Raskajan

This article is about the lore and setting of Starsail Bordello. For the gameplay-related article referring to the entirety of the setting, see The Cluster

Raskajan is a cluster of 13 star systems within the Leo II satellite galaxy, located approximately 690,000 lightyears from Earth. All 13 star systems exist within a roughly 6-lightyear sphere around the central-most star, Raskajan I, also informally referred to as Raskajan Prime

Named after Antonov Raskajan, the exoastrophysicist who first discovered the star cluster in 2217, Raskajan I was formally colonized in 2347, as one of the seven candidate systems for the First Exocolonial Expansion following the validation of the Foldspace Drive in 2341.

Due to the immense distance from Earth, which not even Foldspace can make feasibly navigable, Raskajan from the outset was forced to be a largely independent and self-sustained colony. Shortly into the colonization efforts of Raskajan VI, the First Raskajan Revolt broke out in 2417, which originated in the outermost planets of Raskajan III before quickly overtaking its neighboring Raskajan II, and eventually the colonial capitol of Raskajan Prime. This soon lead to the successful overthrow of the Adjunct Administration, and the installation of the Raskaj Order. In the years to follow, this revolution would later also be known as The Order Coup.

A highly religious and extremely authoritarian regime, the Raskaj Order quickly gained control of the remaining three Sectors, and once their control was secure and absolute, destroyed all major Foldspace Relays throughout the colony that were capable of communicating with Earth.

Over the next century, the Raskaj Order completed the colonization of all 13 star systems of the Raskajan Cluster, imposing their religious doctrine into law as they were settled. Since the Order took control of the The Cluster, there have been two attempted coups to displace the regime: the Second Raskajan Revolt, also known as the United Front Revolution, which lasted from 2447 to 2449; and the Third Raskajan Revolt, also known as the Free Society Insurrection, which began and ended in 2473.

Both coups were violently put down by the Raskaj Order, and in both cases, were used by the Order to justify even harsher restrictions, surveillance, and enforcement. Subversive plotting is heavily monitored and silenced, and a culture of silent compliance has since become widespread amongst the Sectors in the shadow of the coups' failures.

Under the Order, there is a near-total ban on all sexuality: all efforts for procreation must be explicitly registered and approved by the Population Ministry, and any and all sexual behavior outside of the approved course of procreation are explicitly prohibited by the Order.

The Order are, of course, aware of the impossibilities to fully control human nature, and instead exploits this reality to their favor. Within each Sector of The Cluster operates a single state-sanctioned Administrative Brothel, singularly controlled and dictated by a mysterious figure known only as The Headmistress. All sexual behavior deemed deviant by the Order (which is to say, all sexual behavior outside the approved attempts to procreate) is channeled into the Brothels, using strict legal enforcement and stiff punishments for any and all sexual behavior caught operating outside their walls.

With a total monopoly on all sexuality in the Cluster--including not only prostitution, but also public venues and even the production and consumption of pornography--the Headmistress exercises outsized control not only on the exuberant prices her captive customers are forced to pay, but on the lifestyles, routines, and even physical appearance of the sex workers under her employ.

While technically an independent operator, the Headmistress is fully and publicly backed by the full strength of the Raskaj Order, with the entire law apparatus working to secure and maintain her sex-work empire, in exchange for the extreme amounts of revenue that her monetized monopoly on sex brings in for the Order.