Jae Tellona....thoughts? (Part 1 of 2)

[Commander Truestar]

Jae Tellona / Rhylanor / Spinward Marches / Deneb Domain
A560565-8 N Green NI De 513 F9 IV
Port A - Excellent, Shipyard, TAS, Refined Fuel
Size 5 - 5,000 km diam
Atmo 6 - Standard
Hydr 0 - Desert
Pop 5 - hundereds of thousands
Govt 6 - Captive(Imp Naval Gov - Imperial Protectorate since the First Frontier War)
Law 5 - Visible, light intrusion
Tech 8 - 1980-95
Imp Navy and Marine bases
Green Travel code
Non-Ind, Desert
1 Ast Belt
3 Gas Giants
White Star

In the “Rule of Man”(Second Imperium) Solomani Humaniti ranged out to settle the many now available systems ruled or ignored by The Viliani Empire(The Ziru Sirka, or First Imperium per Cleon I of The Third Imperium). Populations on these worlds were held in check by the colonial waves aboard vessels flowing out further until the collapse of the Rule of Man. This happened between -2100 to -1900 in the Third Imperium calendar. By -1900 the Rule of Man was obviously in decline and by the year -1776 began a period of history known as “Twilight”, featuring the financial collapse and destruction of large-scale trade. This crash ended by -1526 with Twilight passing onto the Long Night.
The worlds Jae Tellona was colonized from had small communities, if any, of Vilani when the Solomani colonized them. Later Vilani and Solomani arrived as things worsened from the empire ‘s core out. They were finally cut off from interstellar travel and many worlds became over populated hells when populations could not be relocated and resources failed. By the first 100 years of The Third Imperium, Gushemege sector was recontacted and a brief series of reintegration wars fought against the “anti-Imperial Lancian League”. But the remaining interstellar or space capable systems in the sector were no match for the emerging Third Imperium. By 150 TI, the sector was integrated into the growing empire. Soon many of those over populated worlds spawned many publicly or privately funded colonial efforts. The ships that left for Jae Tellona were a private and internally funded expedition.
First explored by the IISS in the first 75 years of the Imperium, Jae Tellona was not tagged for settlement. Despite having a standard atmosphere, it was a complete desert. While evidence of water was found, the data was deep under the surface and orbital echo mapping couldn’t find any surface water. Not being a colonial target for government, it was perfect for those escaping overpopulation on their meager credits. So against government advise, the colonists sold off everything for the handful of aging fusion plants, core drills and pumps they could afford after leasing ships and left. Each group was required to buy at least one fusion power plant, core drill and water pump with survival supplies until they had a drilled well and harvested irrigated food crops. Sadly, a number of the settler groups faked their documents in push to get emigration permits. The colonial effort is now only remembered from the tale of an unknown crewmember on a void crossing ship in the reft between sectors. It is said this lost crewperson, so taken with the view of bright ships lit in the dark expanse between stars, wrote a poem in the language of their homeworld. The ships likened to “Star Moths” or “Jae Tellona” from their home world, looking for a place to cocoon and emerge as butterflies. Take the tale for what it’s worth as a very odd patch woven into the history and mythos of a harsh and demanding world where even the strong die if not careful. As in all star systems, the story of Jae Tellona begins with its sun, the harsh bright white star Lidisha. Destined to sputter out in several billion years, it will burn down on untold generations desperate enough to have settled or unlucky enough to have been assigned to the system. Initial settlement occurred in the circular in pattern around each colony’s power plant and well. Sadly, even well supplied settlements weren’t ready for the reality of the deserts of Jae Tellona. Worse, some groups faked their records, others bought old or even failing equipment which was they could afford. But many died even before equipment failed as lack of water and other basic resources bleached the settlements to their bones. Some found “less attractive” methods of getting back into space aboard the very rare visiting ships but all were born to adversity and the hardened found ways into the deserts and a much different life. Settlements winnowed down or died out as a small stream colonists found ways to live with the desert rather than in defiance.
Several centuries later word of survival from the desert prompted new research by the IISS which turned up some secrets held by the tribes of Jae Tellona. The first and most key discovery was the misclassification of a surface feature called “Pellet Rock Fields”. Named for the appearance of pattern-less gardens of pebble sized stones, the first Scout survey never explored these gardens. It was later found these weren’t rocks at all but “armored nodes” of the Denthaba plant, and cutting them open can provide water in the desert. This is now a TAS published “in case of emergency” notice. Huge water reserves exist in layers of porous rock deep beneath the surface and are normally reachable by drilling wells. The Denthaba actually germinates in those depths as a spherical core, called a “Haba Bal”, with a rough surface who’s texture is caused by surface “spore pockets” and “spurs”. Each spur will spawn a root and while the Haba Bal will only grow to a maximum of two meters in diameter, roots can grow a to half meter and reach out for tens of kilometers! When a root’s node end breaks the surface, the surface conditions force the node to grow an armored skin and then spawn other root branches behind the dead end. The exposed armored nodes are easily mistaken for rocks and multiple roots spawned near the surface cause the so called pebble gardens. As IISS and Imperial researchers in-system slowly uncover the mysteries of the world and its evolved cultures, more questions are being discovered than answers.

see Part 2 immediatly following in this thread

 

[Commander Truestar]

Jae Tellona: Thoughts (Part 2 of 2)

By the 300’s few of the settlements had survived long-term and a stubborn wandering tribal culture had been established. While starship visits were extremely rare during this period, the local settlements benefited from the influx of adventurers and fools. The surviving settlements continued a hard fought battle for life as would the growing tribes. On the interstellar-scape, the Jae Tellona system was become increasingly important as a path to the more Spinward parts of the sector. Growth of the Imperial population in the Spinward and Coreward Spinward Marches caused increased need for travel and trade routes into the sector. By 350 TI, a growing transient, but long term presence existed in the system. As with many other systems, the spacer traffic rarely had anything to do with the down-worlders except in cases of emergencies or speculative trade. Over the centuries, Jae Tellona would have become almost completely a pass through system except mineral discoveries and an event that was itself centuries in the making.
Jae Tellona was found to have several “near surface” deposits of natural ores making it inexpensive for surface mining. So an early source of income for some of the growing settlements was the support of ore mining. That established a speculative trade down-port which chanced to be visited by a merchanter A2 class at the same time a group of nomads wandered into the port city to trade. As part of the trades, the ship’s captain picked up a number of cut and faceted gemstones in the process. The ship’s name has been lost to history but the gemstones only faded to the shadows for nearly a century. It was during an audit of specimens in the Natural Minerals collection of the Deneb University(Deneb System/Usani/Deneb) that Sir Leffel M’isa rediscovered the gams. He noticed almost exact mineral similarities between the sample and sample data from Beryl-Sol. However, the clarity of the gemstones so surpassed any beryl found so far that he could even cut working magnifying lenses from the material! Sir Leffel immediately set plans in motion to visit the Jae Tellona system and find additional samples to verify his data. While no visitor to the deserts has yet successfully recovered the raw crystals in a dig, the results have been verified with samples traded for. Sir Leffel followed this up by gifting a ceremonial ring with the gems to The Emperor during a celebration of scientific discoveries at which he was elevated to the rank Baronet. Getting the news out was a critical scientific feather for Sir Leffel, however the scarcity of this suddenly desirable gem pushed the stones value into astronomical price ranges. The stones have become known as “Tellona Diamonds” and many an expedition into the deserts has returned ragged and empty handed or not returned at all. The only known source are the wandering nomads of the world.
Modern Jae Tellona is a jigsaw puzzle of nation-states grown from the surviving settlements. Each nation made its various connections with megacorporations including everything from cooperative industry to dirt-side “down time” facilities for workers. In addition, many of the nations have some share of local assembly plants, the most important of which are for the (Rhylanor Based)Clan Severn ship yards in orbit. Modern exports in addition to the assembly works(silicon based computer, ship based technology and vehicles) include mid-level tech goods, atmospherics, natural materials(Stone, Ore, etc..), metals, silicone based products for local stellar industry and heavy equipment built to withstand extreme heat environments. While Tellona Diamonds are a major export when brought to trade, there is no method to achieve a regular supply of them. Megacorporations have established mines on-world for the specified purpose of excavating stone, ore and natural materials, but all are believed to be spending some effort in search of Tellona Diamonds. A search which has so far gone unrewarded.
Politically, Jae Tellona’s settlements have grown into nation-states with the support(some claim prodding) of MegaCorp trade partners. What was a peace enforced by an environment too oppressive to fight in first shifted to survival based theft and conflict with the nomads. Soon, in answer to technical failures in the absence of an interstellar class engineering, “tech-raids” on neighbors began. But as the settlements grew to nations, the nations found themselves experiencing admittedly limited border disputes. There has not been a significant war on-world but there have been breaches of diplomatic relations, strings of shooting incidents and small scale battles. While the nations of Jae Tellona have not made serious in-roads to the wilderness desert, they have begun attempting to integrate the nomads into their societies with very negative results. Some of the nations have even resorted to capturing nomad encampments when they are found and forcing them to relocate to controlled locations. At the least, these attempts have led to violence. At the worst, mass suicide of the captured Woman, Children and men. Attempts to track and control the tribes with modern technology have been hampered by the facts of both nature and skill. Many sensors are not able to accurately function in the face of some on-world conditions. Additionally, attempts to track the nomads have often led to the odd result of the native fading from the tracking device inside the first 100 meters even when the subject of the tracking was still visible, wavering in the heat, to the bare eyes! The wholesale use of advanced technology has repeatedly failed to determine the location of any concentrations of nomadic camps or populations. Further, the expansion of the nation-states of Jae Tellona into the desert wastes has yet to be resisted
This has been and remains the pattern of slow and painstaking growth on-world as megacorporations have established ship yards and interstellar transit support hubs in space. With three gas giants providing a J-2 bridge for capital vessels across a key J-4 route to the empire’s borders, Jae Tellona became an important system to deny enemies as well as support Imperial fleets. This became most obvious in the First Frontier War when Zhodani Consular Officer Tliaklabtl attempted to win the war with combined Zhodani and Vargr thrusts meeting at Jae Tellona in the year 604. When the Vargr fell short, the Zhodani fleet was forced to withdraw. Jae Tellona’s fleet support bases and services have played key roles in all of the frontier wars except the Fourth “False” War.
Modern interstellar Jae Tellona is a wide mixture of cultures and services ranging from the very border of the empire to well into the Deneb and even Corridor sectors. Food, goods and tech can be found reaching out from the Imperial Main which ends in the Rhylanor System as well as the L’isis main from Sabine Subsector(Deneb Sector). Trade through the system is supported both from the major Imperial trade routes of the Spinward Marches as well as the literally hundreds of millions of smaller vessels plying the Spinward Main(A trade “Main” is a large number of Jump-1 and Jump-2 worlds linked in a long chain so that small and independent free and far traders can thrive carrying the much more common and smaller cargos not handled by mega-Freighters)

Corp Jae Tellona
All the main carriers are here, Oberlindes, Tukuera, Al Morai, GSbAG, LSP, etc… You can stop at the ever-the same Brubakers or grab a meal at AstroBurgers. Denzetti owns several assembly plants on-world and in orbit as well as Clan Severn. Rhylanor based Clan Severn owns assembly yards in space constructing vessels from systems delivered by jump or assembled from delivered parts from higher tech systems. SuSAG and General Products LIC have major on-world facilities and a favorite export are food flavorings and ingredients bred by the evolutionary forces of the desert.

 

[FreeTrav]

Please tighten this up a bit (go over it with a spelling and grammar checker, too), and submit it, along with your real name, to editor@freelancetraveller.com for inclusion in a future issue of the magazine [Jump Destinations section].

 

[BeRKA]

On of my PCs in an online game was from Jae Tellona.

Sharona Irem-Koch
Doctor
6A78B6 Age 24 2 terms KCr20

Medical-3, Computer-2, Admin-1, Electronics-1

Items: Instruments

Born on Jae Tellona A560565-8
Studied at The Jurgensen Institute at Rhylanor.

 

[BeRKA]

Then I just had to add this link.

 

[BeRKA]

Data from Galactic is found here.

 

[Commander Truestar]

Then I just had to add this link.

Added to my songbook!

My very great thanks!

Marc

 

[Keklas Rekobah]

"Even at this distance, Jae Tellona's average temperature remains in a survivable range because of the absence of large oceans on Jae Tellona's arid surface. Because there are no oceans present to cool the planet, the energy of Dikaai, the system's solitary subgiant star, is conserved rather well..."

It's my understanding that oceans tend to moderate the global climate, and not increase or decrease the overall temperature. A sealed container of water will have the same temperature in the water as the walls of the container itself. Allow the water to escape through evaporation, however, and the caontainer and its contents will be marginally colder than the surroundings until all the water is gone. Then the container's temperature will depend solely on its thermal environment.

"... The above description may give the wandering traveller the impression that Jae Tellona is a powder keg waiting to blow. Just the opposite is true, however. Jae Tellona maintains a remarkably harmonious society...

An armed society is a polite society, after all.

Well done.

 

[Commander Truestar]

It's my understanding that oceans tend to moderate the global climate, and not increase or decrease the overall temperature.

Actually, on the scale I was working I considered two things most highly.
The first was albedo. Where the colors of a body of water are bright the color adds to their reflective albedo values as I understand it. Where that body of water is shallow enough, the underlying terrain may mitigate or enhance this. Given that there are no large Bright bodies of water, this generally leaves the terrain.
Granted, most people who do not think about it see a desert world very much like the vast open sands and dunes of the saharra if they think of such things at all. But the real make up of the surface of such a world is not so monotone. The brighter swatches of dune seas do exist, however they are not likely to make up the predominant surface coloring.
My second consideration of albedo was that of variance and effect. Places that are dark and absorb more of the local star's heat will be warmer unless that is moderated. The same with regions which are more reflective, except that they will be cooler. The oceans of our world are only part of the system that moderates our temperatures though. The currents of the ocean are part of a single "fluid dynamics system" which includes the air in the atmosphere and the currents found there. In the case of the Jae Tellona that I have envisioned, the "albetic" effects are not as great as those on Terra, and are moderated by the atmosphere of that world much the same way Terra's Oceanic and atmospheric dynamics do.

The fact that I could be wrong or missing something(and the latter I am willing to accept as guaranteed) is why I post this here. My players have not gotten to JT yet and I am looking for m mistakes before they have to accept them as "what is written".

Marc

 

[Keklas Rekobah]

Gach! I forgot about albedo!

Never mind...

 

[aramis]

Water's albedo is surprisingly variable.

As ice, it's nearly 1. (0.8 to 0.9 for fresh snow)
As deep saltwater, its closer to 0.05 from above, and close to 0.9 at 90° angle of incidence. (Earth's current albedo is measured at 0.39).

And truly deep water is capable of absorbing and storing huge volumes of energy...

 

[Commander Truestar]

Water's albedo is surprisingly variable.

As ice, it's nearly 1. (0.8 to 0.9 for fresh snow)
As deep saltwater, its closer to 0.05 from above, and close to 0.9 at 90° angle of incidence. (Earth's current albedo is measured at 0.39).

And truly deep water is capable of absorbing and storing huge volumes of energy...

No arguments about the varyability of water, however there is no argument that Sol's impact would be much greater if Terra did not have her oceans. The exposure of a great deal more dark and mid-range surface features(granite expanses, etc) would cause a much greater energy retention.
Another factor I have had in the back of my head(which is another reason posting this here was good) is that "my" Jae Tellona is an "older world" in cosnideration of her core. Terra's energy sources are split between Solar and released energy fo the planet's core. While my JT has four volcanic zones which shift between active and dormant, this world's core has cooled a great deal more than Terra. There is much less a release of core energy. As I envision it, tectonic events are very rare and volcanic events tend to be long term builds to locally catestrophic explosions as gasses and "lava rises" buth push and grow ove time, until there is a breach.

Marc