Albe

This desert world was originally settled to exploit significant lanthanum deposits. During the Sindalian Empire, Albe was second only to Noricum in terms of power, and was its superior in industrial production and financial sway. The Dukes of Albe could buy and sell the Emperors of Sindal, who were insultingly called the ‘Dogs of Albe’ by some (a reference to the Dukes’ proclivity to bring down the wrath of the Empire on anyone who crossed them). With more than two-thirds of the Empire’s wealth pouring through Albe’s coffers, the planet underwent a disastrous population boom. A dry world that could at most support a few million people safely overshot its carrying capacity. At its peak, the population of Albe was almost one hundred billion.   The greatest disaster to strike Albe was the last duke, known to history as Gorluun the Undying. He reigned from before the start of the last civil war to nearly ten years after its end, a reign of more than eighty years. With the vast power and wealth of Albe, Gorluun might have been able to stave off the collapse of the Sindalian Empire, or at least ensure that Albe became the new capital when Noricum fell. Instead, Gorluun vacillated, refusing to commit to any course of action. When the Empire ended, it took with it the trade routes that kept Albe’s teeming billions fed and watered.   ‘Gorluun’s Feast’, the ten-year period following the fall of Noricum, took the lives of more than fifty billion people. Gorluun himself was devoured by one of the cannibal bands that sacked Albe’s capital city. Generations of civil war followed, as Gorluun’s heirs fought over the scraps of power that remained. Eventually, the bureaucracy rose up and put an end to the war. The last heir, Gorluun III, was placed in a stasis field for legal reasons. He is unfrozen once a year for a few minutes, just long enough to sign various documents authorising the bureaucracy to rule in his name for another year.   The reconstruction of Albe took centuries. Through a series of austerity measures, the bureaucrats were able to end the famine while still having negative population growth. They opened up relations with the Imperium, exchanging lanthanum and loyalty for help in rebuilding their space fleet and help in terraforming the nearby Cordillion system. Cordillion, when it is habitable, will be capable of supporting billions of people, relieving some of Albe’s crippling population pressure. Hundreds of colony ships equipped with cheap one-shot jump drives wait in orbit for the flood of colonist; thousands more are still under construction. The Imperium expects Albe to be a stabilising influence upon the subsector – exactly what it should have been centuries ago, if Gorluun had acted. His heir was ceremonially unfrozen to swear allegiance to the Emperor a few years ago; his reaction was described as ‘somewhat confused’ by observers.  

Name	Location	Bases	Statistics	Trade Codes	Travel Codes	Allegiance	Gas Giants
Albe	601		A540A98-E	De Hi In Po Ht		Imperium	G