Vota Star Sector

Vota Star Sector

Major Star Systems

History

On Vota, the Shield at the Edge

As recorded by Witch Lord Bertwin Gisking Bearspear for the Archives of the Stalwart Throne

The Vota Star Sector lies on the ragged frontier between the Star Commonwealth of Drala and the ever-ambitious United Worlds of Caldon. It is a expanse of space of thresholds and blade-edges, of border defensive lines that defended the Feyan Star Dominion, that now crumble under the weight of neglect.

Home to twenty-three billion souls, Vota’s strength is divided among six great star systems.

Votadin, the ancient heart and seat of the Stormborn,
Rhygoed, known for its fortress worlds and deep vaults of the last Galans of Vota,
Sattada, a breadbasket world steeped in blood,
Gaerweir, home to the relic world of Gearum,
Rixvira, world of warriors,
And Haelethholt, once mighty, now shattered.

Surrounding these are more than six thousand minor star systems, bound in fealty to six powerful System-lords, each sworn to defend the sector from constant peril. Vota has long served as the anvil upon which the Galans of the Caldon star cluster, the reavers of the Morimarusa nebula, and the Scattered Skanes test their steel.

Yet Vota’s identity is older than the Star Commonwealth. Older than the Wyvernborn Crown.

It was here that Steorra Umbra Stormborn, known as Steorra the Stormbearer, carved her name into the stars. Fleeing the Wergh and the annihilation of the Glessum Star Cluster, she led his people from the Skane Nebula during the Great Flight, and into the Vota star sector, she claimed her dominion. So was born the Star Kingdom of Vota, one of the first great Furse realms in Drala.

From Vota’s bastion rose kings who would forge the Star Kingdom of Brigh, and from the union of both, reforge the long-lost Star Kingdom of Umber, a name carried like sacred fire from the Glessum Ruins of old. For a time, Umber stood mighty, a bastion of wealth, piety, and warcraft, one of the first to kneel before the Feyan Faith.

But time is a tide that consumes even memory.

The strength of Umber would falter, overtaken by the rise of the Star Kingdom of Angul. Still, the Vota Sector endured, bolstered by its position between two ancient Feyan defensive lines, Bardas’s Shield between Vota and Brigh, and the Thais Star Wall defending against the Caldon star cluster. Though these lines now lie in ruin, many husks have been salvaged and partially restored by the Lords of Vota, used in times of war to mount desperate defenses. A flicker of their old strength still lingers in their bones.

In ages past, Vota extended its reach into the Caldon Star Cluster, laying claim to the Lutna Star Sector, and even parts of Gerghinn, though these dominions often existed more in title than truth. The Thais Star Wall once defended these claims, running from Gerghinn to Alcluith, ancient border of the Star Realm of Alcluith. But with Lutna’s fall to the Galans, the wall has become less bastion, more invitation for Caldon raiders to launch raids from.

Then came the firestorm.

When the Great Savage Crusade, spearheaded by the Sons of Rothgar the Fearless, descended upon Drala, it was the Star Kingdom of Umber, that fell first. One kingdom after another crumbled beneath the storm. Vota, once the heart, became the final ember, but it remained, puppet to new lords, but still commanded by House Stormborn.

But even ashes remember the flame.

Vota was the last Star Sector to be reclaimed by the surviving Dralan forces before the rise of the Star Commonwealth of Drala. It was King Osmund the Glorious, grandson of Osgar the Great, who gathered what remained, bound kingdom to kingdom, and declared a new order.

Though House Umbra Stormborn had once ruled Vota as kings, they now reign as its Sector-Lords, sworn to the Wyvernborn line. From the mighty Starhold of Gwa, they guard their old kingdom, not with crowns, but with duty.

Yet the blood remains.

In halls across the Vota star sector, the banners of the Stormborn still fly. In its ruins, the old defensive walls groan beneath the strain of time and memory. The Thais Star Wall, once the barrier of empires, now serves as little more than a raider’s path. And still, the Lords of Vota stand vigil.

Because here, at the edge, one never knows what the next gate will bring.