polities

IV. The Syra Vorte—These feisty worlds were one of the first to split off the Marian Empire as it began its decline, when they were yet still surrounded by Marian space. In return, they were invaded and subjected to decades of on again off again guerrilla warfare, but they managed to hold on to their independence. The Berns have not tried to claim their system, despite bordering it, and subversive agents of the Republic have been dealt with harshly. Syrans are a strange humanoid alien with baggy and wrinkled hairless, grayish skin, a wide, curved mouth with two pointed fangs in the very front that hang outside on the lower lip, and eyes sunk so deep into pits that they are not readily visible. Today, they run their government on these planets as an independent corporation, crafting, making, selling and distributing high quality items of various kinds. Rather than a traditional government, they all belong to a corporation, and are structured like a big company. Occasionally citizens of the Syra Vorte get "fired" and have to leave; most of them making their way to the nearby Acton Emirate in that case, where large numbers of their kind also live. In fact, the Acton Emirate was once part of the Syra Vorte many centuries ago before being conquered by an emir of the Dhangetans, who rules it now.

V. The Acton Emirate—The Actons were a "family" of Dhangetans—a powerful and conniving Dhangetan and his most promising budded offspring (presumably he ate the rest, as is their wont) wandered off on his own and established his own sovereign emirate after conquering several small independent worlds and parts of the Syra Vorte. His descendants still rule here today. In the past, it wasn't quite so isolated from the rest of the Cartel, however—these descendants are now somewhat feeling the squeeze of Revanchism, the nearby Monarchy border, and resentful Syrans who'd love to reclaim worlds that were once theirs. The Actons, therefore, are highly militarized for a Dhangetan set of worlds, with large number of poorly armed slaves and other peasants, an ever-growing legion of combat droids and elite Cilindarean and Janissary and psionic knight mercenaries. Unusually, for a Dhangetan polity, there is a secret police here who keep a wary eye out for enemy agents and subversives, who tend most commonly to come from nearly Republic worlds, and they crack down on them very harshly. An unexpected and unanticipated consequence of this attempt to crack down on potential threats is the increase in security from the Dhangetan norm, which is usually that only the strong dare venture for fear of being set upon by bands of thugs who have no official deterrence to commit whatever violence they think they can get away with. This has had the side effect of making the Acton Emirate more stable, more secure, and more wealthy—but in some ways, it threatens the unique culture of the Dhangetans and threatens to make them more mainstream. For the most part, the Dhangetans don't really care one way or another, but some of the others who live here tend to come for the "Dhangetan charm" and don't want to lose it.

VI. The Tearaxian Federation—This small group of worlds colonized by the central one, which is a large world, and the natives are therefore "hulks"—large, robust build and strength beyond that of most normal folks in known space. Tearaxian hulks are red-skinned and have adopted or adapted a techno-organic system that grows with them that is implanted naturally at some point in the womb from electronic developments in the mother, making them just about the only known natural born cyborgs. This techno-organic lattice is a small electrical system that runs throughout their body, and can "overclock" them in extreme circumstances, like a nitrous oxide version of adrenaline, in a way. When this happens, their lattice of circuit-board-like tracings glow through their skin, giving them a dramatic appearance. The Republic was always intimidated by the Tearaxian hulks, but they tried a rather cowardly orbital bombardment to subdue their systems once. A boarding action from the surface was swift and decisive, and peace was procured. The Tearaxians don't really trust the Republic, but they maintain sufficient military strength now as a standing army to provide sufficient deterrence of a repeated conquest attempt. When troops muster out of their mandatory military service, many of them later hit the space-lanes of known space as adventurers, mercenaries, bounty hunters, or otherwise using their strength and military training to earn some extra credits before coming home and settling down.

VII. The Revanchist Republic—After the fall of the Marian Empire to revolutionary forces combined with criminals and outsider barbarian mercenaries and opportunists, the New Republic set itself up as the successor state. Plagued by problems (mostly caused by the fact that so many of their supporters were criminals, crazy anarchists, and outsider barbarian opportunists) it gradually shrank and gave up much of its claimed territory to its main ideological rival, the Bern Monarchy, which also set itself up as a successor state to the Marian Empire. The Monarchy has a better claim in many ways of being something more like the Marian Empire during its time of greatest success, and the Republic looked like it was out for the count. At one point, they even lost access to their own capital system, Capital Publius, to the Berns. Finally getting their act together, they organized, militarized, propagandized and mobilized, and now are a growing and intimidating Great Power. If you want to apply real world analogs to the Revanchist Republic, which has been "liberating" worlds from whatever "tyranny" they suffered under for some time now and grown tremendously from a shrunken rump state to the third largest state in known space, I see it as a bit of the French Revolution, the Bolshevik Revolution and current age decadent US foreign and domestic cuckservative neocon and SJW fascism all rolled into one. In spite of that, the common people of the Republic are more or less decent folk, oppressed under their crowd-sourced do-gooder-or-else Soviet elite police state. In many ways, free and independent worlds are almost as wary of the approach of Republican representatives as they are of Imperial ones—at least the Empire shows a sane and stable application of strength (at least, so say its apologists) whereas what the Republic wants from you is a constantly moving target that you have no hope of ever satisfying.

VIII. The Cilindarean Arm—I've talked plenty about Cilindarean culture in other posts, especially about the planet Cilindare itself. The part shown in this sector is about half of their total space, and even they've gotten in the game of expanding far flung colonies out there here and there, as well as making overt alliances across the sector. Curiously, even within their polity, they've got nearly as many clients as actual official systems. The Cilindareans can best be viewed as what you'd get if a Nordic version of classic Greek Spartans went into space in high tech battle armor and created a decent sized empire. Within the Cilindarean sphere, often somewhat integrated, but often with separate "allied" worlds of their own, are the descendants of the Janissaries who fought long ago in the vicious Slave Wars. Because of a shared ethnic origin, the Janissaries returned to Cilindarean space after their attachment to the Marian Empire was severed, but they found that this "homecoming" was viewed with some suspicion by the Cilindareans, and that they had grown sundered from each other in culture, language, attitude and even physical appearance. Nevertheless, they still maintain an intertwined existence today. The biggest and most important import of both ethnic Cilindareans and the spin-off Janissary group is mercenary companies, military advisers, and more. A few have even taken up privateer careers, operate as bounty hunters, or enforcers for criminal enterprises. The Dhangetans in particular have had a long-standing relatively friendly relationship with them, only threatened when they Cilindareans expanded eastward at the same time that the Republic was expanding southwestward and the Dhangetans lost space-lane contact with the more far-flung Acton Emirate.

IX. The Mattix Independency—This small little independent island smack dab in the middle of the Cilindarean Arm (and very close to Cilindare itself) seems like it should be swallowed up, but the Cilindareans are extraordinarily respectful of the Mattixes, and not only don't threaten them with territorial swallowing, but have reaffirmed through multiple evergreen treaties that they will, in fact, protect them from any other group that threatens them. The Mattixes are human-like, but thin, almost ethereal-looking, with glowing eyes, hair and even skin. They are somewhat isolationist, and travel infrequently (although "as beautiful as the Mattix elfs" is famous as an expression throughout known space. Sometimes they're called angels instead of elfs). There is a lot of debate around exactly why the Cilindareans give such deference to the Mattixes and what the Mattixes offer the Cilindareans in return, but there's no answer that has any kind of consensus, really. It's well known, however, that if anyone among the Cilindareans suggests or attempts to break or renegotiate this deal, that the Anaxaster himself gets involved and puts a decisive stop to it.

X. The Dhangetan Cartel—I've talked a fair bit about the Dhangetan's themselves, mostly on the planet entries for Tar Dhangeta and Tars Bruttium so I'll avoid repeating myself here. The actual Dhangetan alien species, who look like Tsathoggua with gug-like arms and legs and reproduce through budding, but who eat most of their off-spring anyway so as not to compete with them is a nice enough place to start, but really in actual practice they are less Lovecraftian and more a combination of Fu Manchus and Barbary corsair beys in space. The Dhangetans are, of course, really quite rare even in their own feudal state. For the most part, they represent lone warlords, loosely allied together, who rule over conquered nations. So, the Dhangetan Cartel, unlike human states such as the Bern Monarchy (which is mostly settled, peopled, governed and ruled by humans of Earth-stock) is ruled over by only a few Dhangetans, and is peopled mostly by aliens that have been conquered by the Dhangetans or their allies. Many humans live here, and many planets were originally human-settled, or human-majority planets, although a rather bewildering array of other aliens also live here and do much of the day-to-day work of running commerce, the state, and whatever else is done. The Dhangetan cartel would therefore be equivalent to their Barbary Coast: Salé, Rabbat, Algiers, Tunis, Tripoli, etc. The really scary thing to its neighbors is the more secretive infiltration of the Dhangetans, however, and how much they may or may not be pulling strings behind the scenes more broadly than within Cartel-space per se.

XI. The Seraean Empire—If you can imagine a totalitarian empire like the Nazis or the Soviets, but ruled over by a long-standing Lovecraftian cult of psychics, mystics and warlocks, then you're on the right track to understanding the Seraean Empire. The core Seraean population is a group of xenohumans who have a chalky gray-white skin tone, and often pale white or gray hair, and nearly colorless eyes. This isn't a lack of pigmentation, as in Earth-stock albinos; they actually are pigmented with a different compound other than melanin to appear chalky gray-white. The Idacharians of Phobetor (and elsewhere) are also an integral part of the Empire and often move with Saraeans, although they are a completely different type of xenohuman ethnicity, noted for their jet-black skin and hair. Other types of humans and even aliens also live and work in the Empire, although often in lower castes than the ethnic Seraeans themselves. These other humans and aliens are more common and more politically prominent the further away from the center of the Empire you get; since the New Alderamin sector only has the far western edge of the empire, they are more prominent here than in the sector to the galactic "east" (this is even more true in some colonies, such as the Outremer region). The Seraeans obviously have designs on conquering literally everything that they know about, but they're patient, and know that such would be the work of many generations. In the meantime, other states can get along with them—after a fashion—although few trust or like them.

XII. The Carrick Grand Marches—The largest Bernese colony; seven contiguous systems, plus another four closely allied native ones is, of course, a major political organization, even if it were to be independent. Backed by the Monarchy (albeit rather far, and separated by the better part of at least a couple of months of bulk jumps from even the nearest leading edge of regular, uninterrupted Bernese space), Grand Duke Ander Gadriar is a conscientious ruler, highly regarded locally, and considered a rather romantic, heroic figure back at home. This isn't unfair to the real Grand Duke, but it also ignores an important part of his character—he disliked Maddav Bern personally, and was a man of action, frustrated and annoyed by the cloying atmosphere at Court in Dimidium. Although he still retains an estate on Dimidium Secundus itself, and his brother rules a grand duchy within the Monarchy proper, Ander was able to maneuver himself to be appointed Grand Duke for himself and his heirs to Carrick. Carrick was originally established by rather fractious laborers, former soldiers, and merchants who disliked being told what to do, and have often been troublesome for prior leaders sent to govern the colony (less than fifty years ago, they actually murdered the Grand Duke and declared independence, although the popular support wasn't with them as they thought, and the instigators mostly were either executed for treason or fled to Dhangetan space or the Carthen colony.) Ander Gadriar has managed to gain and maintain their trust, confidence and respect, however.

XIII. The Carthen Colony—The history of the Carthen Colony is a little bit unusual; it is actually an expansion from the Carrick Grand Marches. Many of the insurgents mentioned above fled to this sparsely populated section of the colony and continued to press their claims for independence. The Republic, sensing an opportunity, offered to back them. Within a few years, the Republic had managed to maneuver the Carthen systems into accepting direct Republic rule, and it became the Carthen colony. However, they found that the independent nature of the people already living there, as well as their deep-rooted cultural ties to Carrick (in spite of their political disagreement) meant that they were unable to turn into a regular Republic-ruled colony. Some of the bigger cities still operate much like any other Republic city, but once you get a few miles beyond city limits, or out of the major port areas in space, Carthen looks a lot more like a part of Carrick. Tensions between the Republic and the Monarchy have occasionally arisen due to this odd situation here, but in the last several decades, the tensions have been more local than otherwise. Republic troops and secret police attempt to ensure that rumors of secession and realignment with Carrick don't materialize, but their attempts to crack down actually make it more likely rather than less. The cultural Carricks who make up much of the bedrock of the population simply dislike being told what to do too much for the Republic to ever manage them effectively. A few leaders have started to realize this, and are actively attempting to swamp the colony with people of other stock in an attempt to overwhelm them politically, but this will also be the work of a few generations before it really comes to full fruition.

XIV. The Rhyne Colony—The Rhyne Colony is much more a small slice of the standard Republic in population and culture, just geographically separated from it. Ethnically much more similar to the rest of the Republic (some of which are of Earth-stock, but many of which belong to one of two xenohuman breeds; either bright red skinned with dark hair and pale blue eyes, or pale-skinned with dark brown eyes and natural hair colors that are bright red, green, blue, lavender, etc.—Psarians and Jaffans, respectively) as well as many aliens. This is also the vector by which the swamping of Carthen by more loyal Republicans instead of fractious and individualistic Bernese is happening; something that the Carthens are just now beginning to realize. In general, the whole Rhyne, Carthen and Carrick situation is much more of an impending powder-keg than most realize.

XV. The Bechtel Marches—Compared to Carrick, Bechtel is in relatively good shape. More or less peaceful relationships exist between Bechtel and the Cilindareans and the Altairans. In fact, they're so peaceful, that many Bernese from Bechtel are getting excited and taking up arms against Outremer and the Calder Settlements as privateers with letters of marque issued by the Altairans, usually, although some are by the Machesk Counts. The Bechtelians are starting to get a reputation as troublemakers because of this, and the margrave, who spends most of his time in Dimidium anyway, has found suddenly that his position is threatened as King Bern is rapidly losing confidence in his ability to prevent trouble from seeping out of his colony.

XVI. The Altairan Ascendancy (North)—The blue-skinned Altairans are a significant interstellar race that almost rivaled those of Earth-stock in forming the old Marian Empire, but their numbers and influence have been on the decline for many, many generations. While there are still many of them that live in the Monarchy, in the Republic, and in this sector as a whole either as a minority population, or on small, independent worlds, their relatively large Altairan Ascendancy was a point of pride for the people overall—an independent nation founded and peopled almost entirely by Altairans, who sought to preserve their language and their culture, separate from the Marians. Until recently, most of subsectors III-1 and IV-1, as well as parts of III-2 and IV-2 all belonged to this multi-world federation. Crusaders from the Empire have conquered nearly half of its territory in the last century, though—killing and/or enslaving untold millions of Altairans as they established the brutal Crusader States of Outremer. Now, the Altairan Ascendancy is split in two; the "North" and the "South". Two brothers rule here; Konaii Goaulda is the king of the North part. The South is more isolated, and unable to effectively coordinate with any allies; the North, on the other hand, is surrounded by smaller polities that are more sympathetic to it than they are to Outremer (although many would just as soon see it fall expecting that they could gobble up some of it in the wake of the fiasco.)

XVII. The Principality of Tan Kajak—The first of the Imperial "Crusader States" (if you don't count the Vorgan Than)—now, keep in mind that I actually see the historical Crusader States are protagonists and sympathetic for the most part; I have rejected the false narrative that the Crusaders were the villains there. Nonetheless, the crusaders in this sector are Imperial crusaders, and their religion isn't Christianity, it's a Lovecraftian daemon-worshipping cult. So the Crusader states in this domain are definitely antagonist states; independent and powerful entities from the Empire that wanted to rule their own powerful states autonomously, and had enough political, financial and military wherewithal to do so. The Principality of Tan Kajak is named for the Crusader King who established it, this one is very "normal" in most respects, for an Imperial territory. Compared to the contentious and individualistic lords of Outremer, this is much more like territory that you'd expect to find within the Empire itself; just with a large, native conquered underclass and more mercenaries and other auxiliary troops that help support the continued occupation.

XVIII. Outremer—I pulled the name from the Frankish and Norman French term for "overseas" which was used as a nickname for the Crusader states overall, but a correspondence is not to be expected too closely—this more resembles the more morally questionable Baltic Crusader States than the Levantine ones. As I said for Tan Kajak above and for Thanatos specifically, this was as much about reclaiming the Empire's heritage, in their minds at least, as it was anything else. Having a powerful colony on the other side of the sector from the main border of the Empire was only a desirable side effect. In many ways, though, the colony is too fractious and contentious and independent-minded to really serve as a proper beachhead for Imperial culture and expansion; Tan Kajak does a better job than that. Still, situated smack dab in the middle of a political hot spot, and surrounded on all sides by polities that are rivals if not outright enemies, Outremer has done a fantastic job of maintaining itself in spite of mounting political and military difficulties.

XIX. The Altairan Ascendancy (South)—Greatly reduced and cut off from their brothers in the galactic north, this rump state is always wary of further war. Populations swollen by refugees from the invasion and conquest that created the Outremer state have turned to revanchism, rescue of those enslaved or living on Vichy worlds in Outremer. Although not at open war with Outremer, raids, subversion, sabotage, terrorism and more make life uneasy along the border here. While the Northern Altairan Ascendancy issues letters of marque to prey on Outremer shipping, and cultivates the growth not only of its army, but alliances with other colonies and states in the region, in the South, the common people have boiled out in anger and resentment at Outremer and have turned to radicalism and terrorism; while their nobility is largely in denial that there's a major problem, and sees the new normal of a shrunken and divided Altairan Ascendancy as just the way things are. This leads to a growing disconnect between the elites and the rank and file of the Ascendancy, which in turn is leading to further conflict and weakness.

XX. The Reaver Worlds—This is the homeworld and later expansion area of a group of humanoid aliens that derive from cursorial hunters (rather than savanna dwelling omnivores, as humans are believed to have done) locally. In spite of their human-like appearance, their wide, spreading noses, furry bodies, and sharp teeth as well as large and pointed external ears make them immediately identifiable as alien. Some humans have called them cat-people or werewolves, but they are neither; they are an alien race that has little connection to Earth or any of the other homeworlds of xenohumans. They are almost universally viewed as barbarians and savages by most of their neighbors, especially because they have a habit of conducting hit and run raids that leave settlements looted and their inhabitants killed or enslaved. Their leaders deny any official involvement or knowledge, to deflect diplomatic sanctions or worse, and in this they're probably honest—it's just cultural to the Reavers, and they do it to their own settlements as well. The Viomium Marches, the Desai Worlds, and the many smaller independent areas that surround them are their usual targets; the Empire has been on occasion, but reprisals are usually harsh and indiscriminate, making them too risky a target for most. Think of the Reaver Worlds as something like the Comancheria in the 1850s; the only Indian tribe to roll back the white advancement, and fight the Texians and the Mexicans to a stalemate. Eventually the US got involved after Texas was annexed, and then it was rather quickly over for the Comanches, as the full might of the US army was turned towards pacifying their depredations; but in this instance, the Reavers are trying to keep the Empire from doing that, so as to maintain their independence and way of life.

XXI. The Desai Worlds—A splinter group ruled by a few Dhangetans and their armies, the curious thing about the Desai Worlds is that they are the home of a number of earthlings that are not human; they were settled long before the Marian Empire by someone doing genetic research and experimentation in eugenics on great apes. For the most part, these are apes that have a more humanoid posture, intelligence and speaking ability, but there are a few weirder morphological variants as well. The apes are mostly unmolested in their settlements in the wilderness, but many make up an underclass in the cities, which are otherwise very much as you'd expect from a Dhangetan world; mercenaries, smugglers, slavers, criminals, and others from the underbelly of known space society. Relatively large numbers of the cat-like Reavers pass through here on business that isn't necessarily related to their piracy, and this is the vector by which apes spread elsewhere in known space.

XXII. The Machesk Frontier—What was formerly a rather sleepy little colony has become a crossroads and staging area for people streaming into the area to fight for or against Outremer and Imperial expansion. The Count is laughing all the way to the bank as tariff revenues have skyrocketed, but he does worry about instability in the future. Luckily, he's surrounded by buffers of various sorts; the Calder settlements and the Takach Kingdom are more likely to face immediate Imperial aggression than he is.

XXIII. The Calder Settlements—Proof that Republicanism isn't terminal, this small settlement of only four systems, primarily settled by Psarians and Jaffans, with some Earth human settlement as well, has been split by the expansion of Outremer, in the same way that the Altairan Ascendancy was. Of course, unlike the Altairans, Calder was only sparsely settled to begin with. The worlds that remain free from the Imperial yoke have been strengthened by refugees, so that their populations are more stable and robust. For the most part, the r-selected portions of the population, including the leadership, has fled as well; moved to quieter neighborhoods like Rhyne, or even gone back to Republic Main altogether. What's left has been forged quickly into a more stable, efficient, lean and mean K-selected group (although lingering hand-wringers of course remain, as they always do.) In fact, as this change has happened, rather rapidly, the inhabitants have started to question exactly what benefit belonging to the Republic has given them, as they've looked towards the Altairans or the strong Cilindareans as better and more admirable neighbors. Although they as yet still value the resources of the Republic, when they can get them, sufficiently that secessionist movements are not strong enough to actually lead to real change. That said, the Republic now has a wary eye on those unruly Calderans. Between Calder and Carthen, the whole tip of their expansion into the New Alderamin sector is at risk of blowing up in their faces, although colonial administrators are still in various stages of denial about the risk.

XXIV. The Takach Kingdom—One nation that has stood firm against Outremer (and anyone else's) expansion and either fought or intimidated everyone into leaving them alone, are the people of Takach. Since their days in the Slave Wars, the descendants of the Janissaries have had a reputation as a highly efficient and effective military culture, related to the Cilindareans, but distinct. The Takach are one of the very few truly hybrid cultures; intermarried Cilindareans and Janissaries who established a colony away from the Cilindarean Arm per se, where they could create their own society without the ethnic tension between the two groups. Few of them have had more occasion to actually utilize their militancy in practice than the Takach in recent years, and they are showing that they are the equal to either tradition. It's believed by some that the conquest and settlement of the Kingdom of Takach in the first place, which was highly publicized and romanticized by many, was the inspiration for Kar Tanus to go liberate Thanatos and build his small empire in the first place. Having fought frequently against Imperials, Cilindareans, Reavers, Revanchists, and more, the Takach military is seen as one of the best small militaries in known space.

XXV. The Emerus Marches—Another local leader who is highly concerned with the threat of Imperial expansion, as well as Reaver and Desai depredation, Margrave Hugh Longonz has made overtures to all of his neighbors, and done what he can to build his colonial military. Hugh feels like he's in the calm before a storm, but he thinks he's built up the means to weather it. The Emerus Marches has become especially self-sufficient, and is often wary of visitors, although it does tolerate a fairly steady stream of Bern officials, settlers, mercenaries or others who travel through on their way to the even more desperate Viomium Marches.

XXVI. The Viomium Marches—With their Margrave killed in action, the far-flung Viomium Marches are perhaps the most put-upon multi-world settlement in the sector that still manages to hold on to its independence. Squeezed between Reavers and Imperials, the poor settlers here are hardened, untrustworthy, and ready to fight at the drop of a hat if it looks like they need to. On the other hand, those that they do make friends with are fast friends—on such an unstable frontier, they're desperately needed.

XXVII. The Vorgan Than Viceroyalty—the earliest expansion of the Seraeans into the region, often retroactively considered to have been founded by the 0th Umbral Crusade. Because it is older than the rest of Outremer, it sometimes is not meant to be included in the term (the same is true of the Principality of Tan Kajak. This isn't entirely fair; other than their age, there is nothing really to separate either from the rest of Outremer.) Because of its age, it's a little bit more established, and does include closer ties with Phovos Mal than the rest of Outremer, which otherwise takes a kind of pride in their independence and that they don't rely on the Imperial bureaucracy for anything. But again, that's not really fair either; except for the military base on Draconis III, Vorgan Than is just as independent and "colonial" in character as the rest of Outremer. Not only that, it is the traditional staging area for expansion into the regions westward. The rest of Outremer is an outgrowth of Vorgan Than.