Lothos


Type: Agricultural Backwater (Black Serpent Home)
Region: Border Regions
Trade Route: Yaeger Central Route, Long Path
Sector: Yaeger Sector
Strategic Location: Lothos is located well within the Ien Yaeger Sphere of influence.
Temperature: Temperate
Atmosphere: Type I (breathable)
Hydrosphere: 42% of the surface is water, of which 74% is of salinity 5.4% or greater.
Gravity: Standard
Terrain: Plains, Forested Mountains
Mineral Resources: Limited. Lothos has some Durrid and Meth deposits, but the ores are of poor quality and little use. Some crystalline quartzes are found in Lothos in fairly large numbers, and ornamental Vinnar Stones are also somewhat common.
Length of Day: 23 hours
Length of Year: 400 days
Sapient Species: Humans, Gysher
Capital City: Lothos City (Black Mountain)
Other Cities: Emior, Redcliff, Thone are the other major cities (Elmalai, Mount Nevo, and Sentoth are the other Black Serpent centers)
Starport: Landing Strip (Concealed Galaxy)
Population (within +/- 1%): 4,541,900 humans, 48,000 Gyshers, 16,000 Other
Planet Function: Agricultural Production (Black Serpent home)
Government: Democracy (The Shadow Dragons rule over almost every aspect of Lothos's everyday life).
Tech Level: Low Space
Major Exports: Turvik Grain, Tur Spirits, Ornamental stones (Trained assassins)
Major Imports: Technical and Medical supplies (liquid capital, Black Serpent and Shadow Dragon recruits)
System: Almorad

     Star: Almor (small yellow)

     Name    Planet Type      Moons

     Lilor   Molten Rock      0

     Umarin  Tropical Forest  2

     Nissor  Water World      3

     Lothos  Agricultural     1

     Mil     Gas Giant        6

     Luman   Frozen Ice Ball  2

System Capsule:

Lilor: Small, near the sun. Has some fairly large deposits of gold, kilmis, and iron, but the surface temperatures make mining impractical.
Umarin: The Black Serpents have set up a small base on this uninhabited world. If someone tracks a group to this system, they will be lead to believe that this is the extent of the Black Serpent presence in the system.
Nissor: Covered by a single ocean with a mean average depth of 7 Km, Nissor is home to a pair of intelligent species, the huge Mirmin, and the predatory Hathton
Mil: Some of the gasses of Mil are used in the agriculture of Lothos, and there is a steady traffic of heavy freighters from one planet to the other.
Luman: Luman is uninhabited and ignored, without any great resources.

Planetary Capsule:

Flora and fauna:
Lothos has two major ecosystems, the plains and the mountains. Before the planet was colonized, the plains were covered with floodwaters for around three quarters of the year. The mountains were always covered with thick thicket like forests known as the Kuthkujal. The seasonal growth of the plain was quickly supplanted by hybrid grains and fruit orchards of various types that thrived on the newly exposed highly fertile soils. However, the Kuthjikal proved remarkably resistant to taming, and in fact, it is responsible for the high nutrient water supply that makes Lothos fertile. So, now Lothos is remarkably segmented, with the rural plains and wild, forest covered mountains.
The plains are now fairly monopolized by Turvisium, a grain variety that has been specially adapted to the soil of Lothos, and several forms of fruit and fodder. The livestock raised are some forms of beef Bantha, ursine creatures known as Gujuk, and a monoped species, the Rutum, that are raised for their highly nutritious milk.
The Kuthjikal has a far larger variety of lifeforms than the plains region does. The Kuthjikal is defined by the Timkoe Bobea plants, whose thin and twisting trunks bind together to form the solid wall of plant matter that is the most important feature of those montane forests. Many other varieties of plant life are found there, including the flowering Promone, the towering Elgon Fig, and the bright opal vine.
The Fauna of the region is equally varied, featuring such unusual creatures as the luminescent Hugiy, the deadly Rubiecent Hunting Mat, and the omnipresent Rllkukun, a small jumping rodent like creature. In addition to these, the Mskill, a ferocious hunting creature also roams the Kuthjikal, often in the company of their Gysher masters. The Mskill and the Gysher are both even deadlier in reputation than they are in actuality, and fear of those creatures keep most of the inhabitants of Lothos away from the Mountain regions.
Sentient Species:
Humans are the primary inhabitants of Lothos, with a fair sized population living in the plains region, and a rather large number of Black Serpents and Shadow Dragons dwelling in their concealed bases in the mountains. The original intelligent inhabitants of the planet were the Gysher, a heavily furred race of carnivores with two legs and four arms, whose primary forms of locomotion are brachiation and tunneling. As the Gysher are not particularly aggressive, the Black Serpents have been introducing populations of alien creatures into the forests, hoping to find a creature that will stay in those regions and be aggressive enough to keep all others out. The success that they have had are fairly limited, but Lothos now has small native populations of primitive Durgur, Thill, and Mridone, and a number of experimental populations of various other races.

History:
Due to the great fertility of Lothos's plain regions, it quickly became an agricultural center of some importance after it was discovered. However, the original population used sophisticated methods to prevent the floods that usually covered the plains, preventing the flood of nutrients from the mountains that had created that great fertility. Lothos gradually receded in importance, becoming somewhat of a backwater. Despite the fact that farmers on Lothos now use flood control to channel the floods onto their lands for specific periods of time, the planet has never regained it's earlier importance, as most of the foodstuff of the Yaeger region is now produced in fungi mines on Gugimar and Kimij.
After their failure to rule from Yaeger Prime, and the destruction of their temple of Jilkaroth, the Black Serpents decided to rebuild the organization somewhere it could not be found, and they chose the backwater world of Lothos for it's low importance, it's large unexplored and largely uninteresting mountain region, and it's central location in the Yaeger sphere of influence. Since that time, the Black Serpent operations on the planet have become more and more extensive, and they would probably be forced to virtually rebuild their operation from the start if they were ever forced to leave Lothos. Because of that fact, they have taken over the politics, police, and military of the planet, and they do their best to eliminate overly inquisitive visitors. Of course, they realize that eliminating government agents could cause them serious trouble, and are carefull to work around those individuals when they visit.
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