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The Royalist Alliance |
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Location: Periphery, spinward of
the Lyran Alliance, interposed between the Rim Collection and the Circuinius
Federation
Number of Star Systems: 27 (and 3 populated systems with no inhabited
planetoids)
Current Prime Minister: Prime Minister Slade Benton
Current Monarch: Czar
Paul Radzik-D’Avion
Military Strength: 26 Regiments, 2 Battalions, 2 Battalions (merc.)
Technology Level: Medium
Literacy Level: High
CAPITAL
World Name: Oxfordshire
Star Type: G8V
Position in System: 2
Time to Jump Point: 6 days
Recharging Station: zenith, nadir, New Delphi Shipyard
Political Representative: Cabinet
Member for Oxfordshire, Madam Regina McCann
HPG Facility Class: A
ComStar Representative: Most Exalted Ambassador Ian Morales, Precentor of
Kraken Station
Population:
6,230,000,000 souls (approx.)
Percentage and Level of Native Life: 20%, Plant
Description:
Capital of the Royalist Alliance, a planet settled in 2796,
Oxfordshire is a warm, fairly dry world. Salt water covers 55% of the planets
surface and the rest is almost totally inhabited by people. Deserts straddle
Oxfordshire’s equator and the polar regions are covered with ice-caps, of
which the northern ice-cap is thickest. There is a mild temperate zone between
25° and 63°
north and south latitudes which houses much of the planets vast population.
A world with few natural resources save fissionable materials and fresh water from its ice-caps Oxfordshire has traditionally been a centre for government and scientific research above all other ‘industries’. Although much of the heavy industry in the Alliance takes place in the resource rich Kamchatkan Rift, Oxfordshire has long been a staple of electronics manufacture and design. Warhammer/Marconi maintains a factory and a Design Bureau on Oxfordshire from which most of the Royalist Alliance’s electronic components are produced.
Oxford City is located on Oxfordshire’s southern continental mass between the Greater Martyr Mountains and the Southbound Ocean on a large plateau named the “Acropolis” of Oxford (from the Greek “acro” – high place – and “polis” – city). Fresh water flows in a large meandering river named the Old Wissey from the mountains to the west and runs over the plateau until it reaches the eastern edge of the flats where it cascades in a beautiful waterfall from the plateau. This waterfall has come to embody the Alliance and especially, oddly enough, the League Pact – a state to which Oxfordshire does not belong. Even so, Oxfordshire entertains numerous tourists throughout the year and will no doubt continue to do so.
Although Oxford City houses the official face of government, the Royal Palace and the Houses of Parliament, in reality true rule comes from the northern continent and the Mount Parnassus Command Centre built miles underground. Militarily speaking the entire planet is heavily fortified, not that it would appear so at first glance, and is also networked with a series of interconnecting tunnels which would be very difficult to secure entirely. These tunnels allow defending forces to be moved almost anywhere on the planet within hours. All of this plus over 500 military bases on planet, space for over four regiments and double that in conventional and Aerospace assets, orbital facilities to support the entire Royal Navy if recalled and a permanent garrison of the Blues and Royals Regiment, the Czar’s personal guard, and it becomes apparent that Oxfordshire is a world destined to remain sovereign. And if Oxfordshire stays free, so does the Alliance.
Regional Breakdown
The Royalist Alliance is divided into Local Defence Regions (LDRs, or simply Regions). Similar to the Draconis Combine’s Districts, Local Defence Regions operate in both a civilian and military capacity. In civilian terms the Regions provide an easy way of running the country. With individual Councils and Governors for each Region democratic administration becomes relatively easy.
In military terms all of the RAAF’s combat forces are assigned to a Regional Command corresponding with their home planet. Although a unit may move beyond the borders of its assigned LDR they will still fall under the purview of their Regional Command and will receive all orders and documents, etcetera, through the Command.
The Royalist Alliance is divided into 5 Local Defence Regions: -
The Coreward Alliance Treaty Organisation (or CATO) was formed to encompass the Alliance’s capital worlds and provide a stable government base, insulated from the petty bickering that occurs within the other Regions. Chief industries include agriculture and administration. CATO contains numerous zero-G research facilities and principally civilian shipyards in orbit of Lincolnshire, Cambridgeshire and Hertfordshire where those educated people working on the stations can find relief on the beautiful planets below. Finally, CATO administers Cottingham, the Alliance’s furthest coreward world; a verdant, jungle-covered planet famous for its prison complex and the near constant threat of harassment from one Crusader Clan or an other, each holding its own interest in the Royalist Alliance.
The League Pact is the Alliance’s most affluent LDR. As the closest Region to the Inner Sphere, in particular House Steiner, the Pact has become the centre for Spheroid political commentary and pan-galactic trade. JumpShips leave and arrive via Gunne’s World every hour, carrying Royalist made goods to other States and bringing back precious foreign currency to spur the Alliance’s economy. Recharging stations present at every jump-point are vitally important for this reason. Naturally, administration is the League Pact’s primary industry.
The worlds of Neue Africa are not heavily populated, the most important resources in the LDR being base metals such as iron and copper. Mining is the chief industry, with metallurgical work coming a close second, and thousands rotate in and out of the Region to work there as the raw material is easier to obtain via open-cast mining than extraction from asteroids or particularly hostile worlds elsewhere in the Alliance. Being a collection of dry worlds, the planets of Neue Africa rely heavily on water shipments from the League Pact and CATO.
The Kamchatkan Rift is the manufacturing centre of the Royalist Alliance. Rich in natural resources like rare alloys required for the production of military equipment, specifically Aerospatial assets, the worlds of the Kamchatkan Rift are heavily developed. Although the planets, with the exception of Chichi Jima and Novo Muscova, were hardly Terra-like anyway, their environments have been badly degraded by successive generations of industrial construction. Indeed Black Isle (also called the Evening Star), now stripped of all but the deepest pockets of gas, oil and other important chemicals is extremely sparsely populated as very few people can stand the suffocating temperatures and acidic atmosphere. It is now impossible to walk on the volcanic surface of Black Isle without an envirosuit or similar exoskeleton. Much of the Regions heavy industry is now moving off planet and into orbital facilities, leaving behind only environmentally friendly development in a desperate bid to stabilise the corrupted bio-spheres of the remaining Kamchatkan planets in the wake of the devastation caused to Black Isle.
Perhaps the least understood Local Defence Region, and by far the most breathtaking, is Odysseus’ Reaches, also known as the Duchy of Marathon. Containing Marathon (a beautiful, Mars-esque planet; headquarters of Marathon Industries and the Monarchy Benevolent Society) and Dixie V, the spiritual base for Christianity across the Alliance, the Reaches has little to offer but natural beauty and an eccentric, hard-working population eager to travel to other parts of the Royalist Alliance. An interesting fact about the Reaches is that it also includes two oddities amongst the numberless other inhabited star-systems of the Inner Sphere; two populated systems with no colonisable planetoids of any kind. Shattered Worlds is lit by a cold brown dwarf star, the supernova of which a billion years ago reduced what once were its orbiting planets to slag. High levels of radiation indicate yet to be exploited mineral deposits and produce incredible stellar light shows making the three stations within the system popular tourist destinations. The Farpoint Sector is the beacon that shines out the Royalist Alliance’s pioneer spirit to the rest of the Inner Sphere. A system full of ore rich asteroids, and thus heavily inundated by space-engineering and mining concerns, Farpoint is also home to Farpoint Station and the Royalist Explorer Corp. The REC regularly sends brave JumpShip crews into the unknown in order to further the boundaries of known space. Few crews ever return, and as a tribute to their sacrifice the names of all lost Ships and their crewmembers are etched onto the hull of Farpoint Station.
Complete Star-system Listing
CATO (Coreward Alliance Treaty
Organisation) LDR
Oxfordshire - Cambridgeshire - Lincolnshire - Warwickshire -
Hertfordshire - Cottingham
League Pact LDR
Gunne’s World - Cuxhaven - Bocage - Liege Falls
Kamchatkan Rift LDR
Tankograd - Chichi Jima - Rostok - Novo Muscova
Odysseus’ Reaches (Duchy of Marathon) LDR
Farpoint Sector
Neue Afrika LDR
Bizerta - Oman - El Alamein - Tobruk - Degu III
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