It might seem reasonable that, in the Midlands at least, a world or group of worlds might arise to challenge the Grand Human Union's hegemony. After all domination has always been a strong characteristic of human interaction. Strength is often the determining factor of history rather than morality.
The propagation of superior technology from the Highland's center to its edges have resulted in a practical dominance of the Union of the worlds along its borders. They tend to be highly dependent on the Highlands and incorporation quickly becomes a foregone conclusion.
Most experts known that eventually a large enough group of worlds outside the Highlands will become organized enough and be stubborn enough to resist absorption, but this has not happened yet, and there are no polities within a hundred light years of the border organized enough or large enough to realistically worry about. Farther than that worlds tend to lag technologically behind the Highlands, so even a fairly large grouping of worlds are not really considered a threat, at least not to the Union.
These world groups are themselves sometimes targets of their less enlightened neighbors. The Union, and its Star Legion seldom take part in these conflicts, but their have been exceptions. The militant orders are more likely to take a stand, especially if the Church is threatened by these disagreements.
No comments:
Post a Comment