Kronos and the Cinderbelt: First-Era Holdings#

Kethra Almanac • Approved 19 September 2026 • drafted 18 September 2026

Status: approved. Briana approved the whole almanac on 19 September 2026 (the Almanac Approval Decision). Where this file calls something a proposal, read it as approved, except the open points that decision lists.

Status before approval.

Canon, decided by Briana today:

• Kronos/Ymir has 15 moons.
• The Vardane Imperium occupies moons around Kronos, which it seized from the Cinderbelt Coalition.
• There are many operations in the Cinderbelt.

See the Kronos Moons and Cinderbelt Operations record. Life in the occupied colony is told in the Kronos colony almanac; the Imperium's side in the Vardane Imperium almanac.

Proposal: everything else below. Briana asked Claude to adjust Kronos and the Cinderbelt to reflect the factions of the first era, the colonial wars. Two open points were decided by Claude on that instruction, and Briana may reverse either:

1. (Now canon: Briana confirmed that Vardane seized the moons from the Coalition.) The seizure is placed during the Corridor War, in AL 2284. That date is Claude's proposal.
2. The Cinderbelt is crowded with many parties' operations. The Imperium's are the largest after the Coalition's.

See the who's who of the First Colonial War for the factions themselves.

Why these two places matter#

Kethra's economy rests on scarcities (see Chapter VI). Two of them lie off-world:

The Vardane Imperium already controls the third great scarcity, Oreth's phosphate, and with it the planet's food. Since the Corridor War it has also held Kronos's fuel, and it is pushing into the Cinderbelt. That puts its hand on food, power and metal at once. The other factions fear exactly this, and the first era's conflict grows from it.

Part 1: Kronos (Ymir) and its fifteen moons#

The giant#

Naming convention#

• The four large moons have names in both traditions:
  • Capital names are Kronos's family, from Greek myth.
  • Frontier names come from the Ymir myth.
• The eleven small moons carry official numbers in the capital's catalogue (Kronos V–XV) and crew names everyone actually uses. Nobody gives a rock the size of a town two mythological names.
• Name check: Hera, Demeter, Hestia and Hades have not been used as major moon names in our own solar system. Kronos's family names that are already used for Saturn's moons, such as Rhea, Tethys, Phoebe and Iapetus, have been avoided.

The four large moons#

The three inner large moons orbit in a 1 : 2 : 4 rhythm, like Io, Europa and Ganymede around Jupiter. Their regular tugging on each other flexes them, and that flexing keeps Hades molten and Hera's hidden ocean liquid.

Hearthport was founded in AL 2102 by the Cinderbelt Coalition's Kronos Fuel Authority. The Coalition held every Kronos moon until the war. Vesper only carried the fuel onward to Kethra.

• In AL 2284, during the Corridor War, a Vardane naval force took it in a single operation remembered as the Taking of Hearthport. The aim was to cut the Crown's fusion fuel.
• Most of Hearthport's people are still the Coalition crews who were living there when it was taken. They now work under Vardane administration. They call the Imperium "the landlord". The Imperium calls them "residents under protection".
• The name tells you the side:
  • Vardane documents call the station Hestia Holding, after the Imperium's word for its provinces.
  • Everyone else still calls it Hearthport.

The eleven small moons#

The small moons' orbital periods are given in Earth days. The outer eight are captured rocks on distant, tilted orbits, and several go round the wrong way (retrograde), as captured moons do.

Kronos population (AL 2314)#

Total: about 400,000, matching the almanac figure.

About 89% live under Vardane administration: Hestia (280,000), Demeter (60,000), Hades (2,000) and the Imperial small moons (about 14,000), roughly 356,000 people in all. Most of Hearthport's residents are Coalition crews living under occupation.

The fuel under the Armistice#

The Armistice of Saltline (AL 2291) left the occupation in place. In exchange, the Imperium accepted the fuel clauses:

• guaranteed deliveries of helium-3 to the Crown at a fixed price;
• transfer through Vesper;
• inspection by Assembly monitors.

The Crown pays, and resents it. The Coalition wants Hearthport back. Whoever controls the fuel clauses controls the Crown's lights.

Part 2: The Cinderbelt#

The belt#

Who holds what#

Principal sites#

The Seam: the flashpoint#

The Seam is a cluster of about 200 asteroids unusually rich in platinum-group metals. It lies between the Coalition yards and the Imperial Concessions, and both claim it.

• The Coalition holds it by long working.
• The Imperium claims it by Council of Corridors charter.
• Lantern League crews raid both.
• Frame skirmishes happen here every season. The 7-hour delay means Kethra hears of each clash the day after it's over.

Proposal: the Seam is where the first era's colonial war turns hot in space.

Summary: the balance of power off-world, AL 2314#

Guidance for AI actors#

• Hearthport or Hestia Holding? The station's name tells you which side the speaker is on, and so does the moon's name: Hestia (capital) or Auðumbla (frontier).
• Kronos is 34–52 minutes away by signal. The belt is 7 hours. Scenes spanning Kethra and the belt run on letters, not calls.
• Vesper hears everything. Every relayed message passes through Compact hands. Characters with secrets use couriers.
• The Seam is where people die. Any belt story can reach it.
• Whether Hera's ocean holds life is open. Don't settle it in a scene.

Prepared by Claude.