Kehtaria

Kehtaria

(Cosmos)

Type

Planet

Source: Drift Crisis, pg(s). 64

Kehtaria is a colony of the Azlanti Star Empire. Once a backwater, it has grown into a strategic hub overnight due to the appearance of seven Drift beacons in its solar system during the Drift Crash.

Geography

The only planet orbiting its red giant star (alongside a few asteroids), Kehtaria is an exceptionally verdant world where life lives fast and dies young. Vast forests are made up of tree-like lichens that grow to massive sizes within a few years and collapse under other lichens' weight after a decade, creating layers of decaying biomass. Vibrant, green seas are full of life of all sizes. All but the most well-maintained settlements quickly decay. Immolsivixes burrow under the biomass, creating underground habitats and sowing keystone fungi that occasionally start wildfires that leave behind fertile ash.

Inhabitants

The rare exposed rocks and caves occasionally reveal pictographs incised by an unknown people. Natives with more than animal intelligence can understand or speak fragments of the Kehtaran language, which has yet to be fully deciphered, and is suspected to be a remnant of a pre-Gap culture.

One of the Star Empire's earliest post-Gap acquisitions, Kehtaria was quickly abandoned for not providing a suitable return on investment and designated an imperial preserve, where settlement and development are only possible with the Imperator's decree. Three Azlanti attempts to colonise Kehtaria have been recorded, but only two left behind survivors who came back to call the planet a trap. The fourth project founded the settlement of Atuity around 272 AG, while the rest of the planet retains its status as an imperial preserve to discourage foolhardy settlers from doomed expeditions. Atuity is inhabited by three demographics: a military detachment maintaining order, nobles seeking to prove worth, and non-humans enjoying elevated rights.

In 322 AG, the Drift Crash caused seven Drift beacons to appear in Kehtaria's solar system. In the subsequent weeks, many starships were hurled there as if drawn by the beacons, attracting the attention of numerous factions who vie for control over what would become a major travel hub, like Absalom Station, after the Drift Crisis ends. Atuity has experienced a population boom, as newcomers build numerous structures from locally available materials, while natives build facilities to accommodate new arrivals and extract fees from them.

Four primary groups currently have eyes on Kehtaria. The Azlanti Star Empire wishes to reassert control over its newly-valuable territory, and losing Kehtaria would tarnish its perfectionist image, but since the few hundred soldiers stationed there are insufficient for this task, and reinforcements cannot arrive quickly enough, so the Star Empire seeks to retain the loyalty of its colonists. The Veskarium officer Vasoya, who established a base of operations in Atuity after her ship Red Clarion was flung into Kehtaria's orbit, sees its value to the Veskarium as a trading hub and foothold in Azlanti space, and seeks to present the Veskarium as the lesser evil compared to the Star Empire to convince colonists to defect, since she has been unable to communicate with the Veskarium itself. The Atuity Triad, an informal council of three local oligarchs, want political power that the Aeon Throne cannot just revoke, and stability and prosperity for the community, but the three members are conflicted on whose side to join. The prospect of full independence is not something that most people even think of, especially since this is a difficult and dangerous quest.