Tarkine (world)
| Tarkine (Spinward Marches 1434) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Classic Era (1116) | C466662-7
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| See also | UWP | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Tarkine/District 268 (Spinward Marches 1434)
Imperial client state in District 268 of the Spinward Marches. Tarkine is an agricultural world that was recently taken over by Dallia after a long and horrible war and is still trying to recover.
History
In 780, Tarkine formed the Ag Worlds Combine with Motmos and Tarsus.
In 840, Dallia tried to take over Tarkine and the other Ag Worlds, but was prevented from doing so by the intervention of Collace and Forine.
In 960, it was discovered that corsairs operating in the surrounding systems were supplied personnel, technical assistance, and fuel by Tarkine's government in exchange for a share of the captured goods. To eliminate this hazard to shipping and to civilization, an Imperial task force was dispatched, the corsairs destroyed, the government replaced, and a Scout base established. Continuing uprisings among the world's six million inhabitants led to it being posted as an amber travel zone.
During the Fifth Frontier War, the troops normally stationed on Tarkine were needed elsewhere, and the Imperium engaged a mercenary force to supplement local loyalist troops.
Unbiased accounts of subsequent events are hard to come by, but the end result is undisputed: When the revolt had been suppressed, almost half of Tarkine's population had been killed. Political observers theorize that subsequent events came about because certail Imperial leaders were anxious to disassociate themselves from the whole debacle.
In 1112, Dallia, also an Imperial client state, took over the contract for the mercenary force and, after reinforcing them with Dallian troops, presented the surrounding worlds with a fait accompli. This time Dallia had the backing of the Imperium and, after eliciting assurances that Tarkine would fulfill all contractual commitments, Collace and Forine acquiesced to the takeover.
Non-Canon
With its standard atmosphere, temperate climate, plentiful water, and mild gravity (0.54G), Tarkine is one of the most pleasant planets in District 268. It is also among the most beautiful, with magnificent equatorial rainforests, breathtaking jungled mountain valleys, dramatic cliff-girt coastlines, and a remarkably diverse ecosystem with exotic and often strikingly delicate flora and fauna that have evolved in the planet’s low gravity. Thus, despite Tarkine’s chronic political and security problems, before the 5th Frontier War it attracted large numbers of tourists who enjoyed diving expeditions, overland photo-safaris, and aerial sightseeing tours in quaint, propeller-driven aircraft. In order to preserve Tarkine’s stunning but fragile ecosystem, all visitors who travelled outside the starport’s boundaries had to undergo comprehensive (and onerous) bio-decontamination procedures.
Despite the importance of the tourist trade, agriculture was always the keystone of Tarkine's economy. Indeed, Tarkine is perhaps best known as a source of exotic spices, but it also produces a broad variety of indigenous food crops and livestock (offworld species are banned) which are exported throughout the subsector and beyond. In 780, Tarkine, Tarsus (Spinward Marches 1138), and Motmos (Spinward Marches 1340) formed the Agworld Combine, a loose cartel that was designed to halt a spiral of mutually-destructive price competition in the lucrative agricultural export markets of Forine and Collace. The Combine supplies food to much of District 268, which includes many other systems which, like Forine and Collace, have inhospitable and/or degraded environments that cannot support agriculture on a large enough scale to feed their populations. The Agworld Combine’s headquarters was located on Motmos.
In order to resolve its food supply problems, Dallia (Spinward Marches 1435), a cold, inhospitable world just one parsec away, seized control of Tarkine in 840. The occupation forces were withdrawn after a couple years due to diplomatic pressure and military threats from other food-poor systems in District 268 (subtly backed by the Imperium) that were unwilling to see Dallia monopolize Tarkine’s agricultural exports. As additional insurance against future aggression, the Agworld Combine’s members (all of whom were greatly inferior to any potential aggressor in both population and technology), made it known that if any of them was threatened or invaded, the other two would embargo all food exports to the offending system(s).
The Agworld Combine was critically weakened when Tarkine more-or-less permanently lost its independence in 960. In that year, the Imperial authorities uncovered damning evidence that, for nearly two decades, Tarkine’s government had been covertly supporting corsairs (mainly from the Sword Worlds) who preyed upon commercial shipping traffic which passed through District 268 on its way between the Glisten and Five Sisters subsectors. In exchange, Tarkine received a large share of the corsairs’ booty, which was used to fund routine government services and large-scale public infrastructure projects (and line top politician’s pockets) without having to burden the citizenry with taxes. In 960, an Imperial Navy task force invaded Tarkine, replaced its government, and established a scout base on the planet to ensure that there was no resumption of corsair activity.
The scout base was located adjacent to Tarkine Down Starport on the banks of the Bronda River about 25 kilometers downstream from Delis, the planetary capital. Docks lined the riverbank, but water-borne traffic was light since most passengers and cargos traveled along ahighway (built with ill-gotten funds in the 900s) that ran from Delis to the starport and onward to points south. The entire 5 kilometer square starport/scout base complex was under direct Imperial control, and was usually guarded by a battalion-size force of mercenaries or Imperial Marines. All of the landward approaches were ringed with minefields and other obstacles intended to frustrate rebel attacks.
Tarkine’s inhabitants generally detested the Imperial-client government and constantly plotted against it. Several uprisings were attempted, and guerrilla and terrorist attacks targeting the government and the IISS scout base were common occurrences in the years preceding the 5th Frontier War. These were conducted by the Independence on Tarkine Alliance (IoTA), which fielded about 5,000 full-time guerrillas and could count on the tacit support of most of the population -- including covert sympathizers in Tarkine’s government and armed forces. It was equipped with an extensive array of TL-6 and TL-7 weaponry, including small numbers of armored vehicles and artillery pieces captured or stolen from government forces.
Terrorist attacks and kidnapping attempts targeting the predominantly Imperial tourists who visited Tarkine were infrequent, but still a source of concern in those years. Tourist parties were always escorted by large numbers of heavily armed guards, but it was not unknown for the guards to be overwhelmed -- or infiltrated by IoTA agents. Tarkine’s population of just 6 million was so widely dispersed that tourists had little interaction with the locals - most of whom lived under frontier conditions in tiny agricultural villages and isolated family or communal farms. Cities were few, far between, and small. Delis, the largest urban center, had just 22,000 residents.
Due to the difficulty of policing such a thinly scattered population, law enforcement was minimal. Likewise, although the planetary and Imperial authorities would have prefered otherwise, private ownership of weapons was practically unrestricted because the inhabitants depended upon them both for protection against dangerous indigenous lifeforms and to supplement their diet through hunting. Moreover, any attempt to disarm Tarkine’s citizens would almost certainly have sparked a planet-wide revolt.
Travel Advisory
The Traveller’s Aid Society classified Tarkine as an Amber Zone because of the danger posed by IoTA attacks on tourists and Tarkine Down Starport.
- ↑ "Jump Map API" and map location from Travellermap.com
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