Veskarium
Centered around a blue sun called Ghavaniska, the Veskarium occupies the closest inhabited Near Space solar system to that of the Pact Worlds. The Veskarium claims the entirety of the Ghavaniska system: Vesk Prime, the imperial capital and home world of the vesk; seven other planets, which the vesk have renamed and numbered based on their distance from the sun, from Vesk-2 to Vesk-8; and the immense mobile space station Conqueror’s Forge. In addition, the Veskarium claims dozens of colonies scattered throughout Near Space and the Vast, but it is the eight worlds of the Ghavaniska system that most people consider to be the core of the Veskarium’s stellar empire. The Veskarium is an autocratic military dictatorship, ruled by a council of high-ranking military officers. Vesk dominate the empire and make up the majority of its inhabitants. However, dozens of planets are under imperial rule, and Veskarium citizens include many sapient species, such as formians, ijtikri, kothamas, pahtras, and skittermanders, among others. Although most vesk consider themselves superior to other species, they nevertheless believe they have an obligation to care for vassals they’ve conquered and incorporated into the Veskarium. The laws of the Veskarium are strict and draconian, but standards of living are high, and most residents of the empire, vesk or not, are content with their lives and support—or at least tolerate—their government. Only one sentient species native to the Ghavaniska system has not been conquered by the vesk and are not citizens of the empire—a fact that the Veskarium has tried unsuccessfully to keep secret from the rest of the galaxy. Zilbrees are a species that live deep within the sun itself, and the Veskarium only recently discovered their presence when they launched a satellite into orbit around Ghavaniska. To date, this space platform has been the only point of contact between the Veskarium’s representatives and holographic projections of the reclusive zilbrees. Squat and armored with red-and-black tentacles and beaked mouths, zilbrees have advanced technology and claim to have lived inside Ghavaniska since before the Gap. The Veskarium is currently engaged in negotiations with zilbrees to persuade them to officially join the empire and enjoy the benefits of its protection in exchange for access to zilbrees’ Before Triune granted the secrets of interstellar Drift travel to the galaxy, the aggressive vesk had conquered all eight planets of their home solar system, forging an empire they called the Veskarium. Unlike the Pact Worlds, which are a coalition of independent planets, the Veskarium is a military dictatorship with one overarching goal: conquest. Yet all of the Veskarium’s conquered subjects are made citizens, so the Veskarium is a diverse and economically thriving civilization with opportunities for adventure and honorable combat on every world. technology, though some believe this is just a ploy until the Veskarium’s military develops a means to attack the aliens inside the inhospitable interior of the sun.
Economy
The imperial credit is the standard unit of currency in the Veskarium, and as it is based on the universal polymer base (UPB) standard, it is equal in value to the Pact Worlds credit. In large business transactions in either the Veskarium or the Pact Worlds, the two currencies are largely interchangeable, though in a remote rural area on Vesk-6, for example, visitors might find it difficult to pay for goods with Pact Worlds credits. The Veskarium does mint some hard currency, but most people use credsticks and digital credits, just as in the Pact Worlds. The Veskarium has a centralized planned economy under the direction of the military and its leaders. Since the economy revolves around the military, it is the empire’s largest employer. The military decides what, where, and how much is produced, as well as how it is distributed. The military takes the largest portion of the Veskarium’s economic output for itself, but there is always enough left to supply the Veskarium’s citizens, as the honor-minded vesk believe they have an obligation to provide a high standard of living for all of the empire’s citizens. Once the economic needs of the Veskarium have been met, the vesk export the remainder of the empire’s production output for interstellar trade. Although not publicly discussed within the Veskarium, both the recent Swarm War and the centuries-long Silent War before it had significant economic impacts on the empire. Traditionally, the Veskarium financed its wars and expansions by conquering other worlds and appropriating their resources for the vesk war machine, but neither conflict provided any significant new conquests, leaving the Veskarium with a major deficit in its military expenditures. The empire has ameliorated the problem to some extent with its recent colonial endeavors in the wider galaxy, but outside economists who study the Veskarium believe that this state of affairs is untenable in the long run, and warn that the vesk will soon be forced to resume their old wars of conquest if their empire is to survive in its current form.Time and Calendar
Absalom Station and its Starstone play a central role in interstellar trade and relations, and this has led the Veskarium to adopt Pact Standard Time in its interactions with the rest of the galaxy. For ease of comparison, all dates in this book use the traditional Pact Standard Time notation of pg (Pre Gap) versus ag (After Gap). Nevertheless, the Veskarium has its own official calendar and system of timekeeping based on the orbit and rotational period of Vesk Prime, where the local day is 28 Pact Standard hours and the local year is 3 Pact Standard years. The Veskarium names its years based on the reigns of its emperors; periods without an emperor on the throne, such as the present time, are called interregnums. It is currently the 8th year of the Veskarium’s Second Interregnum, or 320 ag.Culture
For a multi-planet civilization, the Veskarium has an incongruously unified culture: that of the vesk, who dominate the empire both politically and culturally. Vesk culture is not monolithic, however. When the Veskarium conquers a world and integrates its inhabitants into the empire, the vesk also adopt elements of the conquered civilization’s art, culture, and music, such as the art of pahtra leaf-painting from Vesk-6, which is popular throughout the Veskarium. This cultural assimilation extends back to the earliest pre-Gap days of the Veskarium, for although the vesk exterminated the entire skerasken population, they also adopted the skerasken tradition of shell drumming, which went on to become an ancient and respected art among the vesk. Many among the Veskarium’s vassal populations still practice their traditional cultural customs, but these are exceptions to the dominant vesk cultural norms that prevail throughout the empire. The military dominates daily life in the Veskarium. Although not every Veskarium citizen is a member of the military, nonmilitary residents are just as subject to military laws and regulations as the army’s greenest gunner. Veskarium society is highly regimented: there is little social mobility outside of a military career, and crime or dissent is harshly punished. Social status in Veskarium society is earned through excellence in combat—be it military service, mercenary work, dueling, or even adventuring—and skill in battle is one way for non-vesk to ascend through the social hierarchy. Though their society is autocratic, vesk see both themselves and their society as deeply honorable. They believe that the Veskarium is an egalitarian society that treats all of its citizens equally, but in reality, the vesk’s innate perception of their own superiority over other species means that vesk have the greatest opportunities for advancement. Non-vesk species in the empire just try to go about their business, pay lip service to the Veskarium, and do their best to avoid riling the vesk. It’s hard to argue with the efficacy of the Veskarium’s harsh laws, and life is peaceful throughout most of the empire, though the conscious and unconscious machinations of vesk society have considerable impact on non-vesk residents. As in other interstellar civilizations, religion helps unify the Veskarium’s disparate inhabitants. The most widespread faith is that of Damoritosh, the patron god of the vesk and the Veskarium, but as natives of the closest planet to the sun, many vesk also revere Sarenrae, whom they call the Firescale. Iomedae’s faith is increasingly growing in adherents and influence, especially among non-vesk members of the military, and many vesk mercenaries pay homage to Besmara as goddess of strife. Worship of Talavet is popular among the civilian population. Some native religions remain on the conquered worlds of the Veskarium, and some of these inhabitants still pray to a handful of minor local deities, but these faiths seldom reach beyond a single planet. Even the vesk themselves venerate a pantheon of saintlike war heroes, honored emperors, and legendary generals elevated to demigodhood, but they are all subservient to the Conqueror and his church. All of the Veskarium’s nine core worlds (and many of its colonies) have their own planetary infospheres. These infospheres are not connected in one empire-wide network (though the military is currently investing considerable resources into developing such a network), but data sets are available for download. Frequent government broadcasts on every world remind the people that the Veskarium cares for them, provides for them, and protects them, but also warn them that they are surrounded by threats on all sides, and that rival “empires” like the Pact Worlds are not actually friendly, ensuring distrust of the Pact Worlds remains foremost in the minds of Veskarium citizens
History
The Gap affected the Veskarium along with the rest of the multiverse, and the empire’s recent history stretches back only 3 centuries, to the end of that universal period of amnesia. Older records from before the Gap still survive, however, giving the vesk a keen sense of their species’ history and destiny. Thousands of years before the Gap, when the ancient vesk first began recording their history in writing, they used the same word for themselves and for their world—vesk—but they were not the planet’s dominant species. The vesk shared the planet closest to the sun with two other sapient species: the caiagaras and the skeraskens. Initially, the vesk had plenty of land and resources, but as they grew in population, the warlike reptiles began fighting among themselves for the best territories and resources. A powerful vesk warlord named Eshovok the Far-Sighted recognized the danger of never-ending civil war among the vesk and began uniting the warring tribes under his rule. When the last of his opponents had been defeated, Eshovok proclaimed a new empire, the Veskarium, and named himself emperor. At Eshovok’s command, the Veskarium bent to the task of conquering the entire planet under the banner of Damoritosh, the vesk god of war and conquest. In these early days of the Veskarium, the vesk first clashed with the skeraskens, a neighboring species of jackal-faced arthropods. The skeraskens were skilled warriors themselves, and though they initially resisted the vesk invasion, the Veskarium’s legions inexorably pushed them back. After a series of devastating wars, the remaining skeraskens tried to sue for peace, but the vesk rebuffed their overtures. It was the vesk’s destiny to conquer and rule their home world, the emperor decreed, and leaving even a single enemy to rebuild and seek revenge against their conquerors could threaten the survival of the entire vesk species. Within the space of a few generations, the vesk had eradicated the skeraskens and annexed their lands. The vesk then turned their doshkos against the caiagaras, a species of snakelike humanoids with great magical prowess. The caiagaras had witnessed the skerasken genocide at the hands of the vesk and resolved not to suffer the same fate. They craftily retreated into the vast cave systems that lay beneath their lands, and the caiagaras’ powerful wizards moved entire cities brick by brick from the surface into subterranean caverns for protection before sealing the entrances to the caves with magical force fields. But these defenses only slowed the vesk onslaught. The vesk pressed on, first conquering the caiagaras’ surface territories, then delving beneath the earth to raze their underground cities and slaughter their inhabitants. The caiagaras proved to be resilient foes, and their defeat was both more difficult and took more time than the conquest of the skeraskens. Finally, after centuries of struggle, the vesk eradicated the caiagaras, and the Veskarium encompassed the entire planet. But although the empire officially declared the caiagaras defeated, the reality was not so simple. Rumors persisted of caiagara cities deep underground that the vesk had never discovered, and the vanquished snake-people were blamed for assassinations, acts of sabotage, and other crimes that threatened the stability of the empire for millennia after their defeat. Even today, more than 300 years after the end of the Gap and with the threat of caiagaras but a dim and distant memory, vesk parents still admonish their children to behave and dutifully serve the Veskarium—or else the snake people will come out of their caves to drag recalcitrant children to a life of slavery in lightless caverns far beneath the earth. But even after exterminating all opposition on their home world, the vesk’s thirst for conquest was not slaked. Vesk astronomers had long ago discovered the existence of other planets in the Ghavaniska system, and the Veskarium sought to expand its reach beyond the world of its birth. The vesk developed the technology for interplanetary travel and took to space, invading the next closest world to the sun. Now, however, with their home world conquered, the vesk no longer felt threatened as a species; as a result, any new cultures they defeated in battle were integrated into the empire rather than exterminated. Following the conquest of their nearest neighbor, a world largely covered by ocean, the Veskarium became a true interplanetary empire. The vesk renamed their home world Vesk Prime and the newly conquered planet Vesk-2. Over the next few thousand years, the Veskarium expanded until all eight of the system’s planets—and their inhabitants—were under vesk dominion. This was the state of the vesk empire when the Gap irrevocably shattered history. The Veskarium weathered the Gap surprisingly well, however. Although the vesk lost their memories and millennia of records along with the rest of the galaxy, the Veskarium’s well-organized military archives provided a clear snapshot of the empire’s pre-Gap history. The Veskarium had controlled the eight planets of the Ghavaniska system before the Gap, so the vesk set about relearning the boundaries of their ancient empire and re-establishing the Veskarium’s rule over those eight worlds. Vessels were launched from Vesk Prime to make contact with the existing vesk garrisons on the empire’s conquered planets, and once these “lost warriors” were brought back into the Veskarium’s fold, the vesk had little trouble reasserting their dominance over their former vassals in the chaos following the end of the Gap, and by 10 ag, the Veskarium once again encompassed all of its old territory, from Vesk Prime to Vesk-8. The vesk longed to expand beyond the borders of their home system, but interstellar travel remained beyond their reach. Though Triune had broadcast the secrets of Drift travel to the entire galaxy in 3 ag, the All-Code’s Signal had mysteriously failed to reach the Veskarium. While the rest of the galaxy built Drift-capable starships that opened the stars to exploration, exploitation, and colonization, the Veskarium remained isolated and confined to a single solar system. It was not until 12 ag, when explorers from the Golarion System first made contact with the Veskarium, that the vesk learned of the existence of Drift technology. The vesk initially greeted the visitors with friendship, but once Drift technology was in their hands, the Veskarium quickly upgraded its warships for Drift travel and began eyeing the Golarion System as its next object of conquest. Relations soured and tensions escalated until 36 ag, when the Veskarium invaded the planet of Triaxus. The independent worlds of the Golarion System banded together to repulse the Veskarium’s initial attack and soon after signed the Absalom Pact for mutual defense, creating the Pact Worlds. Together, the unified Pact Worlds proved to be an equal match for the Veskarium, and for the next 250 years, the two societies struggled for supremacy. Following the disastrous Battle of Aledra, neither side was willing to risk ships and troops in an all-out invasion, so the conflict cooled into border skirmishes and battles for far-flung colonies in Near Space and the Vast. During this time, the vesk constructed the huge space station and shipyard called Conqueror’s Forge, a place to build new ships and armaments to support the so-called Silent War and develop weapons that could at last decisively defeat the Pact Worlds. But the vesk’s dreamed-of conquest of the Pact Worlds never happened. In 291 ag, the Swarm attacked both the Veskarium and the Pact Worlds simultaneously. The vesk had never faced a foe so numerous and implacable, and for the first time in its long history, it seemed the Veskarium would be defeated and overrun, putting an end to the glorious destiny of the vesk people. The Pact Worlds were suffering similar setbacks, however, and the two civilizations soon realized that their only hope to defeat the Swarm lay in cooperation. The Veskarium and the Pact Worlds signed an armistice that ended the Silent War, and together they drove the Swarm out of their shared region of Near Space. Nearly 25 years after the end of the war against the Swarm, the insectile ravagers endure as a galactic menace, even if it no longer directly threatens the Veskarium, and so the Veskarium’s policy of non-aggression with the Pact Worlds remains in effect. Trade has flourished between the two systems, and it’s common to see Pact Worlders in the Veskarium and vesk in the Pact Worlds. But no formal peace treaty exists, and relations between the two governments—and their people—are often strained. This is a period of almost unheard-of peace for the Veskarium, and indeed many vesk are uncomfortable with the current state of affairs. The call of war and conquest sings in their blood, and it may be only a matter of time before the Veskarium’s alliance of convenience with the Pact Worlds finally becomes too inconvenient, and the vesk seek to conquer the Pact Worlds once more.
Military
The Veskarium is an autocratic empire and military dictatorship comprising nine worlds: the eight planets of the Ghavaniska system and the space station called Conqueror’s Forge. The individual worlds and their native inhabitants have no autonomy in their governance or affairs, internal or external. As conquered vassals of the Veskarium, they are ruled and represented by the empire’s military. It is almost impossible to separate the Veskarium’s government from its military; they are effectively one and the same. Executive and legislative power are the exclusive purview of the military, Veskarium courts are military tribunals, and vesk combat troops stationed on every world enforce laws and keep the peace. Any local representative assemblies or legislative bodies are only advisory in nature and also report to the military. A military commander called a high despot rules each of the Veskarium’s nine major worlds. The high despots have absolute authority over everyone and everything on the worlds they oversee, but in practice, day-to-day management of planetary and local governments is usually handled by the capable and skilled military bureaucracy, as the high despots focus most of their attention on larger matters. Together, they form the Council of Despots, a nine-member body that rules the entire Veskarium from the Imperial Palace on Vesk Prime. Beyond the Ghavaniska system, vesk colonies have a wider range of governing styles. Whatever their system of government, their rulers are not considered high despots and have no seats on the Council of Despots, but they are still subject to the Veskarium’s laws and the council’s decisions. A high despot serves the Veskarium for life. In the past, most high despots died glorious deaths in battle, befitting their stature as the most honorable warriors in the empire. In the Veskarium’s current state of peace following the alliance with the Pact Worlds, this is no longer the case—dying in battle is difficult if there is no war. In recent years, some high despots have engaged in military expeditions beyond the empire’s borders in Near Space and the Vast (and some have met their ends there), but such “adventurism” is frowned upon by the current Council of Despots. This has led to a growing perception in the military’s lower ranks that the current high despots might be getting too comfortable in their positions and are losing sight of the empire’s military potential and ambitions. Although the Veskarium calls itself an empire, the role of emperor is currently vacant. In times of war, the Council of Despots appoints an emperor to serve as head of state and prime general of the army. The council must be unanimous in their choice of an emperor. Although mostly a figurehead to unify the citizens of the Veskarium behind the war effort and provide a focus for their loyalty, the emperor is given an equal vote on the Council of Despots, which retains its role as head of government. This has been the traditional state of affairs for most of the Veskarium’s recorded history. The position of emperor is a wartime role, however, so in rare periods of peace, the emperor customarily abdicates, and the Council of Despots serves as head of state for the duration of the peace. Since the end of the Gap, this has only occurred twice: immediately after the Gap ended in 0 ag, when Empress Sinkeshmali VIII stepped down because no one in the Veskarium remembered who they were at war with or why; and again in 296 ag, when the “Dreadnought Emperor” Dmarangor I abdicated his throne at the end of the Swarm War. The Council of Despots has ruled the Veskarium without an emperor since that time. In cases of deadlock on the council, the high despot of Vesk Prime—currently Vindaskayo Swarmripper— casts the deciding vote, though the council’s current makeup makes this a rare occurrence. The Veskarium’s military oversees all levels of government within the empire. The high despots are all experienced military officers, and in addition to presiding over the empire’s core worlds, they are the commanders-in-chief of the Veskarium’s armed forces. Admirals, generals, and lower-ranking officers are assigned to oversee smaller territorial divisions: colonies, outposts, moons, space stations, continents, regions, or former countries on conquered planets, as well as the Veskarium’s innumerable military bases and starships. Beneath these officers, the ranks of the military bureaucracy administer the day-to-day tasks of planetary and local governance. The high despots rule their worlds from enormous military bases placed in key strategic locations on each planet. These bases also function as centers of government for each world and are usually surrounded by cities hosting all of the civilian infrastructure needed to interact with the military government. Named for the planets they occupy (such as Command 3 on Vesk-3), every command base reports to the Veskarium’s military high command at Command Prime on Vesk Prime. The Veskarium’s military is organized into a single force and is not divided into separate branches of service, so whether a soldier is a ground-pounding infantry grunt, a combat engineer, or a pilot on a Veskarium warship exploring the far reaches of the Vast, all are members of the same great armed force. Officially known as the Army of the Veskarium, most people refer to it simply as “the military” or “the army.” Smaller, specialized divisions and units exist within this unified command structure, but with a military and bureaucracy as vast as the Veskarium’s, only a few of these organizations are large enough or powerful enough that their existence is well known to the larger Veskarium public. Directive 9 is the Veskarium’s military intelligence branch. The empire does not have a civilian spy agency, so Directive 9 is responsible for all information gathering, electronic warfare, espionage, and clandestine military operations, both within the Veskarium and outside its borders. Its agents are involved in intelligence activities at all levels, whether strategic, tactical, or operational. While Directive 9 sometimes cooperates with outside intelligence organizations like the Pact Worlds’ Stewards, it carries out most of its operations on its own, with the specific details known only to the highest levels of the military’s high command. The Division of Criminal Extirpation (more commonly known as “the Hammers”) is the Veskarium’s peacekeeping and law enforcement agency. While most of the empire’s worlds have smaller, local police forces, the Hammers are fully sanctioned by the Veskarium government and have jurisdiction throughout the empire and its colonies. The Division of Criminal Extirpation has agents on every core world under the command of each planet’s high despot, but the agency is primarily concerned with threats to the established order and hierarchy of Veskarium society. Minor offenses committed by non-vesk citizens are generally left to local law enforcement agencies to handle, but the division targets vesk criminals with strict enforcement and harsh punishments for even petty infractions. In the eyes of the Hammers, the actions of individual vesk are most representative of the Veskarium’s overall attitudes and goals, and any deviation from the Vesakrium’s monolithic and authoritarian culture must be “hammered down” immediately to prevent dissent or unrest in the empire. The Division of Disloyal Organizations (DDO), on the other hand, focuses its efforts on groups and organizations that threaten vesk cultural superiority and the Veskarium’s rule over its conquered subjects. This division investigates, infiltrates, and attempts to eradicate heretical cults, native resistance groups, and powerful organized crime gangs throughout the empire. Success is more important than the means to accomplish it, and DDO agents are given wide leeway in how they achieve their mission objectives. Although a Veskarium citizen of any species can join the military, the vesk dominate the ranks of the army, and non-vesk soldiers are a minority. The vesk’s high birthrate creates a large civilian population that would put a strain on society if the Veskarium’s military didn’t happily absorb the excess. A military career is available to nearly every young vesk looking for a job or a purpose, making it the single most common occupation among vesk. Both society and new recruits view the army as a meritocracy that rewards prowess in combat, but the reality is somewhat different. Family status and political connections matter far more than honorable service in determining who advances quickly through the ranks. Nevertheless, the belief persists that citizenship and political power derive from military service, and thousands of new recruits throughout the empire enlist in the military every day. After a period of grueling (and often deadly) training in boot camp, these recruits join the army as gunners. The army has no set term of service. Most vesk who join the military do so for life, hoping to die an honorable death in battle, but at any time, a warrior may take the Soldier’s Due, a time-honored vesk custom wherein the warrior is honorably discharged from their duties to the empire and takes their military-issue armor and weapons as their reward for service. Even after leaving the military, however, many of these former warriors still serve the empire as mercenaries or in other capacities. Since the conquest of their home planet, the Veskarium’s military government has believed that it is honorable to accept an enemy’s surrender and integrate the defeated foe into the Veskarium, where both cultures will grow from the other—with the Veskarium in control, of course. In the case of the Silent War with the Pact Worlds, however, the vesk never defeated the Pact Worlders in war, and their citizens did not join the empire. The Veskarium has prospered from its alliance with the Pact Worlds, but it still takes a guarded view of the system, and there is ample distrust in both civilizations thanks to their still-evolving history. Other than its nominal alliance with the Pact Worlds, the Veskarium has no trusted allies. A few minor systems and colonies near the empire’s borders pay tribute to the Veskarium and have so far avoided outright annexation, but most species give the vesk empire a wide berth—and often go running to the Pact Worlds or other regional powers to seek protection whenever the Veskarium seems to be getting too close. For the moment, the Veskarium’s conquests and expansions have been limited to colonies in unclaimed regions of Near Space and the Vast, but many in the galaxy—and especially in the Pact Worlds— wonder just when the vesk will turn their attention to them.
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