• Overview
  • Map
  • Areas
  • Points of Interest
  • Characters
  • Races
  • Classes
  • Factions
  • Monsters
  • Items
  • Spells
  • Feats
  • Quests
  • One-Shots
  • Game Master
  1. Drift💫A Space Odyssey
  3. Lore

Ravel

At a glance

  • World type. The Caraphex homeworld, a factory world between the Mid and the Rim.

  • What it does. Trains Caraphex work crews and hires them out for heavy, dangerous jobs across the Drift.

  • The Caraphex chain. Ravel sends crews, Shardplain makes tools, Pitchmire pumps fuel, and Mandible Reach breaks ships.

  • Reputation. Hard workers, tight clades and a strong union. Cheat one clade and no clade will work for you.

  • Who runs things. The Clade Council, the Muster Courts, the Contract Exchange and the Safety Office.

  • Buys. Food, medicine, route charts, Vellari water, training simulators and heat-proof parts.

  • Sells. Work crews. Riggers, refinery crews, ship-breakers, crew bosses and safety inspectors.

Role in the Drift

Ravel sends trained Caraphex crews to work sites across the Mid and the Rim. They work ship-breaking yards, storm harvest rigs, refinery stacks, salvage belts, weather towers and big building jobs. A clade is a Caraphex family work crew. Its members live, eat and work together, and they back each other in every fight. Off-world bosses hire whole clades or mixed teams through the Contract Exchange. When a project stalls or a war leaves a mess, carriers stop at Ravel to pick up crews.

History

  • USD 0027.0. The Caraphex constellation forms, with Ravel as the home of the labor clades.

  • USD 0046 to 0050. Authority patrols thin out and demand for crews jumps. Ravel builds more training yards and fast Muster Courts.

  • USD 0064. Ravel sets fair pay rules for Caraphex crews who work next to other species.

  • USD 0088. Debt courts grow on the Rim, and bosses start turning wages into debt. Ravel writes clearer contracts with a way out.

  • USD 0106.2. Syndicates squeeze Caraphex crews for protection money. The Clade Council shares its list of banned bosses with Kedra and Mandible Reach.

Government and law

  • The Clade Council. The Caraphex labor union. Work districts elect its members. It sets training standards, approves hiring schedules, fights for pay floors and calls strikes.

  • Muster Courts. Fast courts that check a crew's contract and pay before it ships out. They also settle fights when crews come home.

  • Safety Office. Gives out and takes away safety ratings, reviews accidents and writes new safety rules.

  • Authority office. A small Central Authority office that checks ship papers and departing crews.

  • Blacklist and Clear List. Bosses who break the rules go on a public blacklist. Crews with clean tours go on a clear list and get hired first.

Law on Ravel is simple and fast. Faking a contract, a tour date or a safety rating gets a quick hearing and a work ban.

Economy

Ravel makes its money on hiring fees, training, simulator time and handling pay. It also runs clinics, rest houses, tool repair and locked storage for gear and wages. Family money houses send wages home while crews are away.

Price drivers. Storm harvest seasons, ship-breaking rushes, beacon outages on key routes, and refinery breakdowns on Pitchmire or Tal.

Ports and districts

  • Muster Ring (orbit). The crew docks. Every outbound crew passes through here for medical checks and contract counters.

  • Contract Exchange (downport). Public boards for open jobs, with the pay, length and danger level of each.

  • Safety Yards. Training towers, pressure halls, vacuum drills, cave-in mazes and suit shops.

  • Clade Spires. Council halls, archives, dorms, mess halls, child care, elder care and money-transfer counters.

  • Pay Row. Houses that hold employer pay, return tickets and emergency funds until a job is done.

  • Inspection Campus. Scanners, suit test labs and inspection rooms.

  • Recovery Ward. Long-term care for hurt workers.

Society and culture

Ravel is loud, crowded and team-first. People are proud of clean tours, finished jobs and a clade that sticks together. Families plan their lives around tours off-world. Whole streets turn out when a big crew ships out or comes home. Children learn safety signs and tool names early. The union hall is the center of each district, with cheap bars on every corner around it. Strike songs are the closest thing Ravel has to folk music.

Languages. Trade Common, plus Caraphex work-cant for tools, signals and hazards. Many crew bosses speak some Keth route terms and basic Synthborn machine talk.

Labor clades

  • Riggers. Lifts, anchor points, frames and safe loads.

  • Breakers. Cutting, sectioning and making dangerous hulls safe.

  • Salvers. Finding, marking and pulling salvage out of debris fields and scrapyards.

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

  • Stormers. Weather rig repair, line runs and storm recovery.

  • Weldwrights. High-heat welding, hull patching and reactor fittings.

  • Foremen. Crew bosses. They track safety ratings and shift logs and deal with employers and courts.

Clades mix as each job needs. Most crews ship out with a foreman and a safety inspector.

Factions and power players

  • The Clade Council. Sets standards, fights for pay floors and hazard bonuses, and calls strikes.

  • Foremen's Compact. Makes sure crew bosses have clean records and current training.

  • Pay Houses. Hold wages, emergency funds, return tickets and death benefits.

  • Contract Houses. Private brokers that match clades to employers. The Council watches them closely.

  • Free Companies. Hired crews who take Ravel workers along for convoy escort, emergency breaking and disaster cleanup.

  • Syndicate recruiters. They try to trap outbound crews in bad contracts. Council stings and public bans keep them moving.

Relations with other worlds

  • Shardplain. Sends tools. Ravel training follows Shardplain tool guides.

  • Pitchmire. Always needs refinery and stack crews.

  • Mandible Reach. Hires ship-breaking crews. End-of-tour pay fights often go to its Salvage Board.

  • Kedra. Contract rules, debt claims and the shared blacklist.

  • Slipwind. Keth route charts and beacon lists for crew convoys.

  • Thalassa-Nine and Salt Crown. Vellari ice and water for long trips.

  • Brightline. Synthborn computers that keep copies of pay records.

Crime and danger

Most crime on Ravel is fraud. People fake tour dates, swap tool lots or forge safety ratings. In bad years, debt traders buy and sell workers' contracts, and the courts go after them. The Muster Ring checks ID chips, contracts and health before anyone leaves. The worst danger is off-world, where bosses cheat crews far from home. Ravel fights back with its clear list, paid return tickets and fast recalls when a crew reports abuse. Syndicate recruiters and loan sharks work the bars around every hiring hall.

Technology and standards

  • Clade chips. Hold a worker's training, accident history and safety rating.

  • Muster bands. Wrist tags tied to a worker's contract, pay and medical status.

  • Safety ratings. Earned through drills, tours and accident-free shifts. Workers need a high rating for more dangerous jobs.

  • Tour logs. Shift and task records kept on Ravel and copied to one other world.

  • Tool lots. Numbered batches of tools, filters and suits, checked when a crew leaves and when it arrives.

Notable places

  • Hall of Muster. The big public job board, with counters for disputes, re-signing and leave.

  • Collapse Maze. Training for cave-ins, hull breaches and tight-space rescues.

  • Hot Box Line. A high-heat training corridor for weldwrights and stackers.

  • Spire Archive. Clade records, contracts and old tour logs.

  • Return Gate. Where crews come home. Medical checks, pay, and families waiting at the rail.

  • Public Blacklist Wall. A live list of banned bosses, fake tool lots and crooked brokers.

Life on Ravel

Days run on shift bells and training blocks. Meals are simple, heavy and cheap. Housing is clean, cramped and close to the work yards. Children go to clade schools that teach tools and safety. Rest days fall when tours end and convoys arrive. Public spaces hold clinics, legal kiosks, money-transfer counters, noodle stalls and small markets for tools and clothes.

Risks and pressure points

  • Bad contracts. Off-world brokers hide clauses or promise hazard cover that does not exist.

  • Fake tool lots. A wave of fakes grounds crews until every lot is checked again.

  • Route trouble. Beacon failures delay crews and drain family support funds.

  • Debt traps. Rim courts turn wages into debt payments. The Council fights back with appeals and strikes.

  • Deaths on the job. Storm seasons and ship-breaking rushes bring more injuries and higher insurance costs.