Charum

Coathal Lore Pages
Species Lore Pages		Coathal
Planet and System Pages		Charum
Governments and Organizations Pages		Vesreen Holdings

Charum is a desert world and is the capital planet of the Vesreen Holdings.

General Information

System: Vesreen System

Moon(s): Torrium I

Development level: Moderate

Capital: Xantiloc City

Population (Planetside): 4,270,000,000 (approx.)

History

The Coathal people were born of Charum's desert and its caves long ago. Sleeping under the stars allowed the Coathal much time to count and gaze upon them in wonder, always waving higher even in the face of their own hardship. Though undeveloped for millennia, their keen eyes and relish of clear night skies made them excellent astronomers, and so were well prepared for their journey across the stars.

The reptiles' technology progressed at a glacial pace in spite of communication, metallurgical, energy shield, and ceramic advancements due their content with their low-population, nomadic nature. Around 10,000 years ago a group of innovators banded together to found a truly planet-scale network they called the Commweb. Like many early networks, its original purpose was to argue with each other at distance, coordinate great hunts, and facilitate nightlife, personal quests for egotistical fulfillment, and parties.

As they struck out from Vesreen following the development of indigenous jump technology, the complex weather systems of other worlds absolutely baffled the post-contact Coathal, whose language accounted for no concepts of rain, snow, or clouds. Understandably, gaiaforming projects are a recent but intense area of research for the Coathal. Though it gives the lizards a comedic aloofness, those who leave the safe clutch of Verseen frequently indulge in idle cloudwatching as a pleasurable meditative activity.

Charum

Charum is a massive, hot world that spins forth from its star with a low axial tilt, long days, and stellar transit. Its size casts the frequent shadow of eclipse on other bodies in the system. Poor in life, but rich in minerals thanks to perpetual volcanic activity, its thin nitrogen/oxygen atmopshere gives it a mesmerizing light blue glow. Its boundless rolling deserts are crevassed by painted gorges from glaciers long melted, and heaved by great tracts of mountains where its continental plates subduct into the seas of sand.

The Desert

The surface of Charum is a brutally hot and arid sea of sand. Life exists around a precious few oases. Hard grasses, tubers, and cacti exist, playing host to powerful spices that are a cornerstone of Coathal trade. But of particular note are the notoriously dangerous fauna - frequently hardened, vicious, and venomous at the very least. Insectoids comprise the largest biomass of Charum, which the Coathal cultivate, farm, and even ride, taking wing on great beetles. While bug hunts on the surface and below are a pastime for the whole species, the Coathal undertake them only in the fairest weather. All surface species cower in the face of the planet's hurricanes, which often rise overnight from atmospheric temperature fluctuations, or lethal.

While the domed and electromagnetically shielded cities of Charum are several, and a semblance of modern life carries on into the space age, traditional lifestyles do still exist, with migrant tribes moving from city to city to trade spices and spare resources.

Caves

From mycellium to megapedes, grottoes to subterranean mangrove forest, the damp subterranean tunnels of Charum have it all, and over the centuries have become homestead to the Coathal species. Cooler temperatures facilitated the first ranches and animal husbandry, especially livestock like the tasty and rideable ploughbeast Chirans, Silkwasps with their harvestable and boilable cocoons, resplendent Gembeetles and Aurumaramachnids, and meatbugs of every shape, size, and leg count which only the Coathal seem to have a stomach for.

It is rumored that Charum's largely unmapped underground river systems are headwatered by an ocean of pure glacial runoff from its earlier epochs, but the Coathal do not appear forthcoming about this.

Xantiloc City

Carrying the Coathalese word for “debate” in its name, Xantiloc City is the oldest of the shieldcities, carved in part into a rocky mesa which provided early defense from the elements. With the advent of EM shielding, Xantiloc became the stronghold of Coathalese democracy and political development. Charum’s renaissance city, and a place where great debate and scholarship could be undertaken. Xantiloc survived a direct nuclear strike in the 22nd century: the last great Coathal world war, long since quashed by the advent of world government.

Society

For the majority of Coathalan history, Charum was split between several nations with differing cultures, races, and laws. These independent countries warred every so often but for the most part kept to themselves. As the Coathal race entered the space age and their world powers began to launch satellites into orbit around Charum, they kicked off a space race that saw wealthy nations furiously attempt to one-up one another in their efforts to explore Vesreenian space. Colonies were founded and swathes of territory were claimed by these nations, leading to increased tensions and consternation amongst the world superpowers. Everything changed, however, when the Coathal came into contact with humanity and were forced to grapple with the idea they were not alone in the galaxy.

Now, the Coathal are still as inwardly focused as ever. They busy themselves with their own problems and do not take kindly to outside interference in their politics. Issues like their economy or their expansion are more hotly debated topics in the Vesreenian senate that alien affairs, and most Coathal prefer to be introspective than worry about other space empires. A portion of the populace do desire for the Coathal to cut their own path amongst the stars, but given that only a few generations have passed since the days of their fiercely independent nation states reigning supreme, plenty of regions on Charum still have wildly different opinions. For the Coathal, trying their best to unify their race in the face of several galactic empires is the best thing they can do right now.

The Coathal place a high value on democracy; they have a typical family unit and each Coathal is expected to do their civic duty of voting. To reinforce this idea that Coathal have a duty to take part in government, every Coathalan young adult is forced to either serve two years in military service or two years as a government intern so that they can learn how their democracy works; this ensures that the Vesreen Holdings has a steady supply of volunteers to keep the wheels of democracy turning, as a respectable majority of young Coathal simply remain in these positions to forge a life-long career, as it is the first job they are introduced to and the Vesreenian senate will help pay for school or other necessities so long as you remain in service.

Culture

Language

The Coathal language is a guttural and highly fricative, consonant system, but makes heavy use of somatic hand gestures. This was an adaptation meant to carry emotional weight and meaning in a way that their unexpressive, leathery faces could not.

This is one of the few examples of a seamless blend of sign and verbal communication in a naturally derived language. It is common to see Coathal gesturing wildly, even to carry across the simplest of ideas. When they are unable to do so, emotional miscommunication is often a result.

Beauty

Coathal take pride in self adornment, sealing their scales with perfumes and pigments of every colour and palette, especially marking around their eyes for visibility and flash. Garb is usually light and flowing, with wasp-silks and mycoleathers popular, with fashioned carapaces and components from Charum's skilled metallurgists accenting dress.

Battle - “The Churn”

Coathal martial combat was mostly confined to contests for prized cave territories, nesting grounds, and water/natural resources, with even minor territorial arguments quickly boiling into violent conflict. But even that is governed by the weather: the aftermath of these battles would be swift and unceremonious, with the defeated quickly captured and integrated into the victor’s tribe. After all, the sandstorm may come at any time, and there’s no sense hanging around. This constant Churn of violence ingrained itself deep in the fledgling reptillian's societal memory, giving them an unparalleled zeal for violence but also reconciliation. Combat martial arts are strong, making the Coathal astonishingly competent solo combatants. However, they are not as inclined toward the regimented and rules-based soldier’s life.

Project Chimera

With expansion into outlying star systems possible, the Coathal required warriors adapted to the 29th century. Years of referendum voting distilled a single result: they would be genetically enhanced, with the DNA of the Poliesu people, and trained for hazardous environment combat. The result were the Coathal’s first elite combat unit, trained not in the traditional martial arts, but adapted to the needs of a galactic village. They fell under the Coalition command during the Secession War, but in peacetime have great difficulty adapting. Coathal gives them a respectful, but wide, berth.

Technology

Electromagnetism

The Coathal are known for their electromagnetic field technology. This came about from their early attempts to create repellant energy fields to deal with the constant sands around their nascent cities. Thus, well before the dawn of spaceflight, the Coathal had some of the most advanced active field technology in the galaxy - the small Coathal starfleet is notoriously sturdy as a result. For the same reason, their ranged and close-quarter electromagnetic weaponry is formidable, like special igneous glass tipped arrows and bullets, which shred bulkhead and beltline alike to ribbons.

The Commweb

A great deal of Coathal technology is bent toward the maintenance of their democracy, each Coathal carrying a personal Commlink Their systemwide Commweb is a dizzying, massive and very public server, where debate is carried it around the clock, according to strict rules of engagement. It is considered a great honour to be made a Coathal group chat administrator - a sacred charge.

Papyrus and milled pulp writing surfaces were ironically discovered post-FTL travel, the Coathal having long developed their own computational and electronic systems for communication. Long limited to slate carvings, chalk, and hides, bureaucracy was difficult, and so a cultural distaste for it developed in favor of dead reckoning and absolute, rapid resolution of conflicts.

Coathal smithing, driven by an ore-rich planet, has not abated with the advent of the space age. Ornate suits of Dune Armor, built as bulwark against a harsh world's natural forces during the Coathal's worst conflicts, are a common sight on the backs of Coathal warriors.