During the early years space exploration and colonization[?] humans planted a colony on Darkover, a planet which circles a red giant. Contact with the colonists was lost. The colonists developed independently, interacting and interbreeding with the native life of the planet. The ethnic background of the colonists is Celtic and Spanish. In time the colonists develop strong psionic abilities. These abilities become integrated into their culture.
Those who have strong telepathic and other psionic abilities become a ruling class[?] and technological elite and are marked by genetically linked[?] red hair.
The history of Darkover is marked by use, abuse, and eventual control of of psionic powers.
Eventually the planet is rediscovered by a revitalized human space traveling civilization and a spaceport is established near the only city on Darkover.
Books this is a very incomplete list
wikipedia.org dumped 2003-03-17 with terodump