Local Year |
Event |
| -1,374 AY | Defeat of the Kravyad interplanetary defense force, fall of Taise. |
| 0 AY | Arrival of the Janya in their great Migration Barques, from Elsewhere. |
| 79 AY | Colonization of the Kaikasi lunar worlds complete; Migration Barques emptied of their last passengers. |
| 265 AY | Savant Caste engineers complete of the Capital platform in the atmosphere of Kaikasi. Savant Caste begin local migrations from the lunar worlds. |
| 298 AY | Completion of Sanctuary on Aruna. Thearch takes up residence |
| 489 AY | Incursion I (Dark Age) begins, return of the Abhva to the system; devastation and loss |
| 603 AY | Yama’s close period ends, retreat of the Abhva |
| 625 AY | Construction of Parliament complex on Dhumala complete |
| 1234 AY | Incursion II (Ice Age) begins, return of the Abhva to the system; devastation and loss |
| 1281 AY | Second Revolution of the Kravyad free peoples |
| 1311 AY | Yama’s close period ends, retreat of the Abhva |
| 1344 AY | Construction of Yami Orbitals begins |
| 1447 AY | Completion of the Academy of the Solar Fleet on Nilavarna |
| 1980 AY | Incursion III (Soot Age) begins, return of the Abhva to the system; devastation and loss |
| 2062 AY | Yama’s close period ends, retreat of the Abhva |
| 2080 AY | Reconquest of Pushpotayata as a military exclusion zone. |
| 2304 AY | Kravyad Insurrection Movement defeated. |
| 2726 AY | Projected return of the Abhva (Incursion IV) |
Dazer Weaponry
The Technik disciplines of Ayurveda (medicine) and Physika (physics) allow the creation of advanced weaponry that disrupts the subtle energies of prana, or life force. The most common of these systems is known as Dazer weaponry (colloquially, sparkle cannons): short-ranged energy projectors that combine visual light and infrasonic frequencies to temporarily disorder nerve signals in the somatic nervous system. Attacks with Dazer weaponry are the opposite of subtle themselves, and only have an effective range equal to conventional projectile attacks. They do have the advantages of statistically insignificant chances of killing a target, and affecting mostly non-corporeal yet living entities (such as the vampiric hungry ghosts of the Abhva hordes).
Wakal Capital
The most significant population center in Wakal is known simply as “Capital”. An urbanized collection of residential, commercial, and (Technik) industrial use, Capital is located in the 15-km wide, half a kilometer-deep caldera of an extinct super-volcano on the southern continent.
The northwest side of the classes is broken up by irregular cracks hundreds of meters deep, with mixed use commercial and residential buildings climbing up and down those vertical surfaces. The northeast side is the mostly smooth downstream flow of long-cooled magma and serves as landing field, transshipment point, and sprawling home to the transitory gray market that calls Wakal home.
There are some extraction and refinery operations inside the caldera, using centuries outdated (and polluting) tech, but the bigger refineries are essentially city-states themselves, reachable through a well-developed and stable set of maglev corridors.
See also: Yami Belt Colony – Wakal
See also: Akash Dewan
Episode Two, Session Four
Wakal, Capital City Landing Fields
Prologue:
The Marru is unloading it’s salvage of silicate power cores from the Makara WarCruiser, for delivery to the Warlord. Local rumor puts the minor colony world of Gomal formally in the “no longer extent” category, as the population has been slain or enslaved, the extracted resources captured and stolen, and the resource extraction machinery destroyed. Captains Kashi and Chabra might have more to tell of that story, but they keep their semi-successful exploits to themselves for the time being.
There are also rumors of an attack squadron of Abhva Gunships and Warships operating in the space between Betwa and Wakal, in sufficient strength that two 5 kiloton privateer vessels may be insufficient threat. It may be time to engage the local underworld for resources, and assistance.
Scene Four: The Free Market of Wakal
Kashi and Chabra work their local contacts to get an introduction for the shotcallers of the Stone Brotherhood, the organization behind the regional organized crime. The contacts lead them to Prashir Mir, the hijra bootlegger and fixer in the local market.
Luckily the captains’ hearty constitution allow for the free flow of conversation (and ‘shine), which gets them the rich personal backstory of Prashir, as well as a description and location of the Stone Brotherhood capo on Wakal, Rasel Sarkara.
That conversation is a bit touch and go; but Captain Chabra plays up his leadership qualities, and Captain Kashi trades on his reputation for living up to his word. They’ve established a (n elementary) relationship of trust with the Brotherhood, manage to upgrade the personal arms and armor of their crew, and obtain an introduction to Aelig Goff. Aelig is a fierce privateer in her own right, and is on Wakal offloading the spoils from her last several successful hunting adventures.
Now, if they can just talk her into partnering with the two high status Janya. Aelig is not just Kravyad , but ban-draoidh: one of the feared Raksasa furies who posses witchcraft. And Aelig’s reputation for savagery precedes her.
Aelig Goff
Kravyad ban-draoidh (witch)
Captain of the Sulas Tine, a captured Solar Navy Corvette that has upgraded repeatedly to maximize maneuverability. She is well known by the Janya for her cruelty and greed, and is not above exploiting her people’s matriarchal tendencies.
She is an expert shot (in and out of a solarship), with a keen mind, self educated to put many university trained Janya to shame, and has the exceptional Kravyad athletic development. Live on the run has left her wary verging on paranoid, and quick to draw a blaster handgun that unlike most Kravyad Andhaka, she has no difficulty operating.
Episode Two, Session Three
Scene 3: Yami Belt Quadrant III, high orbit above Gomal.
Vatya’s Vengeance and the Marru are standoff distance from a disabled Makara WarCruiser, anxiously awaiting the return of their captains and associated boarding parties. Klaxons begin wailing as a new contact in their space begins painting the area with active scanners designed to identify and track weapon targets.
The Vengeance is quickly identified and locked-in, at which point her own scanners likewise flood the area with electromagnetic emissions designed to lock onto the interloper. The Marru maintains radio silence, and evades the electronic clutches of the primitive Kravyad Frigate ship exchanging blows with the Vengeance (a process that is going the worse for the Vengeance, without the cunning of her captain to guide her). All the while the transponder codes of the frigate declare itself to be the Janya Commercial freighter the “Abhasita Sutta”…
Into this maelstrom, the returning privateer shuttles from the WarCruiser leap and dance into the conflict, attempting to get their captains back to their respective homes (and likewise increase the combat effectiveness of each ship by an order of magnitude). Both shuttles returned safely, the privateers choose the better part of valor by fleeing the field of battle. Notably, the frigate does not follow.
Now, to return to Wakal to repair, re-arm, and potentially reinforce.
Déorsa Navensi
Déorsa Navensi considered himself a revolutionary in the service of an oppressed people. The Solar Navy considered him a pirate, and a danger to the safe commerce in the Yami Belt. Needless to say, there was merit to both arguments. In the time of the Third Incursion, later known as the Age of Ashes, Captain Navensi and his band of cutthroat commandos were the terror of the provincial settlements in the belt, as well as the necromantic Abhva hordes from Planet X who intended no less than the extinction of all life in the system.
The Abhva
The Abhva (“The Enemy”, “Void Devils”) are the inhabitants of Planet X, which orbits the secondary Mitran sun, Yama. They worship a dark entity known as the Adversary, and are the terror of Janya and Raksasa alike. The eccentric orbit of Yama brings them close enough to engage open warfare every seven to eight centuries.
Asuri
The Asuri are at the top of the Abhva society. These are the generals, necromancers, and warlords who lead the Abhva with vicious cunning. They range from two to three meters tall, although mass is difficult to ascertain due to no Asuri has even been captured by Janya forces, dead or alive.
Makara
The muscle of the Abhva war effort, the monsters that keep Janya and Kravyad awake at night. 4 meters tall, massing approximately 575 kg. Cold-blooded amphibians, but their hemocyanin based physiology allows activity even at below-freezing temperatures (when, admittedly, most Makara would rather be napping).
There are persistent rumors that all or some of the Makara possess the ability to control the outward appearance of their forms, although the utility of that ability in a creature that masses as much as eight adult Janya is questionable.
Pretya
The “Hungry Ghosts” are the mostly incorporeal mooks and cannon fodder of the Abhva. Sneaky, and resistant to energy based attacks (to which the preferred tactic of the Janya is to throw Raksasa commandos at them). Perhaps they are the larval stage of Asuri. Perhaps they are not.
Visual Aesthetics
In my imagination, somewhere between steampunk and Flash Gordon, there’s an Art Deco / Brutalist Nikola Tesla world of wonder, and that’s what I’m aiming for.
Personal Wards
Personal ward generators are usually about the size of a pack of playing cards. Powered by a rechargeable upala battery, they tie into an operator’s prana field and provide protection from extremes of radiant and kinetic energy. There are also models specifically tuned to provide environmental protection as well (for instance, against the cold and dark of the space between worlds), although this greatly diminishes the strength of the field protecting against other damage.
As with many technik miracles, the outcaste and primitive Andhaka lack the subtle energies necessary to successfully interact with these tools, and are forced to rely on mechanical pressure suits (and carapace armor shaped from the brightly colored petals of an exalted flower in the orchid family).
Rockets and Mayhem! 