Freelance Traveller - Up Close and Personal

Princess Anong Nadar

profiled by Lewis Roberts

This article originally appeared in the May/June 2026 issue.

Editor’s Note: This character was designed for Traveller: The New Era

The Princess Anong was born in 1176 and grew up in the relative peace and security on the island nation of Grand Bussam. It is a minor nation on Burlta/Thoezennt/Old Expanses (X79986E-1). Burlta is a TL1 world and has fractured in dozens of nations, with most led by various forms of autocracy, many of which are Technologically Elevated Dictatorships of various flavors. Grand Bussam falls in that category, but its law level is a few levels below the planetary average of E.

She was born several years after the rest of her five siblings and as the baby of the family, she grew up being pampered and spoiled by her parents and everyone around her. Her parents expected her older sister to rule the nation after their mother reached the age of 50, which is age for mandatory abdication for the princesses of Grand Bussam. Her parent’s plan for Anong was to marry her to a suitable suitor from another nation in the future. Anong wasn’t taught any statecraft or political skills and was allowed to pursue her own interests, which tended to the frivolous.

The princess was well loved as a child, but as she grew, she became arrogant and narcissistic. She grew to love the finer things in life with little concern about where they came from or how much they cost.

When she was 17, her mother was celebrating the anniversary of her coronation on the royal yacht. Princess Anong was unable to attend the party because she had broken her leg the day before while riding and was convalescing at the royal palace. Even though there were calm seas and clear skies, the yacht sank with all hands. Her entire family was lost with the ship, and the spoiled princess was suddenly the ruler of the nation.

She was woefully unprepared for this role and proved to be a very poor ruler. Her decisions and whims quickly set the nation on a path for economic decay. She maneuvered the nation into conflict with several other nations. As has become the tradition since the Collapse, the various nations settle their differences with ritual combat between champions, which avoid bloody battles between armies. These conflicts were settled with duels between champions and the princess’s champions lost each duel. These losses led to the loss of several prized fishing grounds and other economic assets. They also cost the lives of many of her best soldiers and members of the royal guard.

As the nation’s economy decayed, the princess demanded ever more luxury goods and increased taxes to pay for them. She ignored all pleas to change her policies and exiled several advisors who would not take no for an answer.

Finally, Morgana Basulado, the captain of the royal guard reached her breaking point. She led a group of guards who seized the princess and staged a coup. She gained support from the main noble houses (one of which is led by her mother) and was selected as the new Princess of the realm.

The citizenry of Grand Bussam is devoted to the royal family and will not tolerate any disrespect for the family or it’s members. Most of them are happy to have a new princess in charge and they can already see improvements. Still, they did not wish the former princess to be harmed. They just want her gone. Even Morgana Basulado is unwilling to harm Princess Anong. As such she has decided to exile her. Anong was kept locked in her suite of rooms for several months until a Free Trader landed on Burlta. The agents of Princess Morgana hired them to take the former Princess Anong to another world and strand her there. They want her far enough away that she can’t just come back in a single jump. The Free Trader crew brought her to Reformation Coalition and escorted her to their docking port, asked her to wait there for a few minutes and then took off. They left her with a large pile of luggage.

Anong grew up being pampered and spoiled by her parents and everyone around her. She had servants at her beck and call. Now that she’s removed from that environment, she’s emotionally unanchored. The coup dealt her a series of emotional shocks with the betrayal of those around her and the culture shock of being thrust onto a starship for several months. Her culture shock will only accelerate as she experiences the Reformation Coalition. She is also having a very difficult time dealing with her new station. She’s gone from being a royal person to a random zipper from a backwater planet. She frequently breaks down when in private, but when in the presence of anyone else, she’ll maintain a persona of control. Her frustration in this situation, manifests in even higher levels of arrogance and demands on those around her.

Her goal is to return to her land and retake her throne. Then she’ll be able to enact vengeance on those who betrayed her. She will use any means to get there. She is willing to work with almost anyone who will further her aims. That can be the Reformation Coalition, Free Traders, the Guild or criminals. She doesn’t have anything now, but once’s she reinstated, she’ll be able to use the state assets of Grand Bussam.She’s willing to trade just about anything that Grand Bussam owns to anyone willing to help her. This could be money, land, basing rights, relic technology from the royal guards, agreements to join the RC or anything else. She does not care if that causes additional harm on the citizens of Grand Bussam. She has always been short sighted, and her vengeance matters more than anything else to her.

From her perspective, she was betrayed by the captain of her guard, who deposed her and seized power for herself. She accepts no responsibility for the coup and feels that she was ruling well and that the many problems of Grand Bussam were caused by the weaknesses and laziness of those who surround her.

Personality: She is not naïve or stupid, but she is often ignorant and she does not let that ignorance stop her from making decisions. She is petty and can be cruel. She loves the luxuries and being pampered as a royal person. She expects everyone to treat her with respect and deference, even in the RC.

She is moderately xenophobic and slightly technophobic. Both of these are overridden by her desire to return home and to her former position. She feels cooped up while being aboard a starship and after landing, will try to go outdoors as soon as possible. Back home, she saw the champions and wizards of her world wield relic weapons and armor, so she’s fairly comfortable with those. She will not react well to robots. She’d rather use a riding animal, than be in most vehicles, but that’s not practical in many places. The one aspect of technology that she has come to appreciate is when it comes to bathing. Modern showers and bathtubs are far superior to anything back home. She also loves the various shampoos and soaps. As far as her xenophobia, she feels her culture is superior to others and the only reason they are more powerful is because they have technology to back them up. She doesn’t really want to meet lots of strangers in the RC, but she forces herself to do it so she can get back home. Then she can ignore the rest of the universe and just focus on her principality. She has never encountered any non-human sentients. She will be unnerved if she does, but she will do her best to conceal her reaction. It wouldn’t be proper to run screaming from a Schalli or a Hiver. Instead, she will treat it if it was a smart animal and give it orders.

She does enjoy hunting and riding, often going on mounted hunts for various animals around her estates.She knows how to use a bow for target shooting and for hunting but has never used one as a weapon against people.

Belongings: She has several trunks of fine clothing, several musical instruments and a trunk full of books and personal items. She was not allowed to take any of her jewelry with her. Her clothing is made from fine wool, and fur. She has many dresses with a few pant suits. Grand Bussam has a cool climate, with cold harsh winters. She will need new clothes if she is spending time in a warm climate.

Appearance: A beautiful young woman with dark skin and hair that is usually dyed red or purple. Her hair is currently cut in a short bob with curtain bangs. She dresses in fine clothes suitable for a cold climate: long dresses and cloaks that are trimmed with fur. She has a noble bearing.

Encounters: The players can encounter her in several ways. One way would be to see immediately after she was dumped at a starport by the free trader crew (any starport in the Reformation Coalition would do.) The party will see a beautiful young woman in strange, but elegant clothes standing amongst a pile of archaic trunks. She seems bewildered and shocked. It will take her a while to realize that she has been abandoned and at first she will not realize why they did so. The Free Trader had not told her of her fate and felt it easier to deal with her temper by lying and saying that she was being held for a short while before being returned to her home.

Another possibility is that she has managed to find a patron in power in the local planetary government (or possibly the RCES) to help restore her to power in exchange for trade rights and diplomatic relations. The patron has agreed to provide a crew to bring her back and carry out a counter-coup. The players are that crew of course. The patron’s identity can be modified to best suit the campaign.

In any case, once on board the player’s ship, she’ll be demanding and a pain in the neck. The Princess has a temper and will refuse to back down in most situations. She can be persuaded, but it will take considerable time.

If she is ever restored to power, she’ll begin a reign of terror amongst those she feels betrayed her. She’ll also continue to make more poor choices like those that were slowly destroying the economy. She’ll now have to contend with a populace that was glad to see her go and was just getting used to the improved conditions since the coup. The now Princess Morgana has been doing a very good job of running the country and is generally popular. If things get bad enough, Princess Anong will probably have to contend with a popular uprising.

Author’s Notes

While she was written with for the New Era and the Reformation Coalition setting, she can be used in another era or region of space. Burlta/Old Expanses was chosen as her home world, but she can come from any balkanized low-tech world. Junak/Oriflamme/Old Expanses is another possibility.

Reference: Path of Tears (GDW)

Character Details

Age 26
Human
Two terms Barbarian

Her social standing is for her native planet. Out in the rest of the galaxy, she has a much lower social standing.

She was generated with the Traveller: The New Era (TNE) rules and then converted to Classic Traveller (CT) and MegaTraveller (MT) using the rules in Survival Margin. I used those as the basis for the Marc Miller’s Traveller (T4) conversion. It is an inexact process as several skills in TNE do not exist in CT or MT. Examples include swimming or song. I combined several of her artistic skills into artisan. The situation is improved with T4, which has a larger skill set.

For CT, I looked at The Traveller Book and Supplement 4 Citizens of the Imperium. For MT, I used the MegaTraveller Player’s Handbook. For T4, I used Marc Miller’s Traveller (the core rulebook).

Traveller the New Era stats

33893A-C
Riding-4, Swimming-3, Carousing-2, Dancing 2, Music-2 (wind), Persuasion-2, Song-2, Act-1, Archery-1, Jeweler 1, Tracking-1,

CT stats

449A4C
Bow Combat 1, Carousing 1, Hunting 1

Megatraveller

449A4C
Artisan 3, Equestrian 2, Bow 1, Carousing 1, Persuasion 1, Recon 1

Traveller 4

449A4C
Equestrian 2, Music 2, Act 1, Bow combat 1, Carousing 1, Craftsman 1, Dance 1, Fast Talk 1, Recon 1

‌