[Dave, more 1248 talk ...]
>>OK, I totally grant you the whole “good Solomani” and “evil Solomani” empires.
>>That is 100% true. But for the rest? I dunno. There was only one Vilani empire;
>
>You are right, Mike.
>
>I think I probably meant to write "Good Regency/Bad Regency" there, and somehow
>typed "Vilani" instead. And of course the successor cultures of 1248 are more
>nuanced than my "evil twin" metaphor, but it still seems a lot like MJD wanted
>to have his cake and eat it too with almost every major civilization.
For the Regency, it isn't so much Good Regency/Bad Regency, but rather Bad Regency and everyone else. And everyone else is varying shades of gray. (Though the League of Spinward States and Regina are obviously portrayed positively.) Also, unlike most other places that are at the beginning of "the new normal" (e.g. Freedom League and Terran Confederation), the Spinward Domain is simply at the "calm before the storm". Basically, everything is about to go down, and things will change, potentially a lot.
The Imperial Regency is very much a transition state. It is untenable in its current state, and it has to settle its leadership (their leader is old and has been somewhat marginalized) and determine its leadership succession. It also has to react to its overall political failures and the fact that 2/3s of its member worlds has left. That will most likely be bloody, violent, and take a while. I figure you are looking at 10-20 years of active conflict, followed by 20 years of fallout. Even if the Imperial Regency decides to not go military, it has to decide what it wants to be "when it grows up". And if it does go to war, it is going to eventually get stonewalled by its surviving enemies (I don't see it beating either League or reaching Regina). Either way, it will end up expanding across the Rift and have to deal with the ramifications of that.
>None of this stops me from being a huge fan of the 1248 setting!
I am glad you enjoyed the setting. But then, I am biased ...
Mike West
>>OK, I totally grant you the whole “good Solomani” and “evil Solomani” empires.
>>That is 100% true. But for the rest? I dunno. There was only one Vilani empire;
>
>You are right, Mike.
>
>I think I probably meant to write "Good Regency/Bad Regency" there, and somehow
>typed "Vilani" instead. And of course the successor cultures of 1248 are more
>nuanced than my "evil twin" metaphor, but it still seems a lot like MJD wanted
>to have his cake and eat it too with almost every major civilization.
For the Regency, it isn't so much Good Regency/Bad Regency, but rather Bad Regency and everyone else. And everyone else is varying shades of gray. (Though the League of Spinward States and Regina are obviously portrayed positively.) Also, unlike most other places that are at the beginning of "the new normal" (e.g. Freedom League and Terran Confederation), the Spinward Domain is simply at the "calm before the storm". Basically, everything is about to go down, and things will change, potentially a lot.
The Imperial Regency is very much a transition state. It is untenable in its current state, and it has to settle its leadership (their leader is old and has been somewhat marginalized) and determine its leadership succession. It also has to react to its overall political failures and the fact that 2/3s of its member worlds has left. That will most likely be bloody, violent, and take a while. I figure you are looking at 10-20 years of active conflict, followed by 20 years of fallout. Even if the Imperial Regency decides to not go military, it has to decide what it wants to be "when it grows up". And if it does go to war, it is going to eventually get stonewalled by its surviving enemies (I don't see it beating either League or reaching Regina). Either way, it will end up expanding across the Rift and have to deal with the ramifications of that.
>None of this stops me from being a huge fan of the 1248 setting!
I am glad you enjoyed the setting. But then, I am biased ...
Mike West