History
A jungle planet in the mold of Yavin IV or Myrkr, Geles is host to a variety of deadly animal and plant life-forms. In the days before the coming of the Brotherhood to the Antei system, Geles served the once-mighty Antaran Columnate as a slave world. Destroyed by a vengeful magistrate of the Brotherhood upon its occupation of the system, the Antaran’s fate was tragically shared by their prisoners though they would never come to understand the cause of their meager existence’s downfall.
The Foln’kai originally inhabited Geles until Columnate explorers descended upon the world from their base on Antares Minor in search of natural resources for their budding empire. An abundance of oil, timber, minerals, and other raw materials awaited the greedy Antarans as well as the primitive semi-sentient Foln’kai whom the conquerors saw as a ready-made labor force.
Unknowingly welcoming the conquerors as guests and potential friends, the rustic peoples of the lush world were pressed into service under the tyrannical rule of Govan Lesmah, the Columnate Viceroy appointed Lord of Geles. The simple Foln’kai suffered immeasurably at the whims of one drunk with power. Data suggests the Foln’kai sustained a 30% population decrease in the first five years of Antaran occupation.
Stricken by alien disease, malnourished, and often subjected to brutal beatings, the Foln’kai attempted an insurrection in the sixth year of their enslavement. Govan and his security forces viciously put down the revolt. In the wake of the rebellion, Govan chose to make examples of six of the Foln’kai villages surrounding the capitol of Vasmarg—one for every year of their imprisonment. Should there be another uprising, he promised to raze twelve villages, then twenty-four after that. No other coups were attempted and the Foln’kai continued under the bloody reign of the Columnate and its administrators.
In the year of 22 ABY, ten years after the Antarans had first set foot on Geles, the Columnate overseers and their brutal security forces vacated the world. Abandoning their operations totally, the Antarans did not even bother to release the then ~200,000 Foln’kai still living in prison barracks. Having hurriedly loaded their vessels and raised ship, they were never again to be seen.
Uncomprehending, the Foln’kai struggled mightily to free their comrades still imprisoned in the steel and stone forts once the Antaran strongholds of Geles. With only simple tools available to them, most of those still confined were never rescued and died of starvation or disease. The some ~10,000 remaining members of the once 5,000,000 million-strong indigenous population abandoned the death camps in despair to forge new homes in the jungles beyond where their simple villages had existed for thousands of years.
If their Antaran masters had been unkind to them, the jungle was less so. Scattered and divided by ritualistic tribal segregations, some forty-seven separate settlements were established. Left with a world nearly stripped of resources and wildlife by the Columnate industrial machine, the doomed Foln’kai slowly met their fates succumbing to disease, starvation, and pestilence.
In the Brotherhood today, it is rumored the Grand Master himself having learned of the tragedy of the Foln’kai regrets the incident that he indirectly set into motion. Nothing remains now of the once peaceful semi-sentients who naively met an invasion force as one might a guest in their home.
Geography
Moga
The equatorial continent of Moga is covered with lush jungle and mountainous terrain. Vast rivers criss-cross the land in a lattice of living blue and green fingers that nurture the abundant forests. Surrounding the island continent is the turbulent Sea of Von that has eroded much of its shores into many wide deltas that feed the complex river system.
In the south lies the Cormier peninsula in which the capitol city of Vasmarg is found.
Dienvenet
Driest of the three primary continents, Dienvenet lies just above the equator and remains quite arid year-round. Atmospheric storms localized in the region have scoured the land here near barren.
It is believed that the Foln’kai never discovered this harsh land as their meager sea-faring capabilities were limited to coastal fishing operations. Some artifacts have been recovered from this area by remote salvagers, but it is unclear as to what civilization they belong to.
Clarlachon
Clarlachon, or the “ringing bell” is another equatorial continent believed to be entirely mythical by the Foln’kai. Their oral history, sometimes scribed into the trunks of auat trees, tells of a far away land covered in sweeping plains and rolling hills. While it is not believed the Foln’kai officially visited this land, it is clear someone or something did and taught the primitive species of its existence for it is quite real.
Under the guidance of the Shum’ta religion, the Foln’kai were taught that Clarlachon called out to their deceased relatives seeing them to peace and happiness in this paradise land, hence the name “ringing bell”.
Cities
Vasmarg
The once capitol of Geles, Vasmarg is located on the Mogan continent’s southern peninsula and has since fallen to ruin in the time following the demise of the Foln’kai. In its day, the capitol was the primary hub for the trading of goods and home to some 5,000 Foln’kai who lived near the base of its earthen mound.
Built on a plateau above the surrounding rainforest, the city was designed by its clever inhabitants to offer protection from both the natural predators in abundance and the deadly rain seasons that would flood much of the wide delta nearby. Merchants would barter their goods for pluktoi, or “shine shells” that were the polished carapaces of a rare mollusk found in the treacherous waters surrounding the peninsular region.
Mezanwor
Like all Geles’ notable cities, Mezanwor is found on Moga. Sitting at the confluence of a nexus of rivers, the city was known for its great bounties of sea-fare brought in by boat from the surrounding sea and the rivers themselves.
After the occupation of Geles by Antaran forces, Mezanwor became a hub of slave trade activity due to its relatively centralized location. Thousands of slaves passed through its blood-stained docks on their way to the salt mines, clear-cutting fields, or some other imperilment.
Cul
Cul had been a religious center for the Foln’kai. Situated to the east of Mezanwor in the Carn Highlands of Moga, the city had stood for hundreds of years as a center for learning and the passing of the Foln’kai’s ancient oral traditions.
During the occupation, the city was razed to the ground in response to a reference made by a Foln’kai priest that the Antarans might in fact not be deities.
Ifickto
This city lay in the west of Moga along the Weaving Spine River. Foln’kai from this region were often referred to as sha’usi, or “golden skin” for their custom of working without coverings over their upper-bodies, as was the norm for many other Foln’kai villages, which led to the tanning of their skin.
Landmarks
Scars of Nol Latuk
Great furrows visible from orbit, these “scars” as they’re known are actually the remnants of massive strip-mining operations undertaken by the Antarans. Measuring some seventy-five kilometers in length and four kilometers in width, the terrain features mar the ruined rainforest land of Clarlachon as painful visible reminders of the Foln’kai’s persecution and eventual destruction.
Political Outlook
Formerly enslaved by the Antaran Columnate, the Foln’kai is now considered extinct and the world exists under the Brotherhood’s de facto political dominion.
Religion
Though no longer extant, the Foln’kai were believed to have practiced the religion of Shum’ta, or “thankfulness” which preached a pious tolerance of their environment, its hardships, and the simple existence of day-to-day life.