Rethqua


Type: Homeworld and Agricultural World.
Region: Border Regions.
Trade Route: Feeder to the Long Path.
Sector: Yaeger Sector.
Strategic Location: Toward the edge of the space controlled by the Confederation of Unaligned Worlds.
Temperature: 112% standard.
Atmosphere: Thin. May cause nosebleeds and exhaustion among non-natives.
Hydrosphere: 37% of the surface of Rethqua is covered in water, of which 94% has a salinity of 0%-3%.
Gravity: 109% standard.
Terrain: Rolling hills, large mountain ranges, and vast areas of broken terrain.
Mineral Resources: Substantial reserves of Kurindium, Shabral, and a Mantium ore termed Rethquantium, which has several unique properties.
Length of Day: 25 standard hours.
Length of Year: 350 local days.
Sapient Species: The reptilian Quen are the only native sentient species.
Capital City: Thiquira was the long time capital of the Quen, but it has been destroyed and irradiated by the Empire. The currently capital is Quall Nahsrem, but reclamation of Thiquira is a project of great importance to the Quen.
Other Cities: Ebelen, Heleq, Thakel, and Nardaren are the other major cities of Rethqua.
Starport: The Empire had installed a limited services starport at Piett City, but the Quen destroyed that facility. For now, all landings must be conducted at landing strips scattered across the planet, though construction of a planetary class port near Ebelen has begun.
Population (within +/- 1%): 23,905,300 Quen.
Government: The Quen are ruled by a hereditary nobility, which is at the head of a feudal system of governance.
Tech Level: Steel age. Some Imperial technology has been incorporated into the Quen military's armory, and trade with the other races of the Confederation of Unaligned worlds is slowly putting technological devices into the hands of the average Quen. However, most of the technology encountered on Rethqua is native in nature, and not yet advanced to steam levels.
Major Exports: Warriors, armor, weapons.
Major Imports: Technology.
System: Kardakin
Star: Kardak
Name Planet Type Moons
SlienarScalding Rock0
MiriquaGreenhouse World4
RethquaTerrestrial2
YirduGas Giant12
MethirFrigid Rock5

System Capsule:

Slienar: This burning hot world is of relatively little value, for while it has some reserves of compounds similar to Rethquantium, it is far to hot to mine effectively.
Miriqua: The compounds in this jet black planet's atmosphere hold in most of the heat that Kardak releases on it, turning the planet far hotter than the core of a gas giant. Spectrum analysis has revealed some mineral reserves of interest, but they are no more accessible than those of stars.
Rethqua: See above.
Yirdu: The moons of this massive world was the site of an Imperial garrison for several months after the Imperium lost Rethqua.
Methir: This small world has a small Shuumar mine, which harvests some Mantium and mantium derivatives. The lease on this mine is the primary source of income for the Quen at this time, though mercenary contracts are a close second.

Planetary Capsule:

Flora and fauna: Rethqua is rather rich in life. Despite the world's lower than standard percentage of surface water, most of the planet remains fertile, as the surface water of Rethqua is more spread out than it is in most worlds, with numerous lakes and rivers taking the place of large oceans. The rather thin atmosphere keeps these smaller bodies from evaporating over- quickly, as there is simply less room in the air for water molecules.

The rivers and lakes feed a vast variety of wildlife. Around half of the planet is covered in thick riverine forests, and most of the other half is some form of grassland. The rivers have also cut twisting mazes of canyons through the limestone tablelands that are the planet's primary geological region (a relic of an earlier, much wetter age in the planet's evolution.), and these badlands regions are usually covered in either forest or grassland, but some of these regions remain quite bare, as the precipitous nature of the cliff faces, and only a few tenacious shrubs cling to the rocks there.

The forest regions are inhabited by a wide variety of giant reptiles and saurithuscians. Several mammal species are also present, and fill the roles of most of the large predators. Specifically notable among the plant eaters are the herbivorous genah goanna, the deerlike tahberin, and the giant spiny tliubr. The primary predators of the forest region include the gargantuan goanna, the crested bear, and the armored tiger.

The plain regions are home to the massive masthun bovines, the small and agile massabar, the bedrim lizards, and several varieties of armored tiger. These ecosystems interact at the forest edge, with some forest predators waiting at the margins to seize the occasional passing plains herbivore. In fact there are several species of predator that live exclusively at the forest margins, making use of the advantages of both ecosystems.

Sentient Species: The slight, reptilian Quen are the only sentient species of the planet.

History: The Quen first achieved sentience as a nomadic hunter race, who lived in close harmony with their domesticated armored tigers, using them as riding beasts and pack animals. True carnivores, the Quen followed the Masthun herds, using the meat, hides, bones, even the droppings of those huge beasts to provide their needs of food, shelter and fire. Several tribes of Quen eventually abandoned the nomadic lifestyle, forming permanent colonies along particularly fertile riverbeds, trapping fish and crustaceans, and ranging far upstream to hunt and kill creatures that came down to take advantage of the open water. It was in these permanent settlements that the technology of metal working was first developed, though a healthy trade relationship with the nomadic Quen soon spread that advancement across the planet.

While the direct ancestors of the Quen were forest creatures, the Quen themselves are natives of the plains. However, when the plains could no longer support the numbers of Quen that lived there, the then bronze age Quen expanded into the forest regions. A somewhat more hostile place than the plains, the forests of Rethqua are also a very productive hunting ground. The Quen had to adapt their hunting techniques for use in this new habitat, and they did so quite successfully. It was in the forests of Rethqua that the first true Quen cities developed, stockaded villages which kept the creatures of the forest from stealing into the Quen huts during the night.

Iron working was soon developed, and the first real empires were forged on Quen. At first, numerous petty kingdoms, some no larger than a single river valley, or a pair of forest cities, held sway over the populace, but these were soon subsumed into larger principalities. For several thousand years, fourteen major kingdoms divided Rethqua. These fourteen kingdoms constantly jostled for power, fighting war after inconclusive war. This situation was ended in the early steel age, when the warlord of one of the kingdoms, Afsh Ralqui, succeeded in the complete military conquest of one of the neighboring kingdoms. Afsh's hereditary monarch realized the potential of this warrior, and appointed him his heir. The military success over the one neighbor was quickly repeated, and then repeated again. Just before his death by a degenerative disease Afsh succeeded in conquering all of Rethqua.

The Ralqui dynasty was not quite as successful as it's progenitor was. The warrior caste of the Quen was always a powerful one, and it lost none of it's power with the unification of the planet. As soon as the dynasty started to lose control of the Empire, bands of warriors rose in revolt. Time and again, the planet was split by civil war, dividing into two, three, up to ten fragments, before another unifier rose. However, after the Ralqui, the planet was never again under a single ruler.

Until the Empire came. Initially, the proud Quen monarchs refused to submit to Imperial rule. Stormtroopers were sent in to subdue the natives, and the first battle of Kambandion field was fought. Armed only with swords, daggers, and bows, and armored in ornately worked suits of scale mail, the Quen seemed no match for the advanced unified commands of the Empire. However, the Quen were warriors without peer, trained in combat almost from the day of their birth, and they were mounted on the formidable armored tigers. While the Quen took heavy casualties from the Imperial fire, they broke the Imperial lines, and inflicted heavy damage on the stormtroopers. And, while they had no weapons that could take on the Empire's walkers, Quen scaled the massive machines, and slaughtered their crews. Repulsor tanks were called in too late, and what should have been an easy victory for the Empire turned into a humiliating defeat.

However, the Empire was no so easily dissuaded from it's prize, and the Quen had no space craft. Orbital bombardment of Quen cities began shortly after the victory at Kambandion, and continued for three years. At this time, the ruler of one of the three kingdoms currently ruling Rethqua decided that further deaths were unacceptable, and surrendered his territories to the Empire. It took four more years of pinpoint bombardment before the last of the kingdoms surrendered.

Imperial rule was very harsh on Quen, and memories of the debacle of Kambandion were perhaps a factor in increasing that harshness. Personal ownership of any weapons was outlawed, and Quen warriors had to give up their beloved Damruas, or straight swords, and were sent to work in Imperial mines or factories alongside the commoners. The armored tigers were termed pets, and introduced diseases succeed in reducing their population substantially. The rulers of the three kingdoms, and their families were all executed, to avoid giving the Quen any figures to rally around, and the planet was garrisoned with nearly four times the usual numbers of Imperial troops.

However, the Quen had not been entirely broken. In the depths of the forests, particularly in the badlands river valley forests, resistance fighters trained, using only the most primitive of weapons. The leader of the resistance, Shalquan Ralqui, was one of the last descendants of the legendary dynasty, and proved effective at gaining the loyalty of undecided Quen. When the Shuumar and Aldru broke the Imperial yoke, Quen laborers who had smuggled themselves off Rethqua convinced the fledgling Confederation of Unaligned Worlds to help drive off the Imperial fleet. With the fleet gone, the great Quen revolt began. Mostly armed only with sharpened household implements and simple staves, the Quen took on the Empire again.

The Central Imperial garrison had been built Kambandion field, to symbolize the Empire's destruction of the independent spirit of the Quen, and that is where the central battle of the revolt was fought. The second battle of Kambandion field was not fought by warriors on giant armored tigers, glistening in ornate armor. Rather, the Quen were clothed in little more than rags, and carried as motley a collection of weapons as had ever been seen. And it was just as much a Quen victory as the first battle of Kambandion. The Quen had always believed that it was the soul of the warrior that won battles, not his weapons, and the second battle of Kambandion field proved this maxim true. A huge herd of Masthun bovines (whose numbers had risen sharply with the reduction of armored tiger populations) was stampeded over the minefield, and tore a large hole in the side of the garrison. The Quen swarmed in directly afterward, crippling the Imperial presence on their world with that unexpected attack.

However, victory over the Empire was not insured. The Shuumar and Aldru weren't able to hold the fleet off forever, and when they were pushed back, the Imperial forces launched several ORBSATs into Rethqua's orbit. The devastation caused by these bombardment satellites nearly forced the Quen into another surrender, but a Yaeger Stell Kommando elite starfighter wing destroyed those satellites, and left Rethqua permanently free.
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