Draconis III

System: Draconis III
Hex Location: 2433
Star Type: Double (distant) B5 V, B2 V
Number of Worlds: 12, 15
Gas Giants: 3, 1
Planetoid Belt: Cometary and asteroid belts (x2)

Starport Type: D
World Size: Earth-sized
Atmosphere Type: Earth-like
Surface Water: 90%
Population: Small settlements (c. 800,000)
Political Affiliation: Vorgan Than Viceroyalty (Seraean Empire)
Tags: Quarantined World, Forbidden Technology, Warlock Academy
Notes: (As an aside, there's some funny results here.  What is a quarantined world and what is forbidden technology, when next door neighbors to the Vorgan Than Viceroyalty is the Voormellei Federation, who buy or capture slaves, kill them and reanimate their corpses as undead servitors, for instance.  You'd think that some of the Lovecraftian elements might be forbidden, and they are to most civilized peoples, but the Seraean and Old Ones cults both seek out Lovecraftian secrets as a matter of religious doctrine.  So, rather, I think it has to be something somewhat like nukes during the Cold War; controlled and forbidden by those who have them and everyone's afraid to use them, generally.  Any other solution runs into bizarre doctrine of social justice fallacies that ignore human nature; if the Seraean Imperials are supposed to be an evil empire, then they won't hesitate using forbidden weapons if they're effective, and the Bernese or Cilindareans, etc. can hardly ignore them if they will save their people from the worse fate of being conquered by the Imperials.  Weapons of mass destruction are not inherently evil, contrary to social justice fallacies.  They're just unpalatable, and we use them as a last resort.)

Draconis III, unlike the rest of the Vorgan Than, is a small research facility, and although it is administered and protected by the Vorgan Than satrap, it is in fact an important world to the Seraean Empire overall.  By law, the system is off-limits to any but authorized personnel, and authorization includes only military science officers, and other military units.  Other than the existence of the system, which can hardly be hidden given that it can easily be spotted by telescope, and it was known based on old star charts from the Marian Empire or immediately afterwards; before the Imperials claimed it.

While there are many projects in the Seraean cult to contact beings from the Outer Darkness and bring their alien, hideous form of life to the material universe, the project on Draconis III is among the most exciting—or dreadful and alarming, from the point of view of everyone else, should they but learn of it.  Vast beings of alien energy breach the boundary of the material universe here, maintained and controlled (somewhat) by the technology and float in space near Draconis III, making a frightening show of light and sound in the sky.  These beings find that solar energy empowers them; it is like a drug to them, and they absorb it at a terrific pace.

The theory is that these solar parasites, as they are unofficially called, could be unleashed on a star and within weeks so deplete it of energy that its shell would collapse, it would be unable to maintain fusion reactions, and it would go nova (or supernova, if sufficiently massive.)  This would obviously have a devastating effect on the system around the star, and even neighboring systems (well, within a few years).  In reality, the most likely result is that most stars would quickly burn out these solar parasites and kill them with nothing more than a little wobble in solar radiation.  But the theory is valid; just that they can't yet find sufficient numbers or sufficiently powerful solar parasites to actually blow up a star yet.  Much of the research done is more thaumaturgical rather than technological and tens of thousands of warlocks (and warlocks in training) work on the project, creating a de facto warlock academy; one of the most productive in known space, actually—although few are allowed to pursue other careers after their involvement in the project here.

This is "civilization ending" weaponry here, and the Seraeans are obviously quite discrete about it.  The research done in the Draconis III system is among the most secret in known space, and those who inadvertently find their way into this system without leave are usually destroyed with extreme prejudice.  The military presence here is quite strong for a frontier system, making this one to avoid.

Arsallum

System: Arsallum
Hex Location: 2333
Star Type: Single M5 V
Number of Worlds: 8
Gas Giants: N
Planetoid Belt: Cometary belt

Starport Type: B
World Size: Earth-sized
Atmosphere Type: Earth-like
Surface Water: 20%
Population: Medium (400 million)
Political Affiliation: Vorgan Than Viceroyalty (Seraean Empire)
Tags: Regional dominance, Warlock Academy, Tomb World
Notes: The capital world of the Vorgan Than Viceroyalty and the oldest settlement in the Vorgan Than.  In fact, it's the whole reason that the Empire turned its gaze this direction in the first place; as they allied with scattered Old Ones cults, the Idacharians wanted to reclaim an old world that they had once controlled from the time of the Old Kingdoms, before even the rise of the Marian Empire.  Arsallum had been abandoned for many centuries, with the exception of scattered reports of bands of pirates or worse.  An expedition sponsored by the Empire, but staffed with more Idacharians than Seraeans came to Arsallum, cleared the planet of its refuse, and established new colonies.

Ancient Idacharian tomb

What they found was that the planet was a vast graveyard; millions of old tombs of Idacharians dating back thousands of years were piled across the dry, rocky surface.  Death sages had picked over much of the world in past years, looting tombs when possible, stealing even the bodies in some cases.  But there was a treasure trove of information about the Old One cult, its early years, and the daemons and other malevolent entities from the Outer Darkness that the early cult was familiar with—much of which had been lost in the intervening years.  This isn't always a good thing, even for occultists, as learning about these entities often calls their attention, and many do not survive even hearing of them, much less learning how to make any use of the occult knowledge the old cult used to have.

Modern Imperial archaeologists estimate that they've only barely scratched the surface of what can yet be discovered here in terms of occult information.  This prompted a flood of interested warlocks and others.  The colonial bureaucracy is second only to guilds that sponsor exploration and categorization of the many, many tombs on Arsallum, and the Arsallum Academy; one of the finest warlock academies in the entire New Alderamin sector (if one that's fairly sinister compared to many others.)

Arsallan cyber-corpse

Alongside the colonists, the haunted graveyards that make up much of the continental interiors (the modern settlements are mostly on the coastlines of the modest seas and oceans that Arsallum does have) gravely disquieting wildlife roams the landscape; much of it clearly the result of thaumaturgical experimentation, or cross-breeding with monstrous DNA from beyond the confines of the normal universe.  Lingering pirates may yet have strongholds in the barren wastes, and there are even old settlements of those who succumbed to madness while exploring the ruins, and yet live in oddly dysfunctional yet lingering villages of the insane.  Death sages still come here, and some may yet linger from before the establishment of the colony, which is not surprising, given the proximity to Voormellei, although they are rare.

The general lack of moral compass associated with the death sages and the Imperials both has meant that a great many disturbing things have come out of the research on Arsallum.  One of the worst is a new kind of cyber-corpse zombie-like drone that can serve as a menial, as a foot soldier, or in any number of other capacities.  They are not hard or expensive to create, so on Arsallum (and increasingly elsewhere in Vorgan Than and elsewhere among Imperials) they are taking the roles that robots serve in other cultures.

The Vorgans particularly like to turn the corpses of their enemies into cyber-corpses, to better intimidate them if they can.  This has occasionally backfired, and Arsallum has endured a few raids, and even more serious events that bordered on turning to war with the Carrick and the Reavers, and a few others, but in general, things have calmed down in recent years.  There are still numerous cyber-corpses on Arsallum, however, and those from there frequently travel with them.

Khirunizan

System: Khirunizan
Hex Location: 2332
Star Type: Single L1
Number of Worlds: 12
Gas Giants: 1
Planetoid Belt: Cometary and asteroid belt

Starport Type: C
World Size: Earth-sized
Atmosphere Type: Earth-like
Surface Water: 30%
Population: Medium sized (c. 890 million)
Political Affiliation: Vorgan Than Viceroyalty (Seraean Empire)
Tags: Primitive aliens, Thaumatophilia, Cold war
Notes: Khirunizan is a world around an extraordinarily dim brown dwarf star.  Although the Vorgan Than has settled the world, there were already natives living here; humanoid, but with longer, narrower heads and large black eyes, called the Khirlings.  The Khirlings had complex and sophisticated nations of their own, but their technology was still several centuries away from uncovering any of the secrets of space-flight (more or less equivalent to early 19th century Europe).  When the Seraeans came with their orbital bombardments, sophisticated drop ships, radium weapons, and various thaumaturges: warlocks and Shadow Knights, they conquered the planet in fairly short order.

Khirling temple

The Khirlings are just now getting to the point where they understand the difference between the technology and the thaumaturgy, however.  For many years, they lived in terror of magic, and the Seraeans represented magic.  They gave whatever tribute, whatever service, whatever obeisances were necessary—because if they didn't, they'd be killed.  This is only just now starting to wear off.  Resistance groups to Seraean occupation are starting to pop up, usually deep in the interior, far from the Seraean settlements, but they know that this distance is no salvation; the Seraeans can easily travel to any place on the surface that they wish.  The only question is; do they want to bother or not?

The Seraeans largely ignore the Khirlings, except as a cheap and expendable source of manual labor.  They maintain their own "plantation culture" in their own settlements, and largely concern themselves only with each other, the elites of the rest of the Vorgan Than systems, and any passing interesting folks from the Empire on their way to Outremer or vice versa.

That said, the Seraeans belong to two factions (mostly) that hate each other with a passion.  The first are the Imperials, who preach close association with the Empire and the Emperor.  Their enemies see them as both suck-ups, and a threat to their freedom.  The Free Heathens, they call themselves, chafe under the rigid culture of the Empire; that's one of the main reasons that they moved further to the galactic west in the first place, colonizing new worlds where they could be the masters.  Three generations ago, this came to a head, and Kar Tanus I formed the First Umbral Crusade and went conquering with his own personal troops, vast legions of slaves, and a few tough mercenaries (mostly Cilindareans.)  The result was the founding of the Outremer region.  Those who remained in the Vorgan Than seethed with envy; many others organized their own crusades and expanded Outremer.  But few forgot that Khirunizan was where Kar Tanus started.  The tension between these two factions has grown tremendously in the last thirty years, and they now have self-sorted into differing settlements on the surface of the planet.  Although the conflict is mostly at a dull roar; duels, raids, political maneuvering, espionage, etc., one never knows.  The Seraeans are in general a brutal, pitiless, and impulsive people.  The rest of the Vorgan Than wonders if Khirunizan will break out in open warfare between the various city-states on the surface.  Rather than being concerned by this, the Vorgan Than's elites are eager to see what happens.  Many are in fact placing extremely high bets on when violence will erupt, the scope of the violence, and the results.

The weak brown dwarf sun of Khirunizan rises over sandstone cliffs.

Unlike Sorthor, the Heathens of Khirunizan welcome all kinds of visitors as a kind of exotic entertainment, even people from what would be considered their natural enemies.  Bernese, Cilindarean, Jannisary, Psarian, Altairan, Reaver, and Jaffans, not to mention plenty of types of aliens all live here in small numbers, in relative peace.  The Heathens tolerate them as long as there are few enough of them that they cannot possibly compete with them for cultural primacy in their own cities, and enjoy the spice of exotica that they bring.  Some even become celebrated (if faddish) causes célèbres and are feted at all the right parties.  Often, and others might see this is ironic, the most popular are those who fought the most successfully against other heathens in Outremer.  Twin brothers, Kovor and Entek Dania, Altairan knights who successfully fought off Heathen occupation of Traaknizar and Kattura (0336 and 0537) and killed hundreds of Seraeans each in personal combat, were celebrated for an entire year and became the envy of the Seraean men, the recipients of extremely rich tribute, and the objects of lust and devotion to hordes of Seraean women while visiting.  At the end of their visit, they were so impressed with the culture of Khirunizan, that they found their attitudes towards their Outremer foes considerably softened, and broke with the weak rulers of the Altairan Ascendency (South), coming to view them with little more than contempt, and openly allied themselves with their would-be conquerors—albeit as equals, not as subjects.

Sorthor

System: Sorthor
Hex Location: 2331
Star Type: Single M3 V
Number of Worlds: 12
Gas Giants: 6
Planetoid Belt: Cometary belt

Starport Type: E
World Size: Asteroid sized
Atmosphere Type: Earth-like
Surface Water: 40%
Population: Medium (c. 1 million)
Political Affiliation: Vorgan Than Viceroyalty (Seraean Empire)
Tags: Xenophobia, Thaumatophilia, Eugenic mania

A cyberlich with a replaced skull

Notes: An infrequently visited colonial world belonging to the Vorgan Than Viceroyalty, Sorthor is one of the more unusual worlds in the sector.  Located on a smallish, Ceres-sized moon of the gas giant Tavvia, a ringed planet who sheds a cloud of gas and dust into the orbits of the moons, coating them in strange dust and creating spectacular sunsets (which, given the red dwarf star, are already pretty darn spectacular compared to yellow suns such as on Earth.  In spite of its relatively small size, Sorthor has been massively terraformed by both thaumaturgy and technology; incarnated gravitic spells cover the entire surface of Sorthor, giving it near Earth equivalent gravity (although these spells do not extend very far upwards, and the gravity and atmosphere thin tremendously with only a few hundred feet of elevation gain.)  Water tugged to the world from comets in the Kuiper belt and melted on the surface provides shallow lakes and small seas.  The surface is relatively rocky, but imported vegetation does grow in strange fungal and coral-like forests, lawns of green grass provide grazing fodder for herds of imported thoats and zitidars, and there are even a few predators that roam the world.

Originally created to be the secret base of a renegade Death Sage, the arrival of the Colorless (also known as the Imperials, heathens, or Seraeans to the rest of known space) brought an end to his rule; warlocks and Shadow Knights, as well as Imperial troops, annihilated the Death Sage's undead servitors to the last shambling corpse, and the cyberlich was drawn, quartered and burned.

More cyberliches have since come to Sorthor, looking for the legacy of Sath Yogguath, the Death Sage who created Sorthor from a lifeless rock, but they made alliance with the warlocks and Shadow Knights, and joined them as equals in the search for more unclean power and understanding of the Outer Darkness and its ways.  Today, many such live among the Imperial heathens and along with the warlocks and Shadow Knights, run the society of Sorthor.  People without any form of "the Gift" are common, but pitied somewhat by the more generous; seen as completely expendable by the rest.  They make up a vast underclass on Sorthor while the warlocks, cyberliches and Shadow Knights hold almost all of the power and wealth.

There is little in the way of facilities for visitors to Sorthor.  Unrefined fuel, cracked from water, or picked up and perfunctorily scrubbed of the worst of its dust from the scattered dust and gas torus that Sorthor orbits in is about it; most visitors are better served simply skimming the outer atmosphere of Tavvia itself, or one of the other many gaseous worlds in the system.  With the exception of Seraean warlocks or Shadow Knights (and some grudging acceptance of other warlocks or psionic knights, especially Idacharians) nobody else is really very welcomed on Sorthor anyway.  they maintain a cultural isolation that is second to few in the region, and non-Gifted who are non-native are treated with extreme prejudice, and run the risk of being lynched without warning if they step even a tiny bit out of line.  The only exceptions to this are mercenaries brought by various Knights or other Lords for various reasons, which do pass through Sorthor on occasion; but which usually stay in neighborhoods reserved for their use as much as possible.

Perhaps it is the friendly relationship with the cyberliches, and the integration of some of them into the ruling caste, but cybernetics is a bit of a fetish with Sorthoreans, and it is rare to find someone who (if they can afford it) doesn't feature at least some designer cybernetic gear.  Indeed, the ruling caste is cybernetic almost to a man, but even the lower castes see it as the fashionable thing to do if one can.  In fact, the cybersurgeons of Sorthor are so practiced and have such a good reputation that people come from far and wide (especially Imperial citizens) to get their grafts done here, and if one needs or wants cybernetic grafts, Sorthorean cybernetics are widely considered the best available.

Sunset on a lonely wilderness lake on Sorthor.