Author’s Note: This work represents my embellishment of the Star Frontiers game setting and

timeline. It does not strictly follow the original material but I feel it maintains the spirit of it. While I did make some changes in the details of the timeline, in the end  they represent what I like to call “zero sum change”. What zero sum change means is that despite the changes that are made, the classic adventure setting is unchanged in its details. For example, Fromeltar is still a world populated by vrusk and dralasites and has a heavy population density. Clarion is still a human world with a monarchy that has seen twenty or more rulers.

The history and timeline below only advance as far as what appeared in the Alpha Dawn book or to just after the founding of the UPF. The map of this era is strictly the classic Alpha Dawn map but excluding the Zebulon system. 

Where the original material had inconsistencies I put greater weight on the Alpha Dawn background and the published modules. Zebulon’s Guide was of course consulted but due to the way in which it was rushed into print and the fact that it is the largest single source of inconsistencies, I only used it as a guide. Dragon and Paragon magazine articles were also considered and judged on their individual merits as to what weight they should be accorded in this work. Special thanks, is due to Tom Stephens/TerlObar for assistance with astronomical details and feed back.Larry Moore/w00t was invaluable as a sounding board. Many others contributed through chat and forum post over the past many months though if I tried to list them all I would undoubtedly overlook someone.

In a star system called K’rik-Var, on a planet named Ren-Kit lived a sentient species whose name would

translate as vrusk in a language that had yet to be invented. The vrusk had cast off the shackles of their hive society and formed a new social contract based on belonging to a trade house (later conglomerates emerged). Where the hive system had failed to unify the planet, the new model ushered in a planet wide government; a council of the most prominent trade houses.

The council of vrusk companies stoutly maintained its control of the K’rick-Var and Kizk-Kar systems with little concern for their alien guest. Unfortunately some dralasites were not content with allowing the vrusk to control nearly every aspect of their lives and they campaigned for the return of their cultural heritage, the globe ship. When it did not seem that the ruling council would acquiesce to their demands, a reactionary group stormed the ship and hijacked it. Armed with the astrographic data for a new system recently explored by the vrusk they took the globe ship there. 

Upon arrival they named the system Dramune and colonized the planet Reach. Being hijackers they were not well outfitted for colonization and were immediately forced to cannibalize their ship, dismantling it and bringing it to the surface. The vrusk council was incensed and sent ships to assert their claim to the system. However, having abolished war along with the hive system they were ill prepared for the intransigence of the hijackers. In short order the vrusk were forcibly expelled from the planet Reach. This event rocked the council as it had never considered that they would not be obeyed. The pacifist vrusk were forced to consider using force. 

The issue dragged on for a number of years and came to a head when dralasites on Ren-Kit and Groth

assembled a donation of relief material and contracted a ship to send aid to the planet Reach. The vrusk realized that armed conflict could lead to civil war. In a remarkable turn, the vrusk council instituted the election of dralasites to the governing council of Ren-Kit and recalled its monitoring and mining outpost on a planet that would eventually be called Outer Reach in the Dramune system. With the relinquishing of their claim to the Dramune system, relations stabilized and for a few years the dralasites of the K’rik-Var system sent yearly relief to Dramune while the vrusk turned a blind eye.

The dralasites of the Dramune system represent the more reactionary elements of their race as their actions demonstrated but in time members of the race had migrated back and forth from the two systems and the make-up of the race became homogenized despite spanning three planets. An interesting custom persists in Dramune, dating to the founding of the colony; the dralasites paint their bodies with washable dye to denote their mood for the day. This custom began with the reactionaries and only persists out of tradition but modern dralasites of Dramune are no more reactionary or any less philosophical then the rest of their race dwelling elsewhere.

Interestingly, the name of the vrusk home system has not entered into popular usage in the modern Frontier. When the dralasites first arrived they developed Dral speech equivalents to the Vrusk names. When Pan-Gal was created as a universal trade language, the lead linguist, being a dralasite, incorporated the names Fromeltar, Terledrom, and Groth instead of the original names. Since vrusk are forced to rely on a polyvox for communication they simply use the original names in their language and the polyvox translates it automatically to the Pan-Gal equivalents.