The Marfik System

Supreme power in the system is wielded by Queen Quara-Almida. Local governance is in the hands
of local Atabegs (subservient monarchs).

The Portal Station is maintained by royal decree of the Queen of Marfik, and all visitors hoping to
travel deeper into the system are expected to submit a petition for a “royal warrant” granting
permission to proceed to specific destinations. Outsiders who travel in the system without a royal
warrant, or who stray from approved routes, are considered trespassers.

Voka (5 AU from the star) has 400 degree surface temperatures and an acidic atmosphere;
exposure without an exo shell is immediately fatal. There are no surface settlements, and the
population is confined to a large space station in orbit above the planet. The station is a largely
military facility, used as a repair and marshalling yard by the Queen of Marfik’s Royal Fleet.
Military subsidies maintain the station. Military services for the fleet dominate the economy, but
have spawned ancillary industries around freelance military training, small-scale arms
manufacturing, ship repair and outfitting, and slave trading.

Marfik (6.5 AU) has 2G gravity, 100% water cover (average depth of 100 kilometres), and average
air temperatures of 70 degrees C. Several Atabegs maintain fleets of submersibles, some as large as
wandering towns, which prey upon huge sea-going life-forms. Several floating platforms provide
transit points between spacecraft and the submersibles.

Arm (7.5 AU) is the most heavily populated planet, but remains dominated by vast empty tracts of
tundra, plains, snow-flecked desert, icy seas and often-frozen lakes. The atmosphere is safe to
breathe, but the climate is arid, and air temperatures usually below freezing. The herding of
grazing ruminants is the primary source of food, with numerous small-scale mining and industrial
towns providing homes for most of the population and small spaceports for visitors. Several
Atabegs vie for control of the surface, and clashes between rival squads of soldiers are not
uncommon. Two orbital stations circle above Arm – the royal shipyard, and the fleet’s Military
Academy

Shefa-arm orbits Arm as its moon. There is a single domed settlement on the surface, but the moon
is more notable for a deep gash, hundreds of kilometres long, 10km wide and 40km deep, running
across much of its southern hemisphere. Orbiting the moon, above the crevasse, is an ancient
mining platform called The Lithofor – once responsible for gouging the scar in the moon, and now
converted to a palace and capital ship for the Queen of Marfik. No outsider has ever been granted
an audience with the Queen, nor access to the inner chambers of her orbital palace.

Xima (24 AU) is the furthest planet from the star. With a surface temperature of -120 degrees C, it
has a thin, misty, toxic atmosphere shrouding a barren white powdery surface. The planet is ruled
by a single Atabeg, and also hosts Morran Prison, the system’s maximum-security penitentiary.
 Overview

Politics
The system is ruled by Queen Quara-Almida.
• Quara-Almida is the successor of Almida-Nala, who ruled for 25 cycles. She was the
successor of Queen Nala-Fawziya, who ruled for 25 cycles. And so on back to long before
the Portal Wars, each queen ruling for exactly 25 cycles, and appending their new name to
their predecessor’s name.
• The Queen’s Palace is the ancient Lithofor, an orbital mining-platform converted into a
capital ship, floating alongside the moon Shefa-arm above the planet of Arm.
• Nobody gets to meet the queen. The Technocrats run her palace, analysing events in the
system, advising her, and conveying her will. Outsiders receive her instruction via the
Technocrats or a My Lady.
• The closest anyone gets to meeting the Queen is to meet a woman called My Lady. There
are actually several women called My Lady, all of the identical in appearance, dress, voice
and manner; each My Lady acts as a personal envoy of the queen; to get an audience with
My Lady on the Lithofor is the closest outsiders might come to speaking directly to the
monarch.

The Atabegs are the practical rulers over the people. There are 17 Atabegs, 15 of whom hold fiefs in
the Marfik system.
• Eight rule tracts of Arm. Five command huge town-submersibles on Marfik. And there is an
Atabeg of Voka, and an Atabeg of Xima.
• Outside of the Marfik system there is also one Artabeg in the Caph system – the Atabeg of
Loika.
• In addition there is a nominal Atabeg of Caph, but since the colony sent out from Marfik to
populate Caph seventy years ago sank beneath the planet’s waves the title is entirely
honorary.
• It is expected that Admiral Nyssa Ruholl, commander of the Royal Fleet, will be named
Atabeg Nyssa of Malaqah when she has completed her conquest of Malaqah in the Caph
system. But her victory is not yet complete.
• Each Atabeg is supreme monarch over their own domains. They pass, enforce or ignore any
laws that they want.
• Each Atabeg must provide a large tribute (of whatever goods their holdings generate) to the
Technocrats, and must also obey the Queen’s summons to supply troops and ships in time of
war.

The Technocrats appear to be the Queen’s government functionaries.

• They are divided into nine Files, based on their year of graduation from the Academy. Each
file corresponds to one of the Icons. For example, the Technocrats of the Fourth File (the
Deckhand) tend to be responsible for manufacturing (such as running the Royal Dockyards)
and advising the Atabegs on matters such as sanitation and power generation.
• The Technocrats run their own mini-city on the moon of Shema-arm, a domed settlement
with its own artificial gravity, named Jamal-Arqam. This includes the Academy where all
Technocrats complete their training, the finest hospital in the system, numerous scientific
research groups (generally focusing on computer technology and theoretical mathematics),
and cybernetics workshops.
• They are obsessive about data. Technocrats in all major settlements keep records on
 everything from prices in markets to weights of newborn babies, and send these back to
Jamal-Arqam for study.
• They frequently have Cybernetics and Bionic Sculpts such as Com Link, Lie Detector and
Intelligent. They never have the Beautiful biosculpt (the procedure would be a shamefully
inefficient use of resources), and see no need for combat-oriented augmentations (the
Atabegs and Royal Fleet supply muscle when needed). Technocrat couples in a Life Bond
will usually have paired implanted Com Links, each set only to communicate with their
spouse.

The women referred to as My Lady (they seem to have no other names) act as the direct emissaries
of the Queen.
• They avoid interfering with the Royal Fleet.
• They nominally outrank the Technocrats, but usually follow the advice of senior advisors.
• There are numerous rumours and theories as to why there are multiple emissaries known
only as My Lady. Some say that they are identical triplets; some say that they are senior
Technocrats who have been bio-sculpted to resemble a youthful version of the current
Queen; others say that they or not actually the same person, but rather that the “My Lady”
appearance is a holographic appearance donned by any Technocrat sent with exceptional
royal authority.

Culture
The Horizon’s main Factions have little or no influence here.
• The Technocrats calculate that many of the Factions are a threat to royal power, and on their
advice the Legion, Order of the Pariah and Church of the Icons are all banned here (though
individuals may be granted permission to travel through the system, if they have a plausible
reason).
• The Temple of Alham is considered to promote values which will weaken and undermine
the sturdy characters of the Queen’s subjects. Individual members (particularly poets) may
be granted entrance to the system, but they are prohibited from teaching their “hedonistic,
indulgent philosophies” or establishing any Pleasure Houses or other institutions here. (This,
too, is likely to be more about power and authority than a fear of philosophical corruption.)
• Free League Merchants are often granted access, and in theory Consortium representatives
would not be unwelcome. But such “outsiders” are forbidden from buying land or setting up
businesses, running markets, etc., and so such visits tend to be fleeting trade missions rather
than permanent settlements.
• If there are any Draconites here, they are keeping hidden.
• Nomads are viewed with especial suspicion. They have not (until now) been forbidden
access to the portals in order to pass through the system, but are never granted permission to
travel deeper into the system. This is due to the ongoing disagreement (now an open war) in
the Caph system between the Queen of Marfik and the Hamida nomad clan as to who should
control the mines of Malaqah.
• Only the Syndicate have a settled presence here, and they are keeping that very quiet. A
network of small-scale operators have settled on the station above Voka.

The culture of the Marfik system has distinctive characteristics:

• The people tend to particularly value steadfastness, determination, and stoic endurance as
virtues. Surviving on the frozen wastes of Arm and hunting giant sea-beasts on Marfik
particularly foster these attitudes.
• Slavery is common in this system, particularly in the Atabegs’ courts. The Queen has
 decreed that she shall own no slaves, and that her Technocrats shall equally avoid owning or
trading in human life. But many of the Atabegs rely on slaves for roles as diverse as lowly
labourers (especially in dangerous mines), palace servants, and as soldiers. Some of the most
honoured commanders and trusted advisors are in fact slaves, often with slaves of their own
and luxuries gifted to them by their grateful Atabegs.
• On Arm, the creation of covered, heated thoroughfares and the cultivation of trees and
tropical plants distinguishes high status from low-status neighbourhoods. While the poor
trudge through frosty streets, the elites sponsor tropical oases beneath glass.
• The cultivation of exotic plants, especially in warm or tropical gardens, is particularly
fashionable among high-status people – not only on Arm, but on all of the system’s planets.
• As meat is so plentiful (from the grazing herds of Arm and the huge sea-beasts of Marfik)
soft fruits are considered especial delicacies.
• Wood is a luxury – or at least, high-status - material. The difficulty of cultivating trees (Arm
is too cold, its earth often frozen; Marfik has no land; Voka and Xima have toxic
atmospheres) means that owning or consuming wood has become a sign of wealth. For
example, to eat from hand-turned wooden dishes (rather than mass-produced local
metalware) is aspirational.
• The first settlers on Arm found that the ground was too hard to make burial easy, and so still
today the system’s funeral customs do not include burial. On Arm the dead are cremated
(most in electric furnaces, but the richest on pyres of coal, charcoal and wood – an
ostentatious display of wealth when wood is so expensive). The settlement on Xima also has
its own crematorium, as does Jamal-Arqam. The submersible towns of Marfik often keep
their dead frozen until they can rise to dock with a floating platform, where a crematorium
will be found. On Voka they drop the dead down into the planet’s atmosphere, to be
incinerated by the super-heated acids of the atmosphere. The Royal Fleet typically return the
dead to their on communities for cremation, though high-ranking officers have the honour of
being launched into the system’s star – a fiery send-off on a cosmic scale.
• In the last few decades a practice has developed of mourners casting exquisite wooden
tokens into cremations, as gifts to send off the dead. Some local priests decry this as
wasteful and not desired by the Icons; others are happy enough to see mourners brought
solace, and to sell tokens themselves.
• Talismans are almost always carved from wood.
• Poetry is considered the highest art-form, but its use is often prosaic and fleeting. No tomes
of verse are published. Rather, poets are employed to recite on public occasions and
religious festivals, to praise the Atabegs at feasts, and to extol the dead at cremations. Many
poems are composed to be recited only once.
• The Technocrats have developed their own version of poetry – a poetry of mathematics. In
the central plaza, the Hall of Fountains, on Jamal-Arqam holographic streams of numbers
cascade; thoughtful Technocrats can often be seen gathered around new or updated
Fountains nodding appreciatively at the wit, playfulness and profundity of these streams of
equations.
• Colleges in the main settlements (typically the Atabegs’ capital towns) are important
institutions. These are the main methods of social mobility. While many hope for no more
than to follow their parents’ trades (miner, herder, crafter, etc.), to excel in a town’s college
opens up three options for social advancement: recruitment by a local Atabeg to serve in his
or her court; an offer from the Technocrats to attend their own Academy and then to join
their ranks; recruitment by the Royal Fleet.

Trade within the system is brisk, with atmosphere-capable ships shuttling in particular between
Marfik, Arm and Shefa-arm.
• Marfik exports large quantities of “Serpent Meat” (a tough flesh from the huge sea beasts
that are hunted here, exported as a staple food for the poor on Xima and Arm) and small
 quantities of pharmaceuticals (many local treatments being based on the life-forms in
Marfik’s seas).
• Arm exports machinery, spaceship parts, and machine parts (much of it destined for the
Royal Dockyards), plus fabricated goods (everything from furniture to electronics, for use
on Marfik, Shefa-arm and Arm), and smaller quantities of clothing, cheeses and luxury furs.
• Jamal-Arqam on Shefa-arm imports all of its food, furniture, clothing, etc., but exports very
little - though some high-end computers and cybernetics are sent to the Royal Dockyards
and Naval Academy.
• Most transactions are handled in physical currency – “Stars” (low-denomination silver
coins) and “Half Moons” (high-denomination semi-circular gold tokens, which are
molecularly tagged by the Technocrats to avoid forgery).

Trade between the system and outsiders is rarer.

• Many Free League traders and others now pass through the portal gates, continuing from
Amedo to Caph or Caph to Amedo without visiting the local planets. Since the Taoan Crisis
this traffic has dramatically increased, as this route is now the only option from trade and
pilgrimage between Dabaran and the rest of the Horizon.
• More rarely Free League traders will venture to the system’s planets, having bargained for
and paid for a “royal warrant” at the portal station. They find good markets for fruit, grains,
vegetables, wood and wooden goods (especially ornate or attractive woods).
• More ambitious (or less law-abiding) traders also venture into the system, without paying
for a warrant. Under local law these merchants are considered “trespassers”, and their
trading is considered “smuggling” (the warrant is, in effect, a tax which they are dodging);
few locals have any incentive to act against them, but this does mean that they are legally
vulnerable if they do get into conflict with local groups.
• A royal tribute ship carrying copper from Loika in the Caph system plies a regular route
through the Marfik-Caph portal between Arm and Loika.
• Slavers from Voka head out through the portals in search of human cargo.

The Caph Offensive

The Queen’s offensive in the Caph system progresses as follows:
• Admiral Ruholl commands the Queen’s attack cruisers, traversing the Marfik-Caph portal to
rendezvous with ships supplied by the Atabegs and with a squadron of mercenary corsairs.
• They fly to and conquer the mines around the gas giant Malaqah, wresting control from the
Hamida nomad clan who ran the mines.
• The Queen expects her cruisers to return, the Atabegs want their own ships to come home,
and the corsairs in the fleet become troublesome; but Admiral Ruholl’s does not want to
disband the fleet, The initial conquest was easy, but it is unclear how she will hold Malaqah
against a Nomad counter-attack if her ships are withdrawn or become unreliable.
• While planning and negotiation continues to keep control of Malaqah, a Supply Station is
built alongside Caph’s small portal station.

The consequences are:

• The Queen of Marfik can now realistically claim to be monarch of both systems. She may
have claimed this before, but a grotty settlement on Loika and a history of failed
colonisation on Caph made this a questionable claim; with Malaqah’s mines and a Supply
Station at the portal now under her command, she looks more convincing as the system’s
ruler. The rise of this new power will unsettle a lot of people (e.g. the Zenithian Hegemony).
• Caph itself may become a low-intensity war-zone for some time to come, as the Hamida
 nomad clan and their allies hope to reclaim their mines at Malaqah and resist the Queen of
Marfik’s forces.
• Travel through the Caph system is now easier for traders. A fully functioning Supply
Station, with repair facilities, allows a resupply here at normal cost.
• The Queen, however, now orders a big increase in Portal Fees for all ships passing from
Caph to Kua or from Marfik to Amedo. The official pronouncement is that this is to cover
the costs of the Caph offensive and the construction of the new Supply Station; Fee League
merchants decry it as “extortion”.

The Corsair Queen

Queen Quara-Almida now looks like a threat – both a military threat (particularly to the Nomads)
and also a commercial threat (to traders hit by rising portal fees). Her system has a history of
sending out slavers, and her invasion force for the Malaqah campaign included a squadron of
mercenary corsairs. It is therefore very easy for people to see her as a “Corsair Queen”. The
description would make no sense to her subjects in the Marfik system, but viewed from Coriolis or
Kua the title seems apt.

Factions including the Free League, Zenithian Hegemony and Nomads are keen to push this
narrative – that she rules fleets of slavers and corsairs, seizes mines from peaceful populations, and
extorts huge fees from traders using her portals – and start calling her The Corsair Queen.

Not coincidentally, a new Bulletin adventure series is now in development, called The Corsair
Queen, about a crew of plucky Free League traders, subtly advised by a benevolent Astûrban spy,
who repeatedly outwit the evil machinations of a power-crazed pirate queen in an unnamed
system.

The Marfik System

Emerging from either of the system’s portals, ships will encounter an automate communications
buoy. This transmits a looped message (video and holographic), in which a computer-generated
Herald in grand robes bows welcomingly, while proclaiming:

As you walk in the footsteps of the Traveller, you are welcome to journey through the Portals of
Marfik. Know that her majesty Queen Quara-Almida has decreed that you shall be permitted safe
passage between the portals and onwards to continue your journey. Your obedient submission to
her laws for the duration of your brief stay is noted. Should you have further businesses within the
domains of her majesty, you may petition at the Portal Station.

(The Herald is not a real person: this is the depiction of a communicative courtier which has been
calculated by the Technocrats to be most plausible, without seeming too welcoming. But most
visitors should understand the subtext clearly – you will be safe so long as you acknowledge the
Queen’s authority and leave swiftly.)
The Portal Station

The Portal Station is…

• … heavily armoured and bristling with weapons under control of a crew deployed from the
Royal Fleet.
• … run by the Technocrats. They will conduct resupplies (normal cost) and repairs, provide
portal calculations (for a fee) and deal with enquiries with maximum efficiency. (They want
visitors to resupply and leave the system as fast as possible, and they pride themselves on
their efficiency.)
• … surrounded by a small gaggle of Class II ships – some providing supply and repair
services, but others being local traders.

On board the station, visitors will find…

• … a broad, circular hall, with neat offices around the edge, and a confusion of stalls and
sellers in the “souk” in the middle. Here dozens of local entrepreneurs have set up stalls here
– some mere rugs on the ground, some having portable tables, some marked off by
temporary canvas walls.
• … observation drones buzzing above the heads of those in the souk, recording those
arriving, trading and leaving.
• … a gantry running around the hall on the level above, on which the Technocrats work and
look down on the souk below. (Access to this upper level is via secure doors below.)
• … beyond the visible areas, inaccessible to visitors, the suite of a My Lady who oversees the
portal station, and the quarters of the naval personnel (including a platoon of marines) who
defend it.

At edge of the souk, visitors can find:

• An office to arrange resupply and repair.
• The office of a military attaché from the Royal Fleet. She may have mercenary contracts or
bounties to offer on behalf of the Queen (e.g. hunting down traitors who have fled the
system) but might deal with any military business ranging from the purchase of salvaged
warships or scrap, to securing military intelligence.
• An office where visitors may apply for a warrant to continue further into the system. Such
requests are not always granted, and warrants can be expensive (for a trader they would be
estimated based on the merchant’s likely profits, making them, in effect, a form of customs
duty or tax). Only those on impressive diplomatic business might hope to get a warrant with
little hassle and no cost.
• Hygiene units (public toilets).
• Armoured doors (Technocrats and Fleet personnel only beyond this point) leading to the rest
of the station.

In the souk visitors can find:

• … local traders hoping to buy or sell small quantities of goods (e.g. selling frozen Serpent
Meat and hoping to buy wooden goods or fruit). They have paid for the privilege of trading
here, and they offer unattractive prices in order to cover the costs of these permissions.
• … a slave trader from Voka, asking visitors if they have any “convicts or orphans” to sell.
• … freelancers, including cooks crouched at electric stoves to fry up snacks and light meals,
a freelance medicurg, a woman running a makeshift bar selling strong coffee and mint tea
with scatter cushions strewn about, a mechanic and his slave who have set up a makeshift
workshop They will buy broken objects and sell them on again, or else repair small items for
 a fee), a few freelance porters, and a couple of technicians who offer to help repair ships (in
case visitors don’t want to let the Technocrats on to their ships).
• … occasional agents of the Atabegs or local merchants with contracts for those travelling
outside the system (e.g. courier contracts to take messages or seek out specific cargoes).
• … groups of pilgrims. There are no renowned pilgrim sites in the system, but sometimes the
most pious will band together is small groups and travel to the Portal Station, hoping to gain
passage to Lotus, Icon City, or the Dome of the Icons.
• … a few disreputable folks, usually working as porters, cooks or technicians, who function
as contacts for criminal elements within the system. Visitors hoping to make contact with
the Syndicate, or with merchants who might buy questionable cargoes, should seek out these
folks who, avoiding the buzzing surveillance drones, will direct them to appropriate people
on Voka Station.

Voka

The planet of Voka...

• … has surface temperatures of 400 degrees, an acidic atmosphere, and thick, billowing
clouds that block both vision and scanners.
• … is so impossibly hostile that it is not worth the expense of extracting minerals from the
rock. Nobody has even seriously surveyed this planet.
• … has its own Atabeg. He rules an uninhabitable and worthless planet, it is true, but he also
rules Voka Station.
• … is convenient for smugglers, who stash cargoes on the planet surface out of view of the
station in orbit. Dropping and retrieving the cargoes is perilous, but while they are on the
planet they are – so long as they are properly packaged to protect against the boiling acid
clouds – perfectly hidden.

Voka Station is the principal logistics and marshalling yard for the Royal Fleet. The Fleet pay for
and subsidise the station. Therefore:
• The Atabeg of Voka is beholden to his military paymasters – a situation which he deeply
resents.
• In order to maintain some independence from the Fleet, the Atabeg is keen to find revenues
“by other means”. He has therefore encouraged other industries and services, and many
businesses thrive here related to ship maintenance and military activities.
• The station now includes: commercial ship repair and small-scale ship-building businesses
(with local merchants and Atabegs as clients), ship-component design and repair workshops,
arms manufacturers and an arms market, slave-training companies (who buy raw slaves and
invest in training them, usually as soldiers, to re-sell them at a profit), freelance military
training facilities, daily pit-fights where slaves show off their skills (non-lethally fighting
against each other, or lethally against imported wild beasts), daily slave auctions (where
trained fighters who performed well in the pit fights are especially sought after by agents of
the Atabegs), and gambling houses surrounding the fighting pit (with copious narcotics in
use, and gambling on the pit-fights in the day giving way to dice games in the evenings).
• With an economy and society dominated by the Fleet, the arms trade, slavery, blood sports,
and smuggling, this is truly a hotbed of villainy and violence.
The Slavers of Voka

Sources of slaves for the slavers have been, over the last years:
• Criminals and political prisoners sentenced to “lifetime penal servitude” in other systems.
(E.g. succession disputes on Dabaran have often led to rival families being declared
“traitors” by newly crowned Dars, and being deported as slaves.)
• Children of impoverished settlers and nomads (sold by their parents) and orphans. (These
are particularly sought after, as they are seen as raw material to be trained, and might make
the most loyal slaves.)
• Captives and prisoners of war from unstable systems, such as Algol and the Quadrant of
the Pillar. (These are the least sought-after, as they seem the most likely to prove to become
rebellious slaves.)
• Direct kidnap and plunder, for example extorting human tribute from, or simply attacking,
defenceless settlements outside the system. (This is a lot of effort and can be dangerous, so
has been quite rare, until now….)

This will change, with purchased nomad children and forcibly taken slaves likely to become more
common. This will cause friction and conflict between the slavers and aggrieved groups in
neighbouring systems. This is because of….
• The outlawry of slavery on Dabaran. This has reduced the supply of saleable captives. With
Dabaran now condemning slavery, it is less common for victorious heirs to reduce their
defeated rivals’ retainers to servitude and shipping them out of the system; only those who
can plausibly be condemned as “criminals” will now be available.
• The consequences of the Taoan crisis. The destruction of a Legion fleet has led to ship
redeployments, leaving previously protected planets now vulnerable to raids as the Legion
pull ships away to the Taoan blockade. Amedo, in the neighbouring Amedo system, is
starting to look like a particularly easy target for violently inclined slavers.
• The Queen of Marfik’s annexation of Malaqah in the Caph system. This is a short term
problem but a long-term opportunity for the slavers. The nomads of the Caph system are
now overtly hostile to Marfik, and so less likely to sell their children to the “enemy”;
however, if the royal forces can solidify their control over and establish peace in the Caph
system then those same nomads, without their main source of export revenue (from
Malaqah) will face economic hardship and may agree to resort to selling their children –
increasing the supply of sought-after child-slaves.

Marfik

Marfik is…
• … an ocean planet, with no land, 100% water coverage, and an average ocean depth of over
100km.
• … hot and humid, with a typical air temperature of 70 degrees.
• … uncomfortably high gravity, with double standard gravity (2G). The people who live here
use artificial gravity above them not below them, in order to effectively reduce gravity.
• … ruled by five sea-going Atabegs, who roam the ocean in submersible hunter-fortresses,
hunting huge Serpents which provide plentiful meat for the people.
• … dotted by floating platforms, which work as transit points between the Atabegs’
submersibles and gravity-capable spacecraft.
Arm
Arm is…
• … a tundra planet, where herds of ruminants graze on moss-like local vegetation, and
scattered industrial outposts coordinate mining activities and manufacture finished goods.
• … cold and arid. Although the air temperature ranges from -60 to +20 degrees, snow is rare
– but heavy frosts are almost constant, and the earth is hard with permafrost.
• … dotted by thermal springs. The hot springs, pouring waters into rivers which steam in the
cold air as they run through frosty terrain, gives the landscape a unique appearance. (The
springs also provide natural heating and an easy source of electricity generation.)
• … home to most of the Queen of Marfik’s subjects, scattered across scores of urban centres.
• … ruled by eight powerful Atabegs. Some hold vast (grazing) territories; some have key
resources (e.g. mines) and industries, but none are fully self-sufficient.
• … usually navigated by monorails, by air, or by gravity-vehicles. The planet is large and
road construction laborious, so roads rarely exist outside of settlements. People prefer to
float above the ground rather than carve a path across it.

The settlements of Arm are the largest population-centres in the system, with several distinctive
features.
• Many are monorail hubs, linked to nearby mines.
• Most have their own spaceport for atmosphere-capable spaceships.
• Many (certainly all of the Atabegs’ capital towns) have Colleges, which focus on
administrative, scientific, and engineering disciplines.
• All also have their own cremation grounds outside the settlement, usually with an electric
furnace for the poor, an open-air cremation ground for the rich, and a chapel.
• Wealthy districts (such as the “royal quarters” around Atabegs’ palaces) feature glass-
covered walkways and arboretums, heated by the waters of thermal springs running beneath
the streets or trickling in steaming streams alongside the walkways. On a cold planet these
are havens of warmth and greenery, and are in clear contrast with the frost-encrusted
dwellings of the poor.
• Hydroponic vegetable-growing is sign of wealth, and the cultivation of trees (for fruit or
decorative woods) are popular pass-times for the rich. To serve date wine from one’s own
date trees is to honour the guest and to flaunt one’s own wealth at the same time.
• Industrial districts provide much of the employment for the poor. While food comes from
scattered herders outside the settlements or else is imported from Marfik, most people on
Arm work in industrial, manufacturing, commercial, or administrative roles.
• Barracks house the Atabeg’s private armies and security forces, which typically include
companies of both local recruits and imported slave-soldiers.
• Around 5% of the population are slaves. These include those at the very bottom of the social
order (sewerage workers and those doing the worst mining jobs are often slaves), but also
some of the most trusted servants (diligent administrators are valuable slaves), and also
some of those who wield the most power and enjoy the most wealth (with a capable slave
sometimes rising to become a chief advisor, general or high priest).
• Those convicted of crimes pray that a lenient judge will sentence them to a labour-camp in a
nearby mine, rather than sentencing them to Morran prison on Xima.
Shefa-arm is the planet’s moon.
• The moon is famed for The Rift, an artificial crevasse excavated by an ancient mining
construct called the Lithofor, hundreds of kilometres long and dozens of kilometres deep.
• The planet also has one settlement, a domed city which is the hub for the Technocrats:
Jamal-Arqam includes data research and computer design labs, experimental hydroponics
domes, cybernetic workshops, advanced education institutes for the Technocrats
(collectively called The Academy), the system’s foremost medical facility, and the Hall of
Fountains where holographic streams of equations present a remarkable artistic and
educational installation.

Also in orbit around Arm are:

• The Lithofor. This ancient drilling rig has been converted into a capital ship and detached
from Shefa-arm to float above the moon. It has a reception area where privileged visitors
may petition a My Lady, data processing and administrative areas where high-ranking
Technocrats serve the Queen and, deeper in, presumably the royal apartments of the Queen
herself – though none but a few Technocracts and My Ladies ever meet her.
• A cluster of small diplomatic ships loitering near the Lithofor. These are generally
emissaries from prominent citizens and Atabegs, waiting for an audience on the Lithofor or
for a reply to their entreaties, but some linger for longer than they need to: as the space
outside the Lithofor has become a kind of waiting-area for those petitioning the Queen, it
has also become a place where ambassadors and emissaries mingle, and it is not unusual for
a dignitary to pause here for some days longer than needed just to socialise with their peers.
• The Royal Dockyard also orbits Arm, overseen by a My Lady.
• The Naval Academy is also an orbital structure above Arm.
• Lastly, it is rumoured that capital ships – other than the Lithofor – have appeared at the
edges of ships’ scanner ranges near Arm, and it is said that the Queen is protected by an
unknown number of these capital ships which lurk nearby. But nobody has seen these craft,
and the Royal Dockyards do not seem equipped to build ships above Class IV.

Xima

Xima is the planet furthest from the star. It is cold, toxic, and mentally devastating.
• The surface temperature is -120 degrees, and the air is poisonous, with no natural water.
• The planet is covered by a thick layer of fine power, the colour and consistency of talcum
powder.
• Within the powder, small spheres, like grey pearls, sometimes form. By royal decree these
may only be sold to the Technocrats, but the revenues from their sale are enough to sustain
the planet’s small population.
• Large crawlers, like small villages on caterpillar tracks, creep across the surface, while
slaves in Exo Shells scour the sands by hand for the little spheres.
• However, proximity to the planet’s sands can be mentally devastating, and within 3-10 years
the slaves who are set to scour the surface for these lose their minds, forgetting who they are
and remembering nothing of their pasts.
• The planet is also remarkable for the “Castles” (as the locals call them) at the poles. These
are massive structures which are assumed to be Portal Builder remains, seemingly made
from solid blocks of an unknown mineral. Each “castle” is made of eight concentric rings of
blocks, each formed of eight equally spaced eight-sided pillars. The outer ring of pillars at
each castle is three kilometres high, with the innermost ring being only three meters tall.
The Atabeg who holds the planet rules the fewest number of people of all the Atabegs. The
population is split into four distinct groups.
• The Atabeg’s palace, hydroponics and administrative centre is built on 1000-meter tall stilts,
encased in a double airtight skin, accessible only to those who submit to a thorough
decontamination. The people here are not wealthy (the Technocrats pay only enough for the
peals to ensure that the planet’s settlements do not collapse) but they are determined to keep
themselves unaffected by the planet’s sands. (They think they have protected themselves.
But they are wrong. Even from a kilometre above the brain-numbing sands all of them have
been subtly corrupted.)
• The second group is those who crew the giant crawlers scour the sands for pearls. The little
spheres are indistinguishable on scanners, and so slaves walk alongside the crawlers sifting
the powder with rakes and their fingers. Relatively safe inside the crawlers, the desperate
poor who took the job of managing these searches know that their minds might last a decade
or two, and most hope to save money for a few years and then leave their jobs; but for the
slaves outside, mental oblivion will come in a few years, and slaves to not get to resign.
Once their minds are too frayed to even continue the repetitive job of sifting through the
sands, the mentally devastated slaves are sold for nearly nothing.
• Third, dotted across the sands are small maintenance facilities for the giant crawlers. These
are typically family-run operations, where one extended family lives in a spherical
settlement on a tall column above the sands, with industrial workshops at the base where
they can repair and resupply the giant crawlers as they pass. Usually the middle-aged run the
workshops, while also caring for the grandparents of the family who have inevitably fallen
into senility.
• Finally, there are the staff and prisoners of Morran Prison, the maximum security
penitentiary. The Atabeg receives a stipend to run the prison, which houses high-risk or
notorious prisoners from across the system. From a prison surrounded by freezing toxic air
and mind-rotting sands, escape is not likely. And the mental conditions which the long-term
inmates develop make then potentially interesting scientific study subjects – for scientists
who can keep their own minds intact long enough to study them.