Thursday, May 14, 2015

Star Wars Sandbox: The Kreetan Narrows, Part 5

Now that we have gone through the list of systems in the Suolriep Sector, we should give some thought to its interactions with its neighbors - in particular, the trade routes passing through it, since that's likely where the most interesting stuff happens.

The Lesser Lantillan Route is quite lengthy. It starts at Zeltros in the Inner Rim, a leisure world and homeworld of the Zeltrons, who are famous among other things for their "Carafels", courtesans who were sought after by many crime lords, especially Hutts - so any kidnapped Carafels would likely be transported along that route. It also passes through Bimmisari, the capital of the Halla Sector (the Mid-Rim neighbor of Suolriep), It is home to two species, both confusingly called "Bimms" - one is a short, furry species, and the other one is a species of near-humans. Both have a reputation for being (fairly peaceful) traders, so it wouldn't be surprising for them to show up in Suolriep. The Lesser Lantillan passes through Suolriep at the planet Boonta (the likely end point for any "wares" entering or leaving Hutt Space) before terminating at Junkford in the adjacent Tharin Sector. Junkfort is noteworthy for Junkford Station, where smugglers can get illegal modifications to their ships.

The Salin Corridor meanders through the Outer Rim. Its point of origin of Salin is probably a bit too far away to concern us here, but Columex, the location where it crosses the huge Perlemian Trade Route, is likely more of interest, since it is the center of the Commonality, a multi-system confederation. This is likely another major trade route used by the Hutts. A bit closer, Belderone is used to manufacture AT-ATs. Kile II has a major Imperial Navy base, and after that the Corridor enters Suolriep, passing via both Komnor and Boonta (both Hutt-controlled worlds, though no longer officially part of Hutt Space) before ending in the Tharin Sector, reaching first Novor 23 (home of the Ry'coz and a major economic and cultural center) and terminating at Nwarcol Point, a space station controlled by the entirely legitimate business interests of Xixor Transport Systems (owned by Xixor, the leader of the Black Sun Cartel). Oh, and it has a huge casino. Of course.

The last trade route, the Talcene Transit, only has a few planets listed despite its great length. It starts at Talcene, home of "notoriously competitive commerce guilds" and then immediately jumps several sectors to Saleucami in the Suolriep Sector. Are there really no intervening steps, or have the planets on its way just not been mentioned anywhere else? I suspect the latter - in particular, since the Zealots of Psusan - an all-female group whose members have elaborate tatoos - are said to "dominate three worlds" along the route. How much influence they have on Saleucami and the Suolriep Sector is something I will have to ponder at a later time - as well as what their actual beliefs are.

Curiously, there is something missing in the trade route descriptions - mention of Suolriep itself, which is after all the sector capital. I suspect that before the annexation of the region Suolriep was a fairly unimportant world. By all rights, Saleucami should probably have become the sector capital, since it has the biggest industries and economic importance (well, Boonta might come close, but as a Hutt-dominated world it clearly wasn't suitable). However, the Empire likely viewed Saleucami as too "politically unreliable" (all those aliens with a history of sedition...) to create the capital of its new sector there - thus, they moved it to Suolriep and built a government infrastructure from the ground up, likely importing massive numbers of human colonists from the Core Worlds. Useful real world parallels might be Brasilia (in Brazil) and Naypidaw (in Myanmar) - both examples of capitals which were created from the ground up.

No doubt Imperial authorities are attempting to create new hyperlanes that pass via Suolriep (which the Rebel Alliance can use to disguise the increased traffic to Delta Base, as I have outlined earlier). Meanwhile Saleucami experiences Imperial/Iotran crackdowns and might actually see parts of its industrial base taken apart and moved to Suolriep - further antagonizing the natives.

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