Triter Zone
The Littlest Space Pirate
- Osseinium Parneauvia -
[Made with Fractal World Generator. Seed: 1597089868]
Region - Outer Rim Territories.
System - Telerik System.
Suns -
Orbital Position -
Moons -
Blackrow Hyperlines Freight Terminal - Constructed decades ago when the Blackrow Hyperlines shipping corporation came to what was then known as Osseinium, the Blackrow Freight Terminal is a massive space station built with the intention of providing a central freight sorting location for the company's regional operations, with the ultimate goal of dominating all trade in the surrounding systems of the Outer Rim and the Back Spiral area of the Tion Cluster. When the Blackrow corporation was dissolved, however, the station was abandoned; it has since been home to a token customs office staffed by the weak planetary government of Parneauvia. By and large, though, the terminal's multitude of docking bays and concourses have been taken over by smugglers and pirates, whom the customs agents are effectively powerless to evict.
Dreadnaught Station - The hulk of an ancient Invincible-class Dreadnaught Heavy Cruiser, Dreadnaught Station is a relic of the Blackrow Hyperlines takeover of Osseinium. Originally the Osseinium Defense Fleet's flagship, Blizzard, the vessel was crippled during the conquest and left adrift in a distant orbit around the planet. Even during the days of Blackrow, the wreck had become a haven for smugglers and outlaws in the system, and was left in place so that it could be occasionally raided by the Blackrow security forces, who would round up the worst of the troublemakers and then leave, concentrating most of the illicit traffic in the system through one place and thus making it easier to deal with. After Blackrow Hyperlines collapsed, however, most of the smugglers and pirates who had called the wreck home moved to the old Blackrow Freight Terminal, leaving Dreadnaught Station to a subset of old-timers and outlaw techs. In recent years, the station has become a center of illicit starship modification and even construction, sprouting skeletal shipyards and other additions like cancerous growths.
- Vandorn - The innermost of the Telerik System's planets, Vandorn is a reddish-brown ball with a thin atmosphere of noble gases. The world is famous for its vaporized mercury clouds.
- Belgrayd - An unusual world orbiting in the system's second orbital position, Ossein myths say that a hungry god was tricked by a great warrior into taking a bite out of the planet, and was killed when Belgrayd's molten core flowed into his mouth. Indeed, it does seem that Belgrayd has been hollowed out. An enormous section of its crust has been blasted away, like a bite taken out of a fruit, with the planet's core neatly scooped out; oddly, there is no trace of the debris such an event would have undoubtedly cast into orbit.
OsseiniumParneauvia - The third planet from Telerik,OsseiniumParneauvia is the system's single inhabited world, outlined in more detail further down the page.- Isaal - Said to be named for a son of Xer, Isaal is the fourth planet from Telerik, a rocky, greenish world with a high copper content in its soil.
- The Circlet of Telerik - The Telerik System's asteroid belt, the Circlet of Telerik is composed primarily of stellar debris from early in the system's history. Once a regional mining center, the Circlet now hosts the asteroid bases of numerous pirate gangs and small-scale illegal mining operations which supply raw materials to criminal enterprises. The Circlet was so named due to the high content of silver in a large number of asteroids during the early days of the system, though these mines have been mostly tapped out.
- Seylidtz - Named for the famished god who took a bite out of Belgrayd, Seylidtz is the Telerik System's single massive gas giant and outermost planet. Utterly gigantic, Seylidtz is thought to have formed when two gas giants collided and merged, resulting in a tumultuous sphere of roiling green and orange gases with a multitude of orbiting moons, some of them big enough to be planets themselves; it is thought that at least some of them were exactly that, rocky proto-planets from early in the system's history which were captured by the giant planet's gravity. These moons are known to be the site of many ancient starship wrecks, from Republic-era freighters and pirate ships to warships of Xim the Despot's navy.
Rotational Period - 20 standard hours.
Orbital Period - 240 standard days.
Class - Terrestrial.
Atmosphere - Type I.
Climate - Frozen-temperate; the planet is in the middle of a protracted ice age, with a narrow ice-free habitable zone.
Gravity - Coruscant standard.
Primary Terrain -
Immigrated Species - Tionese, a grab-bag of other Outer Rim sentients.
Primary Languages - Tionese, Basic.
Government -
Population - 5-8 million sentients.
Demonym -
Currency - The local currency of
Major Imports -
Major Exports -
Beer from
Affiliation - The government of
Major Locations - Notable locations on
Parneaupolis - The current capital ofOsseiniumParneauvia, Parneaupolis is a newly constructed city built to replace the ancient capital, Osseiniak, reduced to an expanse of glassed earth during the conquest of the planet by Blackrow Hyperlines. Financed and built by the company, the city is of typical contemporary construction, with little of the antique charm of its predecessor; most of its buildings are glorified prefab structures, with insincere efforts to decorate and make liveable the settlement's rigid grid plan and drab edifices.
Parneaux Interstellar Tradeport - Built around the same time as the new Parneaupolis, Parneaux Interstellar Tradeport is a sprawling and now largely unused spaceport facility outside the formerly mentioned city. Named for the then current CEO of Blackrow Hyperlines, Parneaux Blackrow, the facility is little more than a massive expanse of ferrocrete with a prefab terminal building, aerospace traffic control tower and a few large maintenance shelters. Little used since the dissolution of Blackrow Hyperlines, most of its facilities now sit abandoned.
Ossein Manor - Built overlooking a breathtaking natural vista, Ossein Manor was at one point the vacation home of Parneaux Blackrow, CEO of Blackrow Hyperlines. Patterned after ancient Tionese palaces from the region's golden age, Ossein Manor now stands abandoned in the wilderness. Protected by what were at the time state-of-the-art security systems, the manor's contents presumably remain, safe behind energy shields, security doors and combat droids which still prowl the grounds on the lookout for intruders.
Ilsak - 25,000 years ago,OsseiniumParneauvia was a much more hospitable place than it is today. In the days of Xim the Despot, of whose empire the world was part, the planet then known Osseinium had many more urban centers than it does today. Over thousands of years, most of these cities were gradually swallowed by the advancing ice pack as Osseinium succumbed to a new ice age, grinding much of the planet's deep history into scattered rubble as the great glaciers eroded the landscape. Despite this, rumors persist of a place called Ilsak, located deep below the ice somewhere in the planet's northern hemisphere, shielded by its location in a fissure-like valley and thus spared the slow but certain fate the ice would have had for it, preserving its ancient treasures and secrets intact. Over the millennia, many have sought the lost city of Ilsak on Osseinium's glacial plains, but it has never been found; it is said that the city was built around a grand palace constructed for Xer VIII, father of Xim, and later occupied occasionally by the Despot himself.
Grand Archives of Osseinium - Partially destroyed during the Blackrow invasion of Osseinium, the Grand Archives are a sprawling Xim-era complex which contains a library of the planet's history dating back thousands of years. Unfortunately, the Grand Archives were caught in the crossfire between the Blackrow fleet and Osseinium's defense forces, immolating countless original documents and other artifacts. Reconstruction of the complex's damaged portions has proceeded slowly due to lack of funds.
The Flats - An expanse of weathered, ancient ferrocrete high in in theOsseinParneauvian mountains, the Flats date from the time of Xim, and though more or less featureless today, they are thought to be the unusual surface shipyards at which the fabled Ossein Elektrokonters were built. Little remains on the surface, though a warren of hardened subterranean tunnels and artificial caverns exists below.
One of the planet's longest traditions has been its breweries, which are typically family owned. Many have been in operation for tens of thousands of years, producing some of the best spirits and beers in the region.
Though once possessed of a system defense fleet,
- History -
Among the oldest inhabited planets in the region, the ice-encrusted world known in recent times as Parneauvia was originally known as Osseinium. Originally colonized by a pirate clan from Algor - known as the Dawnscar Raiders - in deep history, Osseinium was a minor regional power during the reign of Xer the Eighth. Respected for its breweries, craftsmen and fierce warriors even at this early date, Osseinium was ruled by the descendants of the Dawnscar Raiders, who had watched the slaughter of their contemporaries during the Cronese Sweeps with growing alarm. Though outside the borders of the pirate king's territories, the nobles of Osseinium sought a more agreeable arrangement than their neighbors, knowing that it would only be a matter of time before the marauding monarch sought to expand again.
Once Xer had consolidated his power within Cron, the Dawnscar family approached the great conqueror. In exchange for their own lives and the well-being of their people, they offered to peaceably ally themselves with Xer, swearing fealty to him and delivering appropriate tribute. This arrangement was accepted, with the addendum that an Ossein princess be married to one of the great king's sons, sealing the alliance with blood ties.
"I must not fault my dear father too harshly; he saw fit not to blast the distilleries of Osseinium!"
_Xim the Despot, praising an Ossein vintage.
The alliance proved profitable for Osseinium, and as Xer's - and later, his favored son, Xim's - empire grew, the importance of the formerly minor world grew proportionately. Temperate and pleasant at the time, Osseinium sprouted new cities to serve a growing tourist trade, and its industry boomed, exporting luxury goods to markets across the kingdom; it is said that Xer and later his son Xim kept a palace on the world. This was not to say Osseinium was merely a pleasure world; it had been settled by pirates, who valued good ships and fighting prowess. Osseinium contributed the fabled Ossein Elektrokonters to Xer and later Xim's fleet, ancient corvette-like capital ships renowned for their maneuverability.
In its heyday, Osseinium briefly eclipsed neighboring Xion in prominence. This golden age lasted over 50 years, before the disastrous conclusion of the Hutt-Xim conflict and the subsequent collapse of the empire.
"One day, the glaciers might recede and our history might be returned. For now, it is lost."
_An Ossein.
The collapse of Xim's empire signaled what was to be the end of life as it was known on Osseinium. In the centuries after the war, the planet fell from its once lofty heights, declining to the status of a minor regional power once more. To make matters worse, Osseinium began its slide into a severe ice age, its polar caps expanding until, over 25,000 years later, they nearly reached the planet's equator. Most of the planet's historic urban centers were swallowed by the advancing ice pack, and civilization now resides in a narrow ice-free habitable zone.
The result of this cold snap was a dramatic reduction in the planet's population, as the new climate made the world largely unsuitable for surface agriculture. Many inhabitants emigrated to other worlds within the region, bringing the native population down to just a few tens of millions.
And then the Gulag Virus hit.
At the time of patient zero, the population was roughly 20 million sentients. Over the next few centuries, one in three would die from the virus before medicine and natural immunity could catch up with its ravages; by the time this happened, the population of Osseinium had been reduced to around 5 million. To make matters worse, the near total collapse of pan-galactic civilization during the plague years even further isolated Osseinium, seeming to complete the long decline of the planet from its former prominence.
Though Osseinium may have faded into near irrelevance in the eyes of the wider Galaxy, this was not the end of its notable history.
"Attention Blackrow Fleet! This is the Osseinium Royal Navy! You will withdraw and allow Ossein customs officials to board your station, or we will place them there by force!"
_Osseinium Royal Navy, facing down the mercenaries of Blackrow Hyperlines.
Several decades ago, a young man known as Krayd Hasperre came to Osseinium.Krayd Hasperre was a Human male from the planet Argai, the last and greatest in a long lineage of spacers dating back to the very earliest days of the Tion Cluster. Born of this stock, it was only natural that Krayd would be destined to pursue greatness; in his veins flowed the blood of Xer and Xim, and in the chaos that was the Galaxy, it seemed that men such as him were fated once more to stand tall.
Krayd left Argai to pursue his heritage, eventually signing on with the defense fleet of Osseinium. Young and idealistic, he proved to be one of the better motivated and more ambitious recruits, most of whom were low-rent mercenaries or formerly unemployed farmers. Krayd quickly advanced up the ranks, eventually rising to command one of the fleet's few proper capital ships, an antique Praetorian-class frigate which patrolled the system's outer reaches.
The Argaian's first taste of real combat came when a major shipping corporation, the monolithic Blackrow Hyperlines, came to the system and set up an unregistered freight terminal in orbit over Osseinium.
Notorious for their strong-arm tactics and disregard for local laws, Blackrow was among the largest private shipping firms operating in the Tion Cluster and surrounding regions. Aggressive in their business, they possessed a well-armed security force, backing up their swarms of freighters and passenger liners and suppressing any local government or competitor who got in their way. Blackrow snubbed all protest by the Ossein, bringing in their private fleet to keep the authorities at bay, blockading the world and redirecting all commercial traffic to and from the planet through their station, charging exorbitant landing fees to the independent captains who served the planet's import and export markets.
The dispute came to a head when the government, small but stubborn, attempted to break through the blockade and land customs officials on the terminal, backed up by the defense fleet and marines.
Krayd was not part of the initial assault, but was called back to the planet when it went disastrously wrong; the tiny fleet of outdated ships had fought valiantly, but had been utterly crushed by the more powerful Blackrow forces. The Blackrow ships, bloodthirsty mercenaries who were paid based on the damage they caused, had pursued some of the survivors back into the Ossein atmosphere, herding their prey over urban centers and wreaking untold death and destruction upon those caught below. Krayd, seeing this, rallied the few stragglers he could find, taking command and leading a counterattack on the corporate forces.
Surprisingly, the newly minted captain initially met with some success, his outgunned and outnumbered forces directed by inspired tactics and a resolve born of seeing their home ravaged by a contemptible enemy. Ultimately, though, they were too few and too late; the planetary government capitulated during the fight, broadcasting a general order that all defense forces should cease combat operations and surrender. This transmission had just begun to repeat when it was cut off; an enemy ship had bombarded the planetary capital of Osseiniak into molten slag.
Devastated, Krayd nevertheless had the presence of mind to order a retreat. The ships under his command attempted to break out of the planetary gravity well and escape to hyperspace, but of the five who tried, only Krayd's ship, the Dawnscar, managed to jump out of the system.
After Krayd's defeat, Blackrow consolidated its hold over what remained of Osseinium's population, financing the planetary reconstruction effort and installing a puppet government which they controlled outright. One of the new government's first acts was to change the planet's name - which had remained unchanged for tens of thousands of years, a point of immense pride among its people - from Osseinium to Parneauvia. This was intended to honor the then current CEO of Blackrow Hyperlines, Parneaux Blackrow, who had built a vacation home on the planet and was busily turning the freight terminal overhead into the dominant regional transshipping hub, an economic boon which did not directly benefit the locals thanks to Blackrow's policy of importing their labor and material. Under effective Blackrow occupation, the planet suffered economic stagnation and poverty.
While Blackrow settled in, however, Krayd Hasperre, defeated but still very much alive, had organized his revenge. Now an infamous pirate, the young officer has succeeded in assembling a formidable armada, launching a well-planned campaign of thievery and destruction against many of the region's large corporations, including Blackrow. Their actions being Krayd's original motivation, Blackrow bore the brunt of these attacks; where their corporate fleets had originally been intimidating enough that they were hardly ever bothered, they now found themselves constantly engaged defending their vast shipping empire, a task which quickly proved extremely difficult and titanically expensive. Though well up to the task of subduing local adversaries such as planetary governments and small pirate gangs, Krayd's campaign was mobile and vast in scale; Blackrow simply did not have enough ships to actively guard all of its holdings sufficiently, and it was not long before the war against Krayd's raiders had dipped dangerously into the company's financial reserves.
In the end, a coalition of effected corporate interests banded together to defeat Hasperre, but Blackrow Shipping, hardest hit among them, did not long outlive their foe. Within only a few years, the gutted shipping giant collapsed under its own weight.
This collapse was heralded by the withdrawal of Blackrow from Parneauvia, leaving behind only crumbling infrastructure and a weak planetary government barely capable of standing on its own without the corporation's support. As a result, the planet fares little better now than it did under the yoke of Blackrow Hyperlines; the local economy remains feeble, and the many outlaws which first the Ossein Defense Fleet and later Blackrow corporate forces formerly kept at bay have settled in the system, making it a haven for pirates, smugglers and other criminals.
The Netherworld event of recent memory was keenly felt on Parneuvia, which has a relatively small population to begin with; their absence does not seem to have dramatically effected the status quo, however.
In any event, the people of
Notable PCs - To be added.
Intent - This planet is to be an important part of Triter Zone's story, as it was here that Krayd Hasperre, his mentor, was set on the path to piracy and greatness. It would play a part in Triter's future as well, as I intend this to be the location from which Triter would rebuild the Ossein Pirate Gang.
