1317 Clamp D-553231-3 Po 700 Na G3V, M1V
Clamp
is a small, idyllic world often overlooked by traders and governments alike.
Its 700 inhabitants are the last remnants of a slowly dwindling colony that
has fallen from an industrial society to a largely agrarian one. Clamp was originally
settled by the Zhodani, and the language currently used is a much evolved form
of the Zhodani tongue. The inhabitants though, are so dissimilar from their
ancestors as to be thought by some to be a completely different strain of humanity,
or erroneously, perhaps a strain descended from Imperial stock.
The small 'starport' is mostly automated, and
a remnant of a more advanced facility that has since been cannibalized for materials,
and finally abandoned. The sole remaining population center, Dvaditz, is home
to roughly three hundred people, living in the once feudal estates of a class
which died out several centuries ago. Farmland abounds everywhere, as does native
life. Though the indigenous life never evolved past the amphibian equivalent
stage, Clamp is a lush, densely forested, imposing planet. Ruins dot the landscape
for miles around the starport, as Clamp once was home to almost five million
inhabitants living in fairly small, tightly knit communities. A plague (In local
lore, called the Judgment Strain) in 867 Imperial devastated the local populace,
and only those with a very rare genetic condition were spared before an offworld
cure was arrived at. Unfortunately, the survivors' 'savior gene' also carries
with it a very low birth rate, and several minor genetic defects that plague
the inhabitants to this very day. Deformities aren't uncommon, and many births
result in miscarriages and stillborn young.
While faith is very important to the locals, they
aren't ruled by their fears of impending extinction, still many generations
in the future. They look upon their state, and their history with a sort of
quiet stoicism that offworlders find peaceful, if somewhat disturbing. Imperial
visitors have remarked that the strange double shadows, the broken moon and
ring system, the deep silent forests, and ruins of this world, along with its
enigmatic inhabitants, give one a feeling of disquiet, or even imminent apocalypse.
The Gerrunt, a bivalve shellfish native to Clamp,
is known locally for its beautiful blue and black pearls, though merchants have
been mostly unsuccessful in trading for them as they're only gained at great
personal risk by relatively small number of natives, who are much more interested
in immediate practical or luxury goods than in any form of 'money' for their
prizes. The local economy still uses an old form of currency, but barter is
very common and in many cases a preferred form of trade.
Although no major geological survey of Clamp has
been done since the earliest colonial days, a few locals know that rich veins
of gold can be found in certain abandoned shafts in the formidable Aktltl mountains,
a massive range in the southern hemisphere. The majority of trade that leaves
Clamp is either in the form of preserved foodstuffs, collected raw metals and
materials, or lumber destined for a nearby world deprived of such a luxury.
Clamp has two natural satellites, Tzivca and Qiss,
size 1 and S respectively, as well as a ring of dark remnants of a third moon,
long since shattered by a ancient cataclysmic collision. Shooting stars are
a common phenomena on Clamp as bits of the ring occasionally get caught by atmospheric
drag and a slowly decaying orbit. Clamp is notable in that its not only the
only world with any atmosphere in the Clamp star system, but it and its moon
are the only things besides the stars themselves that are larger than size 1
anywhere in the system. Rogue worlds, asteroids, and cometary bodies abound
throughout the system, though not in any concentration to be classified as a
'belt'.
The government of Clamp is essentially made up
of a elected 'Primus' that takes office upon majority approval of the mayors
of any community larger than thirty. The Primus makes executive and judicial
decisions, with legislation handled by the consul of mayors. Most of the time
the Primus and Mayors have little to do, these titles usually being something
of an addition to another, often more demanding, profession.