Ta'shen
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- "Those who deny freedom to others, deserve it not for themselves"
- —Abraham Lincoln, Complete Works - Volume XII
Ta'shen is a world inside the territory of the former Romulan Star Empire within close proximity to the shared borders of the Romulan Free State and Romulan Republic. A resort world in the days of the Old Romulan Star Empire, Ta'shen had continued in that capacity, serving as an unofficial centre for off-the-books diplomacy and deal-making thanks to a rarely granted 'free port' status, at least for the other Romulan successor states and those with enough capital to bribe their way to the surface.
However, events early in 2400 and the collapse of the Romulan Star Empire brought about winds of change on Ta'shen which still haven't settled down completely.
History
Founding? Resort world for centuries and centuries? Minor mineral extraction and agriculture are located far from the resorts to keep them supplied. Reliant on off-world imports to major technology and expansion. Slaves were brought in to run the behind-the-scenes stuff, fight in the coliseum, staff the less savoury destinations.
Environment
The environment of Ta'shen is fairly typical of class-M worlds, though verging more towards a warmer medium than most as evident by the lack of surface ice and the generally pleasant climate found at most latitudes. This made the world, with minimal biosphere modification, a perfect place for the establishment of resorts for the rich and powerful during the era of the Old Romulan Star Empire.
Rudimentary weather control systems moderate any potentially dramatic storms, diverting them away from the more populous resorts and the world's only major city of T'ma'ru, which plays host to the majority of the resorts and other entertainment locales as well as the governor's palace. T'ma'ru is essentially maintained in a tropical to sub-tropical climate to allow for year-round favourable weather conditions for all guests.
The climate elsewhere around the world is allowed to essentially run naturally. This does mean frequent large-scale cyclonic storms that lash the various landmasses. As such what farming is done on the planet tends to be done in the rain-shadows of the few mountain ranges in order to protect as best as possible from the majority of storms. Despite being carried out in areas with significantly reduced rainfall, the hydrosphere cycle of Ta'shen is very active and the 'dry' farmlands tend to still be quite hospitable to imported crops.
Mineral extraction sites worldwide tend to be built with the weather in mind as well, though more with a view towards enduring what weather comes versus avoiding it. The most significant mining operations are taken place on the far side of Ta'shen from T'ma'ru and prone to constant regular electrical storms and wild weather as a result of geography and local islands funnelling water and air currents.
T'ma'ru
The capital city of T'ma'ru is located on an island just north of Ta'shen's equator, resting on an eastward-facing bay, which combined with the planet's orbital and rotational directions grants the city magnificent sunset views. In a city of roughly 3 million individuals at last stocktake and census, it comes as little surprise that the slave population was by far and away the largest demographic.
The city was home to the Governor's Palace, functionally its own acropolis north of the city and commanding the entire northern skyline. The palace served as the governor's residence as well as a fortification designed and built centuries ago by a paranoid predecessor worried about slave revolts. The facility featured walls designed to prevent physical entry but has over the centuries been supplemented with its own shield generator as well. Primary communication was routed through the palace as well, so in the event of a revolt, reinforcements could still be summoned.
Transporter inhibitors and communicators jammers were buried in the foundations of the palace as well. Combined with a planetary defence network, once again controlled from within the palace, it was thought that any revolution could be trapped on Ta'shen until such time as forces could arrive to put down such a rebellion and rescue the respectable life-blood of the Empire that would take shelter within the palace.
Aside from the palace, the city was home to no less than twelve different resorts, all along the shoreline, catering to a variety of tastes and expenses for Romulans citizens willing to invest in their own hedonistic pleasures. Combined with a multitude of other entertainments provided within the city, or delivered to a resort, there was little one couldn't experience here that would be considered less than acceptable back home. What one indulged in on Ta'shen was one's own business and best not discussed upon leaving.
The extensive slave population of the city served primarily in the service industry, though the term was used to cover anything from hotel staff, gardeners, prostitution and gladiatorial combatants. Factories were present as well to manufacture or prepare whatever the resorts needed that were either resourced on Ta'shen itself or arrived on one of the many regular arriving freighters.
Large avenues crossed the city in a triangle, the vertexes being the spaceport, the governor's palace and Telloc Square. Telloc Square was formed from the main avenues intersecting with the smaller avenue that ran along behind the resorts and formerly featured a statue of the world's first governor, though it has since been demolished.
Factions
As revolution broke out on Ta'shen, inspired by off-world events, the populace of the world settled into two major groups - those willing to fight and those who just wanted things to settle down. Of the former group, multiple factions emerged, each with their own view as to the future and with a drive to see it through.
Senate Loyalists
When revolution broke out upon the streets of Ta'shen, Governor Creval held the gates to the palace open for as long as possible to allow the rich and powerful visitors to his world to fleet into his care. It would not be entirely accurate to call the Governor and his impromptu houseguests a true faction of post-Imperial Ta'shen politics, but for ease of classification they were labelled Senate Loyalists. Most of them were from prominent Imperial families visiting on holidays and covering a wide variety of political views. They all however held that the Senate was the true power of the Star Empire and most lived under the false impression that eventual order would be restored by a sensible and loyal officer overthrowing his overreaching commanding officers and restoring the Senate.
Notable figures
Lo'nic Creval
Lo'nic Creval, Governor of Ta'shen, a man who was appointed to the position by the good graces of his predecessor. His family was best-considered part of the Empire’s very small Middle Class, with no senatorial connections by blood but with plenty of favours and debts owed such that they had been rewarded by way of payment with the governorship of Ta'shen. He retained his position purely by keeping Ta'shen functional for the aristocrats of the Empire to visit and the flow of intelligence it provided regarding visitors. Lo'nic only survived the initial order to purge the Empire's ruling class from Rator due to his careful control of off-world communications, allowing him to prevent certain orders from arriving that would have been detrimental to his health.
Planetary Garrison
The garrison forces on Ta'shen were never the most spectacular forces at Galae Command's direction, but for the purpose, they were more than adequate. Nearly four hundred Navy security personnel were assigned to Ta'shen to man the planet's defence control centre and to maintain the security of the Governor's Palace. Nominally rolled out as honour guards for some visiting dignitaries, the garrison actually had little to do aside from preserve law and order when public order forces were incapable of doing so.
When the Velorum Sector declared independence, the garrison was mostly kept in the dark about what was occurring elsewhere within the Empire. When revolution broke out on Ta'shen, they fell back on their training and secured as many prominent families from the resorts nearby and evacuated them to the palace for their own safety, digging in behind extensive and formidable fortifications to await relief forces they assumed were coming.
Notable figures
Major Suram was the commander of the forces on Ta'shen at the outbreak of hostilities. A decorated soldier of the Empire, she failed to see that her assignment was supposed to be a relaxing reward before retirement, not just another posting. In her eight months in command before the revolution, she took a relaxed and complacent garrison and moulded it into a force that was able to survive the initial outbreaks, rescue as many as they could and resist initial attempts to breach the palace before revolutionary forces opted to give the facility a wide berth.
More to come...
Reman slaves
They’re declaring for Resak and his provisional government. They hold no real grudges against the common Romulan people, but the aristocrats have to go. Violently. French Revolutionaries. Round up all the nobles, put them down. Then figure out what to do.
Notable figures
Who?
Romulan slaves
A chance to actually have a say? Awesome! Under a Reman? Yeah, nah. No offence to their Reman comrades, but seriously. Democratic revolutionaries are more likely. Claim Ta’shen as independent, maybe side with the Republic if they can get support to settle things planetside.
Notable figures
Who?
Orions
The Orion population of Ta'shen dates back centuries and is comprised completely of those born on Ta'shen, descendants of those taken as slaves by Romulan forces centuries ago. Knowing no other fate or even much of the galaxy at large, they have served as the backbone of the entertainment industry serving from prostitution to gladiatorial combat. With the unexpected outbreak of revolution on Ta'shen, the Orions have banded together under a singular leader, Serti, seeking freedom for themselves and everyone else who had been enslaved by the masters of Ta'shen. They seek not to rule the world but to prevent any one faction from becoming dominant, seeking a more balanced sharing of power to prevent any further enslavement.
Notable figures
Serti
A middle-aged Orion woman of handsome features and average height and build, Serti is the unofficial head of the Orion families on Ta'shen. Through the years of her servitude, born into it in fact, she manipulated her superiors until she was granted a position of authority as a manager of certain aspects of Ta'shen's entertainment industries by her masters. Specialising in the more intimate pleasures that the powerful sought when they visited Ta'shen, Serti began building her own intelligence-gathering apparatus, taking advantage of those who sought the pleasures serviced by those under her charge. This lent her even more ways to manipulate her nominal masters, though usually indirectly via those she had learned interesting information about.
A fierce and determined woman, she is set on the goal of Ta'shen being an Orion world, or at least not a Romulan or Reman solely controlled world, though they are welcome to stay and even visit. Pragmatism however is a key trait and she's always willing to make deals, as long as they aren't disadvantageous to her or her birth world as she is not keen to simply trade one collar for another.
Miscellaneous slaves
Ta'shen is also home to a sizable population of slaves from various client races of the Star Empire, though none are of recent import. While these populations have tended to group together along racial lines initial, most of them have pledged for one of the larger groups out of self-preservation or to get out from under the heel of another. Their numbers aren't enough to decisively sway the balance one way or another but could be critical when the time comes to settle affairs and establish a new order on Ta'shen.