Quhaiathat (world)

Quhaiathat/Five Sisters (Spinward Marches 0637)
Classic Era (1116)	C31479B-9 Starport C Routine: No Construction, Major Repair, Unrefined fuel Size 3 Small (4,800 km, 0.24g - 0.34g) Atmosphere 1 Vacuum (trace) Hydrographics 4 Wet World 40% Population 7 Moderate (20 million) Government 9 Impersonal Bureaucracy Law B Extreme Law (control of movement) Tech Level 9 Early Stellar (fusion)
See also	UWP
System Details
Primary	K8 V
Planetoid Belts	1
Gas Giants	0

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Jump map from Travellermap.com

Quhaiathat is an icy, preindustrial world.

• Its surface is ice-capped with nearly all of its water frozen.
• As a preindustrial world, it cannot meet its own demands for manufactured and high-tech goods. It must import extensive outside technology to maintain its extreme environment living spaces.
• It is a member of the Third Imperium in the Subsector of Spinward Marches Sector in the Domain of Deneb.
• This is a frozen world, with a climate of extremely low temperatures.
• This is a "Puzzle" world designated as an Amber Zone. Caution is advised since the world has an environment, laws, customs, life forms, or other conditions that are not well understood and might be a danger to a visitor.
• Quhaiathat is a member of the Spinward Main.
• It is a member of the Collace Arm.

Description (Astrography & Planetology)

Stars

Quhaiathat has a solitary primary star.

• It is an orange main sequence.

Quhaiathat has a solitary primary star.

Primary
	Type	Category		Mass (Sol)	Temperature (K)	Luminosity
	K8 V	Main Sequence		0.62	3930 - 3990	0.18766
	Unit	Diameter	Safe Distance	Habitable Zone	Jump Shadow	M-Drive Limit
	AU	0.0057	0.0359	0.45 - 0.84	0.57	5.7
	Orbit #	*	*	2	2	6
	Remarks		None

System Data

The worlds of the system have been surveyed. They consist of:

• The mainworld.
• x4 secondary rocky worlds.
• x1 planetoid belt.

Mainworld Data

The mainworld orbits within the outer system.

• It receives very low levels of stellar energy.

Located far from its primary, the world is bitterly cold: mean surface temperatures approach -200°C. Most settlements are located within former mine shafts. Most of the world's power supply (and therefore life support margins) are given over to the demands of the mines and the recovery of their vital mineral treasures. As a result, the use of air and water by the rest of the community had to be strictly monitored to prevent waste.

Mainworld Size (S)

Quhaiathat is a Small World between 4,000km and 5,600km in diameter. The world has low gravity between 0.24G and 0.34G. The horizon will appear about 3km away.

Mainworld Atmosphere (A)

Quhaiathat has a pressure of less than 0.1 atmospheres which requires the use of a Vacc Suit. TL–8 or more advanced survival gear is required to settle this world.

• It experiences frigid temperatures.

Mainworld Hydrosphere (H)

Quhaiathat has 35-45% of its surface covered by ice, either in vast sheets or contained deep within craters or fractures on the surface. Wilderness refueling is possible. Water for the inhabitants can be got by mining and melting ice.

• The surface of the world is composed of a crust of ice many kilometers thick.
• Much of the surface is cratered and covered in thick layers of regolith and dust of meteoric origin, leaving only a part of the icy outer shell exposed.
• Below the outer icy shell there may be a world-ocean of liquid water.

Mainworld Geography and Topography

No centrally held map of the world exists within AAB Library Data records.

(Blank map, vacuum world.)

History & Background (Dossier)

Quhaiathat is a Puzzle World and is designated as an Amber Zone. It presents particular risks and dangers due to the environment or native life forms, laws or customs, or other conditions that are not well understood.

• Visitors are advised to act with caution.

Quhaiathat is a small ice world that was selected for colonization to exploit its rich mineral deposits. Colonization efforts began in the century after the Second Frontier War, with infrastructure and facilities being emplaced: the first settlers arrived around 748. It was one of the few of the Sisters' worlds that actually benefited during the slowdown of Imperial investment and expansion that occurred at this time. Despite its poverty of air and water, it possessed massive subterranean reserves of Platinum group metals and a great deal of Gold.

Individuals should exercise extreme care when visiting Quhaiathat starport as the slightest transgression will land them in front of the Quhaiathat Government Transgression Tribunal. Depending on the crime, the sentence could range from a few weeks of imprisonment to years of hard labor in the mines.

World Starport (St)

Quhaiathat has a Class C Starport, an average quality installation which includes amenities including unrefined fuel for starships, some brokerage services for passengers and cargo, and a variety of ship provisions. There is a shipyard capable of doing maintenance and other kinds of repair. Ports of this classification generally have only a downport, unless this is a trade port or system with an hostile environment mainworld.

World Population (P)

Quhaiathat has a population of 20,000,000 sophonts (tens of millions).

Linguistic Topography

The following languages are most commonly heard:

• Anglic, one of the two official languages of the Imperium.
• Vilani, one of the two official languages of the Imperium.

World Technology Level (T)

Quhaiathat possesses a Technology Level of TL–9.

• Common Communication technologies for this TL include: Fiber optics and satellite communication and data networks.
• Common Power Generation technologies for this TL include: Early fusion power.
• Common Transportation technologies for this TL include:
  • Land: Ultra high-speed trains and early grav vehicles.
  • Water: High efficiency sailcraft, multihulled seacraft, improved artificial gills.
  • Air: Tiltrotorcraft, exotic VTOL's, PARWIG, and rocket-assisted suborbitals.
  • Space: SSTO spacecraft, early military spacecraft (System Craft), and interstellar STL starships
  • FTL: Prototype Jump Drive-1.

World Government (G)

Quhaiathat is governed by an Impersonal Bureaucracy. The leadership of the government is another form (democracy, dictatorship, oligarchy), but the bureaucracy dictates government policy and its execution. Government leadership is reduced to little more than figureheads and does not select the bureaucracy leadership or its members.

World Law (L)

Quhaiathat has an extreme law level which covers every area of interaction. Laws are complex, detailed, and difficult to understand. Every interaction with the government requires an Advocate. Law enforcement is omnipresent and strict. Legal proceeding can take months to years to resolve and may involve dozens of people. A few worlds with this law level may be a Red Zone and others will be an Amber Zone. All objects specifically manufactured as weapons are typically regulated or prohibited (with no exception for private residences; visiting starships are only protected so long as they stay within designated starports and approach corridors). Civilian movement is rigidly controlled. Travel documents are frequently checked, and destinations must often be declared when traveling substantial distances across the world.

Rigid government controls regulate every aspect of local life.

Imperial Landed Nobility

Quhaiathat, as a member world of the Third Imperium, holds the estates of two members of the Imperial Nobility, who are charged with overseeing the world.

• It holds the estate of an Imperial knight.
• It holds the fiefdom of an Imperial marquis.

Trade Data

• Importance: 0 (unimportant)

World Economy

• Resources: A (abundant)
• Labor: 6 (millions)
• Infrastructure: 9 (extensive)
• Efficiency: +2 (good)

The economy centers around the mining of high quality metal ores, the major export from the system. A small amount of manufacturing is undertaken, but most manufactured goods and foodstuffs are imported.

World Culture

• Heterogenity: 9 (discordant)
• Acceptance: 7 (aloof)
• Strangeness: 7 (confusing)
• Symbols: B (abstract)

World Timeline

Major events that have affected this world and the wider region that it lies within:

• The Year 0: the Third Imperium is founded.
• 300-420: the Imperial First Survey charts the system.
• 589-604: First Frontier War.
• 604-622: the Civil War.
• 615-620: Second Frontier War.
• 624: the Express Boat Network is established.
• 979-986: Third Frontier War.
• 995-1065: the Imperial Second Survey charts the system.
• 1065: the Second Survey is published. Information about the system becomes widely available.
• 1082-1084: Fourth Frontier War, also known as the False War.
• 1107-1110: Fifth Frontier War.

Later Historical Eras

Era: Milieu: New Era

Quhaiathat's original technocratic government became an impersonal bureaucracy known as the Core, and its edicts are enforced by the Containment Service, the world's "air police." Rationing of air and water is strictly enforced. And inhabitants put up with constant surveillance by the Containment Service, monitored for excessive usage of air and water. Everyone is taxed according to the amount of water and air that they use. That tax is payed for with either money, or by additional compulsory labor in the mines. Wasters of water and air, and tax cheats, are usually confined to the mines, in squalid conditions, until they pay off their "debt." And this penalty is applied to everyone, regardless of stature or standing, including Core bureaucrats. Needless to say, few people even attempt to cheat the taxman.

In the past, visitors were confined to the worlds starport, or were only allowed visas with short time expiration. Immigration was limited to a few thousand people per year. Despite these harsh laws, the output of the worlds mines were rich enough to give the common people a high standard of living, undermining dissent. The Representational Reforms eliminated the world governments efforts at limiting offworld contact and immigration, but was able to compensate through careful recruitment of offworld professionals, and a program of technological upgrade.

Quhaiathat also has the opprobrium for the highest industrial accident rate for any world of its tech level and nature. Since wealth is measured by the amount of water and air that the locals can afford, many are driven to overwork in an effort to escape the draconian regulatory oversight.

Oddly for a world of its legal imprimatur, few regulations exist in restraining or deterring such suicidal behavior. Perhaps the payoff of obsessive voluntary productivity is too great to suppress. No matter what the reason, the population has a swaggering nature reminiscent of any dangerous occupation, only to an extreme degree. Luck is as important as work ethic, and the society seems to thrive on thrill seeking to some degree. A play hard and why worry attitude is cultivated among the young. Miners who've survived past ten years of such behavior are looked upon with a perverse mixture of respect and dread. Sports are extremely popular, as is just plain stupid daredevil behavior. RQS and Naval personnel dread visiting the world, as the locals are sometimes given to playing chicken or hide and seek with local patrols.

References & Contributors (Sources)

This list of sources was used by the Traveller Wiki Editorial Team and individual contributors to compose this article. Copyrighted material is used under license from Mongoose Publishing or by permission of the author. The page history lists all of the contributions.

• Marc Miller. The Spinward Marches (Game Designers Workshop, 1979), 10-11.
• Marc Miller. The Spinward Marches Campaign (Game Designers Workshop, 1985), 18-19.
• Marc Miller. Imperial Encyclopedia (Game Designers Workshop, 1987), 94-100. (UWP only)
• Rob Caswell. "Domain of Deneb: Sector Data." MegaTraveller Journal 3 (1992): 47-58. (UWP only)
• Dave Nilsen. The Regency Sourcebook (Game Designers Workshop, 1995), 48. (UWP only)
• Martin Dougherty, Neil Frier. Behind the Claw (Steve Jackson Games, 1998), 54.
• Mike West. The Spinward States (Avenger Enterprises, 2008), 109. (UWP only)
• Martin Dougherty. The Spinward Marches (Mongoose Publishing, 2008), .
• Martin Dougherty. Behind the Claw (Mongoose Publishing, 2019), 98-102. (UWP only)
• Peter Gray - BARD OPAL 19504 -