Starsector > Lore, Fan Media & Fiction

The New Eclipse

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YeaokIlldoitlater:
Habitable, but devoid of native life. The surface of Raphan is made up of soil and water with little else to break up the monotony of the landscape. From orbit it could easily be mistaken for a barren world, the only visible tones being grey-brown and blue or the brown-grey and black of the single hive city sprawled across the largest continent, Volondhust. Despite the natural lack of colour, Raphan is flush with resources, further complimented by domain era equipment brought to its surface by its overlords. In the limited plantations under strict government control, life blooms. Much of the workforce on Raphan is dedicated to tending these factory-farms, producing obscene amounts of foodstock and debt trapping other colonies on the outer rim who struggle to get enough food anywhere else. It also forces the entire population of Raphan within the confines of the enormous hive city, as nothing grows on the rest of the surface and hunter killer drones burn the forbidden settlements of anyone who tries. Not that they would, the natural temperatures of Raphan on the surface are like an oven and exiles usually die from heat exhaustion before long. This is attributed to the twin suns, Utopia and Valefar and the harsh conditions the radiation of two suns create, although Utopia is indeed several degrees smaller than Valefar and acts more like a moon. Raphan is much further away from the stars than the Terran standard, allowing some comfortable normalcy in the seasonal change which is mostly created when Valefar completely blocks Utopia, dropping temperatures to nearly freezing. Comfortable normalcy, of course, is relative to the sector standard.

The city of Volondhust however, is subject to almost none of these natural conditions, as it is large enough have its own weather systems that it’s considered to be another habitat altogether. It is a dark and moody city, clouds of ash and smog blot out the oppressive sun and beat down upon the even more oppressed peoples. The city spires of the black citadel at its centre collect most of the natural rain, although without access to the processing equipment to remove the contamination from the atmosphere the people below quench no thirst from the radioactive water. Instead, cured water and food is given to those who slave in the numerous factory arcologies, producing riches of goods on a scale that could stretch as far as the eye can see. Naturally the city’s pollution stems from the inevitable waste these huge factories create with no heed to the environment, chemical runoff being a major concern as the Thanan war saw cascading spillage from some of the larger chemical baths. After the Thanan war and the resulting environmental disaster whose effects are mostly still being covered up, many factory lords are undergone inspections from the Adraxia citadel without warning. If the produce is found contaminated, the lord and workers are expelled or enslaved and the factory torn apart and rebuilt. If the sector at large finds out about the conditions of Volondhust nobody would buy their food or goods again, they are already on thin ice with the treatment of the populace.

Food production is largely genetically altered cellular material, made for quantity above all else. Domain era machinery has been purposed to that effect, none of the export grade food is made in a vat and as long as these ancient machines function it never will need to be. This however does mean the risk of contamination is ever-present in the factory farms, sometimes the food cultures mutate to be toxic, but also, sometimes it mutates to have hallucinogenic properties. Despite how harshly failure to decontaminate produce is treated, the risk is tolerated due to how successful it makes the produce on interstellar markets. Known as a process of being “sladed”, some lords weigh their odds of discovery in such a large city against how powerful sladed food growth will make them. Indeed, much of the chemical material produced on Volondhust are also ingredients in illicit substances sector-wide even if it’s not their primary purpose. This does not stop drug factories springing up all over the city, even as one is brutally crushed two more take their place. The working population that can afford it is hopelessly addicted and thus this cycle is likely never to stop in the near future. The chemical material itself is mostly used in medicine and heavy industries elsewhere in the sector, if it were not for the lack of options in this area, the oppression of Raphan or its rampant substance production would not be tolerated by the other powers at large.

Raphan’s military mostly consists of drones and the minor nobility in a sort of stylised knighthood, with conscription normally targeting those who fail to meet their targets on a regular enough basis. However it is the factory lords who nominate workers for conscription at the recommendation of the factory prefects. Obviously this power imbalance is unfairly used and often those who have slighted or fallen out of favour with the powers in their ecosystem are sent to war, this can be for reasons as little as being better looking or more intelligent. Raphan doctrine does not train conscripts, rather the knights who command them and thus most military operations result in utter bloodbaths. If the conscripts are not slaughtered, then they will slaughter their foes as the only way they know to make them submit. Those who survive their indentured service are known as Murdered Men (this includes women, it’s actually a gender neutral term), they normally stay on as special operations or defect to become mercenaries and pirates. Stories are told about Murdered Men as if they were servants of Moloch from Ludd’s own hell, their existence keeps children behaved and the people wary. For Murdered Men who return to Volondhust or indeed civilisation as we know it, return with their acquired propensity for bloodthirst, traumatised and ready to flip on whatever subliminal trigger tortured into them by their commander. Some eccentric lords like to employ successful Murdered Men as personal guard pets, brainwashing away their more savage impulses leaving behind their competence and history of service without question. 

Raphan also acts as the capital of what is colloquially known as the "Rad Rats" across the sector, it considers itself an empire and yet is seen as being little better than organised pirates by the free sector, more as an insult than truth of the matter. Although it is true that pirate gangs view them favourably as they ferry much of their goods that most traders would not, with many pirates ceding their colonies to them for stability and security in return for their relative autonomy and exploitation of resources the pirates themselves were plundering. The pirates still get to be pirates, but as they see it, they’re now part of a bigger gang. And as long as they pay their dues, Adraxia does not bother them much, knowing well that piracy was borne from mismanaged poverty and oppression. Other planets under Adraxian control have been conquered, devastated by the blood of Volondhust conscripts. Their industries seized and their people enslaved, oftentimes the underworld population will actually rise to the top in this bloody chaos and cut a deal with the Adraxia government. Ensuring cooperation of the surviving populace, criminals will claim the planet almost as their own, defacto leaders on behalf of Adraxia. Despite what seems to be an amicable relationship, Volondhust legions will be sent to ensure compliance at all times. This is preferable to the threat of Murdered Men, who if sent will probably cause another castigation like the example of the ruined Pelitritan.

Raphan represents a great fear of the sector, whereby if tyranny is not checked than the homes of the people living in the Persean sector could be overturned by a horrific entity hellbent on enslaving them as is the case in the south eastern outer rim. Nearly every large player is paranoid at the intentions of this mercurial and despicable entity, wondering if they too will see their colonies razed to the ground and the remains ransacked in exploitation. But war would be too costly, Volondhust is enormous, while people mostly can’t keep count of the population it is indeed considered a significant amount larger than Chicomoztoc. While Raphan would not win total war and indeed probably perish, it would certainly devastate much of the sector in the process. A tense cold war is settled on instead, convoys are raided by third parties, brave or suicidal agents attempt to subvert the economy and infrastructure on Volondhust, legislation is drawn up every week to find ways of imposing levies on Volondhust produce without explicitly targeting them and often Raphan traders and dignitaries are kidnapped by major factions and never seen again. Raphan responds well in kind, releasing chemical agents on strategically vital installations, accidentally introducing foul drugs in foodstock trade to unfriendly colonies and sponsoring pirates from within their realm of control to besiege large systems.

Raphan is indeed a miasma of darkness that has settled over the sector.

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