Originally posted by jrients:
I get the impression that Ley is a backwater sector.
That's my impression as well. I postulate that the megacorporations keep Ley a backwater to provide a market for high-tech goods while stripping it of resources. Some of the nobles in the sector are complicit in this, while others seek to increase autonomy and self-sufficiency. This is my major conflict within Imperial space, producing all sorts of skullduggery in which the adventurers may become enmeshed.
What's really interesting about tech levels in the whole quadrant/domain is starship production capabilities. Sphere Fenix and the Mandanin Co-Dominium both have pretty decent TL 14 fleets, but there is one starport in the Co-Dominium that completely outstrips anyone else outside of the Imperium - this lends credence to the idea that the Co-Dominium is a major power in the region, and explains the Imperium's psychohistory project to turn it into a client state.
On the other side of the coin, neither the Marlan Primate nor Ramayan (called the Ramayan Federation
IMTU) have much in the way of fleets if forced to rely on their own starports. JG canon suggests that the Imperium depends on both to counterbalance the more aggressive polities in the region: Ramayan patrols what you call the Neutral Zone in your setting (the Outworlds in mine), is allied with Sphere Fenix, and supported the Krmyia War of Liberation against the al-Amyi - the Marlan Primate and its Hired Defense Force defended the Gilenchy Confederation against aggression by the Mandanin Co-Dominium, despite having nowhere near the fleet capabilties or population.
To explain this disparity,
IMTU the Ramayan Federation is outfitted almost entirely with Imperial Navy vessels manned by Federation crews in exchange for patrolling the Neutral Zone/Outworlds and keeping the al-Amyi pirates in check. The Marlan Primate on the other hand derives its ability to maintain a large fleet and mercenary contingent from investements made by the Church throughout the quadrant - the Primate is very wealthy not by its own planetary resources but because through a series of dummy companies it owns big pieces of important corporations both in and outside of the Imperium, making it a power player far beyond what might be expected from looking at a star map. (This also creates an interesting situation for adventurers who may find themselves opposing a company controlled by the Church and its hired mercenaries...)
Originally posted by jrients:
BGG, in which system do you place the advanced starport? That sounds like a good idea.
Towermorn, in the Highlord subsector, a Hi In world with a class A starport.
