Revised Dark Nebula World Names

Names are one of the hardest things about working with Aslan material: all those Trokh vowels run together, making them devilishly hard to proofread. Further, DGP’s Solomani and Aslan (1991) was the first and only supplement to provide sector data for all of Dark Nebula, including names for all worlds. The sector data is only three pages of very tiny, cramped typeface—hard to read even for younger eyes in good lighting.

When I first started playing around with Dark Nebula, sector files could be found online but they were of widely varying quality. The Dark Nebula sector file was particularly bad, as it appeared to have been built off an early OCR scan of Solomani and Aslan. Errors in the world names abounded, with "i," "l", "k," and "t" all scrambled up. And when you combine that with the alien nature of Aslan worlds, and you get yourself a real mess.

When the T5 Second Survey project turned to Dark Nebula sector, before converting the material to the Traveller⁵ format, the team cleaned up the badly scanned data to make sure it conformed to Solomani and Aslan. Some poor, nameless hero went line-by-line through the sector data and cleaned up all the discrepancies in mainworld names. Fortunately I kept a copy of that corrected data because these errors keep creeping back. The current Dark Nebula data on Traveller Map contains some, but not all of those corrections.

I can’t guarantee I’ve caught all of the errors, but I think I’ve got a lot of them. Here are my suggested changes to the current mainworld names in order to bring them back in line with Solomani and Aslan:

• Oifairouw (0109) - Change mainworld name to Oifalrouw.
• Tahetio (0609) - Change mainworld name to Tahetlo.
• Oeuilyuh (1110) - Change mainworld name to Osuilyuh.
• Hlakaoea (1408) - Change mainworld name to Htakaoea.
• Kofyikh (1405) - Change mainworld name to Kofyoha.
• E'loa (1505) - Change mainworld name to E'ioa.
• Brensal (1609) - Change mainworld name to Brensat.
• Aowoikies (1705) - Change mainworld name to Aowoiktes.
• Eariure (1901) - Change mainworld name to Earlure.
• Kelsung (2202) - Change mainworld name to Kemsung.
• Mamail (2404) - Change mainworld name to Mamalt.
• Hleoe (0117) - Change mainworld name to Hteoe.
• Ealyurei (0120) - Change mainworld name to Eatyurei.
• Auiyelyu (0214) - Change mainworld name to Aulyetyu.
• Htaweai (0817) - Change mainworld name to Htaweal.
• Hweshre (1014) - Change mainworld name to Hopeshre.
• Oyarn (1420) - Change mainworld name to Qyarn.
• Khilyw (1715) - Change mainworld name to Khiiyw.
• Hloa (1719) - Change mainworld name to Hlao.
• Khoakia (1918) - Change mainworld name to Khoakta.
• Ehoiol (2218) - Change mainworld name to Ehoioi.
• Torisad (2516) - Change mainworld name to Tortsad.
• Merelace (2815) - Change mainworld name to Merejace.
• Shrlmia (3119) - Change mainworld name to Shrimia.
• Ktealau (0130) - Change mainworld name to Kteatau.
• Iyoiy (0321) - Change mainworld name to Iyyoiy.
• Wuhliaweh (0329) - Change mainworld name to Wuhtiaweh.
• Hlyeri (0429) - Change mainworld name to Hlyerl.
• Ao'iyauira (0627) - Change mainworld name to Ao'iyaulra.
• Akheariafei' (0828) - Change mainworld name to Akhearlafei'.
• Hlehekah (1127) - Change mainworld name to Htehekah.
• Troli'ih (1221) - Change mainworld name to Troti'ih.
• Hlokiye (1725) - Change mainworld name to Hloktye.
• Sewaiair (2121) - Change mainworld name to Sewalair.
• Louhtah (2128) - Change mainworld name to Iouhtah.
• Aokhiyfti (2728) - Change mainworld name to Aokhtiyfti.
• Khiyu (0239) - Change mainworld name to Khtyu.
• Airlyrlyu'eas (0931) - Change mainworld name to Airiyrlyu'eas.
• Uryarili (0937) - Change mainworld name to Uryarlil.
• Wyuyelro (1032) - Change mainworld name to Wyuyetro.
• Teayokhlae (1238) - Change mainworld name to Teayokhtae.
• Htakaoea (1331) - Change mainworld name to Htaka Oea.
• Hrikair (1631) - Change mainworld name to Hrikalr.
• Ihiye (1731) - Change mainworld name to Ihtye.
• Ehalriwa (2131) - Change mainworld name to Ehairiwa.
• Hwiliwaoh (2239) - Change mainworld name to Hwuiwaoh.
• Araliarg (2940) - Change mainworld name to Araljarg.
• Hynrl-Lavo (3036) - Change mainworld name to Hynri-lavo.

Earle (DARK 0307) is named “Ealre” in Atlas of the Imperium. Nancy Parker used this same spelling for the name of subsector A in “Dark Nebula: Library Data of the Sector” in Travellers’ Digest 17. DGP appears to have deliberately changed the name of both the world and subsector to “Earle” in Solomani and Aslan (see pages 69, 99, and 102). Although AotI normally trumps other sources, in this case I think it makes sense to keep Earle.

Hloa (DARK 1719) is an interdicted world briefly described in Travellers’ Digest 17: "Hloa’s (1719) population of aquatic sophonts shows no interest in contact with the interstellar community, as they are self-sufficient and feel they have little in common with walkers." However, the spelling is Hlao in the subsector data. Further, Hlao is also used in the Solomani and Aslan sector data and in a different write-up that describes a (presumably Human) population happily living under an incredibly restrictive government. If I had to guess, the DGP writers decided to retcon the aquatic sophonts out of existence. In any case, it seems clear DGP meant for the world to be called Hlao.

A recent article in the NYT discusses how a single typo in a 1928 Supreme Court opinion continues to circulate despite being identified and corrected almost immediately. Because the erroneous Dark Nebula data had spread so far for so long, it’s easy enough to see how the errors keep creeping back in to Traveller Map. Someone working on stellar data but using a slightly older version of the world names might accidently reintroduce some or all of the base data. And because Aslan names are so unfamiliar anyway, errors are hard to spot. So you end up playing data whack-a-mole. In fact, this is a pretty good example of how one bad data entry—like an erroneous location of Kusyu—could propagate across the entire Imperium like a virus and persist despite all efforts to correct the record.

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