Talos (world)

Talos/District 268 (Spinward Marches 1436)
Classic Era (1116)	E433532-9 Starport E Frontier - no facilities Size 4 Small (6,400 km, 0.32g - 0.46g) Atmosphere 3 Vacuum (very thin) Hydrographics 3 Wet World 30% Population 5 Moderate (800 thousand) Government 3 Self-Perpetuating Oligarchy Law 2 Low Law (no energy weapons) Tech Level 9 Early Stellar (fusion)
See also	UWP
System Details
Primary	F9 V M1 V
Planetoid Belts	2
Gas Giants	0

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Jump map from Travellermap.com

Talos is a poor, nonindustrial world.

• As a nonindustrial world, it requires extensive imports of outside technology to maintain a modern, star-faring society. The need to import most manufactured and high technology goods drives the price of these goods up in the open market.
• This world has few prospects for economic development.
• It is a Non-Aligned world dominated by human sophonts located in the District 268 Subsector of Spinward Marches Sector.

• Talos is a member of the Spinward Main.
• It is the bridge system between the Collace Arm and the Glisten Arm of the main.

Description (Astrography & Planetology)

Stellar Data

Talos is a binary star system.

• The primary is a white main sequence.
• The secondary is a red main sequence.

Talos has two stars in the star system.

Primary
	Type	Category		Mass (Sol)	Temperature (K)	Luminosity
	F9 V	Main Sequence (Dwarf)		1.13	5990 - 6050	1.53382
	Unit	Diameter	Safe Distance	Habitable Zone	Jump Shadow	M-Drive Limit
	AU	0.0109	0.1027	1.16 - 2.03	1.09	10.9
	Orbit #	*	0	4	3	7
	Remarks
Companion
	Type	Category		Mass (Sol)	Temperature (K)	Luminosity
	M1 V	Main Sequence (Dwarf)		0.5	3620 - 3660	0.08839
	Unit	Diameter	Safe Distance	Habitable Zone	Jump Shadow	M-Drive Limit
	AU	0.0047	0.0247	0.31 - 0.59	0.47	4.7
	Orbit #	*	*	1	1	6
	Remarks

System Data

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

• The mainworld.
• x6 secondary rocky worlds.
• x2 planetoid belt.

Mainworld Data

Talos orbits within the primary star's habitable zone.

• It receives moderate levels of stellar energy.

Mainworld Size (S)

Talos is a Meso World between 5,600km and 7,200km in diameter. The world has low gravity between 0.32G and 0.46G. The horizon will appear about 3.6km away.

Mainworld Atmosphere (A)

Talos has a pressure of 0.10 to 0.42 atmospheres. The very thin pressures require a respirator or Oxygen Mask. TL–5 or more advanced survival gear is required to settle this world.

Mainworld Hydrosphere (H)

Talos has 25-35% of its surface covered by liquid water. It has a few small seas. Wilderness refueling is possible. Water for the inhabitants will be recycled.

Mainworld Geography and Topography

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

(Blank map, predominantly dry world.)

History & Background (Dossier)

Some suspect that there was a population on this world by the 400's, who were religious pilgrims from the Tizon Empire. The system is known for the Riddle of Talos, when a very large vessel of unknown design and origin was detected orbiting the star in the inner system. It disappeared, only to reappear again centuries later before once again vanishing.

It is part of the Kaharoht Run, a Mewey trade route that forms part of the Collace Arm of the Spinward Main.

Traveller's Advisory

Talos was long designated an amber zone, but that classification was terminated in 1008 after three standard centuries had passed without any reported sightings of the intruder in the inner system. However, travellers should be aware that the vessel could possibly reappear at any time and resume its blockade of Talos.

World Starport (St)

Talos has a Class E Starport, a frontier quality installation with few 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 a downport.

World Population (P)

Talos has a population of 800,000 sophonts (hundreds of thousands).

• This is a Nonindustrial World, too small to support the complete chain of production of most goods from start to finish.

World Technology Level (T)

Talos 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)

Talos 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.

Talos is governed by a council of hereditary oligarchs who rule a collection of small city-states scattered around the shores of the planet’s oceans -- each of which generally has its own E-class landing facility. Governmental institutions are minimal and neither provide many services to the inhabitants nor impose any significant restrictions on their economic, political and social freedoms. Although the climate is cold (average temperatures hover just above freezing) and the atmosphere very thin, the Talosians have created a sustainable society based on hydroponic agriculture, and small-scale industrial workshops and resource-extraction enterprises. Despite the low Law Level and easy availability of weapons, crime is rare and Talosian society has been at peace with itself for half a millennium.

World Law (L)

Talos has a low law level. There are few laws, covering only important areas. There may be few or no law enforcement officers, the expectation is citizens will bring law breakers to the attention of the Judicial system. Legal proceedings will be fast, with few people involved. For interactions outside of the framework of the laws, cultural norms dominate. Portable energy weapons, body pistols, explosives, and poison gas are typically regulated or prohibited.

Trade Data

• Importance: -2 (very unimportant)

Talos is part of a trade route known as the Kaharoht Run, reaching across District 268. Mewey merchant ships maintain regular waystations along this route.

World Economy

• Resources: 9 (moderate)
• Labor: 4 (tens of thousands)
• Infrastructure: 2 (extremely limited)
• Efficiency: -5 (extremely poor)

World Culture

Although the rest of known space is endlessly fascinated by the ‘Riddle of Talos’ the Talosians themselves are not. Their society is extremely conservative, isolationist and politely, but firmly, disinterested in offworld affairs. Only a handful of Talosians speak Galanglic or any other ‘foreign’ language, and offworld visitors are rare and generally treated with courteous disdain. Anthropologists and sociologists have speculated that these the traits can somehow be traced back to the founding of Talos, but cannot agree on the reasons behind them.

Although they are technologically capable of interstellar travel, the Talosians have not even bothered to develop an in-system spacefaring capability beyond that necessary to send communications satellites into orbit. And, despite the fact that Talos sits at a strategic junction where the Collace and Glisten arms of the J-1 Spinward Main intersect, no proper starport has ever been built and interstellar trade is minimal. This does not, however, prevent the Talosian government from making a hefty profit by charging visiting spacecraft exorbitant fees for refueling in the planet’s oceans (the system has no gas giant).

• Heterogenity: 1 (monolithic)
• Acceptance: 3 (xenophobic)
• Strangeness: 1 (very typical)
• Symbols: 5 (concrete)

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.

Point of Interest: Riddle of Talos

Talos is a world shrouded in mystery. Neither the shipwrecked Rule of Man Solomani who colonized Noctocol (three parsecs away) around -2000, nor the Sindalian Empire mining colony established on Collace (two parsecs away) in the -1400s recorded anything unusual about Talos before they lost jump capability. All early Darrian records concerning Talos were lost during the Maghiz, so the earliest documented account of the system that we have dates from a Sword Worlds survey expedition that visited Talos in -147. The scouts found evidence of sophont habitation in the form of highly-distorted, undecipherable radio signals. However, no further details could be learned because a massive (50 kiloton?) bronze-colored spacecraft of highly unconventional design that was in orbit around the planet moved to intercept and fired warning shots every time the survey ship attempted to approach. It was also evidently jamming all transmissions to and from the planet.

There is a break in Sword Worlds records caused by the aftermath of the War of the First Rebellion, but Darrian archives indicate that the mysterious vessel was still standing sentry over Talos in Imperial (year zero). However, by the time that the first Imperial scouts visited Talos in 151, the strange spacecraft had disappeared. The planet proved to be inhabited by what at first seemed to be an entirely unremarkable human population of about 250,000 that was living at TL–7.

The Talosians were entirely ignorant of the fact that a huge, alien craft had once orbited their world, and knew very little of their own history. There had evidently been a centuries-long period of severe technological and scientific regression (to TL–1) during which the facts about how, when and why the planet was settled had become lost in the mists of history. Talosian mythology is vague and includes many elements (such as divine intervention) that are patently absurd. It is also contradictory, particularly insofar as mythical accounts of the planet’s settlement incorporate both the themes of banishment for misdeeds (mirroring the Garden of Eden myth on ancient Terra) and of finding blessed refuge at the end of a perilous flight from monstrous enemies.

The Sword Worlders had speculated that Talos was a Darrian colony that had become isolated after the Maghiz, but the Darrians themselves rejected this theory because the mysterious spacecraft bore no resemblance to any known Darrian design. When contact was finally made with the inhabitants, they were found to be genetically distinct from Darrians, Solomani, Vilani and Zhodani alike, and spoke a language that appeared to be entirely unique and unrelated to any other known human tongue. This has prompted most experts to theorize that the Talosians are the last survivors of an unknown spacefaring culture that had arisen somewhere in the Trojan Reaches and disappeared before the era of the Sindalian Empire (-2074 through -1441).

The ‘Riddle of Talos’ was of interest only to historians and linguists until 708, when the mysterious vessel inexplicably reappeared, and resumed its former habits of intercepting all ships that attempted to approach the planet. It took nearly 100 standard days for the Imperial bureaucracy to make up its collective mind to intervene in a system beyond its borders, but when an Imperial Navy task force finally arrived at Talos, the intruder immediately disappeared. Imperial and Sword Worlds vessels were both present, but could not follow the craft as it moved off under extremely high acceleration (10-12G). Since no jump signature was detected and an intense search of the inner system revealed nothing, it was concluded that the intruder had fled to the unsearchable vastness of the system’s Oort Cloud. There have been dozens of reported encounters with the strange vessel in the remote, sunless reaches of the Talos System over the past four centuries, but none of these has ever been confirmed.

The most widely accepted theory is that the intruder is an automated vessel that continues to mindlessly follow its ancient and inscrutable programming. The most fascinating and perplexing question, of course, is whether the craft was protecting the Talosians or imprisoning them on the planet, but other riddles abound. Whatever its purpose, why did the intruder disappear and then return five standard centuries later? Its flight from the Imperial Navy task force in 708 seems logical enough, but why has the intruder never returned to the inner system in the four centuries since? Last but not least, who or what built the vessel in the first place? Popular speculation on this last question inevitably points to the Ancients, whose homeworld has been tentatively placed in the neighboring Five Sisters subsector, but most reputable scholars reject this notion because human inhabitation of Talos is at most 2,500 standard years old.

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), 18-19.
• 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), 48-49. (UWP only)
• Martin Dougherty, Neil Frier. Behind the Claw (Steve Jackson Games, 1998), 77.
• Mike West. The Spinward States (Avenger Enterprises, 2008), 110. (UWP only)
• Martin Dougherty. The Spinward Marches (Mongoose Publishing, 2008), .
• Martin Dougherty. Behind the Claw (Mongoose Publishing, 2019), 123-127.
• Author & Contributor: Vendarth