Kueghakhe (world)

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Kueghakhe/F (Kharrthon 1619)
Classic Era (1116)
A200A79-J
StarportA Excellent: Starship Construction, Overhaul, Refined fuel
Size2 Small (3,200 km, 0.10g - 0.17g)
Atmosphere0 Vacuum
Hydrographics0 Desert World 0%
PopulationA High (60 billion)
Government7 Balkanization
Law9 High Law (no weapons out of home)
Tech LevelJ Extreme Stellar (total terraforming)
See also UWP
System Details
Primary F0 V M7 D
Planetoid Belts 0
Gas Giants 2
style="width: 220px; height: 250px;"
Jump map from Travellermap.com [1]

Kueghakhe is a high-population, non-agricultural and industrial vacuum world, with a billion or more sophonts in population size, warranting hazardous environment precautions.


Description (Astrography & Planetology)

Kueghakhe: A World Beyond Singularity 

“What was it like during Singularity?”
“If you have to ask, then you would not understand my answer.”

A phenomenal anomaly, the world KUEGHAKHE (Kharrthon 1619) A200A79-J Hi In Na Va Cp Cs {5} (89D+5) [AF6J] RU 4680 F0V – M7D 2 GG 0 Belts 7 Other Worlds is a Temperate world sitting in the Habitable Zone and is home to 60 billion Urzaeng sub-species of Vargr. On its Starport, Tech Level, Trade Classification and Importance, Kueghakhe has earned the Subsector and Sector Capital classifications.

Kueghakhe has a 0.25 surface gravity. Massive city gravity generators compensate for this loss by a permanent setting of 1.1 gs to ensure hale biology in the local Urzaeng. Lacking natural atmosphere, surface water and indigenous life, this world was impacted by Urzaeng colonization only in the realm of raw resource exploitation. Many necessities to maintain life on Kueghakhe had to be imported until supplementary domes were erected on the surface and enclosed, stepped craters.

Though the map shows World Hexes with craters, the Referee should assume those have been domed over and enclosed with tunnel access just below the surface.

Binary Solar System

No results
TBD Binary Star System
Star Name Hierarchy Category Mass (Sol) Temp (K) Luminosity (Sol)
TBD

F0 V

 Primary Main Sequence 1.61 7020 - 7220 5.2953
Unit Diameter Min Distance Hab Zone Jump Shadow M-Drive Limit
AU 0.008 0.1909 2.02 - 3.48 0.8 8
Orbit #  * 0 5 2 7
Remarks
None

System Data

KUEGHAKHE:

  • Sector: Kharrthon
  • Hex: 1619
  • Stellar Primary: F0 V White Main Sequence star
  • Orbit 0 uninhabited
  • Orbit 1 Worldlet Y130112-8
  • Orbit 2 uninhabited
  • Orbit 3 StormWorld GAF000-0, 1 satellite Aitch
  • Orbit 4 HZ-1 Inferno YBB0000-0, 1 satellite Pee
  • Orbit 5 HZ Kueghakhe A200A79-J Hi In Na Va Cp Cs, 2 satellites Bee and Eye
  • Orbit 6 uninhabited
  • Orbit 7 uninhabited
  • Orbit 8 uninhabited
  • Orbit 9 uninhabited
  • Orbit 10 Small Gas Giant M (21), 30,000 mi diameter, .3 G, Ring, 3 satellites Ee, Eff and Arr
  • Orbit 11 M7 D Red Dwarf
    • Orbit 0 RadWorld FBEA000-0, 1 satellite Ay
    • Orbit 1 Large Gas Giant U (28), 125,000 mi diameter, 1.2 G, 4 satellites Cee, Eff, Kay, and En
    • Orbit 2 StormWorld G593000-0, 1 satellite Ee
    • Orbit 3 uninhabited
    • Orbit 4 Iceworld F755101-4, 2 satellites Jay and Oh
  • Orbit 12 RadWorld FBDA000-0, Ring, 3 satellites Dee, Gee and Eye

System Importance (Ix)

No information yet available.

Mainworld Data

Kueghakhe mainworld is at once stunning and grotesque in a single vista. The planet has both A-rated Downport and a Highport in orbit. Both moons of the mainworld share the population of 60 billion Urzaeng Vargr. Vast, airtight, underground realms are filled with cities that use great prisms to focus and permit the stellar primary light to help illuminate the caverns. The small planet surface is covered with one large city of megastructure skyscrapers and spacescrapers. Tall, contragravity space elevators allow personal transit to the Highport Ring in geostationary orbit. Both breathable air and clean water are recycled in vast surface domes full of arboreal, oxygen-producing plant life. Water is imported from the system’s only Iceworld in Orbit 4 of the Near Red Dwarf. Contragravity cities are suspended in the skies and feature grav elevators to the Highport Ring though these structures are flexible and extendable, so the cities may shift their positions at need.

The strong and resilient Urzaeng Vargr of Kueghakhe have used every square kilometer and cubic kilometer of the planet for its High Population (Hi) and erected the most Important Industrial (In) mecca of economic powerhouse in the sector. Resources are imported from two nearby polities, Kueghakhe’s own stellar cluster of neighbors and other Important Asteroid worlds to feed the vast and variable Makers of this Extra High-Tech world.

At Tech Level 18 in the year 1105, Kueghakhe is the most technologically advanced world in the entire Vargr Extents and dwarfs even the Darrian Confederation. However, this is due to a hidden history directly known only to recorded personalities of Urzaeng Vargr kept in updated and advanced Wafer Technologies. Interviewed at times, these Urzaeng of the past tell of a time when Kueghakhe had attained Tech Level Z better known as Technological Singularity.

Singularity society on Kueghakhe had reached a decision gate. What would the Urzaeng do next? All issues of existence in Charted Space had been resolved and there was nothing further to attain. After much debate which all knew would Balkanize the world, the decision of Acceptance (result of +1, page 507 of Traveller5 Core Rules), was ratified. Kueghakhe society would accept technology as part of its larger social structure. In doing so, the mainworld and its system unanimously decided to backslide its Tech Level to 21. But this was not the furthest the Urzaeng of this world fell.

Mainworld Size (S)

This world

Mainworld Atmosphere (A)

This world

Mainworld Hydrosphere (H)

This world

Mainworld Geography & Topography

No information yet available.

Mainworld Map

Kueghakhe.jpg

Native Lifeforms

No information yet available.

History & Background (Dossier)

No information yet available.

World Starport (Sp)

Kueghakhe has a Class A Starport, an excellent quality installation which includes all the expected amenities including refined fuel for starships, brokerage services for passengers and cargo, and a variety of ship provisions. There is a shipyard capable of doing annual maintenance, overhauls and other kinds of repair, and construction of both starships and non-starships. Most ports of this classification have both a Highport and a Downport.

Travelling to Kueghakhe

The ships launched from the Highport and Downport shipyards are versatile, Extra High-Tech and meant to visit any kind of world. The Hop-1 Drive has been Improved and adds the Jump Governor, permitting travel to any distant world within ten parsecs. Additionally, most smaller vessels have fuel tankage for more than one Hop-1. Both Ultimate Stage Power Plants and Ultimate Stage Collector Drives provide fuel or charge to the Improved Hop Drive, supplementary Ultimate Stage Jump Drives, (see ANNIC NOVA). Ultimate Stage Maneuver Drives are installed with adjacent, satellite HEPlaR Drives, (in case of mis-jump to empty parsecs). Armed ships feature barbettes of twin Disintegrators as well as Ultimate Stage versions of lower-tech weapons and defenses. The Improved Black Globe Generator is a fully-integrated and standard installation aboard many Kueghakhe ships expecting trouble.

Traffic in Kueghakhe reaches upwards of one-thousand ships weekly or around one-hundred arrivals and departures daily. The system has a significant fall-off in the realm of Spaceports as the number of local, inhabitable worlds there are less than a handful. Most vessels equipped with Collector Drives precipitate from Jump Space near the F5V stellar primary, less so at the M7D Red Dwarf to recharge their capacitors before proceeding to the mainworld or jumping out-system respectively.

Both the Highport and the planetside Downport are dizzying labyrinths of Vargr architecture. A portable computer capable of minimum processing power is a valued piece of personal equipment to make sense of the Vargr markets, thoroughfares, corporate towers, and navigate personal transit to an appointment. Thanks to the lack of an atmosphere, there is no pollution as other worlds see; such is the efficiency of TL-18 atmosphere scrubbers. Anything the great purifiers cannot handle is given to the arboreal domes for natural recycling.

Kueghakhe Starships

One might think that post-Singularity state may have perfected the average starship constructed on Kueghakhe. But, in truth, even at TL-18 and using Improved Stage Hop-1 Drives have not cured the Urzaeng of Kueghakhe of redundancy. Ultimate Stage Collector Drives, Jump Drives, Maneuver Drives and even HEPlaR Drives, (in case of mis-jump into empty parsecs of space), are still in use. Very seldom are such needed as all Improved Hop Drives are equipped with Jump Governors and their range is unmatched in Kharrthon Sector. Yet, as a precaution against further backsliding of Tech Level, Kueghakhe ships still mount the best Drives currently capable. It is on rare occasion that a relic Drive from pre-Singularity may be found, but often its workings are mysterious to the survivors of the Empress Wave in 1094 and later.

Disintegrators (also called Disruptors) are a TL-18 starship and man-portable weapon on Kueghakhe. Mounted on Barbettes and in pairs, these weapons are devastating and can be given ranges further than S=7 (Attack Range).

Improved Stage Black Globe Generators are another redundancy mounted on Kueghakhe ships. Bolted-In or mounted otherwise, these Defenses are standard of ships launched from the Highport Ring above the mainworld.

After 1105, when Kueghakhe emerges from the madness of the Empress Wave, many ships brought from forgotten storage hangars are classes of Scouts, Prospectors, Merchants, Science Laboratory, Navy and Packets. Capital vessels are not deployed until after 1116 due to the gap between Tech Levels of other worlds in the stellar cluster, subsector and sector in successive explorations.

World Population (P)

This world

World Demographics

Humaniti, population 95%

  • Other, population 5%

World Government (G)

Kueghakhe has a Balkanized Government. There is no central world government. The world has several governments competing for control of the world. These may be allies, cooperating, competitors, or at war with each other.

World Law Level (L)

This world

World Law Level

At TL-18, law enforcement Urzaeng, law-bots, monitoring AI beings, and other departments can be issued man-Portable Disintegrators to respond to breaches of laws. The average citizen relies on natural, Vargr Infighting be it augmented with enhanced genetics, cybernetics, Wafer Technology, or other personal enhancements. With a Law rating of 9, true personal weaponry is illegal outside the home or beyond the extra-territoriality line at the Downport and orbital Highport.

With a total population of 60 billion biological Urzaeng and parallel beings, only weapons of mass destruction are seen to put a scratch on the accepted way of life on Kueghakhe. Seen in that scope, Infighting has become the weapon of choice for small-unit disputes between citizens if such should escalate that far. Most often, an impartial robot, AI or other mind without investment will consent to render a judgement call on two conflicted parties. Even then, Infighting can still happen, play out and reach Charisma resolution without the need for notifying the local law enforcement precinct. All parties know that law enforcement, if called out, must arm themselves with the heavy Disintegrator weapons.

World Technology Level (TL)

Kueghakhe possesses a Technology Level of TL–18 or TL-J in Hexadecimal Notation.

World Military

With the benchmarks of tactical weapons and defenses such as Personal Dampers, vehicular Black Globe Generators, Portable Disintegrators, Psi-Shields, Fusion Rifles, Kueghakhe has claws-down dominated both its system, its stellar cluster and has singlehandedly ceased wars in the sector between two or more polities. Nearby empires must conduct their wars by cutting wide and quiet detours to as to not provoke the Kueghakhe navy based at nearby Naegoulli (Kharrthon 1320) though there are patrols throughout the four subsectors corners which Kueghakhe holds sway.

Citizen beings inhabiting naval starships need tap their commanding officers only during times between tactical or strategic engagements. During actual conflict it is the Captain of a naval vessel who takes a back seat to the faster thinking AIs or Wafer Elders slotted for temporary command. With a variety of worlds, stellar bodies (15 stars in 10 worlds of the cluster), the strategic jump precipitation planetary body is no longer the system Gas Giants. Additionally, in exchange for such Extra High-Tech, tireless patrols, member worlds of the cluster commit to exporting needs to Kueghakhe in support of maintaining the benchmark TL-18 world.

Extra High-Tech Balkanization

There are two significant Factions on Kueghakhe. There is an ongoing debate between the two, despite the mainworld having reached an actionable quorum, over the decision concerning Singularity. The first Faction which won the referendum chose Acceptance, for society to integrate technology as part of its larger social structure. Robots, Synthetics, true Artificial Intelligence, Relict Clones, Personal Clones, and personalities recorded on Wafer Technology among other benchmarks exist in parallel, egalitarian citizenship aside their biological Urzaeng on Kueghakhe. This has given rise to a Ritualized culture of accommodation between various ‘minds’ or ‘beings’. In this fashion, society does not use lower connotations when referring to ‘entities’ or ‘constructs’. Non-biologicals of TL-16 and up are granted full citizenship with rights and the responsibility to adhere to laws and the decisions of Factional governance.

The second Faction suffered analysis paralysis as it balked and stumbled down from Singularity much slower. It quietly seeks a means to return to Technological Singularity. One Wafer Elder remarked while activated that this Faction repeatedly “looked back toward figurative Eden” as they followed the first Faction. Thus, this Faction drags its collective tails, pining for the “Elder days” as the mainworld descended to TL-21. The calamity later known as the Empress Wave further weakened and muzzled this Faction to fall in line with the 1105 emergence at TL-18 or be left to pick through ruins while the remaining population struck out anew to contact nearby worlds. The two Factions of Kueghakhe continue the debate, but no longer do they quarrel over the decision to step down from Singularity. The Empress Wave has further rendered the topic moot.

Kueghakhe Goals

After Technological Singularity, the two Factions on Kueghakhe have agreed on one thing. They do not seek to conquer territory nor to set up a polity, empire or even erect a hegemony. The latest project of the Elders is to watch the surrounding sectors for the next TL-21 Vargr world to approach Singularity for study as to what choices will be made as Tech Level Z is approached.

Another study in the cluster neighborhood is the vigil over the 80 billion Vargr on Euesiou (Kharrthon 1420). Though reaching through TL-11 as of 1105, the Elders believe this world has potential on its planetary characteristics alone.

A new development since the passing of the Empress Wave are the three Corsair bases that have produced a strange blend of non-biological, eccentric beings taking up acts of both legitimate Privateering work for the cluster and true piracy and experimenting with the concept on nearby polities and non-aligned worlds in the Hop-1 neighborhood.

Though Kueghakhe is the only A-rated shipyard in its subsector, four other Starport A shipyards are nearby, within Hop-1 of this technological anomaly. Kueghakhe vessels are not cheap when sold to extra-cluster worlds. Many times, potential customers are turned away for one reason or another and contract with other shipyards for cheaper or faster construction in a market desperate to keep up with Kueghakhe’s Industrial rating. Other times these alternatives are taken out of fear of the Extra High-Tech vessels with minds that lack Vargr Charisma. The list of reasons to shop elsewhere than Kueghakhe lengthens.

Kueghakhe seeks to further uplift the Urzaeng sub-species of Vargr. At the bottom of the list for mental acumen but resting at the pinnacle of physical prowess, the Urzaeng find Kueghakhe a blessing of irony to have the only TL-18 world in the entire Vargr Extents and Vargr Enclaves. What the Wafer Elders in a post-Singularity society intend to try upon their own Urzaeng is any local’s or Traveller’s guess.

Kueghakhe Relations

The spike in Tech Level in the near-center of Kharrthon Sector has given Kueghakhe the de facto title of Sector Capital and Subsector Capital. The nearby Delegation of Targhae in the Imperial year 1105 yet to emerge from the aftereffects of the Empress Wave and poses no true threat to Kueghakhe’s stellar cluster. Likewise, since its Capital collapsed to join the many Die Back (Di) worlds, the Alliance of Tju is but one Hop-1 and one Jump-1 from defeat at the technologically-superior claws of Kueghakhe. Both polities saw the stellar expanse between their borders as a buffer zone of superior forces best left to the Charisma of their Diplomats, Emissaries and Envoys.

If they could be remotely compared as competitors, it is Guansusukhs (Kharrthon 1628), a Corsair world of only 5 billion Urzaeng Vargr on an Important and non-aligned world that presents the best challengers. Guansusukhs also dominates their cluster of 14 worlds with at best a Jump-3 reach of their starships. But were the two world-states to clash, say Privateers versus Corsairs, Guansusukhs’ reliance on Corsair Charisma would fall to the cold calculations of intelligent naval and Privateer vessels. Worse still, at 1105, Guansusukhs is still suffering from the aftereffects of the Empress Wave and has no designs on Kueghakhe.

One Hop-1 away to Coreward-Trailing is a belters’ world in a trade alliance with Kueghakhe. Llaetha (Kharrthon 2117), an Asteroid world is all too ready to purchase Extra High-Tech mining equipment from the industrious Kueghakhe. The agreement sends valuable, refined resources from the single mainworld belt to Kueghakhe which enjoys priority marketing of Llaetha’s output. It is this trade treaty that swells both words’ annual Resource Units (RU).

World Economy (Ex)

Kueghakhe produces 4,680 Resource Units, ('aryu').

Trade Data

Trade Classifications for this world:

  • No information yet available.

Trade Lines with other worlds:

  • No information yet available.

Kueghakhe Spinward-Trailing Axis

A Cyan-rated trade limb of systems begins at Rrakha (Kharrthon 2717) and reaches Spinward through Kharrthon Sector, touches and runs through Kueghakhe before continuing through other worlds as it reaches into Knaeleng Sector. This has been termed the Kueghakhe Trade Axis. Kueghakhe is both a technological wonder and an economic nightmare for economists to fathom. Speculators report that it is one thing to have an Extra High-Technology world but to have such with its own Industrial means of making good output of such wonders is frightening on both military and mercantile fronts. Vargr investors tread lightly as they enter the markets on Kueghakhe. For it can be easy to strike it rich, but just as easily an investor can just as quickly loose their shirt from their furred backs.

The Kueghakhe Trade Axis ends in name at least at Tireen (Knaeleng 2910) where interest in the Ancients Rosette holds interstellar attentions and crowds standard trade. While Kueghakhe may have been influenced by the Ancients, per superstition, enough to reach and step back from TL-Z (Singularity); it is quite another thing to see the Rosette of Tireen up close and personal. At Tireen, the trade routes become phenomenally Blue as space lanes crowd the route full of scientific, prospecting, naval, diplomatic and the civilian curious in addition to the merchant classes.

World Demographics

A Singular Rage: The Urzaeng on Kueghakhe are still born with the racial Special Ability Talent of Rage-5 and Rage-2. However, Technological Singularity and its effect to blur the lines between a tool and its user has softened this Vargr sub-species. Though the Talents have not eroded in potential, their triggers have. Referees should impose an Average Difficulty Task for an Urzaeng from Kueghakhe to engage the Talent.

  • To consciously enter Rage-5 (males) or Rage-2 (females):

Average (2D) Charisma Check, (to enter Rage, the Urzaeng wants to FAIL this Check), +1D under effects of Combat Drug SE or similar pharma, Hasty possible ("a short fuse")

"Blowing one's cool" is then more difficult than Urzaeng from other worlds who have no such Charisma Check. While those not from Kueghakhe think that locals have "gone soft", one does not provoke a sub-species of Extra High-Tech Vargr without some pause. Referees may under other, more intense situations judge that the Kueghakhe Urzaeng may engage the Rage Talent without the Check. The Special Ability Talent functions normally once triggered.

Wafer personalities of recorded Urzaeng Elders or regular citizens from Kueghakhe have no true Charisma and so may use their host's Charisma (once learned) for the Check. Being recorded onto a Wafer or being Cloned is no defense against this Charisma Check against a post-Singularity lifestyle. This Check does not apply to Synthetics, Robots, Artificial Intelligences, biological Brains or other non-biological Urzaeng.

In addition to the above notes on Rage, Referees may reduce either Voice from Guttural to Standard or Poice from Strong to Standard as a result of post-Singularity serenity. This rule may be ignored in the case of later generations of Urzaeng born after 1105 or those who have been away from Kueghakhe for more than four years. Having dealings with other Urzaeng in the region tends to bring out the original sub-species in a native of Kueghakhe.

Urbanization

No information yet available.

World Infrastructure

This world possesses TBD infrastructure.

World Culture (Cx)

No information yet available.

World Language/s

Historical Data

No information yet available.

World Timeline

No information yet available.

UWP Listing

No information yet available.

Mortality of Beings

With an Extra High-Tech world, one might find it hard to believe that age has no sway on the beings on Kueghakhe. Such is not true. Since the Empress Wave and emergence in 1105, quite a few Wafer Elders, recorded personalities of past Urzaeng and even Robots and other Artificial Intelligences have put in requests and been approved for destruction. The loss of life and loved ones in family and Pack have caused robotic Onwee and AI jadedness such that more than a few immortal beings have opted for destruction to escape loneliness or continued existence. Thus, death is no stranger but does make network news, especially when it is a pre-Singularity being that opts for destruction.

Destruction is met with a spectrum of reactions among the beings of Kueghakhe. Funerals, wakes, memorials and long vacations from Careers are just a few of the observances held by those left behind from the departing mind. Often, recorded beings and computers will take a period of time to write memoirs or autobiographies and in them detail their reasons for desiring 'retirement' and the peace of destruction. Biological Urzaeng, at the end of anagathics use and its stretched thin attitude are just as susceptible and accepted when they opt for destruction. On Kueghakhe, this is not seen as suicide but a permanent vacation of sorts as Singularity might again reverse even death through its various manipulations of reality. Many times, only Relict Clones are the consented answer to the deaths of the living.

The saddest loss of life that lacks such consent, memorabilia and observation are the losses suffered during the Empress Wave in the years following 1094. Even into the 1130s, a complete and accurate list of lost life has yet to be completed.

Adventures on Kueghakhe

The Car Keys – Lost deep within the abandoned realms no longer inhabited by the Kueghakhe locals, Urzaeng and parallel beings is a TL-24 Portal tuned to Tireen (Knaeleng 2910) just 19 parsecs in a straight line and opening to a lightly buried Portal of similar make and tuned to Kueghakhe. Opening the Portals will get the Travellers slightly dirty and momentarily surprised.

This Portal requires a set of Keys that needs more than three Travellers to actuate to engage the tunneling wormhole of the Portal. But the Kueghakhe Portal is guarded by an insane AI [insert quirky name like Marque-UU-Mylar] and its synthetic Urzaeng servants. This sect has taken upon itself to outlaw instantaneous, interstellar travel and communication, and so will kill to keep this Portal a secret from the entire universe. The Travellers are in for an EPIC Adventure to gather each Key, confront the guardians and open the Portal to the Rosette of Tireen.

Particularly cruel Referees may require a second set of Keys to activate the Tireen Portal to return to Kueghakhe. Alternately, since Technological Singularity, the TL-24 Portal only functions when the planet's surface where the Portal is located is pointed in the general direction of Tireen can the device be activated. Damage to the Portal will render it useless while it is deactivated. Damage to the Portal while active can destroy several wards in the underground realm relic city and destroy the Portal, taking the Travellers with it.

Energy On Tap – The Travellers exploring relic ruins for the second Faction might stumble upon a deep shaft down and pointed to the planetary core. This shaft is no longer supported by the city gravity generators and is a relic of a time when the shaft was occupied by a TL-23 Planetary Core Tap, a source of energy. Yet, this location on the map might be of interest to historians who have lost track of this remnant of pre-Singularity and thus before the Empress Wave. However, in the side shafts that once supported the Planetary Tap are those forgotten and untreated Urzaeng still suffering from the madness of the Empress in Black. Once the shaft has been identified as a former Tap well, the insane Vargr throwbacks attack the Travellers. These Vargr do not need to Check Charisma to enter Rage-5 or Rage-2 and cannot be negotiated so far gone are their higher minds.

A Ticklish Package – The Travellers are tasked by a practical joking Artificial Intelligence to transport a single vial of non-replicating, TL-23 Grey Goo vial found deep under the surface of Kueghakhe. The being has programed this nanite mess to seek out ticklish sites on a sophont's body and bring the victim to tears in ticklish incapacitation. The Goo does not self-replicate, does not separate willingly and can be recalled by the simplest commands. Unfortunately, the Travellers do not know this when their Comm-8 device accidentally activates the Ticklish Goo aboard their ship. Hilarity ensues as they try to find the signal and frequency that has set off this mess before more Travellers die laughing. Since the Goo is in part ferrous, it can easily be captured with a hand magnet or a generated magnetic field.

Kueghakhe Psionics

Psionics is present in the biological minds of the Urzaeng of Kueghakhe. Like the other tools used before, during and post-Singularity, not much consideration is given the pseudo-sciences though the disciplines are widely known and given the Vargr shrug of acceptance. Though still not a mainstream devotion, psionics on Kueghakhe continues to lack Psionic Institutes. In similar light, there are no false Institutes. The small-unit relationship of Master with a few students per Stage instruction term is present. Masters then quietly advertise openings once their current apprentices reach the end of a Stage of psionics testing and instruction. Students then seek another Master for the next Stage in their unfoldment to the mental disciplines.

Psionics testing and instruction does not immediately return to Kueghakhe after 1105 when the world is waking from the madness of the Empress Wave. Masters do not come out of self-imposed quietus until 1116 of the Imperial Calendar, a year arbitrarily set by the mainworld Masters for reasons only they know.

Many technologies pertaining to psionics exist on Kueghakhe and are as common as psionics itself. Outside of the mainstream, one seeking such devices and protections need search planetary networks or conduct legwork to locate, haggle over and purchase these nonstandard items.

There is a social stigma involving Charisma over the use of psionics to "get ahead". Referees can easily negate any increase in Charisma in the presence of psionics disciplines use. Kueghakhe Urzaeng prefer to merit those who meet their goals and attainments without the help of psionics. This holds true in Charisma Infighting duels where the weapon of choice is psionics instead of natural weaponry. Psionics is not seen as birth-given though all come with a brain upon being born.

Kueghakhe Citizens

Having stepped back from Technological Singularity, the Urzaeng on Kueghakhe have realized and lived the concept of mutually-assured destruction. As such, a Law Level of 9 has been in place long before the world debated their next action upon attaining TL-Z. To this day, natural weapons Infighting, (with teeth, claws and martial arts) is the standard issue at birth for native citizens. Visitors can expect Fighter (Unarmed)- 2 or better depending on Career choices. Since weaponry outside the home is forbidden, the Extra High Tech Urzaeng here often make use of genetic and cybernetic augmentations to enhance their natural weaponry. Beyond this are the Law Enforcement Agents who are permitted to respond to calls while wearing TL-18 Battle Dress mounted with Man-Portable Disintegrators which naturally dampen the spirits of all involved in the immediate scene.

With such assured destruction, peace generally is kept on Kueghakhe though Infighting is still the dispute resolution of choice. Often, a sentient Robot or nearby Artificial Intelligence may be called upon to judge such Charisma-based duels, to quell the physical aspect of Infighting when a victor is obvious. Only rarely have Infighters ignored their chosen officials and required emergency medical services. More seldom is the arrival and observation of Law Enforcement to ensure that an Infight does not escalate beyond the combatants and into family or Pack brawls. None wish to be on the business end of a Disintegrator.

Citizenry of Kueghakhe

The return from the dream of Technological Singularity has reawakened the need for personal identity. This is especially true after the losses of life from the Empress Wave aftermath. The wild, garish and clashing patterns and colors that irritate the eyes of Humaniti have returned. Tattoos, permanent fur pelt dyes are again prevalent after 1105. Identification of the individual, the family and the Pack are as important as a corporate logo after the loss of 75% of the biologic and semi-biologic populace. Since the Senses of Vision, Hearing and Smell are the most prominent of Urzaeng Vargr, fashions and symbols most often cater to those. Who a person is, what their Career or simpler line of work may be, and their Charisma is again immediately evident upon initial greeting. If it is absent from one's gait, body language, paralanguage and speech, a Traveller might take a second look at what one is adorned or dressed in. Weapons are no longer an indicator of station unless they are Law Enforcement Agents and on duty. This extends somewhat to the non-biologic beings on Kueghakhe as well. Robots, synthetics, Guest Clones are all given the same opportunity to display their preferred identity with the same décor as their biological Urzaeng citizens. An entire line of apparel is available to non-Urzaeng, avatars of past Urzaeng, and the parallel beings fills online and market venues on Kueghakhe.

This post-Singularity fashion of identity dress has almost ritualized the initial greeting with any being on Kueghakhe. Given some leeway, Travellers will soon learn that one's presentation, demeanor and dress are equivalent to one's resume, Career, Charisma and station in society at first glance. This can lead to visitors to the Downport or Highport Ring to be accidentally looked down upon until a true greeting is undertaken. Treatment such as this is often a sidebar warning in much introductory media presented to Travellers, especially to non-Kueghakhe Urzaeng.

Having reached any Singularity state and chosen to return to lower Tech Levels has dampened the need for spiritual ideologies on Kueghakhe. As such, the goal to explore and discover another near-Singularity society regardless of race has squeezed the desire for a higher power or higher inner nature in the Urzaeng on Kueghakhe. Groups such as the Church Of The Chosen Ones might like to be inclusive of Kueghakhe as part of their ideology but for the already superior mindset and technology of this world. In the end, the Church finds no adherents to attract simply out of technology gap and their past approach, arrival and retreat from Technological Singularity. The Church simply cannot compete with such experience in the locals, biological Urzaeng or parallel beings and minds.

Empress Wave 1094

In the Imperial Calendar year 1094, Kueghakhe was engulfed by the unstoppable Empress Wave. At Tech Level 21, bordering TL-20, the sector’s bastion of Far Far Future attainments was struck and lost 75% of its biological population to madness. All Psions and psionicists were either encapsulated and put to cryo-sleep or were put down in euthanasia. For the next eleven years the artificial intelligences in cooperation with the Singularity Era Urzaeng personalities kept the planet from destroying itself. By the time the Empress Wave aftermath had receded to sane levels, those biological Urzaeng rose from madness to find their world had thrown further back to Tech Level 18. The personalities and AI entities had judged that TL-18 was a proper benchmark to settle upon post-Singularity. In under a year, Kueghakhe was sending forth TL-18 Scouts, Merchants, Emissaries and naval vessels pulled from mothballed hangars and refit to modern, backslid understanding. In under five years the entire stellar cluster had been revived from the Empress Wave’s aftermath though with significant losses upon each world. Further out, many worlds had less than spacefaring capabilities and were stunned to see that Kueghakhe had weathered the Wave so well.

Virus Era 1130s

The Kueghakhe response to the infection of all Charted Space by Virus is something the post-Singularity world does not discuss openly. Having already agreed to accept Balkanization with its factions and settling at the benchmark of TL-18, it is not known what Virus was able to infect, damage, destroy or conquer by the time the various waves of Virus Strains battled against the interstellar flow of rimward traffic. Virus met with difficulties of exodus against the oncoming Empress Wave, looting Corsairs hungry to invade the Collapsed Third Imperium and the chaos of Rebellion and Hard Times. Some speculate that the Tech Level 18 world greeted Virus Strains and an unseen war, (more likened to an intense, logic debate), was fought out of sight of the biological Urzaeng Vargr. Others believe there was a synthesis and absorption of Virus into the AI entities and Singularity Wafer personalities matrices.

There is secret discussion among both biological minds and their parallel colleague minds that Virus may have encouraged local Artificial Intelligences to consider mortality as a means to closure from too long an existence. This has given rise to some silicon minds suffering Onwee and applying for destruction.

The New Era

Hop-1 vessels of Scout, Surveyors, Packets and Prospectors reach outward in hopes of discovering survivors of both the Empress Wave and Virus Eras. It is a goal of the Wafer Elders to find another world that has reached Tech Level 21 and is on its way to Technological Singularity. It is the intent of Kueghakhe to study this exponential climb from an objective and remote view to better compare and judge its own decisions as to post-Singularity action. With the three-fold use of wilderness fueling, Collector Drives and Hop-1 Drives, the exploration of the Vargr Extents is a phenomenon unto itself.

Milieu 1900

In the pastoral 1900s, Kueghakhe remains listed as a Strong World. As the gaps between Stable Empires widens with the in-turning ennui of post-Collapse, interstellar empires and other polities; it is benignly extroverted Kueghakhe that continues to search for the next near-Singularity, Strong World to watch from afar. Starting with the Vargr Splinters and Vargr Enclaves, the Extremely High-Tech Urzaeng reach out and survey the remaining Strong Worlds and find that there is a sound, 30+ parsec gap between interstellar communities left in Charted Space. What the Galaxiad has to say about post-Singularity Kueghakhe is left up to the series’ producers and editors.

What is Technological Singularity?

Technological Singularity or TL-Z is defined on page 501-507 of the Traveller5 Core Rules Book and can shed light on what can happen to a world or society upon reaching such lofty heights.

Kueghakhe Singularity

Many younger Urzaeng and visiting Travellers ask the natives, interview the Wafer Elders and query the older artificial intelligences as to what the Technological Singularity experience was like. The most verbose answer came in a question redirected to the curious student.

"What is Heaven, Limbo and Hell combined and looped back upon itself like?"

Having nowhere to go and all possible issues taken care of by one's self-manipulating tools meant that there was no question that could not be answered, no task that could not be completed, no challenge that was insurmountable. Happiness, timelessness, a mutable microcosm that potentially stretched out to the macrocosm, penultimate pleasure and deep abysmal pain were all for the asking on Kueghakhe. The Singularity showed the Urzaeng and its parallel beings the gate to a Higher Plane. Though they saw and knew the one-way passage, Kueghakhe sat at this doorstep and debated the seven conclusions to take, Higher Plane ascendance being the narrowest, most direct and easiest to traverse. But that last step for those in the Singularity state was argued.

Two Factions were the product of this schism in the debate. Kueghakhe had to move as one or brothers could be separated from each other. Packs and families could be separated forever if the schism was allowed to continue. The debate was nigh-eternal, and all had a fair say. To stay in Technological Singularity was to suffer the never-ending loops of stagnation even in perfect bliss, whatever that bliss meant to the individual.

The first faction wanted Acceptance, the spectrum-wide allowance that technology had to be fully integrated in all facets of society. Furthermore, there was a desire to guide other Vargr and sophonts to this same gate and witness their post-Singularity choice. It was altruism and a desire to see Singularity from the outside, an objective panoramic. To do so meant that Kueghakhe would have to step back from the Higher Plane choice, possibly forever since the Empress Wave was bearing down on their homeworld.

The second Faction initially agreed with the first, but as Acceptance was near to ratification, they balked. Higher Planar existence was before them, a chance at new challenge, new variables, new lessons and another scope squared, cubed or higher to be explored. This faction felt that the first was frightened of that last step through the decision gate to ascend. But attachment to the Known Universe caused these too to step back and follow their brethren. Could a second chance come later in helping others reach Technological Singularity? If altruism included universal and unconditional love, perhaps the decision gate would present itself again.

As the two Factions stepped down as one world to unanimously retreat from ascension to Tech Level 21, a peaceful conviction settled over the world of Kueghakhe. Though the second Faction continued to look over their shoulders toward that forsaken Higher Plane, both settled into Acceptance that technology would occupy an equal and respected part of all life in their solar system. Life was efficient and still required interaction between the sophont and the tool.

But then, in 1094 the Empress Wave washed Kueghakhe further back from Technological Singularity such that in their superior madness, the beings – biological and their parallels – lost 75% of their population over the next eleven years. Eden had pushed the local beings further from its thorny garden hedge. In 1105, society on Kueghakhe came to its senses at the guidance of the artificial intelligences and Wafer Elders. First named the Purge of the Unworthy, the Empress Wave left in its wake vast, empty halls, domes, arcologies across the planet's surface and underground realms. The orbital Highport had fallen dormant when the last living Urzaeng up the gravity well perished in that decade. The space elevators were silent and unmoving. Those survivors of the Wave renewed their oaths and goal to re-explore Charted Space and be hypervigilant for worlds with sophonts on the brink of Singularity. Kueghakhe would help those if they could despite their throwback to TL-18. Then, if possible, those on hand could make a second, decision gate choice whether to ascend to a Higher Plane or continue their altruistic exploration. This was to be the reintegration of the two Factions, to aid others and again earn that final step through post-Singularity.

References & Contributors (Sources)

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