2328 Kribblu VII

System: Kribblu VII
Hex Location: 2328
Star Type:  G3 III
Number of Worlds: 8
Gas Giants: 4
Planetoid Belt: Kuiper and asteroid belt

Starport Type: A
World Size: Mars sized
Atmosphere Type: Thin
Surface Water: 23%
Population: Small settlements; ~800,000
Political Affiliation: Dhangetan Cartel
Tags: Thaumatophobia, Balkanization, Secret Cabal
Notes: Kribblu VII is a manufacturing haven, but it is not manufacturing that benefits most of the people in the region.  On paper, the Dhangetan Yith Vhadrath rules the system, but the various cartel heads see him as aloof and uninvolved in cartel business sufficiently to please them.  The excuse that justifies this behavior is his struggle to control various factions on his planet; while he oversees the space port and ship foundries (as well as much of the raw material harvesting both on world and from other sources within the system) with his personnel resources (a great number of Earth-human and skiffer and cepheid bravos and militia, stiffened by mercenary companies of Cilindareans and Arcturans.)  Most visitors see this as the society on Kribblu VII, but in reality, he's at constant war with two other factions who vie for dominance on the surface of the planet; a leftover death-sage known merely as the Arch-Tyrant and his forces of cyber-undead and Neferran dog-soldiers, and a third faction that is a curious mix of Bernese exiles, and Kusans, one of the most unlikely of races to be part of a spunky rebellion against a Dhangetan status quo.

What few know, although some of the clever Dhangetans on other worlds are starting to suspect, is that Vhadrath himself is merely the junior partner of a silent power behind the "throne"; a small triumvirate of Seraean and Idacharian shadow-knights in this case, who are funneling the lion's share of the production to some other source.  It doesn't seem to be the Empire, or if it is, these shadow knights are extraordinarily discrete; most likely it is an independent power play of some kind by them themselves.  These three have also managed to spend an inordinate amount of time creating propaganda about warlocks and space wizards and psionic knights, so that all such, if they're recognized, are seen with a great deal of distrust and hatred by the populace, unless of course, they are relatively recent arrivals from off-world.  They tend to see the Arch-Tyrant as the inevitable end-state of those who meddle with things that man was not meant to know.

Although Kribblu VII is viewed by those from outside as a bizarre powder keg of a world, with all kinds of tensions, conflict and weirdness going on in the system, for the most part, its neighbors are content to let it stay that way.  The very productive shipyards of Suly look with a little bit of anxiety at the manufacturing potential of Kribblu VII as a significant economic threat (as do the smaller and more "boutique" shipyards of Lyrae VI, Jhantor and Miroon, for that matter), but since its production somehow doesn't seem to make it to the general market, and nobody knows for sure where it goes, it's a worry that they can put on the back burner.  Although in the long run, what's happening here is eve more worrisome than what isn't happening in the short run, and the world is starting to get a lot of attention from its neighbors in the Carrick Grand Marches and from the rest of the Dhangetan Cartel, who are both starting to want answers about what mysteries are happening on this planet.

The Galaide Worlds

The Galaide Worlds were once an ethnic Altairan sovereign state, located to the galactic north, of the area in which the Carrick Grand Marches is located (the most southerly Galaide World, Cadon, is reachable via safe jump from Riesefels, Shahar and New Vesta, and of course, New Rodinia.  The original Galaide Worlds territory includes eight systems, and a ninth has been added (Tawasy) in recent years as a settlement of traditionalist Galaide culture.  Galaide is not a sovereign state today, although it is still primarily an Altairan state, it is a satrap of the Dhangetan Cartel.  Most Galaidians are not overly inconvenienced by peaceful transfer of power wherein their morally bankrupt leaders sold out their worlds to the Dhangetans for enormous piles of money, so while they're not happy to no longer being political independent, in actuality, in many ways they are probably more free than they used to be, as the Dhangetans are largely indifferent to anything going on locally on their worlds.  This also, of course, has meant that the unique Galaide culture has been largely erased by a more cosmopolitan hybrid culture that is Galaidian and Dhangetan both, and large numbers of aliens and alien humans now come and go regularly on the Galaide worlds, and even live here permanently—although the population is still well over 90% Altairan of original Galaidian stock across the region.

In addition to Tawasy, which I have already developed, I'll be creating data sheets for 2123 Kari Jora, 2223 Fthughu and 2224 Cadon of the original Galaide Worlds because of their proximity and traffic into and out of the Carrick Grand Marches and the Carthen Colony, although the other five worlds will be left alone unless it turns out that I need more Galaide World detail for some unforeseen reason in the future.

System: Kari Jora
Hex Location: 2123
Star Type: Close double A6 VI, A6 VII (white dwarf)
Number of Worlds: 9
Gas Giants: 3
Planetoid Belt: Kuiper belt and asteroid belt

Starport Type: C routine star port
World Size: Moon-sized
Atmosphere Type: Thin
Surface Water: 49%
Population: Super-populated, 17 billion
Political Affiliation: Dhangetan Cartel
Tags: Industrial world, Mining world, Warlock academy
Notes: At one point the capital of the Galaide Worlds, Kari Jora is now a blue collar system, with only relatively little prosperity except among the corrupt politicians and the cartel operatives who pass all kinds of illicit property through here.  The Dhangetans operate rather oddly; while they themselves recognize little if any sense of lawlessness in their embrace of "free trade" as a concession to the morality of the people who's world they took over, they do still on paper maintain lists of products that are not allowed to pass through the Galaide worlds.  Of course, this is on paper; in reality, there's a lot of contraband that does pass through the Galaide worlds to New Rodinia, Riesefels, and Shahar.  This requires keeping the officials who are supposed to stop this bribed so that they do not in fact stop it too much, and allowing the occasional cargo to fall victim to law enforcement, to keep up images.  The Dhangetans themselves, it appears, find this game amusing, and a relatively low price to pay for maintaining peace on the Galaide worlds; hiring mercenary police or military to keep them pacified would be much more expensive.

Kari Jora also manufactures household goods and other products in very large numbers, and much of the terrestrial surface is covered in factories.  Some of the ocean is dedicated to farming to keep this population fed, although imports from the neighboring Fthughu system are necessary to keep it up entirely.  Mining is also significant in the system, although it is done not on the main, relatively small world, but among the precious metals that make up a significant portion of the asteroid belts.  Although some small claims still linger in the belt, for the most part, the mineral rights have reverted to the Dhangetans, the situation most likely to eventually rouse the ire of the lightly subjugated population.

There is also a warlock academy high in the mountains in the southern polar regions.  Given that the atmosphere is already thin on this planet (like being above 14,000 feet on Earth) it is practically non-existent at this altitude, and the warlock academy is usually sealed with airlocks; although the thaumaturgy of the warlocks has created Garden areas at the Academy, and many use their dweomercraft to allow them to wander the area freely.  These warlocks often travel to Tawasy, and in fact, many come from there originally, where they are particularly revered.  However, many others spread throughout the Galaide Worlds, or beyond, and many have taken their arts become highly profitable and prominent members of Dhangetan society overall.  There is, in fact, a great deal of philosophical conflict at the Academy between the traditionalists who see the Academy and its arts as the rightful inheritance of the Galaidian people, and those who see it merely as a tool to develop their own power, influence or wealth in the greater interstellar area.

System: Fthughu
Hex Location: 2223
Star Type: Single B3 VI
Number of Worlds: 7
Gas Giants: 2
Planetoid Belt: Kuiper belt and two asteroid belts

Starport Type: B high class
World Size: Earth-sized
Atmosphere Type: Dangerous; slow poison (takes days to have effect) requires breath mask
Surface Water: 62%
Population: Medium sized 650 million
Political Affiliation: Dhangetan Cartel
Tags: Tomb world, Xenophilia, Agricultural world
Notes: For many years, the monarchs of the Galaide Worlds would bury their dead on Fthughu, which was not initially colonized except by a few scientific and clerical personnel due to the slow-acting poisonous atmosphere.  All buildings had to have air scrubbers installed and strictly maintained, and anyone walking outside needs at least a filter to keep toxins from entering his body, unless his excursion outside of protected areas is extremely brief.  Later, as the Galaide Worlds expanded, the agricultural potential of the planet was realized, and farmers moved in.  They never grew to an enormous number, however, and much of the population is robotic even still; constructed by the farmers to help them do their work, but gradually grown into a semi-free sentient population block all its own

As time went on, however, the population did grow to a respectable size on its own, although spreading relatively slowly—there are still cast swaths of the landmasses that are completely wild and some that are even unsurveyed.  Because of their relative isolation of free farmers, the Galaidians of Fthughu never developed the attachment to some of the Galaidian religion that flourished prior to the takeover of the state by the Dhangetans, and they think that the Tawasy exiles are, at best, bizarre extremists who embrace a kind of "fake Galaidianism" and champion it.  They are also unlikely to have been very changed by the advent of the Dhangetans, although some of the young people have left the farms and live now in the sin city cosmopolitan centers where the Dhangetans are most likely to have attracted their own type of offworlders and established their own cultural centers.

This conservatism meant that they didn't really respect the last rulers of the Galaide Monarchy enough to care what happens to their graves, which are littered across the landscape.  Many of them indeed have already plundered them for stones, or any grave goods that could be useful, and they have hardly stood in the way of others who have come to the planet to do the same.  In the minds of the Fthughians, the corrupt Galaidian nobility made their own bed and now can lie in it.

In the minds of most, Fthughu is therefore a rather boring farm world, without much going on, but in reality, there are many dangerous predators in the wilderness, and there are more riches to be found in forgotten tombs than most realize.  A handful have started to recognize the potential and are actively searching for tombs to raid, but it is a long way away from being a boom town economic situation still.  And the presence of a high quality port have made it a stopover that has replaced much of the business that used to travel through Cadon; although those who stop here find the place boring, and many barely leave their ships if they can help it.

System: Cadon
Hex Location: 2224
Star Type: Distant double star O8 V, M1 V
Number of Worlds: 5
Gas Giants: 4
Planetoid Belt: N

Starport Type: X No star port
World Size: Earth-sized
Atmosphere Type: Thin
Surface Water: 70%
Population: Super-populated 11 billion
Political Affiliation: Dhangetan Cartel
Tags: Death world, Civil war, Flying cities
Notes: Cadon is a world that one must be very careful to visit.  The Dhangetans and their lackeys, including many Galaidians, live in flying cities high above the surface, but below, the world is turned over the anarchy.  Revanchist Galaidians fight against savages who are little more than bandits and even the armies of a death sage that had lingered here for centuries if not millennia (after whom the planet is named, in fact) that decided to make a play after the arrival of the Dhangetans, ending a thousand years of quiescence.  However, this same cyberlich and his allies are often seen in the flying cities, so whatever his game is and how it relates to the Dhangetans is unclear.  Is he an ally of theirs?  Or a rival?  Many indications suggest that latter, but his friendly reception when he visits are difficult to explain.  Either way, the Dhangetans seem to have tired somewhat of the chaos and mercenaries are streaming into the system under various banners to fight against either the undead hordes or the revolutionaries, or both.  War profiteering is also one of the number one industries for outsiders and Galaidians of other worlds alike, although it is a difficult business, given how dangerous the world is and how distrustful every faction is of everyone else.  Smugglers or gun-runners or others who make "the Cadon run" are the most skilled and respected in the profession, and some in fact attempt to make a name for themselves here before moving on.  Many do not return.

While all of this activity has been profitable for many, it has had the opposite effect on others—what was once a thriving trade hub has seen interstellar shipping dry up almost entirely, and much of that lost business has relocated to New Rodinia.  This is especially true after the last of the star port facilities were destroyed by the fighting factions, although true convoys and caravans still pass through here to skim unrefined fuel from the hydrogen gas giants, scrub it in their filters, and jump back out of the system again all in 48 hours.  Because for the most part, the civil war and the other dangers associated with it take place on the surface rather than within the space of the system, this is usually considered a safe option.  However, a few enterprising pirates have realized this and attempted to make a go at preying on this traffic too.

1625 Drini IV and 1724 Tawasy

System: Drini IV
Hex Location: 1625
Star Type:  Distant Double F7 V, A6 Ia
Number of Worlds: 12
Gas Giants: N
Planetoid Belt: Kuiper and asteroid belt 

Starport Type: A high class starport
World Size: Earth-sized
Atmosphere Type: Earth-like
Surface Water: N
Population: Large 2 billion
Political Affiliation: Dhangetan Cartel
Tags: Primitive aliens, Sealed cities, Trade hub
Notes: Although they have spread with the Dhangetans since well back into the Marian Empire years, obviously the skiffers had to have had an original home world at some point in the past, and many believe that Drini IV is that world.  Large numbers of them live here in a primitive state; little more than at a Bronze Age technology still (with the exception of their advanced well-making and water drilling abilities), and in savage, contentious tribes and petty polities that spend most of their time fighting and killing each other.  They don't welcome visitors from space very well, although they are aware of them, probably because the Dhangetans have been kidnapping them for centuries, spiriting them away into space to serve as slaves, soldiers, or elsewise.  The reality, of course, is that the Dhangetans are often indifferent slavers and slave-owners, and it's because of this kidnapping that so many skiffers are out there in interstellar space, orders of magnitude more than are found on their home world, if indeed Drini IV is their home world, and most of them are free people, not slaves, although they are still found correlated with the Dhangetan worlds, and skiffers are relatively rarely seen outside of the Dhangetan worlds unless part of a Dhangetan delegation of some kind.

Because of this hostility towards spacefarers, those who live on Drini IV tend to live in sealed cities to keep the riff-raff away.  Many more live in orbital facilities too; there is in fact a thriving industrial hub just above the atmosphere where ships can be commissioned and are commonly built.  On top of that, Drini IV has somehow turned into one of the sector's foremost used ship markets, and people come from all over to either sell or browse used spaceships.  The Dhangetans don't ask many questions, so sometimes everything from standard used ship salesmen to dodgy pirates selling raided yachts or even military vessels can all be found for sale. Drini IV's used ship market makes no distinction between white, black and gray markets—it's all one on Drini IV.

While many of the other regional powers have complained, on occasion, to the Dhangetans when their official vessels end up for sale, few of them really want to disrupt what's happening on Drini IV too much, and representatives of many nearby governments, including Cilindareans, Carrick Bernese, Carthen Revanchists, and Tan Kajak Saraeans all keep a close eye on what passes through the market, either to scoop up some rival's tech and take it back home for analysis, or to keep their own military secrets from being so plundered.  It didn't take long for a secondary market in all kinds of other secrets to develop on Drini IV, and along with the savage natives and the ship market there is a thriving spy "business" on Drini IV as well.

System: Tawasy
Hex Location: 1724
Star Type:  Single M5 VI
Number of Worlds: 8
Gas Giants: 7
Planetoid Belt: Kuiper and asteroid belt

Starport Type: E frontier star port
World Size: Earth-sized
Atmosphere Type: Earth-like
Surface Water: 86%
Population: Medium 17 million
Political Affiliation: Dhangetan Cartel
Tags: Thaumatophilia, Xenophobia, Oceanic cities
Notes: Centuries ago, during the early years of the Marian Empire, some of the constituent races remained more apart from each other than they did later on.  The southern New Alderamin sector was one where many Altairans settled where, although politically part of the Empire, they could yet practice their culture in something somewhat like isolation rather than see it converge into Marian culture overall.  Later, as the Empire waned and finally fell, these polities became independent.  Some of them have now been independent for centuries, like the Altairan Ascendancy further to the sector west, but the Galaide Monarchy was another one, centered just to the galactic north of the Carthen and Carrick areas, including worlds 2123 Kari Jora, 2221 Leneback, 2223 Fthughu, 2224 Cadon, 2321 Xotha, 2421 Peydon, 2422 Onola and 2522 Sycha.  There, they developed their own unique culture, quite different from that of the Altairan Ascendancy, and they venerated in particular their Magi (both psionic knights and warlocks).

For over a hundred years, however, their worlds have been fallen to the Dhangetans.  In part, this was not a conquest so much as it was a gradual ceding of power through diplomacy and corrupt, oligarchic elite who enriched themselves and then left with piles of money.  The unique culture of the Galaide worlds is significantly diluted by the Dhangetans who arrive with their sleazy entourages of skiffers, their Cilindarean and Janissary mercenaries, and all of the other hangers-on of various races and groups that tend to come with them.

However, some hardliner conservatives fled the Galaide worlds to Tawasy, which was at the time an uninhabited world, but pristine and beautiful.  There, they built their cities, usually in the oceans themselves, where they harvest aquatic plant and animal life to support themselves, and continue their Galaide way of life, venerating to a degree that is almost worshipful their Magi and resisting the incursions of alien philosophies, and as much as possible, aliens altogether.  However, they were only allowed to do so in peace by accepting the protection and vassalage of the Cartel, paying tribute to them, and allowing their business, slight though it may be in this system, to go on unhindered.

In reality, this is unlikely to change anytime too soon; the Cartel business rarely actually happens in the oceanic cities, and it mostly consists of caravans, traders, smugglers, or mercenaries passing through on their way to somewhere else.  Although other nearby systems usually mean that stopping through Tawasy isn't necessary, it is often desirable, because of the many gas giants in the system, many of which are not tainted by very many heavy elements, unrefined fuel can be picked up easily and quickly, and scrubbed in half the time that it usually takes, allowing a quick stop and then jump back out on your way to some other more distant destination.  The Dhangetans have, in particular, made agreements with the Revanchists and a very steady traffic between the Carthen and Rhyne colonies passes through Tawasy unmolested.  Some, at least, of the Revanchists know that the Dhangetans do not do this for altruistic reasons (although many Revanchists are true believes in their idiot ideology and believe that of course everyone would support them unless they were the ultimate evil) and wonder what designs the Dhangetans have on these colonies and the region overall by offering this support.

1624 Moise

System: Moise
Hex Location: 1624
Star Type:  Single star G2 IV
Number of Worlds: 13
Gas Giants: 4
Planetoid Belt: Kuiper belt and 2 asteroid belts

Starport Type: B High class starport
World Size: Earth-sized
Atmosphere Type: Dangerous; immediate and life-threatening poisonous
Surface Water: 25%
Population: Small settlements, 400,000
Political Affiliation: Dhangetan Cartel
Tags: Radioactive world, Oceanic cities, Forbidden technology
Notes: There are relatively few Dhangetans who dabble in weapons of mass destruction, or other openly militaristic pursuits, but Sumuzuu bucks the trend, and risks attention on his world and on the Cartel overall that many of his compatriots are not happy with.  Officially he doesn't, but when he had a major industrial accident ninety years ago that contaminated his entire planet, he couldn't pretend anymore that he wasn't.

Luckily for Moise, its system is considerably world rich, and Moise itself has a Garden Moon where food is harvested.  And the population is relatively low regardless.  But on the main planet, abandoned cities and research stations sit in the radioactive, blasted lands—the population that used to live here that didn't flee the system altogether had to relocate to underwater cities (in spite of the relatively dry nature of the world) using the water as a shield from the radiation.  Many have wondered by Sumuzuu didn't move his entire operations to another planet, and certainly many of the independent hangers-on that Dhangetan worlds tend to attract did indeed do exactly that, however most who did either eventually moved back, or left the system entirely.  Moise is a rather depopulate system for a Dhangetan system with so many worlds and relatively untapped resources, although the censuses that occasionally someone tries to make of the area no doubt do not count rather large multitudes of transients who are passing through.  Many do not even approach the main radioactive world at all, and Sumuzuu has recently started sponsoring tourism to some of the more beautiful planets in his system, although this is still a very new venture.

Rumors nearby suggest that Sumuzuu was actually working in concert with the Cartel Council, and he stays where he is because they're still working on some kind of forbidden technology on the planet, although these conspiracy theorists are unable to agree on the nature of this technology.  It is true that sometimes Dhangetan slave ships from other systems land here and when the slaves leave a few months later, they have been turned into strange cyborgs with a third eye in their forehead that seems to give them some kind of prescient consciousness or somesuch—but whatever it is that the Dhangetans are actually up to on Moise, they keep it very quiet.

Scaley

System: Scaley
Hex Location: 2327
Star Type:  Single A4 V
Number of Worlds: 9
Gas Giants: 8
Planetoid Belt: Kuiper belt and 3 separate asteroid belts

Starport Type: X
World Size: Earth-sized
Atmosphere Type: Thin
Surface Water: 74%
Population: Medium (32 million)
Political Affiliation: Dhangetan Cartel
Tags: Feral World, Outpost World, Pilgrimage World
Notes: (That's a very interesting collection of tags.  Randomization.  What'choo gonna do?) During the Marian years, this was a Cepheid colony.  Although old records indicate that the system was once called Ickes, a pejorative label has stuck and become the official name of the system in more recent years, so it's known simply as Scaley—presumably in reference to the reptilian humanoid aliens that make up most of the population.  As the Dark Ages came over much of the region after the fall of the Marian Empire, Scaley was lost and gradually fell into becoming little more than a feral outpost with no capability of star travel at all until it was rediscovered by wandering agents of the Dhangetans who were exploring the region and establishing their own cartel worlds.  The locals were very hostile to the newcomers, and remain so to this day.  Not that they are xenophobic, exactly—they have evolved a culture of raiding, dueling, and otherwise engaging in such casual violence that the entire world is generally seen as unvisitable except for the handful of Dhangetan outposts.

The world is covered fairly densely by shallow, often epicontintal seas, and has no large landmasses, although archipelagos of smaller cratons (few larger than Madagascar or Borneo) are commonplace.  There are a few outposts established by the Dhangetans, and although it's no longer necessary to stop here (or anywhere else nearby) it is still more of an outpost and stopping point than a world useful for any other reason.  There is mining in the asteroid belts, but the minerals found are not particularly precious or rare.  Rather, the Dhangetans use the world as a hub in the slave trade.  The violent cepheid natives are often rounded up as slaves themselves, but sentient cargo of all kinds pass through Scaley on a regular basis.

Curiously, in the years long ago when the system was called Ickes, it was famous as the source of a sect of psionic-religion that is popular among cepheids all through Known Space, and many such still come to visit the world where their racial cult was started.  The priesthood of this religion is a close adviser of the Dhangetan agent who serves as system governor (a much more intelligent than normal skiffer named Garjer Mousduna) and they maintain a temple and tourist trap of sorts for these pilgrims, and maintain a relatively safe environment for pilgrims to come and make their obeisances without having to deal with the feral locals.

This has not, however, translated into the building of any kind of spacefaring facilities.  There is no fuel available (except for the ample ocean water, which can be cracked in a pinch for use as unrefined fuel—but honestly; skimming one of gas giants elsewhere in the system is a better move).  This is a matter of some tension between Mousduna and the High Priest (who never uses his name)—and appears to be related to as banal an issue as budgets and taxation.  Mousdana wants to charge pilgrims a tarrif to fund the building of a proper starport, and the high priest has resisted, because he believes that that will cut back on pilgrims, and therefore on his own sources of revenue.  There have been rumors for a long time that construction will start soon, but it never actually seems to.

Kyuli

System: Kyuli
Hex Location: 2326
Star Type:  Single F4 V
Number of Worlds: 3
Gas Giants: N
Planetoid Belt: Kuiper belt and 4 separate asteroid belts

Starport Type: C
World Size: Moon-sized
Atmosphere Type: Thin
Surface Water: 54%
Population: Medium (700 million)
Political Affiliation: Dhangetan Cartel
Tags: Secret cabal, Sealed menace, Primitive aliens

Notes: Sometimes colloquially called a zombie plague world, that isn't strictly speaking true, but close enough for most.  The native inhabitants of Kyuli are eyeless vampire-ghoul creatures that are mostly humanoid in form, but which are fairly low intelligence, ad which are pathologically aggressive hunters who engage in feeding frenzies readily.  The colonists on this world, who mostly maintain it as a stopping point on the way towards somewhere else, stay normally in strongly walled cities and settlements; they number in significantly smaller numbers than the population itself (less than a million across the entire system) or on raft-settlements, or on islands, or otherwise in areas where the vampire-ghouls can't reach.  There is some other aquaculture farming and other industry on the planet.  Precious metals are mined in a not terribly insignificant quantity, but not enough to have sparked a boom town or rush scenario.  This is partly because the atmosphere is very thin, the air is cold, and gravity is relatively low, making it all around a rather uncomfortable place to live.  There is a smaller albeit lucrative business in hunting the vampire-ghouls for sport, which the Dhangetans encourage.

There are ruins scattered here and there on the planet of unknown provenance that do not resemble Ancient ruins, and in fact seem to be similar to early Marian ruins of some sort or other.  The vampire-ghouls also have been found to have at least some human DNA in them.  Some have suspected that Kyuli was settled by the Marians many centuries ago and something happened that caused massive and rapid mutation to transform the humans into savage cannibals, the results of which are the current vampire-ghouls.  But if this is indeed the case, nobody knows what could have caused this.

In reality, there is a sealed cause for the mutation buried deep in a desert at the south pole.  Here, the remnants of an old death-sage (or cyber-lich, if you prefer) laboratory still exists, and the small cabal of three of them still rule over the planet, tolerating the modern settlers and colonists for the time being and refusing to reveal themselves to them.  They not only caused the mutation of the original Marian colonists, but they do manage to maintain some kind of psionic control over their actions to a limited degree, and use them not only as shocktroops but as scouts—or they would if they left their world.  For reasons that are unclear to everyone who knows anything about them (which are very few indeed; possibly the Dhangetan planetary governor and his inner circle, at most, and a handful of other well-connected occult and conspiracy type guys who pay attention to that kind of thing) they are making no effort at the moment to capitalize on this army, however.  Some believe that they have gone torpid and "hibernate" while others simply believe that the motives of unliving death-sages are inscrutable and it shouldn't be surprising when they're not understood.

Meni Bana

System: Meni Bana
Hex Location: 1627
Star Type: Double (distant) G8V and a black hole
Number of Worlds: 6 and 5
Gas Giants: 5 and 4
Planetoid Belt: No, and Kuiper and asteroid belt, respectively

Starport Type: C
World Size: Artificial (i.e., tiny)
Atmosphere Type: N/A
Surface Water: N/A
Population: Medium (3 million)
Political Affiliation: Dhangetan Cartel
Tags: Xenophilia, Hostile solar system, Boom Town / Gold Rush
Notes: It's always fun when the dice cooperate.  The likelihood of me rolling up a black hole or other exotic star for the second star in a double system was already low, but what are the odds that I'd also get the Hostile Solar System tag?  It looks like I hand-picked that tag, but actually I didn't.  It was all serendipitous.

Meni Bana is under the control the Dhangetans, although no Dhangetan lives in the system on a permanent basis.  Rather, it is governed by their Lieutenant Zenin Nkazao, a skiffer warlord (imagine the skiffers as a hybrid between a zabrak and the kroot in appearance.)  It is an unusual system, made up of two "suns", one of which is similar to our own, but the other of which is a black hole.  They are in a distant orbit as far as companions go, so their interactions with each other are somewhat limited.  Both "suns" have a suite of planets, all but one of which are gas giants (albeit with many rocky and icy moons.)  But nobody lives on the airless rocky worlds either, except for small settlements of pilgrims, miners or hermits, all of which are officially uncharted.  The largest settlement in the system is a large space station in close orbit to one of the gas giants, which serves as a gateway to the system, as well as a facility for fuel refining.

The gigantic artificial capitol of Meni Bana

Many of the people who staff Nkazao's staff are Cilindareans, and he has a strange fascination for their culture.  They are often given favored status in Meni Bana, either because of Nkazao's preference for them, or because of the Cilindarean staff's own preference for their own.  Many have come to Meni Basa in recent years, drawn especially by the chance for wealth.  They make up a sizable plurality in the system, which sometimes brings them into conflict with the others who live here, because they are not shy about exercising their political capital.

People are scattered all through the system, however.  There are two other features of the Meni Bana system that make it more interesting than it otherwise might have been—long after the Dhangetans claimed and colonized the system, it was discovered than an ancient Marian treasury convoy came to a bad end in the system.  The wreckage of their treasure ships (and of course, their cargo of treasure) are scattered throughout the system, most especially in the orbit of the distant black hole.

This means that while there is tons of wealth just flying around out there in space for the finding and taking, which brings many would-be treasure hunters to system, of course, it's all "buried" in the gas and dust disk that circles the black hole.  It's immensely difficult to actually find anything, and there are lots of risks associated with treasure-hunting in the gravity well of a black hole.  Many treasure hunters never return from their forays into the realm of the black hole, and few of those who do come back with a big score.  But that doesn't dissuade those who are sufficiently comfortable with the risks from trying, and Meni Bana has assumed a gold rush town status—people from all over showing up to strike it rich, or die trying.

Due to its location, there are many routes that these prospectors and treasure hunters take into Meni Bana, which contributes to its cosmopolitan nature (which in turn contributes to simmering conflict, that is often ethnic or political in nature, and stems from events happening outside of the system.)  Revanchist citizens can easily reach Meni Bana from any of the worlds of the Carthen Colony and many from the Rhyne Colonies.  Bernese can reach it from Eliane (which admittedly, isn't the best vector to travel through, given that Eliane is itself a pretty rough frontier world without much in the way of services—but it does reach Meni Bana without making a risky 4-hex jump.)  All of the worlds of the Principality of Tan Kajak can also reach Meni Bana, bringing the baleful eye of the Heathens.  And, of course, it's easily reached from Dhangetan worlds Drini IV or even Moise.  Cilindareans cannot reach Meni Bana directly from one of their own worlds, but Cilindareans have always been comfortable and even usually welcome to travel through Dhangetan worlds, and the two Dhangetan worlds mentioned above are near their world Peleres.  It is interesting to note that space lanes from the rest of the Cilindarean Arm are rather lacking; there is a "hole" in galactic space between the majority of the Cilindarean Arm and the worlds of theirs that are close to the Dhangetan Cartel, requiring a rather lengthy journey around, and often through systems that the Cilindareans do not directly control.

For Menian denizens other than the strangely Cilindareophile Nkazao, this is seen as probably a good thing, as it means that armies of Cilindariates and mothakes won't be arriving any time soon in a wave of expansion.  However, one of the political intricacies of Meni Bana is that it is no secret that Zenin Nkazao has worked with some Cilindarean warlords to destabilize and offer up systems of the Rhyne Colony as easy potential conquests.  Given this, along with its proximity to territory of literally every other major power in the sector, Meni Bana is a strangely relevant political Schwerpunkt to galactic politics for the entire sector.  Nkazeo hasn't the foresight to see what he may have unwittingly unleashed with his unusual Cilindareophile attitude, but all of the major powers are looking at sending additional resources nearby, and an escalation of tensions centered on Meni Bana seems to be a very real risk.

New Rodinia

System: New Rodinia
Hex Location: 1925
Star Type: Single A5 V
Number of Worlds: 12
Gas Giants: 6
Planetoid Belt: Cometary belt

Starport Type: B
World Size: Tiny; ship-sized, artificial
Atmosphere Type: N/A—
Surface Water: N/A
Population: Small (c. 500,000)
Political Affiliation: Dhangetan Cartel
Tags: Hostile Solar System, Outpost World, Trade Hub
Notes: New Rodinia is an outpost of the Dhangetans; one of their most southerly systems that is part of their orbit of political influence.  Although there is no inhabited world in the system, they maintain a very large space station in orbit around one of the gas giants, NR3 (sometimes stylized Ennar-3), a bluish "warm Neptune" on the close end of the habitable zone.  The New Rodinia sun is also unusual, in that it is orbited by a massive spiraling molecular cloud or protoplanetary disk.  In spite of that, it does have planets; but some, like NR3 orbit at really crazy angles, completely unrelated to the plane of the disk (NR3's orbit is almost perpendicular to the plane of the solar system) so it is possible that many of these worlds were picked up in relatively recent times (in astronomical terms, that still means millions of years, of course).  In addition to the molecular disk, the entire system is often seen as "hazy"—it exists in a small nebula that is more localized than the gigantic nebulae located elsewhere in the galaxy like the Orion or Eagle nebulae.  It is postulated by scientists that the New Rodinia system is the result of one system somehow cannibalizing another in the past, stealing its planets, devouring or ejecting the smaller star, yet dragging from it molecular matter and scattering it around local space to eventually settled into a spiral disk of sorts.  Viaseen Thuus is the reigning Dhangetan on New Rodinia, and he enjoys his position—New Rodinia is not only an outpost for the Cartel, but it is also a focal point for trade into the Carthen Colony and the Carrick Grand Marches both.  Not that both can't be reached from other Dhangetan worlds of course—because they can—but its position makes it uniquely able to reach both much more easily than others.

New Rodinia station

Thuus has used the time honored principle of "location, location, location" to establish a very profitable trading hub in the artificial space station world of New Rodinia.  Treaties with both the Carrick and the Carthen are carefully managed to maintain peace, even as he plays them against each other, smuggles arms to insurgents in Carthen and smuggles refugees out, etc.  New Rodinia has placed itself as the focal point for entrance to either of the two colonies from all areas to the galactic north.

Because the population of actual Dhangetans is always very small, the Cartel is largely populated with a mix of all kinds of others.  Humans make up a significant plurality, but they are often mixed race humans, or refugees or dissidents from other governments; and they tend to be outnumbered by other aliens anyway.  Oerkens and other reptilian aliens are common, as are Skiffers; a race of savage humanoids with mottled skin with embedded dermal scutes on the back, arms and legs, and spine-like filaments instead of hair.  Small horns rise from their forehead, and their eyes glow a vicious red.  Skiffers are especially common along with the Cartel, and the symbiotic relationship between Dhangetan masterminds and skiffer muscle and workers probably dates back centuries, if not millennia.

Strange hostile robots; some with programming to act independently, also operate among the Cartel worlds, and some of these are in high demand by others, especially pirates, privateers, and smugglers—exactly the kind of people who are most likely to pass through New Rodinia in the first place.

New Rodinia is a fairly sophisticated station, and offers a number of services for spacers who pass through.  Viaseen Thuus has gone out of his way to ameliorate the perception of it as little more than a frontier outpost.  He chafes a bit living on an artificial world; it offends his pride, perhaps.  Because of this, he's spent a fortune starting terrforming processes on the planet below, but it will still be many years before it is fit to be seeded with anything resembling complex life.

Tars Dhangeta

This slimy swamp is the home world to the Dhangeti.  They keep it as a kind of preserve, though, and have strict immigration controls.  Much of the planet remains in a state of greenish-yellow swamp, overcast and undeveloped.  A few cities still dot the landscape and it remains the capital of the Dhangetan Cartels.  

However, following the fall of the Dhangeti—albeit not for long—to a former Shadow Knight Kar Tanus, the Dhangeti have diversified to protect themselves.  While many Dhangeti warlords maintain palaces on Tars Dhangeta, few stay there permanently, and many have spread throughout much of Dhangeti space, to make the Dhangetan Cartel as a whole less vulnerable to potential attack.  The Dhangeti, when on Tars Dhangeta, maintain a strong presence of mercenary bodyguards and militia, including—if they can get them—Cilindan supercommandos and fallen or independent knights. 

Tars Dhangeta landscape

Other than in the heavily armed warlord palaces, however, Tars Dhangeta remains a relatively lawless place, with little in the way of government oversight.  Because of this, it prospers, but gangsters and organized crime remain a significant deterrent to ever truly expanding its trade and commerce base beyond items that are otherwise illicit or illegal throughout much of the galaxy.  Slave trading cartels, spice trading cartels and more make up much of Tars Dhangeta's import/export business.

Tars Bruttium remains much as it ever was; a kind of Monte Carlo, Las Vegas, Bangkok and Tortuga of the galaxy, all rolled up into one and under the control of the Dhangeti.  Tars Bruttium is a hotbed of political intrigue.  While it's in Dhangeti Space and is loyal to that polity, it plays no favorites, and the Dhangeti's famous general trend of neutrality between the three superpowers means that embassies and espionage from all three are commonplace in the dark streets of Tars Bruttium.  It still has the same reputation as a wildly dangerous place that it’s always had, but now one with a particular partisan bent, as shadow wars rage in the streets between proxies.  All parties are careful to keep this activity at least marginally discrete, however, as the Dhangeti are only laid-back hosts to the degree that their own interests are not threatened. 

System: Tars Dhangeta
Hex Location: 2119
Star Type: Single star, G7 V
Number of Worlds: 6
Gas Giants: 4
Planetoid Belt: Comet belt

Tars Dhangeta
Starport Type: B
World Size: Earth-sized
Atmosphere Type: Hazardous.  Earth-like, but with thick upper atmosphere clouds of sulferic acid that occasionally rains down on the surface
Surface Water: 60%, although usually quite shallow
Population: Large (3.4 billion)
Political Affiliation: Dhangetan Cartel
Notes: Tars Dhangeti and Tars Bruttium are both Earth-sized moons of a terrestrial zone gas giant, which looms overhead in the sky of both planets.  Tars Dhangeti is the most important world of the Dhangeti Cartel, although it is not the original world of the Dhangeti.  The Dhangeti are a large, alien species.  They were originally a form of hulk, from a high gravity world, but few of them have lived on high gravity worlds now for many generations, so their robust morphological features have largely gone to seed and turned to genetic obesity.  To humans from earth, they are sometimes described as fat, furry frogs with wide, toothy maws, four spider-like eyes and limbs that split into two paws halfway down their length.  But even in their strongholds, the Dhangeti are themselves relatively rare.  They reproduce asexually, usually by some form of budding, but they often eat their own larval offspring, and generally fear competition from the rising generations.

Tars Dhangeti is covered with thick upper atmospheric clouds of sulfuric acid vapor.  Luckily, the clouds tend to stay in the upper atmosphere, but for the unprepared the rare sulfuric acid rainstorm can be extremely dangerous.  Most native life-forms are sufficiently immune to its effects that it doesn't overly hurt them, but off-worlders usually wear protective suits of some kind, or stay indoors.

The surface of the planet is treated rather casually by the Dhangetans.  Large areas of relatively low-lying marshland, overgrown with trees, vines, and other plants, and teeming with nearly dinosaur-sized reptilian life-forms that are a hazard to all, is dotted in many places with wreckage and ruins of one industrial or agricultural project or another that's been attempted over the years and then abandoned.  Haphazardly built and maintained cities dot the landscape, each with its capo or warlord, jockeying for power.  The real nature of Tars Dhangeti is a place to get stuff that is difficult, or even highly illegal elsewhere: drugs, smuggled arms, mercenaries, slaves—you name it, the Dhangeti probably deal in it and this is the system in which to get it.

Tars Dhangeta swampies

There are few laws, and the only "law" that really matters the most is "don't mess with the Dhangeti warlords or their favored proxies."  Murder happening in the streets: not a big deal.  Slave trading openly: nobody cares.  Walking around with pirated Imperial military tech: well, everyone will give you a wary eye.  If someone else has a problem with what you're doing and interferes; again—nobody official will say anything to you.  Tars Dhangeta is a place for the strong, who can intimidate those who would bother them into leaving them alone, or at least if you're not sufficiently strong, it's best to make strong friends quickly.

Swamp-lizard riding escaped slaves, runaway debtors, or anyone who's otherwise hiding from anything resembling civilized society live in the swamps.  Even these are tolerated, although they often interfere more with the Dhangeti, so are more likely to be hunted down and made examples of.

Tars Bruttium
Starport Type: A
World Size: Earth-sized
Atmosphere Type: Earth-like
Surface Water: 35%
Population: Super-populated (25 billion)
Political Affiliation: Dhangetan Cartel
Notes: Similar in culture to Tars Dhangeti, the other moon, Tars Bruttium, which orbits closer to the gas giant (so that it looms in the sky even larger) has become super-populated, whereas Tars Dhangeti remains somewhat lightly so.  Whatever native life-forms may have once lived here, they are almost certainly either extinct, or adapted to the urban life by necessity; there is little or no habitat here that isn't artificial.  If Tars Bruttium is the Las Vegas of known space, that doesn't mean that the whole planet is the Strip, though—much of it is in fact abandoned and feral, although who knows what has moved in and occupied the crumbling ruins can be anyone's guess, and travelers who wander into these regions often never return.

Tars Bruttium at night

Tars Bruttium is also a hotbed of political intrigue.  Embassies from all of the other Great Powers are entertained, yet the lawless nature of the system means that they often engage in extremely shady maneuvering.  As long as they don't bring open warfare or economic harm to the Dhangeti, this is more or less tolerated.