Core Civilians

The Confederate Core Worlds of Terra, Vision, Ran, and Xiabula, are as foreign to one another as any of the other nations are to each other. Vision is an otherworldly paradise two light years from Terra. Ran is more of a moon than a planet, in orbit of the massive Hydrogen Giant of the same name. Xiabula is a largely desert planet criss-crossed with canyons and jungles where monolithic pyramidal cities are carved into the planet’s crust.

The one thing unifying these planets is their status as Forerunner Worlds; previously inhospitable rocks where Glys spent centuries building cities replete with every amenity that a civilization could want, from synthetic life support to Starship gantries. All the new-born Mexam people had to do was fly there from Terra in the first generation of starships and walk into cities built just for them.

Core Civilians tend to be overwhelmingly wealthy and utterly oblivious to the hardships of life ancient humanity once endured. They’ve never seen manual labour other than tasks they have elected to take on, nor do they know disease, deformity, or death. Some of these people have been alive for 1000 years or more, trying to decode the Forerunner technologies involved in Slipstream Drives and Spotlights – a task which may take many millennia more to decipher. Most busy themselves with endless art and entertainment, or trade resources as if it were a game to beat their friends to being trillionaires.

Nearly every civilian owns a private home – there are enough mansion like estates to give one to every person alive in the Galaxy twice over, and enough servant androids to keep them maintained for millions of years. A scant few ever leave orbit. Those that do are usually traders or diplomats.

Despite this utopian surplus, the Articles of Confederation and Individualist Philosophy mean that vast numbers of people have abandoned the self-maintaining life support cities and in turn been willingly exiled to a re-enactment of ancient earth. They live as their ancestors did in anachronistic homesteads and tribal camps, some as primitive as the 10th century, others closer to the 21st.

The abject divide between the idyllic primitivism of colonies, and the mastery level technology of city life, has left an indelible mark on the classes of Core Civilian Socio-Economics.

There is no way to “go back” up the ladder. The CoreCiv elites are bound by law to ignore the tribes and colonists outside the city. Those who live outside the city walls look at them feeling like ants in a laboratory. Many view this as barbaric and unfair, while others see themselves as gods lording over their grateful subjects.