Stars of Steel - Revision history

Shrike at 05:01, 10 August 2022

2022-08-10T05:01:56Z

Shrike: /* Mapping and stuff */

2022-05-24T04:27:19Z

Mapping and stuff

← Older revision		Revision as of 21:27, 23 May 2022
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	'''Primary System Trait'''		'''Primary System Trait'''
	:This is the most important, most defining trait about the solar system in question, the sort of thing that makes the one-paragraph description (if not the one ''sentence'' description). The pervasive influence of ether has resulted in what would seem like a multitude of strange and exotic star systems to visitors from more sheltered locales.		:This is the most important, most defining trait about the solar system in question, the sort of thing that makes the one-paragraph description (if not the one ''sentence'' description). The pervasive influence of ether has resulted in what would seem like a multitude of strange and exotic star systems to visitors from more sheltered locales.
	:*~~[u]~~01 - Warp Rifts - There is something profoundly [i]wrong[/i] with this solar system. Transient local rifts irregularly manifest and fade, allowing for rapid travel for the daring and the opportunity to mine for elements not of this reality.		:*01 - Warp Rifts - There is something profoundly [i]wrong[/i] with this solar system. Transient local rifts irregularly manifest and fade, allowing for rapid travel for the daring and the opportunity to mine for elements not of this reality.
	:*02-03 - Nebula - Instead of the usual void and thin drifts and puffs of Blavatsky particle clouds, this solar system is flooded with nebular gases. These strange and exotic molecules are rich in ether but bring equally bizzare and sometimes dangerous life with them. The nebular gases will extend right down to planetary surfaces and as such the only breathable air to be found - assuming there even is any - might be in the lowest elevations or even underground. (-0.3 planetary IHR)		:*02-03 - Nebula - Instead of the usual void and thin drifts and puffs of Blavatsky particle clouds, this solar system is flooded with nebular gases. These strange and exotic molecules are rich in ether but bring equally bizzare and sometimes dangerous life with them. The nebular gases will extend right down to planetary surfaces and as such the only breathable air to be found - assuming there even is any - might be in the lowest elevations or even underground. (-0.3 planetary IHR)
	:*04-06 - Badlands - Often caused by solar irregularity, Blavatsky particle storms are frequent in this solar system. While this rarely has any meaningful effect on the actual habitability of the local planets, it does have serious impacts on space navigation. You may add the Ion Storm exotic planetary trait to any planet here if desired.		:*04-06 - Badlands - Often caused by solar irregularity, Blavatsky particle storms are frequent in this solar system. While this rarely has any meaningful effect on the actual habitability of the local planets, it does have serious impacts on space navigation. You may add the Ion Storm exotic planetary trait to any planet here if desired.

Shrike: /* Mapping and stuff */

2022-05-24T04:26:54Z

Mapping and stuff

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Shrike at 01:02, 24 May 2022

2022-05-24T01:02:40Z

← Older revision		Revision as of 18:02, 23 May 2022
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			==Timeline==
	*'''4807-4882 - The Arrival'''		*'''4807-4882 - The Arrival'''
	::They came out of the stormy skies, aliens from beyond the stars. The term they called themselves translated to Chandlers, the "merchants of light", and they had a simple offer; they were here to trade. They offered physical goods, knowledge and travel, all for often unusual prices such as (most notoriously) a small number of humans "Of an unusual sort and psyche." All these were prices that the kings and leaders of the 49th century were quite ready to pay. Many of the goods the Chandlers sold were ultimately believed to have originated elsewhere, built by unknown other alien races; the Chandlers themselves being characteristically mute on this subject. Overall in retrospect the Chandlers demonstrated a notable, almost reckless lack of concern for the end-use of their goods, though they did completely reject the prospect of selling arms or anything that could be easily weaponized. Other technologies theat they sold proved relatively easy to understand and replicate; by the middle of the 49th century humanity had a crude grasp of electricity and levitation engines trailed by its collective theoretical understanding.		::They came out of the stormy skies, aliens from beyond the stars. The term they called themselves translated to Chandlers, the "merchants of light", and they had a simple offer; they were here to trade. They offered physical goods, knowledge and travel, all for often unusual prices such as (most notoriously) a small number of humans "Of an unusual sort and psyche." All these were prices that the kings and leaders of the 49th century were quite ready to pay. Many of the goods the Chandlers sold were ultimately believed to have originated elsewhere, built by unknown other alien races; the Chandlers themselves being characteristically mute on this subject. Overall in retrospect the Chandlers demonstrated a notable, almost reckless lack of concern for the end-use of their goods, though they did completely reject the prospect of selling arms or anything that could be easily weaponized. Other technologies theat they sold proved relatively easy to understand and replicate; by the middle of the 49th century humanity had a crude grasp of electricity and levitation engines trailed by its collective theoretical understanding.

Shrike at 01:02, 24 May 2022

2022-05-24T01:02:08Z

← Older revision		Revision as of 18:02, 23 May 2022
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	:'''Economic Overview''':		:'''Economic Overview''':
	:'''Military Overview''':		:'''Military Overview''':


			==Mapping and stuff==
			:[b]Primary System Trait[/b] (2D10)
			This is the most important, most defining trait about the solar system in question, the sort of thing that makes the one-paragraph description (if not the one [i]sentence[/i] description). The pervasive influence of ether has resulted in what would seem like a multitude of strange and exotic star systems to visitors from more sheltered locales.
			:[u]2 - Warp Rifts[/u] - There is something profoundly [i]wrong[/i] with this solar system. Transient local rifts irregularly manifest and fade, allowing for rapid travel for the daring and the opportunity to mine for elements not of this reality.
			:[u]3 - Nebula[/u] - Instead of the usual void and thin drifts and puffs of Blavatsky particle clouds, this solar system is flooded with nebular gases. These strange and exotic molecules are rich in ether but bring equally bizzare and sometimes dangerous life with them. The nebular gases will extend right down to planetary surfaces and as such the only breathable air to be found – assuming there even is any - might be in the lowest elevations or even underground. (-0.3 planetary IHR)
			:[u]4 - Trojan World[/u] - The water zone in this system is actually dominated by a massive gas giant or even a brown dwarf, but its gravitational presence is so extensive that it hosts a habitable planet candidate in one of its trojan points.
			:[u]5-6 - Chthonian Planet[/u] - A massive planet - a hot Jupiter or similar - is found near the system's primary. As such massive planets coalesce further out and migrate inwards, they tend to disrupt the protoplanetary disk and in their wake, habitable worlds are less common. (-0.2 planetary IHR)
			:[u]7 - Planetary Twins[/u] - This solar system has a pair of habitable planets in a tidal embrace. While not close enough to share atmospheres, they loom large in the other's skies. Often, they will be opposites in some cosmological fashion, as opposed to near-copies and in general one will be more livable than the other. (Twin planet has -0.1 IHR)
			:[u]8-12 - Perfectly Normal[/u] - There is a star, some planets, probably a couple of star ways crossing the system.
			:[u]13 - Binary[/u] - There are two stars, some planets, probably a couple of star ways crossing the system. The increased solar radiation tends to result in hot worlds. If the planet roll does not return a Fire-type planet, you must reroll it. The second roll stands.
			:[u]14-15 - Multiple Planets[/u] - This star system has more than one habitable planet, each one in its own orbital path. If the second planet roll returns the same planet type, you must reroll it. The second roll stands, even if it's the same.
			:[u]16 - Debris Disk[/u] - Instead of a habitable planet, the water zone of this solar system has a massive scattered disk of rocky and icy debris, far larger and thicker than a garden-variety asteroid belt. It may extend far into the ice zone, a relic of a solar system that somehow failed to coalesce. What planets do exist tend to be ice giants in the cold primordial zone.
			:[u]17 - Darksun[/u] - The local star is a dark cinder, emitting more than enough thermal radiation to keep the local planets warm but glowing sullenly in the visual spectrum, dim enough that it can be looked at with the unaided eye. Local life has evolved for the perpetual twilight conditions. (-0.1 planetary IHR)
			:[u]18 - Badlands[/u] - Often caused by solar irregularity, Blavatsky particle storms are frequent in this solar system. While this rarely has any meaningful effect on the actual habitability of the local planets, it does have serious impacts on space navigation. You may add the Ion Storm exotic planetary trait to any planet here if desired.
			:[u]19-20 - Roll twice[/u] - Roll twice, rerolling any 19 or 20 results, or roll once and roll an extra time on [i]Secondary System Trait[/i] below.


			:[b]Secondary System Trait[/b] (2D10)
			This is something that is fairly noteworthy about this solar system, but not generally to the level that it defines the star system the way the primary system trait(s) do. As these are relatively mundane and non-exclusionary, most star systems have one (1-3), two (4-5) or even three (6) of them.
			:[u]2-3 - Dark Jupiter[/u] - While few star systems are without at least one gas giant planet, this system has one particularly large example swinging in the distant reaches far outside of the starway termini. Residual heat of formation and parasitic ether flows are often sufficient to support local life, though it is rarely clement. Worse yet still are the intelligences that call such places home, for they are rarely as benign as the world they orbit.
			:[u]4-5 – Flare Star[/u] – The local primary is notorious for large, irregular solar flares. These can disrupt delicate electronics and spawn large storms in the ether ways. An effective solar weather tracking network is all but required for effective navigation. (-0.1 planetary IHR)
			:[u]6-7 - Cometary Bombardment[/u] – Something has disrupted the vast cloud of comets lurking in the outer system, sending them careering towards the local sun in a seemingly unending stream. While space is large and planets are small and the chances of anything significant striking a world are low, the broken-off cometary material can pose a hazard to navigation.
			:[u]8 - Gas Giant Moon[/u] - The habitable world in this system is actually an enormous moon to a gas giant. This parent planet will be a permanent and immense fixture in the sky, and the inevitable other moons will be constant companions. There are few immediate spatial neighborhoods more crowded.
			:[u]9-11 - Husk World[/u] - A tired, dying world is a companion in this solar system. It may be habitable with some work (or was [i]once[/i] habitable) and probably has extremophile life denying the slow malaise and entropy of such a world. Resources on such a world are often limited, but not nonexistent. (Husk world has -0.2 planetary IHR)
			:[u]12-13 – Gas Clouds[/u] – Small (in cosmological terms) clouds of gas and dust orbit the local star. These can be a source of interesting and useful gases, but they can also be the hideout for scurvy space pirates.
			:[u]14 – Minor Bodies[/u] – While this star system has the usual collection of planets, it has an unusually large number of minor bodies – oversized asteroids or comets – scattered throughout the system.
			:[u]15 – Dense Belt[/u] – Most star systems have one (or sometimes more) asteroid fields. This one has a particularly dense one, or at least a particularly dense clump of significant and noteworthy size.
			:[u]16 – Close Termini[/u] – For whatever reason, at least one of the star way termini here emerge unusually close to either the inhabited world or the star itself.
			:[u]17-18 – Companion Star[/u] – There is a second, smaller star in the dark outer edges of the system with its own miniature set of planets, possibly even including one that is at least somewhat habitable.
			:[u]19-20 – Stormways[/u] – At least one star way leading out of this system is either fully or at least irregularly impassible for all but the most stoutly-built bathycruisers. There may be wonders at the far terminus, or there may be horrors.


			:[b]Important Planet[/b] (2D10)
			:[u]2-5 - Wood[/u] - Colloquially known as a 'deathworld', this planet has a vicious ecosystem. They are often rich and superhabitable, if you can kill enough of the local flora and fauna to get a piece. (+0.1 planetary IHR, albeit with some nasty predators)
			:[u]6-8 - Fire[/u] - This world promises heat and dryness and it delivers. While life - often a tough, tenacious life - maintains a grip, it will typically have limited living space for humans. (-0.1 planetary IHR)
			:[u]9-10 - Earth[/u] - A pleasant garden world. It will have cold poles and hot tropics, sopping tropics and parching deserts - but the locals are certain to be inhabiting the most comfortable parts.
			:[u]11 - Exotic[/u] - This world defies normal classification. You may reroll (treating an 11 as Earth) and then roll on the [b]Exotic Planet[/b] table below to see what additional exotic property it has. Alternatively, you may simply treat this result as Earth.
			:[u]12-13 - Earth[/u] - A pleasant garden world. It will have cold poles and hot tropics, sopping tropics and parching deserts - but the locals are certain to be inhabiting the most comfortable parts.
			:[u]14-15 - Air[/u] - The wind never ceases blowing on this planet. For some worlds, this turns it into a frigid icebox, for others a pleasant place - so long as one can deal with living inside a hurricane. (-0.1 planetary IHR)
			:[u]16-20 - Water[/u] - This world has very limited dry land, mostly occuring as sinuous island arcs. Its vast expanses of water will hide all manner of topography from crushing deeps to sunken continents just a few dozen meters from the water's surface. (-0.1 planetary IHR)


			:[b]Exotic Planet[/b] (2D10)
			:[u]2 - Demon[/u] - Mysterious warp rifts are present, opening and closing without warning. The [i]things[/i] that come out are hostile, mindlessly so.
			:[u]3-4 - Metal[/u] - This may be a shattered but still habitable ancient megastructure, a planet covered in metal or a planet [i]made[/i] of metal.
			:[u]5-10 - Tunnelled[/u] - By some artifice or natural process, the crust of this world is hollowed out into a vast network of tunnels and subterranean caverns, even entire seas. (-0.2 planetary IHR, but ignore up to 0.2 points of IHR reduction)
			:[u]11-14 - Tidally Locked[/u] - This world is tidally locked to the local star, often because the primary is particularly small and lacking in illumination. This gives it a Hot Pole and a Cold Pole as opposed to the more usual north and south, along with shadows that never move.
			:[u]15-17 - Ion Storms[/u] - Blavatsky storms regularly batter this world and surface structures need to be particularly resilent to deal with the combination of heavy weather and EMP. (-0.1 planetary IHR)
			:[u]18-19 - City[/u] - In a time long passed, this world was host to a megacity. Now it is slowly crumbling ruins, monument to an age of glory and hubris.
			:[u]20 - Necropolis[/u] - This is a world few willing tread upon, a world where the dead no longer live but would never truly die.


			Determining planetary IHR
			:Roll 1d10 x 1d10, rounding up to the next highest multiple of 10, giving a range from 10 to 100. Divide this by 100 and then apply any modifiers from system or world.

Shrike at 03:10, 14 May 2022

2022-05-14T03:10:41Z

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Shrike at 02:48, 14 May 2022

2022-05-14T02:48:35Z

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Shrike at 02:34, 16 April 2022

2022-04-16T02:34:31Z

← Older revision		Revision as of 19:34, 15 April 2022
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	*'''5165-5190 - Rebalance and Realignment'''		*'''5165-5190 - Rebalance and Realignment'''
	::The last twenty-five years have seen a slow but steady rebalance as the periphery settlements develop and their politics mature. Many were benificiaries of Alliance largess decades previously and now they were increasingly able to engage the distant core world blocs if not as equals, at least as counterparts.		::The last twenty-five years have seen a slow but steady rebalance as the periphery settlements develop and their politics mature. Many were benificiaries of Alliance largess decades previously and now they were increasingly able to engage the distant core world blocs if not as equals, at least as counterparts.



			==Travel==
			*'''The Lumina''': All that is familiar and everyday is the Lumina, the place of planets, stars and people; it is 'reality' in the colloquial sense. There is little to say about the Lumina that is not known intuitively simply by living in it.
			*'''The Umbra''': As the name implies, the Umbra is the dark mirror of the Lumina. The Umbra is a hyper-entropic realm, though one with a close connection to the Lumina. Away from the distorting effect of large masses it is quite easy to cross the so-called Umbral Boundary, going from the realm of energy to the realm of darkness. There are even living things that can cross over, strange cosmic fauna.
			*'''The Astra''': The third plane, the Astra is the 'otherside' to the 'light' side of the Lumina and the 'dark' side of the Umbra and of the three, it is by far the least understood. Generations of science and philosophy have barely managed to agree that it even has properties, most notably it is through which the starways pass, but can it truly said to exist or is it merely a philoso-mathematical construct to explain the behavior of various phenomenon? Its mysteries are unlikely to be deciphered anytime soon and there are some that wonder if doing so would reveal some unsettling truths about reality.
			*'''Starways''': Interstellar travel is done via starways, hyperdimensional 'tunnels' that allow to shortcut the tyranny of the lightspeed limit. The internal length of a starway has no particular relation to that outside, though is always greatly compressed; a trip that would take light itself years or decades can be undertaken by a spacecraft in a matter of days instead. This makes them only way to traverse the stars in a reasonable timeframe. As such they define the shape of human space. Many starways are standalone, connecting two distant points, but the most important are those that form networks, connecting potentially dozens of different star systems into one extended web. Current theories posit that these networks will amalgamate other starways until their total internal stress peaks. Were these stresses to increase or the network's carrying capacity be reduced it would break one or more individual linkages, or perhaps even split into multiple smaller networks which would then begin the process of expansion once again. This theory attempts to explain why there are both sprawling starway networks and standalone point to point starways. It is unknown how rapidly this process occurs, but as it takes tens if not hundreds of thousands of years for stars to appreciably move relative to one another it is expected to be ''quite'' some time before it is recorded. What is understood however is that individual networks will persist over astronomically significant time periods even if the specific stars that a given network connects to will cycle in and out.
			:Starways are also thick with Blavatsky particles but they also exhibit a clear structure. Blavatsky density will typically be low in the middle region resulting in fairly clear and calm interiors with Blavatsky particle count and irregularity starting to rapidly increase as one gets closer to the outer walls. These walls have proven unreachable by any human probe and they are broadly albeit imprecisely considered as something akin to an inside-out singularity. Some starways have significantly weaker gradation with resulting problems for navigation but most of the time the prime points of turbulence that must be passed through will be at termini. Termini are where the starways 'surface' towards the Lumina. The only way in or out of a starway is by rifts, rifts that manifest at the ends of termini. Termini thus tend to be full of errant matter ranging from gases of the solar wind to comets and asteroids and thick Blavatsky clouds, all of which have fallen through rifts over millions and billions of years.
			*'''Dirac-Crowley Rifts''': Naturally occuring openings that manifest in areas of high Blavatsky count, rifts are the discontinuities where the Astra-penetrating starways impinge on the secular world of the Lumina. No rift is truly stable, but there are two modes to their instability. The first are periodic rifts; these are rifts that return on regular schedules and to the same destination - most, in fact, are essentially always open with only minor disruptions as they go through a portal replacement cycle or manifest again nearby. Thus periodic rifts are the basis of reliable space travel. The other type of rift are eccentric rifts. These, by contrast, are much more irregular in their activity and destination. As rifts manifest between favorable locations it is rare for them to ''never'' re-manifest, but eccentric rifts can sometimes take years or even decades to return - some 'eccentric' rifts actually return over long but regular periods, while others are truly eccentric. The only way to know the exit point of such a rift is to pass through it into the starway beyond; even today several navigator's guilds maintain up-to-date logs of active rifts and a favorable rift can greatly reduce transit times.

Shrike at 03:27, 28 March 2022

2022-03-28T03:27:21Z

Shrike at 05:05, 23 March 2022

2022-03-23T05:05:13Z

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← Older revision		Revision as of 20:27, 27 March 2022
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	::At first this was seen as a trick and rhetoric began to escalate sharply, but several months later, an entirely unrelated Ylgaric convoy arrived in the Maeve system and forced the surrender of a set of colonies that had little more than gendarmeries and whom the vague rumors of space pirates were treated as entertaining falsehoods. The Lemurian ship ''Monitor'' was destroyed on the ground by some form of energy weapon, recorded by dozens of viewpoints. Weeks later, the core world of Antillia was raided; with a population of over a hundred million it was a brazen attack and one that brushed aside all resistance. The nation-states of Gaea and the core worlds were stunned. Public panic set in and was then brought under control while a tectonic realignment took place in the halls of power; the cold war powers warily stared at each other but this was a threat bigger than any of them. By the start of the 4th decade of the 51st century, Gaea and the core worlds were reorganizing themselves under the aegis of the Human Alliance.		::At first this was seen as a trick and rhetoric began to escalate sharply, but several months later, an entirely unrelated Ylgaric convoy arrived in the Maeve system and forced the surrender of a set of colonies that had little more than gendarmeries and whom the vague rumors of space pirates were treated as entertaining falsehoods. The Lemurian ship ''Monitor'' was destroyed on the ground by some form of energy weapon, recorded by dozens of viewpoints. Weeks later, the core world of Antillia was raided; with a population of over a hundred million it was a brazen attack and one that brushed aside all resistance. The nation-states of Gaea and the core worlds were stunned. Public panic set in and was then brought under control while a tectonic realignment took place in the halls of power; the cold war powers warily stared at each other but this was a threat bigger than any of them. By the start of the 4th decade of the 51st century, Gaea and the core worlds were reorganizing themselves under the aegis of the Human Alliance.

	::During its first fifty years the Alliance achieved precious few victories, all of them on the ground. Hampered by generational gaps in technology the only answer was sustained militarization and a dedication to defensive wars on the ground and to that end much of the energies of the cold war were redirected to defensive preparation and planning. A seemingly endless series of regular and irregular weapons were designed, built and shipped to the core worlds and the colonies not currently under 'xenothreat'. Parallel efforts were made to capture alien technology to be investigated and reverse-engineered.		::During its first fifty years the Alliance achieved precious few victories, all of them on the ground. Hampered by generational gaps in technology the only answer was sustained militarization and a dedication to defensive wars on the ground and to that end much of the energies of the cold war were redirected to defensive preparation and planning. A seemingly endless series of regular and irregular weapons were designed, built and shipped to the core worlds and the colonies not currently under 'xenothreat'. Parallel efforts were made to capture alien technology to be investigated and reverse-engineered. The massive industrial world took its toll on the human core worlds as well; by the midcentury the socialist Bafsk Pact, already facing various internal stresses, had been all but relegated to an industrial-military annex of the other major Alliance blocs and was derelict by the final decades of the century.

	::The militarism of this period overshadowed the expansion of civilian interests out of the Gaean core. The Nureeg were never the 'space raiders' that Gaean propaganda rapidly portrayed them as; boarding and ransacking random civilian ships was vanishingly rare. Much more commonly they would impose a toll, often in valuable metals or other refined substances and otherwise let traffic proceed. Individual human-inhabited worlds would have a larger-scale but similar extractive relationship. So long as the Conclave was paid, they mostly ignored the human goings-on. This led to extensive private-sector development outside of patrolled Gaean space along with a steady exodus of individuals from 'safe' space into 'alien' space. While still a small fraction of the population movements that naturally happened in core worlds, between 5030 and 5080 more than ten million people left Alliance-controlled space.		::The militarism of this period overshadowed the expansion of civilian interests out of the Gaean core. The Nureeg were never the 'space raiders' that Gaean propaganda rapidly portrayed them as; boarding and ransacking random civilian ships was vanishingly rare. Much more commonly they would impose a toll, often in valuable metals or other refined substances and otherwise let traffic proceed. Individual human-inhabited worlds would have a larger-scale but similar extractive relationship. So long as the Conclave was paid, they mostly ignored the human goings-on. This led to extensive private-sector development outside of patrolled Gaean space along with a steady exodus of individuals from 'safe' space into 'alien' space. While still a small fraction of the population movements that naturally happened in core worlds, between 5030 and 5080 more than ten million people left Alliance-controlled space.
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	*'''5100-5148 - The Long Peace'''		*'''5100-5148 - The Long Peace'''
	::With the Ylgaric Conclave broken and surrendered, humanity ~~was~~ finally preeminent in its space. Within a decade the Alliance had achieved de facto control over all remaining human exocolonies and settlements; under this aegis the various major Alliance member-states established their own informal empires and webs of influence while core world based megacorps flourished.		::With the Ylgaric Conclave broken and surrendered, humanity could finally call itself preeminent in its space. Within a decade the Alliance had achieved de facto control over all known remaining human exocolonies and settlements; under this aegis the various major Alliance member-states established their own informal empires and webs of influence while core world based megacorps flourished.

	::The postwar peace was hardly peaceful though. While there was a great deal of inertia in a seventy year alliance, the major blocs in the Alliance were already jockeying for strategic and political positions before the war was even concluded - as they had before, but at a much accelerated pace. The lack of external threat allowed for all manner of quiet disputes to go loud and fundamental differences in ideologies to start coming between different human polities and corruption to take root. Various local insurgencies also smouldered in the periphery as distant settlements - most of which had long deviated from their Gaean origins over two or three centuries of isolation - chafed under distant Gaean rule. Some of these were spurred on by core world rivals or by megacorps angling for favorable contracts.		::The postwar peace was hardly peaceful though. While there was a great deal of inertia in a seventy year alliance, the major blocs in the Alliance were already jockeying for strategic and political positions before the war was even concluded - as they had before, but at a much accelerated pace. The lack of external threat allowed for all manner of quiet disputes to go loud and fundamental differences in ideologies to start coming between different human polities and corruption to take root. Various local insurgencies also smouldered in the periphery as distant settlements - most of which had long deviated from their Gaean origins over two or three centuries of isolation - chafed under distant Gaean rule. Some of these were spurred on by core world rivals or by megacorps angling for favorable contracts.

			::These political upheavals even extended to some of the major Alliance blocs and states; with the conclusion of the war against the Ylgaric Conclave several major Cadmean states, exhausted by a generation of warfare, immediately withdrew from all Alliance military operations. A chain of events saw their highly corpocratic colonies in the core break with the Gaean states to form the Organization for Mutual Assistance and, not coincidentally, regain a measure of voice in the Alliance. Other socio-economic pressures saw a wave of agitators and

	::The discovery and activation of the Fargate leading to the Vaal sector and subsequent contact with the Nureeg and Hinsivaal therein spurred a new generation of weapons but did little to revitalize the Alliance. Thousands of warships large and small, tens of thousands of fighters and hundreds of thousands of armored vehicles were built in preparation for a war that never came. Human and Vaali diplomats struck deals, found peace and forged relations. And in doing so, put the final poison into the Alliance's body politic.		::The discovery and activation of the Fargate leading to the Vaal sector and subsequent contact with the Nureeg and Hinsivaal therein spurred a new generation of weapons but did little to revitalize the Alliance. Thousands of warships large and small, tens of thousands of fighters and hundreds of thousands of armored vehicles were built in preparation for a war that never came. Human and Vaali diplomats struck deals, found peace and forged relations. And in doing so, put the final poison into the Alliance's body politic.
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	*'''5148-5165 - Chaos in the Periphery'''		*'''5148-5165 - Chaos in the Periphery'''
	::The dissolution of the Alliance had two noteworthy political effects. The first was that the major blocs were now free to scheme openly against one another as core world politics went through a tectonic evolution. While already reluctant allies for one, perhaps two generations by this point, the end of the Alliance meant that they were allies no more. The second was that dozens of exocolonies and settlements (re)gained their autonomy. This was fertile ground for both proxy and genuine conflicts.		::The dissolution of the Alliance had two noteworthy political effects. The first was that the major blocs were now free to scheme openly against one another as core world politics went through a tectonic evolution. While already reluctant allies for one, perhaps two generations by this point, the end of the Alliance meant that they were allies no more. The second was that dozens of exocolonies and settlements (re)gained their autonomy. This unwinding of various historic distortions was fertile ground for both proxy and genuine conflicts and for every brushfire war that the core blocs covertly (or not so covertly) supported, there was another that sucked in peacekeepers.
			::This period notably saw the coalescence of both the Ironheart Pact and the Zodiac Coalition.

	*'''5165-5190 - Rebalance and Realignment'''		*'''5165-5190 - Rebalance and Realignment'''
	::The last twenty-five years have seen a slow but steady rebalance as the periphery settlements develop and their politics mature. Many were benificiaries of Alliance largess decades previously and now they were increasingly able to engage the distant core world blocs if not as equals, at least as counterparts.		::The last twenty-five years have seen a slow but steady rebalance as the periphery settlements develop and their politics mature. Many were benificiaries of Alliance largess decades previously and now they were increasingly able to engage the distant core world blocs if not as equals, at least as counterparts.