Government

The supreme leader of the Hegemony is of course, the Hegemon. Currently, the Hegemon of the Linked Worlds is Vissarion Gabriel Nomarche, who has ruled for the last 3 years since the death of his father, Gabriel Marchand Nomarche. The Nomarche line has ruled the Hegemony unbroken for the last 427 years since the Mad Hegemon, Therrin Horus Telemon executed every other member of his house before dying himself in single combat with his Strategos.

The word of the Hegemon is final in all matters, though the sheer size of the Hegemony makes direct rule somewhat impractical.

The Hegemon's Council, also called the Vocare Maxim, is made up of one representative or Consul appointed by the government of each of the Linked Worlds, subject to the approval of the Hegemon, and three ex officio members, the Strategos of the Hegemony, the Hegemon's Heir Apparent, and the Lord Sentinel of the Elite, though this last member has no vote on the council. Hegemon Gabriel recently added a final member selected by the assembled governments of the Deep Expansion Worlds, until such time as each one reaches the minimum requirements to be considered one the Linked Worlds of the Hegemony.

The Vocare Maxim assists and advises the Hegemon on all matters and is the focus of the Hegemony's vast bureaucracy. The Praetors of each of the nine divisions of the day to day government of the Hegemony are appointed by the vote of the Vocare Maxim, again subject to the approval of the Hegemon.

Provided they obey the basic laws of the Hegemony, and uphold the rights guaranteed to each citizen thereof, each member world was free to govern itself as it saw fit. The requirement that each world be able to appoint a single Consul has generally evolved each planet towards a single government, but exceptions to this rule do still exist.

Military

The Strategos of the Hegemony for the last 12 years has been the younger brother of the current Hegemon, Ambros Gabriel Nomarche. With the exception of the Elite (see below) the Strategos is the supreme commander of all Hegemonic forces, answering only to the Hegemon. There are basically four branches of military forces in the Hegemony.

For the most part, the military of the Hegemony is tasked with upholding the laws and maintaining peace between the Linked Worlds as there has been no outside threat to combat since the fabled days of the Tarn Alliance, from which the Hegemony was formed.

The SkyGuard

The SkyGuard is comprised of all space forces of the Hegemony including the Orbital Battle Stations. Officers of the SkyGuard must graduate from one of the twelve SkyGuard academies, though no one is permitted to attend an academy on the world of his birth. Once commissioned, members of the SkyGuard are stationed throughout the Linked Worlds with frequent transfers to insure that no particular planet gains undue influence over its members.

The Legions

The Legions are essentially the levies of the Linked Worlds. Each of the Linked worlds is required to provide (through whatever means) one half of one percent of its population to serve in the Legions. Each Legion is stationed on the world of its origin though the commanders and higher officers of the Legions are rotated through the worlds on a decadal basis. The Legions provide the main ground troops of the Hegemony, and are instrumental in putting down uprisings, supporting locals against natural disasters, and upholding local laws.

The Guard

The Hegemonic Guard are chosen from applicants from the Legions and constitute the roving army of the Hegemony. While a Legionnaire can expect to never leave the planet of his birth unless he rises to sufficient rank, the Guard are always where the action is. Each of the three Guard divisions has its headquarters on Ridena, though they generally act separately.

The Elite

By far the smallest of the branches, the seventy-seven members of the Elite are the personal company of the Hegemon. They rotate between their two main duties of being the Hegemon's personal guard, and his eyes and ears out among the Linked Worlds. Though they are small in number, each member of the Elite is acquainted with the Hegemon personally, and it is said that no door in the Hegemony is barred to them. Given their numbers, actually encountering an Elite outside of the capital on Ridena is either a great honor, or a grave misfortune.

Date and Time

Timekeeping among multiple systems is difficult to keep synchronized, given the disparity in local planetary rotation. The current method of timekeeping dates back to the Alliance, and nearly everywhere uses it from historical inertia.

``Year'' and ``day'' are local terms, dependent on planetary rotation and revolution. Places with inconveniently sized days may also have something like a local ``cycle'' to keep track of workday-sized chunks of time. ``Hour'' and ``minute'' are standard terms (there are sixty minutes in an hour). Also standard terms are ``tick'' (twenty-four hours) and ``zed'' (365.25 ticks).

Local time would generally be something like ``Winter 15, 14:30'' --- most places have month-like chunks, and local time which counts from 0 (midnight) to whatever number of hours the day ends at, truncating the last hour before midnight to be an arbitrarily short number of minutes.

Standard time is of the form 1873.178.13.09 AS (zed, tick, hour, minute).

The date, as of when you were last paying attention, was 2435.189.12.00 AS.

Money

Almost all monetary transactions in the Hegemony are computerized, though hard currency does exist. The standardized currency is the Hegemonic Aster, which can be fractionated at will since the accounts are kept electronically in any case. (``Your bill will be 4.3453 Asters.'') Think of an Aster as the equivalent of 100 dollars.

Hard currency comes in two types, rare metallic coins often used as collectors items and commemorative medallions so much as currency and plastic sealed chits with unique computer verification chips inside. The plastic Asters are preferred by most when currency transactions are made, though the coins are quite popular in the outworlds.

Languages

The lingua franca of the Hegemony is Integral, an elegant language which allows for enough shading of meaning to write poetry, and enough precision that legal documents can be written in only a few pages and understood by normal humans. The Tinoori and the Brochoah both have their own languages, but most speak Integral as well. Cerulean and many of the outworld planets have their own dialects, comprehensible to outsiders when spoken slowly, but otherwise difficult to follow. [Language skills are one point. A true language, such as Tinooranthi, requires eight levels for full fluency; a dialect only requires three levels.]

Religions

Religious beliefs are generally a minority view, but there are several religions which have followings across most to all of the planets:

• Starwayist: A belief that humans are, at their heart, made of the same stuff as the stars, and are part of the same universe. Stars and man and everything in between are all part of a great grand plan.
• Nuller: A belief that gravity is a corrupting influence, and only in space do we become free. On paper more of a philosophy than a religion, in that there is no belief in divinity, Nullers in person are often quite devout and committed.
• Bibbler: Believers in a single deity and divine judgement in the afterlife, Bibbler beliefs are codified in their holy Book.
• Reform Juridicist: Juridicists believe that the Hegemon rules by divine right and has final judgement in all things. The Orthodox Juridicists have been generally defunct since the reign of a long-ago liberal Hegemon who considered active worship Not A Good Thing.

Planets

• Ridena First settled of the Linked Worlds and Center of the Hegemony, Ridena has been the seat of the Hegemons since the very beginning.

  From each of the Praetors' towers there is a clear view past the Grand Parade Fields of the Strategos to the Palatium Tamarch, Estate of the Hegemon, where the Elite and their plasma brands maintain their eternal vigil over the Soul of the Hegemony.

  Nestled on a cliff face with its back against the sea, the Palatium Tamarch looks out on Ridena the city, largest of the Hegemony. The city itself, outside the semi-ring formed by the nine Praetors' towers, extends for one hundred miles away from the water. The only city on the planet (assuming you don't count the training bases and various headquarters of the Guard division as cities), Ridena has spared no expense in displaying the full power of the Hegemony, in construction, arts, and technology. Divided into several ``quarters,'' (There are actually about 20 of these quarters) Ridena is host to every type of person living throughout the Hegemony.

  The continent on the other side of Ridena is called the Hegemon's Preserve. While construction is not illegal in the preserve, all construction is rigidly overseen to insure that it seemlessly integrates into the existing landscape. Overflying the preserve, it is almost impossible to tell the planet is inhabited.

• Eremov Eremov Prime and Eremov Secundus are nothing exiting, though both are happy Hegemonic worlds. However, Eremov V has a lovely little moon, Quintessence, which boasts the premium resorts in the Linked Worlds. One of the more popular resort activities is the transparent force-field-enclosed ships which dip into the heavy clouds of the gas giant below, but there are also the standard complement of restaurants, spas, casinos, theaters, and so on.

• Godia Godia sits a little far back from its primary star to be truly comfortable for most, but for those looking for a winter wonderland, Godia is perfect. Deliberately keeping itself a bit down-tech, Godia's settlements are closer to ski resort in size than true cities, and the fusion reactors are carefully buried and out of the way under pristine snow. Less publicized than the Frostfall Opera House and the ice scudder races, Godia is no less important for the Strategos' Tactical Training Academy, located both on-planet and on-station above Godia.

• Tiras The ``old corp'' planet, Tiras is the home to a number of the wealthiest individuals in the Linked Worlds, as well as some of the oldest and most established megacorporates.

• Mainwell A sort of bread and butter world of the Hegemony, Mainwell is often known for its fine manufactured goods, specializing in reliable consumer products. For most items, Mainwell is synonymous with quality, from microcomputer pods waterproof to three kilometers for deep Cerulian work to the Mainwell 2000 AutoChef found in just about every private ship of the Hegemony. A highly regimented society, all Mainwell citizens belong to a specific caste which determines their social standing, insurance benefits, and concert seating. Moving upcaste in one generation is the goal of every father for his children.

• Cerulean A water world, dotted with floating islands built out of high-structure, high-buoyancy vegetable mats. The islands range up in size to small-city; the only completely inorganic floating island is the starport (though Cerulean's space stations are larger than average for most planets).

• Vircus A mining world rich in natural resources, but with a slightly toxic atmosphere, making it difficult to maintain human civilization outside of the three domed mining towns. A rich source of raw materials, Vircus supplies the heavy metal needs of half the Hegemony. Above the mining world are two major space orbital installations. One is a massive freight processing station, for dealing with the mining operation, and coordinating shipping to all parts of the Hegemony. The other installation is a Type Ten Hegemonic Guard Battle Station, with a full complement of Hegemonic Marines, and a full squadron of the SkyGuard, for defense of this valuable resource center.

• Nerele Home to one of the few non-human non-uplifted intelligent species in the Hegemony, the Brochoah. An unfortunate resemblance to a certain human cultivated vegetable has resulted in these beings' more common name, ``the broccoli''. Brochoah are ideally suited for life under the harsh white sun of Nerele. Generally resembling stubby blue trees, Brochoah can manufacture their own food from ambient minerals and sunlight, and in scarce times are capable of long periods of voluntary inactivity (called ``rooting'') to conserve resources. Immunity to the rigors of vacuum and the fact that it is practically impossible to bore a Brochoah with even the most repetitive of tasks, provided that task is useful, makes them a favored workforce in space construction. Brochoah generally exhibit a group mentality and are fanatic resource gatherers. So while they often seem slow of wit, unionized Brochoah are the scourge of any labor negotiation. (Lament of a (former) Praetor of Resource Allocation and Labor: ``Don't get into a fight with a broccoli. You'll think you've won until the morning you wake up and your company has gone out of business and the bank is foreclosing on your speeder and your children have filed formal papers of divorce and your credit account numbers have all been repossessed. They don't play fast, but they play long, and for keeps.'')

• Gateway Gateway's claim to fame is its jump gate to the Deep Expansion Worlds. Originally a hectic and thriving metropolic world, with trading fleets travelling in both directions constantly, Gateway has built up a stronger military presence in the past few years, due to conflict between the outworlds and the forces of the Strategos. A newly installed Type Ten Hegemonic Guard Battle Station has come on line in the same orbit as the jump gates, ostensibly as part of the Strategos' High Alliance defense program, but few see it as anything but a thinly veiled threat to the outworlds.

• Heidelmere Heidelmere is unique as the only planetary government in the Hegemony based upon the monarchical succession of a single family (other than the Hegemony itself). King Ronaldo VII, rules over a complicated system of Dukes, Counts, Barons, and Knights who make up the nobility of Heidelmere. Unlike a traditional feudal system, while the nobility does indeed have the government, the ``peasant class'' includes some of the richest entrepreneurs and captains of industry in the Linked Worlds. The nobility of Heidelmere collects taxes and as the government provides the basic services needed for such a society, but all of the downside of feudal systems appear to have been eliminated. Typically the king of Heidelmere will send his heir to act as Heidelmere's Consul to the Vocare Maxim.

• Tiras Nova Tiras Nova deliberately set itself up as a rival to Tiras in the economic battlefield, taking advantage of several moons very rich in resources and instituting favorable monetary policies and regulations for development and research. Genegeneers and nanofarmers in particular have flocked to Tiras Nova due to the lack of restrictions.

• Ganfrey While Ganfrey is home to great cities, massive space stations, breathtaking scenery, and complex industrial complexes, one would never know to hear one talk of it. For Ganfrey is also home to the Polymath Institute --- the most pre-eminent place of learning in the Linked Worlds. An entire large island (about the size of Great Britain) has been given over to the six hundred and twenty-seven colleges, schools and universities that comprise the Institute, and students and faculty are recruited from all over the Linked Worlds and outworlds. By tradition, the Consul from Ganfrey is a senior faculty member at the Sabbati Doneval, the school of galactic politics.

• Cabry The homeworld of the arachnoid Tinoori, Cabry is a densely forested world, built up less than many of the other Linked Worlds out of deference to its original inhabitants. While the Tinoori appear to see no point in space travel (or even planetary travel), they are friendly trading partners and accomplished artists, especially in the realm of olfactory art. A Tinoor is said to never forget anything that it chooses to remember.

(and Outworlds)

The Deep Expansion Worlds, as they are formally known, are a set of habitable worlds found close together in the Omphalos Dust Nebula. Their close proximity makes it possible to travel between them at sublight speeds in a way that's far more difficult for the rest of the Linked Worlds, though none but the most daring pilots would risk travel through the nebula off of the known routes. However, the rewards for discovering a new habitable world are great, so explorers are drawn to the nebula like moths to a flame.

Settlement of the Outworlds has been taking place for much of the lifetime of the Hegemony, with new jumpgates being constructed in place around Crux. However, as the Outworlds have grown more populous with those who are happier on the frontier, they have grown increasingly dissatisfied with their lack of governmental representation. While they have recently been granted a joint seat in the Vocare Maxim, most Outworlders consider this too little, too late, and mutter about severing the Nonesuch/Gateway jump gate.

The Expansion Worlds' most notorious celebrities are Janina Megaera and the crew of her ship, the Inopportune Moment. One part pirate, one part bard, and three parts rabble-rouser, most Outworlders treat Captain Megaera as something of a force of nature to be endured until one can cash in the encounter for a lifetime of free drinks on the story. Those not born in the outworlds never seem to get the joke.

• Nonesuch Nonesuch (Accidentally named by Praetor Silas Cole, ``Habitable planet in the dust nebula? There's nonesuch.'') is, for the Expansion Worlds, what Gateway is to the systems outside the dust nebula. Of all the Expansion Worlds, Nonesuch is the most aligned in spirit to the Hegemony, and has managed the most graceful integration of Hegemonic technology with the stronger psionic talents common in the nebula.

• Sparta The richest in raw mineral resources of the Outworlds, and home to some of the most impressive physical scenery, Sparta is otherwise not the most hospitable of planets. Though its year is shorter than most, a native Spartan would assure you that it seems much longer. Much of Spartan life requires technological assistance, from desalination to crop deleading. Sparta's territory is divided into twenty-one Wards, each overseen by a Warden in charge of colonization of that area.

• Bastion The Bastion system contains a single gas giant with six moons of more-or-less habitable conditions. The least habitable of them, officially known as Third Bastion but informally known as the Bastille, houses the Expansion Worlds Skyguard Outpost. Second and Fourth, and Fifth Bastions are close to standard climate, and the colonists are much as one would expect. First Bastion, a close inner moon, has a small number of gas miners, and Sixth Bastion has turned their rocky moon into a heavily tunneled lithofungus production factory.

• Crux While Nonesuch was the first of the Deep Expansion worlds settled, it is Crux which was the first to truly be an ``Outworld'' with its reliance on improvisation, brute force, and particularly powerful psi instead of technology. Nearly every conceivable religion or philosophical position has found adherents on Crux as a focus of psionic meditation.

• Pierogi The ``jewel of the Outworlds'', Pierogi is a glorious world of beauty, wonder, and endless possibility. Additionally, Pierogi-born psychics appear to be stronger than those nearly anywhere else.

• Lendt Lendt is still fairly sparsely settled, but already the inhabitants of this world have begun to be difficult, refusing to have any central authority larger than city-wide. That Lendt is the birthplace of Janina Megaera is likely no coincidence.

• Creek Creek is the most recently discovered of the Expansion Worlds, found by famed explorer Rupert Milhouse. The jump gate to Creek has not yet been constructed, but brave settlers have already begun to move in. A wet planet that ranges from warmish rain forest to chilly swamp, barely an inch of Creek exists that is not a home to one ore more of its innumerable amphibioid species. Much cdof Creek's flora and fauna appears to be rich in useful biochemicals, though a thorough survey has not yet been done.

Map

(pdf version here)