The story of the Delavan Region originated not long after the discovery of the weren homeworld of Kurg by the Orlamu Foundation in the year 2248, in the brief, chaotic and often lawless explosion of colonization just before the Treaty of Earth. A brilliant junior Business Development Manager within VoidCorp, Thabo Montgomery 76248803 (in the Employee nomenclature of the time) saw an opportunity to establish a second contact on Kurg, in competition with Orlamu interests, by a lightning deal with the Kinavu Horde of Polar Weren.

This interesting experiment came to an end less than a weren year later in 2250, as the landmark Treaty reined in the infant stellar nations' adventurism and forced Voidcorp and the Orlamus to open negotiations to resolve their competing claims upon Kurg. The company attempted to forestall the issue by force, mobilising its Kinavu mercenaries in a continent-wide proxy war, but they met unexpectedly fierce resistance from a short-lived grand alliance of gunpowder-armed Civilised Weren, rival Hordes and covert offworld interference from the Orlamu side. After a bloody series of failed sieges on Kurg and diplomatic reverses on Earth, Voidcorp decided to cut its losses, transporting as many of the Kinavu as its transport fleet could carry into Free Space, leaving a bitter snarl of counter-attacks, broken alliances and betrayals among the weren on the ground. The memory of the Outland War plays no small part in the distaste of Polar Weren for offworlders and the loyalty of the Civilised Weren to the Orlamu cause to this day.

The second Voidcorp Branch Manager for Alien Relations, DuBose Kelly 82117644, chose a newly discovered Class I planet for the heart of his new colony, naming it for a town in his home region of the American States. Delavan was not a particularly friendly planet for weren - an aged, highly evolved ecosphere with extensive areas of tropical seas, swamps and jungles. The advanced plant life shed several distinct yearly waves of irritating pollen, burrs and catkins that took root and grew into mosses, grasses and shrubs in the most unlikely places. Swarming insects of many orders liked to infest weren hair. The surroundings were made bearable by a heavy use of Voidcorp's defoliants and insecticides and an array of tools invented for personal grooming, such as sonic combs and wire rakes. The weren colonists prospered through intense corporate investment in preparation for service as Voidcorp security forces.

The weren served with such distinction through GW I that Voidcorp came to rely on them heavily. Late in the war, at precisely the wrong time for the stellar nation, Raiaza J24177201, a weren who had risen to executive rank in the Security Division's Employee Satisfaction Office (analogous to a JAG office in Earth's historic militaries) caught the Board in an unaccustomed position of negotiating weakness. He succeeded in forcing a divestment of the Delavan weren contracts, under threat of industrial action from half of their ground forces.

After the end of the First Galactic War, the Delavan Region prospered through the 24th century, despite Voidcorp intrigues, as a source of hired soldiery for Voidcorp and other nations. They were finally overcome when Voidcorp-instigated tensions touched off the Delavan War with the Hatire, one of the ugly little curtain-raisers to GW II.

After the war ground to an end in a grudgingly negotiated settlement, leaving the Delavan system mostly cleansed of life, the inhabitants scattered according to their own inclinations in the so-called Four Fleets (actually, exploratory missions of no more than a few millions, followed by most of the population by regular commercial transport) to Austrin, Thuldan and Orion space and to the open frontier. The Delavan stars, with all those citizens who decided not to leave, were reabsorbed into Voidcorp space.

The Delavan Autonomous Region was never more than a loose alliance of semi-independent mercenary company heads who met in a Council of Captains in an enormous troop-transport vessel in orbit above Delavan.

The citizens of the region at its height comprised about 4 billion weren, 2.5 billion humans and scatterings of t'sa, mechalus and fraal, but at any time as much as 50% of the weren population and 10-20% of the allied species were outside of its borders on security contracts. Few sesheyans joined the Delavan Region, since the relationship between Voidcorp's former and current client species was always uneasy. Fugitive sesheyans could never consider themselves safe from the numerous Voidcorp agents who existed, and still exist, within Delavan communities, in many cases through induction into family secrets stretching back many weren generations.

Delavan weren are descended from the Polar Weren hordes and differ in appearance from the equatorial race who follow the Orlamu. They tend to be larger and more heavily built. The base colour of their fur is closer to grey than brown. They are sophisticated members of galactic society, so the fierce-looking piercings and heavy-buckled weapon belts that they wear are composed of surgical steel and advanced polymers, not the bog-iron, leather and bone that they appear to be. Many Delavans give off a pleasant citrus scent of insect-repelling oils. (The male weren illustrated in the Alternity Player's Handbook, page 29 is most likely of Delavan origin.)

Only weren characters may receive stellar nation benefits for loyalty to the Delavan Autonomous Region.

Primitive (PL 6): A Delavan weren may use technologies of PL 6 or lower without penalty but suffers a +1 penalty if using an item of PL 7 or above. This penalty can be eliminated at character creation, or as an achievement benefit when the hero reaches 6th level or higher, by spending 4 Skill Points.

Skeptical: Citizens of the Delavan region are not easily fooled or impressed. They take to heart the dictum of another famous resident of Delavan: “There's one born every minute.” A Delavan weren cannot be brought to an attitude better than Friendly by the use of Deception, Entertainment or Interaction broad or specialty skills, but only by skills that forge a longer-term commitment and call upon the Delavan's own best interests.

The fighters of the Delavan Region use a different array of weapons than Orlamist weren. They have no cultural tradition of fighting with the chuurkhna or black-powder guns, so the high-tech equivalents of these have no particular appeal to Delavans, who favor instead a variety of powered blade weapons and short-ranged automatic firearms. The following items are available from PL 6 onwards.

Skill: Melee Weapons-powered Accuracy: +0 Range: Personal Type: LI/O Damage: d4+2w/d6+2w/d4m Actions: 3 Clip: 6 Clip Cost: 75 Hide: +2 Mass: 1kg Availability: Controlled Cost: 450

These gruesome close-combat weapons are often wielded in a pair.

Skill: Melee Weapons-powered Accuracy: +1 Range: Personal Type: LI/O Damage: d8+1w/d8+2w/2d6w Actions: 2 Clip: 5 Clip Cost: 125 Hide: - Mass: 7kg Availability: Military Cost: 1200

This heavy implement has a long vibrating saw-edge along one side of a broad oblong plate, a short padded handle and a second grip punched in halfway up the back of the blade, slightly resembling the bardiche or rhomphaia of ancient and medieval Earth. Its tactical use closely resembles that of a chainsword, but is adapted to short, forceful, committed strokes or forcing the blade with both hands against an opponent's guard, rather than the free-swinging slashes of chainsword play. The boarding axe is also well designed to carve through non-armored partitions and other random obstacles.

Skill: Modern Ranged Weapons-pistol Accuracy: +1 Mode: B/A Range: 10/20/80 Type: HI/O Damage: d4+2w/d6+2w/d4+1m Actions: 3 Clip: -/10 Clip Cost: 180 Hide: +2 Mass: 1.5kg Availability: Military Cost: 1000

It takes a large hand, strong arm and substantial body weight to fire a sustained blast from this weapon with anything approaching control. The jarring recoil can numb the average shooter's arm in short order. The Tec-11 is favored by a motley array of cyber-enhanced fighters, unorthodox powered armor specialists and weren. When firing a Tec-11 in autofire (A) mode with one hand, a user with less than 12 Strength takes an additional +1 penalty to each roll, for total autofire penalties of +2/+3/+4. Any type of body tank negates this penalty.

Skill: Melee Weapons-powered Accuracy: +1 Range: Personal Type: LI/O Damage: d6+1w/d6+2w/d6+1m Actions: 2 Clip: 5 Clip Cost: 200 Hide: - Mass: 4kg Availability: Military Cost: 1800

This advanced pole axe has a light, springy handle of carbon-fiber laced alloy and a business end enhanced with a tungsten-neutronite edge set to vibrate at hypersonic speed by built-in generators. The blade can shear through most materials with hardly any resistance. The sonic halberd reduces the protection of any Ordinary-toughness armor by 1 point.

Skill: Heavy Weapons-direct Accuracy: +0 Mode: B/A Range: 100/300/1000 Type: HI/O Damage: d6w/2d4+3w/d6+1m Actions: 4 Clip: -/40 Clip Cost: 250 Hide: - Mass: 5kg Availability: Restricted Cost: 6000

This electrochemical-charge squad support weapon is suspended from the wearer's shoulders by an alloy hoop, with servomotors in its mounts that enhance the user's movements so that it can swing on to each new target with only a light touch. Most models are pre-fitted with data NIJacks for uplink to a cybernetic gunsight. The gyro-machinegun requires two actions to fit onto a user, one action to ready for firing, or one action to remove. While carrying a gyro-machinegun the user takes a +1 penalty to most other actions requiring physical movement, except Armour Operation checks (no penalty), STR-based skills apart from Armour Operation and Heavy Weapons-direct and all DEX-based skills (+2 penalty).