Adapted from Veskarium - Starfinder Wiki
Gevan Protectorate
The Gevan Protectorate is a militant interplanetary empire located in the Gevan system.
Homeworld: Vesk Prime (Gavin)
Holdings
The Protectorate's core territory consists of the eight planets orbiting the star Gevan, their moons, and the space station Conqueror's Forge. Except for Vesk Prime, the homeworld of the Vesk and the Protectorate's seat of power, these planets officially have no names, only numbers correlating to their distance from the sun (such as Vesk-6). Outside the Gevan system, the Protectorate controls a few colonies scattered across Near Space and the Vast.
Planets
Vesk Prime Planet 20
Vesk Prime is the capital of the Gevan Protectorate, the homeworld of the Vesk and the planet located the closest to its sun Gevan.
History
The founder of the Protectorate was Eshovok, a powerful warlord who saw the danger of unending civil wars and set out to unite all vesk tribes under his rule. After defeating all of his rivals, Eshovok proclaimed himself emperor of the Protectorate and turned his empire to conquer their entire home planet under the banner of Dhosim'Ge from the two rival intelligent species, the skerasken, and caiagaras. As the Protectorate's legions began pushing the skeraskens back, their enemies tried to surrender. Still, the emperor refused to allow them to live and seek revenge against the vesk in the future. Within a few generations, the skeraskens were exterminated, their lands annexed by the Veskarium. The vesk then turned their attention to the caiagaras of the Eastern Wastes, who had witnessed the skerasken genocide and refused to suffer the same fate. While the caiagaras moved their cities underground with magic and sealed the cavern entrances, the vesk pressed on, conquering the caiagaras' surface holdings and razing their underground cities. After centuries of struggle, the caiagaras were defeated, and the Protectorate encompassed the entire planet.
With its homeworld fully conquered, the Protectorate turned to the stars. After developing their first starships, the vesk conquered the second planet in the system in 3226 PG, and marked their conquest by renaming their homeworld Vesk Prime and the conquered planet (originally called Iji) Vesk-2. In 161 PG, the Protectorate finished conquering the entire system.
When the Gap hit, the Protectorate's military records provided a clear snapshot of the pre-Gap situation, allowing the Protectorate to quickly contact the existing vesk garrisons on the conquered planets and reassert its control after ten years. For some reason, in 3 AG, Triune's Signal did not reach the Protectorate, which had no access to the Drift until explorers from the Memory System made first contact in 12 AG.
The vesk initially warmly welcomed the visitors before starting to see the Memory System as their next potential conquest. Relations soured until the Protectorate invaded Triaxus in 36 AG, initiating the Silent War. The conflict led the various planets of the Memory System to unite into a single government, the Confederation. The war lasted for approximately 250 years and was mostly marked by border skirmishes since neither side wanted to risk a full-scale invasion.
In 291 AG, both the Protectorate and the Confederation were invaded by an extrasolar enemy known as the Swarm. This mutual threat forced the Protectorate to call a truce with the Confederation, ending the Silent War before they drove out the Swarm together. Since the threat of the Swarm endures, the armistice remains in effect.
Government
The Protectorate is a unitary, autocratic military junta where the military and government are one and the same. Individual planets have no devolved powers and are directly ruled by the military.
Courts are military tribunals, combat troops enforce laws, and local representatives only serve an advisory role to the military.
Each planet in the Protectorate is ruled by a high despot, who resides in a building in a key position that doubles as a military base and governmental headquarters. Each high despot holds absolute authority over their planet and delegates power to the bureaucracy as necessary. Together, the high despots form the Council of Despots, who rules the entire Protectorate from the Imperial Palace. High despots serve for life, usually until dying in battle, though this is rare in recent years due to the state of peace. Vesk colonies have a variety of governing styles, and their rulers are neither considered high despots nor members of the Council of Despots.
In times of war, the Council of Despots appoints an emperor as head of state and commander-in-chief of the military. The emperor, whose choice must be unanimous, serves as a figurehead for the war effort and citizens' loyalty and has a vote on the Council of Despots. In the rare periods of peace, the emperor customarily abdicates, letting the Council of Despots to together serve as head of state. When the council is deadlocked, the high despot of Vesk Prime casts the deciding vote.
Vesk see themselves as honorable and view their subjects as inferior but strive to provide them with high standards of living.
The Protectorate military is one single force without separate branches of service. Within the unified command structure, a few specialized divisions exist:
Directive 9
(military intelligence)
the Division of Criminal Extirpation
(law enforcement and peacekeeping)
Division of Disloyal Organizations
(anti-partisan operations)
While any Protectorate citizen can join the army, the vast majority are vesk, whose most common job is a military career. Even though society and recruits view the military as a meritocracy, family status and connections matter much more than prowess when it comes to promotions. Most soldiers join the army for life, hoping for a glorious death in battle. At any time, they can take the Soldier's Due, a tradition in which a warrior is honorably discharged and rewarded with their military-issue armor and weapons. Many discharged soldiers continue to serve the Protectorate in other capacities, such as mercenaries.
The Protectorate's currency is the imperial credit, which is equal in value to the Confederate credit. The two are essentially interchangeable in international trade, though the Confederate credit is only sometimes accepted in rural areas in the Protectorate.
Relations
Since the war against the Swarm in 291 AR, the Protectorate has held a tenuous alliance with their former enemy, the Confederation.
Although trade between the two systems flourishes, the relationship between the two governments and their citizens still needs to be improved. Many vesk are uncomfortable with the peace and call for war and conquest.
Within the Gevan system, the zilbrees alone have not been conquered by the vesk, due to their territory lying deep within Gevan. The Protectorate is negotiating with the zilbrees to integrate them into the empire, offering them protection in exchange for technology. It is speculated that the zilbrees have nothing to gain by becoming the vesk's vassal, and that some vesk generals are delaying the peace talks so they could develop starships to attack the zilbrees' home deep inside the sun. In the meantime, the Protectorate has kept information about the zilbrees secret from outsiders, even the Confederation.
The Protectorate colony Salequan-Mardis, unknowingly built near territory controlled by the Hesalic Star Empire, lasted for a decade before being destroyed by the Hesalti, its populace enslaved and its resources plundered. Since then, the Protectorate has been keeping their distance from the territory of the Star Empire, whose navy is suspected to rival those of the Confederation and Protectorate combined.
Religion
Dhosim'Ge has traditionally been the Protectorate's patron deity.
Assets
Home Shield
Hardened Personnel (Special Forces)
This elite force has been trained in defensive fighting and equipped with supply caches and hardened fallback positions. The Home Shield is the Protectorate's Defense force of last resort.
Location: Gavin (Alcyon Space)
Adventuring in the Gevan Protectorate
A Protectorate research outpost has gone silent - infiltrate to find out if it's a rival faction's attack or something worse.
Escort Protectorate diplomats to sensitive peace talks with an alien race resisting their expansion.
The Protectorate hires the party to raid a Confederate convoy suspected of smuggling weapons to Protectorate dissidents.
A clone of the former Protectorate Emperor has appeared - determine if they are an imposter or could rally dissident factions.
Help a Vesk clutchmate accused of cowardice in battle clear their name before the execution date.
An extremist Protectorate faction plans to assassinate moderate leaders - stop the terrorists before open war resumes.
Increase tensions between the Protectorate and Confederates by staging false flag attacks disguised as the other side.
A Protectorate weapon experiment on a frontier colony went awry - contain the destruction and mutated creatures.
Steal a Confederate prototype ship to analyze its tech before it's mass produced for their navy.
A Vesk mercenary band went rogue and is selling secrets to the Confederates.
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