Accidents in Astrography: Nolgor Subsector #2

Cursed with a Ducal House with lofty ambitions and insufficient resources, Nolgor Subsector has often seen its armed forces drawn away, either in pursuit of, or in support of, the Sector Ducal crown. This constant drain has contributed to the inability of the Subsector authorities to maintain control over the worlds within the Subsector. Of the twelve Naval bases in the Subsector, seven remain under Imperial control. The loss of the huge Tech Level 12 shipyards of Naos VI reduced the Subsector Navy’s ability to recover from losses quickly. The next largest yards, at Nolgor, are only Tech Level 11 and have only 1% of the capacity of the yards at Naos VI. Imperial Naval units assigned to Nolgor have to be serviced at Gamelea, as this is the nearest Tech Level 15 facility, and once sent out of theatre for servicing often don’t come back again as they’re promptly reassigned along the Outrim frontier or sent into Miazan Subsector.

Nolgor Subsector consists of 20 systems. Weak and divided, only 14 systems are under Imperial control. The Hegemony of Lotarf, controlling Lotarf, Shenn and Thrisk; the Zoni of Lur; and the Voivodate of Naos VI, controlling Naos VI and Sleipner, effectively divide the subsector in two. With a total subsector population of 9.87 billion sophonts (9.8*10^9), of which less than 0.5% are non-Human, 135.5 million are Imperial citizens, 156.2 million are subjects of the Hegemony of Lotarf, 34.5 million are estimated to inhabit Lur, and 9.5 billion dwell within the borders of the Voivodate of Naos VI.

The highest Tech Level in the subsector, Tech Level E (14), is at Meklin, while the most densely populated planet is Naos VI. Lotarf, with a population of 107 million, is the next most populous planet. Zovanta and Kuan-Ti are Red Zones, Zovanta on account of its primitive inhabitants and Kuan-Ti as it has been incompletely explored. Tarkos IV is an Imperial Prison Planet.

There are three main dialects of Imperial Basic spoken in the Nolgor Subsector:
1) Nolgor Imperial Basic: - spoken along the Nolgor Run to Trailing of Gamelea Subsector.
2) Spinward Gazuli Basic: Dialect of Gazuli Basic as spoken along the Dokarian Main in Gazul Subsector, and on Meklin in Nolgor Subsector.
3) Thurgandarni Basic: Dialect of Imperial Basic common in the Thurgandarn Subsector, Coreward of Nolgor Subsector, and spoken on Solaris, Slepnir and Naos VI.

Other minor languages include Tsalui, the native language of the Tsalur Minor Race of Xcothal; Zyaos, the native language of the Zoni Minor Race of Lur; Algrath, the native language of the Shenni Minor Race of Shenn; Veultaqual, language of the regressed human Visi people of Fingalna.

Accidents in Astrography: Nolgor Subsector #1

From Gilanda and Canblyne in Gamelea Subsector, the Nolgor Run crosses Nolgor Subsector from Xcothal to Shenn and Lotarf, skirting the Rimward edge of the J-3, or Canblyne, Rift. Astrographically, Nolgor Subsector is fragmented and resource-poor. The Nolgor Run, which should have become a major trade route enhancing the economic development of the subsector, has instead become a dismal tour of a series of Non-Industrial and Agricultural worlds with moribund economies.

After serving as a forward base during the Rimward Wars of the late 7th Century, Nolgor Subsector stagnated as the colonies further rimward in the Imperial-controlled Coreward half of Gazul Subsector developed and prospered. Home to a native Minor Race, a transplanted Minor Race, a regressed human colony, and an Imperial Prison Planet, Nolgor Subsector has never lost that feeling of being a wild frontier. This is in spite of being surrounded by more economically successful, and politically stable, Imperial subsectors.

The crustacean-like Zoni Minor Race of Lur proved incredibly difficult for the Imperial authorities in Nolgor Subsector to deal with. Alternatively neutral and hostile, the Zoni consumed a disproportionate amount of subsector resources in containment and pacification efforts, none of which proved effective in the long run. Even Admiral Kranan hault-Lernester’s famous ‘Pounding of Lur’, during his ‘March to the Rimward Border’ campaign in the early part of the Sarkul Wars, only bought a century of respite from Zoni raids. And this was after hault-Lernester had systematically destroyed every single shipyard and ship repair facility in the Lur system, and then bombed every heavy industrial site on the planet. This on-going commitment to contain the Zoni became a serious drain on the economies of the Imperial planets of the subsector, hampering efforts to stimulate trade and technological development, while political mismanagement heightened resentment at the planetary level.

The saurianoid Tsalur of Xcothal acknowledge that they are not natives of the world they currently call their own, and that they have lost all records of where their homeworld might be. They appear to have been settled on Xcothal by the Thongaloras Empire over a thousand years ago and survived the fall of that empire as well as the subsequent turbulent centuries prior to the arrival of the Imperium in the RimWorlds in the early 6th Century. With a fierce warrior culture, the Tsalur respect strong leadership and will willingly follow even non-Tsalur if they demonstrate this quality. This has lead some xeno-anthropologists to theorise that the Tsalur were culturally manipulated to fill some form of slave-warrior niche within Thongaloras society, and that this imprinting still survives some 900 years after the imprinting society vanished from the Galactic stage.

Little is known of the Shenni of Shenn apart from the fact that they are humanoid and have a fighting caste that wears chitin-like armour and serve the Theocrats of Lotarf with fanatical loyalty. Within the last decade or so it has become apparent that the Shenni are actually a Zoni Hive that established itself on Shenn nearly a thousand years ago, and who were subverted by early members of the Order of Saint Belesarn of Lotarf some four hundred years later.

Fingalna is the homeworld of the Visi, a regressed Human colony. Sometimes known as the Aulteltec, the Visi seem to have appeared in the RimWorlds during the Late Thongaloras Empire, perhaps aboard Long Night period sublight ships. On the dozen or so planets where Aulteltec settlements have been identified, they are characterised by the existence of massive stone step pyramid structures in the centre of settlement areas. Fingalna is the only known planet where Aulteltec culture has survived as a living entity.

Political fragmentation during the 11th Century caused the Voivodate of Naos VI and its colony of Slepnir to refuse to acknowledge the subsector leadership of the House Ulanor Dukes of Nolgor. At a stroke, nine and a half billion sophonts and the subsector’s only industrial world were removed from the moribund economy, plunging the subsector into economic depression. When the Theocracy of Lotarf, with its daughter worlds of Shenn and Thrisk, followed suit, only 135 million sophonts on 13 worlds still remained Imperial citizens, under one and a half percent of the subsector’s population of 9.8 billion.

Accidents in Astrogation: Gamelea Subsector #3

Gamelea Subsector consists of 17 systems, 16 of which are part of the Duchy of Gamelea and under Imperial control. The 17th system, Kalar-Wi, while nominally under Imperial occupation, is in the process of being returned to local rule under the terms of the treaty that concluded the Kalar-Wi War of 1103 – 1105.

The subsector has a population of 142.7 billion (1.427 x 10^11) sophonts of which 99% are human, or of human descent. The three minor races native to the subsector; the Kalar-Wi, the Rimbaur of Rimbaud II, and the Julnari of Julnar, only number some 92.3 million, of which 91 million are Kalar-Wi.

The most densely populated world in the subsector is Bryak with a population of 99.9 billion. The next most populous world is Gamelea, the subsector capital, with a population of 29.3 billion. The highest tech systems are Gamelea and Julnar with a Tech Level of 15 (F). Syndon IV is a Red Zone and an Imperial reservation. Interdiction satellites, deployed to protect the Tech Level 2 native culture, orbit the planet. The Kerak system was abandoned in the 1080’s, and its main starport mothballed, when the marginal mineral deposits paid out. This retrenchment caused the fragile economy of neighbouring Tulvan to slide into a three-decade long recession.

There are two main language groups within the Gamelea Subsector, Vriok - the main Kalar-Wi language spoken on Kalar-Wi and the worlds of the old Kalar-Wi Empire, such as Varch, Anthorann and Rimbaud II – and Imperial Basic – the standard language form of the third Imperium. Imperial Basic is further divided into regional dialects that are drifting apart through the natural evolution of living languages.

There are three main dialects of Imperial Basic:
1) Gamelea Imperial Basic: - spoken in the Gamelea Cluster (Kalath, Feor, Vanvlack VII, Gamelea and Ventura), and on Varch, Anthorann, Rimbaud II and Bryak. Both Anthorann and Bryak have strong local accents and the Anthorannis have picked up a lot of Vriok loan words after some 70 years of Kalar-Wi rule.
2) Cassingal: - a dialect of Gazolin Imperial Basic, Cassingal has spread over the coreward border of the Gamelea Subsector and is spoken on all the worlds of the Julnar Reach. Gamelea Imperial Basic speakers and Cassingal speakers can understand each other, though quietly laugh at each other’s accents and spelling conventions.
3) Nolgor Imperial Basic: - spoken on Canblyne and Gilanda and indicative of these two worlds cultural links to the populations of the Nolgor Run to Trailing of Gamelea Subsector.

Other minor languages include Kalton, the native language of the Rimbaur Minor Race of Rimbaud II; Arkord, the native language of the primitive humanoid Arkordi of Syndon IV; and Oloro, the native language of the amphibian Julnari of Julnar.

Accidents in Astrography: Gamelea Subsector #2

Gamelea Subsector actually consists of several discrete regions; the Julnar Reach, the Gamelea Cluster, the Kalar-Wi Cluster and the Nolgor Run.

The Nolgor Run is a band of stars lining the edge of the J-3 Rift and stretching across Nolgor Subsector to include Gilanda and Canblyne at the Trailing edge of Gamelea Subsector. Canblyne has an A Class Starport, a Naval Base, and a Tech Level of 13. Canblyne’s small population has precluded it from becoming a fortress world, but its economy is still built around heavy engineering.

The Gamelea Cluster is separated from the Nolgor Run by the J-2 gap between Canblyne and Syndon IV, on the Trailing edge of the cluster. Syndon IV is a Red Zone and has been posted as such since the initial exploration of Gamelea Subsector in the early-to-mid Sixth Century. The Red Zone classification, and designation of the planet as an Imperial Reserve, was to protect the native humanoid inhabitants who have a late Iron Age culture. With sensitivities over access to the Syndon system already running high, most traffic between the Gamelea Cluster and the Nolgor Run is carried in J-3 capable vessels, staging out of either Ventura or Vanvlack VII. Vanvlack VII, a notable tax haven, is probably one of the most corrupt planets in the subsector and has little to recommend itself, apart from its almost non-existent regulatory system. Ventura’s Civil Service Bureaucracy on the other hand, is very efficient. With a B Class Starport, a Tech Level of 12 and an extensive naval base, Ventura suffered from several heavy assaults during the Kalar-Wi War of 1103 – 1105. Gamelea, subsector capital, is a rosette system with three world masses equipoised in the same orbit. The origin of this artefact is still unknown, even after nearly six centuries of study. With an A Class Starport, a Tech Level of 15 and the primary Naval Base of the subsector, Gamelea dominates the subsector economy. As seat of the subsector Duchy, Gamelea should also dominate politically, but under the weak and corrupt rule of House Juharl-Zarquestuir subsector government has become lethargic. Feor is a mineral-poor system and was not settled until 975, after the 2nd Outrim War. With an A Class Starport, a large population and a Naval Base, Feor has become one of the fortress worlds of the Gamelea Cluster in under 150 years. Technologically, Feor still lags behind most of the rest of the Cluster with a Tech Level of 9. The little ice world of Kalath has always been used as a refuelling point on the J-3 route to Leminkainen.

The Kalar-Wi Cluster extends across the borders of the Gamelea, Lymethius and Cabria Subsectors. Kalar-Wi, the capital of the Kalar-Wi Pocket Empire and homeworld of the Kalar-Wi Minor Race, lies within Gamelea Subsector and was occupied by Imperial forces after the Kalar-Wi War of 1103 – 1105.

The Julnar Reach is actually a broken Reach. Leminkainen and Julnar, a water world and homeworld of the amphibious Julnari, are separated from Kerak and Tulvan, within Gamelea Subsector; and Ouron, Finduil and Por’via in Lymethius Subsector by J-2 gaps. Kerak has been largely abandoned and Tulvan has suffered severe economic recession since the Odinite mines closed in the mid 1070s.