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.

Tr'Udon

System: Tr'Udon
Hex Location: 1529
Star Type: Triple (distant) F5 V, A0 V, M2 V
Number of Worlds: 11, 17, 12
Gas Giants: 8, 5, 0
Planetoid Belt: Kuiper and asteroid belt, Kiuper belt only, Kuiper and asteroid belt

Starport Type: C
World Size: Earth-sized
Atmosphere Type: Thin
Surface Water: 20%
Population: Large (9 billion)
Political Affiliation: Seraean Empire, Outremer, Principality of Tan Kajak
Tags: Mining world, Civil War, Eugenic mania
Notes: Tr'Udon is an unusual system; with three stars, all capable of supporting earth-like planets, and each of which having a large cadre of planets, there is an incredible diversity of settlement.  While the main world stats describe the "main" world of the system, in reality, the system has several settled worlds, several of which are "earth-like" to various degrees—many of them are full of silicates and metallic materials, and vast quantities of raw materials are mined from the system.

The real defining feature of the Tr'Udon system, however, is the ongoing civil war for control of the system between two Seraean noble houses, Djak and Parthsor.  Both are branches of the house of the original Tan Kajak himself (descendants of his more distant cousins, to be exact) and as the Baron Kardon Djak was usually deemed mentally unfit to rule, his cousin, Lord Haltoru Parthsor, called Haltoru the Gaunt was pressed into seeking the baronial seat.  For two decades now, these aging baronial claimants have waged war, and the minor lords and knights that support them have brought to bear their forces to advance the cause of one or the other.  This war has spread throughout the varied system, and sometimes beyond.

A curiosity of Seraean culture is that while they do not encourage this type of disunity, because it threatens their ability to project force across Known Space, they do, however, innately and obsessively enjoy this kind of conflict.  Because of the fact that this one spills out of the Tr'Udon system, a little bit, it gets some bad attention at Phovos Mal and from some of the other Outremer nobles, but they tolerate it because it mostly takes place in system, and because it's entertaining as the all get-out to them.

One of the things that the Seraeans of Tr'Udon have done, which is somewhat unique to them, is a cybernetics mania.  They are obsessed with the creation of the perfect soldier, and have created a template of four-armed soldiers, with a great deal of robotic augmentations, that are unique.  A very few of them are capable of becoming psionic knights genetically too, and the four-armed semi-robotic Tr'Udoni knights are among the most fearsome to encounter.

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.