Persephone Sector, a Primer

For character generation in our new Stars Without Numbers game, I gave my players a list of the "known" systems in Persephone Sector. These are the planets and systems that get regular space travel and are part of  greater interstellar society (for good or ill). As the party discovers new planets (especially out in Frontier Space) they will "unlock" new planets they can use as homeworlds for new characters.

Here's the list of starting planets, along with a brief description of each. As things progress, I'll detail each planet in greater detail.

Anatu

Language: English

A hot, humid planet covered in fungal jungles and swamps. Human cities are built on high plateaus where the temperature is cooler. The unique flora and fauna allows Anatu to produce medicines that rival pretech, and the citizens are uniformly beautiful and youthful.

(High Concept: 1970s lycra sci-fi)

Cedar

Language: Akkadian

A beautiful planet of ancient forests and warm oceans, Cedar is the home of the Temple of Babylon Eternal, the most powerful and popular religion in Persephone Sector. Cedar is the homeworld of the exotic reptilian aliens known as the Naga.

(High Concept: Techno-pagan Mesopotamia)

Chiaroscuro

Language: Spanish

This planet is constantly shrouded by massive black storm clouds that pour wind and rain upon the fortified cities. Chiaroscuro is the home planet of the powerful Titanomachy Technologies corporation. Titan Tech is locked in constant, bitter competition with Oroborus Inc. The planet is ruled by a hereditary monarchy and old-money noble families.

(High Concept: Space-Borgias)

Croesus

Language: English

Croesus Minor is a habitable moon orbiting the gas giant Croesus Major. Large sprawling supercities are surrounded by vast tracts of tamed wilderness and industrial farms. Croesus is a second-wave colony founded by a consortium of corporations from Anatu and Netherpool. It is now the largest corporate hub in the sector. The powerful Oroborus Incorporated wields incredible power on Croesus and surrounding systems..

(High Concept: Blade Runner meets Mass Effect’s Citadel)

Dolores

Language: English

A planet of rolling hills and forest littered with the ruins of an ancient alien civilization. The New Wave colony allied families has dissolved into a violent three-way clan war. Travelers are encouraged to avoid landing on Dolores.

(High Concept: Appalachian Mountains/Hatfield-and-McCoys IN SPACE!)

Gehenna

Language: English

A hellish planet of volcanoes and lava oceans wrapped in a corrosive atmosphere. The planet holds great mineral wealth, and a rugged lava-mining colony has sprung up here. Humans work alongside the silicon-insect aliens known as Myrmidons.

(High Concept: Janus VI meets Mustafar)

Katarina

Language: Russian

Cold taiga planet covered with mountains and pine forests. Centuries ago, the Mankiller plague devastated the male population. Katarina now has a matriarchal society divided into small city-states with a black-powder level of technology. Contact has recently been re-established with Katarina after large veins of Prometheum were discovered by corporate prospectors.

(High Concept: Russian black-powder amazons)

Kraken

Alien

This ocean world is home to the octopus-like Kraken. The Kraken are known as the greatest shipwrights in the Sector. There is very little surface land on Kraken, but the natives have many ancient cities deep under the waves, and many shipyards orbit the planet. There are no human settlements here, but Port Nautilus is a port of call for many human spacers.

(High Concept: Alien water-world)

Las Diablas

Language: Spanish

Las Diablas is a binary star system consisting of two large read suns (Lilith and Jezebel). Its lone habitable planet is a desert badland littered with the ruins of a dead FIrst Wave colony. It’s now the home to bandits and outlaws of all stripes. Humans who spend too many years on Las Diablas begin to develop adaptational mutations: solid black eyes, scaly red skin, and horns.

(High Concept: Western/cowboy planet; Mos Eisley mixed with Sparks Nevada's Mars)

Oubliette

Language: English

A cold planet of coral forests with an argon atmosphere. The planet is surrounded by a dense asteroid field known as the Sea of Stones. The only habitation is a large maximum-security prison all-but abandoned by it's founders on Netherpool.

(High Concept: Prison planet, Arkham Asylum IN SPACE!)

Moloch

Language: English

A planet of rocky deserts orbiting a red sun, Moloch is ruled by the powerful psionic caste. Moloch is home to the largest and most powerful of the already-rare psionic academies. The psionic cult Omega Ascendant wields massive influence on Moloch and surrounding systems.

(High Concept: Korriban mashed up with Dune)

Netherpool

Language: English

A barren, rocky world covered with massive spire-mountains of glistening crystal. Vacuum-sealed cities harvest sunlight reflected from the crystals for power. The crystal mountains hide remnants of long-dead unknown alien civilization. The Netherpudlians have a strict, conservative society with an esoteric legal system. Tread carefully.

(High Concept: Space-Calvinists)

New Arcadia

Language: English

A young colony and the new spiritual homeworld for the Church of the New Prophets. The giant Golden Tree is a pilgrimage site for the Faithful. “Archons” (religious warriors) protect the Faithful from the violent and primitive native aliens known as Golgothans and other dangers.

(High Concept: Dogs in the Vineyard IN SPACE!)

Uld

Alien

A Hochog colony world, Uld is a planet of cold granite mountains and snowy tundra. Hochog warriors constantly clash for control of the planet’s limited resources. Young Hochog warriors often leave Uld in order to gain honor and gather wealth and power to bring back to their warlords. A weird aberration of  Uld’s magnetic field create massive floating “islands” of stone that drift across the surface of the planet, forming veritable mobile nations.

(High Concept: Space orcs living in a Roger Dean painting)

Volgograd

Language: Russian

A temperate planet of steppes, prairies, and mountains. Volgograd is ruled by an omnipresent police state that maintains an highly-efficient semi-caste system. City-sized factories constantly churn out product that supplies the entire sector. Volgograd suffered the least of all local planets during the Scream, and boasts the largest population in the sector (5 billion).

(High-Concept: Space-soviets with a touch of Imperial Rome)

Yurgoloth

Alien

This cold, rocky planet is the homeworld of the slug-like Yurglings. The Yurglings have allowed several human colonies to establish floating cities on Yurgoloth’s cold, salty oceans. They charge the human colonists outrageous leasing fees.

(High Concept: Crafty, wheeling-dealing space-slugs)