Sorthor

System: Sorthor

Hex Location: 2331

Star Type: Single M3 V

Number of Worlds: 12

Gas Giants: 6

Planetoid Belt: Cometary belt

Starport Type: E Frontier star port

World Size: Asteroid sized

Atmosphere Type: Earth-like

Surface Water: 40%

Population: Medium (c. 1 million)

Political Affiliation: Vorgan Than Viceroyalty (Seraean Empire)

Tags: Xenophobia, Thaumatophilia, Eugenic mania

Notes: An infrequently visited colonial world belonging to the Vorgan Than Viceroyalty, Sorthor is one of the more unusual worlds in the sector. Located on a smallish, Ceres-sized moon of the gas giant Tavvia, a ringed planet who sheds a cloud of gas and dust into the orbits of the moons, coating them in strange dust and creating spectacular sunsets (which, given the red dwarf star, are already pretty darn spectacular compared to yellow suns such as on Earth. In spite of its relatively small size, Sorthor has been massively terraformed by both thaumaturgy and technology; incarnated gravitic spells cover the entire surface of Sorthor, giving it near Earth equivalent gravity (although these spells do not extend very far upwards, and the gravity and atmosphere thin tremendously with only a few hundred feet of elevation gain.) Water tugged to the world from comets in the Kuiper belt and melted on the surface provides shallow lakes and small seas. The surface is relatively rocky, but imported vegetation does grow in strange fungal and coral-like forests, lawns of green grass provide grazing fodder for herds of imported thoats and zitidars, and there are even a few predators that roam the world.

Originally created to be the secret base of a renegade Death Sage, the arrival of the Colorless (also known as the Imperials, heathens, or Seraeans to the rest of known space) brought an end to his rule; warlocks and Shadow Knights, as well as Imperial troops, annihilated the Death Sage's undead servitors to the last shambling corpse, and the cyberlich was drawn, quartered and burned.

More cyberliches have since come to Sorthor, looking for the legacy of Sath Yogguath, the Death Sage who created Sorthor from a lifeless rock, but they made alliance with the warlocks and Shadow Knights, and joined them as equals in the search for more unclean power and understanding of the Outer Darkness and its ways. Today, many such live among the Imperial heathens and along with the warlocks and Shadow Knights, run the society of Sorthor. People without any form of "the Gift" are common, but pitied somewhat by the more generous; seen as completely expendable by the rest. They make up a vast underclass on Sorthor while the warlocks, cyberliches and Shadow Knights hold almost all of the power and wealth.

There is little in the way of facilities for visitors to Sorthor. Unrefined fuel, cracked from water, or picked up and perfunctorily scrubbed of the worst of its dust from the scattered dust and gas torus that Sorthor orbits in is about it; most visitors are better served simply skimming the outer atmosphere of Tavvia itself, or one of the other many gaseous worlds in the system. With the exception of Seraean warlocks or Shadow Knights (and some grudging acceptance of other warlocks or psionic knights, especially Idacharians) nobody else is really very welcomed on Sorthor anyway. They maintain a cultural isolation that is second to few in the region, and non-Gifted who are non-native are treated with extreme prejudice, and run the risk of being lynched without warning if they step even a tiny bit out of line. The only exceptions to this are mercenaries brought by various Knights or other Lords for various reasons, which do pass through Sorthor on occasion; but which usually stay in neighborhoods reserved for their use as much as possible.

Perhaps it is the friendly relationship with the cyberliches, and the integration of some of them into the ruling caste, but cybernetics is a bit of a fetish with Sorthoreans, and it is rare to find someone who (if they can afford it) doesn't feature at least some designer cybernetic gear. Indeed, the ruling caste is cybernetic almost to a man, but even the lower castes see it as the fashionable thing to do if one can. In fact, the cybersurgeons of Sorthor are so practiced and have such a good reputation that people come from far and wide (especially Imperial citizens) to get their grafts done here, and if one needs or wants cybernetic grafts, Sorthorean cybernetics are widely considered the best available.