Some years ago, I decided to recast the basic Arthurian legend as a space opera. It didn't take long for me to come to the conclusion that I'd need to invent an entire space civilization, complete with history, language, planets, etc., if I was going to do it properly. While I never finished this project (it's one more item still in the works), this 'research' came in very handy when it came time to write the Methridia Chronicles, particularly in the first book, Globe Splitter. Almost from the first day of writing that book, I realized that I had all of this 'old stuff' tucked away and it made the going much easier. A lot of this material found its way into descriptions of the Methridia cavern, its people, weapons and so forth. I may lose notes from time to time, but this experience certainly taught me a valuable lesson: never throw anything away. Here are some of the things I came up with as background for the 'Arthur' piece.

Hanshra conventions -
Female names end in “or” or “en”
Male names end in “at”, “ud” or “im”
At marriage, high-born women customarily include their mother’s given name as part of their full legal name (Ab Enden, Ab Prador)

Main Characters –
The Early Years
Hanshra Tambor Ab Enden – “Ingraen“; “Arthur’s” mother
Hanshra Grendat Atuud – “Uthor”; “Arthur’s” father and Emperor of the Thalan system
Hanshra Raulim Atuud – “Arthur”
Rinehud – “Merlin”; geneticist with an almost mystical mastery of the physical sciences. Rinehud succeeded in developing a method for combining human and Glys genetic material. He mounted an elaborate scheme to bond the royal houses of Hanshra and Glys in a move to gain control over the joint empires.
Thetu Miren Ab Landen – Tambor’s lady in waiting
Ambra Craden Ab Prador – Raulim’s nurse
Nam Therat – Ambra Craden’s brother and Hanshra Raulim’s protector
Nam Duquat – Raulim’s assumed name during the time he is raised by Nam Therat
Niefwoad Viqtab – exceptionally beautiful Glys princess, chosen by Rinehud to bear Hanshra Grendat’s hybrid son. Genetically modified by Rinehud to be irresistible to the Emperor.
ta-Hanshra ti-Niefwoad Daelat – “Mordred” - son of Hanshra Grendat and Niefwoad Viqtab; apprentice to Rinehud and, following Grendat’s murder, illegitimate successor to the Hanshra thrown
Admiral Brem Edat – former schoolmate of the Emperor Hanshra Grendat; Chief of Imperial Offensive Operations, Large Vessel Fleet

The Adult Years
Hanshra Daelat (ta-Hanshra ti-Niefwoad Daelat) – the false Emperor; deposed by Hanshra Raulim during the Reclamation
Zimwan Trux – a Vixqotian mercenary; illicit lover to Glenslad Kriesor
Glenslad Kriesor – Consort to Hanshra Raulim; her elevation to Empress of the Thalan System above Raulim's lawful wife, Falamar Brienpor, caused system-wide dissent, leading eventually to the Great Conflict
Glenslad Bentat – Kriesor’s father; a powerful Medical Chemistry Guild official, posted to Thal
Vixqo at the time of the Glys-Vezqua invasion
Glenslad Melwren Ab Quendor – Kriesor’s mother
Rivwan Kim – physician and confidante to Raulim during the Reclamation Period. A disagreement over the enormous expense of Raulim’s plan to rebuild the ecosystem on Thal Cradrul and move the government there broke their friendship. In a fit of anger, Raulim ordered Rivwan banished to Thal Qwindor Uud where he came under Rinehud’s influence and was instrumental in the plot to destroy the monarchy during the Great Conflict.

Thal – medium-sized yellow star located in the Greater Elipse Region of the Methrindan Galaxy.
Thal Clebo – nearest planet to the star Thal; primary industry is conversion and transmission of stellar energy to power the various planets of the Thalan System. One moon - Hebror. (see Casbliom Station)

Thal Erud – seat of the Hanshra Empire; second planet from Thal; 2 moons – Fridud and Simnat.

Thal Cradrul – third planet from Thal; ancestral home of the Hanshra Dynasty. Much of the atmosphere is noxious, due to the lingering effects of an extended planet-wide war in prehistoric times. Except for a caretaker/security deployment, Thal Cradrul is essentially deserted and visited chiefly for high ceremonial occasions; the royal family maintains a Neutron Bubble protected area in the Tribwal Mountains as a hunting resort and game preserve for exotic animals. 4 moons, only one of which, Emlanden, the largest, is named.

Thal Kladon Po – fourth planet from Thal; major industries include production of textiles and construction materials. Generally considered to host the most “backward” of the planetary cultures in the Thalan system. When, at the beginning of the Terror Year, Nam Therat rescued three-year old Hanshra Raulim, he took him to live on Thal Kladon Po, raising the youngster according to local customs. No moons.

Thal Vixqo – fifth planet from Thal; major industries include heavy metals mining and medicinal chemistry – none of the residents of Thal Vixqo are indigenous to the planet and most are not genetically related to the rest of the Thalan system’s inhabitants. (See GLYS) One moon, Halemdor.

Thal Mithrad – sixth planet from Thal; primary space port for the Empire and site of the controlling station for the Thalan system’s Jump Points. Three moons, Tradat, Vilimen and Ripnor. Ripnor, a large moon with a stable life-sustaining environment, is home to the Imperial fleet’s First Strike Offensive Base.

Thal Bantrud – seventh planet from Thal; primary agricultural producer for the Thalan Empire. Twin moons, Calidor and Glinidor.

Thal Blindon – eighth planet from Thal; docking and fabrication center for the Empire’s war fleet; site of the largest military facility in the system. A ring, rotating around Thal Blindon’s equator and composed of particles ranging in size from nuggets to large boulders, is believed to be the remnant of a massive moon which once circled the planet.

Thal Linarin – ninth planet from Thal; largely unexplored. Probably a rogue world that was captured by the star’s gravitational field. Due to an elliptical orbit around Thal, the planet is subject to extreme temperature shifts; only industry consists of a few fossil fuel production stations scattered around the southern hemisphere; inhabited regions are enclosed by modified neutron protection bubbles. No known moons.

Thal Obridan – tenth planet from Thal – a microstar revolves around Thal Obridan, creating a subtropical environment for the entire planet; favorite resort destination for the system’s inhabitants. No moons.

Thal Qwindor Uud – eleventh planet from Thal and largest world in the system. Probably a rogue planet captured by Thal’s gravitational field in the distant past, Thal Qwindor Uud contains numerous archaeological ruins. Both the Royal Archaeology Foundation and Mendon Thal Erud University maintain permanent research/teaching centers on Thal Qwindor Uud. No moons.

Thal Trimptor Uud Thaj - pseudo planet at the outer edge of the Thalan system – site of Rinehud’s subsurface home/laboratory

Jump Point – naturally occurring interspacial wormhole. There are two Jump Points within the Thalan System: one, located approximately midway between Thal Mithrad and Thal Bantrud and the other, located outside the orbit of Thal Qwindor Uud.

Casbliom Station – robotic weather station in stationary orbit two hundred miles above the surface of Thal Clebo. Designed to monitor the high radiation “wind” streaming from Thal. Site of the final battle between Hanshra Raulim and Hanshra Daelat.

Jat Romdal – Fortress hewn from solid rock in the Unwrin Mountains on Thal Erud during the reign of Hanshra Cruidud, legendary Unifier of the Four Worlds and founder of the Hanshra Dynasty. Maintained as a museum.

Brimwa – traditional name for the four innermost planets of the Thalan system

Neutron Bubble – Long imagined by writers of popular fiction, the Neutron Bubble force field was developed during the “Golden Age of Science” of Hanshra Remderat’s reign. Designed to shield against high energy blasts, the technology is also very effective as a filtration/barrier system for atmospheric and temperature control. The principle flaw with the Bubble is that it is vulnerable to slow-penetration weapons (knives and small arms fire), making it useless as a personal protection device.

Gatekeeper – Mythological matter transmitter capable of delivering enormous cargoes across vast distances in space. As described in Glys and Vixqo legends, it was a machine developed by the super technology of the Glys ancestral world, which was lost forever when the planet was destroyed.

Vezqua – spacefaring race, human in appearance, but in reality, a highly evolved insectoid species. An aggressive, militant culture, the Vezqua Empire is only a few generations removed from wholesale interspecies war within its home system. Vezqua society is divided into five main groups – labor, military, administration, education and agriculture - each responsible for a broad division of the Vezquan infrastructure. Due to their enhanced strength and stamina, nearly all members of the military are female. Responsibilities within social groups are passed down generationally through sub-hive units (roughly analogous to human “extended families”) and controlled by a tightly regulated cast system.

Val Qua – Vezqua homeworld
Nisbiu – Vezqua primary hive – occupies fully two of the four continents on Val Qua
Glys – humanoid spacefaring race, genetically related to the inhabitants of Thal Vixqo. Current theory is that the Glys and Vixqotians share a common ancestral world that was destroyed thousands of years before the founding of the Hanshra Dynasty. Survivors of the doomed world splintered into groups that migrated to other regions of space, establishing outposts where they could. Unable to maintain their machinery, knowledge of space flight and other advanced technologies was lost until being “rediscovered” by the Glys centuries later. Although they mastered heavier-than-air craft design, interplanetary flight was never developed by the inhabitants of Thal Vixqo and did not exist there until being introduced by Hanshra explorers. Glys and Vixqotians share core religious beliefs and mythology and their languages, basic technologies and customs contain numerous similarities. Due to incompatible DNA structures, Glys and Vixqotians are unable to breed naturally with humans native to the Thalan System.

Puay Glys Alamay – Glys homeworld
Limprido – Glys capital city
Oathra – multi-keyboard musical instrument – Hanshra family ancestral instrument
Skipplane – lighter than air flying vehicle - propulsion supplied by highly efficient solar powered engines augmented by pedal-operated electric generator; line of sight navigation aided by ground-based, magnetic and gravity “aware” semi-autonomous system
Woath Regelind – Hanshra Anthem
Gentric – 1) an ancient Thal Erudan language. Although its earliest verified appearance is as graffiti scrawled on walls of the Veydaluam ruins on Mewth Prixian, most linguistic scholars agree that it was adopted by that culture from an older, as yet unknown people. 2) slang; used as an adjective to describe a task that is unusually difficult to understand or carry out.

Thal Erud geography –
The planet’s surface is approximately sixty percent covered by water, with five non-contiguous continents. The largest land area, Mewth Galandim, stretches from the north polar region to several hundred miles south of the equator, encompassing slightly more than thirty-eight percent of the planet.

Eighteen hundred miles to the east is the third largest and most populous continent, Mewth Brocax, home to the capital city of Engrador.

The second largest land mass, Mewth Prixian, nearly meets Mewth Galandim at its easternmost point, the two continents separated by less than forty miles of open water. Mewth Prixian’s most prominent feature is the Unwrin Mountain Range, which reaches from the space port city of Trin Vorsaxud on the west to the Vinthoq River Valley on the east.

The other two continents, Mewth Friudan and Mewth Mendon are found in the eastern hemisphere and, combined, account for approximately ten percent of Thal Erud’s land mass. There are two theories regarding the relationship between these continents. Because there are many species of plants and animals found on Mewth Friudan and Mewth Mendon that exist no where else on Thal Erud, some scientists believe that they were once connected by a land bridge that sank into the Rinbudon Sea in prehistoric times. Alternatively, they may have been a single land mass that separated over the centuries. As the shape and structure of their facing shores seem to fit into one another, this theory has gained in popular acceptance.

Some two hundred islands of noticeable size dot the oceans. The largest, Mauthim, is privately held by the royal family and used as a vacation retreat. It lies off the eastern coast of Mewth Prixian.

In addition to the Rinbudon Sea, the water area of the planet is divided into the Wotrepen Sea in the western hemisphere and the Baladdim, a perpetually frozen ocean in the south polar region.