Deeps Sector

Deeps Sector


The sector known as the Deeps (Aeitle Sakh to the Aslan) is a frontier region lying along the Imperial border. Bounded to spinward by territories dominated by the Aslan, to trailing by the Imperium, to rimward by the Solomani Confederation and to coreward by the Great Rift, Deeps is a diverse region showing the influences of all these neighbors.


History:

Little is known of the early history of the Deeps, but the presence of Human minor races and various artifacts strongly suggest the Ancients were active in the region.


The Vilani scouted the trailing areas of the sector before and during the First Imperium, but established only a small number of colonies. There are rumors that rebellious Vilani states in nearby sectors trained and recruited mercenaries from the minor races found in the Deeps, but little hard evidence survives.


During the Interstellar Wars, when the Vilani and the Terran Confederation came into conflict, large numbers of people from both empires were displaced and sought refuge in the Deeps. Caledon and a number of other significant worlds were colonized by these settlers.


The Rule of Man, the empire formed when Terra finally conquered the Vilani empire, was turbulent and politically unstable. The Deeps received several waves of immigration during this time, both from ordinary people fleeing the chaos and from rebellious nobles and ambitious warlords who had been exiled from the Imperium.


When the Second Imperium finally collapsed, the Long Night fell. Interstellar government, communication and trade broke down and eventually disappeared except in a few isolated outposts of civilization. During this period, the Reavers appeared in the Deeps. These were petty warlords or pirates who gathered small fleets and used them to loot backward worlds and carve out small empires. These empires were rarely long lived, collapsing back into chaos once the founding strongman died.


The same sort of pattern developed throughout the territory claimed by the Rule of Man; but, as the Third Imperium grew it absorbed these pocket empires and pushed the surviving Reavers deeper and deeper into the frontiers. The Duke of Marlheim is sometimes called the Last Reaver, but in reality the Duchy evolved into a legitimate - if somewhat aggressive - state generations ago.


At time the Aslan first began expanding into the Deeps, there was no central human government to oppose them as the Long Night was well underway. The Aslan had no central authority either, and individual Aslan clans fought a number of small wars against various human splinter states. The borders changed little during this time since the sides were fairly evenly matched. When the Third Imperium finally reached the Deeps sector, their superior organization and technology gradually ended the Aslan threat. At some point, although the date is uncertain to human scholars, there was a schism within the Aslan Hierate and about half of their worlds with in the sector broke away and formed the Ulane Hierate. Little is known about the reasons or nature of the schism, but all of the worlds involved had significant human populations, and it seems that the humans are involved in the Ulane government in some way.


When the Solomani Autonomous Region was created in 141, about one third of the Imperial systems in the Deeps were included in the new political body. During the Solomani Rim war (198 to 200), there was some fighting in the trailing areas of the Deeps, but bulk of the war was fought elsewhere. A large number of worlds simply declared their independence from both empires at this time. Neither side had the resources available to forcibly reintegrate these worlds and thus a narrow neutral zone was established. The Carillian Assembly and the Union of Harmony were founded during this time as loose confederations established for mutual defense and local trading. Over the last century, the Carillian Assembly has formed close trade relations with the Imperium, while the Union of Harmony has made similar arrangements with the Solomani Confederation.