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.

Perchta

System: Perchta
Hex Location: 1328
Star Type: Single M6 VI
Number of Worlds: 14
Gas Giants: 2
Planetoid Belt: Kuiper belt and asteroid belt

Starport Type: E
World Size: Earth-sized
Atmosphere Type: Earth-like
Surface Water: 85%
Population: Medium (94 million)
Political Affiliation: Seraean Empire, Outremer, Principality of Tan Kajak
Tags: Death world, Local Specialty, Xenophilia
Notes: The native inhabitants of Perchta are relatively primitive.  Dangerous conditions on the planet meant that they early lost much of the tech that the original settlers arrived with, and they were unable to develop more of it.  Their ethnic origin is unknown, but probably mixed Earth, Altairan and maybe something else.  They have dark eyes, "icy" colored skin and dark blue hair, for the most part; a kind of unusual combination that the Seraeans in particular find oddly and exotically attractive (kind of like Seraeans with a bit of blue, they say.)

Today, they live in relatively protected enclaves and cities, where they have thrived and their population has grown.  This is due to the arrival of the Umbral Crusaders, who built these cities.  Most importantly, these Umbral Crusaders used their high tech fighters and military might to beat back the gigantic, voracious predators that have made life on Perchta so dangerous to the natives that they couldn't expend any of their personal capital for generations (since before the fall of the Marian Empire when the settlers were effectively "lost" from the galaxy) on doing anything except trying to survive.  These gigantic life-forms, which come in a bewildering array of forms and shapes, are not gone, of course, but have learned to avoid the cities of the Seraeans, except when they get really cranky.  This does happen on occasion, at which point the maddened beast tears the town, kills hundreds if not thousands or more of people, until finally chased off or killed by the Seraean war machine.

There are persistent and disquieting rumors that the beasts are evolving to better face the Seraean weapons, and that one day in the near future they will be as intractable to the Seraeans as they were to the native Perchtans before their arrival, but others dismiss this as crazy talk.

Because of the perception that that Seraean conquerors tamed the wild beasts and raised the standard of living for the natives, they see them as deserving almost whatever tribute that they wish, although as they gradually become more and more aware of the greater galactic context, they are becoming more and more likely to simply try and flee the world if they can find a way to do so.  But today, they still provide tribute in the form of slaves that go to Seraean nobility, mostly, as well as highly prized and valuable items made from elements of the corpses of the slain beasts, including items made from their amazingly tough hide, bones, and armored scutes especially.

Hentau III

System: Hentau III
Hex Location: 1628
Star Type: Single M4 V
Number of Worlds: 8
Gas Giants: 4
Planetoid Belt: Kuiper and asteroid belt

Starport Type: D
World Size: Larger than earth
Atmosphere Type: Earth-like
Surface Water: 50%
Population: Medium (100 million)
Political Affiliation: Seraean Empire, Outremer, Principality of Tan Kajak
Tags: Cold war, Xenophobic, Oceanic cities
Notes: Hentau III was initially settled by the Bernese, and was part of the Carrick Grand Marches.  It is one of the few Carrick worlds that wasn't simply colonized; its colonization was contested by forces allied to the Dhangetans, which meant that the settlement was never peaceful, and never settled.  The Bernese were fighters, though—and they fought with the Dhangetan scum, skiffers, and even small numbers of Cilindarean mercenaries for several decades, and hung on to their settlements, for the most part. Neither side were prepared (or capable) of committing enough resources to settle the issue permanent.

Until the Seraean crusaders came in and conquered the system decisively.  Millions of people were enslaved, and most of them were then imported back to the Empire, where they were never heard from again.

But that was now three generations ago.  Today, the situation is a bit different.  While Seraeans clearly make up the biggest plurality (and if you add Idacharians, the Heathens are a clear majority) of the population, there are still relatively large numbers of ethnic Bernese other humans, skiffers, some Cilindareans, and other, less humanoid aliens as well that live here.  For the last two Princips, descendants of Tan Kajak himself, the official policy has been to avoid systemic ethnic oppression.  The original settlers of non-Heathen stock have been allowed to remain in their settlements, albeit much reduced after the great slave-reaping three generations ago.  Others have migrated to the Heathen settlements, and succeed or fail based on their own merits.  In fact, one interesting side effect of this relationship is that Hentau III has become a fertile recruiting ground for spies to serve the Seraean Empire among the Dhangetans, or the Monarch worlds, or even in some cases, on some Revanchist worlds.  They've had less success with ethnic Cilindareans.

But the other curious side effect is that the planet is in a constant state of low-grade, tribal war.  The old Bernese settlements still fight against the settlements that were allied with the old Dhangetans.  Both fight with the Heathens.  Alliances and allegiances shift constantly.  Rather than clamping down on the chaos, the Heathens find the whole thing thrilling entertainment; a worthy place for young warriors to get some practice, and even a fertile ground for big money bets for gamblers.  This is, in fact, one of the main roadblocks to further ethnic integration; the culture of the Heathens, the Bernese and the others is too different for them to ever truly integrate except in the case of rare individuals.  It also means that there is very little trust for those outside of your tribal groups.  If a space traveler were to set his ship down near a Bernese settlement, such as Medon, it's unlikely that you'd get any reception other than radium fire, even if you were yourself an ethnic Bernese from one of the Carrick worlds, for instance.  Mistrust and sharp tribal boundaries is a strong feature on Hentau III.

Arrival of a Heathen noble's personal warships

Another curious fact; the original settlements were mostly located on rivers, and at river mouths, or otherwise access the great coastal floodplains that make up the majority of the landmasses.  Various types, often refugees from the wars, have moved even further inland, although the surface of the planet still remains relatively pristine, and even has many corners essentially unsurveyed and never before seen by intelligent eyes.  The Heathens, on the other hand, mostly live actually at sea, in vast cities either on small islands, or floating as giant rafts, or even submerged beneath the surface.  This is because the water here has a slightly unusual chemical composition.  This has very little effect on humanity, but it does make it the perfect habitat for Seraean spider-fish, both the meat and the eggs of which are a delicacy in Seraean society, and sell for ridiculous amounts of money to Heathen nobility.  In fact, Hentau III has become one of the largest exporters of spider-fish to the Empire, comparable to the oceans of Seraea itself, or famous exporter worlds within Imperial space like Shatina, Lantai, or Vorria.

The Many Faces of Seraean Outremer

Technically, Outremer is the word used in Seraean circles to refer to any of their colonies; i.e. territory that is politically affiliated with the Empire, but outside of its borders proper.  However, the word is usually used to refer to only the most recent expansions, so the earliest two satrapies are often not considered part of Outremer proper.  The attached map is a cut and paste of a section of my big sector map, with the satrapies marked and labeled, and with Seraean space lanes put in as well.  First, I'll describe each of the satrapies at a reasonably high level (considering that I've only developed systems so far for one of them) and then I'll talk a bit about the space lanes.

Vorgan Than Viceroyalty is the very first "colony" of the Seraeans and their Idacharian allies.  Initially, the entire reason that the Seraeans turned their attention westward from their own borders into the scattered New Alderamin sector was that scattered settlements of Idacharians were already here ahead of them, and they invited the Seraeans to help them capture Arsallum.  To the Idacharians and their Old Ones cult, closely allied with the Shadow Cult of the Seraeans themselves, Arsallum was a pilgrimage site, an important part of their religious history from the time of the Old Kingdoms, prior to the establishment of the Marian Empire.  It had turned extremely heretic, helped spawn the abominations that are the Cyber-liches, and was under their control.  With the help of the Seraean military might, the Idacharians conquered Arsallum, pushed the cyber-liches back into what is today the Voormellei Confederation (and inadvertently laying the seeds for their later alliance with the Grand Dukes of the Carrick Grand Marches) and established the very first of the Imperial colonies.  Eventually, the Vorgan Than Viceroyalty, ruled by a Viceroy (by definition) grew to encompass four systems, and started to diverge culturally somewhat from the Imperial center.  As their interests and concerns were far from Phovos Mal, they developed an unruly, independent streak, which was later to explode following the declaration of various Umbral Crusades, many led by the so-called Free Heathens, who desired even greater autonomy and independence from Imperial control.

However, the wars with the Cyber-liches had been brutal, Pyrrhic affairs, and these shadow knights were looking to establish their own power bases where they could rule absolutely.  They desired softer targets, and the immediate vicinity was not necessarily rife with them.  Numerous wars with the Reavers to the south and west of them were fruitless, as holding Reaver worlds was deemed to be impossible; the Reavers were too mobile as a society, and their hit and run raids made short-lived conquest attempts on Tronii T'Kali (2135) futile.  Fotta Zonaii (2133) was not only heavily armed and truculent themselves, but they were on reasonably good terms with the warriors of Freeport (2131), but they were also willing to make common cause with the Death Sages of the Voormellei Confederation, who still hated the Seraeans and Idacharians (collectively called The Colorless, or sometimes merely The Heathens.)  They were too hard of a target, although diplomacy allowed some of the Shadow Knights to negotiate rights of passage through their system for their Crusader armies.

The next conquest was Lada (1935) which has since been gifted to an Idacharian warlock who styles himself an independent king—but to maintain his position, he also agrees to be a stepping stone further to the west.  Lada was an independent nation prior to this, settled by a variety of frontiersmen, but they never managed to maintain a strong position, in part due to continual predation by the Reavers.  They were easy targets for the Seraeans, who also made the Reavers fear to prowl through the system.

The Dhangetans are a powerful group squatting fetidly over much of the very center of the sector.  An expansion of their rule are the Dhangetans of the Desai Worlds; a splinter group that settled near the Carthen Colonies and the Emerus Marches.  This made them the next reasonably large group of systems beyond Lada, the Reavers, and a few strong independent worlds—not great targets for further Seraean expansion, really.  But their infamous corruption presented opportunity.  Vaaxh-zhu, the Dhangetan emir of the Desai Worlds wanted one of his rivals removed, as well as blocking access to further rivals deeper within Dhangetan space.  Offering the Crusaders passage through Fenebruck (1634) and Vorli VI (1631) he betrayed his people and offered conquest to the worlds of the Principality of Tan Kajak, as they later came to be known.  These worlds were weakened by internal struggle; both Bernese settlers, and the less savory types that followed in the wake of the Dhangetans had wrangled over the systems for years, and both were not only occupied with fighting each other, but also weakened from decades of doing so.  Tan Kajak, the founder of this satrapy, made relatively quick work of both forces, claimed all four worlds in short order, enslaved millions of people (to great profit) and sparked a diplomatic crisis between the Monarchy and the Empire (although inadvertently defused an ongoing diplomatic crisis between the Dhangetans and the Monarchy while doing so.)  The old space lane that connected Beodon to Hentau III to Perchta and Kereux was cut off, and only pirates or otherwise desperate travelers use it today.

Other crusaders, seeing the grip Tan Kajak had on ruling his satrapy, decided to set up their own demesnes, and turned south from Fenebruck.  The Desai lords had recently abandoned Oerken (1536) in disgust, and the Crusaders agreed that it was a pointless exercise to try and conquer it.  But nearby were weak and fractured worlds that fell easily to the Crusaders, becoming the Kingdom of Phatoru Shdor.

When the Revanchists managed to flip the allegiance of the worlds of the Carthen Colony from the Monarchy to the Republic, they also came into direct conflict with Tan Kajak.  Overall, this small area is the biggest powder-keg in the entire New Alderamin sector.  Although few are truly aware of how sensitive the area is, it is in reality crawling with would-be Gavrilo Princips, and many could-be Franz Ferdinands.

These two satrapies are sometimes not considered part of Outremer, because they were the earliest established, and the other three are the results of much more recent aggression by newer Shadow Knight lords.  Surrounded mostly by very strong Bernese colonies, with large populations and strong armies, the Shadow Knights, led by the charismatic and dynamic Lord Kar Tanus VI, father of the current ruler of Thanatos (0733), Kar Tanus VII, found an avenue to a weak and decadent new swath of territory that became the three regions of New Outremer.  Cabaea (1337) was a Bernese settled world, but refused to recognize the sovereignty of the Monarch—or more specifically, of their local lords—and declared itself independent.  Staffed with a relatively powerful military, it was a hard target for either the Shadow Knights or the Royal Military, either one, but not so strong that it didn't need to look for favors and allies.  Tanus negotiated right of passage for a massive Crusader force that swarmed Revanchist world Veile, then Koschei Prime and then Rograde, taking them in quick succession.

Claiming to be repossessing their inheritance on Thanatos, another major pilgrimage site that dates back to the days before the Seraean or Marian Empires, they quickly conquered it as well as a host of nearby systems.  In doing so, they encroached upon a local war between the Altairan Ascendancy and various Revanchist colonies; the Crusaders didn't care and enslaved and conquered worlds belong to either with impunity.

This is the Civitas Ordenis Umraci, or Shadow Order State, the bulk of what is usually considered Outremer, and it was once ruled entirely by Kar Tanus VI (his son only rules uncontested today on Thanatos itself, while fractious lords and knights from the rest of the satrapy acknowledge his primacy only reluctantly.

More Altairan worlds were conquered to become the Moaktor Phtok satrapy.  This Crusade was devastating to the Altairan Ascendency—both the North and South regions are only seven systems each, while ten systems that were formerly Altairan are now outright ruled by the Seraeans, and two others (Traaknizar 0336 and Katturra 0537) have maintained their Altairan lords, but they have allied themselves formally with the conquerors and turned their backs on the leaders of the Ascendancy.  Some of those ten systems had already been recently lost to the Altairans and claimed by the Revanchists, however.

And finally, a couple of systems became the Sarkmina Duchy, by expanding mostly at the expense of Republic colonies; Burislav (0936) and Goll III (0937).  Although the expansionist aggression that formed all three of these was the same crusader movement, the various satrapies represent, rather the ability of certain crusader lords to carve out their own demesnes and impose their authority over it more than anything else.  Culturally, you would not expect too much of a difference between a Sarkmine world, or one in the Moaktor Phtork or the Civitas—but their allegiance would be to a different lord.

This history also explains the space lanes, to a great extent.  Coming from the east, you must pass through the Vorgan Than, then Fotta Zonaii, Lada and Fenebruck, and then either go through the Desai Worlds to reach Tan Kajack, or pass through Cabaea to Veile and the New Outremer conquests.

Notable: the Crusaders went to relatively great pains to avoid confronting the Emerus Marches (and thereby bringing down the wrath of the Monarchy on themselves) or the Takach Kingdom.  They were opportunists, not masochists, and challenging powerful groups with many resources was generally avoided, whereas taking easy pickings and weak or conflicted worlds was preferred.

Thanatos

To complete my translation of STAR WARS REMIXED into an ersatz Star Wars, AD ASTRA, I first needed to "translate" the Star Wars planets that I talked about, where I advanced the timeline for them a good 1,000 years and talked about what they would look like in this advanced timeline "remixed" version of Star Wars.  There's two levels of "translation" here from the Star Wars prototype, therefore—first, advancing them 1,000 years into the future from where they were during the time of the movies, and then secondly translating them from Star Wars to AD ASTRA, which although similar, is not the exact same kind of space opera setting, after all.  To be honest, the first change is usually a bigger one than the second, but it depends on the planetary prototype.  Dathomir to Phobetor and Mandalore to Cilindare changed more in the second half (although, to be fair, I'm not sure if we know too much about what Mandalore was like after it appeared in The Clone Wars anyway.)  Tatooine to Oerken, on the other hand, changed much more in the first part of that translation.  This isn't necessarily a process; each planet evolves from its prototype into something else that's either more or less similar to what it was in Star Wars.  But I only did that for about a dozen planets or so.  (11 is the exact number, but there are 9 systems; two of them have two planets each.)  On top of that, some of these planets won't actually appear in my sector map for my frontier sector.  Capital Publius, the two Dimidium worlds, and Phovos Mal—four of the eleven—which are the capital worlds of three of the Great Powers, are not going to be located in this sector.  That means that I've really only come up with seven worlds that I have a reasonable chance of actually using.  Given that I will end up generating somewhere between 350 and 450 or so for the entire sector (probably in even less detail than I've done here, for at least some of them) you'll see that the material that came as from a specific Star Wars prototype is actually going to be rather miniscule in most respects.  The vast majority of setting material for AD ASTRA will have to be original—or at least not specifically based on a Star Wars prototype.  (Keep in mind, that most of those Star Wars prototypes are not really original either.  The extent to which Tatooine resembles Arrakis from Dune—and deliberately so—is pretty obvious, to make one easy example.)  Much of it is going to be randomly generated, using my system which is a simplified and less jargony version of the old Traveller star system generation method; and then, once I've generated the rough stuff, I figure out how in the world it actually makes sense (a tiny airless asteroid that is super-populated with billions of people?, etc.)

But that's going forward.  Let's finish the very last of the planets that are actually based on a STAR WARS REMIXED prototype first, shall we?  Phovos Mal is not going to feature in this region, and I didn't really write very much about it anyway; just the following small paragraph, so I think I'll skip it entirely.

The capital of the Empire is the ancient capital of Phovos Mal. In general, Phovos Mal can be seen as a darker and much more militarized mirror of  Capital Publius. The Emperor himself maintains a strict policy of secrecy—nobody sees his face, or knows his name, and only the Council of Arch-Heretics communicate with him directly.  The entire planet has the feel of a mobilized military base with attached hangers-on, and the fear of secret police runs rife through the populace.

That means, of course, that the last planet I need to do before I can turn to actually mapping this stuff out, is Thanatos.  I actually think I'm going to evolve this a bit from where I had it, where it was little more than a archaeological site with a few smuggler and cult havens, into something a little bit more substantial that will be more like Leigh Brackett's Mars with some Lovecraftiana and the medieval Crusader states mixed in, but let's start with what I wrote the first time around.

The palace of Kar Tanus VII

While an important planet to the Shadow Knights for historical, archaeological and cultural reasons, in reality there is little on the planet to tempt the Seraean cult today, and they maintain it more as a curiosity than for any other reason. Many Shadow knights make pilgrimages to the planet as part of their training, but few remain.  The ruins that once dominated the Valley of the Alien Kings are mostly stripped clean of any artifacts of interest or note, and many of the ruins toppled or defaced. 

The Seraean tolerate a few unusual features about Thanatos, however.  Several pirate and smuggler operations are here, known to the Empire, but not molested.  The inhabitants of these enclaves are particularly vicious and paranoid, as might be expected, since few of them know of the official tolerance for their activity, and they feel that they may be rooted out by feared Shadow Knights and their black-garbed troopers at any time if discovered.  In truth, it's not clear what the Empire tolerates them for, although it may be as simple as the fact that the harshly competitive meritocracy of this environment has been a good source of potential recruits for them; psionically gifted pirates are trained as apprentice Knights, and those who are not become highly skilled agents-provocateurs, often drafted into dangerous yet important missions on behalf of the Empire.  

The Seraeans also tolerate several villages of Old Ones on Thanatos, including some of the most important and centralized points of the cult.  While the Shadow Knight cult and the Old Ones cult have usually enjoyed friendly relations, it is not clear why this particular tolerance is allowed on what is a site important to the Shadow cult's heritage.  It is observable, however, that the Old Ones cult on Thanatos has gradually migrated more and more into being one that resembles the ancient Shadow cult itself.  It is believed by a very few who are aware of this phenomena that this tolerance may actually be part of a long-term conspiracy to draw the Old Ones cult directly into the Shadow cult itself and merge the two.  The whispering of the Alien Kings and the ghosts—rather real or imagined—of past Shadow Lords who still wander the blasted badlands of Thanatos may be instrumental in bringing this to pass.

System: Thanatos
Hex Location: 0733
Star Type: Double star G4 V, M8 V (distant)
Number of Worlds: 12 (7/5)
Gas Giants: 7 (4/3)
Planetoid Belt: Comet belt and asteroid belt (2 each)

Starport Type: A
World Size: Earth-sized
Atmosphere Type: Earth-like
Surface Water: 20% ("surface" being a misnomer; most of it is in the crust in shallow aquifers rather than actually on the surface itself.)
Population: Medium (800 million)
Political Affiliation: Seraean Empire, Outremer
Notes: Thanatos is the capital of the Outremer region—occasionally known more formally as the Civitas Ordenis Umraci.  Established as conquests by Shadow Knight Lords, they are semi-independent of the Seraean Empire; Shadow Knight Lords who desired greater autonomy and freedom, and went crusading to liberate and pacify regions that were formerly important to their Order for religious or political reasons, but which had fallen from control of the Empire prior to even the Slave Wars ghastly resolution.  I say capital, but the reality is that the Outremer region is only loosely confederated, and the various Lords who rule their fiefdoms are somewhat fractious and unruly.  Rather, Thanatos claims to be the capital, and it is probably the most important.  Lord Kar Tanus VII is the most important figure in the Outremer systems, but his actual rule is limited to the Thanatos system itself.

In theory, of course, Kar Tanus is a vassal of the Empire, but in pragmatic day to day terms, he's so far from Phovos Mal, and its influence is weak enough, that he operates independently for all practical purposes, and only invokes his role as the local voice of the Emperor and the Council of Arch-heretics when it suits his purposes, otherwise ruling in his own name and for his own reasons.

Ancient ruins near the palace.

The system is a double star, but the companion star, a faint red dwarf, is distant enough to almost effectively be a separate system; it is about as far from the main yellow star as Sedna is from our own sun, and provides little light and no appreciable heat to the inner planets like the main world.  Most of the rest of the planets are thoroughly uninhabited and uninhabitable, but small settlements on a somewhat Earth-like planet of the companion star have sprouted up in very recent years, and asteroid and comet mining takes place here as well.

Thanatos itself is a cold, red desert—a world that formerly had more warmth and water, but which gradually seems to have lost some of it over time to forces that are mysterious.  It is also the supposed home and point of origin of the Shadow Knights cult, which predates the Seraean Empire to which they are now strongly attached.  In spite of this, the natives do not seem to be Seraean in ethnicity in any fashion whatsoever, although they are xenohuman.  Bronze-skinned and yellow-eyed, with a dusky khaki or olive colored hair, they live in both Bedouin-like nomadic groups, as well as in ancient, moldering Lowlands cities of decadent, ancient civilizations that are long past their prime.  Two groups of off-worlders have established modern cities, and effectively rule the planet, ignoring (for the most part) the natives except when employing them as either mercenaries or lower class laborers.  These off-worlders are the Shadow Knights and their associated Seraean soldiers and settlers and colonists, and the second group are Old One cults, which maintain a feudal vassalage political relationship with Kar Tanus.

Because Outremer is still a region being pacified, and crusaders pass through frequently, many people coming to Thanatos on the way to somewhere else never actually land on the planet at all.  All of the services offered at a type A starport are actually offered in a vast orbital location that floats in space above the planet, built on a small asteroid dragged into position by an ancient warlock and "gravitized" to offer Earth-like gravity in spite of its tiny size (on world, the starports, depending on the city in which you put down, never reach above class B at best.)

The starport in space above Thanatos.

Semi-legendary history of the Order suggests that when it was founded, it was because of a weakness in the membrane of observed reality, and the ability of the bulk to be breached more easily here than elsewhere.  This has led to a number of bulk entities occasionally having been reputed to have come to our reality here, daemons in reality, since they are so alien and hostile to life in the observed universe that they really can't be called anything else.  Some are reputed to still be imprisoned somewhere deep underground, or in abandoned ruins deep in the desert.  Many also claim that subversive and disturbing whispers can be heard at potentially any point on the surface, but others claim that those who say this are merely superstitious and subject to suggestion and paranoia.  Either way, Thanatos is a violent world, in part because of the relatively light hand of Kar Tanus, his whim in prosecuting whatever harsh justice he feels is required, often without giving notice, and in part because for whatever reason, the inhabitants seem to be somewhat more susceptible to falling into violent psychosis and other madness after staying here too long.