I have been toying with ideas for a 2400AD setting extrapolated from 2320AD. Some ideas:
The century has been politically turbulent. The fall of the colonial system set off a long chain of changes across the main powers. The first quarter was dominated by the enthusiasm and violence of colonial independence; then came the often harsh process of adapting to the new system and the horrors of the renewed Kafer War. In the end the (successful) colonies became far more flexible than the often rigid Core governments - demarchies, nanarchies or synarchies. The less successful colonies turned to isolationism or became clients or dependents to other powers. By 2370, some of the former colonies (not to mention the megacorps) were themselves de facto colonial powers. There is now an ideological backlash going on, where the second generation colonies are forming alliances to break interstellar monopolies.
Stutterwarp range is still 7.7 ly, but tugs have become common. Since using tugships is always more expensive than normal travel they will mainly be used for unbridgeable gaps to other clusters, or when they provide a very economic shortcut (like to the Manchurian arm and Latin finger). This has led to an "implosion" of much of the Manchurian arm to the Core: core powers were better able to maintain their control there. The French Arm is least affected, since a long trip along the Nyotekundu route still is needed.
Many colonial worlds have become economic hubs ("minicores") and have gone independent. Sometimes violently, sometimes peacefully. The old colonial empires are more or less gone. The new big powers are those who managed to embed the colony worlds within their infrastructure, like Manchuria, the US and Trilon. They run their arms, finger or clusters, reaping rents.
Core
France lost its colonial empire both in space and on Earth: the implosion of the space colonial network led to a major political breakdown in the Core, where the African empire separated peacefully. They approached the UAR, and through them in the late parts of the century a francophone-arabic alliance have emerged. The ecotechnological abilities and cultural power of the alliance has made it an ever present force in new colonies. Many speak of the African renaissance, with unexpected cultural "hits" in Eritrea and the Ivory Coast.
While Manchuria at first took on the role as the dominant nation, the US came to overshadow it in the 2350s thanks to technological boons from the Ylii and Aquilans. Manchuria today remains the epitome of the eco-conscious, preservationist, conservative nanny state. It dominates its sphere but has few ambitions to go beyond it. Meanwhile the US is becoming involved everywhere with everything, networking and growing tremendously rich and powerful.
The Core has avoided major military conflicts, partially due to deft political maneouvering by the Manchuria and the US, partially due to the focus on the Kafer war. Unfortunately the tensions are still there, and a situation of mutually assured destruction (both militarily, economically and politically) has emerged. Many worry that the Core seems to be locked into a rigid system and if this is ever seriously challenged all hell will break loose.
The War
The Kafer war is still going on, terribly destructive. The only thing keeping the Kafers and Human sphere from wiping out each other is broad swathes of no-beings land systems filled with the nastiest available mines, bioweapons, self-replicating sentinel devices and whatnot. The worst battles of the century were fought near Ylii space, where enormous devastation has occurred. The Ylii are divided, the warrior genera re-emerging, complex human and alien politics - some fractions are becoming ever more militant, others are seeking to escape to found new colony worlds far away (they are secretly exploring the Da've'I Na'ah cluster), some are willing to do anything to ensure any kind of peace. Human-Ylii interaction has introduced a whole host of strange new technologies and ideologies in the human sphere. Ylii-style ultrapreservationism is clashing with Pentapod-inspired provolutionism, which in turn has split off from transhumanism.
The war has led to the formation of a strong interstellar defense organization, the Abangares Accord. When the weakened human forces lost their beacheads in Kafer space during the Third Invasion the haphazard organization and support of the war came under scrutiny. Under the influence of the charismatic admiral Al-Kamash the Accord set up a system for maintaining and running "species defense". All spacefaring powers (and sufficiently rich polities) are required to support the Accord Fleet, which is politically independent from all Earth polities. While for a long while hobbled by political maneuvering, by 2400 the Accord has made itself far more independent and powerful than anybody ever expected. It is generally supported by the population, despite signs that it has its own agenda. For all practical purposes the Accord is a major power, even running colonies and involving itself in Core politics.
Colonies
The formerly French Arm has a prosperous core centered around Kie-Yuma and Joi. Trilon controls access to the worlds of the "Trilon cluster", all essentially corporate worlds. Landau (AC+23 468 46) is a key system, its orbital habitats and shipyards among the biggest in human space. BC has suffered a horrific disaster: a Kafer (?) bioweapon decimated its population and it is now in permanent quarantine as the survivors are carriers. Kimanjano is a pentapod-provolution world, inhabited by a bizarre hybrid society. They are also busy colonizing trans-Denebolan space. The lower arm is largely uninhabited except for Dunkelheim and the fortress Aurore. The Wolf cluster has expanded further (including a few outposts in the 61 Virginis cluster and Gliese 11 cluster), but many worry about colonizing so close to the battlezones.
The American arm has become an important hub due to the links to further clusters. Along the Backdoor route lies a series of colonies, and the deadly pursuit of Aquilan technology has led to the construction of colonies in the cluster - one of the sources of self-replicating sentinel technology. The cluster and Ylii has given Australia and the US (and their corporations) a massive technological edge.
The spread of tugs changed the Manchurian arm. The central part is now Core and either independent or federative parts of Manchuria. The Latin finger bloomed and moved from backwater to Core in one generation. This in turn caused unrest and conflicts, and led to violent rebellion. In 2386 the "fifth Rio Plata war" occurred, but between the Earth nations and the Finger. The Finger won.
The Sung are now on par with humanity and have a great deal of confidence. Sung and sung ships can be found far across human space, they are colonizing "the Sung cluster" beyond Stark. Unfortunately they are also involved in some of the more reckless uses of the new dangerous self-replicating systems, having roboticized their civilization to a great degree due to a rising new ideology of "refined automation".
The opening of 61 Cygni space came early in the century. The race to explore and colonize was tempered by the political shift; the old colonial powers were realizing colonialism was no longer relevant. Instead the cluster was explored by outwards corporations, some minor nations and religious groups. It came to be dominated by the Indonesian Lim Pek Kong Corporation and the pro-expansion, mildly transhumanist Xinzhong Foundation. The originally Manchurian colonial foundation had a political break with the empire, leading to a temporary invasion of the cluster ("the Cygni war"). The Foundation survived, and now is headquartered on Jūnzǐ (Eta Cassiopeiae), the most populous world. The war led to the political blockade from Manchuria of attempts to expand into the Mu Arae cluster unless the colonizers were "approved"; this led to the cluster being run by Skyworker Combine, a Manchurian corporation. It is now also expanding into the Iota Pegasi cluster.
Expansion into Eber space has been limited; visits to the clusters in that direction have found nasty remnants of the Final War to be active. There are signs that there is a surviving and even powerful Eber civilization on the other end of the "nightmare cluster" but no (official) contact has occurred.
The Bayern Corridor has been active on and off, depending on political mood. A few minor outposts exist along it for resupply. This is a hotbed of "Arism", a strong support for exploration and attempts to contact other species. The researchers, volunteers and colonists are however largely dependent on the Core powers for support. The Little Guys are doing well, making the corridor worlds increasingly poor - there is a real chance that several will be abandoned, their inhabitants either going back or to Littleendia.
The century has been politically turbulent. The fall of the colonial system set off a long chain of changes across the main powers. The first quarter was dominated by the enthusiasm and violence of colonial independence; then came the often harsh process of adapting to the new system and the horrors of the renewed Kafer War. In the end the (successful) colonies became far more flexible than the often rigid Core governments - demarchies, nanarchies or synarchies. The less successful colonies turned to isolationism or became clients or dependents to other powers. By 2370, some of the former colonies (not to mention the megacorps) were themselves de facto colonial powers. There is now an ideological backlash going on, where the second generation colonies are forming alliances to break interstellar monopolies.
Stutterwarp range is still 7.7 ly, but tugs have become common. Since using tugships is always more expensive than normal travel they will mainly be used for unbridgeable gaps to other clusters, or when they provide a very economic shortcut (like to the Manchurian arm and Latin finger). This has led to an "implosion" of much of the Manchurian arm to the Core: core powers were better able to maintain their control there. The French Arm is least affected, since a long trip along the Nyotekundu route still is needed.
Many colonial worlds have become economic hubs ("minicores") and have gone independent. Sometimes violently, sometimes peacefully. The old colonial empires are more or less gone. The new big powers are those who managed to embed the colony worlds within their infrastructure, like Manchuria, the US and Trilon. They run their arms, finger or clusters, reaping rents.
Core
France lost its colonial empire both in space and on Earth: the implosion of the space colonial network led to a major political breakdown in the Core, where the African empire separated peacefully. They approached the UAR, and through them in the late parts of the century a francophone-arabic alliance have emerged. The ecotechnological abilities and cultural power of the alliance has made it an ever present force in new colonies. Many speak of the African renaissance, with unexpected cultural "hits" in Eritrea and the Ivory Coast.
While Manchuria at first took on the role as the dominant nation, the US came to overshadow it in the 2350s thanks to technological boons from the Ylii and Aquilans. Manchuria today remains the epitome of the eco-conscious, preservationist, conservative nanny state. It dominates its sphere but has few ambitions to go beyond it. Meanwhile the US is becoming involved everywhere with everything, networking and growing tremendously rich and powerful.
The Core has avoided major military conflicts, partially due to deft political maneouvering by the Manchuria and the US, partially due to the focus on the Kafer war. Unfortunately the tensions are still there, and a situation of mutually assured destruction (both militarily, economically and politically) has emerged. Many worry that the Core seems to be locked into a rigid system and if this is ever seriously challenged all hell will break loose.
The War
The Kafer war is still going on, terribly destructive. The only thing keeping the Kafers and Human sphere from wiping out each other is broad swathes of no-beings land systems filled with the nastiest available mines, bioweapons, self-replicating sentinel devices and whatnot. The worst battles of the century were fought near Ylii space, where enormous devastation has occurred. The Ylii are divided, the warrior genera re-emerging, complex human and alien politics - some fractions are becoming ever more militant, others are seeking to escape to found new colony worlds far away (they are secretly exploring the Da've'I Na'ah cluster), some are willing to do anything to ensure any kind of peace. Human-Ylii interaction has introduced a whole host of strange new technologies and ideologies in the human sphere. Ylii-style ultrapreservationism is clashing with Pentapod-inspired provolutionism, which in turn has split off from transhumanism.
The war has led to the formation of a strong interstellar defense organization, the Abangares Accord. When the weakened human forces lost their beacheads in Kafer space during the Third Invasion the haphazard organization and support of the war came under scrutiny. Under the influence of the charismatic admiral Al-Kamash the Accord set up a system for maintaining and running "species defense". All spacefaring powers (and sufficiently rich polities) are required to support the Accord Fleet, which is politically independent from all Earth polities. While for a long while hobbled by political maneuvering, by 2400 the Accord has made itself far more independent and powerful than anybody ever expected. It is generally supported by the population, despite signs that it has its own agenda. For all practical purposes the Accord is a major power, even running colonies and involving itself in Core politics.
Colonies
The formerly French Arm has a prosperous core centered around Kie-Yuma and Joi. Trilon controls access to the worlds of the "Trilon cluster", all essentially corporate worlds. Landau (AC+23 468 46) is a key system, its orbital habitats and shipyards among the biggest in human space. BC has suffered a horrific disaster: a Kafer (?) bioweapon decimated its population and it is now in permanent quarantine as the survivors are carriers. Kimanjano is a pentapod-provolution world, inhabited by a bizarre hybrid society. They are also busy colonizing trans-Denebolan space. The lower arm is largely uninhabited except for Dunkelheim and the fortress Aurore. The Wolf cluster has expanded further (including a few outposts in the 61 Virginis cluster and Gliese 11 cluster), but many worry about colonizing so close to the battlezones.
The American arm has become an important hub due to the links to further clusters. Along the Backdoor route lies a series of colonies, and the deadly pursuit of Aquilan technology has led to the construction of colonies in the cluster - one of the sources of self-replicating sentinel technology. The cluster and Ylii has given Australia and the US (and their corporations) a massive technological edge.
The spread of tugs changed the Manchurian arm. The central part is now Core and either independent or federative parts of Manchuria. The Latin finger bloomed and moved from backwater to Core in one generation. This in turn caused unrest and conflicts, and led to violent rebellion. In 2386 the "fifth Rio Plata war" occurred, but between the Earth nations and the Finger. The Finger won.
The Sung are now on par with humanity and have a great deal of confidence. Sung and sung ships can be found far across human space, they are colonizing "the Sung cluster" beyond Stark. Unfortunately they are also involved in some of the more reckless uses of the new dangerous self-replicating systems, having roboticized their civilization to a great degree due to a rising new ideology of "refined automation".
The opening of 61 Cygni space came early in the century. The race to explore and colonize was tempered by the political shift; the old colonial powers were realizing colonialism was no longer relevant. Instead the cluster was explored by outwards corporations, some minor nations and religious groups. It came to be dominated by the Indonesian Lim Pek Kong Corporation and the pro-expansion, mildly transhumanist Xinzhong Foundation. The originally Manchurian colonial foundation had a political break with the empire, leading to a temporary invasion of the cluster ("the Cygni war"). The Foundation survived, and now is headquartered on Jūnzǐ (Eta Cassiopeiae), the most populous world. The war led to the political blockade from Manchuria of attempts to expand into the Mu Arae cluster unless the colonizers were "approved"; this led to the cluster being run by Skyworker Combine, a Manchurian corporation. It is now also expanding into the Iota Pegasi cluster.
Expansion into Eber space has been limited; visits to the clusters in that direction have found nasty remnants of the Final War to be active. There are signs that there is a surviving and even powerful Eber civilization on the other end of the "nightmare cluster" but no (official) contact has occurred.
The Bayern Corridor has been active on and off, depending on political mood. A few minor outposts exist along it for resupply. This is a hotbed of "Arism", a strong support for exploration and attempts to contact other species. The researchers, volunteers and colonists are however largely dependent on the Core powers for support. The Little Guys are doing well, making the corridor worlds increasingly poor - there is a real chance that several will be abandoned, their inhabitants either going back or to Littleendia.
