We had a discussion about the Terran mercantile Community and
the Old Earth Union a while back. One of the problems I had
with the references was that the TMC is described as being "a
means of circumventing Rule of Man regulations", yet the date
for the formation of the TMC is -1690 while the ROM is usually
held to have fallen by -1776, 86 years earlier.
Following is my suggestion for resolving the various dates and
events given for Terra, the Terran Mercantile Community, the
Old Earth Union, the Rule of Man and such. I also have some
other Library Data entries about cultural stuff I got the ideas
for while I worked on this that I'll post if there's any interest.
I'd really like to hear if this is of the slightest interest to
anyone besides myself. I posted some stuff about the Sword Worlds
a couple of weeks ago, and except for one person who just told me
that he liked it I got _NO_ feed-back whatsoever. Pretty
discouraging I can tell you.
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LIBRARY DATA:
OLD EARTH UNION: Interstellar government from -1110 to 588 com-
prising Terra and the worlds closest to her: Barnard, Calgary,
Dismal, Ember, Fenris, Forlorn, Hades, Heiphaistos, Inferno,
Junction, Loki, Midway, Peraspera, Prometheus, Sirius and Ys.
Fleet bases were also maintained at Aggida, Markhashi and
Meshan - all within jump-3 of Terra - but these systems were
not considered part of the Union proper; Agidda was a balkani-
zed world and thus unable to send representatives to the Union
Council and both Markhashi and Meshan had been abandoned during
the recession that followed the fall of the Rim Province (qv.)
in -1690.
The Union was formed in -1110 out of the Terran Mercantile
Community (qv.) as a response to worsening economic conditions.
Although experiencing some problems - a short, vicious trade-
war with the newly formed Dingir League from -1106 to -1098 put
a severe strain on both sides - the Union proved strong
enough to defend itself from any serious threat during the rest
of the Long Night, and in 588 it was peacefully incorporated
into the Imperium.
RIM PROVINCE: Administrative division of the Second Empire com-
prising most of the defunct Terran Confederation. It is, depen-
ding on what historian you ask, either one of the first or one
of the last parts of the Rule of Man to succumb to the Long
Night. It was one of the first areas to loose contact with Hub;
in -1854 the second new governor sent out from Hub failed to
reach the province's capital, Dingir, and Acting Governor Ayara
Twofeathers inaurgurated the custom of Governor-appointed suc-
cessors, a system that was kept to the end of the provincial
government.
The lessening flow of commerce between the rim and the core
were already rendering taxes more and more meaningless, and 16
years later the province ceased to remit taxes to Hub except on
an intermittent basis. For a while Dingir tried to keep up pay-
ments in the form of precious metals and gems, but when the
third of the treasure fleets carrying these payments failed to
return, these too were discontinued.
On the other hand, the government at Dingir kept ruling "in
the name of the Emperor" for another century and a half,
keeping the peace and enforcing Rule of Man regulations. It
collapsed finally in -1690, when a huge budget deficit forced
the government to decommision two thirds of the already decima-
ted provincial fleets and turn over the rest to various
individual planets and the Terran Mercantile Community (qv.).
TERRAN MERCANTILE COMMUNITY: Loose trade association formed in
- -1862 by Terra and her closest colonies, that later grew into
a corporation. Ostensibly a purely commercial organisation, it
was actually a means of circumventing Rule of Man prohibitions
against member planets having their own navies. The TMC built a
merchant fleet that toed a very fine line between commercial
ships and naval vessels. The ships carried enough armament to
protect themselves from pirates and raiders, but not enough to
classify them as naval vessels. Their merchant fleet made Terra
and her fellow worlds in the TMC a formidable commercial force.
When the Rule of Man in the form of the Rim Province (qv.)
collapsed in -1690, The Terran Mercantile Community had a space
fleet to patrol it's systems and to replace the now gone Second
Empire fleets. The TMC's merchant fleet cushioned the blow of
the Long Night and made it possible for Terra to survive in
relative comfort.
The TMC took over many of the functions of the Rule of Man
(though abandoning the extreme edges of the old Rim Province),
but were careful at first not to assume the mantle of govern-
ment. By avoiding the appearance of ruling it avoided aliena-
ting the other planets and driving them into forming their own
unions. Relying on the protection of the TMC ships were cheaper
than building their own, and the TMC itself was careful not to
be percieved as a threat.
For several centuries the TMC managed to maintain this
delicate balance, but the steadily worsening commercial climate
eventually forced them to retrench. Like the Rim Province be-
fore it, the TMC found the strain of protecting the furthest
worlds too much of a burden. Other Rule of Man successor states
in Dark Nebula, Alpha Crucis, Magyar and Reaver's Deep routine-
ly raided worlds on the fringe of the TMC sphere, but although
this was a contributing strain, it was not the primary factor.
The Reaver's Era (see Reaver's Deep) ended before the end of
the TMC, and Reaver attacks in any case concentrated on fringe
worlds that had already been abandoned by the TMC and lost
interstellar technology. The primary factor was economic de-
pression and a widespread trend toward isolationism, causing a
shift to planetary self-reliance at the expense of interplanet-
ary trade.
When the worlds near Easter in -1112 formed the Easter
Concord and other worlds began talking of forming their own
unions, the TMC decided to cut its losses. In -1110 the corpo-
ration formally transformed into the Old Earth Union, abandon-
ing all worlds outside the Union to their own devices, and be-
coming a small, tight group instead of a large, loose one.
See also: Old Earth Union.
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Notes: The Rim Province is my invention (well, the name anyway.
I'm sure some such sub-division existed).
Hans Rancke
University of Copenhagen
[email removed]
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"A subsector official pompously states that the
subsector armed forces have four Kinunir class
ships in service, each with enough troop strength
to put down any military operations that threathen
the peace of the Imperium."
---Adventure 1, The Kinunir