Chegraturn

**Chegraturn**, known to Aoshanti cartographers as **AB-1146O-8**, is a superhabitable world set amid the dense etheric fog of the Southwestern Concourse of the Aoshtai Galaxy in the AB-1146O System. Chegraturn is home to an isolated population known as the **Chegraturni**, an industrial civilization of Human exiles which have recently fought a devastating but inconclusive global war of ideology. With the recent invention of radio telescopes, the people of Chegraturn have only recently confirmed, beyond dispute, the existence of advanced extraterrestrial civilizations in the greater galaxy. As the superpowers of this world prepare for the next war, an eye is kept to the stars for any possible advantage it may bring.

Chegraturn is a verdant green-and-blue world with three colourful moons and a spectacular planetary ring, making it a veritable paradise orbiting a small yellow star. Though interstellar civilization was aware of the existence of the star and of the possible presence of a habitable world, the forbidding etherography has largely discouraged travel and up-close surveying since its discovery by Aoshanti astronomers around six-hundred years ago.

## Geography

Chegraturn’s geography is dominated by five major continents: Tophax, Dechus, Urchac, Shashis, and Sheyjan. Generally the continents are split between an “old world” and “new world”. The “old world” is composed of Tophax to the northwest, Urchac to the south, Shashis to the east, and Sheyjan to the southeast. The “new world” is considered to be the continent of Dechus and its surrounding islands.

## Ecology

Chegraturn’s atmosphere is comprised of 68% nitrogen, 31% oxygen, and 1% trace elements, the majority of which is CO2. The world receives ample and intense sunlight by virtue of being close to the inner edge of AB-11460’s habitable zone, and has oceans spanning roughly 70% of the world’s surface. By virtue of these three factors, Chegraturn is a superhabitable world teeming with energetic and large flora and fauna.

Ecosystems are dominated by insects, reptiles, and avians, with megafauna of all three kinds forming the upper tiers of the food-chains of the world’s various biomes. The most striking and some of the most widely distributed fauna on Chegraturn are its unique kingdom of motile plant life; these plants range from small shrubs to large trees to individual flowers and weeds, and share in common the ability to uproot and move at-will using flexible and muscular pseudo-roots.

Generally, movement is infrequent and slow so as to conserve the limited energy reserves of such plants. However, motile plants of this kind can gallop at bewilderingly fast speeds for brief durations, and do so to avoid threats of fire or water sensed by their leaves and roots, tipped as they are by microscopic nerve endings and sensory organs. Much time and effort has gone into containing and directing the traffic of such plants, which in large enough numbers can be extremely destructive during seasonal migrations.

## Culture and Society

Chegraturni civilization underwent an intense period of industrialisation, demographic expansion, revolution, and warfare which decisively split it from its premodern past. What has emerged from the other side is a world divided sharply by secular ideologies which each purport to be the path into the next phase of history. The major ideologies are the pluralistic democracy of the Northern Alliance, the racial supremacy and totalitarianism of the National Collectivists, and the technocratic socialism of the Vanguardists.

Traditional religion and culture have been marginalised by the onset of mass culture, mass ideology, and the mass state, and as a consequence the spiritual beliefs of many in the industrialised world take the form either of an unsteady agnosticism borne of a lack of familiarity with religion, or a confident atheism in the ideological true believers. Binding every worldview together is a headstrong form of humanism which sees the next evolution of humankind to be imminent.

## Astropolitics

Prior to first contact in Priphos 23 NE, Chegraturni civilization had been on the cusp of, but had not yet achieved, spaceflight. Compared to galactic standards, Chegraturni technology is backwards: nuclear power and weapons are not even twenty years old, all industry is planetbound and powered through coal, hydroelectric, or nuclear power, and transistors practical for computing and other advanced technologies were only just beginning to be manufactured by the time of alien contact.

All of these factors put Chegraturn in a profoundly vulnerable strategic situation relative to the rest of the universe. Lacking any native capacity to defend the planet's orbitals, the world is exposed to the risk of bombardment from hostile starships which could target any of its major urban centres or strategic hardpoints.

The nations of Chegraturn maintain large and well-equipped peacetime armies, as well as vast stockpiles of atomic weapons. Therefore, it is conceivable that the militaries of Chegraturn could turn away an alien incursion to the surface. However, considering an alien invader could simply hold the cities of Chegraturn hostage, it makes the question largely moot.

Its native industry is inefficient and produces subpar finished goods compared to galactic standards. Combined with a lack of lift native to the civilization planetside, this makes export or anything resembling a healthy balance of trade a distant possibility for the time being. Workarounds have been proposed, such as the selling of precious or strategic metals (mined planetside or using any mining vessels the Chegraturnis may acquire), or in the Frallic case the sale of mass numbers of its non-Frallic subjects as slave labour. Despite these ideas, there remain no active initiatives to rectify the situation.

There have been some positive developments in the astropolitical situation. Two stations have been built in orbit of Chegraturn, GCTO and Pomarian consulates have been established for the respective Chegraturni alliances they patronise, and ferries from both galactic power blocs periodically visit the world to exchange personnel and travellers. Both alliances have invested a small amount of time and resources into effecting the uplift of their Chegraturni partners, but it is clear to all involved that the Chegraturnis value self-reliance in their development into a interstellar civilization.

## Geopolitics

Chegraturn has eleven major nations divided into three major alliances, with a significant neutral/non-aligned movement. All of these nations have suffered significant damage from the Great War which ended fifteen years ago, from which they have not recovered. The main priority of all of these great powers is preparation for the next major global conflict, as the Great War ended inconclusively with a truce. To this end, they are attempting to gain any advantage they possibly can.

### Northern Alliance

The **Northern Alliance** is a mutual defence organisation comprised mainly of free states along the northern coast of Tophax and Dechus. These states are united by an ideological commitment to collective rule, individual liberty, and market economics. The Northern Alliance, though larger than the National Collectivists in geographical size, number of associated states, and economy, is agreed to have effectively lost the Great War after their failure to liberate the nations of Tophax, which remain under Frallic and Adruan domination.

The Northern Alliance is war-weary in general, and does not look to the future with enthusiasm. They seek to leverage their robust research and development sector-- the greatest in the world-- to give them the qualitative advantage in firepower to win the next war.

* FEDERATION OF DECHUS
* EFLAD
* OBLEN

**Government Type:** Federal Republic

**Leader:** Premier Farac Felbern

**Population:** 155 million

**Description:** A large democratic state which spans much of the western continent of Dechus and considers it its geopolitical backyard. It stands as the leading member of the Northern Alliance and works in close collaboration with Eflad to organise the final defeat of the National Collectivists and the eventual liberation of Tophax from their grasp. The industrial power of Dechus is overwhelming, and its safe position an ocean away from the main conflict gives it a sense of security that most of its allies lack. What works against Dechus is the threat both of political apathy at home and the possibility of the National Collectivists getting access to alien technology.

**Major Named Characters**

Farac Felbern
Vec Hunferth ***Researcher (occupies Operative slot)***
Telyin Karfas

**Government Type:** Constitutional Monarchy

**Leader:** Prime Minister Belgin D’Allister

**Population:** 47 million

**Description:** A northerly set of windy islands which created a large colonial empire based on domination of the seas and sparked the industrial revolution on Chegraturn due to having political institutions and a culture that encouraged innovation and initiative. This empire was destroyed by the Great War as Eflad was too weak to hold onto its colonial holdings, which in turn greatly diminished Eflad's influence. It is now a secondary member of the Northern Alliance.

**Major Named Characters**

Belgin D'Allister
Jac Molineux
Frecc Therain
Orsin Breltys ***Researcher (occupies Operative slot)***

**Government Type:** Constitutional Monarchy

**Leader:** Governor-General Marcu Theroux

**Population:** 18 million

**Description:** A dominion of Eflad occupying the northern reaches of the Dechus Continent. It is a large country dominated largely by vast evergreen forests in the east and north and rolling stretches of fertile plains to its west. The armed forces of Oblen are small and underequipped, but have a reputation for professionalism and high performance. It is also the site of a world-class aerospace industry which works with and rivals that of Dechus.

**Major Named Characters**

Marcu Theroux
Tess Algin
Jehan Tilliers/Cogent ***Researcher (occupies Operative slot)***

### National Collectivists

The **National Collectivists** are the semi-formal pact between the nations of Fral, Adrua, and their various satellite states. Like the Northern Alliance, the National Collectivists are united by ideology, this being National Collectivism. N.C. is a totalitarian and racist ideology concerned primarily with the issues of social darwinism and the “shrinking market”. The “shrinking market” theory posits that older industrialised states such as Fral exported finished goods for the food made by pre-industrial agrarian states, and that this balance would be disrupted if these agrarian states were allowed to industrialise. In turn, these newly industrialised states would outcompete those like the Fral, and the race would disappear.

The radical solution posed by N.C. is a “final war” which would conquer and eradicate these agrarian states for “living space”, which would then be resettled by Frallic peasants who in turn would allow the Frallic state to maintain a closed economy producing both enough food and finished goods for itself. The bitterness caused by industrialisation made the various National Collectivist parties of the Great Continent very popular for their revolutionary message, and after the Great War these states remained.

The future for the alliance is unclear. While strategically expedient, a multiracial alliance of race supremacists is causing tensions between the members of the bloc in the absence of a common enemy to fight. More worryingly, the topheavy socialist war economy of Fral forms the beating heart of the whole National Collectivist project, and as it teeters on the edge of collapse, it is quietly feared by many within the bloc that the entire ideological project will collapse under the weight of its own inadequacies and contradictions.

* FRAL
* ADRUA
* SHADIS

**Government Type:** Totalitarian State

**Leader:** National Director Grecs Trelli

**Population:** 96 million (metropole); 210 million (occupied territories)

**Description:** Fral, along with its northeastern ally Adrua, have been able to dominate Tophax and Shashis and bring it under a regime of mass-slavery, genocide of non-Frallic peoples, and gigantic national infrastructure projects to siphon the wealth of its new colonies back to the imperial metropole. Its relative success in the Great War at achieving its objectives hide a sordid truth: that the unwieldy socialist economy is on the brink of collapse, that the Director's health is ailing, and that the teeming tens of millions of subject peoples are simply not dying fast enough to prevent a mass-revolt in the event the Frallic state shows a moment of weakness. Sensing the coming crisis, the various branches of the Fral armed forces are now in a bitter competition for power over the incompetent Party and the future of the nation.

**Major Named Characters**

Grecs Trelli
Alesh Aritesgt
Fritigern Hiraldsson
Winstan Byrdson
Telva Westec

**Government Type:** Military Junta

**Leader:** Marshal Morocs Telverisci

**Population:** 120 million

**Description:** Fral's ally in the east known for its rolling tundra, ruled by a faction of generals and political theorists who overthrew the monarchy twenty years ago. It is a largely agrarian state that has relied on Fral for the equipping of its army during the Great War, and in exchange gave Fral its vast manpower reserves. Despite the ideological affinity of its ruling class, Fral looks on its ally with suspicion: it is an agrarian competitor full of ripe living space, and it is an expensive ally to continually equip and train.

**Major Named Characters**

Morocs Telverisci

**Government Type:** Parliamentarianism, controlled by the armed forces

**Leader:** Shadisite General Staff

**Population:** 65 million

**Description:** Formally a constitutional monarchy with a democratically-elected parliament, Shadis is, in reality, controlled by the general staff of the nation who use the blunt instrument of armed coups when an election does not go their way. The rest of the civilian government is similarly coerced into doing the armed forces’ bidding, resulting in a corrupt and dysfunctional nation under the loose economic and ideological sway of Adrua, and by extension, the Fral.

**Major Named Characters**

### Vanguard Union

Emerging from the post-Great War decolonisation, the **Vanguard Union** is a third faction who have taken control of many of the former colonial possessions of the old empires of the Tophax continent, including those of Eflad. Ideologically, they stand for a form of technocratic socialism which believes the future belongs to rationally-managed societies run by experts, who are able to maximise the wellbeing of all constituents, and that this society will be ushered in by a "vanguard" of scientist-politicians.

The core of the Vanguardist movement is comprised of native intellectuals educated in Dechus and Tophax universities, who were positioned to take power in the post-colonial period owing to their connections to the remaining bureaucracy and armed forces that were still in-country with the colonisers' withdraw. Having fought, diplomatically and with arms, their former colonisers in both other alliances, the Vanguard Union stands as an independent third way, the youngest of the great secular pseudoreligions which dominate Chegraturni civilization.

* ASWESH
* ASNOS
* URUTHI
* AKLAN

**Government Type:** Technocratic Social Democracy

**Leader:** President Tazzi Zuwatti

**Population:** 246 million

**Description:** A huge nation on Urchac based around the system of river valleys. By far the most ancient extant civilization on Chegraturn, the Aswesh have been an identifiable people group since the copper age, and have recently undergone a largely bloodless revolution that has seen the expulsion of Tophaxi colonisers in exchange for an energetic and optimistic ideology based on political populism, socialist economics, and a belief in the power of science and social progress wielded by a multidisciplinary vanguard of academics. Amid the misery and destruction left by the Great War, the Aswesh are the only people to greet the future with arms wide open.

**Major Named Characters**

Tazzi Zuwatti

**Government Type:** Social Democracy (Puppeted)

**Leader:** Protector Vassilis Tassadis

**Population:** 21 million

**Description:** An island chain north of Aswesh which has traditionally been the haven of traders and pirates. It has recently undergone a regime change, believed to have been "helped along" by Asweshi commandos.

**Major Named Characters**

Vassilis Tassadis

**Government Type:** Technocratic Social Democracy (Puppeted)

**Leader:** President Sangar Burzi

**Population:** 11 million

**Description:** An underpopulated coastal nation whose inland territories are dominated by forbidding mountains. Puppeted by Aswesh shortly after the Aklan, actual control over the nation, especially its inland, is questionable. Insurgencies abound in the inland mountains, and on the coast endemic piracy remains a problem uncontrolled by the weak central government.

**Major Named Characters**

Sangar Burzi

**Government Type:** Technocratic Social Democracy (Puppeted)

**Leader:** Moderator Lurma Ewarisatuni

**Population:** 67 million

**Description:** A southern state based around a river valley and floodplains. Long a thorn in the side of the Aswesh, Aklan was conquered not long after the Asweshi revolution and had its elite replaced by a cadre of specially-trained Aklan intellectuals so as to create a satellite state. Technocratic hold over Aklan is shaky, as there is a wellspring of popular discontent from the conservative peasantry and an unwillingness to industrialise. The Aklani technocratic state is infamous for its vindictive brutality against dissidents.

**Major Named Characters**

Lurma Ewarisatuni

### Neutral States

* SHEYJAN
* KLIBEL
* NARSET
* ESNAX
* SYCRUS

**Government Type:** Confederation

**Leader:** Great King Winardi I Nayat

**Population:** 171 million

**Description:** A gigantic belt of equatorial and tropical islands ruled as a confederation of city states and petty kings. Sheyjan suffers from internal disunity outside of a common trade language and paganistic religion. The various islands of Sheyjan had been considered protectorates of Eflad or were directly governed by her, but the chaos in the aftermath of the Great War allowed these islands to throw off their colonisers. In the coming space race, it is believed that Sheyjan will become extremely strategically valuable due to its position near the equator.

**Major Named Characters**

Winardi I

**Government Type:** Unitary Republic

**Leader:** Premier Yigol Kedar

**Population:** 8 million

**Description:** Klibel is an embattled coastal republic sharing a continent with Aswesh, one of its main rivals for the past century. The nation is the reformation of an ancient kingdom which had once existed on Urchac prior to Asweshi conquest, which sent its constituent people across the world as a diaspora. Owing to the geopolitical disruptions of the past century, the opportunity arose to resettle their traditional homeland, and it has been a battle ever since with the other inhabitants of the Urchac continent to enforce this land claim. Klibel maintains strong Northern Alliance ties, but is not a formal member.

**Major Named Characters**

Yigol Kedar

**Government Type:** Absolute Monarchy

**Leader:** King Bareil I Petrides

**Population:** 11 million

**Description:** Narset is a monarchical state on Urchac, sandwiched between Klibel to its east and Aswesh to its west. It has remained stubbornly nonaligned; seeking aid from the NatCols and Northern Alliance to maintain its borders with two hostile neighbours to either side. To this end, it has succeeded. Largely this has been due to the political acumen of King Bareil, who was installed as the monarch of Narset with the Eflad exit from the country. His decision to maintain close diplomatic ties with his country's former colonisers has allowed him access to advanced weapons and intelligence sharing from that island nation in particular. That said, game he plays is a dangerous one, and the future of his country is far from certain.

**Major Named Characters**

Bareil I

**Government Type:** Republic

**Leader:** First Minister Jarmo Luoma

**Population:** 4 million

**Description:** A small arctic country mostly known for giving Adrua, its much larger neighbour, a great amount of grief in failed wars of conquest. Esnax oscillates between the three Alliances and plays them off each other, which it is able to do due to its abundant reserves of oil and fissile materials.

**Major Named Characters**

Jarmo Luoma

**Government Type:** Absolute Monarchy

**Leader:** King Nineel Zukal/Prime Minister Pera Marek

**Population:** 23 million

**Description:** Co-ethnics allied to Narset, pursuing a similar albeit more Northern Alliance-aligned policy of playing powers off of each other. Sycrus hopes to reconquer territory from Aswesh, and liberate Aklan from Vanguardist occupation.

**Major Named Characters**

Nineel I
Pera Marek