Record
Kharos-7 is the administrative homeworld of the Imperial Core. It is the smallest of the Kharos planet family, and the only one in the family that will sustain human life without countermeasures. The planet is one of six charted bodies in the Typhon Reach system — a region known on galactic charts for both its resource wealth and its reputation.
Population on Kharos-7 sits at roughly 270 million. The Imperial Core’s combined citizenry across all administered worlds is estimated at 1.6 billion.
Immigration is closed. Admittance is by Imperial writ only, reserved for specific professions the colony requires.
Survey
Surface area is roughly half that of Earth. Gravity is balanced — pilots arriving from the home system do not need to adapt.
The atmosphere is breathable: a slightly thin oxygen–nitrogen mix, saturated with hydrocarbon vapour above the petroleum seas. The vapour gives the sky a persistent brown and orange tone. Sunrises and sunsets on Kharos-7 are the most photographed on any colonised world. The clouds are Earth-white at altitude but regularly deform into hydrocarbon vortices nearer the surface.
Petroleum seas, active geysers, volcanic vents, and strong prevailing winds made early industry straightforward and have kept it that way since. Metal and hydrocarbon deposits remain abundant. Native life is primitive, non-sentient, and has never posed a meaningful obstacle to civic life.
The dominant palette is dark green, dark brown, and hydrocarbon ochre. Vegetation concentrates around volcanic-mineral soils and the edges of the oil seas — hardy, deep-rooted, and in most varieties purple or deep green.
History
- 2120 — First survey. Kharos-7 identified as the only hospitable world in its family.
- 2327 — First touchdown. Earth technology finally closes the distance. Colonisation begins under military escort.
- 2328 — Contact. A native life form is detected and flagged as a potential threat to the colony. The early years are defined by its containment.
- 2340 — The First Order. Colony commander Elias Varrus ends the threat, consolidates the settlement’s command structure, and is appointed Leader. The colony stabilises under his hand and never looks back.
- 2400 — Succession. Varrus — by then styled Imperator Kharos, the founding emperor — dies at ninety after sixty years at the top. His son Julian Thorne is appointed to the succession under a transitional mandate. The transition becomes permanent. The empire is made.
- 2410 — Two million. Kharos-7 passes two million citizens. More populous than most of the nations of the Earth that sent them.
- 2490 — The Crystal Discovery. Imperial scientists working under Core contract formally identify Nil Crystals. The century that follows is the most rapid technological advancement in recorded human history. Distances shrink. The Imperial Core becomes the single unified authority across the colonised worlds.
- 2647 — Present. The empire that Varrus drew on the sand and Julianus made permanent stands six centuries after first touchdown. It has never been governed by any other hand.
Founding Emperors
Imperator Varrus — Imperator Kharos. The founding emperor. Military lineage, tall and lean, sharp-featured, clean-shaven, always in the fitted navy-blue star-marked uniform of his service. Ruled from roughly age thirty to ninety. Credited by Imperial canon with stabilising the early colony, securing the mines and supply lines with the army under his command, integrating the Earth immigrants who followed, and drafting the foundational laws that made the empire self-perpetuating. His palace complex and many of the core military structures of Varrus Citadel were built in his era and still stand. He is the only emperor in the canon to have never waged war against humans — all of his campaigns were against the native threat — and he remains the most popular figure in Imperial memory.
Imperator Julianus II — Kharos the Second. Varrus’s son, birth name Julian Thorne. Similar frame to his father, shorter and broader, long brown hair, blue eyes. Departed from military dress — the navy-blue uniform gained yellow stripes and prominent imperial stars, shifting the silhouette from soldier to sovereign. Credited by Imperial canon with making the empire permanent, closing immigration to approved professions, and severing Kharos-7’s formal ties to Earth entirely after the defeat of a small expeditionary force.
Kharos Prime — the capital
All five canonical districts on Kharos-7 are part of a single megacity: Kharos Prime. They are not scattered settlements separated by continents — they are adjacent districts of the same contiguous administrative and industrial sprawl. Every ground operation on Kharos-7 during active service routes through here.
- Varrus Citadel — administrative core, palace complex, high command
- Catalyst Point — heavy industry, manufacturers’ row, the commerce hub for non-military pilots
- Firespire — energy district, built over the active geysers
- Vapor Port — petroleum coast, mixed residential, neutral trading
- Echo Citadel — Imperial High Command and pilot quarters
Role for the pilot
Kharos-7 is where the pilot sleeps, refits, and briefs. It is not a combat zone. The contrast between the ordered life here and the open fight on Silikron is the point — you will notice it the first time you come home from a long deployment.