Other Major Political Factions

The flag of the Far Rim Confederacy
is rarely displayed outside the
Confederate Council Building.

The Far Rim Confederacy: The Far Rim Confederacy is not so much a nation-state as a loose collection of independent worlds tied together by a bewildering array of free trade agreements and mutual defense pacts.  Although they include several populous and powerful worlds among them, the Confederacy has an utterly ineffectual system of central coordination.  As such, it has no coherent foreign policy and each world is essentially on its own to deal with planets outside confederate membership.  The one exception to this is external invasion, although the member worlds are no match for a unified interstellar polity like the Hecatan Commonwealth, there are many members and they take an attack on one of them as an attack on all of them and react accordingly.  This being the case, there has not been a major attack on a confederate world in almost a hundred years.

A view of the three suns from the
surface of RK Prime.

Rigel Kentaurus: The Rigel Kentaurus system has the distinction of being the single most populous star system in human space.  It is one of the first generation wormhole colonies and Rigel Kentaurus Prime (RK IV) has been settled for almost twelve hundred years.  The Rigel Kentaurus system is an astronomical oddity, in that it is a stable trinary system with two G type stars and a smaller red companion between them.  Between them there are almost a hundred planets and tens of thousands of moons and smaller asteroids and other lesser bodies.  Of these, over 7,000 are home to significant long-term habitation, from RK Prime itself to asteroid mining operations with only a few hundred or thousand permanent inhabitants.  The populaton of Rigel is estimated to be over 100 billion, and this alone gives it a great deal of power in the realm of interstellar affairs.  Few people want to make an enemy of them, and all wish to court them as trade partners, as they represent an economy larger than all but the largest multi-system polities, and they are an incredibly lucrative market for commercial trade.



The Deep Sky Association is one of
the driving forces behind continued exploration.



The Deep Sky Association: The Deep Sky Association is a multi-national group of volunteers that are dedicated to the continued exploration of space.  They were originally founded by the remnants of the Federation Survey Service and desire nothing more than to explore new worlds and study astronomical phenomena to advance human knowledge.  Deep Sky is not a corporation, although it does hold several technology patents and territorial rights, it is more accurate to legally describe it as a commune.  Each member is applies for membership and is reviewed by a committee.  If they are deemed a valuable addition they begin an apprenticeship with an experience crew.  When members survey a new source of wealth or develop a new marketable piece of technology, they receive a dividend of the profits to split amongst themselves, while the rest goes to the Association to pay administrative costs and provide benefits for members.  Deep Sky considers itself apolitical and prefers not to take sides in interstellar affairs, although this does not prevent individual members from forming poltical affiliations.





Mo'Haddar: Mo'Haddar is an international political movement with the stated purpose of defending human culture and independence from subversion and the encroachment of alien societies.  Although it does have a unified political structure, the group itself has many splinters and offshoots that are all but independent of central leadership.  Hence, Mo'Haddar in one system might represent a simple desire to preserve traditional human culture, while in another it might be a racist and xenophobic movement that wishes to dominate or even exterminate alien life.

The Beowulf-class free trader is a
common sight anywhere in human space.

The Spacer's Guild: The Spacer's Guild is a loose association of freetraders, independent space habitats, and star-faring nomads that operate as a sort of trade union and special interest group.  Although they are not a political party per se, they do spend a great deal of effort advocating in political arenas on behalf of their constituents.  Generally speaking Guildsmen are themselves spacers, although sometimes they retain locals on specific planets to give them perspective on the culture and society.  A guild hall is also a good place for members to interact with each other, trade rumors and gossip, and look for work, crew, and barter.