The free worlds represent the vast majority of human-settled space, spanning no

less than a hundred thousand systems. It is a patchwork of communes, kingdoms,

dictatorships, anarcho-capitalist states and every other kind of government
imaginable (or lack thereof). No central government exists save for the ceaseless
back-and-forth of envoys across the long dark, trading alliances, secrets and
favours in a eternal web of secrets and endless wars.
Despite this, the Free Worlds are humanity's accepted bywords not for violence,
bloodshed or political intrigue. Instead, the hundreds of thousands of unique
cultures, countless relics of the bygone United Human Federation and the remarkably
stable trading routes comprehensively cartographed by the _____, a undeniably alien
monument spanning the size of a dwarf planet, data translated into every human
language ever transmitted and billions more unknown languages all have turned the
Free Worlds into a vibrant and exorbitantly rich trading hub, where billions of
goods are bought and sold every second. From farmers markets to flesh traders to
ruin delvers, nothing is impossible in the Free Worlds. This river Nile of wealth
and power, stretches from the central trading hubs to the even larger network of
black markets, extending to all four corners of known space and even further
thereafter.

Neither the People's Free Republics nor the Corporate Authorities Alliances have
managed to make headway into securing significant ground in these free worlds. On
no less than two seperate occasions have the CAA attempted acquisitions of
strategic trading hubs, only to be trapped in gruelling campaigns against defenders
from hundreds of different territories, Lords, barons, prime ministers and commune-
general alike united in their determination to protect their sovereignty. Terrible
secrets were unleashed to defend against legions of Knights and Corporate soldiers,
defenders wielding estoric technologies and magic rumored to be even beyond what
the UHF could achieve before it's fall. At least one true A.I was recorded to have
been deployed against the CAA at the height of the conflict, the planet it fought
on erased to prevent contamination.

The People's Free Republics occasionally entreat border systems - with little
success. The ruling classes have but everything to lose and nothing to gain. Fear
of united reprisal against the PFR at a time where the Free Worlds control the
Empty Belt- the only portal system with direct links between the Republics and the
Corporations.

A tense peace has hence enveloped the Free Worlds in the backdrop of the unforseen
CAA withdrawal from beseiged Republic fortress worlds. The possibility that the
largest swath of known space might become the newest battleground in the war
between the two superpowers becomes a ever-likening inevitability every day,
especially as news of a hijacked top-secret Republic research vessel with crew,
data and storage being smuggled across the Free Worlds reaches the Central
Assembly.