Niops Association

The Niops Association consists of three worlds lying between the Free Worlds League and the Marian Hegemony.

Planetary Data

• World Name: Niops VII
• Star Type: M5V
• Position in System: 7
• Time to Jump Point: 2.44 days
• Recharging Station: None
• Political Ruler: High Associator Brandex Da-Ri
• ComStar Facility Class: None
• ComStar Representative: None
• Population: 13,245,000
• Percentage and Level of Native Life: 30%, Fish

Description

The capital of the Niops Association is a cold, temperate planet with abundant aquatic life and fresh water sources. Like its companion planets, Niops V and Niops VI, Niops Vll was settled so that scientists could establish the first generations-long examination of a failing star. Isolated by the events of the Civil War and later the Succession Wars, the Niops community polarized into a elite scientific minority and a dependent unskilled labour force made up of refugees from the Inner Sphere. With plenty of geothermal energy and fusion technologies at their disposal, the ruling elite provide comfortable standards of living for their multitudes of "retainers," but at the price of complete submission to their wills and their desires.

History

In mid-2700, Star League scientific research teams settled these planets to observe stellar evolution, but they became cut off from the Inner Sphere at the start of the Civil War. Contact was later renewed when refugees from the Capellan Confederation arrived at the close of the First Succession War. The tales of mass destruction and loss of life convinced the locals that they would be better off forgotten by the galaxy. While the scientific community on the planet continued their elaborate research, the Capellan newcomers were gradually absorbed into the social order as skilled labourers and agricultural specialists.

As the descendants of the science teams became increasingly influential over the semi-skilled labourers and farm hands, a scientific technocracy developed in the Niops planets. Gradually, the majority of the planets' populace bartered away their freedoms in exchange for guarantees of economic survival and education for their children. This last element became a powerful weapon, as the ruling elite saw education as a way to keep the masses in check.

With Star League technology at their disposal, the technocrats have developed a "Master Purpose" that has grown to semi-religious proportions. Maintaining a cold-blooded aristocracy, the privileged elite are loyal only to themselves and their own petty desires.

Increased interest in the near Periphery, as well as recent political upheavals, have resulted in many changes for the Association. In the mid-3060s, the military adventurism of the Marian Hegemony prompted the Niops Association to sell centuries of novel research to corporate interests within the Inner Sphere. The outright sale and licensing of research has allowed the Association to pay for added protections. Further, increased awareness of the Periphery has drawn much positive attention to Niops Association. Because of this increased profile, the Association has become the preferred destination for scientist of all sorts, but especially astronomers, within the Periphery.

Bibliography

• Handbook: Major Periphery States