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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