Nadezhdan Exiles

## History

The Nadezhdans are a people with a murky past and an ignoble present, pushed to the margins of the Pearlescent Expanse and nursed with spite. According to their own legends, they were once the aristocracy of a great empire that spanned much of the galaxy before they were unjustly overthrown; deprived of their ancestral seat of power, they traveled the stars in a great caravan, looking for a new world to call home. They had much to gain from joining with the Coalition, and had relatively little to offer; the price of admission was the surrender of the Voice of Glass, a devastating Nadezhdan superweapon of old, a loss that led to generations of wounded pride.

It was the Nadezhdan explorer who would take the title of Tir Brass who found the world that would be christened Nadezhda, named for their lost crown world, a frigid planet rich in mineral and gas wealth. Nadezhdans came to settle in what was then the Silver Frontier, as they lacked any galactic homeland to return to, and formed the first wave of colonists on many worlds. Socioeconomic factors worked to keep Nadezhdans largely out of the halls of power, forced into either labor roles or crime; this has cultivated a culture with a heavy gravity placed on promises and personal dignity, as many often had little else to ante with.

Late in the Era of the People's Crown, a Tyranon war fleet razed Nadezhda from orbit for reasons historians still debate today; in response, a Nadezhdan folk hero by the name of Tir Cobalt launched a fiery insurrection on the Pearlescent Expanse's capital of Aureate, a conflict that spreads to its two holy moons and ends with four Coalition Representatives dead when their ship is destroyed in low orbit. A group from the Universal Choir extended the Nadezhdan people an olive branch by working a miracle of a scale not seen since: the restoration of Nadezhda's atmosphere and water via pulling those resources through the Singing Deep from other celestial bodies. A new wave of patriotic Nadezhdans returned to their homeworld; unbeknownst to them, a significant population had survived in the planet's sprawling underground mining and transit system, and conflict between the two groups continues.

## Appearance

Nadezhdans are the most visually striking of the post-human cultures that once made up the Coalition; they appear as anthropomorphic hybrids of two animals from Old Earth's frigid climes, spanning the full range of baseline human body types and capable of reaching slightly taller maximum heights. Nadezhdan fashion must account for a variety of possible tails, antlers, paws, and hooves, and grooming services from salons to bathhouses are prized for their specialties.

## Culture

Nadezhdan names consist of Slavic names or words as first names and metals or minerals as surnames; some who reach the status of a folk hero or historical notable have their first names replaced with the title "Tir," after an old tradition of mythic saints, and are sometimes revered as such. [Examples: Toporik Jet, Dunyasha Sand, Olenka Electrum; Tir Brass, Tir Cobalt].

Lacking much political or economic power, it was Nadezhdans who formed much of the Coalition's labor force, often working to make frontier planets more habitable for later colonists or working in hard industries like asteroid mining and mechanical salvage. This led to a strong culture of cooperation and of labor rights, one that often caught their employers by surprise when strikes or (when necessary) violence proved effective. Sex work is a respected form of labor among Nadezhdans, and carries no stigma; establishments are often worker-owned and well-protected. Others either rejected or had no access to 'legitimate' employment, and so many Nadezhdan-run syndicates handle everything from petty vice to interplanetary smuggling rings across the Pearlescent Expanse.

Traditionally, a Nadezhdan's word is their honor, as many often lack little more than promises to offer as collateral; this practice extends up to strict codes of conduct for labor organizations and underworld syndicates alike, often enforcing cooperation and punishing those who hurt their comrades - something especially patriotic Nadezhdans claim stems from their aristocratic past, with sacred vows between royals. The stock placed in this belief varies wildly based on the individual, of course, but the tradition is widespread enough to be of note, and features often in stereotypical depictions of Nadezhdans in Peacock Conglomerate media.

Faith is a diverse thing among the Nadezhdan people; they lack any historic religious belief, but many took to the organized religions they encountered as part of the Coalition. It was Satellist Nadezhdans who first named and sanctified the holy moons found as the Pearlescent Expanse grew, and both preachers and mediums can be found with a little digging in almost any major Nadezhdan settlement. Many converted to the faith of the Universal Choir after the miracle that restored Nadezhda, and now Nadezhdans form a considerable bloc in most UC communities.

## On Aureate

***[Editor's Note - 12/16/2022:** This following section is all written from the perspective of Aureate circa 800, before the events of Gilded Sands; given that I've since moved the timeline ahead not only once to 817, but again to 923, it's all fairly outdated as anything other than history. I'll get to it someday! -Thursday]*

The Coalition capital of the Pearlescent Expanse was not kind to its Nadezhdan population; they were often kept out of government and academia alike, driven to work in the harsh equatorial desert or mining the rugged highlands. This marginalization only intensified after Tir Cobalt's devastating insurrection, leading many Coalition loyalists to view all Nadezhdans as violent, dangerous turncoats and forcing them into hard lives where they scrounged to survive. Much of the capital city of Vow's Peregrine District's population is Nadezhdan, forced into the slums there by the intensifying Tyranon-Dodonan conflict, while the largely-subterranean Pesok Station is a refuge in the east of the equatorial desert. Many work in the Boneyard, salvaging scrap from battles current and ancient, while others serve outfits that act as extensions of the local organized crime organization.

With the Coalition's collapse, the interstellar syndicate known as the Zerinzov Syndicate claimed Aureate as their territory and imposed their "thieves' law" on the populace, to be led and enforced by local lieutenants forbidden from warring against one another. In truth, the Nadezhdan populace was largely left alone, other than paying an off-world tithe to the Zerinzovs as a form of planetary protection racket.

Within the last few decades, the Zerinzov lieutenant known as Toporik Jet has ascended to the pinnacle of local power, and has quietly stopped forwarding the tithe to his off-world masters - in essence betraying them and making himself a petty warlord with Aureate solely his. He hopes the Tyranon orbital blockade proves as excuse for his "negligence" and that he'll be left alone to rule independently, and has expressly forbidden any Nadezhdan space launches - a ban enforced with terrifying violence.

As the second highest-rank boss on Aureate, smuggler baroness Dunyasha Sand of Pesok Line cannot openly act against Toporik without breaching Zerinzov law; she's been biding her time and growing Vedro in secret, hoping to build a strong enough bloc to endure when she finally makes her play: launching a rocket to alert the Zerinzovs to his disloyalty.