Thra

Thra

Type: Terrestrial
Temperature: Temperate
Atmosphere: Type I (breathable)
Hydrosphere: Moderate
Gravity: Standard
Terrain: Dry plains, mountains, rain forest, swamp
Length of Day: 57,3 standard hours¹⁾
Length of Year: 578 local days²⁾
Physical Diameter: 9740 km
Sapient Species: UrRu (10), Skek(~200), Humans, and human slaves & zombies ³⁾ (90%)
Other Species: Garthim, Landstriders, Crystal Bats, etc. - a plethora of creatures and plants, not all readily identifyable for what they are.
Starport: Lem, a space station connected to it's ground based twin Bah through a space elevator
Points of Interest: Valey of Standing Stones, Swamp of the Black River, Ancient Ruins, Wandering Woods, Teeth of the Skreesh, Bah-Lem Valley with the twin crystal cities of Bah and Lem that are connected through a space elevator tube/tower
Population: Less than 1 million
Planet Function: Home world of Skek and UrRu, former home world of the UrSkek
Official Language: Basic
Government: a council of 9 Skek directly serving and catering to the Skek Emperor
Major Cities: the Twin Crystal Cities of Bah and Lem that are connected through a kind of space elevator; Refugee Town in the Valey of the Standing Stones
Tech Level: var.
Major Exports: CrysTech™ (crystal-based technology), Softech™ (bioengineered creatures)
Major Imports: Slaves
Affiliation: Skek Empire

System: Thra system
Suns: actually 1: Ordva, but from the planet 3 are visible: Ordva, Gniveld (a glowing hot moon), and Jaheen (technically a brown dwarf) *⁾
Moons: 1: Gniveld which looks and radiates like a small, dark red sun
Sector: DarkSpace
Region of Space: Unknown Region

Hyperspace Travel:
Trade Route:

Notes:

*⁾ The Thra system actually has only one sun which is also the center of the system, but Thra's only moon (Gniveld) is so much affected by the gravitational pulls of the sun, Thra itself and the gas giant that it never cooled down and is still molten hot magma that radiates like a small dark sun. Jaheen, the brown dwarf, radiates stongly in the non-visible spectrum, but because of a curious interaction with some rare elements of Thra's atmosphere becomes visible as an additional sun from the plantet's surface. Additionally, due to a lensing effect it looks smallest when Thra is nearest to the gas giant's position while when they are on opposite sides of the sun, Jaheen looks even larger than Ordva.

¹⁾ The day period is based on the rotation of Thra in relation to the main sun. The actual day/night durations are highly variable and depend on the other two "suns" Gniveld and Jaheen. On average the "days" last half of the cycle time, but most of the "night" is a rather bright twilight, sometimes as bright as the days.

²⁾ Based on Thra's movement around the main sun

³⁾ using a combination of CrysTech™, SofTech™ and "magic" (what they call the Force) the Skek have devised a method to sap willpower and latent force from sentient beings, leaving them in a virtual state of "zombification" (see below). They keep on living but have no drives and desires to speak of.

Description:

Thra is a far removed world that was once settled by the UrSkek, a Force-sensitive race who had developed a technology to crystalize force and had built their whole culture around a great mother-crystal. Several milennia ago an accident occurred and the crystal broke, the shards scattered throughout the galaxy. At the same time the UrSkek seized to be and two new races emerged: the good natured UrRu and the malevolent Skek. The UrRu left the castle of the crystal, settled in what later became the Valey of Standing Stones and built a socienty of contemplation and thoughtful progress to slowly escape from the stone age into which they had been thrust by the accident. At the same time the Skek remained at the castle pursuing the lost crystal-technology and started experimenting with living beings. They rebuilt the castle and enlarged it many times and when the first visitors from other worlds came realized that there was power in profit.

After a few milennia had passed the UrRu had left the planet (except for a small number that remained in the Valey of the Standing Stones) in search of the lost crystal shards while the Skek expanded the castle to a city with a twin that orbited the planet and connected by a long shaft, essentially a space elevator. In these cities lived all kinds of scum from around the galaxy and a great number of slaves that the Skek were in constant need of. They developed their crystal and bioengineering technologies which became highly sought export articles.

CrysTech™

Technology based on crystals used as power sources, amplifiers, resonators, conductors, processing units, radiation focus and coating. The main advantage of CrysTech™ is that items made this way are immune to overcharging by ion based weaponry, electrical charge and EMP.

SofTech™

Equipment that is actually precisely bioengineered living creatures. The main advantage is that Softech™-items are independent of power sources and can thus be effectively employed in Low-Tech enviornments. As such items are living tissue they are also immune to ion based weaponry and EMP, although they can be stunned and killed with ordinary weapons.

CrysTech™ and Softech™ are generally not available on the open Market and are only sold under the table or on the black market. If available and for sale SofTech™ would probably cost approximately 10 times the price of a similar piece of "coventional" make. CrysTech™ equipment, if available at all is approximately worth 100 times the price of an equivalent normal tech item but may fetch much higher prices.

Zombies

Through a combination of CrysTech™ and SofTech™ sentient beings are brainwashed and their memories and life essence are extracted. The subjects become obedient puppets with no indiviual drive to speak of. They perform all given tasks that are not too complicated without questioning, but are uncreative and neither bright nor thorough. They basically become organic droids. After a few years in this state these poor beings even loose their desire to eat or drink and simply sit down to die.

When a zombie is created the creature looses all skills and 1D from all attributes. If this reduces an attribute to 0D, the creature dies in the process. If the creature survives, KNOWLEDGE, MECHANICAL and TECHNICAL are further reduced to 2 pips.

There is currently no process known that can reverse this.

Source:

Created by Kurst for the character UrYōma; inspired by The Dark Crystal, Battle Angel Alita, and Dark Space (Rolemaster/Space Master setting by Monte Cook)