Tersta (world)

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Tersta/Khouth (Corridor 0102)
Milieu 0
C574000-0
StarportC Routine: No Construction, Major Repair, Unrefined fuel
Size5 Medium (8,000 km, 0.40g - 0.57g)
Atmosphere7 Standard (tainted)
Hydrographics4 Wet World 40%
Population0 Barren (0)
Government0 No Government structure
Law0 No Law
Tech Level0 Pre-Industrial (primitive)
Classic Era (1116)
C574522-7
StarportC Routine: No Construction, Major Repair, Unrefined fuel
Size5 Medium (8,000 km, 0.40g - 0.57g)
Atmosphere7 Standard (tainted)
Hydrographics4 Wet World 40%
Population5 Moderate (300 thousand)
Government2 Participating Democracy
Law2 Low Law (no energy weapons)
Tech Level7 Pre-Stellar (electronics)
New Era (1200)
E574543-6
StarportE Frontier - no facilities
Size5 Medium (8,000 km, 0.40g - 0.57g)
Atmosphere7 Standard (tainted)
Hydrographics4 Wet World 40%
Population5 Moderate (100 thousand)
Government4 Representative Democracy
Law3 Low Law (no automatic weapons)
Tech Level6 Pre-Stellar (nuclear)
See also UWP
System Details
Primary F3 V
Planetoid Belts 2
Gas Giants 0

Tersta is an agricultural, nonindustrial world still lacking adequate means to expand its economy.


  • During the initial surveys this world was named Ishash.

Description / Astrography & Planetology

No information yet available.

Tersta has a solitary primary star.
Tersta
Solitary F Type.jpg Type Category Mass (Sol) Temperature (K) Luminosity
F3 V Main Sequence (Dwarf) 1.44 6670 - 6750 3.58318
Unit Diameter Safe Distance Habitable Zone Jump Shadow M-Drive Limit
AU 0.0147 0.157 1.7 - 2.94 1.47 14.7
Orbit #  * 0 5 4 7
Remarks

System Data

No information yet available.

Mainworld Data

No information yet available.

Mainworld Geography & Topography

No information yet available.

Native Lifeforms

No information yet available.

History & Background / Dossier

Tersta was a world of marginal importance to the greater interstellar community. The Vargr hardly looked twice at it, as it lacked many of the resources that would justify colonization. The Imperium wrested it from the Vargr in the final battles of the Vargr Campaigns, as part of the final campaign to push the Vargr beyond Reference, but otherwise found no value in it either. Thereafter the world elicited little interest other than an occasional foray by corsairs that built bases here to raid Imperial shipping, and these remained a thorn in the side of the Imperial administration until their final expulsion in the 500s. Lingering hostilities prevented much trade between the Imperium and the Provence Vargr at any rate, and the world seemed doomed to mediocrity.

The unnatural atmospheric pollution eventually attracted academic interest from several prominent universities. These sent a number of expeditions to discover the cause, eventually finding the fragmentary remains of an extensive Ancient site in 774. In much poorer shape than the better known site on Antiquity (Corridor 0816), it nevertheless transformed the sleepy world as tourists came to gaze at its wonders. The Ministry of Colonization publicly boosted the site, hoping to encourage goodwill between the Imperium and its less well understood neighbors. Extensive visits from nearby chapters of the racial supremacist Church of the Chosen Ones made some Imperials wonder just which kind goodwill the Ministry was trying to elicit. But the project did make the world a minor trade portal between the two sides, albeit not a very prosperous one.

The site itself is mostly static, consisting of the ruined remains of massive kilometer high towers that existed about 300,000 years ago. Hundreds of these buildings covered the world at random intervals, and the Final War attack that destroyed them must have lasted days. Most of these buildings lacked physical exits of any kind, and their interior construction was both wondrous and bizarre, consisting of shifting walls of electrodynamic copper and mercury. Metaconducter antennas built atop the towers were used to transmit large electrical currents into the atmosphere for unknown reasons. Huge spheres of melted glass or quartz have been found embedded in otherwise solid rock, sometimes hundreds of meters below the ground, and many of them were hollowed out to contain a variety of inorganic and organic materials. Even the atmospheric taint is strange, with lightning or solar flares creating huge phosphorescent rain clouds that will glow for days on end, hum with mechanical noise when they come close to mountains, and expel rain colored in purple or green hues.

Imperial High / Landed Nobility

Tersta, as a member world of the Third Imperium, holds the estate of an Imperial Landed Knight who acts as an Imperial representative to the world, and the fiefdom of a member of the Imperial Landed Nobility, who oversees affairs regarding the world at an Interstellar and Imperial level.

World Starport

Tersta has a Class C Starport, an average quality installation which features 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 Technology Level

Tersta possesses a Technology Level of TL–7.

  • Common Communication technologies for this TL include: Early video and early satellite communication networks.
  • Common Power Generation technologies for this TL include: Early fuel cells, solar energy, and geothermal power sources.
  • Common Transportation technologies for this TL include:
    • Land: Improved automobiles, hovercraft, and bullet trains.
    • Water: Hydrofoils and early triphibians.
    • Air: Hang gliders and supersonic jets.
    • Space: Deep space probes and interplanetary spacecraft (System Craft).

World Government

Tersta is governed by a Participatory Democracy where eligible voters determine laws and policy. What determines an eligible voter varies. There may be smaller councils or regional bodies to draft the policies voted upon. Leadership of the government and all members of the bureaucracy are determined by the voting population.

World Military

No information yet available.

World Economy

No information yet available.

Trade Data

No information yet available.

World Demographics

No information yet available.

World Culture

No information yet available.

Urbanization

No information yet available.

Historical Data

No information yet available.

World Timeline

No information yet available.

UWP Listing

No information yet available.

History-Era: Rebellion

Tersta fell without a fight to Dzarrgh Federate forces in early 1117. For the most part the local inhabitants were ignored. While the Ancient site attracted a sudden surge of interest from the Chosen Ones, hostilities between them and the Federate government compelled a temporary closure of the world to outside contact until 1122. After the blockade was lifted, the poverty stricken population began to abandon the world for the Domain of Deneb.

History-Era: New Era

Virus came in 1138, and destroyed the original starport and the local Federate garrison in one blow. Food shortages have compelled the remaining population to allow excavations of the ruins by Vargr corsairs and Vampire Fleets in return for food from nearby worlds.

References & Contributors / Sources

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