Relic Barons¶

"Harkend hums with secrets — each one of those cogs grinds a hymn that invites us to go deeper, and deeper we will go, unafraid of what we are going to find on the other side." — Sworm.tcher, Whisperkin leader

"The question is never what we find. The question is what finds us." — Gleamward cautionary proverb

The Relic Barons are a faction of thinkers, merchants, and explorers born from Harkend's impossible existence. When Harkend tore through the void at the end of the Convergence War — a star system birthed overnight, its faux metallic star glaring down on moons of brass and hissing vapor — the questions drew them in.

What they found was a world that should not exist: colossal artificial structures rivaling moons in size, mechanical constructs with startling similarities to Ustur physiology, and technology that predated every known civilization. The Relic Barons formed around a single obsession: understanding Harkend's secrets, whatever the cost.

That obsession has made them wealthy, dangerous, and — some would argue — reckless beyond measure.

History¶

The Discovery (~2442—2486)¶

Ustur scouts first surveyed the void that would become Harkend around ~2442 and found nothing remarkable. It was dead space — charted, catalogued, forgotten.

Then the Convergence War ended.

In the war's aftermath, the sector transformed overnight. From barrenness, a star system arose: artificial moons of brass and iron, grinding mechanisms the size of continents, a metallic faux star that functioned as a real sun — providing light and energy to an entire sector that had not existed hours before. The parallels between Harkend's constructs and Ustur physiology were too striking to ignore. Ustur scholars, adventurers, and the simply curious flooded in.

The Relic Barons coalesced from these early expeditions — initially little more than teams of Ustur scavengers and academics pooling resources to push deeper into the artificial moons. By ~2486, they had formalized: shared supply chains, standardized expedition protocols, and — crucially — a system for dividing the spoils.

The Automaton Problem (~2486—2550)¶

Harkend was not uninhabited. The artificial moons teemed with mechanical constructs — some inert, some active, some hostile. Early expeditions suffered devastating casualty rates. The automatons did not communicate, did not negotiate, and did not distinguish between explorers and invaders. They simply... responded to intrusion.

For sixty years, the Relic Barons operated as raiders — hit-and-run operations that dashed into accessible ruins, seized what they could carry, and retreated before the automatons could organize a response. Expeditions were short, violent, and expensive. The deeper sections of the moons remained inaccessible.

The Pacifier (~2550)¶

Everything changed when a Whisperkin expedition led by Sworm.tcher discovered a device that pacified the automatons within a certain range. The mechanism was not fully understood — it emitted a resonance pattern that caused the constructs to enter a dormant cycle, treating the area around the device as a "safe zone."

With the Pacifier, the Relic Barons established permanent colonies on Harkend's artificial moons for the first time. What had been a dangerous scavenger operation became a systematic archaeological enterprise. The three great settlements — Chronovane, Clattervein, and Vepora — grew from expedition camps into true cities, each becoming the seat of one of the three Branches.

"Before the Pacifier, Harkend was a treasure chest guarded by a dragon. After the Pacifier, it was a library. A library full of books we cannot read — but a library nonetheless." — Whisperkin expedition log

The Iris Partnership (~2580—Present)¶

The Relic Barons' partnership with Iris Academy began when Professor Yulun Brass (Chair of Archaeology & Ancient Technologies) led an academic expedition to Harkend and met Sworm.tcher. The result: a series of co-publications that remain the definitive academic texts on Harkend's structures.

The partnership is genuine but carefully bounded. The Relic Barons share data with Iris researchers. They do not share the Pacifier's operating principles. They do not permit unsupervised Iris expeditions into deep ruins. And they do not discuss what they've found in the deepest chambers — the ones even the Whisperkin won't talk about publicly.

The Three Branches¶

The Relic Barons are not a unified faction — they are three allied branches with fundamentally different philosophies about what Harkend means and what should be done with its secrets. The branches cooperate on shared infrastructure (supply chains, defense, Pacifier maintenance) but disagree on almost everything else.

The Whisperkin¶

Sworm.tcher's branch represents the spiritual-academic wing of the Relic Barons. Whisperkin members believe that Harkend is not a ruin — it is a message, and the relics are fragments of a communication they haven't yet decoded.

Whisperkin practitioners carve relic patterns into their own bodies — a practice that other Ustur find deeply unsettling. The carvings are not decorative; the Whisperkin claim they create a resonance that allows them to "hear" Harkend's underlying frequency. Whether this is genuine communion with the architecture or an elaborate collective delusion is contested.

Sworm.tcher leads through intellectual authority rather than political power. In internal disputes, their word carries weight because they discovered the Pacifier — the technology that made permanent settlement possible. Without Sworm.tcher, the other branches would still be running smash-and-grab raids.

The Brass Covenant¶

Flock.doer's branch has no patience for mysticism. To the Brass Covenant, Harkend is a resource extraction site — the largest, most exotic mine in the galaxy. They smelt relics into trade goods, reverse-engineer mechanical components into weapons and tools, and sell the results to anyone with currency.

The Brass Covenant generates the majority of the Relic Barons' revenue. Their trade operations extend far beyond Harkend — Covenant merchants run relic markets in a dozen MRZ sectors, and their relic-forged weapons are prized by mercenary companies and faction militaries alike.

Critics (especially Gleamward) argue that the Covenant is destroying irreplaceable artifacts for short-term profit. The Covenant's response: "You can't eat reverence. You can't buy ammunition with respect. We keep the lights on."

The Gleamward¶

Houde.tcher's branch is the smallest and most feared. The Gleamward are conservationists — but not the gentle kind. They believe that Harkend's mechanical constructs are not dead, merely dormant, and that excessive exploitation will trigger a reawakening.

Gleamward rituals include anointing construct husks with oil, maintaining relic shrines in sealed chambers, and — most controversially — opposing deep-level expeditions that they believe risk disturbing whatever intelligence sleeps at Harkend's core.

The Gleamward have been wrong about reawakening for over a century. But as the Brass Covenant pushes deeper and strips more aggressively, even Whisperkin members have begun to wonder if Houde.tcher's warnings deserve more attention.

"The Covenant says we worship dead machines. But tell me — have you ever seen a corpse that still breathes?" — Houde.tcher, addressing the Relic Council

Harkend Expeditions¶

The moons of Harkend contain structures of staggering scale and mystery. The Relic Barons maintain a classification system for expedition sites:

Active Sites¶

The Shatterspire Hollow — A moon-rift of jagged brass and grinding wheels. Upper reaches yield trinkets and tradeable components; deeper levels thicken with vapor and unseen movement. No expedition has breached its nadir. Three attempts have ended with total loss of personnel.

The Cindervent Sprawl — A labyrinth of molten channels extending deep beneath the surface of Harkend's largest moon. Past the mapped edges, expedition teams have reported finding freshly constructed mechanical components — not relics, not ancient artifacts, but new constructs. Something within the Cindervent is still building.

The Veilwork Galleries — Discovered ~2605. Enormous chambers containing what appear to be frozen tableaux of mechanical figures arranged in deliberate poses. The Whisperkin believe these are records — a visual history of whatever civilization built Harkend. The Brass Covenant believes they're decorative. The Gleamward won't enter the galleries at all.

Conquered / Exhausted Sites¶

The Embercoil Bastion — Conquered by adventurers who tore free the Pulseforge Core — a relic that beat like a heart. Its theft silenced the Bastion's living systems forever. The Gleamward consider this event a tragedy and a warning; the Brass Covenant considers it proof that relics are meant to be taken.

The Living Factory Connection¶

The deepest mystery of Harkend is its origin. The sector is a byproduct of the Living Factory — a powerful and dangerous HRZ faction whose full capabilities remain unknown.

What the Relic Barons know:

• Harkend appeared at the end of the Convergence War, suggesting a connection to the war's energy release
• The constructs on Harkend share startling similarities with Ustur physiology, but are entirely separate from the Ustur Temple's "Residents"
• The Living Factory continues to operate in the HRZ — meaning whatever created Harkend is still active

What the Relic Barons suspect but cannot prove:

• The deeper chambers contain technology that is not dormant but deliberately sealed
• The Pacifier does not actually "pacify" the automatons — it identifies the holder as "authorized personnel" in some ancient protocol
• Harkend may be an output — a product of the Living Factory, manufactured for a purpose no one yet understands

The Gleamward's position becomes less paranoid with each deep expedition. If the Living Factory created Harkend, and the Living Factory is still active, then disturbing Harkend's deepest chambers may attract attention that no Pacifier can deflect.

The Relic Economy¶

The Relic Barons have created a unique economic niche: Harkend artifact trade.

The Brass Covenant controls approximately 70% of the relic trade. The Whisperkin control access to deep relics (they decide what gets released). The Gleamward opposes the entire system but lacks the political weight to stop it.

Relations¶

Galactic Indices¶