Fiction:Valian Empire/Regions

The Empire is divided into nine Vasiya, a term which literally means petals in Volanti but is usually translated as prefecture, or province. The nine petals' combined form, which includes all of the civilized galaxy, resembles a rose in full bloom, signifying that without all its smaller parts the empire cannot flourish. The galactic provinces, spanning anything from tens to thousands of millions of stars (and only handfuls of habitable systems at most), have no political power themselves. They tend to be highly specialized regions, with most of their populated or exploited planets sharing common characteristics.

Each province is home to at least one noble clan, but there are so many independent players that real power resides in the individual planets that dominate the area. The nobles in each prefecture have, as they would in a feudal government, a weak hold on power, controlling only their homeworlds and systems formally under their control: noble titles only go so far in Rohse. Aside from the nine provinces, a small handful of sectors and semi-autonomous regions exist in the galaxy.

Central Cluster
The Central Cluster, typically simply called the Centre, denotes not the centre of the galaxy, but the heart of the Valian Empire. It was originally quite a small region, encompassing only Volaris, Tharys and the other founding planets of the empire and its predecessors. Over time it expanded to encapsule the Venu Cluster and include every star from Volaris to the edge of the Alesian Gulf, an almost starless chasm of space between the galactic core and its eastern arm. Virtually every world in the Cluster is a force to be dealt with, including such famed names as the noble strongholds of 'Bellye and Vesyos, financial giant Kanto, and the economic kingpin worlds of Antos, Valmar and Rian- not to mention, of course, the capital itself. Every major hyperroute in the galaxy originates within the Centre, making it the most important of the Empire's regions.

Castell Worlds
The Castell Worlds are a collection of fortress worlds that protect the heart of the empire from the rest of Rohse. They date back to the invasion of Harrel of Teirm and the civil war that preluded it, known as the Stygian Schism, which convinced the cluster's rattled inhabitants that new defenses were needed. They were initially planned as a full circle surrounding the galactic core, and built at staggering expense over thousands of years. They were never finished, however, as the crown decided to rely on the Maze's nigh on-impassable stretches- often rigged with hidden pulse mine fields- to protect their western flank.

The Castell worlds serve a dual purpose: the first, to resist any actual armed incursions headed into the core. The second is to prevent such attacks altogether, for even though they are outfitted with the strongest planetary defenses and would be a daunting objective, it is through sheer fear and reputation that most conflict is averted.

The Venu Maze
The denizens of Rohse know the physical center of the galaxy, and the bright, dense ball of planets that surrounds it, as the the Maze. The region is extremely hard to navigate, and few dare venture into its laberynthine trails. Many of the Volanti nobility's most prestigious home worlds lie on the edges of the cluster, with many more of their private enclaves hidden in the deep core. The galactic core itself is too unstable to travel to, but that hasn't stopped the Volanti from settling quite close to it. The unquestioned chief of the Maze's political posse is Veruna, who has rivaled the capital in power and prestige for thousands of years.

Balantha Sector
The Balantha Sector is first and foremost an agricultural region. A vast expanse of mostly deserted planets, it is one of the most sparsely populated provinces- and one of the most precious. It is the most fertile breadbasket of civilized Rohse, the hand that feeds the Empire. Paradoxically, its also quite unlike the other potentates of the galaxy: it is far removed from the core, and quite backwards when it comes to technology, society or culture. The sector, more often called the Star Fields, is governed in practice by a cabal of agriworld owners, who, possessing a virtual monopoly over food production in the galaxy, use their slave-operated, planet-wide plantations to further their own interests.

Veroku Province
The Empire’s industrial operations are widespread, with important manufacturing centers at Ortai, Arvanne, Val Reyna and Valmar. The vast majority of its industrial capacity, however, is located in the southern portion of the galaxy, with mining, pulse-harvesting and manufacturing operations running all across the great hyperroute nicknamed the Stem, which forms the backbone of the Veroku Province. Valian corporations hold de facto control here, mingling with those core-born nobles interested in pooling their interests.

Petal Rim Colonies
The Petal Rim (formally the Ai'mar Province, but virtually never referred to as such), is one of the Empire's, and by extension the galaxy's, largest sub-divisions and most important regions, containing critical economic, political and military worlds. It stretches from the shipping giant Torrend at the starting point of the Lenu Trail, to the southern outpost of Jamico just north of the Kanto Trade Spine.

Discovered during the Great Valian Age of Exploration during the Old Empire Era little over fifty thousand years ago, the Petalworlds, then the frontier of Valian civilization, became a boomworld sector nearly overnight. The Riguran Dynasty made their colonization and exploitation of a priority, and while this became a fountain of wealth for Empire it eventually led to their demise in the Great War of Atrisia. For millenia before that, however, the orum and other treasures that flowed coreward from the Rim were an enormous boost to the Valian people, and a major motivator of Volanti explorers, who later tried (and failed) to find another piece of the galaxy as valuable as this.

Two major hyperways form the current heart of the Petal colonies, blazed now for thousands of years: the Valmar Trade Corridor, which runs along the western length of the Petal, and the Vesyan Trade Route, which ends at Vondace, on its eastern edge. The Talicut Circuit, linking the two to form a loop, is its main artery, while myriads of relatively smaller hyperlanes connect the rest of the planets to the Circuit, among them the Ballarat Trail and the Anbel Run.