ApprovedBriana approved the whole almanac on 19 September 2026. Where this page calls something a proposal, read it as approved, except the open points in the Almanac Approval Decision.
The Definitive Colony Almanac: Kronos (Ymir) and Hearthport#
Kethra Almanac • Approved 19 September 2026 • drafted 18 September 2026 • A colony of stations, bases and moons, told as a country
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:
Kronos/Ymir has 15 moons.
The Vardane Imperium seized the Kronos moons from the Cinderbelt Coalition.
What this almanac covers. The Kronos colony is not a country. It is a collection of stations, bases and moons, held by one power and lived in mostly by another. Its heart is Hearthport, on the moon Hestia. There, about 228,000 Coalition crews live under Vardane occupation. Every station on every moon is represented here and in the Atlas.
The Cinderbelt Coalition's Kronos Fuel Authority founds Hearthport on Hestia. The first crew is 1,400 people. (The Coalition was then still called the Outer Works Coalition; it took the Cinderbelt's name in 2171. See the Cinderbelt Coalition almanac.)
The Spin-Halls are completed, after the first Hearthborn children show severe bone loss
2150s
Growth years. Kronos fuel powers the fusion boom on Kethra.
2166
Deepwell is founded on Hera by the Ilyr Sanctum under an Assembly science charter
2200
Hearthport's population reaches 150,000
2233
Vesper Fever reaches Hearthport through a fuel tender: 3,100 dead
2284
The Taking of Hearthport. A Vardane naval force takes the Kronos moons from the Coalition in a single operation. 212 residents and 64 Coalition station guards are killed.
2284–2286
The Hard Years. Curfew and the protection band. Most Coalition officials are deported to the belt.
2286
The Hearth Council is allowed to meet again, as an advisory body
2291
The Armistice of Saltline. The fuel clauses leave Kronos with the Imperium. Assembly Fuel Monitors arrive at Demeter and Hearthport.
2296
The Cold Strike. Residents stop work across the fuel yards for 19 days. It is broken by cutting heat to the Lower Warrens. 41 people die of cold.
2305
The Holdfast "understanding": the Coalition holdout on Kronos X is tolerated
2314
The present. Fuel flows. Nobody at Hearthport calls it peace.
Kronos is a gas giant of roughly Jupiter's mass, 5.2 AU from Theia. Sunlight there is about 4% of what Earth receives. Its fifteen moons are described moon by moon in Kronos and the Cinderbelt. In summary:
Moon
Holder
People
Role in the colony
Hestia / Auðumbla (IV)
Vardane (occupied)
about 280,000
Hearthport, the colony's home
Demeter / Bergelmir (III)
Vardane
about 60,000
The Skimmer Wing and the fuel refineries; the Assembly Fuel Monitors
Hera / Hvergelmir (II)
Ilyr Sanctum
about 9,000
Deepwell, the research enclave over the hidden ocean
Hades / Múspell (I)
Vardane
about 2,000
Sulphur and metals, worked by machines and Bonded rotations
about 0.12 g, less than half the Cinderbelt's 0.3 g
Day
Hestia keeps one face toward Kronos. Its day equals its orbit: 16.9 Earth days, of which about 8 days are light and 8 dark.
The sky
Kronos hangs fixed above the Kronos-facing hemisphere, where Hearthport is: a banded disc many times wider than Theia. Theia is a small, brilliant sun that gives only 4% of Earth's light. Once per orbit, Kronos eclipses Theia for about 3 hours ("the Dark Hour").
Surface
Old, dark, cratered ice and rock at about −170 °C. The crust shields against the radiation.
Radiation
Low, outside Kronos's worst belts. That is why Hearthport is here.
Hearthport in section: resident levels in bronze, Imperial in red, shared works in blue.
Level
Places
Who
Surface
Surface docks; the Imperial gun-domes built after the Taking
Dockers (residents); Imperial gunners
Upper level
Upper Warrens, the oldest housing. The Office of Protection, the old Coalition administration taken over. The Garrison Ring, with its armoury and frames.
Residents; Imperial staff; the garrison
Middle level
The Hearth: the great hall under the ice, with markets, and where the Hearth Council meets. The Fuel Yards and Tenders, where fuel is staged for Kethra and the Assembly Fuel Monitors keep watch.
Shared
Lower level
The Farm Decks (hydroponics and vat kitchens); the Spin-Halls, rotating halls at 0.8 g where every child exercises daily; the Lower Warrens, crowded newer housing
Residents
The deep
The Reactor and Ice-Melt Plant: fusion power, water and air
Hearthport was a Coalition company town that became a society.
The first crews came up from Kethra's orbital yards: Upwellers and surface volunteers, used to spin-habitats and hard work. (Corrected 18 September 2026: an earlier draft called them belt-born, but the belt was not settled until AL 2140, per the spine and Chapter I.) When the Coalition pushed on to the Cinderbelt in 2140, Hearthport's veterans went with it, and later Hearthport crews were Cinderborn.
At Kronos the delay to Kethra was under an hour, and the fuel was needed by everyone. Hearthport was rich, for a belt town.
The first Hearthborn children showed severe bone loss, and the Spin-Halls were built in AL 2129. Hearthborn people, born at 0.12 g, cannot live at Kethra's gravity, and struggle even at the belt's 0.3 g. They are the most home-bound people in the system.
During the Corridor War (the Imperium calls it the Transit War), a Vardane naval force from Hesk High and the Void Squadron seized the Kronos moons in one operation.
Tollgate was taken first, then Demeter's skimmer fleet, then Hearthport itself.
The Coalition's station guard fought for eleven hours. 212 residents and 64 guards died.
The aim, as the Crown's almanac records, was to cut the Crown's fusion fuel. The Crown rationed power for six years.
Curfew; the protection band; deportation of Coalition officials to the belt; arms seized; the Hearth-lamp banned
Tolerance, 2286–2296
The Hearth Council readmitted as advisory. Work resumed because the fuel had to flow, and the Imperium needed the residents' skills.
The Armistice, 2291
The fuel clauses made the occupation part of the peace. The Crown gets its fuel, the Imperium keeps the moons, and the residents get Assembly Fuel Monitors, who watch the fuel, not the people.
The Cold Strike, 2296
19 days; broken by cutting heat to the Lower Warrens; 41 dead of cold. The residents' great grievance.
The understanding, 2305–2314
Holdfast tolerated. Smuggling through Dimlight. The Crown's listening post, Quiet, watches. Nothing is resolved.
Station Wardens of Hearthport (Coalition, AL 2102–2284)#
Warden
Term
Ines Garrow
2102–2111
Tobias Ren
2111–2124
Halle Morrow
2124–2139
Pim Adeyo
2139–2158
Sanna Kettleby
2158–2177
Orrin Vask
2177–2196
Lise Harrowby
2196–2218
Dev Callander
2218–2240
Marta Seel
2240–2263
Joss Tenner
2263–2284. The last Warden. Deported to the belt after the Taking. Now a Coalition councillor at Cinder Hollow who has never stopped demanding the moons back.
21 members, chosen by the residents' own shift-lists: in effect, elected in secret and announced in public. The current Hearth Speaker is Ada Morrow-Kell, a great-granddaughter of Warden Halle Morrow.
No vote, no collar, no bond. Exit permits are required to leave Kronos, and are rarely given to skilled crews.
The protection band
A white armband, required in public
Curfew
During the Dark Hour, when Kronos eclipses Theia, and at Imperial holidays
The Hearth-lamp
Its display is banned
Courts
Imperial tribunals for "security"; the Hearth Council's arbitration for disputes between residents. The Office tolerates it, because it keeps residents out of Imperial courts.
Punishment
Detention in the Garrison Ring, deportation to the belt, or transfer to Hades rotations, the most feared sentence
About 45 tonnes of helium-3 a year, plus deuterium. (Proposal: enough for all of Kethra's fusion power, with about 10 tonnes going to the Crown.)
The Skimmer Wing (Demeter)
About 140 skimmers diving into Kronos's upper atmosphere on rotation
The route
Demeter refineries → Hearthport fuel yards → Vesper tenders → Kethra orbit → the Line spaceports → fusion plants
Who earns
The Imperial Fuel Authority (Tarsk family) sells under the fuel clauses. Residents are paid Imperial wages at a "protection rate", about 60% of the Coalition rate before AL 2284.
