Typhoeus

System: Typhoeus

Hex Location: 1839

Star Type: Single G3 giant (III)

Number of Worlds: 5

Gas Giants: 4

Planetoid Belt: Icy comet belt only

Starport Type: X

World Size: Earth-sized

Atmosphere Type: Earth-like

Surface Water: 27%

Population: Medium ~15 million

Political Affiliation: Bernese; Viomium Marches

Tags: Feral world, primitive aliens, hostile solar system

Notes: All of the Viomium Marches worlds share a similar context. Three systems in close proximity that are surrounded by many enemies; in particular numerous Reaver worlds, and the Phatoru Shdor Seraean colony. All of them are a little difficult to reach for any friendly system; from the Emerus Marches, the nearest Bernese worlds, most have to bulk jump through Oerken in order to reach it. Comaius, the only one reachable from Oerken is thus the gateway to the Viomium Marches; to get to any other world in the colony, yet another bulk jump from Comaius is necessary.

Another odd quirk of the Viomium Marches is that they were originally settled by Seraeans, but not Seraeans as in the much more recently arrived colonists of Phatoru Shdor or the rest of the Outremer colonies. These were refugees from the tyranny of the Empire, and came way back in the time of the Marian Empire and settled these mostly unused worlds. However, when the Bernese came here, they eagerly threw in their lot with them, appreciating not only their culture, but their relative strength in being capable of holding back the many enemies that surrounded them. These Bernese and Seraeans are now almost completely intermarried and interbred, and the majority population of the Viomium Marches is thus unique genetically showing equal amounts of traits of both. Mostly, they look like Bernese (i.e., like white Heritage Americans) with silver chrome eyes and silver-white hair; an inheritance of their former Seraean half. The Viomians also have a minority populaton on all three of their worlds of Reavers, although these have also been here for many generations now, and do not "reave" as those from the Reaver worlds do, which is the source of their name. In fact, they Reavers here are a bit prickly about being called Reavers, in large part because they want to disassociate themselves from the violent reputation of those who come from Reaver worlds, and often make a big deal about calling themselves Kvuustu, their own name for themselves. It's worth noting, however, that the reavers of the Viomium Marches have been here for generations, and most of them speak Galactic standard and know very little of their own ethnic heritage language, even the names that came from their heritage.

The third and final point of context is that they have no leader. Originally led by a margrave, he was killed in action defending an outlying convoy in the Typhoeus system five years ago. For whatever reason, the king of the Bernese Monarchy has not assigned a new margrave to the colony yet.

Typhoeus, when looking at the world tags, may seem like a kind of primitive backwater; the equivalent to a Third World hellhole, but in reality, the people who live here, and the rest of the Viomium Marches peoples in general, consider it a Utopian paradise to be treasured and protected. (The primitive aliens can be re-read as primitive natives rather than aliens, as they are the Bernese/Seraean mix for the most part.)

When the Bernese came here, there were Reaver settlers, as across the rest of the system, and Seraeans, but they lived in an unusually peaceful small community agricultural holdings on a world that is largely forested. The Reavers themselves had adopted a largely pre-technology lifestyle, other than a few technological conveniences, and the Seraeans adopted much of their culture from them. As the Bernese arrived, they too adopted to much of this small village and farming community lifestyle, and refused to set up industrialization centers, large trade centers, or even any kind of significantly centralized government. Threats or challenges which require coordinated effort have temporarily assigned dictators appointed (in the old Roman Republic version of the word, not the more modern one) and militias and volunteers have proven, so far, sufficient to deal with any challenges, would-be tyrants, attacking pirates or Reavers, etc. The Typhoeans don't reject visitors exactly, but they are careful about settlers... although there are some visitors among them who have been there for literally years and not worn out their welcome. It's almost as if the Typhoeans are like a space-faring Amish country planet, and it serves a similar role as the Amish do, attracting tourists and visitors who value their hand-crafted arts, crafts and tools, as well as those who are fascinated and maybe even sometimes envious of their low-stress, low-tech lifestyle. Of course, many of these visitors are traders who take their goods elsewhere for sale; because Typhoeus is kind of at the back-end of nowhere, difficult to reach, and surrounded by a number of hostile powers that only give a single reliable space-lane to reach it; and a long one at that, visitors are less frequent than in our own Pennsylvannia or Ohio Amish country.