Idari

A colony ship designed to transport whole generations at a fraction of light speed, the Idari was the single largest ship ever produced by Kasath. When it reached its destination of Akiton and found the world too populated—and too well defended—for outright colonization, the ship took up orbit just past Verces and declared itself a Pact World in its own right. Unlike Absalom Station, however, the Idari has not become a melting pot and remains inhabited primarily by Kasatha and governed according to traditional kasathan values.
While the Idari retains its massive reaction drives, these engines haven’t fired in decades, and their power has been rerouted to aid the Crucibles, the ship’s impressive state-run manufacturing sector. The ship’s prevalent artificial gravity comes from the vast rotating cylinder referred to as the Drum, which makes up most of the ship’s body. This curving landscape is home to gleaming cities, rolling parks, and glass-walled hydroponic farm-towers. Daylight is constant inside the ship’s corridors, rerouted from solar collectors on the hull’s sunward faces, though individuals often observe a 27-hour day broken into nine-hour work shifts. Through the center of the Drum runs the Hub, a zero-gravity transport tube with elevator spurs running down to the “ground,” allowing travelers to quickly access any location in the Drum, as well as the bridge, combat stations, engineering, and other areas.
Government on the ship is handled by the traditional kasathan Doyenate, a representative council composed of the most respected members of a variety of fields and callings. While the doyens and their close relatives act as a sort of aristocracy among kasathas, and these families tend to be known for accomplishments in certain fields, status as a doyen is never inherited but instead recognized by the people—sometimes against the prospective doyen’s will. (The doyen of exploration, for instance, rarely appreciates being dragged back home to a desk job.) All doyens have a say in government decisions, yet their status both within the council and in general society is determined by their role’s importance—a fact that has resulted in trouble in recent decades as roles like captain, so important during the Idari’s flight, gradually lose significance.
Idaran citizens are independent and may travel or emigrate without restriction, yet keeping the ship running requires a significant crew, and many of those who live on the Idari work for the government in some capacity. Idarans residing on the ship for more than a year and desiring the right to participate in the ship’s government must accept and train for an auxiliary crew role. These roles are generally considered a formality, to be used only in the event of extreme emergency, and plenty of Idarans have professions totally unrelated to their reservist rank and training. Both professional crew members and ordinary civilians live side by side in the city-like Sectors spread throughout the Drum—dense but artistically arranged settlements designed around different themes. Travelers riding along the Hub can easily see the differences between sectors, as they pass from river-cut Almolar to temple-choked Brispex with its sharp and shimmering gables, from urban Khovi to the vat-farms of Mesacand, and so forth.
One of the most recognizable features within the Drum is the Sholar Adat, a cathedral-like spire in Brispex stretching nearly to the Hub, which acts as a combination cemetery, library, and ancestor temple. While many kasathas use the structure to record and archive their memoirs or pay tribute to lost loved ones, the temple’s claim to fame is the process called adat.
When a kasatha dies aboard the Idari, the body is fed into the ship’s recyclers to be broken down into useful components. Before this happens, however, the corpse is taken to the Sholar Adat, where robed attendants—adata—harvest a hair-thin slice of the deceased’s brain, which is then preserved and added to the temple’s archives. Through the building’s complex technomagical machinery, these samples can be used to kindle brief flashes of the deceased’s memory and sometimes even to contact the departed soul with questions. While querying a soul isn’t cheap and accessing a soul that passed less than a hundred years ago requires a warrant, many adata spend their time in stasis beds patched into the ship’s Sensorium, untangling the blizzard of ancient memories with the goal of advancing kasathan society through ancestral wisdom.

Geography

The Idari is a world inside a vast starship. The rotation of a central cylinder called the Drum provides the semblance of gravity. The Drum is approximately 2-1/2 miles long and half a mile in diameter, and tapers slightly at each end; its interior surface area is just under 4 square miles. Its surface area holds both urban centers whose towers rise toward the cylinder’s center to accommodate most of the population and areas set aside for micro-ecosystems whose flora, fauna, and even atmospheres are contained by technomagical barriers. The architects of the Idari recognized that sustaining functional ecosystems would make maintaining the ship’s environmental balance much easier—plants require less upkeep and fewer replacement parts than oxygen recyclers. The doyen of ecology and his team of Ecobalancers—high-tech park rangers—closely monitor the ship’s ecosystems, armed with contingencies for every conceivable imbalance drawn up during centuries of travel.
The lush forests, grasslands, and riparian biomes in the central portions of the Drum’s surface hearken back to Kasath’s desert oases, and provide psychological benefits for the ship’s inhabitants as well as oxygen exchange. At the ends of the Drum, the floor rises up as the Drum narrows near its ends. The lower slopes, known as Fore Kasath and Aft Kasath, simulate the drier portions of Kasath’s ecosystem. Farther up toward each point, the slopes rapidly become cliffs.
The Drum boasts three major bodies of water, which are used for recreation and help drive the vessel’s weather system. The Sternward Reservoir and the Foreshore are busy with small boats and swimmers, while the Lake of Memories is left untouched except for the Pillar of the Homeworld, which serves as a visual reminder of what was left behind. The Drum also holds two sets of smaller ponds. The Lower Lakes are the favorite rural retreat of the kasathas; lightly forested and with numerous small lakes, the Lower Lakes are tame country, full of trails and discreet amenities as well as access points to subterranean transportation. The Upper Lakes are much wilder and more isolated, with fauna roaming freely.
The inhabited portions of the Drum’s surface are divided into sectors, each of which consists of an urban center and the surrounding area. Almolar is crisscrossed by several small rivers, and its densely populated domes surrounding an open-air marketplace are reminiscent of the oasis settlements of Kasath. The domes are filled with garden-passageways, so residents of Almolar are always surrounded by lush plant life. Brispex is the spiritual center of the Idari, home to temples and churches of many faiths from Kasath, as well as a few newer ones. Gesilad is populated by kasathas dedicated to preserving the knowledge of their home world no matter where its children might roam. Most of the population of Gesilad lives underground, which causes this sector to look like one expansive garden on a hill punctuated by temples, reflective pools and ceremonial spaces. Situated on a highland ridge, Heravex is built in the style of one of Kasath’s military installations. The land between its towers and walls is as red and dry as both Kasath and Akiton. Khovi’s habitation towers are home to nearly half of the Idari’s population, and this sector has few of the wide vistas and lush gardens of the other sectors. However, Khovi is a vibrant center of culture and entertainment, with many corridors turned into art galleries or gaming spaces. Mesacand is an agricultural center featuring compact, high-tech vat-farming operations. (Most of the Idari’s traditional and hydroponic agriculture is instead carried out in subsidiary farm pods outside the Drum.) Work at the vat farms requires more technical knowledge than sweat, but the ceremonies and traditions of kasathan subsistence farming continue, with the whole Mesacand community coming together at daybreak and dusk for elaborate communal rituals.
Running through the center of the Idari, a zero-gravity transport tube known as the Hub connects to the “ground” of the Drum via elevator spurs situated conveniently in all of the cities and other major areas of the vessel. The Idari’s bridge and its combat stations are located at the far fore of the vessel, while its engineering decks are near the now-quiet ring of reaction engines that circles the Idari’s aft, which in turn holds the manufacturing bays known as the Crucibles. Other areas vital to the function of Idari as a starship, such as its weapon mounts, are scattered about the ship and are accessible only by the crew.
The majority of the Idari’s interior is constantly illuminated with artificial daylight, thanks to light captured by solar collectors on the vessel’s hull. The “day” is an artificial 27-hour period broken into three 9-hour shifts, each equally busy; the most important areas of the ship are maintained around the clock. Multiple airlocks are situated at either end of the ship, close to the final stops of the Hub; these airlocks include larger access points, which are required to move goods in and out of the Idari’s manufacturing sectors via automated transport systems.

History

The only ship to be recognized as a Pact World, the Idari serves as the de facto home world of the kasathas in this region of space. Launched from the desert planet of Kasath shortly after The Gap ended, the massive colony ship was originally intended to establish a new home on Akiton. When these kasathas arrived in the system, they saw that Akiton was already bustling with life and decided to place the Idari in orbit between Verces and the Diaspora as a world in its own right. The Idari has seen generations die and be born aboard it—and it will most likely see a multitude more.
The kasathas who remain aboard the Idari almost all strive to hold on to traditional kasathan values, which prioritize stability over everything else, and they look to the wisdom of the past to plot a course to the future. However, they also maintain a brisk trade with the rest of the system and good relations with the other Pact Worlds races. Visitors to the Idari can find the cultural atmosphere impenetrable without a local guide, as most kasathas develop a unique set of personal traditions. But with a few pointers, most Pact Worlders learn to fit right in.
RESIDENTS The vast majority of residents of the Idari are kasathas, descendants of emigrants from a distant desert world. Other races must muddle through the resident kasathas’ many cultural traditions, often with the help of a kasathan guide, but learning these traditions sometimes takes years. Kasathas prompt these outsiders to seek wisdom in their own races’ ways and to build their own legacy of customs, though some outsiders find it easier to completely adopt established kasathan rites. The vessel’s kasathas are mostly empathetic to the plight of newcomers trying to find a place for themselves on the planet-ship, and they go out of their way to connect with new visitors who want to share their culture.
Android and Ysoki make up the largest percentage of nonkasathan residents of the Idari. Androids are concentrated near the vacuum-insulated construction modules of the Crucibles, where they have proven invaluable given their ability to function without atmosphere. A sizable ysoki population has taken up residence in the utility spaces of the engineering decks. As they grow more and more familiar with the vessel’s systems, the ysoki are slowly becoming increasingly integral in keeping the Idari’s systems up and running.
The Human who call the Idari home favor the more planetlike Drum areas and are largely merchants in the Outland Markets of Almolar. They tend to all move in the same circles, embracing the familiar sights of other human faces as they live in another race’s home. Lashunta scholars are honored on the Idari, and many study in the temple complex surrounding the Sholar Adat. Many of these sages are fascinated by the connection between kasathas and Witchwyrd and spend much of their time researching ancient kasathan traditions to learn more. The few Shirren on board are students of the philosophy of the Cycle, as its maxims about the connectedness of all things mirror the hive mind their species used to share.
SOCIETY Society on the Idari is similar to that on Kasath, though distilled by centuries in the challenging environment of the colony ship. For example, the meritocratic nature of the Doyenate, the ship’s governing body, is an artifact of the journey’s need for ruthless competency and replaces Kasath’s more explicitly hereditary leadership systems. A majority of the Idari’s social institutions function in ways with no easy analogies to other races’ organizations, which is a continuous source of consternation for offworlders. Most kasathas work for the ship’s government in some fashion.
A representative council called the Doyenate governs the Idari, chosen by a uniquely kasathan combination of democracy, meritocracy, and aristocracy. Doyens are chosen through the consensus of their peers and assume their positions as previous doyens step down. Whisper campaigns are the norm, with slow and steady sub-rosa conversations eventually erupting into a public consensus. While there are formal mechanisms for power transitions, they are seldom used—when it becomes apparent that a doyen needs to be replaced, that doyen is expected to step down without causing a disturbance. This organic power dynamic is almost impenetrable to outsiders who see doyens assume and concede offices with little fanfare and even less explanation, but the system has worked for the kasathas over the centuries. The Doyenate mediates policy discussions and examines the changing opinions of the kasathas, synthesizing them into policy with minimum disruption and hard feelings. The Doyenate is a high-trust institution, with all of the players playing the long game, knowing that even if they lose on one issue, they may come out on top on another matter.
While most of the lower and middle levels of the Doyenate are made up of the kasathan governmental ideal of gradually promoted civilian bureaucrats, at the highest levels, the Doyenate operates much more like an aristocracy. Appointments are made by merit and acclaim, but somehow the highest offices, especially those of the doyens, tend to rotate through the same few families every generation. As the harsh necessities of the journey fade further into history, however, some radicals have begun to whisper that a meritocracy that looks like an aristocracy is no meritocracy at all and that serious reforms are needed, even if it means moving away from appointment by acclaim.
Some doyens hold positions of importance on the Idari’s crew, such as captain and chief engineer, but certain roles have declined in significance over recent decades, leading to those doyens holding less power on the Doyenate than they did during the journey. These doyens are attempting to alter the scope of their responsibilities, and arguments about which doyen is accountable for which area of the ship have begun to hamper Doyenate meetings.
The rank-and-file crew positions are akin to clerical government positions built upon a foundation of military-style training. They range from engineers who maintain the Idari’s reaction drives to botanists overseeing various sections of the Drum’s ecosystem. However, all crew members are ready and willing to defend the colony ship with their lives, should the need arise. Most crew members are descended from the Idari’s original crew, and only a select few non-kasathas have the honor of being named a full crew member.
Any Idaran—kasathan or otherwise—who has lived at least 1 year aboard the ship can train for an auxiliary crew position. Auxiliary crew members are mobilized for the defense or protection of the Idari in dire emergencies, but they typically have other professions, sometimes unrelated to their crew rank, and live and work alongside the vessel’s civilian residents. Many kasathas are taught that becoming an auxiliary crew member is their civic duty and that the occasional training day is a small price to pay for protecting the long-term viability of their ship and the kasathan species.
Adata are the attendants of the Sholar Adat, which serves as a physical and mystical repository of all kasathas’ ancestral knowledge. Through the process known as adat, a deceased kasatha’s knowledge and personality are preserved via a thin slice of the brain, enabling a technomagical link to her eternal soul to be established at need. In this way, kasathas not only honor their ancestors but also retain the ability to learn from them. Much of kasathan culture on the Idari revolves around the Sholar Adat, where the old ways are studied and the traditions of the past are mined for new relevance. The current doyen of the adata is Barasul Naedarin Allar of Clan Allar (LN female kasatha mystic), who holds great sway in the Doyenate; she staunchly opposes non-kasathas becoming adata, despite pushback from her more liberal associates.
Those on the Idari who don’t belong to the Doyenate, the crew, or the adata are mainly artists, entertainers, and merchants. They live in the Idari’s city-like sectors, much like the inhabitants of other planets, with the largest concentration in Khovi’s warren of living spaces. These residents drive many of the Idari’s cultural developments. Currently, the hottest new Idaran trends include laser sculpture—where artists place harmless laser beams in specific configurations to appear as three-dimensional images when viewed at the right angle—and an open-source virtual reality game called Chrononuance that allows developers to show players their theories of what happened during the Gap.
CONFLICTS AND THREATS To an offworlder, the Idari may appear to be a consensus free of dissent or a riot of individual actions; but underneath the cooperation and personal autonomy are some deep conflicts.
The main purpose of a colony ship is to colonize, and this particular fact is at the heart of a brewing conflict between three factions onboard the Idari. The largest group believes that the present course is best—using the Idari as a home world and carving out a niche in the Pact Worlds without conquest or further travel. They argue that the kasathas have wisely and successfully updated their strategy with new information about the Pact Worlds and now pursue the course that their ancestors would have favored had they been able to foresee the current situation. A second faction believes that the mandate of the Idari is to colonize Akiton as its builders intended. These are generally members of the crew who believe that they owe their loyalty to Kasath as a whole, not merely the complacent splinter of kasathas here in the Pact Worlds. A third faction wants the Idari to power back up and move on to another suitable planet. This group doesn’t have much influence but is well represented by the doyen of exploration’s staff, who hope to find an uninhabited planet so perfect that it will convince the majority to begin their journey anew. While these factions haven’t come to blows over their differences of opinion, the tensions between them are rising.
Another fracture within kasathan culture revolves around allowing offworlders onto the Idari. Cosmopolitan kasathas wholeheartedly embrace visitors and immigrants from the other Pact Worlds, believing either that exposure to kasathan traditions will elevate the culture of outsiders or, more radically, that kasathan culture can be improved through judicious infusion of the best that other cultures have to offer. However, some groups of isolationist kasathas find this to be a form of cultural contamination. These isolationists can be found everywhere—among the Doyenate, the crew, and all other walks of Idari society—but most don’t insist on being absolutely cut off from the Pact Worlds. Instead, they generally believe that outsiders’ stays should be brief and restricted to a few areas where they can’t cause very much trouble or contaminate kasathas with their outlandish beliefs.
Additionally, a small contingent of kasathas is attempting to live free of technology by occupying shantytowns on the edges of the Idari’s cities and surviving by hunting, fishing, and foraging in the ship’s more natural areas. Those who have to keep the Idari’s ecosystem in balance view these kasathas with a combination of awe and consternation, but they tend to leave them be. When asked why they don’t just relocate to an actual planet, these kasathas claim that the Idari is due for a tragedy that will leave the ship bereft of power and that their skills will be necessary for the survival of all on board. The ship’s security officers keep a close eye on this minor cult, as they believe the cult’s supposed purpose constitutes a veiled threat.
Members of a small sect of kasathas called the Undiminished believe that the wisdom of one’s entire ancestry is contained within one’s brain and claim the process of adat represents a loss of that kasatha’s ancestral knowledge. To the Undiminished, only a whole brain can possibly hold all of that expertise and insight. While a small number of these adherents are open about their beliefs and lobby for a change to adat through standard political channels, most operate in the shadows, stealing corpses and imbibing psychotropic drugs as they attempt to commune with freshly extracted brains.

Tourism

The following notable locations are found on the Idari.
Assembly of the Doyenate Separate from the six sectors, the Assembly of the Doyenate stands alone in the midst of verdant fields, symbolically aloof from the population it serves. The separation is more figurative than actual—in reality, the line between the Doyenate and the people it serves is more a gradient than a sharp divide. The nature of civil authority among the kasathas is a gradual accrual of respect, responsibility, and authority. Many of the staffers who work in the Assembly of the Doyenate are so devoted to their public service careers that it no longer makes sense to maintain a second life outside the building; they instead take quarters in the residential halls there. Other government officials do their work from within their communities, coming to the Assembly only for important meetings and ceremonies.
Bridge Staffed with only a skeleton crew the past few decades, the Idari’s bridge is filled with monitors and gauges that track the ship’s multitude of systems and alert the crew to any malfunctions. The role of Captain Imma Elotok Hin Xogathu (LN female kasatha mechanic) has been largely downgraded to be more perfunctory than when the ship was underway, but she is still in charge of the bridge crew and has a seat on the Doyenate. Captain Xogathu and her personnel are expected to step up in the case of dire emergencies and take charge of the Idari, going so far as to moving the vessel out of orbit and to another system if necessary. Though the ship’s chief of security has the authority to fire the Idari’s weapons, the captain can override him if she believes that would be a step too far. Since gaining this position, Captain Xogathu has begun to feel a kind of wanderlust and might abdicate very soon.
The Complex Separated from the bulk of Heravex but still part of its sector, the Complex is a closed installation about which little is known outside of the upper echelons of the Doyenate. Some say it’s a weapons cache dating back to the Idari’s launch, some think it is a Doyenate bunker for emergencies, and a few even speculate it is a prison for dissident kasathas who have turned cannibalistic. The higher kasathas’ rank and social standing, the less willing they are to speculate about the Complex, and the Doyenate continues to remain silent.
The Crucibles The manufacturing heart of the Idari is the series of vast manufacturing bays known as the Crucibles. Located in the aft hull and fed by the enormous energies of the Idari’s idling drives, the Crucibles are among the most advanced manufactories in the Pact Worlds. The primary exports built here are starships, advanced electronics, and delicate nanotechnology.
Many of the Crucible modules operate in complete vacuum for structural reasons or to avoid contamination. The androids of the Idari prove their worth in these areas, as they are able to operate without space suits and thus remain more nimble and adaptable than their kasathan counterparts. Leading isolationists have continuously raised the alarm about outsiders being given access to the heart of the Idari, but their cries have fallen on deaf ears, even after it became clear that several previous android workers were agents of the Android Abolitionist Front who had found their way into employment as programmers for portions of the ship’s computers.
Culinarium The researchers of this institute are both genetic engineers and gourmet chefs, and they work at creating interesting new ingredients to grow in Mesacand’s hydroponic towers. Cooking techniques such as molecular gastronomy and the even more esoteric quantum flavoring flourish in the Culinarium. Every 4 months, the Culinarium holds a massive banquet to showcase some of its new recipes and foods, and tickets to this event sell out in a matter of moments. As such, the doyen of nutrition is constantly on the lookout for counterfeit tickets, leading to a recent policy that restricts non-Idarans to attending only one such banquet per year.
Delimar Gallery One of the larger art galleries in Khovi, the Delimar Gallery is run by Salasari Mou Qari of House Delimar (NG female kasatha envoy), once a star in the art community for her daring vid collages. She now seeks out and fosters young artists of all mediums, showcasing their art in exhibits that change weekly. The gallery is the talk of the Pact Worlds’ high society; some of the more interesting recent displays have included scent sculptures, highly immersive VR experiences, and portraits painted with pigments created from stardust.
Farm Pods While the central Drum has its own vat farms and hydroponic towers, it does not come close to producing enough food for the vessel’s population. A small portion of the main crew, supervising large shifts of auxiliary crew members, manages the farm pods attached to the Idari’s outer hull. Service in the farm pods demands frequent labor far in excess of that needed for other responsibilities on the ship. The farm pods never lack for recruits, however—a “back to the vat” culture has caused many kasathas to take an active interest in being part of their own food production. The fact that farm workers get first pick of some of the pods’ best foodstuffs is another significant factor, but it doesn’t fully explain the zeal with which so many Idarans work these vats and hydroponics racks.
Garden of All Kasath One section of Gesilad has a special purpose, though it may not be evident to the untutored: the Garden of All Kasath is a working garden dedicated to preserving every plant species from the kasathan home world as it existed before the journey. The master gardeners who work in this space are punctilious in making sure the plants here don’t cross-pollinate with more modern cultivars—a farsighted labor intended to preserve Kasath’s oasis flora for such a time as the kasathas might need to make a new desert planet bloom.
Hub Station 3 Hundreds of visitors and citizens pass daily through Hub Station 3, the busiest of the Drum’s many elevator stations. Most non-kasathas head directly to the Outland Markets from here, though those wishing to see more of the ship’s natural areas can step onto the paths that lead past the Lower Lakes or over to the farms of Mesacand. While all visitors are screened before entering the Idari, ship security has a large presence in Hub Station 3, keeping an eye out for anyone attempting to smuggle illegal goods off the ship or engaging in other suspicious activity.
Hydroponic Towers While flat vat-farm paddies take up most of the surface area of Mesacand, much more produce is grown in hydroponic-farm towers that double as residential high-rises. Unlike the farm pods, which are mostly given over to staple crops, these towers grow a range of foodstuffs that grows ever wider as Mesacand’s genetic engineers create new exotic varietals.
Jungle of Kusad While much of the forested land of the Idari is lightly treed and temperate, the Jungle of Kusad is a exception. This small, tropical rain forest is kept humid by complex machines that disperse moisture into the region’s air. As the jungle is home to dangerous predators and poisonous plants, few Idarans enter unsupervised. Nasenlir Zye Fassar of Clan Vophious (NG male kasatha solarian) runs regular tours of the jungle for the entertainment of hundreds every year. The cost of the expedition isn’t cheap and requires participants to sign liability waivers, should things go horribly awry.
Museum of Ancestral Technology The largest building in Gesilad is the Museum of Ancestral Technology, a collection of Kasath-era tools, vehicles, and practical techniques. The museum emphasizes hands-on learning and has replicas of many of its exhibits available for use. The most eye-catching piece in the collection is no replica—a fully functional prejourney Trigrammaton fightercraft suspended from the ceiling.
New Kasath University Located apart from the temples of Brispex, New Kasath University is a bastion of traditional kasathan educational programs. While the institution accepts members of other races for admission (with strict entrance requirements and higher tuition rates), any kasatha can take classes at this school as long as she has undertaken the yearlong walkabout known as the Tempering. Lectures here are mainly about anthropology, history (especially kasathan history), and philosophy, though an entire course readies students for becoming a member of the auxiliary crew.
Outland Markets The area in the outskirts of Almolar is the Outland Markets, home to one of the largest concentrations of non-kasathas on the Idari. The area is often a riot of different species and cultures, and the modest architecture of the underlying structures is decorated heavily to catch the eye of visitors. The merchants of the Outland Markets run the gamut of Pact World species and even include some from farther afield. The most numerous, however, are humans; a thriving human community has carved a niche for itself in the neighborhood and has become tightknit due to members’ shared inability to fully understand the intricate cultural ecosystem of the Idari’s kasathas.
Amid the marketplaces is the Outlander, a bar catering to offworlders that plays up its theme by serving the most garish cocktails from Absalom Station. Almost every human who comes to the Idari ends up in the Outlander eventually, either seeking it out for familiar companionship or being ushered to it by helpful kasathas. Thus, the proprietor, Yuki Utsama (NG female human envoy), knows most of the humans on the Idari by sight, and their business as well.
Outpost Umber Though arid, the desert planet of Kasath is by no means lifeless, and the areas of Aft and Fore Kasath attempt to maintain as much of that planet’s flora and fauna as possible. To this end, the Ecobalancers use a handful of stations throughout the Drum from which they can safely observe the ecosystem, keep notes, and perform other vital duties. In addition to these tasks, the crew of Outpost Umber in Aft Kasath have begun illegally trading the narcotic flowers of a cactus called tacee with a ysoki criminal gang operating out of the ship’s engineering decks. At the moment, the doyen of ecology is unaware of this smuggling operation as the kasathas involved have been storing their ill-gotten credits in secret accounts, planning to wait until the ysoki have had their fill before spending them.
Paradise Village Several rivers and streams flowing from the sector of Heravex down to the Sternward Reservoir pass through the dome of Paradise Village in Almolar. Built around these flows are a profusion of buildings whose architecture hearkens back to Kasath, from market squares to humble dwellings, all interspersed with a profusion of kasathan flora. Paradise Village is the major urban relaxation destination for kasathas of the Idari—being this close to their ancestral society speaks to something deep within them in a way the habitation towers and natural preserves can’t imitate. No Hub elevators connect directly to Paradise Village; it is accessible only via corridors painted with murals of Kasath landscapes.
Pillar of the Homeworld This solemn monument stands in the middle of the Lake of Memories and can be accessed from the shore by a small bridge. It was crafted during the second century of the Idari’s journey by kasathas who had never set foot on Kasath and knew the planet only through vids, holopics, and stories, but now it is visited by many alien species who are a bit homesick. A powerful enchantment on the pillar causes any creature that touches it to feel a profound sense of serenity, as if that creature were standing on its favorite place on its home world.
Pradulex Monastery Kasathas originally brought the philosophy of the Cycle to the Pact Worlds, and to this day, many kasathas are solarians. Pradulex Monastery, located on a hill just outside the sector of Gesilad, trains many solarians by focusing on the Cycle in concordance with ancient kasathan traditions. After several years of study and meditation, solarians who complete their instruction at Pradulex Monastery are some of the most contemplative and disciplined warriors in the Pact Worlds.
Proving Pits Though kasathas use projectile and energy weapons at need, they have never allowed them to become the center of their military; most prefer melee weapons. The Idari’s security force looks upon physical combat prowess as a major qualification for entry and elevation in the ranks. The doyen of security is almost always among the top one percent of melee fighters, and other high ranks are filled with similarly skilled members of the martial elite. The Proving Pits provide training opportunities and diverse combat experiences kasathas might one day need to rely on. Offworlders who participate in these battles are paid handsomely for their trouble and are given full medical treatment afterward.
Reaction Drives While they haven’t been fully powered up since the Idari entered its current orbit, the reaction drives remain idle, rather than fully off-line—the process of completely shutting them down and firing them back up being deemed an unacceptable risk. The idling drives also serve to power the entire ship, and their internal fuel supply is potent enough to keep the ship powered for millennia at current levels of consumption.
While idle in their current configuration, the drives still require constant and delicate maintenance. In the days of the journey, hundreds of engineers were assigned to the task, but more recently, the crew found themselves stretched a little thin. Thanks to a forward-thinking outreach program, talented ysoki mechanics were headhunted into the auxiliary crew, and now entire ysoki families live in or near the ship’s engineering decks. This particular state of affairs put some of the more traditionalist kasathas on edge, but the doyen of engineering regularly assures the Doyenate that the ysoki don’t have unfettered access to the more sensitive systems—something he knows deep down he couldn’t enforce should the ysoki decide to harm the colony ship.
Red Corridors Even some kasathas are stifled by their tradition-laden society. During the journey, there was no outlet for malcontents and iconoclasts who couldn’t follow the basic rules of kasathan society. After continued failures to rehabilitate them, the Doyenate hit upon a new solution in the form of the Red Corridors. While not completely lawless, these subterranean levels of several Khovi habitat towers are incredibly anarchic. Kasathas here can live whatever life they want, throwing even the most important kasathan values to the wind, as long as whatever trouble they cause doesn’t extend into the rest of the Idari. The Doyenate keeps an eye on the Red Corridors, but it interferes only in situations where the anarchy threatens to spill out into Khovi. The Red Corridors have been highly effective in isolating the most unruly kasathas from the rest of the ship. They are filled with small artist collectives and communes, where the urge to innovate can be indulged without having to mind their conservative neighbors’ sensibilities. But it is also home to crime lords and drug peddlers, as the spotty surveillance in the area makes criminal activity easy to conduct. While the doyen of tourism warns offworlders against visiting the Red Corridors (when forced to acknowledge their existence), many visitors make brief stops there before emerging and going about the rest of their entirely legal business.
Redoubt of Damoritosh While Brispex houses many of the Idari’s temples, the Redoubt of Damoritosh can be found atop the hills of Heravex, looming above its neighboring buildings. Any who worship the Conquerer are welcome to worship here, and the Redoubt’s warrior-priests also offer martial training for a small donation to the church. These sessions are often brutal, leaving participants bruised and exhausted. The warrior-priests are adept enough to avoid breaking their customers’ bones, but accidents do occur on occasion. Fortunately, the clergy can provide medical services, which they do for free to those who sparred honorably. The warrior-priests reserve the right to send away anyone who they see as too weak, though this is usually a test of that applicant’s strength of will. After all, those who deserve this training wouldn’t give up after a few harsh words.
Sea of Grass Imitating the lost grasslands of the Kasath continent of Furalev, the Sea of Grass is generally avoided by modern kasathas at the behest of the small camp of technology-rejecting kasathas that call the area home. This clan lives by tending long-legged virix herds in the ancient manner of their ancestors.
Some younger kasathas belonging to this group have recently gone missing, and the elders believe they have been abducted by some of the less savory inhabitants of the nearby Red Corridors in Khovi. Not trusting the Doyenate, the distraught parents have put out a call to investigators from outside the Idari, hoping those who are a bit more adventurous can navigate the seedy underworld of the Red Corridors and recover their lost children.
Sholar Adat The Sholar Adat is one of the tallest structures on the Idari, its central spire almost reaching the Hub. As the most important institution of kasathan cultural transmission, the Sholar Adat is where the ceremony of adat is performed and the resultant slices of brain are stored. The precise methods involved in the ritual itself and the technomagical processes used to store and access the memories of the brains are carefully guarded secrets, though that hasn’t kept various corporations, cults, and other organizations from attempting to acquire them. The Sholar Adat is something of a holy place for kasathas, most of whom make pilgrimages to the temple complex to meditate, worship, study traditions of the past, or commune with their ancestors (though this requires a large expenditure of credits). Many of the temple’s attendants—adata—are tasked with sorting through many of these memories at once and searching for patterns within them, which they do by hooking themselves up to a machine called the Sensorium for hours at a time. As memory sifting is a grueling, mind-bending experience, adata must take a month to recover between Sensorium shifts.
Tempering Pool Adolescent kasathas are encouraged to participate in the Tempering, a yearlong excursion in which participants experience a multitude of other cultures in order to help develop their own personal traditions. Some kasathas continue their lives as adventurers or settle elsewhere in the galaxy, but those who return to the Idari to become a part of traditional kasathan culture often celebrate their homecoming with a small ceremony at this reflecting pool in Gesilad. The celebration for each kasatha is different, however, with some quietly coming alone to dip their hands in the water and others inviting friends and family to share a meal in the colorful gazebo nearby. There is no official way to book time at the Tempering Pool, and when two ceremonies overlap, the participating kasathas often happily merge their celebrations into one.
Temple of the Black Butterfly Worship of the Silence Between is infrequent on Kasath, but during the Idari’s journey, many kasathas turned to the enigmatic Black Butterfly for guidance and comfort in the face of the bleakness of the inky void outside. Today, the Temple of the Black Butterfly is home to a sect of priests known as the Stillness. The members have taken a vow of silence and train daily to hone their fighting skill to be ready in the event that evil ever attempts to breach the Idari’s hull.
Temple of Ibra While the priests of Talavet work to preserve the knowledge already amassed by mortals, the priests of Ibra are dedicated to discovering secrets never before known. They believe that through careful study and mystical pattern matching, they can discern the true pattern of the universe. The least of that new knowledge, they believe, will be the location of a new home world for the kasathas. Ibran priests believe the answer lies not out in deep space but within the walls of the Drum. They propose that Ibra worked through the architects of the Idari to encode the location of the new home world in the very plates of the hull. If the patterns of the utility tunnels, ducts, and pipelines, and even the orientation of the buildings and the borders of the various sectors are all synthesized, the data they yield could lead the way to a new and permanent home.
Temple of Talavet The kasathas are a traditional and retrospective people and were thus affected much more than most other races by the Gap, which they call the Time of Silence. At the Temple of Talavet, worshipers of the Storyteller grieve for the lost stories of the past that will never be told again. There is a joyous purpose to the grief, however: the priests of Talavet, who include many shirrens among their number, work tirelessly to archive the stories and folk knowledge of every species of the Pact Worlds, dispersing the resulting compendiums across the system and beyond in an attempt to increase the knowledge that might survive any future Time of Silence.
Windcatcher Archives This trio of mostly walled-off, connected buildings stand at the top of a small rise overlooking Gesilad. The headquarters for the Ecobalancers and the office of the doyen of ecology, Esax Jana Meritus Rhee of House Hadulan (LN male kasatha mystic), it contains records of all of Idari’s varied ecologies dating back to the vessel’s launch. While the buildings look stark from the outside, the interiors are decorated with bright landscape paintings and clippings of the ship’s various flora.
Lately, Doyen Rhee has been taking meetings with agents of the Xenowardens in the archives. The two groups share techniques for protecting nature and are formulating plans to seed Kasath fauna onto Akiton in order to ensure their continued existence.

IDARI LG colony ship Population 43,607 (93% kasatha, 7% other) Government oligarchy (Doyenate) Qualities bureaucratic, insular, technologically advanced Maximum Item Level 20th

Alternative Name(s)

The Renewal

Type

Planet