Neferre

System: Neferre
Hex Location: 2229
Star Type: Single M6 V
Number of Worlds: 7
Gas Giants: N
Planetoid Belt: Comet belt and three asteroid belts

Starport Type: C
World Size: Moon-sized
Atmosphere Type: Earth-like
Surface Water: 50%
Population: Super-populated (unknown; more than 10 billion)
Political Affiliation: Voormellei Federation (Allies of Carrick Grand Duchy)
Notes:  For many years, Neferre was little more than a planet sized prison.  The worst of prisoners (or the most dangerous) were deposited on its surface and left to their own devices, trusting that the primitive environment would render them unable to escape, and orbital robotic satellites targeted any potential cobbled-together craft that the prisoners might have been able to make.  With the fall of the Marian Empire, the planet was no longer used as a prison, and the robotic satellites were allowed to degrade and falter, due to there not being anyone around who cared to maintain them.

The prisoners (and their descendants) on the other hand were gripped in the hands of barbarism.  Criminals and political prisoners who had no shortage of loyal fellow prisoners to call on, established themselves as warlords and did as they pleased on the surface of the planet, marshaling the intelligent to build brutal yet effective poles of civilization on the surface.  Balkanized to the extreme, and usually along racial lines, they developed a strange warrior-ethos planet, usually barbaric, but with pockets of surprisingly effective technology (not unlike Mongo of Flash Gordon fame, in many ways.)  But the natives hadn't quite managed to get back off-world—and as generations passed, nobody on the surface remembered the greater Marian society that their ancestors had lived in, except in legend—when greater trouble struck.

Neferran dog soldier

Reavers started raiding the surface, killing, looting, and enslaving the people.  The Death Sages started kidnapping them for slavery as well, or killing and then reanimating them.  Dhangetan criminals saw them as rubes under no protection other than their own.  The people became even more feral, if possible, turning their balkanized kingdoms and fiefdoms into enormous fortresses, to better ward off attack by their rivals on surface, or their enemies from off-world.  Between these gargantuan fortress-cities with their teeming billions of citizens, the planet is divided into feral no-man's zones; hostile and crawling with bandits, and genetically modified predators, and worse.

Finally, the former prisoners were able, after reverse engineering spacecraft shot down by their defenses, to themselves get off-world and reintegrate into interstellar society.  But even today, there is no one government on Neferre, and although it's considered part of the Voormellei Federation, it's more accurate to say that some of the independent nations on the surface are part of that federation, while others are doing their own thing.  Their legacy as a people with no rights at all shows on the inhabitants of Neferre; many of which are experimental cyborgs, or travesties and abominations of genetic experimentation that no civilized nation would have allowed.  Even today, it has a reputation as a lawless, feral place; worse than a hive of scum and villainy; a nest of the worst of vipers, and a place that is little better than a death sentence to visit, except for the exceptionally prepared.

That said, the wars that constantly range across its surface have not only created a demand for mercenaries, but also given local soldiers experience that they can bring to bear in the service of more cosmopolitan warlords, and the feral, often cybernetic dog soldiers of Neferre, as they call themselves, are now seen in many places in nearby systems, especially among the Dhangetan worlds, who are as a rule less scrupulous about their vassals anyway.

There is, however, a more cosmopolitan and urbane elite who rule the megacity nations, and more than just soldiers and criminals have reason to come to Neferre.  Industry, agriculture, fish "ranching" and other trades provide sufficient incentive for many to come buy.  In fact, it is exactly these cultured and sophisticated elites who pushed for the alliance of the Voormellei Federation with the Carrick Grand Marches—in general, the death sages were largely indifferent, and many of them yet oppose the alliance privately.

Tekeli-li

System: Tekeli-li
Hex Location: 2230
Star Type: Double star A2 V, K9 III (distant)
Number of Worlds: 8
Gas Giants: 3
Planetoid Belt: Cometary belt

Starport Type: B
World Size: Mars-sized
Atmosphere Type: Thin
Surface Water: 10 (much of it polar ice)
Population: Large (2 billion)
Political Affiliation: Voormellei Federation (Allies of Carrick Grand Duchy)
Notes:  Many years ago, Voormellei human and old earth-stock humans fought over this planet, which is superficially very similar to Mars—cold, dry, a bit on the small side, with a thin atmosphere and long canals that bring water from polar ice caps to decadent cities in deserts that may have once been ancient sea shores.  Today, the population is a mixed one, with elements of both Voormellei and old Earth stock, but culturally and politically, it is allied with the Voormellei.

The Seraeans have also had an intense interest in the planet for many years, and many of them have established cities and settlements on the planet, which have also contributed to the cultural and ethnic mix of the world.  Idacharians and also came here, and there is profuse evidence of prior Zetan gray presence, including ruins both on the surface and in orbit.  Some of them yet are seen here, either officially welcomed, or skulking around doing who knows what.

The reason for all of the interest in Tekeli-li is the presence of a dimensional "thinness" here.  While bulk drives can pierce the walls of normal space-time and enter the Outer Darkness, of course, the experience is not particularly insightful into the true nature of the Outer Darkness; travel through the bulk provides very little useful observational data, and it is extremely rare that any contact with anything that lives beyond our normal space-time continuum is every made.

But on Tekeli-li, entities from Beyond have occasionally come into our world many times.  These strange creatures, sometimes called sarmaks, molluscs, or even wellsians seem poorly adapted to our world; they resemble large, shapeless bags with large, hooded eyes, a toothy, strange-shaped maw, and many thin tentacles with which they laboriously haul their ungainly bulks across the landscape.  Because of their general unsuitability to our environment, they prefer to operate within advanced suits; large metal pods with deadly weapons and three long, spindly legs, with mechanical pseudopods or tentacles to manipulate things around them as needed.

In the past, these molluscs have come in force, and fought devastating wars against the inhabitants of Tekeli-li and the surrounding systems.  Lately, they appear, if they do at all, in small numbers, or singularly, working to inscrutable purposes.  Some remain on the surface, and have done so for presumably many, many years, and others come from Beyond when they come.

Cultists exploring the ruins of a gray outpost on Tekeli-li

The gray ruins are often particularly known as places where the thinness is strongest, and where disquieting sounds, dreams, and worse linger.  Because of this, they tend to be places where more recent settlement has not happened, and those who try to set up colonies near these ruins find that their colonies wither and fail, the colonists either leaving muttering disquieting rumors, or falling sickly and dying, or going insane.  However, the ruins are favorite haunts of the more disquieting types—Shadow Knights and their dark warlock brethren, Old Ones cultsts, Death Sages from the cyberliches, and worse.

Miroon

System: Miroon
Hex Location: 2029
Star Type: K1 V
Number of Worlds: 10
Gas Giants: 0
Planetoid Belt: Two Asteroid belts and Kuiper belt present

Starport Type: A
World Size: Artificial stationary star-fleet
Atmosphere Type: Earth-like
Surface Water: N/A
Population: 90,000
Political Affiliation: Voormellei Federation (Allies of Carrick Grand Duchy)
Notes: Miroon is a human research colony who's origin is unknown.  An entire race of humans live here, many of whom have never set foot in an actual planet, and never felt gravity that isn't artificial.  That said, there are many planets in this system and although none of them are inhabited or even habitable, yet there remain many ruins of various kinds on the surfaces of several.  This race is believed to be the original race of Voormellei, which are extinct in that system now (except for those who have returned from neighboring systems.)  Extremely pale, the resemble Imperial humans in many respects except for their solid black, shark-like eyes, but clearly developed their culture in isolation if they are indeed descended in some way from the Seraeans.

Although not ruled by the cyberliches of Voormellei, they are closely associated with them, and at least half a dozen liches do live on the hollowed out asteroid city of Miroon.

The Carrick Grand Marches allies of the Voormellei Federation often prefer to come to Miroon instead of Voormellei, which is an extraordinarily inhospitable location for humans, but in spite of the apparently more familiar nature of the Miroonians compared to the cyberliches and their undead servitors, the reality is that the Miroonians are very alien in their culture and thought.  Prolonged exposure to the necromancy of Voormellei and the strange other-dimensional energies of Tekeli-li have made them nearly as strange and disturbing as the undead or the ghast-mutants in their own way.

In spite of their open alliance with the Carrick Grand Marches, the Miroonians do maintain a much more tolerant atmosphere to various enemies of the Monarchy.  Seraeans are often seen in Asteroid City, or in orbit nearby, or exploring the surface of the various airless rocky planets that make up the system.  In a reversal of the normal pattern, there are Reaver slaves who work asteroid and cometary mines and resource extraction.  Aliens of all kinds pass through Asteroid City; slaves going to market, mercenaries off to one of the various fronts, agents of the Great Powers, crime lords paying tribute to the Dhangetans, etc.  Miroon is an odd place, but it does qualify as a wretched hive of scum and villainy.

Voormellei

System: Voormellei
Hex Location: 2130
Star Type: Double star, G7 V, G6 Ia (distant)
Number of Worlds: 10
Gas Giants: 1 (Hot Jupiter)
Planetoid Belt: Asteroid and Kuiper belt present

Starport Type: C
World Size: Mars-sized
Atmosphere Type: Dangerous; completely unbreathable and corrosive; will gradually (2d4 hours) destroy protective suits.
Surface Water: 70%.
Population: Large (5 billion)
Political Affiliation: Voormellei Federation (Allies of Carrick Grand Duchy)

Notes: The dark and disturbing worlds of the Voormellei Federation frighten the inhabitants of the Carrick Grand Duchy—and deservedly so—yet, they're happier having them in a position of relatively friendly alliance rather than at their throats.  At some point in the distant past, Voormellei was involved in a war with its neighbors, and every living thing on it was killed.  However... some of them yet lingered.  The Cyber Liches (also sometimes called Death Sages) are the remnants of the population; kept alive through their sorcery and cybernetic replacement of rotted, broken or dysfunctional organs.  The Cyber Liches have forgone anything of the humanity that they once possessed.  Although once human, they are now more alien than any actual alien species.

Their appearance varies considerably; some yet hold on to a remembrance of vanity, and try to retain some of their beauty, or a shocking and terrifying appearance, or otherwise craft an appearance that is meant to evoke a emotional response in those who see them, while others give only functional consideration to their appearance, and can look especially strange and bizarre.  The Cyber Liches are relatively rare; only a few tens of thousands on Voormellei itself, and many tend to be solitary and antisocial, either locking themselves in their domiciles for research and only emerging once every few decades (if that) or at best associating with their kind only reluctantly and infrequently to form alliances for political or academic benefit.  To the people of the Grand Duchy, their motives are strange and inscrutable and much of what they do seems terrible and callous, so many think it curious that they approached the Grand Duke collectively with an offer of friendship and alliance.  Few in the Grand Duchy trust them, and few indeed believe that the alliance will be permanent, but it's nice not to have to worry about the systems to their galactic south, at least for the time being.

Voormellei is a relatively small world, although very dense, so its gravity is not unduly light.  The sludgy waters that make up vast oceans are devoid of normal life as most Earth-like oceans would be, but necromantic oozes, fungi and strange luminescent algae float in a water solution that stinks with chemical compounds that are corrosive and dangerous to humans and their technology.  The atmosphere is completely unbreathable, and in fact even corrosive, so visitors to Voormellei can only spend a few hours outside at most, even in protective suits, before they need to go inside heavily insulated buildings to clean the corrosive chemicals off of their suits before they are clogged with pollution or even ruined altogether.  The majority of the population is either reanimated drudge undead creatures, or robots, built of heavily shielded substances mined from the asteroid belt or other uninhabited planets of the system.  Envoys from the Grand Duchy, some few pirates or researchers (especially darker, disturbing warlocks, wanting access to lore and research that is outlawed elsewhere in the civilized galaxy) and a few other strange hangers-on are the only truly living inhabitants of the planet, and many of them do not stay long.  Not all of these undead servitors are the remnants of the original natives, as many of those have broken down and worn out to the point of non-functionality.  Slaves or prisoners taken in past wars make up a great deal of them, and it does still remain a terrifying prospect of the Grand Duchy's justice system that many criminal death sentences mean being shipped to Voormellei to serve indefinitely as an animated skeleton or radioactive zombie.

The Voormellei system is also strange and hostile to most visitors.  While the main planet itself orbits a more or less Sol-like G7 yellow main sequence star, a hot Jupiter ties up its magnetic field, and periodically it snaps back and the star exhibits unstable, massive solar flares that lash the system in radiation.  The hot Jupiter itself, Voormeis Alpha, is a difficult environment from which to draw unrefined fuel (as are all hot Jupiters) because of its extreme closeness to the sun, and the "roaster planet" conditions that exist on the surface.  Even the dark side of the planet is lashed by violent hot storms and the super-heated atmosphere of the planet rushes from the day side to the night side, excited by the extreme heat from the sun.  Unrefined fuel drawn from the oceans also requires purifying before use—and yet it still remains unrefined—something that the Cyber Liches don't bother with much because for the most part they are immune to the poison and radiation of their environment, already being technically dead.

The companion star is even more hazardous, although thankfully rather far.  As one of the very rare ancient yellow hypergiants, it is extremely bright and casts a glow on the night-side of the planet much brighter than our own full moon would ever do.  It also has a massive extended atmosphere that extends from its surface to a distance as far as the orbit of the asteroid belt here at home, and pulses with instabilities, sloughing off mass periodically, so that the entire system is somewhat veiled in a glowing nebula of charged gas and dust particles.  In some areas, gravitational forces allow this to congeal thickly enough that these gas clouds can even be mined as unrefined (and dirty) fuel, and some desperate spacers who have to stop in the system try to gather this hydrogen rather than stop on Voormellei itself.  All in all, Voormellei is a foreboding and uninviting place, in spite of its alliance with the Grand Duchy.