Why did Solomani colonists during the Rule of Man and the Long Night not go rimward?

[mpoles]

It's very obvious from a lot of sources that during the Rule of Man and the Long Night, Solomani explorers went corewards into what had been the Ziru Sirka and then spinward. Presumably the Hivers were in the way to trailing and eventually the Aslan immediately to spinward, but why didn't they go rimward?

I mean they did, sort of, but only for a couple of sectors. Contrast this with how far away some of the sectors with Solomani colonists are (like the ones out past the Spinward Marches).

So why did they stop?

There isn't much canon material for this part of space. About the only thing I can think of are the Valkyries from one of the GT alien modules (so dubiously canon). Since they're pretty scary, I suppose that might be one answer...

 

[McPerth]

As you say, there's not (AFAIK) much canon answer to this, so what I'll say here is only my guess.

I think that the effort to ocupy the Vilani Empire took most of Earth resources, and, being such a rich and developed territory for grab (for comercial ventures) there was little interest in going and developing your own territory.

Afeter the fall of the RUle of Man, I guess most effort was dedicated to keep what Earth could hold, and few effort could be devoted to further exploration (then probably easier rimward, as the pirate danger was softer).

 

[rancke]

Some did go rimwards. As for how many went each way... Hm, go into an entirely unexplored region or into a regoin for which maps and information (albeit often out of date) is available? I don't see it as much of a puzzler.


Hans

 

[Theophilus]

And let's not forget the story from the Biblical account in Exodus:

When you go into an land with houses you did no build and vineyards you did not plant.

Why start from the ground up on a new world when there are already technologically advanced worlds to exploit.

A ripe plum or hard work? I'll head coreward!

 

[kilmore]

Would there be much difference between the commonness of good worlds between the coreward and rimward areas on the scale of the Traveller map? I'm sure there would on a galactic scale. Or maybe that's the extent of what Grandfather and the Ancients made habitable.

 

[mike wightman]

The Solomani have launched a fairly substantive rim expedition - but other than a very tantalising side bar in S&A very little is known about it.

By the way - stay clear of the rimward races GT Aliens introduces - they are incredibly naff and should never have been accepted as GTU canon since technically that makes them OTU canon pre MT.

 

[Cryton]

Well. As Traveller's setting is focused on the 3I as its setting, the areas around it, need to be known. Whats beyond the areas that directly surround the 3I are not truly relevant to the game setting, and thus are only briefly touched upon in any canonical source.

Aslan and Solomani briefly touches on the rimward missions that apparently made it all the way to the Orion arm of the galaxy, or some such. But that is all you get.

Pretty much, thats it.

Edit: As its your game, whats out there is up to you. Have fun!!

 

[Dragoner]

Because any more rimward would be off the page?

However, I'll go with McPerth's explanation, There just weren't enough people and it is easier to swim in the ocean than to walk in the desert.

 

[Timerover51]

Because any more rimward would be off the page?
However, I'll go with McPerth's explanation, There just weren't enough people and it is easier to swim in the ocean than to walk in the desert.

Against that, you always have the non-conformists who want to see what is on the other side of the desert. I would generate a few subsectors to rimward, and start thinking "lost" colonies. You might encounter a colony of Amish on an Terra-norm world where they are opposed to anything more than Tech Level 3 or 4, but have some marvelous food goods for trade. Or maybe something like H. Beam Piper's "Lone Star Planet". Just make the z'Srauff into Vargr.

I knew who the z'Srauff were; I'd run into them, here and there. One of the extra-solar intelligent humanoid races, who seemed to have been evolved from canine or canine-like ancestors, instead of primates. Most of them could speak Basic English, but I never saw one who would admit to understanding more of our language than the 850-word Basic vocabulary. They occupied a half-dozen planets in a small star-cluster about forty light-years beyond the Capella system. They had developed normal-space reaction-drive ships before we came into contact with them, and they had quickly picked up the hyperspace-drive from us back in those days when the Solar League was still playing Missionaries of Progress and trying to run a galaxy-wide Point-Four program.

In the past century, it had become almost impossible for anybody to get into their star-group, although z'Srauff ships were orbiting in on every planet that the League had settled or controlled. There were z'Srauff traders and small merchants all over the galaxy, and you almost never saw one of them without a camera. Their little meteor-mining boats were everywhere, and all of them carried more of the most modern radar and astrogational equipment than a meteor-miner's lifetime earnings would pay for.

The quote comes from the Project Gutenberg ebook.

This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
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For that matter, take a look at Piper's "Space Viking" for a range of other possible worlds. Check under H. Beam Piper at Project Gutenberg for more of his works.

 

[Fritz_Brown]

Actually, in MTU, they did. Well, some of them did. They went so far as to cross to the next spiral arm. That's where MTU is set.

 

[Orr]

However, I'll go with McPerth's explanation, There just weren't enough people and it is easier to swim in the ocean than to walk in the desert.

Yup. McPerth's explanation is spot on. Go rimward and you'll need to build everything from the ground up. Go coreward into the Ziru Sirka and there is already infrastructure, already markets, and plenty of land left to grab.

 

[mpoles]

I like timerover51's idea best. The closest example I can think of from history is the European colonisation of North America. Yes, most early colonists stayed near the east coast where civilisation was closest, but certain groups, like say the Mormons, and daring individuals who thought they could make their fortune, had reason to go into the interior, past the frontier.

 

[Fritz_Brown]

... reason to go into the interior, past the frontier.

Sometimes into otherwise terribly inhospitable places. If you have a reason to get away from it all, you might go where no one else will want to go.

 

[Whipsnade]

I like timerover51's idea best.

It's basically what everyone else is saying. I don't know why he roped in Piper's z'Srauff and the Vargr however. The Vargr are coreward of the Imperial region, so it's hard to understand how they'd impeded rimward expansion.

The closest example I can think of from history is the European colonisation of North America. Yes, most early colonists stayed near the east coast where civilisation was closest, but certain groups, like say the Mormons, and daring individuals who thought they could make their fortune, had reason to go into the interior, past the frontier.

If you look at the colonization of North America more carefully you'll get a better handle on colonization in general.

First, the eastern coast was settled earliest because, astonishingly, it's closest to Europe. You could get across the Atlantic in a month or less depending on the season while sailing to California would take over a year.

Next, rivers provided ready-made highways for first exploration, then trade, and finally settlement. Following the rivers which penetrated the interior, settlers passed up regions which were just a good but simply harder to get to. Rivers in a Traveller context would be stellar mains, lines of stars one parsec distant from the next.

Guess what? The regions the Ziru Sirka occupied in riddled with huge mains many of which are only separated from each other by a single parsec while the regions rimward of Earth/Sol have much smaller mains separated by much wider gaps. Just as the rivers did in the North America, the mains directed settlement into certain regions and away from others.

Finally, exploration and settlement did take place rimward of Earth/Sol. The Confederation sent out sublight and FTL colony missions in case Earth was lost to the Vilani. After the Intestellar Wars were won, settlement and exploration picked up only to drop off centuries later with the Long Night.

The Confederation proper extends more than a sector rimward of the Imperial border and there are human settlements out further than that, it's just that it was easier, faster, and more attractive to expand coreward.

Hope all this helps.

 

[mpoles]

Good answer - thanks!

 

[Dragoner]

Against that, you always have the non-conformists who want to see what is on the other side of the desert. I would generate a few subsectors to rimward, and start thinking "lost" colonies. You might encounter a colony of Amish on an Terra-norm world where they are opposed to anything more than Tech Level 3 or 4, but have some marvelous food goods for trade. Or maybe something like H. Beam Piper's "Lone Star Planet". Just make the z'Srauff into Vargr.

Except it is harder to build a civilization in the desert, one thing notable about the settlement of the new world by europeans is that they had a hard time getting women to come over until civilization built. This would pertain heavily to earth and it's rather limited population as most of the colonial thrust would be towards settled areas such as the Ziru Sirka. However, that being said, you "lost colony" ideas and such are great ideas and aren't precluded by my statement, just that earth civilization had a harder time expanding rimward.

 

[GypsyComet]

The dot maps we have for the region (S&A) show a wide zone of very thin stellar density, even the J-3 of the ROM would have been hard-pressed to get very far.

The spinward expansion into what would become Aslan space gives a good indicator of how far raw exploration and expansion was able to reach with reasonable stellar density. The Hivers were organizing at the same time, so directly trailing would have run into them quickly, and did.

By comparison, the same time frame put massive Solomani migrations into Julian space, six sectors away, because the entire way was mapped and 'friendly'.

 

[Carlobrand]

I understand, via GURPS, that the Sword Worlds were settled by Solomani soldiers (and families?) who found themselves on the losing side of a civil war way back when, deciding to take off in a troop transport for very pragmatic reasons of personal survival.

Under those circumstances, they'd have steered toward more settled space as being the direction more likely to keep their ship fueled and repaired until they could find what they were looking for. "Settled space" at that time was in the midst of the Long Night, so there'd have been some hope that they could find someplace that could be dominated by their force or that would welcome them as an asset, or at least find the odd job or two to keep their ship in parts and supplies until they could find a place to call their own. Rimward, as others have said, was less settled and with bigger jumps, had the prospect of their being forced to settle too close to people they'd just lost a war to.

And too, their choice might have been dictated by more immediate circumstances - which worlds they could jump to from Terra without expecting serious opposition.

There are likely to be other stories like that - colonial groups who recalled the Terran victories of the past and hoped to carve a place for themselves in a more settled region while that region was weak and disorganized, and perhaps had to keep moving when it proved to be less disorganized than they expected, or groups who set out hoping to find friendly support along their way to a place of their liking rather than venturing into the "wilds". I recall that the Mayflower colonists, for example, took a stab at settling in Holland before deciding to brave the wilderness.

 

[Timerover51]

True, the Pilgrims did try and settle in the Netherlands first.

However, you also have the somewhat unusual ways that Britain colonized Australia and New Zealand for examples as well.

I guess I lean more towards finding what is on the other side of the mountain, desert, or ocean over heading to somewhere more settled.

 

[mpoles]

It's potentially an intereresting setting. Descendants of Solomani pilgrims / refugees / exiles / outcasts from the Rule of Man. Some weird religious communities. Some eugenicist types. And because it's outside of the normal sphere of things (Solomani pun intended) you're free to invent some new big bad (although the valkyrie would fit that bill pretty well).