TarsDhangeta
System: Tars Dhangeta
Hex Location: 2119
Star Type: Single star, G7 V
Number of Worlds: 6
Gas Giants: 4
Planetoid Belt: Comet belt
Tars Dhangeta
Starport Type: B High class port
World Size: Earth-sized
Atmosphere Type: Hazardous. Earth-like, but with thick upper atmosphere clouds of sulfuric acid that occasionally rains down on the surface
Surface Water: 60%, although usually quite shallow
Population: Large (3.4 billion)
Political Affiliation: Dhangetan Cartel
Notes: Tars Dhangeta and Tars Bruttium are both Earth-sized moons of a terrestrial zone gas giant, which looms overhead in the sky of both planets. Tars Dhangeta is the most important world of the Dhangetan Cartel, although it is not the original world of the Dhangetans. The Dhangetans are a large, alien species. They were originally a form of hulk, from a high gravity world, but few of them have lived on high gravity worlds now for many generations, so their robust morphological features have largely gone to seed and turned to genetic obesity. To humans from earth, they are sometimes described as fat, furry frogs with wide, toothy maws, four spider-like eyes and limbs that split into two paws halfway down their length. But even in their strongholds, the Dhangetans are themselves relatively rare. They reproduce asexually, usually by some form of budding, but they often eat their own larval offspring, and generally fear competition from the rising generations.
Tars Dhangeta is covered with thick upper atmospheric clouds of sulfuric acid vapor. Luckily, the clouds tend to stay in the upper atmosphere, but for the unprepared the rare sulfuric acid rainstorm can be extremely dangerous. Most native life-forms are sufficiently immune to its effects that it doesn't overly hurt them, but off-worlders usually wear protective suits of some kind, or stay indoors.
The surface of the planet is treated rather casually by the Dhangetans. Large areas of relatively low-lying marshland, overgrown with trees, vines, and other plants, and teeming with nearly dinosaur-sized reptilian life-forms that are a hazard to all, is dotted in many places with wreckage and ruins of one industrial or agricultural project or another that's been attempted over the years and then abandoned. Haphazardly built and maintained cities dot the landscape, each with its capo or warlord, jockeying for power. The real nature of Tars Dhangeta is a place to get stuff that is difficult, or even highly illegal elsewhere: drugs, smuggled arms, mercenaries, slaves—you name it, the Dhangetans probably deal in it and this is the system in which to get it.
There are few laws, and the only "law" that really matters the most is "don't mess with the Dhangetans warlords or their favored proxies." Murder happening in the streets: not a big deal. Slave trading openly: nobody cares. Walking around with pirated Imperial military tech: well, everyone will give you a wary eye. If someone else has a problem with what you're doing and interferes; again—nobody official will say anything to you. Tars Dhangeta is a place for the strong, who can intimidate those who would bother them into leaving them alone, or at least if you're not sufficiently strong, it's best to make strong friends quickly.
Swamp-lizard riding escaped slaves, runaway debtors, or anyone who's otherwise hiding from anything resembling civilized society live in the swamps. Even these are tolerated, although they often interfere more with the Dhangetans, so are more likely to be hunted down and made examples of.
Tars Bruttium
Starport Type: A High class port
World Size: Earth-sized
Atmosphere Type: Earth-like
Surface Water: 35%
Population: Super-populated (25 billion)
Political Affiliation: Dhangetan Cartel
Notes: Similar in culture to Tars Dhangeta, the other moon, Tars Bruttium, which orbits closer to the gas giant (so that it looms in the sky even larger) has become super-populated, whereas Tars Dhangeta remains somewhat lightly so. Whatever native life-forms may have once lived here, they are almost certainly either extinct, or adapted to the urban life by necessity; there is little or no habitat here that isn't artificial. If Tars Bruttium is the Las Vegas of known space, that doesn't mean that the whole planet is the Strip, though—much of it is in fact abandoned and feral, although who knows what has moved in and occupied the crumbling ruins can be anyone's guess, and travelers who wander into these regions often never return.
Tars Bruttium is also a hotbed of political intrigue. Embassies from all of the other Great Powers are entertained, yet the lawless nature of the system means that they often engage in extremely shady maneuvering. As long as they don't bring open warfare or economic harm to the Dhangetans, this is more or less tolerated.
