Well among my other innumerable BattleTech projects my effort to catalogue the Rim (or at least its non canon worlds created by fans and posted online) remained in the background until the release of ISP3. A very nice book that sheds light on the entire Periphery. Now what I'm focusing in on in this thread will be the Anti Spinward Reaches which instead of blowing up my old setting actually gave me a place for it. What got my attention last night was the story of the Axumite Providence.
*SPOILERS AHEAD*Set in the Providence Cluster is a culture that reminds me of my ideas for the Aurelius Star Cluster. Both the canon region and my creation were teaming with life. Both were settled by Arabic colonists fleeing the Terran Alliance. Now events in canon didn't work out like I had planned in my non canon setting but that doesn't mean I can't use it for another alternate work which I had planned for BT Shattered Dawn. So to me the new Axumite Providence equals my old Aurolian Confederacy which I was very happy with.
Now right next door is the equally exciting Aquila Rift which is based on the real deal (I looked it up
). This stellar region is smack dab where the rest of my Rim Campaign was set. Maybe I'll send Blacknova the map so he can overlay it. I'd love to have a look myself. However would human settlement of the Rift be possible given this quote from ISP3?
The dense molecular dust clouds of the Rift shield much of the coreward areas of this operations area from visual astronomical observations, and the solar systems contained within have dim night skies with few stars visible through the dust.
Also the Rift name itself makes me doubt the abundance of stars to pick and choose from. The less stars you have the less habitable planets is my thinking. However, it sounds like the perfect place to hide stuff and the whole tantalizing idea I had in the first place was a secret area for the Rim Worlds to develop its secret army. What region could be better and set so ideally for such an endeavor?
Exploration along the assumed route that Kerensky took on his Exodus drew attention away from the Aquila Rift.
Another positive for my story concerning the lack of true knowledge of the Rift. I'm thinking my nations could be there all the time in the dark without the InnerSphere ever knowing.
I'd love to talk about the Outworlds Wastes, the Bug Eye killing my idea for OmniShips, and much much more but I'd really like to concentrate on the old Rim still. What do you guys think?
