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Venus is a microcosm of Solarian culture with its glittering cities floating above the clouds and a dirty underbelly below them. The capital of Venus is Binyaria, the largest aerostat and home to the best Sol has to offer in holovids, VR, orchestration, engine parts, and weaponry. Cythereans live in the luxurious habitable zone above the clouds. Jintarians live on the surface of Venus far below the Cythereans, both physically and metaphorically. The primary language is Sol Common.
On the eastern edge of the Empire of Dominia lies the least-populated major world of its domain: the '''Imperial Viceroyalty of Sun Reach''', fully integrated into the Empire in 2422 following an invasion of the Mithra System by the Imperial military in response to piracy against the Empire by the planet’s former rulers. Over the past forty years the planet has become a major source of Helium-3 production for the Empire’s war machine and, as generations of Reachers have come over age under Imperial rule, the planet’s identity has become more and more entwined with the Empire that both aids and exploits it.
 
Reachers are '''Ma’zals''' of the [[Empire of Dominia[[: commoners of non-Morozian descent. Unlike their counterparts in the [[Novi Jadran|Imperial Mandate of Novi Jadran]], the majority of Reachers are not honorary Secondaries, and are instead simply common Ma’zals.
 
==History==
 
===The Solarian Republic of Sun Reach (2189-2302)===
 
<center><i>“This is almost certainly an advantageous position for us to hold in the Arcadian Frontier, Prime Minister. Through it we can secure a future for shipbuilding in the region. Within a century, it will be a production center on the level of Neptune,”</i> -  Martin Clemson (2119 - 2230), [[Sol Alliance#Departments|Solarian Secretary of Colonization]], 2179.</center>
 
What would become the Viceroyalty of Sun Reach in 2422 was once one of the southernmost planets in the Solarian Alliance. Discovered in the late 2100s and colonized in 2189 due to extensive Helium-3 presence in its system, Mithra, Sun Reach was intended to support Solarian expansion into the Baltian and Arcadian Frontier Sectors through fuel processing and robust — though not military-grade — spacecraft production facilities built in orbit around it. Thousands of vessels were produced for the Alliance’s government, private corporations, and citizens throughout the 23rd century until the outbreak of the Interstellar War in 2278, when production was shifted to support the Solarian Navy and limited military production facilities were established in orbit.
 
By 2287, when the Interstellar War ended, the Solarian Republic of Sun Reach was a comparatively stable and peaceful world compared to other Solarian frontier sectors, which has increasingly fallen into disarray as the War continued. A robust system defense force supported by the planet’s shipbuilding industry let it project an area of security around it alongside functional warp gates connecting it to Persepolis, Tau Ceti, and the Southern Reaches ensuring plentiful supplies. Assuming these connections remained stable, the Republic’s future was essentially secure. While the loss of the Coalition of Colonies had been a stark loss, the Alliance remained great — and the Republic imagined it would be the site of a new, bold expedition and expansion into the galactic south.
 
Over the remainder of the 23rd century the Alliance fell further and further from its prewar glories. A naval coup in 2289 led to more unrest in the Solarian Frontier, a terraforming disaster on Mars in 2298 shifted more attention to the Solarian Core, and the damage the Interstellar War had caused to the economy had not faded in much of the Alliance. As the 2300s dawned Sun Reach entered a new century in a more precarious state than it had ever been in.
 
===The Pirate Lords (2302-2422)===
 
<center><i>“I will take what is mine through my strength of conquest, and your planetfolk weakness. Disobey my command, and my crew will have the run of your capital, ‘Duke’ Glavan,”</i> - High Captain Ernst Zhang during a raid of Novi Jadran during the mid-2380s. </center>
 
With the secession of the Republic of Elyra in 2302, Sun Reach was thrown into chaos as its supply routes collapsed and the broader Alliance began a messy, chaotic withdrawal from the Southern Solarian Frontier which left many planets to fend for themselves. The republican government of Sun Reach ended in early 2302 when the system defense force couped the civilian government and installed a military “emergency government” which was essentially a dictatorship. Desperate to sustain their naval strength without the external supplies they had depended on, and unable to produce new shipyards, the military government turned to “requisitioning” supplies from nearby systems under Solarian emergency regulations. But as the years dragged on and the defense force began to loot further and further territories, their goal became less to sustain their strength and more to enrich themselves while maintaining their dominion over nearby worlds, who they forced to pay protection money. By 2310 the Reacher Guard had become the Pirate Lords, the scourge of the Badlands.
 
As the Pirate Lords further established their authority over the planet and enriched themselves, they neglected to support the civilian population of the planet and instead focused on their planetary refineries and the orbital facilities from which they ruled. The broader population, deprived of any external support and forced to pay their own tithes to the Pirate Lords and their crews, gradually became unable to support the advanced technology many settlements had. By the mid-2300s most had resorted to living off the land in small villages they often built around desalination facilities or the rare natural aquifer. By 2422 a solitary urban center – Sun Reach, the former capital of the planet – remained, with others having fallen into ruin and many having been reclaimed by nature. These villages would nominate a single family to deal with the Pirate Lords, who demanded material support and recruits from the planet itself. Tribunalism arrived on the planet during the 2300s and was mostly an underground religion, with the Pirate Lords viewing it as potentially dangerous to their rule.
 
By the 2380s the Pirate Lords’ influence had reached another major former Solarian world: Novi Jadran. Jadranic and Reacher forces fought several battles between 2380 and 2389, with most being won by the Pirate Lords and Novi Jadran squeezed further and further by raids. But the victories of the Pirate Lords over Novi Jadran would, in a twist of irony, become their undoing when Novi Jadran petitioned the young Empire of Dominia for aid and was annexed into it peacefully. Deprived of the industrial tithe they could gain from Novi Jadran, the Reachers were put on the backfoot as they tried to avoid deliberately raiding Morozian-flagged vessels. But by the 2410s the Pirate Lords, greedily seeking more wealth, had begun harassing Imperial vessels. The Empire and Pirate Lords were now set upon a course which would inevitably bring them into open warfare and, following a skirmish between the Imperial Fleet and Pirate Lords in 2422, the Imperial military launched a punitive expedition with the aim of conquering Sun Reach, ensuring the Empire’s control over the Badlands and the end of the Pirate Lords as a serious threat to its expansion in the region.
 
===The Imperial Viceroyalty of Sun Reach (2422 - Present)===
 
<center><i>“For crimes against the citizenry of the Imperial Mandate of Novi Jadran I sentence you, Captain Zhang, to death by hanging! To your crew, the beneficent Emperor has seen fit to offer them their choice of service in the Imperial Fleet or fifty years’ labor in the Imperial Territory of Fisanduh’s mines. With Her as my witness, I pronounce judgement!”</i> - Naval Magistrate Hitomi Kaneko during the military trials of the Pirate Lords, 24 March 2423.</center>
 
It took the Imperial military under a month to defeat the Pirate Lords and occupy the planet, with their dated equipment and poorly-trained forces falling apart after the first engagements of the expedition. Some, unwilling to surrender to the Empire, fled abroad or into the swamps surrounding the Algae Belt, becoming the first rural bandits of the planet. Many of the Pirate Lords were captured, tried, and quickly executed by the Empire. Imperial forces were, in some areas, greeted with open arms by a population which had long hidden their Tribunalist faith and was now free of the tithes paid to the previous government. In other areas, the Empire was viewed as little more than a replacement for the Pirate Lords and a shallow reminder of the democracy which once flourished under Solarian rule.
 
With Sun Reach’s conquest of Dominia came immense investment by the Empire’s economy, particularly Houses Zhao and Caladius. For the first time in over a century neglected Helium-3 refineries and orbital shipyards which had fallen into disrepair were brought online, and thousands of Reachers moved into cities to seek employment in better-paying urban industries. Others, seeking to redeem — or perhaps continue — their piratical past, joined the Imperial Fleet or the Goddess’ Flotilla. Most residents of the planet view life as better under the Empire than it was under the piratical former government, though some dissent. Those who opt to fight against the Viceroyalty often take to the swamps and mangroves around the Algae Belt, risking disease, weather, and dangerous wildlife to avoid the Imperial Army and Home Guard. Derided as outlaws and rogues by the government, and by most Reachers, these men and women often become little more than bandits.
 
In the Helium-3 industry, which is concentrated in the planet’s cities, there are few regulations and many are made to work long hours in hazardous conditions for less pay than workers in the Imperial Core. Meanwhile, the rapid growth of urban areas over the past 40 years has caused a rural decline in many areas as young algae farmers leave for higher-paying jobs to pay off their Mo’ri’zal, disrupting the planet’s traditional way of life. While their system of ruling their villages through notable families remains, some Reachers are concerned their culture will be consumed by the Empire by the end of the century as more and more of the planet’s inhabitants grow up only having known Imperial rule.
 
As the Empire looks towards the 2470s it considers how to best continue to develop the Viceroyalty, and to quash its issues. Whether or not it is successful remains to be seen, though as more and more Reachers are raised knowing solely Imperial rule it is less and less likely any serious efforts will be made to throw off its rule. For now, at least, the Viceroyalty is solidly in the hands of the Empire.


==Environment==
==Environment==
Venus is an incredibly hot and miserable planet. The mass of its atmosphere is 93 times that of Earth's, equivalent to the crushing depths of the deep ocean. This atmosphere is extremely thick and toxic, composed primarily of carbon dioxide and nitrogen, and this generates the strongest greenhouse effect in the Solar System, creating an average surface temperature of at least 462 C (864 F). Despite this, there have been genetically-modified organisms introduced to the surface and upper atmosphere that can withstand the extreme conditions, such as the Yudina, otherwise known as the Jintarian Dragon Mole.


A Venusian year lasts 225 Earth days. A normal day on Venus lasts much longer than that of Earth due to the slow rotation, taking 243 Earth days to make one Venusian day. Venus spins backwards when compared to the other planets in the Sol system, causing the sun to rise in the west and set in the east. It rains sulphuric acid on the surface and the atmosphere is so thick that it exerts massive amounts of pressure on the surface. This crushes all but the most structurally reinforced of habitats below the cloud layer, with the rest destroyed by caustic acid rain. The planet hosts massive amounts of volcanic activity, which spew more toxic gases into the atmosphere. Almost no sunlight reaches the surface of the planet, despite the temperature.
<center><i>“Soldiers! This environment will be unlike your homes in the Imperial Mandate. Expect humidity, insects, and constant rain in some areas. Remember your training and watch yourself and your comrades for signs of heatstroke. Dismissed!”</i> - First Lieutenant Henrik Novak of the 122nd Jadranic Infantry Regiment prior to their deployment to Sun Reach, 2457.</center>
 
Sun Reach is a hot, humid, and wet world dominated by swamps and mangroves. It has long, hot summers with short, cool winters and temperatures rarely drop below freezing even during winter. Much of the planet’s surface outside of its limited landmasses is covered by shallow oceans. These oceans are home to floating islands of organic plant mass which, while rarely encountered, represent a stunning example of Reacher biodiversity. Rain is frequent and many areas flood seasonally, being dry during the winter and underwater during the summer months. Building any serious infrastructure on Sun Reach is difficult due to these seasonal floods and the swampy conditions of much of its land. Much of the planet’s water is salty, which leads to further infrastructure issues due to corrosion and a need to build desalination facilities — historically, Reacher settlements are often based around these plants.
 
The equatorial region of Sun Reach is known as the Algae Belt, and is where most of the planet’s population can be found. Year-round dry land is found more readily here than in any other region of the planet and, while still swampy and humid, permanent settlements are easier to construct and infrastructure is easier to maintain. However, regular maintenance is still required to counteract the planet’s climate and the mostly-sunken remnants of rail lines and roads from the pre-Imperial era are frequent sights in more rural regions of the Algae Belt. Aquaculture has historically been the dominant industry in this region due to the abundance of shallow, relatively calm waters and natural hardiness of the Reacher staple crop: algae.
 
Beyond the Algae Belt, as one travels further towards the planetary poles, the environment becomes less hospitable as human settlements begin to grow more sparse before eventually ceasing entirely. As one travels towards the poles weather becomes more extreme, with frequent storms and rain which is rumored to never cease at the poles. At the same time flora begins to steadily increase and eventually becomes too dense to reasonably travel through unless one spends days clearing the foliage meter by meter. Some Imperial expeditions have recorded foliage which appears to deliberately grow in their path and thin out behind them, as if it is trying to deliberately block their progress, but House Volvalaad has dismissed this as outlandish and unscientific. Much of this area is poorly explored and few accurate maps exist, with orbital photography ineffective due to the density of foliage and frequent cloud cover. Cartographic efforts by Imperial scholars have been frustrated by a lack of funding, Reacher superstitions about the poles, and the hazardous conditions of the far reaches of the planet. The Alliance is rumored to have completely mapped Sun Reach during its hegemonic era, but no maps are known to have survived to the modern era. Rumors have long circulated that the poles contain lost Solarian research facilities where terraforming was researched centuries ago, and that equipment gone awry is the source of the freak weather near the poles.


==Population and Major Aerostats and Habitats==
===Flora and Fauna===
===Binyaria===
Binyaria, the first and largest aerostat, is widely known as the jewel of Venus and houses just about 19 million people. Those from across the galaxy flock to Binyaria to experience Solarian culture, with tourists roaming the famous Binyarian vineyards and partying into the artificial, neon-lit night. It is widely known that Binyarians don’t get the best first; they make the best first. This reputation of being the most beautiful, the most cultured, the most advanced, and the greatest has lead to an extremely aggressive, cutthroat environment for those looking to get ahead. Actors, idols, politicians, and scientists all face heavy scrutiny by their fellow Binyarians and must constantly keep their mask polished and their persona unbreakable in order to become even the most minor celebrity.
Like most aerostats, Binyaria is divided into layers, which are further subdivided into districts. The most well known districts on Binyaria are Wajiu District on Layer 1, Chiye-Gyo District on Layer 3, and Parabing District on Layer 6.


<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed">
The '''Reacher Gar''' is a large, typically 2-3 meter long and relatively slender carnivorous fish found across Sun Reach’s shallow waters. Commonly known as the “gar fish” (or garfish) among locals, it is a frequent source of food for the rural populations who live near the mangroves gar prefer to nest in. Reacher garfish are capable of moving at surprising speeds while striking at their prey — typically smaller fish or aquatic mammals — and their scales armor them against most predators. These scales are used by Reachers to fashion small blades and limited amounts of bite-proof clothing. While not actively hostile towards humans, gar fish will defend their nests and can inflict painful bites on unprepared humans.
=== Binyarian Districts  ===
<div class="mw-collapsible-content">Binyaria’s government developed '''Wajiu District''' with the utmost care and foresight, leading to the district’s gardens becoming one of the biggest tourist attractions. Pervasive genetic engineering has helped the plants become beautiful, delicious, potent, or a combination of the three and an aesthetic-based design philosophy has only furthered the plants’ appealing appearance. Among these gardens lie the famed Yuyuan Vineyard where tourists flock to see by far the most attractive and artistic garden in Wajiu District and, of course, try the excellent Yuyuan Wine for a discounted price.


'''Chiye-Gyo District''', similarly, was helped to fame by corporate investment. For a long time, Chiye-Gyo District was in a strange place, being mostly made up lower-middle class housing and failing businesses. The government of Binyaria, set to improve the district, announced that in 2397 the district would be sold out to corporations. Early on in the redesign of the district, [[Nanotrasen Corporation]] and [[Idris Incorporated]] invested heavily into Chiye-Gyo District recognizing the emerging celebrity culture of Venus.
An apex predator alongside humanity, the '''Reacher soostatom''' closely resembles the alligators of old Earth. It is a large, quadruped animal which can grow anywhere from six to nine meters long depending upon the environment, with soostatoms growing larger as one approaches the poles. Soostatom are carnivorous and easily capable of killing a human if threatened. However, attacks are generally rare. Reachers historically hunted soostatoms for their meat and their tough, leathery skins which are used to make clothing. In the Imperial era soostatom hunting has dropped as many urban areas have moved to adopt more traditionally Morozian styles of clothing.


NanoTrasen and Idris formed and debuted various musical groups, all of whom gained a dedicated following whether big or small, and have achieved great financial success. More importantly, however, these pop bands, hip-hop groups, and solo ballad artists helped give rise to the celebrity-based culture Venus is known for today. In more recent years, [[Zeng-Hu Pharmaceuticals]] and [[Hephaestus Industries]] have broken into both the corporate battle and the hearts of Venusians with their own outrageously successful debut artists.
The '''mangrove-creeper''' is a common semi-aquatic plant which is found growing along the bottoms of trees in mangroves or bayous. A symbiotic species with the larger trees, mangrove-creepers are carnivorous plants which lure small animals beneath them with their fruits and use grabbing “mouths” to latch onto their prey and dissolve them with a digestive acid. While their mouths are too small to harm humans, mangrove-creepers have historically been viewed as a pest by rural communities. However, since 2422, they have become valuable cash crops due to their acid being an effective industrial solvent which is commonly used in the planet’s Helium-3 refining industry. Villages which once cursed these plants now grow rich from them.


With all of Binyaria’s aspiring artists, it was only a matter of time before '''Parabing District''' became as popular as it is today. Though mostly focused on the lower- and middle-class, Parabing District holds a number of high-energy clubs, PC cafes, karaoke joints, laid-back bars, and fast food restaurants, all of which become progressively seedier closer to Binyaria’s hull. The district’s dynamic lighting is paused at midnight, but is lit up by the thousands of neon signs competing for attention.
==Culture==


Furthest from the hull, street food vendors set up their carts and offer drunk food to the exhausted, inerbiatered clubbers on their way out of the district. Toward the center of the district, host and hostess bars offer companionship to the many business people of Binyaria while young, attractive college students advertise themselves for compensated dates nearby outside. Along the hull, brothels hidden behind heavy curtains and tucked into alleys are frequented by people with intricate tattooing and expensive clothing. Anyone can find something fun in Parabing with a bit of luck and cash.
<center><i>“Reachers are, due to neglect by their former masters, less culturally advanced than the Imperial Core and Novi Jadran. In this volume, I will discuss how these primitive beliefs emerged and how they can be eradicated,”</i> - Doctor Rahela Lemnaru, Jadranic sociologist employed by House Caladius, in her introduction to Cultural Backwardness on the Imperial Frontier Vol. XII: Reacher Customs and Beliefs (published in 2559).</center>
</div>
</div>


===Tethering Station Medio===
While Reachers follow the broader cultural trends and holidays of the Empire, their recent entry and unique history has given them a culture distinct from the broader Morozian-influenced culture of Dominia. Those from the rest of Dominia often stereotype Reachers as rural, conservative, and prone to superstitions while at the same time being hardworking, loyal, and faithful to the Goddess. Internationally, some regard Reachers as simply another planet subjugated by Moroz while others view them as having received a justified punishment for their actions as pirates. Reachers themselves are generally Imperial loyalists, viewing the Empire as better than the Pirate Lords, but some wish for further autonomy and more radical dissidents wish for a return to the era of piracy.
Medio is one of the oldest habitation complexes on the surface. Built on Verdandi Corona, Medio was once used as an anchor for an aerostat by the name of Arianrhod, which was destroyed in a long-forgotten incident. Revanchist feelings against Cythereans run particularly strong here, residents still emboldened by their past “victory.” Owing to its various refueling, processing, and recycling facilities, Medio has become a popular stationing for illegal surfacers, their presence only being slightly uncomfortable for residents. Other ventures here tend to be of a manufacturing nature.


===Subterranean Complex 74-F, “Rason”===
Historically, Reachers have lived in small rural communities numbering from a few hundred to several thousand. Built around either desalination plants or natural sources of water these communities relied on aquaculture to survive and the Reacher diet remains mostly unchanged from this era, favoring algae, aquatic plants, and seafood. Under the Pirate Lords these communities were expected to pay a tithe of resources to the captain who controlled the area, and a single family was chosen to be the point of contact for the community. Over a century of paying tribute, these families have morphed into the dominant political class of the planet and many were kept in place by the Empire out of convenience. Modern rural communities on Sun Reach do not look very different from their counterparts a century ago, though many have died out due to depopulation as Reachers immigrate to urban centers for higher-paying work. Large families are a common sight in rural communities on Sun Reach and rural families are often very connected to one another, with multiple generations and branches living in close proximity to one another.
A newer complex, Rason is one of the few built near-completely underground with only a single observational spire above the rocky surface. Civilian affairs here primarily deal in textiles and hydroponics, the work rather strenuous. Long hours are devoted to the creation of expensive clothes, polychromic fabrics, and holographic inlays that workers will never wear. A popular hobby is freerunning with a monthly (based on Terran months) Climb The Complex competition held where citizens must start at the bottom of the complex and make it all the way to the top of the spire.  


Dropped from orbit around thirty years ago, Rason’s impact and construction were based around a promising xenoarcheological find, which was nearly destroyed. It is said that partial ruins exist around Rason’s depth of 200 feet (~61 meters); despite having no publicly known entrances, many xenoarcheologists have disappeared underneath the complex. Often the dwellers of the complex have described seeing shadowy, vaguely humanoid figures walking around in their dreams. The figures have reportedly murdered people in their dreams by whispering a single, incomprehensible word that causes great agony and distress which vanishes once the dreamer awakens.
Rural village life on Sun Reach is often challenging, with little in the way of outside help and overland travel difficult due to swampy terrain and poor weather. Travel is traditionally done over water, often by airboat, and navigating the mangrove-filled waters of Sun Reach can cause even simple journeys to take days. Investment by the Empire has brought limited rail infrastructure to Sun Reach and some particularly remote villages are now more connected to the broader planet via air travel, but the difficult terrain of the planet has ensured infrastructure is slow to expand and expensive to maintain. Regular passenger rail services are only available between major settlements along the Algae Belt, with other areas serviced much more infrequently. Travel by wheeled vehicle is rare, with the exception of Imperial Army equipment, due to persistent swampy mud which mires all but the hardiest vehicles.


===Ishtar’s Temple and the Babylon Garden===
Reachers who move to its sole urban center, itself named Sun Reach, often find work in the Helium-3 industry which has come to dominate the Viceroyalty’s economy in the decades since its conquest. While it pays far more than aquaculture work, the He-3 industry is poorly regulated and dominated by off-planet nobles such as House Zhao. Injuries are common among laborers in the field and hours can be long, with plants working round-the-clock to fulfill the fuel nerve of the Imperial Fleet. Injured workers are often let go without severance fees or benefits, returning to their villages as cripples or living off of charity provided by the Tribunal in the slum districts of Sun Reach – sometimes without permanent housing, creating a homeless issue on a planet which had no such issue prior to 2422. The rapid expansion of the planet’s only city has created a housing crisis and resulted in many urbanite Reachers living in ramshackle apartments in poorly-designated, overcrowded slums. Urban families are much smaller than their rural counterparts, and many urban Reachers will only see their broader families on holidays. Imperial sociologists and urban planners estimate the Viceroyalty will not have a second major urban center until the early 2500s, potentially later, due to its environment being poorly-suited for major urban projects.


Only a short shuttle ride from Binyaria, Ishtar’s Temple functions as her perfect, albeit vastly smaller twin Binyaria. Ishtar's Temple serves as an entertainment aerostat; it sates every interest to people who have the time and credits to seek it out. Clubs, amusement parks, lounges and bars, sport centers and everything in between are open to the general public aboard the aerostat.
Due to neglect of the planet under the rule of the Pirate Lords leading to widespread poverty, Reacher cuisine has historically revolved around aquaculture and local fish — reliable food sources which can be found easily at all points of the year. Wild game from the swampy forests of the planet is part of the diet of Kent rural communities and the ends of successful hunts are often community celebrations where the entire village participates in a feast. As the planet’s population has urbanized since 2422 and off-world foods have become more common, Reacher urban cuisine has been influenced by the similarly seafood-based diets of Novi Jadranic soldiers and engineers who have been brought or come to the planet’s cities to support the Viceroyalty.


However, beyond the guarded elevators and hidden checkpoints, on the uppermost levels, elusive to most Venusians and those foreign to the system, sits Babylon Garden. Here, the more elite attractions exist for the rich, influential, or resourceful. With the right amount of credits, connections, knowledge, or influence, lucky patrons can gain one of the illusive key cards that provide access to Babylon Garden. It is rumoured that management will occasionally slip an access card to favored patrons who wouldn’t be able to get access otherwise. Outside of Venus the existence of the Babylon Garden is known to very few, and those that have seen it are fewer.
===Reacher Tribunalism and Folk Beliefs===


In Babylon Garden, the Venusian Shells of the Diamond are the aerostat’s most famous draw and specialty. These shells, designed with quality beyond those outside the aerostat, each sport a uniquely designed chassis in addition to carefully vetted personality matrices. As the hosts and hostesses of Babylon Garden, the shells go to great lengths to cater to each and every patron, from providing beverages and lighting cigarettes to flirtatious conversation. The purpose of these shells are to provide a space of respite, pleasant conversation and hospitality.
Tribunalism has been present on Sun Reach since the 2300s, first arriving via merchants and visitors from Moroz and gradually spreading throughout the planet over the following years, though it would only become the majority faith of the planet after 2422. Suppressed by the Pirate Lords as a potential security risk, the pre-Imperial Tribunalists of Sun Reach were forced to practice in secret to avoid punishment. These individuals — known as Old Tribunalists on Sun Reach — form a kind of social elite on the planet under Imperial rule, being viewed as more loyal and more faithful than the typical citizen of the planet. Reacher Tribunalism has, due to its isolation from the broader Tribunal prior to 2422, acquired several unique characteristics born from a merger of Tribunalist and Reacher traditions.


The Venusian Shells of the Diamond are not only popular, but occupy a highly unique role among synthetics in the Alliance. Contrary to common notions of ownership, the IPCs here can not only set their own prices and tasks, but have nigh equal rights to their employers. The clubs of Babylon Garden rely on the cooperation of their 'employees', and the safety of these synthetics is guaranteed by the funding and high demand of their wealthy consumers. While the Shells of the Diamond and their owners are somewhat at odds in their ability to influence each other; coming to an endpoint with the IPCs' inability to become free synthetics, the status quo has remained and relations are peaceful.
Unlike Morozians, Reachers traditionally cremate their dead due to the difficulty of ensuring corpses remain underground in the soft, swampy terrain of the planet. Those corpses which are buried will, unless properly buried in stone crypts, often return to the surface after the first heavy rain. The ashes of the corpse are collected and preserved by the deceased’s relatives, then stored in a family shrine. Often located on the edges of Reacher villages and towns, these shrines are the closest equivalent Reachers have to traditional graveyards and serve as an important gathering point for Reacher families. Reachers believe that unless a corpse is burnt and its ashes returned to the family shrine, it will wander the Spur as a wandering spirit for all eternity. While Reachers believe these spirits are not always malicious, traditional belief holds they will do anything to have their ashes returned to their proper resting place — including killing or harming the living.


==Society==
Reacher Tribunalism has a strong religious tradition of faith healing, particularly in rural areas, which combines folk medicine with the Tribunalist faith. Locally known as Kaivijadii, or Roamers, these individuals grew to prominence under the Pirate Lords’ neglect of the planet and were the only chance many Reachers had to receive medical care. With the arrival of the Empire in 2422 and the increasing presence of modern medical systems, the Kaivijadii now coexist alongside conventional medicine with the Tribunal’s blessing. A Kaivijadii’s healing abilities are said to be derived directly from the Goddess and their connection to Her is strengthened through prayers passed down from practitioner to practitioner, generally through familial ties. The rituals of the Kaivijadii are unique to each practitioner and have often been passed down since the early 2300s.
'''Ethnic Groups:'''
* 13.1% Cytherean
* 21.8% Jintarian
* 63.8% Other Human Ethnicities
* 0.9% Skrell
* 0.2% Tajara
* 0.2% Unathi


===Cytherean Culture===
While most Kaivijadii are regarded as benevolent practitioners who wish to aid the faithful of Sun Reach, the Madalin-Kaivijadii, or Roaming Sculptors, are a group of malevolent Kaivijadii said to live in the wild, sparsely populated areas beyond the Algae Belt where they can avoid the gaze of the Tribunal and the Viceroyalty. Madalin-Kaivijadii are said to be able to cast curses via black magic taught to them by witch-spirits, and sustain their powers through ritual sacrifices which ensure the victim becomes a wandering spirit in the thrall of the Madalin-Kaivijadii. Unexplained disappearances in rural communities are often blamed on these magicians and Reacher parents commonly tell their children that if they misbehave, a Madalin-Kaivijadii will abduct and sacrifice them. These rituals are said to give the Madalin-Kaivijadii eternal youth, so long as they continue them, and render them immune to any weapons not blessed by a faithful Tribunalist clergymember. The Viceroyalty’s government holds that the Madalin-Kaivijadii are simply fiction and do not truly exist, but many Reachers continue to believe in them. Whenever a person disappears without explanation, crops fail, or misfortune occurs, they are often blamed.
Cythereans dwell in aerostats floating in the habitable layer, nicknamed “the Zone”, above the sulphuric acid clouds masking the surface. These floating cities are primarily held in place by their natural oxygen content and large bags of hydrogen. Though varying in size, the largest aerostats are no bigger than four miles across. Many take the shape of an upside down teardrop. The topmost section hosts a large, open-air park dedicated to help with the claustrophobic feelings in the aerostats and to maintaining a large amount of oxygen to keep the city afloat in the carbon dioxide. Below the park lies a mass of apartments, offices, shops, and other-such buildings arranged in a similar fashion to a shopping mall. There are numerous open spaces built into aerostats that provide both public space for citizens and more air chambers for buoyancy. Aerostats are mobile, possessing both microthrusters and rudders for stability and the occasional docking with surface elevators or tethers. The other less common format of aerostats are donut-shaped and are used for the immensely lucrative farming business. These aerostats are equipped to collect sulphuric acid and carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, often taking cloud dives to produce fertilizer and water.


Despite their precarious living situation, Cytherean Venus is the primary pop culture center of Sol, with a populace often dressed in bright, dramatic clothing. Many Solarian celebrities either live or were born on one of Venus’s aerostats, growing up in the privileged Cytherean culture. The best actors, comedians, chefs, musicians, and pop stars enjoy almost constant coverage on holo-screens, only occasionally replaced by adverts for startup beauty products, cutting-edge gaming hardware, or the newest diet fad. These celebrities enjoy high class treatment and something akin to worship from the Cythereans. Many come from across the galaxy, human and alien alike, seeking to turn their fortunes around. However, Cythereans are not immune to poverty and hardship in their laissez-faire society. Those looking to become the next big thing sometimes wind up on the opposite end of the spectrum, relying on morally and legally ambiguous means to get by. Aliens, although welcome, are typically sidelined in favor of human actors and models due to most moguls desiring to “play it safe”. They are typically seen as understudies, extras, dancers, and occasionally backup singers or instrumentalists.
==The Viceroyalty==


The Cytherean environment is very cutthroat as both culture and copyright law change rapidly to suit whoever is rich and whatever is popular at the time in any given arcology, given the heavy celebrity-based culture. Law enforcement, while much more strict and present than on the surface, are easily evaded. In the end, one can get away with almost anything as long as one has the right contacts and enough money. The party culture thrives in the aerostats, with the grand cocktail parties and fundraising schmooze-fests toward the top of teardrop slowly fading into the high-energy festivals of the lower sections. Toward the top, one can overhear the latest gossip and glimpse envelopes of credits sliding under tables. Toward the bottom, one can see the most hedonistic displays of luxury.
Since 2422 Sun Reach has been part of the broader Empire of Dominia, and is known as the Viceroyalty of Sun Reach. The Viceroyalty itself is an odd state which is divided between a civilian-run colonial administration and an extensive military administration which rules alongside it, both of which are under the leadership of Governor-General Hermann Gaufried-Meinrad Strelitz — a career military officer who has found himself awkwardly balancing competing interests from native Reachers, the great houses, the Imperial government and military, the Tribunal, foreign corporations, and others. Below him is the civil-military administration of the planet, itself divided between Morozians and loyal Ma’zals, both from Sun Reach itself and elsewhere in the Empire. The civil-military cleavage in the Viceroyalty’s administration has led to many conflicts of interest between the government itself and has allowed notable Reacher families, through the patron-client system established under the Pirate Lords, to maintain their grip on power in many areas. But all know that, for the Viceroyalty to continue to succeed, one thing must not change: the flow of Helium-3 from Sun Reach to the broader Empire must continue, no matter the cost.


Though many work in the entertainment industry as stars and producers, there are great opportunities for a Cytherean scientist. The development of pharmaceutical drugs and new medicines is a common field for Cytherean scientists, with a booming genetic engineering field to aid residents on Venus. There are also a fairly large number of farmers and gardeners from Venus, some of whom leave the planet for a more relaxed atmosphere. Many of these scientists are enticed to NanoTrasen by recruiters.
The civilian administration of the Viceroyalty is concentrated in its urban centers and the more developed regions of the Algae Belt, and has two primary responsibilities: the first is to ensure the planet’s development continues, and the second is to ensure its fuel industry continues to be profitable. Work on Sun Reach for the civilian administration is often unpleasant, with its primarily Morozian and Jadranic staff unused to the stifling heat and humidity of the planet and expected to work long, often irregular hours to ensure development of the countryside continues. Nobles prefer to avoid Sun Reach’s administrative postings, and almost all are instead filled by Secondaries or Integrated Ma’zals. The civilian government, with its focus on development, is expected to work with and alongside the military government, which focuses upon security.


In Cytherean Venus, it's a sort of faux pas to even mention the surface dwellers. It is a known secret that there are many below scraping by in constant hardship, though very few offworlders other than criminals know much of the true life of a surface dweller.
The military government of the Viceroyalty is concentrated in its less developed and more sparsely populated areas, where control is often weaker and rural banditry continues to persist. Throughout the Viceroyalty’s history most of the troops stationed there outside of an Imperial Flying Corps contingent are Jadraners. While loyal and effective soldiers these troops are often unprepared for the tropical environment of Sun Reach when they first arrive. Sunstroke and other ailments are a common issue, particularly in the harsher environments on the edge of the Algae Belt, and the swampy terrain of Sun Reach makes travel difficult for the heavily mechanized Imperial Army, which must rely upon riverine forces and local militia units to bolster its strength and defend isolated regions from banditry and other nuisances.


Cytherean farmers living in the donut-shaped aerostats are a different bunch. With much of the farming rings dedicated solely to growing crops, the living quarters of donut dwellers are somewhat more open, and very scenic. Farmers often come from families with a history in hydroponics and are usually raised to carry on the family legacy. Typically, these aerostats take on a country-clubesque approach, having just as egotistical an atmosphere as typical Cytherean environments: wealthy farmers with massive crop arrangements; automated sprayers; and plenty of robots, aliens, and otherwise-poor Surfacers to help out. Freetime is ample, and this is spent on all sorts of frivolities: shooting, swimming, Terran and alien animal husbandry, playing sports, and doing plenty of social activities. Life here can be just as stratified as the teardrop aerostats with dwellers either being “members” or “helpers” depending on their connections and charisma.
Below these civilian and military administrators are trusted Reachers, often Old Tribunalists, who are expected to carry out the day-to-day tasks associated with direct management in a twist on the patron-client model originally used by the Pirate Lords. These Old Tribunalists form a social and economic elite on Sun Reach through their work with the colonial government and are the closest equivalent Sun Reach has to a native nobility in the style of Novi Jadran. Reacher culture expects these families to work towards the goals of those below them and expects those below them to not question the ruling family a survival mechanism originally from the era of the Pirate Lords, where being perceived as a threat to their rule could see a community wiped out. In the Viceroyalty era this means the Old Tribunalist families often leverage their political and economic influence to gain concessions from the colonial government.


===Jintarian Culture===
Non-Tribunal law enforcement on Sun Reach is the responsibility of both the Imperial Reacher Colonial Constabulary (IRCC) and the Imperial Army’s military police (“MPs”), with the IRCC handling the capital, its surroundings, and many villages while the Army’s MPs handle much of the countryside outside of villages and more severe crimes. The reason for this odd arrangement is the relative inexperience of the IRCC: the Viceroyalty’s constable branch was founded in 2438 and remains mostly staffed by junior officers with little practical experience, and relies heavily upon Jadranic staff brought into the Viceroyalty to plug gaps in the IRCC’s abilities. During its past near quarter-century of existence the IRCC has struggled to establish itself as an effective policing force and likely will continue to do so without significant improvements to the Viceroyalty’s infrastructure and funding. For the time being it must rely upon the Imperial Army to handle major issues and assist it in maintaining order, to the irritation of many officers who would much rather be expanding the Empire than patrolling swampy roads for rural bandits.
Despite the crushing pressure and the lead-melting hellscape that is the surface of Venus, colloquially known as Downstairs, many habitats exist there. Compared to the many independent cities that lurk above the cloud layer, there are few individual habitats, with many often structured as sprawling complexes. Hab-complexes tend to lack windows due to the immense pressure and the windows that do exist are primarily in the form of thick, expensive borosilicate used solely in expensive observatories. Greenery aided by artificial means are a common sight in these complexes. Lighting is tuned to simulate a relatively Earth-like environment.


Those on the Venusian surface tend to be researchers, foreigners who couldn’t make it in the floating Cytherean palaces, or criminals from the cloud layer. The desolation of the Venusian surface has lead to a culture focused on escapism. Craftworks, holodecks, and stadium-complexes are commonplace. Parkour and freerunning are also popular pastimes, with annual and casual competitions often held in holodecks. Jintarian runners duck through cramped maintenance shafts, shimmy inside air vents, and slide through industrial complexes. Following pop culture fed in through the cloud layer, though, is the primary means of forgetting the surface hellscape. There are also Screenpod Studios housing dozens of Screenpods for a viewer to crawl into and experience their favorite movies and shows in 4D. There are also many AR experiences available to the Jintarians, fully immersing them in fantastical, dramatic, or sensual situations and environments. Jintarians typically become nervous in wide-open spaces, preferring the tight comfort of a hab-complex or tunnel.
===Jadraner-Reacher Animosity===


Work for Jintarians, however, remains mostly practical and physical. Engineering jobs are an essential part of hab-complexes, with some even managing to work their way back above the clouds to upkeep the floating Cytherean cities. Industrial work is also common, with many factories making shield generators, firearms, and vehicles for exportation. Because of the extremely hostile conditions of Venus and the incredibly quality materials required to build homes on the surface, Jintarian products are known for being highly reliable, durable, and of great quality.
Despite both being part of the Empire for decades, the poor historical relationship between Novi Jadran and Sun Reach remains a very real issue on the planet, with Jadranic colonial bureaucrats often looking down upon their Reacher charges as barely civilised ex-pirates who once harassed their world during its darkest era and only ceased their raiding when forcibly brought to heel by the Empire. Anti-Reacher bias manifests in relatively harmless manners — such as jokes told by Jadraners to one another in pubs on the tundra planet — and very harmful manners — such as Jadranic soldiers and constables being much harsher on Reachers who break Imperial law than their fellow Jadraners, let alone Morozians.


===Illegal Surfacers===
Attempts have been made by Imperial officials to crack down on this bias to varying degrees of success, with Jadraners who overreact or mistreat their Reacher subordinates rarely punished aside from being sent off of the planet to avoid further incidents. Complaints, even by the Old Tribunalists, have mostly fallen upon deaf ears in the colonial bureaucracy. Those few Reachers who have seen legitimate punishments — typically fines or demerits, rarely prison time — given to Jadraners have always been officers of the Imperial Fleet, and often have the assistance of a House Zhao patron. Even if they are commoners, the Fleet is nothing if not dedicated to protecting its officers.
Not all of the people who dwell on the Venusian surface live in hab-complexes. Some have taken like swarms of locusts to the lead-melting wastelands of the planet. These people are mostly miners and illegal traders, blazing on their huge, over-engineered motor and hovercrafts that serve as formidable war machines, functional living bases, and heavy mining rovers all at once. These almost mind-bogglingly complex vehicles are crafted from metal scrap dropped from the Zone and surface wrecks and ruins. Outside of vehicles, extremely robust hardsuits are employed, resembling something closer to antique diving suits than the sleeky, contemporary designs of Tau Ceti. Both rapid-firing PDWs, heavy coilguns, and super-sized kinetic accelerators are employed on foot as well. Convoys of tank-bases are typically followed by herds of Yudina, a burrowing Venusian beast. These creatures can grow up to thirty feet long, lack eyes, and have very thick skin. Their massive claws make quick work of the virgin surface, exposing wealths of natural resources, partially through their digestive processes.


While initially many operated independently and gunned down each other on sight, eventually a proper organization with a division of labor formed quickly. Simply called the Venusian Company, they found black market deals more lucrative than selling materials to megacorporations. The Company presents themselves as a somewhat-corporate organization and has constructed static bases across the surface of Venus to house families. As they attempted to expand further from Venus, the Company faced difficulty as a known criminal faction. Thus, they formally established and registered the Azulite Mining Guild, pretending to be a small mining company. The Azulite Mining Guild got a relatively large number of holdings in the Sol system, owning large patches of land on Mercury, and plenty of various entire moons of Saturn and Jupiter. The Company, however, withholds a fair share of the profits, leading to the formation of many small, rebellious gangs. However, there has been no successful joined effort to create a proper opposing faction. The Company usually attempts to destroy gang vehicles on sight making many of these gangs arm themselves to the teeth. Alternatively, some like the Masquers gang, named after a famous Zone-made movie, employ ragtag cloaking technology to conduct their operations covertly.
===The Imperial Military on Sun Reach===


===Venusian IPCs===
Like many planets of the Imperial Frontier, Sun Reach is home to a significant military presence. It has the single largest garrison on the Imperial Frontier due to the strategic importance of its abundant fuel resources and these forces range from local militia units to Jadranic units of the Imperial Army to elements of the Imperial Fleet and Imperial Flying Corps, all working to ensure the planet — and its fuel — stay firmly within the Empire’s control. All military forces in the Viceroyalty are de jure under the command of the Viceroy-General. De facto, control is split between several factions which cooperate with one another — the Army answers to the Viceroy-General, the Fleet to Grand Admiral Zhao, local militias to prominent Reachers who raise and fund them, and the IFC to their strategic command for the region.
IPCs enjoy a certain status above even some alien residents of Venus, lofted by the ethereal beauty and flawless movements of a Venusian-made Shell or the ability to make other frames as aesthetically pleasing as possible in the most avant garde ways, to say nothing of how easily they can be manipulated. Under the clouds, robots and IPCs alike are valued for their reliability in an industrial environment, even among potentially shady mining guilds. However, the love of the aesthetic of IPCs does not reach the surface, as those Downstairs consider them more as tools than art. This mentality of IPCs being the ultimate display of artistry or a handy piece of hardware hinders IPCs quite a bit; no free IPCs exist either in the Zone or Downstairs.


==Fashion==
The largest military branch on the planet by numbers, the Imperial Army does much of the work required to keep Sun Reach secure for the Empire but suffers from persistent problems with the planet’s harsh environment and the resulting logistics headaches. While the Army has long favored mechanized forces the environment of Sun Reach makes these impractical, and the Jadranic troops who make up much of the planet’s garrison have instead opted to use riverine vessels — some officially produced by the Army and others made by arming and armoring civilian boats — to patrol the shallow waters of Sun Reach. The Imperial Army routinely conducts “smoking out operations” of suspected bandit groups where it will intensely patrol regions and burn down areas suspected of harboring bandit strongholds — a strategy which has drawn criticism from prominent native Reachers. Assisting the Imperial Army are the forces of the Imperial Flying Corps (IFC) under the command of Imperial Strategic Bomber Command - Viceroyalty of Sun Reach (ISBC-VSR). Unlike other IFC commands, ISBC-VSR is primarily logistic in nature and is staffed mostly by non-nobles, with Primaries instead wishing to be assigned to more prestigious locations.
The class divided on Venus between Cythereans and Jintarians is evident even in their clothes. Cythereans often wear avant garde, nearly-impractical clothing while Jintarians usually perfer comfort and function over style.
<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed">
=== Cytherean Fashion  ===
<div class="mw-collapsible-content">There a number of Cytherean fashion trends just entering the public eye, being sold by stores, and falling out of fashion at any time. Anything a non-Cytherean can put together that is appealing to the eye, and sometimes not, has been the height of fashion at some point somewhere in the clouds. There are a few popular looks and rules Cytherean fashion tends to follow, though.


The most important rule for an aspiring Cytherean fashionista is that the best part of the body is the skin. A lot of clean, unblemished, hairless skin is shown in Cytherean fashion whether it be through a high-slit dress, a translucent button-up shirt, a pair of short shorts, a fitted tank top, or a low cut blouse. More masculine figures tend to show off the upper body, especially the arms, while more feminine looks show off the lower body, specifically the legs. It should be noted that showing too much skin is a great faux pas; looks are often balanced so that if a lot of the upper body is shown, the lower body is mostly covered and vice versa.
Acting in support of the Imperial Army are the militia units of the Sun Reach Home Guard. Often the first line of defense for isolated rural settlements against bandit attacks or raids, Home Guard units are outside of the Imperial Army’s formal command structure and instead managed by Reacher officers appointed by the militias — though they are often assisted by an Imperial Army officer. These militia troops are valuable scouts and pathfinders for the larger Imperial Army units, and service in them is seen by many Reachers as a way to prove their loyalty to the Empire and acquire further benefits. In an emergency such as a war with Elyra these militias can be integrated into the Imperial Army but, in practice, this would be a difficult task due to the poor infrastructure of Sun Reach and semi-independent structure of the Home Guard.


Another important note that while minor body modifications are considered fine, a more natural appearance is preferred. Body-sculpting procedures are common, especially among celebrities. The most common body-sculpting procedures include improving facial features and structure, removing all body hair “below the eyelashes”, tightening the skin, removing excess body fat, reconstructing the teeth, enhancing or emphasizing musculature, and balancing body proportions, usually in favor of the legs. However, extensive piercing, more extreme body-sculpting, heavy tattooing, and other modifications that break the “pure skin” rule are frowned upon. In particular, tattooing, even minor tattooing in some cases, is considered unsightly due to its long-standing connection with criminals.
===Reachers in the Imperial Military===


The source of many trends has stemmed from Binyaria’s Parabing District, named “wankukai” trends. Wankukai clothes are either what’s popular in the Parabing clubbing scene or, less popularly, something slightly more appropriate for streetwear. Masculine looks often have plain, solid colored pants in dark colors with slim, usually designer belts, and often have simple dress shoes or sneakers. Translucent button-ups with LED or neon-tubing designs up the arms or across the chest are popular, as well as similarly designed, fitted tank tops to accentuate the arms. Some even elect to go shirtless. Suit jackets matching one’s pants are also common, as well as leather jackets with LED or neon designs on the back. As for more femme looks, miniskirts, short shorts, and, for the brave, microskirts are commonplace, often paired with simple, low heels, flats, or sneakers. Colorful dress shirts, qipao blouses, and standard blouses are all common as well, featuring designs similar to masculine looks. Dresses of all lengths usually have a high-slit, reaching all the way up the thigh, and are often intricately decorated with LED and neon-tubing. Though suit jackets and leather jackets with designs are common among feminine looks as well, they are occasionally cropped to just below or at the ribs.
As a world of the Imperial Frontier which was recently conquered by force, the inhabitants of Sun Reach are regarded as prime targets for recruitment by the Empire’s military forces. Many do choose to join its ranks, seeing military service as their best shot to see the broader Spur aside from working for Zavodskoi Interstellar, and find themselves in the ranks of the Imperial Fleet or, if they are less inclined towards military discipline, as a state-sponsored privateer of the Goddess’ Flotilla.


Recently, there has been a rise in traditional and “neo-traditional” clothes. For example, “faying” dresses and suits are based off Victorian Era British and French formalwear, but modified to better fit today’s fast paced society. Faying are less restrictive and faying dresses in particular have a much smaller bell skirt and are occasionally shortened to the mid-calf or knee. Another example are “neo-hanbok”, which are the traditional Korean hanbok similarly updated like faying. Feminine hanbok have a thinner bell and sometimes have a shorter skirt and masculine hanbok often have tighter sleeves and a pair of pants and vest instead of a robe. Another popular look is to add LED lighting, neon graphics, or simply different colors. Standard qipao/cheongsam, changshan, kimono, and yukata are also staples among the traditional fashion movement.
In the stratified and hierarchical Imperial Fleet Reachers, as Ma’zals, are typically confined to the enlisted ranks. Some, either through entry into House Zhao-sponsored schools which train them from childhood to be naval officers or through truly exceptional abilities, serve as junior officers and adjutants to Morozian officers. Reachers will often attempt to “Morozise” their accents while in the Fleet, downplaying some of the “rougher” aspects of their dialect in an attempt to sound more “civilized” and appear more respectable to their officers. Fleet veterans are typically respected when they return home, and many easily find positions in the colonial administration or as management staff in the refining industry.
</div>
</div>


<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed">
Reachers have a much smaller presence in the Army than in the Fleet, with few Army regiments having been raised from the planet. Some have argued this is part of an exchange with House Zhao by House Strelitz, as Novi Jadran is the opposite: many Army regiments have been raised from it while few Jadraners have opted to join the Fleet. Neither great house has publicly commented on the matter.


=== Jintarian Fashion  ===
===Rural Banditry===
<div class="mw-collapsible-content">Due to the rough life on the Venusian surface, Jintarian fashion is mostly practical. For the most part, Jintarians wear simple jumpsuits, overalls, t-shirts, and jeans. It is not uncommon, though, for Jintarians to decorate their clothes with pins, badges, armbands, or graphics. Military-style, bomber, and leather jackets are also common among fashion-forward Jintarians. Among Jintarian freerunners, it is a sort of tradition to hide one’s identity. Generally, freerunners wear fitted hoodies, plain athletic shorts, running shoes, and either a blank mask or a combination of an air mask and a lowered baseball cap, sunglasses, or tight beanie.</div>
</div>


==Ethnicity on Venus==
A broad term for both legitimate bandits and those who fight against the colonial government, rural bandits are the main concern for the Viceroyalty’s security forces. Banditry on Sun Reach began in the 2300s as the planet was neglected by the Pirate Lords, causing many desperate Reachers to turn to banditry to survive. After the Imperial military conquered the planet in 2422 these bandits, many of whom were simply petty criminals who did not pose a true threat, were joined by the former soldiers of the Pirate Lords who had escaped the Imperial Army. Better-equipped and often more brutal than their counterparts, these bandits began a campaign against the colonial government and any they perceived as loyal to it. In response, Imperial forces were deployed to counter them. However, the difficult terrain of Sun Reach and the lack of infrastructure across much of its surface has repeatedly frustrated the Imperial Army and allowed banditry to continue.
===Cytherean===
The average Cytherean look is:
* Skin Tone: 50 - 140
* Average Height: 5'9" - 6'3" / 175 cm - 190 cm
* Black to dark brown hair, though often dyed.
* Dark brown to light brown eyes.
===Jintarian===
The average Jintarian look is:
* Skin Tone: 1 - 50
* Average Height: 5'3" - 5'9" / 160 cm - 175 cm
* Black to dark brown hair.
* Dark brown to light brown eyes.


Jintarians raised on Venus usually have broad, thick builds due to the pressure of the atmosphere.
Over four decades later banditry remains an issue for many on Sun Reach, but many of the Pirate Lord-aligned groups have collapsed due to pressure from the colonial government, infighting, or simply becoming too old to continue fighting. Now, banditry is much the way it was under the Pirate Lords: a last resort method to endure on one’s economic survival. In some areas, however, organized bandit groups have become such an issue that they are regarded as security risks to their regional governments. While some Reachers join these bandit groups out of a desire to fight the Empire, most join for economic reasons linked to the steady migration of Reachers to urban areas from rural areas. As communities shrivel away, there are some individuals who — unable or unwilling to leave — turn to banditry to sustain themselves.


==Government==
When the colonial government captures bandits it often attempts to rehabilitate them, often through hard labor in its development projects, but executes those found guilty of harming Morozians or Integrated Ma’zals. Those guilty of harming or killing other Reachers are instead sentenced to hard labor. Once these ex-bandits finish their sentences they are sent back to their home villages or given housing in an urban center. Regardless of where they go they are typically mistrusted and many opt to travel off-world, seeking employment with Zavodskoi Interstellar through contracts which offer lesser salaries and fewer benefits than other Imperials receive.
As with all Solarian holdings, Venus has a representative, currently Heidi Kim, in the SolGov Senate who handles most of the world's interaction with the Sol Alliance as a whole. At the planetary level, Venus is a Democratic Populist Technocracy. Each aerostat and surface habitat has its own elected governor who presides over a council. The council size varies from place to place, based on the population of the habitat. The high number of science personnel mixed with the planet’s celebrity-worship culture has lead to many influential scientists, celebrities, or some of both generally being elected. Many governors and councillors are elected via popularity and easily carry out their manifestos with gusto, lacking any real public opposition due to their position. Commercial and industrial industries are rarely targeted and thus remain stable, ensuring the planets profitability to the Sol Alliance.


==Military==
==Settlements==
The Sol Alliance military handles all affairs of planetary defense, with the exception of only the VHEC Reg. Venus Hazardous Environment Combat Regiment or "VHEC Reg". Trained for orbital insertion into extremely hostile and hazardous environments, VHEC Reg serves as a Venusian special forces group. Recruits are trained in close quarter combat and are unsurpassed in their field with many hopefuls applying every month from across the Sol Alliance.
The Venusian military is highly skilled, although only theoretically. It is noted that historically, they have had little to no actual combat experience.


==History==
Overwhelmingly rural, the Viceroyalty’s only major settlement is its capital city. Also named Sun Reach, this city is the center of its Helium-3 industry and administration. During the Solarian colonial era it was intended to coordinate shipbuilding efforts and was, unlike many frontier settlements, built around a central space elevator that was intended to assist in moving fuel to and from the planet. The elevator remains operational today and is still the center of the city’s economy, with tens of thousands of barrels of Helium-3 fuel traveling through it every day. While the administrative center of the capital is built in an elegant, somewhat Jadranic, style designed by House Zhao engineers — and their Jadranic subordinates — much of the working-class areas are hastily built slums which hate barely improved from the era of the Pirate Lords, and pollution from the city’s Helium-3 plants chokes the skies on many days.
Most of the early history of Venus has been lost to the ages, with the Cythereans viewing it as unimportant. However, it is generally accepted that the first aerostats were constructed for scientific purposes. The first built, and the largest even today, was Binyaria. The surfacer habitation complexes were built much later on, and all of them originally featured tethers to the aerostats before more efficient stabilization technology was made. The disposal of these planetary tethers allowed for the Jintarians to be gradually forgotten by mainstream Cytherean society.
 
Even if the capital suffers from overcrowding and poor urban planning in many areas, living in it is an opportunity for Reachers to have access to more services and resources than their rural counterparts, with education and employment opportunities readily available for them. Some Imperial economists theorize that by the dawn of the 26th century these urban Reachers will form the base of a new middle class in the Viceroyalty which will be loyal to the Empire. For now, however, the urban residents of the capital remain a working-class group.


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  • On the eastern edge of the Empire of Dominia lies the least-populated major world of its domain: the Imperial Viceroyalty of Sun Reach, fully integrated into the Empire in 2422 following an invasion of the Mithra System by the Imperial military in response to piracy against the Empire by the planet’s former rulers. Over the past forty years the planet has become a major source of Helium-3 production for the Empire’s war machine and, as generations of Reachers have come over age under Imperial rule, the planet’s identity has become more and more entwined with the Empire that both aids and exploits it.

    Reachers are Ma’zals of the [[Empire of Dominia[[: commoners of non-Morozian descent. Unlike their counterparts in the Imperial Mandate of Novi Jadran, the majority of Reachers are not honorary Secondaries, and are instead simply common Ma’zals.

    History

    The Solarian Republic of Sun Reach (2189-2302)

    “This is almost certainly an advantageous position for us to hold in the Arcadian Frontier, Prime Minister. Through it we can secure a future for shipbuilding in the region. Within a century, it will be a production center on the level of Neptune,” - Martin Clemson (2119 - 2230), Solarian Secretary of Colonization, 2179.

    What would become the Viceroyalty of Sun Reach in 2422 was once one of the southernmost planets in the Solarian Alliance. Discovered in the late 2100s and colonized in 2189 due to extensive Helium-3 presence in its system, Mithra, Sun Reach was intended to support Solarian expansion into the Baltian and Arcadian Frontier Sectors through fuel processing and robust — though not military-grade — spacecraft production facilities built in orbit around it. Thousands of vessels were produced for the Alliance’s government, private corporations, and citizens throughout the 23rd century until the outbreak of the Interstellar War in 2278, when production was shifted to support the Solarian Navy and limited military production facilities were established in orbit.

    By 2287, when the Interstellar War ended, the Solarian Republic of Sun Reach was a comparatively stable and peaceful world compared to other Solarian frontier sectors, which has increasingly fallen into disarray as the War continued. A robust system defense force supported by the planet’s shipbuilding industry let it project an area of security around it alongside functional warp gates connecting it to Persepolis, Tau Ceti, and the Southern Reaches ensuring plentiful supplies. Assuming these connections remained stable, the Republic’s future was essentially secure. While the loss of the Coalition of Colonies had been a stark loss, the Alliance remained great — and the Republic imagined it would be the site of a new, bold expedition and expansion into the galactic south.

    Over the remainder of the 23rd century the Alliance fell further and further from its prewar glories. A naval coup in 2289 led to more unrest in the Solarian Frontier, a terraforming disaster on Mars in 2298 shifted more attention to the Solarian Core, and the damage the Interstellar War had caused to the economy had not faded in much of the Alliance. As the 2300s dawned Sun Reach entered a new century in a more precarious state than it had ever been in.

    The Pirate Lords (2302-2422)

    “I will take what is mine through my strength of conquest, and your planetfolk weakness. Disobey my command, and my crew will have the run of your capital, ‘Duke’ Glavan,” - High Captain Ernst Zhang during a raid of Novi Jadran during the mid-2380s.

    With the secession of the Republic of Elyra in 2302, Sun Reach was thrown into chaos as its supply routes collapsed and the broader Alliance began a messy, chaotic withdrawal from the Southern Solarian Frontier which left many planets to fend for themselves. The republican government of Sun Reach ended in early 2302 when the system defense force couped the civilian government and installed a military “emergency government” which was essentially a dictatorship. Desperate to sustain their naval strength without the external supplies they had depended on, and unable to produce new shipyards, the military government turned to “requisitioning” supplies from nearby systems under Solarian emergency regulations. But as the years dragged on and the defense force began to loot further and further territories, their goal became less to sustain their strength and more to enrich themselves while maintaining their dominion over nearby worlds, who they forced to pay protection money. By 2310 the Reacher Guard had become the Pirate Lords, the scourge of the Badlands.

    As the Pirate Lords further established their authority over the planet and enriched themselves, they neglected to support the civilian population of the planet and instead focused on their planetary refineries and the orbital facilities from which they ruled. The broader population, deprived of any external support and forced to pay their own tithes to the Pirate Lords and their crews, gradually became unable to support the advanced technology many settlements had. By the mid-2300s most had resorted to living off the land in small villages they often built around desalination facilities or the rare natural aquifer. By 2422 a solitary urban center – Sun Reach, the former capital of the planet – remained, with others having fallen into ruin and many having been reclaimed by nature. These villages would nominate a single family to deal with the Pirate Lords, who demanded material support and recruits from the planet itself. Tribunalism arrived on the planet during the 2300s and was mostly an underground religion, with the Pirate Lords viewing it as potentially dangerous to their rule.

    By the 2380s the Pirate Lords’ influence had reached another major former Solarian world: Novi Jadran. Jadranic and Reacher forces fought several battles between 2380 and 2389, with most being won by the Pirate Lords and Novi Jadran squeezed further and further by raids. But the victories of the Pirate Lords over Novi Jadran would, in a twist of irony, become their undoing when Novi Jadran petitioned the young Empire of Dominia for aid and was annexed into it peacefully. Deprived of the industrial tithe they could gain from Novi Jadran, the Reachers were put on the backfoot as they tried to avoid deliberately raiding Morozian-flagged vessels. But by the 2410s the Pirate Lords, greedily seeking more wealth, had begun harassing Imperial vessels. The Empire and Pirate Lords were now set upon a course which would inevitably bring them into open warfare and, following a skirmish between the Imperial Fleet and Pirate Lords in 2422, the Imperial military launched a punitive expedition with the aim of conquering Sun Reach, ensuring the Empire’s control over the Badlands and the end of the Pirate Lords as a serious threat to its expansion in the region.

    The Imperial Viceroyalty of Sun Reach (2422 - Present)

    “For crimes against the citizenry of the Imperial Mandate of Novi Jadran I sentence you, Captain Zhang, to death by hanging! To your crew, the beneficent Emperor has seen fit to offer them their choice of service in the Imperial Fleet or fifty years’ labor in the Imperial Territory of Fisanduh’s mines. With Her as my witness, I pronounce judgement!” - Naval Magistrate Hitomi Kaneko during the military trials of the Pirate Lords, 24 March 2423.

    It took the Imperial military under a month to defeat the Pirate Lords and occupy the planet, with their dated equipment and poorly-trained forces falling apart after the first engagements of the expedition. Some, unwilling to surrender to the Empire, fled abroad or into the swamps surrounding the Algae Belt, becoming the first rural bandits of the planet. Many of the Pirate Lords were captured, tried, and quickly executed by the Empire. Imperial forces were, in some areas, greeted with open arms by a population which had long hidden their Tribunalist faith and was now free of the tithes paid to the previous government. In other areas, the Empire was viewed as little more than a replacement for the Pirate Lords and a shallow reminder of the democracy which once flourished under Solarian rule.

    With Sun Reach’s conquest of Dominia came immense investment by the Empire’s economy, particularly Houses Zhao and Caladius. For the first time in over a century neglected Helium-3 refineries and orbital shipyards which had fallen into disrepair were brought online, and thousands of Reachers moved into cities to seek employment in better-paying urban industries. Others, seeking to redeem — or perhaps continue — their piratical past, joined the Imperial Fleet or the Goddess’ Flotilla. Most residents of the planet view life as better under the Empire than it was under the piratical former government, though some dissent. Those who opt to fight against the Viceroyalty often take to the swamps and mangroves around the Algae Belt, risking disease, weather, and dangerous wildlife to avoid the Imperial Army and Home Guard. Derided as outlaws and rogues by the government, and by most Reachers, these men and women often become little more than bandits.

    In the Helium-3 industry, which is concentrated in the planet’s cities, there are few regulations and many are made to work long hours in hazardous conditions for less pay than workers in the Imperial Core. Meanwhile, the rapid growth of urban areas over the past 40 years has caused a rural decline in many areas as young algae farmers leave for higher-paying jobs to pay off their Mo’ri’zal, disrupting the planet’s traditional way of life. While their system of ruling their villages through notable families remains, some Reachers are concerned their culture will be consumed by the Empire by the end of the century as more and more of the planet’s inhabitants grow up only having known Imperial rule.

    As the Empire looks towards the 2470s it considers how to best continue to develop the Viceroyalty, and to quash its issues. Whether or not it is successful remains to be seen, though as more and more Reachers are raised knowing solely Imperial rule it is less and less likely any serious efforts will be made to throw off its rule. For now, at least, the Viceroyalty is solidly in the hands of the Empire.

    Environment

    “Soldiers! This environment will be unlike your homes in the Imperial Mandate. Expect humidity, insects, and constant rain in some areas. Remember your training and watch yourself and your comrades for signs of heatstroke. Dismissed!” - First Lieutenant Henrik Novak of the 122nd Jadranic Infantry Regiment prior to their deployment to Sun Reach, 2457.

    Sun Reach is a hot, humid, and wet world dominated by swamps and mangroves. It has long, hot summers with short, cool winters and temperatures rarely drop below freezing even during winter. Much of the planet’s surface outside of its limited landmasses is covered by shallow oceans. These oceans are home to floating islands of organic plant mass which, while rarely encountered, represent a stunning example of Reacher biodiversity. Rain is frequent and many areas flood seasonally, being dry during the winter and underwater during the summer months. Building any serious infrastructure on Sun Reach is difficult due to these seasonal floods and the swampy conditions of much of its land. Much of the planet’s water is salty, which leads to further infrastructure issues due to corrosion and a need to build desalination facilities — historically, Reacher settlements are often based around these plants.

    The equatorial region of Sun Reach is known as the Algae Belt, and is where most of the planet’s population can be found. Year-round dry land is found more readily here than in any other region of the planet and, while still swampy and humid, permanent settlements are easier to construct and infrastructure is easier to maintain. However, regular maintenance is still required to counteract the planet’s climate and the mostly-sunken remnants of rail lines and roads from the pre-Imperial era are frequent sights in more rural regions of the Algae Belt. Aquaculture has historically been the dominant industry in this region due to the abundance of shallow, relatively calm waters and natural hardiness of the Reacher staple crop: algae.

    Beyond the Algae Belt, as one travels further towards the planetary poles, the environment becomes less hospitable as human settlements begin to grow more sparse before eventually ceasing entirely. As one travels towards the poles weather becomes more extreme, with frequent storms and rain which is rumored to never cease at the poles. At the same time flora begins to steadily increase and eventually becomes too dense to reasonably travel through unless one spends days clearing the foliage meter by meter. Some Imperial expeditions have recorded foliage which appears to deliberately grow in their path and thin out behind them, as if it is trying to deliberately block their progress, but House Volvalaad has dismissed this as outlandish and unscientific. Much of this area is poorly explored and few accurate maps exist, with orbital photography ineffective due to the density of foliage and frequent cloud cover. Cartographic efforts by Imperial scholars have been frustrated by a lack of funding, Reacher superstitions about the poles, and the hazardous conditions of the far reaches of the planet. The Alliance is rumored to have completely mapped Sun Reach during its hegemonic era, but no maps are known to have survived to the modern era. Rumors have long circulated that the poles contain lost Solarian research facilities where terraforming was researched centuries ago, and that equipment gone awry is the source of the freak weather near the poles.

    Flora and Fauna

    The Reacher Gar is a large, typically 2-3 meter long and relatively slender carnivorous fish found across Sun Reach’s shallow waters. Commonly known as the “gar fish” (or garfish) among locals, it is a frequent source of food for the rural populations who live near the mangroves gar prefer to nest in. Reacher garfish are capable of moving at surprising speeds while striking at their prey — typically smaller fish or aquatic mammals — and their scales armor them against most predators. These scales are used by Reachers to fashion small blades and limited amounts of bite-proof clothing. While not actively hostile towards humans, gar fish will defend their nests and can inflict painful bites on unprepared humans.

    An apex predator alongside humanity, the Reacher soostatom closely resembles the alligators of old Earth. It is a large, quadruped animal which can grow anywhere from six to nine meters long depending upon the environment, with soostatoms growing larger as one approaches the poles. Soostatom are carnivorous and easily capable of killing a human if threatened. However, attacks are generally rare. Reachers historically hunted soostatoms for their meat and their tough, leathery skins which are used to make clothing. In the Imperial era soostatom hunting has dropped as many urban areas have moved to adopt more traditionally Morozian styles of clothing.

    The mangrove-creeper is a common semi-aquatic plant which is found growing along the bottoms of trees in mangroves or bayous. A symbiotic species with the larger trees, mangrove-creepers are carnivorous plants which lure small animals beneath them with their fruits and use grabbing “mouths” to latch onto their prey and dissolve them with a digestive acid. While their mouths are too small to harm humans, mangrove-creepers have historically been viewed as a pest by rural communities. However, since 2422, they have become valuable cash crops due to their acid being an effective industrial solvent which is commonly used in the planet’s Helium-3 refining industry. Villages which once cursed these plants now grow rich from them.

    Culture

    “Reachers are, due to neglect by their former masters, less culturally advanced than the Imperial Core and Novi Jadran. In this volume, I will discuss how these primitive beliefs emerged and how they can be eradicated,” - Doctor Rahela Lemnaru, Jadranic sociologist employed by House Caladius, in her introduction to Cultural Backwardness on the Imperial Frontier Vol. XII: Reacher Customs and Beliefs (published in 2559).

    While Reachers follow the broader cultural trends and holidays of the Empire, their recent entry and unique history has given them a culture distinct from the broader Morozian-influenced culture of Dominia. Those from the rest of Dominia often stereotype Reachers as rural, conservative, and prone to superstitions while at the same time being hardworking, loyal, and faithful to the Goddess. Internationally, some regard Reachers as simply another planet subjugated by Moroz while others view them as having received a justified punishment for their actions as pirates. Reachers themselves are generally Imperial loyalists, viewing the Empire as better than the Pirate Lords, but some wish for further autonomy and more radical dissidents wish for a return to the era of piracy.

    Historically, Reachers have lived in small rural communities numbering from a few hundred to several thousand. Built around either desalination plants or natural sources of water these communities relied on aquaculture to survive and the Reacher diet remains mostly unchanged from this era, favoring algae, aquatic plants, and seafood. Under the Pirate Lords these communities were expected to pay a tithe of resources to the captain who controlled the area, and a single family was chosen to be the point of contact for the community. Over a century of paying tribute, these families have morphed into the dominant political class of the planet and many were kept in place by the Empire out of convenience. Modern rural communities on Sun Reach do not look very different from their counterparts a century ago, though many have died out due to depopulation as Reachers immigrate to urban centers for higher-paying work. Large families are a common sight in rural communities on Sun Reach and rural families are often very connected to one another, with multiple generations and branches living in close proximity to one another.

    Rural village life on Sun Reach is often challenging, with little in the way of outside help and overland travel difficult due to swampy terrain and poor weather. Travel is traditionally done over water, often by airboat, and navigating the mangrove-filled waters of Sun Reach can cause even simple journeys to take days. Investment by the Empire has brought limited rail infrastructure to Sun Reach and some particularly remote villages are now more connected to the broader planet via air travel, but the difficult terrain of the planet has ensured infrastructure is slow to expand and expensive to maintain. Regular passenger rail services are only available between major settlements along the Algae Belt, with other areas serviced much more infrequently. Travel by wheeled vehicle is rare, with the exception of Imperial Army equipment, due to persistent swampy mud which mires all but the hardiest vehicles.

    Reachers who move to its sole urban center, itself named Sun Reach, often find work in the Helium-3 industry which has come to dominate the Viceroyalty’s economy in the decades since its conquest. While it pays far more than aquaculture work, the He-3 industry is poorly regulated and dominated by off-planet nobles such as House Zhao. Injuries are common among laborers in the field and hours can be long, with plants working round-the-clock to fulfill the fuel nerve of the Imperial Fleet. Injured workers are often let go without severance fees or benefits, returning to their villages as cripples or living off of charity provided by the Tribunal in the slum districts of Sun Reach – sometimes without permanent housing, creating a homeless issue on a planet which had no such issue prior to 2422. The rapid expansion of the planet’s only city has created a housing crisis and resulted in many urbanite Reachers living in ramshackle apartments in poorly-designated, overcrowded slums. Urban families are much smaller than their rural counterparts, and many urban Reachers will only see their broader families on holidays. Imperial sociologists and urban planners estimate the Viceroyalty will not have a second major urban center until the early 2500s, potentially later, due to its environment being poorly-suited for major urban projects.

    Due to neglect of the planet under the rule of the Pirate Lords leading to widespread poverty, Reacher cuisine has historically revolved around aquaculture and local fish — reliable food sources which can be found easily at all points of the year. Wild game from the swampy forests of the planet is part of the diet of Kent rural communities and the ends of successful hunts are often community celebrations where the entire village participates in a feast. As the planet’s population has urbanized since 2422 and off-world foods have become more common, Reacher urban cuisine has been influenced by the similarly seafood-based diets of Novi Jadranic soldiers and engineers who have been brought or come to the planet’s cities to support the Viceroyalty.

    Reacher Tribunalism and Folk Beliefs

    Tribunalism has been present on Sun Reach since the 2300s, first arriving via merchants and visitors from Moroz and gradually spreading throughout the planet over the following years, though it would only become the majority faith of the planet after 2422. Suppressed by the Pirate Lords as a potential security risk, the pre-Imperial Tribunalists of Sun Reach were forced to practice in secret to avoid punishment. These individuals — known as Old Tribunalists on Sun Reach — form a kind of social elite on the planet under Imperial rule, being viewed as more loyal and more faithful than the typical citizen of the planet. Reacher Tribunalism has, due to its isolation from the broader Tribunal prior to 2422, acquired several unique characteristics born from a merger of Tribunalist and Reacher traditions.

    Unlike Morozians, Reachers traditionally cremate their dead due to the difficulty of ensuring corpses remain underground in the soft, swampy terrain of the planet. Those corpses which are buried will, unless properly buried in stone crypts, often return to the surface after the first heavy rain. The ashes of the corpse are collected and preserved by the deceased’s relatives, then stored in a family shrine. Often located on the edges of Reacher villages and towns, these shrines are the closest equivalent Reachers have to traditional graveyards and serve as an important gathering point for Reacher families. Reachers believe that unless a corpse is burnt and its ashes returned to the family shrine, it will wander the Spur as a wandering spirit for all eternity. While Reachers believe these spirits are not always malicious, traditional belief holds they will do anything to have their ashes returned to their proper resting place — including killing or harming the living.

    Reacher Tribunalism has a strong religious tradition of faith healing, particularly in rural areas, which combines folk medicine with the Tribunalist faith. Locally known as Kaivijadii, or Roamers, these individuals grew to prominence under the Pirate Lords’ neglect of the planet and were the only chance many Reachers had to receive medical care. With the arrival of the Empire in 2422 and the increasing presence of modern medical systems, the Kaivijadii now coexist alongside conventional medicine with the Tribunal’s blessing. A Kaivijadii’s healing abilities are said to be derived directly from the Goddess and their connection to Her is strengthened through prayers passed down from practitioner to practitioner, generally through familial ties. The rituals of the Kaivijadii are unique to each practitioner and have often been passed down since the early 2300s.

    While most Kaivijadii are regarded as benevolent practitioners who wish to aid the faithful of Sun Reach, the Madalin-Kaivijadii, or Roaming Sculptors, are a group of malevolent Kaivijadii said to live in the wild, sparsely populated areas beyond the Algae Belt where they can avoid the gaze of the Tribunal and the Viceroyalty. Madalin-Kaivijadii are said to be able to cast curses via black magic taught to them by witch-spirits, and sustain their powers through ritual sacrifices which ensure the victim becomes a wandering spirit in the thrall of the Madalin-Kaivijadii. Unexplained disappearances in rural communities are often blamed on these magicians and Reacher parents commonly tell their children that if they misbehave, a Madalin-Kaivijadii will abduct and sacrifice them. These rituals are said to give the Madalin-Kaivijadii eternal youth, so long as they continue them, and render them immune to any weapons not blessed by a faithful Tribunalist clergymember. The Viceroyalty’s government holds that the Madalin-Kaivijadii are simply fiction and do not truly exist, but many Reachers continue to believe in them. Whenever a person disappears without explanation, crops fail, or misfortune occurs, they are often blamed.

    The Viceroyalty

    Since 2422 Sun Reach has been part of the broader Empire of Dominia, and is known as the Viceroyalty of Sun Reach. The Viceroyalty itself is an odd state which is divided between a civilian-run colonial administration and an extensive military administration which rules alongside it, both of which are under the leadership of Governor-General Hermann Gaufried-Meinrad Strelitz — a career military officer who has found himself awkwardly balancing competing interests from native Reachers, the great houses, the Imperial government and military, the Tribunal, foreign corporations, and others. Below him is the civil-military administration of the planet, itself divided between Morozians and loyal Ma’zals, both from Sun Reach itself and elsewhere in the Empire. The civil-military cleavage in the Viceroyalty’s administration has led to many conflicts of interest between the government itself and has allowed notable Reacher families, through the patron-client system established under the Pirate Lords, to maintain their grip on power in many areas. But all know that, for the Viceroyalty to continue to succeed, one thing must not change: the flow of Helium-3 from Sun Reach to the broader Empire must continue, no matter the cost.

    The civilian administration of the Viceroyalty is concentrated in its urban centers and the more developed regions of the Algae Belt, and has two primary responsibilities: the first is to ensure the planet’s development continues, and the second is to ensure its fuel industry continues to be profitable. Work on Sun Reach for the civilian administration is often unpleasant, with its primarily Morozian and Jadranic staff unused to the stifling heat and humidity of the planet and expected to work long, often irregular hours to ensure development of the countryside continues. Nobles prefer to avoid Sun Reach’s administrative postings, and almost all are instead filled by Secondaries or Integrated Ma’zals. The civilian government, with its focus on development, is expected to work with and alongside the military government, which focuses upon security.

    The military government of the Viceroyalty is concentrated in its less developed and more sparsely populated areas, where control is often weaker and rural banditry continues to persist. Throughout the Viceroyalty’s history most of the troops stationed there outside of an Imperial Flying Corps contingent are Jadraners. While loyal and effective soldiers these troops are often unprepared for the tropical environment of Sun Reach when they first arrive. Sunstroke and other ailments are a common issue, particularly in the harsher environments on the edge of the Algae Belt, and the swampy terrain of Sun Reach makes travel difficult for the heavily mechanized Imperial Army, which must rely upon riverine forces and local militia units to bolster its strength and defend isolated regions from banditry and other nuisances.

    Below these civilian and military administrators are trusted Reachers, often Old Tribunalists, who are expected to carry out the day-to-day tasks associated with direct management in a twist on the patron-client model originally used by the Pirate Lords. These Old Tribunalists form a social and economic elite on Sun Reach through their work with the colonial government and are the closest equivalent Sun Reach has to a native nobility in the style of Novi Jadran. Reacher culture expects these families to work towards the goals of those below them and expects those below them to not question the ruling family — a survival mechanism originally from the era of the Pirate Lords, where being perceived as a threat to their rule could see a community wiped out. In the Viceroyalty era this means the Old Tribunalist families often leverage their political and economic influence to gain concessions from the colonial government.

    Non-Tribunal law enforcement on Sun Reach is the responsibility of both the Imperial Reacher Colonial Constabulary (IRCC) and the Imperial Army’s military police (“MPs”), with the IRCC handling the capital, its surroundings, and many villages while the Army’s MPs handle much of the countryside outside of villages and more severe crimes. The reason for this odd arrangement is the relative inexperience of the IRCC: the Viceroyalty’s constable branch was founded in 2438 and remains mostly staffed by junior officers with little practical experience, and relies heavily upon Jadranic staff brought into the Viceroyalty to plug gaps in the IRCC’s abilities. During its past near quarter-century of existence the IRCC has struggled to establish itself as an effective policing force and likely will continue to do so without significant improvements to the Viceroyalty’s infrastructure and funding. For the time being it must rely upon the Imperial Army to handle major issues and assist it in maintaining order, to the irritation of many officers who would much rather be expanding the Empire than patrolling swampy roads for rural bandits.

    Jadraner-Reacher Animosity

    Despite both being part of the Empire for decades, the poor historical relationship between Novi Jadran and Sun Reach remains a very real issue on the planet, with Jadranic colonial bureaucrats often looking down upon their Reacher charges as barely civilised ex-pirates who once harassed their world during its darkest era and only ceased their raiding when forcibly brought to heel by the Empire. Anti-Reacher bias manifests in relatively harmless manners — such as jokes told by Jadraners to one another in pubs on the tundra planet — and very harmful manners — such as Jadranic soldiers and constables being much harsher on Reachers who break Imperial law than their fellow Jadraners, let alone Morozians.

    Attempts have been made by Imperial officials to crack down on this bias to varying degrees of success, with Jadraners who overreact or mistreat their Reacher subordinates rarely punished aside from being sent off of the planet to avoid further incidents. Complaints, even by the Old Tribunalists, have mostly fallen upon deaf ears in the colonial bureaucracy. Those few Reachers who have seen legitimate punishments — typically fines or demerits, rarely prison time — given to Jadraners have always been officers of the Imperial Fleet, and often have the assistance of a House Zhao patron. Even if they are commoners, the Fleet is nothing if not dedicated to protecting its officers.

    The Imperial Military on Sun Reach

    Like many planets of the Imperial Frontier, Sun Reach is home to a significant military presence. It has the single largest garrison on the Imperial Frontier due to the strategic importance of its abundant fuel resources and these forces range from local militia units to Jadranic units of the Imperial Army to elements of the Imperial Fleet and Imperial Flying Corps, all working to ensure the planet — and its fuel — stay firmly within the Empire’s control. All military forces in the Viceroyalty are de jure under the command of the Viceroy-General. De facto, control is split between several factions which cooperate with one another — the Army answers to the Viceroy-General, the Fleet to Grand Admiral Zhao, local militias to prominent Reachers who raise and fund them, and the IFC to their strategic command for the region.

    The largest military branch on the planet by numbers, the Imperial Army does much of the work required to keep Sun Reach secure for the Empire but suffers from persistent problems with the planet’s harsh environment and the resulting logistics headaches. While the Army has long favored mechanized forces the environment of Sun Reach makes these impractical, and the Jadranic troops who make up much of the planet’s garrison have instead opted to use riverine vessels — some officially produced by the Army and others made by arming and armoring civilian boats — to patrol the shallow waters of Sun Reach. The Imperial Army routinely conducts “smoking out operations” of suspected bandit groups where it will intensely patrol regions and burn down areas suspected of harboring bandit strongholds — a strategy which has drawn criticism from prominent native Reachers. Assisting the Imperial Army are the forces of the Imperial Flying Corps (IFC) under the command of Imperial Strategic Bomber Command - Viceroyalty of Sun Reach (ISBC-VSR). Unlike other IFC commands, ISBC-VSR is primarily logistic in nature and is staffed mostly by non-nobles, with Primaries instead wishing to be assigned to more prestigious locations.

    Acting in support of the Imperial Army are the militia units of the Sun Reach Home Guard. Often the first line of defense for isolated rural settlements against bandit attacks or raids, Home Guard units are outside of the Imperial Army’s formal command structure and instead managed by Reacher officers appointed by the militias — though they are often assisted by an Imperial Army officer. These militia troops are valuable scouts and pathfinders for the larger Imperial Army units, and service in them is seen by many Reachers as a way to prove their loyalty to the Empire and acquire further benefits. In an emergency such as a war with Elyra these militias can be integrated into the Imperial Army but, in practice, this would be a difficult task due to the poor infrastructure of Sun Reach and semi-independent structure of the Home Guard.

    Reachers in the Imperial Military

    As a world of the Imperial Frontier which was recently conquered by force, the inhabitants of Sun Reach are regarded as prime targets for recruitment by the Empire’s military forces. Many do choose to join its ranks, seeing military service as their best shot to see the broader Spur aside from working for Zavodskoi Interstellar, and find themselves in the ranks of the Imperial Fleet or, if they are less inclined towards military discipline, as a state-sponsored privateer of the Goddess’ Flotilla.

    In the stratified and hierarchical Imperial Fleet Reachers, as Ma’zals, are typically confined to the enlisted ranks. Some, either through entry into House Zhao-sponsored schools which train them from childhood to be naval officers or through truly exceptional abilities, serve as junior officers and adjutants to Morozian officers. Reachers will often attempt to “Morozise” their accents while in the Fleet, downplaying some of the “rougher” aspects of their dialect in an attempt to sound more “civilized” and appear more respectable to their officers. Fleet veterans are typically respected when they return home, and many easily find positions in the colonial administration or as management staff in the refining industry.

    Reachers have a much smaller presence in the Army than in the Fleet, with few Army regiments having been raised from the planet. Some have argued this is part of an exchange with House Zhao by House Strelitz, as Novi Jadran is the opposite: many Army regiments have been raised from it while few Jadraners have opted to join the Fleet. Neither great house has publicly commented on the matter.

    Rural Banditry

    A broad term for both legitimate bandits and those who fight against the colonial government, rural bandits are the main concern for the Viceroyalty’s security forces. Banditry on Sun Reach began in the 2300s as the planet was neglected by the Pirate Lords, causing many desperate Reachers to turn to banditry to survive. After the Imperial military conquered the planet in 2422 these bandits, many of whom were simply petty criminals who did not pose a true threat, were joined by the former soldiers of the Pirate Lords who had escaped the Imperial Army. Better-equipped and often more brutal than their counterparts, these bandits began a campaign against the colonial government and any they perceived as loyal to it. In response, Imperial forces were deployed to counter them. However, the difficult terrain of Sun Reach and the lack of infrastructure across much of its surface has repeatedly frustrated the Imperial Army and allowed banditry to continue.

    Over four decades later banditry remains an issue for many on Sun Reach, but many of the Pirate Lord-aligned groups have collapsed due to pressure from the colonial government, infighting, or simply becoming too old to continue fighting. Now, banditry is much the way it was under the Pirate Lords: a last resort method to endure on one’s economic survival. In some areas, however, organized bandit groups have become such an issue that they are regarded as security risks to their regional governments. While some Reachers join these bandit groups out of a desire to fight the Empire, most join for economic reasons linked to the steady migration of Reachers to urban areas from rural areas. As communities shrivel away, there are some individuals who — unable or unwilling to leave — turn to banditry to sustain themselves.

    When the colonial government captures bandits it often attempts to rehabilitate them, often through hard labor in its development projects, but executes those found guilty of harming Morozians or Integrated Ma’zals. Those guilty of harming or killing other Reachers are instead sentenced to hard labor. Once these ex-bandits finish their sentences they are sent back to their home villages or given housing in an urban center. Regardless of where they go they are typically mistrusted and many opt to travel off-world, seeking employment with Zavodskoi Interstellar through contracts which offer lesser salaries and fewer benefits than other Imperials receive.

    Settlements

    Overwhelmingly rural, the Viceroyalty’s only major settlement is its capital city. Also named Sun Reach, this city is the center of its Helium-3 industry and administration. During the Solarian colonial era it was intended to coordinate shipbuilding efforts and was, unlike many frontier settlements, built around a central space elevator that was intended to assist in moving fuel to and from the planet. The elevator remains operational today and is still the center of the city’s economy, with tens of thousands of barrels of Helium-3 fuel traveling through it every day. While the administrative center of the capital is built in an elegant, somewhat Jadranic, style designed by House Zhao engineers — and their Jadranic subordinates — much of the working-class areas are hastily built slums which hate barely improved from the era of the Pirate Lords, and pollution from the city’s Helium-3 plants chokes the skies on many days.

    Even if the capital suffers from overcrowding and poor urban planning in many areas, living in it is an opportunity for Reachers to have access to more services and resources than their rural counterparts, with education and employment opportunities readily available for them. Some Imperial economists theorize that by the dawn of the 26th century these urban Reachers will form the base of a new middle class in the Viceroyalty which will be loyal to the Empire. For now, however, the urban residents of the capital remain a working-class group.

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