Olipha XI

World

Classification

Agri — Savannah

Demonym & Adjective

Oliphantine - Oliphantine

Brief

Known for its enormous grox herds, Olipha XI imports agricultural and food waste from across the sector to feed to its ravenous livestock.
Always an ornery beast, Oliphantine grox are both especially large and especially prone to hunger-induced anger. Though the planet rarely suffers from civil disobedience, it not-infrequently succumbs to what are locally known as "beast riots", in which teeming millions upon millions of grox become enraged and force their way out of their designated mega-pens.
A minor beast riot can and will consume every human settlement it comes across. A major beast riot poses a danger to an entire continent, of which there are five. The worst beast riot in history nearly ended human civilisation on Olipha XI, causing a full evacuation of survivors from the surface and requiring the sub-sector governor on Qart-Hadast's intervention to pacify the rampaging animals.
Unfortunately, the animals and the infrastructure that contains them are simply too valuable to be put down from orbit or even from the skies. When the grox attack, they must be handled surgically, or mass starvation could occur elsewhere (most notably Meero Quintus and Cocceia, two of the most important worlds on this side of the sector). Long-standing Lieuan policy is that the population of Olipha XI is, officially and explicitly, more expendible (up to and including the governor) than the worlds it feeds.
Life on the world is, thus, short, brutal, and liable to end with being eaten — regardless of species.
The Oliphantines use an extraordinarily broad variety of animal control techniques. Lobotomising grox on this scale is generally impractical, and though there are herds that are lobotomised (and most workers dream of being assigned to these enclosures), electro-whips, clever architecture, rigorous training, and more exotic techniques beside rule the day.

Trivia

The most bizarre grox-control technique on offer is the fleshjack wire, a servitorised grox "piloted" by a handler hard-wired into it.
The cyborg grox then forcibly establishes dominance over large herds, in conjunction with other piloted grox, forcing the naturally-solitary animals into compliance. Fleshjacked grox are often augmented with synth-muscle and armour plating to boost their ability to maintain their positions.
The Oliphantine Reptilery are the local Guard regiment, and though they generally field mostly ordinary troops, their namesake brigades are made up of thousands of angry grox kept sedated out of combat and juiced up with chems inside it, led by augmented fleshjacked grox used to guide the enraged lizards into battle.

Astrography

Sub-Sector

Qarti Commonwealth

Region

Inner Qartistra

Route

Trailing, along the Artery

Geography

Dominant Climate

• Mixed temperate zones
• Expected habitable variation
  • Small deserts and pockets of tropical former-jungle around the equator
  • Tundra and former taiga towards the poles
  • Large vegetation almost entirely unknown due to grox voraciousness
• Occasionals patches of "sludge-fields"
  • Biological detritus left over from both the food and excrement given to livestock
  • After it becomes too deep for grox to stand, it's siphoned off to reservoirs for processing

Hazards

• Grox consumption
• Grox stampedes
• Methane firestorms from grox output

Population

Estimate

~<100 million in fortified slaughternests across the planet
~1 million in Rinderhub Orbital
~12 billion grox (roughly 120 per person)

Distribution

Most people live inside the cramped, electro-shielded slaughternests. Each of these kilometre-high fortified settlements are designed to resist, or at least delay, beast riots whilst allowing their denizens to control not just the massive herds that throng their homeworld, but to repair the constant ecological decay that accompanies so many angry lizards.
Slaughternests are grouped into Abattoirrealms
Above them spins Rinderhub Orbital, 

Notable Settlements

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Governance

Incumbent Governor

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Governor Title

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Government

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Major Organisations

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Economy

Tithe Grade

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Key Industries

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Key Exports

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Military

Ground Forces

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Void Forces

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Notes

Bonus

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