Bronvar and the Shakor Mining Guild

IMTel regular Adam Murton was the winner of the scenario competition early in 2017 with his ‘Bronvar’ campaign. The full campaign has been released as a PDF mini-supplement, ‘The Raiders of Bronvar’. The whole campaign is based on the volatile planet Bronvar II in the system Bronvar, located somewhere in the Determinate.

We thought we ought to put up the background of the system and it’s major Boromite Mining Guild – the Shakor.

The Bronvar System

The Bronvar system is a relatively new addition to the worlds of the Panhuman Concord. It was discovered late in the 7th emergence by Boromite prospector ships seeking out new gateways from Antares. For most of the 7th Age, it was an independent system, home to scores of Boromite guilds surviving through trade with the Freeborn houses of the Determinate. Panhumans arrived centuries later and formed their own settlements in the temperate and tropical zones of Bronvar II.

Planets of the Bronvar system

Bronvar I	Hot and inhospitable, host to specialist guilds.
Bronvar II	Habitable by standard panhumans and hosts the majority of the population. Largely mountainous and earthquake prone with small tectonic plates. Narrow tropical band close to the equator with broad temperate zones either side and relatively populous plains just north of the tropics.
Bronvar III	Gas Giant, numerous moonlets.
Bronvar IV	Gas Giant, few moons, single ring.
Bronvar V	Small, airless, host to specialist guilds.

On Bronvar II, the transport difficulties posed by the numerous mountainous regions resulted in the planet’s population growth being restricted. Even now, most of the settlements are still isolated from one another, remote, small – their size heavily constrained by narrow valleys. The main exception is on the plains to the north of the tropics where a number of larger cities (still small by IMTel standards) have formed. These cities house the main space ports, the chief of which is alongside the capital, Bronn City. Despite this localised population concentration, Bronvar remains a low population world in which the population is dispersed amongst numerous, isolated settlements.

The arrival of the PanHuman Concord less than twenty years ago produced a dramatic change. The Concord implemented a localised IMTel (on the plains, at least) and a transmat network, the improved transportation increasing prosperity across the planet and the system as a whole.

This new prosperity has attracted attention, with the last few months seeing sustained and persistent raids by the Freeborn pirates of Domas Hajonne. Bronvar’s small population means its peacetime force is totally inadequate to cope with sustained raids across its mountainous surface and remote settlements. The authorities on Bronvar have called for military assistance and the Concord shard Blue 519 has answered the call.

The Shakor Mining Guild

The Shakor were originally a nomadic Guild plying the independent space of the Determinate. Like other Boromite guilds, they formed temporary encampments to tap a vein before moving on, always searching for the next score and more productive work. They kept to the fringes of society, dealing primarily with Freeborn traders, the essence of  Boromite pride in stoicism and independence.

Unfortunately, the Determinate is a dangerous place and a number of projects failed to reach their potential. Mining rights were sold from under their feet and initially positive surveys had proven overly optimistic. Life became hard for the guild, even by Boromite standards.

Around 22 years ago, the Guildess Yavvelyn Bos Jeddar heard tales of an almost empty, mountainous planet that had plenty of potential. Initially, the Shakor had concerns that it was another dead end but several years of prosperity calmed the protests. Normally, the Shakor would have moved on to new opportunities rather than remain for several decades, but many were mindful of the lean times from which they had escaped and so the guild remained on Bronvar II.

It is only since the arrival of the Concord that the Shakor feel their independence is threatened. This has created a schism between Yavvelyn’s caution and Rockfather Dhannick Vir Furgan’s concerns about the all-pervasive IMTel. Dhannick warns the Concord and its IMTel stifle and constrain the Shakor with edicts and control. Further, he has openly declared that the prosperity on Bronvar has made them all soft, complacent and – an insult to Boromites – lazy through living off the ‘crumbs of the Concord’.

Yavvelyn has, so far, resisted his requests, no doubt concerned about returning to the troubled times of the guild’s recent past. As events unfold on Bronvar, the Shakor are divided, struggling to reconcile a desire for wealth and stability with their natural pride in independence.

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