The Blood Hound
We thought our world was all of existence, and then our world exploded. Our silent watchers took pity on our kind, grabbed the fragments of our once beautiful world, and made them livable in the vast ocean of the galaxy. Like comets, chunks of our world now drift in the great nothing, and we along with them.
And although we can see the sun wherever we go, we are etched in an eternal night, and all is silent.
- Intent: To create a unique planet in an uncommon setting that can be used for culture-heavy RP as well as serve various outlaw groups.
- Image Credit:
All images for the top gif are screenshots from the movie "The Neverending Story". - Original divider graphics made by [member="Srina Talon"], edited by [member="Scherezade deWinter"].
[*]Canon: No.
[*]Links: n/a
- Planet Name: Avirr
- Demonym: Avirran
- Region: Wild Space
- System Name: Meh Uma
- System Features:
Avirr - Moons:
Cleta - Euphrosyne
- Hegemoneone
[*]Ion Storms
[*]Small Sun
[*]Coordinates: T-55
[*]Major Imports: Medicine, luxury items, food, communication tech, space travel tech.
[*]Major Exports: Tibanna Gas
- Gravity: Standard
- Climate: Temperate
- Primary Terrain: Rocky, grasslands, hills, air
- Atmosphere: Type I
- Major Locations: Avirr is a planet unlike many others. Similar to Bespin, Kaer, Kril'Dor, and Ord Ibanna, it is a gas giant. Unlike those mentioned, the gas that encompasses and makes most of the planet is entirely transparent, and cannot be seen without special equipment. Inside the transparency exist the fragments; masses of land that visually resemble asteroids that can be tiny or huge, upon some of which, life and civilization exist.
Not all the fragments can be lived on. The big ones appear to be stable enough, yet some of them experience the dust, as the edges can crumble into it seemingly overnight. Sometimes new fragments appear on Avirr. Civilization exists predominantly in the center of the fragments that are deemed stable enough to live on, though several settlements in the Dust Lands exist as well.
While Avirr has a sun in the system, there is no daylight or nighttime. It's always dark, and those who look at the sky will see the sun and distant stars (akin to like being on the moon).
Major locations on Avirr include:
Mahut
Mahut is the largest fragment in Avirr, about 600km2 in size. It is also the most stable fragment, experiencing almost no dust at the fringes. Due to its geostability, Mahut has become the center of Avirr's civilization, and can be found in the small cities and various villages that are spread around it. Mahut is also one of the only two fragments that are connected to the interplanetary communication systems, being able to receive and access the holonetwork and people all the way to the core.
The edges of Mahut are connected by air-railways to Ashira, a nearby stable fragment where most of the food is grown (more on that below).
Despite its size and stability, there is very little that grows on Mahut, as most of the land on it is rocky and windy with only a little bit of sprouting weeds here and there. Most of the houses, whether grand or small, are made of the local ore, and buildings are rarely more than two stories high.
Capitol
On Mahut is Avirr’s capital city, simply known as The Capital. The Capital is here most of the planet’s communications and entertainment centers can be found, as Avirr does have the means to contact the rest of the galaxy, but the power to do so is under the direct and very strict control of the ruling caste. Entertainment includes mostly cheap entertainments, such as shoddy bars, nightlife dance places, casinos, and strip bars.
[*]Ashira
Ashira is another stable fragment, about half in size of Mahut. Real Estate in Ashira is the most expensive one on Avirr, as this is where the rich and the powerful reside. Every inch of the fragment is owned by one of the ruling families who use much of their grounds to grow food to feed most of the planet. Food of which they of course keep the best, and charge insane prices when they sell it to those beneath their station. Small shacks made of dry wood can be found as well, as the people who work the grounds need a place to live in. Ashira is the fragment that holds the Capital and everything else on Mahut by the balls, threatening on occasion to cut the air railways to remove any connection and ability to import food to the main fragment.
While far from being a small fragment, Ashira does experience dusting from time to time. It was only a few years ago that an entire corner of the fragment dusted over night and one of the ruling families was wiped out entirely, having attended a family gathering in the mansion that very same day. Some conspirators claim that this was deliberately done and was no dusting, yet proof has never been successfully found by those very few who sought it out.
[*]Hundreds of Fragments, Large and Small
Avirr includes many fragments, big and small. But while Mahut and Ashira are known to be safe (or mostly safe, in Ashira’s case), such promises do not exist for all the rest of the fragments. Small settlements can be found here and there on the floating fragments of Avirr, and while some have remained stable for centuries, others have vanished overnight, becoming little but dust.
The people who live on these distant fragments are considered pariahs in the Avirr society, as they choose not to live on Mahut. Yet these are the people who have small spaceships that can carry them outside of the planet and outside of the reign of the ruling families, which is why when the ruling families remember that they exist, they often come in with local militias to take them down.
Other living situations on the distant fragments exist as temporary settlements for the Fraggers, men and women of lowly castes who risk their lives mapping and testing fragments out so that their families could eat.
[*]The Dust Lands
The Dust Lands are the dangerous part of Avirr, where fragments may form and disappear over the course of hours. A small sparse amount of people live there, choosing to become hermits from the Avirr society, as they do not have the means to go elsewhere. The Dust Lands are full of hard and dangerous people who will not pause before they shoot first and ask questions never, who feed mostly on the local wildlife of insects, small local animals, and a few root vegetables. To go into the Dust Lands is to go to your own death; few to none of the people both on Mahut or Ashira would ever risk such a thing.
- Native Species: Human
- Immigrated Species: n/a
- Population: Sparsely Populated
- Demographics:
100% Humans. The population of Avirr is highly xenophobic and other species are not welcome.
[*]Primary Languages: Galactic Basic
[*]Culture: At a glance, it seems as though the people of Avirr have little that make them stand out. The middle to lower castes wear poor clothes that seem to be patches upon patches just to keep them together, but the higher castes would not be accepted among Coruscant's higher society either, despite being in a much better shape. Most of the music heard in bars is painfully outdated yet not even good enough to be considered oldies classics. The people will immediately leave whatever it is they were working on the moment the com device on their arm beeps, knowing it is a summon from the higher castes.
While the lower castes are free to marry and fornicate as they choose, it is treated as a taboo subject among themselves, with many families adopting the way of the Ruling Families regarding modesty in the hopes of being seen as better than their station. Men and women alike suffer from all forms of oppression, and there seems to be very little difference between how badly the genders are treated.
Schooling is offered to children only throughout the grammar school years, but many of them don't complete even that as there is much work to do and too little resources given for it in order to support households. Higher castes leave the planet if they wish to pursue higher learning.
It is rare to see people holding hands or showing even the most common physical signs of affection, both platonic and romantic. Many people walk with their eyes to the ground. Children are part of this overall silence.
[*]Religion: The people of Avirr believe in the Gods. It is sin to think of how many of them there may be, or what their names are. The Gods are good and just and help the people of Avirr to survive the many hardships they must during their lives. If a person was good during their lives, the Gods would bring them to a happy afterlife in a place that is full of daylight and sunshine, where their bellies are always full. If a person was bad during their lives, they would turn to dust, never to return or go anywhere else again. Reincarnation exists for those the Gods are not certain about and is considered neither a gift nor punishment, but merely a second chance to live.
The Gods require no honor but that of memory. There are no churches, not houses of worship, no statues. A stranger on Avirr would not even be able to guess that its population believes in anything.
There is but one story of the Gods that is permitted to be spoken out loud – the story of how the Gods took pity on the people of Avirr when their planet exploded, and gave them the fragments so that they could continue to live and adhere to the law. Other stories exist, dark stories, but these are spoke in hushed tones when the doors are closed. To speak of them anywhere else would be to risk execution.
- Government: Caste System
- The Ruling Families – the Ruling Families are the highest caste on Avirr, and are the main reason that the planet is not doing well. Any income that is made by the extraction of the Tibanna Gas goes directly to their pockets. The Ruling Families dine richly, feast richly, and go on vacations (slightly less richly). At present, there are eight Ruling Families, all of whom keep mansions and live on Ashira. The Ruling Families often interbreed in order to keep the bloodlines pure, and often prefer mating siblings just to avoid the entrance of spoiled and rotten blood entering their families. They also breed at dangerous speeds, discarding those that are born deformed due to their natural selection, and keeping those that appear to be healthy enough. There is no place for compassion or niceties among the Ruling Families. They have the credits, but they are cold hearted people who are not above selling their own mothers to gain what they want.
The Cousin Caste – this caste is directly linked to the Ruling Families by blood, but do not get to be the heads of any families. The Ruling Families have a direct interest in keeping this caste healthy and producing, as this is where they choose potential mates for their children from. To keep the Cousin Caste Happy, the Ruling Families have given them the reigns to control the communication and entertainment of Avirr. As with the Ruling Families, the Cousin Caste interbreeds often, as not only will choosing mates from lower castes get them executed, but as will any fornication with the lesser castes in the event that they are caught. Those who belong to the Cousin Caste may occasionally leave Avirr and travel to other places. The Cousin Caste is regularly encouraged to be as cold blooded and hearted as the Ruling Families; and they are.
The Farmers – the Farmers are considered a step above the rest of the working castes, as it is their hard work that keeps the planet mostly fed, when the Ruling Families aren’t stopping the food sales. The Farmers are also better fed than the rest of the working classes and below, as they have access to crops and livestock year round. The Farmer Caste’s choices in who to marry is not limited to their caste only and they may look at other castes, but these unions must always be approved and signed by the Ruling Family.
Low Level Workers – these are the people who work all around Mahut, be they cleaning people, garbarge people, bartenders, and anything else that does not belong to the higher castes. Despite being the majority of the population, they are often considered invisible unless they do not perform their jobs, which often leads to execution even over minor things. The Low Level Workers may marry, breed, fornicate, and do as they like, providing it is within their caste. A certain percentage of the Low Level Workers become Fraggers - those who explore further away fragments and mark which are safe and which are not. Many of the Fraggers do not reach past the age of 30 due to the dangers of the job. However, families that contain a Fragger among them tend to live better off than those who do not, as the job pays more than any other ob one can find on Mahut.
The Casteless – these are the people who do not live on Mahut, Ashira, or the Frag settlements. They are pariahs, anathemas, and are unwanted. They have no legal standing and when they are caught, they are executed on sight. They tend to live poorly off the land of whichever fragment they are on. Some consider them cursed. However, many of the Casteless are as such by choice, at least for the first generation.
- Affiliation: neutral
- Wealth: Low. The people of Avirr are incredibly poor and know the meaning of hunger. While the Ruling Families are much better off and rarely want for anything, they are still a far cry from being considered rich by Core standards.
- Stability: Stability on Avirr is usually high. Although the people are far from happy, the iron fist with which of the Ruling Families and the Cousin Caste rule ensures that all are kept in line. While the very occasional uprising is attempted, these are often quickly dealt with by executing all those involved. The upper castes have already shown that they care very little for the lower castes, with the exception of the farmers, and are not above starving them out if they misbehave.
Travelers are not welcome on Avirr. Human travelers may be tolerated for a few hours, but non-Humans are chased off on sight, and executed if they remain too long.
The people of Avirr are, obviously, oppressed. This oppression reigns among all the classes, including the Ruling Families, the heads of which oppress their others. It is an ongoing cycle of terrible rules, cutthroat behavior, and eternal darkness.
- Freedom & Oppression: There is little to no freedom on Avirr. People rarely leave their castes unless it’s to die, and all fear the Ruling Families, who keep everyone reigned in tightly. High and middle castes cannot choose to follow up on their loves at risk of execution, and the Ruling Families often use their full and complete control of the food lines to keep the rest of the population in line.
- Military: Avirr has no military of any kind, no ground forces and no air forces. Some of the Cousin Caste people are sometimes used for security of the Ruling Families’ mansions and grounds. Other than that a local militia exists, though their weapons are of the pitchforks and house pans kind.
- Technology: Avirr is a low-tech planet. Running water and electricity exists, and while the planet is connected to the holonetwork, access to it is in the strict control and hands of the Ruling Family. Bacta is something only the higher castes have access to. The mid to lower castes have comm devices that they must wear at all times so that the higher castes can call upon them at times of need, but these devices cannot be used to contact their own friends or family.
As far back as history reaches, Avirr had always been a divided society, its people spread among the various castes. However, the planet was once also much better situated, with technology being more advanced, connections to the core being better, and its people generally better off with various foodstuff and technologies imported. The Ruling Families were smaller in number than they are today, and their leaders were much more benevolent than the ones the planet has had for the past few centuries. Avirr was also once a magnet for extreme sports tourism, with people in their late teens or early twenties from nearby systems coming to visit the smaller fragments and climb all around them.
But this did not last.
As the Gulag swept across the Galaxy, Avirr's population was hit harshly by the virus, many people dying and families broken. Most of the Ruling Families were wiped out by this as well, as they had the means to travel easily off-planet and it is quite possible that they brought the virus with them upon returning from one of their trips. One by one, the Ruling Families died, until they were only two left. As the belief that the castes were not to be mixed reigned even back then, combined with the fear of people being too free to travel to and from Avirr, the remaining Ruling Families decided to tighten the reigns.
Tourism denial was the first thing they did. Once the planet was sufficiently isolated, the remaining Ruling Families destroyed most of the tech equipment that could be found on the planet at the time, shrinking it down to what they saw as a necessary minimum. The Farmer caste was slightly elevated, as they knew they would require food to keep the planet running.
But whereas the Ruling Families that began the process believed this would be a temporary solution that would enable the planet to survive until the Gulag threat was over, their children did not hold the same vision. Where their fathers sought safety and survival, the children saw control and power games, and when the heads of the Ruling Families were replaced, Avirr became a worse place to live in for anyone who was not them.
However, it is important to note that Avirr became also safer in the grand scheme of things, with many galactic events and war passing by them entirely, with only the Ruling Families, who occasionally traveled off-planet, ever being aware that such things were happening at all.
The initial intent of the Ruling Fmilies has long since been forgotten. The Ruling Families treat the planet as their playground to this day, keeping all the leashes secured tightly upon the people. The people of Avirr are unhappy, but well-subdued, and are unlikely to rise without outsiders interfering.
