D-4358 Demon's Fair

D-4358 was the official designation of this neglected Edge World in the public colonial records of the Terran Empire. Later, settlers jokingly called it Demon's Fair, an almost excessively fitting name.

Though this ash-gray, desolate planet orbited a stable main-sequence star, its flattened elliptical orbit caused staggering temperature differences throughout the year. Its environment was extraordinarily harsh, and it had once been deemed incapable of meeting even the minimum requirements for human survival. Besides, D-4358 was a remote Edge World; even using it as a prison planet for exiles would not have been worth the cost.

What truly brought D-4358 to the Empire government's attention was an automatically transmitted report from a planetary probe. A second scan of the entire planet revealed a large number of abandoned Tal'darim structures on its far side. Clearly, D-4358 had once been a Tal'darim colony.

What had drawn the Tal'darim here was another rare resource on D-4358—Terrazine. The gas caused hallucinations and was addictive; those who inhaled too much of it invariably became somewhat deranged. The Tal'darim called it the Breath of the Creator, while the Bhekar people of the Empire called it Bhekar's Gift. In truth, however, it was a very real natural narcotic to humans.

On the vast majority of planets in the Terran Empire, Terrazine was an explicitly banned contraband. Even in Imperial territories where its use was legal, the amount sold had to be strictly regulated.

As the calendar entered the fourth year of the Empire, the government's official excavation of the Protoss ruins on D-4358 led to the opening of a new trade route. Gradually, settlers from all over made their way to the planet through every possible means and for every conceivable reason, seeking a living there.

The founding of a new colony always meant readily available resources,