Into the Spider's Web
SUBTERREL [Canon]
OUT OF CHARACTER INFORMATION
Intent:
To expand upon the canon planet of Subterrel and reimagine it as an exploited industrial extraction world within the Eleventh Sith Empire, serving as a critical logistical and resource hub while reflecting the socio-political ideologies of the modern Sith state. This version integrates the planet into the broader structure of the Empire's economy and ideology, while creating a setting rich in RP opportunity for industry, espionage, resistance, and exploration.
Image Credit:
[X]
Canon:
Yes – Subterrel - Wookieepedia
Permissions:
N/A
Links:
Subterrel - [X]
Subterrel Sith Order Dominion - [X]
The Sith Order - [X]
GENERAL INFORMATION
Planet Name: SubterrelDemonym: Subterrellian
Region: Outer Rim Territories
System Name: Subterrel System
System Features:
The Subterrel System is a relatively isolated star system within the Outer Rim, lying on the fringes of Sith-Imperial-controlled territory near the threshold of the Unknown Regions. The system consists of:
- Molten Crown: A yellow main-sequence star, named for its intense solar winds that frequently bathe the system in radiation storms.
- Subterrel (Primary Planet): The only habitable world, though it is now almost entirely reliant on environmental regulators to maintain population viability.
- Kiron's Light: A small, heavily cratered moon once mined for basic ore, now used as a dump site for planetary industrial waste and the location of a sealed deep-space observatory rumored to study forbidden phenomena.
- The Serric Belt: A dense asteroid field with remnant mining platforms and prospecting drones, now automated and coordinated via a central AI node.
- Uro and Vanir: Two gas giants in the system's outer reaches, surrounded by ring systems and minor moons. Vanir holds an orbital fueling station used by Logistics Corps refuelers.
- Orbital Period: 398 Galactic Standard Days
- Rotational Period: 21.5 Galactic Standard Hours
Located in the Outer Rim Territories, one hyperspace jump south of the Hydian Way offshoot known as the Trinsic Spur, Subterrel occupies a largely uncharted and economically neglected wedge of space. The planet is often omitted from public starcharts, appearing only in Imperial and corporate registries.
Major Imports:
Subterrel is a net importer, reliant on the Sith Empire's greater infrastructure to sustain its vast population of laborers, managers, and specialists. Key imports include:
- Processed and preserved foodstuffs (due to the extinction of native flora/fauna)
- Medical supplies and biotic prostheses
- Atmospheric filtration systems
- Industrial droids, construction frames, and autonomous cargo haulers
- Basic luxury items (limited to the managerial caste)
- Propaganda broadcasts and educational content from the Vanguard and Ministry of Doctrine
Subterrel's entire economy is based on resource extraction, mineral refinement, and exportation to other Sith-Imperial worlds, starships, and research complexes. Primary exports include:
- Raw and refined durasteel ore
- Alusteel-grade alloys
- Tungsten, magmatite, and neutronite composites
- Rare conductive silicates used in high-end reactor components
- Volatile crystalline fragments, used experimentally by Sith alchemists
- Deep-core geothermal plasma channeled via orbital siphoning stations
Unexploited Resources:
None.
GEOGRAPHIC INFORMATION
Gravity:1.10x compared to standard. — Subterrel's dense metal-rich core results in increased surface gravity. While not enough to significantly harm humanoids, long-term exposure without gravitic compensation contributes to joint strain, muscular fatigue, and accelerated aging in native-born Subterrellians. Many laborers develop a distinctive hunched posture due to generational wear.
Climate:
Controlled Industrial Climate — The natural environment of Subterrel is inhospitable. Its surface atmosphere is arid, semi-toxic, and laced with airborne metal particulates and volcanic ash. To combat this, the Empire has deployed wide-scale climate regulation technology across industrial zones. Massive skyshield domes, active atmospheric filtration spires, and weather-engineering satellites are required to sustain urban life and extractive operations.
Outside these zones, the climate is hostile, marked by:
- Frequent sulfur storms
- Hyperdry lightning
- Extreme temperature fluctuations
- Volcanic emissions from fractured tectonic vents
In wilderness zones, self-contained environment suits are mandatory for exposure exceeding one hour.
Primary Terrain:
Subterrel's terrain has been radically transformed over centuries of industrial activity. Much of its surface is a graveyard of extractive infrastructure and industrial decay. The dominant terrain types include:
- Open-pit mine craters hundreds of kilometers wide, some extending into the mantle
- Sub-crustal urban stacks, buried megastructures that now serve as cities
- Volcanic rock plains laced with extraction scars and geothermal exhausts
- Ash mesas and jagged basalt cliffs, remnants of planetary resurfacing from ancient tectonic eruptions
- Tunnel complexes forming a second "planet within a planet," built by centuries of subsurface colonization
Atmosphere:
Type II — Breathable with a respirator. High metal particulate concentration, carbon dioxide saturation, and occasional sulfur gas emissions make unfiltered exposure dangerous to most species. Respirators are mandatory outside sealed industrial zones. The only safe breathing zones are within pressurized settlements, dome cities, or underground districts.
LOCATION INFORMATION
Capital City:Ribonex Prime is not a city in the traditional sense, but a sprawling arcology complex embedded within the remains of Mine Chasm 88, a continent-sized pit from the earliest Sith reclamation efforts. Suspended across vertical strata by massive support pylons and gravitational stabilizers, the city descends almost thirty-five kilometers beneath the planetary crust. Its tiered structure reflects Subterrel's caste system:
- Upper Levels house state administrators, technocrats, the planetary governor's citadel, and Vanguard propaganda centers.
- Mid Levels are reserved for elite industrial guilds, security forces, data architecture nodes, and orbital cargo lifts.
- Lower Levels contain tightly regulated worker districts, Subterrelan Youth Corps facilities, and food processing plants.
- The Black Tier, at the very bottom, is a sealed zone where unwanted elements are cast — outlaws, religious dissidents, cartel failures. What exists there is unknown, but elevator access has been disabled since the last purge.
Ribonex is kept stable through atmospheric pressure domes, thermal balancing towers, and constant AI-monitored flow regulation. Imperial dropforts hover on anti-gravity anchors near the city's rim to monitor unrest.
Planetary Features:
- Orbital Elevator Spine (Ecliptor Station):
A continent-spanning tether that connects Subterrel's surface to a synchronized orbital ring. Constructed by the Sith-Imperial Engineering Corps, Ecliptor handles 97% of Subterrel's off-world exports, managed by the Ministry of Production and Logistics. Access is restricted to Guild-authorized personnel and SIBC-secured freight. - Skyshield Domes (Crimson Arcologies):
These colossal domes, numbering seventeen across the northern and equatorial continents, contain entire city-factories. They are pressurized, climate-stabilized habitats with vertical housing, hydro-recycling towers, foundries, and transport hubs. Entire families live and die within the same dome, often unaware of the wider world. - The Iron Vents:
A vast network of geothermal exhaust spires that protrude across the surface like metallic thorns. They bleed excess heat, radiation, and pressure from deep mining operations and reactor stacks. During vent cycles, the surrounding zones are evacuated — failures have caused cities to be incinerated in seconds. - Kiron's Maw:
A massive collapsed sinkhole at the site of Vault Theta-23, an abandoned alchemical research facility jointly operated by the Sepulchral and Ministry of Biotic Science. Following a reactor implosion and breach of experimental test vaults, the site was sealed. Surveillance drones are regularly destroyed by unknown forces within the zone. The Maw emits irregular Force readings and is under constant observation. - Logisticon Tower Sigma:
One of the planet's main data consolidation towers, operated by a Typhojem AI Enforcement Grid. It functions as the predictive policing command hub, calculating behavior patterns of billions of Subterrellians and issuing arrest mandates to PDF units in real time. The tower is heavily guarded and features no windows — only black armored data-priests from the Ministry of Order enter its sealed doors. - The Assembly Duct:
Beneath Ribonex Prime lies a massive subterranean auditorium carved directly into the bedrock. Here, the Planetary Assembly Bloc — composed of local administrators, guildmasters, and corporate proxies — meets to debate legislation under the eye of the Sith-Imperial Assembly's appointed Governor. These sessions are filmed and broadcast as propaganda, despite the outcomes being predetermined by backroom dealmaking and economic quotas. - Sepulchral Temple of the Red Womb:
The largest house of worship on Subterrel, this temple is dedicated to Purgia, the Dicastery of Purification. Red-robed War-Priests patrol its halls, enforcing doctrinal obedience among the faithful. Its catacombs stretch deep into the crust, where it is said ancient sacrifices once took place. Sermons are conducted daily and mandatory for lower-tier citizens, who must chant oaths of loyalty to Darth Empyrean and the Eternalist pantheon. - The Silent Bury:
An off-grid valley of collapsed freight barges, mined-out fuel silos, and defunct crawler cities. Now inhabited by rogue droids, cartel exiles, and technoshamans, this ghost zone is occasionally used by black-market salvagers and deserters from the Vanguard. Rumors persist that pre-Imperial relics are buried here, sealed in forgotten vaults by Republic-era miners. - Hyperlane Access:
Subterrel is positioned off any major commercial hyperspace routes, accessible only through minor feeder lanes or Sith-controlled jump gates. This makes the planet difficult to reach without Imperial clearance or smuggling connections. It is ideal for secret projects, experimental testing, and covert extraction operations. - Public Access Restrictions:
- Planetary access is limited to Sith-Imperial personnel, registered Guild labor, approved corporations, and Vanguard affiliates.
- Force-sensitive individuals must undergo Sepulchral vetting before entry.
- Visitors are subject to full biometric scans and escorted at all times.
- The Ministry of Doctrine routinely monitors transmissions off-world and auto-suppresses unauthorized signals.
Force Nexus:
No.
POPULATION
Native Species:Subterrel once supported a rich but primitive biosphere of subterranean arthropods and crust-dwelling grazers—long since driven to extinction during the planet's early strip-mining phases. No known sentient species evolved here. The current population is entirely imported.
Immigrated Species:
Population:
Heavy
- Estimated Total Population: ~2.3 billion
- Officially Registered Citizens: ~1.4 billion
- Unregistered/Marginalized Populations: ~900 million (black-market tenants, undocumented laborers, rogue guild castaways, cartel-linked populations) Population density is extremely high in dome arcologies and subterranean sectors. Entire cities are constructed vertically, with multi-tiered living zones stacked over mining pits and waste aquifers.
Subterrel operates under an Imperially sanctioned caste model, integrated with the Guild system. Citizens are sorted into societal "rings" at birth or upon arrival:
- Executive Ring
- Imperial bureaucrats, PDF commanders, corporate liaisons, Vanguard dignitaries, and Sepulchral priests
- Live in secure, upper-level environments with full environmental regulation and direct data uplinks
- Often rotated through the capital or reassigned to other Sith systems after term service
- Technocratic Ring
- Engineers, foremen, communications officers, transport pilots, and Youth Corps instructors
- Receive education, rationed luxuries, and limited off-world travel privileges
- Career advancement possible through meritocratic testing, but highly competitive
- Labor Ring
- Comprising 60–70% of the population
- Assigned by Guilds to mining, processing, maintenance, recycling, or waste sectors
- Legally protected under anti-slavery laws but subject to forced relocation, loss of rights due to Guild penalties, and Typhojem surveillance scoring
- Penal Ring
- Convicted criminals, restructured populations from vassal states, and former cartel members
- Rerouted through the Ministry of Order's penal processing and inserted into the lowest tiers of labor
- Often reside in facilities only slightly more livable than Imperial labor camps
- Untethered/Unregistered
- Nomadic scavengers, outlaws, cultists, and "wild-born" children not claimed by the Youth Corps
- Considered non-citizens and excluded from rations, Guild protections, or medical services
- Routinely purged in Ministry-led "order sweeps" and described in official reports as "waste removal events."
- Galactic Basic Standard – Used in all official documentation, Guild charters, and Youth Corps instruction
- Huttese – Common in labor districts, cartel-controlled zones, and fringe settlements
- Durese – Used by engineers and maintenance crews due to its technical lexicon
- Ur-Kittât – Spoken in Sepulchral temples and recitations, especially in the Red Womb
Culture:
Subterrellian culture is one of resigned fatalism, ritualized industrialism, and indoctrinated fanaticism. Life is defined by quotas, caste loyalty, and the ever-present whisper of machinery. The cultural identity is shaped by:
- The Vanguard of the Empire
- Youths are raised from infancy in collective Guild-run dormitories where they undergo daily ideological training
- Propaganda broadcasts glorify the miner, the forgemaster, and the loyal laborer as spiritual warriors
- Public shaming rituals are common for those who miss quotas, whereas over-performance is rewarded with insignia and ceremonial honors
- Sepulchral Influence
- Entire communities are organized around temples and cult-shrines
- Rituals include "devotional labor hours", where workers volunteer additional shifts in exchange for spiritual credit
- Temple birth-rites assign newborns to Guilds via symbolic rites using alloy dust and blood
- Daily Life
- Most citizens live in ten-person stack-habs, communal units with one shared refreshment tube, a nutrient dispenser, and sleep alcoves
- Personal belongings are rationed; owning a trinket from off-world is considered a symbol of ascension
- Food is synthetic, derived from bio-nutrient processing plants fed by corpse recycling, fungal vats, and animal analogs
- Celebrations are industrial in theme — common festivals include The First Spark, Furnace Day, and The Silence of Waste, all symbolizing loyalty to Sith authority and veneration of the Empire's mechanical order
- Sports and Entertainment
- Most "games" involve physical endurance, Guild-themed obstacle runs, or simulated skirmishes based on real Sith-Imperial conquests
- Illegal bloodsports, including mech-suit duels and mining-rig jousts, are popular in the Silent Bury and outer dome districts
- Media is controlled entirely by the Ministry of Influence, and consists of conquest documentaries, patriotic dramas, and punishment reels of off-world rebels being processed through labor justice
GOVERNMENT & ECONOMY
Government:Imperial Extraction Governorship — A highly centralized, autocratic system directly subordinate to the Sith-Imperial Assembly and Ministry of Production and Logistics. Subterrel is not self-governing in any meaningful sense; it is administered, audited, and commanded through Imperial mechanisms designed to maximize productivity, suppress dissent, and eliminate inefficiency.
Affiliation:
Sith Order:
The planet is ruled by an appointed Governor-Regent, a Sith-Imperial official vetted by the Dark Council and approved by the Sith-Imperial Assembly. This individual functions as both a political proxy and economic executor, overseeing all planetary ministries, coordinating Guild outputs, and enforcing strict compliance with production quotas.
Governors on Subterrell do not tend to remain in place long. A typical term lasts 5 to 10 years, after which the appointee is either promoted, reassigned, or—if they fail to meet SIBC economic benchmarks—liquidated via political sanction or financial erasure.
The current Governor is Darmion Vess, a pragmatic but ruthless technocrat with rumored ties to the Vanguard's indoctrination programs and a past as a field economist for the SIBC.
Each Imperial Ministry (Order, Influence, Production, Doctrine, etc.) installs a planetary delegate to oversee its respective sector. These delegates answer to the Governor but wield direct command authority within their ministries, giving them power over law enforcement, industrial coordination, propaganda distribution, and religious enforcement.
While Subterrel has no Legionary forces stationed locally, its PDF (Planetary Defense Force) answers directly to the Governor and Ministry of Order. The PDF oversees riot control, quarantine enforcement, and border zone monitoring.
Wealth:
Low — Subterrel is an extraction-based economy operating under a colonial-industrial model. While the planet produces vast quantities of raw material, nearly all wealth is exported to fund the Sith Empire's core worlds and war machine.
The native population is allocated rationed food, regulated housing, and discretionary wages determined by Guild performance ratings. Even the middle class consists mostly of indentured technocrats and mid-tier supervisors bound to lifelong service contracts.
Wealth does exist—but only for:
- High-ranking Ministry officials
- External corporate partners
- SIBC assessors
- The planetary Governor and his political clients
Stability:
Medium — Subterrel operates under a tightly monitored autocratic regime where the illusion of order masks the reality of unrest. In the core arcologies and capital zones, stability is maintained through:
- Typhojem AI surveillance grids
- Armed PDF patrols
- Propaganda-driven cultural engineering
- Religious fear instilled by Sepulchral War-Priests
- Frequent labor strikes (put down by force)
- Black market activity
- Inter-Guild sabotage
- Occasional cartel turf wars
Freedom & Oppression:
Subterrel is a study in calibrated oppression. Slavery may be illegal under Eleventh Empire law, but life is tightly regimented through bureaucratic caste enforcement, behavioral scoring, and state-monopolized opportunity.
- Speech: Heavily restricted. Negative commentary about the Sith, the Sepulchral, or Ministry institutions is punishable by disappearance.
- Movement: Citizens must possess Guild credentials to move between districts. Travel outside one's assigned arcology requires Ministry of Order approval.
- Commerce: All economic activity is either state-owned, state-authorized, or illicit. Unauthorized trade is punishable by exile or labor correction.
- Justice: Administered by predictive algorithms linked to Typhojem, enforced by PDF enforcers. Trials are rarely held—most sentences are delivered automatically.
- Religion: Eternalist doctrine is compulsory. Non-believers are assigned extra labor duties until a state priest verifies ideological recovery.
MILITARY & TECHNOLOGY
Military:Subterrel is not a front-line combat world, but its massive economic value and strategic role in the Sith-Imperial war machine demand robust planetary security, internal control structures, and defensive mobilization protocols. Because of the Eleventh Empire's anti-feudal doctrine, no Sith Legions are garrisoned on the planet—military responsibility falls entirely to local forces and specialized auxiliaries.
Planetary Defense Force (PDF) – Subterrel Defense Command
The Subterrel Defense Command (SDC) is a professional, ministry-sanctioned military body numbering over 1.2 million active personnel. It is organized under the authority of the Ministry of Order, and directly commanded by the Governor's Office with oversight from a Military Delegate.
- Structure:
- 12 Urban Combat Brigades – Trained in riot suppression, slum warfare, and structure breach operations within dense arcology environments.
- 5 Hazard-Zone Regiments – Equipped for operations in collapsed tunnels, slag fields, irradiated zones, and gas-filled caverns.
- 4 Rapid Response Air Wings – Light atmospheric gunships, industrial crawler-borne artillery, and cargo lifters retrofitted with missile racks.
- 1 High Orbit Defense Division – Manned by Ministry-loyal naval officers, operates orbital cannons and coordinates with Logistics Corps patrols.
- Doctrine:
- Emphasizes population control, anti-insurgency operations, and defense of key infrastructure (rail hubs, mining centers, orbital tethers).
- Operates under the Internal Resilience Protocol—a martial law doctrine that allows for lethal enforcement, forced relocation, and work stoppage crackdowns.
- Faith in the Sepulchral is encouraged among officers; battlefield chaplains deliver regular sermons on loyalty and sacrifice.
- Equipment:
- PDF soldiers are issued standard Sith-Imperial armor variants retrofitted for toxic environments, often customized with rebreathers, thermal shielding, and mining-adapted exosuits.
- Armament includes shock-carbines, kinetic suppression launchers, riot pikes, and magmatic flares used to flush rebels from tunnel systems.
Subterrel operates on a hybrid of galactic-standard technology and hyper-specialized industrial systems designed for large-scale extraction, tunnel warfare, toxic zone maintenance, and infrastructural control. It is not a frontier world in the primitive sense—its technology is advanced, but deeply purpose-built, cold, and oppressively utilitarian.
Industrial Technologies
- Automated Tunnel Extractors – AI-assisted boring machines that generate kilometers of tunnels per day while mapping geological resistance in real-time.
- Ore Elevators – Gigantic subcrustal vertical conveyor platforms transporting refined ore from planetary core to orbital elevator spires.
- Filtration Infrastructure – Atmospheric scrubbing towers, ash-redirecting force fields, and blackwater reprocessing stations are built into every dome city.
- Reclaimer Vaults – Environmental recycling centers that grind and reprocess everything from equipment to corpses to biomass waste.
- Typhojem AI Enforcement Grid – Manages public safety, predictive arrests, and emotional regulation. Integrated with biometric scoring networks and Ministry data centers.
- Behavioral Scoring Devices – Citizens wear wrist-bound or implanted trackers that register loyalty points, efficiency, and psychological stability. Scores determine food allotments, housing rights, and breeding privileges.
- Internal InfoNet (Red-Line Grid) – A closed-loop data web connected only to Vanguard, Ministry, and Assembly systems. All outbound transmissions require triple-verification and are scrubbed of contraband ideology.
- Alchemically reinforced urban bunkers, constructed with Sith-imbued stone and alloys, make PDF headquarters and key Ministry buildings almost impregnable without orbital bombardment.
- Combat augments—especially neural suppressors and stimulant injectors—are routinely used on PDF troops during prolonged industrial pacification campaigns.
- Experimental mag-cloak armor tested in Hazard Regiments reflects heat signatures and repels particulate-based tracking systems.
HISTORICAL INFORMATION
Originally discovered and charted during early Outer Rim exploration efforts, Subterrel remained a quiet mining outpost for much of galactic history. Its rich mineral veins made it a moderately important resource world under the Old Republic and early Imperial expansions, but its obscurity and remote location ensured little development beyond extractive operations.This changed with the rise of the Eleventh Sith Empire, whose hunger for resource independence and industrial centralization saw Subterrel forcibly incorporated into the Empire's core infrastructure.
Now restructured under the Ministry of Production and Logistics, Subterrel serves as a key extraction and refinement hub, overseen by ruthless economic technocrats and religious functionaries of the Sepulchral as well as the planet's governor. The planet's subterranean vaults and refineries hum day and night, and its people toil under eternal smog, caught between the promise of upward mobility and the quiet despair of expendability.
Though slavery is outlawed, debt-bondage and penal labor are rampant, managed through bureaucratic fictions that blur the line between freedom and servitude. Subterrel's people are taught to worship their toil and fear its absence. Rebellion simmers in its ash-swept lowlands — but few dare raise a hand, for even the rocks themselves may watch, and whisper.
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