Dominions of the Ralsiian Star Empire:
These worlds have Premiers which can select representatives to the People's House, but the nobility of these worlds do not the titles yet to sit on the House of Lords for the entire Ralsiian Star Empire.
These worlds also may seem like easy pickings to many Pirates, but they're not. Though the worlds have minimal defenses in the form of Interceptors, Bombers, and Torpedo Boats, along with the occasional orbital platform, colonial forces have a long tradition and fight very hard, and in Pirate raids or attacks by minor races a world has yet to be overrun before a Division of the Royal Ralsiian Navy could arrive, usually consisting of one Light Cruiser leading twenty destroyers; A standard Destroyer Division, and more than enough to wipe the average force dispatched against such a world off the map.
Some of these colonies have orbital bases which are designed to serve as the homeports of one of the five massive fleets of the Ralsiian Star Empire; Four of the fleets change positions considerably, the fifth, the Home Fleet, being the exception, always stationed in the Concordiat System.
There are another two worlds, as well, the homeworlds of the defeated survivors of the Quadruple Entente, the Jarushlar-Kit, and the Yre'all. Both of these worlds are ruled harshly, their Governor Generals given relatively free reign, and there are quarantines in effect of both worlds; Neither have even speakers to the People's House, and no members of either species can leave their homeworld. Revolts are commonplace, and always put down by the Ralsiian Imperial Army.
On the other worlds, however, are genuine efforts to "Civilize" the populations, no matter how civilized they were before the Ralsiians took control. Like Imperialists teaching the natives of islands and colonies of the European powers of the 19th century, missionaries of the acceptable religions of the four major races, teachers, mystics, philosophers, etc, move to these worlds to teach the populace; Many times, the more rich members of these species will attempt to act as Ralsiians, dressing as close as they can, learning the languages, etc. Also, it is common for wealthy families on these worlds to send their children to Ralsiian schools off-world for education in everything Ralsiian. This has caused some problems in the form of revolutionary student groups.
Though some subjugated peoples had their own out of system colonies, the peoples of those worlds were forcibly evicted back to their home-systems, though at the same time artificial habitats were also built for them there; It is Ralsiian policy to have a subjugated species within one system instead of spread out throughout the Empire, though limited numbers of all such species except the two exceptions noted above travel "Out-System" (As opposed to "Off-World".. The RSE's peoples have a far more system-based outlook than planet-based.) as Soldiers or to learn at Ralsiian universities, etc.
[ Rifts® is a registered trademark owned by Kevin Siembieda and Palladium Books Inc.]
Writeup by Marina O'Leary (LusankyaN@aol.com ).
Reformatting by Kitsune (E-Mail Kitsune ).
Copyright © 2001, Marina O'Leary. All rights reserved.