Hi.


The data in PD Romulans concerning the three listed 'Suppressed Races' within Romulan space is pretty interesting!


One species of note are the Satha'hi, who are a species of empathic pacifists residing on a home world bathed in a Vudar-like state of ionising radiation.

The vast majority of Satha's 2 billion population are not exactly suited to off-world travel - or much in the way of the militancy which the Romulan Star Empire tends to trade in.


However, there are indiviual exceptions - individual Satha'hi who may lack the innate empathy, or psionic ability, shared by most of their species, others who may be somewhat dissatisfied with the state of Satha's prevalent society, and maybe some who see the Romulans as a means of exploring the wider universe.

Even if that total is only, say, 2-300 or so individuals out of the entire population, that's still something for the Roms to work with.


Ah, but what to do? the Romulans may not wish to let these radiation-dependent beings serve on a Romulan ship, and converting even a smaller vessel for their use might be somewhat taxing.


So, my idea was that, as part of the shipments of KR hulls from the Klingon Empire, the Romulans might have asked for one or two size class 4 ships of Vudar construction, which might even have a Vudar exchange officer on board (to show the Satha'hi crew the ropes) - and equip these into lightly-armed survey ships.

Given that the Satha'hi have no industrial base to speak of, and no inclination (as a species) to even want to build their own ships, such a vessel would be completely at the mercy of the Romulans - and yet, it would still have an advantage in scouting out systems in the rim where the level of radiation might hamper a Romulan survey effort.

Plus, it would be one less hull the Romulans would have to divert from their own production schedule away from the front lines, and over to the hunt for new resources to feed the Imperial war machine.


(Eventually, the Romulans could even trade for a couple of Vudar workboats, or a Vudar PFQ they would modify before allocating to the Satha'hi. Since the 'low Vudar' not-quite-independent version of the Enclave seems to be the more historically accurate take on things later on, it's at least possible that the Romulans are clued in to what state of relations between Vudar an Klinshai truly exist.)


Does it sound like it could be made to work, or is it too far-fetched?

By Sean O'Carroll (Terryoc) on Tuesday, June 09, 2009 - 10:56 pm: Edit

I think it's most likely that the Roms just didn't let the Satha'hi ever travel in space at all. That's the simplest solution for the Roms. They've got a lot of unexplored space in their territory already. No need to explore marginal space, yet.

By Gary Carney (Nerroth) on Wednesday, June 10, 2009 - 07:23 pm: Edit

Well, that may well be, but if the Vudar hull(s) were cheap enough, and could be used to cover enough rimward hexes to make it worth the effort of using them, maybe...


(Plus, I'm not so sure the Romulans themselves would be all that keen on crewing a Vudar-hull ship, PFQ or workboat themselves.)

By Sean O'Carroll (Terryoc) on Thursday, June 11, 2009 - 12:48 am: Edit

I'm not sure if Vudar-type ships are any better near the Rim than any other type of ship. The Vudar themselves live in a volume of space with high ionising radiation, due to a weakness in the Energy Barrier which lets radiation in from outside the galaxy (or something). [Although why there should be more radiation outside the galaxy, where there's few stars, than inside it, I don't get.] I do own GURPS Romulans, but don't have it with me, so I'm not sure if the Satha'hi situation is similar or not. The Vudar were allowed to build their ships because it's a very large area with a lot of radiation that needed patrolling. And the Klingons couldn't patrol that area, or even get a good look with long-range sensors. AFAIK there's no such weakness in the energy barrier in Romulan space, so if there is radiation coming through the energy barrier, it's not extending for thousands of parsecs as it apparently does in Vudar space.

Another issue is the cost of the Vudar hulls. The ships the Romulans did get from the Klingons were re-activated hulls from the mothball Imperial War Reserve, mostly obsolete D6s and D4s, with IIRC a couple of D7Cs and a single C8 dreadnought. These ships would have been fairly cheap because they were old ships. Even so, they required shipments of spare parts from the Klingons to keep running (at least during the GW).

Vudar ships would have been a problem, because they probably would have been new construction (probably more expensive) and the logistical burden of getting parts from Vudar space increases the cost.

Then there's the problem of having non-Romulan crewed warships flying around in Romulan space. If there's lots of radiation around, then the Romulans on board the ship can't survive, necessitating an all-Satha'hi crew. And you know how paranoid Romulans are... they just wouldn't believe that the Satha'hi were trustworthy.

So, unfortunately, I don't think it works.

By Gary Carney (Nerroth) on Thursday, June 11, 2009 - 06:19 pm: Edit

The entire system is in a Vudar-like situation - a weakness in the energy barrier floods the system with radiation.

(Indeed, the Satha'hi and Vudar share the same level of radiation tolerance in GPD - but the Satha'hi have more of a dependency on the radiation than the Vudar do.)

Although, there's little word on just how far the weaknesses in the barrier extend - though it's worth noting that when the Vudar burst out of their home province, they engineered conditions to suit them by using ion storm generators, in systems that were otherwise 'normal'.


When it comes to getting the Vudar hull/s, perhaps the move might be sponsored by one of the Great Houses in particular, say Antreidies, rather than by the Imperial government itself.

Antreidies are renowned as the most successful at economic development, and always strives to maintain its edge at peacetime, as well as mitigate its relative lack of influence at wartime.

So, to them, making at least some use out of the relatively few Satha'hi who would even want to leave their world might be an edge - especially if there are star systems


And as regarding trust, the main attitude that the Romulans hold in general towards the Satha'hi is one of contempt, due to their pacifism - but since Antreidies are one of the more dovish Houses anyway, it would matter less to them than to, say, Aurellius.

And besides, if Antreidies controls access to the base the Vudar-hull ship would have to return to for its upkeep, they'd effectively be able to keep the ship on a leash - but one that would still be long enough to allow the ship to explore several hexes' worth at a go.

By Michael C. Grafton (Mike_Grafton) on Friday, June 12, 2009 - 03:00 pm: Edit

Why would Roms allow the Satha'hi to get out of their system after the Vudar showed what can happen in areas that 1) are near a weakness in the rim and 2) are close enuff to allow an ISG to extend the dead zome.

I am guessing that the Roms will keep them bottled up.

By Gary Carney (Nerroth) on Friday, June 12, 2009 - 06:26 pm: Edit

Well, if the ships were sold before Y178, there would be no outward sign of what the Vudar were up to - and in any event, the Vudar were a hell of a lot more self-reliant technologically than the Satha'hi are.

And after Y178, as things seem to be going, the 'low Vudar' option (in which the Enclave is a semi-autonomous part of the Empire - similar to how the Uthiki eventually became an autonomous part of the Baduvai Imperium) seems to be the historical version of what is going on - and while the Federation might have been at a loss, the Romulans, as Coalition partners, may have been clued in.


Either way, even if the most that Antreidies tried was to buy a couple of Vudar workboats (which, unlike warships or regular PFs, are available on the open market) and have a few dozen Satha'hi run them, there is relatively little harm to the Star Empire that might come of it.

By Mike West (Mjwest) on Tuesday, July 23, 2019 - 12:16 pm: Edit

[It can only be deleted after I process it into CL54, so it cannot be deleted now and doesn't reduce the BBS now.--SVC]