The Chaarnihom

The Chaarnihom is a unique 20,000 dton dispersed-structure vessel operating along the Spinward Main. It was never intended to be a merchant ship. It began as Yori’s planned orbital highport and was sold unfinished after a religious and political reversal made the project unacceptable.

From a distance, the ship resembles a dark radial framework: five principal arms extend from a central core, with docking clusters, incomplete concourse sections and service booms projecting at irregular angles. Its current merchant role occupies only part of a structure designed for a much larger permanent population.

The intended highport

Yori’s Advisors commissioned the project in 1093, during the ascendance of Chaarni. RINA (Rhylanor Interstellar Navy Architects) produced the design, and LSP began construction at Lunion in 1097.

The name Chaarnihom means ‘In honour of Chaarni’. The original station incorporated three command bridges, extensive point-defence weaponry, nuclear dampers, ten docking clusters, ten 500-dton dry docks, modular-cutter facilities, launches, troop accommodation and a large public concourse.

Because the structure was built at Lunion, it was fitted with Jump-1 drives and enough fuel for two jumps. After arrival at Yori, the jump machinery was to be removed and sold, recovering part of the construction cost.

Cost and cancellation

The original budget was MCr5,000. RINA’s final design raised this to MCr5,616, and construction was complicated further by religious blessing ceremonies required at various stages.

In 1104, Chaarni ceased to be the ascendant god and Zelodeous rose in their place. The new religious climate rejected the project as extravagant, technologically indulgent and symbolically tied to the previous era. Yori’s effective industrial technology also fell, making completion and long-term support increasingly difficult.

With much of the interior still unfinished, the government cancelled the contract and sold the structure at auction for just over MCr3,851.

From station to merchant

Vable Shipping of Mora purchased the Chaarnihom and placed it into service as a bulk carrier almost immediately. The company operated the vessel in its unfinished condition and collapsed within six months.

Ownership then passed to Hortalez et Cie. The bank continues to operate the vessel while deciding whether to sell, convert or dismantle it. Captains and specialist crew are hired on short- and medium-term contracts, so the ship’s command culture changes repeatedly.

Ship:         Chaarnihom
Type:         Merchant (converted from highport)
Architect:    RINA (Fees = MCr56.164)
Construction: LSP
Owner:        Hortalez et Cie
Tech Level:   D

Original USP: SN-L71X1G3-000300-20000-0 MCr5,616 20ktons
Batt Bear                       Y       Crew 189
Batt                            Z       TL 13
(X=0.25, Y=48, Z=50)

Current USP: SN-L71X1G3-000000-00000-0 MCr3,851 20ktons
Batt Bear                              Crew 63
Batt                                   TL 13
(X=0.25) Cargo=3,476 Fuel=4,200 EP=200 Agility=0
No fuel treatment Passengers=937 EmergencyLowBerth=100

Life aboard

Only part of the Chaarnihom is in regular use. Unfinished sections contain bare frameworks, sealed shafts, abandoned wiring trunks and corridors that end at temporary bulkheads. Some former highport areas are used as storage; others remain inaccessible.

The main concourse was designed to contain boutique shops and public services. Its cubicles, balconies and ceremonial spaces remain, but many are empty or converted into improvised accommodation and workshops.

The interior is heavily decorated with Chaarni-era religious motifs. Dark metalwork, geometric panels, sacred inscriptions and ceremonial lighting give the vessel a sombre, monumental atmosphere.

The short-contract crew produces little continuity. Engineers know one collection of faults, stewards another, and the next captain may reorganise everything before either group can document what they learned.

What the Chaarnihom means to Yori

The Chaarnihom is a physical record of Yori’s abrupt transition from the Chaarni era to the Zelodeous era. It represents technological confidence, commercial ambition and public spectacle rejected almost overnight.

Some Yorians regard it as an embarrassing monument to decadence. Others see it as a stolen national asset or as evidence that the Advisors can discard entire generations of effort when ascendance changes.

Because it still travels the Spinward Main, the Chaarnihom carries an obsolete version of Yori into systems whose atlases and assumptions may already be decades out of date.

Referee’s Notes

The Chaarnihom is large for a player-controlled vessel, but its limitations make it less powerful than its size suggests. It is slow, unarmed, expensive to operate, under-crewed and plagued by incomplete construction.

The ship works especially well as a campaign base, temporary employer, mystery location or moving community. Its incomplete highport spaces can conceal forgotten compartments, abandoned construction equipment, undocumented religious chambers, stolen cargo or evidence left by Vable Shipping.

> Daily fault procedure

Roll 2d6 once per day. Apply DM +1 for each crew member below the required complement of 63, and DM +2 if the engineering department has fewer than 12 personnel. On a modified result of 12+, roll on the problem table.

> Adventure hooks

• A sealed religious chamber begins drawing power despite having no documented systems.
• Hortalez sends auditors aboard just as evidence of Vable Shipping fraud emerges.
• One unused docking cluster contains a vessel nobody admits installing.
• A former Yorian Advisor claims that sacred objects remain aboard and demands their return.
• The crew discover that one of the supposedly removed point-defence systems was never removed at all.
• Passengers begin reporting identical dreams near an unfinished concourse shrine.
• The bank orders the ship sold for scrap, forcing crew and residents to prove it has greater value intact.