The Empty Quarter
More people worship the rising than the setting sun.
-Pompey
The Principality of Petra
The Principality of Petra is one of the successor states formed following the final breakup of the former Belkar Empire in 4765 AE. It lies deep within the Empty Quarter, a cold and desolate region on the furthest outskirts of inhabited space far removed from the bustling civilizations of the inner system. As one of the most remote and underdeveloped of the Empire's major territorial possessions it was for centuries of interest only to academics seeking to study the history of it's ancient towns and prospectors hoping to exploit the region's untapped mineral wealth.
Change to Petra's backwater status came only relatively recently, with the end of the Corinn Dynasty. As the Empire's tumbled into internal chaos, several of the losing factions eventually gravitated toward the relative safety of the remote Petran Archipelago, bringing with them their considerable fortunes and dreams of someday restoring proper order to their homeland. The chaos and destruction of the General War saw these exiled aristocrats joined by a tide of refugees, civilian and military alike, from the Empire's war-torn heartland. What had one been a backwater outpost of no consequence had become a safe haven for what remained of the old order.
- The House of Corinn-Balzer
- Petra's nominal ruling family is the House of Corinn-Balzer, a branch of the Empire's former Imperial Dynasty that failed to seize power in the turmoil following the death of the Empress Dejah. The present head of the family is Grand Duke Spiro Corinn-Balzer, an old man more obsessed the with missed opportunities and might have beens of the previous decades than the actual business of the present.
- The People
- The population of Petra greatly increased following the migrations during and immediately after the General War. The children of refugees have come of age in the snow covered cities of the archipelago without ever seeing the bright and pleasant homelands of their parents. It's no small wonder that the expansionist dreams of the nobility and military command are shared by more than a few of the citizenry.
- The Military
- What was originally little more than a collection of stragglers from the Imperial Fleet with a massive surplus of senior officers and only a few battered ships has over the past two decades been rebuilt into something resembling a modern force. The expansion of the Petran Navy has been watched with some alarm by agencies that do not wish to see a renaissance of Belkar power.
- The Petran Archipelago
- Cold and often shrouded in darkness, the icy rocks of the Petran Archipelago are an inhospitable place that if not for the political forces that have driven so many to their shores would likely have never been more than sparsely populated. The majority of the population remains concentrated in and around the warmth and light of the major cities on the planetoid itself and the largest of the island. The descendants of the original colonists, a hardier folk, maintain smaller towns and outposts elsewhere.