Matsu Xiangu
The Haruspex
OUT OF CHARACTER INFORMATION
INTENT | To update a previous Codex entry for Maena as the original is severely outdated after RP development, and to bring it in line with the current planet template.
IMAGE CREDIT | Found throughout sub, or watermarks left on images. | Culture Image Credit | HEADER | HEADER
CANON | No
LINKS | Original Submission | Links for dev provided as needed, copious.
GENERAL INFORMATION
PLANET NAME | Maena
DEMONYM | Maenan
REGION | Unknown Regions
SYSTEM NAME | Tetra System
SYSTEM FEATURES |
- Sun: 1 K-Type Main Sequence Star - Prymis
- Sister Planets: Trismegis, Clor
- Moon: Hermes
- Rotational Period: 32 Standard Hours
-Orbital Period: 320 Standard Days
COORDINATES | 10, Q
MAJOR IMPORTS | Food stuffs to supplement poor growing conditions.
MAJOR EXPORTS |
- Nova crystals
- agrocite
- raw metals & ores (none restricted)
- alchemical materials
- clothing
GEOGRAPHIC INFORMATION
GRAVITY | Standard
CLIMATE | Temperate, with Arid and Volcanic areas
PRIMARY TERRAIN:
- Volcanic Wasteland (35%) Although much of the planet has healed in some way since the eruption of the super-volcano Idd-yha, well over a quarter of the planet is still volcanic wasteland. Vast swathes of long-dried volcanic rock sit among flowing rivers of lava. Active volcano ranges are found in these regions, erupting with marked regularity.
- Desert (16%) There are two massive deserts on Maena, equally inhospitable compared to the volcanic stretches.
- Arid Grasslands (29%) Two million years after Idd-yha’s eruption, a good portion of the planet has started to heal. Though dry and hardly beautiful, grass grows here along with flowers and plants that have learned to survive.
- Oceans/Lakes/Rivers (20%)
ATMOSPHERE | Type I & Type II
- While predominantly Type I, the planet is prone to huge bouts of volcanic activity, shifting the atmosphere to make it heavy with excess sulfur dioxide, hydrogen chloride, and silica from the eruptions. The Western Hemisphere is more commonly thick with these things, as it has not recovered from past cataclysms as well as the East. But all Maenans know that the potential for giant ash-storms or trace acids in the air if the wind shifts is very real.
MAJOR LOCATIONS
THE WASTELANDS
Magma flows lazily between plates of rock, meandering along lonely, gray fields of ash. Few besides Matsu or the workers who don’t mind the job for the pay dare go to this side of the planet nowadays. There are rumors among the locals, though they are not of the sort told to children to keep them from doing something. They were the kind that speak of very real danger. Those locals brave enough to head out in this direction and confirm such things for themselves come back with fear in their faces, or do not come back at all. Some breeds of Maenan Equus - horses native to Maena alone - have adapted to life here, favored by Heralds for their seeming imperviousness to heat. Several other creatures seem to have spawned from these regions as well, though again - few come back to give exact details. Here the volcanoes rule, still too active to allow for any permanent settlement of true size.
THE UNIT
The Unit, as it is colloquially known among Maenans, is the sinister and shadowy biomedical complex used by Matsu and her associates for the more clandestine of their experiments. Dozens of miles from the New City it is a quiet fortress that most of its workers go about their business in and forget as quickly as they can. State-of-the-art medical facilities housed in huge buildings are officially a testing ground for biomedical engineering, but unofficially a bioterrorism and human/alien experimentation facility. Modern and sleek in every way, the Unit is a marvel of technology in an otherwise archaic landscape.
Many of the planet’s repopulated citizens are workers within this facility: doctors, nurses, maintenance, and most importantly - security. Hired mercenaries, soldiers, and a personally trained military force patrol to combat any who might make it past the outer defenses. Highly militarized, ground-to-air installations slowly scan the air, threatening to shoot invaders from the sky.
THE NEW CITY
Glittering from within the maw of the breathtakingly massive inactive volcano Idd-yha, the New City is a marvel of engineering packed and built over hundreds of years to the beast it is today. Breathing with the frenetic life of hundreds of millions of inhabitants, this is a place that truly never stops. Bathed in neon lights and loud advertisements, this is a place that caters to all kinds. The atmosphere and wealth changes depending on where you are but it is always chaotic. The higher levels closest to the mouth of the dead volcano are narrow in diameter but built higher, while those closer to the bottom became wider as the volcano bows out, leading to shorter height but more space to roam in either direction. A den of scum and villainy, this is a shadowport of crime both beautiful and hideous.
THE SLUMS
Outside the New City, one finds the Slums. Populated almost exclusively by the wretches working the mines and refineries associated with them, it is a place equally dangerous and dirty. Trillions of credits in valuable resources lay beneath the planet’s surface and those looking to make their own piece of it stay in the clapboard rickshaws that cropped up as the planet rebuilt. They are mostly happy to ignore the atrocity of it all considering the pay is steady and the death rate is average for the sort of job they’re doing. A roof over their heads and mouths fed is enough for the lowest of the low. Addiction to alcohol or drugs runs rampant here, making much of its inhabitants unreliable at best and deadly at worst. Still, it has something of its own charm if one stops and takes a look around at the laundry drying in the sun, or the occasional sound of laughter from children who know nothing more than this wretched planet.
KR’YLLAND
Nestled deep in the reaches of the Obsidian Desert, bordered on one end by a great range of dead volcanoes and everywhere else by the black walls built of a mysterious, inky material, Kr’ylland looms large in the mind of any Maenan. The city itself was clearly built for a population much larger than the 300,000 that inhabit it now, but legends vary as to what happened to the previous occupants. Now it is home to Maena’s most eclectic and dangerous mix of craftsmen, sorcerers, religious zealots, and strange civilians. Parts of the city are entirely silent and empty, simply too large for its hundreds of thousands of inhabitants. Maze-like and eating its own tail, the Black Stone sits at its center. An artifact more ancient than anything living on Maena, the Stone is worshipped by some and reviled by others. Most famously, the Order of the Stone and the Heralds have clashed over the existence of the artifact many times. The Heralds are known to crusade against the impenetrable walls of the city in the pursuit of destroying the dangerous relic. Though no one can say exactly what the danger is, it’s impossible to ignore the dread that pulses out of the eerily black surface of the Stone...
POPULATION
NATIVE SPECIES | Humans (The original inhabitants of the planet, the Eyaer and the Zsha-thu, are thought to be extinct.)
IMMIGRATED SPECIES | Hugely varied; it is said you can find at least one of everything in the New City.
POPULATION | Heavily populated; much of this is due to the New City, which holds 300 million permanent inhabitants alone. Other cities and locations of various sizes add millions more, but there are large stretches of the planet that are simply too harsh to occupy permanently. Most of the population is found in sizeable pockets all over the planet with miles of nothing in between.
DEMOGRAPHICS | Largely depends on the region in question, but due to immigration, overall about 70% human and 30% alien. The New City has average levels of xenophobia for the galaxy, while the planet at large tends to be more openly distrustful of aliens.
PRIMARY LANGUAGES | Galactic Basic & Maenan; aliens bring their languages with them and can be heard all over New City.
CULTURE | Maena, as all planets with vast populations separated by distance and region, is an amalgam of beliefs and cultures. Those who inhabit the New City behave and believe differently from those in Kr’ylland, both of whom are massively different than those citizens of the Red Waste or the City-By-The-Sea. Day to day life is chaotic, but this is how most Maenans like it - to be still is to die.
But they are, one and all, regardless of their origin, fiercely proud of their home. To be Maenan is to be resilient, a people as tough as the world from which they hail. Weakness quickly finds itself snuffed out. Maenans who travel off their homeworld often have difficulty integrating with other societies, considered quick and indifferent to violence and unphased by things most others would find overwhelming. On the whole these are a people who consider eye-for-an-eye the rule of law, and have no qualms in doing whatever it takes to survive.
Entertainment on Maena is not in short supply. Depending on the tax bracket of those concerned one can enjoy anything from theatre and music to gambling and all manner of vice. There are no real sports played on the planet itself but any of the galaxy’s great pastimes can be bet on in the casinos sprawling through the New City’s underbelly. The planet’s art is characteristic in its wildness, the somewhat lawless nature of their culture manifest in every painting and sculpture produced and exported. The work of the master Weavers of Kr’ylland is famous throughout the galaxy, and thousands of credits are paid for the garments they make.
Religion is variable depending on the region in which one finds themselves. The New City, filled as it is with nearly every conceivable species in the galaxy, caters to just about every religious order around - though anyone there probably isn’t too concerned with the concept of salvation. In Kr’ylland, the Order of the Stone is paramount. The Heralds - Maena’s oldest religious order descended from one of its two original inhabitant species - still stalks every corner of the planet, defending the honor of their deity. Freedom - as is Maena’s greatest priority - applies here as anywhere else. Just don’t insult anyone’s beliefs unless a death wish is involved.
GOVERNMENT & ECONOMY
GOVERNMENT | None; there is no centralized authority on Maena. Each region or city has its own way of doing things, and Maenans as a whole fiercely prize freedom.
AFFILIATION | None
WEALTH | Varies hugely depending on where you are. High levels of the New City? You better own at least a moon. Low levels? Money means nothing - trade for food or goods. Outside the New City, trade is more valuable than money and galactic credits are almost entirely meaningless.
STABILITY | Low to moderate, overall. Although Maenans thrive on chaos, a lawless and violent bunch prone to fervor for religions both traditional and profane, they prize their planet and way of life too much to allow for total disorder. There are unspoken ways of behaving that every Maenan understands. Outsiders are not safe here, though if they keep their heads down they’ll probably live long enough to learn how to integrate. If they have the stomach.
FREEDOM & OPPRESSION | It is said that if one seeks freedom in its purest form, Maena is the place to go. The New City caters to every pursuit and desire, including those illegal in every other corner of the galaxy. But even beyond that, a lack of a central ruling body creates a ‘wild west’ feel to the planet that anyone truly seeking to live on their own terms will consider a paradise. Although Maenans expect certain behavior and respect of one another, a live-and-let-live quality to their lives prevails. Tread lightly in the territory of a tribe other than your own. But in his realm, each man is his own king.
MILITARY & TECHNOLOGY
MILITARY | With no centralized government, Maena boasts no traditional navies or ground armies. But to think it undefended is laughable. It is a world renowned for its violence, and the love its people have for it. The New City alone houses more criminals toting guns and hideous weapons than any army could muster. The Unit, the only traditionally defended area, boasts ground-to-air cannons that can harry aerial attacks, and it is here that the shadowy special operations group Section 13 trains to work across the galaxy. Those wretches in the mines could pull out deadly nova crystals to throw at attackers without a thought, more than willing to die in the defense of their home. Kr’ylland, full of sorcerers and mystics, has been honed by years of crusades. The Heralds, an ancient religion that worships fire, would delight in roasting their invading opponents. The Horse Warriors of the Red Waste would like nothing more than to trample their enemies from horseback. The pirates of the City-by-the-Sea are simply itching to run their blades through the belly of anyone stupid enough to cross them. For all their differences, there is not one Maenan that would not die in the defense of their home.
TECHNOLOGY | Depends on location. The closer one is to the New City - the hub of off-world trade - the more to galactic standard the technology is. The further you get from the city, the older the tech. In the deserts of the Red Waste, horse warriors are aware of the concept of most basic galactic technologies, but wouldn’t know what to do with the holonet, much less how to access it. But the inhabitants of the New City crave novelty - a planet of extremes, to be sure.
HISTORY
Maena began, like most other planets in the galaxy, a humble rock floating in the furthest reaches of space 13 billion years ago. Little is known about those early times, though the Heralds - descendents of one of Maena’s most ancient and now extinct species - have passed history down amongst themselves. While some might consider this of dubious nature, anyone who has spent time among the Heralds know they hold the history of their world and passing that knowledge down through their own generations to be one of their greatest duties.
According to the Heralds, the original inhabitants and settlers of this world were the Eyaer - now also believed to be extinct, though rumors abound that they still work in the shadows. In the beginning it was them, and the Herald’s ancestors, the Zsha-thu. Both hated each other and were at odds in their worship. For millions of years they warred, the Eyaer’s great arrogance and near immortality helping them hold out against the numbers and fervor of the Zsha-thu.
In their last and greatest battle, the most well-known of the Zsha-thu - Xoth-za - ascended the great volcano Idd-yha and threw himself in, thus beginning the cataclysm that reshaped a once verdant planet in to the volcanic monstrosity it is today.
In the two million years since the eruption, the world was reshaped. Cities grew from the destruction, including one that carved itself in to the mouth of the now dead Idd-yha itself - the New City. Humans from surrounding star systems, traveling for one reason or another, found a mostly untouched if inhospitable landscape. Tribes flourished. A wealth of resources was found under the surface.
And it was then that the Maena known today was discovered. Such wealth is never ignored, and it wasn’t long before off-worlders flocked to this new source of riches to take a piece of the pie for themselves. Exports created the bustling hub that should not have existed that far out in the Unknown Regions - the promise of undefinable prosperity, even among terrifying violence, is never ignored.
