Kelerond Monarchy

The Kelerond Monarchy of the Shackleton Expanse spans three neighbouring star systems bound together under the rule of the royal family of Kelerond III. From their throne-world, the monarchs have commanded fleets of slow-haul colony ships and military enforcers, maintained the loyalty and control of distant vassals through faith and force, and governed a rigid society where noble houses dictate the lives of billions.

For thousands of years, the Shroud made Kelerond’s dominion viable, vassal worlds and colonies kept reliant on the homeworld and its control of the flow of resources and isolated from one another. In recent months, high-speed warp now links these worlds in days, and the monarchy’s authority wavers as colonies and vassals grow in unrest.

Overview

The Kelerond, Secundus, and Tertius systems all boast multiple settled worlds and moons, though beyond the homeworld, most are hyper-specialised in their industrial production - a choice which keeps individual communities reliant on the crown to see to their other needs.

Kelerond III itself is a temperate, mountainous world, rich in resources, with vast cities boasting monumental architecture and palatial estates that contrast with the industrial slums and rough rural settlements where the common folk labour. This disparity in grandeur and quality of life is reflected across the Monarchy. Orbital platforms maintain fleets of transports and defence, the latter designed as much for enforcing control within the Monarchy’s borders as protecting it from enemies beyond.

Secundus is largely an agricultural powerhouse, worlds boasting fertile plains and oceanic farms that feed the Monarchy’s billions. Tertius is a harsher system of rocky worlds and mining colonies, its mineral wealth fuelling industry. Both live under the strict supervision of noble stewards who tithe heavily to the crown.

The Kelerond

The Kelerond people themselves are humanoid, tall and slender, with pale bronze skin and sharp facial ridges along the jawline to their ears. They prize lineage, tradition, and personal honour. Noble families maintain genealogical records stretching back centuries, which they use to ‘prove’ their right to rule over commoners, who are kept under-educated and live much harder and shorter lives than the wealthy rulers.

Religion venerates the crown as divinely ordained, with temples and rituals reinforcing loyalty to the monarch as both ruler and spiritual guardian. Nobility is stratified into great houses ruling entire worlds and lesser houses bound as vassals, their rivalries shaping court politics as much as royal decree. Duels, lavish feasts, and intricate codes of etiquette dominate the culture of the elite, while commoners cling to local traditions of storytelling and communal labour for pride.

The royal family of Kelerond traces its lineage back over a thousand years. The late monarch, Queen Arandel IV, reigned for five decades with an iron grip, but left only one heir: Crown Princess Maeril, a young but well-educated leader who has not yet been crowned. With various factions among noble houses, militaristic border rulers, and growing dissatisfaction among the common folk - particularly among Kelerond’s colonies in all three systems - the crown’s future stands uncertain.

Encounters

Any or several of these plot hooks can be used for a mission using the Kelerond Monarchy as a setting.

• The Coronation: Starfleet travellers are honoured guests, and invited to witness the coronation of Princess Maeril. More than a ceremonial duty, participation is to enter a den of politics and factions who would use Starfleet to support their own agenda.
• Uprising: Violence strikes the proceedings, erupting between rival heirs or rebel factions. Will Starfleet intervene to protect innocents, or risk accusations of meddling in local politics?
• Colonial Rebellion: Colonial leaders - perhaps commonfolk rebels - seek Starfleet mediation in their demands for independence. Loyalists call this treason, and the crew must balance diplomacy with neutrality.
• Outside Bargains: Discontented nobles secretly seek Romulan or Klingon support, offering resources or territory in exchange for aid against rivals.
• Dark Origins: Ancient Kelerond ruins hint at Vezda influence, their monarchic traditions perhaps rooted in manipulations millennia ago. How much should be revealed to locals, and do any cults linger?

In Play

• Kelerond is an old-fashioned monarchy, ruling through archaic and unequal principles, reliant upon oppression and exploitation of its people to maintain the lifestyle and power of the elite. It is steeped in the pageantry of ceremony, the decadence of nobility, and desperation of those on the precipice of change - resisting it or seeking it.
• Starfleet’s challenge is not military, but political. Captains must navigate diplomacy while being called on to help support innocents, right injustice, maintain political stability, and uphold law.
• The Prime Directive’s non-interference policy is murkier when the Shroud - and perhaps the monarchy’s very origins - stem from outside interference, and Starfleet played a role in its collapse.