ΒΆ Jambles Worlds
Gerrister
The planet's surface lies in ruins, scarred by limited nuclear exchanges that left it bleak and desolate. Now, it is stalked by speed bands, roving packs of raiders who prey on the unlucky or foolish enough to venture below. Despite its ravaged state, Gerrister is orbited by a sprawling population, its orbitals teeming with life even as the world itself is considered a maroon world, yet never truly free of those who would exploit it. Gerrister is the last bastion of slavery in the cluster. After its global war and subsequent collapse, its surface became a refuge for GELF communes fleeing persecution elsewhere in the Jambles. But peace was short-lived. Orbital communities soon turned predatory, sowing discord among the communes and forcing them into exploitative trade. The twin stations of Bulkhara and Bulxoro loom above, operating the Great Market, a vast, monstrous enterprise that breeds, sustains, and harvests people as commodities. The only reason the Great Market still exists is its salvaged atomic arsenal, the remnants of its long-dead planetary nations, now arrayed in a system defense network so formidable that even the superpowers think twice before challenging it.
Ren
Never unified, the decade-long world war seems to finally be in its closing stages, where a new order is likely to seize the world. For once, though, the superpowers have had little to do with this conflict; Ren is something of an oddity in that regard. Uncharacteristically, the superpowers had agreed to distance themselves from the world, and even more uncharacteristically, they seemed to have actually meant it. There are theories why, but most agree that the world had been deemed largely irrelevant as Istor, another world in the system, was partitioned and subsequently colonised by the superpowers. The planetary nations, left to their own devices, entered into a succession of escalating resource and ideological conflicts that culminated in the current world war. Land, sea, and sky across 18 continents are the stage for full-scale conflict. Atomic and fusion weapons have yet to be used in a display of restraint that has been the subject of many sociological studies. While the superpowers at large are not involved, Armournauts certainly are, commissioned predominantly by the losing alliance.
Lhrot
The free world, the GELF world, the world where the revolution started, or so the history books recall. Today Lhrot is subjugated, its movement as broken and forgotten as its people. Symar, the great liberator who deposed the Urbanites and fought for equality of all humanity, who fought to end the subjugation of speciated persons, died. One hundred conflicting and often conspiratorial accounts exist, but all agreed he died. So he, his philosophy, his movement, and his people fractured without him. The schism, led by his "successors," each with their own interpretation and each with their justification for their need to be in power and unquestioned, took up arms. This time against one another, this time for a faction, a fragment of his thoughts flavoured in every possible way to serve the sensibility of each warlord. Populations of countless ideologies wage war with one another, all claiming to be inheritors of Symar's cause, whilst primitivist offshoots secret themselves in the vast untouched wilds of the world.
Som Sok Hon
The jewel of the Jambles, a scoundrel's paradise. Every city a state and every state a syndicate. Peace has been bought at a heavy price; vast criminal networks rule on Som Sok Hon. Averi magnates, Guild brokers, Relay rats, New Monaco mob, and the Saulchus combine rule over territories in the many colonies of the world, along with countless less notable gangs. The Triemirate provides broader security for the system, ensuring the gang wars remain profitable and contained planetside. Though in recent years, piracy within the system has been on the rise. Some suspect the competing criminal empires chafe under the Triemirate that chains them and seek the freedom to brutalise one another without restraint, like the good old days. To do all this, the fleets have to be kept busy. Armournauts are often killed on sight in the world, as the various criminal empires harshly tolerate new players to the game, though they do, of course, recruit from time to time.
Bamali
The world itself is a rare haven of stability in the anarchic Jambles, though the same cannot be said for the system. Beneath the ever-shifting chaos above, Bamali's temperate seas and skies remain untouched, teeming with life found nowhere else in the cluster. Avian analogues soar on eternal winds, never alighting, while schools of fish construct "reef-cities" in the shallows. These wonders are cherished by the planet's hundred peaceful nations, cultures that thrive so long as they remain planetside. Because beyond the atmosphere lies an entirely different reality: a battleground where rival pirate fleets clash in an endless, mercenary war. Gystlian Fealken raid merchant convoys, Asuvakil clans strike from the belt, the Hyraethans turn to banditry, and the Triemirate struggles and fails to impose order. Countless pirate armadas and Armournaut bands fight and die for pay and plunder, their naval battles studied by the superpowers, ever keen to glean insight into the coming war.
Djumabra
The Cold War turns hot as the planet enters into an escalating civil war. Ghuram, Welendji, and Kosobogo previously formed a united planetary government, though now each, aligned with different superpowers, competes for dominance. It's still anyone's game as the conflict spreads to the wider system. Increasingly, the nations secure greater backing and equipment from the superpowers, ensuring that the conflict remains gridlocked. Rumours say the O people have made curious belligerents in the conflict, appearing and vanishing as fast. The casualties sustained by all forces from the O indicate a presence that far exceeds any other observed. Some great gathering or hitherto undiscovered population centre is a confounding and terrifying prospect.
Zolmatt
A tidally locked world, Zolmatt's dayside is a scorched wasteland, its nightside a frozen expanse of ammonia glaciers. The only habitable zone is the razor-thin terminator, where colossal heat-exchange towers siphon thermal energy from the dayside to power the underground arcologies of the Twilight Cantons. The Cantons are ruled by a mercantile oligarchy that trades in rare isotopes harvested from the planet's unstable mantle. Zolmatt's true value lies in its orbital shipyards, where the lack of planetary rotation allows for massive static construction gantries. The megacorporations build and refit warships for the superpowers, maintaining strict neutrality, a neutrality enforced by the superpowers' fleets. The surface remains a battleground for proxy wars, with Armournaut cadres fighting over geothermal taps and mining rights in the planet's deep crust.
Brogno
The unending wars have been a proving ground for most every nation, corporation, or mercenary company in the cluster by this point. Brogno and its people have abandoned the concept of nations; instead, they organise around bunkers and complex sprawling webs of alliances between them, raiding one another endlessly for some poorly recollected national or ethnic pride. Brogno's Armournauts are prized, and many build, maintain, and pilot their own MOA, starting as children and completing it to be seen as adults. This tradition is becoming less common, however, as corporations in recent decades carved out safe zones that swiftly became the primary population centres as the people left their bunkers for a more comfortable life. The infamous Armournaut Stel hailed from Brogno, and her descendants still maintain her company, the Milkheart, protecting the corporate zones and patrolling the no man's land.
Unanda
The uniquely turbulent winds of the world make surface and aircraft largely unviable in conflict. Submarines have proven to be the most effective form of warfare, which has led to fleets of vessels in compositions found nowhere else in the cluster. Amphibious sailcraft are another oddity, flinging themselves into the air and diving when the winds turn treacherous. The poles' relatively calm winds house the only spaceports on the planet. The large populations of Unanda cram into large walled windbreaker settlements or cling to naturally shielding geological formations. Satellite stations concentrate industry, agriculture, and mining efforts and tend to the larger settlements. Piracy and conflict between the nations are common, as although resources are indeed plentiful, they are incredibly hard to access consistently, as particularly violent storm winds and the rogue waves they bring with them can easily uproot all but the most study refuges. Armournauts of the world have been known to move under the cover of storms, lofted by their parachutes descending on the unlucky submarines or settlements.
Siddons
A rogue planet ejected from its home system, Siddons drifts through interstellar space, warmed only by tidal heating and the fusion reactors of its subterranean cities. Its surface is a maze of pressure-adapted fungi and silicon-based microfauna, harvested by the research Collectives for exotic pharmaceuticals. The Collectives are a loose alliance of research outposts, each sponsored by different powers and corporations, all competing to exploit Siddons' unique biochemistry. The planet's true value is a data-storage facility buried near the mantle. Its server banks contain fragments of lost technology from some forgotten scattering remnant, but accessing them requires navigating a labyrinth of automated defenses and rival sabotage teams. Armournauts on Siddons are heavily modified for high-pressure operations, their suits reinforced against the planet's crushing gravity. Most don't survive long; Siddons eats the unwary, and the Collectives never run out of volunteers.
Voton
The most recent victim of the Mullebachem machines, a number of towers were transported by a private buyer likely for study but broke containment. The many nations of Voton have banded together to fight off the machine menace but are losing ground day by day. Armournauts and the superpowers lend their efforts, but it remains to be seen if the world can be saved. In the chaos, opportunities have emerged. Many scavenger teams hunt the machines for their components and strip the cities or whatever has been abandoned in front of the advancing mobile factories, while orbital transit services seize entire livelihoods for a single ticket off world. Fortunately, small hope exists in that the machines' towers compete against one another, and the defenders have been able to consistently exploit this weakness to greatly slow, if not reverse, the machines' advance.
Ndabambi
The succession crisis worsens in the world as the House of Godo fractures after the death of the new chancellor. The last century has seen popular movements clash with a fragmented nobility, and the end result is anyone's guess. While much of the world remains intact, the civil conflicts and separatist nations threaten greater instability daily. Ndabambi has weathered worse conflicts before, but many fear that the rival Zyrgyzoi clans now backing contending belligerents means that there is likely no swift end to the conflict in sight. The nomads have been uncharacteristically cemented in the region, indicating perhaps a greater import to the world that has been overlooked by the superpowers.
Conran
The industrial world's poisonous atmosphere is a testament to how much a world can be terraformed in a short period of time. Conran's original population was a scant 130 survivors of the original flotilla that was separated from the scattering. Despite this dire genedrought, the population continued and expanded steadily under the flotilla command structure. The small population and the loss of embryonic banks and gene labs meant that careful production plans were laid out for all citizens. The care displayed in this regard was not shown to the environment of Conran. The population exploded under the planned stewardship of the aging flotilla command, and as the settlement grew and recovered lost knowledge, genetic modification soon solved the crisis. The culture shifted significantly with the removal of this profound societal pressure; relationships no longer required planning and approval, and the population soared, safe in the knowledge that their descendants would be healthy and happy. This optimism is sometimes cited as why the population seemed so uncensored with their growth. Vast sprawling cities soon choked the skies with thousands of factory smokestacks. The efforts to restore the world and prevent climate change evaporated the second the population made contact with the wider cluster. Knowing now they could leave, they did. Much of the population is moving into orbital communities free from pollution. Conran is now in conflict with the various colonisers of the wider system, often hiring Armournauts to raid and defend against their reprisal. The current government has made no secret of their fleet-building effort, having to contract Seaside in the meantime. This has had the added benefit of dissuading the superpowers from pressuring the world.
Dreaver
A titanic asteroid, reshaped by centuries of relentless engineering, Dreaver is the largest mobile habitat in the Jambles, a cycler on a vast elliptical orbit that swings between the inner colonies and the distant system fringe. Originally a barren planetesimal, it was hollowed out and transformed by a now-forgotten flotilla remnant, its cavernous interior converted into a sprawling, self-sustaining arcology. Generations of engineers and automated tenders maintain its ancient systems, ensuring its slow but perpetual journey continues. Dreaver's primary role is logistical; its carefully calculated orbit allows it to serve as a waystation, resupply hub, and trade nexus for thousands of smaller colonies. When it approaches a settled orbit, a flurry of shuttle traffic erupts as merchants, migrants, and mercenaries flow in and out of its docking spires. Its internal markets are legendary, dealing in everything from rare volatiles mined in the outer belt to black-market military hardware. Its labyrinthine interior houses entire micro-societies: hydroponic clans who tend its vast algae vats, salvage guilds who maintain its aging fusion reactors, and the enigmatic Monks, who claim to navigate its course through celestial calculations etched into their own flesh. The habitat's governance is a fractured mess of merchant cartels, remnant fleet officers, and underworld syndicates, all vying for control of its trajectory because whoever controls Dreaver's orbit controls the lifeline of the outer system. Armournauts are rare here; Dreaver's battles are fought with ledgers and sabotage, not MOA. But when conflict does erupt, it's in the zero-g warrens of its abandoned sectors, where rival factions duel with jury-rigged drones and stolen shipboard weaponry. Rumors persist that something lurks in the deepest tunnels, a relic of the original fleet's final days.
Songkorn
The last act in spite of the old government was to release its arsenal of bioweapons to the world. The population, swiftly quarantined by the superpowers, have been fighting GELFs for the last 70 years in a pall of pathogen-ridden smog. Curiously, remnants of the old government military are said to remain, harrying the surviving settlements and attempting to punish their former subjects. These GELF-suited soldiers used to belong to the so-called Slaugh unit, terrifyingly resilient, practising a form of longitudinal warfare. Their modified suits parasitise the soldiers heavily, allowing them to fight on even with mortal wounds. Armournauts are smuggled in to help the locals and scavenge the cities. Biosaurs, chimeras, and stalkers stalk the blighted lands, creating a uniquely hostile ecosystem. All native life, long since extinct; altered trees and wildlife have been carefully designed to harm humans. Some isolated parts of the world remain almost unchanged but suffer immense refugee crises as the entire population risks travel to reach safety.
Asares
The insurgency rages on as longitudinal warfare's efficacy remains unrivaled. For 200 years, the Farimba have waked, warred, and won before returning to their hibernation. For 200 years, they have stifled Asares, accelerating its fragmentation and allowing its many subject nations to shrink the government. To think that the conflict started from raids on Temple orbital colonies. The senseless shortsightedness has been punished for 200 years. Because rather than sending a battleship, the Temple sent a unit of extremophiles, the pioneers and most potent experts in longitudinal warfare. Each Farimba is said to be the equal of 10 soldiers, but what is the worth over 200 years? Well, it's enough to render an interplanetary nation impotent, tearing at the seams. Asares 200 years ago looked to be a new Jambles power; now it's little more than a backwater. So much so that the other superpowers have long abandoned it, seeing no value in backing a losing horse.
Folk, The Great Wild
One of the last untouched worlds in the Jambles, Folk exists in a precarious demilitarized zone between Union and Temple-aligned systems. Its skies are empty of major orbitals, its surface free of sprawling cities, just scattered communes, homesteader outposts, and the occasional trading post, all clinging to existence under the watchful sensors of passing patrol craft. No ship dares linger in orbit for long; both the Union and Temple enforce strict loitering laws, their rival patrol boats circling like wolves, less concerned with the planet's inhabitants than with ensuring the other side doesn't gain an advantage. Folk is the frontier in microcosm, a refuge for those fleeing the Jambles' wars, whether honest settlers seeking solitude or outlaws hiding from warrants. The planet's original colonies, established by the Scattering Flotilla, failed centuries ago, their populations withering from disease and agricultural collapse rather than conflict. Their ruins remain eerily intact: hydroponic domes choked with native vines, communal halls still lined with handwritten records, and rusting solar arrays pointing at the sky like skeletal hands. Lawless and lonely, Armournauts here are often the most profitable venture in recovering digital records of old Earth media and historical records that are prized for their completeness.
Kinang
A dying planet locked in a slow ecological collapse, Kinang's surface is a graveyard of fossilized super forests, towering, silica-replaced husks that stretch across continents like the ribs of some long-dead leviathan. The only liquid water exists in deep, briny aquifers, and the few native lifeforms that remain are extremophiles clinging to existence in geothermal vents. For centuries, Kinang was ignored by the major powers; the Triemirate saw no strategic value in a world where even bacteria struggled, and the Venti Republic dismissed it as a curiosity. The Geneflagellants, a sect of bio-ascetic monks, fascinated by the bleak environment, established the monastery-city of Xal'uahn on the only marginally habitable continent, believing Kinang to be something of a promised land. Later, Vakil migrants from the diaspora established their own network communities and coexisted with the monks for a time. Decades later, the Enazcan fled persecution in their home systems and, through either misfortune or providence, landed on the same continent. They desperately built vast arcologies with little regard for their neighbors. At first, the three groups ignored each other. Then came the First Skirmish, an argument over aquifer rights that spiraled into bloodshed. Now, Kinang is consumed by a religious conflict fought with mining lasers, jury-rigged combat walkers, and poisoned water supplies. Many Armournauts have earned a fortune on these religious conflicts, but the real money is in arms dealing to the zealots of each faction.
Klein
A partially constructed O'Neill cylinder abandoned mid-rotation in high orbit around a cooling white dwarf, Klein is a decaying monument to failed mega-engineering. Its 184-kilometer-long frame remains structurally sound, but its spin has degraded over centuries into a wobbly 0.4g at the equator, fluctuating wildly nearer the unstable end caps. The interior is a patchwork of pressurized sectors, some still maintained by automated systems, others open to vacuum where hull breaches have torn through agricultural domes and residential blocks. Klein's original purpose remains unclear. Scattered records suggest it was intended as a gravitational research station, leveraging the white dwarf's intense gravity well for experiments in spacetime and the first step of a grand Dyson swarm project. Now, it's a haven for sanctioned research and salvage crews willing to brave its hazards. The primary draw is derelict quantum computers, making Klein a battleground for corporate extraction teams.
