Talak (world)

Talak/Cabala (Far Frontiers 1537)
Classic Era (1116)	D687839-6 Starport D Poor: No Construction, Minor Repair, Unrefined fuel Size 6 Medium (9,600 km, 0.60g - 0.81g) Atmosphere 8 Dense Hydrographics 7 Wet World 70% Population 8 Moderate (400 million) Government 3 Self-Perpetuating Oligarchy Law 9 High Law (no weapons out of home) Tech Level 6 Pre-Stellar (nuclear)
See also	UWP
System Details
Primary	G7 III
Planetoid Belts	0
Gas Giants	1

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Jump map from Travellermap.com

Talak is a pre-agricultural, moderate population rich garden world with over a hundred million, but not yet a billion sophonts.

• Garden worlds are known for their near-ideal utopian environments conducive to most sophonts, plants, animals, and other forms of life.
• It is a pre-agricultural world with an environment suitable for large scale agricultural and livestock industries that have not yet been widely developed.
• This is a rich world with a prosperous and thriving world economy.
• Its economy and population are rapidly growing and living conditions are expected to quickly rise barring outside forces.
• It is a Non-Aligned world dominated by human sophonts located in the Cabala Subsector of Far Frontiers Sector.

• It is a chilly tundra world, with a climate of low temperatures.
• It is a member of the Trans-Blutian Main.
• There are two inhabited worlds within the system – Talak and Vahjdi.

Description (Astrography & Planetology)

Stellar Data

Talak has a solitary primary star named Nijet.

• It is a turbulent yellow giant.

Talak has a solitary primary star.

Nijet
	Type	Category		Mass (Sol)	Temperature (K)	Luminosity
	G7 III	Giant		3.52	4400 - 5400	83
	Unit	Diameter	Safe Distance	Habitable Zone	Jump Shadow	M-Drive Limit
	AU	0.12096	0.75566	7.24 - 11.81	12.096	120.96
	Orbit #	0	2	7	7	11
	Remarks		Unstable pulsating star. It occasionally experiences powerful flare activity, causing intense EM noise.

System Data

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

• The mainworld, Talak, orbiting at 10.8 AU.
• x2 secondary rocky worlds. These are inhabited Vahjdi, orbiting at 8.7 AU, and corrosive atmosphere Monkodo, orbiting at 14.2 AU.
• x1 large gas giant, Galsimar, orbiting at 18.7 AU.
  • It retains a number of large moons.
• x1 planetoid belt, the Kasama Belt, lying at a mean distance of 25.0 AU.

Mainworld Data

Talak orbits Nijet, the system's giant primary star, at a distance of 10.8 AU.

• It has an orbital period of 18 years 335 days (6,909 standard days).

It orbits within the star's Habitable Zone.

• It lies within the zone's colder outer H- region.
• It receives relatively low levels of stellar energy.

Mainworld Size (S)

Talak is a Meso World between 8,800km and 10,400km in diameter. The world has a standard gravity between 0.6G and 0.8G. The horizon will appear about 4.4km away.

Mainworld Atmosphere (A)

Talak has a pressure of 1.50 to 2.49 atmospheres. A Dense Atmosphere requires no survival gear although it may be hard on sophonts not accustomed to it.

Talak orbits towards the outer boundary of the star's habitable zone. It has a mean equatorial temperature of around 8°C (+/- 10°C).

Mainworld Hydrosphere (H)

Talak has 65-75% of its surface covered by liquid water. It has significant large liquid bodies. Wilderness refueling is possible.

Satellites

Talak retains two tiny planetoid moons.

• They orbit once every few days.

Mainworld Geography & Topography

Talak has eight small continents, most lying around the equator, and numerous small archipelagos and islands. Almost all the land is rugged and mountainous, with narrow fjords and numerous glaciers.

A simple map of Talak.

Native Lifeforms

Abundant native life occupying every available ecological niche. Its metabolic functions drive the process of atmospheric renewal.

• Native lifeforms are cryophilic - they thrive in lower temperatures.

History & Background (Dossier)

The Talak system contains two inhabited worlds - Vahjdi, the innermost planet, and Talak, the second world out from the star. The two worlds have similar orbital velocities. At their closest, they are within 2.1 AU of one another, and at their furthest separation they lie 19.5 AU apart. It takes around 10 standard years for the two worlds to move between their closest and furthest separation: for about two standard years in every twenty, the two worlds are quite close.

Human occupation of the Talak system goes back at least two thousand years. The first settlers were humans of Vilani descent who undertook colonizing efforts in the region – efforts that proved abortive and resulted in a scattering of technologically primitive "lost colonies" across the region. The name Talak means Gray Death.

Talak was, until 1097, a collection of rival states at war with one another. These internecine conflicts ended a decade ago when one of the more powerful states, named Kartuk, developed primitive fission weapons and broke the military stalemate. Talak is now united under a senate of Kartukan military officers led by a Triumvirate elected from the senate's own ranks. As with all dictatorships faced with peace, Kartuk needed some outside foe to unify the people in purpose and willingness to accept hardship. The technology which won the wars was marshaled toward the conquest of space. Within a few years fleets of primitive transports were making the crossing to Vahjdi, bringing civilization and unity to the barbarians that inhabited the world. This development shocked outside observers; no one thought Talak capable of such an undertaking at its present level of technology.

Talaki engineers are expert at monorail systems; these are the best way to link cities across Talak's mountain-divided, glaciated wilds.

Stellar Activity

Nijet, the system's unstable yellow giant primary star, occasionally experiences powerful flare activity. This causes intense EM noise, generating interference on communications and sensors.

• Nijet's bursts of activity generally last for a few hours before dying down again.

World Starport

Talak has a Class D Starport, a poor quality installation which has few of the expected amenities. There is unrefined fuel for starships and a limited variety of ship provisions. There is no shipyard of any kind, but there may be parts and technical support for doing minor services and repair. Ports of this classification generally consist of only a downport, unless this is a trade port or system with an hostile environment mainworld.

World Population (P)

Talak has a population of 400,000,000 sophonts (hundreds of millions).

• The population consists entirely of Humans, of Vilani biological origin.

Linguistic Topography

• Klehau, a language with Vilani roots, is widely spoken. It is a harsh tongue originating in the nation of Kartuk. Its use was forced on other nations conquered by Kartuk.
• Riftian Galanglic, a dialect of one of the two principal languages of the Imperium.
• Zdetl, the language of the Zhodani and the Zhodani Consulate.

World Technology Level (T)

Talak possesses a Technology Level of TL–6.

• Common Communication technologies for this TL include: Telephone, radio, and television.
• Common Power Generation technologies for this TL include: Early fission power generation, advanced water and wind generation of electricity.
• Common Transportation technologies for this TL include:
  • Land: Improved automobiles, early ATV's, and dedicated AFV's.
  • Water: Amphibious vehicles, improved submersibles, and early SCUBA gear.
  • Air: Early jet aircraft and rotorcraft VTOL's.
  • Space: Early unmanned rocket delivery systems and early manned orbital rockets.

World Government (G)

Talak is governed by Self-Perpetuating Oligarchy. A single family or small group provides the leadership and important positions in the government. These positions are inherited by member of the group or their family members. The organization may be a monarchy, with titles passed to family members, or a plutocracy where inheritance of the family fortune includes government position. Alternatively, the organization may be a more typical government apparatus, only with positions of power inherited.

• The nation of Kartuk recently annexed all other governments on Talak.

World Military

Elite combat legions are formed for internal security missions. The Golden Legion is an example.

World Law (L)

Talak has a high law level with laws covering many areas of interactions of people, corporations, and the government. A few worlds with this law level may be Amber Zones. Any interaction with the judicial system requires an Advocate trained in the local legal system. Law enforcement is present almost everywhere, either as people or via technology. Legal proceedings can take weeks to months to resolve and involve a dozen or more people. All blade weapons and firearms, and anything more destructive, are typically regulated or prohibited.

Trade Data

• Importance: -1 (unimportant)

World Economy

• Resources: A (abundant)
• Labor: 7 (tens of millions)
• Infrastructure: 6 (limited)
• Efficiency: -1 (average)

World Culture

The world lies within the Zhodani Shadow, a region strongly influenced by the society and culture of the Zhodani Consulate.

• Heterogenity: 8 (discordant)
• Acceptance: 7 (aloof)
• Strangeness: 5 (distinct)
• Symbols: 6 (somewhat concrete)

World Timeline

• 300-420: the First Survey charts the system.
• 995-1065: the Second Survey charts the system.
• 1065: the Second Survey is published.

References & Contributors (Sources)

This article is missing content for one or more detailed sections. Additional details are required to complete the article. You can help the Traveller Wiki by expanding it.

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.

• J. Andrew Keith, William H. Keith Jr. Classic Traveller Uragyad'n of the Seven Pillars, (FASA, 1981), various pages.
• Dale L. Kemper. The Far Frontiers, Ares Magazine, Special Issue 2, (SPI, 1984), page 36. (Cabala Subsector)
• J. Andrew Keith, Marc Miller, John Harshman. Classic Traveller Zhodani, (Game Designers Workshop, 1985), inside front cover. (the Zhodani; sector named and subsector depicted but no further data)
• Dale L. Kemper. The Far Frontiers, Traveller Chronicle 4, (Sword of the Knight Publications, 1994), pages 6-7. (Cabala Subsector)
• James Kundert. Far Frontiers, Traveller Chronicle 7, (Sword of the Knight Publications, 1994), pages 44-48. (sector background and timeline)
• David L. Pulver. GURPS Traveller: Alien Races 1, (Steve Jackson Games, 1998), Pages 5-63. (the Zhodani)
• Don McKinney. Mongoose Traveller: Zhodani, (Mongoose Traveller, 2011), 188 pages. (the Zhodani)