The Islands Subsectors

The Islands subsectors were colonised around the time the Third Imperium was founded by sublight colony ships in transit for many centuries. Most colonists spent the entire trip in cryogenic suspension, with some awake at any given time to deal with contingencies. One result of this long time spent in stasis is that the culture of the Islands is essentially two thousand years closer to that of Old Earth at the beginning of the Interstellar Wars than Imperial-standard culture. The Islanders also missed out on hundreds of years of Vilani and other cultural influences. There are several powers within the Islands, most of which have a culture that can be traced back to a nation or region on Old Earth. The major powers are either first or second-generation colonies. The first three systems settled by the colony ships got a head start but the worlds they went to next have also developed into powerful states. Later colonisation, conducted with vessels built at first-generation worlds, resulted in smaller settlement programmes that remained colonial possessions. Until recently, the Islanders did not have jump drive technology, colonising the worlds of their cluster using sublight ships. This represents a very different mindset to that of the Imperium – as they say: ‘Imperials think a century is a long time, Islanders think a parsec is a long way’. The situation changed when an Imperial vessel accidentally misjumped into the Islands and some of the locals gained the secret of jump travel. To redress the imbalance of power this caused, well-meaning Imperial scouts disseminated the jump drive to all major cultures in the Islands. This did not have the intended effect of restoring stability; quite the opposite. Despite common origins and a shared heritage – or perhaps because of it – the powers of the Islands mistrust one another deeply. Alliances are possible and can endure, but peace is always fragile and tensions run high. It would not take much to trigger a highly destructive war between two powers and such a conflict could spread to engulf the whole region.