ORICHALCUM UNIVERSE: VERANIS (Dyaxor A V) in 2123...
 

ORICHALCUM UNIVERSE: VERANIS (Dyaxor A V) in 2123...

Diameter: 12,762 kilometers
Mass: 6 * 10^21 metric tons
Axial Tilt: 25 degrees
Satellites: 2 (one large satellite (3000 kilometer diameter), one tiny (asteroid sized))
Rotation: 22 hours, 35 minutes, 25 seconds
Length of year: 710 days, 23 hours, 10 minutes, 4 seconds
Surface gravity: 9.79 meters/sec/sec
Atmospheric Composition: Nitrogen 77%, Oxygen 21.75%, other 1.75%
Atmospheric Pressure: 1.03 bar at sea level
Hydrosphere: 73%
Surface Temperatures at 30 degrees latitude: 70/90/110
Continents: 5

The planet Veranis (an Anglicization of a native term) is the fifth planet of a spectral class F star called Dyaxor A. It was terraformed into an Earth-comparable environment by the Familiar Eldren during the Carboniferous Period, and has been periodically stocked with new species since then. Veranis is one of the more Earth-like of these terraformed planets, its mass, diameter, rotation, axial tilt, and other physical parameters were naturally very close to that of Earth before the Eldren even began their work.

In the relatively recent geological past (about 40,000 Terran years ago), Veranis was in the grip of a planetary glacial period. Though the planet has open ocean at both poles, ice floated at the poles and glaciers spread through the land areas in the higher latitudes. In 2123, though, that period is long past, and now the planet has transitioned into a hothouse period. The axial tilt is sufficient to produce significant seasons, but most of the land areas of the planet never experience extreme cold, except at the highest mountain elevations. By Terrestrial standards, the seasons range from 'mildly warm' to 'unbearably hot'. The slightly higher rotation rate (compared to Earth) and the steady flood of energy from the class F star combine to give Veranis lively weather and regular powerful cyclonic storms in the tropics.

The Familiar Eldren established a population of the H. lakegrandis species there around 73000 B.C., and that race in turn brought in a population of H. vertara from the neighboring world, and this race dominated the planet after the lakegrandians vanished. In the late Twentieth Century an extrastellar race of humans, the Thakarians, conquered both the terraformed worlds of the star system, and they were ousted in turn in 2105 by humans from Earth.

The ancient lakegrandian population of Veranis became quite technologically advanced by 31,000 B.C. They had achieved interplanetary flight, and archaeologists in 2123 debate whether they had achieved translight interstellar travel at the time of their Disappearance. Their technology appears to have been sufficient for the purpose, and they definitely had access to orichalcum, but whether they had actually done it at the time of their Disappearance remains unclear to Terrestrial archaeologists in 2123.

Certainly they had achieved many other things. Their ancient cities covered hundreds of square kilometers in their day, and they sculpted entire mountains to their purposes. Major rivers were rerouted, and they drilled deep-mantle taps as well. They brought in a breeding population of the Homo vertara who lived on their neighboring planet. Why they did this remains unknown, they apparently made no effort to raise the technological or cultural level of the vertarans that they settled on their world, and they appear to have gained no known benefit by this transplantation.

What is known is that some time around the year 31,000 B.C., Gregorian, the entire billion+ population of lakegrandians living on Veranis vanished. Their fate remains totally unknown in 2123. The archaeological record shows little indication of what might have befallen them. The archaeological record seems to indicate that they were still thriving, still advancing, at the time of the Disappearance. There is no indication of warfare, no skeletons scattered among the ancient ruined cities. The cities and other ruins suffered damage from the elements and time after the Disappearance, but show no sign of damage at that particular time.

Exactly how fast it all happened is also unclear, though archaeologists have narrowed it down to a period of about a Terran century. It might have happened faster, it was fairly certainly no longer than that when what Happened, happened.

With the ancient lakegrandians gone, Veranis was inherited by the vertarans that the lakegrandians had brought to their world from the neighboring world.

MORE LATER.

Re: ORICHALCUM UNIVERSE: VERANIS (Dyaxor A V) in 2123...
 

LATER.

Over the course of several thousand years, the vertaran population on Veranis themselves achieved a technological civilization, or rather several successive such, growing in complexity with time. Achieving interplanetary travel, they made contact with their cousins on the fourth world, who were still much less technically advanced than they were, and the usual combination of profitable interactions and exploitations followed.

As is also the usual way of such things, the 'primitives' of the fourth planet began to study and work to catch up to their kin, and within a few centuries both worlds were comparably advanced, though the fifth world was in an advantageous position because of their head start.

This period culminated in several wars, the last and worst of which was sufficient to blast both worlds back to the equivalent of a late iron age technology, and to reduce the populations of both worlds by an enormous amount. As it happens, Homo vertara is particularly vulnerable to both the acute and chronic somatic effects, and the hereditary effects, of ionizing radiation. They had just suffered through several successive nuclear wars, in which all sides used 'salted' weapons and other such weapons liberally.

On both planets, the population was reduced by nearly 99%.

There were survivors, and eventually they began to recover and spread across their worlds again. They remembered their ancestral achievements as a mixture of accurate oral history and complicated and distorted mythology. The fourth world was still occupying a societal level roughly equal to that of Europe in the Fourth Century, while on Veranis some societies had achieved a roughly Nineteenth Century level, when hostile Homo sapiens arrived from the stars to conquer and settle both worlds.

These humans, who derived from a space-faring culture that called themselves the Thakarians, were seeking orichalcum. As it happens, Veranis had accessible deposits of the mineral, though the locals had no idea that the substance even existed. The ancient lakegrandians had already mined most of those deposits, and the refined mineral was there to be taken in the ruins of their ancient civilization, if one knew where to look and how to find it. The Thakarians did know, and over the course of decades they looted most of the mineral, and reduced the local populations to various levels of subordination, ranging from second-class citizens in a few favored cases to little more than chattel slaves elsewhere, and they did this on both worlds.

A bit over a century after the Thakarian conquest, another group of Homo sapiens, this time hailing from Earth, arrived. They did not come for the sake of the people of the two worlds, per se. They were involved in an armed conflict with the Thakarians and events had led the conflict to this star system and this planet. As it happened, though, they did oust the Thakarians, and in the process, almost by accident, inherited control over the two inhabited worlds of the star system.

The new humans were from the so-called 'Alpha Coalition' on Earth, the alliance of the USA, Argentina, and the Crowned Republic of Australia. After they defeated the Thakarians in 2105, they found themselves in the position of governing alien worlds, and considerable confusion and conflict about what they should do next followed, and continues as of 2123.

GEOGRAPHY:

Veranis is a hot world, overall. It has five major land masses, three of them arranged in a band around the equator, one each on the north and southern hemispheres. Both poles are oceanic, which contributes to the even flow of heat around the planet and helps regulate the temperature. The planet does have noticeable seasons, but its winters are rarely very cold.

The northern and southern continents are merely warm, and have a temperate climate and biomes comparable to the temperate zones on Earth.

The three large continents scattered around the tropic zone are hot, and tend toward jungles, forests, huge mountain ranges, and harsh deserts in places. It is in the tropical continents that most of the really ancient ruins, those of the old civilization of the lakegrandians, are to be found. Though the lakegrandians are a cold-adapted humanoid race, at the time of their thriving the planet was in a glacial period, and the tropics were more clement for them than would have been the case later.

The ruins of the spacefaring vertaran society are much younger, and scattered all over the planet, but though they are vastly younger than the elder ruins, they are most far less well preserved, both because of how they were initially constructed, and because many if not most of them suffered successive mass destruction attacks during the great wars.

Though the planets have been mapped from space with considerable precision, the vast jungles and forests mean that many areas are effectively unexplored, especially in the tropical continents. Further, many of the older ruins are underground, or otherwise concealed. Though of tremendous interests to archaeologists and historians, the precious orichalcum is mostly gone, having been removed by the Thakarians during their century of rule.

POLITICS and GOVERNMENT and SOCIOLOGY:

The planet Veranis, in 2123, is technically governed by a Governor-General and a Supervisory Board, consisting of three Americans, three Argentines, and three Australians. The governor-generalship rotates among the three polities, and he or she acts as the executive to the legistature of the Board. The government sits in a city on the northern continent called Cataka.

In practice, over much of the planet, the authority of the Board is nominal. They simply don't have the resources to police the planet in detail, or govern it to any but the loosest degree. The writ of the Board is honored throughout Cataka and most of the surrounding territories, and they are not ignored on the rest of the planet, but governing Veranis is more like negotiating than dictating.

The ultimate argument of the Board is the fact that there is usually a spatial warship of one of the Alpha powers in orbit. It is usually a smaller one, with limited firepower, but mass destruction weapons are theoretically an option. In practice, this is rarely useful, because it is too much like performing surgery with a sledgehammer. It is sufficient to make sure the Board is taken seriously, but few governors-general are foolish enough to think that they can control the planet purely by such means.

To complicate matters further, the patrol ship in orbit is under military command, and so not under the direct authority of the governor-general. The G-G must request action, he or she cannot order it. This becomes even more so when the warship in question is from a different Alpha power than the current G-G.

One asset of the Board and the G-G is that many of the locals definitely do consider the new boss a significant improvement on the old boss. The Thakarians were often brutal, usually ruthless, often rapacious. While by no means saintly, the Terran contingent is a distinct improvement, from the point of view of much of the local population.

MORE LATER.

Re: ORICHALCUM UNIVERSE: VERANIS (Dyaxor A V) in 2123...
 

Hopefully this attempted governing of the local Vertarans doesn't turn into something as corrupt as say Afghanistan turned out to be, where vast sums were spent and wasted working with local allies who helped corruption grow because a ton of money was pouring in with little oversight.

What kind of political leadership do the Vertarans and Thakarians have?

What does either generally look like?

Re: ORICHALCUM UNIVERSE: VERANIS (Dyaxor A V) in 2123...
 

LATER.

Veranis has a relatively small population compared to Earth. The total humanoid population of the planet is in the neighborhood of seventy million.

In former times, the population was much larger. At their height, the population H. vertara on the planet was over a billion. The series of interplanetary wars that devasted both Veranis and its sister world closer to the star reduced the population catastrophically. So savage were those wars that only a tiny fraction of the population on each world survived. Matters were made the worse by the unusually high vulnerability of H. vertara to the effects of ionizing radiation.

(Imagine many of the popular Hollywood ideas about the aftermath of nuclear war, then consider that for vertarans, they are not that far off target.)

In the last few centuries before the coming of the Thakarians, the population was beginning to grow fairly steadily again. For all their faults, the Thakarians did reintroduce various forms of advanced medicine and agriculture that actually accelerated this process.

The modern population of Veranis is polyspecific. The ancient lakegrandians who were the original inhabitants (or at least the population the Familiar Eldren established there) are long gone. [1]

The modern-day population is made up mostly of vertarans, who are now effectively native to the planet, having been settled there thousands of years before, and who make up about eighty percent of the total population. About ten percent is human, mostly Thakarians left behind when the Thakarian space forces retreated. Most of these Thakarian humans are also more-or-less native, having been born on Veranis to first- or second-generation Thakarian colonists. A small fraction of the human population is Terrestrial.

Most of the Terrestrial humans on Veranis live in or around the city of Cataka, and are associated, one way or another, with the three-state administrative apparat (and thus are mostly Americans, Argentinians, and Australians). Altogether, about thirty thousand Terrestrials live in Cataka, and over two thirds of them are either employed by the government or make a living somehow supporting the same. Another four thousand military personnel, drawn from the military of the Alpha States, provide the core of the governing council military support.

Of course, four thousand military personnel is not a fraction of what would be required to fully police and govern a world inhabited by seventy million and as large as Earth. In practice, the four thousand Terrestrial soldiers and sailors and airmen are the core of a larger enforcement arm made up of locals. This military numbers about one hundred thousand, as of 2123.

One problem for the colonial administration is that this enforcement arm existed under the Thakarian regime as well, and they more-or-less inherited it. As might be expected, it is mostly vertarans in its ranks, with Thakarian human officers, and this military, called the Thranne (anglization of a local word, pronounced roughly 'tha-rannn-e' with a long e at the end) locally, is not entirely popular with the native population.

The colonial board has replaced some of the highest Thakarian officers with either Terrestrials or other locals, but they can not replace all the Thakarians without shattering the command structure. The Thranne has a reputation for brutality in its enforcement actions, the new administration has been attempting to ameliorate that, with some success, but they have to move carefully because the Thranne is also their own primary enforcement arm, and they can not afford to have it be seen as weak or ineffectual.

Cataka is the largest single city on the planet, with a total population of one hundred and six thousand. Since most of the Terrestrials are concentrated in or near this city, they made up a significant percentage of the local population.

Cataka was the capitol of the most technologically and economically advanced native state, prior to the arrival of the Thakarians, a society with an early-industrial technology. [2]

As the center of what was then the most powerful and advanced polity on Veranis, Cataka also became the center of Thakarian administration, and the site of the largest Thakarian settlements on the planet, though many other settlements existed as well. As a result, the population of the region around Cataka is nearly thirty percent human (mostly Thakarians).

Attitudes among the vertarans toward humans vary enormously from place to place, from society to society, and from individual to individual. Since both Thakarians and Terrestrians are human, some of the original natives tend to lump them into the same category, even if they know intellectually that they are from different worlds and societies. Others are quite comfortable making the distinction. Likewise, the natives sometimes make distinctions between different subgroups of Thakarians, and some of the natives care about the distinction between an American, an Argentinian, or an Australian, and some do not.

The local vertaran population has not been politically unified for thousands of years, since the interplanetary war millennia earlier. They speak hundreds of different and non-interfluent languages (though Terrestrial philologists analyzing their speech have begun to trace commonalities that they suspect lead back to a single global language in the pre-interplanetary war days). They are possessed of literally hundreds of religions, philosophies, cultures, and societies. On the equatorial continents, many of the vertaran natives live in sufficient isolation that they are barely aware of the events outside their native territories.

MORE LATER.


[1] Gone from Veranis, and the Dyaxor System, that is. The species still exists elsewhere in the galaxy.

[2] They were at about GURPS TL 4, on the verge of TL5. Other societies on Veranis at that time ranged from that same level down to TL0, and from substantial polities down to primitive tribes.

Re: ORICHALCUM UNIVERSE: VERANIS (Dyaxor A V) in 2123...
 

As I noted in the main thread, the locals have a lot of different structures.

A vertaran, generally, looks like a very thin humanoid, not skinny, but lean, their height lies within normal human ranges, but there are more very tall verterans than very tall humans, so they average taller. A typical vertaran female is almost as tall as a typical (Terrestrial) human male. But they have outliers, there are a few very short onesand some fat ones, etc. Almost all vertarans are redheads, including all body hair. See here.

(Yes, they have pointed ears, no, they don't look much like Vulcans otherwise, and they very definitely don't usually act like Vulcans!)

Thakarians are straight-up H. sapiens. Their most recent common ancestors with Terrestrians were 72,000 years ago, though, so although they are quite human (and fully interfertile with Terrestrians), they are not exactly the same racial/ethnic mixes found on Earth. They would definitely draw second glances on Earth because of this last, but they are quite definitely humans.

Re: ORICHALCUM UNIVERSE: VERANIS (Dyaxor A V) in 2123...
 

LATER.

In 2123, Veranis is a complicated place. The northern continent is the most 'civilized', with a temperate climate and a relatively few political states. Most of the governments here are either vertarans or Thakarian humans, and acknowledge (more or less) the authority of the Three Power Commission. Even before the Thakarians arrived, the vertarans of the northern continent had risen to an early-industrial-age level of technology, including crude steam technology and a well-developed sailing technology that could send ships all over their planet. One hundred years of Thakarian rule brought these states up to a much more advanced (at least technologically speaking) level, and many of the vertarans of the North Continent are quite at home with interstellar technology, having learned from their conquerors.

The Southern Continent also has a temperate climate, though of course its seasons mirror those of the North Continent. It has a smaller population, and was somewhat less advanced prior to the Thakarian regime. They too learned from their conquerors, and one powerful warlord unified the South Continent under his rule, subject to the Thakarian overlordship.

The collapse of Thakarian control left the grandson of this ruler struggling to retain control of his continental empire, with several smaller states breaking away. The South Continent politics are a complicated headache for the Commission, which is not sure whether they should back the ruling family in service of keeping order in the South, or work for good relations with the breakaway states. Either plan might be viable, but they are to some extent also mutually exclusive. If the Commission backs the Warlord too hard and he fails anyway, they would then face a continent full of resentful newly independent states. If they back the breakaway states, the warlord might lose even more control and chaos and internecine warfare could break out in the South. So matters stand in the South Continent in 2123.

The three equatorial continents are individually smaller than the North and South Continents, but together they make up over sixty percent of the total land surface of Veranis. All three straddle the equator, all three have hot tropical climates, and all three are mostly covered by forest and jungle. These land masses have their own names in the local languages, of course. In fact, they have many local names in different tongues and to different groups. Terrestrians, when speaking in their own languages, tend to refer to them as East Continent, Central Continent, and West Continent, and to the two larger land masses simply as the Northlands and the Southlands.

The total population of the three equatorial continents is smaller than the population of either the North or South Continents, and for the most part they are far less technologically advanced. The most common social organization is the tribe, and there are literally thousands of such tribes spread across the three jungle-covered continents. Other forms of social organization do exist there as well, and many of these tribes and groups are implacably hostile to each other. The relationship of these tribes to the rest of Veranis, and to the governing Commission, varies widely, from placid acceptance to tense suspicion to mercenary opportunism. Some of the tribes are so isolated or xenophobic that they hardly ever came into contact with the former Thakarian rulers or the current Terrestrian regime, and indeed are barely aware of them.

Cultural practices in the equatorial lands range from peaceful hunter-gatherers to warlike pastoralists to cannibalistic raiders to slavers to isolationist farmers zealously guarding isolated valleys. Almost anything on might imagine might be found somewhere in these jungle-covered continents.

Ironically, in ancient history, the equatorial continents were the primary site of the original lakgrandian civilization, and when they vanished, they left behind vast empty cities, many of which remain concealed within the jungle canopy or buried underground in these equatorial continents. Some of these ruins have been ransacked by the former Thak-Tarak Clan rulers, seeking orichalcum, but they were little interested in archaelogy, and the ruins left behind after they ransacked the orichalcum is still a scientific treasure trove. Other lakgrandian ruins remain concealed within the jungle, untouched in ages.

Subsequently, the advanced vertaran civilization of a few millennia earlier were also primarily in the equatorial continents. Ironically, the same lands that in 2123 are inhabited by primitive tribes were the center of a powerful and subtly sophisticated interplanetary society, a few thousand years earlier, and these ruins too, remain within the jungles. The vertaran ruins are thousands of years younger, but the lakgrandian ruins are often better preserved. Both are sources of growing fascination to Terrestrial archeologists, especialy given the mystery of the sudden disappearance of the ancient lakgrandian culture.

When the Terrestrian ships unexpectedly broke the Thakarian fleet assigned to the Dyaxor System, either forcing numerically superior Thakarian ships into retreat or destroying them outright, a substantial population of Thak-Tarak Thakarians remained on the planet. Most of them were born there, third and fourth generation descendants of the first Thakarian arrivals. Concentrated mostly on the North and South Continents, many of them still resent the defeat, and hope for a return to Thak-Tarak control. Others are more loyal to their fellows on Veranis than to their putative Clan. Some even see the Terrestrians as an improvement.

Naturally, many complicated intrigues and counter-intrigues are in play. The cease-fire with the Thakarians still permits Thakarian ships of traders and others to visit Veranis regularly. It is no secret that the Thak-Tarak Clan has spies and informers, both among the Thakarians on the surface and some vertarans as well, especially those who were influential under the previous regime.

Adding to the brew is the presence of Terrestrian spies from hostile Terrestrial states as well, especially Imperial spies.

An ongoing (and deadly serious) game of 'spy vs. spy vs. spy' plays out on Veranis, especially in and around the city of Cataka. Criminals and opportunists of all species, nationalities, and types take advantage of the situation to suit themselves. Cataka, especially, has a thriving underworld within which almost anything, or sometimes anyone, is for sale for the right price.

MORE LATER.

(Veranis is well-suited to a certain sort of adventuring, being that its star system is strategically located, with two separate sets of ancient civilizational ruins drowned in jungle, forest, and occasionally desert, scientifically interesting and with the presence of genuine ancient high-tech artifacts that are both valuable and dangerous, a myriad of tribes and local states, some hostile and some friendly and some swinging both ways, more than one species of humanoid competing and interacting, a colonial government that barely controls the planet, cutthroat politics, spies of various sorts abounding, another habitable world in the same star system, technology ranging from interstellar-level down to canoes and bows and arrows all in use at once, valuable resources both known and not yet discovered...GURPS Cliffhangers, anyone?)

Re: ORICHALCUM UNIVERSE: VERANIS (Dyaxor A V) in 2123...
 

LATER.

The city of Cataka is located on the southern coast of the Northern Continent, near the confluence of three major rivers. The rivers come together just north of the coast, and flow into the ocean as a single watercourse that is about fifteen kilometers long. The great combined river empties into a large bay, naturally sheltered by surrounding hills, making it a superb site for a seaship haven.

Between access to different parts of the Northern Continent interior provided by the rivers, and the presence of a good harbor, the site was a natural location for a city, and the natives had maintained a city there for millennia, since not long after the nuclear wars, in fact. Cataka in 2123 is a complicated place. The oldest part of the city is on the western side of the bay and contains a mix of native-built structures ranging in age from a few decades to over a thousand Terran years or in a few cases more.

Eastward around the curve of the bay is the Thakarian-built area of the city, about a Terran century old. This area is much more technologically modern, having been constructed by an interstellar-level society, and much of it is built atop the leveled remains of the eastern part of the original city. It is also the most populous region, in terms of both human and vertarans.

Further east yet lie the dockyards, with multiple quays for oceangoing ships, and a functioning shipyard. The seacraft passing through here include modern powered vessels and various forms of sailing ships, hundreds of cultures ply the seas of Veranis and they exist at almost all levels of technological development. It should be kept in mind that many of the vertarans have learned modern technologies from the Thakarians and the Terrestrians, and they sail the seas in all manner of vessels.

An ancient stone wall surrounds much of the Old City, with still-functioning gates. Within the wall, the Old City is a genuine maze of narrow winding streets, ancient structures, old squares and marketplaces, and a channeled local river as well used to make canals. The population of the Old City is most vertarans, but about ten percent are humans (mostly of Thakarian origin, but there are a few Terrestrians). For the most part, the residents of the Old City are poorer and of lower social status than the modern area...but exceptions always exist.

The modern part of the city also includes new, Terrestrial-built structures that house the Governing Commission and the offices of the Governor-General, as well as some of their support staff and military personnel, and associated Terrestrian merchants and others. The actual Commission complex is walled off from the rest of the modern area, and guarded by armed Terrestrian military personnel (mostly U.S. Marines, but with a presence of Australian and Argentine personnel as well).

To the north of the modern city lies a highly-developed spaceport complex, originally built by the Thakarians and now controlled by the Three Powers.

Further to the north, beyond the aerospaceport, lies farmland, running up to the base of the hills. The floor of the valley is a rich soil, and the farmlands to the north provide a substantial percentage of the food consumed by the inhabitants of Cataka. (Fish from the nearby ocean and food barged down the river provides the rest.) Most of the crops grown are of course local species, but some Thakarian imports are present. The only major Terrestrian plant grown is tomato. Tomatoes were unknown to both the Thakarians and the vertarans before contact with Terrestrians, and have proven both to grow well in the local soil and to be extremely popular with the local population.

The ruling Thakarian Thak-Tarak Clan never fortified the Cataka site, except at a purely individual level, trusting to their orbiting ships for protection. The Terrestrians have chosen to install anti-air and anti-spacecraft missile and laser batteries, mostly in the hills surrounding the city, but with some present on the spaceport and near the city proper. Access to these facilities is highly restricted, it is extremely rare for either a vertaran or a Thakarian human to be permitted near them.

(Though spies of every sort in Cataka are always trying to gain access to them, and learn more about them.)

Likewise, though to a lesser extent, shore batteries have been installed against the possibility (however improbable it might seem) of attack from the sea.

The hills around Cataka are mostly limestone, with a core of granite, and the area receives substantial rainfall. Thus it is not a surprise that the hills are riddled with extensive cave systems. Some of them have been artificially extended, or deliberately connected to other caves. It is not likely that anyone in Cataka knows all the caves. Some of them are used by locals for various purposes, some of them are used by criminals or spies, some have been used in the past by such and now hold forgotten surprises and dangers.

To the west of the bay and the city of Cataka, the hills run for miles, but in places they do not come all the way down to the sea. Extensive beaches exist, and are used by the locals and the Terrestrians for recreation. Few people swim in the ocean, though, because the waters near Cataka are infested with a substantial population of several local shark species, some of which are quite prepared to attack and feed on humanoids. Some of these sharks come upriver as well, making swimming the river doubtful as well.

The hills are not particularly rich in useful minerals, mining is not a major local industry. The closest source of local metals and minerals are inland mines some two hundred kilometers inland. These deposits include iron and copper, and further up one of the rivers, aluminum can be mined.

Among the things to be found in the caves around Cataka are a large and growing cache of modern weaponry, being stockpiled by Thak-Tarak partisans against the day their Clan can again resume control. Another cave is used to store local addictive drugs for resale in the markets of Cataka. One cavern was used, up until fifty years before, by a local cult that engaged in humanoid sacrifices, and still houses hundreds of mummified victims.

MORE LATER.

Re: ORICHALCUM UNIVERSE: VERANIS (Dyaxor A V) in 2123...
 

LATER.

South of Cataka is a vast stretch of ocean, about twelve hundred and ninety kilometers wide, ending in the northern coast of the largest of the three equatorial continents. This stretch of sea is broken by several scattered islands near the continents, and a single chain of hot spot islands near the mid-point of the sea. Six major islands are part of this roughly north-south running chain, and a number of tiny islets and volcanic remnants as well.

The central islands are occupied by an insular people, who arrived there from the southern lands centuries before the arrival of the Thakarians, and who remain more than somewhat xenophobic. At one time, they had a habit of killing any outsiders who set foot on the islands, the Thakarians broke them of this habit by brutal reprisals, but the islands remain an unsafe place.

The single exception is the southernmost island, about the size of Oahu, which was conquered by the peoples of the Northern Continent about two centuries before the arrival of the Thakarians (circa ~1700 AD Gregorian). They forcibly and bloodily resettled the locals (adding to the hostility), and used the island as a mid-ocean base for their vessels travelling to the equatorial continents, or into the southern hemisphere.

In 2123, this island has a modest population (about 30,000) of mostly vertarans, and continues to serve as a stopover point, only now air traffic also lands here on a regular basis. The island remains volcanically active (it rests almost exactly atop the hot spot) and the volcanoes periodically cause disruptions.

Another seven hundred kilometers brings one to the northern coast of Sharliak, one of the three equatorial continents. The two thousand kilometer long coast is a mix of cliffs, jungles, beaches, and deserts, but jungle predominates. Several modest cities are to be found on the northern coast, mostly near natural harbors.

The largest such city, SharThak, is located almost due south of Cataka, but slightly (about one hundred kilometers) to the west. It has a population of twelve thousand, of which about seventy percent are vertarans and thirty percent are humans. Most of the humans of SharThak are of Thakarian origin, but the majority of the Terrestrians to be found on the continent of Sharliak are to be found in this city. The Commission maintains a local office and liaison personnel here, and most of the scientific and archaeological expeditions mounted by Terrestrians into the vast interior start here.

SharThak has a nice deep-water harbor, but it is surrounded by dense jungle on all sides other than the coast. A narrow band of clear land, much it farmed, separates the jungle from the city proper, this band averages about twenty kilometers wide.

Like the Old City of Cataka, SharThak is walled. Unlike Cataka, the wall is not just a remnant of the past, it is a carefully maintained barrier of thick stone and is manned by armed guards. Though the wall is certainly a defense against the local hostile primitive tribes, it is primarily a defense against hostile wildlife. The jungles of Sharliak are home to a variety of large predators and dangerous creatures, including a number of species of tyrannosaurs and more than a few other dangerous theropods.

The dangerous creatures are by no means limited to Dinosauria, though, and along with large predators, there are any number of potentially lethally dangerous smaller creatures, including a huge number of venomous insects and other such dangers.

More dangerous than all these creatures together, though, are the hostile tribes which abound in the jungles of Sharliak. Not all the tribals are hostile, to be sure. Some are friendly, many are neutral or simply insular. None are safe to disregard, just because they are technologically primitive does not mean they are either stupid or ignorant. They have the skills to survive and often thrive in a hostile jungle environment, and they have no illusions that the high-tech outsiders visiting their lands are anything but mortal.

MORE LATER.

Re: ORICHALCUM UNIVERSE: VERANIS (Dyaxor A V) in 2123...
 

LATER.

SharThak is where it is because of two things: the already-mentioned deep-water harbor, and a large river that enters the ocean to the east of the city proper. Docks and other shipping facilities line the western bank of the river near the city, and this district is simultaneously the economic heart of the city, and the most dangerous and violent area of that self-same city.

The river Shar (which is an Anglicization of the native word) is wide, deep, and brown with mud and sediment where it enters the ocean. The river runs upstream almost due south for nearly one hundred kilometers, heading into the interior of the continent. The first twenty kilometers are somewhat settled on either bank, and the jungles have been pushed back a few kilometers from the river edge, replaced by farms and small villages and towns along the length of the rivercourse. This region is by no means safe, but it is somewhat civilized, and far less dangerous than what follows farther south.

About one hundred kilometers south of SharThak, the great river approaches a chain of ascending rapids and falls, as it moves into hill country. Travellers by river usually must leave the river and portage up dangerous and often physically difficult pathways up the face of what is actually a long hill-line running hundreds of miles east-west.

The fall line represents the southernmost edge of what passes locally for 'civilized territory'. Coming up the river to this point, there is at least a modicum of law and order and the authorities in SharThak sometimes send punitive expeditions up the river when trouble breaks out. South of the fall line, in the highlands, a traveler is more or less on his or her own.

Which is not to say that the river is little traveled! There are many reasons why people come further south, and a substantial number of people do just that. It is simply that there is little in the way or law or support for them once they go into the interior highlands.

The jungles thicken in the highlands, and the weather turns wetter and hotter. There are certainly towns and other settlements along the river and in the jungles in this region, but each such community is self-contained and independent. The sort of welcome a traveler can expect varies widely, but for the most part, the towns along the river are at least somewhat open, profiting from travelers passing north and south. Some profit by providing servics and supplies and local protection, others by charging (or in some cases more like extorting) fees for guidance and passage from travelers.

No matter how outrageous the local demands, however, the traveler is usually wise to acquiesce. The locals outnumber the traveler, and it is a long way back to more civilized territories.

The land above the fall line gradually rises as one goes south, and the River Shar begins to enter patches of rapids, interspersed with calmer lengths. IN places, shallow ravines and canyons appear along the river as one goes south, and they get deeper as one goes upstream. Some of these narrow gaps churn the river into a nearly impassable state. Others make excellent places for a local to ambush a river traveler.

About two hundred kilometers above the fall line, the peaks of distant mountains will come into view to the south. At about this point, several other large tributary rivers begin to flow into the River Shar, leading off to the southeast and southwest. Following these tributaries will take one into distant parts of the continent, while following the main stem of the River Shar upstream will continue to take one almost due south into steadily higher and rougher terrain, while the jungle begins to give way to forest.

From here on, there are few towns or large settlements, but many tribal villages and nomadic groups, many of them intensely hostile. The jungles already traversed were thick with predators, including various dangerous theropod dinosaurs, but now the predators get more ferocious and larger, as one enters the forest land north of the mountain range. The humanoid population is thinner, which means that the predators have less fear of Man than is the case further downriver.

If one follows the Shar about another fifty kilometers upstream, the river traveler arrives in Talianickarisat. Translated from the language of the local tribes, this would mean something like 'the place of the fallen gods'.

In actuality, Talianickarisat is the extensive remains of what was once a city of the ancient Lakegrandians of Veranis. Remarkably well-preserved after the passage of tens of thousands of Terrran years, it is a city of towering metal and stone buildings, glass and plastic towers, and the remains of what were once vast machines and huge industrial complexes. The remains run along either side of the river for over twenty kilometers.

MORE LATER.

Re: ORICHALCUM UNIVERSE: VERANIS (Dyaxor A V) in 2123...
 

LATER.

In 2123, upon arrival at Talianickarisat, the traveler will encounter an encampment of Terrestrians. Archaeologists have constructed a base and a research site amid the ancient ruins, and a tiny Terrestrian community exists on the west side of the Shar River. Altogether, there are about one hundred people in the camp, along with twenty armed guards for protection against the local fauna and local hostile natives.

The archaeologists did not come up the river, they were deposited on-site by a landing shuttle from a star carrier that has since departed. They are by no means heavily equipped, but they do have transmitters able to reach the few communications satellites in orbit around Veranis, and thus able, at least much of the time, to contact the main Terrestrian colonial government in Cataka.

The reason the communications are not steady is that the Thak-Tarak Thakarians, when they were forced to retreat from Veranis, left behind various unpleasant gifts and surprises for the incoming Terrestrians. One such is a number of small, well-concealed, automated ASAT installations, spread out here and there across the face of Veranis. A few are even located under shallow sea, to make them that much more difficult to find.

These mostly consist of clusters of missiles with sufficient thrust and range to reach orbital altitude and destroy satellites and other orbital facilities. Each installation contains between five and twenty missiles, which are fairly simple in design. Mostly, they explode and spread a cloud of shrapnel in the path of the target satellite, or strike it directly, depending on the missile. In a few cases, there are high-power, single-use laser weapons, usually fueled by a chemical reaction, which can disable or destroy a satellite or unprotected ship.

The missiles and lasers do not fire the moment they detect a satellite. Instead, they track the satellites, using mostly passive sensing, and fire on them at a semi-random time. A given satellite might be fired on after 21 Terran hours (one local day) or after a few local days. The ASAT installations can communicate with each other, and which particular site opens fire will vary as well. The automatic control systems have enough 'judgement' to take factors such as secrecy into the calculation of when to fire.

The Three Powers usually have a small spatial warship in orbit, to enforce the authority of the Commission. The defenses of such ships are sufficient to ward off the small, crude ASAT systems the retreating Thakarians hastily installed. Small comsats and observation satellites are a different story. The ASATs will rarely fire while the warship is in the sky, but once it is below the horizon, matters change. If the missile is fired at the right time, or the laser fires at the right time, the installation may remain undetected, since the Terrestrians have not had the time or resources to thoroughly 'wire' the planet for observation and sensing. Some of the ASAT sites have been found and destroyed, but many more remain.

Thus, relay satellites tend to have a short lifespan in the skies of Veranis, as do observation satellites.

Which in turn means that the Terrestrian archaeological expedition in Talianickarisat can usually only contact Cataka when the warship is above their horizon, or during the short periods when someone has a comsat in the sky before it is shot down.

That said, the archaeologists and their support staff will generally be welcoming to a Terrestrian traveling the river. Their camp is fairly secure, they are well supplied with food and medicine, and if nothing else they can be a brief rest for such a traveler.

The archaeologists will also happily and angrily talk about the state of the ruins in Talianickarisat, and many similar sites across Veranis. The ancient Lakegrandians had very advanced technology, and used orichalcum in much of it. The Thak-Tarak, upon arrival on Veranis, had been little interested in archaeology, but had been very interested in the orichalcum in the ancient ruins.

The Thak-Tarak more or less mined the precious orichalcum from the ruins, with little regard for collateral damage. Ancient machines that had endured miraculously well-preserved for millennia had been carved apart and stripped of their component orichalcum without regard for any other consideration. Ancient, almost perfectly preserved buildings had been cut apart to get to the machines and orichalcum repositories.

Which in turn left Terrestrian archaeologists in a state of something close to apoplexy when they arrived on site and saw the disruption.

Which means that reactions on the part of the researchers will vary depending on who the travelers on the river might happen to be. They will usually react well to Terrestrians, unless some specific reason not to do so is in play. Their reaction to the local Vertaran natives will vary depending on the tribe or nationality, and their previous interactions with that group.

On the other hand, the researchers will often react with some negativity to Thakarians, even 'friendly' natives of Thakarian ancestry. Which might be an issue for a mixed party of travelers. Certainly a Thakarian traveling with Terrestrians or Vertarans will probably get a better reaction than an all-Thakarian party, at least from the science staff.

(Often a -1 to reaction rolls in GURPS terms.)

Perhaps oddly, the security personnel will probably react to Thakarians better than the science staff, because they have less emotional investment in the ancient knowledge that was trampled upon a century before. Or at least, they will likely be less hostile to a 'native' Thakarian. A Thak-Tarak Thakarian from the Clan military forces might be a different matter.

Regardless of their personal feelings, though, the research team and their security team are determined to avoid major hostility with the locals. The ship that brought them to Veranis is long gone and will not be back for months, and they are hundreds of kilometers from civilization, and they are a small isolated group. The security team is well armed, but there are only twenty of them.

While they might offer shelter from weather and provide food and drink and medicine to a traveler, they can not protect one from local hostile natives to any significant degree (other than the general threat of retaliation later from the Commission back in Cataka, if they ever find out what happened, and if the situation permits such a thing).

So a traveler should keep these realities in mind.

South of Talianickarisat, the Shar River turns slightly to the west of south as one continues upstream, and once one is about twenty kilometers south of the Terrestrian encampment, one enters the territory of the Slath Tribes.

MORE LATER.

Re: ORICHALCUM UNIVERSE: VERANIS (Dyaxor A V) in 2123...
 

LATER.

The so-called 'Slath Tribes' are actually a highly heterogeneous group. An alliance, association, or confederation of highly various tribes of low-tech Vertaran natives, linked together by...well, actually, nobody outside their ranks is precisely sure what links them all together.

The word 'Slath' is an Anglicization of their term for themselves, and nobody else, even on Veranis, is totally certain what it means. The tribes do speak a common language, but it is a sort of 'creole', most of the Slath Tribes have their own native tongue that they use among themselves. There does not appear to be any sort of single 'chief of chiefs' or council or other central authority, but the Slath Tribes do manage to minimize their intra-tribal disputes with an apparent minimum of violence, somehow.

The Slath do communicate with each other fairly efficiently, considering their overall limited technology and the vast territory they inhabit. An outsider who offends against or is engaged in violence with one Slath Tribe is likely to find that the others, even hundreds of kilometers away, know about it and will recognize that particular outsider.

Something else the Slath have in common, in spite of the wide variety of cultures and societies they otherwise display, is that they are xenophobic. Exactly how xenophobic varies from merely insular and hostile to murderously hostile. Some Slath Tribes engage in cannibalism of outsiders, some make no secret of torturing intruders to death. Others will merely deal out a swift and efficient death, often by poison dart or a swift arrow.

The Slath Tribes control a strip of territory running from just south of the ruins of Talianickarisat south to the central mountain range that splits the continent, and running hundreds of kilometers east to west. It is a vast strip of (mostly) highland forest territory, cut by several major mostly-north-flowing rivers.

Native-wise Veranisians will warn a traveler that he or she or they are in danger on the Shan River starting about twenty kilometers upriver from the ruins of Talianickarisat. The Slath Tribes rarely come north of that, they hold the Lakegrandian ruins in deep dread, not just Talianickarisat but the other Lakegrandian ruins in their territory as well.

Which does mean that such ruins can provide at least a temporary place of safety if one is being pursued by hostile Slath, and most Slath are hostile most of the time.

The danger is not necessarily immediate, however. Though the Slath will likely attack an outsider north of that line, they will not necessarily be immediately aware of such a presence. The Slath control a vast territory, and one might enter it and get out again undetected, especially near the edges.

Still, they do watch the rivers fairly closely, especially the large ones like the Shan River. While one might not be attacked immediately upon crossing the outer edge, the further upriver one goes the greater the risk. The local Slath are past masters at stealth and concealment, when the attack does come it will likely come suddenly and without warning.

To be fair, the Slath consider the territorial markers they place at the edges of their domain to be a warning. As one passes about twenty kilometers south of the ruins of Talianickarisat, one passes stone pillars on either side of the river. These pillars are about ten meters tall, and are intricately carved with stone skulls, bones, twisted humanoid faces, and other pleasant imagery. To emphasize the point, in niches in the columns are actual Homosapient skulls, often those of children.

Similar pillars mark the edge of Slath territory along the other major rivers and flow down from the distant mountain range. Smaller versions of these pillars are placed here and there throughout Slath territory. If one encounters such a pillar in the forests, one is already in Slath territory and the wisest move is probably to retrace your route...quickly and quietly.

The Slath do have some limited contact with the outside world. A very, very few merchants are permitted by the Slath Tribes to enter their territory under a safe conduct. They trade metals, manufactured goods, rare foods and drinks, and anything else the Slath might like to have, for rare medicinal herbs, or a few other profitable native products (one Slath Tribe is known for weaving incredibly beautiful rugs out of native fibers, for ex).

These merchants are the main way information gets in and out of Slath territories, but even they do not have permission to travel at will, they enter by specific routes (usually a river route), meet with specific people, at specific places, and leave again. A Slath safe conduct is usually trustworthy, as long as one does exactly what they tell you do to, following every rule and restriction to a 't'. The merchants who manage to profit in this trade tend to be very good at following the rules, and know when to keep their mouth shut.

At one time, the Slath were known for raiding north of their territory, attacking other Vertaran natives for slaves, loot, or occasionally food, in the case of the cannibalistic tribes.

The Thakarian rulers more or less stopped this with some vicious reprisals. The current Terrestrian regime has mostly attempted to use more civilized methods, but with the Slath, nothing else seems to work. When the Terrestrians first took control, the Slath tested their patience several times, lethally, until a Governor-General resorted to targeting several tribal gathering places from orbit. After that, the Slath resumed their restive insularity. The Slath are insular, viciously antagonistic, and ruthless, but not stupid, and they are aware that the Terrestrians, like the Thakarians before them, can make the sky rain fire if antagonized sufficiently.

Exactly how much the Slath do know about the outside world is not entirely clear to anyone else, either. The merchants ask few questions, and even fewer of those questions are answered. It is known that some Slath seem to have more knowledge of the outside world than their insularity would seem to permit, but very little is known for sure.

A traveler on the Shan River who comes through the Talianickarisat ruins and meets the archaeological team will be warned about the Slath, if they do not already know, and told some horrifying stories about them that happen to all be true. The archaeologists never go further than five kilometers south of the ruins without a security escort, and they and their security team stop entirely at the ten kilometer line, by daylight. At night they remain within the ruins and usually within their encampment.

They will advise any traveler to do likewise, though they will not try to stop someone determined to keep going upriver.

MORE LATER.

Re: ORICHALCUM UNIVERSE: VERANIS (Dyaxor A V) in 2123...
 

LATER.

The Slath territories are remarkably large for such a loose assemblage of low-technology peoples. They run about one hundred kilometers from north to south, and about six hundred kilometers from east to west.

Assuming one could pass through this zone safely as one sailed up the Shar River, one would observe that the river was branching off in multiple tributaries coming in from east and west, but mostly from the northern trend of that. In fact, the enormous east-west mountain range to the south is the source of the Shar River itself, as well as the many tributaries that feed into the Shar as it crosses the Slath territory.

By the time the Shan River emerges from Slath territory on the south side, as one goes upriver, the huge river has diminished to a relatively modest stream, about twenty meters wide. By this point, the land is rising into the true foothills of the mountain range, and the Shan and its tributaries flow through canyons and small wooded valleys. Though this is the tropic zone of a world that averages hotter than Earth, by this point altitude is high enough that the air is chilly through some parts of the year.

Unlike the northern edge, the southern edge of the Slath land is vague. The Slath tribes rarely enter the mountains, there is little to interest them there and the terrain is rugged and forbidding. They do sometimes hunt and forage in the foothills, but this is occasional. The mountainous south side is probably the safest area of Slath territory for an outsider, simply because the Slath rarely go there.

Though the Slath only enter the foothills sporadically, these lands are thick with dangerous predators, many of which have long since lost their fear of Man in the centuries since local civilization collapsed. The Shan River also becomes dangerous to traverse in this region, with ever more numerous and challenging rapids, whirlpools, and waterfalls to pass.

Eventually, as one travels upriver, one reaches the source of the Shan.

This source is a sheltered lake, surrounded by wooded hills, fed by dozens of small streams, many of them entering the lake as waterfalls over cliffs on the south side of the lake. The lake covers about two square kilometers, and is very deep and very cold, being fed by snowmelt from the high peaks to the south. The Shan River emerges through a gap in the hills on the southeast side, and is about ten meters wide at the source. Unlike the muddy torent of the lower course, here at the source the Shan is fast-running and clear.

The entire sight is beautiful, the snowcapped southern peaks, the forested hills, and the deep blue of the lake water, which is fairly clear, all contribute to the scene. Though the lake runs up against modestly high cliffs on the south side, fairly flat ground exists around most of the north side, much of it densely wooded.

Beautiful though the lake might be, the Slath never come here, they believe that the lake is cursed, and that a monster dwells in the depths.

The Slath are entirely correct in this belief.

There is in fact a large and potentially very dangerous life form dwelling in the lake, though it rarely comes to the surface. Most of the time, a visitor to this site is entirely safe (at least from the creature), which tends to stay in the depth unless something stirs it up. If something does bring it to the surface, though, it is highly aggressive and very powerful.

The Slath stories about it are fearful, and contradictory. They speak of tentacles, claws, mouths, they are not sure exactly what is there, but they know something is down there.

In actuality, the creature is an ancient biotechnology experiment by a Vertaran nation on Veranis, in the years before their interplanetary war reduced them to a primitive state. The creature spends most of its time in a state of semi-suspended animation, and that plus its highly special metabolism enables it to survive almost indefinitely. The creature currently dwelling in the lake is the same one created by the genegineers over three thousand Terran years earlier.

THE LAKE MONSTER:

IQ: 6
DX: 15
ST: 50
HT: 20/75

The individual tentacles have ST 30, and normally lie contracted against the main mass. Extended, they have a fifteen meter reach. The hide of the Creature is laced with dense flakes of keratin and plate of bone-like material, and has an average DR of 10 over the body and 5 along the tentacles.

The Creature has no eyes. It tracks prey, or enemies, by sound, by chemical cues, and by a touch of ESP. It can sense the presence of living things within fifty meters fairly clearly, though a psychonull would be immune to its instinctive ESP, leaving it only sound and scent (and thus the Creature would strike at -10).

A favorite tactic of the Creature is to remain near the shore in deep water (the lake has many such places), and suddenly reach out of the water with a tentacle to strike at a target on the shore. The Creature can reach beings standing as much as twelve meters from shore, and will either kill by constriction or drag the prey/target into the water to drown.

The Creature is about the size of an African elephant, and considerably stronger than most such. It looks like a great, roughly oval-shaped, mass of tissue, with a tough hide and four long tentacles emerging from the sides, two on each side. There is no clearly defined head, but there is a mouth on one narrow end, lined with sharp teeth.

If heavily damaged, the creature can go into a dormant state and gradually regenerate itself. This regenerative ability is also much of why the Creature has been able to live for millennia in its lake lair. The Creature is vulnerable to drying, though it can live entirely out of the water, and even drag itself around with its tentacles, after ten hours out of the water it will begin losing one point of HT per hour until it immerses itself again. In direct sunlight, halve those times, at night, double them.

The Creature is normally vulnerable to fire, but it would be difficult to set it aflame in its native environment.

Being out of the water long enough would kill the Creature. Salt water would also kill the Creature after a few hours immersion, the Creature is a fresh-water animal.

As noted, the Creature will rarely attack a visitor to the site, or even encounter such, unless something has stirred it up. What can stir the Creature? Nobody is entirely sure.

MORE LATER.

Re: ORICHALCUM UNIVERSE: VERANIS (Dyaxor A V) in 2123...
 

LATER.

Some Characters:

PAUL DENTON (Age 36, 6'0", dark hair, brown eyes)

IQ 13
DX 14
ST 13
HT 10/12 (bonus for biotechnic enhancements)

Speed: 6.0 (in 1 G environment)



ADVANTAGES:
Alertness 2
Acute Vision 2
Charisma 1
Common Sense (some of his friends would dispute this)
Handsome Appearance
Language Talent 2
Strong Will 2
Ally [Tarlak, modestly powerful, almost all the time]
Contacts [Veranisian Commission staff, U.S. Federal Patrol]

DISADVANTAGES:
Alcoholism [Recovered, 'on the wagon']
Greed at -5 level
Lecherous at -5 level
Phobia [spiders, intense]
Dependent [son, minor, appears often]
Enemies [Multiple, modestly powerful, appear sometimes]
Secret [Knows of orichalcum deposit, -10]

QUIRKS:
1. Refuses to discuss his past on Earth with most people
2. Distrusts most Thakarians
3. Hums Gospel hymns to himself while concentrating, mostly unaware
4. Dislikes chocolate intensely
5. Prefers to be paid in gold or silver

SKILLS:
Air Pilot 16
Area Knowledge [Cataka] 14
Area Knowledge [New Orleans] 13
Area Knowledge [SharThak] 13
Area Knowledge [USA] 12
Area Knowledge [Veranis] 11
Brawling 15
Cooking 13
Dancing 13
Detect Lies 12
Fast Talk 15
First Aid 16
Gambling 15
Guitar 12
Guns (TL10) 15
Holdout 11
Interrogation 11
Knife 14
Languages:
English [American dialect, native]
Spanish [Argentinian dialect, literate] 13
Catakan Veranisian [literate] 13
Other Veranisian languages [not literate, highly varied] 5-11
Law [USA] 11
Lockpicking TL10 11
Lockpicking TL5-9 12
Mechanic 14
Merchant 15
Riding 13
Seamanship 13
Sex Appeal 13
Streetwise 14
Swimming 13
Tactics 11
Unarmed Combat [general] 13
Writing 15

Paul Denton was born in New Orleans, Gulfcoast, in the USA on Earth, and lived a relatively uneventful life for a youth in late Twenty-first Century America. He was fortunate enough to be born gifted in both mind and body, easily able to maintain good grades and perform successfully athletically, and his looks and natural charm made him successful with women in his teens and later as well. His family had a tradition of police work, and as an adult he joined the United States Federal Patrol, and began what promised to be a successful career in law enforcement.

Yeah, Paul Denton was gifted...perhaps too gifted for his own good. It might have been that things came a little too easily. It would be safe to say that during his teenage years, and early adulthood, he suffered from the Overconfidence Disadvantage, as well as a streak of recklessness that perhaps rose from having things come to easily too soon.

Whatever the reason, Denton discovered an opponent that he had difficulty in dealing with: alcohol. Before he was 25, Denton was a full-on alcoholic, and sliding from 'high functioning' down toward impaired. His Patrol career came crashing down as an indirect result of his alcoholism. His judgement and attention impaired by the drink, he ended up taking the fall in a corruption scandal in which he himself was only peripherally involved. The actual corrupt officers dodged consequences (at that time), and Denton was out of the Patrol with a 'negative separation evaluation'.

While a NSE from the Patrol was not quite as bad as a dishonorable military discharge, it certainly impaired his career options. Between that and his ongoing issues with the alcoholism, he ended up taking a job obtained for him by a relative: crewing aboard a spaceship bound for Veranis.

Some of his Patrol skills proved useful in his new job, and Denton always learned fast. For three years he crewed on the ship, several runs and eventually being promoted to chief pilot. Then it all came apart again, and this time it was not the alcohol, it was the smuggling. Not smuggling by Denton, who had no idea about the whole thing, but another member of the crew.

MORE LATER.

Re: ORICHALCUM UNIVERSE: VERANIS (Dyaxor A V) in 2123...
 

LATER.

The smuggling operation had been going on quietly since before Denton had joined the crew. It was possible to make substantial sums of money by quietly moving contraband between Earth and Veranis. Some of the Terrestrians on Veranis wanted access to things from Earth that were not allowed to be shipped, and Veranis was the source for a couple of profitable illegal drugs that had become popular back on Earth.

One such drug is one that was newly a problem on Earth, commonly called 'Nostalgia'. Denton would have recognized it if he had seen the packages, because it was just becoming an issue when he was ending his career in the Federal Patrol. Denton (and most of the rest of the crew) had no idea that the chief engineer and the cargomaster were smuggling Nostalgia to Earth, and illegal weapon components back to Veranis.

This secret operation went on smoothly until a rival smuggler decided to take out the competition.

The ship had disengaged from the star carrier that brought it to Veranis, and had begun the process of entering the atmosphere, when a bomb planted amid the smuggled packages detonated.

It was not a large bomb, but even a very small explosion is a deadly serious matter on an aircraft and even more so on a spacecraft. The ship lost two of its six main thrusters, and much of the automatic control system failed as well. Denton had to take direct control, and do his best to steer the ship down through the atmosphere to a safe touchdown...somewhere.

Denton had only four working thrusters, some of them well below full capacity, and the ship was leaking precious SESPR propellant as well. They were far off course, on a planet with limited infrastructure for assisting a landing, and half the sensor systems were dead.

As Denton fought his dying craft down through the lower atmosphere, he found himself forced to fly through a line of powerful storms. The downdrafts almost smashed the ship into a mountain range, and Denton expended most of what propellant he had left preventing that, and killing the last of their deadly velocity as they sought out a safe landing site.

It was a testimony to the piloting skills Denton had mastered over the previous two years that he managed to bring the ship down without killing everyone aboard. As it was, he ended up managing to bring the ship skidding to a stop on a long, sandy beach beside a lake on one of the equatorial continents of Veranis. Of the twenty people aboard, six were still alive by the time the wreckage of the ship finally came to rest.

The cargomaster who had been one of the smugglers was one of the survivors, though at that point Denton had no idea of his involvement or what had been secretly happening. Of the six survivors, three were seriously injured, with broken bones or worse.

Fortunately, Denton had been well trained in first aid by the Patrol, and one of the other survivors, as a great blessing, was the medic. Between them, they were able to treat the three injured and prevent any of them from dying immediately. Unfortunately, this proved to be a mixed blessing.

Denton had no idea exactly where they were. He had been on Veranis several times over the previous two years, but always at the city of Cataka, which passed for the planetary capitol. Now all he knew was that they were on one of the equatorial continents, the one due south of the northlands, and that they were on the north side of the central mountain range. That left a zone of uncertainly hundreds of kilometers wide from east-to-west, and almost that much north-south.

Denton did know that their botched atmospheric entry would have been observed, and he was reasonably sure some sort of search would be mounted. The logical thing to do, as far as he knew, was to stay with their downed spacecraft. The transmitters were beyond use, but the ship itself was recognizable from the air, and it was sitting on an open stretch of beach, making it very obvious to any sort of air search.

At that time Denton knew almost nothing about the inhabitants of that land mass, and so he had no idea that they had come to rest beside a lake in the middle of the territory controlled by the Slath Tribes.

MORE LATER.

Re: ORICHALCUM UNIVERSE: VERANIS (Dyaxor A V) in 2123...
 

LATER.

The disrupted atmospheric entry had indeed been observed, and normally a search would have found the survivors relatively quickly, since their entry path had been tracked by radar and lidar as they came down. Their approximate location could be calculated from that data easily enough.

Unfortunately, both the group that had planted the bomb, and the people who had been using the cargomaster and the engineer to move their contraband, both had a vested interest in the ship not being found, and both groups had a 'hold' on various people in the Commission staff. Though the ship was accurately tracked, the wrong entry track and potential landing area was givne to the search and rescue teams. Though Denton had no way to know this, no help was on the way, they were searching an area hundreds of kilometers distant.

Denton had intended to stay with the wreckage, since it would be the easiest thing for the search and rescue teams to find, but circumstances forced a change in plan. The nearer Slath Tribes had also seen the ship come flaming in, it had made quite a spectacular show during its descent, after all. The local Slath were a low-tech people, but they were not totally ignorant of the outside world, and they had some idea of what they were seeing, at least in a general way.

The attack came about twenty-four hours after they landed. More than a hundred men, drawn from several local tribes, attacked the crash site, and though they were armed primarily with bows and blades, a few carried guns.

(As noted elsewhere, the Slath were a low-tech people, but it is not that hard to learn to use a .45 automatic or 9 millimeter or a revolver if they are available.) The survivors were in no condition to put up a fight even if they had been properly armed, which they were not.

Only Denton and the cargomaster survived the attack, and they were taken prisoner. The only reason they were held alive was that one of the local tribes had a pleasant habit of executing outsiders by torture.

Denton had no idea who he was being held by or why, and he certainly did not know the language of their captors, but he had a fair idea of what was in store. From where he and the cargomaster, Terry Kening, were being held in a cage, they could see the hot knives being prepared. The bleached skulls decorating much of the local village made the overall thrust of the situation that much clearer.

That would have been the end of Denton, except that their captors made a mistake. When their captors came to take their prisoners to their fate, one of the guards stumbled and dropped his gun. Denton was always fast, and that day he was faster than he had ever been before. He had the pistol in his hand almost before their captors knew anything was awry, and Denton had scored fifth in his graduating class at the Federal Patrol Academy in marksmanship. Four shots, four dead guards, and Denton and Kening were on the run in the forest, pursued by dozens of angry locals.

MORE LATER.

Re: ORICHALCUM UNIVERSE: VERANIS (Dyaxor A V) in 2123...
 

LATER.

What followed was a week-long nightmare. Denton and Kening had to evade a numerous foe, one familiar with the territory, totally ruthless, and in better physical condition. Denton was not out of shape, as such, but he was tired, hungry, and had been under heavy stress since the crash. Kening was overweight and he was out of shape, used to life in space and not as conscientious about maintaining his free fall exercise as he should have been.

Denton would later conclude that the largest single factor in their escape was simple luck, and he was right about that. Still, Denton was very smart and very fast and he learned quickly. By the time they reached the northern bounds of Slath territory, both men were wounded, exhausted, suffering from hunger and thirst...and they managed to reach the ruined Lakegrandian city of Talianickarisat after a daring and risky river ride on a makeshift raft at night.

The archaeological expedition that would later camp there was not yet present at the time, but even so, the ruins saved their lives, because all the Slath tribes held the ancient Lakegrandian ruins in utter dread, and simply would not usually pursue an escapee into the ruins.

It took over a week before some of the bravest warriors of the pursuing tribesmen entered the ruins, and they were few enough that two men could probably have hidden from them forever in the vast wreckage, assuming they had food and drink. In fact, though, Denton and Kening had no idea that the ruins represented such temporary safety, and by the time their pursuers entered the ruins at all, Denton and Kening were long gone.

Amid the wreckage, which had been carved half to pieces by Thakarians looked for orichalcum, Denton found discarded Thakarian tools, including axes and blades, and used them to cut young trees and make a proper raft, and the two men had sailed down the Shan River several days before their pursuers finally dared enter the ruins, and were over a hundred kilometers to the north.

Denton knew very little about the central equatorial continent of Veranis, but he had landed at Cataka on the North Continent many times, and he knew that there was a substantial city at the mouth of the large river that they were now sailing down. Denton estimated that if they could just reach that river mouth city (SharThak), they could get transporation to the capitol city of Cataka.

It was hundreds of kilometers to SharThak, and in their condition the two men would almost surely have died long before they reached it, except that now, as they sailed north, they were entered more civilized regions. Many small Vertaran villages existed along the river in that region, and while not all were friendly, many were open to outsiders, and they had some contact with outsiders. Thus it was that Denton met locals who spoke English for the first time since the crash, and was able to negotiate for food and other help.

Payment was difficult, since neither man was carrying anything that would pass for money locally. On the other hand, in some cases Denton could trade skills for help. One village had a small gas-powered electrical generator, which was down for repair. Repair meant sending it hundreds of kilometers downriver, but Denton, who already had some mechanical skills, was able to repair it on the spot. This bought Denton and Kening a great deal of help.

In another village, Denton was able to use his first aid skills to save the life of a local boy, the son of an important person in the village, after he fell from a tree and broke a leg, and was bleeding out through a serious puncture wound. Again, this bought him and his crash survivor fellow considerable good will. He was actually paid with some of the local money, wh which was tremendously useful.

Eventually, they made their way northward down to the fall line, and past that they were in jungle rather than forest, but the communities along the river were both larger and more civilized than upriver. By now, Denton was beginning to pick up bits and pieces of the local language, enough to communicate in it, a little, but now they were also meeting more and more people who spoke English or Spanish.

MORE LATER.

Re: ORICHALCUM UNIVERSE: VERANIS (Dyaxor A V) in 2123...
 

LATER.

Eventually, Denton and Kening finally did make their way to the city of SharThak, where the Shar River emptied in the ocean. After months in the forest and jungle, SharThak seemed like a huge metropolis to the two men, but within two days of arrival, Kening had disappeared, along with most of what money they had managed to obtain during their trip down the river.

At that time, Denton still had no idea that the bomb that destroyed their ship, and cast them both into their wild, dangerous trip across a primitive Central Continent, had been present because of the smuggling operation Kening was running. To his horror, upon arriving in SharThak, Denton discovered that he was theoretically a wanted man by the Three Power Commission, because he, along with everyone else aboard their ship, was suspected of being part of the smuggling operation.

Theoretically, because it was widely assumed that Denton was dead.

While Denton and Kening had been making their way down the Shar over the previous months, searchers had at last found the wreckage of their ship, and also, in spite of the efforts to prevent this, the packages of contraband within the wrecked vehicle. The death of the most of the crew members had been confirmed, the bodies were still on-site, after all, after the Slath slaughter. Only Denton and Kening from the crew register were unaccounted for, but they were both presumed to be dead, though again, in theory, if they turned up alive there were arrest warrants out for both of them.

Denton had no idea how to go about proving his innocence, and so he dared not reveal that he was alive to the local Terrestrial authorities even so. He knew that even if he was innocent, the circumstances of his separation from the Federal Patrol would count against his personal credibility.

In the meantime, Denton was alone in a foreign city on a foreign planet with no money, little in the way of identification, and no immediate way to contact anyone for help.

Denton fairly promptly 'fell off the wagon'. He had been a 'recovered alcoholic' for over three years, but under the circumstances, he tripped up. For a year or so, he was regularly drunk, though he remained a fairly high functioning one. His high natural intelligence, good looks, and gift for languages served him well during this time. He found work in SharThak, there was employment for people who spoke both the local language and English and Spanish, and he did not scruple at doing some shady things as well, though he drew the line at serious criminal behavior.

Denton made contacts in SharThak, both above board and shady. He worked as a laborer, and as an aide to a doctor, where his already good first aid skills were improved. He crewed on sailing ships out of SharThak, and learned basic seamanship. He used various fake names, which was not that hard to get away with in the broil of multi-species, multi-culture, multi-tech SharThak. During this period, Denton made friends in SharThak, Vertaran and Human, and his usual knack for attracting female attention still operated.

He would probably have managed to accumulate some money, except that too much of his income vanished down his throat in the form of potent local booze and the occasional bottle of imported Terrestrian Irish whiskey (this last was especially expensive, of course).

One of sexual partners Denton sometimes shared a drink and a night with was a local Vertaran woman, of mixed racial/cultural background (within the Vertaran species) who operated one of the bars Denton favored.

When she fell pregnant, after an evening of mutually drunken sex, it was a shock to them both. Vertarans and Humans are cross-fertile...but not very much. Pregnancy rarely happens with Vertaran-Human matings, but when it does, it produces a 'mule', a non-fertile interspecies hybrid.

Thus it was that Denton became a father, much to his shock and dismay. Neither of the parents was in any sense ready to be a parent, but like many others throughout the history of the Homosapients, there they were.

They did not marry or form a permanent bond, but they did love their son, when he arrived, and they both tried hard to give him some kind of parental love and care. At first the boy lived with his mother, but Denton was a regular visitor and his son knew who his father was. Becoming a father also gave Denton the impetus to put down the bottle and start trying to climb painfully back on to that wagon.

MORE LATER.

Re: ORICHALCUM UNIVERSE: VERANIS (Dyaxor A V) in 2123...
 

LATER.

Over the course of the next two years, Denton, now using the alias of 'Paul McRane', buckled down and worked, hard. He managed to put together enough money to finally make the trip to Cataka, by sea, as a crewman on a freighter. It was an odd ship, with a wooden hull, sail propelled, but with a relatively modern propane generator providing light and heat aboard. The trip was a long one, but Denton arrived in Cataka, which was changing rapidly at that time under the new Terrestrian regime.

It was during this visit that Denton saw an opportunity.

As mentioned already, there was a huge variety of technologies and cultural levels co-existing on Veranis at that time. Wooden sailing ships shared the sea with modern hydrofoils. Some primitive tribes made their own slings and bows and arrows and used them along with stolen or purchased modern firearms. The same house might be heated by a wood fire and have a holographic entertainment system.

Air travel on Veranis was peculiarly divided. The Three Power Commission had access to totally modern aircraft, of course. The Thakarians, likewise, had had such, but had taken most of those with them during their retreat a few years before. The natives had relatively little in the way of air vehicles, even those Vertarans who were familiar with modern technology.

It took Denton a little bit of time to realize quite why: the tech of the most advanced Veranisians, before the Thakarians came, had not been up to powered air travel quite yet, though they might had achieved in a few more decades on their own. Then the Thakarians had arrived, with their (by local standards) hyper-advanced air vehicles, and the Terrestrians likewise.

As a result, most of the locals, when they wanted to possess aircraft, automatically thought about the advanced vehicles used by the Thakarians and the Terrestrians, they had no frame of reference for anything that was an effective but less sophisticated aircraft. Sea vessels, yes, they had many 'intermediate' concepts for those in their history, but not aircraft.

For his own part, Denton had held a piloting license ever since his days at the Federal Patrol Academy. He had learned orbital and space piloting as a crewman on a spaceship for three years. He already had substantial mechanical skills, and he knew others in SharThak, both Vertaran and Human, who had more. He also had a hobbyist interest in older aircraft.

He also recognized that if he could construct an aircraft, something less sophisticated than the current state of the art, to be sure, but tough and effective, there were endless opportunities to use such a thing for profit both in the Northlands and the Central Continent.

To make a long story short, that is exactly what he managed to do.

It required Denton over a year to accumulate enough money (along with some debt) to build his airplane, and he recruited the help of several people to do it. In the end, though, he had what amounted to a seaplane, capable of landing on the ocean or a lake or even a wide river, and using technology that was over a century and a half old on Earth (along with modern devices for some systems). It was a peculiar hybrid, prop-driven, gasoline powered (petroleum was a relatively common resource on the North Continent), with plenty of cargo space. It was slow, by the standards of modern airplanes, but it was sturdy and could be field-repaired relatively easily.

The plane was, very loosely, designed along the lines of an old Grumman HU-16 Albatross, a plane used by the American military a century and a half earlier. It used a more modern and efficient, but still easily field-serviceable, gasoline engine on each prop, and it was sufficiently fuel efficient to make the run from Cataka to SharThak 'straight' with a little fuel to spare. It had a decent cargo capacity, and it was designed and built to be tough rather than extremely fast. The frame and skin were made of modern light alloys and synthetics, which saved enough weight to permit the plane to actually be lightly armored.

The first test flight was a disaster, several flaws forced the plane down within minutes. The flaws were minor, though, and correctable, and within a month, Denton, in his 'Paul McRane' persona, was making regular cargo and passenger runs with his plane.

MORE LATER.

Re: ORICHALCUM UNIVERSE: VERANIS (Dyaxor A V) in 2123...
 

LATER.

As Paul McRane, Denton became a successful businessman in Cataka, using his plane to transport people and cargoes north into the inland regions of the North Continent, south across the ocean to Central Continent, and to other parts of Veranis as well. He quickly developed a reputation for being reliable, discreet, and he was smart enough not to press the market for all it would carry. He developed contacts among both the Human and the Vertaran population, and about a year after he first started flying his plane, he had paid off his debts.

Among the contacts he had made were some members of the Three Power Commission staff, who found 'Paul McRane' useful for certain errands that were best not done openly by Commission staff or using Commission resources. These 'unofficial official' errands paid very well, and Denton was smart enough to keep quiet about them when that was necessary.

As time passed, as McRane, Denton became something of an unofficial, quiet operative of the intelligence and security staff of the Commission in Cataka, he was uniquely positioned to carry out this role, given his talent for language, his contacts both above and below board, and the fact that he was trusted by both Human and Vertaran factions. His plane, and his cargo and passenger business, was a perfect (and real) cover for such errands, as well.

Denton often found himself in somewhat violent situations, both as part of his regular business, which took him into contact with various shady groups on a semi-regular basis, and his quiet unofficial work for the Commission. The irony of working for the very Commission that had arrest warrants out for him in his real identity was not lost on Denton, and became a source of considerable amusement to him in some moods.

Denton made a major, and dangerous, discovery during a misadventure on West Continent. He was there to deliver a load of valuable supplies to an archaeological team, including spare parts for their power sources and other equipment. Thieves stole part of his cargo, and the subsequent misadventure involved in retrieving it took Denton deep into the local jungles. He retrieved the cargo, but he also made a discovery that excited him and scared him at the same time.

Denton discovered a cache of orichalcum, nearly 10 grams of the substance, in a jungle-covered ruin in the depths of a jungle. Ten grams of orichalcum had a value in the neighborhood of nine hundred million American dollars, it was a trove so valuable that it was almost worthless from one point of view. If he revealed that he had such a thing, his 'secret identity' would never last, and he would become a target for criminals, spies, and other dangerous players, he might well not live long enough to sell any of it. The orichalcum became a Secret Denton held, while he tried to work out how to profit from it without ending up imprisoned or dead.

Denton also made an enemy of the smuggling ring that had led to the destruction of the spacecraft, years before. Kening became an Enemy, Denton wanted to capture him alive to use him to clear his name under his real identity, and Kening wanted Denton dead to secure his own safety. Kening was forced to move carefully, though, because of Denton's contacts in the government and the underworld.

In 2123, Denton, as 'McRane', is a mostly-respected businessman in Cataka and SharThak. The income from his work makes him comfortable, most of the time.

Denton is not entirely unhappy with his life on Veranis, but he badly wants to clear his name, both as a matter of pride and principle, and because he has family on Earth that believe him dead, and he would like to let them know the truth. Also, Denton is aware of another consideration: his son Nykor.

Denton knows that as his biological son, Nykor could legally claim American citizenship, which would make him eligible for the heath-boosting and life-extending treatments standard to the citizens of the advanced nations of Earth.

Nykor, as a half-Human/half-Vertaran, still fits in relatively well, at least in the major cities, of Veranis. After a century of occupation by the Human Thakarians, and now the presence of a substantial number of Terrestrians, there are more than a few 'halflings' living on Veranis. In some places and among some groups they are hated or second-class citizens, but in major cities such as Cataka and SharThak they are mostly accepted.

On Earth, Nykor would be much more of an outsider...but the biotechnic treatments would nearly double his life expectancy, and make him far healthier as well. Denton is very much aware of that.

Denton remains on good terms with the mother of Nykor. His womanizing has been greatly curtailed of late, though. In part this is a function of the fact that he is not quite as young as he once was, but mostly it is a result of a burgeoning relationship with a woman named Amanda Kerrey.

MORE LATER.

Re: ORICHALCUM UNIVERSE: VERANIS (Dyaxor A V) in 2123...
 

How long can half-Terrestrian/half-Vertarans live? Like what is the average lifespan assuming they live somewhere safe and nicely developed (assuming without the life extension treatments) and being healthy (i.e. keeping themselves healthy like not having a terrible diet, smoking, etc)?

And in places with this life-extension treatment, how long do people generally live? Like what is the average lifespan with the treatment?

Re: ORICHALCUM UNIVERSE: VERANIS (Dyaxor A V) in 2123...
 

A healthy Vertaran can expect to live about as long as a healthy Human, under similar conditions. The half-species offspring usually live similarly, though their mixed heritage is a benefit in some ways and a detriment in others. The halflings are slightly more vulnerable to cancer than either parent race, for ex, and some of them (but not all) inherit the Vertaran vulnerabilty to ionizing radiation. On the other hand, the halflings mixed heritage makes them less vulnerable to a number of parasites and diseases that are specialized to attack one parent race or the other, too.

On Earth in 2124, in the advanced nations like the USA/Argentina/Australia, China, or the Empire, the combination of health treatments, longevity drugs, and a number of other techniques adds an effective +2 to HT for most purposes*, gives an additional +2 to most disease resistance rolls, increases tissue regeneration (so wounds heal somewhat faster, but still not instantaneously) and slows (but does not stop) the aging process. The average life expectancy for a healthy male in 2124 in the advanced nations of Earth is about 120-130 years, females slightly longer (but not by much). The overall slowing of the process affects most aspects of aging.

To calculate the effects of aging for adults under those regimens, multiply their actual age in years by about 0.625. Thus a fifty year old would look, sound, act, and otherwise seem about 30 to us. A seventy year old seem to us (look, act, etc.) as if they were in their early 40s. Very late in life the retardation fails quickly, so the 'last year effect' is still real.

Initial maturation is barely affected, one still reaches sexual maturity in the teens, grows at the normal rate, is a physical adult in the late teens or very early 20s, just as now. The retardation is modest in the 20s and accelerates in the 30s, and holds for decades afterward.

One of the biotechnic treatments also results in extended ovulation, so menarche comes at the same time that it does now (or only fractionally later), but menopause comes proportionately later, in synch with the extended lifespan.

All these treatments are very, very expensive, but provided as part of the various national health care systems, (or at government expensive in the private health care systems, depending on the state) in the advanced nations (which is most of them in 2124). The Thakarians have their own versions of the technology, of course.

These techniques are not available widely on Veranis in 2124, however. Which is a major issue and potential source of trouble, since the locals, both educated Vertarans and (now) young Thakarian-descended Humans, know perfectly well that they exist, but don't usually have access to them.

Re: ORICHALCUM UNIVERSE: VERANIS (Dyaxor A V) in 2123...
 

LATER.

AMANDA KAYE KERREY (Age 32, 5'8", blonde hair, green eyes)

IQ 12
DX 13
ST 10
HT 10/12 (Second number represents biotechnic enhancement)

Spd 5.0 (plus Runner skill, in 1G environment)

ADVANTAGES:

Alertness 1
Ally (Paul Denton/'Paul McRane', appears often, very capable)
Appearance (beautiful)
Charisma 1
Common Sense (her friends, associates, and enemies might debate this one)
Contacts (many, varied, +15 points worth)
Danger Sense
Empathy
Fit
Legal Immunity (employee of Three Power Commission)
Patron (Commissioner Neil Bateman, appears occasionally, powerful)
Secret Advantage (significant latent psionic potential)
Strong Will 1

DISADVANTAGES:

Duties (To Three Power Commission/public, Australian Secret Intelligence Service/secret, overlapping, sometimes hazardous)
Enemies (multiple, appear regularly, sometimes very dangerous)
Extra Sleep 1 level
Impulsive
Intolerance (Imperial government officials, military, agents)
Lecherous at -5 level
Overconfident
Phobia(s) (Claustrophobia*, fear of spiders at -15)
Prone to seasickness

QUIRKS:
1. Tendency to jealousy
2. Loves peanut butter potato candy
3. Horrible singer but likes to sing
4. Wears silver contact lenses for visual effect at formal events (no optical effect)
5. Can be 'catty'.

SKILLS:

Acting 12
Area Knowledges:
Adelaide 14
Cataka 14
Veranis 12
Artist 12
Beam Weapons (TL10) 14
Carousing 12
Cooking 11
Dancing 14
Diplomacy 10
Disguise 11
Fast-Talk 12
First Aid 12
Guns (TL10) 15
Intimidation 11
Interrogation 12
Knife 13
Languages
English (Australian dialect, native)
Spanish 14 (literate)
Catakatian 14 (literate)
Thak-Tarak Clan Language 8
Leadership 12
Lip Reading 11
Lockpicking 12
Pickpocket 10
Running 14
Savoir-Faire 14
Secret Lore (city secrets: Cataka) 11
Sex Appeal 13
Shadowing 13
Stealth 10
Streetwise 12
Swimming 15
Unarmed Combat (basic) 12
Writing

Amanda Kaye Kerrey was born in Adelaide, South Australia, in 2091, though her family on the paternal side had lived in Alice Springs for four generations. Her great-great-grandfather was an Australian intelligence officer at the Pine Gap facility during the American/Soviet Cold War, and her family has a tradition of military and intelligence service.

Her mother was born in Australia, but her maternal grandmother was an immigrant from Sweden, fleeing the formation of the Empire, and it is to this Scandinavian heritage that Kerrey owes her pale complexion and naturally blonde hair.

In her teenage years, and later at university, Kerrey was a swimmer and a runner, sports which came naturally to her slender build and lean strength. IN adult life, she continues to keep in shape and retains much of her ability as a runner and a swimmer. While maintaining a successful student athletic effort she also maintained excellent academic grades and when she graduated, with honors, from university, she went directly into the diplomatic service.

(Or so it appeared. In actuality, she was also working for the Australian Secret Intelligence Service, with her diplomatic career as a 'cover'.)

In 2119, she received an assignment that would take her beyond the Earth itself: she was assigned to the Australian contingent of the Three Power Commission staff on the planet Veranis.

MORE LATER.

Re: ORICHALCUM UNIVERSE: VERANIS (Dyaxor A V) in 2123...
 

LATER.

On Veranis, her double-role as a diplomatic staffer and an intelligence officer and field operative kept her quite busy. She expected to have time to adjust, to 'find her bearings', instead she found herself busily engaged in the ongoing shady activities that were so prevalent in the city of Cataka, in the Northlands of Veranis.

Cataka was the closest thing that existed to a capitol city for the planet. It had been used by the Thak-Tarak as their administrative center, and now the new Terrestrian regime was doing the same. Formally, Cataka was the capitol of a local kingdom in the Northlands, and the residence of the royal family thereof. In practice, it was almost an open city, a trade center for the entire northern hemisphere, the headquarters of the Three Power Commission, and a veritable den of spies, smugglers, thieves, native activists, slavers, humanoid traffickers, and worse. It was riddled with Thak-Tarak agents, Imperial agents and other Terrestrial spies, and any number of other players.

Kerrey began as an assistant to a more experienced officer, also working under diplomatic cover. She soon found that the usual 'rules' of such activities were regularly ignored because of the unusual circumstances, before she had been on the planet even a full year, she had been in multiple violent situations, gone undercover to penetrate and a major smuggling operation, had acted as a handler for native operatives, and continued to work in the diplomatic side of the Australian delegation to the Commission as well.

She proved to be good at all this, once she found her footing. By 2021, she was involved in much more complex matters, had picked up a patron in the form of one of the Australian Commissioners, and had been captured by a Thak-Tarak operative and his native agents and tortured before she could be rescued by an Argentine operative. The people who supervised her torture, a pair of Thakarian Human locals, escaped and remain Enemies. (See below for Shalakiar and Tryark.)

(Her claustrophobic tendency dates to this incident. Most of the time she keeps it firmly under control, but in extreme situations she can lose her grip on her phobia. Her spider phobia dates to her early childhood.)

In early 2122, she hired an American expatriate named Paul McRane, because she needed air transport to move an illicit cargo from SharThak to Cataka, and all the Commission aircraft were otherwise occupied. McRane had his own plane, a bizarre but functional machine he had designed and built himself, more or less, and he made a living moving cargoes and passengers using it.

The supposed cargo was a cover for the actual cargo, which was secret, illegal, and politically 'touchy'. The ASIS preferred that even their American and Argentine allies not know about this particular operation, which was another reason that she could not ready use Commission resources. McRane had a reputation for being reliable and discreet, and so she hired him to fly her to SharThak and bring her and her cargo back to Cataka. Simple and easy.

It did not turn out to be simple and easy.

The cargo she wanted brought back to Cataka consisted of smuggled bioweaponry that had been stolen from an Australian arsenal and smuggled to Veranis. ASIS and Australian Army personnel had followed it to Veranis, and they had recovered the materials from the locals to whom it had been sold in the jungles of Central Continent. Kerrey was tasked to get it back to Cataka where it could be quietly loaded onto the next star carrier bound for Earth. For various reasons, the Australian government did not want the whole incident known, even to their allies.

Naturally, everything went wrong almost from the moment Kerrey and McRane landed in SharThak. McRane needed to refuel his plane for the flight back to Cataka. That was to be expected, but there had been a leak somewhere and the opposition knew about the operation, and they attacked while the plane was being refueled. McRane and Kerrey barely got out alive, and the cargo was stolen back from them...along with McRane's plane.

What followed was two weeks of insanity, during which they eventually managed to recapture the plane and the cargo. McRane proved to be remarkably effective in the whole thing, though when he learned what the cargo really was, he was less than pleased. He ended up charging three times his original fee, and Kerrey more or less had to pay it, since secrecy was critical.

But McRane proved to be a useful contact and asset, and Kerrey found herself hiring him again, and again, for this or that operation or activity. She and McRane also found themselves embroiled in an on-again, off-again romantic entanglement that broke most of the rules of tradecraft, but which seemed to have a life of its own.

Eventually, Kerrey learned the real identity of 'Paul McRane', and she kept quiet.

By 2124, everyone who knows them knows that Paul McRane, pilot for hire, and Amanda Kerrey of the Australian diplomatic staff, are an item. Not so many know about her intelligence work, or his utility to it. They work well together, though Kerrey does have a jealous streak, and McRane has a history of womanizing, with both Human and Vertaran women in cities all over Veranis. She tends to be especially jealous of Nayais, the mother of his halfling son, though she tries to remind herself that whatever they had was over long since. She is also jealous, on another level and degree, of his connection with his son Nykor.

A quirk of their relationship is that both Kerrey and McRane/Denton have an intense phobia toward spiders, which many of their friends and associates find amusing.

Kerrey is strongly hostile, almost viscerally so, to Imperial soldiers and government personnel. This is of course common among Australians of her generation, due to the Tasmanian Situation, but in her case it is stronger because her older brother was an officer in the Royal Australian Navy, and he was killed in an 'incident' off the coast of Tasmania in 2118. The professional in her knows that that sort of emotional compromise is best avoided, but she is human and her emotions are what they are.

MORE LATER.

Re: ORICHALCUM UNIVERSE: VERANIS (Dyaxor A V) in 2123...
 

LATER.

XYARKYTHIS (Age: 50 Terran years Height: 6'3" Hair: Red Eyes: Blue)
Half-Human/half-Vertaran merchant/crime lord


IQ 12
DX 11
ST 13
HT 11

Spd: 5.5

ADVANTAGES
Alertness 2
Charisma 1
Cool
Common Sense
Contacts (too many to list)
Fit
Patron (prince of local royal family, appears often, powerful, must remain hidden)
Strong Will 1
Unusual Background (half-Human/half-Vertaran)
Wealth (comfortable/filty rich)

DISADVANTAGES

Enemies (Many, highly varied, dangerous)
Greed
Lecherousness at -10 level
Overconfidence
Secret (crime lord in Catakan underworld)

QUIRKS
1. Usually shaves head
2. Always carries hidden knife
3. Disdains rudeness
4. Dislikes open countryside
5. Loves tomatoes

SKILLS

Administration 14
Area Knowledge(s)
Cataka city 15
Catakan Monarchate 14
Veranis 11
Beam Weapons TL10 13
Boating 12
Dancing 12
Fast-Talk 12
Guns TL10 13
History (Catakan specifically) 14
Interrogation 13
Knife 15
Language(s)
Catakan (native)
English 15 (but not literate)
Spanish (Argentinian Dialect) 10 (not literate)
Thak-Tarak Clan Language 15 (literate)
Leadership 14
Riding 11
Secret Lore (city secrets of Cataka) 15
Streetwise 16
Swimming 12
Writing 13

Xyarkythis is probably the most powerful single person in the underworld of Cataka in 2124. Born the offspring of a Thak-Tarak woman of high status, after a more-than-slightly improper affair with a Vertaran native, he was more or less abandoned to his own devices before his tenth birthday.

Growing up on the streets of Cataka, he joined one of the many criminal gangs that preyed upon the city, and rose through the ranks of that first gang by a combination of native intelligence, ruthlessness, and a bit of luck. When that gang was wiped out in a gang war with a rival group, he went on to found his own smuggling organization with the survivors of both groups, and by the time he was 30 years old, he was running rackets all over the city. Murder, humanoid trafficking and prostitution, smuggling of pretty much any commodity, regardless of its nature, extortion, trading in illegal drugs, arson, name a major crime and you could find Xyarkythis involved, directly or indirectly, but always profitably.

When the Thak-Tarak Clan was forced to yield control to the incoming Terrestrians, Xyarkythis was caught just as much by surprise as everyone else, but he adapted to the change far more quickly than many of his rivals, and even thrived in the new, dangerous, spy and crime ridden environment of the city. The illegal traffic of the drug Terrestrians call 'Nostalgia' became a major source of income, addicts in New York City were funding a crime lord on Veranis.

In 2124, Xyarkythis is apparently a reputable businessman, running a profitable trading house that leaves him with Comfortable wealth. In fact, his legitimate business is exactly what it seems, and it also provides a wonderful cover for his far more lucrative illegal activities. The only limitation is that he must conceal the full extent of his wealth, most of the time.

Though Xyarkythis is the most powerful kingpin in Cataka, he is not the only one, and he does not dominate the underworld. Several rivals remain major competitors, and though Xyarkythis is wealthier and more powerful than any two of his rivals, they could overwhelm him if the dozen or so other major players combined against him. Driven by an insatiable hunger for power and wealth, Xyarkythis constantly plots to gain more power and secret control.

Among his many enemies is Paul Denton. It was Xyarkythis, or rather one of his subordinates, who planted the bomb that destroyed the spacecraft Denton was working aboard, resulting in the death of several crewmates and close friends. Denton knows that, by 2124, but can not actually prove anything about that. On the other hand, Denton does know enough that if he released his information, it would be a major blow to Xyarkythis' organization.

(This is the most important reason Xyarkythis has not simply had Denton/McRane killed long since. Denton has made it clear that if something happens to him, that information will be made available to various interested parties, including some of his underworld rivals.)

Xyarkythis has contacts all over Cataka and beyond, ranging from the royal family to the staff of the Three Power Commission to the business class down to the poorest of the neighborhoods of the city. Law enforcement personnel know perfectly well about his illegal activities, but proving anything is quite a different matter. Also, removing Xyarkythis would create a power vacuum in the underworld, and few are eager to see the violence that would follow from such a development. Thus Xyarkythis moves among the Great and the Goo-well, the Great and the Wealthy and Powerful, anyway, quite openly using his above-board identity.

Today Xyarkythis prefers to leave violence to his employees, but he is not incapable of it. He is capable with modern beam weopons and modern firearms, he prefers the latter because he lacks the technical skill to fully understand the former. He can use them, but he understands firearms rather better. He always carries a knife and he is lightning fast with it. He has no compunctions about killing when it serves his needs, whether the prospective victim is male or female, a child or elderly, does not matter.

Though he is an illegal drug smuggler and manufacturer, he personally does not use the stuff, ever. He does not even drink alcohol. He prefers to keep a clear head at all times. He carefully watches what he eats and drinks, with an eye toward health and nutrition.

A quirk is that he absolutely loves fresh tomatoes, a fruit introduced to Veranis by its new Terrestrian overlords.

Xyarkythis is an intelligent, driven, and cold customer. He is not exactly a sociopath, he is capable of caring for other humanoids, but he expresses this caring for a very limited group. His word, in business arrangements both legal and illegal, is usually good. This is not out of any moral compunction, but simply because it is 'good business'. He has never married, but maintains several women, Human and Vertaran, more or less as concubines. He actually treats them rather well, as such things go, they live in luxury, but he would ruthlessly kill any of them if they violated his trust or his rules.

Xyarkythis has set himself to learn the working language of the new rulers of Veranis. In practice, most Three-Power Commission business is done in English, since two of the Three Powers are Anglophone nations. Xyarkythis has learned to speak English quite fluently, though he is not literate in English (yet). He speak Argentinian Spanish somewhat, far less so than English, but he understands more than he lets on of that tongue as well. (Again, he is totally illiterate in Spanish.) He speaks English well enough to pass for an American or Australian, except that he has been unable to entirely eliminate his Catakan-Veranisian accent when speaking English.

Xyarkythis grew up in Cataka, and he is a creature of the city. As an odd side-effect, he is uncomfortable in rural areas and the open countryside. It is not strong enough to be considered a phobia, but 'wide open spaces' and forests and the open ocean and so forth leave him nervous and uneasy.

Xyarkythis still has connections with the Thak-Tarak Clan, and he would be able to thrive if the Thakarians reconquered Veranis. On balance, the crime lord is not quite sure if he preferred the former regime or the current one, there were upsides to both for a crime kingpin.

MORE LATER.

Re: ORICHALCUM UNIVERSE: VERANIS (Dyaxor A V) in 2123...
 

LATER.

SHALAKIAR and TRYSARK

Two people, but combined character lists because they are so similar

Shalakiar (Age 25, 6'0", blonde hair, olive complexion, blue eyes, male)

IQ 10 DX 12 ST 13 HT 10 Spd 5.5

Tryark (Age 23, 5'10", blonde hair, olive complexion blue eyes, female)

IQ 10 DX 12 ST 10, HT 10 Spd 5.5

Shalakiar and Trysark are siblings, brother and sister. Both are Humans, born on Veranis but of Thakarian ancestry. They work for the criminal organization run by Xyarkythis, as enforcers and 'troubleshooters'. They are widely feared in the Catakan underworld, with reason. They are not twins, but they are remarkably similar in mental and physical traits, and even bear a notable physical resemblance in spite of their differing genders.

Common Advantages
Alertness 1
Ally Group (personal retainers, 8-10 at a given time, competent, constant)
Appearance (Average)
Area Knowledge(s)
Cataka 14
SharThak 13
Catakatia (the large territorial state in which Cataka is located) 13
Composed
High Pain Threshold
Patron (Xyarkythis, common, powerful, appears often)
Reputation (dangerous thugs, widely known in underworld, protected by Xyarkythis)
Strong Will 2
Wealth (comfortable)

Common Disadvantages

Addiction (larsh*, a common stimulant/sedative drug on Veranis)
Bad Temper
Co
Bully
Duty (to Xyarkythis, common, dangerous)
Enemies (too numerous to list, Paul Denton in specific)
Greed
Hidden Lore
(City Secrets, Cataka 15, SharThak 12)
Jealousy
Lecherousness at -15
Paranoia (arguably semi-justified**)
Sadism

Common Quirks
1. Finish each other's sentences
2. Appear to be jealous of each other's romantic/sexual partners
3. Always wear the same colors
4. Fear of flying at quirk level
5. Indifferent to the taste of meals

In addition to the above, the male sibling is missing his left hand, and it was his dominant hand, giving him the One Hand Disadvantage (a fight with Paul Denton left him minus a hand, he wants payback, Denton would like a chance to kill him and/or his sister, the hostility is mutual).

Common Skills
Blackjack 12
Carousing 14
Dancing 13
Detect Lies 12
Diplomacy 13 (when they bother to use it)
Fast-Talk 14
First Aid 11
Guns TL10 14
Interrogation 14
Knife 15
Language(s)
Catakan (native and literate)
Thak-Tarak Clan Language (literate) 14
English 6 (illiterate)
Leadership 12
Poisons 14
Sex Appeal 12
Shadowing 12
Speed Load 12
Streetwise 14
Swimming 12
Unarmed Comat (advanced) 14
Driving (the common power vehicles in Cataka) 12

These siblings are...strange. Though not twins, they finish each other's sentences with uncanny precision, and without apparent effort. They think so similarly that it is something mistaken for Telepathy (in fact they are both almost totally psi-dormant, and psions make them nervous). Their manner is so calm, so controlled, their mannerisms and other 'tells' so strictly governed, that they have been known to make people nervous simply by being in the room. They seem totally uninterested in food, except as necessary fuel, a well-prepared steak or a bowl of porridge is equally acceptable to either.

They share a number of mental Disadvantages which they rarely openly display, being possessed as well of considerable will power and self-control. This is necessary both to avoid trouble and because their employer Xyarkythis is not amused by subordinates who lack self-discipline. They reinforce each other in this, each gets a +1 to Will rolls when they are physically together (in the same space where they can see and hear each other, essentially).

That said, when the opportunity to indulge their negative impulses in safety comes, they rarely pass it up.

Their Sadism is the real deal, none of this 'safe sane and consensual' stuff, they tend to start small and work their way through broken bones and sharp knives, and when free to indulge they rarely stop short of death. They enjoy torture and killing for their own sake, and are quite undiscriminating in their preferred victim profile. Male, female, young, old, they do not care what species the victim is, either. Each one shows a slight preference for victims of the opposite sex, but at quirk level, and they prefer to torture as a team.

Nobody is sure if they are actually bisexual in orientation or not, but either one can and will use Sex Appeal on either gender as it seems useful. They do appear to prefer the opposite sex for romantic and sexual activity for its own sake, but nobody is really sure except for them.

One trait many people who know them find unnerving is that both brother and sister seem to become visibly jealous of the romantic partners of the other sibling, fairly consistently.

An even more disconcerting fact that is known to few is that they murdered their older brother, when they were respectively seven and nine, and the victim was fourteen.

Their ally group of associates is not precisely unwilling, though they definitely do fear their employers, and many would be too afraid of them to try to quit. For the most part, though, their associates share many of their own mental traits and also their own self-control, they are chosen for that, so working for these two is a chance to indulge their own appetites regularly.

As noted above, there are many people who would cheerfully kill either or both of them the moment an opportunity presented itself, and they know it. They take constant precautions to protect their own safety, and so far none of their many enemies has been able to make it happen.

MORE LATER.










*Larsh is a local drug popular in Veranis, derived from a local shallow seaweed. It is locally legal, but highly addictive and can act either as a stimulant or a sedative, depending on the dose and the individual (similar to alcohol in some ways). It is moderately expensive and socially disapproved of, though legal.

** There are many, many people who are quite definitely out to get this pair of siblings, for any number of good and bad reasons. Their own actions have left a substantial number of people nursing a desire for revenge, rival criminals would enjoy taking them out to weaken Xyarkythis (and sometimes out of revenge or occasionally even moral revulsion, too). They still deserve the Paranoia Disadvantage because their dread and suspicion goes far beyond even what their situation justifies, and reaches out to touch people who have never heard of them and could not care less about them.

Re: ORICHALCUM UNIVERSE: VERANIS (Dyaxor A V) in 2123...
 

LATER.

Some more about Veranis in general:

As mentioned upthread, Veranis has five major land masses, and it so happens that at the current time, tectonics have moved those lands masses, for the most part, into one hemisphere. As noted, there is a large northern continent, a large southern continent, and three smaller continents spread along the equator in the ocean between the Northlands and the Southlands. Individually the three Equatorial Continents (Eastlands, Central Continent, and Westlands) are smaller than the Northlands and the Southlands, but collectively larger.

(Of course these are Terrestrian terms for the land masses, the locals have many names for the various land masses, in various languages.)

The Equatorial Continents reach around the equator (naturally), covering an arc about 175 degrees wide. The other side of Veranis is, for the most part, open ocean, much like the Pacific Ocean on Earth, but on an even larger scale. The far side of Veranis does have some small islands, mostly hot spot volcano chains analogous to the Hawaiian-Emperor Seamount chain on Earth, along with a couple of very small 'microcontinents'.

The larger of the two microcontinents is about the size of Great Britain, the smaller, some hundreds of kilometers away from it to the south, is about the size of Scotland. They are drifting apart, having been part of a single microcontinent a few tens of millions of years earlier. As a result, the northern coast of the larger microcontinent, and the southern coast of the smaller, are mountainous, as the microcontinental plates override the local sea floor, which the opposite coasts are gentler.

The larger of the two is mostly barren rock and desert. The smaller is actually somewhat clement, with some arable land and tolerable rainfall, but it was only lightly settled by the locals before the Thakarians came, precisely because it is so very far from the major land masses on the other side of the planet. Only a handful of Vertarans lived there when the Thakarians came, and the Thakarians removed them forcibly, because they had their own plans for this island-microcontinent.

In essence, this island, known as Garith by the locals, was turned into a prison and place of exile by the Thak-Tarak Clan after they took control of the planet. Located thousands of kilometers from the major land masses, it was well suited to the purpose. The local climate and arable land made it practical to keep the prisoners busy growing their own food and maintaining their own existence.

The Thak-Tarak Clan did not lack for ruthlessness, and they executed most rebels and more serious criminals with a minimum of delay. The island was used for prisoners who were either useful alive, or too 'sensitive' in some way to simply execute. Exactly what could qualify a prisoner under these rules was highly varied, and very contextual.

Thus, the population of Garith, by the time the Terrestrians took control, was a mix of genuinely violent types, murderers, rapists, arsonists and so forth who were either too useful to kill or too connected to kill, as well as various flavors of political prisoner (which could range from armed rebels to outspoken natives to someone who simply knew too much about someone or something), along with locals born to the prisoners.

'Natives' of Garith were not, technically, prisoners. The Thak-Tarak would permit someone born to a prisoner father or mother leave...but they would not usually assist them in leaving. Such a person had to make their own arrangements to get to civilization, and this was not easily done on an island thousands of kilometers away from the major continents.

To make it worse, the Thak-Tarak rulers did forbid certain activities that might enable a theoretically free resident from leaving. Since it was a prison island, seaship construction was forbidden. After all, permitting the locals to establish a seaship construction industry would hardly be conducive to prison security.

Thus, to leave the island, a freeborn resident would have to somehow arrange for someone from the main land masses to come to bear him away. Since local communication facilities were highly limited, this was not easily done.

Under Thakarian rule, the island was governed by an official whose title we could translate into English readily enough as warden. The Warden was the absolute ruler of the prisoners, and in theory the freeborn residents were not under the authority of the Warden. In practice, since most of the locals, freeborn or prisoner, were highly dependent on the support infrastructure of the prison, the authority of the Warden was close to absolute for prisoner and free resident alike.

MORE LATER.

Re: ORICHALCUM UNIVERSE: VERANIS (Dyaxor A V) in 2123...
 

LATER.

It should be noted that the Thak-Tarak reluctance to assist native-born Garithi to leave also extended to former prisoners. Some of the prisoners consigned to the Garith prison were there for specific terms short of life. When their sentences were finished, they were freed from the prison proper, but not necessarily provided with transportation off Garith. If there was some reason to provide such, they would, but generally former prisoners were expected to find their own way back to the mainland...if they could.

The Thakarians ruled Veranis for slightly more than a Terran century, and they used Garith as a prison for most of that time. Along with locals, some Thakarians were also imprisoned here, depending on their offenses and the current policies of the Thak-Tarak ruling elite.

As a result, by the time the Terrestrians ousted the Thak-Tarak, the permanent population of Garith was made up of life prisoners, former prisoners, and the offspring of prisoners. Both Humans of Thakarian ancestry and local Vertarans were present (as well, inevitably, as a few 'halfings' born of unions between the two species).

Along with this population, there was the staff of the prison, guards, administrators, cooks, support personnel, and so forth, but these mostly rotated in and out, they were not permanent residents of Garith.

By the time the American, Argentine, and Australian forces ousted the Thakarians, Garith had a 'permanent' population of between five and six thousand, about four thousand Vertarans and one thousand Humans (and a few hundred halflings). Some families had lived on Garith for as long as four generations, descended from prisoner great-grandparents.

Garith has a land area of about seventy thousand square kilometers, and it is roughly rectangular, wider to the west. The southern coast is mountainous, and somewhat volcanic, where the seafloor to the south subducts under the south-drifting Garith microplate. The island runs about four hundred and sixty kilometers roughly east-west, by about one hundred kilometers north-south. The mountainous southern coast is steep toward the ocean, but the slope is gentler to the north, descending into rolling hills along the north coast.

The ocean is deep to the south, where the mountainous coast faces a subduction zone, but mostly shallower to the north. The microplate is substantially larger than the island itself, and there is a wide continental shelf to the north of the coast. There are two good, sheltered deep-water bays on the island, both on the eastern side. Because the microplate is both longer and wider than the island, the mountain chain on the southern coast extends into the sea as two chains of small islands to the east and west of the main island. These islands are mostly uninhabited, and some are actively volcanic.

The island is situated in the northern mid-latitudes, not too far above the tropics, and the prevailing winds come from the east. Garith tilts slightly southeast-northwest, which produces heavy rainfall on the gentler northern slopes of the southern mountains. Several fast, deep rivers rise in these slopes and flow more or less northward toward the ocean. The island has little in the way of winter, instead it has a cool wet season and a warmer dry season. Enough rain falls in the mountains, however, that the rivers remain full throughout most of the dry season.

During the warmer periods of the year, Garith experiences occasional hurricanes, usually of modest strength. Occasional superstorms do strike the island, but the worst of these tend to strike the mountain face to the south, which reduces the overall impact somewhat. The eastern coast is the most vulnerable area where hurricanes are concerned, which unfortunately does include the two best harbors and the two largest cities on the island.

The southern region, being mountainous, has only localized valleys of arable land, but as one moves northward the land turns into rolling hills, and finally into lowlands at the north coast, and there is extensive arable land throughout this region. Local farms, together with limited herding and fishing, provide most of the food on Garith, only a few luxury foods are imported from the mainland.

There are three significant population centers on Garith. Two of them are centered around the sheltered bays on the east coast that provide the best ocean access for seagoing vessels. Each of these towns has a population of about fifteen hundred. Inland is another city, with a population of about one thousand, this was the actual site of the former Thakarian prison complex. The rest of the population lives in scattered villages and rural areas.

The inland city was the prison, and it was also the site of the Residence of the Warden who was the de facto ruler of the entire island. Under Three Power rule, the prison remains in operation, with a much smaller population, and there is a warden of the prison and a separate Administrator appointed by the Three Power Commission to govern, more or less, the rest of the populace.

The Three Power Commission inherited a serious problem in the Garith prison when they displaced the Thak-Tarak rulers. They had to sort through those who they felt belonged in the prison, and those who did not, because the Terrestrians had very different ideas about what constituted an offense.

They also made it possible for former prisoners to leave the island readily, and because of that, the population of Garith fell significantly in the first few years after the Commission was established, as various former prisoners returned to the mainland. Some former prisoners opted to remain, and many of the 'native born' Garithi considered the island to be home.

MORE LATER.

Re: ORICHALCUM UNIVERSE: VERANIS (Dyaxor A V) in 2123...
 

LATER.

The prison itself is actually in two parts. There is the Inner Core, which is more like that most modern Terrestrians think of when they picture a prison. A large complex of buildings, with cells, yards, commissaries and other support facilities, it is large enough to house as many as one thousand inmates at a time, if need be, or more with crowding.

Most of the prisoners, though, were not held here. This facility was reserved for what the Thak-Tarak considered to be the 'hard core' or most 'sensitive' prisoners. (Though their definitions of that were not aways what a typical Terrestrian would subscribe to.)

The majority of the prisoners were held in village-like facilities in rural areas around the core complex. This was entirely practical, because the island itself made a viable prison. Thousands of kilometers of open ocean separate Garith from the nearest inhabited lands, and the only sea craft on the island were small, fragile, short-range fishing craft ill-suited for open ocean travel.

The villages were linked to extensive farmland, and the prisoners themselves grew most of the food consumed by both the prison population and the prison staff. Even prisoners with no background in farming were trained to farm, and this in turn became the basis of the agricultural economy of Garith, among both the prisoners and the freeborn and former prisoners.

As mentioned above, there were fishing boats on Garith. They were deliberately constructed to be somewhat fragile, suitable for local fishing work, but very chancy for a long sea voyage. They were small enough that they would have trouble carrying enough supplies for a voyage, and they were sail powered for the most part. They were also built with a shallow draft and little in the way of stability during harsh weather. They worked well enough in the local northern shallows, during calm weather, but they had little chance of enduring even modest oceanic storms or heavy winds.

This was sufficient for fishing purposes, because of the nature of the local seas. The ocean off the northern coast was shallow, and extended for over one hundred kilometers before falling off into the abyssal plains. The warm shallow water, the constant flow of nutrients from the rivers on the island, and a cold current coming in from the west combined to make the northern shallows very productive. The nets of the fragile fishing craft regularly pulled in large quantities of edible fish, and they simply remained in port when the weather turned harsh.

Though there was some herding on Garith, fish and a local version of beans were the primary protein sources for the population.

When the Terrestrians took control, the new administration found Garith a challenge and a problem on several levels. Allowing the former prisoners and freeborn natives who wished to depart to do so solved one issue, but created others by removing useful skills from the island work force.

Many former prisoners, and most of the freeborn natives, chose to remain, either because they had been born there and considered Garith home, or as long-time former prisoners had no place to go, or preferred to remain. Enough people remained on the island to have a viable gene pool (or rather two, Human and Vertaran) and a functional economy, but socially, matters were very difficult.

The entire population of Garith was made up either of prisoners of the Thak-Tarak regime, former prisoners of the regime, or descendants of such prisoners. Naturally, attitudes toward the outside world were complex and difficult. The Thak-Tarak regime was almost universally despised and hated by both the Humans and the Vertarans of Garith. Even though most of the Humans were themselves of Thak-Tarak descent, or full Clan members, they were also prisoners and tended to hate their jailors.

Still, the Humans were Thakarians, and as such many of the Vertaran prisoners loathed and hated the Human prisoners, and many of the Human prisoners had shared the Thakarian disdain for the native species. So even though the population was mostly unified in hating the Thak-Tarak rulers, they tended to at least dislike or distrust each other along species lines as well.

The Vertaran prisoners, themselves, came from any of hundreds of societies, cultures, and states across five continents. Some of them got along fine, others hated each other at least as much as they hated the Thakarians. This tendency was muted in their descendants, of course, but not absent.

Complicating matters was that along with political prisoners, both Human and Vertaran, the island was host to a substantial number of genuine violent criminals, who added their own tendencies into the social mix on Garith.

As a result, by the time the Terrestrians took control, and mostly still in 2124, the population of Garith is somewhat self-segregated. The two (relatively) large communities on the east coast of the island are partial exceptions, but even here, one town is mostly Human and the other is mostly Vertaran.

The villages scattered across Garith are almost all either Human or Vertaran in population, a member of the other species living full-time in a village of the other species is rare. The Vertaran villages themselves tend to line up along cultural, 'national', religious, and/or linguistic lines. Many Vertarans would find some of the other Vertaran villages at least as hostile as a Human village.

Humanoid nature being what it is, with such a mixed-species population, culturally hostile or not, cross-species pregnancies do happen on a regular basis. As a general thing, Humans and Vertarans are cross-fertile, but not extremely so. Pregnancies can happen from cross-species matings, but usually do not.

For unknown reasons, though, such cross-species hybridizations seem to happen more readily among the population of the island. There are several hundred such halfings on Garith at any given time. Given the inter-species tensions, such halfings often have difficulty finding acceptance among either parent species. As a result, there are a few villages made up almost entirely of halfling hybrids. Since they can not themselves reproduce, their population is renewed by cross-species pregnancies elsewhere.

The halfling population, naturally, is often tensely at odds with the other locals, since their villages are population mostly by exiles from the other villages. Baseline Humans, or pure Vertarans, are often unwelcome in these villages. As a result of local tensions, the three main halfling villages are somewhat separated from the other communities. One is located among the volcanic mountains of the south coast, one on the north coast far from any other villages, and one in a remote valley on the east side of the island.

These three villages are heavily armed, because Garith is a violent place, and the halflings are double-outcasts among the Garithi. The Thakarians limited the availability of modern weaponry, and as a result the most common armaments on Garith are knives, slings, swords, bows, and other such weapons that can be manufactured by local industry.

MORE LATER.

Re: ORICHALCUM UNIVERSE: VERANIS (Dyaxor A V) in 2123...
 

LATER.

The local industry and manufacturing potential of Garith is, obviously, limited. The population is small, disunified, and resources are limited. There is plentiful wood, for construction and fuel purposes, and stone cutting exists as a small local industry. There are blacksmiths, but the supply of metal is very limited, mostly coming from salvage of other metal objects and equipment.

(This is why swords exist in limited number and are something of a status symbol, there just is not very much metal to make them. Metal arrow points and spear points are a far more efficient use of limited resources.)

As noted, Garith is often a violent place, both due to the presence of violent individuals in the initial population, and because of the cultural friction between species and societies and faiths among the populace. Most of the villages are at least moderately well armed, albeit mostly with low-tech weaponry, and as a side-effect of the greater openness under Terrestrian rule, some modern weapons have been successfully smuggled onto the island as well.

Generally, each village claims a wide swath of farmland, pasture, or woodland around the village, and the villagers tend to be very territorial about their land, both for cultural and practical reasons. There are agreed-upon arrangements for crossing 'foreign' territory safely, and wise people follow those protocols, because many villages will unhesitatingly kill a stranger in the wrong place at the wrong time. Some villages have engaged in what amounts to warfare with others, and some feuds have gone on for decades, breaking into open violence periodically.

The Thakarian Wardens usually took a 'hands off' approach to inter-village disputes and troubles, up to and including tolerating open warfare and occasional mass slaughters. The Terrestrians are less tolerant on such matters, but must step carefully because the surest way to unite the locals against them would be to try too hard to restrict their internal disputes. The Administrator has a force of U.S. Marines in modern personal armor and with modern weaponry, and will intervene to stop large-scale fighting between villagers, but small-scale violence, vandalism, and occasional assassinations still go on.

Paradoxically (or not, historically such situations are not rare), the same villages that often war on each other also trade heavily. Some villages are farmers, some have pasture and herd or woodland, a few are near sources of stone that can be cut for building. The villages trade in food, hides, wood, charcoal, stone, the villages with blacksmiths do a limited amount of metal work (because of a limited amount of metal), but what work they do is highly valued in trade. A few villages have grist mills or other such facilities, and north coast villages supply seafood to the entire island.

Officially, the Three Power Administrator rules Garith. In practice, as elsewhere on Veranis, it is more a matter of negotiation and 'muddling through'. Each village has a headman, chief, mayor, or other such official who acts as a spokesman for the village to the Administrator, and to other villages.
The three relatively large towns have governing boards and mayors appointed by the Administrator.

Periodically, the Administrator gathers the village leaders for an assembly to settle disputes, negotiate, and try to smooth the waters, these assemblies are the closest thing Garith has to a local governing body.

The technology base on Garith is the usual dichotomous Veranisian mixture of ancient and modern. Electrical power is actually plentiful on Garith, a bank of sunpower tubes installed by the Thakarians provide more than sufficient energy for the prison itself and the needs of all the other locals. The sunpower tubes are Thakarian technology, but still fully operational in 2124.
[1]

Though energy is plentiful, under the Thak-Tarak regime availability was highly restricted, as a tool of control. The Terrestrian administration has permitted even the most remote villages to tap into the island power network. This has done a great deal to make the new regime more popular on Garith.

A similar situation existed regarding medical care. The Thakarians maintained a well-equipped infirmary at the prison core complex, with modern interstellar-tech level care. This was restricted to prison personnel, and 'special' prisoners, however. The new government has made modern medical care available to most of the islanders.

Communications on the island are modern, every village, even under the Thakarians, had at least one communication system able to reach other villages or the prison core. Since the new administration came in, that has only become more so, and communications links to the mainland are now common as well.

Even under the Thakarians, there was an island-wide fresh water system, even the remote villages have plentiful clean running water.

Transportation and farm life, on the other hand, is primarily based on animal power for most villagers. A common draft and riding animal on Veranis is a creature locally called a tharjak. It's actually a type of small dinosaur, that proved domesticable by the Vertarans long before the Thakarians arrived. The locals used tharjaks as draft animals for farming, and as riding animals, for millennia, and this use is still common Garith. Most farms have at least a couple of tharjaks to pull plows, turn grinding wheels, and otherwise do the work of the farm, and usually several tharjaks, including some trained for riding. Tharjaks are slow, as riding animals go, but they have tremendous endurance and are very strong, and can pull large loads easily.

Thus a typical farmer on Garith Island might live in a house with electrical power, many modern communications devices, refrigeration and modern heating and cooling devices (especially since the Terrestrian regime opened up regular commerce with the mainland), but the farm is animal powered and trips to visit neighbors are on tharjak-back. Tharjak-dung is a common fertilizer, as well.

Under Terrestrian rule, there is a regular shuttle to the Northlands, in the form of a 'flying boat' type aircraft that puts down at one of the eastern ports once a week, carrying cargo and passengers. The fragile, dangerous fishing boats are gradually being replaced by modern modern and safer and effective vessels as well.

MORE LATER.


[1] For more about sunpower tubes see here: Sunpower Tubes

Re: ORICHALCUM UNIVERSE: VERANIS (Dyaxor A V) in 2123...
 

RAMON CALVO (Administrator of Garith in 2124)

Age: 50
Height: 6'0"
Hair: Black
Eyes: Blue

IQ: 12
DX: 10
ST: 11
HT: 10/12 (split HT due to biotechnic enhancement)

Appearance: [handsome]

ADVANTAGES:
Administrative Rank 3 [Administrator of Garith Island and Garith Prison]
Charisma 1
Common Sense
Empathy
Legal Enforcement Powers [Administrator of Garith Island and Garith Prison]
Secret Advantage [latent psion]
Security Clearance [Commission Staff 3, Argentine Diplomatic Corps 3]
Status 1
Wealth [comfortable]

DISADVANTAGES:
Code of Honor [diplomat]
Duty [Argentine Diplomatic Corps, Three Power Commission, all the time, not usually hazardous, stressful]
Intolerance [Thak-Tarak Thane officers, Imperial military personnel, both -5]
Lecherousness [-10 level]
Phobia [snakes, -10]
Stubborn

QUIRKS:
1. Gluttony at -1 level
2. Collects pre-Columbian Argentinian artifacts
3. Vegetarian [will drink milk and use comparable animal products, though]
4. Weakness for female redheads
5. Early riser, prefers to be up before local dawn

SKILLS:

Area Knowledge(s):
Argentina 13
Buenos Aires 13
Cataka 12
Garith Island 12
Puerto Iguazu 15
Artist 11
Administration 14
Detect Lies 13
Diplomacy 13
Fast-Talk 12
First Aid 12
Guns [TL10] 12
History [Terrestrian] 10
Language(s)
Spanish [Argentinian dialect, native]
English 15 [fully literate]
Chinese 14 [fully literate]
Russian 12 [full literate]
Garith Creole* 11 (admits to only about 7)
Thakarian 12 [literate at 10]
Savoir-Faire 14
Sex Appeal 11
Writing 14

Ramon Calvo was born in the town of Puerto Iguazu in 2073, and spent his first eighteen years there. He attended college at Universidad de Buenos Aires, before being accepted into the diplomatic service. After two years of training at ISEN, he went on to assignments in the the Alpha Coalition joint diplomatic corps, and then was one of the diplomats assigned to the newly conquered planet Veranis.

On Veranis, Calvo had been present for about two years when he received what was simultaneously a prestigious and a dreaded assignment from the Three Power Commission that governed (loosely and sort of) the planet: he was assigned as the new Administrator of the island of Garith, in the middle of the vast ocean that filled almost all of one hemisphere of Veranis. The island was the sight of what had been a very harsh Thakarian prison complex, and which was still being used as a prison by the Three Powers, albeit with a far smaller cast of inmates and far more humane conditions.

As Administrator, Calvo was both the effective Warden of the Prison, and also the governor of a very diverse and highly fractious population of former prisoners and descendants of prisoners, who were technically free. It was both a difficult position, and one that could lead to tremendous career opportunities if handled well, and ignominy if handled badly.

As of early 2124, Calvo has been the Administrator for not quite two years, and so far has managed to maintain order, supervise a program to deal with the problems of the free population of the island, and prevent any massacres or outbreaks of local warfare. He has also developed stomach ulcers, in spite of the efficiency of the biotechnical enhancements, from the stress of the role.

Calvo has a knack for languages, and has learned to understand the local creole widely spoken on the island by the locals. He actually has a fairly good understanding of the creole, but pretends to have a much lower level of comprehension, leading people to sometimes speak more openly near him than they otherwise would. [1]

Calvo has a dual mandate in his capacity as warden of the prison. Though he is technically the full Warden, in practice the prison is run day to day by one of his deputies, with a background in penal work. Calvo and his deputy are charged with keeping order in the prison and keeping the prisoners secure, but also with ending the brutal, often savage practices the Thakarians had used in running the prison. These goals often conflict.

Calvo has found it useful to allow his deputy to be the 'heavy' who runs the prison day to day, while he plays the role of the sometimes sympathetic, 'reasonable' superior who keeps his deputy under control. This division of roles is partly an act both men engage in deliberately, but it has a basis in reality, his deputy is inclined to a more strict approach by personality.

Calvo personally finds the brutality of the techniques the former Thak-Tarak managers of the prison used to be genuinely repulsive. This has grown intense enough that Calvo has developed an emotional intolerance toward members of the Thak-Tarak Clan 'enforcement arm'. He carefully disciplines this, but it is always present when he must deal with anyone associated with that organization. [2]

Which is not to say that Calvo is soft. On those occasions when it was necessary, fractious prisoners have discovered that Calvo is fully capable of ordering the use of force to keep order (though usually in such cases he acts through his deputy to maintain the 'good warden bad warden' front).

Calvo is unmarried, and actually has a womanizing streak that he watches himself carefully over. When he does indulge it, his natural good looks and high social status tend to make him fairly successful.

Calvo has had a quirk-level extra attraction to redheaded women since he was a teenager. This sometimes causes him issues on Veranis, where the vast majority of the local Vertaran population are redheaded.

Calvo grew up in Puerto Iguazu, which was a heavily fortified military city in his teenage days. Adjacent to the border between Argentina and the Imperial Dominion of Brazil, the town had a tense atmosphere, and this left Calvo with an intolerant attitude toward Imperial military personnel. This might have limited him in his diplomatic career, except that it is widespread in Argentina, at a slightly less intense level.

MORE LATER.

[1] The former prisoners, and descendants of prisoners, who live of Garith derive from hundreds of Veranisian tribes, nations, faiths, etc, with a huge disparity of languages. A 'creole' combining elements of most of these, along with some influence from Thakarian langauge, has come to be the common language of Garith. It has no written form, being a purely verbal language. When writing is used among the Garithi, it usually Thakarian, ironically, because that was the language of the prison administration.

[2] Examples of the Thak-Tarak prison discipline included the use of intense electric shocks, repeatedly to the point of unconsciousness, for such offenses as concealing food or verbal disrespect. Other punishments included deprivation of water for 24-36 hours at a time, sensory deprivation, and in some cases skinning alive, for what Terrestrians consider to be, at most, modest infractions of the rules. It was also considered completely legal and socially acceptable, under Thak-Tarak control, for the administrators and guards to use prisoners for sexual purposes (there were some limits on this, but not many).

Re: ORICHALCUM UNIVERSE: VERANIS (Dyaxor A V) in 2123...
 

LATER.

As mentioned above, before the Thakarians arrived on Veranis, the most powerful states were to be found in the Northlands. These polities commanded the greatest resources of men and materiel, the most sophisticated and powerful economies, and the most advanced local technology. At that time, most of the indigenes of the equatorial continents were either at late Stone Age or early metal age technological levels. The Southlands were a wider mix.

The states of the Northlands, at that same time, were in an early-industrial level of development. The cutting edge developments in the Northlands included steam technology, limited electrical technology, and use of metals such as aluminum (albeit in very small quantities). Wind power was still in wide use to propel Northland sea vessels, but they had built steam-driven ships. The overall Northlands level of development could be loosely compared to that of the Western nations of late Victorian Age Earth.

There were nine major states in the Northlands at that time, along with perhaps two dozens smaller realms, satellite states, and microstates and city-states of various sorts. Of the nine great powers, Catakatia (pronounced roughly 'ku-taka-tia', emphasis on the second syllable) was the strongest military and economically, though only about fourth in terms of territory. Still, the territory that Catakatia did control included some of the best land, and richest natural resources, in the Northlands.

One problem that all the Northlands states faced, and indeed a problem shared with all of Veranis in a sense, was limited sources of certain key resources. The reason for this was simple: Veranis had already seen two full rounds of advanced technological civilization come and go.

First, in the ancient past, the Lakegrandians who had been the first humanoid inhabitants of Veranis had maintained an advanced civilization for millennia.

Then, after the mysterious disappearance of the Lakegrandians from Veranis, the Vertarans that they had imported from the other inhabited world of their star system eventually created their own interplanetary civilization with their cousins on the fourth planet. This period lasted for centuries. Unlike the Lakegrandians, though, the fate of this civilization is well known. Full on nuclear, chemical and biological warfare ended in reducing both planetary societies to primitive conditions, and millennia later, the states of the Northlands were only just beginning to regain some of the lost abilities.

Unfortunately, two previous waves of high-technology civilization had inevitably tapped and used many of the readily available natural resources of Veranis. Many of the readily accessible deposits of useful metals had already been mined. Much of the hydrocarbon reserves to be found on Veranis had long since been extracted and either burned or converted into plastics and other products by the previous civilizations.

Those resources based in the active biosphere renewed themselves over time, of course. By the time the peoples of the Northlands had reached this level of development, the fish population the oceans were back to original numbers, the forests had regrown, making wood plentiful, etc.

Other resources renewed themselves far more slowly.

There was still some accessible coal. Veranis never had as much coal as Earth, but there was a substantial amount and much of it remained in the ground, even after two waves of civilization. It was not always the highest quality coal, of course. Anthracite was rare on Veranis by 1990 A.D., but there was plenty of lignite and bituminous coal left.

Catakatia was one of the states of the Northland that had hardly any coal, but they could trade for it with neighbors. They made up for this lack by a great stroke of luck: there were still substantial untapped petroleum reservoirs in their territory, reservoirs that were not all that deep or hard to tap. For whatever reasons, those reserves had never been utilized by either of the previous waves of civilization, and so they were available for the Catakatians.

On the other hand, the Catakatians were always short of most metals. Basic industrial metals like copper and tin were in short supply. They had learned to use aluminum a little at this time, but refining aluminum was difficult and required huge amounts of energy.

Fortunately, they did have access to substantial amounts of iron, which helped enormously.

On Earth, the best deposits of iron ore were in 'banded iron' rocks created when free oxygen first became a significant component of the atmosphere and hydrosphere, precipitating the dissolved iron. This occurred over a period of many hundreds of megayears.

Veranis, on the other hand, had been terraformed by the Familiar Eldren over the course of a few centuries, and before that, its natural environment had been rather different than that of Earth, even pre-oxygen Earth. Thus many of the local ores and minerals were different than those of Earth, especially in the deeper, older layers of rock.

There had indeed been significant amounts of dissolved iron in the pre-terraformation oceans of Veranis. The sudden changes imposed by the Familiar Eldren had led to much of this iron precipitating out very quickly, creating concentrated ore bodies that were relatively easy to tap into ages later. Even after two waves of technical civilization, there was still substantial amounts of readily accessible iron on Veranis.

(Of course, the flip side of this was that the total supply of iron ore was small compared to that of Earth in absolute terms. On Earth, as oxygen precipitated the iron in the oceans, it would be replenished by erosion from the land masses, and then rising oxygen would again trigger precipitation of iron, over and over. This meant that Earth had much more iron ore in absolute terms, but what ore Veranis had was easier to obtain and refine.)

Most of the Northlands states had access to at least some iron ore, or could readily trade for it. It so happened that the best single deposit of iron ore remaining in the Northlands was in Catakatian territory.

Catakatia, even with the limits they struggled under, had grown wealthy and powerful by the time the Thakarians finally came. Cataka City was the capitol of Catakatia and the seat of its hereditary royal family, and it was already a major trading and manufacturing center by the time the Thakarians arrived.

Of course, the arrival of the Thakarians changed everything.

MORE LATER.

Re: ORICHALCUM UNIVERSE: VERANIS (Dyaxor A V) in 2123...
 

LATER.

Whatever happens, we have got the Maxim Gun, and they have not." -- Hilaire Belloc

It would be difficult to say precisely when the Thakarians arrived on Veranis, in Gregorian terms. Time rates and precise dating are tricky concepts across interstellar distances. Suffice it to say that the Thak-Tarak Thakarians first reached Veranis sometime during what was the late 1990s on Earth.

What followed could be called an invasion, in the same sense that slapping a mosquito could be called melee combat. Five heavily armed Thak-Tarak warships entered orbit around Veranis, and another three around the fourth planet.

Three of the ships orbiting Veranis were troop carriers and cargo vessels, more or less, two were full-on warstars. As landing shuttles deposited Thakarian soldiers on the surface, and the aliens began to establish beachheads and occupy territory, some of the locals attempted to resist with force.

The Thak-Tarak took a direct approach to such efforts. When the military forces of Catakatia attacked a Thakarian landing force, they were wiped out to the last man with heavy automatic rifle and laser fire. Then, to emphasize the point, a mushroom cloud rose above the nearest significant Catakatian city.

Two such incidents, two destroyed cities and about 100,000 dead in one day, were enough to bring an end to organized resistance from the Catakatians. The monarch at that time was prepared to attempt further resistance, but was assassinated and replaced by a monarch who was prepared to surrender.

The story was similar elsewhere. The Northlanders were the most advanced Veranisians, they were at least scientifically and technologically advanced enough to comprehend approximately what what happening. They recognized the Thakarians as mortal beings, they knew enough astronomy to understand the idea of a being from another planet. The scientists of the Northlands even had a fairly good idea that the fourth planet was inhabited by life.

(At that point, the fact that their own distant ancestors had been brought from the fourth world was long forgotten.)

The rest of Veranis was far less sophisticated. In some of the more primitive regions, at first what was happening to them might as well have been an invasion of demons, and in many places, that was precisely what the Thakarians were taken to be.

Regardless of how they were perceived, the Thakarians were an unstoppable conquering force. The most advanced military powers on Veranis were armed with mid-TL5 weaponry, the Thakarians were armed with TL9-10 weapons and technology, and competent in the use of such. The 'war of conquest' was less a war and more of an exercise, and it was essentially over in less than thirty Terran days. Even the most powerful local states could not challenge an enemy who could wipe out entire armies, destroy whole cities, at the push of a button.

Of course, it is one thing to conquer a world, with overwhelming superior technological force. To rule afterward is a different matter. The Thak-Tarak Clan had immense power, beyond the comprehension of the Veranisians, but they were relatively few in number, especially at first. Inevitably, even the primitive Veranisians soon came to realize that these strange beings were no more gods than the Veranisians themselves. The Northlanders knew that to begin with.

Exactly how the Thakarians ruled varied widely from place to place. In the more advanced regions, they either coopted pre-existing power structures, or replaced them. In other areas, they would overawe would-be rebels with periodic, brutally ruthless demonstrations of power. The Thak-Tarak were fully prepared to punish entire populations for the deeds of a few, sometimes on a grand scale. In some of the most primitive areas, the Thak-Tarak simply left the locals to their own affairs, as long as they remained in their own territories.

The Thak-Tarak established an army, made up mostly of local Vertarans, with Thakarian officers, called the Thranne (pronounced tha-ran-ee). This army operated independently of any local government, and soon developed a reputation for brutal ruthlessness. As time passed, more Thakarians arrived, and a second generation of Thakarian Humans were born on Veranis. As the years passed, a new stability began to settle in...a very harsh stability.

In Catakatia, the same royal family continued to reign, and retained a limited amount of real power, at the price of total deference to Thak-Tarak authority. The capitol city, and seat of the royal family of Catakatia, was the ancient (by post-collapse Veranisian standards) city of Cataka. Cataka had been the capitol of the wealthiest and most technologically advanced state on the planet in the pre-Thakarian era, as well as the biggest and most cosmopolitan city on the planet.

Now Cataka also became the headquarters and capitol for the new Thak-Tarak regime, in large part because of the above.

A secret police answered primarily to the Thak-Tarak, and there were firmly enforced restrictions on speech, association, public gatherings, weapons possession, and travel. The punishments for violation were harsh, often including death or mutilation.

A regular 'draft' of personal gathered Catakatians and shipped them elsewhere on Veranis to labor in various projects. Some of them were highly educated and skilled personnel, some were simple laborers, all were, more or less, slaves (though not technically chattel slaves, they were not bought and sold, but they worked where they were sent, for minimal recompense, or else). Most of these men and women were sent elsewhere on Veranis. A few were shipped off-planet to work elsewhere, and few of these ever returned.

(This draft was operating in other states as well, of course.)

In spite of all this, life went on. In Catakatia and other Northlands states, the second and third generations of 'native' Thakarians became somewhat more Veranisian themselves, and the Vertarans inevitably began to learn the technologies and methods of their conquerors.

The Thak-Tarak rule was harsh enough, and 'foreign' enough, that there was always some active resistance toward it. These movements had to be very secret, and often more than somewhat ruthless themselves. When discovered, the Thakarians crushed them ruthlessly. As often happens, many of these disparate resistance movements were as hostile to each other as they were to the Thakarians, as well. The native Vertarans divided into those who hated the Thak-Tarak, those who were more or less willing collaborators, the new ruling class, and the majority somewhere in between.

Then, suddenly, to the shock of every faction, the rule of the Thak-Tarak ended.

MORE LATER.

Re: ORICHALCUM UNIVERSE: VERANIS (Dyaxor A V) in 2123...
 

LATER.

The defeat of the Thak-Tarak came suddenly, and as a profound shock to both the rulers of Veranis and the general population. The news of the defeat of the Thak-Tarak in space precipitated a rapid withdrawal of much of the military strength and political leadership of the Thak-Tarak on Veranis. The Terrestrian victory had been in a battle of space warships, it would be weeks before any significant number of Terrestrian personnel arrived on the planet. That gave the Thak-Tarak time to evacuate almost all their senior leadership, much of the upper rank-and-file, and a great deal of their most important equipment and records. Out of what they could not remove, a great deal was deliberately destroyed, both papers and other hard copy literally burned, and electronic media erased beyond reading.

Still, by the early 2100s, the Thakarians had been on Veranis for over a century, and three generations of 'native' Thakarian Humans had been born on the planet. They were a very substantial population, and not all of them could flee the planet in the few weeks of window before the Terrestrians arrived. Many did not want to leave, Veranis was the only home they had known.

Which is not to say that they necessarily welcomed the Terrestrians, of course.

The new Terrestrian regime was far less harsh than the Thak-Tarak had been...and less efficient at governing the planet, as well.

There were far fewer Terrestrians on Veranis, even after they defeated the Thak-Tarak, than the Thakarians had numbered. The Terrestrian regime was not even of one mind about controlling the planet, it took over a year for the Three Power Commission to come together and begin to function, and even then there was considerable dispute among the new ruling powers about how, and even whether, to govern Veranis long term.

Inevitably, the new Terrestrian regime ended up focused in Cataka City, for the same reasons the Thakarians had chosen it. The royal government of Catakatia had never ceased to function, even during the Thakarian regime, it had acted as a subordinate state to the Thak-Tarak. The monarch in 2105 had been quite content with the status quo, and indeed he fled with the retreating Thak-Tarak, abdicating his throne in favor of his sixteen year old nephew.

The new monarch had to work out a whole new way to operate, since the regime under which his family had ruled for a century was now gone. The young monarch proved adept at negotiating the change, and in fact personally found the Terrestrians far preferable to the former rulers. In 2124, he continues to reign and rule of Catakatia, and he has more actual power than any monarch since the Thakarians first arrived.

Still, though Cataka City remains his theoretical capitol, and is his residence city, it is more of a free city, a trade center and the seat of the Three Power Commission. The king has a good working relationship with the Three Power Commission, but in practice he does not rule his own capitol city.

The current Governor-General of Veranis is David Sebastian, an Australian member of the Three Power Commission. His term of office will end at the end of 2125, and the Governor-Generalship will pass to one of the American members of the Commission, in compliance with rotating system.

(The Commission proper consists of nine members, three each from the USA, Argentina, and Australia. The Governor-General is elected from among the membership, but by custom it rotates. Thus, in 2126, the entire Commission will elect a new G-G, but by custom they must choose one of the three American members. Proposals have been made to add native members to the Commission, either as non-voting members, or possibly eventual voting members, but nothing definite has come of this.)

MORE LATER.

Re: ORICHALCUM UNIVERSE: VERANIS (Dyaxor A V) in 2123...
 

LATER.

SAHANDAR III, the Jarak of Catakatia

Species: Homo vertara

Age in 2124: 34 Terran years
Height: 6'3
Hair: Red
Eyes: Ice-blue

IQ: 12
DX: 12
ST: 12
HT: 10


Spd: 5.5

ADVANTAGES:
Allies/Ally Group (75 points worth)
Appearance (handsome)
Charisma 2
Code of Honor (royal)
Common Sense
Composed
Intuition
Luck
Royal Powers (Catakatian)*
Secret Advantage(s): Latent psion, Flux Affinity 2
Strong Will 2
Wealth [3 levels of Multimillionaire]

DISADVANTAGES:
Code of Honor (royal)
Combat Paralysis
Duty (Jarak of Catakatia, not usually hazardous, difficult, all the time)
Enemies (50 points worth, highly varied)
Phobia (thalassophobia at -10 level)
Sense of Duty (Catakatia)

QUIRKS:
1. Smooth talking 'ladies' man'
2. Keeps a pet Terrestrial cat
3. Disdainful of low-tech equatorial continent 'primitives'
4. Rarely wears royal regalia (other than signet ring)
5. Late riser by choice/night owl

SKILLS:

Administration 12
Area Knowledge(s):
Veranis 11 (Northlands at 14, Catakatia and Cataka each at 15)
Dancing 13
Detect Lies 12
Diplomacy 14
Economics 10
'Falconry' (actually uses a flying reptile native to Veranis) 13
Guns (TL10) 13
History (Veranis/Catakatian) 1433
Heraldry (Catakatian/Northlands) 15
Languages:
Catakatian (native)
English 14 (literate at 14, American dialect)
Spanish 14 (not literate, Argentine dialect)
Thakarian 14 (literate at 14, Thak-Tarak dialect)
Pilot (Helicopter) 13
Politics 14
Riding (tharjak) 14
Savoir-Faire 14
Swimming 12
Writing 14

In 2124, the current Jarak of Catakatia is a man named Sahandar. At 34 Terran years old, he has been the monarch since he was 16 Terran years old. He came to the throne when his uncle, the former Jarak, abdicated to flee with the retreating Thak-Tarak leadership after the Terrestrial victory.

Sahandar is a highly intelligent man, and the royal tutors gave him their money's worth and then some. Highly educated in both theoretical and practical matters, Sahandar has combined those advantages with a high native intelligence and a perceptive personality to produce a formidable persona. He is, by far, the most capable Jarak Catakatia has known since the first arrival of the Thakarians.

The replacement of the Thak-Tarak by the Three Powers left Sahandar with far more leeway to act, as well. His predecessors under the Thakarian regime were not powerless, but they were far more constrained by the Thak-Tarak than Sahandar is under the Terrestrians. For practical purposes, he does rule his kingdom, though his powers in the capitol city are more constrained.

Catakatia is not an absolute monarchy, and was not so even before the Thakarians came. There was a sort of assembly, not an elected body but with members from most parts of the Catakatian society, and their approval was needed to confirm a royal heir to his rank, and they held enough collective power that the monarchs had to handle the assembly with care.

Elective democracy was not much a part of the Catakatian heritage before the Thakarians came. For all their harshness and oppressive (and often indeed quite brutal) century of rule, the Thak-Tarak Clan did practice a certain amount of elective democracy among themselves, and this habit was picked up by their Catakatian subjects. In 2124, the assembly still exists, but about a third of its membership is elected by popular vote from the public.

As said, Catakatia is not an absolute monarchy, but the Jarak is by no means a figurehead, either. The Jarak can enact and repeal law on his own authority, and has legal enforcement powers in his own right. He commands the military and most of the police power of Catakatia as well. The assembly can repeal a decree of the Jarak by a sufficient majority vote, but this is the exception rather than the rule.

The Jarak has the final word on the appointment of most ministers and officials, and they serve at the pleasure of the Jarak. There are a few offices and positions that are filled by the assembly instead, or that require the consent of the assembly to hire or fire, but for the most part the Jarak has complete discretion in such matters.

The Jarak can levy certain taxes at will, up to a maximum level. Other taxes require the consent of the assembly to levy, and even the taxes the Jarak has discretion over have limits he can not legally exceed without the assembly. Still, for the most part, the Jarak holds more than half of the 'power of the purse' in the government of Catakatia.

*(The Jarak holds broad powers, but with some official and unofficial restraints. In practice, this works out to about 100 points worth of powers in GURPS terms, combining things like legal enforcement powers, supreme military command, administrative rank and various duties and limits.)

In theory, a sufficient majority of the assembly can force a Jarak to abdicate, passing the power on to his approved heir. In practice, such a vote requires a large majority, and is politically fraught. More than one troublesome Jarak has been assassinated in Catakatian history, rather than 'impeached'.

The Jarakship is passed on by blood heredity in the male line. Absent a son, the Jarakship passes to a brother, a nephew, or the closest male relative of the previous Jarak, subject to the assembly veto. If the Assembly refuses to confirm an heir, the title then passes to the next person in the line of succession. In practice, this assembly veto is a politically fraught power.

The Jarak would be referred to in Catakatian by a phrase that would literally translate into English as something like 'serene elder', but 'royal highness' captures the sense of it more precisely. The direct form of address would be translated literally as 'your elder serenity', but again, the actual sense of the phrase translates better as 'your highness'.

MORE LATER.

Re: ORICHALCUM UNIVERSE: VERANIS (Dyaxor A V) in 2123...
 

Regarding the general tech level of the spacefaring nations of Local Space, if one were to use the GURPS Uplift tech table, where would they generally fall under?

Since orichalcum has allowed for several technologies with gravity control along with psi-tech.

And since both settings are 3e.

Re: ORICHALCUM UNIVERSE: VERANIS (Dyaxor A V) in 2123...
 

Most of them are a mix of TL9/10 (with some house mods).

One of the background assumptions of my universe is that there is a kind of natural 'plateau' around TL10. I assume it's partly a function of the 'hierarchy problem' in physics, partly an issue of the energy densities necessary to reach higher/deeper physics (and thus technologies). So civilizations tend to find their technical progress slowing down tremendously around the TL10 level.

Which leaves a lot of room for variations and special things at the detail level, of course.

In practice, just as in real life, lower tech levels remain in some use even after the higher levels are achieved. Today we routinely use TL8 gear alongside stuff that was mature at TL5. The same is true in my future, so most star-travelling races and peoples end up using a mix of TL9 and TL10 routinely, along with some lower stuff too.

Re: ORICHALCUM UNIVERSE: VERANIS (Dyaxor A V) in 2123...
 

LATER.

Sahandar finds himself in a curiously complex and somewhat precarious position, in 2124. Many of the issues he must deal with are 'inherited' problems, but not all.

On a purely personal level, Sahandar greatly prefers the Terrestrian overlordship to the Thak-Tarak. This is partly because he has built his reign under their loose rule, and it suits his interests. In part, this is because of a genuine belief that the Terrestrians are an improvement, for his people, over the Thak-Tarak. Certainly, they are far less brutal and repressive.

Yet, for Sahandar, that very thing also presents problems. The looser grip of the Three Powers enables planetary tensions that were tightly locked down under the Thak-Tarak to emerge into the open. Bad actors, and people who simply have different goals, who would not have dared act under the Thak-Tarak and their iron rule, plot and manuever openly now.

Also, as Sahandar knows all too well, there is no guarantee that the Thak-Tarak are gone for good. The closest Thak-Tarak controlled worlds are no more than eight light-years away, Earth is sixty-five light-years distant. The Americans, Argentines, and Australians are conflicted about their presence on Veranis, as well. Sahandar is very well aware of these facts.

(Most Veranisians pay little attention to the details of life on distant Earth, Sahandar does not have the luxury. He is one of the best-informed Veranisians about Earth. He would like to visit Earth, but circumstances have never permitted this.)

If for their own reasons, the Terrestrians were to pull out of the Dyaxor System, the Thak-Tarak would quickly reassert control, and Sahandar knows that. Likewise, there is no guarantee that the touchy cease-fire between the interstellar powers will hold. If hot fighting broke out again and the Three Powers were driven back, the Thak-Tarak would resume control.

Sahandar has no desire to see that happen, but he knows all too well that it could happen. Which in turn means that he has to walk a careful line, supporting the Three Powers, but keeping his options open if he and his people have to live under Thakarian control again.

Related to that is the issue of Vertaran-Human relations.

The Thak-Tarak ruled Veranis for over a Terran century, and during that period, a substantial number of Thakarian Humans settled on Veranis, and had children, and by 2124 some Human families on Veranis have been there for three generations. Of the seventy million people on Veranis, over ten percent are Human. The vast majority of these Humans are of Thakarian ancestry.

(There are several tens of thousands of Terrestrians on Veranis by 2124, but there are over seven million Thakarian-descended Humans.)

Because of the preeminence of the Northlands, the majority of those Humans are there, and a disproportionate number of them live in Catakatia. Catakatia has a population of over twelve million, and over a million of them are Human, almost all of Thakarian descent.

The legal and social status of these Humans is in flux in Catakatia in 2124. There is also enormous tension between the Vertarans and the Humans. Sahandar knows that expecting over a million people to leave his realm, much less the planet, is unrealistic, especially since most of them were born there.

(Even if the Humans in Catakatia were willing to emigrate to a neighboring state, the other Northlands states have similar issues already.)

On the other hand, there is the question of whether they can be integrated into Catakatian society, considering that until 19 years earlier, they were part of what amounted to a ruling class. Sahandar is under no illusions about the fact that a significant number of these Humans would not mind seeing the Thak-Tarak return to power, and some of those are actively working to bring it about.

At the same time, many of those Thakarian-descended Humans do consider themselves to be more or less 'Veranisians', and some are valued and productive parts of the society. Much of the high-technology sector of the Catakatian economy, especially anything involving interstellar-level technology, is usually highly dependent on these Humans. (Many Vertarans have of course mastered modern technologies, after a century of rule by aliens, but there are still too few to replace the Humans, if the latter were no longer available.)

Many of his Vertaran subjects hate everything to do with the Thak-Tarak (and not without reason), including the Humans left behind when the Thak-Tarak retreated. Racial/specific violence, in both directions, is not unknown, especially in the cities. Sahandar knows that simply granting the Humans full Catakatian citizenship by decree would most likely split the kingdom entirely. Nor would it necessarily be safe, because not all of the Humans would be loyal to Catakatia anyway.

Sahandar deals with this problem day in, day out, and has found no definite solution. The Jarak has concluded that dealing with that problem will likely be something that happens over decades, or longer, and in the short term he works to deal with is as best he can day to day.

Sahandar is also dealing with complicated economic dislocations. Partly this is the result of the disruptions from the Thak-Tarak defeat, partly it is the ongoing result of the impact of interstellar-level technology on a society that was only at early-industrial levels a century earlier. This process was happening under the Thak-Tarak, but it has accelerated enormously under the much looser rule of the Three Powers.

Entire classes of work are in the process of rapidly being eliminated. An agricultural sector that once employed more than half the population is rapidly turning into a high-tech version employing a fraction of a fraction of that. Once, the guild that controlled much the mining in Catakatia was powerful, now machinery is replacing their membership almost overnight. At the same time, entire new fields of activity are emerging, with a bottomless hunger for people, but people with advanced training and very specialized technical skills that are still rare on Veranis.

All these changes are playing out, not over generations as was the case on Earth, but over just a few years.

The old nobility retains substantial social and political power, but are being challenged by a new aristocracy of plutarchs and industrialists and technologists. Only the fact that many of the members of this 'new class' have conflicting interests and often work at cross purposes keep them from displacing most of the old nobility in terms of real power.

Adding to all this, the Jarak must consider the question of the succession.

MORE LATER.

Re: ORICHALCUM UNIVERSE: VERANIS (Dyaxor A V) in 2123...
 

LATER.

Sahandar is unmarried. He knows that part of his duty as Jarak is to produce an heir to the throne, and he knows he must marry relatively soon, or at least, that failure to do so will begin to produce problems. He also knows that if something happens to him before a suitable heir is available, the crown will pass to his cousin Tarhandis.

Tarhandis is not a corrupt man, per se. It would be fair to call him well-meaning, and Sahandar knows that. Unfortunately, Sahandar also knows that his cousin is, to put it bluntly, weak-willed, somewhat hedonistic, and lazy. Sahandar is fairly sure that if his cousin became Jarak, the real power would rapidly pass to others, especially another cousin named Zanhar.

Zanhar is the fifth in line for the Jarakship, but he could easily be the power behind the throne for Tarhandis. Sahandar knows very well that Zanhar would like to be the power behind the throne for himself, if Sahandar would permit such a thing. Sahandar also knows that Zanhar has extensive connections to the criminal underworld, and (Sahandar suspects) to various Thak-Tarak sympathizers among the population, both Human and Vertaran.

Sahandar can not actually prove his suspicions about his cousin, and Zanhar knows the Jarak suspects him and is careful to give the monarch no reason or pretext to move against him. Zanhar is connected and popular with many in the royal family and the ruling class, and Sahandar dares not imprison or execute him without a solid case. He watches carefully for such an opportunity.

Sahandar knows he must marry 'suitably'. The woman he would most prefer to make his wife is not an acceptable candidate, and the realities of politics are what they are. Sahandar is a realist about this, he knows that he cannot marry his first choice, no matter what.

Several other reasonable possibilities exist, but Sahandar is still evaluating his options, both on a personal level, and in terms of the politics. He knows he must be as sure as he can be that his wife is not in the pay or influence of his enemy factions at Court, especially Zanhar. He must also consider the implications of her family connections.

With all that, Sahandar remains basically an optimistic man. For all the weight of his responsibilities, which he takes very seriously, Sahandar knows how to enjoy the privileges that come with the crown. He is a competent pilot, and he enjoys flying the royal helicopter, simply for its own sake. He enjoys outdoor activities, especially riding. Though he employs professional security personnel and listens to their advice, he still manages to have some fun.

Sahandar has multiple official residences, but his 'main' residence is an elaborate mansion in Cataka City, in the 'New City' not far from the headquarters of the Three Power Commission. Additionally, the official 'royal palace' (not an exact translation, but close enough) is in Cataka, in the Old Town.

Sahandar enjoys flying, both as a pilot and a passenger, which is fortunate. His diplomatic activities sometimes requires that he travel to the other continents, and travel by sea would be difficult because of his thalassophobia.

In fact, thalassophobia might not be the precisely correct term. He is less afraid of the ocean, per se, than what might be in its depths. The coastal shallows do not much disturb him, he readily travels by small boat near the shore. It is the open, deep ocean that disturbs him.

To put it bluntly, he has an irrational fear of sea monsters.

MORE LATER.

Re: ORICHALCUM UNIVERSE: VERANIS (Dyaxor A V) in 2123...
 

I imagine a big issue potentially is attempted terrorist attacks from those who were loyal to the old regime (the Thak-Tarak)? And potential covert support for such?

How are the Terran powers handling the ethnic issues and tensions between the natives and those of Thakarian descent?Judging from how the Thak-Tarak controlled Veranis, I get the feeling the closest analogue might be how the European nations, for example, generally treated the places they colonized during the 19th century (primarily for resource extraction and markets)?

Makes me wonder what potential gaps in education might have to be filled in to help deal with such quick technological and economic changes occurring.

Because man Veranis is unlucky about these changes.1. Have any of the Local Space spacefaring nations attempted any form of animal uplift?

2. Are there signature technologies for TL 9, 10, 11, and 12 in Orichalcum Universe, considering it's a modified 3e setting? In your mind I mean.

Re: ORICHALCUM UNIVERSE: VERANIS (Dyaxor A V) in 2123...
 

Yes to both. That is, groups using terrorist methods do exist, and they do have covert support. The latter is actually the bigger problem. The Veranisians and their Terrestrian allies/overlords can deal with the occasional car bomb or blasted building. But the networks of covert support are a bigger issue. They pass information to the Thak-Tarak leadership, they undercut efforts to reconcile the Human and Vertaran species on Veranis, they work to undercut Terrestrian activities, and quiet sabotage is more destructive than the occasional Oklahoma City style bomb.

Also, it's not just the Thakarian-descended Humans. Under the Thak-Tarak regime, there was a ruling class of educated, connected Vertarans as well, and many of them lost power, status, and position when the Terrestrians forced the Thak-Tarak out. There are Thak-Tarak sympathizers and partisans among both species populations.

Things are made more complicated by the fact that many of those former ruling-class types, both Vertaran and Human, are crucial to the economy of Catakatia, and Veranis as a whole, and not all of them are sympathetic to the old regime...but some are.

Clumsily. For the most part, all they are able to do is try to suppress the worst aspects of it. They try to prevent pogroms and massacres, with some success, but they just don't have the resources to police the planet in fine detail. Plus, this sort of thing is one of the hardest political/diplomatic situations that can exist.

For the most part, they leave the day-to-day details of dealing with it to the local governments, at least in the Northlands.

Quite close. Veranis is important to the Thakarians for several reasons. For one this, Dyaxor (Veranis' star) is only about ten light-years from the HY1 hyperplex, and it has two garden worlds orbiting it. This means that the star system has a strategic location and valuable real estate.

Veranis has, or had, accessible deposits of orichalcum. This was the biggest single thing the Thak-Tarak Clan was after when they took over the planet. For the most part those deposits were mined out by the Lakegrandian civilization thousands of years before, but the Thak-Tarak 'mined' that orichalcum out of the ruins of the Lakegrandian cities. They missed the occasional bit, such as the nugget Paul Denton obtained, but they took most of it.

Along with that, Veranis proved to be source of various valuable or profitable drugs and chemicals, and the vast plantations on which they were grown were cheaper to operate with manual labor than robotics. Some of the harshest Thakarian treatment was on these plantations.

(At the worst, the Thak-Tarak regime was at least as bad as the Belgian Congo on Earth.)

Yeah, the Veranisians are living in Interesting Times.

There have been some attempts. It turns out that raising animals to full sapience is really, really hard. The necessary changes are fantastically complex, and it's hard to get it right, and very easy for things to go wrong, sometimes in really tragic ways.

On the other hand, genetic engineering and selective breeding and other manipulations can usually be used to raise the intelligence of an animal species (assuming it already has the necessary raw potential) to make a 'smarter animal', and that's much easier. Some of that has been done by various Local Space races, including on Earth (though the projects are controversial there).

Re: ORICHALCUM UNIVERSE: VERANIS (Dyaxor A V) in 2123...
 

LATER.

PRINCE ZANHAR (fifth in line to the throne of Catakatia)

Species: Homo vertara
Age in 2124: 42 Terran years
Height: 6'1"
Hair: Red
Eyes: Green

IQ: 11
DX: 10
ST: 11
HT: 10


Spd: 5.0

ADVANTAGES:
Alertness 1
Ally Group (35 points minions)
Charisma 1
Common Sense
Contacts (15 points worth)
Empathy
Legal Immunity (Prince of Catakatia)
Strong Will 1



DISADVANTAGES:

Addiction (larsh)
Dependent (son, average, all the time)
Enemies (-50 points worth)
Fat
Greed
Lecherous at -5
Overconfidence
Secret (active psion)

QUIRKS:

1. Gluttonous at quirk level
2. Prefers to dress in white
3. Loves boating
4. Always impeccably polite
5. Dislikes flying

SKILLS:

Accounting 12
Administration 13
Area Knowledge(s):
Cataka City 15
Catakatia 13
Veranis 11
Boating 12
Dancing 9
Detect Lies 13
Diplomacy 14
Driving 12
Fast-Talk 14
Guns (TL10) 13
Hidden Lore(s):
City Secrets (Cataka City) 15
Catakatia 13
Veranis 11
Language(s):
Catakatian (native)
Thakarian (literate) 13
English (American dialect, illiterate) 11
Law (Catakatian) 12
Powerboat 12
Streetwise 11

PSIONIC ABILITIES:
ESP (power 8)
Clairvoyance 14
Telepathy (power 7)
Telesend with extended range) 12


Prince Zanhar is a prince of the royal family, a second cousin of Jarak Sahandar, and fifth in line for the Jarakship. He is also several kinds of trouble.

In appearance, Zanhar looks harmless. Deliberately so. He is somewhat overweight, but not grossly obese. Zanhar is neither noticeably handsome nor unpleasant to look at. He deliberately acts as if he is in worse shape than he really is, he genuinely is overweight, but there is muscle underneath it and he is by no means completely out of shape. Zanhar deliberately cultivates the public image of a somewhat dissolute, but not totally wanton, royal wastrel. He manages to come across as likeable and harmless, while concealing his very real ambitions and abilities.

This act is effective in part because it has seeds of truth. He really does have the Lecherous Disadvantage, for ex, but only a -5 level, but he deliberately cultivates the impression that he is a hopeless skirt chaser unable to stop himself. He really is mildly, quirk-level, gluttonous, he loves good food and plenty of it, but he tries to give the impression of being barely able to control his appetites. He really is addicted to a common drug called larsh. This is completely legal in Catakatia, but definitely not socially approved, and doubly so in the nobility and the royal family. He allows this addiction to be public knowledge to reinforce his public image of harmlessness.

In reality, Zanhar is extremely ambitious, though he does not aspire to the Jarakship as such. The Jarak is too public, too exposed, everyone is always watching and paying attention to everything the Jarak says and does. Zanhar would vastly prefer to be the real power behind the throne of a figurehead Jarak. At one time, he thought he was on track to be just that.

Zanhar was 22 Terran years old when the Terrestrians drove out the Thak-Tarak regime. All through his teen years, he had been 'cultivating' the crown prince, awaiting the day when the crown prince would ascend to the Jarakship, and Zanhar would rule Catakatia through the figurehead Jarak. The former monarch was elderly, and Zanhar had thought his rise to hidden power was only a matter of a short wait.

The defeat of the Thak-Tarak changed everything, and upended all of the plans Zanhar had been laying since he was in his early teens. The old monarch, and both his sons, had abdicated and fled with the retreating Thakarians. The Jarakship passed to his cousin Sahandar, a nephew of the former monarch, and the Three Powers became the new overlords of Veranis.

At first Zanhar had some hopes of manipulating Sahandar the way he had intended to manipulate the former crown prince, but Sahandar quickly proved to be both strong-willed and intelligent, and he rapidly established himself as an effective monarch. It soon became clear to Zanhar that it was no use trying to manipulate Sahandar.

Instead, Zanhar began building his own secret network of contacts and allies, setting out to establish a power base of his own. In the short term, he became a patron to major criminal figures in Catakatia, and skimmed considerable profits from this.

(He was already wealthy as part of the royal family, of course, but that money was public and watched. The cash flow from his criminal activities was secret and he could use it as he saw fit.)

Zanhar also cultivated contacts with the Thak-Tarak, entirely without the approval of the Jarak. In 2124, Zanhar has strong contacts in the pro-Thakarian underground movements, and some of them more or less work for him directly.

As far as his long-term goals go, they remain unsettled. Ideally, Zanhar would still like to rule Catakatia through a figurehead monarch. In theory he could do this under the overlordship of either the Three Powers or a restored Thak-Tarak regime. In practice, he would probably prefer the Thak-Tarak, because he could then draw on their harsher, more efficient ways of government for his own purposes.

In the medium term, Zanhar moves cautiously, because he knows perfectly well that Jarak Sahandar is 'on to him'. Sahandar knows about his criminal connections, and strongly suspects his borderline treasonous secret contacts with the Thak-Tarak. Zanhar is popular with the nobility and is public image is of a harmless celebrity royal, the monarch dares not move against him without rock solid proof.

Zanhar knows that Sahandar is looking for just such proof, and much of his activity in 2124 is built around keeping the monarch from gaining that evidence. If Sahandar could prove his case, Zanhar has committed offenses that would justify the death penalty under Catakatian law, and Zanhar knows that Sahandar would not hesitate to sentence him to death if he had proof of his suspicions.

Zanhar has another deep, dark secret, one that is incredibly useful to him, but which he must keep hidden to keep it useful: his is an active psion. Zanhar has a significant ESP faculty, and Telepathy as well. His Telepathy is mostly short-range, but he can use the Telesend skill with Extended Range. His basic Telepathic range is about sixteen meters, but his Telesend range is nearly a kilometer with people he has trained to 'hear' him.

His clairvoyance has a basic range of about thirteen meters, and this gives him an incredible advantage in secret information gathering. His skills do not extend to clairaudience, but he can remote-view and read lips, and he is skilled at reading text and other such information remotely.

Zanhar was discovered as an active psion by a Thak-Tarak secret program when he was twelve years old, and received training in his powers from them. In theory, he could display other Powers, but this has yet to happen as of 2124.

MORE LATER.

Re: ORICHALCUM UNIVERSE: VERANIS (Dyaxor A V) in 2123...
 

LATER.

Zanhar is not a fighter. That is, he has little in the way of combat training or direct experience in melee combat. Zanhar is not cowardly, as such, he just isn't a fighting man.

He is competent with several firearms, and he has used one to kill someone in his life (This is one of the secrets he works to keep the monarch from discovering. Even though that particular incident was arguably self-defense, it happened in the course of activities that could get him executed if known.).

As far as fighting goes, though, he has people for that, competent ones, and he lets them handle such matters. He is rarely far from at least two trustworthy security men, who are personally loyal to him, and who do know how to fight, both with weapons and hand to hand.

Zanhar would be a difficult target for most enemies anyway, because he is a member of the extended royal family, and as such anyone engaging in violence with him would be facing serious legal jeopardy, unless it was a clear-cut case of self-defense.

Zanhar has several residences, but his primary home is in Cataka City, in the New Town region, where he maintains a very comfortable townhouse. Additionally, he maintains a mansion on private land about five miles upriver from Cataka City proper. This mansion is at the center of a ten square kilometer estate that is heavily guarded.

Zanhar was married, but his wife died in 2018, of entirely natural causes. He has a son, about Terran years old. His son is a dependent, and totally unaware of the illicit activities of his father. Whatever his other faults, Zanhar is a doting father, and could probably be brought down if someone were to gain control of his son.

***

There are some things about Veranis that remain mostly unknown to both the Terrestrians and the natives. Among them are the fact that the old Lakegrandian civilization left more ruins than are known. The largest single abandoned Lakegrandian city on Veranis is totally unknown to both the modern Vertarans and the Humans, both the Thakarians and the Terrestrians.

The five major continents of Veranis are all within one hemisphere, as mentioned above. The vast and mostly empty ocean of the other hemisphere is analogous in many ways to the Pacific Ocean, in terms of both size and underlying geology. There are island chains, mostly hot spot volcano chains, but little other land in the vast ocean, other than the prison island and the one other significant island.

What few know in 2124 is that before their mysterious disappearance, the ancient, original Lakegrandians of Veranis migrated from their surface cities in the equatorial continents, into a single huge underwater city on the abyssal plain of the vast Otherside ocean.

(It is customary among the Terrestrians in 2124 to refer to the hemisphere containing the continents as Mainside, and the vast oceanic hemisphere as Otherside. The natives, of course, have their own names.)

The Lakegrandians dwelt there in this vast complex, several hundred million of them, for several centuries before their actual final disappearance. Millennia later, when the first Vertaran interplanetary civilization arose, they certainly discovered it and knew about it, but interfered it to only a limited extent, because it had many active defenses and dangerous legacy technologies still operating.

When the Vertaran interplanetary civilization blasted itself apart, the survivors were reduced to a Bronze Age level (at best), and the underwater city under the Otherside ocean was forgotten, or reduced to unrecognizable legends that rapidly degenerated into noise as the centuries passed.

The Thakarians did explore the oceans of Veranis to some degree when they arrived, but it was never their primary interest, and as with Earth, the oceans of Veranis are enormous, deep, and very dark. The ancient city below was specifically designed to not be obvious from the surface, as well. Even the old advanced Vertaran societies of millennia before only discovered it well after they reached space flight technology levels.

Today, the ancient, abandoned city lies under five kilometers of water, spread across a wide stretch of abyssal plain. It is even better preserved than the ancient Lakegrandian cities of the equatorial continents, in part because many self-repair and self-maintenance systems are still fully operational.

The city structures are built mostly of basalt mined on-site from the ocean floor, and arranged in such a way as to resemble natural formations on the sea floor. The city sprawls over thousands of square kilometers, in clusters and semi-random arrangements, adding to the difficulty of recognizing its presence.

(Sonar can certainly detect the ancient structures, but the shape of the structures and their arrangement mean that it is easy to mistake the sonar returns for natural outcroppings of seafloor crust.)

Adding to the difficulty of detecting the ancient city is the lack of light. Nowhere in the vast complex is there a single operating source of artificial light. The utter darkness of the deep ocean remains unbroken. The machines that maintain the ancient structures operate through a combination of passive sonar and inertial guidance systems when they must operate in the open. Most of the time, the ancient robots move from building to building through tunnels cut into the sea floor.

Sunpower tubes provide most of the energy, and these emit little in the way of tell-tale radiation. To minimize both tell-tale noise (always important in operating secretly underwater) and thermal emission, the robots work according to a slow and irregular schedule.

Even with all this, if the Thakarians, or the Terrestrians, had been or were actively looking for signs of such a city, they would soon detect it. Absent such a conscious search, though, the signal of the presence of the city is lost in the noise (both literal and figurative).

If the city was known, it would cause a huge stir. The working technology and well preserved city systems would be of great scientific and historical interest. The fact that this was the last inhabited city of the first civilization on Veranis could shed light on the 'Lakegrandian Question'*.

Above all else, though, the city contains a substantial amount of refined orichalcum in its various machines and systems, as well as storage depots containing more of the substance. If the Thakarians had known about it while the ruled Veranis, they would certainly have attempted to remove the orichalcum, as they did with the ruined Lakegrandian cities of the equatorial continents.

(What such an effort might have stirred up in the still-working automatic systems of the ancient city is a good question.)

The Terrestrian regime is less rapacious, but the orichalcum would be a temptation for them as well.

Of course, there is absolutely no way to know what else might still be active, or lying dormant, in the ancient underwater city.

MORE LATER.

*The Lakegrandian Question is a scientific/historical one. The ancient Lakegrandians appear to have simply vanished from the planet, very suddenly, and nobody understands why or what happened or where they went, if anywhere.

(In fact, the archaeologists have it slightly wrong, the disappearance of the Lakegrandians from the land-cities happened when the moved into the vast undersea complex. Of course, if that was known, it would leave the question of why they did that. Also, a few centuries later, they really do vanish from the history of Veranis without explanation, leaving their underwater city working but empty.)

Everyone knows what happened to the Vertaran interplanetary civilization a few thousand years later, it self-destructed in interplanetary war. The fate of the older Lakegrandian civilization, though, remains one of the great unanswered questions of archaeology in 2124.

Re: ORICHALCUM UNIVERSE: VERANIS (Dyaxor A V) in 2123...
 

How advanced are the Lakegrandian underwater cities? More advanced than the Terrestrians or Thakarians?

Re: ORICHALCUM UNIVERSE: VERANIS (Dyaxor A V) in 2123...
 

In some ways. The ancient Lakegrandians of Veranis were TL10, but they were high-end TL10 and TL10, in my world, covers a lot of different territories.

The Old Lakegrandians of Veranis moved their entire population into thier underwater city and lived there for several generations before their final disappearance, so yeah, they were pretty good at it.

On the other hand, one of the unsolved mysteries of the Old Lakegrandians of Veranis is that their society was easily as technically advanced as Earth or Thakaria, and they definitely had access to the necessary raw materials, including orichalcum, but they do not appear to have ever developed FTL travel.

(I really need to assign a specific name for that civilization, because 'Lakegrandian' is like 'Human' or 'Vertaran', it's a species, not a society. There are Lakegrandians elsewhere in the Galaxy that have nothing to do with the old civilization on Veranis, and their most recent common ancestor was on Earth 72,000 years ago.)

Re: ORICHALCUM UNIVERSE: VERANIS (Dyaxor A V) in 2123...
 

LATER.

We saw upthread that a long east-west mountain chain cuts across the Central Continent. We saw something of the territories leading up to it, but the mountain chain itself is the product of subduction. About thirty million Terran years earlier, the Northlands and all three of the equatorial continents were one land mass. The three continents that today straddle the equator rifted off the major northern one, and have been drifting south ever since (a spreading zone lines in the ocean between the Northlands and the equatorial continents.

As they drift south, the small plates containing the equatorial continents override ancient oceanic crust, driving up huge mountain ranges on the southern coasts of the three equatorial continents, and fueling volcanic activities in many stretches of those mountain ranges.

To the further south, in the Southern Hemisphere, lies the Southlands, the large southern continent (as the name suggests). The Southlands is the largest of the five main continents, larger by about a fifth than the Northlands, and substantially larger than any the equatorial continents, though the three together are larger than the Southlands.

The Southlands plate is driving northward, likewise overriding oceanic crust. The result is that most of the northern coast of the Southlands is one long, rugged mountain chain, analogous to the Andes on Earth. In amother thirty or forty megayears, the equatorial continents should begin to coalesce with the Southlands, if the trends continue.

The northern coastal range of the Southlands contains the highest mountain peaks on Vernanis, along with substantial volcanic activity in some places. The subduction zone off the northern coast also contains the deepest points in the Veranisian oceans. The north coast trends roughly east-west, but with a modest northeast trend. The entire land mass of the Southlands is vaguely triangular, wider to the east.

South of the northern ranges, the lands level out into a vast plain, sloping very gently to the south. The wide expanse of near-level ground is comparable to the Great Plains of North America, or the Pampas of Argentina, in some ways, but larger. The plain runs about three thousand miles east-west and nearly seven hundred miles north-south (with some local variation, of course).

The continent is so located that in the western reaches, the prevailing westerlies, and the rain-laden clouds with them, slide in south of the North Range, making the westernmost part of the vast plain rainy and well-watered. Temperate forests cover the western reaches of the plains, with substantial rivers and many notable lakes.

As one moves eastward, one enters the 'rain shadow' of the Northern Coast Range. In those areas, the prevailing westerlies come ashore, strike the steep northeast-trending faces of the Northern Mountains, and release their water there. South of the mountains, the land becomes drier as one travels eastward. Forest gives way to lush grassland, then to dry-weather grassland, then to prairies and finally to open dry plains.

Eventually, the prairies give way to actual desert, mostly rocky desert.

In spite of the orographic effects of the northern mountains, though, substantial permanent rivers run through most of this vast plain. The reason this is possible is that the runoff on the northern plain was diverted by the Old Lakegrandians.

The continent is so positioned that during much of the year, warm, moist winds, the prevailing westerlies, come slamming into the Northern Mountains. The rain they deposit once mostly flowed into the nearby northern ocean, but the ancient Lakegrandians, for their own reasons, changed things. They bored huge tunnels through the solid rock of the mountains, and rerouted much of the runoff through those tunnels, and out into artificial rivers on the southern side of the range.

(Actually, some of the rivers were natural, but before Lakegrandians delved their tunnels, they were tiny.)

So much water comes pouring through the ancient tunnels that it can feed rivers that flow year-round, even through the parched deserts. There is such a significant artificial or augmented major river every ninety kilometers or so, across most of the east-west run of the plain. In the heart of parched deserts where rains comes once or twice a year at most, these rivers maintain weaving, winding strips of lush vegetations, and feed occasional lakes and oases. Eventually, most of these rivers reach the southern coast.

The southern coast of the Southlands is relatively gentle, and some parts of it are a peneplain. A substantial oceanic gulf penetrates the continent near the east-west midpoint, rain coming off this gulf flows northward during some times of the year, bringing needed rain to the high plains and grasslands.

The ancient Lakegrandian engineers knew their craft, and the river-tunnels in the North Range were superbly designed and implemented. Still, they have been in 'use' for over thirty thousand years, and that is a long time for any civil engineering project to last unmaintained. The tunnels mostly still work, but the system has suffered from the passage of time.

The same forces that raised the Northern Coast Range make the entire north coast of the Southlands vulnerable to earthquakes (or veranisquakes, if one prefers). Some stretches of the coast are more quake-prone than others, but significant quake activity happens all along the north coast. The ancient engineers could avoid the known volcanoes readily enough, but there was little they could do to avoid the danger of earthquakes.

In places, earthquakes have blocked the tunnels entirely, forcing the water to flow elsewhere. Sometimes the water in these cases returns to its ancient natural paths on the north side of the mountains. In other cases, it finds its own underground way through and emerges south of the mountains, but far from the planned exit point.

One such case is located on the southern slopes of the range, overlooking the driest part of the desert region.

MORE LATER.

Re: ORICHALCUM UNIVERSE: VERANIS (Dyaxor A V) in 2123...
 

LATER.

The northern faces of the North Range are steep, for the most part, though they vary somewhat. In a few places, accreted terrains create a shelving along the north coast. In other places, the mountains plunge into the sea in sheer cliffs. The highest waterfall on Veranis pours directly into the ocean over a one thousand meter drop along the middle reaches of the North Range.

The southern slopes of the range are much gentler, and in fact there are secondary ranges behind the main front wall of mountains. Depressions and valleys lie between the ranges, some of which are reasonably habitable, some of which are too dry or too high to be useful for most humanoid purposes. The entire North Range, with all its subsidiary ranges, runs from about three hundred to six hundred kilometers wide along most of the north coast.

As mentioned already, the ancient Lakegrandian civilization cut tunnels through the range, to transfer the water from the rain-soaked northern face to the drier southern slops and the plains beyond. In 2124, these tunnels are over thirty thousand Terran years old, and though many remain fully functional, others have suffered for lack of maintenance.

Though in some cases, blocked or destroyed tunnels caused the waters to return to their original paths, this is not always the case. About ten thousand years before the present, a major earthquake rocked the middle reaches of the North Range, and one of the major tunnels was collapsed. The water began to back up, but the same quake that blocked the tunnel opened fissures that permitted much of the water to flow out and along a fault line, and various natural caves and passages, within the mountains. Eventually, the water emerged into a natural depression in the rocky desert south of the mountains, forming a narrow but long and deep endorheic lake, which filled up as the waters widened their new passage and formed a stable path.

The new oasis was in the driest part of the enormous rocky desert that made up the central part of the Southlands. The valley was about one hundred kilometers long, east-west, and twenty to thirty kilometers wide north-south. The central lake, fed by what amounted to a semi-natural qanat, ran most of the length of the valley floor, and was about ten to twelve kilometers wide. A narrow fast river, emerging from a cave on the north side of the valley, flows into the lake on the north side. The river is about two kilometers long and is narrow, from forty to sixty meters wide, but it has carved a deep bed for itself over the past ten millennia.

Today, the entire valley is a lush oasis, thick with forest and grassy meadows. The lake is clear, and maintains a high water table within the rock-bound valley. Beyond the valley is especially dry desert, an expanse of sand and rock extending hundreds of kilometers to the nearest major settlement, and over one hundred kilometers to the nearest river.

The oasis formed over ten thousand Terran years ago. Even after the Vertaran civilization rose, it remained a remote if lush outpost, occupied by a few farmers and hermits, but otherwise ignored, as the interplanetary society spread out across the Dyaxor System. When the terrible wars tore that society apart, and the major inhabited areas of Veranis were irradiated, the valley became a refuge for a pitiful few survivors in the Southlands.

Recall the Vertaran vulnerability to ionizing radiation. During the terrible wars that wiped out the old Dyaxorian system-wide Vertaran civilization, many weapons were used: nuclear warheads, many of them 'salted', artificial plagues and other biological weapons, chemical weapons, and psionic weapons. Worst of all, though, were fine radioactive dusts, which could spread across a region and render it more or less uninhabitable to Vertarans.

Naturally, since the more intense the radiation the shorter the half-life, the dusts did not remain so utterly deadly all that long. Humans, and most other humanoids, would have been able to reoccupy the 'dusted' territories within a decade to a century or so, depending on how heavily dusted the region might be.

Vertarans, with their particular vulnerability to radiation, needed far longer. Most of the best land in the Southlands is on the southern coast, and was heavily 'dusted' in the terrible final stages of the wars. The hidden oasis formed by the redirected river was one of the few places in the Southlands to both escape the radioactive dusts and to have sufficient arable land and fresh water supply to sustain survivors. The original few hundred inhabitants of the oasis were joined by perhaps a few hundred more survivors who managed to reach it, a pitiful remnant of the millions who had dwelt on the south coast.

The few hundred survivors living in the oasis were reduced to a subsistence existence, and this continued for generations. Centuries later, though, this tiny population would become one of the largest genetic sources for the repopulation of the Southlands.

MORE LATER.

Re: ORICHALCUM UNIVERSE: VERANIS (Dyaxor A V) in 2123...
 

LATER.

Before the interplanetary wars that wrecked the Vertaran civilization, the population of the Southlands was in the neighborhood of five hundred million. Terrestrian archaeologists would later estimate that the population after the war was, high end estimate, perhaps somewhere around one million. It was that bad.

The survivors were scattered across the continent. The desert oasis described above was one of three or four refugia with a tiny concentration of people. The oasis had perhaps two or three thousand people living in it after the war, a mix of the original inhabitants and the pitiful few survivors who managed to cross deserts to reach it.

Refugia such as the oasis were usually places that had the combination of arable land and fresh water, a population big enough to be genetically viable, but small enough not to overstrain local resources, and remote/unimportant enough that the sites were never nuked, lased, mindblasted, gassed, or dusted into uselessness. The very remoteness of such sites, in turn, made it very hard, often all but impossible, for the scattered few terrified, hungry, thirsty, radiation-sick, poisoned, or otherwise hobbled survivors to reach them if they knew about them. Which, tragically, might have enabled some of the smaller refugia to avoid being overwhelmed with more mouths to feed and sick and injured to care for than their resources could cope with.

The oasis had enough land, and water, to sustain a population of several thousand, and the already-extent settlements there knew how to farm it. It had been a remote, economically minor area to begin with before the wars, and even though the farmers suffered from the loss of high-tech fertilizer and equipment, the site was fertile enough to permit them to survive the change.

Afterward, the hundreds of kilometers of barren desert all about both contained the population for a long time, limiting their ability to expand their numbers or resources, and also acted as a protection when raiders and other threats began to be a thing, centuries after the end of the wars. They were a rich target, with water and food and women, but a very inaccessible one.

Eventually, civilizations arose again in the Southlands, and the oasis began to trade and intermarry with outsiders once again, a thousand years or so after the end of the wars. The genetic base after the wars was small enough that 'founder effects' left major impressions on the new population of the Southlands.

Even before the wars, a genetic mutation had become common in the small original population of the oasis. Most H. vertara have red hair (though various shades exist) on both head and body, and either blue or green eyes. A few in the oasis valley, though, had a mutation that gave them light white-blonde hair (though the rest of their bodily hair was usually still red) and irises almost of a steel-grey color.

After the wars, the limited and genetically isolated population allowed the mutation to become common among the oasis population, and as the new population expanded, they provided enough of the genetic base that this mutation, exceedingly rare elsewhere on Veranis, made up nearly fifteen percent of the Southlands Vertaran population. [1]

This same mutation, along with the effect on physical appearance, was linked to another trait: Vertarans carrying it were significantly more likely to develop active psionic powers compared to the baseline population of the species. It was still by no means guaranteed, of course.

Typically, on Veranis, one Vertaran in ten thousand is naturally a latent psion. In this context, 'latent' means that their natural Antipsi Power doesn't autotune to cancel out their own other psionic potentials, as it tends to do in the enormous majority of all Humanoids. [2]

A latent psion can learn to use psionic power with the right training, with no other intervention necessary. The large majority of latents who never recieve such training go through their lives not suspecting what they could potentially do, but a very few discover their power on their own. But with the right training any latent psion can learn to use the power.

On Veranis, about one Vertaran in ten thousand is a latent psion. But among those carrying the 'blonde and grey' genes, the percentage of latency is closer to one in one hundred.

MORE LATER.


[1] Other Vertarans tend to find these individuals either unusually attractive or notably not so, the mutation usually either raises or lowers Appearance by one level in GURPS terms compared to the general run of Vertarans. How Humans react is very individual.


[2] For why this is, see: The Devourers

Re: ORICHALCUM UNIVERSE: VERANIS (Dyaxor A V) in 2123...
 

LATER.

The high incidence of psi-latency in the Southlands population was known to the Thak-Tarak. It is not obvious, because most psi-latents never actually manifest any of their potential abilities consciously, and of those who do, most tend to be subtle or minor manifestations. Still, the Thak-Tarak more or less ruled Veranis for over a Terran century, and during that period, they discovered the (relatively) high incidence of psi-latency in the southern population, and they determined the genetic reason why.

The total population of the Southlands, by the time the Terrestrians took over, was about twelve million people, most of them Vertarans. The individuals possessed of the 'blonde hair and grey eyes' mutation made up about fifteen percent of that, or some one million eight hundred thousand, give or a take a bit. Of those, about one percent were psi-latent, or about eighteen thousand.

(By comparison, out of the entire remaining population of Vertarans on Veranis, roughly sixty million, only about 5800 are psi-latent.)

The Thak-Tarak Clan leadership had realized that this was a tremendous potential asset, if they could exploit it effectively. If they were to encourage population growth amid those with the blonde-grey mutation, and then recruit and train the growing number of psi-latents that would come with that increase, they could rapidly create a large corps of psionically-active agents and operatives. (Rapidly being over the course of a few generations, which is fast as such things go.)

For this reason, the Thak-Tarak had been going out of their way, in the decades before the Terrestrian ouster, to encourage population growth in the Southlands, and especially of the 'blonde/grey' subgroup. At the same time, t the Thak-Tarak had discouraged settlement of the otherwise inviting and lightly populated territories of the Southlands by other Vertarans. They wanted the local population to reproduce, not to grow the population by immigration, because they wanted the particular genetic patterns already present in the south to propagate.

Some attempts were made by the Thak-Tarak genegineers to accelerate the process by use of cloning techniques or direct genetic engineering, but as was usual in such cases, psionic faculties proved tricky to manipulate. While the Thakarian genetic technology was fully capable of creating viable clones, the psi-latency tended to go sour in such cases unless the genegineers went all-in, with host mothers, normal gestation periods, and normal maturity times, all of which defeated the purpose of the genetic manipulations.

Thus the Thak-Tarak leadership had resigned themselves to 'doing it the hard way', growing the population of the Southlands by conventional means.

When the Thakarians first arrived, the Southlands had a population of about five million, spread out across a continent almost as large as North America. About half of those people lived in the fertile, well-watered lowlands along the southern coast, another two and a half million lived on the vast middle plains, in a variety of tiny hamlets, nomadic groups, and desert bands. The lowlanders were more technically and socially advanced than most of the equatorial continent peoples, but well short of the more populous and advanced (technically and socially) Northlanders.

To make ruling the Southlands easier, the Thak-Tarak, as mentioned upthread, made an alliance with a nomadic chieftain of a warrior culture on the middle plains. He was a capable leader, a good tactician and strategist and a charismatic politician, and with the support of the Thak-Tarak he easily conquered both his fellow nomads, then the scattered settled peoples of the plains, and finally the towns and small cities of the southern coast. Before his death he ruled the entire southern continent (under the Thak-Tarak overlordship, of course). He was a harsh, but effective, warlord, and indeed, the title of lordship he chose for himself translates into English almost precisely as 'Warlord', or perhaps 'WarLord' would be closer.

He was not young when he began his conquests and he did not live terribly long after he made himself WarLord of the South. He was assassinated while indulging in a drunken dalliance with one of his concubines, and his son became WarLord, and though he was not the strategist or warrior his father had been, he was backed by the power of the Thak-Tarak and competent enough to hold his empire together.

The son ruled the South for over fifty Terran years, and it was during this period that the Thak-Tarak discovered the high incidence of psi-latency in the Southerners.

MORE LATER.

Re: ORICHALCUM UNIVERSE: VERANIS (Dyaxor A V) in 2123...
 

LATER.

It was some decades into the reign of the second WarLord when the Thak-Tarak discovered the freakishly high occurance of psi-latency, and why it existed. It took a little while after that for the potential implications to penetrate the higher levels of the Thak-Tarak leadership. When it did, though, their policy toward the Southlands changed.

The population of the Southlands had already been rising since the Thak-Tarak arrived and the WarLord conquered the southern continent. In part this was due to the elimination of internecine warfare on the continent, in part this was due to improved medical and agricultural technologies and techniques introduced to Veranis by the Thakarians, but mostly it was due to immigration from the Northlands.

Up until this point (approximately the 2040s on Earth), the Thak-Tarak had been rewarding Vertaran supporters in the Northlands with tracts of land on the vast, and very lightly populated, southern continent. After they discovered the high psi-latency of the native southerners, the Thak-Tarak ceased this policy, and made immigration to the Southlands all but impossible.

Instead, through their puppet WarLord, they began to encourage large families among the native Southlanders through various incentives, and they instituted a very high quality medical program all across the Southlands. They included the non-'blond and grey' Vertarans of the south, because they wanted to conceal their real motivations.

Early marriage and early motherhood was encouraged, with incentives both for individuals and their families. Thakarian technology was used to irrigate vast stretches of otherwise barren or sparse plains, to create new farmland and encourage settlement and large families, especially among the blond/grey population (though the Thakarians were at pains not to be obvious about this last bias).

Among the Southlanders, it became common to note that the blond/grey Vertarans were more prone to multiple births than the general population (and Vertarans are already slightly more prone to multiple births than Humans). Records were not clear enough for most people to suspect that this was not entirely a natural situation.

In fact, within their overall excellent-quality medical program, the Thak-Tarak were using the opportunity to secretly give blonde/grey women drugs that encouraged extra ovulation, as well as the embryonic fission that produces 'identical' multiple births. This had, over the next two generations, the effect of raising the total percentage of blonde/grey Vertarans within the growing Southlands population.

The Thak-Tarak intelligence organizations also began a steady, quiet search for psi-latents in the population who might be amenable to working for their Thakarian overlords. There were always some who would do so, for the usual incentives. Money, power, status, all were often effective. Particularly desirable candidates could also be pressured, though direct threats to self or family were rare. It was little use in training a psion to wield power while alienating their loyalties at the same time.

Indirect pressures could often be effective, though. The combination of an offer of money and security and a better life for oneself and/or one's family, combined with the veiled threat of lost income or jobs or security for the same, could often work wonders in recruitment.

It should be noted that this search for psionically latent Vertarans was not confined to the Southlands. As long as they were doing it, there was little reason not to scout the entire planetary population at the same time, and they found some viable subjects among the general population. Prince Zanhar, mentioned upthread, was one such subject.

The center of the project was always the Southlands, however, because of the substantially higher number of potential recruits to be found there.

The project began to pay dividends within a few decades of the first effort. By what was the middle 2070s on Earth, the Thak-Tarak had created a small corps of mostly loyal, moderately powerful, and very well-trained psionic agents. They made some use of them on Veranis, but most of them worked for the Thak-Tarak on other worlds, sometimes far across the galaxy beyond the HY1 gate. New trainees were coming through the pipeline at a slowly increasing rate, and the number of potential candidates was slowly but steadily rising across the Southlands.

As time passed, the second WarLord grew old, and died of natural causes. His son became WarLord in turn, and he was a source of some concern to the Thak-Tarak. He was neither the warrior and diplomat his grandfather had been, nor the unimaginative but competent administrator that his father had been. This new ruler was youngish, impulsive, arrogant and spoiled, and in the assessment of the Thak-Tarak intelligence services, not all that bright. He quickly proved to be an embarrassment as WarLord.

Within less than two years, the Thak-Tarak were seriously considering deposing him in favor of his younger brother, who seemed a more promising prospect, but had not yet reached any definite decision.

Then came the sudden Terrestrian victory and the collapse of Thak-Tarak control, and everything spun out of control.

After the Thak-Tarak fled the planet, the WarLord found himself 'on his own' for the first time. At first he was highly pleased to no longer have his alien overlords looking over his shoulder and supervising his actions. What he failed to understand was the degree to which is own power hinged on the support of the now-absent Thak-Tarak.

It would be a couple of years before the new overlords of Veranis managed to 'get organized' and establish the Three Power Commission, and even after they did, they faced an overwhelming task in policing and governing a planet they were new to and only barely understood. By the time they had a viable administration in place, the continent-wide empire of the WarLord had shattered, spinning apart into hundreds of micro-states, mini-states, tribal and sectarian alliances, city-states, and many other things. The empire had never been cohesive, it had been assembled by force and held together by the threat of force, and it had begun to spin apart the moment the threat was removed.

The third WarLord was killed in the violence, and his younger and more competent brother succeeded him. In spite of his real abilities, though, the fourth WarLord has barely managed to keep a core of the empire intact. It remains the largest state in the Southlands, but it is only a fraction of what it once was. The current WarLord would very much like to reassemble the former continental empire, but on his own he just simply does not have the necessary resources. Holding the rump-state of the former empire intact and secure is all he can manage on his own, and he knows it.

The Commission is in a quandary about how to handle the situation in the Southlands. One option would be to back the WarLord, give him the same sort of support the Thak-Tarek once gave his father and grandfather, and assist him in rebuilding a unified state across the Southlands. The downside of this would be that it would likely alienate most of the population of the south, because the former empire was never popular or widely supported.

The alternative would be to engage with the hundreds of new states, individually, and try to encourage civilization and peaceful trade and interaction among them, with the remnant of the former empire one state among many. The downside of this is the sheer complexity of dealing with so many governments and rulers, and the fact that many of them are perennially at each others' throats.

Complicating matters is the fact that the massive irrigation works the Thakarians installed to water the otherwise dry reaches of the enormous plain must be maintained. If they are not maintained, much of the new farmland in the Southlands will go out of production, and the newly increased population needs that food. It would be easier to maintain the waterworks if a single state governed the Southlands, but it is not a necessity. The value of the irrigation systems are obvious to everyone, and the Commission has already had to deploy the Thranne to defend the water system from attempts to capture and control them by various states.

Either of the options open to the Commission, is probably viable, but also mutually exclusive, and in 2124, the Commission and their personnel are divided about which option would be best (or least bad).

As far as the the Thakarian psionic project goes, in 2124, the Terrestrians have provided assistance to maintain the medical program in the Southlands, and to extend it to the Northlands as well, as best as can be done with the available resources. The equatorial continents are less civilized, but there are plans for them as well.

The Terrestrian ruling Commission knows that the Thak-Tarak favored the Southlands with a more elaborate medical program than the rest of the planet, but they do not know why. They have just recently, as of 2124, discovered the former, secret 'multiple birth program' that the Thak-Tarak had been running before they took over. They have no idea why, though, and as of 2124 they are keeping their discovery a classified secret. It is not widely known, even among most Commission personnel, and only a handful of Vertarans on Veranis know.

The reason is that the Commission personnel fear that if it was known, it would disrupt their efforts to make a viable health program work. It is difficult as is, the paranoia that might follow the revelation of the Thak-Tarak activities would make it harder.

The Commission is very interested in discovering the reason for the former program, though. As of 2124, they have not become aware of the high psi-latency among the Southlanders.

MORE LATER.

Re: ORICHALCUM UNIVERSE: VERANIS (Dyaxor A V) in 2123...
 

LATER.

South of the vast plains of the southern continent, the land descends gradually toward the coasts. Much of the southern coast of the Southlands is what geologists call a peneplain, a region eroded down to basically flat ground. The land and ocean come together mostly gently on the southern coast, and much of the south coast is well-watered with regular rain during some seasons of the year. The soil is mostly of good quality, and in many ways the south coast of the Southlands is the most hospitable region of the continent for humanoid habitation.

Near the central part of the southern coast, a vast gulf opens up into the interior of the continent. This body of water is deep at the center and reaches hundreds of kilometers inland, providing needed rain to the upper plains during some periods of the year. The coasts of the Gulf are among the richest lands of the Southlands.

The same welcoming aspects of the south coast meant that during the days of the Vertaran interplanetary civilization, the population of the Southlands was concentrated in cities along the coast. The population of the Southlands, before the terrible wars, was well over five hundred million, and over two thirds of that population lived on or near the southern coast.

Which, in turn, meant that this region suffered horrifically during the wars that destroyed the old Vertaran civilization in the Dyaxor System. Nuclear explosions vaporized cities. Psionic weapons induced mass psychoses in the survivors. Multi-terawatt laser beams melted land into glass and destroyed extensive infrastructure. Chemical weapons poisoned Vertarans, animals, and plants. Bioweapons scourged the survivors with plagues and disrupted the ecosystems. Most terrible of all, the radioactive dusts settled across these fertile lands, and where the dusts were thick, the lands died.

Even by 2124, thousands of years later, the south coast has not yet fully, completely recovered its former fertility and vitality.

Time has healed much of the damage. The radioactives were intense, but that same intensity meant that the dusts had relatively short half-lives. By 2124, the background radiation of the south coast is effectively no higher than anywhere else on Veranis. Sensitive instruments can still detect a faint trace here and there, but no more.

The biological weapons long ago lost most of their potency, in the natural course of evolution and adaptation. An occasional mutation revives one of the ancient artificial plagues in a new form, but this is only an echo of what once was.

The most enduring damage was from various chemical weapons, which had no inherent time limit. Still, wind and rain have diluted them, washed them out to sea, and buried them. Life is again thriving across the south coast.

What significant cities exist in the Southlands in 2124 mostly are to be found on the south coast, as well. Most of these cities are actually more like large towns, few of them have a population greater than ten thousand people. The lands have great potential, however, and it is likely that with the passage of time some of these towns could become major cities.

The largest and most prosperous of these towns are located on the shores of the great southern gulf, and they are the main seaports of the Southlands as well. The fisheries to the south of the Southlands are thriving and rich, and a major industry in this part of Veranis is fishing. Oceanic fish provide a substantial part of the diet of a typical south coast resident, and some of the fish is exported to the Northlands and the equatorial continents, as well.

Even before the Thakarians came, the reviving Vertaran population of Veranis had returned to the seas long since. The Northlanders, especially, had mastered open ocean travel and had sent sailing vessels all over the planet, and along the south coast of the Southlands, long before the Thakarians came. Along with trade and commerce, of course, piracy also happened.

As happened on Earth, both in Antediluvian times and then again in the Age of Piracy, such piracy needed markets and a base. On Veranis, before the coming of the Thakarians, the greatest pirate haven on the planet was the city of Caliak.

Caliak is actually located on a small, mountainous island of the same name off the western coast of the Northlands. It is about thirty kilometers off the west coast of the continent, and the island is a sliver of land about thirty kilometers long (mostly north-south) and about half that wide. Sheer cliffs face the ocean along most of the coast of the island, ranging in height from twenty meters to two hundred meters.

There is one place where a gap in the cliffs opens into a sheltered bay, with a valley beyond the bay possessing fresh water and arable soil. The combination of a good harbor and a habitable location let to the formation of Caliak settlement, which became Caliak Town and then Caliak City. This city also became a pirate haven. Much as Port Royal in Jamaica, or the island of Tortuga, had once been on Earth, Caliak City was the place with pirates could find shelter, sell their loot, restock and repair their ships, and spend their profits on wine, women, and song (among other things).

The location was both hospitable, and also defensible. The gap in the cliffs that opened into the interior valley was narrow, and the sea approaches were filled with rocks and shoals, treacherous currents and whirlpools. Cannon emplacements on the cliffs could rain projectiles on hostile ships, while remaining secure within the caves and dugouts on the cliffs. A siege was not guaranteed to work, because Caliak City had access to local fresh water and food. Cutting off their trade might have brought them to heel, but they could not have been starved out.

Still, that alone would not have protected Caliak City forever. Other factors were also in play.

As with Port Royal, Caliak City was not a stand-alone phenomenon. For one thing, the huge amounts of money flowing through the pirate haven could be used to bribe officials, or buy goods and services from mainland merchants. There were people on the mainland who had motives to look the other way. Some pirates made alliances with various mainland states, becoming privateers. This too provided some insulation to Caliak City.

Moreover, the western coasts of the Northlands, in those days, were ruled by a state called Nysora. They were a medium-rank power among the states of the Northlands, but they had a substantial navy, and Caliak City, while nominally independent, was more or less under the protection of the Nysoran navy.

This was why the navies of the other Northlands states, such as Catakatia, did not destroy the pirate haven in response to the depredations of the pirate captains. The other states could certainly have either conquered or destroyed Caliak City, in spite of their defenses. It would have been expensive in blood and treasure, but so were the depredations of the pirates.

The risk of war with Nysora, though, argued against precipitate action.

Caliak City was not a safe place in those days, as one might expect. As a crossroads of piracy and privateering, it was a violent, dirty, corrupt place. The real rulers of the city were the most powerful pirate chieftains, and some of the wealthiest merchants who profited from them. Together, they formed a sort of unofficial council. They kept a rough peace and calm in the streets, violence was common and sudden and the peace was always tenuous.

Still, though Caliak City was dangerous, it was also profitable, and it was reaching new levels of prosperity when the Thakarians arrived.

MORE LATER.

Re: ORICHALCUM UNIVERSE: VERANIS (Dyaxor A V) in 2123...
 

LATER.

Caliak was a thriving pirate port and trade center (the one shading into the other) right up until the Thakarian invasion. That brought the golden age of teh sea pirates of Veranis to a sharp halt. With strong air power and the ability to observe the entire surface of Veranis from orbit, including the seas, there was no place for pirates to hide and no way to openly raid shipping undetected. Piracy was still possible, but the activity requires an entirely different approach once the Thak-Tarak controlled Veranis.

Caliak itself was conquered by a small force of Thakarian air craft, who quickly demonstrated that the cannon and other weaponry defending the old pirate city were utterly useless against interstellar technology. A Thak-Tarak administrator replaced the unofficial board of pirate captains, and the loose, mutable rules of the pirate regime were replaced by a much stricter rule.

Caliak, though, survived the century of Thakarian rule more or less intact and functional. Though it was no longer an open pirate haven, it now became a 'free city' of sorts, a place where the various states of the Northlands could trade or do business with somewhat less Thakarian supervision. The Thak-Tarak permitted this as a sort of 'safety valve' (and as a result of rivalries within the Thak-Tarak power structure as well).

Inevitably, this in turn made Caliak a center for smuggling and other clandestine trade, and indeed, by the time the Thak-Tarak were forced to retreat from Veranis by the Terrestrian victory, Caliak was prospering far more from smuggling and other such activities than it ever had from piracy.

The looser rule of the Three Powers has permitted Caliak to prosper even more, and what was a thriving smuggling economy is now, in 2124, a veritable boom town of smuggling, information trading, espionage of all sorts, and less savory activities. Along with this, there is also a fishing fleet that actually makes money from fishing as well as smuggling, and some mining has begun in the hills on the southern end of the island.

Physically, Caliak Island is hilly, with a few inner reaches reaching altitudes of as much as six hundred and seventy meters. The hills become somewhat less lofty near the coasts, especially on the eastern side, but for the most part the island meets the sea in steep cliffs all around its coast. The exception is the gap in the midst of the eastern side.

This gap is about half a kilometer wide, and the passage is deep, easily two hundred meters deep. (The gap is the site of an ancient fault line.) The gap opens onto a wide bay, about two kilometers across and running six kilometers north-south. Beyond that bay is a fairly level valley floor, about ten kilometers long and three kilometers wide. The entire valley is surrounded by rising hills that merge into the uplands of the island. The city of Caliak proper fills about half the valley floor.

Caliak is 2124 has a population of about sixty thousand Vertarans and another ten thousand Humans, mostly of Thakarian ancestry. Of all the cities and places on Veranis, Caliak is probably the most 'accepting' city. Vertaran or Human, Thakarian Human or Terrestrian Human, or any of the tiny handful of other Humanoids on Veranis, Caliak does not care. The only thing that the city as a whole cares about is your money, how much you have and how much you are prepared to spend. Most cities on Veranis, even in the cosmopolitan Northlands, have all-Human or all-Vertaran neighborhoods and sections, in Caliak the species move among each other with little distinction.

As a side effect of this, Caliak has an unusually high percentage of 'halflings', both born in the city and who travelled there because it is easier for a halfing to find a place there.

(None of which is to say that there are not individuals in Caliak who are less tolerant.)

In theory, Caliak is governed by an appointee of the Three Power Commission, in a continuation of the system used by the Thak-Tarak. In practice, the Administrator is not totally powerless, but his control is limited, more so than the Thak-Tarak predecessors, both because the Terrestrians are less ruthless and because they have fewer resources available to govern the planet.

The Administrator commands a small police force of locals recruited in Caliak, and officers from other parts of the Northlands, and they have access to heavy weapons and body armor. This police force will intervene in major disorder or trouble, and will seek to apprehend or kill the worst offenders. They only have the resources to deal with the most serious offenses and trouble, though.

In practice, the Administrator shares power over the city with a number of other major figures. These include some of the wealthier merchants, the heads of various 'protective organizations', which range from organized criminals to mostly-legitimate, the master of the Harborguild, which is the organization that unites the dock workers, many of the seamen, and the construction workers at the yards. This last figure is very powerful in Caliak. Other 'power players' include the leaders of the maintenance guild that maintains the city infrastructure, the owners of the local farms that provide much of the food, and several criminals who run large organizations. This last group regularly communicates with the Administrator, albeit unofficially.

The protection organizations include neighborhood patrols, groups organized to protect businesses or large properties, personal guards, etc.

Caliak is home to a variety of people who originated in other states or parts of Veranis, for a variety of reasons.

MORE LATER.

Re: ORICHALCUM UNIVERSE: VERANIS (Dyaxor A V) in 2123...
 

LATER.

Along with the various items of trade, legal, illegal, and every shading in between, the feed the economy of Caliak City, a new source of revenue has arrived in the years since 2112.

As mentioned upthread, the fact that Veranis has seen two previous world-wide (and indeed system-wide) high-technology civilizations (Lakegrandian and Vertaran) means that many of its accessible deposits of useful metals have already been mined out. Much of the refined metal used by the rising society of modern Veranis actually is 'mined' from the ruins of the older civilizations. There are still iron deposits to be had, here and there, and still some petroleum and coal, but most of the other major metals are hard to come by on modern Veranis.

Still, once in a while a useful deposit is discovered that was either missed or for some reason never exploited by the older societies. One such was discovered in 2112 in the hills on the south end of Caliak Island. Whether because it was somehow overlooked in the past, or deliberately left unmined, a large and relatively rich mass of copper ore remains to be mined in the south of Caliak Island. Some of the ore is actually as rich as 2% copper, and geologists have determined that the ore mass is substantial.

The mining operations in the south of the island have brought new residents to Caliak City, mining engineers, miners, roboticists, geologists, and others. The money is supercharging an already hot economy in Caliak, and the newcomers are sometimes clashing with the established residents. Given the nature of Caliak City, smugglers have already begun attempting to 'divert' some of the mined metal to other purchasers, sometimes successfully.

Among the smugglers who use Caliak City as a base is one very special one.

DYAKHA KOLIRA

Species: Homo vertara
Age in 2124: 46 Terran years
Height: 5'11"
Hair: Red
Eyes: Blue

IQ: 13
DX: 12
ST: 11
HT: 10

Spd: 6.0

ADVANTAGES:

Alertness 3
Ally Group (Crew, almost all the time)
Ally (her son Dvartion, almost all the time)
Appearance (Beautiful)
Charisma 2
Contacts and Favors (25 points worth)
Intuition
Luck (1)
Strong Will 2
Unusual Background (smuggler family)
Wealth (comfortable)

DISADVANTAGES:

Bad Temper at -5 level
Code of Honor (Smuggler's)
Enemies (20 points worth, various)
Greed
Impulsive
Lecherous at -10 level
Overconfident
Secret
Sense of Duty (Crew, Son)

QUIRKS:

1. Jealous of other attractive women
2. Possessive of former romantic partners
3. Fear of flying (rarely arises)
4. Loves fresh tomatoes
5. Always carries a small concealed knife

SKILLS:

Area Knowledge
Caliak 14
Catakatia 12
Cataka City 12
Others (20 points worth)
Bard 14
Beam Weapons (TL10) 12
Boating 14
Carousing 13
Cooking 15
Dancing 12
Diplomacy 10
Fast-talk 15
First Aid 13
Forgery 10
Gambling 12
Guns (TL10) 15
History (Veranis) 10
Knife 15
Languages
Catakatian (native, fully literate)
Thakarian (effectively native, fully literate)*
English (understands a smattering, not enough to be worth points)
Leadership 14
Lockpicking (and related) 11
Merchant 14
Navigation 15
Pickpocket 10
Savoir-Faire (Catakatian court) 10
Sex Appeal 12
Tactics 12
Seamanship 18
Streetwise 16
Swimming 14

*Almost all educated Veranisian Northlanders speak, read, and understand Thakarian as well as their own native language, to the point that it is effectively a second native language.

Dyakha Kolira is a remarkable woman, in some ways she is the very embodiment of a 'pirate princess'...or she would have been had she lived a century or more earlier, before the Thakarian Invasion of Veranis. She looks the part, still spectacularly beautiful in the late forties, with long flowing red hair and piercing blue eyes, possessed of a spectacular figure and knowing how to use these gifts to her advantage (and fully willing to do so).

In some ways, the Northlander culture of Veranis is very male-oriented. Most of the royal families and noble famlies of Catakatia and her sister states, for example, count inheritance only through the male line and only for male offspring. On the other hand, for whatever reasons, female sea captains have been very common in Northlander history.

Dyakha is well known in Caliak, as the owner of her own ship, prepared to carry cargoes both legal and illegal. She has also engaged in quiet piracy on more than one occasion. She was born into his life, her father was a successful smuggler and criminal during the decades of Thakarian rule, and she inherited his vessel on his death and became even more successful in both her legal and illegal activities than her father had been. Her father was Catakatian in origin, and that is why she grew up speaking Catakatian.

Her career as a cargo carrying, courier, smuggler, thief, occasional pirate, and other activities have given her a familiarity with cities and ports all across Veranis. She is an acquaintance of Paul Denton, the American pilot who bases out of Cataka City, and she has on occasion worked with him, or against him, depending on who was paying who to do what. The two were occasional lovers as well, and remain on 'friendly' terms when they are not being paid to work against each other. (Her relationship with Denton's current love interest, Amanda Kerrey, is less friendly, both women have a jealous streak.)

She has also made more than a few dangerous enemies in her life, their motives for hostility of various levels of justification.

Dyakha has a crew that has worked for her for years, and she is very protective of them, and they are very loyal to her. Their fortunes have risen and fallen together, and their collective wealth has varied between 'not quite wealthy' and 'broke', at different times.

Dyakha has a son, Dvartion, who is 19 Terran years old in 2124. He grew up on her ship, and today he serves aboard her vessel as a navigator and assistant mechanic. (The vessel is a hybrid of sailing ship and power vessel.) Dyakha has told him that his father was a fellow smuggler who died while she was still pregnant. This story is half true.

It is true that the father of Dvartion died while she was still only about half way through her pregnancy. He was not, however, a smuggler. What Dyakha has kept a deep secret from everyone, especially her son, is that his actual father was a member of the royal family of Catakatia.

MORE LATER.

Re: ORICHALCUM UNIVERSE: VERANIS (Dyaxor A V) in 2123...
 

LATER.

Dyakha was always impulsive, and amorous, and still is, by nature. When she was younger, she was more so with regard to both. From the time she was in her early teens, Dyakha had been a risk-taker and lived, to some degree, 'on the edge', loving the adrenaline rush of such situations. This was especially true when she was in her twenties.

She was also spectacularly beautiful, and during a time when her ship was in port in Cataka City, roughly in what would have been 2102 or 2103 on Earth (give or take, simultaneity being shifty) she caught the eye of Tethrin, a nephew of the then-ruling monarch of Catakatia. The then-monarch was elderly, and his two younger brothers were both already deceased at that time. Tethrin was the older son of the then-Jarak's youngest deceased brother, the younger brother of Tethrin was a prince named Tarhandis. The middle brother of that original royal trio had a son named Sahandar.

Tethrin, as a fairly high-ranking member of the royal house, had no particular business 'slumming' in the bars and less reputable establishments of Cataka City. Of course, such things have gone on since the dawn of humanoid existence, so it was hardly unprecedented. Likewise, letting himself get drawn into an affair with a beautiful, exotic, mysterious redheaded ship captain/smuggler/pirate was also not unprecedented, if certainly in no wise wise.

Dyakha, likewise, knew better. She was from the wrong side of the tracks, even if no tracks then existed on Veranis (or had not for millennia). The last thing she and her crew needed was attention from the power players of Catakatia, or trouble with the Thak-Tarak, which could easily follow from such attention. The smart play would have been to vanish into thin air as soon as she realized who Tethrin really was.

Yes, that would have been wise...but twenty-something Dyakha was not particularly wise. Smart, yes, clever, yes, experienced, yes, talented, yes, wise, not so much. She knew better, but she was unable to resist the temptation of the handsome, wealthy, and powerful prince.

Both Tethrin and Dyakha intended this to me no more than a dalliance, just a passing pleasure. Both had had many such before, but this time both found themselves caught up in a serious affair, in over their heads before they knew it. Logic and common sense went by the boards, and they ended up actually secretly marrying. Dyakha was pregnant within a month of the small, secret wedding.

The wedding compounded the folly of the affair, because it made their offspring a Prince of Catakatia. Unwedded the child would be just another illegitimate by-blow of the royal family, with no claim on status or power, and thus also little threat to anyone. The wedding, which was definitely legal if kept very secret, changed all that radically.

Dyakha had no particular ambitions to join the royal family, the wedding and the pregnancy were the product of two young people head over heels for each other, and used to 'getting away with it' for most of their lives. They simply were not thinking much about the future or the implications of what they were doing.

All sorts of problems would eventually have come of all this, but those problems were cut suddenly short and replaced by others, in roughly what would have been the year 2105 on Earth. The sudden victory of the American, Argentinian, and Australian space forces over the Thak-Tarak out in space upended everything the Northlanders had known for a century.

Suddenly, with no warning, the ruling Thak-Tarak officers and elite were abandoning their offices, estates, and positions, rushing to board shuttles taking them up to waiting Thakarian starships. There were too few shuttles and starships for all the Thak-Tarak who wanted to depart, only the very elite of the Thak-Tarak and their connected were sure of berths. Others were offering anything and everything they could lay hands on or give for a place on the shuttles. Fear was in the air.

(Not all the Thakarian Humans wanted to leave. For many of them, Veranis was the only home they or often their parents and grandparents had ever known. Enough people wanted to flee, though, that berths on the shuttles were the most priceless thing for sale in the Northlands at that time.)

The Jarak of Catakatia was one of the few Vertarans to flee with the retreating Thak-Tarak, along with his sons, and some of the highest officials and people of the other Northlands states as well. The Jarak abdicated the throne, and both his sons likewise, to flee with the Thak-Tarak. They had patrons among the Thak-Tarak elite to get them onto the starships.

Dyakha was in Cataka City when the chaos descended, and for the first time in her life, she found herself completely overwhelmed. She only half-grasped what was happening, she knew in a general, abstract sort of way about other planets and space travel, but now events out in deep space had disrupted everything she knew. Law and order had broken down almost entirely, but while normally she might have seen this as an opportunity, now it was just terrifying for a scared, pregnant woman who had no idea what was happening.

Rumors swirled throughout Cataka City about what was happening, and when it sank in that someone had actually defeated the Thakarians who had ruled Veranis with an iron grip for over a century, the rumors multiplied. What sort of beings could do such a thing? Were they coming to Veranis? What would they do if and when they did? The stories that circulated in that tumultuous period grew ever wilder and more terrifying, and for the first time in her young life, Dyakha had been all but paralyzed with anxiety and fear.

Her husband was not much better off. News came that another nephew of the former Jarak, and Tethrin's cousin, Sahandar, had claimed the throne and was now the Jarak. He was only sixteen Terran years old, though, and he had his hands full simply trying to restore some kind of order in the streets of Cataka City and the other cities and towns of his realm. Tethrin was the next in line for the throne, but that turned out not to matter.

Violence in the streets was a commonplace at that time, and even princes could fall foul of it. Tethrin was killed in a riot along with some hundreds of others, commoner, noble, and royal. When Dyakha learned that her husband of a few months was dead, she ran for it. She gathered her crew (who had been getting restless even before the chaos descended) and they set sail, fleeing Cataka City a few hours before dawn. This escape was close, others had tried to steal her ship to flee the city themselves, and blood was shed to regain control of her vessel and make their escape.

Her son Dvartion was born a few months later, a healthy baby boy, born at sea off the coast of West Continent. He would grow up amid her crew aboard her ship, and she kept him entirely in the dark about his ancestry. Of her entire crew, only Malakis, her first officer and most trusted friend, knew the truth.

In 2124, Dvartion is 19 Terran years old, and his mother is older and wiser. One thing she knows that terrifies her is that, by legal and bloodline descent, her son is the rightful Heir Presumptive of Sahandar III, the Jarak of Catakatia. He will be the Heir Presumptive by right unless, and until, Sahandar sires legitimate children of his own.

Her marriage to Tethrin was completely legal and official, registered in an out-of-the-way office, but definitely public record. The legal princely status of her son is beyond dispute. For that matter, her marriage makes Dyakha herself, technically, a member of the royal family.

What worries her (among many things) is that Tarhandis, the prince who is publicly seen to be the Heir Presumptive, is the uncle of her son, but as the younger son of their mutual grandfather, his claim to the Throne would be disrupted if Dvartion was to come forward with evidence of his own status. Which makes Dvartion dangerous to many powerful people in Catakatia.

Dyakha is wise enough to know that her son has not been raised to royal status, regardless of his ancestry, he has grown up as a sailor aboard a free-lance ship with doubtful legality. Yet simply by existing he is a potential threat to the existing line of succession in Catakatia.

Dyakha does have proof of her marriage and the status of her son, carefully hidden in a secret compartment aboard her vessel. These proofs include the papers officiating the marriage, a document signed by her husband acknowledging paternity, and most definitely/damningly, a piece of the royal regalia of Catakatia.

MORE LATER.

Re: ORICHALCUM UNIVERSE: VERANIS (Dyaxor A V) in 2123...
 

LATER.

Crowns, as such, were never part of the cultural heritage of the Northland states, even before the Thakarians came. They did have a form of royal regalia, though. In Catakatia (and several other Northland states), there were four main forms of such.

Sahandar the Third has three of the four traditional items of regalia in 2124. The most formal/important/heavy is the royal 'torc'. It is several centuries old, and made of beaten meteoric iron inland with a considerable amount of gold, and set with large blue sapphires. A hinge in the back enables it to be relatively easy to take on and off, but as one would expect of something made of iron and gold, it is very heavy to wear.

The royal torc is rarely worn, it is mostly used only during 'formal formal' ceremonies and events, coronations, royal weddings, noble investitures, the top crust of diplomatic events, and the like.

A second item is a belt, made of links of iron and gold, set with sapphires, which is lighter and more comfortable than the torc, but not by much. Sahandar uses this during 'ordinary formal' events, such as formal sessions of the assembly, public appearances during holidays, ordinary diplomatic events, that sort of thing.

On a day-to-day basis, Sahandar wears a royal ring, made of gold alloy and set with a large ruby carved with the crest of the royal family. This ring is worn most of the time when the Jarak is engaging in any sort of ordinary official activity. Since Sahandar prefers 'street clothes' to formal raiment anyway, this suits the Jarak.

The fourth item of the traditional regalia has been missing since the Thak-Tarak fled, now two decades in the past. The most common theory is that either the former Jarak fled with it when he abdicated, or someone stole it and either it left with the Thak-Tarak or it remains in hiding. A few people think it might simply have been misplaced in all the confusion of the transition.

In fact, all of these theories are wrong, though the 'somone stole it' theory comes close to the truth. In fact, the person who took it had a customary right to take it. The item is a 'bracelet' of sorts, a long one that covers about half of the arm from wrist to elbow. It is made of iron and inlaid with intricate designs of gold, and set with yet more sapphires.

All four items are officially the property of the Jarak, but by tradition, the Heir Apparent/Presumptive wears the Bracelet. When Sahandar the Third claimed the throne after his uncle and cousins fled into space with the Thak-Tarak, that made his cousin Tethrin the Heir Presumptive. Tethrin had gone to the Palace and taken the Bracelet as a sign of his own status, planning to stake out his own role quickly (and thus enable him to 'normalize' his smuggler queen wife) as soon as he learned that Sahandar had been confirmed as Jarak. When Tethrin was killed, his widow took the Bracelet with her as she fled into the night with her crew and son.

Why did Dyakha take the Bracelet when she fled? Many reasons, partly impulse, partly greed, partly pride (her unborn son was the Heir Presumptive now, after all), partly panic, partly reflex. In the years since, she has often wished she had left it behind when she fled, and more than once she has considered tossing the Bracelet overboard and letting it sink into the deeps.

On the other hand, the Bracelet is worth ten fortunes, and Dyakha is a greedy woman. In practice, of course, the Bracelet is so valuable as to be worthless, it would be widely recognizable and very 'hot'. On the other hand, in extremis, it could be melted down and the gold and gems sold separately.

Also, though she has no desire to ever reveal the status of her son, at the same time, she knows circumstances can change choices, someday, she might need to establish the royal status of her son, or he might need to do so. So she has retained the proofs, but never breathed a word about them or even hinted about them to her son.

In 2124, Dyakha sometimes looks back at her panic and fear twenty years before with amusement and embarrassment. The strange beings who defeated the Thak-Tarak did come to Veranis, and they turned out to be just more Humans, not Thakarians but of the same breed. By 2124, she has fought Terrestrians, worked with them, occasionally slept with them, killed a few of them, traded with them, and she holds them in no awe. She does not speak any Terrestrian languages, but she has learned to understand a thin smattering of English, though she can not speak it in any useful way.

To the degree that Dyakha has a home other than her ship, it is the city of Caliak. She knows it well, including some secret lore, and if need be she could hide out there, vanishing effortlessly into the crowds and twisting streets. She first met Paul Denton/'McRane' in Caliak, where he regularly arrives on various businesses. His almost unique float plane can easily put down in the bay of the city, and he is well known there.

She also knows Amanda Kerrey, but her relationship with the blonde Australian is somewhat tense. This has not kept her from sometimes working with her (Kerrey can pay well when she wants to hire someone, and Dyakha is a useful contact), but they are not friends.

A savvy businesswoman, Dyakha has also invested heavily (if secretly) in the copper mining operations in the southern hills. If the returns on this keep mounting up, it will soon become her largest single source of income.

MORE LATER.

Re: ORICHALCUM UNIVERSE: VERANIS (Dyaxor A V) in 2123...
 

LATER.

The ship Dyakha inherited from her father is a classic example of the schizoid mixture of technologies in common use on Veranis in 2124. In form, it resembles a 19C Terrestrian 'clipper' ship, with the same long, lean hull form and a very similar triple-mast structure enabling huge arrays of sails to be deployed. At the same time, it is a powered vessel, using two alcohol-fueled engines to drive twin props. Though the ship has relatively modern engines, it often uses wind power to save fuel.

Alcohol is the fuel of choice because of its relative ease of access. Veranis does still have some available petroleum, even after two previous periods of high-technology civilization, but the remaining oil is expensive and only accessible in certain parts of the world. Alcohol can be manufactured relatively easily with modest tools and equipment, using common feedstocks. This ease of access makes alcohol the most common fuel used by civilian powered sea vessels on Veranis.

The hull itself is a TL9 composite, the engines are TL8 alcohol-fueled 'diesels', the sails are a TL7 fabric. Electric motors make rigging the sails and striking them fast and easy, with a minimum of climbing in the rigging. The ship carries radar and sonar systems, but also a manned 'crow's nest', which sometimes is useful in the mixed-tech environment of Veranis. Access to the crow's nest atop the mainsail is by ladder, but it has a telephone connection to the 'helmroom' where the ship is run.

The ship carries a powerful radio, with the antenna rigged to the mainmast, but the lack of satellites and other orbital relays (see upthread for why) and the fact that many areas of Veranis lack radio stations of any sort, means that the ship is often out of touch with the world when out at sea, especially when far from the Northlands. This lack of satellites, shore stations (nothing akin to LORAN exists except when very near the Northlands) and other aids means that navigation is still done by star sightings and chronometers (admittedly the chronometers are electronic).

This lack of orbital presence (other than the usual presence of a Terrestrian warship, which scarcely matters for this purpose) also means that accurate weather information is often unavailable when far at sea. Dyakha and her crew carry basic meteorological instruments, and some of the crew are skilled in their use.

Many aspects of the ship, though, are more at the level of TL5-6. The small boats (the ship carries 4) are powered by oars. The galley would be familiar to any sailor in the seas of Veranis a century earlier before the Thakarians came (other than the presence of refrigeration). Loading and unloading the cargo holds is done by manual labor, as are several other basic requirements of ship operations.

Some of the instruments and equipment the ship carries are secret, such as the long-range sound surveillance system, which can pick out conversations on the docks, or other interesting nearby sounds. The ship mounts four automatic mounted rifles in concealed slots, positioned to give coverage on all sides of the ship. These guns are meant primarily for protection when the ship is at dock or near another ship, and are primarily anti-personnel weapons.

Dyakha also carries a still more secret weapon, a fairly modern self-guided torpedo with a high explosive warhead. It could, under the right conditions, be used to destroy another ship as far as fifteen-twenty kilometers away, and it is 'fire and forget'. Though few laws or rules govern what weaponry sea vessels can carry on Veranis, this torpedo would definitely bring down the wrath of the Commission if they knew about it.

(She keeps it a deep, dark secret, it is meant as a 'last resort' option.)

Along with the two main holds, there is a hidden 'special' hold used for smuggling, and the ship has many small hidden chambers and compartments.



Dyakha’s cargo/smuggler ship (Veranisian culture does not include a custom of 'naming' sea craft)

Crew: 35 total.

P&P: 50,000 gal alcohol fuel (fire 10), ten 360,000-kWs rechargeable power cells, ten 360,000-kWs rechargeable power cells, two 11,000-kW marine diesels (alcohol fuel, short term access), two 10,000-kW ducted propellers (short term access).

Fuel: 50,000 gal alcohol fuel (fire 10), two 50,000 gal self-sealing standard fuel tanks

Occupancy: normal helm station (bridge access), normal navigator station (bridge access), normal engineering station (bridge access), normal crew station, two normal crew stations (bridge access), cabin, luxury captain cabin, galley, galley, five officer cabins, 15 dual occupancy cabins, two 50,000-cf cargo holds, 1,000-cf 'special' cargo hold.

Armor F RL B T U
Body 4/140 4/140 4/140 4/20 4/140

Weaponry
6.5mm rifled autoloader Ver. Cr 6d 12 13 650 3,700 1/1 6
torpedo Crit Exp 4dx95 - - 58 17,000 - 8

Equipment
Body: 1 gallon alcohol still; 2,000 gallon alcohol fuel processor; radar (scan 17, 10-mile range); four LLTVs (magnification x125); two active sonar systems (2-mile range; active/passive, depth finding, non-targeting); surveillance sound detector (sound level 18); meteorology instrument; meteorology instrument; meteorology instrument; inertial navigation system; set of precision navigation instruments; complete workshop; complete workshop; complete workshop; 7.06 gpm electric bilge pump (included by default); two cargo ramps; four 4,400-lbs. boat cradles; 450-sf common room; two emergency support units; 30 ft electro-magnet crane(10,000lbs. capacity); complete workshop; four 6.5mm rifled autoloaders (long barrel; fine (accurate), recoilless, caseless ammo); 100mm torpedo (normal HE warhead).

Statistics
Size: [LxWxH] 196 x 40


Water Performance: Top Speed 20 knots powered, 18 knots full sail

Design Notes:
TL8 medium frame expensive materials [Vehicle].
T TL7 DR 20 expensive wood, U TL9 DR 140 expensive composite, L TL9 DR 140 expensive composite, R TL9 DR 140 expensive composite, F TL9 DR 140 expensive composite, B TL9 DR 140 expensive composite [Body].
Operating Duration: 7 D 2 H 52 M 2 S.
Vehicle Features: electronic controls, self-sealed, waterproofed, no streamlining, finely made.
Water Features: flotation.
Body: heavy compartmentalization.


MORE LATER.

Re: ORICHALCUM UNIVERSE: VERANIS (Dyaxor A V) in 2123...
 

LATER.

The Northlands of Veranis are roughly rectangular, running longer east-west. Cataka City is near the midpoint of the southern coast, and Catakatia occupies a large swath of the south-central coast and reaches northward into the middle of the continent. Cataka City, the theoretical capitol city of Catakatia, rests roughly at the midpoint of the south coast of Catakatia.

One can find an example of almost any terrain or biome somewhere in the Northlands. The continent is currently drifting northward, slowly even by the standards of tectonic motion, and as a result a new mountain range is rising on the northern coast in an ongoing orogeny. The mountains run almost the entire length of the northern coast, and while they are not yet extremely high, they are rather steep, especially on the northern side.

In the more ancient past, the Northlands experienced a continental collision, a small plate collided with what was then the coast, and a mountain range marked the suture zone. At that time the range ran more east west, but the land mass has long since pivoted, turning the mountain range nearly directly north-south. This range is much, much older than the rising mountains on the north, and has eroded substantially. Still, the range retains a number of peaks over two kilometers in height, and with relatively few passes. This old range runs from the south coast northward to intersect the rising mountains on the north side of the Northlands. Where the two chains come together, the peaks reach extreme heights. This is one of the few places on Veranis to be snowcapped throughout the year.

The upshot of all this ancient geology is that the westernmost part of the modern Veranisian Northlands, about a fifth of the land area of the continent, is cut off from the rest of the continent by a mountain range.

Because of the latitude of the Northlands, much of the moisture-bearing winds coming in on the prevailing westerlies cross this region, and strike the mountain range. This means that what rain has not already fallen ends up dropping on the western side of the ancient range.

As a result, the lands to the immediate east of the range are mostly dry, semi-arid or in places full on sandy or rocky desert.

(A somewhat parallel situation exists in the western regions of North America, for similar reasons.)

The upshot of all this is that the western region has been somewhat isolated from the rest of the continent throughout the millennia since the interplanetary wars ended. This in turn meant that the society to the west of the range developed in different directions than the rest of the post-War Northlands. Even the language is different, Terrestrian philologists believe the local language to be related to the other tongues of the Northlands, but more distantly than the others are related to each other.

The terrain to the west of the mountains is itself hilly and steep, a wide mass of broken foothills with many small, isolated fertile valleys. Then, farther west, the land smooths out into rolling hills and plains, well-watered, criss-crossed by rivers and streams, almost all the way to the coast. Near the coast, the land becomes drops off into steeps cliffs where it meets the sea, except for a few sheltered harbors. The great western plain rests, more or less, atop a descending plateau.

In short, the region west of the mountains is arable, clement, well-watered, and readily defensible from land and sea. The Veranisians call this region 'Nysora', and the mountain range on its east as the Nysoran Mountains.

Unfortunately, this was a rich, well-settled land before the great interplanetary wars as well. This in turn led to it being heavily bombed, blasted, and dusted during those terrible conflicts. Much as with the south coast of the Southlands, what was the most densely populated part of the ancient Northlands was reduced to a windswept radioactive desolation.

What few survivors there were mostly lived in the tiny valleys near the west side of the Nysoran Mountains. Over time, these survivors developed a tribal culture, each fertile valley home to its own tribe, with their own customs and dialects. As their populations began to recover, these tribal states alternated between trade and raid in their relations.

As time passed, the radioactivity subsided and the poisons degraded or washed out to sea, and eventually the tribal cultures of the highland valleys settled the fertile western lowland plateau again. The lands revived, and the populations grew. Harvests became bigger, and a new society emerged in the west, but even after they spread across the fertile plateau lands, the society retained the 'mark' of its gestation in the high valleys.

By the standards of the eastern societies that were emerging on the other side of the mountains, it was a rough-and-tumble society, with a high value on personal honor, especially among the males, a well-developed dueling custom, and a preference for settling disputes via violence. The codes and customs governing dueling became quite elaborate to regulate this violent impulse. As the society grew in size and sophistication, full-on internal warfare became rarer, but various sorts of family and tribal feuding often turned violent. The later-day Nysorans retained their ancestral tribal identities as a badge of honor, and were permitted, and even expected, to defend that honor from any infringement in word or deed.

One thing that did unify all these hundreds of Nysoran tribes was an almost fanatical determination to retain their independence from the states to the east of the mountains.

MORE LATER.

Re: ORICHALCUM UNIVERSE: VERANIS (Dyaxor A V) in 2123...
 

LATER.

This determination was necessary, because there were strong motivations for the eastern states of the Northlands to invade. For one thing, the plains and low hills of western Nysora are some of the best, more clement, most arable territory in the Northlands. For another, in a world where metal ores are all too rare after two previous ages of technological civilization, the hills to the immediate west of the Nysoran Range have several of the remaining natural deposits of metals such as copper, iron, and tin.

Additionally, the Nysorans themselves sometimes made the idea of invading them the more tempting. They did have several sheltered harbors on the west coast, and as civilization rose again after the great Wars, the Nysorans became a serious naval power fairly early. The forests of their rich lands provided wood for hulls and masts, and their sailing ships were among the best on the seas in those centuries.

Given their warrior culture, it was probably inevitable that Nysoran ships would turn pirate, raiding both the commerce of the other emerging Northlands states, and sometimes raiding their shore cities as well. These raids encouraged ill will in the other states.

The Nysorans were protected by the Nysoran Mountains on the east, and by the rugged cliffs of most of their coasts on the sea. Furthermore, the lands to the immediate east of the mountains were arid and inhospitable, adding to the difficulty of an invasion.

Still, there are some passes in the Nysoran Mountains. Most are high and narrow, and some are in fact artificial, the remains of ancient pre-War roads and road cuts from thousands of years before. Still, being high and narrow, these were not well-suited as invasion routes (though smugglers loved them).

There was an exception, though. Near the midpoint of the north-south run of the Nysoran Range, there is a gap. A wide open area cuts through the mountains and the hills on the west, a broad, flat region nearly seventy kilometers wide, with a level floor that is mostly grassland. This gap lets warm moist weather systems past the Nysoran Range, and because of this, the lands to the immediate east are much less arid than the rest of the rain-shadow region.

In short, this gap was a nearly perfect hole in the natural defenses of the Nysorans, a wide-open highway for an invading army.

The Nysorans knew this, and fortified it as best they could. Enormous stone 'castles' rose in the hills and mountains to either side of the gap, and later castles rose in the middle of the open region as well. Still, this was the only really practical invasion route, and it was invaded several times over the course of several centuries.

The invasions were never fully successful. Sometimes they managed to capture some land to the west of the mountains, but they could never hold it for more than a few decades at most, and usually much less than that. In every case, the cost in blood and treasure, on both sides, was enormous.

Then the Thakarians came, and conquered both the Nysorans and their rivals to the east in short order. For over a Terran century, the Thak-Tarak suppressed the warfare with brutal efficiency. The Thak-Tarak never found it fully worth the trouble to suppress all the internal violence in Nysora, though. As long as the tribes and clans of the Nysorans kept their violence to themselves, and below a certain level, and did not interfere with Thak-Tarak profits and activities, they were more or less left alone....at first.

As time passed, though, the Thak-Tarak began to create plantations in the rich lands of Nysora, and the locals were drafted to work them. Some of the farms were simply food for the Thak-Tarak occupiers elsewhere on Veranis, some were of plants that had commercial applications. The metal deposits in the western hills were mined, and though much of this work was robotic, some Nysorans were made to work there as well.

By the time the Terrestrians arrived, the Nysorans had been changed by their long occupation, as had the rest of Veranis. The Nysorans had learned many of the technologies of their occupiers, and they were much more of a city-dwelling people than had been the case when the Thak-Tarak arrived. They were also less quick to violence than their great-grandparents had been.

They were still Nysorans, though. Their family and tribe loyalties were still strong, and they were still touchy about personal and family honor. In 2124, most Nysorans still routinely go armed, and there are still many ways one can transgress against their honor, familial or individual. It is still accepted, and expected, that such transgressions will be responded to, as well.

Violence is comparatively uncommon, and rarely goes beyond brawling when it does, mostly because the Nysorans know all the touchy spots and avoid them. The same honor-culture that makes Nysoran society touchy also makes them polite, at least among themselves. Most Nysorans are so aware of the boundaries that the only time they transgress them is when they mean it.

Outsiders, though, can transgress by accident in any number of ways. The Nysorans will accept a limited amount of such accidental insult, ascribing it to ignorance, but that only goes so far. As a result, the other Northlanders peoples tend to see the Nysorans as touchy, irascible, irrational, volatile, and sometimes just crazy.

Every Nysoran is primarily considered to be a member of his or her paternal tribe. One is also a secondary member of the maternal tribe, if that is different, and then of the grandmaternal tribe on the paternal side, then of the grandmaternal tribe on the maternal side, if those tribes are diferent. Such intertribal marriages are very common.

It is considered deeply shameful to a tribe for a female of the tribe to marry outside the Nysoran peoples, and doubly so to carry a child fathered by an outsider without marriage. Modern-day Nysorans distinguish between a child of rape and a voluntary pregnancy for this purpose (though their great-grandparents, before the Thakarian Occupation, often did not), but otherwise marriage or pregnancy outside the Nysorans is usually enough to get the woman exiled. The offspring of such matings are not considered to be Nysorans, and violence toward them by more extreme individuals is not unheard of, though not legal and no longer socially acceptable as such.

It is considered acceptable for a male Nysoran to marry out outsider, or at least not actively shameful, but it is not encouraged. His offspring, though, will be considered a Nysoran of his tribe. Exactly how accepted such a marriage will be will mostly depend on how hard the wife tries to adopt Nysoran ways.

The Thak-Tarak occupation left a deep mark on the Nysorans, and no Human of Thakarian descent is welcome in most places in Nysora. When the Terrestrians defeated the Thak-Tarak, the Thakarians in Nysora were especially eager to flee. Those who could not get aboard the departing starships mostly fled across the mountains to the other Northlands states. Those who did not or could not flee were usually killed in the riots that followed. The Nysorans killed men, women, and children, the hatred was intense (and not without some reason, to be fair).

In 2124, the Nysorans have a touchy relationship with the Three Power Commission. From the Nysoran point of view, the Terrestrian regime is a huge improvement over the Thak-Tarak, in almost every regard. In part this is a matter of Terrestrian policies, in part a result of the thinner, less extensive resources to govern the planet that the Commission controls.

Still, the Terrestrian occupation is still an occupation, and Terrestrians and Thakarians are both Humans. Many Nysorans have the attitude, even in 2124, that the best Human is a dead Human. Others are more willing to make the distinction between Thakarian and Human, but still tend to feel the deep cultural resentment toward any Human. There are some Nysorans who are more tolerant, but it is still unwise for any Human to spontaneously visit a Nysoran town or village alone and unarmed, especially at night.

As one might expect, of all the major Northlands polities, Nysora has the lowest percentage of resident Humans, whether Terrestrian or of Thakarian descent. Less than one percent of the Nysoran population is 'local' Human, most of them living in one or two all-Human towns.

MORE LATER.

Re: ORICHALCUM UNIVERSE: VERANIS (Dyaxor A V) in 2123...
 

LATER.

The Nysorans remain almost fanatically determined to maintain as much of their societal independence as possible. In 2124, large-scale invasion from the other Northlands states is highly unlikely. The Commission would intervene to suppress such a thing. Still, the Nysorans know that the Terrestrians may not always be there, and they retain their military organization. It is currently small, but it could provide an officer corps for a mobilization very quickly, in theory. Most of that force is currently stationed relatively near the Great Gap.

The Great Gap is the 'hole' in the Nysoran Mountains mentioned upthread. Today, that Gap remains the easiest path for a hypothetical invasion, in either direction, into or out of Nysora. At one time, before the Thakarian invasion, the Nysorans constructed heavy stone fortifications and castles on either side of the Gap, and a few on the vast flat land within it.

In 2124, many of those castles are now picturesque tourist attractions. Modern weapons make many of them useful as defensive emplacements. Some of them, the ones with connections to deep underground tunnels and chambers, are still in use, with horses and cavalry replaced by helicopters and motorized transports.

The Gap is also, naturally, a major trade route. The Thakarians constructed a large modern highway running from the capitol city of Nysora, through the Gap, and on to the major states of the eastern Northlands. That highway remains in use, and is maintained for use, and considerable traffic runs along it both ways. The nature of that traffic, in keeping with the dichotomous technology in use on Veranis, includes modern automobiles and trucks, ridden animals, and various sorts of muscle and animal powered vehicles as well. There are even a very few 'land sail' vehicles that use wind power to propel themselves on the road.

The Great Gap permits rain-bearing clouds to pass through the mountains, and the lay of the land results in a year-around river flowing back westward through the Gap. The road crosses this twisting river in several places, on large, solidly constructed bridges.

What very few people know is that the Nysorans have rigged all of these bridges so that they can be destroyed by concealed explosive charges at the press of a button. Again, just in case of an invasion. There are four main bridges, and the Nysorans could destroy them all at once or individually, as the situation might seem to demand.

The existence of these hidden charges is a Nysoran state secret. They are very well concealed, and maintained by Nysoran intelligence agents who are under cover as road maintenance personnel. The charges are connected to concealed radio receivers, and can be detonation by reception of a specific coded transmission.

The Nysorans have, so far, managed to keep this a secret from the other states, and from the Three Power Commission. Only about fifty people even in Nysora know about these devices.

The road in question starts at the capitol city in Nysora, passes east through the Great Gap, crosses the buffer region to the east of the mountains, and then splits off into separate roads heading for major cities in the other Northlands states, such as Catakatia and Cataka City.

As the relevant road branch turns south and heads for Cataka City, it passes one of the more unusual institutions of Catakatia: the Royal Technical Institute. That is an English translation of a Catakatian term, of course, but it captures the flavor of the meaning.

The current ruler of Catakatia, Sahandar III, knows that his nation needs more highly trained, skilled people to deal with the rapid transition in technology that is occurring. Sahandar is taking a long view, for a day when Veranis is not ruled by either Terrestrian or Thakarian, when the peoples of Veranis can stand as equals with the interstellar races, and he knows that much must be learned, and done, in order for that day to come. The Royal Technical Institute is one of the steps Sahandar has taken to bring that day closer.

As noted upthread, Cataka City sits at the mouth of a major river, which flows south in the sea. If one passes upriver, travelling north, after about fifteen kilometers, one comes to a lake. Three great continental interior rivers flow into this lake, and the short, but wide and deep, river that drains the lake into the sea comes out of the southern side of the lake. The lake itself is a remant of the glaciers that covered much of the Northlands 45,000 Terran years earlier. The ice gouged out a deep basin, and the melting ice filled it with water. This lake is roughly the size of Lake Eerie on Earth, though substantially deeper, and it is actually somewhat similar in shape to Eerie.

The lake is roughly oblong, and runs about 280 kilometers east-west, and roughly 50 kilometers north-south. The three great tributary rivers the drain into this lake all come in from the north, the short river that drains to the sea emerges from near the mid-point of the southern side of the lake. The lake averages about two hundred meters deep. There are many islands in the lake, some of them densely inhabited. Most of these islands cluster toward the eastern end of the lake.

There are a few islands on the western end, and one of them is home to the primary campus of the Royal Technical Institute.

MORE LATER.

Re: ORICHALCUM UNIVERSE: VERANIS (Dyaxor A V) in 2123...
 

LATER.

The island in question is roughly rectangular, and is about twenty kilometers long and eight kilometers wide, with the long axis oriented north-south. The entire island is held by the Jarak as part of his personal demesne, and the Royal Technical Institute has been granted a royal charter to use the entire island, in tandem with the chief military academy of Catakatia.

The main campus is on the southern end, and in the twelve years since the RTI was established, it has already grown to a substantial size with many buildings and facilities. The RTI has about one thousand students, picked from the Vertaran population of Catakatia by various programs of testing and recommendation. The RTI takes no allowance for social rank, the sons of nobles and the sons of poor men both attend, if they pass the various tests.

There is no tuition as such. All the students are wards of the government of Catakatia, which pays for room, board, and other such necessities. The students live in simple dormitories, which are comfortable but by no means luxurious, and the Jarak made specific provisions that the dormitories are all similar, the scions of noble families live no better than anyone else.

The students wear uniforms of a sort, dine in common cafeterias, and live a relatively regimented life. There is little in the way of student mischief, because such is specifically not tolerated. It takes very little misbehavior to lose a place in the Institute, and there are always others eager for the chance to take that place. While some students come from wealthy backgrounds, there is little to spend such money upon on the island.

The curriculum heavily emphasizes what a Terrestrian would call STEM subjects. Physics, chemistry, astronomy, biology, medicine, engineering, basic and applied mathematics, meteorology, etc. are among the subjects taught.

The 'humanities' are much less emphasized, though history, of Catakatia, of Veranis, of Earth, and of Thakaria most definitely are taught. Languages are also a common subject of study. The Institute is a state entity, and no apologies are made for teaching history and languages from a Catakatian perspective, though this is not done blindly. A student at the RTI studying the history of his world will receive it primarily from the Catakatian point of view, but other perspectives are included.

The RTI divides the Veranisian year into three equal periods, and uses a trimester system. Students can return home during the brief breaks between the trimesters. Exactly how long a student studies at the RTI depends in part on the subject, but instruction is intensive, many complete their studies in two to three years.

There are 'post-graduate' programs for some subjects, and the most promising students are permitted to attend them. Though it would be difficult for the RTI to do most original scientific research, at least as of 2124, a few members of its post-graduate students and faculty have produced theoretical work in mathematics, physics and astronomy that is recognized as valuable by Terrestrian academics. Most of the applied sciences training at the RTI has been accredited by most of the Terrestrian academic and professional groups as well.

(Which is a source of considerable satisfaction to Jarak Sahandar, because it means his plan is beginning to produce tangible results.)

After graduation, a newly-trained professional is expected to work for the royal government for several years, though there is enough demand for such trained personnel that it is usually possible to negotiate a desirable posting. The RTI was founded in roughly 2112, and by 2124 its graduates are proving that the plan was a success.

Sahandar would like to expand the RTI to permit more students to be trained at a time, but he is somewhat hamstrung by the supply of faculty. When the RTI was first founded, most of the teachers came from the relatively small cadre of Vertarans and Humans already technically trained by the Thakarians, or by Terrestrians hired by Sahandar. As time has passed, the RTI now has a growing number of faculty trained by the RTI itself, but finding qualified and trustworthy faculty remains an ongoing challenge for the royal government.

(Also, qualified in this case means both technically qualified in the subject matter and at the same time an effective teacher, which are two different things.)

As noted upthread, many of the technically trained Humans and Vertarans of Catakatia are suspected of being Thakarian sympathizers to varying degrees and for varying reasons. The legal status of Humans of Thakarian ancestry is still in flux in Catakatia, as well. Thus, Sahandar and his ministers must select the faculty with care, because they want loyalty to Catakatia (and indirectly to Veranis as a whole) to be fairly reliable. Hiring Terrestrian faculty can be effective, and is necessary for certain subjects, but is also very expensive. Training faculty from scratch at the RTI is effective, but also necessarily time-consuming.

Sahandar knows that he could raise the student body to five thousand, easily. The one thousand or so currently matriculating at the RTI are the highest scorers on the necessary tests, but simply relaxing the minimum acceptable scores by no more than a percentage point or two would qualify at least hundreds more students. That could be raised to thousands while keeping standards quite high. The Jarak would like to do it, but he has to obtain the necessary faculty and other personnel first.

Sahandar has also received diplomatic approaches from the other Northlands states, which have become aware of the success of the RTI. It would be very useful, on several levels, for Sahandar to permit some students from the other realms to study at the RTI, but again, he needs more competent and reliable faculty before he can do such a thing.

There is also the issue of facilities. Sahandar knows that the RTI needs more laboratories, more libraries both physical and virtual, more tools and equipment. The RTI is necessarily expensive, and while Sahandar considers it one of the most important long-term investments of his reign, money is never infinite, and other priorities have to be addressed as well.

In fact, that is one reason Sahandar would like to be able to admit foreign students. That would permit him to let other governments and rulers defray part of the cost of the RTI, while also reducing the incentive for the other states to produce rival institutions.

MORE LATER.

Re: ORICHALCUM UNIVERSE: VERANIS (Dyaxor A V) in 2123...
 

Is that part worth mentioning? Isn't that the standard hair color for Vertarans?

Re: ORICHALCUM UNIVERSE: VERANIS (Dyaxor A V) in 2123...
 

Yes. Almost all Vertaran are redheads of one shade or another.

Which is something I should have spelled out more clearly. There are many shades of 'red' hair, and some Vertarans display shades that don't happen in Humans. Their hair ranges from light red-brown to red-golden to literal 'blood red'.

Which is why I mentioned Dyakha's hair color. Her hair (especially when she was in her twenties) was that deep blood-red shade, rare even among Vertarans, and considered exotic and attractive by many Vertaran males. I forgot that I had not given the context for it to make sense.

Re: ORICHALCUM UNIVERSE: VERANIS (Dyaxor A V) in 2123...
 

LATER.

The main campus of the Royal Technical Institute occupies the south end of the island, and is made up of about thirty main buildings of various sorts, some of them academic and some of them for support purposes. The RTI has no sort of athletic program, but it does have an auditorium large enough to assemble the entire student body and the faculty and staff as well. This is the largest building on the campus, and has enough seating for many additional personnel, against the day that Sahandar can expand the student body.

The auditorium is a large round building on the southernmost end of the campus. Only the main administration building is further south, built atop a rise that gives a view of the surrounding lake, though the shore is easily a full kilometer from the campus.

The campus is surrounded by a substantial wall. There are no serious predators on the island, but much of what goes on at the RTI is secret or otherwise 'sensitive'. Access is restricted to the staff, the students, and (sometimes) to family of the above. The campus wall is three meters high, half a meter thick, and composed of hard stone. The gates are heavily-built steel, and guarded.

At the southernmost point of the island, there is a set of docks suitable for small watercraft, these are mostly used by the RTI biological and hydrological sciences staff and students, and related. A larger set of docks is located slightly northward on the western side of the island, this is where the passenger and supply boats from the mainland dock. There is usually an armed patrol boat here as well, with a crew of Royal Military personnel. This ship provides both security for the campus and rescue services when needed.

North of the campus is an area of farms and fields. These provide a certain amount of fresh food for the inhabitants of the island, but their primary purpose is for experimentation and teaching by the agronomy programs. The students learn both academic theory and practical usage, there are professional farmers here as well as academics.

Past the farms are a set of helicopter landing pads, and there are usually at least two or three helicopters present for emergency needs.

Further north yet, the island narrows to a two kilometer wide waist, and then widens again. North of this point, the island is the domain of the Royal Military Academy. This is a sibling institution of the Royal Technical Institute, founded at the same time, and co-located so that they can share relevant resources.

Military organizations are somewhat of a complicated subject on Veranis in 2124. Before the Thakarians came, the Northlands states had been in the early stages of an industrial revolution, and often been at war with each other, and had begun fielding significant mass armies. None of that mattered after the Thakarians arrived.

When the Thakarians conquered the planet, they suppressed most large-scale warfare. There was little point in trying to organize a military against them, even if they would have permitted it. The Thakarians had already demonstrated their ability to crush the armies of Veranis, even the most advanced and powerful of them, with contemptuous ease.

On the other hand, the Thakarians did allow small-scale local warfare, and that forced the Northlanders to maintain small armed forces to protect themselves, and to police their own territories, under Thakarian supervision. Of course, there was also the world-wide, multinational army called the Thranne, which was made up of recruits from all over the planet, and which answered to the Thakarians directly.

When the Terrestrians ousted the Thakarians and inherited control of Veranis, the situation changed in part. The Three Powers simply do not have the resources of manpower and money and equipment, to police the planet in fine detail, nor do they have the desire to do so, at least not with the same brutal efficiency that the Thakarians displayed. The nations and tribes and other polities of Veranis have much more room to maneuver, for good and ill, under Terrestrian rule than they did under Thakarian control.

Still, the Commission will act to suppress major large-scale warfare, and they can certainly do so.

On the other hand, inter-polity and intra-polity violence is much more common under the Terrestrians than it was under the Thakarians, and because of that, the states of Veranis are more armed and have more troops under arms than they once did, for both offensive and defensive purposes. Open warfare is not permitted, but hidden skirmishes, quiet engagements, and the like do go on.

Sahandar III has no particular desire to make war on his neighboring states, or anyone else, for that matter. He deploys his modest army mostly defensively, or to police his territory, and part of him resents the necessity of expending those resources which could be used elsewhere.

Nor does Sahandar aspire to 'rule Veranis' or anything along those lines. Not precisely, anyway. He has his hands more than full governing Catakatia and dealing with the problems of his own state.

On the other hand, Sahandar is also taking the long view. He looks forward to a time when the peoples of Veranis will have regained the technological power they once held thousands of years before, when they can stand as equals with the Terrestrians and the Thakarians and the Yvarixi and the other interstellar peoples. He knows he might not live long enough to see that day, but he does want it to come, and he believes it will, and he is trying to lay the groundwork both to bring that day sooner, and to advance the interests of Catakatia as he does.

As said, Sahandar the Third does not wish to conquer Veranis, even if that were possible, which it currently is not. He is genuinely patriotic toward his world, and wants to advance it to a point that they can stand on their own against Thakaria, and as equals to worlds such as Earth and Yvarix and Tarth. His creation of institutions such as the RTI is driven in part by this.

This desire is entirely sincere.

At the same time, Sahandar III is also a Catakatian patriot, and a 'patriot' of the royal house, as well. Sahandar has no wish to rule Veranis per se, but he does want Catakatia to play a leading role, if not the leading role, in its return to its former glory (and beyond, if possible). Sahandar also desires that his own family play a leading role in the advancement of Catakatia as well, he has no interest in the Jarakship being ended, or turned into a figurehead.

Hence, for ex, his preference that the other Northlands states send their students to his RTI, rather than creating rival institutions. He knows that eventually other such schools will rise, but he prefers that that happen later, after he has had time to make the RTI the prototype and template, to set the pattern and take the lead in the process.

The same logic underlies the creation of the Royal Military Academy. Sahandar foresees a day when Catakatia will need a modern, powerful military again. He has no way to know when that day will come, or what the details will be, but is fairly sure that day will arrive. Sahandar wants to lay the groundwork for that day before it comes.

Sahandar is also a student of history, of the Northlands, of Veranis, and to a lesser degree of other worlds, and he knows that a powerful standing military is a double-edged blade. Such an organized military can become a threat to their own masters, or a predatory force on the very people they are meant to protect and defend. He knows that the primary prevention of this is cultural.

Sahandar created the Royal Military Academy to train a corps of officers, both in the necessary skills of a modern military, and (quietly but at least as importantly) to inculcate a culture of discipline, loyalty, and subordination of ambition to duty. Sahandar hopes to have that corps in place against the time, the 'skeleton' of a larger military that will someday come into being.

Putting the RMA and the RTI on the same isolated island helped both with security, and enabled Sahandar to share resources between the two institutions. Cadets from the RMA attend many of the lectures and classes at the RTI as part of their technical training, especially the Military Engineering cadres.

MORE LATER.

Re: ORICHALCUM UNIVERSE: VERANIS (Dyaxor A V) in 2123...
 

LATER.

One of the Terrestrian faculty at the Royal Technical Institute is Doctor Polly Howardson. Dr. Howardson is an archaeologist, who alternates between historical instruction at the RTI and field work on Central Continent. She does not, strictly speaking, teach archaeology at the RTI. She is technically part of the extensive historical faculty, but much of what the RTI teaches about older Veranisian history is derived from recent archaeological work, much of it performed by Dr. Howardson herself.

Polly Howardson was born in Mobile, Gulfcoast, in 2080. She was the youngest daughter of Carlos Howardson, one of the wealthiest businessmen in Mobile, and a scion of the Howardson family, whose wealth originally derived from the Gulf of Mexico oil industry in the middle Twentieth Century.

As an indulged child of wealthy parents, it would be fair to stay that Polly Howardson was 'spoiled rotten' at an early age. She partied her way through her teenaged years, and began her college years in much the same way. Under the 'party girl' exterior, though, lay an excellent mind, and in her sophomore year at the Decatur campus of Gulfcoast State University, she found herself caught up in fascination while studying the history of Atlantis and the Antediluvian Age. This led her in turn to a career in archaeology.

Not long after she completed her doctorate, she was offered an opportunity to do field work in a very foreign place: the planet Veranis.

At that time, the Thakarian fleets had only just been defeated, and with that American (and allied) victory, came access to the Dyaxor System, with its two habitable worlds and extensive prehistory. An archaeological expedition had been sponsored by several institutions, and Howardson was offered a place by virtue of her doctoral advisor also being involved.

Nervous though she was about the prospect of leaving Earth, her curiosity was still strong enough to drive her to accept (against the wishes of her family, as it happened). On Veranis, she found herself with an entire world of almost untouched archeological sites and possibilities, and she found herself caught up in the unanswered questions that hung over the entire planet.

Though she periodically returned to Earth to visit family, and update her own training, Howardson would spend the bulk of the next two decades on Veranis, and she rose to become one of the most respected members of the Terrestrian archaeological community operating on Veranis (and occasionally on Mardis, the other habitable world of the Dyaxor A system). Her particular specialty, and fascination, was the second period of advanced technological civilization on Veranis, the long-lost Vertaran civilizations, and the terrible wars that brought about their destruction.

Both the original Lakegrandian civilization on Veranis, and the later Vertaran one, were centered on the three equatorial continents, though they certainly we active in the Northlands and the Southlands as well. The vastly older Lakegrandian ruins are actually much better preserved, but extensive Vertaran ruins are present on the equatorial continents as well. As of 2124, Howardson divides her time between the RTI and field work at a site called 12A-9 on the Central Continent. She does field work during dry season at 12A-9 (about half the Veranisian year) and teaches at the RTI during the wet season, when field work would be either entirely impractical or a miserable experience.

DR. POLLY CLARA HOWARDSON

Species: Homo sapiens sapiens
Age in 2124: 44 Terran years
Height: 5'10"
Hair: Black
Eyes: Brown

IQ: 13
DX: 12
ST: 11
HT: 11/13 (+2 for biotechnical enhancement)

ADVANTAGES:

Alertness 1
Allies
Denara (appears all the time, less powerful)
Tryynac (appears rarely, less powerful)
Appearance (Attractive)
Common Sense (works at half value when caught up in curiosity)
Contacts (10 points worth on Veranis)
Fit
Patron
Dr. Shelton Ross (modest power, appears rarely)
Strong Will 1 (additional +1 when driven by professional curiosity)

DISADVANTAGES:

Absent Minded
Code of Honor (academic)
Combat Paralysis
Easy To Read
Pacifism (self or other defense only)
Phobia (very large animals)

QUIRKS:

1. Early riser/early sleeper
2. Carries pair of magnifying glasses at all times
3. Loves licorice
4. Gluttonous at -1 level
5. Modest about academic achievements

SKILLS:

Administration (academic/scientific) 12
Animal Handling 11
Anthropology 18
Archaeology 20
Area Knowledge(s):
Cataka City 11
Mobile, Gulfcoast 15
RTI island 16
Site 12A-9 16
USA 12
Veranis (general) 9
Carousing 12
Cooking 13
Dancing 12
First Aid 13
History 16
Languages:
English (American dialect, native)
Catakatian (literate) 13 13
Local tribal language of Site 12A-9 11 (no written form)
Mechanic 11
Riding (tharjak) 12
Survival (Veranisian jungle) 11
Swimming 13
Teaching 13

MORE LATER.

Re: ORICHALCUM UNIVERSE: VERANIS (Dyaxor A V) in 2123...
 

LATER.

Dr. Howardson has been doing field work on Veranis for well over a decade. This is part of why her mix of skills is what it is. Her formal training is in archaeology and anthropology, and related matters. Her field work on Veranis (and occasionally Mardis) has involved a great deal of activity in areas that are often far from civilization. Quite often this work has been in dangerous areas as well.

Dr. Howardson has learned animal handling, because she had often had to use teams of animals to pull loads to and from work sites. She has become a competent tharjak rider, because in many of the primitive areas where she performs her field work on Veranis, a tharjak is actually the best, or sometimes the only practical, form of personal transportation. Likewise, she has learned to do field maintenance and repairs of various types of equipment, she knows how to keep a portable generator running, and how to keep an internal combustion engine going on a supply of alcohol fuel and using an amazing assortment of items as tools and components. She has also learned the basics of jungle survival, since the majority of her field work is in the forested and jungle-covered reaches of the equatorial continents. She also knows how to prepare an edible meal in the middle of a rain-soaked jungle.

She has mastered the Catakatian language, and speaks it about as well as most natives, though with a noticeable American accent. She also speaks some of the languages used by the indigenous tribals who live near her primary research site.

Her dancing and carousing skills, on the other hand, predate her professional training, and her carousing skills were once higher, in her 'party girl' days in her teens and early twenties. Today she is much more sedate...most of the time.

Dr. Howardson is pretty, rather than beautiful, and tends toward just a slight plumpness (and she is sensitive about it). In fact, though, quite a few males, both Vertaran and Human, are 'interested' in her. The problem is that she is currently absorbed in her work. Dr. Howardson is fascinated by the study of what happened to the previous Vertaran civilizations on Veranis and Mardis, and it is difficult to keep her attention away from that for long.

This extends to her personal judgement. Most of the time, Dr. Howardson is calm, rational, and self-disciplined, and not inclined to needless risks (this would surprise some of the people who knew her in her wild teenaged days). When caught up in her studies, though, she sometimes lets curiosity override her common sense.

Though she has done field work on all three of the equatorial continents of Veranis, and in a few sites on Mardis, for the past several Terran years she has been concentrating her field work in a particular region, known as Site 12A-9.

Site 12A-9 is located in the eastern reaches of Central Continent. If one starts in the city of SharThak (see upthread), and heads southward along the River Shar, past the first fall line, one will come to an area where several tributary rivers feed into the Shar from the east and the west. One of those tributaries initially leads southeast after a traveler leaves the Shar, but after about one hundred kilometers or so it turns almost due east. This river is called the Korth.

The River Korth runs due east for over eight hundred kilometers, and is fed by multiple smaller tributaries coming northward off the mountain range that splits Central Continent. Around the junction of one of these rivers and the Korth is the region that Terrestrian maps refer to as Sector 12A, and at the actual point where the rivers merge is Site 12A-9. The river coming in from the south is called the Kartiak.

The Thakarians had noted that there had once been an ancient Vertaran settlement on that site, but they had held little interest in it. Using Thakarian maps, Terrestrian archaeologists eventually arrived to assess the site, and discovered to their mixed shock and delight that it was actually a full-scale ancient city, a former population center that had once rivalled Terrestrial cities like Chicago or London or Tokyo in size.

That was millennia before, though, and in 2124, at first glance, there is little to be seen at Site 12A-9 but river and jungle. Where once metal and glass and synthetic towers rose toward the sky, now a thick canopy of jungle is all that is visible.

Only a modest amount of digging is necessary, though, to discover plentiful remnants of the ancient metropolis. Beneath a relatively thin layer of soil and jungle detritus lie enough remains to keep an army of archaeologists busy for decades. Dr. Howardson does not have an army of archaeologists, her personal staff and students number no more than a few dozen people, varying with the time of year and academic politics.

That region of Central Continent does not have a summer or winter as such, it is mostly tropical jungle. What the region does have is a wet season and a dry season. More precisely, it has a wet season and a dryer season, because rain is common even during the dryer period. During the dryer period, rain might come on average twice a Terran week, in modest amounts. During the wet season, the rain comes more days than not, varying from mist and drizzle to downpours, and volumes can be enormous. Temperatures do not vary much season to season, but rainfall varies significantly.

During the wet season, the rivers are engorged, both the Kartiak and the Korth, and Site 12A-9 floods routinely. Archaeological work during the wet season is simply impractical, to say nothing of unsafe. As the wet season approaches, Howardson and her personnel secure the area, and only a skeleton staff remains on-site. During these periods, Howardson herself travels back to the Northlands to teach at the Royal Technical Institute.

During the dryer season, work is possible, and relatively safe, at least as far as physical conditions go. There are few indigenous natives living in the immediate vicinity of Site 12A-9, though several tribes exist in the larger region. For the most part, these natives are relatively friendly.

Unfortunately, not far to the south, matters are very different. Only about fifty kilometers to the south lie the northern edges of Slath territory (see upthread). The Slath are most definitely not friendly, or even indifferent.

The local Slath Tribes to the south are among the worst of even that hostile confederation. They are not simply xenophobic and insular, but actively predatory toward outsiders. Some of the tribes are known to practice ritual torture and cannibalism, for reasons unclear to outsiders.

Though Site 12A-9 is outside their territory, it is still uncomfortably close, and the Slath in question tend to live near their borders, making the proximity worse. They rarely cross their northern border, at least since a Governor-General resorted to orbital bombardment to make a point, but the exact location of that border is not always clear, and rarely is not never.

Also, the jungles of Central Continent are home to more than a few forms of dangerous wildlife, including various species of tyrannosauroid and more than a few smaller predatory therapods. None of the local tyrannosaurs are anything like as large as Tyrannosaurus rex, but they are big enough, and dangerous enough, and plentiful enough. There are also some large predatory mammals and some herbivourous dinosaurs and mammals that are also bad-tempered and can be dangerous.

All this in turn means that there must be security personnel present at 12A-9 to protect the archaeologists and their support staff. The necessity can not be doubted, but it adds to the expense and the complications of the field work.

The danger of the Slath to the south is the more troublesome for Dr. Howardson because of her own personality. She has many talents and many virtues, but she is most definitely not a fighter. She is not a coward, but her first instinctive reaction to danger is to freeze, and she has never been able to overcome this. She is also a defense-only pacifist.

This last is less of a general philosophical belief than a recognition of her own limitations. She knows perfectly well that she probably could never be any sort of combatant, it just is not her nature. She can, and occasionally has, used weapons against dangerous animals, but even that does not come easily to her. She recognizes, intellectually, the necessity or inevitability of violence in some situations, but she also knows that she herself is ill-equipped to engage in it.

MORE LATER.

Re: ORICHALCUM UNIVERSE: VERANIS (Dyaxor A V) in 2123...
 

LATER.

Dr. Howardson is probably the one person with the greatest knowledge of what happened to the previous Vertaran high-technology civilization. Which is not saying as much as it might be, she has managed to uncover, and piece together, a remarkable amount of information, but she still has far more questions than answers. Of course she did not do all this alone, but she has been the coordinating force for the effort and she has developed a certain sense of what happened, in the loosest sort of way.

Of course on one level, what happened is no mystery. The Thakarians were able to piece together the basics from their routine scientific and resource-extraction surveys, there were plentiful clues about what broadly happened, i.e. a vast, civilization-rending war. The isotopic signatures, the chemical traces, the physical remains in places, the enormous amount of wrecked machinery and facilities in space, and on the asteroids and moons of the star system, it was all clear enough.

The Thakarians, though, were never particularly interested in the history of Veranis or Mardis before they conquered both worlds.

Terrestrian archaeologists have found Veranis and Mardis a fascinating field of study. Dr. Howardson has become the central figure of that effort over the course of two decades.

It might be easiest to let Dr. Howardson herself summarize some of what she has learned, and deduced, by 2124, with excerpts from a lecture she gave at the RTI in ~January 2124. We will translate the lecture into English for convenience.

The lecture hall was full, mostly with the usual students in the History program, but there were also some students sitting in from other classes, and even a few uniformed cadets from the Military Academy. Dr. Howardson's lecture was a subject of some interest.

The Terrestrian walked onto the podium, clad in her signature jumpsuit and silver belt, and began her lecture.

"...we don't know with certainty how large the population of Veranis, or of Mardis, was at that time. What we can say with reasonable confidence was that at about the time that the final wars began, Veranis was home to at least one billion people, and that Mardis was host to half again that many.

Additionally, my colleagues who work in space have estimated that there might have been as many as one hundred million people living in space, or on one of the other planetary bodies of the Dyaxor System...

...compare that to today: Veranis has a Vertaran population in the neighborhood of sixty million, according to the best estimates of the Three Power Commission's demographers. Mardis has a population of perhaps fifty million...

...after the passage of over six thousand years, this star system has a total population of about one fiftieth of the population just before the wars...

...we think we've been able to put an approximate date on the beginning of the wars. Several lines of converging evidence, archaeological, chemical, physical, all point toward a date between six and seven thousand years ago. Interestingly, at roughly the same time that Sol was experiencing our Cataclysm, and the collapse of the Atlantean Age, Dyaxor was going through the destruction of a star-system-wide society as well...

...we can't say whether your ancestors before the wars were politically unified, we don't know whether they were all one culture, either. We do know, or believe, that a single language was in widespread use across this entire star system at that time. Philological studies are increasingly showing commonalities in the languages spoken on both Mardis and Veranis. Though there are thousands of languages spoken across these two worlds today, my linguistic colleagues are increasingly of the opinion that all of them descend from a single tongue spoken throughout this system sixty-five hundred years ago...

...to be truthful, we don't have the slightest idea what your ancestors were fighting about. We've concluded that the wars, and I say wars plural, because there appear to have been multiple factions fighting each other, probably played out over the course of a century or so, depending on what we count as the 'end' of the wars... the fighting appears to have started fairly suddenly, and very intensely. My colleagues in the physics and chemistry disciplines tell me that there are signs, in the form of particular isotopic ratios and the damage we've seen in remains on the surfaces and in space, that very powerful nuclear weaponry, heavy kinetic impactors, and other 'weapons of mass destruction' were used wide and promptly near the beginning...

...the fighting appears to have slowly tapered off, rather than coming to any specific end. This is, to me, one of the strangest and most disturbing of our findings. It seemed so improbable that at first we doubted our own conclusions, but the evidence keeps accumulating. It seems that even as the last dying stages of the fighting played out, whatever was motivating the whole thing remained as passionate and dominant as ever. Even with their civilization crumbling around them, even after it had crumbled, they kept on fighting.

Let me give you an example discovered by my colleagues in space. They discovered the remains of a space habitat in orbit around the seventh planet. For those of you unfamiliar with local astronomical conditions, that planet is a major gas giant, with eleven moons big enough to be considered worlds and a number of smaller bodies orbiting it as well. I am told that it should be visible in the sky tonight, about two hours after sunset, if you look near the western horizon.

Anyway, I digress. You can look up the details on your own. What my colleagues discovered was that toward the end of the wars, there was a habitat in orbit around the seventh planet, barely holding itself together. It had a population of about one hundred, down from ten times that many in its prime, and there was plentiful evidence that the entire facility was on its 'last legs', as my people say. The industrial infrastructure of the star system was in ruins, spare parts were non-existent. There was clear evidence that the survivors had displayed enormous ingenuity in keeping it going as long as they had, but it was doomed and they had to know that. They were running out of food, water, medicine, their air recycling was breaking down, radiation shielding was failing, it was a hopeless situation.

...My colleagues found the bodies of the inhabitants, they died, slowly, agonizingly, of radiation poisoning, thirst, starvation, heat and cold, as their air slowly, irreversibly went bad. Cannibalism seems to have happened at the very end. My colleagues found 103 corpses in the remains of the habitat, it had been their tomb for six thousand years.

"What makes this not just tragic, but uncanny, is that they had a way out.

"My colleagues found evidence that they had obtained a spacecraft, in poor repair but serviceable enough, and with enough delta-V," she paused and added as an aside, "if you don't know what that means, don't feel bad, I didn't either when I first read their paper, but what it amounts to is that they had enough fuel to reach either Veranis or Mardis. That is, they could have used their ship to get to one of the worlds where they would at least have a chance of survival. That appears to have been their initial plan, but they didn't go through with it.

"Instead, they converted their lifeboat into a missile and used it to take out another habitat, across the star system."

A silence fell across the lecture hall.

After moment, Howardson continued, "Yes. My colleagues tell me that they have to have understood the implication of their action. But they did it anyway. They had an escape route, and instead of using it to reach relative safety, they used it to destroy a group halfway across the star system. We don't know anything about the people they destroyed, because they loaded their ship with explosives and used it to wipe out the other habitat, and condemned themselves to a slow lingering death to do it..."

MORE LATER.

Re: ORICHALCUM UNIVERSE: VERANIS (Dyaxor A V) in 2123...
 

LATER.

"...we've seen this pattern play out all over the star system, and all over both Mardis and Veranis," Howardson went on. "For an other specific example, my colleagues discovered the remains of a village in the Southlands, and they were able to determine that they were the survivors of a city of millions. They had managed to make their way across hundreds of heavily irradiated kilometers to reach a place where it was possible to grow food and where fresh water was available. This was decades after the major fighting had ended, but Mardis and Veranis were both in ruins.

"They had a population of about two hundred, and their nearest neighbors were a similar village of survivors about one hundred kilometers away. We found out about the other village from references in the first site. I should add that the village had been functioning for over twenty years when this happened. My biologist and agronomist colleagues tell me that the village was well-situated, and they should have been able to survive and eventually thrive in that location.

"They didn't. Instead, they appear to have mobilized themselves for an attack on the other village, one hundred kilometers away. They mounted an overland attack, using foot troops and tharjak cavalry, over a distance of one hundred kilometers, with the logistical base of a single agricultural village. That sounds like madness even to a civilian like me, and the military personnel I have consulted tell me that madness is a mild word.

"They succeeded in wiping their targets out, but they lost enough of their own young men and resources that they could not survive themselves. Even decades after the main war, whatever was motivating all this fighting was still driving tiny communities of survivors to throw away their own chances of survival, just to for the chance to take someone else down with them.

"We've seen this pattern emerge from our studies over, and over, and over, across both Mardis and Veranis and out in space as well. Whatever motivated your ancestors to hate each other was powerful, and persistent enough that it was still in play even after an entire star-system wide civilization was destroyed.

"Whatever it was was powerful enough to drive a population of well over two billion Vertarans to war on each other so intensely, and persistently, as to reduce two and a half billions to less than one percent of that, in less than two centuries.

"Everyone in this room of Vertaran descent is descended from the survivors of that war. If only we knew what they were fighting about."

Dr. Howardson is driven by the desire to discover the answer to that last question. It is a question that has proven extraordinarily difficult to answer, almost peculiarly so.

Part of the problem is that even though there are huge amounts of ruins and physical remains from the previous era, the written language of the ancient Vertarans of Mardis and Veranis remains somewhat elusive. There are extensive surviving texts and written information, but only some of it is readable.

The ancient Vertarans of the two worlds appear to have spoken a single language, as Dr. Howardson noted in her lecture that we excerpted. Terrestrian philologists have analyzed the spoken languages of cultures and peoples all over Mardis and Veranis, and begun to 'reconstruct' the original language to some extent.

The problem is that in the aftermath of the wars, written language became something of a lost art, and writing had to be re-established by the descendants of the survivors over subsequent centuries. The written forms of the descendant languages of Dyaxor System are thus not necessarily related to the written forms used six millennia earlier.

There are some exceptions. The system of numbers appears to have survived the war, the symbols used for integer numbers in the modern languages show a kinship to those found in the ancient writings, for example. Still, for the most part the new writing is independent.

No ideal 'Rosetta Stone' has yet been found on Veranis or Mardis as of 2124. There has been some progress. Copies of what scientists recognize as the periodic table of the elements have been found in the old writings, that gives some hints. Other recognizable scientific and mathematical writings have offered clues. As of 2124, it is possible to read some of the ancient texts, with varying degrees of confidence, but the vast bulk of the written material continues to elude translation.

At least the written text endured the ages, at least sometimes. Vast amounts of information were once stored in various electronic and other technical media. This information is hopelessly lost. Even when the storage media still exist, and some do, six thousand years of neglect, radiation, and other mistreatment have reduced most of this data to random garbage, even after engineers worked out ways to read the media. It would be useless even if the old language was fully translated.

Dr. Howardson is assisted by several other professional archaeologists and anthropologists on her personal team, as well as a number of students of those disciplines. Almost all of her team are Terrestrians, because archaeology as a discipline is simply not something that is part of either native Vertaran culture, or the Thakarian culture that most Veranisian Humans derive from. There are, however, a couple of exceptions on the team.

Two native Vertarans, originally from Cataka City, joined her team as support personnel over a decade earlier. They were from the poorer part of the city, and worked as cooks, manual labor, and then later they were trained to do more advanced work. This was a married couple, and they had two children, brother and sister, who more or less grew up around Howardson and her team, and both of whom have set out to become actual professional archaeologists themselves. Their names are Tryynac and Denara.*

Tryynac is the older of the two, but about three years. Both brother and sister grew up around archaeologists, and have become fascinated by the mystery of why their ancestors warred each other almost into oblivion. Howardson herself became something of a second mother to them, and they consider her more or less family.

While both Tryynac and Denara would be capable of passing the necessary tests to attend the Royal Technical Institute, that school does not actually teach what they need to know to achieve their goal of becoming actual archaeologists. Instead, Howardson worked her contacts, on Earth and Veranis, to work out something different.

It required some effort to make it happen, but Howardson managed to arrange for her proteges to attend Gulfcoast State University on Earth, her own alma mater.

MORE LATER.

* Tryynac and Denara appear on Howardsen's character sheet as personal Allies.

Re: ORICHALCUM UNIVERSE: VERANIS (Dyaxor A V) in 2123...
 

LATER.

Though Howardson does not know it, among the people who were involved in making the education of her proteges on Earth happen was Jarak Sahandar III.

When Howardson was pulling strings to try to arrange it, among the people who had to be involved were some of the diplomatic personnel in the Three Power Commission, and they consulted the government of Catakatia (because Tryynac and Denara were Catakatian subjects, legally speaking). Normally this would not have been a significant enough matter for royal attention, but Howardson is a part-time instructor at the RTI, which is a special interest of the Jarak, and so the relevant bureaucrats drew higher-level attention to the matter.

Archaeology, as a formal subject, is not taught at the RTI, nor is it really part of the Northlander cultural mindset, neither originally nor as part of what they picked up from the Thakarians. On the other hand, Sahandar badly wants to know what happened to his ancestors, to find out what reduced a star-system wide high technology civilization to a handful of survivors barely capable of agriculture, survivors so reduced that they lost their original writing.

As noted, the RTI does not teach archaeology, but Sahandar wants to change that. From that perspective, a good beginning would be having some of his people train in that subject on Earth. As a result, Sahandar quietly put his own support behind the idea, which was a substantial boost to the project. Sahandar also offered to pay much of the tuition and transport costs, albeit indirectly and secretly, which also made the idea an easier sell.

Eventually, between the efforts of Howardson and Shelton Ross, her mentor and thesis advisor, the necessary approvals were received. As the older of the two, it was Tryynac who first left for Earth, and in 2124, he in the second year of his studies in the United States.

TRYYNAC

Species: Homo vertara
Age in 2124: 21 Terran years
Height: 6'5"
Hair: Light red
Eyes: Green

IQ: 12
DX: 11
ST: 14
HT: 10

ADVANTAGES:

Alertness 1
Allies
Denara (sister, appears rarely, low power)
Appearance (average)
Charisma 1
Common Sense
Patron(s)
Dr. Polly Clarkson (appears seldom, more powerful)
Dr. Shelton Ross (appears often, more powerful)
Strong Will 2
Unusual Background (Veranisian native student at GSU)

DISADVANTAGES:

Duty (special, to patrons, homeworld, home country, student based)
Greed (at -5 level)
Nearsighted (correctable with glasses)
Phobia (snakes, powerful)
Shyness (at -10)
Truthfulness

QUIRKS:
1. Demophobic
2. Rises before local dawn
3. Jealous of Terrestrian longevity
4. Teetotaler
5. Fascinated by snow/winter weather

SKILLS:

Anthropology 13
Archaeology 15
Animal Handling 13
Area Knowledge(s)
Atlanta 13
Area 12A-9 14
Earth 10
Veranis 13

Brawling 12
Cooking 12
Diplomacy 9
Fast-Talk 11
First Aid 13
Fishing 11
Guns TL10 12
History 15*
Language(s)
Catakatian (literate, native)
English 12 (literate 12)
Thakarian (literate, 'native')
Tribal languages of Region 12 on Veranis 12 (no written form)
Mechanic 10
Packing 12
Survival (jungles of Veranis) 11**
Swimming 12
Veterinary 10
Writing 12

* Tryynac has a varied knowledge of History. He knows a great deal about the History of Catakatia and Veranis as a whole, and is learning fast about Terran History (currently a -2 to the skill). He also has some knowledge of Thakarian History (-4).

**Tryynac has a modest level at Survival, in the equatorial jungles of Veranis. This skill would operate at -1/-2 (depending) on Earth.

MORE LATER.

Re: ORICHALCUM UNIVERSE: VERANIS (Dyaxor A V) in 2123...
 

LATER.

In 2124, Tryynac has been living on Earth for not quite two years, mostly in the Atlanta campus of Gulfcoast State University. The preceding two years, and the seven-week voyage that took him to Atlanta, was an experience unlike anything Tryynac had known in his short life. The shuttle ride up to orbit, the long weeks aboard a passenger star carrier, and eventually, his arrival (via the Panama LALport complex) on Earth was literally an entry to a whole new world.

Tryynac is in something of a unique position, or several such, in his life in Atlanta. His primary course of study is a dual major in anthropology and archaeology. His peculiar background, though, means that he already knows much of what is usually taught. Tryynac essentially grew up surrounded by professional archaeologists, and spent half of each year living on an actual, functioning field site. Much of the field work requirement that would normally happen at post-graduate level has already happened for Tryynac. Thue he is learning the technical basics after what would normally be higher-level instruction. For this reason, his instructors have altered the usual course work, to focus on the theoretical side and specific skills that he lacks.

The city of Metro-Atlanta, in 2124, has a population of approximately eleven million people. For Tryynac, this was an overwhelming concept. After all, the entire population of Catakatia, his homeland, is only about twelve million, counting both Vertarans and Humans. The entire planetary population of Veranis is only slightly more than seventy million. Upon arrival in Atlanta, Tryynac found himself in a single city with a population almost equal to his entire homeland.

To make it the more so, Tryynac had spent much of his younger life at archaeological field sites such as 12A-9, which were relatively sparesely populated, even by Veranisian standards. To someone like Tryynac, the sights and sounds of a such a population in one place were so overwhelming that he experienced occasional panic attacks in his first few weeks in Atlanta.

Tryynac mastered his unease, however, and by 2124 he is becoming somewhat used to the city. He does still sometimes have to force down unease, but it no longer overwhelms him.

Along with the unease came the sheer fascination of such a place. Tryynac was not totally unfamiliar with modern technology, Veranis was a mix of that and older technologies, after all. He had seen, and used, up to the minute devices of interstellar technology while working with Doctor Howardson on dig sites. He had flown on planes belonging to the royal government when Doctor Howardson returned north during the wet seasons.

Now, though, Tryynac finds himself in a modern city in a fully TL10 United States, and even after two years, the amazement and mixed wonder and unease over it has not fully faded.

Tryynac has also discovered something about himself that he would probably have never realized, had he remained on his home world: he is irrationally terrified of snakes. For whatever reason, the Familiar Eldren never introduced any snakes or close relatives thereof to Veranis, and when the Thakarians came, they did not introduce snakes either. Tryynac had literally never in his life seen or encountered a snake until he came to Earth, and the first time he did see one, his own panic caught him totally by surprise.

Another fascination for Tryynac is winter.

Veranis does have seasons, but in 2124, for the most part Veranis is hotter than Earth. (Though not necessarily hotter than Earth was throughout most of its geological history.) Even the winters of most of Veranis are no more than a somewhat cooler season. Genuine 'winter weather' with snow or ice is vanishingly rare on Veranis, save in some of the higher mountain peaks.

Though Atlanta is a southern city, it does get some cold weather in winter, and occasional snowfall. During his first winter in Atlanta, an unusual winter system blanketed the entire region in six inches of snow. This was quite literally the first time Tryynac had ever seen snow, much less touched it or experienced snowfall. At one point he nearly experienced hypothermia while standing outside for hours during the storm, watching the snow falling slowly and steadily from the gray-clad sky as the winter light faded.

This fascination led him, later, to use some of his very limited personal time and money, to make a trip northward to observe actual glaciers in Alaska and Nunavut. He was able, at one point, to stand on a nearby hilltop and watch as an iceberg 'calved' off from a glacier into a fjord. The sound of the falling ice, the waves rising in the cold waters, and the deep, incredible blue of the ice left Tryynac in awe, he had never imagined anything like what he was observing.

For all his fascination with ice and snow, though, Tryynac grew up in a hothouse environment, and he is far more physically comfortable in the summer. To Tryynac, the heat and humidity of the Atlanta summer is no different than a pleasant springtime day in his homeland. Tryynac eventually managed to arrange for single-person rooms, because he was comfortable in the heat that most of his fellow students longed to banish with air conditioning. Tryynac is an unusual site on campus, often wearing sweaters and light coats on days with temperatures in the seventies Fahrenheit.

(This is not a species difference as such, it is simply that Tryynac grew up in a hot environment. As time passes, his body is adjusting to Atlanta temperatures.)

MORE LATER.

Re: ORICHALCUM UNIVERSE: VERANIS (Dyaxor A V) in 2123...
 

LATER.

As far as his studies go, Tryynac is dedicated. This is out of both necessity (he is receiving a somewhat uniquely tailored and rather intense course of training) and a sense of obligation. Tryynac knows perfectly well that his patron Howardson, and his family, and various Human and Vertaran associates, went to considerable trouble to arrange his voyage to Earth and his education there. Tryynac also knows that other people are also invested in him, and his training, though he has no idea his monarch is one of them.

Tryynac has a sense of obligation, he does not want to let those people down. He also badly wants to master these skills for his own sake, he longs to return to Veranis and take part in figuring out what happened to his ancestors.

As a result, Tryynac spends the huge majority of his time either in class, or studying, or doing 'homework' of one sort or another. He is most likely to be found either in a lecture hall, a study carrel, the campus master library, or in his dorm room studying. He does socialize somewhat, and he has made some friends since arriving in Atlanta, but he is a very driven student.

Tryynac has no time to work for pay, and it would be impractical for him to do most work on Earth anyway, given his background. Howardson and her fellows arranged for Tryynac to have a small income for spending purposes. It is by no means lavish, but his room and board are covered either by the scholarship Howardson arranged, or the secret subsidy from his monarch, so the money he receives is sufficient for most routine expenses and the occasional luxury.

Tryynac has developed an interest in one Terrestrian leisure activity: baseball.

Baseball is by far the most popular sport in the United States in 2124, though is it operates somewhat differently than it does in 2024. Whenever he can spare the time, Tryynac likes to attend New Atlanta Braves home games at the Atlanta-Sperling Baseball Complex, colloquially known as 'Rhett Butler Field'. This mostly happens during the gaps between the spring and summer and fall semesters, but he occasionally manages a weekend game during the intense summer semester.

Tryynac is fascinated by baseball, and roots for the New Braves as his adoptive team. This is partly because he currently, albeit temporarily, lives in Atlanta, and partly because the New Braves actually have a Vertaran player on the team, a permanent Atlanta resident and naturalized American citizen who immigrated to the USA from Catakatia-Veranis under unusual circumstances over a decade earlier.

Tryynac has also developed a taste for a few Terrestrian foods. In particular, he has discovered the phenomenon known to the southern States of the USA as 'barbecue'. By 2124, after almost two years in Atlanta, he has already become versed in the abstruse theology of the subject, with definite preferences in terms of fuel-wood, sauces and seasonings.

One thing Tryynac has not sampled is Terrestrian alcohol. As a matter of personal policy, he has resolved to abstain from alcoholic beverages (and other mind-altering substances) while on Earth. He has no moral or other objection to alcohol, but he is acutely aware both that his scholarship and residency status are provisional, and that he has obligations. He is determined to avoid taking foolish risks, which drunkenness can certainly exacerbate.

Tryynac has found that he mostly gets along well with his Human fellow students and the faculty and others. It has also been an experience to meet members of other species of humanoid than Humans and Vertarans. While the huge majority of the people of Atlanta are of course Human, the campus especially, and the city outside, are host to members of other humanoid species from other planets.

At the same time, Tryynac has developed a resentment toward the Terrestrians around him, based on a fundamental envy. The average Human on Earth in 2124 is substantially healthier than most of his own people, more disease resistant, and above all else, longer lived. A typical Human from an advanced state on Earth has a life expectancy nearly double that of a Vertaran from Veranis, as a result of advanced biotechnology.

Tryynac knew this before he came to Earth, of course. It was common knowledge on Veranis for a century that Thakarians lived about twice as long as the natives. The Terrestrians had the same gift. Living on Earth, though, has really brought home the reality of it to Tryynac. In spite of his best efforts, there is a part of him that resents it.

This resentment is compounded by, and is included in, another realization. Having lived on Earth for almost two years, he is acutely aware of the vast technological power the Terrestrians hold, and the advantages that flow from it. Their extended lifespans are just one of many benefits from this power. The Terrestrians have it, the Thakarians have it, and meeting members of other interstellar-capable peoples have reminded him that they, too, have it.

What eats at Tryynac is the knowledge that his own people, or his biological ancestors, anyway, also had that technological power, and that they actually had it thousands of years before. Tryynac is sufficiently aware of Terrestrian history to know that his own ancestors were travelling in space while Terrestrians were using bronze tools to cut stone by hand. His ancestors had that power...and self-destructed using it.

Tryynac longs to know why. He longs to know how such a thing could happen, and he wants to see his own people regain that power. He also wants to know why it happened because he wants to help make sure nothing like it ever happens again.

Tryynac has at least another year of studying on Earth to complete his degrees in archaeology and anthropology. He already has most of the necessary field work completed, before he ever came to Earth. Part of him longs to return home to begin work, another part would like to stay in Atlanta longer.

His sister Denara is scheduled to arrive in Atlanta to begin her own studies (similar to the course he himself has followed) in the fall of 2124. He will still be on Earth for a year with his sister, meaning he will be able to help her with the adjustments.

Dr. Shelton Ross is a semi-retired archaeologist who acted as Dr. Howardson's thesis advisor, who did field work on Veranis for several years, and who currently is part of the faculty in Atlanta. He acts as an advisor and patron for Tryynac, and the two consult together to work out what changes might be useful in the training course for his sister when she comes.

MORE LATER.

Re: ORICHALCUM UNIVERSE: VERANIS (Dyaxor A V) in 2123...
 

LATER.

Archeological work on Veranis is not always completely safe.

There are many of the traditional risks that can potentially come any sort of archeological work, there are the risks associated with the nature of the ancient sites in question. Sites such as 12A-9 were once major cities, built with TL10 technology. Even after the passage of over six thousand Terrestrial years, there are dangers associated with such places.

Working machinery is rare to the point of absence, of course. Almost. Only a self-contained device with its own independent power supply can even potentially be operational after the passage of such time, and even then special circumstances are required, such as being specifically designed for open-ended operation and/or self-repair. Every once in a while, though, such devices are encountered. To make it the worse, those very few instances of working machinery were usually military in nature.

Also, even after the passage of six thousand years, there are places amid the shallowly-buried rubble where dangerous gases, inflammable substances, and various poisonous materials linger, or have accumulated.

Also, most such cities were heavily battered during the terrible wars that destroyed the ancient Vertaran civilizations. Almost every major city, including the vast city that once occupied Site 12A-9 (and 12A-8 and 12A-7 and 12B-1 and many other map grid coordinates in the region) was repeatedly stuck by nuclear weapons. The ancient defenses prevented the cities from being totally destroyed, but enough got through to leave many areas in rubble. The deadly ancient radioactive dusts were also liberally deployed. At once time, the ruins of the vast city was uninhabitably 'hot'.

That was six thousand years earlier, though. By 2124, the radioactivity has declined to so close to background levels that only sensitive instrumentation can detect it at all. The signs of the dust are present, though, in the form of decay products with distinctive isotopic signatures. These tell a grim tale to those with necessary knowledge of chemistry and physics to read it.

The radioactivity is long gone, but another danger remains: chemical weaponry, and (to a much lesser extent) bioweaponry.

The chemical weapons that were once deployed here have been degraded by six thousand years of sunlight and wind and rain, but where they were sheltered by rubble or otherwise protected, they can be as dangerous in 2124 as they were in the time of their first use. These include contact poisons, corrosives, slow-acting nerve agents, fast-acting paralytics, and many other hellish brews.

The biological threat is much less, but not zero. Most living weaponry has long since either died out, or mutated into something quite other. The very traits that made such organisms so dangerous also made them (usually) less reproductively competitive, and six thousand years is a long time, especially for microorganisms. A reservoir of risk remains, though, mostly because of the remains of the original inhabitants of the ancient metropolis.

At its height, Dr. Howardson estimates the city in question to have had a population in excess of twenty million. The wars had reduced that by the end, many had already fled or died when the final death spasm struck the city, but even so, it happened fast enough that at least some hundreds of thousands died in their city, unable to escape. They remained in place, as the passage of decades, centuries, and millennia, and the action of wind and water and eventually life turned the ancient metropolis into a modern jungle.

Though, to the eye, the region looks like wild, untouched wilderness, in fact the remains and ruins of the ancient metropolis are shallowly buried. Beneath a relatively thin layer of jungle soil lie broken concrete and rusting steel, masses of glass and more complex substances, and humanoid remains. Many of what look like small hills and ridges are actually the remains of immense, ancient structures.

The bodies lying in the empty city were preserved, for a long time, by the very radiation that had (with other agents) laid the city low. So intense was the radioactivity, in the immediate aftermath of the war, that the entire region was more or less sterile. This greatly slowed the process of breakdown and decay, leaving only wind and water to do the work of dismantling the ancient metropolis. The near-absence of microorganisms (at first) greatly slowed the decay of the corpses as well.

Time passes, radioactives decayed and eventually reached stable states, and life returned. Jungle spread through the concrete, steel, and synthetic masses, and reduced them. Soil covered the ruins and grass and trees and fungi returned. Bodies decayed, leaving skeletons, which in turn broke down more slowly. Eventually, animals returned, and fed on the remains.

By 2124, it is not unusual for archaeologists to come across the remains of ancient Vertarans in the city, and caution must be exercised, because while most such remains are harmless, needing only respectful treatment, some still harbor potentially dangerous bioweapon agents.

As one might expect, all this makes the work of archaeology, which by its very nature is slow when done properly, even more time consuming.

MORE LATER.

Re: ORICHALCUM UNIVERSE: VERANIS (Dyaxor A V) in 2123...
 

LATER.

One ancient bioweapon that does remain virulent in the region of Site 12A-9 is a genetically-modified fungus. Originally, when it was first deployed, it was fantastically effective, with a nearly ninety-five percent infection rate with the Vertarans against whom it was used. Lethality was rapid, and unpleasant, because the weapon was intended to terrorize enemy populations into surrender.

Six thousand years later, it remains extant, but natural selection has altered it substantially. The original, ancestral strain was optimized for rapid spread, near-certainty of infection, and maximally unpleasant effects. These traits took precedence over successful reproduction. The modern strains are descended from a tiny percentage of the original, which survived the sterilizing effects of the intense radiation that followed in the first few centuries after the wars, and which survived in the tiny handful of Vertarans who still lived in the region after the wars.

The locals call this fungus by a name that translates into English almost precisely as 'cold blue fire'. The symptoms of an infection are initially behavioral. As the fungus spreads through the body, the central nervous system is affected, and paranoia and murderous hostility are displayed. A peculiar and dangerous side-effect is that physical strength is increased by as much as one hundred and fifty percent. This level of intensity rapidly damages the body, but this scarcely matters, because within a few days of the onset of the behavioral symptoms, 'fruiting bodies' form, beginning as swellings in the skin all over the body, followed by the fruiting bodies proper as they break through the skin. This phase rarely lasts more than twenty-four hours before death.

The name of the condition comes from the blue color of the fruiting bodies, and the intense pain that accompanies the emergence of the reproductive bodies. Several species of this life form exist, marked by different shapes of fruiting body, and variations in the incubation period and precise behavior symptoms.

The blue fire fungus is not even close to as virulent as the ancestral form. The original, ancestral form often killed the victim before it could successfully reproduce, and the ancestral fungus could not live long outside a host (which was an intentional safety feature engineered into the weapon).

The modern strains must divert resources to their own survival and reproductive success, which makes them more enduring as species, but more vulnerable to immune defenses and artificial medication. While the ancestral form infected over ninety-five percent of the subjects exposed to the spores, the modern versions have an infection rate of about five to ten percent, unless the subject is very young, elderly, or otherwise vulnerable.

This reduced infection rate is also partly a result of coevolution of the Vertarans who have lived in the shadow of this weapon for six thousand years. As might be expected, these populations have developed various natural defenses against the fungus over all those generations, as the most vulnerable individuals died before they could pass on their vulnerability.

As a result, Vertarans descended from outside the areas where these fungi species exist are more vulnerable. Infection rates after exposure to the spores can run as high as thirty percent among such Vertarans.

Fortunately, there are various defenses and treatments for this fungus. Over thousands of years, various protective measures were developed among the low-tech natives against the fungus, some of them reasonably effective. For example, there are herbal concoctions that can be spread over the skin to make the spores less infectious.

There are also herbs that can be brewed into a medicine that often kills an infection before it can do much damage, if it is administered in time.

This can be difficult, though, because the best time for this brew to work is before the first symptoms appear. By the time the tell-tale behavioral signs appear, it is often too late for the drug to work. For that reason, many of the locals will brew and drink the medicine whenever they suspect they might have been exposed to the spores.

This drug takes the form of a drink, the medicine brewed from a variety of local plants and diluted in as much as a liter of water. If administered in the first twenty-four hours after exposure to the spores, the medicine is effective in almost all cases, destroying the spores before they can take 'root'.

(During this period, the medicine will destroy the infection on anything but a critical failure of the HT roll.)

After the first behavioral symptoms appear, the drug is far less effective, it will destroy the infection in about a quarter of all cases, though the survivors will be left with permanent damage. With every six hours that passes after the symptoms begin, the chance of the drug working falls substantially.

Modern TL10 medicine has several ways of treating the infection, and in fact can usually destroy it right up to just before death. Repairing the damage the infection leaves behind, though, is much harder.

The fungus in optimized to infect Vertarans, but other humanoids are not totally invulnerable to it. The chance of infection upon exposure is lower, but definitely still real. Fortunately, the local herbal drug works as well on most other humanoids (including Humans) as it does on Vertarans.

MORE LATER.

Re: ORICHALCUM UNIVERSE: VERANIS (Dyaxor A V) in 2123...
 

LATER.

As mentioned above, the ancient city that Dr. Howardson and her staff are excavating was enormous. At its height, just before the great wars began, it covered an area of well over two thousand square kilometers. In modern map terms, it covered most of Sectors 12A, 12B, and 12C, and parts of 11A and 13B and 13C. Dr. Howardson and her staff have only just begun to excavate Site 12A-9, and they have a long way to go on just that one site.

If they only knew it, though, little more than one kilometer from their excavation area lies something that would revolutionize their understanding of the ancient Vertaran civilization of Veranis.

Recall that the effects of those wars was so terrible that only a tiny handful of survivors came through them to become the ancestors of the modern Vertaran populations of Mardis and Veranis. A single language was spoken throughout the Dyaxor System before the wars. By 2124, there are literally thousands of mutually-incomprehensible languages spoken on the two garden worlds of the system. All those languages, though, 'descend' from the single star system wide language that was spoken six thousand years before.

Veranis and Mardis have been an unparalleled challenge and learning experience for Terrestrian philologists. For two decades, these linguistic specialists have been pouring over every scrap of information, comparing different languages, learning to 'read' the underlying 'laws' that govern the evolution of spoken language on these two worlds. Though the going was slow at first, by 2124 the philologists have begun to 'reconstruct' the ancestral language, and progress has been accelerating.

The ancient ancestral language endured the wars, and splintered into first hundreds, and then thousands, of different tongues. As mentioned upthread, though, the ancient written language of the system-wide Vertaran civilization was utterly lost in the aftermath of the wars. Writing was literally reinvented from scratch by the descendants of the ancient Vertarans, or at least, mostly recreated from scratch.

It turned out that the written symbols for numbers somehow survived the aftermath of the wars, and were incorporated into the new written languages. A handful of other specific symbols and bits and pieces of writing also survived into the new writing, but only a tiny handful of such were so.

The result of this is that even so substantial amounts of ancient writing is available on Veranis, on Mardis, and in space, most of it remains unreadable in 2124. Numbers can be translated. A few bits and pieces of scientific information are recognizable, in things that are obviously what they are, such as periodic tables and molecular models and machine diagrams. These give hints about the writing. With all such aid, though, no more than perhaps one to five percent of the ancient writing can be even partially translated.

Which brings us back to the undiscovered trove mentioned above. Technically it is located in what the maps would call Site 12A-7. Physically speaking, it is about one kilometer from the excavations at Site 12A-9. A number of what look superficially like hills are present at 12A-7. These 'hills' are actually the remains of fallen skyscrapers, covered in a layer of soil and trees and jungle growth in the millennia since they fell.

This is much like much of the entire region, but underneath one of these rubble piles, in what was once a sealed subbasement of a towering structure, is a piece of still-near-functional machinery. What was once a mainframe computer, used by an ancient organization as its records repository, among other things, still exists and could be made operational with only a modest amount of effort by a skilled technician.

This is, in its way, somewhat miraculous. In the final stages of the war, the vast city was repeated subjected to nuclear explosions, it was saturated by radioactive dust, and then it was abandoned to six thousand years of the elements. Once there were thousands of such machines, all long gone.

The survival of this particular machine is improbable...but improbable things happen when there is enough chance. There were millions of major computers in the ancient city, thousands of them were 'hardened' and protected in underground vaults such as this one, the survival of this particular machine was a one-in-a-thousand chance at best...but there were thousands of chances, too.

The vault housing it was buried under tens of meters of rock and soil at its start. Other such vaults existed, this is the one that managed to avoid cracking open to admit flood waters and other such damaging agents. The radiation shielding of this particular vault happened to work especially well, and it was well-enough made to keep the dusts out.

What would make this machine more valuable is that its software and its data are intact and uncorrupt, waiting for the machine to be repaired and powered up.

If that could be done, the 'reconstructed' language of the ancients could be used to communicate with the machine, which was very 'user friendly'. It might be clumsy at first, because the 'reconstructed' language is surely not perfectly, completely accurate. But the machine itself could help the linguists perfect the reconstruction. It could also teach the users the symbols and grammar and meanings of the ancient writing.

In short, if the archaeologists were to discover this vault and its contents, and realize what they had, the machine could be their long-sought 'Rosetta Stone' that could permit them to translate all the ancient writing. Additionally, its memories could reveal a great deal of detailed information about the ancient civilization, and the wars that ended it, and why.

In short, it would be the most valuable imaginable discovery that Veranisian archaeology could possibly make. It would be epochal in terms of historical understanding.

Unfortunately, nobody in 2124 has the slightest idea that it is there, waiting to be discovered, just a bit over one kilometer from the dig at Site 12A-9.

MORE LATER.

Re: ORICHALCUM UNIVERSE: VERANIS (Dyaxor A V) in 2123...
 

LATER.

On the North Continent, Catakatia is a strongest and most technologically and economically advanced state. It does not boast the largest territory, but it has substantial resources and even before the Thakarian invasion, it was the most technologically and industrially advanced of the Northlander polities.

Directly to the east of Catakatia is Galantakatia. Like Catakatia, it grew up around a river system that flowed into the ocean on the southern coast, and it has a single major port city at the river mouth. Unlike Catakatia, though, Galantakatia controls only a narrow stretch of oceanic coast, centered around that port city. The entire oceanic coast of Galantakatia is no more than fifty kilometers long.

Historically, in the centuries immediately before the Thakarian invasion, Catakatia and Galantakatia were traditional rival states, and each invaded the other more than once over the course of centuries. As a result of those old wars and maneuverings, the border between the two states stabilized, more or less, along the summit line of a range of low hills. The hills were by no means particularly high or steep, but for TL5 and lower armies such as were being fielded at the time, they were high enough to be a significant barrier, and they ran for hundreds of kilometers.

The hill line began not far from the ocean, near the port city that was the main link to the open ocean for Galantakatia, and ran roughly northward at first, and then northwest/southeast for several hundred kilometers. A few places along the ridge line were low enough to make for convenient travel (and thus common lines of invasion in previous centuries).

Unlike Catakatia, though, the capitol city of the state was not located in its primary ocean port, nor was that part the largest city in Galantakatia.

The entire North Continent has at least a slight northward pitch. The southern coast is the lowest land on the continent (except for a few deep valleys), and the land rises more or less gradually as one goes northward, with the trend increasing as one approaches the rising mountain range on the northern coast. In some parts of the North Continent, the rise is gradual, in others it is rough and uneven.

This last is true of most of Galantakatia. From the southern coast to the middle reaches of Galantakatia, the land is a wide, relatively flat coastal plain, except for a few strands of hills here and there, such as the one that makes up the western border. About halfway through the territory as one goes north, one encounters a sudden relatively sharp series of rises, culminating the the Upper Plateau country of Galantakatia.

The great river than eventually reaches the sea in the main port city rises in the North Range as a series of separate tributaries that flow (more or less) southward across the Upper Plateau. Some of these rivers merge before the reach the main fall line, others come together in a vast lake.

This lake, which the locals call Galantataasha, is about one hundred kilometers long east-west, but only averages between ten and fifteen kilometers across north-south. The lake is perched, more or less, on the edge of the fall line, held back by a long natural rock ridge along the top of the fall line. Several major waterfalls drain the lake through gaps in the rock, falling to lower levels of the descending slope, until finally coming down to form new rivers on the Lower Plain.

Perched on a long shelf of land halfway down the fall line (which is itself several tens of kilometers wide north-south) is the capitol and largest city of Galantakatia, which the locals call Galtaanaa. The city is located near several of the largest waterfalls in the complex. An industrial revolution had been underway in the Northlands before the Thakarians arrived, and the Galantakatians had made extensive use of these waterfalls as a source of mechanical energy for their nascent industries.

The climate of the Upper Plateau country is cool, by Veranisian standards, due to its latitude and altitude. Of course, 'cool by Veranisian standards' is warm-to-mildly-hot by Terrestrian standards. Even in the northern hemisphere winter, the Upper Plateau rarely sees temperatures below sixty degrees Fahrenheit, and typical winter temperatures run five to ten degrees higher.

The soil of the Upper Plateau country varies considerably in quality, from sandy and rocky through waterlogged to well-drained and well-watered. Most of the Upper Plateau is at least moderately arable, and some of the lands near the upper part of the fall line are an agricultural 'breadbasket' region. As one approaches the northern border of Galantakatia, the lands become harsher and the soil rockier and less amenable to farming, but much of this land is quite suitable for grazing and pasture.

MORE LATER.

Re: ORICHALCUM UNIVERSE: VERANIS (Dyaxor A V) in 2123...
 

LATER.

Below the fall line (which in fact follows the general run of an ancient tectonic fault, a place where a rift failed to split the North Continent in the deep past) is the coastal plain region. This is slightly misleading, because the lowlands run from the coast, but the region is mostly relatively level plain or in some cases low rolling hills. The lower plain is much more densely populated than the upper plateau, with over one hundred small cities (or large towns) scattered across a stretch of fertile farmland. The towns are mostly found alone the two large rivers that form from the various smaller tributaries that come down across the fall line.

These two rivers flow separately into the sea, with the main port city lying between them (the river mouths are only about fifteen kilometers apart). The plain slopes gently into the ocean on the southern coast, and much of the area around the city is a swampland fed by the two great rivers.

(Though their main streams remain separate, many small connecting channels do exist in this area).

The port city often reminds Terrestrians of New Orleans, at least in terms of its physical nature and surroundings. The city proper is built on a relatively small are of higher, firmer ground, as well as some pilings and supports driven deep into the floor of the swamps.

Since Galantakatia narrows as it goes south, the population density rises steadily as well.

There are many parallels between Galantakatia and Catakatia. In some ways, they could be compared to, say, England and France, states with a common religious and cultural heritage that nevertheless developed in different ways. Galantakatian and Catakatian are mutually unintelligible, but to a philologist the languages are clearly 'siblings' descended from a common tongue as recently as a millennium earlier. There are many cultural parallels between the two states.

One such similarity is that both are governed by a hereditary royal family. The title of the ruler of Galantakatia is 'jallis'. Terrestrial philologists quickly recognized that the title 'jallis' is as similar to the Catakatian royal title 'jarak' as the words 'king' and 'koenig' are in English and German.

The situations of the two governments in 2124 are also remarkably parallel in some ways. In both states the previous monarch reigned under the relatively tight supervision of the Thakarians, and when that came to an end in 2105, both faced a sudden unexpected succession. As the highest-ranking and best connected Thak-Tarak fled the planet after the unexpected Terrestrian victory in deep space, the former monarchs of both Catakatia and Galantakatia abdicated and fled with the Thakarians.

The former crown prince of Catakatia, and his younger brother, also both abdicated their claims and fled with their father. The royal Torq passed to a nephew of the former monarch, a young man who had only just recently passed his sixteenth* birthday, Prince Sahandar.

In Galantakatia, the former monarch had been a relatively young man, and he had abdicated childless. In the confusion of the time, with riots in the streets and a breakdown of law and order, the Torq of Galantakatia passed to the former monarch's cousin, a man of thirty named Goltean.

At first glance, Galantakatia looked to have been more fortunate in its royal succession that neighboring Catakatia. Catakatia was now ruled by a sixteen year old who had never been expected to inherit and had not been trained with that in mind. The new monarch of Galantakatia was a man of thirty years, and an experienced administrator and diplomat who had run several ministries for the former monarch at one time or another. In the chaos and confusion of the time, many expected Catakatia to suffer for this.

Appearances, though, can sometimes be deceiving.

After a rough and stumbling start, the teenaged Sahandar III proved to be an able, effective, and responsible monarch, who guided his state through the chaos of the transition from Thakarian to Terrestrian rule with some competence.

Goltean I, on the other hand, discovered that being the Jallis was not like being a minister or any other lower rank. He did have some skills and talents that were useful in his new role. Goltean is a good administrator, and responsible, in the sense of being dedicated to his task. He is personally honest, his government has not been prone to bribery or graft, or no more so than most places and times.

The problem with Goltean is that along with administrative competence, he is somewhat hidebound, fixated on the details of policy and activity to the point that it often blinds him to the bigger picture. Goltean is also unimaginative, his first impulse when facing any problem or decision is to look for precedent. While this is not always a bad trait in a ruler, Goltean tends to take it to extremes. The Jallis is more likely to apply a poorly-fitting precedent to a new problem than he is to adapt a precedent to fit. At the same time, he instinctively looks for the 'perfect' solution, even if no such option exists, rather than negotiate an imperfect but workable settlement. Trying to create his own solution to a novel problem is something that comes very hard to him, emotionally and intellectually.

As one frustrated Three Power Commission staffer put it: "Goltean is a good man, but deep down he wants to rule by algorithm, and he spends way too much time and energy trying to find that algorithm."

All of which is problematic for the people of Galantakatia. In peaceful, settled times, the limitations of the Jallis might not be that bad, but current times on Veranis in 2124 are anything but peaceful or settled. Many of the same problems that bedevil Catakatia also trouble Galantakatia. Like Catakatia, Galantakatia has a mixed population of Vertarans and Humans of Thakarian descent. Like Catakatia, inter-specific hostility and often hatred are very real and serious things in Galantakatia. The economy is in the same turmoil of transformation as well.

Goltean himself finds being Jallis deeply frustrating. It is not that he does not have any sense of responsibility as monarch, he does. He would like to do what is best for his nation and people, but he is not quite sure what that would be. Not just not sure how to get there, but unsure what the destination would be. By instinct, he feels there should be some specific formula he could follow to achieve the best results, but of course no such formula exists.

Compounding the issue is that his health is failing. Goltean is only forty-nine years old in 2124, but he often feels at least twenty years older, and not just because of the stress of his station (though that has not helped). Goltean was never exceedingly healthy, even in his youth. He suffered from repeated bouts of a breathing disorder in his teenaged years, and it has returned to plague him since he entered his forties.

MORE LATER.

*Sixteen Terrestrian years old, that is.

Re: ORICHALCUM UNIVERSE: VERANIS (Dyaxor A V) in 2123...
 

LATER.

Jallis Goltean is old enough to easily remember the Thakarian regime that formerly ruled the planet. He was already an adult when the Three Powers tolk over the planet.

Goltean has come to believe that the rule of the Thak-Tarak was preferable to that of the Commission, and his reason is precisely that the Thak-Tarak was much more 'hands on', much stricter and quicker to impose their will than the new rulers. What many Veranisians remember as oppression, Goltean remembers as 'order'.

When the Thakarians ruled Veranis, what had to be done was usually obvious. Goltean has a personality that craves order, stability, and definite rules and expectations, all of which existed under Thakarian rule. The constant, frustrating, maddening uncertainty that bedevils Goltean as Jallis was absent in those days.

Goltean has reached the point where he actively longs for the Thak-Tarak regime to regain control of Veranis. He has become active, albeit very secretly, in the pro-Thakarian movement on Veranis. His high profile status means that he must move with extreme caution, since the Commission and their intelligence agents are watching. On the other hand, that same high status makes him immensely valuable to the underground movement.

Goltean takes little direct, personal involvement, of course. But he quietly funds many activities of the underground, through indirect channels. His law enforcement establishment and Commission contacts form a channel through which underground activities can be fed useful information. Compromised members of the movement, Human or Vertaran, can be moved to Galantakatia and given new identities and new backgrounds.

Goltean, though not imaginative or particularly flexible, is by no means stupid. His connections to the underground, and to the Thak-Tarak, are all at arms-length, usually through 'cut outs'. He is constantly on the alert for anything that could give a clue about his activities to the Commission, or to the less Thakarian-sympathetic governments of Veranis.

One might wonder why someone as averse to uncertainty would take such risks as becoming involved in the pro-Thakarian underground. The answer is rooted in the personality of the Jallis. He is not, in fact, particularly risk-averse as such. What troubles his soul is uncertainty. Goltean is fully prepared to take considerable risks to obtain a world of more certainty.

Goltean is doing his best to match the modernization program initiated in Catakatia by Sahander III. On his own, he would have great difficulty in doing so, because his craving for stability and familiarity would undercut it. Goltean is being quietly advised by Thak-Tarak agents, though, which is making up for much of this deficiency.

On their own, the Thak-Tarak were always hesitant to encourage that sort of advancement by the native population. They ruled Veranis for over a century, and during that time they were careful to restrict technical training and acces to modern interstellar-level technology to their loyal classes.

Now, though, it is in their interest for their secret puppet state to industrialize at TL10 levels, in order to keep them competetive with their neighboring states. By working through Goltean, they hope to reestablish eventual control over Veranis, with Galantakatia as their dominant puppet state.

In 2124, Goltean maintains contact with the Thak-Tarak leadership through traders who regularly visit Veranis. Most of those traders are just what they seem, but some are also Thak-Tarak intelligence agents.

MORE LATER.

Re: ORICHALCUM UNIVERSE: VERANIS (Dyaxor A V) in 2123...
 

LATER.

The population of Galantakatia is about eight million, of whom about seven hundred and fifty thousand are Human, mostly of Thakarian descent, and the remainder are Vertarans.

It might seem that the population of Veranis in 2124 is peculiarly low. The entire population of the planet is in the neighborhood of seventy million, and over ten million of those are Veranis-born Humans. Only about sixty million Vertarans live on Veranis in 2124.

The reason for this low population is multifold.

To begin with, of course, the ancient wars that wrecked the old Vertaran civilization left very few survivors. So terrible were those wars, so total was the hostility between the factions, that they came close to actually wiping out the Vertaran population of the Dyaxor System.

(There are other Vertarans elsewhere in the galaxy, so the species would not have been extinct, but the population of the Dyaxor System came within sight of non-viability.)

No one in 2124 knows exactly how many Vertarans survived those wars on Veranis and Mardis, the sister world. The best estimates, though, by Terrestrian archaeologists, is that their population was no higher than a few million, across both worlds.

Those survivors lived on worlds battered by over a century of TL10 warfare. Entire regions were effectively uninhabitable, due to radioactivity, long-lasting chemical agents, or still-potent bioweapons. Food was difficult to find, water was often poisoned, simply surviving long enough to reproduce was a challenge.

Time passed, though, and the radioactivity faded away, the poisons were diluted, buried, dissipated harmlessly, or degraded into harmless substances. A lack of subjects to infect, combined with natural selection, reduced the potency of the artificial diseases to manageable levels.

As conditions improved, populations should have increased much more rapidly than they did. Terrestrian archaeologists are still gathering data, but they have noticed, by 2124, an emerging pattern in that data. Though they cannot be certain because their information is still very limited, it appears that after the wars ended, the Vertaran population would suffer periodic local crashes, for no obvious reason, from the end of the cataclysmic wars up until about two thousand years earlier. These crashes seem to have had a serious retarding effect on overall population growth. It also appears from the data that the majority of the population growth since the wars happened during that last two thousand or so years.

The great nuclear/chemical/biological/psionic wars ended six thousands years earlier. Six thousand years is a long time. Given even a modest annual growth rate, it would be more than enough time for the few million survivors to grow into a population of hundreds of millions, or more. Even allowing for the difficulties in the first millennium or so after the wars, demographers in 2124 calculate that Veranis ought to have at least ten times its current population.

There are various reasons for this, most of which remain unknown to the Veranisians and the Terrestrians in 2124. One of those reasons, though, is hinted at in myths and legends all over Veranis and Mardis.

Almost every culture, tribe, and civilization on both Veranis and Mardis has their own rich mythic heritage. Many of those myths, as one might expect, can be traced back to the great nuclear wars. The variety of these myths and folklore is enormous.

One story, or at least one kind of story, though, seems to turn up over and over in the myths of peoples all over Veranis and Mardis. These stories are similar enough that both Veranisian and Mardisan historians and folklorists have noted it, and Terrestrians noticed the same commonality when they began to study the legends of the locals.

These stories spoke of monsters. Though the details and explanations vary widely, almost all of them spoke of monsters of two kinds. Always the stories would speak of first one kind of monster appearing, then the other afterward.

The first monsters would be shapeshifters, or dopplegangers, or something along those lines. As noted, the details varied from legend to legend, but always the theme would be creatures who would look just like people, who would even replace people in a tribe or city-state or whatever the people organized as. They would lie, deceive, but subtly, to bring conflict and strife and violence, to turn friend against friend, kin against kin.

Then, a second kind of monster would appear, metal demons who would slaughter those who survived the first group.

Again, though the details vary widely, all the stories say the second monsters are physical creatures, not spirits or wraiths, and most of the stories say they are either made of metal, or made of stone, or of glass.

The stories vary enormously, but across two worlds those themes reappear again and again and again.

In 2124, many people are pondering these stories, but no one yet suspects the dark truth.

MORE LATER.

Re: ORICHALCUM UNIVERSE: VERANIS (Dyaxor A V) in 2123...
 

LATER.

Behind all those varied myths, spread across two worlds, lies a very dark and deadly truth.

The terrible star-system-wide wars that destroyed the ancient Vertaran civilization in the Dyaxor System lasted for well over a Terrestrial century. There were many factions and groups engaged in the fighting, on Veranis, on Mardis, and among the substantial space-dwelling population that had grown up over previous centuries.

One of those factions was very small, in population terms, but among the most technologically capable of the hundreds of factions. The time was about halfway through the wars, when it was becoming clear their entire civilization was likely to come crashing down before the struggles were over. This group, based on one of the moons of the enormous gas giant that is Dyaxor A VII, foresaw that they had no realistic possibility to emerging as a victor. There were too few of them, their resource base was too small, their strategic position in their location too precarious. Thus they pursued a policy of merely defending their own, and not attempting to influence the large-scale fighting or the outcome of the wars.

This would have been unworkable, except that their position was somewhat isolated, and their resources were not so great as to be a particularly tempting prize to the major factions and powers. Thus they were not a particularly tempting prize, and their isolationist policy kept them from allying with any given faction and thus antagonizing any other faction. They were occasionally attacked by other local small powers, but they could defend themselves against such, at least in the short term.

In the long term, they knew they faced likely extinction. The major powers were warring each other into oblivion, and it was becoming clear to the farsighted at that time that this conflagration was not going to stop short of total collapse. Once the system-wide industrial base collapsed sufficiently, maintaining their artificial habitats on their moonlet would become effectively impossible. They had lived there for several centuries, but without the larger supporting infrastructure, they could not continue to do so.

To those of their leadership who were more farsighted, it was obvious that their own position was untenable, long term. If the collapse proceeded as far as they expected it to do, the only places in the Dyaxor System where humanoids could hope to survive would be the two garden worlds, Mardis and Veranis. Even they were battered and damaged, but life would still be possible there after the infrastructure was gone.

Unfortunately, it was also obvious to them that all the other surviving space-based communities and nations would also realize that, the survivors were all going to be trying to reach one or the other living world. As if that was not sufficient, it was also true that the populations of the living worlds were huge enough that there would be a substantial number of 'native' survivors, as well.

To survive, their descendants would have to reach one of those worlds, and then find habitable, defensible territory that they could hold against the other survivors. But their own small population and resources made that prospect untenable as well. They could not go to Mardis or Veranis while the wars still raged, and when they died down, they would not be numerous enough or powerful enough to stake out a territory even then.

Desperation can drive extreme measures. In this case, they gambled that they might be able to thread the needle if they could wipe out their rivals secretly. They were technologically one of the most advanced groups in the ancient society, and they constructed a series of automated spacecraft, which they managed to conceal here and there in the Dyaxor System.

(There might not generally be stealth in space, but there can be misdirection, and once in their hiding places, mostly on tiny, remote planetoids in inconvenient orbits, they were fairly safe from detection.) Then came the other half of the plan: they constructed suspension systems that would enable their population to go into stasis, and wait. This was dangerous, and difficult, even for their technology, but it was doable and they did it. Their entire society, more or less, went into a state of suspended animation, except for a small watch group. (This group had a total population of no more than a few thousand).

The wars waged on as this group had expected, and the infrastructure that had once spanned a star system degraded. To borrow a line from a Terrestrian who would not be born until millennia later, the breakdown proceeded 'slowly, then all at once'. The final collapse, when it came, happened quickly, as the overstrained systems that sustained the civilization fell apart.

Naturally, this fell heaviest and most quickly on those parts of the population that lived in space, or on the non-living worlds of the system. A tremendous population crash happened, and the few survivors were those who could make their way to a wrecked Mardis or a devastated Veranis, and survive there.

About fifty Terran years after the last few survivors of the space-based societies had either died out, or made their way somehow to Mardis or Veranis, the concealed spacecraft came on-line and began to carry out their programming. The automated ships made their way to Veranis and Mardis.

This was still a difficult proposition. No one was left alive in space, but some automatic weapon systems and other dangers remained, and these vessels were small and lightly armed, with modest delta-V. They were required to take slow trajectories to reach their goals, the more so because they had to retain enough propellant to safely land.

Still, their builders had wrought well, and most of the automated ships did successfully make their voyages to Veranis and Mardis and manage safe landings thereupon. Then phase two began.

MORE LATER.

Re: ORICHALCUM UNIVERSE: VERANIS (Dyaxor A V) in 2123...
 

LATER.

In a testament to the design and engineering skill of the creators of these machines, most of them worked perfectly. Robots established enclaves, and constructed machines. These in turn constructed other machines. There were two basic forms of these machines, which led to the legends that would haunt Veranis and Mardis in later centuries.

One was a set of robots designed to 'pass' as Vertaran humanoids. The machines would stalk a small tribe or party of descendants of survivors of the final wars, and capture a few. Their features would then be applied to the humanoid robots, and they would infiltrate the groups, and work to set them against each other. Weakened by this, then they would be easy prey for the larger combat robots. Entire villages, tribes, nascent new societies were wiped out to the last man by this. Survivors would begin the legends of the two kinds of monster.

In spite of the skill of the builders, though, as time passed these unmaintained systems broke down. One by one, they failed, and the former threat became an incomprehensible legend, and then a myriad of myths on two worlds. Before they failed, though, they slowed the regrowth of the population substantially.

What happened to the original builders? The plan had been for their robots to make sure that there would be empty lands available when they came out of stasis after the wars, but in practice, that never happened. Their bunkers were destroyed by a mistaken strike from one of the last factions of the wars, before their robots ever even activated.

In 2124, all the ancient robot enclaves are gone...except one. In a hidden set of caverns in the mountains in the northern lands of Galantakatia, one of the ancient complexes remains mostly intact. It was constructed in accordance with the program, but it never activated because of a programming glitch, and a subsequent earthquake buried the entrances to the complex, about one thousand years after the initial construction ended.

Time has taken some toll on the machines, it would be difficult for them to activate on their own in 2124, but they could reveal a great deal about the ancient civilizations of the pre-war era if they were discovered. Some of their weaponry could also be made readily operational by a competent TL10 technician.

There is little external sign of the complex in 2124. The mountainous territory is thinly settled, and the entrances lie behind a rockslide that in turn has been stable for millennia, and is covered by trees and other overgrowth.

A hundred kilometers or so south of the foothills of the northern range is what remains of a former town from the pre-wars era. It was never a large city, its pre-war population was probably about one hundred thousand, and archaeologically, it is of little use, because it has been extensively mined.

Mined, in this case, is the literal term. As already mentioned, with Veranis having experienced two previous cycles of high-technology industrial civilization, many of the native deposits of the useful metals and other raw materials have already been mined out, millennia or tens of millennia earlier.

While a few native deposits remain, especially of iron, most of the metals used by the Veranisians in 2124 are 'mined' from the ruins of the previous Vertaran civilizations from six thousand years earlier. This has been happened for centuries, and so most of the former population centers in the Northlands have been extensively dug and mined and pulled apart to provide raw material for the new rising civilization.

These 'mining' efforts, historically, have been somewhat dangerous. Those six thousands years is enough time for most radiological hazards to dissipate away, chemical hazards can be open-ended, and things such as poison or flammable/explosive gases were and are a very real risk in such efforts. Digging into the ruins can easily cause ancient structures to collapse, creating slides, sinkholes, and other hazards.

The metals were extremely valuable and absolutely necessary as industrial technology began to reemerge on Veranis. Even before that, the refined metal from such ruins could be used to make armor and swords and plowshares, so the practice of mining the old ruins goes back centuries. The value of the metals, and the risks associated with obtaining them, made the men who were able and willing to gain them wealthy and influential.

As noted upthread, the Northlander cultures had no particular concept of scientific interest in the past. There were certainly curious people, but the idea of organized study of prehistory was not a thing in their society. The Thakarians who conquered Veranis were little different in that respect.

The currently-ruling Terrestrians are another matter, but at the same time, the ruins in the Northlands have been extensively mined for centuries, so there is little to be done about it either way. The Veranisians need the metals, as well, scientific archaeology is a luxury, raw materials are a necessity.

Galantakatia had more than its share of such ruins from the ancient past, and as a result, it had a greater supply of refined metals and other raw materials than its sister-states in the Northlands. In previous centuries, this was a primary source of wealth for the Galantakatians.

MORE LATER.

Re: ORICHALCUM UNIVERSE: VERANIS (Dyaxor A V) in 2123...
 

LATER.

As mentioned above, the lands below the fall line are some of the best agricultural land in Galantakatia. The area between the great falls and the swamps and wetlands of the long flat coast is rich, arable soil with plentiful rain, and almost every major crop grown on Veranis can be found somewhere here. In most due to this region, Galantakatia is a net food exporter to her neighbors, while retaining plentiful calories for her own population as well.

In 2124, though, the farmlands of Galantakatia are facing a menace in the form of a tiny animal called a frilk. A frilk is a very small herbivorous dinosaur, rarely growing more than twelve centimeters long. Naturalists on Veranis recognize that the frilk has a close relative, which they call a slokk.

A slokk is larger than a frilk, often reaching thirty centimeters, and is carnivorous, feeding on smaller animals and insects, while the frilk is strictly a plant-eater. A slokk is more dangerous to an individual humanoid than a frilk, because it is larger, and has a nasty (though non-venomous) bite that can readily become infected. On the other hand, a slokk will rarely attack a humanoid unless itself bothered.

A frilk is shyer, they are rarely spotted unless a humanoid knows what to look for, or else they are present in overwhelming numbers. Unfortunately, this latter condition is all too common when a frilk infestation becomes active. For all its shyness and inoffensive personality, the frilk is one of the most feared animals on Veranis, at least among agricultural societies.

Periodically, frilks appear in huge numbers, and when they do they feed, almost exclusively, on the primary cereal grains and other agricultural plants used by the humanoids of Veranis. For reasons unknown to the Veranisians in 2124, when these huge population booms happen, the frilks begin to ignore the wild plant life to devour the crops of Man.

So voracious and efficient can these sudden hordes be that they have been known to wipe out entire crops, to blight entire regions. In earlier millennia after the great Wars, frilk infestations often destroyed enough crops to leave whole villages and towns and tribes to die out from starvation. Frilks have been so destructive that they have impressed themselves on the cultural and mythology of Veranis in the centuries since the Wars ended, and they are a significant part of the reason why population recovery took so long.

As technology advanced among the peoples of Veranis after the Wars, attempts were made to wipe out the frilks. Vigorous efforts went into destroying their eggs and nests, hunting them with felines and canines and other animals, and attempts to poison them. Sometimes, these efforts seem to show considerable success, at times it was thought that the frilks had been wiped out, at least in the Northlands. Years, then decades, would go by, with no traces of frilks seen or found. Then, suddenly, without much warning, a new infestation would burst onto the land and the problem would begin anew.

The arrival of the Thakarians actually helped enormously with this problem: the resources of an interstellar culture could do far more than the TL4/5 technology available to the Northlanders at that time. Microbot-based hunting systems proved especially effective. The Thakarians also introduced some genetically-modified strains of crops that were toxic to frilks, which reduced their harm considerably.

But even then, over and over, when the frilks were thought to have been wiped out, they would suddenly reappear, as if from nowhere. In 2124, the current frilk infestation is being beaten back by poisons, hunting animals, microbots, and other methods, but it has still done enormous damage. Though frilk outbreaks no longer threaten mass starvation, they certainly can do enormous economic harm.

The truth is stranger than either the Veranisians or their Terrestrian rulers know. The truth is that the frilks, and their close cousin species the slokks, are actually a single species, a product of genetic engineering and biowarfare technology deployed during the Wars six millennia earlier.

Most of the time, slokks behave just as they appear to be. Small carnivores, they feed on even smaller animals and insects, and they avoid larger creatures assiduously. Most humanoids on Veranis regard them as harmless, though best left alone due to their bite.

In fact, though, under certain conditions, a normally-dormant set of genetic instructions activate, and slokks begin laying eggs that hatch out baby frilks instead of slokks. Once the new-hatched frilks reach sexual maturity (a period of about one Terrestrian year) they mate and hatch out more frilks. When food supplies are limited they reproduce slowly, laying one to four eggs at a time. The more food is available, the faster they reproduce. If food is plentiful female frilks can lay ten to fifteen eggs at a time, three to four times a year. A frilk can live up to five years or so if food remains plentiful, with sexual maturity happening at about one year.

Slokks/frilks were designed as bioweapons. A frilk is genetically programmed to concentrate on eating precisely the same plants that farmers raise. The designers of the creatures, thousands of years before, also created sprays and other treatments that would make their own crops unappetizing to frilks, of course, but those safeguards are long lost. Between their voracious appetites, highly selective palates, and rapid reproductive rate, frilks can be a terrible threat to any agricultural society. The frilks will eat and eat and eat until the food supply is wiped out. Then, as a rule, follows mass starvation and a population crash among the frilks (and in pre-Thakarian times, all too often among the local Vertaran population as well.)

Slokks can hatch out frilks when conditions are right, but never the reverse. A frilk always produces more frilk eggs. Even when the triggering conditions are present, a slokk only produces frilk eggs ever third or fourth breeding cycle, so plenty of slokks remain, and slokks and adult frilk ignore each other.

This is why the frilk always seem to reappear. The efforts by humanoids to wipe them out have, in fact, often been fully successful, at least on a local and regional level. The problem is that the slokks, which are rarely seen as problematic, contain within themselves the seeds for future outbreaks.

The trigger conditions for the slokks to begin producing new frilks are the presence of various cereals and other plants in large amounts in the general region. Subtle chemical cues trigger frilk production when agricultural activity occurs on a significant scale. A slokk that is laying frilk eggs will show a behavior change, laying the eggs near humanoid fields and farms rather than well away, as they do with slokk eggs. Slokk display no parental care for frilk, instead laying the eggs (almost always at night) and hastily departing the site immediately afterward.

(This is programming designed by their creators to keep rival groups from recognizing the slokk/frilk connection.)

A slokk can live up to twenty to twenty-five years, and usually lays one or two slokk eggs at a time, every other year. Their populations remain much more limited, and grow more slowly, and their reproductive rate tends to fall off as food supplies become strained. They are tough, disease-resistant creatures, tolerant of a wide range of temperatures and conditions. Thus they carry the potential for new frilk outbreaks safely from decade to decade, century to century, while remaining inoffensive and indeed barely noticeable to humanoids.

Slokk and frilk do resemble each other, structurally and physically, with the most noticeable external differences being the jaws. Slokk jaws are adapted to carnivory, frilks to herbivory. Both are covered in a fine down that is a distant cousin of feathers, and Terrestrian naturalists recognize that they are slightly closer to the therapods than to the sauropods.

Both Thakarian and Terrestrian science would be able to recognize the actual nature of the link between these 'two' species, if they were to examine both creatures looking for such a thing. As of 2124, though, neither has had any reason to make such a close examination.

Slokks/frilks do share a weakness: cold. Both versions of the species would be left sluggish and weakened in sustained temperatures below about fifty degrees Fahrenheit, and freezing temperatures would swiftly kill them. On Veranis, though, such low temperatures are very rare.

Slokk and frilk both have IQ 3. Slokk have ST 2, DX 13, and HT 17/2. Slokk have Spd 6, and their bite can do 1d6-1 impaling damage. Frilk have ST 1, DX 13, and HT 17/2 and Spd 7. They can attempt to bite, and will as a last resort if handled or attacked, but they do only 1d-3 crushing damage at worst.

MORE LATER.

Re: ORICHALCUM UNIVERSE: VERANIS (Dyaxor A V) in 2123...
 

LATER.

As one goes further eastward in the North Continent, one reaches the eastern border of Galantakatia. While the boundary between Catakatia and Galantakatia is a line of eroded ancient hills, the eastern boundary of Galantakatia is a large river that flows mostly north-to-south (like most of the major rivers of the Northlands), but which turns to the southwest as it approaches the coast, narrowing the lands of Galantakatia to a short strip along the southern coast.

This river is naturally substantial, and a series of dams along its length have created large reservoirs and artificial lakes along much of the length as well.

Beyond this river lies the eastern coastlands of the Northern Continent. Beyond the river-border of Galantakatia, the coastlands run on average two hundred kilometers or so to the sea, though with considerable variation as the eastern coast is very uneven. No single polity controls this entire region, with it instead being broken into five major polities and a couple of city-states. Forms of government vary considerably among these five states, with two republics, a hybrid republic/theocracy, a formalized oligarchy, and one monarchy. Relations among the east coast states vary from friendly trade and easy relations to tense near-war conditions. The Three Power Commission intelligence staffers consider the eastern coast region to be the part of the Northern Continent most likely to require peace enforcement in the near future, as of 2124.

None of the five significant territorial states of the east coast is nearly as large, populous, or military/economically potent as their larger neighboring states to the west. Still, they are not trivial states and all of them are capable of mustering armies strong enough to make conquest difficult and expensive, assuming the Commission did not intervene to stop such a war.

At about midpoint on the east coast is an interesting geological structure, which is also the site of one of the above-mentioned coastal pocket states.

The feature is a large embayment, open to the sea through a relatively narrow gap on the east, surrounded by a circle of modestly-eroded mountains. A large island occupies the middle area of the bay. The island is about thirty kilometers across, with the overall bay being a very close to circular structure about seventy kilometers across. The island produces a ring of seawater, usually about twenty kilometers from main shore to island edge. The ring of low mountains/high hills is about one hundred kilometers across and surrounds the bay on all sides. The mountain ring even extends out to sea, with a single low gap permitting the ocean to penetrate into the interior of the ring and produce the bay.

The opening to the ocean proper is about ten kilometers wide, and relatively shallow, though easily deep enough for most seacraft. The combination of the wide interior waters, the sheltering ring of mountains, and the long double coastline of the shore and island make this site the single best deep-water harbor in the Northern Continent, and arguably the best harbor on Veranis.

The surrounding mountains provide excellent protection from even the most extreme ocean weather. The ring of water is deep enough for even the largest vessels, and there are many small indentations and peninsulas on both the main shore and the island that provide superb places for docks.

The central island rises toward a modest peak on the northern edge, rising about five hundred meters above the sea level. Most of the island is lower, but cliffs do face the sea in several places. In one of these cliffs, wave action long ago eroded out flooded sea-level caves large enough to admit a ship. Local Vertaran natives have used these caves as ship shelters both in the days before the interplanetary wars, and again since.

The entire structure, geologically speaking, is very strange, it doesn't fit into the surrounding terrain. Before the Thakarians arrived on Veranis, the locals tended to interpret it as a vast extinct volcano of some sort. They were wrong, and their ancestors before the interplanetary wars certainly knew the truth, but that was long forgotten until the Thakarians arrived.

In actuality, the entire ring of mountains and interior bay structure is the remnant of a major impact crater. Some millions of years before the Familiar Eldren brought the first humanoid inhabitants to Veranis, a substantial planetoid struck Veranis here, gouging out a mega-crater and creating a huge crater wall. Rebound produced a raised interior in the crater as well. At that time, the site was well inland.

The passage of time eroded the crater walls into the circle of steep hills that now occupy the site. At the same time, an overall subsidence on the eastern coast, unrelated to the impact, brought the coastline closer to the crater. Eventually, the rising local ocean and the eroding crater walls admitted the ocean and created the circular bay and central island.

MORE LATER.