Who's Who In Drinax

Here is a run down of NPCs that my players may run across on Drinax. This post will likely get updated and extended as the campaign progresses.

King Oleb XVI

King of Drinax, Dragon Emperor of Sindal-in-Exile Age 105 (Apparent age mid-50s)
King Oleb, Sixteenth of his name, is the ruler of the Kingdom of Drinax. He’s also, as he puts it, the ‘bumpty-umpth emperor of Sindal, lord admiral of the Star Guard, protector of the whatsit and duke of the other thing’. The only titles that Oleb really takes pride in are his awards for boxing and fencing. The king was a wild man in his youth, and spent years as a freebooting adventurer and sometime pirate before returning home to take the crown. Anagathic drugs have preserved his youth, but not his figure; the courtiers politely refer to the king’s ‘imposing frame’ or ‘vigorous presence’. The king is more direct - ‘I may be fatter than a gas giant, but I am still the god-damned king’.

Prince Harrick

Age 54 (apparent age early 30s)
Prince Harrick is the prince of Drinax and a potential heir to the kingdom. He led the assault on Asim twenty years ago, when the agricultural world was conquered by Drinax. His attack shuttle suffered an engine malfunction during the assault and crashed, leaving Prince Harrick mortally wounded. His body – little more than a charred husk – was placed in a low berth and shipped back to the Floating Palace into the care of the scientists of the Scholar’s Tower. They rebuilt him cell by cell and for twenty years, Prince Harrick floated unconscious in a tank while scientists worked to restore him to life. The outcome was uncertain, and many rumours about his death circulated through the palace. At one point, when it seemed as though the procedures had failed and Harrick was about to die, King Oleb quelled fears of instability by naming Princess Rao his heir. Harrick has emerged from the tank only a few months ago. His features bear little trace of the horrific injuries that robbed him of half his life, but his movement is oddly stilted and his skin is just a little too perfect. The scholars refuse to discuss the technicalities of his resurrection, but most courtiers believe the prince is more machine and cloned tissue than mortal man.

Princess Rao

Age 28
When her elder brother Harrick was gravely wounded, King Oleb realised that his daughter was likely to inherit the throne. Previously, Rao was most ignored by Oleb, who had entrusted her upbringing to his courtiers and attendants. Latterly however she has become the king’s foremost counsellor and diplomat, and is highly influential at court. She dreams of a grand alliance of worlds – either the Kingdom of Drinax reborn, or a more equal and progressive league to provide a bulwark against the great imperial powers. Bringing the advanced technology of Drinax back to her former subjects could bring about a golden age.

Her detractors claim that the princess is overambitious and blind to the perilous circumstances of Drinax, and that any such grand alliance would only serve to anger the Aslan.

Lord Wrax

Age 67
Wrax is the commander of the Star Guard, the naval forces of Drinax. This would be more impressive if the Star Guard had more than a handful of ships, but sadly Drinax can muster nothing heavier than a couple of 400 ton System Defence Boats and after the losses sustained during the Asim campaign the only jump-capable ships at Wrax’s disposal are a few 100-ton scoutships. Wrax has resigned himself to the fact that his small fleet may be technically sophisticated but it can do little more than secure the approaches to the planet from the pirates and raiders that he despises.

Scholar Voha

Age 136 (apparent age, late 70s)
The elderly master of the Scholar’s Tower, chancellor of the University of Drinax and unofficial court sage; Voha was instrumental in preserving so much technological expertise during the dark days of the fall of Drinax. He sees his role as the protector of the knowledge of the ancient empire of Sindal, and is wary of any action that might endanger the Floating Palace. To that end he favours a policy of submission to the Aslan clans who dominate the nearby worlds of Tyokh and Tlaiowaha.

Lady Hil, the Marquise of Deceande

Age 168 (apparent age, early 40s)
An influential noble in court, Lady Hil was entrusted with the raising of King Oleb by the old King his father and she is perhaps the only person that Oleb is afraid of. She has little time for anyone who cannot trace their lineage all the way back to the old empire of Sindal. Sometimes, with her emphasis on protocol and noble titles from long-lost worlds, it appears as though Hil is in denial about the current state of the kingdom. She has a great many supporters in court and on the Floating Palace, and in a culture dominated by the weight of the past, her insistence on proper behaviour and tradition gives her power. She regrets that these fallen times mean that Drinax (and thus Sindal) must bend the knee; but if knee must be bent she would far rather it were to the Vilani of the Imperium than an upstart lion.

Imperial Consul Thao Poloc

Age 53
Capital is very, very far away from Drinax; even the Imperial governor at Pax Rulin is many weeks away. The court of Drinax is not high on the Imperium’s list of plum assignments, even though Emperor Strephon does send greetings every ten years to his ‘beloved cousin’ the King of Drinax. The consul’s role usually involves dealing with lost merchant ships and a little light spying. The current consul, Thao Poloc, is a historian who travelled here to study the last remnants of Sindal. His presence is a reminder that these are probably the final days of a once- glorious empire.

Cleon Hardy

Age 46
When King Oleb conquered Asim, he overthrew the corrupt Foundation and instead put his own nobility to rule over the planet. To ensure the loyalty of the Asim, he invited the inhabitants to select an ombudsman to bring their concerns to court. Cleon Hardy is their current representative; back on Asim, he was an economist and broadcaster. He is out of his depth in the strange court of the Floating Palace, but he’s learning rapidly.

Chieftain Galx

Age unknown (sixties perhaps?)
A representative from one of the larger Vespexer tribal confederations, Galx visits the Floating Palace when it passes over her territory to trade foodstuffs and treasures scavenged from the ruins for high tech supplies. Even in the climate-controlled halls of the palace, she insists on wearing a full-body hazard suit. She regards the Floating Palace as a lesser evil compared to Aslan raiders or the 'sunchaser' cannibals of the Burned Face confederation.

Rachando

Apparent age mid-40s
The trader Rachando has no noble title or aristocratic lineage; he arrived with his battered far trader about a decade ago, but has through generous advances of capital to the feckless Drinaxi nobles become the lynchpin of the economy of the Floating Palace. He supervises the eponymous Rachando’s Bazaar which acts as a clearing house for the trade in Drinaxi artefacts offworld in exchange for essential spare parts. Periodically he acts as a discreet broker for whenever the king needs to sell off some priceless historical treasure to a buyer in the Imperium.

Sal Dancet

Age 31
A free trader and smuggler, Dancet’s ship is one of the few tramp freighters to regularly land at Drinax where she uses the Floating Palace as a safe refuge for repairs and as a hiding place whenever she needs the heat from her latest escapade to die down. She acts as a buying agent for Rachando and various Drinaxi nobles whenever they seek rare goods and commodities from across the Trojan Reach, and is also an excellent source for rumours and information.

Port Captain Silvestral

Age 48
Silvestral is the Star Guard officer in charge of the starport and one of Lord Wrax's proteges, however he has a pragmatic attitude towards pirates when they can be of use to him. If Lord Wrax doesn't ask where the spare parts came from that let Silvestral recommission a couple of the hulks he has at the highport station, then Lord Wrax doesn't need to know.


Backstage
There's not much to add to the background text provided by Pirates Of Drinax. I gender-flipped Sal Dancet to make the M:F balance a bit more even and Port Captain Silvestral was spun up out of whole cloth when my players concocted a scheme to launder their first cargo of booty via a 'sale' of antique ophrim-wood panelling (provided by Silvestral) to the Aslan and the 'purchase' of jump-drive spares (the booty) with the proceeds.