The Beyond Subsector D: Marrakesh

The Beyond Subsector D: Marrakesh

System Data

Hex  Name                 UWP       Remarks                  {Ix}   (Ex)    [Cx]   N B  Z PBG W  A    Stellar                

---- -------------------- --------- ------------------------ ------ ------- ------ - -- - --- -- ---- ----------

2507 Cirat                B655695-A Ag Ga Ni Co Tu Sa        { 2 }  (955-1) [9899] - S  - 713 8  CsIm K1 V                   

2601 Midway               B511323-A Ic Lo                    { 1 }  (B21-2) [441B] - -  - 212 6  NaHu D                      

2602 Thrape               C201211-A Ic Lo Va                 { 0 }  (811-1) [2269] - -  - 402 11 NaHu M1 V                   

2604 Ghaehaah             C634556-9 Varg4 Ni Tz              { -1 } (A41+2) [8438] - -  - 631 10 NaHu M3 V                   

2608 Marrakesh            B8769D9-8 Hi In Da                 { 2 }  (B8E+1) [AB67] - -  A 412 9  NaHu K2 V K9 V              

2705 Agunvall             B665786-9 Varg2 Ag Ga Ri           { 3 }  (76F+5) [6A78] - -  - 812 10 NaHu K4 V K6 V              

2706 Thoznaen             A876874-C VargW Ht Pz Ph Pa Pi     { 2 }  (E75-3) [9A2H] - C  A 523 12 NaVa G0 V G0 V              

2709 Dedeged              B322544-9 Ni Po He Tz              { 0 }  (746-1) [5536] - S  - 422 7  CsIm M2 V                   

2802 Sannavall            CA88533-7 Ag Ni Pr                 { -1 } (841-2) [143B] - -  - 513 13 NaHu G8 V                   

2803 Mal'Gnar El          X485673-2 Ag Ni Lt Co Fo Ri (MalG) { -1 } (855+4) [5551] - -  R 813 7  NaHu K4 V                   

2903 Iniidez              A966747-A Ag Ri                    { 4 }  (96C+2) [8B3F] - N  - 803 8  CsIm K3 V M9 V              

2907 Thaezdhugh           E588512-3 Varg5 Ag Ni Lt Pr        { -2 } (C41-4) [2361] - -  - 520 12 NaVa K8 V                   

3001 Kazar                B565654-B Varg3 Ag Ni Ri Sa        { 3 }  (859-2) [5969] - S  - 812 8  CsIm M4 V                   

3003 Pritchard            DA866AB-3 Ag Lt Ni Ri Da           { -1 } (353+3) [3511] - -  A 522 8  NaHu G1 V                   

3004 Datir                C332553-9 Ni Po Co                 { -1 } (A41+1) [6456] - -  - 632 11 NaHu M0 V M2 V              

3007 Aueaiai              E894325-2 Lo Lt                    { -3 } (421-1) [1156] - -  - 523 9  NaAs K4 V                   

3101 Udsi                 CAD4447-A Ni Ho                    { 0 }  (B34+1) [1477] - S  - 511 13 CsIm K5 V K8 V M6 V         

3108 Kubalikki            C100401-A Ni Va Ho Sa              { 0 }  (935+1) [1479] - -  - 331 7  NaHu A8 IV                  

3201 Vrel                 C544555-9 Varg3 Ag Ni Sa           { 0 }  (841+1) [7517] - -  - 612 11 NaHu F8 V                   

3203 Padgo                B856643-8 Ag Ni Ga Ho Tr           { 0 }  (856+3) [9667] - -  - 510 7  CsIm K1 V                   

3206 Thozgul              C313361-A Varg8 Ic Lo Mr Da Sa Co  { 0 }  (721-3) [1389] - C  A 622 13 NaVa M1 V                   

The Marrakesh subsector consists of 21 systems with a total population of 4.696 billion sentients including over half a billion Vargr. The subsector is home to a small Aslan settlement and to the minor human Mal'Gnar race on Mal'Gnar El, which is also home to a Chirper population.

This region of The Beyond is closest to the Third Imperium, which rules most of the Five Sisters subsector of the Spinward Marches. No interstellar states exist in this region and Imperial Navy patrols often sweep the subsector on training or piracy suppression missions out of the small naval base at Iniidez. The Islamic Republic of Marrakesh gives the subsector its name and is its most populous world. Trade mission to this world are often plagued by piracy emanating from one of the only Vargr-dominated worlds in The Beyond, Thoznaen, which was settled in pre-Imperial times.

Traders and adventurers in Marrakesh are more successful when travelling in armed vessels or in convoys with paramilitary escorts. Some more adventurous Travellers cross the subsector to spinward to reach Die Weltbund or the Mapepire cluster, to spin-rimward toward the Corellan League, or even rimward toward the Florian League or I'Sred!Ni Protectorate, but in general the Marrakesh subsector is more a barrier than a conduit of trade.

Worlds

Aueaiai (3007 E894325-2)

A harsh world of dry winds and a biological taint that is hazardous to Humans and Vargr, but not Aslan, Aueaiai has little to offer settlers. A scarcity of metals makes this world, which is well within the jump shadow of its orange sun, uninteresting to commercial  interests as well, and those who see the system as a jump-2 gateway to Thozgul generally refuel at the outer gas giant and move on.

A small enclave of Aslan has lived on Aueaiai for more than a thousand years. While its origins are lost in myth, the local community espouses a radical Aslan belief in collective decision-making. All adult Aslan vote in an assembly that meets once per local year of 180 standard days. Emergency measures are decided by referenda with votes collected by runners from scattered villages who meet in a central shrine to tabulate and report the results. Technology is limited to wind and water mills and weaponry to spears and bows used mainly for hunting. While duels of honor persist, most disputes are handled by arbitration at the village level. The Aueaiai Aslan are not welcoming of outsiders. Attempts to trade or study the local society are met by spears and arrows.

The world is not officially considered an Amber Zone mainly because the Aslan settlements occupy a small corner of the supercontinent, and even landings nearby do no result in trouble unless the visitors attempt to contact the locals. All published knowledge of local traditions is based on a 300-year-old IISS covert survey of the society, and may be incorrect or out of date in some or many aspects.

Mal'Gnar El (2803 X485676-2)

The chilly world of Mal'Gnar El is home to two sentient species, neither native to the planet. Long ago, the Ancients transplanted Humans (the Mal'Gnar) and Chirpers to the world. Today, its rigid primitive society is interdicted by the IISS and its inhabitants are more known by myth than reality. In truth, only the Chirpers can fly.

Physical Characteristics

Mal'Gnar El is a small world orbiting its orange dwarf primary near the outer edge of the habitable zone. The dense atmosphere and high levels of volcanic activity provide enough greenhouse effect to keep the temperate zones above freezing most of the year. With gravity only 0.51 standard, steep mountain ranges with peaks rising nearly 20 kilometers surround the plate boundaries of the world's newly formed supercontinent. Evidence of atmospheric terraformation includes a nearly absent fossil record prior to 300,000 years ago and recent banded iron formations produced in a near oxygen-free atmosphere.

History

The Mal'Gnar minor Human race was transported from Terra 300,000 years ago. The origin of the Chirper population is obscure but thought to coincide with the transplantation event. Both species retained a hunter-gatherer lifestyle for hundreds of millennia, with Neolithic technology and agriculture appearing within the last 15,000 years.

Presently, the Mal'Gnar have advanced well into the iron age. Sophisticated metallurgical knowledge is evident and the Mal'Gnar have a good understanding of scientific principles and chemistry, but the caste-based society has been locked in a rigid pattern for at least 10,000 years.

Scouts from the Third Imperium first contacted the Mal'Gnar civilization in 187 and after a strong xenophobic response, conducted only covert and remote study of the culture. The IISS has maintained an interdiction patrol nearly continuously since 215, with current patrols based out of Kazar.

Social Characteristics

Mal'Gnar Humans comprise 80% of the estimated 7-10 million sophont population of Mal'Gnar. The race was modified by the Ancients from already cold-adapted Homo sapiens neanderthalensis stock into more gracile individuals better suited to the low gravity world. The Chirpers of Mal'Gnar El have a larger wingspan than many Chirper subspecies and a relatively high intellectual capacity, thought to be similar to the extinct Chirpers of Zhandt. The two species have long coexisted in a caste-based society in which the Chirpers have distinct roles as scouts for hunting parties and gatherers of fruits that grow on isolated ledges in steep mountain ranges. Some Mal'Gnar castes emulate the Chirper role by donning feathered and fabric-winged "flying suits", but those these outfits are only suitable for gliding and have a strictly ceremonial role in society.

Mal'Gnar society has a very rigid culture. Any behaviorally deviation from caste roles is punished by banishment at best, at worst death by exposure, chained to a mountainside through the long cold night. Despite the homogeneity of the culture, settlements are scattered widely across supercontinent. Village-sized communities dominate and no town exceeds one thousand residents. Settlements are supported more by hunting and gathering than agriculture, which is mainly limited to the tending of orchards and herding of domesticated fauna, many descended from transplanted Terran animals.

Marrakesh (2608 B8769D9-8)

The world of Marrakesh is generally habitable, though chains of volcanic mountains and dust storms from the deserts in the interior of the massive supercontinent can make breathing difficult at times. Settled as a Sufi Moslem sanctuary world in 540, the world's four billion inhabitants account for 80% of the subsector's population and more than 95% of its Humans, thus lending its name to the region.

Marrakeshi society is known for its colorful though conservative dress and many festivals. It expects all visitors to adhere to local customs. Usually, failure to comply results in expulsion of foreigners, but in more remote regions, Travellers have been known to languish in jails for years unless they repent and convert to the local religion. Still, trade with Marrakesh, for artistically crafted mid-tech goods and exotic local spices, accounts for most of the economic activity within the subsector.

Pritchard (3003 DA866AB-3)

Prtichard is a temperate world with a breathable atmosphere and compatible biosphere whose main handicap is a gravity of 1.34 standard. It is one of the longest settled Human worlds of The Beyond. According to legend, the founder of Pritchard was Pritchard I, Duke of Salif, who lost a power struggle against the Sindalian Emperor in -1520. Fleeing with a small retinue, the Duke settled on the world he named after himself with the intent to build an army of super soldiers raised on the high gravity world. Unfortunately, his starship's jump drive failed during the early decades of settlement and technology eventually collapsed to an agrarian level.

The current ruler, Emperor Pritchard XCIX, the 99th of the name and rather inbred, rules over a land of rugged hills and fertile river land from a stone castle atop a weathered crag. His pervasive Royal Guard is armored only in leathers, as metal is too heavy on this world. The Royal Guard controls the production of gunpowder and crushes any dissent against Prichard's arbitrary rule.

Thoznaen (2706 A876874-C)

Thoznaen is the center of Vargr society in The Beyond, with half a billion Vargr living in more than fifty nations, city-states, and habitats. While no current government openly supports corsair activity, the system has a somewhat deserved reputation as a corsair haven, with numerous corsair bands occupying the planetoid belts, gas giant moons and iceballs that surround the system's two widely spaced yellow stars.

Physical Characteristics

The planet Thoznaen was once a garden world, but two thousand years of development has left its atmosphere polluted with high levels of sulfur and nitrogen compounds, that, while not extremely hazardous to Vargr or Human health, do produce unpleasant irritation to the nose and throat and contribute to the ecological damage that has turned Thoznaen into a net importer of food. The world's two large continents have considerable amounts of desert and badland regions, especially in their interiors, limiting dense settlement to coastal areas that unfortunately suffer from increasing sea levels, erosion, and severe storms. The original biosphere of Thoznaen has become marginalized by invasive species from dozens of worlds and from ecological degradation of poorly regulated development.

History

The origin of the settlement of Thoznaen by Vargr is lost in contradictory myth, but likely occurred during the Long Night, as the evolution of Gvegh-descended languages points to settlement after -900. As is common with Vargr worlds, the planet has gone through many governments and names over its two thousand year history, once rising to control three neighboring worlds in a pocket empire, but lately collapsing into dozens of squabbling states. Imperial intervention against state-sponsored piracy crushed the nascent Thoznaen Empire in 735 and no government has managed to control more than a quarter of the population since the meson gun annihilation of the old capital at Kozrizgi.

Social Characteristics

Thoznaen remains severely balkanization, with no prevalent form of government or overriding allegiance. None of the six major nation states control more than a twelfth of the population. The Koezkfozgevu Empire is an Imperial client state; the Gzankfuezthun Republic is a Zhodani client state, and the others are either isolationist, expansionist or neutral. The small mountainous neutral nation of Uthevagogha is home to what most outsiders consider the official Class A downport, while the independent habitat of Kaelkoudha is considered the official Highport by the Traveller's Aid Society. Kaelkoudha has a reputation as a freewheeling gambling mecca, but it is also home to the best shipyards in the system. With two major conflicts and half a dozen minor wars in progress on the planet's surface and orbital space, the TAS rating of Thoznaen as an Amber Zone is well justified.

Thoznaen culture has diverged from Gvegh cultures typical of Gvurrdon or Usingou (Ziafrplians) Sectors. The three major languages and many dialects clearly owe their origin to Gvegh and hint at three separate major colonizing events between one and two thousand years ago. However, no defining linguistic or cultural characteristics apply to more than a fraction of the populace, and changing loyalties and increased contact with wider interstellar society has diluted many older practices.

Articles

Mal'Gnar

The Mal'Gnar are a minor Human race transplanted from Terra to Mal'Gnar El by the Ancients 300,000 years ago. They are the dominant race in the low tech caste-based society that encompasses both Mal'Gnar and Chirper sophonts on a small cold world beyond the borders of the Imperium.

Physical Characteristics

The Mal'Gnar were modified by the Ancients from already cold-adapted Homo sapiens neanderthalensis stock into more gracile individuals better suited to the low gravity world. Sexual dimorphism is minimal. An adult Mal'Gnar of either gender often reaches 2 meters in height, but rarely exceeds 90kg. A large broad nose and protruding jaw are distinguishing characteristics from their Neanderthal past, but unlike Neanderthals, the Mal'Gnar have longer limbs in proportion to their torso than the typical Solomani build. The orange sun exacerbated an already pale appearance, leading to almost albino features of pink skin and white hair, though eyes are nearly universally blue and true albinism is no more common than in Solomani populations.

Life Cycle

Caste limitations on marriage restrict relationships between male and female Mal'Gnar to arranged unions in which the partners must be at least approximately five standard years beyond puberty. Procreation outside of marriage can lead to strict punishments which often result in the death of the unauthorized offspring and their parents. Otherwise, the Mal'Gnar have a typical Human maturation cycle, with puberty reached after a dozen standard years and a lifespan of 70-80 years, though primitive conditions limit typical life expectancy to 40-50 years.

Evolutionary Development

After transplantation and initial alterations to adapt to a lower gravity world, the Ancients appear to have done little to further modify Mal'Gnar. Once abandoned after the fall of the Ancients, the Mal'Gnar's major natural evolutionary adaptation was the eventual loss of melanin-producing traits in response to the orange K4 V sun and a thick atmosphere that almost completely blocks even the reduced level of ultraviolet light from striking the surface.

History and Society

After a long period of hunter-gatherer existence, the Mal'Gnar reached Neolithic technology about 15,000 years before present. This revolution appears to coincide with the incorporation of Chirper bands into Mal'Gnar society and led to village life with agriculture and herding replacing a nomadic tribal culture.

Mal'Gnar society has been caste-based since pre-literate mythological times. By the invention of writing 12,000 years ago, the culture had developed well-defined caste roles and rigid cultural expectations. After two millennia of slow but steady technological advancement, Mal'Gnar civilization reached a plateau from which it has not changed in 10,000 years. The Mal'Gnar philosopher caste is essentially a priesthood, with "truths" having replaced the scientific methods and chemists have become like alchemists, maintaining secret formulas and elaborate rituals.

Interstellar Relations

The IISS maintains an active interdiction quarantine around Mal'Gnar El, both to protect the local culture and to protect visitors from the rigid xenophobia of the inhabitants. Surplus naval assets based out of Kazar, including thee light cruisers on rotating duty, direct any inbound traffic to one of the system's three gas giants for refueling.

A distorted legend of the Mal'Gnar as a race of flying winged humanoids persists within the Third Imperium. This belief can be traced back to a ninth century holvid series from Mora that depicted a fictional race of flying humans called the Mal'Gnar, based on "dramatic interpretations" of IISS reports.

IISS Marathon-class X-Courier

Within the borders of the Third Imperium, the Express Boat Service almost exclusively utilizes 100-ton X-boats to transfer messages.  This communication system relies on an extensive support network that includes large X-boat tenders and the assumption of secure star systems supported by the might of the Imperial Navy. Beyond the Imperium, this infrastructure becomes less reliable, and on those few routes that extend into or around foreign territories, the X-Courier is often the Express Boat Service's vehicle of choice. Based on a 200-ton streamlined hull, the Jump-4 Marathon-class Mark III X-Courier is a state-of-the-art communications starship capable of operation without any supporting infrastructure. Armed, armored, and capable of 4g acceleration the Marathon carries a crew of four in a streamlined vehicle that, except for a broad blocky central section, somewhat mimics the appearance of the smaller standard scout-courier.

In normal operation, the Marathon will make a single jump and pass on communications like a relay runner to another Marathon waiting in the next system, then refuel and prepare for the arrival of a new Marathon carrying messages in the opposite direction. The Marathon will then jump back to its original location, which may be a scout base or only a starport in a neutral or client state system. In some cases, on some sparsely covered routes, a single Marathon may complete several legs of the relay itself, conducting wilderness refueling along the way, until reaching its final destination or rendezvous point before returning to its base with new messages.