Collectively, Passarspace is a grim place given over to mining, manufacturing, and military exercises. A definite heirarchy prevails:
- 1) The Leadership.
- This is a collection of high ranking Invader military officers, senior functionaries, and minor nobility imported from elsewhere, each with defined areas of responsibility.
- 2) The Military.
- The Invaders soldiers have great leeway here, and can actually get away with out and out theft and even murder (at times). They tend to treat those of lower social status with great contempt; most can be considered `Ironheads'. Ironically, about half the members of this group are actually recruited from the lower castes, a situation most try to forget.
- 3) The Skilled.
- This group encompasses clerks, wizards, merchants, and artisans of all sorts - in short, the skilled people needed to keep the wheels turning. Prior to the Restructuring of half a century ago, most members of this social strata were one cut above slaves, a situation that led to no few revolts and escape attempts - and severely impaired production. Now, though, they actually have some measure of legal protection, are paid for their services, are entitled to time off, and after twenty standard years of service are actually permitted to `retire' - giving them something to look forward to.
- 4) The Masses.
- More than half of the spheres populace falls into this class: common laborers, miners, and farmhands. Conditions for them varies a great deal; some are almost as well off as the Skilled, while others are literal slaves, with a short life expectancy.
There is a fair amount of intrigue between `Reformers' (who actually care somewhat for the plight of the ordinary workers here), `Ironheads' (who see the commoners here as little more than slaves), and the `Timeservers' (officials appointed from elsewhere and who can't wait to leave).
THE VODONI
Henerick Thiem - Vodoni Male, Sphere Overlord ex Fighter 5/Mage 8 S:13 I:18 W:13 D:9 C:9 Ch:10; HP:31; Thaco:16; AL:LE (LN)
Short, thin, balding, bespectacled, and clerkish, Henerick Thiem has the soul of an accountant - which was why he was left in charge of this sphere when the old Sphere Overlord was recalled to Vodoni Prime some years ago (and like so many other breeders, was killed during Vulkarans disasterous last campaign). Even though he is not a Breeder, Thiem's overlordship is not challenged; the military officers and breeders stationed here regard paperwork and mere adminstration as beneath them. Thiem is a reformer, not out of any sense of justice, but because he has noticed that workers who are treated better tend to be more productive.
--------------------------- General Tovar Braxt - Vodoni Male, Military Commander ex Fighter 12/Mage 12 S:18/03 I:17 W:8 D:9 C:15 Ch:14; HP:79; Thaco:9; AL:LE
Bullet headed with close cropped white hair, favors functional grey and black uniforms to flowing robes. General Tovar Braxt is the senior Vodoni military officer in Passarspace. He could have been Sphere Overlord, but declined the position, seeing it as too much paperwork and not enough action. He has, though, made it very clear to Henereck Thiem that the military has `first call' on whatever and whoever they require; furthermore there are entire asteriods that answer only to Braxt. General Braxt sympathies lay with the `Ironheads' faction; he recruits troops from the lower levels of society only because he has no choice, not because he wants to.
--------------------------- Ila Jahzda - Female Vodoni, Researcher Mage 16 S:10 I:17 W:10 D:15 C:11 Ch:13; HP:27; Thaco:16; AL:N (E)
Ila Jahzda is obsessed with her work - investigating the strange compounds of Gamma-Two. She is more criminally indifferent to the plight of others than actively evil.
OTHERS
Passarspace seems to have gone largely unnoticed down through the centuries; until the Invaders arrived it was all but deserted.
Aside from the bare location of the sphere itself and maybe an odd notation or two, little will be found on Passarspace outside the invaders empire. At most, there may be some dusty bureaucratic chronicle in the archives of Ptah's cult, or a excerpt from the journal of some wildspace explorer (such as the petty noble Trevor Starblazer). The Grav may know something of the sphere, but getting them to talk could be a bit of a challenge.
