Planet Askene
Name: Askene
Created By: Gene Ambacher and Jay P Hailey
Summary: A world of sword weilding warriors and swept eared nobles
Environments: Askene has a number of different environments from arctic to dessert, tropical rain forest to steppes
Locations: Elvend - the capital city, a city created from the living forest.
History: Askene has a long and complex history that is not yet well understood. Apparently the people of Askene found themselves on their world approximately 80,000 years ago. The Elauhir and Rodoni have records of this.
There followed a complex history of development, empire buliding, alliances, wars, declines and resurgence.
Sapient Species:
The Elauhir - Long lived, elegant humanoids. They
functionally rule Askene. Although there seem to be more than one faction, this
relationship is subtle and vague. The Elauhir present a unified front to outsiders.
The Rogoni - Short, stout humanoids. As long lived as the Elauhir they seem insular. They are far less concerned with the affairs of "Lesser" races and the gaaxy at large. They have riddled Askene with tunnel complexes and underground cities. They care only for practical matters. They are catching up with the Elauhir in terms of technology.
Humans - Humans populate the surface of Askene. They live in a midieval life style. Serfs work the land under the protection and rule of lords. Moonarch rule kingdoms and view with each other for power, wealth and influence.
Gaffa - Half sized humans. They live a comfortable, rural life style disdaining exploration and adventure. There may be variants of the Gaffa with different cultures.
Orsa - Humanoids. They are thickly built, strong, and brutal. Their culture has evolved after several genocidal wars. The Orsa are definitely a minority on Askene. They live nomadic hunter/gatherer lives usually, although many have assimilated into human cultures.
Rumors and legends about of other races - Garla, wolf like humanoids, Keezles, small reptilian scavengers and raiders, and Mind-Tasters, villains of great psionic power.
None of these have been seen for at least 1000 years.
Culture:
The Elauhir enjoy living in harmony with nature. They prefer to use natural
materials and even living plants where ever possible as building materials.
While the Elauhir are scientifically advanced, they have eschewed most technology.
High tech devices among the Elauhir tend to be one off, hand crafted items,
built by individuals who view engineering and technology as art forms.
The Elauhir made contact with the Galaxy when a Technology artist built a small subspace telescope and picked up intelligent signals from a local Starfleet ship.
The Elauhir rule Askene. The Federation has not seen fit to challenge them.
However, Rodoni scoff at this notion.
The Elauhir are regarded as noble and wise by the humans and other races. Elauhir dictates tend to be followed.
There is some evidence that the Elauhir have been deliberately holding the short-lived races of Askene in a pre-technological state.
Investigation is still on going. The Elauhir have insisted that no contact with Askene be made except through them.
Tech Level: Mostly GURPS tech Level 3, although the Elauhir have access to devices up to Tech Level 12 in some cases.
Government: The Elauhir are ruled by a council of elders. The oldest among them are considered the wisest, and so the Elauhir council of elders rule. Agents of the Elauhir are greeted and obeyed by human rulers.
The Humans of Askene have a patchwork of small kingdoms, duchys and other forms of government.
Culture: The Elauhir are usually serene, quiet and take a very long view. They are humanoids who can live up to 30,000 years. They prefer a quiet life where changes are minimal and taken only with careful contemplation.
A Minority of Elauhir are hyperactive, energetic advenbturous, shallow and flighty. They move around their world at random and engage in adventure, commerce or crime in random amounts.
The Rodoni culture is stern, disciplined, orderly and insular. They do not welcome outsiders with questions.
The Human and Orsa Cultures of Askene are variable, although appropriate to tech level 3. Monarchies, princedoms and duke-doms proliferate. However occasional democracies and theocracies can be seen.
The Gaffa have town councils and mayors. Some claim minimal fealty to human kingdoms, but eschew most politics.
Affiliation: Askene is a neutral world, although friendly to the Federation. Askene citizens travel the Federation, and a few Elauhir hold dual citizenship.
Resources: Askene has all the mineral resources of an Earthlike planet. Some of it is more easily accessed. The Rodani have been mining Askene for tens of thousands of years, and have huge stock piles of metals, gems and minerals available for trade with the Elauhir.
Places of Note: Elvend - the City of the Elauhir, a city melded seamlessly with a huge living forest.
Ship facilities: Almost none. The Eelauhir could offer fuel and supplies. Only small ships can land at Elvend.
Population: Approximately one billion people of various races.
Government: Various. The Elauhir are ruled by a council of Elders.
Strategic Importance: Minor. The Federation wouldn't turn down having a friend in the area to anchor exploration and development, but Askene doesn't seem to be a good candidate for this.
Economy: The Humans and Orsa of Askene live a pretechnologiucal subsistence farming life style. The Elauhir have provided disease resistant, robust crops developed by years of patient eugenic development.
The Elauhir trade useful items for food and raw materials. Elauhir made plows are made of advanced alloys that do not dull or wear out under normal use.
The Rodoni trade metals, gold, silver nd crafted items to Elauhir, Humans and Orsa for food and other surface produced goods.
Present Conflicts: In some areas there is racial tension between Humans and Orsa, accompanied by prejudice and violence. In other areas human empires conflict using swords and bows over resources and influence.
The Elauhir seem to be focused on keeping all this dispersed, in small scales and under control.
Relations:
The Federation - Askene is friendly to the Federation and seems to be
very slowly exploring the requirements for a closer relationship. There is some
tension as the Federation understands more the the Elaurhir role in keeping
the Humans and Orsa of Askene stagnant.
No other power in known spce is known to have made contact with Askene yet.
Military: The Elauhir of Askene rely on a force that is a mix of police force and intelligence service. These Elauhir travel Askene and monitor the doings of other races and prevent activities that would disrupt the Status Quo.
Each Elauhir City and Kingdom maintains a small, highly trained militia, armed with modern weapons. These foil attacks, banditry and other direct forms of violence.
Each Human and Orsa Kingdom maintains its own armed forces, armed with primitive weapons (Swords, polearms, bows, armored Calvary and seige engines).
The defensive arrangements of the Rodoni is unknown but according the Elauhir can be assumed to be competent, and paranoid.
Askene has no space bourne defensive structure at this time.
Languages: The Language of the Elauhir has been customarily used as the language of scholarship and education for two thousand years. The humand and Orsa have their own tongues. The Rodoni aso speak their own language.
Biology: The Biology of Askene is conventional and compatible with Earth humans. Several plant and animal species are found on both worlds.
Location: on the frontier of the Federation.
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GM's Note - this a classic Fantasy Role Playing world where Psionics replaces Magic.
The Elauhir(Elves) and Rodoni(Dwarves) once fought a genocidal war with the Illithids, but on the Verge of Victory, the Illithids disappeared. Scholars fear they escaped to space and may return.
There are factions of the Elauhir (Drow) who also live under ground, in conflict with the Rodoni and Elauhir. They are very rarely encountered.
Askene was the site of two role Playing games that have been imported to Jay-Trek
Game 1 - The Second War of the Raven God Darlu - by Gene Ambacher - Sunshine and a crew of Adventurers fought Orsa hordes durting a vicious race and religion driven war. Sunshine was one of the hples adventurers turned guerilla fighters in this war.
Game 2 - Sandra Hanson, Broc Olson and Jay as the GM - The Dark Elauhir rose up, using the Human nation of Megalos as their proxies. Sunshine serves as a guerilla fighter and then a privateer during this war.
Disclaimer: Paramount owns all things Trek. I claim original characters and situations in this material for me.