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Verge Sector

More (Select) Worlds of Mimiuudlika Subsector

Razar (1809 Verge) - A424658–E Ni Px Sa Lk
Orbiting a vast gas giant in the company of many other moons, Razar has the dubious distinction of being the last moon standing. Another moon named Stijn, for which this system was once named, has faded into a minor settlement for various reasons, leaving the prison facility at Razar and its extensive support structure as the dominant world here.
With a dangerously thin atmosphere and a tidal lock to the gas giant, Razar suffers a considerable swing in diurnal temperature, making it uncomfortably warm during its daylight hours and frigid during night. This is enhanced due to the moon being behind its gas giant for a significant part of its orbit, meaning the inward surface of Razar rarely sees sunlight.
Roughly 5 million souls call Razar home, willingly or not. Most live on the face away from the gas giant, positioned to get sunlight while also not getting too much. The starport is located in a shaded valley near the anti-pole, getting blisteringly hot on the surface. The free populace of Razar, almost entirely Human, is arrayed around the port as industry and topography allow. At the inward "Gas Pole" lies a large Imperial Prison, capable of housing nearly 100,000 inmates across its many compounds. Locked in by the intense cold, eternal night, and occasional radiation storm as much as by the walls and locks of the prison, the population here is rarely at capacity or even close to it; being perched on the edge of the Rift gives this facility a remoteness that works too well, making it too expensive to transport most inmates here.
The Knight Resident position here is frequently held by former Wardens of the prison facility, as reward for holding a thankless and draining position.

Tarken (2301 Verge) - D99A320–9 Wa Lo Tz
An immense, dark, poisonous water world, Tarken sits at the outside edge of its star's habitable zone, kept warm by the thick, smoggy air. While the rocky core of the world is tidally locked to the star, the water and air here is in constant motion, keeping Tarken from the usual fate of tidally locked worlds. One result is that the seas are extremely silty, and there is no land of note anywhere on the planet. The Starport, such as it is, occupies one of the few islands near the cold pole of Tarken.
Tarken's 8,000 permanent residents are a hardly lot, using grav platforms and primitive "airboats" to move about the sludgy and slushy cold polar waters. Due to misguided terraforming attempts in the distant past, the seas are home to a host of primitive sea life, which is filtered out of the waters and used as feedstock for the food vats which feed the locals and form Tarken's only significant export.
The Knight Resident here functions as the Portmaster and, by request, primary judiciary authority. Neither job keeps her particularly busy.
 
My players have taken things into Ilelish already. They're siding with the rebellious Ilelish worlds and helping a rogue Naval Intelligence agent pulls additional worlds, and a couple nobles, into the cause. They're currently trying to assassinate a subsector duke with the help of the duke's daughter.
 
(Select) Worlds of the Great Rift

Koirola (0711 Verge) - E433523–8 Ni Po Tz
A contender for the most remote world to claim Imperial membership, Koirola sits at the end of the long chain of worlds strung out into the Great Rift. Arguably, it sits beyond that chain, as only one other system is within six parsecs of it, and that world, Bledarua, is more than six parsecs from anywhere else.
Koirola is tidally locked to its primary, despite the efforts of the dim companion star, but is one of those rare locked worlds with just the right orbit to produce an almost livable twilight ring. A narrow band of land and salty sea flirting with the sun lit edge of twilight is relatively comfortable in the lower valleys where the twilight winds don't often reach and the air is just thick enough to conduct agriculture. The population of roughly 200,000 lives fairly well despite their isolation. They do see occasional visitors from the Imperium, looking for the exposed ores and exotic evaporites of the sunny side and bringing welcome infusions of Imperial technology. The port, such as it is, sits on the sun lit face near the current mine and quarry operations, but will move when the mining operation does. The rest of the populace lurks in small communities in the twilight zone or along the cold road on the night side to the purposely remote estate of the Imperial Knight Resident.

Bledarua (0410 Verge) - E424200–7 Lo
The lonely neighbor of Koirola, this world is arguably more friendly to its 800 hardy residents, all of whom claim to be related if you go back a few generations.
Bledarua's too thin atmosphere also suffers from a high enough methane content to require filtration. While it keeps the world warmer than might be expected, it has also kept the residents from expanding despite arriving here several centuries ago. Most of the population lives on an island in one of the narrow seas, surviving on the aging hydroponics the colony brought with it and a carefully managed ocean farming operation. The world harbors considerable life, but all of it is imported species found widely across Vilani space, leading to suspicions that the current occupants may not be the first occupants. Questions regarding how the Vilani may have gotten there so early are unanswered, and the remoteness of the system means there is little interest in investigation.
Bledarua is not an Imperial member world, but that is due more to neglect and the recent occupation than any conscious decision. The colonists were Imperial and consider the world an Imperial world. No one has informed the Imperium, however.
While the residents operate as a large family unit, they do respect seniority and service, and periodically elect a "Knight" to serve as their Imperial liaison. The position comes with a traditional residence on the nearby mainland, but maintaining it is beyond their means. This means the Residence is frequently cold, dark, and deserted unless a recent Knight-nominee has seen fit to make the expected effort to renovate and occupy it for a few years.
 
Both worlds are under-settled and remote enough to hide all sorts of things the Second Survey might have missed.
 
More (Select) Worlds of Nuzuu Subsector

Kutubba (3202 Verge) - X563775–2 Ri Fo (Red Zone)
Once a thriving, if somewhat detached, member world of the Imperium, Kutubba suffered a catastrophic geothermal collapse beneath its deepest ocean in the late 400s. The predictions around the event caused the world to be given an Amber rating in 460, but the effects of the collapse were worse than anticipated. The atmosphere, borderline tainted prior to the event due to rising industrial development at the then TL of 8, became clogged with volcanic byproducts which would persist for decades. Temperatures across the globe fluctuated wildly, and the agricultural capacity of the world plummeted. Over 90% of the population would eventually die or fail to reproduce due to extreme conditions. The Starport Authority and local nobility at the time made the difficult decision to withdraw from the world, feeling that they could not preserve Imperial presence while watching the unfolding tragedy. The formerly rated C Port was abandoned, falling to an effective D then E in a few short years. A second collapse event loomed, and the surviving inhabitants began threatening ships to secure offworld passage. When this resulted in the loss of several ships, the Imperium decided to bombard the remaining port facility from orbit and interdict the world. This condition remains to this day, though a review is due in 1121. The atmosphere has largely recovered from the disasters centuries ago, but the surviving populace is violently xenophobic.
(See "Agent of the Imperium" for the start of this tale)

Minor (2906 Verge) - CA69667-9 Ni Ri
This mysterious world shows signs in the few exposed rocks of once having been tidally locked to its star, though it is now in an orbit that would not normally create such conditions. Minor is almost entirely water covered, with most of the land areas arrayed in a near perfect ring around the world from pole to pole, though broken into many islands. Relatively hospitable aside from high gravity, Minor was colonized from nearby Lagi (2805 Verge) long ago and retains a colonial relationship even now.
Located in a medium sized main of worlds adjacent to the massive Vilani Main, and also close to the spinward edge of the Suerrat expansion, Minor today has a dominant Vilani-derived population with a significant minority of Suerrat, mirroring the makeup of Lagi. While long dominated by the tech savvy Vilani, there is nonetheless a thriving sailing culture here, influenced by the challenges of buoyancy on a high gravity world. Storms here are incredibly violent, and most vessels are built with that in mind. The sea life is largely native to Minor and broadly compatible with Humaniti. There are no recognized sophonts native to Minor.
 
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For some reason, the mapping site placed Minor in Orbit 0 and tidally locked it, but the star should have its hab zone in Orbit 2. I decided to *mostly* ignore the map site's data.
 
More (Select) Worlds of Biika Subsector (G)

Onortas (1817 Verge) - A958266-D Lo Mr Navy Base
A chilly world dominated by high salinity oceans separating three lonely continents and a wide scattering of islands large and small. Onortas is controlled by the Imperial Navy, but retains a capable, if small, civilian port as well. The highly rated civilian port is almost an accidental side effect of the Navy yards here, as the supply chains that feed the Navy also serve the civilian sector. As one of only two shipyards in the subsector, Onortas Yards has a reputation for small water-optimized starships, and produces several types of Imperial Navy aquatic landing craft as well as a thriving business in aquatic compatible traders and yachts. Supporting businesses here also produce some of the finest ice harvesting refueling systems in the Domain.
The Navy uses the world mostly as a fuel supply, and a heavy gravity training ground for both its own damage control and salvage specialists and a steady stream of Imperial and regional Marine and Army trainees. The Startown here is dominated by military friendly businesses, and patrolled by Military Police. The Navy also builds ships here, in mostly separate operations from the civilian yards. Because of the long supply chains, the Navy yard here is largely engaged in building escorts of various types instead of capital hulls.
There is a "native" populace of roughly 400 individuals living on the western continent in the area surrounding the port and Startown. The Navy considers them a nuisance, but their continued presence is supported by local and subsector nobility, and they have proven to be canny survivors on this chilly world. How they acquired their claims to legitimacy and the tacit protection of the nobility is not widely known or shared, but it is known that the current Knight Resident is one of their number, and that this has been the case more often than not for centuries.

There are two worlds named Onortas in Verge Sector, the other being located in Mimiuudlika Subsector (C). As is sometimes the case the two worlds do enunciate their name a bit differently. Onortas/Biika tends to be spoken with emphasis on the first "O", while the residents of the other Onortas have developed an accent that softens "r" sounds, making their homeworld sound more like Onoahtas.
 
Looking at Subsector H worlds for the next update. Pondering Aspera. A prime NIL candidate, though the world mapper at Traveller Worlds asserts a human population.
 
More (Select) Worlds of Miruu Subsector (H)


(This is perhaps a bit more exotic and fanciful than Traveller would normally see, but if you need a "fantasy" world with the universe of Traveller looking down upon it in vexation, this might fit your needs.)


Aspera (Verge 2520) - X555975-4 Hi Red Zone


A chilly world locked around an ancient ember of a star, Aspera shows signs of having evolved life at least twice, and now hosts Humaniti as well.


The fossil record here, investigated over centuries during the Long Night, revealed that the night side and light side lifeforms here were completely unrelated but each had extensive fossil records as well as modern living examples. Hints that this included not one but two native sophonts were broadly ignored for centuries. Then, as the Third Imperium expanded into the region in the 100s, both of the sophont species emerged from hiding, engaging each other and the now native Humans in first skirmishes then all out war. The dayside Vinit-nar were almost ethereal photovores with local group minds, appearing as translucent sheets and blobs in the skies and capable of transforming the overwhelming sunlight into coherent form, effectively infrared lasers fired from the clear sky. An unknown event had driven them far into the parched dayside or into buried hibernation before humans arrived. In both states they were incapable of rational thought, which required a specific amount of solar energy to maintain without slipping into an ecstatic and overwhelmed state, or sleep.


Meanwhile, the nightside Calat-nir, deep sub-ice swimmers and powerfully psionic, had also been dreaming away the millennia, ignoring the buzzing minds of Humaniti above, at least at first.


The event or set of coincidences that made both aware of Humaniti are unknown, but when the Third Imperium arrived it found an ongoing war. What little surviving technology the humans of Aspera had possessed was being destroyed from both directions, and Imperial attempts to assist were fired upon or attacked psionically. When communications were attained with the Calat-nir, they conveyed implacable hatred of all others. From those communications come the only known name for the Vinit-nar, as communications were never attained with them. Unable to broker peace, or even land uncontested, the Third Imperium backed off and interdicted the world in 223. Within the next century a safe distance around the world was empirically determined, and this is still enforced. The remainder of the system is available for ships to pass through, but squatters and loiterers are actively discouraged by a Naval presence.


The modern situation on Aspera is one of punctuated cold war. There are several Human states arranged around the twilight region of the world, now as distrustful of each other as they are of the demons of the night and bright lands that flank them. Attempts to discover and grasp resources they know are in those lands sometimes succeed, and other times attract the Vinit-nar or the Calat-nir into reprisals. Careful Imperial observations have so far found no reason to lift the interdiction.
 
I assume you're talking about sophont species, not non-sentient natives?

Is Aspera (Verge 2520) red-zoned just because of the low TL society or because it has a native life form?

As a third alternative, its (M2V) primary could be a particularly high-frequency but low-predictability flare star, with Aspera tidally-locked and the civilization surviving on the dark side of the planet at the highest level of technology they can maintain with periodic radiation blasts from the star.
 
Very minor suggestion for Verge: I included Ukhluk (Verge 2104) on a list of potential Ael Yael colonies; we know several have been established on worlds with low gravity, a dense untainted atmosphere, and a warm or tropical climate, presumably in reasonable proximity to Jaeyelya. Ukhluk fits the bill nicely.
 
It falls within the broad guidelines for minor races (90% are within 10 parsecs of home; the listed population is less than 1% of the homeworld). Are you thinking a dominant colony, an even mix, or just enough to appear on the UWP?
 
It falls within the broad guidelines for minor races (90% are within 10 parsecs of home; the listed population is less than 1% of the homeworld). Are you thinking a dominant colony, an even mix, or just enough to appear on the UWP?
The listed population for Ukhluk is 20,000. I'd assume that any Ael colony is small in absolute terms (we're told that none of the Ael outsystem colonies, less than a dozen in all, have larger populations than the homeworld, Jaeyelya having only 7 million). 20,000 seems a bit large for this underpopulated race, so I'd assume no more than 4-5,000 Ael, with the majority population presumably being Human.
 

Following the Desert World principle (UWP hydro stat 0 actually equals 0% to 5% surface fluid) the Ael Yael population has been capped at "hundreds" (less than 5% of the population). Coz Ael Yael don't show up on the Trav Map world data (smaller groups are notated as "10%" chunks of the population) this "less than 5%" thing is a sort of work-round for that. The size of the population of Ael Yael has been left deliberately vague in terms of real numbers - could be as few as 100, could be nearly a thousand. This allows anything from a few trailblazing pioneers establishing themselves to a relatively sizeable, well-established community, or whatever the individual ref envisions. Hope that works for you.
 
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Following the Desert World principle (UWP hydro stat 0 actually equals 0% to 5% surface fluid) the Ael Yael population has been capped at "hundreds" (less than 5% of the population). Coz Ael Yael don't show up on the Trav Map world data (smaller groups form "10%" chunks of the population) this "less than 5%" thing is sort of a work-round for that. The size of the population of Ael Yael has been left deliberately vague in terms of real numbers - could be as few as 100, could be nearly a thousand. This allows anything from a few trailblazing pioneers establishing themselves to a relatively sizeable, well-established community, or whatever the individual ref envisions. Hope that works for you.
That seems completely reasonable. Thanks!

Given how small the population of Ael Yael is overall, I imagine their colonies aren't often sizeable enough to make the "shorthand" census.
 
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