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The Human Sphere is a BattleTech universe set in 3100. The Jihad has come and gone, leaving in its wake dozens of small realms in a perpetual cycle of raids and small wars. Will you seek money or defend your nation? Or both? You decide.
"Next time you 'Throw the Book at him' have it chiseled in stone first. That way it will have a greater impact." - lordwolf
The Lyran Commonwealth
History
Dominated by the Protectorate of Donegal, five Merchant Princedoms, and over thirty massively powerful Merchant Princes, the modern Lyran Commonwealth is home to the most aggressive businesses in the entire Human Sphere. Some of them survived the Jihad generally intact, while others found themselves under heavy attack from either the Jade Falcons, the Word of Blake, or in Coventry’s case both.
The precursor to the current political situation in the Commonwealth began in November 3067, when Duchess Hermione Kelswa-Steiner was nearly killed by a bomb while attending a party in honor of Archon Peter Steiner-Davion. The bomb on the other side of the wall of her bedchambers buried her but didn’t quite kill her. The doctors said that if Hauptmann-General Barton Hale hadn’t pulled her free so quickly and gotten her treatment she would have died. Unfortunately for the Commonwealth (called the Alliance at the time) at large, all evidence found in the suite next to hers pointed squarely at the Archon himself. That single act of apparent betrayal nearly destroyed the Lyran state, especially after the remains of the Tamar Pact and the Federation of Skye seceded.
Those actions started a general cooling of relations in the other, more loyal, parts of the Alliance as investigators continued to try to hunt down the “real” assassins at the Archon’s order. Few believed him though, and the Star League would have changed the location of its Conference if nearly all of its delegates weren’t already on the way to Tharkad. As it was, Peter’s treatment at the Conference was decidedly cool, and every security detail had been on high alert, scanning for anything out of the ordinary at all times. The Steiner-Davion family had become known for taking care of its difficulties by way of bombs after all and nobody wanted to be an ex-difficulty to them.
When the Star League Conference disbanded and the representatives went home, after unanimously condemning the Word of Blake and naming them persona-non-gratis throughout the Star League, the Archon thought he would be able to get back to the business of finding out who really tried to kill the Duchess. He knew he hadn’t ordered it after all. But then the Word of Blake attacked Tharkad with a fleet powerful enough to destroy even the Yggdrasil, flagship of the Alliance fleet. The Archon managed to escape the general bombardment of the Triad and the other government complexes, but there was little he could do to protect his nation as the Word of Blake chased him from planet to planet, always just a few hours behind him.
The Word rained fire down on worlds throughout the heart of the Alliance, smashing its wartime industries into paste or capturing them for their use as they tracked the Archon down one planet at a time. Interestingly, they left Coventry and the worlds of the Melissa Theater alone during the early stage of the Jihad, allowing them to put their effort into fighting the Jade Falcons, and the systems on the Marik border were equally left alone as long as they didn’t send forces to support the Archon. The Word wanted the Steiner-Davion line destroyed and they didn’t care who got in their way, but as long as they stayed out of their way they were good. Planets burned as they followed him and his slowly organizing force, smashing one garrison force after another.
They finally cornered him in February of 3070, after over two years of running, on Alarion and dropped the unfinished hulk of the Fylgja on his headquarters. Once again, he managed to escape death, but the Word finally had control of the system and he couldn’t break out. Peter and the forces loyal to him led the Word on a three-month chase across Alarion, being whittled down slowly as Word regiments tried to herd them into traps. Peter’s luck finally ran out in May when a Word sniper managed to do what no Word MechWarrior had been able to accomplish. Blow the Archon’s head off.
Resistance on Alarion collapsed after that and the Word occupied the world with little trouble, using the yards and factories there to repair their damaged machines. When word reached General Adam Steiner on Horneburg of Peter’s death shortly after breaking a major Word assault, Adam declared himself Archon and began trying to organize a fractured Lyran Commonwealth into a renewed fighting force to stop the Word of Blake. Resistance fighters, mostly spies from the various corporations in Commonwealth space, were sent onto Word-occupied worlds to hurt their ability to repair battle damage and replace losses. Sometimes they planted information that allowed Commonwealth forces to destroy and capture Word units, sometimes they sabotaged fighting units or factories, and sometimes they simply fought the old fashioned way via bombs and guns.
The most spectacular success they generated during the Jihad occurred in September of 3071, as many of the corporations were “losing” BattleMechs that ended up in the hands of the Commonwealth armies. The Word of Blake traced several of the Commonwealth machines to Coventry and sent a fleet to deal with the issue, but several Nashan Diversified agents had managed to slip into the crews, despite the Word’s superior screening process. During the ten-day trip towards Coventry, the agents destroyed or immobilized all six ships, allowing Coventry to capture an ancient Riga frigate and a Kimagure pursuit cruiser. They gave the Kimagure to the Archon, along with a complement of Nashan computer engineers to protect their new acquisition.
The new Archon renamed it the Katherine Steiner, for the first Steiner Archon of the Commonwealth and not his cousin, before using it to liberate Alarion from Word occupation, and then began the long campaign to push back to Tharkad and the heart of the Protectorate of Donegal. Unfortunately, in March of 3072, a second Word assault on Coventry managed to cripple both of their WarShips and shattered much of their production capacity. This assault resulted in the total collapse of resistance in the Melissa Theater against Clan Jade Falcon, allowing them to hit the Tamar Pact harder than before.
Both StarCorps and Gienah continued to maintain their official neutrality, only rarely sending the Archon their production, and then in very limited numbers that went to “non-aligned interested buyers.” They managed to avoid Coventry’s “lesson” but doing so did little to make the Archon pleased with them. Across a dozen worlds, the Lyran and Word forces fought, generating horrendous casualties in both the military and civilian sectors. By the time Minderoo was liberated from Word forces in January 3073 for instance, three quarters of its population was dead because of how casually the Word used weapons of mass destruction when it looked like it would lose.
The fighting on Eutin, the last world between the Word-occupied Tharkad and the Lyran forces, held until December 3073, rendering ninety percent of the land uninhabitable, and killing even more of the population. The Archon’s forces had been bled white taking it and didn’t have enough left to continue the drive into Tharkad no matter what they wanted to do, until a Star League fleet comprised mostly of ComStar ships moved into Lyran space and began helping them deal with the Word fleet. With the threat of Word reprisals slipping away, StarCorps and Gienah opened up the floodgates of their production to the Lyran state, helping the Archon rebuild his forces in mere months instead of years.
The Star League fleet managed to liberate Gibbs and used the Ioto Galactic yards there to repair damages before jumping on to Donegal in March. A heavy fight there destroyed a quarter of the fleet but allowed them to break the Word resistance there. They returned to Gibbs for more repairs as the Archon finished his preparations to hit Tharkad. In September of 3074 they finally made their move and hit Tharkad with all of their remaining forces. The Word put up another heavy fight, leaving the Katherine Steiner as the only Lyran WarShip left, and bringing the Star League fleet to its knees. The ground forces fared little better, but they won in the end, standing triumphant over the shattered remains of the capital of the Commonwealth.
With the Word presence in the Commonwealth effectively wiped out, the Archon sent the Katherine Steiner to support the Star League at Terra and began attempting to rebuild his realm. Giving massive tax breaks to all corporations to help them rebuild, they traded ruthlessly on ComStar and Commonwealth loans, as well as other “emergency funds” whose origins have never been traced. By 3078, when the Katherine Steiner and her ground forces returned home, the Commonwealth was on the way to rebuilding. Or rather the Protectorate of Donegal and the corporations of the worlds outside her direct control were.
With only limited funds available, reconstruction monies found themselves routed to organizations that had the central authority and organization to perform the rebuilding. These organizations tended to be existing, if badly hammered, corporations with long track records in the Lyran realm. SeraVideo, Ioto Galactic, Bowie Industries, Nashan Diversified, Coventry Metal Works, Lockheed/CBM, and over a dozen other companies became the primary receiver of reconstruction funds, and as a direct result found themselves capable of taking more and more control of the systems they inhabited. Systems without these companies languished as funds passed them by, and in most instances continue to be behind the core Lyran worlds in their reconstruction efforts.
Few funds found their way to StarCorps though, citing their “minimal damages due to minimal involvement” in the war against the Word. It seemed the Archon’s memory was long. This backfired in 3080 when the Marian Hegemony and the Duchy of Tamarind-Abbey attacked what was becoming known as the StarCorps Supremacy. They fought hard until 3084 when their lines were on the verge of total collapse. Interestingly for them, it was the victory of Marian and Duchy forces that saved them. With the Duchy overextended in taking Dixie, and the Marians expending most of their forces to capture Son Hoa, neither polity had the power left to simultaneously expand and integrate their new systems.
Though heavy raids have been common since then, no major invasion has been mounted in either direction. Meanwhile, the last two decades have seen the Blackstone Authority and the Coventry Division forming up their defenses on the borders with the Jade Falcons and the Tamar Pact, sending raids to each often. The rebuilding Protectorate of Donegal, the only remaining “classically organized” part of the Commonwealth, has sent much of their forces into both the Tamar Pact and the Federation of Skye over the years, officially designating them as “in rebellion” and trying to take back the worlds. They’ve had to settle for heavy raids though as they currently lack the power to enforce their claims on the “rebellious” worlds.
Inside the Commonwealth, corporate spying has become one of the most common businesses, and openings are always available for new operatives. Advancement for those who succeed is quick, but most are not successful. Hence the openings. Perhaps the most powerful of the corporations, Nashan Diversified run by Duke Wilhelm Tore-Aufgaben VII, now maintains a solid control over much of the Protectorate of Donegal and the Alarion Association. Similarly, it has a heavy presence in the Coventry Division, but the Blackstone Authority, StarCorps Supremacy, and Princedom of Gienah have been fighting a massive corporate war with them for years now, trying to keep Nashan out of their playpens. This has made many worlds throughout the Commonwealth virtual war zones after dark as corporate operatives raid each other’s offices and indulge in shootouts on the streets.
Merchant Princes and Manufacturing
Alarion Association
The Alarion Association is the second most powerful Princedom in the Lyran Commonwealth, with the ability to build WarShips, JumpShips, DropShips, AeroSpace fighters, BattleMechs, and vehicles that it sells to the other Princedoms for badly needed funds used for continuing to repair war damage. Rich, powerful, and the center of a massive bulk of Nashan Diversified power, the other Princedoms have so far balked at making them angry.
Alarion – Bowie Industries – Chippewa AeroSpace fighter; Archer BattleMech; Hercules, Leopard, Leopard CV, and Union-class DropShips
– Ioto Galactic – Invader, Monolith, and Scout JumpShips; Speer Frigate, Schild Destroyer, and Zerstörer Cruiser
– Nashan Shipyards of Alarion – Scout and Merchant JumpShips; Space stations
Carlisle – Bowie Industries –Archer, Marauder, and Razorback BattleMechs; Packrat patrol vehicle
– S. L. Lewis Incorporated – Savannah Master hovertank, heavy hover APC; civilian hovercraft and hydrofoils
Czarvowo – SeraVideo Entertainments, Incorporated – Offices on Bolan, Bobruisk, Donegal, Tharkad, and Czarvowo
Gulf Breeze – Nashan Mining of Gulf Breeze – Raw material mining and refining
Kelang – Nashan Industries branch office – Main office on Triesting
Triesting – Nashan Industries – Other main office on Kelang
Loxley – Blue Shot of Loxley – Starslayer BattleMech
– Norse-Storm Technologies, Inc. – Devastator, Spector, and Thunder Hawk BattleMechs
Richvale – Quikscell Company – Scorpion, LRM Carrier, SRM Carrier, and tracked and heavy tracked APC vehicles
Storfors – J.B. BattleMechs Incorporated –BattleMaster, Chameleon, and Dragon Fire BattleMechs
Vendrell – Mountain Wolf BattleMechs – Night Hawk BattleMech
Virtue – Nashan Cartographers Unlimited
Blackstone Authority
The Blackstone Authority is one of the weakest Princedoms, situated on the border with Clan Jade Falcon, but it has used its heavy BattleMech production to keep them fighting fair ever since Coventry presence along the border collapsed. In the habit of purchasing other units from Coventry, Alarion, or Donegal as needed, it commands a respectable fleet and vehicle forces as well, but the bulk of its power comes from the BattleMechs it builds and uses nearly without exception. It is currently in a battle of survival against Nashan Diversified operatives attempting to take over Blackstone, which has dried up support from the other Princedoms.
Inarcs – Blackstone BattleMechs Limited – Enfield, Ostscout, Talon, and Hauptmann (omni) BattleMechs
Coventry Division
The Coventry Division, long housing a major Nashan presence, currently sells many of their BattleMechs to Donegal and Alarion. Commanding the third-largest fleet in the Commonwealth, the Coventry Division is a force to be reckoned with. Other Princedoms consider it to be a figurehead of Nashan Diversified, though Coventry seems to still have some backbone. Many wonder how long that will remain true as the Nashan presence continues to grow.
Coventry – Coventry Metal Works – Blitzkrieg, Black Hawk-KU (omni), Commando, Dart, Firestarter (omni), Hauptmann (omni), Hollander II, Hunchback, Phoenix Hawk, Scarabus, Stiletto, Stinger, and Vulcan BattleMechs
– Nashan Computers – Personal and commercial computers and software
Ludwigshafen – Nashan Information Services
Protectorate of Donegal
The Protectorate of Donegal is the only remaining “normal” governmental institution in the Lyran Commonwealth. While the Princedoms are commanded and owned by corporations, the Protectorate is still controlled by the civilian government, and the Archon of course, on Tharkad and Donegal. Commanding a fleet even larger than that run by Alarion, it has heavy BattleMech and vehicle reserves as well. It is also the base of Nashan Diversified power in the Commonwealth, but so far at least Nashan has not made an attempt to take over like it has in the Princedoms.
Aur – Edasich Motors – Various fusion engines
Chukchi III – Nashan Metals, Incorporated
Crevedia – Longanecker PlastiSteel branch office – Headquarters on Pherkad
Donegal – Alliance-Grand Hotel Interstellar
– Commonwealth Press
– Lockheed/CBM Corporation – Centurion, Eisensturm (omni), Lucifer, and Sabre AeroSpace fighters; Civilian aerospace craft (including StarYachts)
– Mauser & Gray Firearms
– Nashan Foods – Food (basic and gourmet)
– Nashan Architectural of Donegal – Building design and construction
– Nashan Shipping – Freight services (transcontinental and interstellar)
– Nashan Pharmaceuticals – Medicinal drugs and medical supplies
– SeraVideo Entertainments, Incorporated – Offices on Bolan, Bobruisk, Donegal, Tharkad, and Czarvowo
Gallery – Dynamics Company of Gallery – Various missile systems
– Nashan Communications and Entertainment – Entertainment and news
Gibbs – Ioto Galactic – Merchant JumpShip; Speer Frigate and Schild Destroyer
– Lockheed/CBM of Gibbs – Eagle and Thunderbird AeroSpace fighters; Medium Strike and Raubvogel conventional air fighters; civilian aircraft
Tharkad – Lockheed/CBM Corporation – Eisensturm (omni), Lightning and Hellcat AeroSpace fighters; Monarch-class DropShip; Civilian conventional aircraft
– TharHes Industries – Barghest, Bushwacker, Crusader, Falconer, Goliath, and Wolfhound BattleMechs
– The Lyran Free Traders Association
– Meier-Star Agency
– Nashan Underwriters of Tharkad – Financial and legal services
– Semier Data Tron – Buccaneer, Excalibur, Fortress, and Seeker DropShips; Small craft
– SeraVideo Entertainments, Incorporated – Offices on Bolan, Bobruisk, Donegal, Tharkad, and Czarvowo
– Tharkad AeroSpace Group – Behemoth, Fortress, Mule and Intruder DropShips
– Tharkan Media Associates
Pherkad – Longanecker PlastiSteel – Also with headquarters on Crevedia
Princedom of Gienah
The Princedom of Gienah is the weakest of the remaining Princedoms, caught on the borders of both the Federation of Skye and the Free Worlds League. With no internal BattleMech factories and being blacklisted by Nashan for actively fighting them in the corporate wars, most of their few BattleMechs come from the StarCorps Supremacy and are husbanded in battle. Most of their forces consist of mass numbers of high-speed vehicles used to swarm the enemy in hopes that they can pull them down with sheer numbers. Their navy is negligible and many wonder how long they will be able to maintain their independence from either Skye or the Free Worlds League. Only their relative lack of aggressiveness has kept Gienah from being swallowed by one of them over the years.
Gienah – Gienah Automotive – Gienah Combat Vehicles – Centipede, Packrat and wheeled and heavy wheeled APC vehicles.
Hyde – Zettle Metals, Incorporated – Major office on Rahne in Solaris Cooperative
StarCorps Supremacy
The StarCorps Supremacy is more powerful than Gienah, but nothing to write home about. They have fought and held a line against both the League and the Hegemony for many years though and continue to look like they can maintain it. Their BattleMech forces are well trained and some of the best troops in space. They also deploy vehicles purchased from Gienah, but like Gienah sport a fleet with little to recommend it. Also like Gienah, they are a major target of Nashan corporate raids and many of their planets are constant battlegrounds in the corporate wars.
Acrux – Acrux Agricultural Industries
Bolan – SeraVideo Entertainments, Incorporated – Offices on Bolan, Bobruisk, Donegal, Tharkad, and Czarvowo
Bobruisk – SeraVideo Entertainments, Incorporated – Offices on Bolan, Bobruisk, Donegal, Tharkad, and Czarvowo
Loburg – StarCorps Industries – Black Hawk-KU (omni), Longbow, and Thanatos (omni) BattleMechs; Manteuffel Omnitank
Systems
Alarion Association
Alarion – Settled three decades after the formation of the Lyran Commonwealth, the mass destruction caused to the local animals by Terran diseases, and the resulting death of half the colonists, forced the Commonwealth government to issue strict quarantine and settlement procedures that are still in effect. The home of Bowie Industries and Ioto Galactic, respectively the most powerful corporation in the Alarion Association and the only builder of WarShips in the entire Commonwealth, Alarion is one of the most exploited worlds in the Commonwealth and the most powerful in the Association.
Loxley – Annexed in 2378 by Archon Robert Marsden, Loxley was for a time home to the Scottish-Irish descendents of the Stewart Confederacy in their trek that spanned much of the Inner Sphere. They resisted annexation and 90% of their people were killed before the last of them escaped in a single JumpShip. A beautiful planet full of farms, it sells large amounts of food to nearby systems.
Noisiel – Host to a series of ’Mech-scale games every summer, this planet brings in hundreds of thousands of spectators annually. The ‘Mechs generally play the sports of baseball, football, soccer, and chess, though others have been created and forgotten over the years as well.
Reese Station – This is a harsh, frontier-like world where few comforts are found beyond those enjoyed by the Bowie MechWarriors who keep a small garrison there at all times.
Virtue – The home of Virtue Cartographers Unlimited, this planet was the target of a recent Nashan Diversified expansion program. Through what are thought to be illegal means Nashan acquired ownership of the mapmaking company in 3095 and Regina Comrada, daughter of the previous owner who died of an accident shortly after selling the company, has been fighting their acquisition in the courts. So far Nashan’s expert legal services have kept her lawsuit in limbo but the Princes of Coventry, Gienah, and StarCorps support her, possibly because of Nashan expansion into their regions of late.
Blackstone Authority
Inarcs – Originally a prison planet seeded by the Star League, Inarcs is a beautiful and mineral-rich world that has flourished over the centuries. Dominated by Blackstone Industries, this world projects power over a number of systems on the Jade Falcon border.
Kowloon – An underdeveloped world that has little to endear itself, the large tracts of virgin terrain and a series of minor industrial plants owned by Blackstone make up most of that little bit.
Kwangchowwang – The center of Buddhism in the Blackstone Authority and beyond, the population is primarily of Chinese ancestry. In the planets rough mountains, there are about a hundred monasteries and retreats open to both believers and non-believers seeking respite from their harried lives. On the border with the Jade Falcons, it even sees many old Falcon warriors arriving in search of something other than glorious death.
Winter – As its name suggests it is a cold planet, though does possess some agricultural industries in its warmer regions. A favored vacation spot of Blackstone executives far away from the Falcon border, it boasts powerful defenses.
Coventry Division
Coventry – A pleasant, heavily industrialized world of large seas and mild seasons, it is the home of Coventry Metal Works, currently the largest producer of BattleMechs in the Commonwealth. It is also home to a Nashan computer manufacturing plant.
New Capetownn – Once home to a particularly extreme form of New Calvanism, this world was dominated by racism and believed that white power was the best. Ravaged by racial civil war in the 3030s, the culture has changed dramatically in the last seven decades. Currently ruled by Duke Cythia Franks, a black woman descended from the famous Black Pearl, even at a century old she can still stare down any opponent with her imposing gaze and is known to workout physically and in her Warhammer BattleMech every day.
Princedom of Gienah
Dar-es-Salaam – Ironically, given the number of battles fought on the world, Dar-Es-Salaam means "Haven of Peace" in Arabic, and is the center of Islam in the Princedom of Gienah. This desert world is well suited to its Islamic people's tastes. The relatively simple set of beliefs outlined in the Koran seems to appeal to many people who have grown weary of the maze-like speculations of other religions, and it's strict morality places great emphasis on the family. The Gienah family are recent converts to the teachings of the Koran, and have led the fight against allowing Nashan Diversified to encroach on Princedom companies.
Ford – Once a major trade center between the Free Worlds League and the Lyran Commonwealth, the sundering of the League badly wounded her economy. A number of free traders still use it to jump into un-affiliated League space, but most traffic goes through nearby Nestor now.
Giausar – Like Ford this was once a major trading port but has fallen on hard times of late. Un-affiliated League traders do come here, but the major traders go elsewhere now. Home to a comfortable environment and Terran-like dinosaurs, most of what traders do come wish to capture these animals for sale in other systems.
Gienah – Home to Gienah Automotive, this world is the center of the anti-Nashan movement in the Princedom. A veritable cold war wages between the two companies, especially on Gienah where corporate spies and counter-spies have become commonplace. Considered by many to be one of the best places to send spies for their final test before graduation (most failures are announced posthumously), some projections suggest that intelligence operatives of one company or another make up as much as twenty percent of the planetary population.
Hyde – A small, almost entirely water covered world, it is lightly forested, and has thousands of small freshwater lakes. It is the site of a huge water purification plant, which has made the world a tempting target for League raiders over the centuries. Also the home to Zettle Metals, a company that purifies metals for use in building BattleMechs and vehicles, it is the target of a major Nashan Diversified push for acquisition. Gienah Automotive has been able to help block Nashan but the powerful company has flooded the Princedom with lawyers bent on finding a weakness and exploiting it.
Nestor – A home to many famous wineries, Nestor has become a major trading port between the Princedom and the Marik-Stewark Commonwealth.
Protectorate of Donegal
Aristotle – Home to the believers of the Great Delphi, a contemporary religion based on the reinterpretation of ancient Greek myths and legends.
Chukchi III – Once a beautiful world, the discovery of rare minerals on this world brought the mining companies and organized crime families. Nashan Diversified picked up most of the Blake-shattered industries on the world in 3076 for a song and has spent the last quarter-century squeezing it for every Kroner it can. Its distance from Tharkad and Donegal has kept the Archon from investigating complaints from the world, especially since Nashan lawyers spend much of their time covering them up.
Donegal – A rich and beautiful world that formed and has led the Protectorate of Donegal for centuries, it is the center of power in the Protectorate. The Commonwealth Supreme Court is based here, Nashan Diversified bases most of operations from here, the largest Commonwealth Stock Exchange is here, and universities and the most powerful media conglomerates are based here. From Donegal flows information, power, and the money that buys both.
Gallery – A gloomy world covered in darkness, it is a mineral-rich fiefdom of the Steiner family. Archon Adam Steiner rarely goes there though, preferring the brighter, if colder, Tharkad.
Gibbs – The center of AeroSpace production in the Protectorate, Ioto Galactic builds the Protectorates only WarShips here. Many of them are sold to other self-recognized member states of the Commonwealth, making both Ioto and the Protectorate even richer.
Tharkad – A cold world still rich in radioactives and gems, this is the capital of the entire Lyran Commonwealth. Its massive factories have been rebuilt since the Jihad, the universities restaffed, the Triad and Asgard returned to their former splendor and power, and Loki once again sends its operatives from this world to support self-recognized member states and to cause mischief in disavowing member states.
Thuban – A manmade world, it was originally an airless, radiation blasted rock the size of Terra's moon, but its core has been hollowed out into a vast rock-enclosed cavern. The planet's spin provides an artificial out-is-down gravity, and its interior is filled with a breathable atmosphere distilled from the native rock and ice. It is an inside out world, an enclosed environment entered through an airlock, a place where you can stand on the ground and look up at farmlands and forest, and small landlocked seas. The 'sun' is a thin, intensely radiant thread across the land-encircled sky that literally pipes in light from the outside as required.
StarCorps Supremacy
Acrux – Highly suited to agriculture, the weather is temperate and pleasant enough to allow an almost year-long growing season. During the ’50s and ’60s, the Farmers Liberation Resistance Movement began firebombing Acrux Agricultural Industries and nearly brought the massive firm to its knees. Nashan Diversified tried to take it over in 3068, but StarCorps led an effort of nearby companies to keep the megacorporation out of their space. This planet has since become one of four major centers of corporate spying in the Supremacy.
Bobruisk – Home to a number of SeraVideo Entertainments Incorporated factories, the branches of that company in the Supremacy have aligned themselves in lock step with StarCorps, financing any force necessary to keep Nashan Diversified out of the Supremacy. This makes Bobruisk one of the four major centers of corporate spying in the Supremacy as Nashan operatives attempt to cause mischief or steal information.
Bolan – Home to the other primary SeraVideo complex in the Supremacy, the continually bad relations of the local Quetta and Sibi citystates worsen the conditions on this planet. The two city-states have continually refused to work with each other, fighting over the Brahui Pass, a 100-kilometer-long gorge through the Kilimshan mountain range and a major artery for goods flowing to both cities. Added to the constant conflict between the city-states is the equally constant barrage of corporate operatives from Nashan trying to destabilize SeraVideo, and more than once forces from the city-states have attacked SeraVideo, goaded into the action by Nashan.
Loburg – Home of StarCorps Industries, the primary force standing against Nashan Diversified, the Duchy of Tamarind-Abbey, and the Marian Hegemony, this planet has become accustomed to being on a constant war footing. Few people go out at night, attempting to avoid the full-blown corporate war waging in the streets, and raiders from the Duchy and the Hegemony are common.
Teyvareb – StarCorps’ primary protection against raids from the Hegemony, this world has been heavily fortified over the years to make any assault as painful as possible.