Haradath: History

See also: Umbar Sub-Sector History, Udcapin, Scott's World, Crorireson

Prehistory c.-5000 to -2000. The spread of Haradath settlement through all the major equatorial archipelagoes was complete by c.-5000 following significant warming of the planet. Though widespread, these settlements were primitive, relying on simple variations of psionic 'scurry control' and gas bladder inflation techniques - staples of prehistoric technologies. Stable conditions led to rising populations, and the merging of family groups into bigger and bigger 'musters' - essentially small tribes growing into early 'proto-states' and a period of vicious war which laid waste to whole archipelagoes. 

Vessel of The Great Sky Muster

Late Prehistory and Classical Times c.-2000 to c.-250: Under population and conflict pressures, groups of proto-states merged, forming a string of early empires that dominated up to a third of the planet's equatorial regions, culminating in the largest and most long-lived: The Great Sky Muster. Gas-filled skin-bladders allowed the Haradath to take early to the air, but the Sky Muster took this to new levels, creating large 'cloud rafts' that allowed them to put down resistance and weld together a territory of scattered islands into a single, centralised territory. Peaking in year c.-600, the Sky Muster was progressively undermined by the rise of air-raiders, Haradath musters on the fringes of the empire's territory, taking to the skies to challenge the Great Sky Muster's authority. Although the Sky Muster's end cannot be tied to a specific date - it declined over a long period - its effective end is dated to -250. 

The Shattering c.-250 BP to c.300: The fall of the Sky Muster led to a period of renewed fragmentation and a lack of significant authority, a period known as 'The Shattering'. In some areas, Haradath civilisation retreated back into the swampy water of their traditional muster territories, but across much f the world technology progressed despite the lack of political unity, psionic skills maintained, spread and advanced by peripatetic psionic practitioners called 'Chanters'. Even following the fall of the Sky Muster it represented the largest concentration of wealth on the planet, and Chanters naturally gravitated there. Beyond Udcapin, year 0 marked the accepted arrival of humanity in the sector, spreading slowly into the cluster, and space around the Haradath homeworld. The fact that this expansion was slow, that Udcapin Prime is a red giant which would have been of less interest to human settlers than neighbouring main series stars, and the fact that local humans lost the secret of the jump drive in c.300 means that despite being on world just a few parsecs apart, humans and Haradath remained ignorant of each other's presence.

Early Modern Emergence, The Chanters Muster c.300 to 844: Older Hardath families, many with origins under the Sky Muster, financed chanters and new industry, leading to an explosion of industrial development and advancement. Though less formal than the Sky Muster, the Chanter's Muster was more enduring and spread over an increasingly broad swath of the equatorial regions. For broadly a millennium, the population rose in tandem with increasing levels of wealth and civilisation. In 649 the Chanters Muster expanding eastwards met the Chanters's Muster expanding west - it had reached right around the planet.

Spacefaring 844 to 1567:  In 844 the Haradath made their first orbit of their world. Their origins in water and experience in the air made the transition to space comparatively easy. By 1000 the Haradath, still with a steadily rising population had colonised orbit and had started to settle some of the other world in the Udcapin system. For the next few centuries, the Haradath strengthened their grip on the system. But in 1567 conflict convulsed the orbital and planetary colonies. The steady progress made by Haradath civilisation had been disrupted by a single thing - a project to build a sub-light speed starfaring vessel, a coloniser to attempt to settle another star system. Outside, humankind had rediscovered jumpdrive and were spreading rapidly through surrounding space. It seems that scouts from Crorireson became aware of the Haradath is 1452, though the Haradath remained ignorant of their human neighbours. Crorireson effectively quarantined Udcapin, seeking rapid exploitation of worlds not yet occupied, and nervousness of the disruptive impact first contact with an alien race might have upon their own restrictive and rigid social system. 

Star faring 1567 to 1812: The Space War - a massive upheaval across the Udcapin system - was triggered by the economic pressure of building the vast coloniser. the project was so vast that it diverted huge amounts of resource, leaving many of the orbital and planetary colonies impoverished, and even core Chanter Muster territories on the surface feeling the strain. The Space War started as a minor rebellion amongst the orbital stations against paying contributions to the coloniser, but rapidly spread. The chanter Muster eventually regained control, but only by granting autonomy to the space settlements and forming a Grand Muster - a loose council to guide the affairs of the system. Largely symbolic though the Grand Muster was, its very existence weakened the Chanters Muster. The Chanters managed to launch their vessel, aimed at Faneron, but the economic strain had sent the muster into decline, and the balance of power in the system shifted increasingly to the space-based settlements. Ironically, despite the fact that the coloniser had been the source o their own rebellion, they launched two such missions themselves. It should be noted that the Haradath broke out of their system during the period in human history known as the Karasen Crash - a period of human retreat and abandonment in this area of space, and meant that it was still to be more than two centuries before the Haradath directly encountered human beings.

Contact 1812 to the present (2874): The two coloniser missions launched by the Grand Muster failed, but it was the second of these, whilst attempting to settle Romair that led to first contact with humans - though it is clear that, having encountered settlements abandoned during the Karasen Crash the Haradath were aware of humanity before they actually met them. A scout vessel from Scott's World chanced across the failing colony in 1812. By c.1900 that colony was no more, many Haradath having died, but many being evacuated back to their homeworld by human ships out of both Scott's World and Crorireson. It is notable that the world of Romair was settled by Scott's Wold once empty of Haradath, and remains a Scott's World colony to this day.

Encountering the widespread and energetic human race, equipped with jump drive, halted any desire from the Haradath to continue outward expansions - indeed, so insular did the system become that they even lost contact with its one successful colony on Faneron. Even as human activity rose and fell around them they retreated back into the bounds of the Udcapin system, formalising the arrangement with the Fairport Convention - an arrangement that persists to this day. However, there is some contention between Scott's World and Crorireson around which world lay's claim to be the principal 'sponsor; of the Haradth in human space - Crorireson as they were the first to encounter Haradath civilisation or Scott's World the organisers of the evacuation of Romair, and having had the first direct dealings with the species. The argument is perhaps an academic one, as by far the largest ' ex-pat' community of Haradath outside Udcapin or Faneron is located on Scott's World.