Name of Nation:
The Rim
Description of Species:
The race of the Rim's languages are difficult to transcribe and so are usually translated, which can make it difficult to refer to their race as most of their words for themselves translate to "People". And so for convenience, they are usually referred to as Rimworlders. The Rimworlders as a race are tall, thin, spindly humanoids. Averaging about ten feet in height with their backs fully extended, their natural posture is hunched over so that they're closer to seven feet tall. Their limbs are proportionally much longe than a human, and each ends in four long digits; their hands have two finger and two thumbs, while their four toes are spread out equally around their feet. The skin of the Rimworlders is usually varying shades of yellow and indredibly dry with a texture that has been likened to leather, in addition to a complete lack of anything resembling hair. Their spines are normally so curved that a Rimworlder's neck is horizontal, with their head sticking out from the front of their body rather than sitting on top. Said head is longer than a human's and contains six eyes arranged in a hexagon shape, and each covered by a thin half-sphere of protective tissue which functions like the lens of goggles. The lower half of their face contains a multitude of small, circular orifices, through which they breathe and speak. And below that is the Rimworlder's mouth: a long proboscis of bone that functions much like a spider's fang, and is usually laid flat against the bottom of the head with a hinge along the Rimworlder's 'chin'.
Description of Government:
The Rim is a region governed by a small government, but a centralized one. The Rimworlders are loathe to give up any independence they don't need to and as a result the government controls only that which is viewed as necessary for the protection and security of the Rim and its people.
The Central Administration is the government that controls the entire Rim; it is incredibly small and minarchist, with the only major government institutions being the Central Legislature and the Rim Admiralty. The Central Legislature itself is the body that creates the laws of the Rim, with each inhabitated Rimworld providing 3 Representatives to serve. The Rim Admiralty is the body which is in charge of controlling and coordinating the Rim Fleets, and is headed by a Council of retired Admirals from the various Rimworlds.
The rest of the government is headed by the World Administrations of each individual Rimworld. The Judiciary and Police are the main institutions, with the Police enforcing the laws of the Central Legislature and the Judiciary interpreting that law and trying those accused of committing a crime in the Rim.
Description of Culture:
The Rim has been described as the "Land of a Thousand Peoples", and while hyperbole it is not far from the truth. There are numerous tongues and beliefs spread out among the various Rimworlds. And while there are numerous cultures, they all share among them a strong sense of freedom, individualism, and independence. Rimworlders hate being told what to do in most situations, and are sometimes considered stubborn as a result.
Within the Rim, almost anything that doesn't involve the harming of others is permitted. All sorts of recreational drugs and other activities that are often banned in other places, but don't harm anyone other than the user, are quite easy to come by in the Rim as the Central Administration sees no reason in banning them. This has given the Rim a reputation as the place where one can come to acquire whatever their heart's desire without pesky things like regulations or law getting in the way. Natural this also makes the Rim a common stop for smugglers, as much of what would be considered 'contraband' elsewhere is perfectly legal in the Rim.
Description of Technology:
The Rim is a technologically advanced region of space, with even the poorest of their worlds having access to advanced, if outdated, technology.Activities such as manufacturing and agriculture are left to automated systems, though overseen by Rimworlders. The Rim is not home to any AIs advanced enough to oversee such major operations unaided by a biological mind. Though advanced in many ways, the Rim is generally lacking in the development of artificial intelligence when compared to other advanced galactic powers.
However, in other branches they are sufficiently advanced. Nearly all power in the Rim is provided by fusion reactors, breeder fission reactors, or large arrays of orbital solar panels. Smaller handheld devices are powered by high capacity and rechargeable energy cells. The most common weaponry found within the Rim are laser weapons. This includes anything from small handheld sidearms, to the massive superlasers mounted on Rimworlder capital ships.
In terms of biotechnology the Rimworlders have several advanced technolgies as well. They have numerous advanced medical technologies and are able to grow and attach biological replacements for any damaged portions of the body, provided their doctors are unable to use their advanced medicine to repair the damage itself. They are no slouches in genetic research as well, with its most common usage being in the agricultural sector.
Description of Military:
There is no single, centralized military in the Rim; in its place there are the numerous Rim Fleets kept by individual Rimworlds. Each of the Rim Fleets are both Army and Navy, and vary widely in composition and organization. On the poorest of worlds the Rim Fleet is composed mostly of outdated designs and with their fighting force composed almost entirely of militiamen. By comparison, the richest Rimworlds can field massive fleets of the most cutting-edge ships and professional full-time soldiers. It is the Central Admiralty's headache to coordinate all of the disparate Rim Fleets in times of war or national crisis.
History:
The homeworld of the Rimworlders is a dry and massive planet known as Dryhome. While geographic evidence has shown that in the ancient past the planet was home to numerous shallow oceans, the only world that the Rimworlders have ever known was one of endless deserts punctuated only by the occasional oasis or small sea. The earliest ancestor of the Rimworlders to have a society were nomadic bands that wandered from oasis to oasis until eventually over the millennia they had spread over the entire planet. Trading posts would eventually spring up around these oases, which would eventually grow into the towns and cities of the first sedentary Rimworlders.
Over the millennia states would rise and fall over the planet, though city-states predominated throughout much of Dryhome's history. This was a simple consequence of the terrain; it was near impossible to create or maintain a sprawling empire when traveling to the next city over involved crossing a massive desert. That is not to say that there were no empire, just that they were rare and collapsed after the death of the one who united them. Up until the modern age, the only to get word from one city-state to another was through the nomads who wandered from settlement to settlement. They would, however, eventually be rendered obsolete in this regard by more modern technology. But even after that the isolation one state had from the other lead to them retaining their distinct cultures.
But despite this, the unity brought by ever advancing technology eventually lead to a central government for Dryhome. It was, however, a very loose confederation of states on the planet. And then when the Rimworlders began to spread out among their solar system, it was like their early history all over again. Early space travel took months to reach other colonies in the system, and so their colonies were like oases in the endless desert of space. Though colonies were not the correct word, as the Rimworlders there had no desire to be ruled from Dryhome and those back on their homeworld eventually realized that it'd be prohibitive to try and force them to. And then came the discovery of the FTL Gate the Precursors had left behind, out on the fringes of their home system.
Absolute proof of alien life within the galaxy was astonishing, and lead to considerable upheaval in Rimworlder society. The major result of this being the worlds uniting themselves under a single governing body that would be the direct predecessor of the Central Administation of today's Rim, though even more decentralized with the worlds united in almost nothing but name. And then the Rimworlders began to travel through the Gate, settling on other worlds and founding their own states on them. Though nominally part of the government based on Dryhome, they were just as de facto independent as the rest of the Rimworlders' worlds.
(To be Continued)
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