Arcturus Subsector redux

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TEWFIK During the Rule of Man, Terrans from the Levant and Western Europe came to settle on Tewfik and work in the mines and factories. The newcomers soon outnumbered the Vilani. The Vilani population has been pretty thoroughly assimilated through intermarriage over the centuries; golden eye color shows up among the more common hues. The Abba of Tewfik is the ecclesiarch of a multi-world church, a religion which comprises the demographic majority on Tewfik.
Tewfik Argot is a melange of Anglic, Old Terran Arabic, and Old Terran French, with Vilani loanwords. Tewfikites live in pressurized, heated habitats and acrologies. Filter/compressors made locally are lightweight, reliable, and sturdy. Conditions in the equatorial region are warm enough for inland seas and meltwater lakes, marshes, and moors painted with polychrome lichen, but beyond the tropics in either direction lie vast regions of tundra and glaciers.

SCANDIA Colonized by Terrans from the Nordic-Hadamist Bloc. A steady trickle of Scandians annually departs on pilgrimage to the holy cities on Terra. The Scandic language in essentially Germannic in structure and lexicon, with notable influences of Afro-Asiatic languages of Terra. Scandia is restive under Imperial military rule; a majority favor the Solomani Cause and a small minority of radical plot a jihad against the infidel Imperium. Blond hair and blue eyes are common Scandian traits. The military gov’t prohibits civilians from carrying weapons, but despite the strict regime some natives carry the kolzad, a type of concealable ceramic dagger that can be hidden from casual scans. The main industries are aquaculture, manufacture of gravitic vehicles, and starship construction.


---These are just preliminary notes I plan to write such notes for every world in the subsector.

 

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A wealthy Tewfikite female citizen in semiformal indoor dress of the Neo-Oriental mode

 

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JORJOR

B641888-7

Most of the world is covered by a globe-encircling chilly desert dotted with oases and small alkaline marshes, like the desolate floor of an ocean long since evaporated--which is just what most of the planetary surface is according to planetologists. Ultra-fine silicates fly in choking. stinging clouds on the endless winds. Nasty, venomous animals lurk in/near water sources. To deal with dust in the drinking supply, natives dig ghanats, underground canals. Water ration cards, goggles, and filter masks can be purchased at the starport. Police carry revolvers and cudgels, and wear cloth armor. Early planetary surveys indicated considerable mineral wealth, and attracted hopeful colonists, but the poor conditions on Jorjor have impeded development. Jorjorians like to have lots of kids as an insurance policy against the dangers of their inhospitable home.

 

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UWPs for reference
TEWFIK

A524945-D

SCANDIA

A658969-E

 

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THORWALD

A559869-D

(Amber Zone)

A small but dense terrestrial world mostly covered by ocean, wracked by frequent electrical storms and hurricanes. The main areas of 'dry' land are in islands in the north temperate zone where forests of the Leyden Tree dominate the landscape. Storms and magnetic fluctuations make conventional radio comms difficult. Foresters crew specialized logging grav-vehicles, which are grounded by trailing cables and fitted with multiple arms ending in diamond-teethed chainsaws or powerful gripping claws. The metal-rich wood of the Leyden commands a good price in off world markets after artisans work it into fine furniture, gun stocks, and other finished goods- collectors appreciate the wood’s deep mahogany hue, flecked with black and dark red metallic whorls in the grain. Bladesmiths across the sub-sector value the dense metal of the trees’ ‘lightning rod’ cores. Ten years ago, Solomani Cause terrorists assassinated many officials and threw the democratic regime into chaos, after which events, the Imperium installed an occupying force under a military governor.
Most citizens live comfortable lives in underwater habitats, underground, or in houses protected from storms by gigantic Leyden Trees, Beneath a calm facade, resentment smolders.

 

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ADDITIONAL NOTES ON JORJOR

Silicate Sickness, a disease which causes swollen eyes and shortness of breath, afflicts many of the poor citizens of Jorjor,
It's difficult to live on a world with a tainted atmosphere when the local industry and technology cannot reliably and cheaply build large sealed environmental habitats.

Throw a 7 or better to avoid an early onset case after 30 days on Jorjor. Filter mask manufactured at TL 7 or higher gives a -2 DM. Use of a medkit of TL 7 or higher gives -1 DM. The attentions of a medic or doctor with 2 or higher skill grant an additional -1 DM.

effects: -1 effective END and -1 DM to spot or hit targets past medium range band.

Silicate Sickness, if the patient isn't a chronic sufferer with more extensive damage to tissues and systems, is easily curable in a TL 10 hospital,

If left untreated for years, Silicate Sickness can lead to blindness and secondary respiratory diseases.

Wretched beggars wander the streets of Jorjor's urban centers, their bodies hunched with pain, wheezing and rattling along the dusty lanes, Some wear blindfolds. Most carry state-issued ceramic alms bowls with a stamp showing their licenses to beg.

With resources under pressure, the state can only offer designated paupers and licensed beggars potable water rations and biweekly meal tickets--lentils and onions or flat bread. Private charity must cover other needs, where it can.
Dead paupers are not an uncommon sight in the streets. The sanitation bureau workers remove them and, if no kin come forward to file a claim, take them to mass graves downwind of the nearest settlements.

 

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JORJOR IRREGULARS


Three hots and a cot is a very attractive prospect when you grew up poor in a big family and didn't eat every day. A good number of Jorjorians sign up as mercs, cut-rate and relatively low tech, but notable for not complaining about crappy conditions. Typical kit is jack armor, revolvers, rifles, and bayonets. All have filter masks, if needed on the ticket. The best-equipped men wear police issue cloth armor. Jorjorian merc outfits are usually irregular light infantry.

 

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Jorjor Irregular

source: public domain

 

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HARAPPA

D87516A-7

Harappa is a Terra-like world with unusually high levels of volcanic activity caused by anomalies in its structure and the gravitic tug of its primary, an old red star. The atmosphere carries dangerous levels of dust and toxic gases. Dark clouds frequently block sunlight, making much of the world gloomy and cold, but in several regions of the world geothermal heat sources create subtropical micro-climates. No large, dangerous animals live on land here; mostly just bugs and creeping little rodentoids that nest in warm, dark places. Even the turgid, ash-tainted shallow seas have few large predators.

Kurland has laid claim to Harappa, but few citizens wish to emigrate from the idyllic home-world and the colony hosts only a small team of field scientists and scholars.

The planet was previously inhabited by a Minor Race of Humanity, long since extinct. Scientists favor the hypothesis that volcanic eruptions and climate change, which evidently caused a mass extinction event, killed off the old Harappans. Cold conditions and layers of ash preserved significant ruins and troves of artifacts for tens of millennia.

Ancient Harappan artworks, the products of a sophisticated Bronze Age culture, sell for handsome prices to art collectors on Kurland and other worlds in the Solomani Rim. The colonial regime utterly forbids export of even pottery shards or arrowheads to anyplace but museums on Kurland. Naturally, smugglers and art thieves have gotten involved in the situation, and the understaffed compliance officer on Harappa has her hands full dealing with the situation. Travellers might find work smuggling artifacts or helping to catch smugglers.

 

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TEWFIK GRAV-MOBILE INFANTRY

laser carbine, sword, cloth/reflec combination armor, grav-belt


SCANDIAN URBAN INSURGENT

dagger, body pistol, no armor or jack (mimics synth-leather clothing of popular styles)

 

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TEWFIK SHURTA (police)

cudgel, snub revolver, mesh

These police carry lethal ammunition in biometric-key locked and armored pockets; they normally go on patrol with electro-shock and gas rounds loaded.
Confronted with well-armed criminals, the shurta call on combat robots and military squads seconded to the police force.
.

 

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THORWALD PEACEKEEPERS

club, mesh, sticky gun * (the sap of the Leyden Tree is used in the manufacture of the adhesive)

Imperial Army Military Police are commonplace encounters in sensitive areas on Thorwald--the starport and near important industrial sites, but there are nowhere near enough to patrol the larger world. Ordinary police work is thus carried out by locally recruited Peacekeepers.

The Imperial military governor only trusts a small number of natives with armament more lethal than what ordinary Peacekeepers carry.

If facing serious trouble, Peacekeepers can count on backup from the military occupation forces, though it may take some time to arrive in more remote areas or smaller towns.

* see Emperor's Arsenal (T4)

 

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MELCHIOR

A5569CC-D

Melchior’s authoritarian government maintains control through a computerized social credit system, mass surveillance, and pervasive propaganda. Travellers are assigned an official guide at the starport. The secret police cultivate a vast network of spies and informant and also deploy insect-sized snooper drones near any important governmental, industrial, or commercial sites. Dealing in foreign cash beyond the starport is a minor crime; travellers can exchange money for electronic credit on accounts keyed to their identifies. Most citizens support the regime, which has brought peace and economic development to Melchior after a chaotic period in the prior century, and will happily turn in troublemakers, especially foreign ones.

The world boasts excellent shipyards, focused more on building civilian commercial craft than the military starship emphasis on Scandia.


Melchiorites tend to be thick in the chest, though not heavily-built, a eugenic adaption to thin air. They are otherwise pretty typical Solomani stock.

MELCHIOR POLICE

Needler with tranq rounds, telescoping baton/club, seldom wear armor or uniforms


Even the civil police on Melchior keep a low profile, with their holo-badges hidden until they make an arrest. They all have ‘bone-phones implanted to keep in constant comms with HQ.

 

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REFEREE DESIGN NOTE

It turns out I do own the PDF of GURPS Traveller Rim of Fire. It doesn't have writeups for all the worlds of Arcturus Subsector. I may look at it more closely for ideas, but first I want to develop my own notes.

I don't have the Mongoose book.

I do, of course, own the classic Solomani Rim book--that's my starting point. Also, Adventure 13: Signal GK.

 

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JAEL

The world's surface is mostly covered by a cold ocean, with glaciers and tundra found on the single island continent and several archipelagoes. Air is thin but breathable.

A55789A-C

Travellers observing Jael from High Port or near approach before making planetfall will spot the silver domes of the arcologies that house huge numbers of people, and the refiners, mines, data centers, and shipyards that surround those city-habitants.

Jael is governed as multiparty liberal democracy. At least, such is the theory of government. In practice, the bureaux run everything of consequence, as they have done for centuries, and professional administrators who staff these manifold agencies don't worry overmuch about the opinions of politicians in the 'talking shop.' world council. 10% or elected public offices stand vacant and another 10% have been handed over to artificial intelligence (AI can generate politician-speak in large volumes, can consult a database to look up facts it may not understand, and isn't good for much else--making it a lot like the more energetic flesh-and-blood Jaelite elected 'lawmakers').

Jaelites tend to be above Solomani median height and light boned. Many men develop a paunch by twenty-four. Advanced medicine, prenatal to late life, prevents any serious health problems posed by the small planet's low gravity. Medical examination reveals a high red blood cell count, an adaptation to thin air. Jaelites can manage in the grav plated sections of the Imperial HQ and the Way Station, though few native bureaucrats relish going into 1 g areas, preferring to make screen calls. Citizens learn to navigate the bureaucracy, one way or another.

-1 STR

bonus background skill
throw 1D

1 ------------
2, 3= admin 0
4, 5= admin 1
6 = bribery 1

note: Travellers who seriously misbehave on Jael might be arrested and placed in low berths awaiting trial. That delay could run from weeks to years! Placing prisoners in cryogenic comas was the brainchild of a reformist bureaucrat a couple of centuries ago. The world's frigid climate makes running low berths cheap and easy. Frozen criminals who die will be recycled for tissues if nobody claims them, but the document-related delays most often run long enough for the friends of the deceased to claim his corpse.



JAELITE FIELD INSPECTORS

snub gun, utility knife (dagger), cloth armor (insulated versions used on outdoor missions)

 

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The Duke of Arcturus

The Imperium's top man in the subsector, Duke Cadwallon, hates the cold and is impatient with red tape, so Jael isn't exactly his notion of the best reward for long years of service, but he soldiers on stoutly. He often takes holidays in the tropical gardens of his pleasure dome, usually emerging with notions of reform.
His own bureaucrats see their master's fief as something to be defended against any encroachment by the 'provincials' and have aroused the sullen enmity of many in Jael's bureaucracy.


TYPO NOTE-- Yes, it's supposed to be 'refineries' in the post above.

 

[Murph]

Looks like you are putting a great deal of good work in this subsector. Kudos.

 

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Thanks.


MELCHIOR ANTI-PSIONICS POLICIES

Persistent rumors place a Psionics Institute on Melchior. There was such a foundation on the world in the 8th Century, but it was suppressed in 798.

Duke Cadwallon, on Jael, is reportedly not much concerned about these vague stories. It seems unlikely to the duke's intelligence advisers that such a forbidden organization could remain undiscovered under Melchior's thoroughgoing surveillance state and a team of investigators turned up nothing in a six-month mission.

The gov't of Melchior, while it has never admitted any such 'secret foundation' exists, is paranoid about psionics. Anyone convicted of employing or training in psionics abilities, or even of possessing psi-drugs with intent to use or traffic, is subject to forced experimental brain surgery. Even after being 'cured' of their 'dangerous mental illness', subjects will be watched with extra care by security services. Implanted tracking devices make that job easier.

Anti-Psi propaganda is subtle but pervasive in Melchior's media, both state-run and 'free and independent' outlets, with consistent massaging that associates psionics with dangerous insanity, fraud, drug trafficking, addiction, and general antisocial tendencies. The real powers of psionics are not played up, and many Melchiorans seem to think that reports from the far-off Spinward Marches about the Zhodani must be tall tales from the Imperium's coreward frontier. Yes, they'll tell you, there are Humans out there who live as slaves under a horrible totalitarian state that controls the minds of its people using propaganda, indoctrination of young children, probably drugs in the water supply and various psychotronic devices, but teleporting space marines sounds pretty dubious!


effects of surgery: may include loss of psi ability, reduction in INT, painful headaches, paranoia, insomnia

 

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CRIME ON MELCHIOR


Melchior's crime rates are, unsurprisingly, quite low. Cameras and snoop-mics are everywhere in the cities and towns. Any stranger might be a policeman out of uniform or a spy and informant. Professional criminals seldom trust anyone they do not know very well indeed, and the ones who survive long plan their crimes and their escape routes with equal care.
In rural districts the surveillance isn't as heavy as in most urban areas, and criminals have some breathing room.


The guides assigned to travellers at the starport don't only spy on their charges but work to keep them out of legal trouble, explaining which actions might result in detention or fines.

 

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HERAKLION

D543312-7

This is a smallish terrene world with a think atmosphere tainted by osmium dust and toxic gasses.

The world's mines were once worked by forced labor: exiles and prisoners of the Solomani Confederation, and the descendants of those early, involuntary colonists still live and work on Heraklion today, now as contractors for Lamarck Minerals. Lifespans among the 'Skinnies' as Lamarckers have nicknamed them*, run shorter than typical for Humanity. Women not infrequently die in childbirth, and most men are worn out by fifty. Metal poisoning and inbreeding has contributed to a heightened degree of mental instability and respiratory ailments among the population.

An atmosphere of restrained violence prevails in the dusty, polluted mining camps. Heraklionite women all carry daggers for protection of their lives and honor. To go dagger-less in mixed company is immodest. Men prefer proving their manly valor bare-handed, though they readily use clubs or guns if a fight turns deadly.

Children are raised in subterranean creches with the best air filtration systems the community can manage.


The Heraklionites do not constitute a Minor Race, being Humans of mixed stock. They tend to be thin and unhealthy-looking with sallow complexions, although the young women can be quite striking, in an ethereal way. Men go bald early.
-1 STR
optional bonus skills:
Dagger 1 for women
Brawling 1 for men

Heraklionites gain a -2 DM to enlist in Other.


* It's not a great idea to call a Heraklionite this to his or her face.

Life on Heraklion has never been good, but Lamarck Minerals has improved living conditions and the health situation since taking over effective control of the world following the anarchic interregnum caused by the withdrawal of Solomani Confederation forces.

Lamarckians on Heraklion work as managers, medics, technicians, and security guards. An uneasy relationship exists between these off-worlders and the native miners: resentment over low wages but grudging gratitude for improvements in healthcare on the one hand, and a cultural bias against the violent and crude natives on the other.

sources: Traveller Wikia and Adventure 11: Murder on Arcturus Station
(The daggers custom is taken from the module)