The Alarishi Empire has been described as an orbiting collection of experiments in social Darwinism. The Imperial government will generally let you start your own local government and run it however you like, as long as you pay your lease on time and refrain from blowing up your neighbors. If your local government and social system works, you'll thrive; if not, that's your problem, and the Imperial government feels no obligation to bail you out.
The Imperial approach to economics makes laissez faire economists swoon with delight. It charges a usage fee for most services but encourages competition from the private sector for those services. The only Imperial monopoly is real estate--all planets and asteroids are Imperial possessions, and are leased rather than sold.
Here are a few of the sovereignities and corporations, in order of population:
- Alarish (on the moon of a superjovian)
- Weyland Corp. (includes Vulcan's Forge and New Pascagoula)
- Han Bank
- Imperial Bank of Alarish
- Reynolds Consortium (shipbuilding)
- Believer's Fellowship
- Forward Power Cooperative (antimatter engineering)
- Imperial University (includes Astronometric VLA Bases Winchell and Chung)
- Sovereign Order of the Fellow Soldiers of Christ and the Temple of Solomon (Templars)
- New Los Angeles and the Whistle-Click Pod
- Hospice of the Poor Claires
- Hall of the Mountain King (entertainment park)
- Planet of the Geeks (software specialists)
- BioGen Pharmaceuticals AG (secretive biological engineering firm)
- Ba'Das Clan (renegade Kra'Vak warfamily)
- Turing Republic (sovereignity of artificial intelligences)
- SARCo Search And Rescue Company
- The Democratic People's Socialist Republic of Marxgrad
- Musashi (academy for zero-gee martial arts)
- Murphy's Lawyers (covert ops mercenaries)
- Tesla Labs
- Radical Lesbian Collective
- Jack Old Ron (population 1, with antiship weapons)
The Imperial Army is small but well-equipped and enjoys an excellent reputation in zero and low gravity warfare. Many mercenary groups--of varying size, quality, and reputation--maintain forces in Alarishi space, and some of these are on retainer with the Empire. In addition to the Imperial troops, most sovereignities have their own militia or defense force. Some of these are excellent, some are laughable, some are just bizarre.
Trade: The Empire's primary imports are labor and a variety of organic manufacturing materials. Primary exports are antimatter, ships, research, software, entertainment and mercenaries.
International Relations:
- NSL: primary trade partner, excellent relations. Alarish manufactures powered armor and personal weapons under license from several NSL corporations. NSL ships occasionally call at AE stations.
- NAC and Japan: major trade partner, good relations.
- New Israel: major trade partner, excellent relations. Treaty with classified defense clauses. Frequent joint exercises and operations.
- PAU: minor trade partner, fair good relations.
- OU: trade partner, good relations, no formal agreement but de facto allies.
- ESU: minor trade partner, fair relations, disputes over intellectual property rights and various unofficially sanctioned ESU infringements.
- Other Outworld nations: relations generally good. Alarish is likely to be a significant player in the Outer Rim Coalition.
- FSE: minor trade partner, cool relations due to FSE support of Islamic Federation.
- Islamic Federation: Hostilities until the Kra'Vak incursion took precedence. AE mercenaries have recently begun to supply technical assistance under contract to the Sultanate.
