Length: 3,500+ words
Volturnus Before and After the Day of Doom
An Expanded System Brief
By Joseph Cabadas
Much of Volturnus remains a “Planet of Mystery” even after the players complete the three introductory modules.
The Zebulon star system also is shrouded in confusion especially after the release of Zebulon’s Guide to the Frontier. The modules seem to indicate that the players would already know about the Sathar, but Zeb’s appears to make Volturnus the first-ever known encounter with the evil worms. 
Zeb’s adds a second inhabited planet – Anker – to the system which left many of the game’s fans wondering how it would have been missed in the module’s system brief. Does this world have a breathable atmosphere?
Using information posted by various fans on the StarFrontiers.us website, this story will flesh out Volturnus. As a link between the United Planetary Federation and the Rim Coalition, Zebulon is one of the most important systems in the Frontier.
What the modules tell us of Volturnus
Written by Mark Acres, Tom Moldvay and Doug Niles, the “Crash on Volturnus” module informs the players that the Zebulon system “was first investigated 20 years ago by an unmanned probe launched by Truane’s Star.” The current game year is never explained.
The probe indicated that Volturnus is the only inhabitable planet in the system and may hold great mineral wealth in the form of molybdenum, tungsten, gold and other heavy metals. Circling Volturnus are its two moons, Leo and Lulu.
The system briefing for the referee further mentions that the planet is “named after the Greek god of the southwest wind. Volturnus is a hot, dry world with many types of hostile terrain. The endless deserts, rugged mountains, volcanic wastes and dangerous salt flats are constantly scoured by the southwesterly wind. Despite these harsh conditions, rare patches of forest and even a few lakes have managed to maintain a perilous existence.”
Granted, the entire planet would not be subjected to a “southwesterly wind.” The original description is probably there for poetic reasons. 
With a diameter of 12,895 kilometers, Volturnus would have a surface area of 522,000,000-square-kilometers but the area map provided for the referee only covers a very tiny fraction of the planet – 600-by-400 kilometers or 240,000-square-kilometers.
Imagine looking at Colorado and figuring that is what the rest of Earth looks like. Much of the planet is a vast empty canvas for the referee to fill up and includes a body of water that is described as “the remnant of a vast salt sea that once covered the area.” So there is more water on the plant than just “a few lakes.”
The third module, “Starspawn of Volturnus” further mentions that the planet’s history “is so varied, and areas of it have been purposely left blank, that any number of adventures of the  referee’s own making cold be fit onto this bizarre planet.” Of course, game masters always have the option of altering modules to fit their own campaigns.
The planet was devastated by the Sathar some 900 years ago, but enough life remained for the Eorna to manipulate to create the Ul-Mor, Edestekai and Kurabanda. Other creatures included winged rippers to lopers, yernoids, land whales and more for Dungeons & Dragons type of menagerie.
Timeline Problems and Anker
An early article provided background material about the Volturnus expeditions and the history of Truane’s Star. Written by Stephen Bonario for issue 98 of Dragon magazine and entitled “The Zebulon Connection,” the story said that a “human merchant named Seccitte Zebulon” had misjumped into the then uncharted system in the year 44 FY. He later sold his astrological information to the government of Pale.  
Yet the Zebulon’s Guide timeline provides us with a different version and seemingly destroys the purpose of the modules at the same time.
According to Zeb’s: “61 PF The Zebulon system is discovered by Professor Alorne Zebulon, the Frontier’s most noted scientist, explorer, and educator. The planet Volturnus is settled almost immediately. Anker is discovered but not settled until 57 PF… 
“57 PF Anker (Zebulon system) is explored and settled. Professor Zebulon founds the University of Zebulon.”
Needless to say, the flawed Zeb’s timeline has led to a great deal of consternation by fans of the Volturnus modules. 
Many have tried to create their own alternative timelines, while salvaging the useful information from the TSR book. One of the most recent endeavors was the “Canon Non Zeb’s Guide Timeline” (http://www.starfrontiers.us/node/9300) that set the three modules around the year 65 FY as was established in Bonario’s story.
For the purposes of this article, we will (mostly) forget that the Zeb’s timeline exists, but we will rescue Anker from the book. Anker is listed first in Zebulon’s Guide, possibly indicating it lies closer to the star than Volturnus though this is unclear. 
With one moon, Anker’s gravity is 0.9 and its day is 20 hours long. “The site of the University of Zebulon, the Frontier’s largest and most prestigious institution of learning,” Zeb’s says, “the entire planet has been set aside for the U of Z, as well as one of the Frontier’s largest zoos.”
One could argue that the description in Zeb’s seems to indicate that Anker might have a breathable atmosphere. Then again, if the atmosphere was hostile to the Core Four races, the university and the zoo might actually be housed in biospheres.
Volturnus Before the Day of Doom
We can conjecture that Volturnus had a much gentler environment than the Frontier adventurers found 900 years after the Day of Doom. My concept is that its climate was already moving from being a garden planet to a post-garden world where it was getting progressively hotter. 
At the height of the Eornan civilization, they could control the weather and tapped the power of the planet’s core. Vast deserts still covered the equatorial regions, but the burning lands, salt flats and the like didn’t dominate the world.
Instead, the planet had lush forests and expansive plains where land whales and rollers were allowed to roam in nature preserves. The Eorna had 52 mega cities, including its capital Volkos, which covered hundreds of kilometers of crystalline and stone buildings along with vast parks and artificial lakes. Only a few volcanoes actively spewed eruptions while the north and southern oceans were linked by the shallow Hlnarr Sea. 
The naming conventions for various places on the map were developed by Aemonaylward, who is another member of the StarFrontiers.us website. Other sites bear a later Pan-Gal translation.
“I tried to stick to a few similar morphemes – you could say they are rooted in Middle Eornan – including ‘vol-’ (city), ‘kalx-’ (place of), ‘amnad-’ (mountain),” Aemonaylward wrote. “Variations on those roots could be clustered in different areas which were once the different Eornan nations, with their divergent tongues.”
Along with Volkos, other major Eorna cities included: Vorfrix, Vortuluntux, Volurtsh, Vorfolx, and Volsapsh. 
Vorfrix was the site of major cultural institutions and museums, set along the inland Hlnarr Sea. Vortuluntux was once the capital of a major Eorna nation. Volurtsh was a national capital. Vorfolx was a major industrial city with robotics factories; the Mechanons could have a major presence here. Volsapsh was another capital city and major industrial center.
The Sathar bombardment destroyed the Eorna’s artificial climate controls and power systems, helping to radically change the world’s climate. 
Nine centuries later, deserts and burning lands covered much of the planet. Hlnarr Sea would be renamed as the Salt Sea by Frontier explorers. Though not entirely dry, salt flats dominate the area where the sea once supported a vast underwater eco-system. This is where the proto-Ul-Mor once lived.
A number of actively erupting volcanoes spew ash and soot into the atmosphere while lava flows have buried some of the evidence of the Eorna’s civilization. In other areas, the remains of the vast cities continue to decay as nature reasserts itself.
Looking at the Zebulon System
Unlike some of the later Star Frontiers modules published by TSR, we know very little about the Zebulon system other than what was in Zebulon’s Guide.
Was the system discovered by Seccitte Zebulon, a merchant, or the great explorer Alorne Zebulon? Are Seccitte and Alorne really one in the same person?
It does not appear that the writers of Zebulon’s Guide gave much thought about incorporating the first three modules into their revamped game universe. Nor did they seemingly use Bonario’s article in Dragon magazine as a guide.
The modules never indicate that anyone explored the route to Zebulon other than saying a robotic probe was sent there. The referee can scrap both Seccitte and Alorne and go with the modules explanation that a probe was used to chart the route. Or a referee could draw on Bonario’s story that the human merchant discovered the route to the system. 
If you like having an Indiana Jones-like figure, then you can rescue the personage of Professor Alorne Zebulon – the Frontier’s greatest explorer – but alter the timeline. You might even argue that Seccitte and Alorne are one in the same person – i.e. he was a merchant became a great explorer or maybe he was an explorer first, fell on hard times, and was scratching out an existence as a merchant before charting the route to Volturnus.
One other alternative exists. 
Alorne and Seccitte are related individuals. Both would lay claim to discovering the route to the Zebulon star system and had a legal battle that helped delay the opening of the star route to exploration and colonization by others.
That last alternative is one that I am using for my campaign. I decided that the Zebulons were cousins who once worked together. They had split up and became bitter rivals, but that is the subject for another story. 
Note, altering the Zeb’s timeline also means that the UPF would not have contact with the Rim Coalition until after the Volturnus modules are played.
A More Detailed System Brief
A detailed Zebulon system brief was posted in 2009 on the StarFrontiers.us website by Chris D. Putnam. A contributor to the old Star Frontiersman magazine, Putnam’s brief was part of his fan-created but incomplete rewrite of the three modules under a project called “Staging Ground Volturnus.” 
What follows is based on Putnam’s work.
System Data: Zebulon 
Spectral Type: G2 Yellow
Total Planets: 4 
Asteroid Belts: 2
Inhabited Planets: Anker, Volturnus
Major Trade Routes:
•	Pale and New Pale (Truane’s Star) – Distance: 5 light years
•	Faire, Homeworld, Ifshna (Capella) – Distance: 10 light years

Diagram created by Chris D. Putnam
System History
Zebulon is a G-class main sequence star that contains two asteroid belts and four major planets. The entire system appears to have been influenced by the gravitational capture of Star’s Hope sometime in the distant past.
It was the home system of the Eorna who developed space travel. They had explored several nearby systems in what today is the modern Frontier Sector before the Sathar attacked and virtually annihilated their civilization. The Xagag Dust Cloud and the Lesser Morass Nebula offer brilliant displays to travellers through the system.
Zebulon’s Planets and Asteroid Belts

Image by http://donjon.bin.sh

Anker (Zebulon I) is a hot world, close to Zebulon but still within the habitable zone. Before the Day of Doom, the Eorna had several small colonial cities housed in bio-spheres. Their terraforming operations were disabled during the Sathar attack. The UPF reactivated the biospheres, which became home to the University of Zebulon and one of the Frontier’s largest zoos. Population: moderate (approx. 250,000), mixed. Trade: E (Education). Atmosphere: medium, unbreathable. Hydrosphere: 21 percent water, 1 percent ice. Orbital Radius: 0.81 AU, Period: 0.37 GST years, Gravity: 0.9, Day: 20.1 GST hours, Satellites: Plato. GodCo has been contracted to restart the terraforming process, which is expected to take more than two centuries. Before 111 FY Star Play had established a Rest and Recreation Station (RSS) in orbit.
Volturnus (Zebulon II) is a habitable planet with infrared signatures of nitrogen, oxygen, water, and water vapor in the atmosphere. Volturnus is the Pan-Gal name for the planet which is homeworld of the Eorna and their “starspawn” that include the Ul-Mor, Kurabanda, Edestekai and the Mechanons. (A fifth intelligent race, the Arborean, was introduced as an optional race by R. Kevin Smoot in issue 6 of Star Frontiersman magazine.) The planetary brief is written from the year 111 FY.
Asteroid Belts: (Zebulon III and IV). These asteroid belts appear to have been generated by gravitational collapse of planets in the Zebulon system when Star’s Hope was captured. One asteroid belt is at 1.83 AU and the other is at 5.74 AU. They are dense enough in places to be a problem for interstellar flight. All incoming vessels are suggested to enter the system between Star’s Hope and Zebulon VI before heading to Volturnus or Anker. This may add several days to a ship’s journey. 

Image of a brown dwarf star. Source: https://www.flickr.com/photos/gsfc/19641761103/in/dateposted/

Star’s Hope (Zebulon V) is a massive gas giant that is very close to the mass of a brown dwarf. The orbit of Star’s Hope is in the opposite direction of all other objects in the system and is tilted by 20 degrees off the plane of the ecliptic of the other worlds, suggesting that it was a rogue planet that was captured by Zebulon. The Eorna have known about the world for all of their recorded history. During the height of their civilization, they had small research outposts here, but they were abandoned after the Day of Doom. Atmosphere: dense, unbreathable. Orbital Radius: 10.56 AU. Period: 34.92 GST years. Satellites: 5 small moons, 11 large moons. Ten of the large moons have their own atmospheres; seven have water.
Sub-Zero (Zebulon VI) is an ice planet that may have been formed by a number of Kuiper belt objects coming together. The Eorna once had a robotic research station here, but the facility has been abandoned for nearly a millennia. Atmosphere: trace, unbreathable. Orbital Radius: 41.4 AU. Period: 270.91 GST years. Gravity: 1.2. Satellites: 4 small moons.
Planetary Brief
Volturnus (Zebulon II)
Moons:  1) Leo: Completes an orbit every three days, reddish-orange in color. The Eorna once had a defense installation here with defense laser batteries and a squadron of heavy fighters.
2) Lulu: Completes one orbit every 27 hours, bluish-silver in color. The Eorna once had lunar colonies here, but they have been abandoned since the Day of Doom. 
Space Stations: Armed Space Station (ASS).
Distance from Star: 1.13 AU
Axis Inclination: 8 degrees
Climate Range: Hot, arid to humid. Average surface temperature: 25 degrees C
Atmosphere: Breathable, 78% nitrogen, 21% oxygen, 1% argon
Hydrosphere: 30% water, 15% ice
Gravity: 1.0013
Colonists: Multiple, Light (approx. 90,000 by 111 FY)
Trade:  BIR (Business, Industrial, Resource)
Diameter: 12,895 kilometers
Length of Day: 24 GST Hours, 03 GST Minutes
Length of Year: 1.21 GST Years
Native Life and Population: 
1)	Eorna, a race of dinosaur-like bipedals. They are the original sentient race on Volturnus. Population: Light, more than 50,000. 
2)	Ul-Mor, a nomadic race of novepi (nine-limbed creatures) that were first encountered in the deserts but live across the southern hemisphere. Related to the nomadic tribes are the “Sea-Mor.” They live along and in the water, but are basically the same as their land-dwelling cousins. Population: Moderate, Approx. 420,000. 
3)	Kurabanda, a race of mostly forest-dwelling bipeds similar to tarsier monkeys. Many have developed the use of hang gliders for hunting. Population: Moderate, Approx. 380,000.
4)	Edestekai, hill-dwelling tripeds, trilaterally symmetrical. They have developed farms and worship quickdeaths. Population: Moderate, Approx. 220,000.
5)	Mechanons, a race of mysterious intelligent machines that arose from the Eorna’s robots. They mostly live underground and use a vast array of transport tubes (subways) but they have a heavy presence in the old Eorna city of Vorfolx. Prior to the Mechanon migration, their estimated population (including robots of lower intelligence) is estimated to be moderate – approximately 6.5 million. By 111 FY, their remaining population on Volturnus is still estimated to be moderate but numbering less than 500,000. Approximately 10 percent of this populace includes “true,” higher-caste Mechanons. Many are hostile to biological life forms. 
6)	Arboreans, a race of flightless avians (optional). Derided by some Human observers as “chicken men,” the Arboreans are a more recent Eorna effort to raise up yet another species to sentience. They have domesticated Volturnian Eagles and Air Whales. Population: Moderate, Approx. 150,000. 
Planet Description: 
Named after the pagan Human god of the southwest wind, Volturnus is a hot, dry world with many types of hostile terrain. Its endless deserts, rugged mountains, volcanic wastes and dangerous salt flats are often scoured by a strong wind. 
Despite these harsh conditions, two small, salt oceans, fresh water lakes and streams, shard grass plains and a few forests manage to maintain a perilous existence. The planet has eight continental plates, though six of the continents appear fused together in a giant Pangaea-like land mass. The north pole continent is mostly covered with ice sheets while the south pole continent is a bit larger with habitable areas where the ruins of two Eorna cities can be found.
Volturnus is the Pan-Gal name for the Eorna’s homeworld, which originally was called Rha’atha in the Middle Eornan dialect.
Major planetary features include:
•	Amandstruk Valley. Once a series of fresh water rivers, lakes and seas, this is a major fault line where earthquakes occur.
•	Arkalmnad Mountains. This is an area where the Eorna mined crystals for use in their buildings, ships and robots.
•	Crystal Mountains. These crystalline peaks are east of Volkos. A small range, it is not shown on the world map but does appear on the geodesic triangle map. Its mountain tops gleam in the sunlight on clear days.
•	Fire Mountains. Similar to the Gas Mist Mountains, this range has a number of active volcanoes. At night, the glow of lava can be seen for many kilometers away. 
•	Glurmnadi Mountains. This range is on a peninsula that juts out into the Salt Sea.
•	Great Central Desert. Covering thousands of square kilometers, it is bounded between the Spalkalx Mountains to the north; the Arkalmnad Mountains to the west; the Fire Mountains, Mist Mountains and Crystal Mountains to the south; and extends eastward all to the Amandstruk Valley. Although once much smaller, this ancient desert has existed for all of the Eorna’s recorded history.
•	Heartbreak Ridges. Previously known as the Yahlormnador Mountains, this was the site of many survival shelters built by the Eorna in times past by one of their nations when the race was not so peaceful. During the Sathar attack, many refugees fled to this region only to die. The Eorna survivors had hoped to find more of their kind living in these shelters but found only death. Heartbreak Ridges is the Pan-Gal translation of the Eornan name for the region.
•	Kalxfol Canyon. A great series of rifts in the earth. It is actually a fault line where violent earthquakes occur.
•	Mist Mountains. Also called the “Gas Mist Mountains,” a spur of this range runs near the city of Volkos. Ash clouds, smoke and foul gases tend to cover these peaks due to off gassing from volcanoes and volcanic vents. 
•	Olkursht Mountains. This is the range found on a large island that is at the north end of the Salt Sea.
•	Olmnad Mountains. A range bordering the Salt Sea’s southwestern shore.
•	Olmnadk Mountains. A mountain range along the northwestern shore of the Salt Sea.
•	Olsymnadt Mountains. A range along the eastern shore of the Salt Sea.
•	Rinoktkalk Waste. Another formerly garden region, it now has some of the harshest burning lands and rocky barrens on the planet. The remains of five Eorna mega-cities can be found here.
•	Salt Sea. This is the ancient Hlnarr Sea, which had mostly dried up by the time the Frontier discovered Volturnus. This area is mostly covered by salt flats, but with some areas of open salt water. Although some parts of it seem solid, there are many areas where briny rivers and lakes of water exist underneath. Persons – or vehicles – crossing these flats may encounter weak spots where they can fall through the crust and drown.
•	Spalkalx Mountains. A huge are of mountains, plateaus and valleys in the northern hemisphere, this region is the site of many old Eorna mining operations and towns. It still has rich deposits of rare earth metals needed to make starship engines and advanced parabatteries.
•	Star Devil’s Cauldron. Another secret site where the Star Devil Pirates had established operations.
•	Sythnakalk Desert. Once a vast, lush forest and shard grass plain region, only a remnant of woods and farmland remain along the northern ocean. It is bounded by the Heartbreak Ridges and the Sythnamnadar Mountains to the south.
•	Sythnamnadar Mountains. A range of crystalline peaks that is much larger than the Crystal Mountains near Volkos.
•	Volsapsh Waste. This northern plain, now covered by deserts, rocky barrens and burning lands is named after the ruined mega-city of Volsapsh.
The map key on page 3 of the Crash on Volturnus module provides explanations for other features that can be found planet-wide such as:
•	Bachanda Forest. Giant thorn plants cover the floor of the forests so creatures must travel along the limbs of giant bachanda trees.
•	Burning Lands. This barren, rocky ground often ignites when its free phosphorous contacts the atmosphere.
•	Rocky Barrens. Though desolate and stark, this dry, rocky wilderness has more vegetation than the deserts.
•	Shard Plains. The shard plains are covered by vast areas of glass-like shard grass. The grass cuts any creature walking through it.
A discussion of the ancient Eorna and their civilization will be in a separate story.
Regional Map Around Volkos
The geodesic triangle map provides a closer look of the region around the city of Volkos. This was created using the maps created by GDW for its Traveller 2300 game.
Each hex is 1,000 kilometers wide, so the Volturnus map would fit within one hex. Here the Crystal mountains are shown along with a spur of the Gas Mist Mountains and a small area of desert.
The Sea of Klaalbet represents the water south of the desert and salt flats on the TSR Volturnus map. If feeds into the much larger Southern Ocean.
The ruined city of Volmrenna that is east of Volkos was once a seaside community known for its artistic works and manufacturing capabilities. Due to earthquakes and the Sathar bombardment, about half of the ruins now lie underwater.
The ruins of Volaeddolv on the Isle of Kalxixuxxi was once a port city, but as the waters retreated, it is now more than 100 kilometers inland, bordering salt flats and small salty lakes on one side and bachanda forests on the other.
Population Distribution Map
The populations provided for the various races are based on a population growth calculator (http://www.metamorphosisalpha.com/ias/population.php). If the Eorna started with about 150 individuals 900 years ago, assuming they all didn’t go into stasis, at a growth rate of 0.012, they would have had a populace of nearly 6.8 million some 900 years later.
However, their growth rate is lower because of the devastation and the fact that not all 150 of the survivors were of reproduction age. If only 50 Eorna could have children, with a growth rate of 0.005, they would have a population of 4,450 nine centuries later. 
Since the module says that the Eorna had many children with genetic defects, let’s say 50 percent, they might still have a populace of 2,225. 
If about 40 percent of the 2,225 normal Eorna are of combat/working age, which means nearly 900 would have been available to fight the Sathar in the last Volturnus module.  
Of course not all of them would be available or be armed – some would be kept in reserve or were elsewhere on the planet. So the module’s figure of about 100 laser-armed Eorna fighting alongside Colonel Jameson would be about right.
The remaining population figures for the Ul-Mor, Kurabanda, Edestekai and Arboreans were based on an initial populace of 1,000. The Mechanon figure was arrived at by an estimate of what rate they would build more machines.
None of the races – except for the Mechanons and later the Eorna – would have any major communities of more than a few hundred. They are scattered about the planet.
Hopefully these details will make Volturnus a little less of a mystery for the referee.