Fyn-Lakshyr, Tsvayg Tsurik region of the Tspitslen Meluke
Fyn-Lashyr is a Kikuji-foam world; it has a diameter of 28,483 miles (as contrasted to Earth's 7,926) but only 0.9822 G (as contrasted with Earth's 1.000 G.) What heavy minerals Fyn-Lashyr has are concentrated many miles below its silicate foam crust. As this includes metals, Fyn-Lakshyr's magnetosphere is deep below the surface.
Fyn-Lakshyr is a world of diverse landscapes and populations. Over the course of hundreds of millions of years Fyn-Lakshyr has hosted at least fourteen separate cycles of civilization, some indigenous natives, some off-world colonists. Their remains are now a part of the geological strata of the region, blurring the line between natural process and artificial. Here, enough time has passed that whole classes of plants and animals and other life forms depend upon fossilized cities for their habitat and mineral resources.
Archaeological records reveal that Fyn-Lakshyr was Seeded and colonized several times. In between these introductions, there have been several periods marked by the development of lavish florescence of indigenous biota, including sapient or proto-sapient forms.
The last major wave of colonization was some seven millennial ago. Fyn-Lakshyr enjoyed some two millennia of enlightenment under The Harmony, its elite members of the Cosmic Culture of the region. Then came the Dissolution and its aftermath, the fall of the Chaos. (SEE The Dissolution.)
When all hydrocarbons on most of the systems of what became the Tsepitslen Molukes (the "Shattered Realms") were consumed by the phage set loose by The Enemy, civilization collapsed, on both Cosmic and local levels. Fyn-Lakshyr became one of the Onvern Velt, or Lost Worlds.
Out of the ashes of the Chaos, Fyn-Lakshyr produced several new Indiginous civilizations. They rose and developed, interacting or in isolation, utilizing the remnants of previous civilizations or resources more natural. The days of Cosmic Civilization became but myth where they wre remembered at all.
Just a century ago, officials of The Harmony returned to rekindle the light, bringing Fyn-Lakshyr in from Tsepitslen Molukes ("Shattered Realms") to join the Tsvayg Tsurik Oyfshteln ("The Branch Restored"), a renaissance region of The Harmony.
The agenda of The Harmony calls for different treatment of different worlds, because the development of a homogenous Cosmic Culture would aide The Enemy. Diversity is vital as a teacher to and defense of The Harmony.
Fyn-Lakshyr has enough native development that no territories have been awarded to off-world colonization schemes. The Indigenous civilizations are of sufficient interest that they are not to be overwhelmed by a flood of Cosmic Culture, despite the pressures of certain megacorps. Rather, the Indies are to be permitted and even encouraged to developed on their own. The officials of the harmony are to observe, record, and pass on their findings, that Cosmic culture may be enriched by the special qualities of these native peoples. There will be time enough to absorb the Indies into the mainstream of Cosmic culture when they either catch up on their own or, as inevitably happens when a world is not totally isolated, external influences bleed in enough to Raise the natives.
Even this "minimal impact" contact with The Harmony and Cosmic civilization is resulting in a radical shift in the local power balances. Many native powers vie for the favor of the Cosmonauts and their access to high-tech artifacts while jockeying for position in the new world order. These Indies seek high-tech advantages in military and communications hardware, manufacturing and other databanks.
The officials of The Harmony have a different agenda. They would prefer to let Fyn-Lakshyr develop in its own way, and so seek to minimize Cosmic impact. As a result, more exchange is done by intrigue and smuggling than by open development. To reduce official actions resulting in confiscation and punishment, even smuggled goods are generally of items that might be classified as "culturally low impact." It is up to the buyer to devise a subtler, more devious use for these trinkets and toys.
Much of Fyn-Lakshyr remains officially unexplored, whether as barbaric wilderness or as isolated cultures for which Cosmic civilization is more a blur of ancient legend and recent rumor than an everyday reality. Today, Fyn-Lakshyr hosts communities of over a thousand sapient species and races. Not all are land-oriented.
With its associated archipelagos, Shari-Bezel accounts for three quarters of Fyn-Lakshyr's total land area.
The lands outside of the Encircling Mountains are called The Skirting Lands. They are a varied collection of subcontinents.
The stony Encircling Ranges form an irregular bur near-solid wall about a vast and varied area some four thousand miles apart north-south and twelve thousand miles apart east-west. When geological progression opens breaches in this wall, the Encircled Sea is reborn, filling from the outer oceans. While rather salty, this Encircled Sea moistens the winds that play across it to make the whole of the continental interior a rich and productive land.
Inevitably, the whims of geology shift, resulting in the building up of the Encircling Mountains to yet higher levels. The Encircled Sea, sealed off from the oceans, withers.
Winds from across the seas and lowlands outside have most of their moisture squeezed out on the outer slopes of the Encircling Mountains. Within the encircling ranges, there are but few springs fed by water seeping through the mountains. Irregular seasonal storms shoulder their way through only the widest passes, resulting in great thunder-boomers and flash floods. But these scant waters are not enough to counter the relentless baking of the equatorial sun. As a result, this vast land becomes desiccated, save for a few precious patches of green and the salty mineral sludge of the Fairy Sea.
This cycle of drying and re-filling, drying and refilling has taken place many times over many millions of years. Today, we see a landscape that has been desiccated for about three million years. A few million more years may bring the Encircled Sea back to life.
During the moister times, successive civilizations flourish about the Encircled Sea. When the sea is cut off and dried, these civilizations follow its retreating shoreline towards the middle of the continent, marked by an increase in elaborate canal systems and water-conserving agricultural innovations such as crystal domes, which filtered the sunlight and kept the moisture inside, or gardening in caverns with skylights once sealed with translucent membranes.
The remains of each of these ages of civilizations were buried when the oceans once again breached the encircling mountains. These remains became part of the geological strata. Only from the last wave of civilizations do many freestanding ruins remain, traces of dwellings and workshops, facilities for religions and recreation, and other structures less definable, the ghosts of several millennia of "recent" civilizations abandoned to the elements now for several millennia more.
The Rufus Rugose are a maze of canyon lands between the higher mountains above and the sand-filled deserts of the low basins.
Once a great sea covered all of this land. Now it is desert-dry. The old sea floor built up layer upon layer of strata, mostly ruddy in hue. Much is sandstone, but there are seams of slate (from compressed mud) and chalk and layers of ancient coral.
Over the millions of years since water last covered this land the surface has been cut with countless canyons. The thunder and lightning of the occasional storms may be momentarily impressive, but it is the accumulated wearing of their short but heavy rains which permanently mark the land.
The storm waters create flash floods in the narrow canyons and arroyos, then drain away to the caverns far below. Only in isolated pockets does the water remain, accumulating in secret pools. More frequently, the plant life guards what water it can grasp deep below in storage roots. There are isolated trees and shrubs with underground root systems surprisingly broad, to gather what scant rain there is. In sheltered nooks where some scant soil can accumulate, there are precious patches of marginally softer greenery.
Strange mineral growths mark the walls of the canyons. Some are the result of natural springs; where moisture sinks into the higher areas and then percolates through to a canyon wall it carries minerals that crystallize in the dry air. As these crystals are the product of millions of years of geology, extremely few mark any present day water.
Sometimes, the "springs" are not of purely natural processes. They may instead mark a trace of ancient canal system or other ruins, millions or tens or even hundreds of millions of years old.
In the lowest basin of the Dry Lands there is indeed a sea, but it is a sea barely wet. This is, as they say, "Where water goes to die."
Instead of open water, the view here is of "fairy castles" and wondrous "forests," all formed of fabulous crystal growths, nurtured from below by a super-saturated sludge of salt and other minerals. These weird mineral growths are a bit like those usually only found in caverns. There is more than salt here, resulting in varicolored crystals.
Shari-Bezel's northernmost peninsula is the wind-swept black stone of Shullunthyr. Howling Arctic winds drive ice to polish the stone bare. Only the hardiest dwarf shrubs and grass tufts survive in sheltered pockets. Even the toughest lichens are polished off the more exposed surfaces.
In winter, the Arctic icecap extends south to embrace and cover northern Shullunthyr, scouring it clean. In summer, the icecap retreats, but bergs still grind the shoreline.
The Whalebacks are exposed shoals that make the seas between Shullunthyr and the Arctic icecap most hazardous even in summer.
Shullunthyr is not as barren of life as it may first seem. The dominant life here looks something like the progeny of an assortment of crustaceans and some gnarled, blasted tree stumps. The heavy exoskeletons act as insulation. Their bodily fluids are based on ammonia with a trace of alcohol. They are comfortable in arctic and polar conditions of up to 400 degrees below freezing.
It is believed that at least two species here are sentient, but records are unclear as to which they are.
As the ice retreats in the spring, the tidal washes are built up with maze-like weirs of dry-laid stone. The high tides fill these with sea life, which low tide leaves stranded. Likewise, low tide brings down wandering land life, which high tide drowns. It has been suggested that the builders of the weirs-mazes are not sapient but are rather like termites in their organization. It is possible that they are the result of genetic manipulation, that while they are not intelligent, their actions are.
The upper ranges are heavily forested wilderness. The lower ranges are drier, cloaked in dusty grass that provides poor pasturage. The middle slopes have given rise to the Alyson culture peoples.
The Alyson culture of the Mere-Folds is similar to that of Darkover. The population is mostly of mixed Human stocks, including some rather Elvyn strains.
The Old Lands of Khaad are the foothills of the Mere-Fold Mountains. Once, these were rich with pasture and field. A hundred citied rose, the pride of Fyn-Lakshyr. Then came the Drying. Canals were built, and the cities build high walls to protect their precious water. Then the lower mountains dried, and the canals failed.
Today, there are scarcely a dozen living cities left. The rest are villages living in the ruins of their former glory - if any yet live there at all.
The desiccation sucks the life from mortal men here, whether they be of Human-derived races, Scath, or others.
There is also The Dark. The imperceptible yet palpable Dark sucks at mortals' weaknesses, seducing them to its corruption. There are worse things than death in these cursed lands.
The servants of the Dark call it Moloch. Others dare not call it anything, lest it hear.
The West Fjordlands are half mainland and half a three hundred mile long peninsula jutting out into the eastern sea and its associated islands. In ancient times, glaciers carved the whole of this coast, between Thule and Sheynkayt-Gortn, into a rich fringe of fjords and lochs. The mountains are fairly barren, their forests clinging with cable-like roots to the wind-swept heights below the barren peaks, but the crevasses and valleys are rich.
The population is mostly of heavily furred, fairly anthropomorphic Yeti-forms;
Ox-Yeti: Like very stocky, shaggy minotaurs.
Skandar: SEE Majipoor (Robert Silverberg) for details on these large four-armed folk.
The culture is more peaceful at home than their Viking raid-'n'-trade sailing to the south would indicate. At home, they brave the seas for fish, or till the thin soil between the rocks for crops during the brief summer, but pasturing their herds and flocks or hunting for wild game takes them higher up into the cold mountains.
Extending two thousand miles to the west offshore of East Fjord-Coast and Sheynkayt-Gortn, the innumerable islands include at least a hundred of over a hundred miles in breadth and a dozen of over two hundred miles in breadth, but the vast majority are under a dozen miles long.
This area is rather European in climate. The lands is rich, black, and fecund, whether in the half mile-deep soils of the lowlands or in the crevasse of the great mountain ranges spidering out from the Encircling Mountains.
The north, where the lands become more rugged closer to the West Fjordlands, and the east, where the land rises up into the Encircling Mountains, are characterized by great cup shaped "calderas," anywhere from one to a hundred miles in width. These are the result of an industrial accident some two billion years ago, when over-vigorous geothermal sinks exploded with brief but devastating volcanism.
The culture of northern Sheynkayt-Gortn is rather reminiscent of Estcarp in Witch World's Eastern Continent (SEE Andre Norton's Witch World (1963, etc.) series and related books, plus SEE Steve Jackson Games GURPS Witch World, 1989, by Sasha Miller and Ben Miller.)
Estkuldra, the northern-eastern corner of Sheynkayt-Gortn, is rather isolated from the rest of Fyn-Lakshyr. Many people seem to develop a subtle psychic block against Estkuldra, and the "Esters" seem likewise to be unwilling to consider the lands beyond.
The Blue-Green High-Lows are part of the Encircling Mountains between Sheynkayt-Gortn and the Mere-Folds. The blue-topped mountains, and the green valleys between them run north-south.
Ancient legends suggest that the people of Sheynkayt-Gortn may have come from further east, possibly western Khaad, and fled west across these mountains to escape something less wholesome than the mere desiccation known to the current inhabitants of Khaad.
This "something less wholesome" is never referred to directly by Those Who Stand Against the Dark.
The Dark slinks towards Sheynkayt; the centuries do not slake its thirst for that which fled. It has already sucked much of Khaad dry - dry of more than mere water. The Dark also moves under the Mere-Folds.
The Dark can enter mortal minds. Seduced to its corruption, such mortals lose what good they may have once had when they opt for power and a chance at immortality.
The middle of the northern Encircling Mountains are the Glass Mountains. They are one vast obsidian-like slag.
The eastern Encircling Mountains step down towards the sea in slow, reluctant steps. These high folds form a mass of isolated valleys.
Padivraj is the strongest member of the Panarchy. Padivraj encompasses the southeastern lands, from the chill heights of the Encircling Mountains to the tropical lowlands.
Padivraj is reminiscent of The Commonwealth of Gene Wolf's Book of the New Sun.
Mirroring the East Fjord-Coast, here too glaciers have carved the coast into interlacing fingers of land and loch. East Fjord Coast is the center of colonization activiy by Fu Yuan Clans. As this activity pre-dates The Harmony's Recovery of Fyn Lakshyr, it is considered a part of local tradition and therefore acceptable. The Consul may, however, influence future expansion of Fu Yuan activity on Fyn Lakshyr.
SEE Phu Yuan star system.
Indie Wolfyn, Ratton, and Uncia (peoples Raised in Ancient times from wolf, rat, and snow leopard stock) populations in the region initially were driven from the best lands and other peoples brought in to fufill the duties of the peasantry (to reduce the chances of rebellion.) Over time, Wolfyn, Ratton, and Uncia Clans developed, challenging their opponants by adopting their tactics.
Today the Wolfyn, Ratton, and Uncia Clans are recognized and take full part in local affairs, abet as Lesser, not Greater, Clans.
Fu Yuan tradition of adoption irrespective of species, of individuals into Families and of Families into Clans, and of Lesser Clan as dependancies of Greater Clans, has facilitated the melding of Fu Yuan colonizers and honorable Indiginous peoples.
Immigrant and Indie Clans seem equally inclined to exploit the peasantry.
While K'zin and Uncia cannot interbreed without the assistance of a gene sculptor, they are similar enough for romance and intermarriage. As there are no gene sculptors on Fyn Lakshyr, such couples must eithergo offworld to have children crafted or adopt. Adoptees are just as likely to be young adults of great promise from other Families, even if of different species (which make for good politics) as they are to be "extra" children of prolific close relatives or orphaned members of their own or an allied Clan.
There are enough Clansfolk of mixed marriage that it is likley that more than one plot exists to create a secret gene sculpting studio, despite its being a technology of a level restricted from import to Fyn Lakshyr.
Here the moist sea breezes nourish a voluptuous verdure in the rain-cut steep valleys between the knees of the Emerald Mountains, the eastern end of the southern Encircling Mountains.
The Hanging Jungles web between the mountain ridges so thickly that very little light penetrates.
There are trails for "land-walkers" here, corduroy highways of tough living branches woven together, sturdy enough for caravans to cross. It is wise to pay for an escourt, as ambush along the way woud be deadly for a "land-walker." Away from the highways, one must leap from branch to branch, or risk slipping into the thickness of the canopy. One could easily be stuck fast by a sticky-moss clot in the branches, snared by a noose-vine, or spiked by a horn-branch. It would be relatively merciful to actually manage to fall all the way through the canopy and out the bottom to a quick death a few hundred or a few thousand feet on the ground below.
The Chimpanzeebra actually look more like a gibbon than a chimp, but are furred in black and white stripes. Their giddy humor, occasionally washed over by stormy tempers, often lets their emotions get the best of their intelligence.
Scaled Apes, which are neither true reptiles nor true mammals, are to be found in several races, from 3' to 12' in height, generally rusty brown or green. Happily, their malicious tempers are not backed by as much intelligence as the Chimpanzeebras.
Equally diverse are the tribes of Batrachians, or frog-like sapiens. "Froggy-boys" range from wee savage Grippli to large, unfortunately more sophisticated Gowachin. (These are normal Gowachin, not the militarized products of The Dosadi Experiment, Frank Herbert, 1977.)
Note: Our Heros will NOT know anything of this; no-one (except a few eccentric professors) will have a clue about this. It is for them to discover.
Morlocks (as in HG Wells The Time Machine) dwell here. They seem furred in moldy cobwebs, and are shy of light. They look not as bright as a Human and not as noble as a gorilla. Looks can be deceiving.
This is the secret homeland of the Morlocks. Tribes of Morlocks can be found in any suitable habitat, but it takes a great realm like this to let them fully develop their culture.
The Morlock have a mechanically advanced civilization, but it is cryptic and troglodytic, whether excavated below the jungle or under a great city. Their tunnels and caverns are braced with great rib bones. Their mechanics are like something from a Victorian nightmare; the springs are slivers of flexible horn, the finest gears carved ivory. For the rest, it is bone, bone, everywhere.
(Note: their osteo-dontal mechanical technology is immune to the Dissolution plague. Co-incidence?
The Morlock preference for living in a charnel habitat seems genetic. It is speculated that they developed as a scavenger race, either under the cities of some decadent culture (as in H. G. Well's Time Machine) or in some vast ecosystem where there were no other scavengers (as in Larry Niven's Ringworld.) That such similar races have developed in several places suggests that the ability to produce Morlocks is buried fairly deep in simian (proto-anthropoid) genetics, as spread by Seeders and colonies.
The secret continues. The Morlocks of various areas are in subtle contact. They also listen carefully to the goings-on above them. When a likely habitat develops elsewhere, they will find a way there. Even luxury interstellar vacation-voyager vessels have been found to shelter hidden Morlock communities. When such are discovered, it may also be found that their gruesome existence is tolerated because they render useful services.
The idea that Morlocks may be Secret masters of the Universe is foolishness. So who's planting those false clues?
Opponents see those who support the Astral Alliance as either naive, starry-eyed idealists or the witless pawns of the Iron Czar.
The Iron Czar seeks to use the process of uplifting Fyn-Lakshyr to Cosmic Culture as quickly as possible as a means of gaining power over the whole world. He gets considerable funding and off-world materials from several Megacorps.
The Iron Czar used huge floating fortresses to plow his enemies. These are not, thank goodness, flying fortresses. These floaters just hover a few feet above the ground. This limits their maneuverability, as they cannot negotiate changes in slope very well, or any slope over 45%. As the Harmonic Consul strives to minimize open warfare, these floating fortresses are used mostly to intimidate the Czar's enemies - foreign and domestic - with a show of military might. Only rarely has the Czar had an excuse to unleash their full firepower.
(The Consul thinks it best to retain true Flying ANYTHINGS as an exclusive property of Cosmonauts.)
The Confederation of the Panarchy avows its purpose to be introduction of Cosmic Culture gradually, so as not to upset the balance of power. The Panarchy is attempting to institute a council of representatives of the leading powers as the world's central authority. In their vision, system-wide and Cosmic matters would be dealt with by the Confederation Council while local matters would remain the business of the individual sovereign states.
Petty nations are to either group themselves into larger, loose states or be made protectorates of the more advanced nations.
The Senate is determined that no state should be deprived of its sovereignty. The Senate holds that all states should send representatives to the World Senate, which will then mediate between the collective planet and the Harmonic Consul. The Senate is not concerned with extra-planetary matters, and would gladly trade rights to the whole of the rest of the star system to the Consul in exchange for recognition of the Senate and protection of its weaker members from aggression by Fyn-Lakshyr's more powerful states.
The Consul governs very little beyond the Capital District directly. His main concern is to keep the friction between the Astral Alliance and the Panarchy from opening into world-rending war. Minor clashes of puppets is OK. The Consul supports the Senate when the major powers become undisciplined.
Is the primary interest of The Harmony's agencies here actually less concern for the general population of Fyn-Lakshyr than with its psionic potential? There is certainly quite a bit of psionic activity in certain parts of Fyn-Lakshyr. Psionics as an aide to interstellar travel is a subject of great interest to certain agencies of The Harmony.
There are also hints that the Someone, some high-ranking Consular official, knows about the Dark. Research might reveal that he knew about it before he sought this assignment. Finding out why, knowing of it, he still came, or who may have let him come is liable to be very risky.
The Consular Palace includes several towers or wings which are actually spaceships, lightly camouflaged, in case of emergency. There is also a dedicated subway to a restricted area of the regular spaceport.
The Palace is surrounded by a broad garden ringed by a moat and low walls. (The moat disguises some interesting machinery. The walls are the bases of a projectable force-dome.) Conversations here are less likely to be overheard than those in some parts of the Palace. The garden also functions as a defensive perimeter; its walls, bodies of water, and other structures form concentric circles and camouflage guard posts and weapons, as well as teahouses and gaming pavilions. It can be difficult to tell where the Palace ends and the gardens begin.
There is a subway system linking the districts to each other and the space port. It serves both public and privet carriages.
The spaceport is best viewed from inside the terminal. Cosmonaut visitors go directly from ship to mobile shuttle-lounge to terminal to subway privet carriage. They need never be exposed to the noise and mess of the working parts of the space port.
Beyond the spaceport security perimeter are the slums of those poor souls drawn here by the lure of work and the romance of space but lacking any useful skills. They labor at what scratch-work they can find, and, if lucky, develop some skills.
The skilled workers live in nicer apartment blocks, some quite luxurious. Some of the earliest blocks were built and remain owned by the Port Authority. Later blocks are built by lease-holder investors. Rent in these authorized blocks is subsidized; a worker wishing to live elsewhere will have a much lower living standard. A resident who loses his or her or its job with the Port Authority (or any related subcontractor) will soon be evicted. This makes for greater employee loyalty. The local Union Boss is rather more concerned with the comfort of Cosmonaut members than with Indy employees.
Several Megacorps have offices in the CD.
The slums are growing, as more and more Indies are drawn to the dream of working with the Cosmonauts. There are always new jobs, but never as many as there are new workers, and the wondrous cosmic technology seems either priced beyond the reach of all but the wealthiest of Indies, or trivial in power. Much high tech equipment is simply not licensed for sale here - and probably won't be for centuries. It is available for use by Cosmonauts, their employees, or as a gift of the Empire (by the Consul or a designated proxy, such as a local vice-governor or a favored Indy demi-sovrign.)
A feature of many worlds, the Gray Towers range from 1,000 foot to a couple of miles in height, tall spines seeming of solid, transparent crystal growing up from beneath the earth's surface. Gray Towers grow in rows or ranges, lines which seem pay no heed to surface geology. They are found scattered in all parts of the world. The Towers are disturbingly organic in ambiance.
The name Grey Towers does not refer to their colour; there are no more grey Towers than Towers of any other colour. They are called the Grey Towers because they are inhabited by Grays. The Towers themselves appear as solid spines of pure transparent crystal, each tinted a different hue. This appearance is misleading; the Towers are simply surfaced in a crystal sheath that takes in light from one side and release it on the other, giving the illusion of transparency - and emptiness. In reality, the towers are chock full of laboratories and living quarters, linked by structural bracings and passageways.
Grays are the "classic Grey aliens." They are probably as diverse as Humans and Human-derives races. Most Gray races range from 3' to 8' tall. Their heads are very large and bulbous, with huge eyes. Gray races generally have liquid black eyes that seem to be all pupil. Other eye types generally indicate mixed ancestry. Grays have very thin limbs and necks. Some have scrawny torsos as well, but some are round or pot-bellied.
Gray cultures are generally best characterized as "inscrutable." Many Grays are fascinated by other races, and observe (some would say stalk) them obsessively. Grays have a very strong sense of collectivity, and do not understand individuality as many other races do. This, coupled with an innate sense of superiority, often leads them to be casual to the point of callousness when it comes to experimenting with "specimens."