HD 6F06 Rukh, a short overview of this Zhodani friendly state By Roger Myhre Ammerudgrenda 168 0960 Oslo 9 Norway History. In 1067 Rukh took control over the Aegs worlds. At that time there was internal difficulties, and civil war. During the most heated confrontations Rukh was bidding his time. When the factions at last agreed on armistice, Rukh took control by overthrowing the different leaders. This increased his overall charisma, which was already high. He restored law and order in the realm. This maneuver and his high charisma won billions of followers that gathered under his flock. He secured a local powerbase of enormous proportions. However not everyone liked his maneuver to gain power. Many worlds rimward of Saell opposed to Rukh. They formed the Gnoerrg Rukh Loell. The anti-Rukh Coalition. This coalition has been a thorn in the side of Rukh since then. In 1094 The original leader Rukh died. But his successors continue his work through his dogma. After his death they lost a few worlds. The anti-Rukh coalition increased their effort to foil the works of Rukh in the hope that more worlds would pull out. However this was not the case. The Rukh government had too much control on local level to that the Anti-Rukh could have much effect. In 1112 Anti-Rukh started an operation to undermine the relations between Rukh and the Zhodani. Agents working for Anti-Rukh had managed to forge 6 Zhodani charge plates. The zhodani manages to get their hands on five of the plates. Which had been given to a small group of innocents. However the sixth plate did never turn up. One thing that was clear is that Anti-Rukh did not have the sixth plate. A vargr named Ronak was suspected of being the owner of the last plate. he never turned up. After a few years it became apparent that this plate had been reproduces, when different merchandise was paid with counterfeit charge plates. Anti-Rukh used this to disrupt trading and diplomatic relations between Rukh and Zhodani. The result was that several worlds between Rukh and Zhodani left Rukh.* To and answer to this the Rukh attacked Anti-Rukh physically. But the worlds that lie in between worked as a bufferzone. This lessened the effect somewhat. Anti-Rukh did not loose any territory, but a lot of damage to the system was a fact. Government. At first when Rukh seized control of the small Aegs federation billions flocked to hi because of his extreme charisma. However soon they also realized that he made his rule to something near a religion. anti-governmental work is prosecuted severely. The Rukh government are an elite council which are leaded by a dictator. The individual worlds have little local control when it comes to exterior policy. Internal policy is somewhat lesser controlled. But the Rukh doctrine must be followed. World governments are not represented in the Rukh government. They have to follow the whim of the Rukh government at any level. Worlds to have public election on local rulers, but the candidates have to be approved by the Rukh assembly. One of the first acts Rukh did when he had secured his powerbase, was to nationalize most of the bigger corporations. Especially Saell felt this. Seall is overpopulated, and the unemployment rate was extreme. The nationalization of the largest companies helped distribute the goods more evenly, but to the cost of galloping inflation. Military. All military forces are gathered under a central command. The forces are usually built from the world they are going to protect, but units often do change bases from one world to another. This circulation prevents worlds to have soldiers that will not shoot at locals in case of upheaval. Soldiers sympathize less with vargr they do not know. The military forces are financed by taxation of the individual sophont on the different worlds. Internal (un)rest. To maintain control over the population to that degree the government have, they need an opposition. To Anti-Rukh's annoyance, they represent this opposition. Militarily Rukh could have crushed Anti-Rukh in matter of months. But by doing this they will loose the external enemy the government need gather the population against. Thus Anti-Rukh are actually allowed some success in their work. But then only on a limited scale. Time to time Anti-Rukh have had some very successful operations. More successful than the Rukh would have allowed if they could control the events completely. However there is internal difficulties as well. The knowledge about the universe outside Rukh is limited by the general population. This helps to disinform the populace. So generally the population believes that the Anti-Rukh is the big bad alien that will kill them if they get the chance. The coreward worlds of Rukh are more distant to Anti-Rukh, thus the treat from them is smaller. To make this treat larger, Rukh have allowed a small number of Anti-Rukh sediments infiltrate these worlds. Rukh do also carry out operations to scare the population to believe that there is more enemies present than there really is. Thus creating the illusion of that they have been penetrated and the enemy is constantly in their midst. Uku. Uku is the secret police in Rukh. It is divided into four branches. Each with their own responsibility. The branches are: -- Counter espionage. This branch monitor and arrest foreign spies that operates within the borders of Rukh. -- Espionage. This branch run cover operation outside Rukh borders. Mainly in Anti-Rukh worlds, and in the worlds between Rukh and Zhodani. -- Population control. This branch, which is the largest, monitors internal dissidents. This branch operates closely with Counter Espionage branch. -- Military intelligence. This branch gathers military information from other worlds and interstellar governments outside Rukh. Uku have operatives and offices on all planets within Rukh borders. They are known to be ruthless, and are feared by the general population. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- *) The book Alien Realms covers this incident in the module No Credit Check. The module do not specify what the following to this incident will be. By comparing the map in AM3 with the map in V&V there is a few worlds that have left Rukh. I decided that this incident caused this.