The Beyond Subsector H: Florian

The Beyond Subsector H: Florian

System Data

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

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

2511 Lod                  A7668C9-B Ga Ri Pz Ph Pa           { 4 }  (87C+1) [8C6B] - KM A 621 11 MoLo G1 V M2 V              

2512 Aakumaska            D322420-8 Ni Po He Sa              { -3 } (A31+3) [3128] - -  - 432 15 NaHu M2 V                   

2513 Asrogoth             E521000-0 Ba Po He                 { -3 } (500+1) [0000] - -  - 010 4  NaXX F2 V D                 

2514 Web Edge             B211210-C Lo Ic Co Ht Sa           { 1 }  (C11-3) [131E] - -  - 212 9  NaHu M4 V M4 V              

2516 Bingo                E610000-0 Ba Tz                    { -3 } (700-3) [0000] - -  - 030 11 NaXX M5 V BD                

2518 Tellus               B322310-9 Lo Po He Ho              { 0 }  (921+1) [1398] - -  - 102 6  NaHu K8 V M8 V              

2611 Eerker               B424569-A Ni O:2511                { 0 }  (B42+1) [758A] - -  - 930 10 MoLo K9 V                   

2614 Extro                EAB1000-0 Ba Fl He Ho              { -3 } (600-2) [0000] - -  - 020 6  NaXX F0 V F4 V              

2717 Testrous             B533434-B Ni Po FlorW              { 1 }  (A34-1) [2539] - -  - 513 10 FlLe A1 III                 

2720 Aacheon              E410000-0 An Ba Sa                 { -3 } (A00-3) [0000] - -  - 021 6  NaXX K0 III                 

2811 Amsigiiga            B867668-8 Ag Ga Ni Ri O:2511       { 2 }  (754+2) [B888] - KM - 621 8  MoLo K6 V                   

2911 Hapapo               C322479-B Ni Po He Ho              { 0 }  (735+3) [1458] - -  - 330 9  NaHu G9 V                   

2913 Eptid                B675654-B Ag Ni FlorW Tz           { 2 }  (B56+1) [4839] - -  - 612 11 FlLe M2 V                   

2915 Sarlon               C532313-A Lo Po FlorW Tz           { 1 }  (821-3) [1427] - KV - 321 11 FlLe M0 V M9 V              

2920 Hruhyaou             A634587-D Ni Ht Sa                 { 1 }  (545+1) [469D] - -  - 412 9  AsT4 M8 V                   

3011 Radion               C432536-A Ni Po FlorW              { 0 }  (B44-1) [4549] - -  - 431 9  FlLe F5 V K8 V F2 V M1 V    

3015 Indarin              B521336-B He Lo Po FlorW Tz        { 1 }  (821+1) [244A] - -  - 512 9  FlLe M0 V M2 V              

3016 Micruss              A641538-C He Ni Po FlorW Ht Co     { 1 }  (B45+1) [565C] - -  - 331 12 FlLe G4 V M2 V              

3020 Healveakh            C321434-A Ni Po He                 { 0 }  (C34+3) [1489] - -  - 522 8  AsXX F8 V                   

3112 Mis Noam             A556737-B Ag FlorW Ht              { 3 }  (C6D+3) [7A5B] - -  - 612 15 FlLe G9 V M0 V M5 V         

3114 Peopus               A875946-D Hi In FlorW Ht           { 4 }  (F8G+3) [8D4C] - K  - 722 7  FlLe M1 V                   

3220 Shikhyuryatre        CC6A458-A Ni Wa Oc Tz              { 0 }  (734-3) [846C] - -  - 303 7  AsVc M4 V                   

The Florian subsector consists of 22 systems and a population of 7.674 billion of which seven billion reside on the Florian world of Peopus and 600 million on the Human world of Lod. Besides Peopus, seven additional Florian worlds in the subsector account for another 66 million people. Three Aslan worlds account for less than 50,000 sophonts.

The spinward frontier of the Florian League dominates the subsector named for this polity. The regions beyond Florian space consist of a lightly populated corridor to spinward abutting Sred!Ni space and providing trade routes to the Corellan League, Stormhaven Republic, and to the Imperial outpost of Delta Base at Delta Cephei to rimward. The rimward edge of the subsector marks the coreward advance of the Aslan Hierate, whose ihatei encroach into independent and lightly populated systems beyond its borders.

Worlds

Aacheon (2720 E410000-0)

This moon of the only surviving gas giant of an orange giant star bears the scars of recent bombardment. Recent in planetological terms is relative and the fresh craters date to 290,000 years ago, during the latter Ancients period. Visible on the surface is a small cluster of looted ruins scattered among the remains of a set of observatories. An underground complex of half-collapsed tunnels draws the occasional artifact seeker, but no finds have been reported. The gutted remains of a crashed Aslan Sakhai-class assault transport mark the failure of one expedition to find fortune on this desolate world.

Lod (2511 A7668C9-B)

This garden world is the capital of the Monarchy of Lod. Lod maintains a colony on Amsigiiga, the only other garden world in the subsector and is the occupier of the Eerker system that links the two.

Physical Characteristics

Lod orbits in the middle of the habitable zone of a G1 V star that has a distance red dwarf companion. The planet is listed as a garden world and lives up to its designation, with a diverse ecosystem of mixed native and invasive species that have reached equilibrium in the past few centuries. Two medium-sized moons orbit the world, and in combination with the red dwarf companion, they can light the night in a reddish twilight. Seasonal variations and severe weather are limited by a low eccentricity and axial tilt and the four major continents that break up the world ocean.

History

Lod was settled from the Imperium in 631 in the wake of the civil war by a consortium of noble families. Archeologists have uncovered evidence of an earlier settlement, perhaps originating from Sindalian space during the mid-fifteenth century pre-Imperial, but that colony apparently died out within a few generations and is not recorded in Corellan archives.

Lod is ruled by a Monarch elected by its major noble families. In 730 Lod turned down one invitation to join the Corellan League, citing concerns over its impending Federal Constitution, but it also turned down an offer in 843, long after the Federalist Movement had failed. In 844 a group of nobles colonized the nearby garden world of Amsigiiga, which remains a fief of the Monarch of Lod. The system of Eerker, which lies between the two, has been occupied by Lod since 850.

Social Characteristics

Lod society is a very elitist. Nobles rule with relative impunity, subject only to the arbitrary authority of the Monarch and Royal Ministries. The nobility consists of 16 Duchies, the Major Houses, and more than 100 Minor Houses of Counts, Marquises, and Barons, matching the Imperial model. When a Monarch dies or abdicates, the Major Houses elect a new Monarch from the candidates they put forth, with the stipulation that Monarchs cannot be from the same House as their two predecessors.

Nobles dominate the oversized, ostentatious, but only marginally capable Royal Lod Space Force. A small class of technocrats enjoys some privilege, but the masses, generally referred to as Proles, live like serfs. Colonists on Amsigiiga enjoy slightly greater privilege and exiling troublemakers to the world is a useful social safety valve.

Peopus (3114 A874936-D)

The industrial world of Peopus orbits beyond the outer edge of the habitable zone of its red dwarf sun. The Floriani settled the world as a mining colony shortly after the dawn of the Imperial era and dug deep tunnels to extract rare metals such as lanthanum and hafnium. Peopus has become one of the most productive industrial worlds in the Florian League. An effort to terraform the world resulted in temperatures that barely approached the melting point of water at the equator and a concentration of carbon dioxide that only modified Feskels are fit to breathe.

Shikhyuryatre (3220 CC6A458-A)

The super-earth world of Shikhyuryatre is covered in a world ocean. With gravity exceeding 1.6 standard and a constant cyclone surrounding the locked planet's bright pole, the world is a tourist destination for those Aslan eager to test themselves in fishing expeditions for the hundred-meter-long Iliisupashkashgek. It matters little that these whale-like swimmers are filter-feeders, since braving the sea in hunting catamarans is most of the challenge. Imperial Scout Service observers suspect that these giant creatures may be intelligent, but the publishing of a preliminary report alluding to this supposition caused the expulsion of all Humans from the world, though exceptions are made for those with a valid hunting permit.

Web Edge (2514 B211210-C)

The gas giant moon base operated by the Web Edge Consortium is the only trading post other than the Corellan League's Shalukin Consortium outpost that is authorized to trade with the I'Sred!Ni and within their territory. Established in 648, a small I'Sred!Ni Protectorate embassy within the complex authorizes trading visas and trades goods directly. The Consortium is comprised of corporations from the Imperium, Hierate and Monarchy of Lod. Recently, the shares of the Faer Godaedgivaezklae Corporation out of Thoznoen were confiscated after associated vessels were suspected of piracy. An appeal is pending, and the Consortium is concerned that an unfavorable ruling may result in more corsair activity. Aslan and Lod destroyer-class vessels remain in orbit to protect the base from possible retribution.

Articles

Monarchy of Lod

The Monarchy of Lod encompasses the systems of Lod, Amsigiiga, and Eerker. Founded by noble families fleeing the Imperium after its civil war, they established a feudal society and expanded to settle and conquer their neighboring worlds.

History

After the Third Imperium's civil war, some of those who had supported failed claimants or who had taken up arms against the regency of Arbellatra gathered their households and whatever retainers remained loyal and fled beyond the borders of the Imperium. One group, led by the former Countess Fornice, Leandra Miinilargi, settled the uninhabited garden world of Lod in 631.

Miinilargi proclaimed herself Monarch of Lod and set out to establish a feudal government, granting Ducal fiefs to her sixteen most prominent supporters. Widowed and sterile from radiation poisoning, Monarch Leandra decreed a constitution calling for the election of the next Monarch from the Ducal Families. Leandra's Constitution of 632 remains the basis of the current government.

Before her death in 643 Monarch Leandra granted another sixty lesser titles of nobility and established two orders of knighthoods: the Order of Lod for martial services, and the Order of Leandra for service to society. Upon her death, the Ducal peers elected Johan Thaw, First Duke Thaw, as the second Monarch.

The Monarchy was a founding member of the Web Edge Consortium that established a second trading embassy with the I'Sred!Ni Protectorate in 648. Lod established tentative contacts the Stormhaven Republic, and the Corellan League early in its history. Its location wedged between the I'Sred!Ni Protectorate and the Florian League was both an advantage and a detriment to trade, with links to Marrakesh and Die Weltbund impeded by a jump-3 gap and trade to Stormhaven hindered by the bureaucracy at Sastri. Despite the difficult trade route, Lod developed good relations with both Stormhaven and Corella.

The Monarchy built up a military force to combat piracy and ihatei incursions, and in 730 received an offer to join the Corellan League. Concerned that the impending Federal Constitution would dilute her authority, Monarch Anne I turned down the offer.

When the Corellan League offer was renewed in 843, Monarch Jeremy again refused, instead supporting the effort of several Ducal houses to settle the nearby garden world of Amsigiiga. Amsigiiga was colonized in 843 and Jeremy assigned the future Monarch Anne II, then the Eighth Duchess Vanbrettin, as Viceroy. In 850, the Royal Lod Space Force occupied the Eerker system, one parsec from Lod and two from Amsigiiga, ostensibly at the invitation of the government to suppress an insurrection but in reality, to secure a friendly port between Lod and its new colony. Eerker "requested" membership in the Monarchy of Lod in 851 and has been ruled by a Royal Governor ever since.

As a result of the occupation of Eerker, the Imperium shifted its x-boat link to Delta Cephei from Eerker to Aakumaska, but despite this initial tension, in 930, the Imperium offered client state status to the Monarchy, hinting at eventual membership and the elevation of the Monarch to Imperial Ducal status. The elderly Anne II refused to consider the proposal and the offer was not renewed when her successor Monarch Harrold ascended the throne in 932.

During the Third and Fourth Frontier Wars, the Monarchy maintained a policy of strict neutrality, denying access to both Imperial and Zhodani warships, but its location far from the fighting did not cause either side to press for an advantage and both major interstellar states maintain an embassy on Lod.

The current reigning Monarch is Anne III, elected by her peers in 1085 at age 52. Clearly a recipient of anagathic treatments, she remains youthful into her seventies, and she has stated her desire to outlive her namesake Anne II who lived to be 137.

Structure

The Monarchy is a feudal hierarchy with the sixteen Major, or Ducal, Houses directly serving the Monarch. The Monarch is elected for life from the candidates put forward by the Major Houses with the stipulation that the Houses of the previous two Monarchs cannot put forth a candidate for election. The candidate is usually the head of a Ducal House, but in some instances, like Monarch Anne III of House Thaw and niece of the current Duke Thaw, a better suited or more popular candidate is put forward, and in any case, the new Monarch abdicates any previous titles. The runner-up in the election normally becomes Viceroy of Amsigiiga but retains all titles, as the position is subject to the whims of the Monarch or to the results of a new election upon the end of a Monarch's reign. The current Viceroy is the Twelfth Duke Brookswood, Benjamin Answari-Brooks.

The Monarchy oversees a bureaucracy headed by the Chancellor, who serves as Chief Minister, and the Ministers at the head of bureaucratic departments. Ministerial positions are held by the nobility, though usually from the lower tiers of Counts, Marquises and Barons that make up the Minor Houses. For the past century, attaining a ministerial position has been the major reason for creation of a new Minor House, and these Houses, unlike the original sixty, do not owe fealty to the Ducal Houses, but directly to the reigning Monarch.

The fiefs ruled by Major or Minor Houses are subject to The Law of The Manor, which covers local law enforcement, licensing, and judicial matters for most issues. Serious crimes or crimes affecting the Monarchy or multiple jurisdictions are subject to the Royal Courts, answerable to the Minster of Justice and the Monarch.

While Amsigiiga's government is a miniature copy of Lod's, complete with fiefs spread among the settled regions, the harsh world of Eerker is different. With a population of nearly a million, the planet has been under military occupation for more than 150 years and more than two-thirds of the population is descended from pre-occupation natives. These natives have few rights and are treated as little more than slaves. The Royal Lod Army, a force composed of noble officers not influential or talented enough to serve in the Royal Lod Space Force and of conscripts who serve in lieu of prison time, is the occupying force, with a small Space Force presence to protect the Highport.

Military

The Royal Lod Space Force (RLSF) is the dominant military service of the Monarchy. A mixture of feudal levy and professional force, the Space Force's budget is half supplied by the Monarchy and its direct taxation, half by contributions in cash or in kind from the feudal houses. The bulk of the budget supports more than a hundred 5000-ton Dragon-class destroyers that serve as much as a Noble House's emblem of pride than as an organized military force. A few prestige ships, including the Monarch's new 100,000 ton flagship Divine Wind, and a few cruiser-class ships provided by Ducal Houses, mainly serve in orbit around Lod, making a few forays to Eerker and Amsigiiga to show the flag. System defense forces are underrepresented, with a focus on smaller system defense boats and heavy armaments aboard the two fortress-like naval stations at Lod and Amsigiiga. Formations are based on ad hoc task forces, which have not seen offensive duty outside two anti-pirate operations in the Marrakesh subsectors and occasional sweeps to rimward to deter ihatei incursions. A 1096 fleet exercise, complete with tankers, to deploy to Sant Rabloes ended in an embarrassing fiasco, resulting in replacement of the entire flag officer corps.

The Royal Lod Army (RLA) is a small force tasked with security operations. The RLA Monarch's Regiment is an elite highly trained unit that protects the Monarch and royal properties. The other ten regiments, including the Eerker Occupation Regiment, have been described as poorly led and trained, though they are well equipped to TL 11 light infantry standards.

Relations

The Monarchy has long maintained good relations with the Corellan League and the Stormhaven Republic. Relations with Stormhaven include a 99-year mutual defense treaty signed in 1033. Relations with the Imperium are cordial, but distant, with an Imperial ambassador on Lod and an occasional Lod embassy at Iderati, currently staffed by the Monarch's son, Lord Horatio Thaw, Count Usu. A Zhodani embassy is present on Lod, but the Monarchy has never sent an ambassador to the Consulate. The Monarchy has also signed mutual defense arrangements with Beriel and Sant Rabloes, but after the 1096 fleet exercise fiasco in which only half the RLSF arrived at Sant Rabloes prior to the conclusion of the operation, both worlds have indicated reluctance in renewing arrangements once they expire. The Monarch has dispatched new ambassadors to both worlds to shore up relations.

Lod has been a party to the Web Edge Consortium since its inception in 648, allowing trade with the I'Sred!Ni Protectorate through that system. The Monarch and all sixteen Ducal Houses own shares in Lod's corporate relationship with the Consortium. As part of its treaty obligations, the RLSF maintains a squadron of Dragon-class destroyers in orbit around Web Edge.

Dragon-class Destroyer

The Royal Lod Space Force Dragon is a somewhat ridiculous warship, in many ways more a status symbol than an optimized warfighter. At 5000 tons, it is one of the largest streamlined ships in production and certainly the largest equipped with aerofins. While a Dragon can touch down on any world's surface, few downports can accommodate ships its size and finding any large enough flat and supportive surface for landing can be a challenge. Dragons are occasionally forced to land on water to support their mass. Fortunately, their armor is so light that they float.

The Dragon has a blended wing body elongated enough to resemble, slightly, a dragon in flight. Maneuver drives are mounted to the rear of the tapered wings and the large particle and mass driver bays are located over/under on the "neck" and "head". In atmospheric flight, both bays are sealed, allowing the weapons to fire only when the destroyer slows below 300 kph. The plasma barbettes and beam lasers can provide firepower in atmospheric flight of any velocity. The ship's ammunition bunkers carry only enough mass driver slugs for a total of 16 attacks and only one full reload for the missile bays and sandcaster turrets. A mirrored reflec coating helps offset a relatively thinly armored hull, but does little to provide tactical advantage. The lack of repair drones and advanced automation requires a full crew for maintenance and damage control parties.

The interior of the Dragon is designed more like at yacht than a warship. Equipped with two luxury staterooms to support a flag officer and a captain, the segregated senior officer's section contains a biosphere lounge, medical bay (along with an extra doctor and space for an imported autodoc), library, and an armored vault to be used as the captain sees fit. The two bridges are detachable for extra survivability and the aft hangar bay is a large generic enclosure to support whatever small craft the captain chooses to employ.

Dragons are by far the most numerous starships in Royal Lod Space Force. Command of a Dragon is normally the prevue of the nobility, many of whom have purchased their commissions and who "sponsor" their ship through financial contribution or influence. As a result, most Dragons sport a heraldic badge below the royal crest. Many Dragons vary from the standard configuration, sometimes carrying upgraded weaponry and equipment provided by their captain, but more often modified for purposes of emphasizing the status or comfort of the commanding officer. While sufficient to defeat a pirate or ihatei threat, Dragons are unlikely to fare well against a professional military opponent.