Starkman Prime

The second planet of the Arzad system used to be known as Starkman Prime. It is a once-hot and temperate world that has undergone massive cataclysmic atmospheric and climate change as the result of orbital bombardment, and is now listed as barren.

Historical Background

Discovery and Settlement

Nothing is recorded of the planet once known as Starkman Prime, nor the system it is in, prior to approximately 21800 AD. If it contained ruins of an earlier civilization, there is no mention of it in any records, nor do we know of any pre-existing name for the system. What is known is that the Minmatar, using ancient jump gates, were the first to rediscover the system, though what they named has been lost to history. Shortly after discovering the lush, tropical world of this star's second planet, the Starkmanir used their influence to have it named Starkman Prime.

Citing conditions of over-crowding on Matar, the Starkmanir, by far the largest of the tribes, soon made the fateful decision to move to Starkman Prime. The lands of the Eyniletti Plains, their ancestral home on Matar, were put into the joint ownership of the remaining tribes , and with few exceptions, the Starkmanir relocated.

Many visiting members of other tribes found Starkman Prime's proximity to the unforgiving sun, the smell of rotting vegetation that permeated everything, and the ever-encroaching jungle with its plethora of tropical insects to be unpleasant at best. The Starkmanir, having originated in the equatorial region of Matar, jokingly claimed to not notice the heat and spoke of Starkman Prime as a new Matar.

The Starkmanir flourished here for the next six hundred years, spreading out across the planet in small settlements. With the Amarr occupation of Matar in 22480 AD, the economy was thrown into a tailspin. It was just beginning to recover when the Amarr turned their sights on Starkman Prime.

Occupation and Destruction

Starkman Prime was conquered quickly by the Amarr, and the still sparsely populated and undeveloped planet was put under the jurisdiction of the Ardishapur Family. The star was named Arzad in honor of the youngest heir in the Hamri family, and the Minmatar name for the system was lost to history.

The Starkmanir credited the nature of the planet now known as Arzad II itself with creating the goodwill that came to exist here between holder and slave, and at first, they suffered far less than the other tribes.

With the Empire still reeling from the secession of the Khanid Kingdom mere decades earlier, the Theology Council grew uncomfortable with the precedents being set on Arzad II, and imperial authorities eventually ordered Arzad Hamri tried for treason and blasphemy. Found guilty and executed, his death caused great unrest among the Starkmanir people and started a chain of events that led to Idonis Ardishapur, himself not immune in the past to the charms of Starkman Prime, ordering the orbital bombardment and complete annihilation of the planet. Much like the system's namesake, Arzad II did not lose its influence with its destruction, and it is this sequence of events in 22947 AD that is widely acknowledged to be a seminal inciting incident in the Minmatar Rebellion over two hundred and fifty years later.

Today

Listed as a barren planet, the heat is all that remains of this once tropical world. Now it is a rocky landscape devoid of the moisture which once provided much of the former lushness of this world. The only rivers that still flow over the planet are of magma. In places where new disturbances have disrupted the tectonic plates they are hot and quickly moving, while in others they have cooled and hardened mid-flow. Geysers and vents open on the surface in seemingly random intervals. Steam, sulphur, and other gases spew from these into the already poisoned air, only to return as acidic rain. Massive dust storms and hurricanes rage every dawn and dusk due to the planet's weakened ability to regulate heat. All this, combined with the continual earthquakes caused by the still unstable tectonic plates make Arzad II an unlikely place to ever hold life again. Which is exactly why Ardishapur scouts were astonished to discover a small population living here a few decades ago.

Following a small pirate ship with no identification, the scouts were eventually led to Sorrow's Gash, a one-hundred-mile-long canyon created by Amarr lasers during the bombardment. Inside the canyon, tucked into a ledge high up on the wall they found a settlement made of interconnected habitation modules known as Vo'Shun or Hidden Hope. Though its inhabitants turned out to be outcasts from the Minmatar Republic rather than Starkmanir survivors, Idonis Ardishapur nonetheless issued the edict Khadrea's Law, which protects the planet and its current inhabitants from any further harm. This leaves those outcast on Arzad II in the curious position of being protected by those that enslave their kin, and shunned and left to die by those same kin. It also leaves the planet itself protected by the very people that destroyed it.

Orbit and Climate

As Arzad II has an orbit radius of only 0.364 AU, giving it a year of 15.6 days, there are no seasons. Arzad II's slow rate of rotation gives it a day of 26.8 hours. Once significantly warmer, the planet now maintains a yearly average mean temperature of 238 Kelvin, or -35.15 Celsius. The entirety of the planet's heat loss can be traced to causes resulting from the Amarr bombardment.

Tectonic Plates

All remaining records of former tectonic plates on the planet are invalid. With the planet in the middle of the war zone, and the still highly unstable nature of its crust, it is not likely to be surveyed anytime soon.

Continents and Oceans

Between the Amarr destruction of Minmatar books and writings, gaps in the records of prominent holders under the Ardishapur Family, and the number of records left behind to be destroyed with the planet, very little remains. There were continents, so presumably an ocean, though no further conclusions can be drawn from the scant evidence available.

See Also

• Planets
• Amarr
• Minmatar
• Starkmanir
• Voluval
• Chronicle: Khumaak
• Chronicle: The Outcast