbeknownst to the vargr, every few years a shift in the ocean current dredges
up a microorganism which pollutes the air and infects all those who haven't been
innoculated or have developed antibodies to the ensuing infection. While it
isn't lethal, the infected are incapacitated for 5-30 days.
Adapted from The Flaming Eye
Ronni was home to a minor human race before either the vilani or vargr came
along. Despite developing interplanetary space travel on their own, the Ronnians
were content to stick with their solar system rather than expand further. This
isn't a matter of xenophobia; both vilani and vargr have been welcomed with open
arms. Over the centuries, the races have worked peacefully side-by-side.
When the Confederation expanded rimward, vargr representatives of Ronni met with
them and explained the situation. They were successful in convincing them to
let the mainworld exist as is, with one stipulation: that a vargr be made
president of the human nation. The "paws off" approach was not extended to the
other colonies and facilities in the system. They were forced to acquiesce to
direct Confederation control.
The world represents the remnants of the worst of Vilani culture from the
days of the Consolidation Wars and Pax Vilanica. Kashiin was once a hot bed of
innovation as the inhabitants of the desert world did their best to cope with
the scarcity of water. But the technology developed was deemed disruptive and
the monolithic bulk of the Vilani bureaucracy stomped it out. Instead, old
ideas and methods were forced upon the populace. With the spirit of the people
crushed, the world stagnated.
With the new world order firmly in place by the time the Third Imperium was
established, no effort was made by the Scout Service to bring the world into the
Imperium. After centuries of methodical, almost religious, devotion to their
ways, the Scouts felt that full interstellar access would be too much of a shock
to the Kashiinian culture and the client state status would be sufficient. The
irony of their decision went unappreciated by all but a select few historians.
What makes this world bearable is that it lies at the outer reaches of the
habitable zone. While cold, had the world been closer, where one of the asteroid
belts now lie, it is believed that the surface temperature would've been over
100°C.
Being outside the control of Vland, the naval base accepted Lucan's orders to
move its fleet to Capital thus leaving the world ripe for the picking by the
Ngath Confederation. With an oppressive government and subjugated population,
the Confederation were able to assume command with ease. The native human
population has been put to work in massive ore processing plants whose refined
metals are then used to build ships for the Ngath Confederation Navy.
Depending on your point of view, Ranilson is either a steamy, lazy backwater
or a relaxing tropical paradise (most of the landmasses lie close to the
equator). The world has tended to attract those who need to get
away—sometimes permanently. People here are content to just live from day
to day. Revenues from the starport, the scout base, and tourism are sufficient
to meet the limited government's expenditures (primarily infrastructure).
People are generally free to do what they want so long as it doesn't impede on
the rights of others. While the law level is low, this is no haven for
criminals. The Scouts, ever alert for incursions from the Ngath Confederation,
lend a hand in expunging the worst offenders. Otherwise, locals handle matters
themselves with a modicum of restrained vigilantism.
The atmospheric taint is an allergen: the pollen of the Ulakhigmunmamim. It
resembles a Terran Water Lily. At certain times of the year, great clouds of
pollen are released. Allergic individuals (11% of humans, other species
unknown) tend to suffer respiratory distress, in some cases requiring medical
attention. Otherwise the stuff is more of a nuisance, clogging filters on
equipment and coating surfaces in orange dust.
The desert world of Ghurrllekh was abandoned by the Vilani just as soon as
they perfected jump-2 drives. With no gas giants in the system and no water on
the planet, it made refueling too expensive to warrant maintaining a colony.
Intrepid vargr saw value in the barely touched asteroid belts and established a
colony of their own. While mining revenue has been enough to keep the economy
afloat, it wasn't until corsairs asked to lease space for a base, that
Ghurrllekh began to thrive.
When the Ngath Confederation let it be known that it intended to expand rimward,
Ghurrllekh was among the first to petition for membership. With more markets
available for its ore and a flourishing corsair service economy, the government
is looking to upgrade its starport to B-class.
On a side note, construction projects have discovered the fossilized remains of
plant and animal life—the planet currently has neither—buried
underground, thus hinting at a wetter past. They are at a loss to explain where
all the water went. But without plant life, the remaining oxygen in the
atmosphere will be lost in a few centuries.
Based on data from Traveller's Digest #4.
Up until corsairs overran the world in 1119, Daama was a smuggler's paradise.
Its non-aligned status kept it free from Imperial restrictions and its close
proximity to Gemid (Vland 1903) led to a healthy black market. Once the
Ngath Confederation invaded Gemid, Daama's usefulness dried up. Its non-aligned
status became a liability. Without the Imperium or the Ziru Sirkaa to back it
up, several corsair groups took over. The Confederation annexed the system
shortly thereafter. While the fate of the inhabitants is unknown, corsairs use
the system as a launching point for attacks against the Vilani.
Due to a combination of Envar's exceptionally high density and its frigid
(-150°C) temperatures (thanks to its barely there M8 V star), there's a
sufficient amount of hydrogen in Envar's atmosphere to grant it an "insidious"
rating. While the atmosphere is primarily nitrogen and methane (which would
grant it an "exotic" rating), the IISS felt that one shouldn't underestimate the
presence of hydrogen while staring out upon the beauty of Envar's methane
oceans.
As such, Envar is host to one of the IISS's Extreme Environment Training
Facilities. The brave souls who reside here year round provide support for the
Scout Base, not to mention an astrophysics research station. It is theorized
that Envar was the seed for a gas giant that never properly formed due to a
dearth of matter in the system. The small mass of the system's sole existing
gas giant supports this idea.
With the onset of war, Envar's proximity to the border with the Ngath
Confederation grants it some strategic importance. Should the world fall into
enemy hands, their gains would be small. Envar lacks any real manufacturing
capability, hence its TL-5. While everyone has average Imperial tech at their
disposal, almost everything has to be imported from offworld.
Kakkin is a Solomani Japanese word denoting "a person being frozen in
shock or an awkward moment", and that describes the reaction IISS surveyors had
when they visited the world during the First Survey of the Third Imperium.
Something either went horribly wrong after the Vilani surveys or there were
typos in the database. The world had been listed as E567000-0, so the computer
models predicted a pleasant temperature world. The scouts were all too eager to
visit the place and assess its potential for colonization. Instead they found a
much drier world with a very thin atmosphere tainted by silicate dust and
150° temperature swings.
While the world offers some mining opportunities, it has never escaped its
backwater status, much like its neighbors. The starport was upgraded from D to B
in 974 in an attempt to boost the regional economy, however the benefits failed
to materialize.
Records from the First Imperium state that Nashazi's primary,
Dermudushmerad, was an unassuming yellow-white main sequence star when
the original colony was established, but within a decade swelled up to a red
giant. The sudden expansion engulfed the closest planets and disrupted the
orbits of several others. Not only was the original colony lost, but visiting
ships were stranded. One lucky ship managed to encounter a gas giant and refuel
and escape to warn neighboring systems. The system was interdicted and only
accessible to Imperial astrophysicists.
Three centuries later, a wandering yellow-white subgiant, Amkumkumi,
entered the system. The remaining planets were all engulfed or shattered, save
one: Nashazi. A few more centuries would pass before the orbits of the two stars
would stabilize. However, the system remained off limits.
After millenia of stability, the Third Imperium saw no reason to continue the
interdiction. However, the system's past kept people at bay. Fear of further
calamity or that the ghosts of the long dead colonists haunted the solar system,
proved to be too much for many people. Naasirka, the old Vilani Bureau turned
megacorporation, bought the place and established an AI research facility here.
It also sells licenses to mine the remants of the shattered worlds, to belters
of solid reputation.
Gadushan orbits an F5 III yellow-white giant (Gadukun -be) which
orbits an M4 III red giant (Gadukun -an). Studying the stellar dynamics
of this system proved irrestible to astrophysicists and a research facility has
been present here for centuries.
Despite orbiting Gadukun -be at a distance of 5 AU, average temperatures
on Gadushan run 60°C. The salinity of its oceans is so high that residents
here joke that it is impossible to drown. Days are steamy; nights are frigid
(Gadushan's atmosphere is too thin to retain any warmth). As soon as Gadukun
-be sets, the atmosphere rapidly cools, causing massive rainstorms to form.
During the midst of Gadushan's 21 hour night the remaining volatile components
of the atmosphere freeze out as temperatures plunge to -100°C.
Fortunately Gadukun -be lies 39 AU's from Gadukun -an, otherwise
the additional heat from the Gadukun -an Summer would push Gadushan over
the brink.
There is life on Gadushan. While it is all aquatic, plants and fish have evolved
amazing tolerances to the high salinity. As visibility is non-existent, all
aquatic animal life is blind. However, the very salinity of the seas has created
an electrochemical soup. A specialized organ in sea animals enables them to
sense changes in the electric field, thus providing a kind of "sight" with which
to interact with their environment.
Those residents not involved in providing support for the local research station
or the scout base make their living extracting minerals from the planet or
mining the asteroid belt that lies midway between the two giant stars.
Niitomok is a frigid world that orbits the gas giant, Mokhirirluukumi.
Tidal stresses help to keep the world alive as the M4 V primary barely provides
the heat needed to keep the atmosphere from freezing. Geothermal activity pumps
out enough gasses and melts enough ice to provide archipelagoes of life in what
otherwise would be an Antarctic wasteland.
There was a time when mineral deposits made this world an active place along the
Vilani Main, but the largest ones have been depleted and no one has been
inclined to search for more. Cheap geothermal energy has met the needs of the
small local population that still resides here.
Like Hteh Hut, the dual asteroid belts of Miiko Belt were
thought to have been mineralogically depleted by the First Imperium.
Makhidkarun sold the system on the cheap to Shinzo Watanabe. He named the system
after his wife, Miiko.
Unfortunately, the Watanabe family mismanaged the system's assets over time and
charged hefty fees to belters and ore processing companies. The subsequent
revenue was squandered on personal luxuries rather than being invested in
infrastructure or new businesses. The family was able to live on its savings
long after most belters gave up and left. When there was no longer any
money left to pay the mercenaries to protect them, the Watanabe family filed for
client state status, thus shifting system defense responsibilities over to the
Imperium.
Vargr traders were welcomed, and for a time there was an uptick in commercial
activity. But lessons from past mistakes were forgotten, and soon reputable
vargr traders stopped coming. Corsairs and black market privateers filled the
void. The Watanabe family found themselves virtual prisoners within their home.
Unwilling to offer decent pay to citizens, corruption grew. When the Ngath
Confederation turned their attention to the Anarsi Subector, Miiko Belt looked
like easy prey. And it was. Some well placed bribes were all that was needed to
take Miiko Belt unawares and overwhelm what little defenses were
present—Imperial forces having long since pulled out to pursue more
pressing matters. The Watanabe family was quickly disposed of and replaced by a
Confederation representative who has proven to be more benevolent than her
predecessor.
Originally thought to be mineralogically depleted, Makhidkarun sold the
system at a rock bottom price to Jan Hteh, a very successful Solomani
businessman looking to claim a small chunk of the galaxy for himself and his
family. Hteh gambled that there was still worthwhile ore to be extracted from
the asteroids. He was right.
Profits from ore sales have been invested in infrastructure improvements and
technological advancement. In turn, these have helped to fuel further profits as
Hteh Hut built refineries to process the ore they extracted, thus making the
enterprise even more profitable.
Over the centuries, the Hteh family has enjoyed prosperity and opened their
colony to others that shared their values. Not wishing to lose their
independence, they passed on the opportunity to join the Imperium, preferring
client state status. By making themselves available to vargr corporations for
trade, they earned ample goodwill from their coreward neighbors.
The vargr incursions have re-written the rules for many worlds along the
Imperial-Extents border. With the Ngath Confederation bullying their way
rimward, hot on the tails of ravenous corsair groups, the situation on Hteh Hut
has grown grim. The world's strategic location between the Confederation and
the Vilani Empire makes it a takeover target. While Hteh Hut's advanced weaponry
has foiled the probing attacks of corsairs, it is doubtful that it can
withstand the brunt of a full-fledged invasion by the Confederation Navy.
Ninnigam is sometimes considered Envar's sister world as both are large,
frigid planets with nitrogen-methane atmospheres and methane seas. Ninnigam is
about 50°C warmer, due in part to its marginally warmer host star. Unlike
Envar, Ninnigam has no free hydrogen to worry about.
Like Hteh Hut, the asteroid belt was thought to be depleted. Limshu Ninnigam
purchased the system from Makhidkarun and saw a reasonable return on that
investment. Unlike Hteh Hut, Limshu wasn't interested in sharing power or
investing in infrastructure. He established his fiefdom and issued expensive
licenses to those belters willing to do the work.
With no gas giant in the system, starship fuel costs were kept high. Many a
belter topped off his/her tanks at Anarsi, jumped to Ninnigam, and saved enough
fuel for the trip back. But if they were unlicensed and caught working the belt,
the penalties were strict; often resulting in the confiscation of their haul,
and sometimes their ship as well. These policies have been kept in place through
the present day.
The latest ruler in the Ninnigam line remains popular with the locals as he
permits cross-border smuggling, provided that he gets a cut. Nearly any
mercernary, bounty hunter, or thug can get a license to enforce his lordship's
laws, though many quit when they realize that there aren't enough lawbreakers to
collect rewards on.
The presence of the Scout Base seems perplexing. Its location is out in the
Kuiper Belt but the exact coordinates are classified. The IISS pays Ninnigam a
stipend to make sure no local traffic wanders out that far. All Ninnigams have
taken this task seriously.
Vargr lore speaks of a legendary corsair by the name of Angvae. He
established a code of conduct for vargr in his trade millenia ago.
Unfortunately, a great many corsair bands in recent decades pick and choose
which tenets to follow and many victims (humans and vargr alike) have suffered
greatly because of it.
Many a pup has been named after him in the hope that he would grow up to be
successful in that profession. Several rival corsair factions sought to honor
Angvae by naming worlds after him. Two of these worlds lie in Vland sector. The
one in Anarsi subsector, as might be expected, plays host to a corsair base.
There exists an esprit de corps here. Corsair captains pay their respects
to the legend of Angvae and no one dares to resort to violence here on this
seemingly sacred ground. All are brothers (and sisters) in a "pack of packs."
All corsairs are welcome to make use of the facilities.
The Angvae Memorial Corporation oversees the operation of the starport
and corsair base. Besides service fees and donations, agricultural exports
provide the bulk of revenue. AMC asks that traders doing business here be left
unmolested in the spirit of Angvae's mercy. It doesn't ask that corsairs extend
that same mercy towards those merchants "just passin' thru."
In primitive times, the yellow giant, Laashluu, and red giant,
Kurkhuun, were seen as good and evil gods who constantly battled for the
souls of the Anarsi. While Anarsi is technically in orbit around Laashluu,
when it is between the two giant stars, the world is subjected to an increase
in earthquakes, the result of the gravitational tug of war between the two. It
was the priests who studied the heavens and built calendars to predict when the
troubled times would come. Over the millenia, astronomy was but the first of the
sciences to be explored by the religious establishment. While that led to an
alliance between science and religion, it was corrupted when politics entered
the fray.
The two stars are still worshipped, after a fashion. Laashluu has come
to represent the pinnacle of knowledge and logic while solar flare prone and
earthquake inducing Kurkhuun represents the wild abandon of emotion and
chaos. The Anarsians worship knowledge and pursuing it is imperative. The high
law level, though low compared to most religious autocracies, is the result of
centuries of proclamations from the Grand Professors as to which
behaviors were beneficial to society and which were not, based on his or her
interpretation of studies. Like their more traditional religious autocracy
counterparts, Anarsi shares similar bans on weapons, drugs, and sexual
promiscuity (it leads to emotional pain at least, disease at worst). Music is
frowned upon as it stirs up emotions (passion is just as bad as sorrow). The
only sports allowed are those that improve individual fitness. Team sports are
deemed too competitive and lead to strife and discord. Art is perceived as
pointless. While there aren't outright bans on many activities, they are often
conducted in the privacy of one's home. The government hasn't seen fit to
intrude there as of yet.
While Anarsi is technologically advanced, it has fostered an attitude of "it's
good enough." What that means is infrastructure and products take a "function
over form" approach. There is no drive to make things better than they need to
be. That would drive competition, and the only thing people should compete with
is ignorance and emotional excess. No one thing exemplifies this more than the
starport. It is certainly within the Anarsian potential to construct an A class
starport, but B is good enough. Perhaps if the Anarsians permitted more passion
in their lives, they would realize that life could be better.
Formerly a prestigious industrial world with extensive belt mining and ore processing. A nuclear war between two dominant factions during the Long Night all but wiped them out. Despite no offworld assistance, the planet and the people have recovered. The lack of a gas giant makes visits problematic as ships must scrape up ice from a comet or the planet's surface to obtain any hydrogen for fuel. Attempts are being made to solicit Makhidkarun for investment funds to build a downport with mineral rich asteroids as collateral.
Deglaraarbiis was settled as a voluntary population relief measure for the overcrowding of Flire (Vland 2111). Those that left felt like their voices weren't heard so the founding charter dictated that the government would be a direct democracy, with everyone having their say in the running of their world. The first generation of colonists were so intent on not letting their new home wind up like the old one that an overwhelming majority refused to build a starport. "Let them use the gas giants," was the prevalent opinion. It was to be the first of many "do nothing" edicts. Public works projects require financing and the populace is content to do without rather than pay taxes. Even private enterprises get voted down if they appear that they'll disrupt the status quo. As such, the economy and civilization have been rather stagnant. "Apathetic" and "isolationist" are common adjectives used to describe the populace. The disgruntled and frustrated move on to other worlds.
Knaeghzoka is a very cold, tidelocked world. It's so cold that even the
dayside only reaches -57°C. While its atmosphere is technically breathable
if compressed, visitors with sensitive lungs might wish to have heaters
installed on their compressors as the heat of compression still leaves the air
a tad bit on the cold side. While trade classifications do not register this
world as "ice-capped", it is. What precious little water is present on the
world, is locked up in ice.
The allure of this world lies in its mineral deposits. Sizable veins of rare
earth elements make mining the primary economic activity. But it's also an
intermediary world between the Imperium and the Extents. A fair amount of trade
runs through the system. The Knaeghzoka family saw that it was more profitable
to be an Imperial client state than play "allegiance roulette" with its ever
changing neighbors. To date, vargr states have respected it. The Ngath
Confederation sees value in the status quo, but the 17th Disjuncture sees the
world as another target to export its revolution of nihilism.
When the Terrans conquered the First Imperium, it forced the Bureaux to sell
off their assets, typically at a rate referred to as "pennies on the dollar".
Naasirka was forced to sell off its starship parts fabrication division.
Ultimately a piece of it wound up in the possession of Antoine Bolziin and
renamed Bolziin Engineering. The primary manufacturing facility's homeworld was
renamed after its owner.
The company has enjoyed a steady stream of success over the centuries. While not
involved in actual starship construction, it provides parts that can be found
in many a starship today and specializes in providing parts for older ships that
would otherwise be considered obsolete. But decreased demand before the war led
to cost cutting. The assembly lines were re-tooled for a greater dependence on
automation. So while business has picked up, actual employment numbers are hard
to determine and may or may not be reflected in the UPP. Bolziin claims that
information is classified.
As the Vilani Navy is its number one customer, a naval base was constructed to
ensure the safety of the facility.
The Kfoerudzo pack fought off several other packs to claim this world as
their own in 994. Tired of the corsair life, the patriarch recognized that the
Imperium made for a better trading partner than enemy. Swearing off the corsair
life, the Kfoerudzo banned all pirate activity in their system, although they
didn't go so far as to turn in suspected corsairs to the Imperium. Corsairs
willing to act like respectable merchants were permitted to conduct legitimate
business here.
Over several decades, the planet prospered through trade and small transaction
fees. Both corsairs and the Imperium respected their rules, thus keeping warfare
away from the world and allowing long term infrastructure investments to come
to fruition.
But since the Rebellion began, business has slowed. The Vilani refuse to allow
any stolen goods to be processed through their borders and Lucan's Imperium is
overtly hostile to vargr, period. With the decline in commercial activity and
increase in pillaging, Kfoerudzo has seen an exodus with a mere 7% of its
population still residing here. To fill the gap, Kfoerudzo has turned a blind
eye to shell corporations set up by corsairs to launder their stolen goods
through its markets.