Relina Zhan
Ducha of Gallinore, "Apollyon the Slayer"
OUT OF CHARACTER INFORMATION
Gigantic, nebulous mass shadow restricting Hyperspace travel dramatically, intense and unpredictable ion storms constantly raging in the Mists, narrow and winding Hyperspace routes that are easily interdicted, and the Hapan Royal Navy itself. Pirates are also a known nuisance in the area.
POINTS OF INTEREST
The Knot Holes: A small cluster of stars, hot and young, recently formed from a portion of the Transitory Mists in the Lorelli Reach region. This area is arguably the hardest to navigate and is constantly haunted by Pirate gangs hiding out among the pillars of ionised gas waiting to ambush any hapless victims.
The Throat: A very narrow, winding Hyperspace tunnel through what is otherwise solid nebula mass that leads to a single star system in a clearing, the Shedu Maad system.
Roqoo Depot: A trading station in the Roqoo system, near the Tanaab side of the Hapes Cluster. It rests along the Hapan Spine Hyperspace route that links to the Perlemian trade route and the Tanaab system.
Telkur Station: A space station in the Transitory Mists near the Lorell System and The Knot Holes.
Queen Mother's Pearls: A small association of stars within the nebulosity between the Interior region and Hapan Rim Worlds. So named because of its resemblance to a string of pearls.
HISTORICAL INFORMATION
The Hapes Cluster was colonized around 4000 BBY by a band of pirates, known as the Lorell Raiders, who had found safe routes through the Transitory Mists to hide from Galactic Republic forces. The Lorell Raiders would abduct beautiful women along with their plundering, they would take them back to Hapes and eventually, due to an isolated gene pool, this created the modern Hapans, themselves considered by some to be near-Human and others merely a culturally and ethnically distinct breed of Humans. When the Jedi finally wiped out the Lorell Raiders, leaving the male population practically nonexistent, Hapes became a matriarchal monarchy led by a Queen Mother. The first Queen Mother then established the Hapes Consortium based on the planet of Hapes, and closed the borders of the Cluster around 3000 BBY, which would remain thus until 8 ABY. By the time of the New Republic, the Hapan state contained sixty-three explored star systems with inhabited worlds, although it was suspected that as many as one hundred nineteen habitable planets existed in the Cluster.
During the Dark Age and Gulag Virus epidemic, The Hapes Cluster remained insular and isolated. As they keep to themselves and are self-sufficient, the Cluster saw little significant effect from the pandemic. There were a few isolated instances of infection and suspected infections, but these were quickly quarantined. The cluster remained generally closed to outsiders with few exceptions during this period.
During the Netherworld Crisis, there were many disappearances that local religious sectarians quickly took to be a bad omen. Apart from families being separated and broken apart, the greatest impact was on corporate personnel disappearances, requiring companies to compensate rapidly to replace the lost and keep business flowing. The military was also impacts, with recent recruits all the way up to senior command vanishing, breaking the chain of command and requiring immediate response to adapt. Finally, Prisons saw riots, mostly by male pirate inmates, although a few reports of women's prisons having violent troubles as well. There were escapes due to staff shortages (they disappeared!) and new Pirate gangs formed. Others quietly slipped into obscurity, while organised crime made a resurgence in other areas. After the crisis had abated, the Military rapidly began restructuring as well as upgrading, retrofitting, and in some cases replacing entirely its existing ships and gear to respond to the internal threats in the aftermath.
Today, the Hapes Cluster is open, but the borders are regulated by the presence of the Royal Navy, which checkpoints near the two hyperspace entrances. These areas are also routinely patrolled for pirate and smuggler activity. The pirates themselves tend to avoid groups of Hapan warships unless detected and/or engaged, preferring foreign freighters they can chase down and hijack with less of a fight. The Hapes Consortium is very particular about whom they allow into their territory, as they always have been.
- Intent: To establish the parameters of traversing Hapan space so that the region can be written more canonically accurately
- Image Credit: http://holocron.swcombine.com/images/0/04/HapesCluster.jpg
- Canon: Yes]
- Links:
- http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Hapes_Cluster
- http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Transitory_Mists
- Astronomical Location Name: Hapes Cluster and Transitory Mists Nebula
- Classification: Open Star Cluster surrounded by an HII Emission Nebula
- Location: Inner rim, Grid O-9
- Rotational Period: N/A (true night doesn't exist inside of it, technically)
- Orbital Period: N/A
- Size: Massive
- Affiliation: Hapes Consortium
- Population: Heavily populated between 63 inhabited systems
- Demographics: 98% Human (Hapan breed, mostly), 2% Alien (various foreign or domestic races)
- Accessibility: There are only two known safe hyperspace routes in or out of the Hapes Cluster due to the mass-shadow generated by the Transitory Mists. These are narrow, winding tunnels that are notoriously difficult to navigate, making them classically ideal for smugglers and space pirates to use to hide from the law. In real space, this navigational difficulty is compounded by the constant presence of intense ion storms that wreak havoc with ship electronics, shielding, and life support. This provides a significant tactical advantage to the region's inhabitants as a result of bottlenecking incoming ships and heavily restricting their ability to manoeuvre.
- Description: Being a highly ionised star-forming region that exerts a great deal of mass in Hyperspace, The Hapes Cluster has been considered a natural, massive astronomical fortress, although the astrophysics of the region is perplexing. It has been conjectured that the Celestials may been responsible for the current stable configuration of the Cluster and it's Nebula. The Transitory Mists Nebula is always aglow from the radiation of the hundreds of stars in the Hapes Cluster, 63 of which have inhabited systems that together form the Hapes Consortium. No world within the Cluster knows true night and as a result, the Hapan people (themselves descendants of anceint Human pirates called the Lorrell Raiders, who previously occupied the Hapes Cluster as a base of operation) have adapted to the unusual lighting conditions. Coupled with their limited gene pool compared to the rest of the Human race and long periods of isolationism made easy by the very nature of the Transtiory Mists and Hapes Cluster, they are generally considered more beautiful than the average Human or Near Human, but have virtually lost their ability to see in the dark. Hyperspace travel within the cluster cannot be done in a straight line due to the nebula's interference, which incidentally helps divide the cluster up into seven quadrants: The Lorelli Reach, The Rifle Worlds, The Gateworlds, The Interior, The Corsair Outback, The Transitory Mists themselves, and the Hapan Rim Worlds. Travelling through Hyperspace from either side is generally a spiraling trip inward on the way to Hapes Prime, the capital of the Consortium. What should take a couple of days to cover 3,300 lightyears, as the Mynock flies, could take a little over a week in actuality.
Gigantic, nebulous mass shadow restricting Hyperspace travel dramatically, intense and unpredictable ion storms constantly raging in the Mists, narrow and winding Hyperspace routes that are easily interdicted, and the Hapan Royal Navy itself. Pirates are also a known nuisance in the area.
POINTS OF INTEREST
The Knot Holes: A small cluster of stars, hot and young, recently formed from a portion of the Transitory Mists in the Lorelli Reach region. This area is arguably the hardest to navigate and is constantly haunted by Pirate gangs hiding out among the pillars of ionised gas waiting to ambush any hapless victims.
The Throat: A very narrow, winding Hyperspace tunnel through what is otherwise solid nebula mass that leads to a single star system in a clearing, the Shedu Maad system.
Roqoo Depot: A trading station in the Roqoo system, near the Tanaab side of the Hapes Cluster. It rests along the Hapan Spine Hyperspace route that links to the Perlemian trade route and the Tanaab system.
Telkur Station: A space station in the Transitory Mists near the Lorell System and The Knot Holes.
Queen Mother's Pearls: A small association of stars within the nebulosity between the Interior region and Hapan Rim Worlds. So named because of its resemblance to a string of pearls.
HISTORICAL INFORMATION
The Hapes Cluster was colonized around 4000 BBY by a band of pirates, known as the Lorell Raiders, who had found safe routes through the Transitory Mists to hide from Galactic Republic forces. The Lorell Raiders would abduct beautiful women along with their plundering, they would take them back to Hapes and eventually, due to an isolated gene pool, this created the modern Hapans, themselves considered by some to be near-Human and others merely a culturally and ethnically distinct breed of Humans. When the Jedi finally wiped out the Lorell Raiders, leaving the male population practically nonexistent, Hapes became a matriarchal monarchy led by a Queen Mother. The first Queen Mother then established the Hapes Consortium based on the planet of Hapes, and closed the borders of the Cluster around 3000 BBY, which would remain thus until 8 ABY. By the time of the New Republic, the Hapan state contained sixty-three explored star systems with inhabited worlds, although it was suspected that as many as one hundred nineteen habitable planets existed in the Cluster.
During the Dark Age and Gulag Virus epidemic, The Hapes Cluster remained insular and isolated. As they keep to themselves and are self-sufficient, the Cluster saw little significant effect from the pandemic. There were a few isolated instances of infection and suspected infections, but these were quickly quarantined. The cluster remained generally closed to outsiders with few exceptions during this period.
During the Netherworld Crisis, there were many disappearances that local religious sectarians quickly took to be a bad omen. Apart from families being separated and broken apart, the greatest impact was on corporate personnel disappearances, requiring companies to compensate rapidly to replace the lost and keep business flowing. The military was also impacts, with recent recruits all the way up to senior command vanishing, breaking the chain of command and requiring immediate response to adapt. Finally, Prisons saw riots, mostly by male pirate inmates, although a few reports of women's prisons having violent troubles as well. There were escapes due to staff shortages (they disappeared!) and new Pirate gangs formed. Others quietly slipped into obscurity, while organised crime made a resurgence in other areas. After the crisis had abated, the Military rapidly began restructuring as well as upgrading, retrofitting, and in some cases replacing entirely its existing ships and gear to respond to the internal threats in the aftermath.
Today, the Hapes Cluster is open, but the borders are regulated by the presence of the Royal Navy, which checkpoints near the two hyperspace entrances. These areas are also routinely patrolled for pirate and smuggler activity. The pirates themselves tend to avoid groups of Hapan warships unless detected and/or engaged, preferring foreign freighters they can chase down and hijack with less of a fight. The Hapes Consortium is very particular about whom they allow into their territory, as they always have been.
