Principality of Caledon: The largest independent,
human-governed state in the Reavers' Deep sector, covering large portions of the
Caledon and Scotian Deep subsectors. The
Principality as such was established in -102 by Jamieson Dundas of Caledon
(Reavers'
Deep 1815); it
has remained relatively stable, save for two periods of dynastic crisis and
civil war (309-328; 1024-1025).
The
area that is now the Principality was settled during the latter part of the
period of the Interstellar wars between the Terran Confederation and the First
Imperium. The settlers of the
region, largely of Western European origins, were a group of political
malcontents who rejected the growing Terran trend toward absorption of the
Vilani Empire. They maintained
(rightly, as it turned out) that Terra would be unable to support the burden
which had already brought the Vilani into decline.
Financed by a prominent banker, Charles Stuart Scott, these people
assembled a colonizing expedition in the interval between two of the
interstellar wars, and traveled far from either Terran or Vilani space.
Settlement on Caledon, and exploration of several adjacent systems,
followed. A period of struggle
against their new untamed environments resulted in the loss, for quite some
time, of jump drive technology. Traders
from one of the petty states that emerged during the Long Night restored the
necessary technology, and the Principality arose shortly thereafter.
Officially the first state to check the piracy and lawlessness of the
so-called "Reavers", less charitable histories often refer to the
Principality as the last and greatest of the Reaver Kingdoms.
The
government of the Principality is a Constitutional Monarchy, headed by the
Hereditary Prince of Caledon, and backed by a House of Lords, a House of
Delegates, and a Grand Senate. Local
rule is left largely in the hands of individual worlds; the Principality
regulates interstellar relations, war, and trade.
Often described as a commercial
kingdom, Caledon is famous for the extent and wealth of its great trading
houses.