Ypsis Rho is a sector recently rocked by a nuclear war having decimated Hrefna, in the Hypsila System, the planet best situated to study and harness the cyclopean energy contained in the sector’s only black hole, XW 397186. The sector’s planets are blessed with breathable air; the planetologists who helped settle these planets are revered as science-saints.
Planetary Guide
Hrefna
On its best days, Hrefna was a frozen rock given atmosphere breathable to humans by a rare mix of invasive fungi, slugs and genetically modified bees bred to spread fungal spores. Shredded by a civil war, Hrefna is suffering from the fallout of a nuclear missile barrage after diplomatic solutions fell apart. Hrefni refugees have emigrated to planets and orbital settlements all over the sector, running from the radiation and soldiers who were selling their services in the Hrefna Civil War.
Valgerg
Valgerg, the Archipelago Planet, is a tropical paradise with remnants of Olde Earth technology so advanced none know their original purpose. What were once universities and science enclaves have become cults of science-priests and artifact prophets known collectively as the Holy Orders of Olde Earth (see Sociological Faction Guide below).
Valgerg was barely settled world, commonly thought of as such because the salvage freelancers looking for pretech made it a violent place. The Holy Orders are trying to change that, regulating how pre-tech is sought out and making it illegal to smuggle pre-tech artifacts off-planet without expensive export visas.
Manthyi
The storm planet has cyclopean obelisks along the equator and on the poles that seem to channel the storms that make the planet challenging to get on and off of. The Holy Orders of Olde Earth are trying to form a foothold on this planet as the storms have caused electromagnetic pulses, wreaking havoc on Manthyi’s technology and economy.
Leaquidor
This planet is a kind of retreat, settled by a heretical sect of the Holy Orders who are seeking out a mass ascension, leaving this world by the hundreds of thousands to pursue an existence as beings of pure energy.
The asteroid field that surrounds the approach to Leaquidor are riddled with ancient mines from a war whose name and sides are no longer known. It is said the Leaquidor Ascension Heretics (see Sociological Factions below) activated the defenses so that they could achieve ascension without interruption or distraction from the rest of the sector’s petty concerns.
Tejanes
Just coming out of a decade long plague, Tejanes is in a state of despair looking at the state of the sector. The Tejanesiones Senate is engaged in intense debate about what they should be doing to solve the sector’s problems while corporations are profiting from the sector’s overall unrest, running refugee ships that sign the desperate passengers into unscrupulous indenture contracts and barely legal pre-tech salvage agreements.
Asirida
A planet known for its aggressive cybernetic culture, recent laws have made it illegal to land on the planet and recruit its enhanced soldiers to fight but that has barely slowed the flow of mercenaries to conflicts all over the sector.
Rocket ships that are crude by modern standards launch daily so that awaiting orbital recruitment platforms can sign Astridanni cyborgs into the eagerly awaiting mercenary companies.
Halld
After the nuclear war on Hrefna, Halld cloaked itself from easy detection, making finding the planet difficult if not impossible. The planet’s atmosphere has rendered the population immortal and rather than share this amazing bounty with the rest of the sector, the Halldoni people have elected to hide their resources and leave the rest of the Sector to fend for itself.
Halldoni Navy ships, named for Olde Earth deities, patrol the Ias System and send anyone looking for the planet back the way they have come with any information that could make future navigation easier erased from their databases.
Suranir Priddhi
Having lost their navy in a conflict against Halld, Suranir Priddhi is now struggling to retain its status as an elite diplomatic corp and banking cartell in the sector.
Sociological Faction Guide
The Holy Orders of Olde Earth
This is a council made of dozens of organizations that take their inspirations from what we can remember of Olde Earth. They have turned toward protecting the artifacts not only on Valgerg but all over the Sector, spreading not only spiritualism and community but science and learning wherever they can.
- Unlocks the Pre-tech Minefield of Leaquidor
- Finds an ancient terran battlecruiser sent to put the sector back in control of Olde Earth oligarchs
The Tejanesiones Senate
The Senators of Tejanes are engaged in a debate about what action this planet should take. With its small but capable modern navy and solid science infrastructure it is in a unique position to change the fate of the sector. Refugees have been welcome here, though senators are being bought by the TCEA and drawing the debate out in bad faith.
Tejanes Navy spaceships are named after what is remember on earth, from natural resources (The Grand Canyon, Mount Killimanjaro or The Amazon Forest) for humanitarian ships to human-made marvels (The Great Wall, Stonehenge or the Pyramids of Giza) for ships made for war. Senators who declare a naval maneuver will often be deployed with the ship as a counselor to see the work their legislation achieves first-hand.
- Navy is sent en masse to Hrefna to evacuate those suffering under nuclear blight
- TCEA is declared a war criminal.
Tejanes Corporate Entities Alliances
With shareholders from all over the sector, the Corporate Entities are a brutal alliance looking to take control of as much of the sector as they can via war profiteering and crisis investing. From investing in weapons and munitions to refugee transportation and indenture, no profit is too low for the T.C.E.A.
- T.C.E.A. gains a controlling share in the Airidanni Mercenary Compact and uses that leverage to take control of Tejanes via military corporate coup.
- T.C.E.A. captures science that can harness energy of XW 397186, putting the sector under its thumb.
Leaquidor Ascension Heresy
Spiritual philsopher scientists who have claimed an isolated planet that is surrounded by ancient pre-tech mines left from a forgotten war. When something happens in the sector that cannot be easily explained, conspiracy theorists are quick to blame it on Leaquidor Heretics. Few Leaquidorans leave their planet. Much of the time, these conspiracy theories are false.
- The heretics ascend, leaving this physical world for a dimension of pure energy and mathematics.
- The heretics declare a holy war on those seeking to interfere on their ascension.
Airidanni Mercenary Compact
Together the mercenary companies of the A.M.C. are a formidable force, each coming to the aid of even the smallest company signed into their mutual defense compact. None of the colorfully named companies (The Red Wolves, the Screaming Kaiju, the Psychic Tigers, the Terran Ancients and many more) have gained an upper-hand over the others, making the A.M.C. a conglomerate of diverse mercenary companies. From the bodyguards to cyborg infantry to the most complicated company of dropships mechanized tank battalions they are united. Even as they fight and kill each other to fulfill their contracts, they will set aside rivalries to defend the other.
- AMC ends the Hrefna Civil War by refusing to allow its soldiers to serve in the irradiated landscape.
- AMC takes contract to break the Halldoni Blockade.
Halldoni Immortals
Isolationists who refuse to share the vast resources of their idyllic planet. The navy that guards the planet in what they call the Halldoni Blockade has no mercy towards trespassers. Those who try to find their way to Halld are referred to as “weeds in the garden” and are attacked without mercy.
- Halldoni Terrorists strike against major powers seeking to sneak past their blockade.
- Halld shares medicine with faction to show their good will.
Suranir Priddhi Mercantile Sibhood
The Suranir Priddhi Mercantile Sibhood are bankers and diplomats whose banking exchange can trace its lineage back to Olde Earth but now struggles against its own dramatic decline. Once a Priddhi Agent could quell a war or depose a dictator within days of landing on a planet but now their era is coming to a close.
- The Suranir Priddhi Mercantile Sibhood finds reasonable rates and terms with Hrefna to offer them a sizeable loan to rebuild and de-radiate its planet.
- The Sibhood puts in an order to rebuild its navy to regain its status in the Sector.
What next?
If we’re doing traditional Stars Without Number the players can start as a small mercenary company in the A.M.C. or a proud group of Suranir Priddhi agents, maybe even a group of sci-fi Jesuits in the Grid System’s volatile asteroid/mine field trying to unlock its secrets.
If we’re rocking out with Star Gods, let’s have these immortals zip into the system in a capital ship worthy of their pantheon and they can look at the map and ask their AI questions until they decide which planet they want to jump onto first.
Art and Inspiration
Image by Reimund Bertrams from Pixabay
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