Deneb Sector

[robject]

I want to start a discussion about Deneb sector. Who better to start with than Mike West, whose done boatloads of quality work on the Regency and its heirs (oh yeah, plus a little bit of stuff on the Darrians

While working on another project I have to admit that Deneb was a difficult subject. I was fortunate in that I had it pre-blown up. But, there are still several things, even in the CT era, that seem ripe for exploration.

First, have you actually looked at the world government of Deneb!? Or its star? Despite being the "sector capital", the world has a ridiculously repressive government and is very, very hard to get to because its star's 100D limit is so insane. That world alone should be a cauldron of political intrigue (if not an outright basket case). Its interaction with its neighbors, and the Imperium itself, is guaranteed to be nasty at best.

You have the entire Vargr frontier. You have a couple of worlds that have outright corsair bases in Deneb (something even the Spinward Marches does not have). If you like Vargr-related shenanigans, the coreward border of Deneb puts the comparatively tame Spinward Marches border to shame!

Of course, you have Vincennes. It is a TL 15/16 world that pretty much does its own thing. What does that mean? It is a technological powerhouse that has no equal in the entire Domain. Why is it not the capital? Did then get outmanuevered? Did they not want it? Just because Deneb is the sector capital doesn't mean it always has been. (And just because we know Mora better, doesn't mean that it is yet ascendant. Mora does not truly ascend until Norris moves there in MT/GT. Until then Mora is simply the nominal capital of the Spinward Marches, not the Domain of Deneb.)

And, my personal favorite, Askigaak. It is a dinky world with a very thin (tainted) atmosphere, TL C, E starport, with 90 billion inhabitants. WTF!? What is it doing? What is going on? How do they not kill each other? Why do they only (officially, anyway) have an E starport? Askigaak should drive enough trade to control the entire sector. Does it?

So, Deneb is not quite a placid as it would seem in the first glance.

Quite so. For reference, here's a tiny map of Deneb.

Of course, http://travellermap.com is the preferred browser...

0406 is Pretoria, subsector capital.
0316 is Magash, an Important world.
0629 is Askigaak. Note that it's not on the Xboat route...
1122 is Vincennes.
1925 is Deneb.


Implications:

• Check out Deneb, the world. I see four red-zoned worlds very close by. Something's up.
• The coreward subsectors of Deneb are a mess, and one might be able to pin the blame, indirectly, on the Imperium Herself, or at least her proxies. Politics for sure. Ever had to bargain with a lawless system?
• What is the deal with isolated, high tech worlds like Vincennes? The Imperium can't or won't assimilate them and their technology. Sounds like a huge SNAFU, wrapped in an enigma, shrouded by Red Tape.
• We don't know squat about Deneb's history, nor when Deneb became the capital of Deneb... funny that: if the capital were elsewhere, then what was the sector's name? Something Vilani, perhaps, but maybe not. Anyhow, that means Deneb (the world) was pretentious enough to rename an entire sector when the capital moved? Just makes them sound more evil than ever.
• Askigaak should drive enough trade to control the entire sector. With an E starport, it doesn't. Then what is going on? Soylent green? "Re-education" World for Deneb Dissidents? No, too pat. But I see what you mean, there are mysteries to probe here -- and they're all political, by the way.

 

[daryen]

I wouldn't read anything into the sector (or even the domain) being named "Deneb". The star Deneb is the biggest and brightest in the sector (and domain). (It is one of the brightest in all of charted space.) Consequently, it would be natural to name the sector after the brightest star, even if the main world is crap and irrelevant (which it obviously isn't).

As for Askigaak, I took the very benign reason that it was simply introverted. With a cool TL, and relatively self-sufficient archologies, life was easy enough that they just didn't aspire to anything. Until, of course, things started deteriorating and they became a waypoint for a world-crushing monster ...

In other words, they were a sleeping giant that finally woke up. However, having it wake up after 1200 sucks when you are adventuring in 1105. So, toss the benign story and substitute something more sinister.

 

[DonM]

Guys... since Arbellatra's coronation, Deneb Sector has been a dumping ground for nobles yanked from posts in the core or in other politically sensitive regions who could not be cleanly executed for their crimes.

Deneb Sector is also had it's fair share of rebellions against the Imperium directly. In addition, megacorporations dump their embarassing projects here (Jonkeer).

And there's the odd matter that if you look at travellermap.com, the Vargr border has a bunch of Va and Cs worlds on the Imperial side of the border -- I'm wondering if that border needs some adjusting or the codes need fixing (I lean towards adjusting the border).

 

[daryen]

And there's the odd matter that if you look at travellermap.com, the Vargr border has a bunch of Va and Cs worlds on the Imperial side of the border -- I'm wondering if that border needs some adjusting or the codes need fixing (I lean towards adjusting the border).

That is because the allegiance data is from MT and the borders are from CT (AotI). No fancy explanations are required. It really is that simple.

 

[DonM]

I hadn't caught that, because I regularly ignore the MT allegiance info. Nice...

 

[G. Kashkanun Anderson]

Implications:

• Check out Deneb, the world. I see four red-zoned worlds very close by. Something's up.

Well, one of 'em (Exile) is a prison camp. Another one (Thussor Ozoam) has a vaguely Droyne-sounding name.

As for the other two, maybe they're populated by extremely fundamentalist Church of the Stellar Divinity types -- people so psychotically devoted to Deneb that this is as close to the star as they can get without invoking "Helter-Skelter" fears among the rest of the godstar-fearing citizens of the sector.

Both worlds are exactly two parsecs away from Deneb; and at that distance, the star is going to look like a stabbing point of light about 2/3 as bright as a full moon. That's gonna be a pretty groovy sight to behold if you're a tripped out, star-worshipping, space hippie.

• We don't know squat about Deneb's history, nor when Deneb became the capital of Deneb... funny that: if the capital were elsewhere, then what was the sector's name? Something Vilani, perhaps, but maybe not. Anyhow, that means Deneb (the world) was pretentious enough to rename an entire sector when the capital moved? Just makes them sound more evil than ever.

Deneb is pretty bright, as seen from Vland (about as bright as Venus is in our sky, on average). According to most of the charts I've seen, nothing of the sector was ever (officially) part of the Ziru Sirka; but considering how important Deneb would be in the Vilani sky, I'm guessing that whatever they named the sector, our closest translation of it would be something associated with Deneb.

• Askigaak should drive enough trade to control the entire sector. With an E starport, it doesn't. Then what is going on? Soylent green? "Re-education" World for Deneb Dissidents? No, too pat. But I see what you mean, there are mysteries to probe here -- and they're all political, by the way.

Maybe they're all anti-Lucan dissidents. They're being flown there via jump-capable DC9's; and as soon as he's got enough of them gathered up, he's gonna dump 'em all into volcanoes and drop a load of hydrogen bombs on them.:devil:

 

[daryen]

Maybe they're all anti-Lucan dissidents. They're being flown there via jump-capable DC9's; and as soon as he's got enough of them gathered up, he's gonna dump 'em all into volcanoes and drop a load of hydrogen bombs on them.:devil:

Except that we aren't talking about MT. This is just CT.

Maybe they literally *do* have "something in the water". That could a really nasty twist for any interloping adventurer ...

(BTW, nice idea with the space hippies. I gotta remember that ...)

 

[Elv]

Haven't been around for a while, but saw this thread and thought you might be interested in my Deneb concordance page:

http://www.elvwood.org/Traveller/Sectors/Deneb.html

The new JTAS article on 0311 Fennec hasn't been added yet, but it's got everything else I know about.

HTH,

John

 

[robject]

Haven't been around for a while, but saw this thread and thought you might be interested in my Deneb concordance page:

http://www.elvwood.org/Traveller/Sectors/Deneb.html

The new JTAS article on 0311 Fennec hasn't been added yet, but it's got everything else I know about.

HTH,

John

Thanks, John! Alas, my subscription to SJTAS expired long ago...

 

[inexorabletash]

That is because the allegiance data is from MT and the borders are from CT (AotI). No fancy explanations are required. It really is that simple.

Yeah, I'm waiting for the T5 data before I regenerate the borders.

I have preliminary T5 data for most of the AotI quadrangle, but without the Domain of Deneb. (I have "pester Daryen for his DoD CT data" on my TODO list, but I've been working on other projects for the last several months.)

 

[robject]

Yeah, I'm waiting for the T5 data before I regenerate the borders.

I have preliminary T5 data for most of the AotI quadrangle, but without the Domain of Deneb. (I have "pester Daryen for his DoD CT data" on my TODO list, but I've been working on other projects for the last several months.)

I think Daryen's Deneb UWPs are good. So the only thing T5 would do is regenerate the trade codes.