Bookworm
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OUT OF CHARACTER INFORMATION
Intent: To create a junk world such as Raxus Prime and Lotho Minor
Image Credit: https://www.shutterstock.com/video/search/asteroid-belt(actual image is https://cdn.shutterstock.com/shutterstock/videos/9224867/thumb/1.jpg?i10c=img.resize(height:160) )
Canon: N/A
Links: N/A
GENERAL INFORMATION
Planet Name: Lydrax
Demonym: Lydraxian
Region: Outer Rim
System Name: Lydrax System
System Features:
Contains one yellow sun, and a large asteroid belt that are the remains of two moons that suffered cataclysmic events in the distant past
Coordinates: Just northeast of Makeb (in same hex)
Major Imports:
+ Food stuffs
+ Water
+ Technology
Major Exports:
+ Recycled Metals
+ Mined Metals
+ Chemical compounds
GEOGRAPHIC INFORMATION
Gravity: Standard
Climate: Temperate, but poisonous (requires environment suits to walk on the surface)
Primary Terrain: Historically Lydrax once was a world of rocky plains, lakes, and rivers. In the present however, the landscape is made of a sprawling junkscape, with waterways and bodies of water being nothing better than toxic waste pools and streams of poisonous chemicals.
Major Locations:
Poliard – The only settlement on the planet, made of mostly ramshackle buildings cobbled together from larger pieces of junk, Poliard is little more than a post that those brave souls who brave the junkscape go to sell their salvage and materials to freighter pilots going to better worlds. Poliard contains a small spaceport that can accommodate three freighters at once and also contains the world’s only cantina. The spaceport is also where the town’s struggling atmospheric processor is located, creating the only breathable zone on the planet around the town.
POPULATION
Native Species: None
Immigrated Species: Humans, Rodians,
Population: Sparsely Populated – 35,000 beings total
Demographics: Humans – 67%, Rodians – 33%
Primary Languages: Galactic Standard Basic and Huttese
Culture: The daily life for the few beings on the world is one of desperate survival and foolhardy optimism that the next big haul of salvage will buy their ticket off the world and make their fortune. If someone is not braving a new claim they have staked, they will be in the climate sealed shacks they have made or credits one way or another at the sole cantina on the planet. Among each other, there is a cautious camaraderie when in town but those that live there try to not get too attached to anyone, given they could be dead the next day from an accident out in the salvage claims. Towards outsiders, the salvagers have mixed views as they rely on freighters to bring in supplies to them but they also envy the freedom they feel these freighter captains and crews have.
When it comes to activities outside of their work, the Lydraxians have little to do and they typically are too tired or busy to observe any major holidays. When they do have down time, they will waste their credits drinking or gambling among those frequenting the cantina, whether they by fellow workers or freighter crews.
GOVERNMENT & ECONOMY
Government: No organized government
Affiliation: No affiliation currently
Wealth: Low, due to the low amount of beings on the planet and the conditions they live in
Stability: Low, mainly because there is only one safe spot on the planet as the rest is a sprawling junkyard and toxic without an environment suit. However, the locals can and will be willing to cut a throat for a chance at a better salvage claim if they get half a chance.
Freedom & Oppression: Technically completely free as there is no organized government or controlling interest on the planet currently
MILITARY & TECHNOLOGY
Military: There is no organized military, with the only weapons or defense on the surface being those who live in Poliard carry around with them (mainly blaster pistols, knives, the occasional mining laser or power lifter)
Technology: Technically on par with the rest of the galaxy, but not a place where major advancements are likely to come as the planet currently is
HISTORICAL INFORMATION
Lydrax has always been a world of little renown, sitting in the far part of the Outer Rim near its much more interesting stellar neighbor, Makeb. The only significant note about the planet prior to the Hutts is a small astrological note about the planet’s moons being destroyed in some ancient cataclysm that left an orbiting field of asteroids around the world. However, just like when Makeb caught the attention of the Hutt Cartel during the Great Galactic War, so too did Lydrax. Unfortunately for Lydrax, it was not viewed as some new world to conquer.
Lydrax’s fate was to become a dumping ground for the Hutts and other galactic powers, through deals with the Hutts, to dump refuse of all kinds. Starting in 3638 BBY, the planet began to be subjected to the galaxy’s junk, much like Lotho Minor and Raxus Prime, with the Hutts turning a tidy profit from both extorting the other galactic powers to dump there and salvaging any usable metals or components from the refuse dropped there. Slowly but surely, the planet began to be poisoned by broken reactors, smog from smelters, broke ships and other pieces of technology and soon became a sprawling mess of junk and toxic waste. Eventually, the Hutts deemed the salvage operations as not worth their costs and shut down operations in that regard, but they continued to use the world as a dumping ground that any galactic power could use, all the way up through the time until the Gulag Plague struck. When it did, arriving on a freighter that was planning to dump more discharge stacks, the small population of the planet that worked for the Hutts was killed off.
During the entire 400 Years of Darkness, the planet was left to stew as nothing more than a testament to industrial waste and greed, the original ecosystem completely destroyed and requiring an environment suit to even attempt walking through the junkscape. As the planet had no population until recently, it was not subjected to any ill effects from the Netherworld event… although when the settlement of Poliard was established, it was found that beings from across the galaxy had been dumped on the world and subsequently died a horrible death from the toxic atmosphere and lack of food and water.
In 849 ABY, a small band of humans and Rodians decided to try and revive the salvage operations on the planet. They created a small settlement they called Poliard to act as a base for them, but with most of the group spending their savings to book passage to the world, build the shacks and buy the atmospheric processor, they were now effectively trapped in a dead-end existence working through and selling salvage to freighter captains moving through the system.
