Jadd

The planet of fire and the sacred capital of the Jaddian Principalities, on whose soil none may tread without the express permission of the high prince.
- Tor Paulos, Empire of Silence

Primarachate: Perseus

Provinces: 81 Principalities

Known Prefectures:

Unknown

Locations of Interest:

Alcaz du Badr: The Castle of the Moon. The grand, ringed palace complex of the High Prince of Jadd, set at the heart of twelve thousand acres of engineered gardens. At its center is the Tholo Orothano, a massive golden dome rising a hundred stories tall, from which the palace extends in petal-like arms. Its gardens are filled with singing flowers, sculpted topiaries, and vat-born fauna. Often the site of state functions, feasts, and political assemblies, in the Tower of Mirrors. Beneath the apex of the Tholo Orothano, high in the palace, some eighty stories from the ground, sits the Jaddian throne itself, in the Court of the Three Moons.

The Jaddian throne itself—wrought during their wars with the Sollan Empire in direct challenge to the Solar Throne—was fashioned in the shape of a crescent moon, its horns rising to either side of the high seat, almost meeting at the top, a great arc nearly ten cubits in diameter. The whole throne—the seat, and the crescent of its back—was cut from a single piece of pale crystal, a printed gem polished to a mirror’s shine. Seated at the bottom of that crescent, on a cutting in its precise center, sat old Aldia himself, his shriveled legs concealed with the robes of state.



Tales of the Sun Eater, Volume 4: The Fangs of Oannos

Fire School: Prestigious martial academy on Jadd, dedicated to training Swordmasters. Known for grueling trials, cutthroat rivalries, and occassional student deaths. Located on the slopes of Mount Hephaistos above the sea. Constructed with white marble piazzas and colonnades.

Geological Testing Station : Scientific outpost in the volcanic highlands of Jadd (Islis du Albulkam), used for studying seismic and geothermal activity from Mount Hephaistos and its surrounding black-sand coast.

Grand Canal: Massive engineered channel on Islis du Albulkam on Jadd, for the perpetual flow of molten lava drawn from Mount Hephaistos. Terminates in the sea resulting in ever-growing outcrops of land. Some students of rigorous Fire School training have thrown themselves to the fire here in despair.

Il Casa du Burkan: The Volcano House. Dormitory for Fire School neophytes. Built of white marble above the black sands of Jadd at the lowest level of Mount Hephaistos's slopes. Straddles the Grand Canal of flowing lava and is surrounded by date palms and volcanic beaches. At night, the sea waters glow with bioluminescent algae. Settled near the stone pads where fliers and shuttlecraft might land at need.

Il Cortil di Bujatani: The Court of Swans. Formal training courtyard and dueling ring within the Fire School. A ceremonial practice amphitheater paved in pale white marble. The setting of famed bouts between senior Maeskolos.

Islis du Albulkam : a remote island in the Varkanan Sea on Jadd. Location of an old geothermal testing facility settled beneath the slopes of Mount Hephaistos. Near the Swordmaster Fire School.

Islis Ulta : a remote island in the Varkanan Sea on Jadd. Location of Jaddian genealogical research and testing, codenamed Project Duban.

Jaharrad : Capital city of Jadd, the location of the High Prince's Alcaz du Badr (Castle of the Moon) palace. Three miles from the remote village of Sudri and across the Varkanan Sea from the Swordmaster Fire School.

Kauf Adar (Mount Hephaistos): Sacred volcanic heart of Jadd. Source of molten fire and geothermal power. Revered in Jaddian culture.

Paradi du Alkarshae: High-walled garden and training ground at the Fire School on Jadd. Features marble pavers, reliefs of Prince Katanes the Great, and a central fountain with a gorgon’s head spout.

Royal Library: Famed archive in Jadd's capital city, Jaharrad. Contains many ancient manuscripts, including books out of Old Earth, kept in temperature-controlled vaults beneath the stacks.

Scala Aspara: Monumental staircase built along the Grand Canal on Jadd, linking the Il Cada du Burkan (Volcano House; neophyte dormitory) at the foot of Mount Hephaistos to the Shrine of the Atash Behram Jaddi (Shrine of the Eternal Fire) halfway to the summit. Lined with date palms. Runs East (Ascending) to West (Descending).

Shrine of the Atash Behram Jaddi: Holy shrine dedicated to worship of the Jaddian Eternal Flame. A low, domed building of white marble, a quadrangular structure with four pillars and five arches opening on each face, so that an open-air colonnade encircled the inner sanctum within.

Sudri : Remote village on Jadd, three miles from the capital city of Jaharrad.

Towers of the Dead : Pale, stone towers rising along the southern line of the Scala Aspara. Burial site of the dead of Jadd's Swordmaster Fire School and of Jaddian lords of import. Sky burial. Stone beds beneath an open sky, leaving bodies to be devoured by ever-present birds.

Varkanan Sea: The primary expanse of water on the surface of Jadd and connecting the capital city of Jaharrad and the Swordmaster Fire School

White Square: Grand plaza in the heart of the Swordmaster Fire School on Jadd. Paved in white marble.

Also known as the Planet of Fire, it has a red sun and three moons : two white and one green. The largest moon, Taiph, is the only one terraformed for human life. Jadd resembles Hawaii in climate.

Governed by the Domagavani council and home to the Yahmazi, the Jaddian secret police.

The Domagavani was a congress of sorts, comprising the eighty-one great provinces of Jadd-of whom Aldia was the chief. Each ruled his demesne after his fashion, some as absolute despots, other constitutionally, yet others with the aid of some elected parliament or other agency. But within the Domagavani, they were equals-save Aldia, who as High Prince retained some special privileges.
- Tales 4 (The Fangs of Oannos)

History:

The Jaddian worlds were settled along a broad swath of the Perseus Arm near the outer rim of the galaxy during the eighth millennium. Due to the region’s remoteness, the palatine families there tended to intermarry rather than connect back to the broader Imperium, which—coupled with a shared Zoroastrian heritage dating back to the time of the Foundation War and the Exodus—created a racialized subculture among the region’s elites and led to the formation of a local identity separate from that of the broader Imperium.

This separation reached a turning point in the twelfth millennium, when the Imperial Prince Cyrus absconded with his Jaddian lover, Princess Amana di Jadi, scandalizing the Jaddian lords. The Jaddians maintain to this day that Amana was raped and kidnapped, while Imperial accounts attest to a romance between the pair. What is beyond dispute, however, is that Amana was recovered by the Jaddian Duke Katanes du Otranto, who recovered not only her, but the High College genetic codex tied to her, which contained the intelligence necessary to free the Jaddian palatines of Imperial control. Though Amana died and her house was destroyed in the wars, the eighty-one remaining palatine families took her name as their own, becoming Jaddians in ISD 11466, after the Battle of the Encircling Moons, when Duke Katanes bested the Imperial Legions with the first Jaddian mamluk clone army.

The eighty-one Jaddian families took the title shahdom, meaning prince, and have ever since elected one of their number to rule from the planet Jadd, formerly the home of Amana’s family. Katanes’s house, House du Otranto of Laran, have made up the majority of all High Princes in Jadd in the millennia since. Relations with the Empire—initially strained—relaxed in recent millennia, as the princes and the Emperor were forced into an uneasy alliance against the Commonwealth in the Persean Wars.