Tarsus (SM 1138) (world)

Tarsus/District 268 (Spinward Marches 1138) Milieu 1116 B584620-A Starport B Good: Spacecraft Construction, Overhaul, Refined fuel Size 5 Medium (8,000 km, 0.40g - 0.57g) Atmosphere 8 Dense Hydrographics 4 Wet World 40% Population 6 Moderate (2 million) Government 2 Participating Democracy Law 0 No Law Tech Level A Early Stellar (jump drive)
See also	UWP
style="width: 220px; height: 250px;" Jump map from Travellermap.com
System Details
Primary	K9 V
Worlds	7
Gas Giants	2
Planetoid Belts	0
Cultural Details
Government	Participating democracy
Law Level	No law
Cultural Extension	1915
Army Size (BEs)	15
Economic Details
Technology Level	10
Economic Extension	A57-1 Resources A Abundant Labor 5 Moderate (200 thousand) Infrastructure 7 Generally available Efficiency -1 Average
Importance Extension	3
Resource Units	315
GWP (BCr)	11
World Trade Number	4
Trade Volume (MCr/year)	930
Starport Details
Classification	Class-B
Port Size	4
Building Capacity (Tons)	2,000
Port employees	195
Port passengers (annual)	46,500

Tarsus is a rich and agricultural production world with a shirt-sleeve atmosphere and a balance of available surface water. The system supports a population in the millions of sophonts, lacking the industrial base to be completely self-supporting. It is a client state of Third Imperium in the District 268 Subsector of Spinward Marches Sector.

Astrography & Planetology

Tarsus is a member of the Spinward Main. Tarsus is also specifically a member of the Collace Arm.

Monostellar System

Tarsus Monostellar System

Star Name	Hierarchy	Category		Mass (Sol)	Temp (K)	Luminosity (Sol)
Tarsus Primary K9 V	Primary	Main Sequence		0.59	3850 - 3930	0.15775
	Unit	Diameter	Min Distance	Hab Zone	Jump Shadow	M-Drive Limit
	AU	0.0028	0.0329	0.41 - 0.78	0.28	2.8
	Orbit #	*	*	2	0	5

Mainworld Data

Tarsus has two natural moons, Rond and Gloeh. Rond is used as the site for a base maintained by SuSAG, an Imperial megacorporation. Agreements with the government of Tarsus in 860 established a lease for the north polar cap of Rond (to a distance of 200 kilometres from the pole) for a period of 1,000 standard years.

Native Lifeforms

The first colonists on Tarsus discovered that although they could eat most of the local flora and fauna without ill-effects, they needed dietary supplements because several amino acids vital to Human life are not present in any native life form. Subsequent colonists brought a number of animals with them to Tarsus (mostly of Terran stock).

The Nobble

Harvesting nobbles (large migratory grazers) is the primary occupation of 10% of the planet's 2.332 million inhabitants, and an important sector of the Tarsan economy. There are over 4,000 nobble ranches circling a vast expanse of steppe named Nob Plain, the average distance between them being 50 km. Nobble ranching is regulated by the Ag Market, which awards a finite number of contracts per year, each for 100 animals. The nobbles are culled while the vast herds are on the move, and as they average 20 km/hour, this is done as quickly as possible so that the carcasses may be efficiently processed. Once killed, the animals are skinned, their carcasses dressed, and the meat and hides taken to a pre-designated rendezvous point to be picked up by shuttle.

History & Background (Dossier)

Tarsus was settled between 450 and 462 by 19,125 exiles from Fornice. The venture was well organized and the colony avoided any significant technological regression. Tarsus achieved independence from Fornice in 502.

The population grew slowly but steadily over the centuries, supplemented from time to time by immigrants from other worlds. Among them were the members of the Tizonian 3rd Lift Regiment and their families, who came to Tarsus in 625 fleeing war-crime accusations, and settled in an empty region called Regiment. Their descendants have since been integrated into the mainstream of Tarsan society.

Ag Worlds

In 780, Tarsus joined Motmos (Spinward Marches 1340) and Tarkine (Spinward Marches 1434) in establishing the Ag Worlds 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. It supplies food to much of District 268, which includes many worlds whose inhospitable and/or degraded environments cannot support conventional agriculture. The Ag Worlds Combine's headquarters is located on Motmos.

In the same year that the Ag Worlds Combine was established, large numbers of refugees fleeing the newly-established religious dictatorship on neighboring Pavabid (Spinward Marches 1238) settled on Tarsus. Another wave of immigrants arrived in the early 800s as people fleeing the Psionics Suppressions sought refuge beyond the Imperial border. Due in large part to the presence of their descendants, Tarsus exhibits little of the psionophobia found on most other worlds in the Spinward Marches. Indeed, the megacorporation SuSAG operates a large psi drug manufacturing plant on Tarsus.

Tangle Discoveries

In 1110, a group of primitive humans were discovered living deep in the Tangle Wald, an inaccessible forest far from the main Tarsan settlements. These turned out to be the descendants of a Sword Worlds petroleum mining colony that had been established in -104 only to be abandoned to its own devices just two years later when the outbreak of the War of the First Rebellion led to the collapse of the Sacnoth Dominate. Evidence found over a century later at the original colony site led to the erroneous conclusion that its last survivors had died off around -60. The Forest People, as they are called, were declared wards of the Tarsan government in 1113.

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 Far Future Enterprises 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.
• Martin Dougherty, Neil Frier. Behind the Claw (Steve Jackson Games, 1998), 75.
• Paul Drye, Hans Rancke-Madsen, Robert Prior. Sword Worlds (Steve Jackson Games, 2004), 103.
• 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. (UWP only)