Home

The Exodus to Sagittarius
Human Space before the Exodus
The Exodus
The Sagittarius Arm
The Triffid and Lagoon Nebulae

Campaign Information
Gateway Long Jump Map
S.D.C. Colonial Survey
Campaign Timeline

Common Knowledge
Rumors and Events
NPC Roster
AMC Registry of Vessels

Spacecraft Overview
Classification System
Designs
Deckplan Tools

Aliens in Sagittarius
The Dhaoghissi Empires
The Ratalshan Sphere
The Lantere
The Quilah

Sagittarius Encyclopedia
Beastiary
Corporate Overview
Glossary of Terms

Technology Overview
Spacecraft Technology
Small Arms

Media
System Generator
Astrosynthesis Sector File

A history

Humanity's halting steps into space in the 20th century became a rush into the Solar System in the 21st, and by the beginning of the 22nd century, the stars themselves were experiencing the first footfalls of man.  During this time, humanity itself remained balkanized by the same devisive factors that had plagued it throughout history: racial, ethnic, and religious bigotry, coupled with the natural antagonism of wealthy democratic states versus despotic tyrannies that kept their people poor while their leaders enjoyed lavish wealth.  The expansion into space provided a temporary relief from explosive economic and social pressures for awhile, but as the new colonies established themselves, they began to assert themselves, often to the detriment of the mother country.

Human Space at this time was separated into ten major polities: The United States remained a world hyperpower, but was often bounded by a paralyzing self-doubt even when it wasn't in the middle of an isolationist period.  The European Union desired power and the ability to wield it, but suffered its own problems with a crippling welfare state checking its power and sending its best and brightest away to America or Brazil.  Russia, once proud superpower, continued its struggle with democracy and free enterprise, reeling between one extreme of oligarchy and a return to centralized control to the other of near anarchy.  Aztlan, a political movement with a strong and intolerant Hispanic Identity movement, formed in Mexico and soon absorbed most of Latin America.  Brazil, a sleeping giant awakened as the home of advanced biotech and cloning, served as the only check against Aztlan.  China splintered in the early 21st century in a bloody civil war over the crumbing ashes of Communism, and split off into corporate-democratic Guangzhou and fascist Manchuria.  The African Union, bursting with vital strategic resources and rent with ethnic strife, exists only to line the pockets of its corrupt leadership caste, and to serve as the puppet of the French through the EU.  Australia serves as a counterweight to the expansion of Guangzhou, while Japan spreads with reckless abandon into space at the same time facing off against wary Manchuria.

Each of these ten powers was significant because of its off-Earth colonization efforts, and each was aware that the power and influence of its rivals also depended on development in space.  A low intensity war in space soon began, and its troops were terrorists, would-be revolutionaries, and ideological fellow-travelers in the media and academia as often as they were uniformed soldiers under arms.