Powers & Peoples

Five forces pull at the Rim: the Federation wants order, the Corporations want profit, the Rebels want freedom, the Syndicate wants what isn't theirs, and the Synthetic Conclave wants something no one fully understands. Most stations survive by owing all five a little and none of them too much.

Humans set the baseline and fill every role. Synthetics — androids and embodied AI — outthink and outlast, and unsettle those who fear what they might want. Xeno bring physiologies and senses humans can barely model. The Augmented trade flesh for steel and reflexes, paying in the parts of themselves they leave behind.

Are synthetics tools, citizens, or a people in their own right? The Federation legislates, the Corporations manufacture, and the Conclave answers for itself. No one agrees, and the question grows teeth a little more every year.