On the Army Of The Red Spear 007: A Guide to the Army Of The Red Spear Part Five · 4:37pm Dec 8th, 2020
Guide to the Army Of The Red Spear: Part Five
Notable Worlds of the Aotrs, Part One
(Note: Dates listed are in accordance with the current year 2346. To translate to Earth-E Julian calendar, simply subtract 326 years.)
Macronis IV
Macronis IV is the world history – or at least Aotrs history – records as the birthplace of the Aotrs. Lord Death Despoil arrived there from his unknown homeworld, having fled into the elemental place of Fire at the point of his death, in what is estimated to be 391 BC. This is not a truly precise date, but the best later studies have determined. Here he met the future Lord Deather and his unit of soldiers who would become the Defilers. Lord Yeller (and the Bellowers) and Lord Foul Skream also made their first appearances here sometime later. The Aotrs left Macronis IV in around 220BC, leaving it behind entirely and arriving on Kalanoth.
Aside from these few facts, very little concrete information is known about this earliest phase of history of the Aotrs. This is in the vast majority, simply because there are no records left to historians to examine. The primitive technology of the time would not have lent itself to survive the march of two thousand years and at this point the Aotrs were not the meticulous record-keepers they would become in later years. At this point, the Aotrs was merely an army – and a fairly small one at that – and without a pressing need for logistics (aside from to replace their gear); information was not simply kept. The precise location of Macronis IV is not even known. Later records list it by that name, but a planet with such a primitive civilisation would not have used a space-age numeral designator. They may not even have called it “Macronis” at all – perhaps that might have been the name of the star.
The only records, then, of Aotrs activity during this first two-century period remains in the memories of the previously mentioned Lords and the oldest surviving members of the Defilers and Bellowers. And even then, the events of the following two thousand years mean that by their own admissions, the memories are somewhat sketchy. Drawing out exactly what happened, then, would require a concerted effort that would take up the valuable time of the Aotrs’ most high-ranking officers and soldiers, which is simply not feasible. What little is known has been pieced together from the rare times were it was possible to perform an interview on the subject over the centuries.
Macronis IV is theorised to be an HPE world or HPE-L world that tended towards HPE. Most descriptions seem to suggest a dry, desertous place (though this may simply have been the region the nascent Aotrs were operating in) as well as nontypical HPE-L fauna. Humans are recalled as being the only intelligent race represented. All of which skews the likelihood more towards HPE than HPE-L.
The Aotrs formed upon a chance meeting between the newly-arrived Lord Death Despoil and Lord Deather and his soldiers. Lord Deather and his unit were already Undead. They had been sacrificed as pawns by the empire of their birth (where they had been a legion of regular soldiers) to stop an unspecified enemy threat. Lord Deather freely admits he simply no longer recalls the specifics and the remaining Defilers’ memories are little better. Lord Deather has even postulated that the manner in which they were killed may have damaged their living memories, and in the years that followed, as they did not dwell on their former lives, that knowledge just ebbed away.
What is recalled is that the Aotrs did a great deal of raiding of ancient tombs in search of power, and that the Defilers (now bolstered by Lord Yeller and the Bellowers, whom had joined in the intervening years) did successfully seek revenge on the nation and the individuals that had had them killed. It is generally held that this activity had stirred up too much of a response from the nations of Macronis IV and so Lord Death Despoil, having finalised his goals in this first century, determined they had to leave for safer pastures. The then-Aotrs retreated into a defensible fortress in the depths of the desert while Lord Death Despoil researched ways of leaving not just the region, but the planet altogether, which is believed to have taken something over a century. (He noted to one interviewer rather dryly that at the time, had he better resources available in later years, he could have completed the spells much sooner.) A few of the Defilers interviewed over the centuries recalled that the final retreat was made after an increasing series of raids and attacks by adventurers, lured by the idea of a citadel of Undead guarding untold treasure. A couple have recalled they dimly remember that there might have been army approaching, or being assembled, which could have been fatal to the Aotrs as a whole at the time. However, the liches all agreed that the departure was made in good time and good order long before this possible army arrived on the scene.
At this point, Macronis IV fades out of Aotrs history. The world has never been re-located, and the ensuing centuries. It is possible that it remains undiscovered in the modern age; equally, even Lord Death Despoil admits, it could be a little-known region on some existent HPE-L world, now known by an entirely different name. Given the small size of the Aotrs during their time there, if this is true, the events surrounding the Aotrs have simply fallen into the cracks of history.
Fearmore
Fearmore is the Aotrs’ capital world and the very literal throne of Lord Death Despoil. The massive and ancient Citadel, a monumental complex larger than many starships, is the world’s focal point.
Fearmore’s precise co-ordinates are a state-level secret. It is stated to be in the Malevaor sector (along with Kalanoth). It is known to be towards the upper rim where there are solitary stars not near other clusters. It is one of a number of similar, unremarkable stars in the region. Bounded by Aotrs territory below and the inter-galactic void above, a hostile power wishing to locate Fearmore would have to travel a route right through the centre of one of the galaxy’s major powers, or attempt a dangerous round trip into intergalactic space where they would be extremely vulnerable to detection and interception. The planet’s very sparse settlements mean that even to sensors, it does not have a very visible signature to distinguish it, further adding to the primary layer of defence of obfuscatement.
The world now known as Fearmore is in many ways, what the mind first imagines when speaking of a world belonging to the Undead. It is a largely barren wasteland of rocks and grey deserts. The dark, stormy seas do not smell of salt, but instead in the majority have a sulphurous tang. Time itself seems to crawl, as the day and night seem unnaturally long and drawn-out. The surface is almost devoid of life, with only a few hardy small plants and animals living in the de-facto deserts. In the seas, life has survived better, if not well – the temperate seas in particular support plankton blooms and an order of whale-like creatures which feed upon them. Ruins lie dotted all over the surface of civilisations long fallen. But it was not always this way.
The Aotrs arrived via Gate on the world of G’Nayel in around 190BC. At this stage, the Aotrs has just reached its second century of existence, and a technology and thaumaturgy level roughly around the 7th century AD level. The Aotrs was still very much an army and not a state. While it had in the three decades prior begun to establish itself on Kalanoth, it still lacked a true base of operations. G’Nayel was originally intended to be a safeguard – a second world where the Aotrs could retreat to if they attracted attention that on Kalanoth they could not defeat. Lord Death Despoil recalls that it was the first world he attempted to reach – as if instinct drew him to it. He recalled it bore superficial resemblance to Macronis IV – and at the time, deserts and mountain regions provided a strong defensive barrier for a relatively small army with few logistical concerns.
G’Nayel was always a harsh world, with many desert plains and mountain outcroppings. G’Nayel would have been classified as an HPE-L world, though it was towards the boundary of that classification. The day length was 26 hours (atypical for HPE-L) and the planet was (and still is, technically) in the grip of an ice-age with only a relatively small hydrosphere, meaning that only 40% of the surface was water. There were thus a lot of deserts and wind-blown mountains for the Aotrs to potentially hide in.
G’Nayel had some of the typical elements of an HPE-L world – humans, elves, dwarves and the local type of orcs were known on the region (continent for want of a better word, though perhaps not strictly accurate) that the Aotrs arrived in. It also had what would later be known to be nontypical HPE-L flora and fauna that was entirely unique.
And it was one of these elements that would eventually spell doom for G’Nayel.
The Li’Tier plant is humble enough. It resembles, to an untrained eye, a sort of wheat stalk, but one with a grey-ish stem and whose seed heads appear metallic. But the unusual-looking seed head hides a most remarkable secret – it contains a metal element, a unique alloy named lityite, formed partially magically by the plant itself from trace metal elements. Even in the modern era, this alloy is not practically replicatable. Lityite alloy added even in small measures, significantly improves the strength and durability of the metal, and furthermore, inherently boosts the quality of any defensive magics applied to it. This has applications, aside from in weapons and armour for all manner of summoning and protective enchantments. It was also discovered in the later ages to have other applications in reducing energy signatures in powered mundane technology.
The Li’Tier plant was a strategic resource of sufficient importance that it became clear that G’Nayel would need to be secured properly for the future empire and so the Aotrs began to divide its forces between G’Nayel and Kalanoth.
As the Aotrs expanded, it began to transform from military army to true nation-state, and over the next few hundred years expanded to other worlds. Kalanoth and G’Nayel were relatively geographically close, and from them, the Aotrs scouted out and then invaded Akamo, Temnis and Raytayne over the next eight hundred years, making slow but steady progress.
It was Raytayne which sealed G’Nayel’s final fate. Raytayne was the furthest away of the worlds (located in what is the now the far edge of the Hate sector). From there, Lord Death Despoil was able to compose the first true primitive star map of the Aotrs worlds in a truly geographical sense. As the G’Nayel’s location became apparent, its defensible position and the valuable resource of the Li’Tier meant that it became the top priority to be fully secured.
The Aotrs had grown by this point, to be able to begin opening other fronts to establish footholds on the other planets. The focus of operations changed, however – what had been a slow-but-steady conquest changed to the acquisition of rare magical resources on Akamo, Kalanoth, Raytayne and Temnis while G’Nayel received the lion’s share of the expansion. While the Aotrs continued to expand on the other four worlds for the next seven centuries, it was at a reduced rate.
Finally, in 759, Lord Death Despoil, using resources and knowledge gleaned from five worlds, and the top casters of the Aotrs conducted a massive ritual on G’Nayel – the Scouring. In the decades leading up to it, it was inevitable that information leaked out, and the Aotrs was hard-pressed to fend off waves of armies. The final ritual casting was performed at a magical conflux site, while all available Aotrs forces, pulled away from all four other worlds (leaving only a bare-minimum second-line garrisons), fought off a combined attack from an alliance of five disparate armies and their attendant heroes.
The Aotrs prevailed, stalling long enough for the ritual to be complete. The Scouring, once activated, swept across the globe, wiping out the vast majority of all life, like an artificial mass extinction. At its core, the Scouring was fundamentally a transmutation effect, based on petrification magics. It had thus no effect on nonliving or Undead creatures, but transformed living creature into sand (specifically, a mix of white silica and black carbon sand, which gives Fearmore its distinctive grey deserts). The ritual was design to occlude certain specific living creatures (the Li’Tier plant and by extension, many of its relatives) and only affected creatures of about the size of a cat or larger. The effect was significantly degraded by the presence of water, and so the sea life suffered far fewer losses.
The Scouring completely ended any resistance on G’Nayel. The aftermath and cost, however, was enormous. Firstly, the battle ensured that the Aotrs’ then living forces could not retreat safely off-world (since Lord Death Despoil was the only one capable of casting a spell of sufficient power). While the most important units and leaders (such as Lungrender) were able to escape via spells stored beforehand, the vast majority of the remaining forces were wiped out. Their sacrifice was not in vain, as over time, they were restored as liches, but this was a considerably undertaking – just finding enough bodies to bind the souls into required years.
Enemy forces on Akamo and Temnis took advantage of the garrison’s weakness and inflicted significant damage in the Aotrs’ absence in the majority. In Temnis’ case, the damage caused and territory lost put back the conquest of the planet nearly two centuries.
The environmental damage to G’Nayel was catastrophic, as could be imagined, far worse than Lord Death Despoil could have predicted with the knowledge available to him at that time. The ramifications are still being felt over 1500 years later. On top of the massive devastation to the eco-system, the magic unleashed has actually slowed the planet’s revolution speed, dragging out the day/night cycle by over 10%. With the almost-total extinction of all larger lifeforms and the day and night the better part of three hours longer, the small lifeforms on land and surviving sea creatures underwent their own mass extinction in short order and only a relative handful of species survived. Even the Li’Tier plant was severely endangered, as planet-wide dust storms swept the world, only abating with the establishment of the weather control network. Only a massive effort to preserve viable crops in sheltered locations enabled it to survive. Finally, as later exploration of the ruined cities and places over the globe discovered, whole civilisations had been wiped out without the Aotrs ever knowing about them and their knowledge lost and destroyed by the unforgiving sands. Some of these ruins were rendered highly dangerous due to the uncontrolled and undirected magical effects.
The Aotrs has their secure capital world, but the price had been phenomenal. But it had also been instructive. After the Scouring, the Aotrs have been very markedly averse to using cataclysmic or mass-destruction weapons. The mere attempt at deploying such a weapon had driven the Aotrs closer to total destruction than it has arguably ever been. And so that early on, the dangers of possessing such a weapon were clearly illustrated. But the efficacy of such weapons was also demonstrated. The Aotrs from then on would continue to develop such weapons, but hold them in reserve and only a handful of them have ever been deployed and only ever in a limited fashion. The Scouring ritual has itself long been secured away. Lord Death Despoil has stated on many occasions that he does not intend to ever use it or its like again; but by the same token, the aftermath of the Scouring taught him that he should not assume he can perfectly predict the future and that one day, circumstances might align to change that intention.
Following the Scouring, G’Nayel was re-named Fearmore. The Citadel, which had started as a temple-tomb complex old even when the Aotrs arrived on the world, expanded over the centuries into its current labyrinthine standards.
The population of G’Nayel now consists primarily of Undead. The High Command have their personal chambers within the Citadel. Outside the Citadel and its legions of staff that form the machinery that run an interstellar empire, the few settlements deal almost entirely with farming the Li’Tier plant. Even processing the lityite has largely been moved over to Melimfar. A few garrisons watch over the regions, but vast swathes of the planet are uninhabited.
To aid in keeping the planet innocuous to long-range emission observation, modern technology is built in shielded locations wherever possible, under the guise of stone backed with a thin internal layer of lityite. This extends even to the garrison; rather than standard Aotrs armour, the troopers use so-called “Garrison Plate” which has a high concentration of lityite and aesthetically resembles ancient plate armour. With only a few, heavily stealthed, satellites in orbit, Fearmore does not even have an orbiting fleet; its in-system defences are secreted away in the emissions of the Aatras system’s largest gas giant, Dark Shroud.
Kalanoth
Kalanoth lies in what is now the Llactidraen (Galactic Elven lit. “sun-tomb”) system. If Fearmore is the Aotrs Capital proper, Kalanoth is the financial centre and economic capital. The Aotrs arrived on Kalanoth in approximately 220 BC via Gate from Macronis IV. Kalanoth is a high-magic, fully inhabited HPE-L world and was one of the first worlds to be truly conquered by the Aotrs – indeed, the second only if one counts the Scouring of Fearmore.
While officially conquered nearly a millennium and a half ago in 802 when the majority of the nations had been subdued or exterminated, it took many more decades of work and smaller wars before the entire world was finally solidly under Aotrs control. Kalanoth was, functionally, the true test bed for the amount of time and effort to completely conquer a fully inhabited world. That is took “merely” a thousand years, given that the technology level by the time it was officially conquered was roughly equal to then High Middle Ages (circa mid 1100s), even with magical assistance, is an impressive feat.
Kalanoth is the homeworld and seat of power of Lord Lungrender, the most senior (and famous) living Dark Elf in the Aotrs. Though Lungrender is technically part of the Aotrs High Command, he is also the overall commander of the Dark Elf Trooper legions. He also is Kalanoth’s ruler and these duties keep him mostly planet-bound, unlike earlier times, leaving the more active duties to the High Command’s Liches.
Kalanoth is the most populous of the Aotrs worlds, with its high density population distributed both on and below the surface, underwater and in orbital habitats. Despite the large population, the planet is not completely urbanised, though wild areas are now confined to the national parks. The population itself consists of elves (especially Dark Elves) by the majority, followed by humans and half-elves, liches and the Kalanothi orc-kin, the latter predominately in their own national regions. Over the centuries, the Aotrs has expanded across the globe, with the Aotrs favoured-races having largely supplanted or exterminated the other races which once dwelled upon it, except in a few isolated communities in unimportant areas.
Kalanoth is neat, ordered and well-planned; Lord Lungrender and Lord Death Despoil have both spent considerable effort over centuries – the former especially – in optimising Kalanoth’s infrastructure, the results of which are shared with the Aotrs’ other worlds. In most respects, Kalanoth is typical of a power’s capital world – aside from the larger number of skeletons walking down the street, Kalanoth would seem little different from any of the worlds of the Royal Elven Kingdoms or Saiyvalyss Alliance, for example.
Kalanoth differs in one respect, however – it has an unusually rate of occurrence of meta-natural phenomena. First detected by the Aotrs early in their history through the significantly higher rate of magic items that became cursed or developed strange side-effects, these phenomena range from the insignificantly mundane to potentially cataclysmic if not contained. In the later centuries, the root cause is suspected to involve an early incursion (pre-dating the Xakkath Demon Wars) via the extra-Reality entities known to the Aotrs as the Ackna-Kreel, which is believed to have functionally worn thin the fabric of Reality in the system so that there is “bleed-through” from other Realities in unpredictable fashions. Even today, some of these phenomena have not been fully explained by Aotrs science or magic. Kalanoth thus houses the Kalanoth Paranatural Security Division, a group composed of a cross-section of all four parts of the Aotrs’ armed forces, the Pathfinders and civilian scientists and operatives.
The KPS Division is tasked with locating and securing these phenomena when they prove to be beyond even the Aotrs normal capabilities and so ensuring they can be contained (or destroyed as necessary) where they can be researched and the general populace can be protected from their ill-effects. While the focus remains on Kalanoth, the KPS Division is sometimes called in to handle such problems on other worlds (notably, the after-effects of the Scouring have produced a disproportionate number of such instances, though it is still a fraction of Kalanoth’s). Due to their nature, the KPS Division is also particularly adept at exorcisms (both necromantically and via extra-planar possession) and sometimes is called upon to deal with particularly difficult instances.
In the space-flight age, the KPS Division’s primary containment facilities were moved off-planet as much as possible, and they reside in several high-orbital facilities around Nestrotar, Llactidraen’s outermost planetoid.
While not the industrial giant that is Melimfar, Kalanoth’s centralised location and economic importance means that it boasts a wealth of shipyards and manufacturing facilities, both in orbit and in the Llactidraen system, second only to Melimfar’s shipyards themselves.
Tusharnos
Tusharnos has retained its name – with some lingual drift – from as far back as the Xakkath Demon Wars. Formerly a relatively unremarkable HPE-L world, Tusharnos was one of the major battle grounds during that conflict and the face of the world was forever changed into one of sweeping vistas, fantastical cliffs and enormous valleys rent by the numerous divine combats.
When the Aotrs invaded in 1287, Tusharnos was still a struggling world. Much of the hydrosphere blasted away, and there are only three small oceans occupying what was once the deepest portions of the world’s land. The towering plateaus borne the brunt of the unforgiving sun, Kul, while the once-lush forests were confined to the valleys and crevasses. The planetary capital city, Shining Spires, dates back to before the conquest. It was the seat of power of the High Elves, who had carved one of the few true empires of Tusharnos. Much of the rest of the world was divided into patchwork nations or city-states (mostly human or Elven), divided by near-impassable cliffs and mountain ranges or gulfs of burning deserts. The High Elves had an astonishing command of engineering, even by the standards of the Aotrs at the time of the conquest. They had constructed an impressive series of lifts (modernised versions that still stand today) that climbed from the top of the Naetith Valley to the top of the Dansin plateau, and there built a city of towering spires to look over their realm. Shining Spires is treated to the most fantastic sunsets of any city in the Aotrs, as the plateau behind it is almost completely flat and lies above the now-low median cloud layer.
Tusharnos today still has a relatively small population for a world of its size and age. The remnants of the Xakkath Demon War (the primary impetus for conquest) have been largely found, though every so often another one might come to light in some forgotten region. Selective terraforming and climate control has improved and stabilised the waning hydrosphere; though by design, much of the surface remains desert still. A millennium of Aotrs conquest has seen the disparate tribes and mini-nations subjugated, though many are still very primitive and pre-industrial, never worth the effort of exploiting and are more-or-less left alone to rule – or bicker – among themselves, with only the occasional reminder of who truly controls Tusharnos required.
In late 2345, an anomaly on sensors was detected by the Tusharnos defence fleet. Upon investigation, a pocket dimension dating to the period of the Xakkath Demon Wars was uncovered, centred around a temple to the time god Tyme. It had been used for some decades prior as a base of operations for the Brotherhood of the Grey Lizard, an order of human temporal ninja-monks under the control of the Time Drake Timeshade. The Brotherhood of the Grey Lizard is active throughout time and human space, attempting to subvert the course of history in favour of Timeshade. Timeshade was believed to have originated from the planet of Skraasskasstor.
(The Skraasskasstor civilisation – an HPE-L world where dragons dominated which had achieved early FTL level – disappeared six hundred and fifty years ago in mysterious circumstances, perhaps not even a decade before the Aotrs developed FTL Gates. The world remains uninhabited and now lies Ujuquju space, renamed Sukjujkus. The Lujuqujul have left the world alone, due to the gravity being three times their own comfortable level.)
Timeshade was reputedly assassinated via adventurers on the behest of Tyme, the actual death occurring at some point in the distant future (though due to nature of time travel, both Timeshade and his killers were from the present era). Remains found in the pocket dimension indicated he had at some point returned as a lich, set up this base of operations without being detected but was subsequently destroyed shortly before the pocket dimension was discovered. The entire pocket dimension area had been subjected to a severe temporal flux and residue indicated that some form of temporal-based ritual had been conducted prior to the anomaly’s detection which aged all living sentient creatures and technology within the area (outside of what appeared to be a ritual circle) to death. Neither Timeshade nor any of the remains could be used to summon the spirits of the dead for questioning, as the artificial aging process had taken them beyond even Lord Death Despoil’s limit of elapsed time since death.
Analysis of the anomaly indicated that it was consistent with Shardan Marauder teleporter signatures. In concert with other information discerned and a surface investigation, a picture of what happened emerged. The Shardan appeared to have brought the adventurers responsible for Timeshade’s death to complete his destruction and then facilitated their escape, bringing the adventurer’s ship into and out of the system under cloak (which is almost impossible for Aotrs technology to detect, given the technological advantage the Shardan have, being in the top three most technologically advanced powers). The adventurers infiltrated the atmosphere by what appears to be utilisation of lityite. (Aotrs command was apparently aware of the group and confirms that this usage would have depleted the supply they were known to have had.) Once down, a single ship making surface flights in a backwater a region did not immediately flag up a warning; especially on Tusharnos where such civilian flights are unremarkable. The ship appears to have been recalled via teleporter. It is unknown how the Brotherhood of the Grey Lizard or Timeshade infiltrated the planet, but investigations continue.
This incident had only a relatively minor in impact to the Aotrs in and of itself; the security breech, given the exotic methods used by both infiltrating parties, was considered functionally unpreventable at this time (pending the results of the investigation into the Brotherhood) and no Aotrs personnel were at fault. (Indeed, commendations were given for the prompt response to the detected anomaly, with forces arriving on the scene in minutes.) However, barely a month later, a Brotherhood of the Grey Lizard force attacked a top-secret Aotrs facility outside Aotrs space, necessitating the 2nd fleet to make an emergency series of chain-jumps.
Melimfar
Melimfar (Galactic Elven: “night-iron”) is located in the Kreetaaik (Chillspeak: “forge-wraith”) system of the Hate sector. Melimfar is the third of the Hate sector’s habitable worlds, along with Akamo and Temnis, but the least hospitable to terrestrial life. It has an atmosphere of nitrogen, methane and ammonia, a sidereal day of fifty standard days and proximity to its red star makes it hot and bathed in solar radiation. It has life, however, and in plenitudes, adapted to the world’s hostile environment, though no intelligent species. Melimfar’s background magic sits almost exactly in the centre of the medium magic band. The background magic pervades the planet, and it resonates particularly closely to the Elemental Plane of Earth.
The planet is only slightly smaller than a typical HPE, approximately 70% of the volume (5700km radius), and with a slightly lower density due to the lack of an iron core, leaving it with 0.85G gravity. The surface temperature, warmed by the star Kreetaaik, is also about 50ºK above HPE standards. (Kreetaaik itself is a cool giant, only massing 0.5 solar masses and with a size of 11 solar radiuses.)
Forests of domes of fungus-like vegetation cover much of the land surface. Fungal mats cover the seas; Melimfar has no moon and so with no tides to move them around, these aquatic matts are as dense and deep as any jungle on land. In the skies above, the high, thin atmosphere held by the low gravity nevertheless supports a family of floating animals that have more in common with dirigibles than winged creatures.
But it is below the surface where Melimfar’s treasures truly lie. The crust is porous, with a massive network of subterranean caverns running for almost three hundred miles into the planet before reaching the planet’s mantle. With the slow rotation and lack of any resonant bodies in the system, Melimfar has little volcanic activity to disrupt this network.
The cavern system is itself a massive, complex ecosystem every bit as equal to any of other world, and perhaps even more so. Even the modern Aotrs is still exploring and discovering new species in the depths of the planet – it has been suggested that, because of the dramatic increase in functional volume for life to exist, Melimfar has more species than any two or three other worlds in Aotrs space combined.
But even that wealth pales into comparison to the Melimfar’s mineral deposits. Due to the planet’s resonance with the Plane of Earth, a staggering variety and quantity of ores, gems, crystals and stones are present across the planet. Even more valuably, partly due to the background magic, and partly due to the complex ecology of various mineralivores, many of these are renewable resources, formed as waste by-products or slowly growing over time.
The Kreetaaik system takes its name from Akamo mythology, being central to a constellation relating to a god of metal-crafting (who had ceased to be long before the Aotrs arrived, if he was ever fully formed at all). Whether serendipitous or prophetically, when the first trans-system probe arrived in the system in 1710, even the probe’s primitive sensors could detect the masses of resources contained beneath the Melimfar’s surface, and in Kreetaaik’s three copious asteroid belts (the Karn, Urgdon and Lulge belts, named after the god’s chief servitors). The probes had been dispatched just three years after the first FTL Gate system was developed but it was not until 1757 that the Aotrs colonised the system, having first expanded to closer systems (such as Vasbatros in the Frost system).
Given the ecology and the mineral formations were inextricably linked, Lord Death Despoil, practical and forward thinking as always, resisted the urge to strip-mine the planet for resources. From the start, Melimfar has been exploited carefully. So Melimfar today is home to a massive industrial base, both on and under the surface and in orbit, all meticulously managed to deal a minimum of environmental damage. Mineral farms which slowly but consistently produce material are maintained in many of the largest caverns, ensuring a steady supply for the processing facilities.
Melimfar has a huge amount of orbital facilities, including the single largest shipyard docks in Aotrs space. The surface facilities boast the highest concentrations of Undead and a robotic population segments of anywhere in the Aotrs, being immune to the nonterrestrial atmosphere. Even so, there are many domed cities on the surface, underwater or in the caverns and in orbital habitats, where the living population can live and work in safety.
Melimfar and the other in-system facilities still produces a staggering 9% of the Aotrs entire resource production, and during the days of 2nd through 4th generation of the starfleet, this number approached almost 50%. As a result, the Kreetaaik system boasts the second-most extensive defensive fleet deployment next to Kalanoth.
Ships of the Aotrs Navy, Part Five
(Note: measurements are taken from bounding box extremities.)
Midnight A Dreadcarrier
Length: 950.0m
Width: 320.0m
Height: 367.0m
The Midnight A Dreadcarrier is a hybrid carrier/warship variant of the Midnight Dreadnought, first deployed in concert with that dreadnought in a support role. The Midnight A removes some of the turreted coldbeams (leaving it with approximately 75% of the firepower) and downgrades the warhead launchers from Class 30 to “merely” Class 20, and replaces the freed-up mass and space with a hangar bay for a squadron of fighters. However, the smaller missile magazine (where the space is devoted instead to the munitions for the fighters) means it cannot carry quite the same breath of warheads types as the Midnight.
Unlike the smaller Blackhole, the Midnight A’s hybrid nature does not lend itself to smaller operations. The Blackhole can carry the same amount of fighters and with more efficiency due to is smaller size, whereas the Midnight A would be an over-commitment of resources for doing the same sort of job. Thus, the Midnight A typically operates part of a larger fleet group. It is very rare – though not entirely unheard of – for it to function as an independent commerce raider like the Midnight does.
In this battlefield role, the Midnight A tends to carry a squadron of general purpose fighters – either the Foul Wing or the Apparition, with the former being the most common. Their role is generally the interception of other fighters, or providing top-cover to other craft like the Crater or more specialised fighters like Rends. Both fighters are capable, with a simple change of warhead load-out, of performing anti-capital ship duties if that is required, however, and the Foul Wing’s standard weapon load-out allows it some measure of capability against all types of targets regardless.
Despite the downgrading of the Midnight A’s anti-ship armaments, it remains a serious threat, especially when acting in tandem with the escorts and warships it is supporting. The Midnight A still carries the dorsal energy beam cannons, so is quite capable of slicing enemy ships apart, though without support, its shield-stripping power is not as great as the standard Midnight. That said, with its squadron of supporting fighters to assist, the Midnight A is better at dealing with targets with more active defences, since it forces them to split their point-defence between the incoming missile volleys and the strafing fighters.
The Midnight A and the Blackhole remain the Aotrs’ main carrier craft, with the rarer and larger Death Swarm Battle Carrier performing closer to a more traditional fleet carrier role.
Havoc Orbital Bombardment
Length: 507.2m
Width: 137.4m
Height: 154.8m
The Havoc is a rarely seen sight in the Aotrs fleet. Despite being one of the earliest 10th generation ships to be designed and built, the Havoc has seen the smallest operational use. Modern vessels can accomplish tactical orbital bombardment with their main weapons; the Havoc is designed for serious and extended planetary bombardment or as a weapon against enemy supercruisers, none of which are common requirements. Typically the Aotrs prefer to capture or perform surgical operations on the surface. Supercruisers are an increasingly rare sight and even against space-stations it is often more time-consuming but much safer to bombard them with railgun fire from extreme range or via tow-launched asteroids, so the Havoc is rarely required.
The Havoc is built around the core of a huge planetary-scale plasma-pulse cannon, which masses fully half the hull. This weapon is very powerful but ponderous and only has a short range before the pulse destabilises and both accuracy and damage sharply fall to nothing. Against mobile targets, its effectiveness low and the long time to recharge makes it a poor anti-ship weapon. But against a stationary target (as in, one that cannot manoeuvre; a predictable course and speed (such as an orbit) is fundamentally no different to a static target), the effect is devastating.
The Havoc’s manoeuvrability is strictly average. Though it has shields and armour only a little below average for a typical heavy cruiser a third larger than it is, the Havoc’s lack of other weapons make it a poor combatant in a straight fight. With only a few point-defence turrets to fend off missiles and enemy fighters, the Havoc is almost totally reliant on escorts to get into position to do its only job.
The Havoc is only stationed with mobile fleets, and not even all of those possess one of these vessels.
Foul Wing Fighter
Length: 15.57m
Width: 14.27m
Height: 3.63m
The Foul Wing is the Aotrs’ primary heavy fighter. It was the first fully 10th generation fighter design. The Foul Wing has good, if not exceptional, manoeuvrability, tough shields and is well armed. It is has a pair of coldbeam cannons mounted under the nose. A pair of plasma-pulse cannons mounted on the sides can rotate in the vertical axis. A light twin coldbeam turret is mounted on the dorsal fuselage.
Two large warhead bays, each with a twin warhead launcher, provide the bulk of its striking power. The designated Standard load-out of the Foul Wing consists of four Reaper short-range missiles, four Reaver medium-range missiles, four Harpy medium anti-fighter torpedoes and four Skull anti-ship/anti-armour torpedoes. The second-most common Strike load-out retains the four Skulls and four Reapers and adds two more of the latter for a total of six, but replaces the other warheads with four Slayer heavy anti-starship torpedoes. The voluminous bays can be outfitted to fire any of the Aotrs’ fighter-carried warheads, and there are several other stock configurations (Strike Support, Capture, Superiority and Heavy Strike) before mission-specific loads are considered.
The Foul Wing shares a great deal of similarities to the Crater; indeed the Crater is essentially a Foul Wing built to a larger scale. The Foul Wing is a solid craft, but as the generation has advanced, the refinements on the Crater have favoured the larger fightercruiser. The Foul Wing’s only advantage over the Crater is that it has a 10% higher relativistic cruise ceiling. It is operated only by a single pilot, though, it has been the subject of debate whether this is advantageous or whether the Crater’s larger crew gives it the edge. In manoeuvrability and range, the Crater is the Foul Wing’s equal; in weapons load, survivability and operational capacity, the Crater is strictly superior.
The Foul Wing remains in production, though in recent years, it has given way to the Crater in priority. The Foul Wing’s own survivability is likely to ensure it lasts until likely the end of the generation, but as time goes on, the Crater more and more takes over the Foul Wing’s job. The one area where the Foul Wing has its niche are those instances where the number of vessels matters (such as in a massed dogfight or running patrols or long-range recon in rotation). Here, the fact that the Crater is twice the size of the Foul Wing (and so can only be carried in half the same space and mass) works against it. Foul Wings are thus increasingly only commonly found in large fleet deployments, performing a general-purpose role and leaving the more specialist, smaller-scale jobs to the Craters.
Apparition Light Fighter
Length: 10.95m
Width: 10.50m
Height (Unladen): 1.94m
The Apparition is the Aotrs adaption of the highly-successful Spectre II fighter from the open market. The Apparition was selected as a modification, rather than an in-house design as during the 9th generation, the Aotrs shipyards were pushed to their limit with dealing with the supercruisers and there was simply not enough manufacturing capability left. By buying in designs from the open market that were intended to be modified by the end-user (notably from the Herosine Empire), the Aotrs were able to eke out their manufacturing capability to cover both fighter and ground forces adequately.
The Apparition design worked so well that when the Aotrs switched over to internal production, they continued to build the Apparitions in their own factories. The Apparition holds the distinction of being the only starship craft to remain in full production throughout the 9th and 10th generation. While the front-line and new Apparitions have improved 10th generation engines and Gate drives and their avionics have been upgraded, the Apparition in service now (the Mark 6) is fundamentally the same as the Mark 1 that entered service in 2251 and is expected to last until the end of the 10th generation and possibly even into the 11th via some descendant.
The Aotrs upgrade to the Spectre II replaced the twin 35mm Gatling cannons with two rotary plasma-pulse cannons. The Spectre II’s internal bay was reconfigured to feed a pair of warhead launchers in place of the Spectre II’s distinctive, atypical ventral bay hatches. The four exterior missile hardpoints were retained; the hard points were strengthened in the Mark 5 to allow 25% more load. The Apparition can be configured for a wide variety of warheads, but four set load-outs are the most common.
The Standard load-out is four Reaver medium-range missiles in the bay and four Reaper short range missiles for use at dogfighting ranges on the hardpoints. The increased load of the Mark 5 and 6’s hardpoints allowed the Interdiction load of the Apparition to carry two Reaper and two Pierce light Interdictor missiles externally, plus two Reaver and two Puncture medium interdictor missiles in the bay. The Strike load-out carries two Reapers and two single-shot Harridan light anti-fighter torpedo launchers on the hardpoints, and four Skull torpedoes (anti-armour/anti-starship) in the warhead launcher. The forth common load-out is the Strike Support, which replaces the Strike’s Skulls with 28 Horde semi-guided warheads.
The Apparitions have had many notable successes; in one operation in 2326, a squadron of Apparition fighter attacked an enemy supply base during a resupplying operation, and destroyed over thirty enemy fighters and transports plus a corvette, for the loss of a single fighter (whose pilot was recovered).
So, what's that on the Gregorian calendar we've been using for almost half a millennium at this point?
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Well, strictly speaking, the accuracy of Julian verses Gregorian is less than two week's difference (25/11/2020 verses 8/12/2020 as of today), so it will be slightly incorrect for a brief period of time in about two weeks. But considering the precision of the dates given, that's still less than the margin of error for about most of them.
I think I can unlive with that.
(If nothing else, if on other places people spot the clearly deliberate mistake, it might prompt some reponses...! See if anyone else is paying attention...!)
(I mean, I could also note that Julian calendar is actually a more standard number and that Earth-E's variance from it isn't necessarily shared with the other Earth's, but as year length tends to be a bit +/- even on HPEs, I think we'd both know I'd be reaching a bit.
...
Actually, in all honestly, I DON'T know whether that is the case on the other Earths or not. It is, in the grand scheme of things, a bit of one of those "minor details subject to variation," given the relative small variance.)
Though one could make the most compelling arguement that the Gregorian calandar gets 2020 over and done faster, because [four-asterisk] 2020...
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I mean, how many people would know that was an error without having to look up what "Julian calendar" actually meant first?
...Your intended target audience is deeply nerdy, so probably a lot.
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We shall consider this an experiment!