Latarra

Latarra is a world in the Veil of Marinus, located beyond Imperial control. Its sun is pale. At lower latitudes, winters produce days that are merely cool. Leaves and grass on terrace gardens appear nearly black in the local light. The capital, the Printed City (also called the White City), is built across low hills.

Latarra operated under a meritocratic social order with no distinction between palatine and plebeian. The population included common humans, Extrasolarians, dryads, chimeras, and homunculi, all living as free persons. The Monarch promised eternal life through the technology of Vorgossos to those who served him. The streets of the Printed City contained poverty as well as wealth, with bodyshops, bonecutters, gene tailors, and natalists, alongside public executions in the plaza before the pyramid.

Latarra was governed by Calen Harendotes, the Monarch, who operated outside Imperial authority for over a century. The Monarch commanded an estimated half a million ships and held a peace treaty with the Sollan Empire, under which Latarra served as suzerain over several thousand Norman worlds. Harendotes had traded with MINOS and conquered Ashklam, and an Extrasolarian transport intercepted by Imperial scouts departing Latarra was used to locate a hidden MINOS base in the unnamed binary system VA-91:35 DB-639. The Grand Army of Latarra comprised twelve fleets, each named for a standard month, commanded by twelve Commandant Generals; three were former Imperial officers: Lorian, Gadkari, and Harred. Military livery was black and gold bearing a solar-crowned falcon emblem; forces included hussars and cephalophores. Latarran fleets had engaged at Eragassa and Nida. The Lothriad threat to both powers had partly driven negotiations between the Monarchy and the Empire.

Harendotes was a variant of Kharn Sagara conditioned to believe himself an independent ruler. The New Order was engineered by Sagara from the beginning, with its sole purpose being to restore Sagara to Vorgossos. A Sagara-manufactured telegraph receiver for monitoring Cielcin communications remains operational on Latarra.

Following Harendotes's death, the Monarchy collapsed entirely. Lord Black, one of its figures, was dead by the time forces returned from Vorgossos. Factions tore the kingdom apart. Lorian, together with fellow Commandants-General Tolten, Gadkari, and Harred — each of Imperial extraction — formed the Roundtable Fleet from what remained. The Roundtable Fleet claimed the Norman Expanse by right of arms and sought Imperial recognition as the legitimate government of the Norman stars. Its forces continue to identify with their origins, with dragoon units bearing GAL (Grand Army of Latarra) unit designations. Latarra also served as a transit point: Selene traveled from Latarra to Danu in the aftermath of the Monarchy's collapse.

**The Printed City (White City)**: The capital of Latarra, built from scratch by Harendotes using machine-manufactured stone — great bricks of limestone and pure dolomite fitted about skeletons of adamant and steel, with edges so perfectly smooth that no moss or grass grows between them. The city glows with warm light at night due to the refraction index of its artificial stone. It is built across low rolling hills.

**The Maze**: The outer districts of the Printed City, consisting of grounded starships that serve as the original foundation of the city and as power generators. Fusion reactors produce visible pillars of steam above the district. Adamantine hulls from these ships were harvested and their carbon transformed into the limestone used in construction.

**The Citadel**: Located at the center of the Maze. An ancient castellated palace was demolished and replaced by a rising ziggurat of adamant and steel that was still under construction. An imitarium is located near the top of the structure.

**Facade**: The royal quarter district of the Printed City.

**Plaza before the pyramid**: A public space in the Printed City used for executions and public punishments.