Click here for a large scale map laid out like the 17" x 22" Spinward Marches map (456 kb file).
The
sector most often known as Reavers' Deep (Aeitle Sakh in Trokh)
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 various independent worlds and to coreward by the
Great Rift, Reavers' Deep is a diverse region showing the influences of all these
neighbors.
Astrography: Reavers' Deep contains 16 subsectors, though four of these (Farift, Riftdeep, Riftrim and Gulf) are technically a part of the Great Rift and have only a thin scattering of stars. The other twelve subsectors are more normal in stellar concentration, averaging close to 30 worlds per subsector.
Sector located at astrographical coordinates
(-2, -2).
History: Little is known of the early
history of the Deep. It is fairly
certain that the Ancients visited several planets in this region; artifacts
proving this have been discovered at a number of sites within the Deep.
Near
the end of the Pax Vilanica, when the First Imperium was beginning to feel the
strain of age and decay, various Imperial governors along the frontiers began
secretly recruiting barbarian mercenaries beyond the borders to support their
bids for power. One such governor
in the region known today as the Daibei sector is
believed to have sent expeditions into the Deep, where his people made contact
with the Saie culture.
Technical assistance was dispatched to the Saie world to give them the
capacity to build weapons and starships that would make them useful to the
governor's planned rebellion. Soon after these advisors were dispatched, however, violence
erupted in the province. In the
fighting that followed, the governor perished and the secret of the Saie was
lost to the Imperium. The advisers
continued to supply their charges with technology, being unable to return home
without aid.
The
Saie, an aggressive, expansionistic race, used their new technology to establish
a small empire in the Caledon, Riftrim
and Nightrim subsectors.
They overextended themselves in the process and, in a widespread civil
war, their empire collapsed. Because
they were spread thin, the Saie culture vanished almost without a trace.
Even the identity of their homeworld and all records of their physical
appearance were lost, buried amid confused myths and legends among the races
that they had conquered.
It
was during the period of the Interstellar
Wars, when the Vilani and the young,
vigorous Terran Confederation first came into collision, that humans of
Terrestrial extraction first arrived in the Deep.
Settlers seeking refuge from the war ravaged worlds near Terra (Solomani
Rim 1827) made an epic journey that ultimately ended with the discovery and
colonization of Caledon (Reavers' Deep
1815), in the Caledon subsector. Other
Terrans followed later, during the years of the Second Imperium (the
Rule of Man, after Terra conquered the Vilani
empire).
The Deep was explored and a few worlds were settled, but the region
remained largely open and uninhabited.
When
the Second Imperium in its turn collapsed (largely due to the inherited problems
of the previous Vilani regime), the Long Night fell. Interstellar government and communication alike passed away,
except in individual areas where a few strong men could hold on to isolated
outposts of civilization. It was
during the later stages of the Long Night that the Reavers
appeared in the Deep; petty warlords or pirates who scraped together a few space
worthy starships and used them to loot backward worlds or to seize and hold
small empires. Though the same sort
of thing happened outside the Deep as well, these freebooters flourished in the
Deep long after the rising tide of civilization had put an end to the majority
of their brethren, elsewhere.
The
Third Imperium to trailing and the spreading Aslan clans to spinward each
expanded into the Deep at about the same time.
The Reavers faded as ships of these two groups began to explore and
conquer the Deep and the Aslan Border Wars
broke out. The conclusion of the
wars established a neutral region between Aslan and Imperial Space through the
middle of the Deep. This area
remains largely independent, though considerable influence is still wielded by
the neighboring powers. A few
client states or small interstellar governments are present, like the Principality
of Caledon and the Carrillian
Assembly, but many worlds cling fiercely to their traditional independence and
there are even a few freebooters left to carry on the romance of the Reaver
legend.
See this link for an alphabetic listing of the Worlds of the Reavers' Deep.
Click here for a large scale
map laid out like the 17" x 22" Spinward Marches map (456 kb file).
