The Penqu are an ethnic group on Aphrodite, the sweltering innermost Class-E world in the Helios System. The Penqu are descended from workers and engineers who prepared nearby Tian (formerly Gaia) for colonization but were unable to obtain land claims. Others, mostly from New England, the Maritimes, Nunavut, and parts of Russia, settled on Demeter while Ares, a cool, dry analog to Mars, had to actively recruit settlers.
The Penqu developed a pidgin of English, Spanish, French, and Chinese while on Tian. The pidgin became a full-blown language on Aphrodite, now known as Humanic. The name “penqu” is a corruption of several word that loosely translate to “the cast offs.” The Penqu exist because their ancestors were sent away from Tian.
Penqu favor rural settings, unlike their rivals, the Kolkats. Kolkats descended from sleeper ship settlers who had an earlier claim on the planet. The conflict has resulted in three centuries of sporadic civil conflict, rendering the planet a protectorate of Helios’s other three Class-E worlds. However, in 436 IE, both sides agreed that, with infrastructure improvements and the presence of a Thulian enclave, the time had come for a provisional government so Aphrodite could become a core world.
Appearances: “Sphinx Rising“