Tal

At a glance

World type. Talarq homeworld, a hot Core world full of foundries.
Main work. Reactor baffles and liners, drive nozzles, thermal tiles, furnace parts and heatproof tools.
Constellation. Talarq. Tal makes the parts, Scoria supplies the heatproof stock, and Obsidian Reach tests them.
Who runs it. The Forge, the Talarq foundry guild, from Crucible Crown.
Reputation. A part with the Forge mark will not blow up on you. A fake one might.

What Tal is

Tal is where the Drift's heatproof parts get cast, baked, forged and finished. If a ship, refinery or power station needs a part that holds its shape in a reactor's heat, the order probably goes through Tal.

The Talarq are heavy, stone-skinned people who love heat. They work bare-armed next to furnaces that would put a human in the clinic. They are proud of their work, and they take it personally when a part fails.

The Forge mark is Tal's most famous product. It is a stamp on a finished part. It means Forge crafters made the part and Forge inspectors broke a sample from the same batch to test it. Captains pay extra for it. That is why fake Forge parts are one of the biggest black markets in the Drift.

History

USD 0004. Forge-marked reactor parts become the standard across the Drift. Every shipyard starts buying from Tal.
USD 0029. The Talarq constellation forms around Tal, Scoria and Obsidian Reach.
USD 0048 to 0060. Tal builds big locked warehouses for dangerous ceramics and metals.
USD 0100 onward. New marks that are harder to copy cut down on fake parts on the Core routes. Out on the Rim, the fakes are still everywhere.

Who runs Tal

The Forge. The foundry guild. Its masters meet in the Grand Crucible in Crucible Crown. They decide who gets furnace time, who gets the big orders, and whose mark gets taken away.
The Heatline Inspectorate. The Forge's own inspectors. They pull random parts off the line, break them in burn tunnels, and can shut down a shop that cuts corners. They also hunt the people who make knockoffs.
The Central Authority. Runs customs at the ports and the court at Port Obsidia Gate, which hears cases about fake parts and broken deals.

Selling fake Forge parts on Tal means a closed shop, seized cargo and a ban from every Talarq market. The Forge treats it as sabotage.

Places

Foundry Crown. The oldest foundry belt, with giant furnaces, casting lines and stamp halls.
Sinter Step. Where powder is pressed and baked into brick.
Quench Array. Long pools of cold water and gas bays where hot parts are cooled and hardened.
Metrology Row. Measuring houses and labs that crack, scan and weigh sample parts. It has a small museum of famous failures.
Materials Exchange. The auction floor where ore, crucibles and heating elements are bought and sold.
Port Tal-Prime. The main cargo lift to orbit, with inspection arches and locked warehouses.
Port Glaive. Bulk cargo from Scoria comes in here, with a direct rail line to Sinter Step.
Port Obsidia Gate. Outbound cargo for Obsidian Reach and the Core. The Authority court sits here.

The main cities are Crucible Crown, Baffleforge, Basalt Ascendant, Quench Meridian and Sinterfall. Emberline Station is Tal's main port in orbit.

Work and life

Shifts follow the furnaces, not the clock. When a furnace is running, the crew stays. When it goes down for repair, the whole district takes a holiday. Children start apprenticeships young and learn metal, heat and safety before anything else. A crafter's rank comes from the work, and every Talarq smith can name the master who trained them.

Talarq homes, bars and canteens are kept hot enough to make humans sweat through their clothes. Visitors learn to drink a lot of water. The food is heavy. Grain stew, mineral slurry, roast fungus and hot iron tea are on every canteen menu. A Talarq who likes you will offer you the seat by the heater. Take it.

Languages. Trade Common with a lot of Talarq foundry words mixed in.

Power players

Core Foundry Syndicate. A group of the biggest foundry lines. It bargains for ore and convoy space.
Independent Stampers League. Small shops that take custom and rush jobs.
Broker houses. Middlemen who match buyers to foundries and take a cut.
Tool-Makers Circle. Makes crucibles, heating elements, molds and measuring kits for the whole constellation.
Worker cohorts. Crews organized by foundry line. They run the safety drills and fight for heat pay.

Crime and trouble

Knockoff parts. The big one. Forgers stamp fake Forge marks on cheap parts and sell them on the Rim, where nobody checks. Some are made on Tal by shops that lost their mark. The Heatline Inspectorate runs stings to catch them and posts bounties on the worst.
Stolen stock. Ore goes missing from the rail yards. Finished parts are heavy and marked, so they are harder to steal.
Syndicates. Crime families try to buy their way into the broker houses. It usually ends badly for them.

Trouble spots

Test backlog. When the ranges on Obsidian Reach are booked up, new parts sit in warehouses for weeks.
Bad ore. Poor stock from Scoria means rebaking and late orders.
Power dips. A power cut during a long casting ruins the whole batch and can wreck the line.
Missed convoys. A missed convoy to the Core means high storage costs and angry buyers.

Other worlds

Scoria. The main supplier of heatproof brick and ore. The two worlds check each other's ore.
Obsidian Reach. Tests Tal's reactors and drives and tells Tal how long its parts will last.
Kedra. Its courts hear cases about fake parts and broken warranties. A Tal foundry's records carry a lot of weight there.
Slipwind. The Keth send beacon updates, and Tal plans its convoys around them.