General

While by no means comparable to the heights they soared to during the time of the First Hegemony, the Linked Worlds have done a lot to recover from the violence of its fall. Space travel is strong again, and the trade between worlds continues to increase the standards of living on all of the Linked Worlds.

Still, fortune favors the cautious in this new civilization. The political map is fractured between the Red and Blue Hegemons, and the worlds that bow to neither. A vast underworld has developed based upon the trade of psychoactive drug ``White'', and those who can manufacture it, the Blacklords. Crime is whatever the local rulers define as crime, and punishments vary from token payments to death.

On the other hand, for those hearty and willing to work, work is plentiful. In the seats of the Hegemons, it's actually well regulated. Even local warlords such as those found on Stannis' Law or HighGuard recognize the usefulness of trade, and protect those ships in their space. Treaties, growing stronger by the year, often guarantee the safety of those travelling through neighboring systems, provided no serious offenses are committed.

Times are hard, but unlike in the Outworlds, much of the High Technology still remains or is being rediscovered even now. A slow process, given the devestation of the Shattering and the leftovers of the infowars that followed, but the bureaucracy of the first Hegemony has been eliminated, and those with the ability to get ahead often do, provided they are willing to seize life rather than wait for it.

Politics

The two Hegemons are actually fairly evenly matched in terms of absolute power. While the Blue Hegemon attempts to maintain dominion over a larger number of planets, the Red Hegemon's holdings include both Riden and Tinara, two of the most advanced of the Linked Worlds.

The last remaining link between the two powers, technically always at war, is the major spine connection between HighGuard and Nurl. Given the dangers of severing the Linked worlds from each other along the spine by having a pitched battle near the jump gate, the two powers have fallen back to a war of propaganda and harassment. (Pretty much the only thing all systems agree upon are the sanctity of the jumpgates. The most hated factions will band together to destroy anyone who threatens a jumpgate with destruction, and accidental destructions just after the Shattering have caused all combat near a jumpgate to become anathema. No jumpgate has ceased functioning in the last 112 years when the connection between Sundown and Tinara was closed forever in the last great fleet battle between the Red and Blue Hegemons.)

One True Hegemon

Seated on Riden, the One True Hegemon, Shaddam Marchant II, claims dominion over Riden, Tinara, Gateway, and Nurl. Though while the Blacklord of Gateway does bow to him in public, the people of Gateway know where their ``government'' is.

Last Heir to the Hegemony

Seated on New Light, the Last Heir to the Hegemony, Doraine Melcamot, is said to be the last surviving blood relative of one of the first Hegemons, though which is unclear. The ``Blue Hegemony'' claims New Light, HighGuard, Tyrell's Folly, Sundown, and Juice.

Date and Time

Timekeeping among multiple systems is difficult to keep synchronized, given the disparity in local planetary rotation. The current method of timekeeping dates back to the Alliance, and nearly everywhere uses it from historical inertia.

``Year'' and ``day'' are local terms, dependent on planetary rotation and revolution. Places with inconveniently sized days may also have something like a local ``cycle'' to keep track of workday-sized chunks of time. ``Hour'' and ``minute'' are standard terms (there are sixty minutes in an hour). Also standard terms are ``tick'' (twenty-four hours) and ``zed'' (365.25 ticks).

Local time would generally be something like ``Winter 15, 14:30'' --- most places have month-like chunks, and local time which counts from 0 (midnight) to whatever number of hours the day ends at, truncating the last hour before midnight to be an arbitrarily short number of minutes.

Standard time is of the form 1873.178.13.09 AS (zed, tick, hour, minute).

The date, as of when you were last paying attention, was 2778.073.12.00 AS.

Money

While many planets maintain their monetary systems on computer networks, hard currency is the most reliable way to move wealth from system to system. The most common form of hard currency is the Aster. Asters are minted and issued by most governments throughout the Linked Worlds to facilitate trade between them. Think of an Aster as the equivalent of 10 dollars.

On a single planet, Asters may be used, though the planets with higher technology might resort to solely electronic currency, or plasticine chits for daily transactions. The metallic Aster is intended to be a common exchange between various planets so its value is fixed by its weight and good anywhere as for a small fee even Asters of enemy planets can be melted down and reforged. Local currencies, be they credits, chits, or software vary in value and Aster conversions depending upon the political/economic climates.

Languages

The lingua franca of the Linked Worlds is Integral, an elegant language which allows for enough shading of meaning to write poetry, and enough precision that legal documents can be written in only a few pages and understood by normal humans. The Tinoori have their own language, but the few travelling Tinoori speak Integral and tend to keep their own language private. Most inworlds also have a local dialect, which is comprehensible to outsiders when spoken slowly, but is otherwise difficult to follow [Language skills are one point. A true language, such as Tinooranthi, requires eight levels for full fluency; a dialect only requires three levels]. Riden, New Light, Gateway, Craterrock, and Sundown do not have local dialects.

Religions

Religious beliefs are generally a minority view, but there are several religions which have followings across most to all of the planets:

• Starwayist: A belief that humans are, at their heart, made of the same stuff as the stars, and are part of the same universe. Stars and man and everything in between are all part of a great grand plan.
• Nuller: A belief that gravity is a corrupting influence, and only in space do we become free. On paper more of a philosophy than a religion, in that there is no belief in divinity, Nullers in person are often quite devout and committed.
• Bibbler: Believers in a single deity and divine judgement in the afterlife, Bibbler beliefs are codified in their holy Book.

Planets

• Nurl While most spacefarers are too sophisticated to believe in ghosts, few will brave spending a night in the haunted forests of Nurl. Human settlements on the planet tend to stay above the treeline in the high hills on the southern continent. Adventurers or those on the run occasionally move into the forests, though most of them are never seen again. Still, Nurl is one of the richer planets of the Inworlds in the sense of available raw materials, though the cost of extracting them is often considered prohibitive. The only Spineworld pledged to Riden, the fleet of the Red Hegemony has a major installation near the south pole of Nurl.

• Highguard Unlike most of the Inworlds which have fallen in technological sophistication against their most urgent striving, Highguard has intentionally rejected technology in most of its forms in preference to a simpler way of life. Possession of ``sufficiently advanced'' technology outside of the cordoned starports is a capital offense on Highguard. The sole exception to this rule are technologies that support the arts of knightly combat. King Maximilian II is even said to wield one of the fabled plasma brands in the yearly tournaments. It is its fierce warrior tradition that has kept Highguard independent in the face of its scorn for technology.

• Tyrell's Folly Legend says that once humans were able to exist peacefully with the huge carnivorous spiders who make their homes here. Exactly what Tyrell, governor of the planet, did in those long-ago times has been forgotten by the humans - but not by the Tinoori. Of the three major continents, one is fairly spider-free and one is quite thick with the creatures. On the third, a guerilla ground war often interrupts the uneasy peace, with the Tinoori in the forests and the humans in bubbled cities. The occasional Tinoor will be found traveling or in residence on other planets of the Linked Worlds, and are generally treated with caution; all such profess complete ignorance of the reason for the conflict on Tyrell's Folly.

• Juice A water world, dotted with floating islands built out of high-structure, high-buoyancy vegetable mats. Juice has no true spaceport, but does have a number of large space stations orbiting it. Most stations have a partnership relationship with one or more vegetable mat cities; when dealing with dirtworlders, the largest of the stations, Teardrop, speaks for Juice, but it's generally unclear to non-Juice natives whether this is consensus or autocracy.

• Riden The crystal palace on Riden is one of the last great works of Hegemonic construction, commissioned by the One True Hegemon to ``provide a symbol of hope for the people in the dark times ahead,'' shortly after the fall. Since then, the descendents of the True Hegemon have fought hard to keep the chaos that has embraced many of the Linked Worlds from coming to Riden. Though it is by no means at the full measure of civilization and technology that it was in the heights of the First Hegemony, the Red Hegemony on Riden has withstood the fall better than most anywhere else (It's unclear if Riden's Hegemons have come to be known as the Red Hegemons due to the pinkish cast of their crystal palace or simply in opposition to the popular Blue Hegemon of New Light. Darker theories suggest the One True Hegemon of Riden was dubbed the Red Hegemon at the very start for the blood that covered his hall at the end of the Shattering.)

• Gateway One of the two inworlds controlled by a Blacklord (Blacklords control the only known supplies of the potent drug Black, and source of the drug White. White is a stat-booster; Black is an extremely potent stat-booster), Gateway boasts the last extant Type Ten Hegemonic Guard Battle Station. While the station is no longer under the control of the Hegemonic Guard and is beginning to show its age, it still serves to keep Mighty Klothos's control over the jump gate to the outworlds; No ship is permitted to pass through the gates without being controlled by one of her pilots, including those based in Nonesuch. Normally fighting near a jump gate will cause it to shut permanently, but the Battle Station's armaments include a long-range, neutron-class tractor beam which is sufficient to drag unauthorized ships back to the station. Gateway and the Well for the most part unofficially divide the Linked Worlds between them, with Klothos taking the two out-side Spine Worlds and their ribs, while the Matrix supplies the two in-side Spine Worlds and their ribs, but both sides are ever looking for an excuse to expand. Klothos (perhaps influenced by the Outworlders) chooses to cloak herself in an aura of mystery and mysticism, portraying herself as spinning forth the Thread of Life. Those who would negotiate with her do well to follow her customs.

• Tinara Of the inworlds, Tinara has managed to preserve more Hegemonic technology than many. A great many research labs and production facilities still persist in better or worse condition, tightly guarded by private armies. Most starships currently active in the Linked Worlds were built in Tinara's production facilities and shipyards. Tinara is ruled by a consortium consisting of representatives from each of the groups large enough to have elbowed their way into it; the Haiganese Merchant Fleet, based off of Haigan (one of Tinara's three moons) also holds a position on the consortium. Tinara's other two moons are Pyrite, a major source of minerals, and Hazard, considered either a dumping ground for ``genetrash'' or a sanctuary for non-humans (such as uplifted hamsters). (Most planets don't give non-humans full legal rights. The most common legal status is similar to that of children; you can't abuse them, but they're also not legally responsible, and need a guardian to manage their affairs (and since at least some of the non-humans aren't on average as bright as the average human, there's a little validity to that). Places that treat them more like animals, and places that treat them like humans (such as Hazard) are rare, but do exist.)

• Stannis' Law The ruler of Stannis' Law, Lord Stannis, claims to have been in charge of the two habitable planets in the system since the fall of the Hegemony. The charismatic and intense Lord Stannis does, in fact, seem to change little from decade to decade. Stannis' Law is fairly conservative and severe, but for nearly everything there is the Right of Challenge, to appeal to Lord Stannis. However, those who appeal who are deemed to be wasting Lord Stannis's time generally find themselves worse for the experience.

• New Light While New Light has one habitable planet, Homeground, inside a large asteroid belt, the Last Heir to the Hegemony instead makes his home on Sanctuary, a habitable moon of Protector, a gas giant. The entirety of the New Light system is under the control of the Loyal Hegemonic Fleet, and the mining in the asteroids makes New Light rich in natural resources.

• Sundown It is said that when the war came to Sundown, weapons of plague were unleashed, weapons used nowhere else because they proved too terrible. It is said, instead, that when the war came to Sundown, the bombs broke apart containment facilities which had kept the most virulent of organisms safe for study. The source of the plagues may never be known, but their effect was vicious, and what had been a source of learning and pride became, nearly overnight, an empty world. In the centuries since, Sundown has been reclaimed, but cautiously, and few are willing to either stay or visit without strong bioprotective treatments. (``The sun has gone down on our civilization, my children, and it shall not be in the time of your children, or your children's children, that they shall see the light again.'' --- said to have been the last transmission of the Sabbati Doneval.)

• The Well If it's illegal anywhere in the Link Worlds, they do it or make it in the Well. At least, they do if there's a way for the Matrix to make a profit off of it. More hated of the Blacklords, the Matrix rules the Well with a totalitarian zeal not seen anywhere else in the Linked Worlds. All crimes are punishable by either death, or more efficiently, forced labor, including servitude in Joyous Gard, the Amusement Dome. Citizens of the Well, (a tiny percentage of the actual population), and paying customers from all over, flock to Joyous Gard to sink themselves as far into ``the Well'' as they can afford, or as far as the Matrix wishes. Not a place for the faint of heart.

• Craterrock Craterrock is, at best, a desolate wasteland. The huge radioactive crater in the center of the largest continent poisons the surroundings for thousands of miles; farther away and on the lesser continents, there are unhealthy and strangely twisted creatures. Pretty much the only inhabitants are researchers in protective suits, excavating ruins or looking for interesting specimens. Rumor speaks of ``rabbits,'' humans who have lost all vestiges of civilization, but those are no doubt just old-wives-tales.

• Nonesuch Nonesuch is an outworld in the Omphalos Dust Nebula, linked to the inworlds via a jump gate to Gateway. The other outworlds are said to be much harder to reach, requiring sublight travel.

Map

(pdf version here)