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The Human Sphere is a BattleTech universe set in 3100. The Jihad has come and gone, leaving in its wake dozens of small realms in a perpetual cycle of raids and small wars. Will you seek money or defend your nation? Or both? You decide. |
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"Threats don't work on me....I've already been to Hell!" - Al Bundy Rasalhague DominionHistory History has been hard on Rasalhague, seeing it conquered long ago by the Draconis Combine, conquered and then given freedom by the Lyran Commonwealth, and conquered again by the Clan Ghost Bear. Always Rasalhague has seemed to be the smaller nation or the border between nations where the fighting occurs, but while the arrival of the Clans signaled the death of the old Free Rasalhague Republic, it also started a rebirth of sorts. For the first time in Rasalhague’s history, her conquerors hadn’t arrived to simply govern her from afar, they had come to live in her space. The Ghost Bears did what they could to keep the former Rasalhague population happy, including allowing self-government for planetary affairs, but many of the people would not accept being ruled, however benignly, by others and continued to resist. That resistance all but ended in the Jihad after the Word of Blake hit Tukayyid. The battle of Tukayyid shattered a quarter of ComStar’s fleet and left the rest of the orbiting fleet in ruins. The Word of Blake also fired a large number of nuclear warheads at Tukayyid, hoping to wipe out ComStar’s central command, but were thwarted by advanced anti-missile defenses placed around their compounds. Many of the warheads did hit the planet, causing heavy damage to the ecological system that has still not been repaired, but few military assets were lost. ComStar pulled nearly all its forces away from the remnants of the Free Rasalhague Republic to fight the Word of Blake in response. With the Star League fractured and ComStar’s gaze elsewhere, what was left of the Free Rasalhague Republic knew that Clan Wolf could conquer them in a heart beat, especially since they did not consider the Great Refusal against the invasion to cover them. Vlad Ward’s invasion came even sooner than they expected in early 3068, smashing into the Twelfth Army with a blitzkrieg that nearly destroyed Invader Galaxy. Wolf units hit Ueda, Karbala, and Dehgolan as well, enveloping over half of the Republic in the flames of invasion. Another force hit Grumium, and Al Hillah’s defenders rushed to protect the factory world. A week later, a major Wolf force jumped through Al Hillah and hit Orestes like a hammer. Neither the Rasalhague troops nor the Twelfth Army could stop them, especially with the ComStar fleets facing the Word of Blake. Then the Ghost Bear fleet poured across the border with the Leviathan in the lead, ripping into the Wolf troops and fleets. Up and down the long border between the two realms, offensives exploded into action, drawing Wolf reinforcements away from what was left of the Republic. ComStar’s Twelfth Army and every other force involved took heavy casualties and volunteers from whatever planet they were on flooded to protect their realm in anything that could move. Within months armless BattleMechs, and other weapons of war that most didn’t consider combat worthy, moved on the battlefields as Rasalhague and her defenders fought the Wolves tooth and nail. The Leviathan died over Orestes against a fleet of WarShips and fighters, but it broke the Wolf fleet and forced them to fall back in late 3069. The Ghost Bear and Rasalhague navy and ground forces had been shattered but the Republic had survived and Orestes did not see another invasion. ComStar’s Twelfth Army survived the war as well, in a fashion. By the end of the war less than half of her personnel harkened from ComStar, with ten percent of them being Wolf bondsmen and another forty-three percent being Rasalhague citizens. They had fought and died on the Rasalhague worlds, along side Rasalhague and Ghost Bear forces, obtained supplies and reinforcements from them, and had to all intents and purposes become them. They remained in the Republic when the war with the Wolves ended rather than support the war against the Word of Blake as both the Ghost Bears and the Republic attempted to rebuild. The Ghost Bears for their part placed priority funding into bringing the Rasalhague online to bring them back up to two Leviathans, and by 3070 when the Hell’s Horses hit the Wolves it was in its final trials and ready to deploy. They instantly began work on building a new Leviathan, but work on it went slower as they pushed resources into expanding their ground forces and standard naval assets. They also began helping upgrade the Republic’s technology to Ghost Bear standards, sending numerous fully constructed weapons of war, as well as designs and directions for building, their way. In 3071, as reports from the Homeworlds about a major Blood Spirit-led assault on the Star Adders came through the pipeline to Ghost Bear space, the Clan ordered what remained of its people on Strana Mechty to come home. The Ghost Bears have not received a single communication from the Homeworlds since their people packed up and jumped out. Then in August, Khan Vlad Ward and his flagship died over Csesztreg while trying to stem the Hell’s Horses’ assault. Seeing the Wolves weakening and about to collapse before the Horses, the Ghost Bears moved in to deny what worlds they could to the other Clan, their first strikes arriving in December. As the new year rolled around, the Wolves-in-Exile under Khan Phelan Kell jumped into Wolf space to fight alongside them against both the Ghost Bears and the Hell’s Horses. The Ghost Bears continued to assault them throughout the year though, probing for defenses, checking their strengths, and taking over more worlds. But when the Wolves-In-Exile and Clan Wolf reconstituted their once-powerful union in 3073, the Ghost Bears pulled back to continue rebuilding and to defend against mounting Smoke Jaguar raids. And when 3074 saw the release of the Odin from Alshain’s dry dock, the Ghost Bears sent the Great Bear and a squadron of support ships to help the Star League assault on the Word of Blake. In 3076 it would die in the Battle of the Line, leaving only the Rasalhague and the Odin to hold the Ghost Bear flag. While the Ghost Bear fleet supported the war against the Word of Blake, the Ghost Bears and the Republic continued to grow closer, helping each other through a number of difficulties. The most memorable moment of 3074 was the return of Elected Prince Ragnar Magnusson to the Republic where he took over from Regent Christian Månsdotter and began working with Christian and Khan Bjorn Jorgensson to make official what was becoming an unofficial truth. The Ghost Bear Dominion and the Free Rasalhague Republic were becoming one. In 3075 it became official, and August saw the signing of the treaty that generated the Rasalhague Dominion. Throughout the rest of the decade and most of the next, the two nations tried to incorporate, a task they soon found to be much harder than they expected. In the military alone, troubles ran rampant. The Trueborn refused to accept old Rasalhague military ranks and the citizens of former Rasalhague stubbornly rejected Clan ranking systems. When the former Clansmen suggested that the old Rasalhague ranks be used in militia units so that the frontline units could use Clan ranks, the Rasalhague citizens screamed bloody murder. By 3078, the former Clanners found themselves thinking that it would have been less of a headache to just conquer the Republic and be done with it. The military wasn’t the only area where confrontation was inevitable of course. In the civilian sector, the old Republic citizens demanded that the trappings of democracy remain, a notion that rankled the Clansmen. Many very prominent Clansmen stood up against the notion of allowing “the weakest amongst us to dictate our actions”, but when five of them were found dead on Radstadt in 3079, the Clan knew it had a public relations nightmare on its hands. The Elected Prince exhorted his people to be calm as work continued on a compromise that would allow the people to claim that a Republic ruled them while a Kahn could command the warriors. The final compromise was inelegant, but it has worked after a fashion since its introduction in 3080. An Elected Prince, Ragnar to this day, commands the civilian government while a Khan commands the military. This compromise, while all that could be made to work at the time, has proven distracting in the last two decades. For instance, the document allowed for civil governments to prepare for the common defense, a broad statement that they have used to often built entire regimental militia units, rather than the simple fortification the former Clansmen expected. They understandably consider those units to be military and there have been a number of legal and not-so-legal attempts to force the civil militias into the military command hierarchy. The civil governments have not taken to those actions kindly and have been known to “misplace” funding devoted to the military units attempting such actions. Being legally required to give twenty percent of all taxes collected to the military, this “misplacing” has been looked down upon rather greatly by higher officials in either branch. Some civil governments have taken more indirect routes to hit back at the military, slashing their taxes to the bone and releasing public services to “voluntary donation support.” While technically legal, these attempts to deny funding to the military have angered those trained in the ways of the Clans. On the military front, a final decision to allow both the ranking systems of the Free Rasalhague Republic and the Clan Ghost Bear was made, though all active formations agreed to reorganize along Clan organizational lines. The different ranking systems, mainly split along old Rasalhague and Clan lines, have resulted in more problems. Each graduate is given his or her rank depending on which unit they are going to work with, and are given a choice as to preference. With the large number of Freeborn in the Dominion who unsurprisingly wished to have Rasalhague ranks, the Clan ranking and units soon found themselves to be losing their majority in numbers. The Clan Trueborns found themselves disliking the mere notion that any Freeborn unit could fight as well as they, and declining to use a superior ranking system was simply an added insult to their mere existence. The Rasalhague units on the other hand considered the Trueborn units to be overbearing and full of themselves, an attitude the Freeborn were happy to try to disabuse them of. The Trueborn units continued to be better on average than the Freeborn units, but their gap was not what it once was. By 3086, the military was split nearly equally and incidents between Trueborn and Freeborn units hit an all-time high, with a serious breach in the military itself becoming a real possibility. Matters were coming to a head in 3087, with practical jokes and “not too serious” injuries beginning to escalate into fights resulting in wounds even Clan medical science had problems correcting. It was becoming an expensive problem, especially since the constant bickering was having negative effects on the ability of the Dominion to defend against raiders from the Draconis Combine, Federation of Skye, Smoke Jaguars, Wolf Ascendancy, or the Clan Hell’s Horses. The Dominion was very frankly in trouble and everybody could see the writing on the wall, even as they were too stubborn to heed its warning. Then the Draconis Combine tried to subjugate the Nova Cats and move them on to reservations, and the Elected Prince and the Khan saw the chance to unite their realm. They answered Nova Cat requests for help with a denouncement of Ricol aggression and sent the Rasalhague and a fleet in to support them. They also sent the best units of both traditions into the war to support the Cats in the ground, air, and space where they would have the chance to either fight together or die. Those who refused to fight together would not survive and would no longer waste the resources of the Dominion. As casualties mounted, units were pulled back and replaced with unblooded units to teach them the same lessons. By 3089, the warriors of the Dominion had seen what happened to units that refused to work with those of other traditions, and the worst of the aggressions had begun to fade away. After all, no matter what rank they wore they were still of Rasalhague. The Second Combine-Dominion War raged until 3090, with the Dominion forces beginning to work better and better as time went on, when the fleets of the Combine and the Dominion met over Meinacos. The Draconis Second Fleet was sent home in tatters, its command ship destroyed, but the Dominion paid a heavy price for its victory. A Draconis ship rammed the Rasalhague rather than surrender, leaving the Odin as the last Leviathan known to exist in or beyond the Human Sphere. The last decade has been a quiet one for the Dominion, full of raids into the Dominion and from them to others, along with numerous runs into the Barrens to teach those pirates a lesson, but lacking any major threat to the life of the Dominion. The civilian and military infrastructure still quarrels over departments of control, such as the civil defense militias, and old Rasalhague and Clan ranked units continue to generally dislike each other, but the Dominion has learned the value of compromise. No one gets everything they want, but the Dominion continues to live, possibly more powerful than it would be if there was ever a “winner” in the constant internal pecking. The Smoke Jaguars continue to be a thorn in the Dominion’s side, constantly raiding them without the honor of challenging. The Dominion responds in like fashion, considering the Jaguars to be too dishonorable to be worth anything more. The Nova Cats, Azami Caliphate, Tamar Pact, and especially the Wolf Ascendancy are good neighbors, and though trials are common they have generally peaceful relationships with those realms. The Federation of Skye allows trade through its space to Terra and Duchess Hermione has done her best to be friendly with the Dominion but it has been careful about letting relations warm too much with a realm that history books show has always been…prickly. Relations with Clan Hell’s Horses are cool as well, with honorable trials more than common along their small border. The Barrens on the other hand is an area of space the Dominion detests, and new classes of warriors are blooded in that area every year as a test to see if they are worthy of graduating into the military. Military Having lost three Leviathans in major fleet engagements, the Dominion has come to the conclusion that bigger and more powerful was not always best. The Odin remains the flagship of the Dominion fleet and the most powerful warship in the Human Sphere to this day, but the Dominion has no plans to build another, instead pushing its resources into building larger numbers of smaller ships, like the patrol frigates and the Storbjorn cruisers. Meaning “Great Bear” in Swedish, they are the standard WarShip of the Dominion. Regularly escorted by large numbers of frigates and destroyers, as well as fighters of course, DropShips are oddly becoming a rarity in the Dominion. Assaults are performed via orbital drops or small craft that can hold even the largest BattleMechs for the short trip from orbit to the surface, making for a confusing number of radar returns on the defenders’ screens. They maintain the capability to build DropShips but simply do not at this time. They do however sell civilian versions of the Loki frigate to interested parties who want a lightly armed JumpShip with good cargo lifting capability. The ground forces are an interesting mix of designs, from the OmniMechs that fill out the Trueborn forces, to the standard BattleMechs that make up the majority of the other forces. Some civil defense militias sport BattleMechs as well, though mostly designs that were obsolete before the Jihad, though ProtoMechs make up most of their 'Mech forces. Numerous vehicles are also common, but the Trueborn forces prefer not to work with them if possible. When forced to do so, their cooperation is reluctant. Of final interest, the Munin Land-AirMechs have become a less uncommon sight since the Jihad. Often used to secure landing zones for raids, they are an effective combat arm of the Dominion. The different ranking systems are still used between Trueborn and Freeborn units, and few Trueborn wish to mix with Freeborn, though the new First Förenta has begun to see substantial numbers of both. The First Förenta recognizes both the old Rasalhague and the Clan ranking systems, and has instituted the use of insignia that combines both insignias into one. No matter what ranking system is used, all organized military units use the old Clan organizational structure, though the civil defense militias often do not. Ground Forces 1st Förenta Alpha Galaxy (The Golden Bears) Beta Galaxy (Night Howlers) Delta Galaxy (The Blitzkrieg) Rho Galaxy (Bear Essentials) Omega Galaxy (The Raging Bears) 1st Tyr 1st Drakøns 2nd Drakøns 3rd Drakøns 1st Freemen 2nd Freemen 1st Hussars 2nd Hussars 3rd Hussars 1st Kavalleri 2nd Kavalleri 3rd Kavalleri 4th Kavalleri 5th Kavalleri 6th Kavalleri Factories Alshain – Bergan Industries – Ursus and Arcas BattleMechs; Executioner (Gladiator), Firemoth (Dasher), Mad Dog (Vulture), and Viper (Dragonfly) OmniMechs – Joint Equipment Systems – Asshur, Huitzilopochtli, Ishtar, Mithras, Svantovit, Thor(LRM and SRM Carriers), Tyr, and Zorya vehicles – Alshain AeroSpace – Ammon and Issus AeroSpace Fighters; Jengiz, Kirghiz, and Sulla OmniFighters; Heimdall (Fredasa) destroyer, Skadi, Freya, and Loki frigates, Storbjorn cruiser Grumium – Grumium Creations – Viking OmniMech Jarett – Gorton, Kingsley & Thorpe Enterprises – Panther IIC BattleMech; Satyr, Chrysaor, and Roc ProtoMechs;Anhur and Donar VTOLs New Oslo – Gorton, Kingsley & Thorpe Enterprises – Archer IIC, Locust IIC, and Panther IIC BattleMechs; Satyr, Chrysaor, and Roc ProtoMechs Orestes – Janesek Industries – Huscarl II OmniFighter – Odin Manufacturing – Beowulf OmniMech Satalice – Gorton, Kingsley & Thorpe Enterprises – Archer IIC, Locust IIC, Panther IIC, and Phoenix Hawk IIC BattleMechs; Satyr, Chrysaor, and Roc ProtoMechs;Munin IIC Land-AirMech Spittal – Benson and Bjorn – Mars, Svantovit, Vidar(Vedette IIC), and Zorya vehicles System Information Al Hillah – Beneath a blazing class A7 star, the world of Al Hillah is a true desert planet. Completely uninhabitable at the equator without life support, the poles are the only places that the hardiest plant life can survive. Sunlight at the temperate zones is just barely tolerable to the unprotected human eye. Dominated by those of Azami descent, only the military power of the Rasalhague Dominion has kept it under Dominion control. The locals simply feel safer and have not attempted to rebel, though they maintain very friendly relations with the Caliphate and their system government is one of many seen in the Caliphate. Alshain – It is a fair-sized planet with enough natural resources to support a BattleMech factory complex and various lesser industries. Beyond that, the world is not large enough to support anything larger than light industry on its own. Orbital factories that use the mineral wealth of other systems in the Dominion build the naval fleets that protect it. The general climate of the world is temperate, and it possesses large pine forests, which were started by the original settlers. The Ghost Bear, totem animal of the old Clan, has been introduced into the colder regions of this world where it has flourish. Altenmarkt – Caught in the grip of an ice age, massive glaciers make land movement treacherous, but 'Mechs do not have much of a problem with overheating. Ardoz – Unique in the Dominion, this world has lacked a ComStar HyperPulse Generator since the invasion when the original was destroyed. ComStar has since been able to confirm that the Ghost Bears found a Star League base on world, and have operated their own HPG on it since. Now the headquarters for a naval task force, ComStar has yet to uncover what exactly they found there. Damian – On this world, during the invasion, the mercenary “Black Omen” earned the enmity of the Ghost Bears by fleeing combat, waiting until the majority of the Ghost Bears had left, and then killing the garrison. That action caused the Ghost Bears to hate mercenaries, and their merger with the remnants Rasalhague during the Jihad has only cemented their feelings. The Rasalhague Dominion takes great pleasure in destroying any mercenary unit they fight, without mercy. Dehgolan – Also known as Canaris III, it is that rarity among planetary subtypes, a true jungle planet. It's surface area is evenly divided between low-lying landmasses and shallow, stagnant seas. It has no axial tilt to produce seasonal variation and it possesses a dense, fetid atmosphere, which evenly distributes the heat it receives from Canaris. Under these conditions, most of Dehgolan's land area, excepting the desert uplands and open plains at the poles, is covered in dense, impenetrable jungle. Dehgolan's cities, clustered along the shores of several of the world's seas, rely heavily on fishing and water-born transport. The interior is a place where few people care to visit. There are countless tales of life forms - large, vicious, and very, very hungry - which inhabit the deep jungle, including the Dehgolan Bear, a warm-weather-acclimation of the Ghost Bear. People have investigated the interior, however, and those who have returned have done so using BattleMechs. Dehgolan is a prime example of the lengths to which natural selection can go to produce life forms efficient at survival, though the Dehgolan Bears have proven themselves in the last decade as well. Whatever the truth behind the tales of truly enormous jungle creatures, much of the planet's native life is vicious with a bloodthirsty single-mindedness difficult for offworlder humans to understand. BattleMechs, at least, give humans an even chance when they venture into Dehgolan's interior. Diosd – Sporting many swamps, forests, and mountain ranges, Clan Wolf never was capable of fully integrating this world because of the numerous resistance fighters that never gave up. When the Rasalhague Dominion assaulted the world, those fighters happily supported them and have become loyal members of the young nation. Eguilles – The site of a near loss to an Azami regiment during the invasion, the Azami’s fierce fighting gained the Ghost Bear’s respect, which has contributed greatly to the current state of relations between the Dominion and the Caliphate. Engadin – Its sole major industry is the construction of inferno rounds for missile launchers, a fact that greatly hindered Clan Wolf when it captured this world. When the Dominion came to take the world, they took the Wolves’ tribulations to heart and arrived with OmniMechs outfitted with extra heat sinks to counteract the infernos. Wolf resistance collapsed after they realized their traps were ineffective. Ferleiten – Government by devoutly religious pacifists, this world fell to Clan Wolf without a shot being fired after they ordered the militia to surrender. When the Dominion came, the pacifists made the same order, and much of the militia followed it. Some though had become too infused into Clan Wolf and fought until victory was shown to be impossible. Grumium – Home to the Frihet ("Freedom") Training Facility, which trains infantry and armor crews, the Dominion has drastically expanded the facility until it is the largest of its kind in the Dominion. Gunzburg – A nightmare world of murky swamps and deep tropical rainforests, terraforming plants built during the Star League-era once dotted the planet but were destroyed during the Succession Wars. The years since the Jihad have seen them rebuilt and the world has begun to blossom again in places. Once home to Birnheart's Fever, a crippling, though curable illness, Clan technology successfully eliminated it. Gifted as a landhold to the Miraborg family by the Dominion, the current Duchess, Tyra Miraborg the Third, is devoutly loyal to the Dominion. Idlewind – Shattered by the Smoke Jaguars during the invasion when they hunted down half of the capital’s population, this world has become a major center for trade in the area, but refuses to allow any Smoke Jaguars in the system. Jaguars are killed on sight without any batchell called. Jarett – Home to a rebuilt BattleMech factory, this was one of the earliest worlds to fall to the Ghost Bears. Jarett’s governor was made a bondsman by the Khan during that fight and has fought in every major war since then for the Ghost Bears and the Dominion. He has since retired from that profession and now leads his homeworld, building up its defenses against the many raiders that assault it yearly. Karbala – Once ComStar’s official Clan Liaison Branch, it still serves as one of their primary bases for working with the Rasalhague Dominion. Maule – A hard world, it yields many gemstones but little plant life. The deserts of this planet are growing steadily, as the biting winds slowly grind all exposed rock into gritty sand. New Bergen – The location of the counterattack that saved the Principality of Rasalhague from Combine expansion in the 2300s, by the thirty-first century it had become one of the centers of old Scandinavian culture in the Rasalhague Military District. It was with the help of many saved artifacts from this world and others like it that the Free Rasalhague Republic was able to rebuild its lost culture. When Clan Ghost Bear took the world, it did so with minimal loss of life and the Dominion has much to rebuild it. New Oslo – Both Clan Wolf and Clan Hell’s Horses raid this location of a major BattleMech factory. Traders also come here often to barter with representatives of each Clan. Nox – The Battle of Beckvern Hill on Nox was the first full-scale BattleMech on BattleMech engagement in 2475, and marked a change in warfare in the Inner Sphere of the time. Rich with gems, this world is home to Metals of the Earth, a mining company that dates back to the Star League. Originally created by a consortium of founders including a member of the Kurita family, and there was always a member of the Kurita family on its Board of Directors until the Free Rasalhague Republic came into being and nationalized the corporation. After the Second Combine-Dominion War came to an end in 3090, the Azami Caliphate noted that long history and the many Kurita family members living in their space. The Rasalhague Dominion took the hint and graciously offered a position on its Board of Directors to a member of the Kurita family. The current representative is Kitsune Kurita-Steiner-Davion. Orestes – Capital of the Free Rasalhague Republic after the Clan Invasion, this world is still very important in the modern Rasalhague Dominion. Home to the Tyra Miraborg Memorial Academy, the most prestigious aerospace and naval school in the Dominion, only the best applicants are accepted. Graduation from the TMMA virtually guarantees command of an aerospace point, or a department command in the navy. Outpost – On the fringe of Dominion-controlled space, this world has become a heavily-fortified nexus of Dominion military movement. Rarely the target of raiders or pirates anymore, it constantly keeps JumpShips in orbital pirate points to allow for swift responses to raids on nearby worlds. Polcenigo – In 3050 the Ghost Bears actually liberated this world from a governor whose policies generated a full-scale rebellion. This world has been a happy member of Clan Ghost Bear and the Dominion ever since, and the Dominion military enjoys larger than normal numbers of volunteers from it as well. Raided often by the Smoke Jaguars and sometimes by the Nova Cats, the garrison in built around elite forces that look forward to prove themselves. Pomme De Terre – A crossroads of traffic in the Dominion, this world surrendered unconditionally without a fight to Clan Ghost Bear when it arrived to claim the system. It is the base of operations of Fruit De La Terre, a network of fast food stands and restaurants seen throughout the Dominion. Porthos – Once a member of the now-defunct Elysian Fields, this world had no real defenses of its own, relying on the Oberon Confederation for protection until the Clans came. It was defended by a single retired Kuritan warrior in his Archer, but his tenacity against the Ghost Bear invaders impressed them enough that the Khan named him the liaison between the world and its new rulers. It is now governed by Takashi Tikimodo, grandson of that brave warrior. Radstadt – Home to a thriving fishing industry, and Radstadt Pine, a tree whose wood (if treated) literally shimmers as if it were flecked with gold, this world houses the largest prison complex in the Dominion. The Lotus Flower Correctional Institution dates back to Combine control of the system, and its Black Tower, a huge windowless, concrete building surrounded by a ring of fences and minefields, houses the worst criminals in the Dominion. Ramsau – A planet of large cold deserts, ice covers over 50% of the planets surface, and its days are over 40 hours long. With these conditions, very little grows on the planet, and all foodstuffs have to be shipped in or grown in huge, underground hydroponics facilities with artificial lighting. The hydroponics farms are clustered round Ramsau's lone population center of Sauton. Ramsau’s single, large moon, Gordo, is an airless, cratered ball of rock and ice. Due to its very close proximity to Ramsau, only 14000km, Gordo's tidal drag has been acting like a brake on Ramsau's daily rotation for the past few billion years. This has caused Gordo to be locked in a geostational orbit above Ramsau. Sauton is located close to the planet's equator, and from there Gordo is always suspended in the sky directly overhead, never setting. Rasalhague – The capital of the Dominion, as well as the Republic and the Principality before it, this is a beautiful world with rich resources. The Dominion governs from the Palace Hall, ancient capital of the original Principality. Also home to the Fenris Flu, a constantly adapting virus that has never been fully cured, the Dominion has learned to prepare for a new epidemic every summer and takes it in stride. Richmond – Home to a former Combine prison and slave camp, it became a target of the famed Minnesota Tribe in 2826. Since taking the world the Ghost Bears have refused to use the prison for anything and it lies dormant now, wind whistling through its empty corridors. Their scientists study it and the local population for any link to the Minnesota Tribe, attempting to divine clues of its current location. So far they have come up empty, but continue to find out new information that even ComStar missed as the years go by. Rubigen – Sporting a dark, cold atmosphere, over half its surface is covered in ice. Its two small seas perpetually filled with icebergs, navigation on Rubigen's seas requires great skill and precision, which may explain why 30 percent of the officers in the Dominion navy are from Rubigen. Furs from this world, particularly that of the Rubigen red wolverine, are highly prized among those not descended from Clan Ghost Bear. City Rubigen is the capital of the planet as well as the seat of the prefecture, but is near the Bassers Glacier, which continuously attempts to break through the large wall protecting the city. Having lost its first spaceport to the glacier in the late ’30s, City Rubigen puts much of its local resources into attempting that does not happen to its new spaceport, while slowly moving people away from the northern edge of the city as they await the eventual collapse of the wall. Santander V – The Dominion’s most coreward colony, Santander V is the location of a major military base tasked with, ironically, handling the pirates in the area. This past center of pirate trade is a valuable part of the Dominion’s anti-piracy strategy and many times its units have conducted punitive raids on The Barrens and its collection of pirate scum. Satalice – The world where Elected Prince Ragnar Magnusson fell to Clan Wolf, the loss of him and the world sent Rasalhague into a tailspin that only ComStar ended with its victory on Tukayyid and two decades of rebuilding. The Elected Prince now commands from Rasalhague, but he and Khan Phelan Kell of the Wolf Ascendancy make a yearly trek to visit the location of their fight. Sheliak – Home to the first game of Football between Clan Ghost Bear and the Inner Sphere, it fell to the Clan by the score of 84 to 3. Now the yearly host of a Football game between the best players in the Dominion, Sheliak has learned to profit from its defeat. Stanzach – Once the home of a Star League Mint, this world lost much during the Succession Wars, including its capital and the Mint. Now located on the border between the Dominion and the Wolf Ascendancy, it has become a major trade center again and its future appears to be blossoming. Susquehanna – A temperate world, this is another center of old Scandinavian culture. It was here that the Ghost Bears fought the Regal Death mercenary company, who fought with such dishonor that the Clan declared all mercenary units dezgra and unworthy of honorable treatment. That policy continues to this day and only the most desperate of mercenaries can be pushed into raiding the Dominion. Svelvik – The location of the first known raid in the Inner Sphere by the Minnesota Tribe, the Dominion has a constant scientific presence on this world. Finding any clue to the possible location or plans of that force are high on the Ghost Bear’s list of priorities. Thessalonika – Thessalonika is a resource-poor world; only petroleum deposits and a few gemstone veins give this planet any industry. The real worth of the planet lies in its abundant life-forms. Although possessing only one small ocean, the planet somehow manages to maintain a number of types of life. The larger animals, such as oxen and Pesht butcher beasts, do quite well on the large, open, grassy plains on Thessalonika. Tyrsis is the capital city. Located there is a major museum, the Tyrsis McNeil Museum, which is devoted to the preservation of military technology. Thule – This is the homeworld of saKhan Joannie Swigard, second in command of the Dominion’s military. Toffen – Toffen is a mostly self-sufficient agricultural world. It has three continents, one of which is a small, barren wasteland covered with rocks and sand. The second-largest continent, Jacobitz, is the center of industrial activity, most of which is civilian in nature. Almost all the large cities are there, as well as extensive mining operations. Jacobitz is mountainous and has a rough weather pattern, no matter what the time of year. Graham is the largest of the three continents. The southern expanses are on the equator and are hot jungles and deserts. To the north, they give way to vast, rolling plains from the center of the continent to the western shores. The plains flood in the spring and are burned off by the locals during the summer. The eastern side of Graham is heavily forested. It is mountainous, with four major ranges and countless others. The largest city on Graham is Pied, which is only 30,000 strong. The rest of the population is spread throughout numerous farming communities. Home to an old Star League base, Toffen is the home of a Dominion garrison that often tests itself against Azami soldiers. Trondheim – A large world scarred by numerous active and semi-active volcanoes, its climate is extreme. Hot summers and cold winters. Site of the second Minnesota Tribe assault, Dominion scientists are constantly on planet, attempting to uncover lost Tribe war machines that may have been buried by volcanic ash. Tukayyid – First settled in the twenty-seventh century, Tukayyid is a relatively mild and somewhat arid planet. It is primarily an agricultural world, with most of the landmasses comprised of grassy plains controlled by agrocombines. During the era of Kurita rule, several minority religions came to this world and set up monastic communities in the mountains, and in one case under the Crucible Sea. As a result the population of the world is relatively small, the government decentralized, with each corporation running its holdings like a fiefdom, except where the theocracies have carved out their little domains. Mainly known now for the massive battle waged there between ComStar and the Clans in 3052, the world has returned to its mostly-quiet existence. Utrecht – Its rocky surface and dry plateaus make for rugged terrain rich in natural alloys that the Dominion uses to build ferro-fibrous armor. The world where the Ghost Bears captured Elected Prince Ragnar Magnusson from the then Wolves-In-Exile, it has also become a tourist attraction of sorts, with a thriving business being made out of showing tourists where the major battles of that conflict took place. |