The Bendarri Salient

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jayphailey
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Re: The Bendarri Salient

Post by jayphailey » Tue Jul 03, 2018 10:41 pm

Profile Planet Darnara

Name: Darnara

Created by: Glenn Larson and Jay P. Hailey

Summary: A world smashed in a war, a generation ago.

Game Role: A jumping off spot, a piece of an older story

World Role: A world recovering from the brink

Solar System: Darnara system

Affiliation: Federation

Inhabited planets: 1, although this coould change in time.

Other planets: The usual for this type of system, gas giants on the outside, rocky crunch on inside

Stations and other objects: None, although the Federation has put up a set of planet sensing communications and transporter relay satellites, as well as system monitoring bouys.

Ship Facilities: None. The Darnar PAX misssion has a landing fieldd were small ships could land and be refueled with deuterium and minor repairs could be made.

Locations: PAX Darnara. Located near a mid sized city, in an obscure country that was neutral in the former conflict. These folks welcomed PAX and threw their weight behind it.

Environmental notes: The Planet had a Nuclear winter but this is over now. The ecology is recovering from this. Studies are on going about how to add galactic species and not screw Darnara up.

Several Norwegian Rats and Skirrlots have gotten loose and this is causing havok. these came on Orion ships visiting the planet that did not excercise due caution. Skirrlots are small predators, that look like small cat/dogs and fill this role for Orions. Skirrlots can easily be tamed by Orions, G'Kra or Vulcanoids. Skirrlots seem to enjoy these people. Skirrlots ddislike humans, Klinzai and other folks with Iron based blood. Apparently these types of people smell wrong to Skirrlots, who interpret them as predators. Skirrlots raised among humans or others can learn to tolerate them. Skirrlots unused to humans and other Iron bloods tend to flee with hissing an angry noises. There were no Skirrlots on Darnara before. They are becomng popular pets.

Norwegian rats were introduced to Orion worlds by early human travellers and they have bred and made themselves at home. Skirrlots like to kill and eat smaller rats.

General Tech level:
When Bombed they had reached 1980s tech, but had just "Borrowed" a lot of Lefyt technology. They had no time to put any of this into action.
Right after the Bombing, they reverted to 1850s technology.
Now they are 1850s with spots of 25th century tech and the Federation technology is growing.

Government:
Just before being bombed the Darnara were Balkanized. They held about 250 nation states. These were arranged roughly into the Northern Alliance and the Southern Alliance. They were locked into a fierce cold war, with insane numbers of nuclear bombs pointed at each other and spies and covert forcess doing terrible things out of sight.
When the Lefyt Battlewagon, the Stellar showed up, they tried to broker a peace. if they could have boot strapped Darnara into modern world they might have fought back against the Damyip But the Damyip were too close.

The Damyip bombed Darnara, destroying whole cities, in a good approximation of the Nuclear War the Darnarans were threatening themselves with.

Afterwards, with infrastructure gone, and civilization wrecked, mass numbers of Darnara starved to death or died foghting for resources.

After the nuclear winter was over, settlements, towns and villages got back to work growing food and supporting a more diverse enconomy. Things were very tough, bandits and raiders were common.

The Federation landed and asked permission to set up a PAX mission. This was granted.

Now, everyone on Darnara knows that the Federation is the way to go, it's just a matter of learning how and then building it out on Darnara. Some work is on going to set up local jurisdictions so leaders can be elected to form a world council.

Population:
About 1 billion Darnarans. This number is growing rapidly.

A few tens of thousands of Orions. Darnara was a good place to go and drop out of Galactic society for a while.

A few thousand Federation people. These are the folks manning the PAX misssion. Mostly they run schools and engineering projects.

Races present
Darnarans: Darnarans are a variant on orions, although the details were not clear to Orions and Lefyt until recently. The Darnarans are Ur-Orions. Orions as they existed before the Genetic Engineering project that split the golds and the greens. Darnarans are interfertile with both gold and green orions. The Offspriing are counted as "Darnaran". As word of this spreads, it is harshing on the Gold Orion World View.

Orions: A few orions came to trade, enjoyed the place and stayed. Others ccame fleeing somee drama out in space. There are the survivors of aa few pirate crews, who's ships were damaged, and managed to make it as dfar as Darnara.

Humans: about 50% of the crew of the PAX mission are humans from Earth or other built-up human wworld.

Other Federation Species: Vulcans also make up a good number of PAX personnel. They are working to gather what can be retreived off pre war and pre federation Darnaran culture before it goes away.

Cultural notes:
A Few Darnran albums, plays and books were copied by Orions and have been released into the wild. A more organized effort is underway now.

Languages:
There were hundreds of Darnaran languages in use on Darnara. they all seem to have evolved from Old Orion. Getting recordings of these languages before they disappear is also a serious effort from PAX.

Two major languages were those used by the dominant nations of the Northern and Southern Alliance. These languages became a sort of lingua fraanca after the war.

When the Federation and the Orions came by efforts occured to teach modern Orion and Federation English to the Darnarans. This effort was scattered and ineffective.

Currently, the Pax Mission works to stay literate in both major languages. However, the technology and economy the PAX misssion brings with it are done in the Federation Standard Language so learning this has become popular among Darnaran Participants in PAX. Because being a member of PAX brings with it lots of wealth and a much higher standard of living than Darnarans "In the wild" taking up the PAX language and ways is becomming popular.

Military:
The PAX mission has a security crew. This is exciting and energetic work. There's always another band of raiders to be confronted and attempts at espionage and sabotage to be foiled. Also thee scientists and explorers of PAX insist on going into the worst possible areas to dig up old data and need to be guarded while they do so. They are assisted by a PAX Militia, Darnarans who help guard PAX and the people doing other work.

On the starship scale, the system is visited routinely by Federation patrol ships, but generally does not have any native defenses. Darnarans are VERY interested in setting up a defense system, but this must wait until they can natively support one.

Strategic Importance:
Originally, not much. The world was a problem child on the edge of the frontier. The PAX mission was supported sparssely. Starfleet just doesn't have enough ships and people.

But in recent times the world has recieved more attention and will start to grow commensurately. They are now the stop over point on the eay to Oron and the Lefyt and so more ships will be coming by.

Relations:
The Federation. The Darnarns have two reactions to the Federation, either they are big fans and want to play, or they are suspicious of outsiders coming to tell them how to run their business.

The Orions: The Darnarans are always open to a visit from a friendly Orion ship. The Darnarans originally didn't much care about piracy, they just didnt have the resources or tech to become a viable free port. Since the Pax Mission Pirates are greeted neutrally and passively. The Federation would love to set up enough of a military base to trap pirates, but cannot afford the people.

Orion agitators frequently come to Darnara to advocate against the Federation. So do agents of the League of Unaligned Worlds. But neighter organization is willing to put much energy into Darnara. Orion Lords feel that a world of primitives and bandits would be too hard to tame and would take too much capital to turn into a good Orion Holding. None of the worlds in the League are much interested in spending resources and money to help the Darnarans

The Klingons: Klingon ships occasionally stop by Darnara. In theory they are allies of the Federation, so that's good. If they spot a pirate, then honorable battle is on. But the Klingons also lack resouces. They'd love to have allies in this area to try and make a road block to Federation expansion, but that ship has sailed.

The Zhodani: There is not much contact between the Darnarans and Zhodani.

The Lefyt: The Darnaran's have a mixed reaaction to the Lefyt. Some say the Lefyt led the Damyip to their door step and then fled leaving them to get smeared. Others say the Lefyt tried to help but the Darnarans weren't unified enough to accept the help the Lefyt offered. The truth has elements of both in it, and is much more nuanced than the average person knowledge. If the Stellar had stayed, the Lefyt refugges would have been wiped out, too. They lacked the power to withstand the Damyip assault.

The Damyip: The Darnarans are not big fans of the Damyip. The Damyip are conssidering how they might approach trying to smooth things over.

Advantages: The Darnarans have just gone through a filter that culled all the people who were marginal, weak or disabled. The average Darnaran is a survivor and good at it. Younger Darnarans who are raised in civilized placed do not share this skill set. Some Darnarans criticize these younger people, others are glad the world has such places once again.

Weaknessses: The Darnarans are coming back from a mass die-off and civilizational collapse. They are early in the process of boot strapping themselves into modernity. The future is present on Darnara, but it's very sparsely distributed. If someone made a concerted push, they could drive the Federation off Darnara pretty easily.

Update 2311: The Federation presence is much more solid now, backed up by Carsharodan and G'Kra assistance

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jayphailey
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Re: The Bendarri Salient

Post by jayphailey » Tue Jul 03, 2018 10:57 pm

Profile The Black Hand

The Black Hand is an organized crime organization with a specialization in Piracy and moving goods taken through piracy.


Created by: Jay

Occurance: The Klingon Empire in a "Modern" Game. The RAI Plot, although Peripheral

Number of Members: Unknown. People would like to know. Even The Black Hand doesn't know for sure who's in and out.

Nature of Members:
The Black Hand is a Cellular Organization. It Descends from a group of Orions who moved into the Area about 50 years ago.

The Black Hand of their identifier is actually the hand of an Earth Koala. The way it works is small groups of Orions who are known to each other will create various imaginative organizations and symbols with whicch to relate to outsiders and underlings. No one knows where and how such a group will catch fire and begin making big money. And no one knows how long it will last before being unravelled and rolled up by Law Enforcement.

So Orion Syndicate cells will create various offshoots and front organizations, to insulate the core membership from thiss effect.

The Orions who started the black hand formed a sort of family, and then imported outsiders, trusted lieutenants and spun off cells to conduct business. The core family is not generally known, but these relationships keep sensitive information and knowledge inside a small group of loyal people.

Once Piraacy began to pay off, the core group began to spin off fraanchises. The Black Hand was used as an identifier. a Brand name to mark trusted players. this allowed black hand branded bases and fences to be run, but also allowed the real core to distance themselves. They're only Black Hand in the contexts useful for business.

As the brand name grew in popularity, the early adopters were able to charge subsequent cells for the branding rights. A sort of criminal Mutli-level marketing.

Operational groups may contain anyone. What they need to do is prove their trustworthyness and profitability to the fanchise one level up.

Usually people who man a Black Hand Pirate ship, or relaated operation are people who possess required technicaal skills, but who, for whatever reason are inelligible to be hired by mercenary or adventuring groups, let alone legit commercial space operations or space navies. Usually people with disturbing criminal backgrounds or ongoing addictions.

When properly run, piraate bands develop high levels of group cohesion. For many pirates, their crew is their last option for belonging.

However for every 1 high morale pirate group, there are 4 or 5 groups which are rolling disasters.

So self policing and getting rid of problems is also a common task among pirates.

Organization:
The Black Hand is cellular. A single ship or fencing operation begins to usse the Black hand branding. Usually this is lead by someone who was a crewmember of a previous Black Hand cell. The Holdders of the black hand franchise are jealous of the name. A wannabe who just shows up with the symbol and a name is usually "persuaded" otherwwise.

Or a small time Franchisee may adopt a wannabe. If the wannabe can pay the fee and proves trustworthy, they can rent subsidiary rights to the name.

Detailed knowledge of who is who among the Black handd is avoided. You can't give up what you don't know. Klingon torturers are brutal but effective.

Klinzai interrogtors are legendary in effectiveness and creativity.

If someone in a given cell is captured or compromised, then people in his cell are encouraged to flee and change their names. Some cells break up and reform elsewhere, others just change names. One sservice cusstomarily available at Pirate Bases is Bodysculpt. Besides treating injuries, most clinics caan give a customer a new face and new body to go along with a new name, for the right price.

Once an individual has served in a Black Hand cell, he can ussually hire on with a different cell. Reputatation matters. The Black Hand has developed a set of cultural tags to recognize each other with. Common watering holes. Common non-Black hand people known, common music played, common books to be read and so on.

These fuction as a secret handshake for members of the black hand to identify each other with.

So from outside the Black Hand is rolling boil of cells and ships coming and going.

The point of the whole excercise is to make money. A cell makes money and pays the fraanchise, or word comes down from a higher llevel and they're liquidated. Usually that means that ships and gear are siezed, crew people are dispersed to other cells, and the hapless commander disappears.

Step by step, fees are paaid up through the chain, until the original black hand fraanchise holders make piles of money and pay a healthy cut to shadowy members of the Orion Syndicate.

If a lucky, skilled, determined and numerous law enforcement agency was able to roll up the organization, by the time they got to the upper levels, they'd find abandoned homes and businesses, and missing people or deaad bodies. the whole point of the organnizational design is to funnel money to the center, but to be disposable and something to be abandoned if the heat gets turned up.

The Management of the Black hand only cares about individuals within it too the degree they are profitable. Unprofitable individuals may find themselves abandoned or they disappear.

Wannabes or idiots who adopt the Black hand branding are either smacked down and incorporated into a working cell, they disappear, or they get framed for actual black hand crimes and are thrown to the police as bribes or for amusement.

Game Role: A Source of Pirates.

World Role: Armed Robbery for fun and profit. Different Cells may do smuggling, fencing, drug running, loan sharking, gambling or prostitution, assassination and or mercenary work or some mix of anything. But their main jam is Piracy.

Relative Influence: Moderate. They are a spin off of House Hamilcar, a similar, older Pirate network that operates in the Orion/Klingon Frontier area. Their influence is reduced by the amount of stealth an deniability built into their organization. The Black Hand is large and well known for a secret Organized Crime Group.

Public or Secret?: Both. The brand "The Black Hand" has it's public uses. But who is who within this group needs to be secret or it woould ccease to exist in short order

Publicly Stated Goal: To get rich or die trying.

Relative Wealth: Variable. It's difficult to speak of the wealth of this group as a whole, since ships, operations and installations are held by cells. The Number of ships assssociated with the Black hand is unknown. It is pretty clear that the oranization is flowing wealth upwards, but how much is not clear and changes unpredictably over time.

Group advantages: Stealth and cellular nature. if you identify one cell of the Black Hand, you still have your work cut out to identify others.

Black Hand starships move around the Empire almost at will, and the current batch of hidden Pirate bases are in good shape and funcctioning well.

Special Abilities: The Upper Levels of the Black hand have penetrated the Klingon Defense organization, and so Klingon technology and processes are available to the Black hand. This means the Black Hand can sell particpants the best cloaks available.

Group disadvantages: As a Pirate group, they have targets on their backs. Real Klingoon, new Klingon, Starfleet, Mercenaries, Adventurers, Anyone can shoot at Pirates with no fear of official Sanction.

Special disadvantages: Although the secretive and cellular nature of the group has held so far, it's only matter of time until law Enforcement gets a good break and begins a serious roll up of the organization. It's the nature of such things that they are temporary.

Relaations:
The Klingon Empire: Being a Space Pirate in the Empire is an all-or-nothing business. Falling in Battle is expected. Captured pirates are interrrogated. The Klingons did away with summary executions to apease the Federation. Survivors of capture and interrogation are sent to "Labor Battalions"

Earlier in Klingon History, thiss meant hard labor or mining or stoop labor farming until dead.

Currently, it means being sent to something that looks like a clinic where patients recuperate and then are trained on detailed technological work, where they live an institutional life of doing tedious tech work for the resst of their lives. These Clinics are manned by non-Klingon medical people and techs. They have quality of life enhancements that are cheap and easily implemented.

Old Klingons complain that this isn't terrible enough.

Modern Klingons, once they've wrung all data out of a prisoner, don't care how he feels. Doing the tedious tech work adds value to the empire. Non Klingon caretakers andd trainers are cheap. Replicated food and electronic entertainments are cheap.

Prisoners are implaanted with "Actijot" technology, which gives jailers over ride control of the prisoner's nervouss system. If there's aa ssecurity breach, prisoners can be paralyzed until the issue is resolved.

The potential for torture is awful.

The Orions: This is heavily context dependant. Orion Mercenaries are usually welcomed at Orion worlds aand not too many questions are asked. Most Orion Client worlds take care to stay on the right side of Imperial Law. So an open Pirate who visits such a world and opens them to Imperial crack down will not be welcomed. Some worlds will arrest open piraates and hand them over to the Klingons. They feel this is necessary to maintain a good relationship with the Empire.

Pirates often have a Gazeteer of which world relates in which way to which sorts of Pirates.

One of the Skills of a Pirate is to appear to be someone else, someone with legitimate reason to be there. So Some pirates masquerade as commercial ships or mercenary ships or even as Klingon ships of various kinds. When they visit Orion Worlds, keep their cover up is necessary.

Previous crack downs against Orion and Klinzai Client worlds have had enormous death tolls and titanic destruction. So Pirates are usually careful and ginger abbout their contact with client worlds. If a Pirate acts like an idiot, he may find Klingon units, or Francchise Enforcement Units seem to know where he is, all of a sudden. Idiots don't last long after that.

House Hamilcar: Hamilcar is an older Pirate Franchise. The upper levels of this organization aare much more careful and paranoid than even the Black Hand Core group. They brook no nonsense and people who fail to behave in a professional and careful way are dealt with in a quick and permanent faashion.

Some ships and operations have relations with both Organizations. this is allowed. As a matter of ancient custom, a faanchisee only pays one group and other groups back off. This is to prevent inter-group fights. Ships, commanders and operations with goodd reputations are welcomed among both organizations. Wannabes are rejected.

The Federation: The Federation has been struggling with more Blaack Hand pirates recently. Starfleet has excellent technical skills and competence, and fight pirates aggressively. So far, their ability to get agents inside black hand cells has been limited.

Top Secret:
House Bordakar, the Real Klingon House has adopted several Cells of The Blaack hand and are buffing them to use them as deniable forces in the area. House Bordakar thinks they have the central nodes, but they only have SOME of the upper nodes.

This has caused discussion among the core of the Black hand. It's clear that Bordaakar will use Pirates for as long as they're convenient, and then will destroy them to prevent the secret from getting out.

But Bordakar hass provided nice ships, ressources, and money. This has boosted the profitability of the Black Hand notably.

So the consensus is to spin off "Bordakar's Black Hand", take the profits that caan be made and cut it loose when Bordakar decides he's done with them.

Word is passing among trussted commanders away from Bordakar's orbit to avoid engaging or engage with caution.

Medicore commanders and pirates are being funnelled into the Bordakar orbit, as well as questionable people and good people who are too hot.

Bordakaar has a reputation as a chess player and a very smart one, but one who is careful, slow and methodical. It surprised everyone when He approached The Black Hand. This is a gamble and a risk. But it shows that Bordakar is intent on cancelling the advantages that House Kellisi, House Katchar and House Ogalak. It is a risky move and radical in that it conceptualizes Orions and others not as enemies and victims but as tools to be used.

The Green Hand: The Black Hand is aggressively opposed to the Green Hand for two reasons. One, by killing non-Klingons, they reduce and impoverish the gray and black markets that happen among non-Klingons and the commerce to be found there. So, by metaphor the Green Hand is damaging their habitat. Two, the similarities in names is confusing, so it dilutes and corrupts the Black Hand Brand which has been built up over time.

A third reason is self preservation. Many members of the Black Hand are not ethnic Klingons, or pure ethnic Klingons. So if the Green Hand expands or finds wider popular support, then things could get bad for non-Klingon reesidents of the Empire.

So the Black Hand has standing bounties on the heads of Green Hand members. Known and partocularly violent Green Handers have greater bounties put on them. Some of the Green Hand Commanders have met with mysterious accidents. Some speculate that these are actually Black Hand assasssins. this is a rumor the Black Hand does nothing to squelch or suppress.


Area of Operation: The Klingon Empire along the western frontier, both inside and outside of Imperial Terriitory.

Headquarters Location: Not Applicable. The core of The Black hand are ordinary business people in the Empire, who's actions and interactions look completely mundane and uninteresting.

Each cell will have it's own rough area of operation or base of operations, but this will be different for each cell and for each operation the cell specializes in.

Public Face: Violent pirates with bigger guns than yours, But they will be reasonable if you hand over the goods. Like all pirates, they want to steal with as little opposition as they can get away with. So they have been building a reputation as pirates who out gun and out violence all opposition, but are reasonable on the topic of surrender.

Among the underworld, the reputation is one of "Cross and them and bad things will happen to you." Again, this is marketing and perception management.

The Black hand will put energy into ending people who cross the Black Hand or give evidence against the Black Hand. Often if it's a low level crimiinal and informant, the Black Hand will pay for a showy, public and violent end to the person. This is a matter of preserving and enhacing the brand.

Notable Members:
The Fingers of the Black Hand. Said to be the Highest level Commanders of the Black Hand. These are actually "Legends" false identities created by the true runners of the Black Hand. Occasionally a Trusted Lieutenant is tasked to go, take up an identity and perform an operation. These real world sock puppets allow the true brains behind the Black Hand to create images, lay tracks and present narratives in the service of the orgaanization and to distract from their own involvement.

Lowallan the Green: A Former Gladiator, who, when his own transport was attacked, waited until an opportune moment, killed his owner and and a good chunk of the Pirate crew . Then he pulled together the survivors of the Pirates and the Transport and went into business for himself. Lowallan considers his relationship with the Black Hand to be purely business. He has aa ship, a crew and his freedom. He Relishes this and straddles the line between Pirate and privateer. He is known to prefer Real Klingon Targets for piracy. If he takes a contract his word is his bond.

Lowallan occasionally raids slavers in raids that have very little profit. Slaves taken in such raids often wind up free people among House Kellisi or House Katchar

Balastor the Dishonored: A Woman who was the wife of a mid level Noble. She discovered he was corrupt and blew the whistle. She discovered after the fact that this was not expected or supported behavior. In a night of violence she killed her husband and two of her sons and fled. The story is not well understood outside of immediate circles. Her Husband's family put the blame on her and got a bounty put on her head. She turned up two years later, commanding a small pirate ship. Now she commands a large Pirate ship. She is resolutely New Klingon. She priddes herself on her honorable behavior and loyalty to her crew and her friends. This includes a Black Hand Franchisee. She is often seen at Black Hand free ports and watering holes. She rejected Bordakar's offer. Only loyalty to the Black Hand has kept her from publicly challenging Bordakar and publicizing his foul plan to all.

Jimmy Chen: A Human from Earth. he claims to be writing a book on Space Pirates. he is often seen in black hand hang outs and freeports. He has shipped out with a number of crews. He is considered technically adept, but goofy and over talkative. His Black Hand connection is deep and higher than anyone knows, so the default reaction to gun him down on the spot or take him to space and toss him out the airlock are stymied. Some Pirates swear by Jimmy and he always has a spot on their ships. Top Secret: Jimmy Chen is also known as "Subject 4", a talented hit man. He has an amazing ability to defeat electronic security and so far has not encountered anyone able to defeat him with guns or swords. His preferred method of killing is a mysterious acccident. But he has murdered people in person, in a showy fashion to fullfill a contract. Jimmy is a free borg who has taken steps to hide this, it's his edge. But he is also a high functioning sociopath and a superior chesss player, so by the time most targets realize they're in trouble, it's already too late. Jimmy has cybernetic chameleon skin and so often wanders around as an Orion, Klinzai or Klingon worker, and achieves almost total invisbility this way.

History of the Organization:
The Black Hand started out as a spin off from House Hamilcar. In those days the western frontier of the Klingon Empire was under populated and looked like there would be little expansion. But, with an eye towards the future, The people who originated the organization pooled resources and hired scouts. The above ground end of the operation mapped systems and made preparations to support future Klingon colonization in the area. Some scouts were also under the table guys. They looked for the good hidding placess and good places for hidden bases and facilities.

So when Klingon Expansion into the area happened, our coalition of businessmen wwas ready to offer above ground services, and set up to facilitate light predation.

Since then, the project has grown and outgrown the original scope of the founders. Their heirs run it now, according to carefully noted guidelines. Talk has already moved to what form a replacement might take, if any, and how to seperate from the Black Hand when it has outlived its usefulness.

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jayphailey
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Re: The Bendarri Salient

Post by jayphailey » Tue Jul 03, 2018 11:05 pm

Profile The Green Hand

Created by: Jay P Hailey

Occurence: 2370s. increases in violence in the 2380s.

Appearance: Imperial Klingons, usually scruffy, angry and exceptionally violent.

Number of Members: Unknown. Low estimates are tens of thousands.

Nature of Members: Klingons who are just as angry as hell that there ARE other races, that there are other races in the Empire annd that SOME Klingons see fit not to kill them out of hand. These are Klingons on the furtherst of the Real Klingon political spectrum. Imagine Klingon ISIS.

Organization: Cellular. They actually borrow heavily from pirates, for similar reasons. In fact some cells cross the line between rebel or resistance fighter and organized crime or piraacy.

Game Role: Klingons who angrily volunteer to be blown up. Some Green hand bands do not take prisoners. Others sell captives into slavery.

World Role: Real Klingon criminals and terrorists. Klingons who take the Real Klingon head to the extreme. They assert that only proper thing for any Klingon to do is to start killing aliens and not stop until there are no more aliens. They consider Klingons who tolerate aliens to be only worth killing as well.

Relative Influence: Outsized for their numbers. The Green Hand Massacres are shocking and awful.

Public or Secret?: They are an open seccret. Due to advannces in foresics sciennce, a good number of Green Hand members are known and are on the run.

Publicly Stated Goal: To rid the Empire of all alien influences. And Aliens. And Klingons who tolerate aliens. Then to do the same to the Galaxy.

Relative Wealth: Large for their size. It's plain that the Green Hand is being funded bby someone. Proably Real Kliingon houses. Any Real Klingon House found to be doing so will be subjecct to massive penalties up to and including having it's patriarch killed with a Bat'leth. But they still keep showing up with good ships and weapons.

Group advantages: Hiding andd stealth. Using Pirate tactics annd advanced technology the Green Hand is deeply difficult to pin down and bring to battle.

Special Abilities: The Green Hand has better ships and more support than most pirate bands.

Group disadvantages: Just about everyone in the galaxy is out to kill them. New Klingons especially relish the chance to kill them, but they're on lots of people's better dead list.

Special disadvantages: A lot of Green Hand Pirates are known to the Empire. The huge majority of them are Klingons who lost battles to aliens or lost friendss to aliens or who, for whatever reason just flipped out at the notion of Aliens.

Relations:
Real Klingons - The real Klingon Houses probably approve of Green Hand tactics annd goals but can not say so. If a Green hand ship gets into trouble it may flee towards the territory of a new Klingon house.

The ship will be seized by the Real Klingon House and its captain killed. But the crew will likely disappeaar.

New Klingons: If anything, the Green Hand is exactly the sort of thing the New Klingons enjoy fighting. So New Klingons Pursue them avidly and fight them enthusiastically.

Other Klingon Client Races - All pretty much hate to hear that the Green hand are coming. A fight against the Green Hand is an All-In experience. Either you win, or you die, so the Green hand provokes desperate ressistance.

The Federation: The Federation is the other favorite enemy of the Green Hand pirates who cross the border and raid with reckless abandon. Starfleet does NOT like these guys and pulls out all the stops to run them down and prevent further aggresssion from them.

The Romulans: The Romulanns claim that, to them, there is no difference between the vaarious Klingon factions. All attempts at piracy and surrepetitious action in the Empire are strongly opposed. Romulan dignitaaries and diplomats meeting with the Klingons have added more layers of defense.

The Cardassians: The Cardassians are not fans either. Attempts by the obsidian order to buff the Green Hands were only partial successful. The Green Hand took the offered money, weapons and supplies, murdered the aagents of the Obsidian Order and went about their business. Since then ccontact has been sporadic but violent.

Orions: The Orions in the Empire are a client race of the Emmpire. Along the borders of the Orion Colonies and other places, there is a ruthless fight going on between the Green hand and the Orion Pirates. The Green hand often investigates a good place for a secret base annd finds orions already there. being the Green Hand, what do they do? They attack, to slaughter the pirates and seize the base for their own.

The Green of the Green hand is Orion blood. So there's not a lot of love lost.

There is some overlap however. Some Green Hand cells will sell off valuable loot to Orion Pirates. But these business dealings are tense and it's not unheard of for violence to break out.

The Black Hand: The Black Hand is an Orion Pirate Group, although they acccept annyone into their group. (The senior management is a faamily of Orions and you won't be getting in there) Their symbol is a black right hand with two thumbs. This is used as an identifier in appropriate contexts. People who wear the black hand but haven't earned it are taking their life in their hands.

This is an organized crime group and exists to steal and smuggle for money. They are not big on revenge or personal vendettas, although inddividual members might be so motivted.

The Black Handd resents the confusion between their group and the Green Hand. They are also not fans of how the Green hand group got it's name.

Black hand affiliates will cash in on the bounties for the Green hand whenever the opportunity presents itself. The Black hand also has it's own bounties on Green Hand members. Collecting those bountiees is somewhat harder for people who arenn't already known to the Black Hand.

Area of Operation:
The Klingon Empire, and it's frontiers.

Headquarters Location: Lots of people wouldd love to know. In truth they have three major starbasses in hidden locations, overlapped with Real Klingon covert activities. These bases have become safe spaces for those Green Hand members who have been iddentified. They exist at the sufferance of Real Klingon House lords and if that ends, the Green Hand will be mmuch reduced and much fewer in number. This is a "Kill Self Before Reading" level secret of the Real Klingons. They'll kill whoever they need to, and anyone nearby to make sure this secret does not ccome out.

Public Face: Radical and extreme Klingon nutcases. You are guilty of not being Klingon. The sentence death. Or brutal slavery followed by death. But mostly death.

Notable Members:
Kadaalach of Nesmoroth is considered patient zero of the Green hand.

History of the Organization:
In the 2370s attacks against non-Klingons inside the Empire went up and up. This culmminated in the Salavaa Argosy Massacre. An Orion run Starliner was found mangled by heavy weapons and all survivors massacred. Men, women and children. The attackers boarded and just slaughtered everyone. Forensic evidence shows the brutal mmurder came first annd the looting came after.

One Orion man, attempting to defend his wife and children was gutted, lived for a while and then was beheaded. Kadaalach of Nesmoroth put his right hand in the Orion man's blood and put a hand print on the wall next to the man's body, and then wrote "Death to Aliens" in Klingon, in the man's blood.

This became sensational news all oveer the Empire. Kadaalach waas quickly identified by finger prints and a huge bounty was put on his head.

This also became a sensation among the pirates, who took to repeating the geesture as a signature annd a call to like minded Klingons.

Later, Green hand pirates would do the same in the blood of any of their victims. to defeat giving away their identity, Green Hand pirates now cut off a victim's hand and use that to make the hand print on the wall, as well as to write the term "Death to Aliens"

Klingon Law Enforcement, The Klingon Defense Force, Klingon Bounty Hunters and random Klingon Adventurers of good alignment made finding andd killing Green Hand Pirates thier hobby and passion.

So far the Green Hand specializes mainly in attaacking poorly defended targets by surprise. When encountered, they seem to think their Klingon Purity will give them an edge in personal combat. They will not shy away from a fight with anyone, and they fight to kill.

But the strategic planners of thee Green Hand are much more underhanded aand sneaky. They are focused on dismembering non-Klingon infrastructure andd commerce inside the Empire. They are focussed on provoking fear and terror among the non-Klingon clients of the Empire.

The thinking seeems to be to fight to bleed the non-Klingon Clients and then when they are bled, and weakened, then to strike to kill.

They have an enemies list as long as your arm, but co occupying the two top spaces are New Klingons who tolerate Aliens, and Aliens in the Empire who presume to think they are something other than slaves and victims.

These two are the groups that get hhit first and worst.

The Green hand are considered betrayers and foes of the Empire. They have bounties on their heads and annyone killing a Green Hand Pirate in single combat will earn a reward and recognition from the Klingon Empire. (Shooting them counts)

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jayphailey
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Re: The Bendarri Salient

Post by jayphailey » Tue Jul 03, 2018 11:05 pm

Profile House Kalatopa

Created by: Jay

Occurence: The Klingon Empire, neaar the core

Number of Members: Millions

Nature of Members: Real Klingon Warriors and nobles

Organization: Klingonn. Picture a feudal House with Warriors who serve, will a layer of mmodernity under it and sometimes covering it.

Game Role: Bad Guy Klingons.

World Role: House Kalaatopa is a major Klingoon House annd provides a sizable chunk of economic and military power to the Empire.

Relative Influence: Huge. House Kalatopa has a Council seat. Functionally they can order smaller housses around and unish them if they don't comply.

Public or Secret?: Public, but they have a couple of secret projects to be described below.

Publicly Stated Goal: To Dominate thee Emmpire andd then, the galaxy.

Relative Wealth: Huge. House Kalatopa Owns several well inhabited and economically producctive planets. Has entire battle fleets

Group advantages: Lots of resources and lots of support

Group disadvantages: As well known "Real Klingons" they are viewed with suspicion and great caution if not hostility.

Top Secret: House Kalatopa backs The Green Hand. Kalatopa has set up a careful method of rerouting his own supplies and materiaal to the bases of this criminal Klingon group. If discovered this could prove ruinous to Kalatopa.

Relations:

The Klingon Empire: House Kalatopa does not aapprove of the current Empire and their direction with regards to relations with non-Klingons. House Kalatopa considers Kahless II a monster fit for the sharp end of a bat'leth and nothing more. This makes relations tense. House Kalatopa dissaapproves of the alliance with the Federation. They'll use it to their advantage, but they'd just as soon make war against the Federation.

Real Klingons: House Kalatopa is a major supporter of the Real Klingon cause and works with other Real KKlingon Houses to achieve Real Klingon Ends. However, when it comes to political power, no Great House is that mucch an ally or an opponent of any other. They will be used, allied with, betrayed and refriended as the dictates of politics requires.

New Klingons: House Kalatopa considers the New Klingon frame of mind to be a betrayal of Klingon Supremacy. So replations are tense. However, the dictates of the hard core gamme of politics may force Real Klingon and New Klingon houses into alliance. House Kalatopa will do whatever theey can to weaken New Klingons without causing outright warfare.

The Federation: House Kalatopa, like the rest of the Real Klingons considers the peace treaty and alliance with the UFP to be a travesty. The Federation is everything Real Klingons despise. Among hardcore Real Klingons, detroying the Federation and killing or enslaving the people in it is job one. House Kalatopa will tolerate Federation ships and people to the letter of the treaty, mainly to avoid fights with thee Stronger New Klingon factions. But they will let federation people know their negative views. No one has CAUGHT House Kalatopa attempting deniable raids or violence against Federaation people, but people generally feel that House Kalatopa does this but has not yet been caught.

The Romulans: The Romulans are old enemies of the Klingons. House Kalatopa seems to enjoy knowing where they stand.

The Orions: House Kalatopa has a tendency to use Orions when convenient and then viiolently oppress them when convenient. Consequently most of the Orion Houses that do business in the Empire avoid Kalatopa when possible. House Kalatopa can always seem to find optimistic Orionr newbies to do business with. The Orion Syndicate is considered an enemy of the Empire and so does business from a black market perspective. Their operations are small and easily disposed of, when another wave of Oppression sweeeps through. They, too, can always seem to find young optmistic and energetic Orions and others who are left holding bags when waves of arrests and torture ccome through.

Klinzai: House Kalatopa considers the Klinzai to be a huge mistake. They say so at every opportunity. No Klizai serve in their forces. Klinzai in the service of other houses in Kalatopa territory are subject to arrests on trumped up charges. Ethnically Klingon Commanders can liberate their Klinzai officers and people with bribes. House Kalatopia seems to relish the idea of bombing Klinzai worlds and taking them for it's own exploitaation. They advocate for a new Klinzai Purge at every opportunity. The Klinzai build up forces and take care to stay Loyal to Kahless II to stay on his good side and avoid a new purge.

Area of Operation:
The Klingon Empire, from the core to 2/3rds of the way towards the Orion Colonies, off set a bit to the west.

Headquarters Location:
Panfaltorkahn - An old and well built up Klingon World. Aliens on this world are last class citizens or slaves. The population is high, annd the world is industralized. They caan build and man entire fleets of Klingon ships and all arts available to the Klingons are available there. They have a masssive Starbase and shipyard, second only to Q'onoS.

Public Face: Klingons who exist to fight and t kill all enemies.

Notable Members:
Kalatopa: An old Wardog. He knows hiss business well. He manages his holdings with grim militiary efficiency.

Admiral Kofmarkin: A cold, calculating , effficient man. He is heaartless, ruthleesss and efficient. he does his Job. He has three of the best Bat'leth fighters in the quaddrant on his payroll as body guards. He also has forces of elite shock troops. Kofmarkin will kill you just as soon as look at you. He is an excellent tactician and strategic thinker. When someone speaaks to Kofmarkin of honor, Kofmarkin pretends to go along with it, but this is only as long as he is getting what he wwants. When such a challenger has out lived his usefulnnesss, Kofmarkin's people will sshoot them and dispose of the body. Many a commander hass faced Kofmarkin and few are his equal. Even the Romulans hate to see hom coming.

Davroda: A Starship Commander. A huge man. He specializes in getting ride of problems. He is almost 7 feet tall and almost 400 pounds of muscle. He is quicker than he looks, and highly skilled with cutlery and energy weapons. He rose through the ranks to become a serious hitman for House Kalatopa. He's left a trail of odies behind him a mile wide. His mentor was wiped out in single combat by an Orion Gladiator. Davroda killed Orion Gladiators until he found the right one.

Staarships of House Kalatopa

Fradaka - A Dagger Class cruiser. Roughly the equal of an Intrpid class cruiser. Commanded by Davroda.

Targor's Revenge - A Vor'cha Class Battle Cruiser. Admiral Kofmaarkinss personal flagship. Has the best weapons and systems he could buy, requisition, black mail for or loot off dead oponents. Named for a Klingon Captain who fell in battle against the Federation, this ships'ss distruptors are tuned to do extra damage to Federation ships.

Top Secret
Dilaaga - An insane battleship. As large and tough as a Romulan Scimitar, also mounts a thaloron beam cannon which can destroy all life on a world in one shot. This weaponry is banned by treaty and so many Klingons would consider it a dishorable andd treacheerous ship.

History of the Organization:
Kalatopa served his father as a warrior. He served in several campaaigns. He absorbed his fathers Klingon Supremacist views. Kalatopa had friends and companions killed by aliens. he seems not to have notied that this was in battle. He has come to resent all aliens. He wants to see Alien worlds turned into graveyards and to make the stars run with alien blood. He resents the hell out of the New Klingons polluting the Empire with their corrupted ways.

Kalatopa is a fanatic, but he has hid this well. He has pursued his goals with careful planning anf rigorous discipline.

Kalatopa wass frustrated by the recent Klingon civil war. The simple fact is that too many Klingon nobles counted on Klingon ssupremacy to carry them through, and were not ccareful enough.

Kalatopa watched as allies, ships and men he needed were stripped from the Real Klingon side by chronic mistakes on the Real Klingon side.

Although He is carefully planning, he has two elements which may be his undoing. One is that he backs the Green Hand ass a deniable force. If they are traced back to him, his will be ruined.

The Secondd thing is that he had built a battleship of massive proportions. He sstocked it with Banned weapons. Once the balloon goes up on the next war, Kalatopa figures that success will outweugh dishonor. But if this is discovered before a new Civil War brews up, it coould also ruin him.

So there is no depth Kalatopa won't stoop to, assuming it can be done *quietly* to keep his secrets and keep his plan hidden.

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jayphailey
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Re: The Bendarri Salient

Post by jayphailey » Tue Jul 03, 2018 11:12 pm

For me, the great houses of the Klingon Empire are like the houses of Edo Period Japan. Klingon Warriors are like Samurai. That means there's non Samurai Klingons, but they don't crop up too much.

The houses fight among each other for dominance, power and wealth. They are linked by ties of culture, language and history. Although they often hate each other, they'll come together like a very angry Voltron to fight outsiders.

This allows for Good Guy Klingons and Bad Guy Klingons in the same empire. Which is bad for quality of life among Klingons, but great for story telling.

-------

Profile House Ogalak
Keela

Created by: Jay

Occurance: The Klingon Empire

Number of Members: Millions

Nature of Members: Klingons and their friends

Organization: Klingon, although much looser.

Game Role: Good Guy Klingons

World Role: New Klingon, Major supporter of Kahless II

Relative Influence: Large, House Ogalak holds multiple worlds, has large economies and has huge battle fleets.

Public or Secret?: Public

Publicly Stated Goal: To ensure the safety oof the Empire and all within it.

Relative Wealth: Huge. House Ogalak can afford whole Battle Fleets

Group advantages: As a New Klingon House, Ogalak will accept anyone who is loyal to the Empire and can do the job. Non-Klingons have a meritocratic frame work for advancement.

Because House Ogalak accepts Klinzai, Orion, Humans and other residents of the Empire as equals, they immediately developed a serious man power advantage over Real Klingon Houses. In the Civil War this advantage told heaavily.

Ogalak likes trade and higher standards of living for his people, and so encourages this. He sees protection as the job of Nobles and Warriors, but Civilians have to have lives worth protecting.

Special Abilities: Becausse House Ogalak accepts all ssorts of different people, they have a much more diverse pool of talent to draaw from.

Group disadvantages: As New Klingons, forces Loyal to House Ogaalak are not welcomed in real Klingon areas. They have a target on their back from Real Klingon Houses and their deniable pawns.

Special disadvantages: Because House Ogalak is open to Non-Klingons, they have had to cope with spies and espionage. Ogalak is working on improving his own counter intelligence aparatus, but this is mixed success.

Top Secret: Ogalak will not turn down information or assistance from the Orion Syndicate, although he suppresses their activities as much as possible. The Orion Syndicate has used House Ogalak as a club against rivals and is now seeking to ferret out the location of the Green hand to slip it to Ogalak.

Top Secret II: Ogalak is paranoid and has a serious spy aparatus happening. He wants to know before hand when the Real Klingons will strike and he's pretty sure they're going to.

Relations

The Federation: because Ogalak is so openly New Klingon, he cannot afford to be too friendly to the Federation lest he be seen as a puppet of the Federation. Ogalak honors the alliance by staying resolutel neutral to Federation and Starfleet ships. In time Ogalak hopes to help House Katchar in becoming a Klingon/Federation trade house. This way he could benefit from trade while staying publicly neutral.

The Empire: Ogalak is a favorite of the Empreror and is loyal to him.

Real Klingons: Ogalak is staaunchlly opposed to the Klingon Supremacist policies of the Real Klingons. He frequently finds himself at odds with Real Klingon Houses. He tries peace and diplomacy but once steel is drawn and beams fly, then it's Klingon time.

The Romulan Empire: Ogalak would like to open trade relations with the Romulans but they seeem closed to the idea. Besides fighting Pirates and Raiders, Ogalak forces often patrol the Romulan/Klingon Border.

Orions: Ogallak welcomes Orion merchants in his territory. He will give mercenaries and adventurers the benefit of the doubt. But if they harm his people, well, they're target practice.

House Katchar: Ogalak uses House Katchar frequently and acts as a sponsor of House Katchar to the Court of Kahless II. Through House Katchar, Ogalak is trying to build ties of commerce with the Orion Colonies and the Federation.

House Kellisi: Ogalak has a good relationship with House Kellisi. Ogalak acts as Kellissi's sposor to the court of Kahless II.

House Bordakar: Ogalak has a poor replationship with House Bordakar. Bordaakar is a Real Klingon aligned house. Ogalak would have nor problem with a more friendly relationship, there, but Bordakar is aligned with House Kalatopa, a rival of Ogalak, so relations are cool.


Area of Operation:
The Klingon Core. to the east of the core.

Headquarters Location:
Planet Dalara - A pretty Earthlike world. Populated with a mixed population, there are several cities there, as well as a huge Starbase and shipyards. Ogalak's Asteroid mines are a good place to make decent money, if a touch risky.

Public Face: Klingons who see themselves as protectors of civilians.

Notable Members:
Ogalak, an older Klingon Man. he is an excellent general and organizer. He likes to frame contests as games, like Poker or chess.

Keela. Ogalak's daughter, one of many children. She is idealistic, mercurial and one of the best Female Batleth champions in the Empire. She has tendency to roam and to appoint herself the champion of the down trodden. She as assembled about herself a crew of idealistic and or crazy adventurers.

Ships:
Ogalak's ships are in good shape but range from old relics to brand new ships. Ogalak can't afford to retire any hull with life left in it. Ogalak's Forces can be uneven. When they try to out Klingon the Klingons they come out second best, but a unit achieves a comfortable mix of different approaches, they are some of the best crews in th empire.

learning how to command multi-racial Klingon crews is a newish skill and Ogalak's forces are near the forefront of this curve.

Top Secret:
Ogalak has a few captured Pirate Ships and hidden bases he uses for espionage. They're not all that deniable, but Ogalak uses them carefully to give himself advanced warning of enemy moves.

History of the Organization:
Ogalak Inherited his fathers holdingss early on. Ogalak was serving in forward units learning the art of military leadership from an early age. His early training was in very old Klingon ways. In these ancient Klingon stories, Warriors and nobles were protectors of civilians. Their job was to fight enemies, and their success was measured by the peace of the worlds they protected.

In the Civil War of the 2360s, Ogaalaks father and older brothers were killed by Duras aligned forces using Romulan supplies.

He ascended to command of his fathers holdings used to living in a state of being short on everything but the enemy.

Ogalak never understood why, if they could be useful, Non-Klingons weren't allowed to serve the Empire. So he quickly set about removing these barriers. The chief shortage Ogalak faced, as many do, was man power. Once Ogalak allowed non-Klingons to serve, attain rank and to be treated as well as any Klingon civilian, he would up with more man power and more talent than his rivals.

Although uncertain about Kahlesss II, the Clone of Kahless formed a core around which to rally the New Klingons. Ogalak quickly realized the value of this and sided with Gowron and Kahless II.

Ogalak Has prospered and has built his house into one of the biggest houses in the empire. He has a strong crew of commanders and Warriors who help him in this task. House Ogalak has numerous subsidiary organizations. Ogalak likes to format business processses this way. House Ogalak becomes a senior silent partner and the business owner has motivaation to succeed and make money for himself, which benefits house Ogalak.

House Ogalak takes adantage of having numerous Orion and Klinzai businesses and businesss actors as partners.

Ogalak is one of the chief purchasers of information from information brokers in and around the empire. He uses deniable cutouts to hire adventurers and freelance spies to gain information.

Like Kalatopa, when Ogalak's forces capture a pirate ship, or a smuggler, if it is suitable, it is remodelled into a deniable intelligence gathering ship and manned by mercenaries. It is rumored that Ogalak has a sizable covert fleet and intelligence gathering force.

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jayphailey
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Re: The Bendarri Salient

Post by jayphailey » Tue Jul 03, 2018 11:24 pm

House Kalatopa and House Ogalak are not major players in the Bendarri Salient, but their friends and minor allies are.

The Mystery Raiders mentioned were Damyip ships using stolen Orion and Klingon technology. They quit and left when the Damyip and the Federation made contact. Now the Damyip can secure peace by supporting the Federation, and so that's what they're going to do.

I was borrowing some for house Ogalak and House Kalatopa.

House Ogalak is a Klingon retelling or Bail Organa. Although he seems nice, he has wheels within wheels and hidden projects going on.

Keela, his daughter is Leia. But as a Klingon. So she leads from the front, blaster and Bat'leth in hand.

Kalatopa is Palpatine.

Kofmarkin is Moff Tarkin. An amoral scumbag, but always impeccably dressed and his troops are shiny.

Davroda is Vader. A large monster killing machine, Davroda is killer and kills the targets Kalatopa points at.

Does this mean that Keela is secretly the love child of Davroda and someone else? Is there a Klingon Farmboy somewhere?

No. Unnecessary.

The Dilaaga is, of cure the Death Star, but as a Starship. It also owes a lot of the Scimitar of Star Trek Nemesis.

The Dilaaga is a Monster and it would take a large fleet to take it down. No one ship could stand up to it. Of course, it has the best cloak in the fleet, bar none. Kalatopa has sunk an insane amount of wealth into the thing. He means to use it, when time is right.

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