Ravel

Ravel

At a glance

  • World Type: Mid-rim industrial homeworld of the Caraphex labor clades

  • Primary Role: Training, certification, and export of skilled labor crews for heavy industry, salvage, rigging, and hazardous retrieval

  • Constellation Link (Caraphex): Ravel → Shardplain (tools) → Pitchmire (hydrocarbons) → Mandible Reach (ship-breaking and escrow)

  • Reputation: Disciplined, contract-focused, high output; strict about safety credits and work records

  • Key Institutions: Clade Councils, Muster Courts, Contract Exchange, Safety Rites Office, Inspectorate Attaché, Licensed Escrow Houses

  • Primary Imports: Food staples, medical supplies, navigation updates, water seals, training simulators, high-temp components

  • Primary Exports: Certified labor teams, rigging crews, refinery crews, ship-break crews, bonded foremen, safety auditors

Role in the galaxy

Ravel supplies trained Caraphex crews to worksites across the mid and rim. These include ship-break yards, storm harvest arrays, refinery stacks, salvage belts, weather towers, and heavy construction. Off-world employers contract whole clades or mixed teams through the Contract Exchange. Ravel’s safety credit system and muster records help off-world courts verify training and liability. Many carriers plan a stop at Ravel when they need crews to restart stalled projects or to clear backlogs after conflict.

History and USD markers

  • USD 0027.0: Caraphex constellation is formalized with Ravel named as the labor clade anchor.

  • USD 0046–0050: Demand spikes as patrol capacity thins; Ravel expands training yards and quick-muster courts.

  • USD 0064+: Mixed-crew rules mature; Ravel issues dual-channel pay protocols for Caraphex crews working with non-Caraphex teams.

  • USD 0088+: Debt-court growth in the rim triggers scrutiny of labor contracts; Ravel publishes clearer release clauses and end-of-tour audits.

  • USD 0106.2: Reports confirm ongoing labor extortion attempts in Caraphex sectors; Ravel tightens escrow templates and blacklist sharing with Kedra and Mandible Reach.

Government and law

  • Clade Councils: Elected by work districts; set training standards, approve muster schedules, certify foremen, and represent clades off-world.

  • Muster Courts: Fast civil courts that verify contracts, seals, and escrow before deployment. They also handle return-tour disputes.

  • Safety Rites Office: Issues and revokes safety credits, conducts post-incident reviews, and publishes new procedures.

  • Inspectorate Attaché: A permanent on-world mission that audits seal quality, beacon-permit checks, and bonded departure packets.

  • Blacklists and Clear Lists: Employers with violations enter a public blacklist. Crews with clean tours join a clear list for priority hire.

Law style: Clear rules, documented steps, firm deadlines. Contract fraud, altered timestamps, and forged safety credits result in rapid hearings and work bans.

Economy

Ravel’s economy revolves around training, certification, and labor brokerage. Income comes from muster fees, escrow fees, safety training, simulator time, and post-tour audits. Secondary services include medical clinics, rest and repair, tool calibration, and bonded storage for personal gear and wages. Family remittance houses move wages to dependents during off-world tours.

Price drivers: seasonality of storm harvests and ship-break cycles, beacon outages on key routes, and refinery failures at Pitchmire or Talarq hubs.

Ports and districts

  • Muster Ring (Orbital): High-throughput berths, medical screening, simulator blocks, and contract counters. All outbound crews pass through here.

  • Contract Exchange (Downport): Public boards for open calls, wages, duration, hazard class, and escrow terms.

  • Safety Yards: Training towers, pressure halls, vacuum drills, collapse-response mazes, and seal workshops.

  • Clade Spires: Council halls, archives, dormitories, mess decks, child-care and elder-care blocks, and remittance counters.

  • Escrow Row: Licensed houses that hold employer pay, return tickets, and emergency funds.

  • Inspectorate Campus: Beacon-permit scanners, seal calibration labs, and audit rooms.

  • Recovery Ward: Long-term care for injury cases and reintegration counseling after high-hazard tours.

Society and culture

Ravel is orderly and team-first. People respect schedules, drills, and checklists. Pride comes from clean tours, completed quotas, and strong audit scores. Families are structured around tour cycles. Community events track muster starts and returns. Children learn form literacy, safety language, and route awareness early. Private belief and festivals exist but do not interrupt muster blocks or safety drills.

Languages: Trade Common plus Caraphex work-cant terms for tools, signals, and hazards. Many foremen speak Keth technical terms and basic Synthborn interface language for mixed crews.

Labor clades (functional overview)

  • Riggers: Lifts, anchor points, frame assembly, and safe load plans.

  • Breakers: Cutting, sectioning, de-arming, and hazard neutralization in ship-break and refinery contexts.

  • Salvers: Search, mark, and retrieval in debris fields and scrapyards.

  • Stackers: Refinery stack work, filter changes, seal maintenance, and hot-zone swaps.

  • Stormers: Weather array service, line runs, kite and vane replacement, and surge recovery.

  • Weldwrights: High-temp joinery, composite patching, and reactor-adjacent fittings.

  • Foremen: Contract managers; track safety credits, shift logs, and audit trails; interface with employers and courts.

Clades mix as needed per job and are usually deployed with a bonded foreman and a safety auditor.

Factions and power players

  • Clade Councils: Set standards and negotiate wage floors and hazard bonuses.

  • Foremen’s Compact: Ensures foremen have clean records and current certifications; maintains a shared logbook standard.

  • Escrow Houses Consortium: Manages wage holds, emergency funds, return tickets, and death benefits.

  • Contract Houses: Private brokerages that match clades to employers; watched closely by Councils and the Inspectorate.

  • Free Companies: Hire Ravel crews for convoy escort builds, emergency breaks, and disaster recovery.

  • Syndicate Brokers (covert): Attempt to capture outbound crews with predatory terms; face routine stings, audits, and public bans.

Relations with other worlds

  • Shardplain: Tool supply and calibration standards; Ravel drills mirror Shardplain’s tool guides.

  • Pitchmire: Steady demand for refinery and stack crews; hazard class updates flow both ways.

  • Mandible Reach: Ship-break deployments; escrow mirroring and end-of-tour arbitration.

  • Kedra: Contract templates, lien clarity, and blacklist integration.

  • Slipwind (Keth): Route updates and beacon lists for safe transit of crew convoys.

  • Thalassa-Nine and Salt Crown (Vellari): Water seals and meter standards for long outbound transits.

  • Brightline (Synthborn): Verified compute for escrow and audit mirrors.

Security and crime

Most crime targets paperwork, not people. Common attempts include altering tour timestamps, swapping seal lots, or forging safety credits. Debt-bond trafficking appears during downturns and is prosecuted. The Muster Ring has layered checks: ID chips, contract hashes, escrow proofs, and health clearance. Off-world exploitation is the main risk; Ravel counters it with clear-list employers, bonded return tickets, and fast recall procedures when abuse is reported.

Technology and standards

  • Clade Certificate Chips: Store training blocks, incident history, and current safety credits.

  • Muster Bands: Physical tags linked to contract IDs, escrow keys, and medical status.

  • Safety Credits: Modular units earned through drills, tours, and incident-free shifts; required for hazard-class upgrades.

  • Tour Logs: Immutable shift and task records mirrored on Ravel and a trusted relay world.

  • Seal Lots: Numbered batches for tools, filters, and suits; cross-checked at departure and arrival.

Notable locations

  • Hall of Muster: Public board for open calls, with counters for disputes, re-ups, and leave extensions.

  • Collapse Maze: Training complex for cave-ins, hull breaches, and confined-space rescues.

  • Hot Box Line: High-temp training corridor for weldwright and stacker certification.

  • Spire Archive: Clade records, contracts, and historical tour logs.

  • Return Gate: Processing center for debrief, medical check, pay release, and family reunions.

  • Public Blacklist Wall: Live list of banned employers, counterfeit seal lots, and flagged brokerages.

Life on Ravel

Daily life follows shift bells and training blocks. Meals are simple, high-calorie, and scheduled around drills. Housing is clean and close to work yards. Children attend school modules tied to clade basics and safety rules. Rest days align with tour completions and convoy arrivals. Public spaces include clinics, legal kiosks, remittance counters, and small markets for tools and clothing.

Risks and pressure points

  • Predatory contracts: Off-world brokers add hidden clauses or fake hazard coverage.

  • Seal fraud waves: Counterfeit lots trigger re-inspection and groundings.

  • Route shocks: Beacon failures delay crew rotations and strain family support funds.

  • Debt overflow: Rim crises push courts to convert wages to debt service; Councils push back through appeals.

  • Casualty clusters: Storm seasons and ship-break surges increase injuries and drive insurance spikes.