Sectors of the Foundation

The Foundation is split up into three sectors, and whatever system your characters are making trouble for is in one of them. Each sector has its own character and themes to explore, and the three sectors of the Foundation vary greatly in terms of technology, culture and government.

The Core is a tight cluster of four systems, all within a few parsecs of each other, along with a number of smaller outposts and satellite colonies. It’s the first place humanity set its sights on when it escaped its own doom and arrived in a new home; its birthright is the legacy of the Old Earth.

The core systems are the stronghold of humanity’s supposed government, the Foundation, and the center of the inhabited universe - or at least, that’s how they see themselves. Some would call the Core the pinnacle of human civilisation and technology. Others would call it a repressive oligarchy ruled by hereditary dynasties and an entrenched elite.

The Incorporated Territories represent most of the successful and established colonies that actually make up the human diaspora. As long as they obey the mandates of the Foundation and cooperate when they are told to, they are given broad latitude and significant autonomy.

If that autonomy is often overshadowed by the megacorporations that treat the Territories like their personal playground - well, that’s the price you pay for technology and modern conveniences. In many systems, the local governments are little more than pawns in the endless games of espionage and power that take place between faceless, monolithic corporate machines.

The Rim is the true frontier - it may no longer be rapidly expanding, but new systems are still being charted and settled to this day. It is home to the most remote systems that humans have settled in thus far, and to the youngest colonies. Though the Foundation still proclaims its sovereignty over them, the Rim systems are mostly or entirely beyond its ability to enforce any kind of law other than the occasional bout of frontier justice.

That doesn’t mean they get away unscathed, though. With isolation comes neglect, and many Rim systems became forgotten backwaters when the initial boom of interstellar colonisation died down. The fledgling colonies that held onto their independence paid a heavy price for it, and many are still paying. Life on the Rim can be brutal and short, but freedom from the imperialism of the Foundation is worth it for some.