Akiton

Akiton

(Cosmos)

Titles

The Battlefield

Type

Terrestrial planet

Adjective

Akitonian

Diameter

1/2

Mass

1/12

Gravity

1/3

Atmosphere

Thin

Year length (PST)

2 years

Day length (PST)

24 hours 40 minutes

Orbits

Sun

System

Pact Worlds system

Inhabitants

Ysoki, Contemplatives, Ikeshtis, Shobhads

Images of Akiton

Source: Pact Worlds, pg(s). 48–57

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Akiton is the third planet in the Pact Worlds system (or the fourth, counting missing Golarion, or Absalom Station as a full member of the Pact Worlds). It is also referred to as the Red Planet, due to the red-orange color of its iron-rich soil.

Geography

Akiton's surface is rocky and rich in iron, giving it its distinctive red hue. Over tens of millions of years, its core has cooled considerably, causing tectonic activity to slow down and the weakening of the magnetosphere. As a result, solar winds have gradually blow away the atmosphere. As the temperature dropped, water froze into miles-thick polar ice caps known as the Winterlands, killing most plants and leaving behind immense trenches, salt flats, and lifeless plains. Geological research points out several theories behind these geological features, including raging rivers and divergence of tectonic plates. The greatest canyon is the Edaio Rift, which nearly circumnavigates Akiton. Across the Winterlands, winds blow down at extreme speeds, sometimes colliding into powerful twisters that blast the ice into short-lived clouds. Within its crust are immense veins of thasteron, a substance once vital in the production of starship fuel until obsoleted by the advent of Drift travel.

Akiton's barren surface supports various species of cacti, grasses and shrubs whose roots can dig up to 100 feet into aquifers. Dust storms are common, and can last indefinitely until blocked by mountains. Prior to the Gap, a terraforming operation called the Bounty was conducted to stabilise Akiton's soil and restore its flora, although when funds dried up, the project was prematurely ended and most sites withered, except for the Bounty's core.

Government

Akiton has no central government, and most of the planet is lawless, except for a few city-states. Since most of the oligarchs in charge of these governments prefer to fight over resources and hire mercenaries to perform covert operations against each other, instead of spending money to fight crime and enforce regulations, Akiton is a hotbed for organised crime and smuggling. Although slavery is openly legal in few cities, a vibrant slave market for gladiators and workers exist. Most governments offer a bounty on slavers' heads, while also accepting bribes from them to look the other way.

History

Millions of years ago, a particularly large meteorite slammed into Akiton at a shallow angle, creating the oblong Irkonian Sea and killing off most of the megafauna, paving way for the evolution of humanoids. Force waves from this event can be seen for thousands of miles, uplifting the Arlkari Plateau.

A city on Akiton.

The rise of space travel begun a centuries-long thasteron boom as all kinds of businesses and immigrants came to Akiton, bringing their wealth with them. However, when Triune revealed the technology of Drift travel to the galaxy, the demand for thasteron plummeted as it was not used to power Drift engines. Within decades, the thasteron mining industries crashed as costs outweighed profits; only the purest and most accessible veins are being mined today. After several centuries, the economy stabilised but was a shadow of what it used to be.

Across Akiton are a huge number of crashed starship hulks which crashed at approximately the same date some time during the Gap, suggesting that a battle once took place on its surface and in orbit.

In 422 AG, when the Drift Crash disrupted Drift travel, investors became interesedt in reviving Akiton's old thasteron industry, refining impure sources and researching on the prospects of faster-than-light travel. However, due to the planet's reliance on imports, particularly food, Akiton has been pushed to the verge of a famine, as the rich hoard food while the poor starve. Especially in large cities, people are indulging in vices to ease their worries, particularly blood sports. The most desperate migrate to the Bounty, never to be seen again. Only the shobhads, who are no strangers to scarcity, have been unaffected.

Inhabitants

Many inhabitants of Akiton, referred to as Akitonians, have been greatly affected by the decimation of the thasteron mining industry. Descendants of former mining company executives are forced to hunt khefaks for food in the shells of abandoned cities, work as laborers in one of the few remaining mines, or join one of the gangs on the plains that battle for territory. Due to the lack of a centralized government, Akiton is a hotbed of unscrupulous businesses who engage in questionable or outright exploitative practices and perform morally dubious research.

Members of almost all of the common species of the Pact Worlds system live on Akiton, including a seemingly native scarlet-skinned human ethnicity, but the best known sentient species are the native ysoki. The ysoki seem to have adapted well to their homeworld's recent economic degradation, and live either in warrens below the cities, or in nomadic motorized caravans that criss-cross the surface.

Similar in appearance to the red-skinned humans of Akiton are the red-scaled ikeshti. These lizardfolk seem calm most of the time until their reproductive cycles causes them to become quite violent.

The four-armed shobhads are also native to Akiton and were nearly driving extinct by corporate interests, but their numbers have rebounded significantly in recent years. Thanks to their traditional way of life, they sidestepped the Akitonian economic downturn experienced by most others, and they are now in high demand as mercenaries and scouts.

Nearly opposite to the highly physical shobhad are the contemplatives, the last in this list of indiginous Akitonian peoples. Their physical bodies are almost vistigial, and only serve to support a highly-evolved brain. The contemplatives excel in supernatural tasks, and spend much of their time pondering esoteric matters in the legendary Halls of Reason.

Cities

Akiton's best-known population centers include the blood-sport hotbed of Arl, the half-irradiated city of Daza, the mercantile Hivemarket, and Maro, built into the walls of the Edaio Rift. These cities are also home to Akiton's remaining upper-class who control its few remaining thasteron mines or have lucrative contracts with off-world corporations to manufacture weapons, armor, and ship parts. Most of Akiton's smaller settlements are company towns, slums, or outposts for homesteaders, but in all of them, life can be brutal. The planet's city-states battle not only each other but various clans, corporations, tribes, and off-world factions.

Culture

Currently, gritty Akitonian shumka beats and Absalom eyebite rock have gained popularity in rougher music venues throughout the Pact Worlds system.

References

Paizo published a major article on Akiton in Pact Worlds, including a map of the planet's surface.