6F06.TXT

HD 6F06  Rukh, a short overview of this Zhodani friendly state

                          By

                     Roger Myhre
                     Ammerudgrenda 168
                     0960 Oslo 9
                     Norway


History.
In 1067 Rukh took control over the Aegs worlds. At that
time there was internal difficulties, and civil war. During the
most heated confrontations Rukh was bidding his time. When the
factions at last agreed on armistice, Rukh took control by
overthrowing the different leaders. This increased his overall
charisma, which was already high.

He restored law and order in the realm. This maneuver and his
high charisma won billions of followers that gathered under his flock.
He secured a local powerbase of enormous proportions.

However not everyone liked his maneuver to gain power. Many
worlds rimward of Saell opposed to Rukh. They formed the Gnoerrg Rukh
Loell. The anti-Rukh Coalition. This coalition has been a thorn in the
side of Rukh since then.

In 1094 The original leader Rukh died. But his successors
continue his work through his dogma. After his death they lost a few
worlds. The anti-Rukh coalition increased their effort to foil the
works of Rukh in the hope that more worlds would pull out.

However this was not the case. The Rukh government had too much
control on local level to that the Anti-Rukh could have much effect.

In 1112 Anti-Rukh started an operation to undermine the relations
between Rukh and the Zhodani. Agents working for Anti-Rukh had managed
to forge 6 Zhodani charge plates. The zhodani manages to get their
hands on five of the plates. Which had been given to a small group of
innocents. However the sixth plate did never turn up. One thing that
was clear is that Anti-Rukh did not have the sixth plate.

A vargr named Ronak was suspected of being the owner of the last
plate. he never turned up. After a few years it became apparent that
this plate had been reproduces, when different merchandise was paid
with counterfeit charge plates. Anti-Rukh used this to disrupt trading
and diplomatic relations between Rukh and Zhodani. The result was that
several worlds between Rukh and Zhodani left Rukh.*

To and answer to this the Rukh attacked Anti-Rukh physically. But
the worlds that lie in between worked as a bufferzone. This lessened
the effect somewhat. Anti-Rukh did not loose any territory, but a lot
of damage to the system was a fact.


Government.
At first when Rukh seized control of the small Aegs federation
billions flocked to hi because of his extreme charisma. However soon
they also realized that he made his rule to something near a religion.
anti-governmental work is prosecuted severely.

The Rukh government are an elite council which are leaded by a
dictator. The individual worlds have little local control when it comes
to exterior policy. Internal policy is somewhat lesser controlled. But
the Rukh doctrine must be followed. World governments are not
represented in the Rukh government. They have to follow the whim of the
Rukh government at any level. Worlds to have public election on local
rulers, but the candidates have to be approved by the Rukh assembly.

One of the first acts Rukh did when he had secured his powerbase,
was to nationalize most of the bigger corporations. Especially Saell
felt this. Seall is overpopulated, and the unemployment rate was
extreme. The nationalization of the largest companies helped distribute
the goods more evenly, but to the cost of galloping inflation.


Military.
All military forces are gathered under a central command. The
forces are usually built from the world they are going to protect, but
units often do change bases from one world to another. This circulation
prevents worlds to have soldiers that will not shoot at locals in case
of upheaval. Soldiers sympathize less with vargr they do not know.

The military forces are financed by taxation of the individual
sophont on the different worlds.


Internal (un)rest.
To maintain control over the population to that degree the
government have, they need an opposition. To Anti-Rukh's annoyance,
they represent this opposition. Militarily Rukh could have crushed
Anti-Rukh in matter of months. But by doing this they will loose the
external enemy the government need gather the population against.

Thus Anti-Rukh are actually allowed some success in their work.
But then only on a limited scale. Time to time Anti-Rukh have had some
very successful operations. More successful than the Rukh would have
allowed if they could control the events completely.

However there is internal difficulties as well. The knowledge
about the universe outside Rukh is limited by the general population.
This helps to disinform the populace. So generally the population
believes that the Anti-Rukh is the big bad alien that will kill them if
they get the chance.

The coreward worlds of Rukh are more distant to Anti-Rukh, thus
the treat from them is smaller. To make this treat larger, Rukh have
allowed a small number of Anti-Rukh sediments infiltrate these worlds.
Rukh do also carry out operations to scare the population to believe
that there is more enemies present than there really is. Thus creating
the illusion of that they have been penetrated and the enemy is
constantly in their midst.


Uku.
Uku is the secret police in Rukh. It is divided into four
branches. Each with their own responsibility. The branches are:

-- Counter espionage. This branch monitor and arrest foreign
spies that operates within the borders of Rukh.

-- Espionage. This branch run cover operation outside Rukh
borders. Mainly in Anti-Rukh worlds, and in the worlds between Rukh and
Zhodani.

-- Population control. This branch, which is the largest,
monitors internal dissidents. This branch operates closely with Counter
Espionage branch.

-- Military intelligence. This branch gathers military information from
other worlds and interstellar governments outside Rukh.


Uku have operatives and offices on all planets within Rukh borders. They are
known to be ruthless, and are feared by the general population.

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*) The book Alien Realms covers this incident in the module No Credit Check.
The module do not specify what the following to this incident will be. By
comparing the map in AM3 with the map in V&V there is a few worlds that have
left Rukh. I decided that this incident caused this.