Tharkad, Capital of Lyran Commonwealth

World Name: Tharkad
Star Type: G6V
Coordinates: -215.9, 152.83
Position in System: 5
Time to Jump Point: 8 days
Recharging Station: Zenith and Nadir
Noble Ruler: Archon-Princess Katrina "Katherine" Steiner-Davion , Archon-Princess of the Federated Commonwealth
Political Leader: Katrina "Katherine" Steiner
ComStar Facility Class: A
ComStar Representative: Most Exalted Ambassador, Ulthar Everston, Precentor of Tharkad Station.
Percentage and Level of Native Life: 45%, Mammal

Read an independent article about Tharkad

Tharkad was discovered in 2310 by an explorer group from nearby Donegal. Though the rugged mountains and windy, arctic climate extending over most of its surface made it seem a dreary place for humans, the world also contained major radioactive and gem deposits. When Seth Marsden visited Tharkad in 2311, he found the cold, peaceful solitude to be breathtaking. So taken was he with the long nights and their spectacular aurora borealis that Marsden managed eventually to control and claim it as his own. He then began a program of massive importation of cold weather plants and animals from Terra and other worlds to spread across his new home.

He had soon created a world with large pine forests populated with deer, caribou, wolves, Skye boars, and Tharkan gazelle. In many ways, Tharkad is like the arctic wilderness of Terra, except that its arctic regions extend all the way down to the 30th latitude of the planet. There are five major continents and three major island chains of Tharkad. Tharkad City, the capital, is located on Bremen, the largest continent.

When Tharkad became the capital of the Lyran Commonwealth in 2407, space was cleared in the middle of a large forest ten kilometers to the north of Olympia for the construction of the Capital city. The large and somberly elegant Royal Palace, Government House, and Royal Court form the three cusps of the Triad, a triangular complex of buildings all devoted to the administration of the Commonwealth. Today, the Triad includes over 300 buildings of all types and styles, whose purposes range from hospitals and houses of worship to apartments for nobles and representatives from distant worlds and a botanical garden. It is a common saying that there is a building for every populated world in the Commonwealth somewhere in the Triad.

Even the fusion reactor operating deep beneath this modern city to generate power and heat cannot completely hold back the Tharkan cold. At the first sign of winter snowfall, the people, both rich and poor, begin unpacking clothing designed for the coming Tharkan blizzards and bone-chilling cold. Attending the Royal Court during a Tharkan winter is an unusual experience for those used to visiting courts in warmer climes. The Lyran Commonwealth nobility likes to dress in furs during the winter months, more out of necessity than vanity. Women wear long, fur-trimmed gowns, while the men wear fur hats and fur coats with chains of jewelry and precious metals. As people speak in the large and high-ceilinged Throne Room, their breaths sometimes rise in wisps of condensation to create a thin layer of shiny ice on the armor of the two Griffin BattleMechs guarding the Archon.

Set on the crest of nearby Mount Wotan is Asgard, the military headquarters of the Steiner armed forces. It is a fortress with one major tower flanked by four smaller ones. All five towers are heavily armed; below them are hangars for a regiment of 'Mechs, two of infantry and tanks, and a Wing of AeroSpace Fighters.

There are no roads leading to the Triad, and so all traffic must enter by VTOL craft or by one of the three separate subway systems that link the Triad with Olympia to the south, Asgard to the west, and the rest of Tharkad City five miles to the north.

During the Good Years, the planet underwent a boom in mining and steel manufacture. The Star League also established a military base with major storage facilities on the tropical Tatyana Islands during this era. With the fall of the Star League, Tharkad's industries were plunged for a time into deep economic depression. With the need to produce weapons and other military equipment for the Succession Wars, Tharkad's industries revived.

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