ASLAN
The Aslan are a Major Race. Their proper name is Fteirle.

Aslan stand roughly human-sized, averaging 2.0 meters in height and weighing about 100 kg. They are descended from four-limbed, upright, bipedal carnivore/pouncer stock originally adapted to a solitary arboreal existence.

The earliest Terran explorers saw in them a vague resemblance to the Terran lion, and they have been described (by Terrans) as lion-like ever since, although there is very little true similarity. The derivation of the word Aslan is unknown. There are two sexes, male and female. The most notable external difference is the increased size and mane of the former. Females outnumber males by 3:1

Aslan have a single highly specialized dewclaw under each thumb which folds back jackknife fashion into a horny covering in the base of the thumb and palm.

Established interstellar empire
A vast Aslan-dominated empire (the Aslan Hierate) lies to spinward and rimward of the Reavers' Deep, but Aslan themselves have ranged well beyond its borders, with many settling on the independent worlds of the Deep and the Imperium. Aslan have fought with the Imperium Aslan Border Wars

Aslan Society
The Aslan are a warrior race, proud, noble, and devoted to those in authority above them. An individual Aslan is usually a member of a family of from 2 to 12 individuals under a patriarchal leader. Several families will combine into a pride with one family dominant. A number of prides form a clan, again with a top pride. Aside from military organizations and the ruling council (within the Hierate), the clan is the highest social-political organization among the Aslan.

A deep-seated territorial instinct causes the Aslan to have an inordinate (from a human standpoint) concern with land. For male Aslan, owning land is a major goal in life. An Aslan's stature is determined by the amount of land he (or her husband) controls, or by the amount of land owned by any higher lord the Aslan may be vassal to. The lowest classes of Aslan are landless, and provide the farmers, laborers, craftsmen, and factory workers. A holder of a large territory will often grant authority over it to vassals (usually sons, brothers, or male relatives by marriage) who administer the land in his name.

The sexes have very different roles in Aslan society. Males (in all but the lowest classes) are concerned mostly with military operations, acquisition of territory, and political affairs. Females are concerned with trade, industry, and the accumulation of knowledge. Upper class males have little conception of money and are literally incapable of functioning in a technological society without aid, so they are thus seldom encountered without the supervision of a wife, mother, or other female relative or employer.

For instance, a typical Aslan mercenary unit will be organized by a wealthy married female, who will then assign its operation, for a share of the proceeds, to an unmarried female relative. The battle commander and most of the troops will be unmarried males (many of them also relatives) hired with the promise of land grants (and the opportunity to gain honor and reputation in combat); however, staff, operations, supply, and intelligence officers will generally be female.

The extremely deadly nature of any combat between Aslan has led to a rigid, ritualized pattern of behavior designed to reduce conflict. Aslan are very polite, and while most have learned to be patient with non-Aslan, accidental fights still occur. Disputes between individuals are handled by the patriarchs; disputes between families are handled by the pride leader; disputes between prides are handled by the clan leader.

Aslan Hierate
The Aslan Hierate is the interstellar, multi-sector government of the many Aslan clans. Aslan society centers on the clan. Within the Hierate, the family structure of the Aslan and the governmental structure are the same. A council of twenty-nine clan leaders chosen from amongst the most powerful clans performs the highest governmental functions. The Trokh name for this council is Tlaukhu, which has a literal translation of thirty-five (Aslan numbering is in base-8, this is 29 in base-10).

"The 29" (as they are called) have quasi-religious status and represent the essential unity of the Aslan race. To be chosen one of the 29 is the highest honor to which any Aslan can aspire. The 29 meet continuously on the Aslan homeworld, Kusyu (Dark Nebula 1919) to adjudicate inter-clan disputes and decide matters of group policy. No member of the 29 speaks for the Hierate as a whole, nor does the whole 29.

There are no Hierate military forces; each clan has its own, and they rarely act in concert with those of other clans. The Hierate itself can call upon military forces only insofar as the clans themselves agree to provide such forces. Even the minor forces conveying the 29's decisions are actually under the control of individual clan leaders.

Hierate is an Galanglic word derived from a Terran word for sacred, the early contactees mistaking the Aslan code of honor for a religion. The Aslan term for their empire is Htoifteirlakht, translated as "the bountful lands ruled by the lords of honor".

Aslan Calendar
The Aslan calendar is based on the period of the Aslan homeworld, Kusyu (Dark Nebula 1919) around Tyeyo, its star. The Aslan ftahea (year) is 319.98 standard days in length.

THIRD IMPERIUM
Also called The Imperium. Founded in 0 by Cleon Zhunastu from the Sylean Federation in what is now Core Sector. The Imperium grew swiftly during the pacification campaigns and more slowly thereafter until stability was reached in the 600’s, by which time the Imperium had absorbed much of the territory of the First and Second Imperiums.

Government Structure: The Imperium can be best thought of as a form of feudal confederation. Member worlds of the Imperium agree to pay taxes and obey a few fundamental laws which the Imperium promulgates, known as the High Laws. In return, the Imperium agrees to patrol the space between the worlds, to protect interstellar trade, to encourage travel and commerce, and to arbitrate diplomatic relations between worlds Beyond this, individual worlds are left to their own devices so long as they acknowledge the power of the Imperium to rule the space between the stars.

Imperial power is present on member worlds in the form of consulates, bureaucratic offices, and bases. Sometimes, larger enclaves of Imperial power are placed where they can enhance the emperor’s strength.

The Imperium’s territory is divided into sectors, which are in turn divided into subsectors and systems. Groups of sectors, called domains, have been created above the sector level.

During the Pacification Campaigns, Emperor Artemsus divided space into six regions, labeled them domains, and appointed an archduke over each of them. To each archduke, he assigned the continuing pacification of the domain’s many systems and their integration into the Imperium. The domains were: Sylea (Core, Fornast, Massilia, Delphi), Vland (Corridor, Vland, Gushemege, Dagudashag), Gateway (Ley, Glimmerdrift Reaches, Gateway, Crucis Margin), llelish (Ilelish, Zarushagar, Reaver’s Deep, Daibei), Antares (Lishun, Antares, Mendan, Amdukan), and Sol (Dispora, Old Expanses, Solomani Rim, Alpha Crucis). Most of the domains were never totally absorbed into the Imperium.

In 589, during the First Frontier War, a seventh domain was established- Deneb (Spinward Marches, Deneb, Trojan Reach, Reft) The intent was to appoint an archduke to be responsible for their supervision. However, the Civil War broke out before an archduke was appointed.

Following the civil war, the emperors expressed concern about individuals with powers equaling their own, so they moved to lessen the power of the archdukes in the Imperial government Because of this, no archduke of Deneb was never appointed. As a result, the domains came to have little practical significance. Each archduke did retain the power to create knights and baronets.

In the years after the Fourth Frontier War, and after the problems it presented from lags in communication, Emperor Strephon felt a strengthened archduke position could enable the Imperium to more quickly respond in defending the realm. Against the protests and opposition of some prominent members of the Moot, Strephon reestablished the domain as a level in the bureaucracy of the Imperial Navy and returned to the Domain the ability to collect taxes Still later, Strephon gave the archdukes the ability to legislate and enforce the desires of the emperor on the local level.

The Imperium is a series of consecutive galactic empires.

    * The First Imperium (or Ziru Sirka) was an empire of the Vilani.
    * The Second Imperium (or Rule of Man) was formed by the Solomani after they had conquered the First. The Rule of Man collapsed due to the weight of stagnation that it had absorbed from the Ziru Sirka.
    * The Third Imperium arose after a period known as The Long Night, when a small federation of planets known as the Sylean Federation re-absorbed the worlds of the previous empires.

REAVER'S DEEP

Sector Capital Marlheim/Ea (Reaver's Deep 1230)

During the Long Night, this region of space was dominated by petty warlords and pirates, who were collectively referred to as The Reavers. Expansion of the Aslan Hierate and Third Imperium along the sector's borders put an end to the Reaver activity, though the numerous neutral worlds of the sector provide haven for pirates and criminals to this day.

This sector is named Aeitle Sakh in the Aslan Hierate.

The Aslan control 17 systems, 9 under the Solomani, 17 are Client States, 19 Principality of Caledon, 20 Carrillian Assembly, 13 Isaiat Dominate, 13 Ulane Hierate, and several more states with less than 8 systems.

The sector most often known as Reavers' Deep (Aeitle Sakh in Trokh) is a frontier region lying along the Imperial border. Bounded to spinward by territories dominated by the Aslan, to trailing by the Imperium, to rimward by the Solomani Confederation and various independent worlds and to coreward by the Great Rift, Reavers' Deep is a diverse region showing the influences of all these neighbors.

Astrography: Reavers' Deep contains 16 subsectors, though four of these (Farift, Riftdeep, Riftrim and Gulf) are technically a part of the Great Rift and have only a thin scattering of stars. The other twelve subsectors are more normal in stellar concentration, averaging close to 30 worlds per subsector.

Sector located at astrographical coordinates (-2, -2).

History: Little is known of the early history of the Deep. It is fairly certain that the Ancients visited several planets in this region; artifacts proving this have been discovered at a number of sites within the Deep.

Near the end of the Pax Vilanica, when the First Imperium was beginning to feel the strain of age and decay, various Imperial governors along the frontiers began secretly recruiting barbarian mercenaries beyond the borders to support their bids for power. One such governor in the region known today as the Daibei Sector is believed to have sent expeditions into the Deep, where his people made contact with the Saie culture. Technical assistance was dispatched to the Saie world to give them the capacity to build weapons and starships that would make them useful to the governor's planned rebellion. Soon after these advisors were dispatched, however, violence erupted in the province. In the fighting that followed, the governor perished and the secret of the Saie was lost to the Imperium. The advisers continued to supply their charges with technology, being unable to return home without aid.

The Saie, an aggressive, expansionistic race, used their new technology to establish a small empire in the Caledon, Riftrim and Nightrim subsectors. They overextended themselves in the process and, in a widespread civil war, their empire collapsed. Because they were spread thin, the Saie culture vanished almost without a trace. Even the identity of their homeworld and all records of their physical appearance were lost, buried amid confused myths and legends among the races that they had conquered.

It was during the period of the Interstellar Wars, when the Vilani and the young, vigorous Terran Confederation first came into collision, that humans of Terrestrial extraction first arrived in the Deep. Settlers seeking refuge from the war ravaged worlds near Terra (Solomani Rim 1827) made an epic journey that ultimately ended with the discovery and colonization of Caledon (Reavers' Deep 1815), in the Caledon subsector. Other Terrans followed later, during the years of the Second Imperium (the Rule of Man, after Terra conquered the Vilani empire). The Deep was explored and a few worlds were settled, but the region remained largely open and uninhabited.

When the Second Imperium in its turn collapsed (largely due to the inherited problems of the previous Vilani regime), the Long Night fell. Interstellar government and communication alike passed away, except in individual areas where a few strong men could hold on to isolated outposts of civilization. It was during the later stages of the Long Night that the Reavers appeared in the Deep; petty warlords or pirates who scraped together a few space worthy starships and used them to loot backward worlds or to seize and hold small empires. Though the same sort of thing happened outside the Deep as well, these freebooters flourished in the Deep long after the rising tide of civilization had put an end to the majority of their brethren, elsewhere.

The Third Imperium to trailing and the spreading Aslan clans to spinward each expanded into the Deep at about the same time. The Reavers faded as ships of these two groups began to explore and conquer the Deep and the Aslan Border Wars broke out. The conclusion of the wars established a neutral region between Aslan and Imperial Space through the middle of the Deep. This area remains largely independent, though considerable influence is still wielded by the neighboring powers. A few client states or small interstellar governments are present, like the Principality of Caledon and the Carrillian Assembly, but many worlds cling fiercely to their traditional independence and there are even a few freebooters left to carry on the romance of the Reaver legend.

PSIONICS
The use of mental powers to manipulate matter and energy, to sense, and to communicate. It has been demonstrated that minds (human or non-human, conscious or unconscious, intelligent or unintelligent) contain some capacity to operate without apparent use of physical facilities. Until circa - 1000, psionics was little studied in most regions, except on a disorganized level (parapsychology, the occult, spiritualism, and so on). It was known and practiced among the Zhodani, and by some minor races, but it was by no means widespread. However, during the Long Night, many races, (human and others) turned introspective. As a result, many finally began to engage in serious research in psionics, which revealed much about the empirical nature of the phenomenon, although the principles involved were, and remain, little understood.

However, even though it assumed scientific validity, psionics remained a backwater science until about 650, when it underwent a tremendous burst of popularity. Psionics within the Imperium reached its peak in the latter half of the 700's. In the 790's, however, the crest of popular opinion broke with the revelation of scandals within the Psionics Institutes; the result was the Psionics Suppressions (800 to 826), which shifted public opinion away from support of psionics.

Psionics falls into several talents: Telepathy, Clairvoyance, Telekinesis, Awareness and Teleportation. Although psionic activity generally lends itself to classification, some individuals defy this very classification. Individuals with special talent are capable of some activity which is not described here. Some special psionic abilities include: abilty to spontaneously start fires (pyrokinesis), the ability to teleport others instead of one’s self, the ability to perform an assault on inanimate objects, the ability to telepathically communicate with computers or robots, the ability to induce visions or hallucinations in others (either audial, visual, or combined), the ability to use awareness to affect others (to either increase or decrease characteristics, or to heal), and the ability to use awareness to influence dexterity or intelligence.

MARLHEIM
Marlheim, located in the Ea subsector, is the capital of the Grand Duchy of Marlheim, a tightly controlled and avowedly expansionistic state.

GRAND DUCHY OF MARLHEIM
A tightly controlled expansionist totalitarian state controlling eight worlds in the Ea and Eakoi Subsectors. The Grand Duchy can trace its origins to one of the last successful Reaver Warlords in the Ea subsector. The Duchy capital is at Marlheim (Reaver's Deep 1230).

Tensions have been high between the Grand Duchy and the Confederacy of Duncinae for some time and the Grand Duchy closed its borders to all shipping from the Confederacy following the MacBeth Affair in late 1113 on Mirak(Reavers' Deep 1127).

FARIFT SUBSECTOR
The Farift Subsector is a backwater, butting up against the Great Rift. There are few planets with anything to really attract interstellar travellers or trade. None of the worlds here have any allegiance to any interstellar polity, though none of the populated worlds are xenophobic. The Farift Subsector is a quiet place to retire to.

Luiwaiwuah is wholly owned by Dakaar Metals, but is only visited every 2 or 3 months due to the limited exploitation so far. The colony is a preferred Dakaar Metals retirement world.

The three governments of Kelly are currently in the process of amalgamating their planet into one world government. So far, the process has been peaceful.

Only two worlds in the subsector are part of a multi-world government, the Tlyetrai Assembly.

The Farift subsector contains 10 systems with a population of 9.214 billion. The highest population is 9 billion at Andalusia and the highest tech level is 8 at Hoa and Turin.

Farift location in the sector
Farift | Riftdeep | Riftrim | Gulf
Hryaroaa | Scotian Deep | Caledon | Nightrim
Keiar | Ea | Drexilthar | Urlaqqash
Uhtaa | Eakoi | Drinsaar | Fahlnar

Sato continua a apoiar o médico da base tentando sempre bater um bom papo com a mente aberta para trocas de experiências. Klax tb se torna presente nesses encontros e juntos os dois oficiais tentam compreender os costumes dos anfitriões.

Sozinhos, Sato indaga com Klax: Descobriu algum trato psicológico de interesse? Estou sempre com algo para fazer na ala médica para me familiarizar com os métodos deles mas ainda não tive bons avanços.

Em meio as conversas em grupo, Sato sempre se dispõe para um bom jogo de cartas. Nos momentos que Sato e Simon estão mais tranquilos na enfermaria, ele pergunta:
Notei que os arquivos de Uta mencionam manifestações com fortes traços psicológicos. Acho muito interessante pois no meu mundo não é muito comum. O sr. já fez alguma observação sobre isso?

Entre os turnos, o tenente examina o pessoal da base com seus equipamentos ao mesmo tempo que coloca Simon a par dos seus instrumentos médicos mais avançados.