Sword Worlds Confederation
A loose confederation of worlds
in the
Spinward Marches, spinward of Imperial
space and coreward of the Darrians. The first
settlement
in the region was on Gram in -399 by Solomani
sleeper ships. The official language of the Sword Worlds is
derived
from Terran Icelandic, though
borrowing
heavily from other tongues.
By circa -200 the settlement of the area was largely complete, and the
first
interstellar government in the region, the Sacnoth Dominate, was formed
in
-186. Consisting of the twenty worlds settled up to that point,
the
Dominate lasted until -102, when it was fractured by rebellion into
several
smaller states.
During the ensuing centuries, various Sword World governments rose and
fell;
they sometimes coalesced all the worlds under a single world's
domination
and sometimes splintered into several small states. Contact with
Imperial
traders in 73 brought increased trade and had a stabilizing influence
on
the region, but this stability was short-lived.
The First Frontier War brought
a
desire for cooperation among the various squabbling worlds, and the end
of
the war saw the formation of the first
unified
confederation in centuries, which was centered on Sacnoth and
which
was referred to as the Second Dominate. As a result of the Outworld Coalition's victory,
the
Sword Worlds annexed Terant
340,
Torment, Trifuge, and Cunnonic, which are all in
the
Darrian subsector.
The Second Dominate held power until 698, when it was overthrown by a
coalition
headed by Gram. The Gram Coalition ruled until 788, when
a short
war with the Darrian
Confederation
resulted in the loss of the four worlds gained during the First
Frontier
War.
Public outrage at the mishandling of the war caused the subsequent fall
of
the Gram government. The replacement for the Gram
Coalition
was the Trilateral Alliance, a decentralized organization headed by Narsil,
Sacnoth, and Durendal. The Alliance broke up in
848 due
in large part to the inherent weakness of its organization, and an
interregnum
of essentially independent worlds lasted until Gram reasserted
its
influence (helped substantially by Zhodani
money and advisors, rumor has it) in 852. This government has
remained in control down to the present.
The government allows almost complete local autonomy. Individual
worlds
maintain separate military forces, pass their own laws, and completely
regulate
their own internal affairs. The Confederation
government regulates interworld trade, handles diplomatic relations
with
outside powers, and adjudicates interworld disputes.
In peacetime, the Confederation government maintains a pool of
high-ranking
military officers (selected from the military forces of all worlds) who
are
trained in large unit command and staff operations.
During time of war, all military forces are confederalized and placed
under
a single unified command. For ground forces, divisions will be
commanded
by generals from the individual worlds, corps, and higher organizations
by
Confederation officers. The component forces of a division will
be
from the same world whenever possible. For naval forces,
individual ships are under the command of local officers, squadrons, or
higher organizations under Confederation officers.
Sword World culture, though technically diverse from world to world,
has
many points of common ground. The culture is highly militaristic
and
male-dominated. Obedience and honor are highly stressed
attributes. Though the Sword Worlds do not suppress psionics talents, they do not make them
an integral part of their society, as do the Zhodani.
The Sword Worlds have often allied with the Outworld Coalition against
the
Imperium and have a history of unsteady relations with the
Imperium.
Relations have been particularly strained since the Treaty of Quar; some minor Imperial
military
action against the Sword Worlds preceded that treaty.
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