YT-2400 Alderaan Queen on approach to Knowhere, c. 858 ABY
- Intent: Create a location for new roleplay opportunities for the AoC.
- Image Credit: [ X ] [ X ] [ X ] [ X ] [ X ]. Agents of Chaos Factory/Codex headers by
Scherezade deWinter
- Canon: N/A
- Permissions: N/A
- Links: Ring of Kafrene
- Astronomical Location Name: Knowhere
- Classification: Asteroid
- Location: Planetary System AR-558, Unknown Regions (West of The Deep hex)
- Rotational Period: 9.4 standard hours
- Orbital Period: 4.6 standard years
- Size: Large
- Affiliation: Agents of Chaos
- Population: Moderate
- Demographics: Over 90% of the population is humanoid, fitting into the spectrum of either Human/Near-Human or Duros/Near-Duros. The remaining minority consist of sentient droids and non-humanoid races.
- Accessibility: AR-558 has not appeared on maps of mining operations since before the Gulag Plague. Wiped from the galactic consciousness by the span of the Four Hundred Years Darkness, Knowhere is a shadowport whose location is kept in criminal circles. Thus, while publicly accessible to any who know to look for it, the coordinates are rarely traded outside of smugglers, spice runners, and black marketers. Whether the arrival of the Agents of Chaos to the sector will change that remains to be seen.
- Description: Knowhere, officially 25-AR-558, is the 25th largest astronomical object in the planetary star system designated as AR-558. Located toward the inner solar system, Knowhere is the largest of the Canaanites; the interior asteroids that share an orbital plane with the gas giant that has been dubbed Canaan. Containing rich deposits of trenomite, veins of agrocite, and trace elements of kif, AR-558 has been mined since before the Swarm War. While the Gulag Plague and Four Hundred Years Darkness shuttered the mining operation, today the asteroid operates as a shadowport on the galaxy's edge.
- Blue Heaven. A shadowport built from the bones of the original mining operation, Blue Heaven is a literal hell in every sense of the word. Few places outside of Mos Eisley on Tatooine can compete with it. It's a dangerous place, full of people with nothing to lose and little to gain. Just inside the primary airlocks and adjacent to the docking bays, this is often the first part of Knowhere that anyone sees, and few venture beyond it. It features everything you would expect in the Outer Rim; a cantina, a black market, and no questions asked.
- The Old Mining Tunnels run all through the asteroid. Some are mapped, others are completely off the grid. Some of the older shafts have already collapsed, with tremors in the asteroid threatening to claim a few more. There are no sensors down here, and the residual ore in the rock makes it difficult for handheld scanners to penetrate the rock. As a result, people use these to move when they don't want their comings or going to be noticed. But be warned, get lost down here and you may have reason to be afraid of the dark.
- Mag-Lev Tram Stations replaced the Old Mining Tunnels when the mining operation began to introduce automation. These are the public corridors, the main roads, and the safest means of transport through Knowhere, if there can be said to be such a thing. Primarily, they connect to the docking bays, Blue Heaven, and a few of the major mining nodes. The central of which, today, is known as the City of Ba'al.
- The City of Ba'al. The self-proclaimed capital of Knowhere, Ba'al is an underground metropolis built into a hollow that was bored out inside of the asteroid during the second phase of mining operations. You can find a little bit of everything thing, from hydroponic farmers generating locally sourced produce to smugglers promising dreams of escaping the Rim. Primarily run by the Canaan Syndicate, which provides the only form of frontier justice maintaining peace on the asteroid through its control of organized crime. Criminals on Knowhere either fall in line or are shown the airlock... without a pressure suit.
The astronomers of the Chiss identified AR-558 during the early years of the Old Republic, with the first Chiss scientific probes arriving in the system around the time of the Pius Dea crusades. Contact with the wider galaxy was not achieved until the time of the Clone Wars, when a mining consortium tracked the origins of a trenomite comet as having originated from a star system near the galaxy's edge. Being more stable than damotite, industries all throughout the period were converting to trenomite, driving demand through the roof. Initial plans to establish the mining colony were hindered by the outbreak of the Galactic Civil War, though the venture ultimately proved successful. Phase I of the mining operation was completed around the time of the Swarm War, making the mining station operational in 36 ABY.
By 140 ABY, the mining operation had expanded through the surface and into subterranean shafts that emphasized coring out hollows inside the asteroid. This was the start of Phase II and would continue until 425 ABY, with the arrival of the Gulag Plague. The mining operation officially shut down on 12 Elona, 426 ABY. Surviving records indicate that the asteroid became a ghost town shortly after, with only a few survivors of the plague and no means of resupplying the station. A few left the station to take their chances in space, while others appear to have survived the plague only to die of starvation on the station.
AR-558 was re-discovered by accident in 837 ABY, when members of the Canaan Crime Syndicate were fleeing pursuit by the Lords of the Fringe. A navigational beacon revealed the location of a docking part, though located inside of an asteroid field. The resulting discovery of the abandoned mining colony led to the founding of the modern day Knowhere.
Primarily the hub from which the Canaan Crime Syndicate operates in the shadows, Knowhere has grown to boast two distinct locales within its cored out husk; the free port known as Blue Heaven and the deeply buried City of Ba'al.
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