History of the RimWorlds #9 – A last look at the Klarthur Confederacy

This brief examination of the Klarthur Confederacy has answered some questions, but has raised more.

We know that the dominant race within the Confederacy is the H’ran – an aggressive bipedal reptilian species uplifted to sentience by the Thongaloros Empire and used by them as enforcers and shock troops. We know that the H’ran State managed to retain some of the Empire’s shipping during the Empire’s collapse, and that they used this shipping to dominate a small group of systems in the Aemilor Subsector. We know that, while militarily successful, the H’ran lacked the technological know-how to maintain their precious fleet so that within a couple of decades, their Pocket Empire was on the verge of collapse as their ships failed, one by one. We know that the H’ran encountered, and conquered the less aggressive, but more technologically-savvy Gherlach prior to this collapse, and that the Gherlach, while initially treated as servitor-technicians, actually took over the running of the H’ran State. And finally, we know that the Gherlach were still secretly in touch with, and ruled by, an isolated clan of Tsalur who had survived the collapse of the Thongaloros Empire.

The Tsalur clan The Talon of Dra’kken, working through their Gherlachi servants, initially encouraged the further expansion of the H’ran State. Then slowly, over a period of a century and a half, the Talon changed the H’ran’s relationship with neighbouring states from one of mutual hostility to one of mutual assistance. As alliances were strengthened, the Klarthur Confederacy came into being, named for the bright nebula that dominates Aemilor Subsector. The arrival of large numbers of human settlers in the RimWorlds, set in motion by Lord Kolin Venuraski’s Chartered Private Equity Company, quite probably disrupted long range plans for turning the Confederacy into a Second Thongoloros Empire.

This state of affairs would not have been apparent to the Imperial Interstellar Scout Service as it began exploration of the RimWorlds, nor would it have been apparent to Lord Kolin’s initial follow-on expeditions. First contact with the Klarthur Confederacy took place in the Choraptur system of Riinu Subsector in 526, 19 years after the First-In Scouts began moving into Kaorin and Berimar’s Sceptre Subsectors.

Discovering a large, organised stellar polity sprawled across four subsectors came as something of a shock to Viceroy Kolin Venuraski and Lord Saaroi hault-Creaso, his Vice-Regal Minister for Exploration. After initial skirmishes as scouts from both sides ran into each other, and each other’s installations, the vague outlines of a frontier zone began to emerge.

Fortunately for Viceroy Kolin’s future ambitions, Lord Saaroi was ably served by his chief Xenologists, Albathar Moranth and Htaukhealaiw Iyfa. Professor Moranth quickly realised that the H’ran State dominated the Confederacy Supreme Council, and that while the H’ran appeared to be in charge, it was actually their Gherlachi servants who made things happen. Professor Iyfa was then able to crack the social codes that enabled Lord Saaroi to deal directly with Humblest-of-the-Humblest-and-Guide-of-the-Masses Cliirumpurathaal, the Gherlachi Chief Servitor.

After several false starts, the Treaty of Choraptur, concluded in 530, defined the official border between the Imperial RimWorld Territories and the Klarthur Confederacy, splitting Riinu Subsector evenly between the two states and strictly limiting Imperial expansion into Daltharmai Subsector.

As tensions eased along the Spinward frontier, Viceroy Kolin turned his eyes Rimward and set his scouts in motion again.


History of the RimWorlds

103	Thongaloros Empire falls to the Outrim Barbarians.
114	The H’ran State in Aemilor Subsector declares its independence from the Thongaloros Empire and begins to expand.
139	The H’ran State in Aemilor Subsector, on the verge of collapse, conquerors the Gherlach. Gherlach technological skill saves the H’ran State.
290	The Klarthur Confederacy established. Initially based in Aemilor Subsector, the Confederacy expands into Riinu, Nantarn and Daltharmai Subsectors.
323	Ftaioiaftew/Gazul settled by Aslan of Huiha Weakhayuwikhye.
497	First Imperial presence in the RimWorlds in Kaorin and Berimar’s Sceptre subsectors.
525	Lord Kolin Venuraski is created Viceroy of the RimWorlds by Imperial Patent.
526	First Imperial contact with the Klarthur Confederacy in Riinu Subsector.
530	Treaty of Choraptur defines the border between the Klarthur Confederacy and the Imperial RimWorld Territories.
540	Sector Duchy of the RimWorlds established with its capital on Raelmar/Thurgandarn. Kolin I Venuraski is first Sector Duke.

History of the RimWorlds #3 – Vanished Empires

And then we come to this entry in the chronology:

103	Thongaloros Empire falls to the Outrim Barbarians.

A single line of text that manages to say both much and nothing at the same time. “Outrim Barbarians”, by the way, was an early term used by me to describe non-Imperial peoples living beyond the Imperial frontier. This term is similar to one that appears in early GDW Library Data and which is used to refer to Zhodani and Vargr in particular. As with the GDW term, “Outrim Barbarians” has fallen out of favour as I continued to develop the RimWorlds.

By the time I was constructing my website, I had expanded the one line reference above to a Library Data entry that read as follows:

Thongaloros Empire
Stellar Empire that extended through much of the Rimworlds sector and which collapsed in 103. The dominant sophonts of the Empire was a hexepedal reptilian race called the Tsalur. Small pockets of Tsalur survive on Xcothal/Nolgor and in the Hand of Ssra'ka Aissr in Cabria Subsector. Artifacts and ruins from the Empire still turn up from time to time.

This entry actually drew together two threads of RimWorlds development.

During the initial Traveller campaign I ran, which centred on my friend John’s ex-Scout character Ezra Weinbach, I introduced the Tsalur Minor Race. The Tsalur Warriors were a hexepedal reptilian people living in caverns beneath the surface of the nearly airless planet Xcothal in Nolgor Subsector, and were actually based on a 25mm Fantasy figure I had inherited.

At about the same time, the chronology entry concerning the fall of the Thongaloros Empire was made. Shortly after that, I began to wonder about this early Empire – who were the people (probably not human as 3rd Imperium humans only showed up in the RimWorlds some 400 years after the Empire had collapsed, and any earlier human populations were refugees or sublighters, and in fairly small numbers)? How big had this empire been? Why had it collapsed? What traces had it left? Was I entirely happy with the name of the Empire (the answer to this question is ‘No’, but it is a name that Imperial researches have tried to extract from the records of a dozen different Minor Races, as well as Empire inscriptions, with no apparent surviving pronunciation guides)?

The linking of the Tsalur to the Thongaloros Empire was a bit of an inspired joke on my part. What if researchers discovered records of a vanished stellar empire? And what if different researchers discover and study a fairly primitive and aggressive Minor Race? Would they necessarily link the two together, particularly if the Tsalur Minor Race is only extant on one planet within Imperial space, and the ruins of the vanished Empire are only found on a handful of worlds along the Imperial border?

I saw no need to DGP the situation to death. Not knowing all the answers is part of the fun of being a Referee. When you come to write a scenario, the process of mapping it out, and then running players through it, serves to answer the questions for you.

In Classic Traveller, the Ancients tend to get blamed for everything, from population movements to Rosette systems. In the RimWorlds, the Thongaloros Empire did do some impressive stuff, though only using Tech Level 13 or 14 technologies – they had a pretty forthright labour policy, for example, and were not shy about shifting fairly massive population numbers about as required for various projects. They also controlled all Jump Drive technology within the Sector for a period of at least 500 years – restricting subject races to non-Jump capable ships that were carried between systems on gigantic Carriers. This explains some of the unusual population distributions within the Sector, the fact that there are fairly substantial Minor Race populations mixed together on certain worlds, and the fact that some Minor Races no longer know for certain what or where their system of origin was.

As to the fall of the Empire, the basic explanation would appear to be that a thinly spread, technologically advanced master race-society crumpled and collapsed when fresh, Jump-capable migrants moved into the Sector and refused to accept the status quo. Aslan ihatei had settled Yuwe/Lymethius some two hundred years before the fall of the Empire, and Yuwe is deep within the Sector. If the ihatei had been rewarded with land for services, it may have been deemed advisible to move them as far away from the Coreward Whisp as possible to reduce the temptation for them to side with any newcomers, especially if the Tsalur had not realised that settled Aslan will drive off incoming ihatei as a matter of course.

So, the identity of the destroyers of the Empire is still unknown – it may have been an alliance of Minor Races rising up to pull down the oppressors, it might have been newcomers coming up the Whisp from the Spinward March, it might have been a combination of the two. Suffice to say, the Tsalur survive as savage primitives on Xcothal/Nolgor and as a fairly powerful Pocket Empire in the Hand of Ssra'ka Aissr in the Cabria and Entorth Subsectors. The Thongaloros Empire is no more, but occasionally tunnel systems are found on certain out of the way planets, and strange starships are discovered orbiting barren moons, and odd step-pyramids are located deep in the jungle. Teleportation devices have been found, and strange plasma weapons, as deadly now as they were a thousand years ago.

In short, a secret box of puzzles and plot-hooks.

History of the RimWorlds #2

The dating system used in my Traveller campaign is the same as that used in Classic Traveller – ie it has been some one thousand one hundred and nine years since Cleon I founded the Third Imperium. To put this into perspective, if today’s year, 2010, equals Third Imperial Year 1109, then Cleon I ascended the Iridium Throne in 901 AD. On Earth at the beginning of the Tenth Century AD, Harald Finehair ruled a united Scandinavia, the Kievian Rus dominated Russia, and historians traditionally viewed this period as the darkest part of the European Dark Ages.

The first entry in my History of the RimWorlds is intriguing:

-3410

Maasubi Religion founded by the Prophert Ragarn

The Maasubi Religion is the faith of the Most Excellent Order of Tijur, Talur and Belesarn – known as the Tijur Monks – of Lotarf/Nolgor. Of Ragarn’s story I know as little now as I did when I first pencilled the entry into my notebook sometime before December 1984.

Ragarn’s religious mission, if I have the date correct, takes place at the height of the 1st, or Vilani, Imperium, nearly one thousand years before the Solomani achived space flight. When I recently rechecked this date, my first reaction was that I had placed Ragarn’s story too early in the timeline. After playing around with several alternate interpretations of the date entry, I found that the decider here was whether Maasubi owed its origins to Vilani or Solomani mysticism. As I write this, I find myself beginning to come down on the side of the Vilani for several reasons:
· The word ‘Maasubi’ appears to me to have a certain Vilani flavour to it with the long first vowel;
· There are relics of Vilani culture and language scattered around the edges of Imperial space in the RimWorlds – such as the Rimward Coalition trade tongue Khishsuun, the Vilani/Solomani language Mersim spoken by the inhabitants of the Khedivate of Nutharal/Cabria, the Old Vilani dialect Siikharsim spoken in the Dathynan Concordance in Gazul Subsector, and the Vilani dialect Khasikha spoken in the Geithurian Republic;
· Plus given the brevity of the 2nd Imperium, the most likely pre-Third Imperium human migrants into the remote RimWorlds are Vilani, fleeing “something” –Vargr incursions or persecution by the Bureaux - by moving across Corridor Sector and into the Spinward March. Some of the Vilani exiles lingered in the March, while others pressed on, seeking to put more distance and time between them and whatever it was that had set them to flight. When the 3rd Imperium began moving into the March in the 4th Century, the Vilani exiles who had remained behind either submitted, or started running again, eventually passing up the Whisp towards Intergalactic space in the wake of the earlier migration.

This last point neatly explains the various Vilani dialects in various parts of the RimWorlds Sector, as they are indicative of several migrations of isolated populations over a period of perhaps one thousand years. This time frame is important as it neatly straddles the mysterious Thongaloros Empire.

In concept, Maasubi appears to be a meditative and martial monastic religion, something akin to Shoalin Buddhism. Additionally, Tijur Monks, particularly from Lotarf/Nolgor, are attributed Psionic powers. By 1109, Lotarf, Shenn and Thrisk are the sole remaining strongholds of Maasubi in the Rimward subsectors of the RimWorlds, though other monestary planets may exist in the Coreward subsectors, towards the Whisp route back to the Spinward March.

-609	Droyne colony ship reaches Yuar/Cabria.

Droyne turn up all over the place. I quite like Droyne, and really should re-read the material I have on them. Yuar/Cabria is an interesting system for them to be occupying as it controls the Jump-3 route across the middle reaches of the Uedhkinthuez nakhae – The Black Beast – a Rift running Rimward from Gyffd and Gaidon in the Cabria Subsector. The Yuar Droyne are only Tech Level 12, but have a population in the billions. It is assumed that they arrived in the RimWorlds prior to the rise of the Thongaloros Empire but what their relationship with the Empire was like is unknown.

-143	Aslan colonise Yuwe/Lymethius.

There are three known Aslan Clans in the RimWorlds; Huiha Esoyatre, Huiha Khysokhou and Huiha Weakhayuwikhye. Of the three, Huiha Weakhayuwikhye is the most isolated at the Rimward end of Gazul Subsector, and the last to settle in the RimWorlds Sector, arriving some four hundred years after the other two Huiha. Huiha Esoyatre and Huiha Khysokhou are both member-states of the Outrim Alliance and Huiha Esoyatre has been taking a greater leadership role within that alliance since the 4th Outrim War of 1080 – 85. It is possible that Huiha Khysokhou owes its origins to Huiha Esoyatre ihatei who struck out on their own to seize new lands.

Huiha Esoyatre and Huiha Khysokhou appear to have settled Yuwe/Lymethius during the Thongaloros Empire period of RimWorlds history. It is possible that the Huiha were welcomed as mercenary soldiers and given the land they craved in returned for serving the Empire as soldiers. When the Empire began to weaken, the Huiha expanded into whatever niche they could find, and fought to hold what they already had.

Given the date of settlement, it would appear that the ihatei that formed Huiha Esoyatre left Hierate space early on, crossing the Great Rift and the Trojan Reach before finding their way up the Whisp to the RimWorlds.

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.

Aliens Ate My Baby - Part 1: Gamelea Subsector

The Mos Eisley Cantina scene in the movie Star Wars (now called ‘A New Hope’ or some such nonsense) had a profound effect upon me when I first saw it in the mid-late 70s. This was science fiction! This was what a poly-species galaxy should look like. I was always vaguely disappointed by Asimov’s Foundation series for this reason – a humano-centric galaxy seemed to both grant too much importance to humaniti as a species, and to disregard the chance that life might evolve on other planets and in other forms.

I understand that, at some stage, during the evolution of Traveller, a rule of thumb was propagated that there should only be two to three intelligent species per Sector. Well, I must have missed that memo. And I have not really seen any concrete reasoning why this must be so, or why a rule of thumb has now become a Rule. I am quite happy, though, with the differentiation between Major Races (independently develop Jump Drive technology) and Minor Races (have not developed Jump Drive by the time they are contacted by a Major Race) – though the fact three septs of Humaniti (Zhodani, Vilani and Solomani) claim the role of Major Race does seem a little odd.

The RimWorlds, a wisp of stars extending hundreds of light years above the Galactic Plane, was dominated by a hexapedal reptilian species known as the Tsalur. The Thongaloros Empire, as their interstellar polity was known, finally collapsed in 103, nearly 400 years before the first Imperial presence in the RimWorlds. Interestingly, the fall of the Thongaloros Empire is attributed to attacks by ‘Outrim Barbarians’ – these are yet to be defined but it is noted that Aslan colonise Yuwe/Lymethius some 200 years prior to the collapse of the Empire – who obvious possess Jump technology, even if they did not develop it.

The Thongaloros Empire, dominated by the Tsalur, tended to scoop up Minor Race populations and move them wholesale across space to wherever they were required; as workers, slaves, or for other duties. Once established on their new home worlds, the transplanted populations tended to remain, even after the Empire collapsed, as the logistics for moving vast numbers of people over parsecs of space disappeared with the Empire. When the 3rd Imperium began to probe into the RimWorlds in the 490’s, they discovered a mosaic of Pocket Empires, single world polities and systems that had not seen a Jump-capable starship in two to three centuries.

In the Gamelea Subsector, three Minor Races were discovered by the Imperium; the amphibian Julnari of Julnar; the avianoid Rimbaur of Rimbaud II; and the humanoid Kalar-Wi of Kalar-Wi.

Not much is recorded of either the Julnari or the Rimbaur prior to the 11th or 12th Centuries. The Julnari, even with a population of only 900,000 on the water world of Julnar, managed to achieve Tech Level 15 – one of only two systems in the Gamelea Subsector to do so – by the late 1090’s. Homeworld of the computing and robotics megacorporation Julnar Cybernetics, the Julnari enjoy wealth and influence in the subsector far beyond what would be expected of such a small population.

The Rimbaud War of 1042 – 1044 between Kalar-Wi and the Rimbaur nearly resulted in the extermination of the latter Minor Race and extensive damage to the ecology of Rimbaud II. The Rimbaud War only ceased under direct threat of Imperial intervention. Kalar-Wi remained in possession of Rimbaud II for the next 70 years until the defeat of Kalar-Wi in the Kalar-Wi War of 1103 – 1105. The Rimbaur emerged from beneath the domination of Kalar-Wi with a deep-seated racial inferiority complex and an intense distrust of the Imperium.

The Kalar-Wi are a fascinating culture. Intensely militaristic, they blindly follow charismatic leaders. Their head of state has a title that translates as ‘Warlord’. Initial contact with the expanding Imperium was favourable as the Imperium demonstrated superior technology and a cavalier adventurer mentality. The Kalar-Wi were quite prepared to ally with the Imperium and protect the flanks of the nascent Gamelea subsector. Kalar-Wi came to dominate a small, but powerful, interstellar empire during the Outrim Wars of the 10th and 11th Centuries. The Rimbaud War of 1042 – 1044 marked the first time that Kalar-Wi had been checked by Imperial authority – the hopelessly corrupt Subsector Dukes of Gamelea had long since ceded two Imperial worlds to Kalar-Wi control – and this initiated the steadily downward spiral of relationship between the two powers that resulted in the Kalar-Wi War of 1103 – 1105.

As of 1109, the Imperial garrison of Kalar-Wi is in the process of withdrawing and the Kalar-Wi Warlord Vran’kal Youka is set to return from exile in Cabria Subsector.