Welcome to Sector Hades Zeta
Part 1 of 4, The Mante Wheel
That map shows the entire sector. Within each sector, we divvy them up into areas. Within each areas are systems. Within the systems are planets. Today we’ll look around the Mante Wheel and some planets player characters might call home or look to for job opportunities.
The Mante Wheel
The Wheel
Orithya [Mante System]
The Gasping World
Atmo: Invasive
Temp: Arctic
Biosphere: None
Population: 100K+
TL: 4
About: This is a fascist state in the Mante Sector, the hub of the wheel, home to the renowned Psi-Academy, the only legitimate training grounds for psychics in the sector and the recruiting grounds for the Oritheen Armed Forces, their army/police. Oxygen is regulated by the state, putting the life and death of the citizens in the government’s hands. The government is ruled by a cabal of arch-psychics, who are said to have unlocked powers from olden days before the Scream. The cabal claims they will turn power over to the Oritheen people once the threat from Heaven’s Chosen Navy, the stellar empire spreading from the Holy Cluster (see also, Holy Cluster, Guevara).
Job Opportunities:
- Bounty hunting
- Black Market Oxygen
Kaprianou [Lalita System]
Winter’s World, the Olde World
Atmo: Breathable
Temp: Cold
Biosphere: Miscible
Population: 100K+
TL: 1
About: Ruled by the Winter Duchy, this world strictly enforces a medieval level of tech with scholar-monks whose traditions reach back to the Perimeter Agencies that enforced Earth laws in the first days of colonization, a thousand of years ago. It can be difficult to get off-planet but it does happen (I’d think of modern day Amish leaving home for a while of wandering). Some Kaprianers never return from their wander.
Job Opportunities:
- Black Market Tech
- Tech 4 Warlord on a medieval world
- Escorting Perimeter Scholar-Monks offworld
Arecilaos [Abida System]
The Beautiful World, the Golden Brothers
Atmo: Breathable
Temp: Warm
Biosphere: Microbial
Population: 1M+
TL: 4
About: The domed cities of Arecilaos (Areci and New Laos) are architectural wonders known through the sector – each ruled by oligarchic republics. The comet clouds that stalk the sector make navigating dangerous, the only reason why it hasn’t established itself as a powerful trading hub.
Job Opportunities:
- Black marketeering
- Piracy
- Fixing busted ships damaged in the path of a comet pack
Circe [Lalita System]
The First Colony, the Ringed Cities
Atmo: Airless
Temp: Warm
Biosphere: Miscible
Population: 1B+
TL: 4+
About: Circe’s cities are along the ring of space elevators that reach into low orbit all around its equator. It is a pilgrimage site, where the first Earth Astrogators landed in the sector and its government still models itself on the colonial republic set up a thousand years ago.
Circe is also where the insect-like alien species, the Crint, first landed and where the Lalita War (or Bug War if you want to be crude) began and ended once the peace accords were reached.
The Crint’s colonies are deep within the anaerobic fungal jungles that humans do not find hospitable. Peace has reigned between humans and Crint for over 500 years.
Job Opportunities:
- Spying on Crint
- Black Marketeering
Melite [Olleta]
The Bank, the Exchange
Atmo: Breathable
Temp: Variable Cold
Biosphere: Miscible
Population: 10K+
TL: 4
About: Melite is home to the Exchange Consulate, that serves as the sector’s premiere banking and diplomatic cartel. When war threatens, it is the Melitian Consulars who come to smooth out the problem. Their ability to utilize economic warfare is a terrible threat (See also, Roa).
Melite is tiny planet covered in the small city of the same name. The directorship that rules the urban planet and selects Consulars sees humanity’s cycles of violence and war as being linked to its testosterone. Melite regulates its consulars’s and board members’ hormone levels accordingly for as long as they are enrolled in their public service.
Job Opportunities:
- Spaceship Repo
- Debt Collection
- Consul Escort
Jurre [Fatimah]
The Dig, the Tomb, the Puzzle-box, the Human Trap
Atmo: Breathable
Temp: Variable Cold
Biosphere: None
Population: 100K+
TL: 4
About: Jurre is governed by the Mante Wheel Alliance, a loose confederation of planetary governments within the sector who give money for the right to dig and study the xenological ruins on the planet’s frigid surface. The lifeless soil is shaped into cubes and pyramids of varying sizes and is constantly shifting, unearthing alien ruins and pieces of xeno-tech.
The population resides in orbital stations because the planet’s surface is too unstable, constantly shifting based on a pattern no one has figured out in a thousand years. There are always a few thousand treasure hunters and xeno-archeologists on the surface, trying to make a claim to a piece of xeno-tech or artifact before the surface shifts swallow their camp.
Job Opportunities:
- Xeno-Archeology Treasure Hunting
- Evac
- Scholars’ Escort
- Claim Jumping
Githyanki Diaspora 