Mawite Legend
Ku'sharna Industrial Plantation
OUT OF CHARACTER INFORMATION
- Intent: To flesh out Brotherhood-occupied Lao-mon and Mawite logistics.
- Image Credit:
- Top Image: Sci-Fi Farm, by Denis Osmanbegovic on Artstation
- Landing Zone: Merchant One, on Fantasy Flight Games
- Zenobia Orchards: Botanical Labs, from The Outer Worlds Wiki
- Gennalin Bog: Sci-Fi Farm, by Denis Osmanbegovic on Artstation
- Hydroponics Labs: Botanical Lab, from The Outer Worlds Wiki
- Surabat Fields: Dystopian Robot Farm, by Natalis Lorenz, via Phys.org
- Barracks Buildings: Sci-Fi Barracks Bunker, on cults3d.com
- Canon: N/A
- Permissions: N/A
- Links: Lao-mon, Mawite Occupation, Goshen War Camp, Ku'sharnan Shamans, Zenobia Trees, Glowpods, Gennalin Fungi, Surabat Grain, Nysillin
SETTING INFORMATION
- Structure Name: Ku'sharna Industrial Plantation
- Classification: Farm
- Location: Lao-mon, Ku'sharna Province
- Affiliation: Brotherhood of the Maw
Accessibility: Located in the relatively rural Ku'sharna province, the industrial plantations are many hours by speeder from any of Lao-mon's cities, and quite distant from the capital and lone spaceport at Goshen. They are not particularly difficult to find, and are surrounded by open plains rather than jungle, so it is quite possible to drive right up to their outer fences. They are not intended to be accessed overland, however, and do not have any entry gates. Instead, they maintain large landing pads for the massive bulk freighters that ferry slaves and produce back and forth. These freighters can move up into orbit and then back down in a rapid arc, traveling from the plantations to Goshen is well under an hour. Other ships could easily do the same.
Description: An industrial plantation is a sprawling agricultural complex, a walled farm containing wide fields, tall orchards, and huge hydroponics labs. Each one is home to a large marauder garrison and about three times their number in slaves, whose entire lives are endless drudgery in the fields. There are worse fates for a Mawite slave - these ones at least get to see the sun and feel the wind on their faces - but the tropical climate and long hours still keep life expectancy fairly low, generally less than a year. For marauders, guarding a plantation is a punishment assignment, often for either insubordination or insufficient zeal in battle. They take out their frustrations on the slaves, casually doling out severe beatings while they wait for real action to come.
POINTS OF INTEREST
Landing Zone: The constant traffic of incoming slaves and outgoing produce requires a large landing zone, with multiple huge landing pads kept open for the Mawite bulk freighters that service the plantations. The landing pads are at the very center of each plantation, allowing crops from all the different cultivation areas to reach them efficiently and helping to keep them safe from external attack. Huge grain elevators are building into the struts of each pad, allowing pallet after pallet of agricultural goods to be loaded directly into the bulk freighters from below. The elevators are equipped with life form scanners to detect any would-be stowaways, and marauder guards - who cluster around the landing pads at all times - also visually check the cargo holds before takeoff to prevent escapes.
Zenobia Orchards: The Shi'ido have long cultivated Zenobia Trees for their beauty and fragrance. The Brotherhood has other reasons for growing them. Their leaves, berries, and flowers are edible, while their bark and sap has antibacterial qualities, all of which are valuable to the Mawites. The trees are cultivated with a surprising level of care, simply because their growth cycle is so long; chopping one down or letting it die would be killing the golden goose. The trees are kept in raised groves with well-drained, PH-controlled soil, their leaves exposed to full sun but their flowers protected by a wind-wall. Sap and bark are extracted slowly and sparingly, to avoid doing permanent harm to the tree, while edible parts are harvested seasonally. Orchard slaves who let a Zenobia Tree die are publicly burned alive.
Gennalin Bog: Gennalin fungus is a significant natural threat in tropical, marshy parts of Lao-mon. Though only a few parts of the mushroom-like plant are edible, they grow quickly, with a 5 - 7 day life cycle. This means that they can be harvested for consumption nearly constantly. In addition, Gennalin digestive enzymes are extremely powerful, on a par with industrial acid. Mawite overseers saw the weaponry potential in this, and developed ways to extract the enzymes. The bog, strewn with the plantation's organic garbage to feed the fungus, smells like hell itself. Slaves walk - carefully - along the rows, using heated grabber tools to rip mature plants out by the stem. Those who slip and step on one will almost certainly lose a foot to the acid. Now worthless, they are thrown into the bog as fungus food.
Hydroponics Labs: Two plantation crops are cultivated indoors. The first is a non-native: nysillin, the medical herb seized during the Brotherhood's raid on Felucia. Lao-mon's atmosphere isn't quite perfect for it, necessitating that it be grown in carefully climate-controlled greenhouses. Along with Zenobia sap, the nysillin is an important part of Mawite first aid. The other crop is grown beneath the greenhouses, in total darkness: spironos, better known as "glowpods". Slaves in gas masks and night-vision goggles move among these sinister plants for two purposes. The first is to extract the sweet pulp within one of the outer skin layers. The second is to deliberately trigger the release of defensive poison gas, sucked up by ventilation systems for use in Mawite gas grenades.
Surabat Fields: The other of the two non-native plants farmed in Ku'sharna is Batuuan Surabat grain. Among the spoils of the Brotherhood's early raid on Black Spire Outpost was a seed cache from local farms, and the Mawites were able to increase that stock through cloning. Huge fields of Surabat, their golden stalks waving in the humid breeze, take up a large part of each plantation's total area. Because the grain is so simple to harvest, unlike easily-bruised fruit, the Brotherhood relies on machines to gather it. Giant automated harvesters rumble through the fields when the plants are fully developed, threshing the grain and pressing it into dry, brittle nutrient cakes. These cakes are the basic staple of Mawite field rations, and taste decent when topped with fruit, veggetables, or meat.
Barracks Buildings: All of the marauders and slaves at the farm have to live somewhere, and they do so in squat, boxy buildings made of metal and duracrete. The marauders are relatively comfortably housed, with about fifty to each "longhouse" - and access to air conditioning, 'fresher facilities, and a cot for each of them. Slaves get the same buildings without any of the amenities, and with three times as many of them packed into the same amount of space. The stench coming out of the slave quarters is truly overpowering; every so often, the entire barracks is simply hosed down, as are the occupants. Little other care is given to them. Marauders eat local game, fruit, and vegetables to keep them healthy and strong. Slaves eat gruel mixed with low-quality grain alcohol, keeping them compliant.
SECURITY
Low. Although security is a concern given the potential for slave escapes or uprisings, the Brotherhood considers the situation in Ku'sharna province fairly stable, and does not waste extra resources on heavy security measures. Industrial plantations are surrounded by an electrified perimeter fence topped with monofilament wire, which is generally enough to discourage anyone from getting in or out. There are no guard towers along the fence, but marauders regularly patrol the inside perimeter, using tracking beasts to ensure that no slaves or intruders are lurking about. There are no gates in the fence, which makes entry or escape on foot exceedingly difficult; all traffic in and out of the plantation is accomplished by air, with bulk freighters dropping off slaves and picking up the harvest.
If an attack or slave revolt is spotted, guards rush to alarm posts located throughout the complex; a single push of a button allows them to alert the entire garrison with loud, wailing klaxons. The alarm also alerts other nearby farms, preparing them for a potential attack and - if their own situation is stable - allowing them to dispatch part of their own garrisons to assist the plantation that is under threat. Although the plantations lack the missile defenses used in higher-security Mawite facilities, they have E-WEB heavy repeater emplacements positioned at key chokepoints throughout the farm. In case of air attack they have no immediate counter, but are able to request assistance from the local Knyght monastery in orbit, rapidly bringing several Divine Eagle squadrons to their aid.
Guards are on constant patrol, keeping an eye on the shackled slave farmers to ensure that they are not hiding tools or sabotaging their restraints. Severe beatings are given out casually to any slave that might be doing either of these things; there are always more workers to replace the ones that die. All slaves are equipped with shock collars capable of stunning the wearer into unconsciousness. These devices automatically trigger if the internal sensors detect that the wearer has moved beyond the perimeter fence. As a result, escapes are few and far between, and usually require outside help. The bulk freighters are frequently checked for stowaways, as this has been the most common form of successful escape, with stunned slaves recovering by the time the freighter lands at Goshen.
HISTORICAL INFORMATION
An army, it is said, marches on its stomach. Organic warriors cannot remain at peak combat effectiveness if they are not regularly fed nutritious food. This was of immediate concern to the Brotherhood of the Maw when they began their dark crusade against the galaxy. While the Core Worlds had vast agricultural arcologies and well-developed trade networks to feed their citizens and soldiers alike, the Unknown Regions were isolated and far less developed... and the barbarian horde could hardly rely on doing steady business with the governments it had vowed to destroy. Instead, the Brotherhood did its utmost to develop the planets that came under its control, especially those with climates favorable for agriculture. The first such planet was Lao-mon, and it became the Mawite breadbasket.
Initially, food from Lao-mon came mostly in the form of meat from hunted jungle beasts, but this was too sporadic and inefficient to fuel an entire campaign. Mawite overseers soon came up with a different plan: to exploit the rich soil of the traditional agricultural province of Ku'sharna, where Shi'ido farmers had practiced their trade for millennia. Tens of thousands of slaves were brought in to build and work the huge industrial farms, which gradually took shape as the Brotherhood pushed toward Csilla. By the time of the Stygian Campaign, the plantations were well-established, growing a blend of local and imported crops. Along with meat, milk, and rice from Tiantang, and the products of the beast ranches elsewhere on Lao-mon, the produce grown here became staples of the Mawite diet.
Of course, food was not the only export from the plantations. The deadly properties of Glowpods and Gennalin fungi were soon discovered by Mawite overseers, and their poison gas and caustic acid were soon farmed just as eagerly as their edible parts. The Ku'sharna agricultural centers soon became responsible for a death toll beyond any other farm in the galaxy, showing that they could both nourish and destroy. The farms endured a number of raids by Shi'ido rebels hoping to free the slave workers and strike a blow against the Maw. However, these raids were far weaker and more sporadic than the ones launched in the major rebel province of Cythera, and the Brotherhood was generally unconcerned. Let a few slaves escape into the jungles; they would make good sport for tribal hunters.
Last edited:
