Zalos Star System

Zalos has been called the birthplace of the Martyr. The system is ruled by the Order of the Pariah, a faction with a dual reputation for being both devout, helpful believers and bloodthirsty fanatics. Not much is known about Zalos as the Order is very strict about who they let in.
What little common people in the Horizon know is usually based on rumors and third-party sources, and those who have actually visited Zalos in recent years can only share their experiences of the City of Foreigners. Zalos is a binary system with two habitable planets, one orbiting each star. A third planet, Benagia, used to be inhabited, but it suffered such terrible bombardments during the Portal Wars that it is uninhabitable today. Several moons have been colonized, with Karrmerruk, orbiting Benagia, being the most famous. Many small space stations are also scattered across the system. The Martyr Council, a constantly changing group of priests, prophets, grand masters and elders, governs the Order of the Pariah. Rumors claim that the Council let archaic rites and divination decide how Zalos should be ruled. Regardless of their practices, the Martyr Council is the dominant political force in the system, and they are seldom contradicted.

The war on Heresy

The largest conflict in Zalos is the civil war, raging across all of Zalos-B. Large portions of the planet’s population have succumbed to heresy and started worshipping false prophets. They have left the embrace of the Martyr and taken up arms against their former brothers and sisters. The war is everywhere and very bloody, with everything from small guerilla raids to full-scale military campaigns. The Order focuses much of their resources on crushing the rebels, but has so far not been successful. Both sides in the conflict possess advanced antimatter weapons, golim armors and bionics that don’t exist outside of Zalos, making them evenly matched. If it wasn’t for the total fleet blockade around Zalos-B, the rebellion might have spread to the rest of the system.

UNDER THE GAZE OF THE MARTYR

All larger communities on Zalos are built around large monastery complexes from which the Order controls the area. The monasteries often house hundreds of order members and are always heavily fortified. Every day, the residents of the surrounding areas make their way to the monasteries for mass and flagellation in honor of the Martyr. The cities are made of stone, with prayer towers, high pointed roofs, narrow alleys and few open spaces. The cities of Zalos-A are busy and labyrinthine, while large parts of the cities on Zalos-B have been reduced to ruins and dust by the war. Certain things remain constant in the lives of the system’s inhabitants. Prayer and flagel-lation are important on both Zalos-A and B. Faith defines every aspect of life, from family relations to work and warfare.

THE CHORAL STATIONS

Several smaller cults within the Order have fled out into space to escape the war. One such cult is the Hymns of the End Times. They have con-structed the eight so-called Choral stations that are spread across the system. All day, every day, the End Times’ choirs and flagellants are lined up in ingeniously constructed halls, singing. Grand polyphonic choir pieces blended with the wailing from the flagellants are transmitted across many frequencies to the whole system, in the Martyr’s undying praise. Visiting traders have had to shut off all incoming radio traffic to avoid the cacophony.

KIANAAR’S SPICERY

The Order of the Pariah have an ambivalent view on drugs, and look the other way with cults such as the Children of Kianaar, whose members seldom come out from their deep drug haze. The Children control the trade of herbs, mushrooms and minerals from Zalos-A, ingredients used to create both spices and potent drugs. The cult lives on a space station called Kianaar’s Spicery in the far reaches of the system. The station enjoys an almost mythical reputation in the underworld of the Horizon. Although the drugs produced here are of the highest standards, the station itself is not. More than a few visiting aristocrats have lost both their wallets and their lives in the Spicery’s dark corridors.

Zalos is a binary system with two habitable planets, Zalos and Zahedan (also called Zalos-B) - each orbiting its own star. A third planet, Benagia, suffered horribly from bombardment during the Portal Wars and is still considered to be uninhabitable. A few moons in the system are colonized, the most famous being Karrmerruk, which orbits Benagia and is the home to the City of Foreigners.
Scattered across the system are dozens of space stations of various sizes and purposes. These stations range from smaller outposts consisting of interconnected haulers, to the enormous cloister station Manaat, which was boarded and purged in the initial phase of the ongoing civil war and left orbiting Zahedan in silent majesty.

THE CHORAL STATIONS

The Order of the Pariah consists of hundreds of smaller sects and sub-orders. One of these groups goes by the name ‘The Hymn of the End Times” and is responsible for the so-called ‘Choral Stations’ – eight behemoths evenly distributed around the system. Every day of the Zalosian standard cycle, the Hymnist choirs and flagellants gather in ingeniously constructed halls to sing their praise to The Martyr. Throughout these reverberant chambers, a chorus of screaming flagellants and polyphonic choirs is transmitted across open frequencies throughout the system. Visiting traders have been known to shut down their comms completely to escape this haunting, ethereal cacophony.

Planet Zalos – the home of the Martyrs. The Order of the Pariah reigns here, known for both its pious monks and its bloodthirsty fanatics. It is an inhospitable system that treats strangers with suspicion and whose leaders go to great lengths to protect their population from external influence.