Trade Route: Frith-Ular feeder to the Yaeger Central
Path.
Sector: Yaeger Sector.
Strategic Location: Toward the center of the Imperial
Sphere of influence in the Yaeger Sector.
Temperature: 115% Standard.
Atmosphere: Thicker than standard, with abnormally high
concentrations of Carbon Dioxide and Nitrogen, and lower than
average concentrations of oxygen. Breath masks are recommended for
those accustomed to normal oxygen percentages to prevent
exhaustion, asthma, and stress related death.
Hydrosphere: 38% of the surface of Frith is covered in
water, 95% of which has a salinity of 13% or greater.
Gravity: 138% standard.
Terrain: Frith is a relatively young planet, and
erosion and weathering have yet to smooth the edges of it's
continental upthrusts, leading to vast regions of jagged mountain
ranges, rift valleys, and suchlike. In addition, the lack of
weathering effects causes the weather to have far more catastrophic
effects on the terrain, as rivers have yet to carve out channels
sufficiently deep to contain even small amounts of floodwater, and
wind patterns are exceedingly violent when the interact with
natural windbreaks such as upthrusts and mountain ranges.
Mineral Resources: Frith is rather poor in mineral
resources, having very little to recommend it in that area.
Length of Day: 41 standard hours.
Length of Year: 407 local days.
Sapient Species: The powerfully built and primitive Durgur are the planet's only native sentient
inhabitants.
Capital City: The Durgur are not an urban species, and
have built no permanent cities.
Other Cities: The Durgur are not an urban species, and
have built no permanent cities.
Starport: There are several crude landing strip class
ports on the planet, where various groups and individuals hire
clansman warriors who wish to travel off-planet.
Population (within +/- 1%): 2,345,198 Durgur.
Government: The Durgur are aligned into a number of
self governing clans, who are often locked in bitter feuds with
each other. Several years ago a Durgur chieftain, Guran Ral Dur,
made an attempt to unite the clans, but Imperial backed Durgur
mercenaries quickly stopped that attempt, and no one else has
tried, before or since.
Tech Level: The Durgur never developed a high level of
technology on their own, stopping at a late stone age level.
However, since they have become a part of the sector's community,
their employers have built weapons and equipment tailored to their
specification, and those that return to their homeworld bring these
weapons with them, leading to a jumble of the ancient and the
hypermodern.
Major Exports: Warriors
Major Imports: Technical goods, various luxury items
System: Marhakh
Star: Marh
Name
Planet Type
Moons
Gra
Scalding Rock
1
Kuth
Toxic World
1
Frith
Hostile Terrestrial
2
Ul
Ice World
0
Sham
Frigid Rock
2
System Capsule:
Gra: This planet is cool enough to be efficiently mined, were
it not for the fact that it is so close to the highly radioactive
Marh that human miners would be in constant danger.
Kuth: With high concentrations of Radon, Uranite and other
highly toxic compounds, the otherwise hospitable Kuth never
developed life of any sort.
Frith: See below.
Ul: A frigid world with a wide variety of natural flora and
fauna, Ul is the site of the Imperial monitoring station in the
system.
Sham: Temperatures on this ice world hover near -70ø C, far
to low to allow any life to develop.
Planetary Capsule:
Flora and fauna: Despite Frith's relative youth as a
planet, it is inhabited by a wide variety of life forms, primarily
because of Marh's intense ultraviolet radioactivity, which causes
a far greater rate of natural mutation than is standard. The
limiting factor on the variety of life on Frith is the relative
poorness of it's soil, as well as the same ultraviolet radiation
that supports Frith's biodiversity, as many of the young of many of
Frith's species are born deformed or dead.
The Rithon, a wide rooting acacia-like short tree is the
primary form of large flora on Frith, and between the wide spaced
Rithon are usually fields of the sharp edged and toxic Sho-orin
grasses. Dwelling in these open savannahs are a wide range of
exceedingly large and powerfully creatures. The herbivorous Gaich
stand seven meters tall at the shoulder, have six broad and razor
sharp horns, and travel in herds of several hundred. The
Khyot'immar are only around half that size, but are incredibly
muscular, capable of leaping nearly fifteen meters up and forty
forward, even in Frith's high gravity. The predators are even
deadlier, from the massive sauruthscian Duth to the tiny and
remarkably venomous Harchit.
The toxicity of the various species of Frith is relatively
high, and while the native species are more than capable of
consuming each other, it would be highly inadvisable for an off
worlder to make the attempt, unless he is from a race that is
capable of digesting similarly unlikely compounds.
Sentient Species: The thick skinned and very strong
Durgur are the only native sentients of Frith. While far more
physically powerful than most of the inhabitants of the galaxy, the
Durgur are much weaker than the non-sentient inhabitants of their
planet, and have developed into canny and cautious hunters. With
the advent of advanced weaponry they kill far greater numbers of
their prey animals, which leads to an increase in population, a
trend usually controlled by the clan wars and by off planet
recruitment.
History: Frith, as a planet, can't be said to have much
of a history. Since the Durgur achieved sentience they have been
studiously attempting to kill each other off in their interminable
clan wars, never developing beyond stone age technology. Since the
Durgur have been discovered by the interstellar community, veterans
and sophisticated artifacts have begun trickling in, but with
little effect to the planet as a whole. Hunting is still mostly by
spear and traps (which the prey usually have to be herded toward,
at great risk of life and limb), as are the clan wars. The meter
high Sho-Orin grasses provide excellent cover, rending more
advanced weapons less useful than one might expect in internal
Durgur conflicts.