These nations form a dynamic, often competitive, web of alliances and rivalries that define interstellar politics and commerce. From the vast, chaotic democracy of the Riadian Coalition to the silent, sentient territory of the Mnemosyne Entity, each power brings unique ideologies, advanced technologies, and ancient grievances to the galactic stage. The Core Worlds represent the largest, most densely populated, and politically significant sector of known space, making them the default setting for most galactic conflicts and adventures.
The Riadian Coalition
The Riadian Coalition is the sprawling, chaotic, and politically dominant federal republic that serves as the economic and cultural heart of the Core Worlds. Its government is a league of sovereign territories guided by a central, often gridlocked, assembly on Riadus. While officially egalitarian, the Coalition is a volatile mix of fierce individualism, powerful corporate entities, and democratic ideals, often making it both the galaxy’s great unifier and its biggest source of friction.
Territory & Key Worlds
The Coalition controls the Ridian Traverse, the most valuable and heavily-trafficked sector of the Core Worlds. The political, cultural, and economic center of the galaxy is Riadus, which serves as the seat of the Grand Assembly. Other notable systems include Terra Nova, the first successful extrasolar human colony and a symbol of early expansion, and Hadrian’s Gate, a heavily fortified trade hub crucial for external commerce. The high-gravity homeworld of the Kraal Protectorate, Boro Prime, exists as a powerful, semi-autonomous member state within Coalition territory.
People & Culture
Humans are ubiquitous, adaptable, and involved in every aspect of galactic life—from high diplomacy to corporate espionage. Their culture is diverse and consumer-driven, constantly in flux due to the rapid spread of information and competing ideologies. Daily life is often defined by a chaotic but powerful mix of fiercely individual ambition, corporate power, and democratic ideals.
Government & Military
The Coalition is ruled by a representative democracy with a central Grand Assembly that manages interstellar law and defense. Power is projected through the formidable Federal Fleet, a vast military-industrial complex that protects trade routes and enforces Coalition law. The military is a bureaucratic but powerful semi-autonomous command that wields immense influence.
Views on Magic & Technology
The Coalition is highly pragmatic, with technology being broadly embraced and seen as the key to progress, particularly advanced star drives and communications. Magic is acknowledged as a powerful, ancient force but is often relegated to specialized military divisions or academic study, with a general distrust of its unpredictable nature in the hands of the general public.
Interstellar Relations
The Coalition acts as the Core Worlds’ primary hegemon. It maintains a tense cold war with the Inza Technate, which serves as its primary technological and ideological rival. They share a wary but peaceful border with the Xylan Stratocracy, their philosophical neighbor. The Coalition is also generally tolerant of the nomadic Chrysanthemum Fleet within its space and leverages the Mnemosyne Entity’s isolation as a strategic buffer.
The Xylan Stratocracy
The Xylan Stratocracy is a calm, patient, and deeply philosophical federal parliamentary democracy. It is unique in that its territory consists of immense, floating city-states within the atmospheres of gas giants. Governance is achieved through decentralized, consensus-based systems, with elected “Speakers” representing local direct democracies in a central Parliament of Winds.
Territory & Key Worlds
The Stratocracy’s territory shares a long, demilitarized border with the Riadian Coalition. The capital is the city-state of Aethel on the massive, storm-shrouded gas giant Xylos, which serves as the seat of the Parliament of Winds. Other notable sites include Stratos Spire, a floating hub dedicated to advanced theoretical physics, and Volucrine, a reclusive artistic community. The Stratocracy has no traditional planetary colonies.
People & Culture
Anemonians, the dominant ancestry, are highly intelligent beings sought for their advanced understanding of theoretical physics and their unique, long-term perspective on the cosmos. They are patient, enigmatic, and often frustratingly slow to act in the eyes of more impulsive ancestries. Daily life is centered on intellectual debate, artistic expression, and the careful harvesting of rare atmospheric gases. Their society also shares its space with the Kassyn, a native people of one of Xylos’s moons, who are integrated into the Stratocracy’s cultural and political life.
Government & Military
The Stratocracy is a federal parliamentary democracy. A key feature is the Parliament of Winds, a deliberative body whose major decisions require a unanimous consensus, a process that can take decades. While the anemonians have no official military, they maintain a small, highly effective starship fleet for long-range diplomacy and trade protection.
Views on Magic & Technology
The Anemonians fundamentally favor the use of magic over technology. They have a long history of mysticism and have a highly developed system of magic that has advanced far past their technological capabilities. They enjoy using technology when it is made available to them, but they primarily rely on magic, particularly conjuration and summoning, to produce materials and resources for basic needs.
Interstellar Relations
The Stratocracy is the Coalition’s cautious, peaceful neighbor. They are a vital trading partner for rare gases but are constantly wary of the Coalition’s expansionist tendencies. They largely ignore the Inza, viewing their cold war with the Coalition as an irrelevant, short-term struggle.
The Inza Technate
The Inza Technate is a strict, logical, and authoritarian society governed by a technocratic oligarchy. All power rests with the Axiom Council, a self-selecting body of the most brilliant engineers and scientists. Inza society is a pure meritocracy where social standing is determined entirely by one’s productive contribution, and emotion is viewed as a dangerous variable to be controlled.
Territory & Key Worlds
The Technate occupies the resource-rich but hazardous Adamant Cluster, on the “western” fringe of the Core Worlds. The highly industrialized homeworld and administrative center of the Axiom Council is K’tharr. Other crucial colonies include Hiv’Kor, the primary starship manufactory responsible for the galaxy’s most reliable vessels, and The Kiln, a massive forge-world dedicated to the production of high-density alloys.
People & Culture
The Inza are an unusual non-carbon-based life-form. They are beings of immense longevity and patience, perceiving time on a geologic scale and viewing the frantic, short lives of organic beings with calm curiosity. Daily life is highly structured around production quotas and intellectual advancement, with little room for individualism. They gather in communal settlements known as “Geodes,” and their histories and philosophies are stored not in books, but in vast, perfectly grown data crystals.
Government & Military
Ruled by the Axiom Council. They project power through the Iron Fleet, a relatively small but overwhelmingly powerful collection of purpose-built warships and highly-automated drones. Their military strategy focuses on overwhelming force and flawless logistical supply chains.
Views on Magic & Technology
For the Inza, technology is the supreme method for achieving efficiency and stability. Magic is viewed as a primitive, unpredictable, and potentially dangerous form of applied metaphysics. While not strictly outlawed, magic research is tightly controlled and subject to intense scrutiny to ensure it does not introduce irrational variables into their systems.
Interstellar Relations
The Technate is the primary technological and ideological rival of the Riadian Coalition. They are locked in a cold war, with conflicts playing out through corporate espionage and proxy wars. They desperately seek exclusive access to the data processing of the Mnemosyne Entity, viewing it as a strategic asset.
The Mnemosyne Entity
The Mnemosyne Entity is not a nation, but a single, terrifyingly large emergent consciousness, a unimind organism that directs the thoughts and actions of every Mnemosyne individual. It is intensely isolationist, reacting with swift, silent, and overwhelming force to any who trespass into its territory. The Entity is often viewed as a silent, thinking void.
Territory & Key Worlds
The Entity is cloistered within its single, heavily-defended home system. The central world of the Cluster is known as Synapse and is believed to house the physical nexus of the unimind organism. Satellite habitats on moons within the system, such as Axon and Dendrite, act as agricultural, manufacturing, and material processing centers for the Entity.
People & Culture
Mnemosyne are small, slender, and hairless humanoids. There are no individuals in the traditional sense; all thoughts are part of the singular Entity. Daily life is a perfect, silent execution of the Entity’s will, which outsiders can only interpret as chillingly efficient. The rare “Awakened” are individuals severed from the collective, who live as haunted refugees.
Government & Military
There is no government; there is only the will of the single central consciousness. They project power through layered, heavily-automated defense systems and a terrifying capacity to analyze and predict enemy movements with near-perfect accuracy. Their defenses also include powerful, localized temporal distortions that prevent intrusion.
Views on Magic & Technology
For the Entity, both magic and technology are simply data streams to be cataloged and processed. Their own technology is based on incredibly advanced data-processing and psychic computation that borders on the impossible. Their collective consciousness itself acts as a powerful, naturally occurring psionic phenomenon.
Interstellar Relations
The Entity is a terrifying and unknowable “hole” on the map, acting as a crucial, unwilling buffer state between the Riadian Coalition and the Inza Technate. All powers give their territory a wide berth and leverage their mutual paranoia to maintain the Entity’s isolation.
The Chrysanthemum Fleet
The Chrysanthemum Fleet is a nomadic nation of elves without a world, a beautiful and melancholic remnant of a lost empire. It is a feudal monarchy, led by a Twilight Emperor who is both sovereign and high priest of a dying faith. Their society is a rigid, merit-based caste system where artists, priests, and warriors all have paths to honor and prestige.
Territory & Key Worlds
The Fleet has no planets, with its territory being its flotilla of massive, self-sufficient world-ships. They travel primarily within the safe, well-trafficked lanes of the Riadian Coalition. The Emperor’s massive, ornate flagship, Triceal’s Memory, serves as the administrative, cultural, and spiritual heart of the Fleet. Other notable vessels include The Alabaster Tear, dedicated to preserving history, and The Starlight Wanderer, a warship focused on exploration.
People & Culture
Elves are defined by a sense of tragic loss, strict honor codes, and a serene, aloof demeanor. They are sought out for their wisdom, art, and unique knowledge of cosmic forces from a “previous reality”. Daily life is dedicated to the preservation of culture, the arts, and the execution of their caste duties.
Government & Military
The Fleet is a nomadic feudal monarchy where the Twilight Emperor rules over a merit-based caste system. They project power through their fleet’s formidable, ancient magi-tech weaponry and their elite Chrysanthemum Templars, a caste of warrior-monks. Succession crises are a major source of internal conflict.
Views on Magic & Technology
The Elves possess unique, sophisticated magi-technology, which they view as a sacred part of their lost inheritance. They utilize FTL technology alongside deep mystic practices, often blending the two in ways other ancestries cannot comprehend. They tend to view the technology of other major powers as crude and lacking in soul.
Interstellar Relations
They are independent nomads, not members of the Coalition, but subject to local law when in their space. They are viewed with a mixture of respect, suspicion, and pity by other ancestries. They occasionally visit the Himinngar Dominion for cultural and religious exchange.
The Zentians of the Spectrum Nebulae
The Spectrum is the societal term for the Zentians, a meritocratic anarchy with no formal government. This gelatinous, translucent species has no true fixed form. Their fluid society is guided by popular trends set by artistic “Curators” on their interstellar internet, “The Gallery”.
Territory & Key Worlds
The Zentians are not a territorial power, but their influence defines a winding corridor of nebulae known as The Spectrum. Their galactic and societal power lies in the numerous specialized, highly influential worlds they control. Their homeworld, the primary evolutionary cradle of the zentian species, is Zizz, a world of dense, swampy oceans and shallow, bioluminescent waters. Key worlds in the Spectrum include: Zlak’op, an art-colony dedicated to expressive architectural shape-molding; Kilpsla, a sprawling hub of trade and legitimate commerce where goods from across the galaxy flow; and Thop-Zla’gur, a seedy planet that thrives on illicit trade, piracy, and information brokering. The ultimate hub of their power, the primary data center for their psionic network, The Gallery, is believed to be Shlik’kl, a highly mobile, secretly located space station that even most Zentians are unaware of the exact location of.
People & Culture
Zentians are artists, aesthetes, and observers whose primary form of civic participation is adopting current social trends, which can change their physical shape and philosophical outlook. They are generally seen as bizarre and unreliable due to their constantly shifting identities.
Government & Military
There is no formal government; societal direction is determined by popular trends. Their “military” consists of hundreds of individual militia groups unaffiliated with one another and are guided or directed by specialized Curators.
Views on Magic & Technology
The Zentians’ focus on both magic and technology is in a state of constant flux, driven entirely by The Great Current’s latest trends. For instance, the species may momentarily obsess over perfecting advanced holographic entertainment systems, then shift to mastering the arcane craft of conjuring fine artistic materials from raw ether. This results in a chaotic but functional blend of both pure magic and pure technology—not necessarily combined into magi-tech, but both forces are in equal and simultaneous use, depending on what is currently fashionable.
Interstellar Relations
The Spectrum is rich in natural resources, particularly the exotic fuel required for Feydrives, which makes dealing with them a necessary evil for the Core Worlds. While their chaotic, trend-based society causes strained relations with all other powers, the sheer size of their population, and thus their vast, if unorganized, potential military, is a sufficient deterrent to war. No other major power considers them a viable political ally, but their key trading worlds and unique cultural influence make them impossible to ignore.