Along the trade route, only a dozen parsecs separate the Third Imperium of Humaniti and the Aslan Hierate. Those two great imperial powers may control less than half the space of the sector, but their political gravity wells perturb affairs far beyond their borders.

The Third Imperium

The great empire’s expansion has ground to a halt. It controls parts of four subsectors, protected by the ‘rampart worlds’ of Pax Rulin (Pax Rulin 2204) and Tobia (Tobia 3215). While the Imperium shows little interest in extending its borders – the cost of protecting more worlds against the Hierate is prohibitive – there are several potential ‘client states’ that the Imperium is cultivating as a buffer against the Hierate.

The Imperium is a lazy giant until provoked. The Imperium’s interest lies elsewhere right now, but if the Aslan advance or pirate lords makes too much of a nuisance, the Imperial Navy will be dispatched to enforce the will of the Iridium Throne.

Notable planets within the Imperium

• Albe (Sindal 2211). A hell-world rich in lanthanum deposits. Kaz grew up here.
• Attee (Tobia 3116). A desert world on the brink of rebellion. Bernie is a wanted man here.
• Fist (Tobia 2918): A lawless world at the start of the Imperium – Hierate trade route. Burnie has spent some time here.
• Hexx (Tobia 2715). A water world with a navel base. Wilde comes from here.
• Hradus (Tobia 2714). We all went to school here. Bernie and Jase grew up here. Our classmates Jodrum and Lisya disappeared here. The majority of the population are Aslan. An amber zone.
• Tobia (Tobia 3215). Jase and Wilde went to the military academy on Tobia. Archie was a member of the lilgan diplomatic mission there.

The Hierate

To humans, the Aslan Hierate looks like an impossibly frozen tsunami. At any moment, the Aslan horde could jump over the border and conquer the whole reach. The Aslan are certainly an intimidating race. Physically, they are larger and stronger than humans, and while their technology level is not quite on a par with the Imperium, they make up for this with weight of numbers. External observers miss the deep divides in Aslan society; the Hierate is a loose alliance of warring clans, and only act rarely act in unison. The Aslan drive for territory means they will inevitably expand into the Trojan Reach. The only question is where their next advance will come.

The divided Hierate is much more likely to act than the Imperium. Each clan – and there are dozens of them – has its own navy and can react to pirate attacks or vulnerable worlds with alarming alacrity. No human can predict what the Aslan will do next.

The Glorious Empire

A splinter state of Aslan, the so called Glorious Empire practices human slavery on a massive scale. Their slave ships are a threat throughout the Reach.

The Trade Route

• Major Trade Routes
  The trade route between the Hierate and the Imperium is important enough to be considered an independent entity. The Imperium exports primarily manufactured goods and dust-spice in exchange for raw materials and Aslan goods; many of the Imperium’s exports are resold by the Aslan to independent worlds across the Reach. It takes 7 or 8 jump-2 jumps (depending on the course chosen) to cross wild-space, a journey that takes approximately 60 days. Imperial escorts usually follow ships as far as Acrid (The Borderland 2722); the Aslan pick the convoys up at Techworld (The Borderland 2624), while mercenary and corporate escorts follow convoys along the whole route.

Pirate activity varies along the route. Most of the attacks happen in the Borderlands subsector, where Travellers must navigate an unpromising series of systems. In general, both Imperium and Hierate tolerate a low level of piratical activity, as long as most of the attacks hit independent, small-scale merchants. Once the losses impact on a megacorporation’s bottom line, though, the fleet is sent out to scour the stars and the pirates are driven out of the Borderlands for a few months.

Notable planets on the trade route.

• Torpol (Tlaiowaha 2221). A water world on the Florian trade route. Formerly a member of the Kingdom of Drinax. Bernie spent some time as a belter here, under an assumed identity. His shipmate, Alphonse Ungaro, is a miner here.
• Wildeman (Tobia 2819). The first independent world after Fist. On both the Hierate and the Florian trade routes. Wilde’s mother comes from here.
• Yggdrasil (Yggdrasil 0815). The terminus of the Florian Route, Yggdrasil is ruled by the Golden Queen. In 1085, her twin heirs, Jodrum (male) and Lisya (female), tragically disappeared while hiking on Hradus (Tobia 2714). An amber zone. We escaped from here in 1105.
• “Cordan”. On both the Hierate and the Florian trade routes. We’ve set up a communications hub on this system.

General Development Company

The General Development Company (GeDeCo) is not the largest Imperial corporation operating in the Reach, but it is one of the most widespread. The company was originally founded to improve conditions in colonies and independent worlds throughout the Reach, but has become a major political player. GeDeCo advisors have the ear of many rulers of the independent worlds.

The Florian League

On the far side of the Trojan Reach dwell a strange race of humans called the Florani. They are extremely xenophobic, and even more conservative than the Vilani. The Florian League trade a little with the Imperium; the trade route to the League is also beset by pirates.

Independent Worlds

Most of the independent worlds in the Trojan Reach were settled by exiles or wanderers from the First Imperium, or by long-range colonisation efforts by the Second Imperium. During the Long Night, the Sindalian Empire was the great power in the sector; even the worlds that were not conquered by the Empire were under its influence. Today, the worlds of the Reach are isolated, visited only by a few traders. Their technology declines, their cultures calcify, and they turn in on themselves. The Aslan will pick them off, one by one.

Notable independent worlds

• Asim (Tlaiowaha 2123). A brown agricultural world. Asim was controlled by the Foundation when Sal grew up there. The world was recaptured in 1085 by Drinax. Historically, it had been part of the kingdom of Drinax.
• Blue (Tlaiowaha 2421). Archie was trained in psionics here.
• Drinax (Tlaiowaha 2223). High tech world with a floating palace. Rao’s father is the king of Drinax. Before a war with the Aslan in 885, Drinax ruled ten worlds.
• Iilgan (Tobia 2719). A rich agricultural world. Archie was born here and his father is the Minister of the Exchequer. He spent most of his childhood at the Dunkleton Academy.