Surha

Surha is one of the Horizon’s least hospitable planets. It is a world where ice storms beat down on endless tundra, a poisonous atmosphere that makes living here a nightmare, and extreme cold that forces the few settlements that actually exist to retreat behind thermal shields and armanite walls. The conditions make it one of the few planets in the Kua system that has never been colonized as the costs have been too high and the rewards too little.  

ANIALAH’S PHILOSOPHER

It hasn’t always been like this, however. During the golden age of the Firstcome, a huge colonization vessel, the Anialah, was constructed and sent to bring the fruits of civilization to Surha. Colonists, thinkers and believers left Kua to turn the ice planet into a promised land. They never did. Contact with the Anialah was lost just after the ship arrived at Surha and it soon became clear that disaster had struck. For a long time, it was believed that the ship had broken apart during its entry into the atmosphere and crashed, leaving no survivors, but then, many years later, a strange signal reached Kua. A person named Adjhani, philosopher and survivor of the Anialah, sent a series of transmissions describing the crash and the time that followed. The story eventually became the “Ramshadra”, one of the most important books of the Firstcome reign. Adjhani spoke of an unforgiving world, but also of the rare moments when the storms subsided and Surha rose from the mists in all its majestic splendor.  

THE PHILOSOPHER’S LANDS

The Ramshadra eventually spawned a religious community that worshipped the words of Adjhani as if they were a message from the Icons themselves. The Ramsha cult is still active today and recruits most of its followers from the Firstcome people. They regard Surha as a holy planet, and the cult’s most important mission is to find what they call the “Philosopher’s Lands”: the place from where Adjhani transmitted the Ramshadra and managed to survive against all odds. But the clues to its location are few and Surha is big and hostile.  

THE SMUGGLERS’ HAVEN

Many cycles passed before humans visited Surha again, and this time the visitors had far from noble intentions. As the fleets were purging the asteroid belt, the smugglers had to move their bases farther and farther towards the Oort cloud. The inhospitable world on the brink of the big black was suddenly the smugglers only choice. When the Rimward Reach was discovered and colonized, Surha’s location suddenly became very favorable, and more smuggler gangs sought shelter under the icy clouds. Small asteroid stations were constructed in the rings of the planet and surface bases were hidden in remote ice deserts. It is in one such base that Abdul Shey, the Horizon’s most notorious smuggler sultan, is said to rest in a magnificent mausoleum designed by the great architect Lovhain.  

THE FALLEN MOON

Surha is mostly covered in ice and snow, enormous wastes of tundra pierced by jagged glacial fangs around which the winds reach hurricane strength. The Harballa massif is the only real mountain range on the planet and its peaks reach tens of kilometers into the sky. The massif, measuring several thousand kilometers in length and a few degrees in width, is actually the remains of what used to be Surha’s moon. The ore-rich moon fell to the planet below hundreds of thousands of years ago, today forming the planet’s most visible landmark. The Harballa is ever so slowly sinking through the ice, and in a couple of thousand years it will have disappeared completely. The moon ore is the planet’s only valuable natural resource and the reason for the existence of a small outpost on the Harballa’s southern slopes. In the last few cycles, the workers’ snow crawlers and mining drills have gone deeper and deeper into the mountain in search of the precious minerals and there are rumors going around about a few curious discoveries in the darkness that have caused the most superstitious of the miners to lay down their tools.  

THE LAST OUTPOST

In the shadow of the mighty Harballa crouches Surha’s only real settlement, the Surhani outpost, called “Hope’s End” by the locals. Underground vaults and protective domes gather hardened miners and indentured freighter pilots as well as the Ramsha followers and one or two bitter entrepreneurs cursing their fate. The settlement is formally owned by the Colonial Agency and the faction’s local representative, Malva Sarhal, makes sure everything is running as it should. A few hundred souls call Surhani their home and manage to live here in peace and relative comfort.  

LIFE ON SURHA

The extreme weather, the toxic atmosphere and the strong gravity make living on the frozen world hard and arduous, but with the right gear, knowledge, and protection, it is possible to lead a decent life. Settlements and bases are often dug into the ice or the rock around the Harballa, and powerful grav generators are installed, an absolute necessity to make the bases habitable. For transportation up on the surface, the inhabitants use snow crawlers, slow but reliable vehicles constructed to withstand everything but the worst storms. Reinforced exo shells are needed if one must be out in the open for a longer period of time, but a cheap air filter and warm clothes are enough for a short walk. Terrible ice storms, often thousands of kilometers wide, plague the planet regularly and anyone out in the open when they hit won’t live long in the extreme weather.