Kost

• Temperate Biosphere

• Breathable Atmosphere

• Tens of Millions of Inhabitants

• Tech Level 4

  The Kost system which consists of a binary system of warm yellow suns. Kost 1 is the temperate but heavily urbanized capital world of the Mithrilheart Elected Monarchy. Tens of Millions of people pack into the patchwork of walled settlements that cling to the surface of the planet. The wilds beyond are seen as the properties of the various elector houses that form the leadership caste of the Elected Monarchy and oftentimes outside of official state business anyone not of elector blood is forbidden to freely travel the countryside. The definition of “official state business” often varies wildly depending on the temperament of the electors and who currently sits on the throne.   The Temple of Human Enlightenment and four of the most powerful knightly orders are also free to travel as their official duties require their agents to be almost exclusively on the move, never remaining in one place for long as the polity continually rebuilds.   The wilds are a dangerous place on Kost 1, and most locals are only too happy to remain behind the thick curtain walls of the settlements they call home   Kost 2 is a recently colonized world that is overseen directly by the recently elected First Lord Vharrus. Twenty thousand people primarily involved in farming, logging, mining, and light manufacturing live and work on Kost 2. The products of their labor are shipped back to Kost 1 in exchange for manufactured goods, luxuries, and other goods necessary to keep life productive and comfortable for the loyal citizens permitted to settle here. Lotteries are held twice a year for the privilege to emigrate to Kost 2, and 500 people are chosen each time.   Kost Relay is a Peerless class platform that serves as a relay point between Kost 1 and 2, and is a common way station for the flocks of system shuttles carrying goods and people throughout the Kost system.   Kost 3 is a gas giant with a barren moon. It is ringed by asteroids and large chunks of ice. Mining and prospecting ships frequent the belt, as do a small and evasive flotilla of pirates that prey on them.   Kost 4 is a dead world plagued by ion storms. Nothing lives there and any probes sent to the surface of the world have survived only seconds before the heat, pressure, or direct strikes by ion bolts renders them useless. It is estimated that a graveyard of over one hundred probes litters the broad eastern hemisphere of the dwarf planet.    

Important Sites

 

Coastal Semi Autonomous Zone

The CSAZ as it is otherwise known is a city that is home to powerful bases of influence for many of the planetary electors. This city was originally set up by free folk, not sworn to any elector or banner during the Second Wave of Exploration. After several generations of color revolution, re establishment of a government, political tension, and regime change the city ultimately was forced to bow to the will of the electors, though the fires of independence still smolder in some of the outer neighborhoods. The CSAZ is home to a slowly revitalizing industrial sector, and its position as one end of the newly constructed trans-continental trade road promises a steady flow of resources into the city.   The city emblem is a balanced trade scale with a pile of coins on the right representing this city, and a gem on the other representing the Glittering City, the other side of the road. The colors and fields are not standard, but are normally contrasting colors of a dark field and light emblem.  

Plainsguard

The city of Plainsguard is one of the largest cities on the planet and every elector has at least a small presence there. This city is also home to the largest cathedral of the Church of Human Enlightenment, and is considered the unofficial home base for the unofficial religion of the polity. The city currently has no connection to wider trade and instead smaller regional links between it and tiny towns developing along its outskirts are how it maintains itself. Plainsguard is also the home of many free-blades, and others who have some note within the Mithrilheart Elected Monarchy. Many within the city lobby for their own connection to the trade road, citing the city's unsustainable resource demands. Its once impressive downtown is now an edifice of crumbling buildings and gangs, while small islands of light and cleanliness denote where electors have established their holdings.  

Order of the Black Crown

The Order of the Black Crown maintains a large mountain fortress city where several peaks have been leveled off and the debris used to fill valleys to create a large, heavily compacted plateau commonly wreathed in cloud. Storms are frequent at the high elevation requiring both the knights sworn to the order and the commoners that support them to go about their business wearing thick cloaks, waterproof coats, and boots for almost all of their daily tasks. The buildings in the city are made from all manner of local stone and shingled in different colors of slate like material. Statues of famous knights and past heroes of the order are found in the numberous city squares adorning the tops of fountains.   A complex drainage system gathers the falling water and deposits it into the farming fields of the valleys below where the land has never known a dought or scarcity of food. Shipments from the Order of the Black Crown have saved a starving Kost more than once.   The city is walled with strong gates protecting the three major passes up the peaks, and a citadel made of dark stone mined from local quarries towers over the city with a mix of old world defenses and modern embellishments such as artillery pieces, communications equipment, and several landing pads for flyers used by the Order. By night, searchlights illuminate the countryside from the towers and the citadel itself keeping watch for breach beasts, brigands, and any others who may threaten the peace of Kost's northernmost electorate.