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Bahrad - FA308

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Taken from the Special Edition, Kashari Imperial Gazetteer: Sol, the Breast of Humanity.[0]

Bahrad
FA - 308
AH - 2356
AD - 2908

Bahrad, or "Mars" as it has been archaically known, is a tundric, irradiated, Class-D planetary wasteland inhabited by many vexatious, warring states. They have very limited spatial infrastructure; the three elevators that do exist are venerated as consecrated holy lands in a corrupted version of the Hajj, central to one of their versions of Islam, the 'Mandate of Ullah[1]'. Those traders -including some of our own merchant fleet- that do find their way to these three 'Intraurban Vaults', as they are known locally, rarely visit the planet's surface, and it would appear -to the amusement of the greater trans-stellar community- that those from beyond Bahrad are held in quite a high and mystical esteem[2].
The climate ranges from a chilly equatorial belt primed for grain, barley, chard and spinach and sandthorn; to dry and often snow-capped brush land of succulents and cacti; to the coastal algae-floats straddling a thin belt of bullrushes, kohlrabi and tall grasses; to ice-capped wastelands in the south and north, among others. These lands are varyingly inhabited by hardy and evidently genetically adapted creatures as camel, ostriches, bustards, osprey, komodos, rats and vultures; to condors, chinchillas, mountain bears, goats and jackals and hyena; to ducks, carps, hippos, frogs, saltwater crocodiles, cranes, deer and wild dogs; to yakut ponies, big-horned sheep, foxes, walruses, muskox and polar bears[3].

As a fairly small planet the people are more sweepingly defined than the great realms of Chatteepur or Maneji, and are mostly drawn from the same mix as the original settlers to Erjenkon and Mashik, among a few other choice homelands. They are a superstitious and swarthy sort, known for folk tales and thick skin-both figuratively and literally, on account of the poor magnetosphere-, and are tall and given to deceptively delicate features. But do not be fooled, the Bahradi are better versed in hardships and war than most, as proven by their... eruptive politics.
Even before the Fol Adityas[4] Bahrad had a reputation as a den of violence. Wars would be waged between Emirs over trivial insults, or between the two major branches of Islam; those that venerate the Intraurban Vaults and those of the Mandate. Their hardy cavalry, whether it be of camels or yakuts or polar bears, are legendary, and their capacity for finding a balance between -and an excuse to engage in- ballistics and interpersonal bagarre has made the few that do leave the planet infamous. Internal politics are given to tribalism and factionalism and at current there is a mounting conflict on the Tarshish peninsular as to the future of the Tarshishi Caliphate, with the tribes Kongirat, Jalayir and Sari-Usin fighting for the imperial hammock[5].
Even the most well-adjusted and outward looking of Bahrad's nations, Batjier, who trades agricultural goods with Earth and the Jovian Trellis via hired intermediaries, is given to proxy conflict and inflammation with the rising seafaring star, the Amirult or Aljann, with whom they contest influence across the Strait of Aljann. And furthermore prolong the Tarshishi conflict by supplying the Kongirat with weapons and aid and beasts. 
As a matter of fact there is a nation that seems entirely dedicated to the execution of battle, the Kununska Raiders. In the comparatively short seven months of the Bahradi summer when the icecap around the island of Kanunska melts and the oceans are freed for shipping, they emerge from their reinforced and drone-guarded bunker and sail south in armoured submarines to raid and harass the Shattered Coast. Attempts to curb them at the source have been unsuccessful, and it is theorised that there is a haywire extrauterine fetal incubator (EUFI) constantly producing, raising and sending out these throngs of raiders on some misguided mission to colonise a planet already well populated. 

Attempts to bring Bahrad into the local interplanetary community, let alone the interstellar community, have been slow, but there is a growing interest in the planet's snow-sand bazaars and eclectic mythology. The people have a curious cuisine of a palette both wet and dry in nature -the planet recently elected Kuurdak-Pilaf as their planetary dish-, they make firearms and blades engraved and inlaid with precious stones and organic plastics, they tell stories about ghosts and desert spirits and heroes in the crust of Bahrad, they have dancers and ascetics and travelling circuses and fakirs and bear riders and faris and coffee houses and sea raiders and intrigue and a blistering, snowy wind that speaks of the planet's beauty and harshness. It is full of life and death, and this gazetteer heartily recommends an expedition to the clandestine world.

~~~

I probably didn't need that WIP, tbh, but it got my mind jogging along. The ending kinda petered out, but what can I do? Notes are below, and thanks to Matteo for the map.

[0] - I'm not sure I'll do all of these in the style of a gazetteer, but it's handy excuse for exposition innit?

[1] - In the mid 2100s Confucian philosophy became popular and syncretised with the Islamic beliefs of Central Asia. In the long, long run this caused Bahrad's version of Islam to pick up many Sinic qualities.

[2] - It should be noted that the author, an auditor of the Kashari Raj, is fairly xenophobic. Though he's not entirely wrong, very few Bahradi leave Bahrad, and very few traders travel down to it's surface. But that's hardly unique of Bahrad; interplanetary and especially interstellar travel is a huge life choice and something of an investment.

[3] - And it's at this point I should gives thanks to Tessitore for starting that 'Crop Packet For A Martian Colony' thread over in the FH thread of Alternatehistory.com. Thanks man.

[4] - Fol Adityas means 'Fall of the Children of Aditi', Aditi being another name for the Hindu sun god Surya. So basically, the Fall of the Children of the Sun, i.e. Sol.

[5] - Come on, if I were gonna be an emperor or caliph or whatever I'd totally replaced the throne with a big ass hammock. So much cushier.

EDIT: Just changed the resolution.
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1154x317px 61.51 KB
© 2017 - 2024 Dain-Siegfried
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xKamm's avatar

i love this