What the modules tell us of Volturnus and its star system

As most fans of Star Frontiers probably already know, the “Crash on Volturnus” module provides a briefing to the players that the Zebulon system “was first investigated 20 years ago by an unmanned probe launched by Truane’s Star. This probe indicated that Volturnus was the only inhabitable planet in the Zebulon system. It also indicated that great mineral wealth might exist on the planet in the form of molybdenum, tungsten, gold and other heavy metals. Truane’s Star soon made a legal claim to the ownership of Volturnus and completed exploration of a star route to the Zebulon system one year ago.”

Its two moons, Leo and Lulu, seem to orbit very close to the planet. Leo completes an orbit in three days while Lulu only takes 27 hours.

The system briefing for the referee further mentions that the planet is “named after the Greek god of the southwest wind. Volturnus is a hot, dry world with many types of hostile terrain. The endless deserts, rugged mountains, volcanic wastes and dangerous salt flats are constantly scoured by the southwesterly wind. Despite these harsh conditions, rare patches of forest and even a few lakes have managed to maintain a perilous existence.”

Well, logically – if we one wants to sound like Spock from Star Trek – we know that not all of the planet would face a “southwest wind” since there’s a north and south hemisphere and plenty of weather patterns.  The original description is probably there for poetic reasons. The area map – which only covers a very tiny fraction of the planet – also includes a sea which is described as “the remnant of a vast salt sea that once covered the area.” So there is more water on the plant than just “a few lakes.”

The third module, “Starspawn of Volturnus” further tells the referee that the planet’s history “is so varied, and areas of it have been purposely left blank, that any number of adventures of the referee’s own making cold be fit onto this bizarre planet.” Of course, game masters always have the option of altering modules to fit their own campaigns.

The planet was devastated by the Sathar some 900 years ago, but enough life remained for the Eorna to manipulate to create the Ul-Mor, Edestekai and Kurabanda along with a wide variety of other creatures ranging from winged rippers to lopers, yernoids, land whales, etc.

What the modules tell us of the Eorna                   

The modules say about the Eorna are a race of fur-covered dinosauroids with mentalist powers – in particular hypnosis with the ability to make characters forget an encounter. They had the ability to shape crystals to make large buildings plus were experts and genetic manipulation and cybernetics. This description sounds a lot like the Sathar, doesn’t it?

The referee is encouraged to stress how peaceful the Eorna are – but they have ready-to-use weapons. They also had a planetary defense headquarters that became the “Mound of the Mechanons” and combat robots. After the Battle for Volturnus a ship with some 50,000 Eorna eggs will be found, allowing for the survival of this old race.

With the publication of Zebulon’s Guide to the Frontier, the Zebulon system – with its G2 yellow star – suddenly had not just one but two inhabited world – Volturnus and Anker. Anker is listed first, possibly indicating it is closer to the star than Volturnus though this is unclear. The planets may just be listed in alphabetical order.

With one moon, Anker’s gravity is 0.9 and its day is 20 hours long. “The site of the University of Zebulon, the Frontier’s largest and most prestigious institution of learning,” Zeb’s says, “the entire planet has been set aside for the U of Z, as well as one of the Frontier’s largest zoos.”

Since this story is conjecturing about the ancient Eorna, I’ll refrain from making comments about the Zebs’ description of Anker… The largest and most prestigious institution of learning in the Frontier? Ha! What about whatever universities are on Gran Quivera, the center of the Frontier? What about any institutions on the Vrusk worlds? Opps, better get back on track…

One could argue that the description in Zeb’s seems to indicate that Anker might have a breathable atmosphere. Then again, as Jedion357 (Tom Verreault) has supposed, if the later day university and the zoo are actually contained in biospheres, maybe Anker doesn’t have a breathable atmosphere. Or at least it has one that needs to be terraformed or, perhaps due to the Sathar’s devastation, re-terraformed?[i]

For more information about the Eorna, R. Kevin Smoot wrote a story about them in Star Frontiersman issue 8 which provides information on how to use them as a player character race and their society during the time of the Frontier.

What were the ancient Eorna like?

A race with psionic powers, the Eorna are descendants of a furry-like dinosaur. They had access to high technology and were space-faring before the Sathar destroyed them. After that, we need venture off the canon materials and into fan speculations.

It is unclear what other Mentalist powers the Eorna may possess. Probably the hypnosis skill is an innate ability for most Eorna and maybe it was a way to lure in and capture prey. They probably don’t need to talk to an individual as a Sathar or a bio-social character using hypnotism. After all, the Eorna’s hypnotic robots use a device that flashes a rainbow of colors to accomplish its hypnotism.

Eorna with higher Logic scores probably can learn other Mentalist disciplines, but maybe telepathy is not something that comes easy to them. After all they created the “neural fungus” (See “Volturnus, Planet of Mystery,” p. 28) to try to allow for a direct mind-link between individuals. One would wonder if the old Eorna had perfected this technique, but the information was lost after the Day of Doom, hence the survivors were unable to create a neural fungus that didn’t cause extreme pain.

The basis for Eorna technology is the use of crystals, probably silicon-based lifeforms that the rogue crystals originated from. They could manufacture, shape and form large, artificial crystalline structures using vast processing factories. Maybe they also had a stone softening and shaping technology too – as speculated on programs such as “Ancient Aliens.” (Note, although I am a science fiction fan, I do watch that program with more than a bit of skepticism, but the idea that there is a technology or way to soften, shape and reharden stone seems interesting.)

What if the Eorna had access to Tetrarch technology and the Ul-Mor, Edestekai and Kurabanda aren’t the first time that they uplifted creatures to sentience? Could they have done that with the Sathar as an early experiment and then “The son rose up and displaced the father" in an Oedipus complex type of way? [i]

Maybe, but it seems a bit unlikely. According to the Dragon magazine story by game designer David “Zeb” Cook, the Sathar and S’sessu were separated by the Tetrarch some 20,000 years before the modern Frontier time period.[ii] So, if anything, it was the Tetrarch Societies that uplifted the Sathar or at least left behind technology that the worms later used to achieve space travel and a degree of high technology.

Let's say Volturnus was densely populated at the height of the Eorna civilization, that could mean anywhere from 6 billion to 12 billion with another few hundred million to a few billion on Anker (that could be the original Eorna name for the world). Most of the populace was located in the cities, which is where the majority of them died on the Day of Doom.

The Eorna had several nations of which Volkos was the capital of one of its more peaceful countries or territories. Perhaps they had developed a European Union-like super government, which was also headquartered at Volkos -- hence its importance and why the Sathar listening post is located near it and the planetary defense installation that the Mechanons eventually controlled. Likely, there would be a ruined starport near the capital as well.[iii]

Since the Sathar seem to be some distance away from the Frontier – one could surmise that because of the long delays between the First and Second Sathar Wars – the Eorna probably didn’t encounter them right away. Most likely, they had a chance to explorer around at least a segment of the Frontier and the Rim and probably had contact with the more primitive Humma, Osakar and Ifshnit. They may have had a role in “lifting up” these races with some DNA engineering or at least giving them a technological boost where they were able to survive against later-day Sathar incursions.

This early contact that the Eorna could have had with the Rim races would give game masters the option of a later-day encounter for the PCs to meet the Humma, Osakar and Ifshnit.

One could also see the Eorna having outposts on some of the Rim worlds as well as on New Pale, Laco and possibly elsewhere. These outposts probably weren’t large enough to survive independently or were subsequently destroyed by the Sathar. Frontier colonists may have found some of these ruins but didn't know the species that made them until after the Volturnus modules are played. Other Eorna ruins may still lie undiscovered on Frontier worlds such as Gran Quivera or Morgaine’s World (Prenglar).

The Sathar-Eorna relationship          

The Sathar’s genocidal assault on the Eorna along with the idea of “salting the earth” with attack monsters to prevent the “gentle dinosaurs” from ever again achieving space flight doesn’t seem to fully match how TSR presented them in other modules where they try to subvert Frontier societies with spies or conquering species such as the Mheme to use as a slave race. Or, perhaps, the Sathar just don’t like lizard-like races – see how they also treated the Saurians.

Maybe the Eorna and Sathar had previous contact for some time, but maybe it was secret dealings, unknown to most of the Eorna population, especially the survivors. Perhaps the Eorna and Sathar are both species that the Tetrarch’s raised up. Or the worms grew envious or fearful of the Eorna's mental powers, cybernetic/genetic engineering. In any case, they coveted the Eorna's technology, which led to the Day of Doom.

Iggy offered a few observations back on April 1, 2014: What if the Eorna are hiding a secret that they fought a civil war after a first Sathar invasion years prior to the Day of Doom?

The Eorna may have suffered a brief, surgical attack by the Sathar many years before the Day of Doom. This later led to the Eorna uniting to defend themselves and create planetary defenses while others pressed for low-key solution that did not alert the Sathar to their advances so as to keep the Sathar from ever returning.

Over time, the competing Eorna territories engaged in an economic war along with other squabbles that prevented them from implementing a coordinated defense. When the military faction took space craft and began exploring in the direction of Sathar space, the worms determined they were a threat and took action.

The Sathar invaded the Zebulon system and destroyed everything they found in space, resulting in the Day of Doom. One Eorna faction managed to put the egg ship in orbit around the star. Or, the egg ship was meant for one of the Eorna’s colonial efforts and somehow was overlooked by the invaders.

Volturnus Before the Day of Doom

We can conjecture that Volturnus had a much gentler environment than the Frontier adventurers found 900 years after the Day of Doom. My concept is that Volturnus’ climate was already moving from being a garden world to a post-garden world where it was getting progressively hotter.

At the height of the Eorna's civilization, they could control the weather and tapped the power of the planet's core. The Sathar bombardment also destroyed these artificial controls, helping to radically change the world's climate. To see my concept of Volturnus before the Day of Doom go to http://www.starfrontiers.us/node/9420 versus the planet when the adventurer’s found it http://www.starfrontiers.us/node/9418 .

The adventure map for Volturnus only covers a small segment of the planet. Imagine looking at Colorado and figuring that is what the rest of Earth looks like. There is still plenty of room for referees to put some more mystery into the “Planet of Mystery."

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