All modern denominations on Geba are stacked on the Varen base unit. The system was instated by the Shadow Rulers following the currency collapse of the Fracture, restoring the ancient Varen standard and adding higher denominations named after the imperial line. For practical conversion, one Varen is treated as equivalent to one modern dollar.
Denominations
| Name | Code | Value | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Auren | AUR | 100,000 VAR | Where real wealth begins. A single Auren covers small property or renter fees in a major capital. Tens of Auren open access to higher-end weapons systems, serious combat vehicles, and quality relay trackers. Hundreds of Auren approach airship ownership. Direct Solarn-level contracts with entry pay of Auren are rare and extremely hazardous, taken by veteran fighters, mercenary companies, high-risk contractors, relay specialists, and select engineering or government teams. |
| Daer | DAR | 10,000 VAR | The level where contracts worth taking begin. Daer-backed postings pay for solid weapons, armor, personal entertainment devices, and very low-end vehicles. Hazard boards in hub capitals quote their real incentives in Daer. Most corridor work through the Energy Wars pays in this range for operators willing to accept the risk. |
| Vaer | VR | 5,000 VAR | Serious money for individual workers. At Vaer levels, personal ground vehicles and reliable self-defense weapons become real options but airships remain out of reach. A string of Vaer payments can change a household's position without touching Auren-scale risk. |
| Ashan | ASH | 1,000 VAR | The first rung where a weekly wage supports a workable life. An Ashan-level income handles rent or rural tax and keeps basic gear maintained but is far from enough to buy property or approach a clearing of one's own. |
| Kelvael | KLV | 100 VAR | Where decent gear starts. Starting-level training fees, mid- to high-tier personal gear, and cheap relay trackers land in Kelvael ranges, especially for workers pushing out of basic Varen pay. |
| Varen | VAR | Base unit | Where ordinary wages and prices begin. Common food, entry-level tools, very cheap armor, and the lowest-end weapons are quoted directly in Varen. Personal savings are tracked in how many VAR a person holds. |
| Tal | TAL | 10 TAL = 1 VAR | Hub food vendors, small amounts of ammunition, casual tips, minor fees, and short transit rides. Tal coins are the background noise of a working hub. |
| Zehn | ZEH | 100 ZEH = 1 VAR | The smallest visible denomination. Used for individual rounds, very low-quality goods, single pieces taken from a pack, or very small portions of food. Zehn keeps ledgers precise when everything else rounds up. |
Civilian Costs
For the majority of Geba's 71 billion people who never participate in the Energy Wars, the currency ladder maps to the basic infrastructure of daily life. A simple civilian rover — unarmored, no weapons platform, standard engine — costs between 3 and 8 Vaer depending on the manufactory and region. Hub housing in a capital with full relay coverage ranges from 2 to 5 Ashan per month for a basic unit, with desirable positions near relay hubs or transit stations pushing into Vaer range. Rural land outside relay coverage is cheaper but carries the risk of blackout if the nearest relay falls. A family home in a settled clearing with stable relay service runs between 5 and 15 Auren depending on proximity to a major hub. Food, transit, personal electronics, and day-to-day expenses operate in the Varen-to-Kelvael range for most working civilians.
Contractor Economy
Approximately 300 million people are registered in the Solarn Contractor Registry. The vast majority sit at the Novice and Contractor tiers, taking medium- or low-risk contracts in less volatile regions for pay in the Daer range. A standard sidearm suitable for corridor work costs between 5 and 20 Daer. A proper combat rifle ranges from 30 to 80 Daer. Body armor rated for syndicate engagements runs 15 to 50 Daer depending on coverage, material, and whether it was produced by Joxi Essentials at the low end or Haavu at the high end. A personal relay tracker sits between 2 and 10 Kelvael for basic models, with high-end units reaching Daer range. At this level, weapons are consumable. They are expected to be lost, damaged, or abandoned during operations, and are priced accordingly.
At the Senior tier and above, contractors begin accumulating real assets. An armored rover with weapons capability costs between 15 and 40 Auren. A low-end airship — functional, armed, capable of contested-region flight — starts around 200 Auren and scales rapidly with armament, speed, and range. Higher-end models used by established mercenary groups and manufactory-contracted pilots run into the thousands of Auren. Most Senior-tier operators already own their own vehicle, carry higher-end weaponry, and operate with established teams whose combined assets represent sustained Auren-level investment.
At the Elite and Master Contractor level, the spending profile inverts. Weapons remain relatively cheap — most operators at this tier spend no more than 10 Auren on any individual weapon, because weapons are still lost, broken, and replaced regularly regardless of the operator's skill. What changes is everything else. Gear and equipment at this level are built to specifications that do not exist at lower tiers. A pair of boots rated for black-zone terrain, sealed against chemical exposure, reinforced for high-gravity endurance, and fitted to the individual can cost hundreds of Auren. Armor, communications systems, medical kits, breathing apparatus, optical equipment, and specialized tools are priced at the same scale. A Master Contractor's total personal loadout — excluding weapons — can represent thousands of Auren in accumulated investment. Tier 1 relay engineers operating in black zones carry equipment of equivalent value, because the quality of their gear and the quality of their contractor team are the only variables between completing an anchor and dying in a corridor. At this level, expenditure is not preference. It is operational necessity. The jobs do not permit inferior equipment, and by this point in a career the money is there to ensure it never has to be.
At the highest tier of the contractor system, currency ceases to function as a meaningful metric. All necessary resources are provided. The operators at this level do not take contracts for payment. They exist within a structure that supplies what is needed when it is needed, and the work itself is not visible through any public system.
Luxury vs. Functional Pricing
There is no relationship between the cost of high-end functional gear and the cost of luxury goods. A pair of boots built for a Master Contractor operating in inland black zones may cost 300 Auren because it is engineered to keep that person alive in conditions that kill most people who enter them. An unarmored luxury vehicle built for a wealthy civilian on Coastal Thazvaar may cost the same amount because it is beautiful. The two prices exist in entirely separate economies. One is survival engineering priced by the rarity of its materials and the precision of its construction. The other is status goods priced by demand and exclusivity. A designer garment worn once at a Scarlet Verse festival on Coastal Thazvaar can cost more than a full suit of combat armor rated for corridor work. Neither price says anything about the other.
Kharan's Gulf, once a pirate stronghold and the final battleground of the ancient Geban-Thazvaari War, is now the premier enclave of ultra-luxury on the planet. Homes at the lower end of the Gulf start around 20,000 Auren. Palaces and towers along the waterfront cost significantly more. Residents include the wealthiest elites on Geba, among them Yelidra Veykar. Many Tier 1 contractors live as wealthy elites on Coastal Thazvaar when they are not deployed. The proximity of extreme wealth and covert operational infrastructure is not coincidental.
Scale
The currency ladder reflects the economic reality of a planet where two billion people are directly employed by the relay network and almost every job connects to relay infrastructure in some form. Zehn and Tal handle the smallest movements. Varen and Kelvael anchor everyday life. Ashan provides survival with margin. Vaer and Daer are where contracts change a household's future. Auren is where real movement begins — clearings, airframes, and the kind of equipment that keeps people alive in corridors where the relay is the only thing between civilization and black zone. At the top, the same denomination buys a palace on Kharan's Gulf or a pair of boots that will keep a relay engineer alive long enough to anchor one more spine in a region no one else will enter. For outside readers, treating one Varen as one modern dollar keeps those scales intuitive.