Erai

System: Erai
Hex Location: 1329
Star Type: Single M5 V
Number of Worlds: 9
Gas Giants: 5
Planetoid Belt: Kuiper belt and asteroid belt

Starport Type: B
World Size: Earth-sized
Atmosphere Type: Earth-like
Surface Water: 11%
Population: Medium (630 million)
Political Affiliation: Seraean Empire, Outremer, Principality of Tan Kajak
Tags: Pilgramage world, Cold war, Secret cabal
Notes:  Erai, like many of these relatively recently colonized worlds, has a long history before becoming part of the current political order to which it belongs.  Although it's no longer in operation, there are ruins of both the Grays and early Zen Cross temples out in the rocks and mountains of this predominantly dry planet.  The world has a relatively high population of skiffers and other "ne'er-do-wells" of the galaxy as a leftover artifact from the many centuries it spent under Dhangetan control as well, although the Dhangetan was overthrown in a power bid with his rivals.  Nobody else rose to prominence to claim the system officially for many years.

Sacristans live here in large numbers, and come and go on pilgrimages quite frequently.  They've actually discovered, or so they believe, a fair bit of how the ancient Zen Cross order was structured in the ruins and records of the old Zen Cross enclaves scattered across the surface, although these discoveries often come in cryptic and tantalizing hints, and there is a great deal of rancor in the order about how they should be interpreted sometimes.

The political situation on Erai is also quite complicated.  Two siblings vie for the the title of Duke (or Duchess) over the planet, brother Astal Xoensus and his twin sister Thaiah Xoensus.  Because their parents never kept records of who was born first, who should inherit is not clear.  Normally in the Seraean Empire (and through much of Known Space, for that matter) in these types of situations preference is given to the male claimant, under the understanding that psychologically biologically they tend to be more suited to rulership than women.  However, in Outremer, there are many strange customs, and many of those who came to Outremer were specifically looking to build their own types of societies away from the strictures of their home cultures, and in Tan Kajak in particular, there have often been women rulers, starting with Sillla Vatina who ruled the entire Principality when her brother was deemed mentally incompetent.   So on Erai, the brother and sister vie for control, and have convinced many of the power brokers to side with them.  After a hot conflict that lasted for six weeks, they have settled down to a cooler hunkering down approach, and the planet is split between areas that pledge allegiance to one or the other of the two, while their proxies still fight in space and on the airless, uninhabited (but mined for fuel and other resources) worlds in the system.

If this wasn't enough, a powerful and charismatic Sacristan has put in a bid for independence and has small settlements in the desert (see illustration above) that refuse to acknowledge the sovereignty of either sibling.  This is politically probably fairly foolish, as the greater powers of Tan Kajak would hardly tolerate a non-Seraean with political independence on a world that they claim.  However, that's exactly the whole point; the conflict between the siblings as well as with the Sacristan is because all three are unwitting dupes of the Dhangetan who was overthrown.  Who did not die, as is popularly believed, but who still lives in a hidden enclave in the desert, and who not only controls events on the surface, but has a greater plot that will seriously weaken if not destroy the entire Principality, bringing all four of its worlds into his orbit.  The cold war on Hentau III and the ongoing civil war on Tr'Udon suggest that he's managed to destabilize the entire Principality quite a bit more than one would think.  The Princips who rules it has been absentee on Phovos Mal, meanwhile, for the better part of five standard years.