Volar's Story - summary Lazavelt Type: terrestrial Temperature: temperate Atmosphere: 69% nitrogen, 26% oxygen, 3% mixed gasses, 2% water vapor Hydrosphere: 63% Surface Gravity: .84G Length of Day: 8.3 standard hours Length of Year: 552 standard days Species: human Population: 40 million Government: technodemocracy Tech Level: fusion, space Status: lost colony Stellar Class: O9 Description: Lazavelt was settled approximately 500 years ago by a group of refugees fleeing a lost war. Their home world was destroyed by a race known to them only as The Shifters. They fled in a fleet of ships which traveled until their reactors failed. After over 200 years in space, they landed on Lazavelt; a world surrounded by an immense asteroid field. Eight months after landing, the system's only other planet exploded increasing the density of the asteroid field making it impossible fly through. Although The Empire recently surveyed this system, Lazavelt was not detected through it's dangerous asteroid field. The asteroids are far too dangerous to mine given they consist of only various unremarkable ores and ice. The system was marked as a navigation hazard and bypassed. Only with the first launching in 500 years of a faster than light starship from Lazavelt, did The Empire learn of this hidden world. Upon arrival, they found a fully developed colony whose technology included nuclear fusion, hover (not repulsorlift ) vehicles, chemiplastics, maglev trains, hypersonic aircraft, and macro engineering. Not Imperial standard, but readily capable of absorbing high technology. The Empire did not care the people of Lazavelt were united with a single religion, culture, and language - but they did notice the total lack of military defenses. A single star destroyer was sent to subjugate this world. Lazavelt was occupied in four standard ( twelve local ) days without any military resistance. The guerrilla war began two months later... The people of Lazavelt are united under one religion: The Way. They follow their holy writings from an all-powerful deity credited with creating and sustaining the universe. They believe The Creator-Sustainor watches over them every minute, guiding and judging them. On Lazavelt, there is no crime, no police, no law. There are arbitrators who settle disputes over the meaning of contracts. All of Lazavelt is governed by plainly written contracts. When an individual becomes an adult, at 15 years of age (22.7 standard years), they must stand before an arbitrator and recite the entire social contract from memory. If you wish to live in a particular city, then you must recite that city's contract. Education and jobs are governed by contract. Anyone can write a contract with anyone concerning anything. In short, they are a people at peace with themselves and their environment. Their cities are designed and built as a unified whole. People can walk from home to shopping to work easily. Roads are few. Everyone walks or jogs everywhere. The cities are laid out for this. This results in a very fit and healthy population. There are a few hover vehicles in the cities, but they are used only for heavy moving and those who are crippled. The cities are designed to be pleasant; with ivy covered buildings, fountains, parks, and a harmonious architecture all engineered and planned before the first ground is broken. Silent maglev trains link the different sections of the city, and one city to the next. For those traveling to the far side of the globe, hypersonic scramjets allow travel to any city in less than one standard hour. All transportation is free; it's considered part of the city infrastructure. Their entire technology is non-polluting. Metals are buried deep on Lazavelt. So, their entire technology is based on chemiplastics. They have plastics that are solid, others that are flexible, some that will conduct light, others that absorb heat and reradiate light. The deep metal core creates a powerful magnetic field that interferes with all electronics, so Lazaveltian technology is fiber optic based. They build with stone, wood, plastics, and fibers. They use metals only as decoration. Lazavelt is governed by the citizenry through a computer system covering the entire world. This system provides a forum for political and religious discussion as well as communication and education. It is audiovisual based. People operate their computers by talking to them. When used for communications you can see the person you're talking to. There are government officials called administrators, but they are not empowered to make decisions. They may only carry out tasks as contracted by the electorate. When 51% of the electorate signal they have made a decision regarding a particular subject under discussion, that item comes up for vote. All citizens have ten local days to cast their vote. Needless to say, it is difficult to get a 75% majority on any subject ( the minimum required to create or modify a contract ), so change comes slowly to Lazavelt. They have a system of money based upon credits, which is carried on their identity card. This card has their picture, retina and DNA patterns, licenses, a thumb activation pad, academic, and professional records on it. They have no hard currency. Every job is paid the same so people perform the work they wish to and are suited for. Education is considered a job ( training for the future ) and is paid as one. Education is also seen as competitive as there are only so many of each job required. The Jobs Administration awards jobs to those with the highest academic and practical training scores. The rest retrain. Although this sound wasteful, those who are not going to excel at a particular job are usually identified and reclassified early. Any citizen who works a full time job receives a full share of the gross planetary product . Any citizen who works a half time job receives one third of a share. A citizen who does not work receives a tenth of a share. Every citizen is responsible for their own and their family's upkeep. There are no taxes. The Administrators conduct public business with the shares which were not claimed in the previous year. The people of Lazavelt had no army. Their only weapons were laser rifles and pistols used for hunting and competitions. There were a few swords for an obscure martial art ( called The Dance of Death ), but it was seen only as an ancient art form. Once occupied by The Empire, orders went out to certain families who had maintained secret armories sealed long ago against a return of The Shifters. Leaders, martial artists, technicians, and war gamers gathered, cases of weapons and armour were opened, and the training of an army began. It was called The Shadow Army because they struck and faded away like shadows. Removing their wounded with them, they left no trace of their passing; only dead Imperials and damaged facilities. The Shadow Army enjoyed the complete support of the population who provided them with access to city buildings and sewers, a power outage at the right moment, food, vehicles, diversions, and whatever else The Shadow Army asked for. After an occupation that was accomplished without resistance, The Empire was unprepared when two months later, guerrilla attacks were launched against Imperial barracks in every city around the world in the same hour. That night The Shadow Army killed thousands of Imperial troops while they slept, and stole tons of military equipment. After that, the people of Lazavelt began a policy of passive resistance refusing all orders from Imperial authority. The Imperial Governor ordered a curfew. The people of Lazavelt, normally a go-to-bed-at-dark crowd, began all night parties in the streets. The Governor began a brutal program of repression, killing thousands of civilians who challenged Imperial law. The people of Lazavelt held public funerals every night celebrating the martyr's sacrifices. In every temple, religious teachers of The Way read the holy writing's passages which said evil must be opposed. The Governor closed the temples and shot the readers. The people of Lazavelt held meetings in their homes. There were, of course, some who could not bring themselves to risk their lives and those of their families. They cooperated with Imperial retooling and production conversion programs. These people were viewed as traitors by the population at large. Some were killed by vigilantes. Only years later was it discovered that the computer chips manufactured for The Empire were flawed. After six months or so the chips began producing random numbers into their programs. The fuels produced for The Empire were often contaminated. Somehow, The Shadow Army always seemed to know when raw materials were being shipped off world. Many of these shipments were destroyed in lightning raids. When Imperial troops arrived to arrest the workers responsible for the espionage, they were gone. Having already been warned, they and their families were on their way to join The Shadows. Only when the Imperial Security Bureau arrived in force did this end. The ISB, trained to control hostile populations, understood in a way the Governor did not, that killing civilians who would rather die than violate their beliefs achieved nothing. It was the ISB who realized the rioting in the streets only occurred where it interfered with Imperial troop movements responding to the latest Shadow Army raid. The ISB started a forced public reeducation program glorifying The Empire and began infiltrating The Shadow Army to locate and destroy it. With skill gained in the subjugation of numerous worlds, the ISB began to have an effect on the determined, but unsophisticated Lazaveltians. Although The Shadow Army and civilian resistance was never completely stopped, it was rendered ineffective on a planetary scale in about five standard years. Notes on Lazaveltian time units: A littim is the Lazaveltian word for "day light period". Theirs is a small world that turns rapidly, so a day on the surface is 4.15 hours long followed by 4.15 hours of darkness. Lazaveltians work for one littim, sleep for one dark, play for one littim, sleep for one dark. They have no weeks or weekends. A tippa is 1/100th of a littim, or roughly 2 1/2 standard minutes. A stippa is 1/100th of a tippa, or roughly 1 1/2 standard seconds. A tentim is 1/10th of their year, approximately 55 standard days. They use tentims in the same way we use months. Source: Mark Nielipinski These pages are in no way endorsed or sponsored by Lucasfilm Ltd or West End Games. ®, TM & © Lucasfilm Ltd. (LFL). All rights reserved. Trademarks of LFL used by West End Games under authorization.