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  1. Drift💫A Space Odyssey
  3. Lore

Keth

Overview

The Keth are tall, thin gliders with skin sails between their arms and body. They chart the Jump Lanes and keep the beacons running. A Jump Lane is a mapped faster-than-light route between star systems. Keth beacons mark each one, and leaving a lane is how ships get lost. Nearly every ship in the Drift flies on Keth charts.

Keth keep their word and expect others to do the same. Their saying is simple. Say only what you can do, and then do what you said. Syndicates sell fake charts, so a real Keth chart is worth a lot in any port.

History and Worlds

The Keth constellation has three worlds.

  • Slipwind is the homeworld, a canyon world whose cities hang on the cliffs, joined by cables and trams. The Collective, the Keth navigators' league, is based here and keeps the Archive of Routes.

  • Harlune builds turbines and power parts for beacons, ports and heavy engines. Many power grids in the Mid run on Harlune parts.

  • Vastris runs long-range relay towers, builds beacons, and sells salvage maps that show crews where the wrecks are.

The Keth published the first Archive of Routes from Slipwind in the year 2. By the year 10 the Jump Lanes were mapped and marked with beacons. Two years later, syndicates started selling illegal shortcut routes, and ships started vanishing on them. The Keth have been fighting fake charts ever since.

Body

Keth have hollow bones, long necks, angular faces and big sharp eyes made for seeing far. Their skin runs from light gray to copper. Thin skin sails stretch between their arms and body, and in low gravity they can glide across a hangar or down a canyon. Their blood carries a lot of oxygen, so thin air does not bother them.

Their light bones make them fragile. Steep metal stairs and hard landings hurt their joints. On a ship, a Keth would rather take a ramp. In heavy gravity they tire fast.

Culture and Daily Life

Keth towns grow along cliff edges, linked by cables and trams. Each town is a canton, a local community that runs itself. Every canton keeps a public board where people post what they promised and when they did it. Once a promise goes on the board, a Keth treats it as a contract.

Children learn to read a chart and spot a failing beacon before they learn to cook. Young Keth practice cable crossings and glides with a teacher watching. Meals are short. Work comes first.

With outsiders, Keth are direct. Do not ask them for "about a week" or "roughly that much". Give an exact date, an exact amount and an exact price. If a captain cannot promise that, the Keth walk away.

Politics and Law

Cantons send delegates to the Collective. Delegates are picked for good work, not for popularity. The Collective publishes lane updates and hazard warnings, fixes beacons, and can close a lane it thinks is unsafe. Members get updates first. Everyone else pays more and waits. Closing a lane makes a lot of people angry, but leaving a bad lane open kills crews, so the Collective closes first and argues later.

Under Keth law, faking a chart or tampering with a beacon is one of the worst crimes there is. Many ports outside Keth space treat it the same way.

Work and Risk

On the ground, Keth crews build cableways, trams and wind farms. In space they fly the lanes, fix beacons, and check that routes are safe. When a beacon fails, the lane near it turns dangerous, and old charts send ships off into the dark. Since the Rim beacons started failing in the year 85, Keth repair crews have had more work than they can handle.

Keth money comes from chart updates, Harlune power parts, and salvage maps from Vastris. The main threats are fake charts, stolen beacon parts, and tampered signals. Free Companies get hired to guard Keth repair crews, track down stolen beacons, and find out who is selling fake charts in Rim markets.

How Others See Them

Most species see the Keth as honest and exact. The usual complaint is that they never bend. The usual answer is that bending gets people killed on a bad lane.

  • Caraphex work well with Keth on salvage claims, because both want a clear deal.

  • Vellari plan their ice runs around Keth lane updates.

  • Synthborn get along with Keth, since neither of them likes a vague promise.

  • Humans make deals with Keth often and lose patience with them just as often.

A captain who fakes a Keth chart or lies in a Keth deal is finished with the Keth for good, and word travels fast between cantons.