Good Stargates Make Good Neighbors

So, wondering about the non-Imperial worlds on the Imperial Fringe map? Here’s some trivia about the Empire’s neighbors for you!

To rimward, in the Banners, we have:

  • The A’t’rr Hold, who own the Aturr System. (The vowel is fake and the apostrophes unpronounceable by human mouthparts, since the a’t’rr communicate by rubbing their chitinous legs together.)
  • The Dvrrrrr Concordat, who own the systems of Kkrkrkh, Krtlkh, and Nkvkvvk. (And yes, their clicky language also has no vowels.)
  • The Garagou System, a single-system polity.
  • The Ianic Commonwealth, an Imperial satrapy, who own the systems of Cith, Strith, and Icp.
  • The polyspecific (originating in an idealist colony) Nanarchy of Huthla, who own the Huthla System.
  • The Sindil Global Republic, who own the Sindri System.
  • The Topaz Republic, who own the systems of Hatira, Kondotra, Lachra, and Thetra.
  • And the Venik Technate, who own the systems of Clogos Ven, Entil Ven, and Lisn Ven.

To coreward, in the First Expanses, we have:

  • The Araline Order, who own the systems of Analac and Halac.
  • The Arkhirii Imperium, who own the systems of Hasekh, Issak Ahk, Rotak Ahk, Tilak Ahk, and Vehk. (“Ahk”, in the most comman khiras language, means “home soil”. Those systems with that suffix are colony worlds; the others hold only outposts of one kind or another.)
  • The Combined Nekara Nests, who own the Seviks System in addition to their holdings in the Ring Nebula. (The nekar are avioids, yes.)
  • The Laeth Pact, who own the systems of Nichtal and Victa.
  • The Mirilasté Synarchic Interactive, who own the Ir Sargonnin System in addition to their holdings in the High Verge (below).
  • And the freesoil Omane System.

To acme, in the High Verge, we have:

  • The Shirethi Guilds, who own the systems of Belshir and Dalshir.
  • The Ganth Household, who own the G’ganth System.
  • The Mirilasté Synarchic Interactive, once again, who own the systems of Ir Garren, Ir Kelan, Ir Nassen, Ir Sian, and Ir Tollan.
  • The Qugu Symbiosis, made up of two sophont species (the ren-qu and ren-gu) which evolved on the same world as a symbiotic pair, who own the Qugarth System.
  • The Tokgac Free State, who own the systems of Tok-Jahr, Tok-Rash, and Tok-Slih.
  • The Twelve Pillars of Kerbol, who own the systems of Kerbol and Kerbevin. (Yes, this is a shameless homage to both KSP and to a particular story on the KSP forums.)
  • And the freesoil Loxix System.

To spinward, in the Principalities, we have:

  • The Amiable Futarchic Ecumene of the iothal, the Empire’s closest ally among its immediate neighbors, who own the systems of Dal Coriss, Dal Laiss, Dal Miless, Dal Silifiss, Dal Tirass, and Dal Thess.
  • The Lakatakau Nest, who own the systems of Arakau, Ditakau, Lakatakau, and Sekelkau. (The katakau, however, are not avioid.)
  • The Lamuran Diarchy, who own the systems of Aracory, Encory, Isory, and Vielcory.
  • And the Trinary Interactate, who own the systems of Dinuu and Eiruu. (Eiruu is binary, hence the name.)

And finally, to trailing-nadir, in the Talie Marches, we have:

  • The Five States, which owns the systems of Wa Fid, Wa Ganis, Wa Indane, Wa Loek, and Wa Varos. (The wakae colonized four of the systems by generation ship before being integrated into the stargate plexus; when the systems were linked, they couldn’t agree on reintegration and ended up forming a loose federation.)
  • The Kerabar Sovereignty, which owns the systems of Intsha Ker, Metsha Ker, and Revja Ker.
  • The Rúrathtu Maternity, which owns the systems of Cal-den-Heflo, Goris-den-Lesk, Illik-den-Saro, Ric-den-Narin, and Tor-den-Ras.
  • And the protected planet in the Glazimír System.

 

11 thoughts on “Good Stargates Make Good Neighbors

  1. So, about the Qugu Symbiosis . . . how does the Empire feel about a species that literally NEEDS other people, rather than being able to choose to associate or not? How do the Rens feel about the Empire?

    • The Empire is pretty chill with it; it’s a biological fact, not someone’s creative form of oppression. (Getting upset about that’d be like calling the qucequql sexist because the male of the species is a non-sophont gamete packet, not that some groups don’t anyway.) Besides, interdependency is a way of life for everyone except primitives and particularly nutty autarkists, and so long as it’s harmonious and consensual, it’s a good thing that lets complex and advanced societies exist.

      If some ren-qu or ren-gu turned up one day and asked Imperial biotechnologists to help free them from a dependency they reject, they’d get it, but since they seem to be happy with the way things work and no-one’s waving a coercive club around to enforce the status quo, ain’t no problem there.

      As for views going the other way, the Qugu Symbiosis has a warm relationship with the Empire (while the nature of the qu-gu relationship keeps their culture distinctive, they’re part of the Core Economic and Cultural Regions; it also helps that Imperial culture is very accepting, if not positively welcoming, of strangeness). Meanwhile, Qugarth has made itself a key stop on the trade routes from the Core out to acme, and does very well out of them, as well as a keystone of alliances in the High Verge-Perist Spire-Innia Rise constellations.

      It’s not perfect: it’s never comfortable being next to a sleeping bear that might decide to roll over, but the ren-qu and ren-gu have it about as good as a single-system polity in a Great Power’s back yard can have it, and are quite aware that there are much, much worse neighbors to have.

  2. Are the systems shown on the map that you haven’t described here, like Ninkar and Raikar in the Banners, uninhabited or just outposts?
    How do the ‘gatelocked’ polities like the Venik Technate and the Five States, which have to pass through Imperial systems to access the rest of the plexus, feel about their situation? I suppose that the existence of free transit zones in the outer reaches of star systems, and the relative neutrality of Ring Dynamics when it comes to allowing transit through stargates, somewhat mitigates any resentment they might feel.

    • Are the systems shown on the map that you haven’t described here, like Ninkar and Raikar in the Banners, uninhabited or just outposts?

      Formally unclaimed by any polity in particular. Some contain sub-system outposts, others just transit points, that sort of thing.

      How do the ‘gatelocked’ polities like the Venik Technate and the Five States, which have to pass through Imperial systems to access the rest of the plexus, feel about their situation? I suppose that the existence of free transit zones in the outer reaches of star systems, and the relative neutrality of Ring Dynamics when it comes to allowing transit through stargates, somewhat mitigates any resentment they might feel.

      No-one in that situation – and when you consider the whole of the Worlds, just about everyone could theoretically be hemmed in by someone – is exactly delighted by it, but very few of them are sufficiently un-delighted to cough up the money to add a stargate link to the plexus.

      But, yes, this is exactly why freedom of transit is such an important principle there .

      • But, yes, this is exactly why freedom of transit is such an important principle there .

        I do have to wonder how this applies to the Empire’s concept of property rights generally, given that traditionally an allodial property claim to a piece of ground (or volume, as it may be) here is seen as giving its owner the absolute right to dictate whether or not they’ll let anyone else use or access it at all (barring certain extreme constraints in certain edge cases).

        • Allodial title traditionally requires homesteading, “occupancy and defense”, which is often kind of tricky where inconceivable volumes of empty are concerned. But:

          You are perfectly welcome, if you have allodial title to your outer system, to deny freedom of transit, even the minimums required under the Common Volumetric Accord.

          Of course, the Accord of Galactic Polities is also free to reject you as a member, and Ring Dynamics is perfectly free to take your stargate and re-use it for someone who does feel like playing nicely with the other plexus users.

          So, y’know, you have that option.

          It may just not be to your advantage to exercise it.

          • Is there any sort of similar principle that can be generalized to any volume used for transit, communication, and resource access — things like roadways, railways, bridges, gates at mountain passes, aqueducts, oil and gas pipelines, power lines, the specific physical access nodes and relays in information networks, “locks and docks” on a space station, etc. — where control of specific bottlenecks or choke points may exert an incredible amount of pressure “downstream” outside the holder’s own property boundaries?

  3. And the protected planet in the Glazimír System.

    Curious. Is something on the planet being protected from everyone else, or is everyone else being protected from the planet?

      • Yep. Glazimír proper is a tomb world, its surface dotted with millions of elaborate crypts belonging to some no-longer-extant ancient interstellar species. Respect for necropoli in general (and keeping away looters in specific) is one of the principles that comes up in the Accord on Protected Planets, and only a limited number of carefully scoped and suitably respectful archaeological expeditions are allowed to land there.

      • For the curious, other examples of protected planets include Chanq (Vanlir Edge), the former homeworld of the recently civilizationally-collapsed a-chanq; Ekritat (Uulder Shore), which has a unique primitive culture; Gilchan (Moerid Nest), an anomalous gas giant; Horad (Loroi Quarter), a pre-garden world whose evolution (and the potential to watch abiogenesis in process) is of great scientific interest; Mobann!h (Crimson Expanse), at the request of the autochthones; Serehn (Glimmerstars), for an extinct indigenous race with relics; and Vessír (Torith Branch), with unusual and potentially uncontactable native sophonts (the homeworld of the solipsistic járaph, whose sophoncy arose in their intestinal ganglia, not what passes for their brains).

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