The Mark of Sol

This is a region of space, with borders largely coinciding with those of the Sol sector, is otherise known as the Technocratium Restricted Zone, because it is the primary administrative region of the Technocratium.

The Mark of Sol is politically, a strange place, the individual traveller is not supposed to be there, but, at the same time, and as long as they are not making large waves, they are unlikely to be heavily regulated by one duke or another. The 36-lightyear diameter volume of space is a place of relative freedom for the small-time miscreant.

The miscreants are many, drawn by this relative freedom and by the lure of salvage (the Rift Wars saw some of its heaviest fighting here) and they are unafraid, ignorant or unperturbed by the dangers.

Beyond other miscreants, the dangers in this region of space are many, some of them are detailed in the following headings.

Scersic Rifts

Ever since The Event in 2552, there have been echoes in time and space, which find their most obvious expression in the Scersic Rifts. From the point of view of a space traveller, a scersic rift is a region of space that can, quite suddenly, become extremely deformed over a short period of time. This can be as mild as being a challenge to navigation to as extreme as opening a portal to a parallel universe, or creating a singularity. Thankfully, the overwhelming majority of these instabilities occur in the same places, which have been mapped.

Through the extensive and unregulated use of some dangerously unstable portals during the Rift Wars the scersic rift problem was exacerbated, and the predictability of their location and timing was reduced somewhat.

All of this amounts to a +15 increase to the Challenge on your strike roll. You can subtract the distance from Sol of your destination in lightyears from this increase. The mishap from a failed roll, includes other possibilities than just ending up in a random nearby location as shown in the following table.

Expeditionary Dukes

For various, mostly economic, reasons some of the dukes of the core systems (those immediately outside the The Mark of Sol), may have a contingent of their forces mount an expedition into the Mark of Sol. This is usually because they have some arrangement with one or more Guild Navigators, or they are hiring outside (usually Syndicratium) help. Both are extremely illegal. Anyone encountering such expeditions had probably better run, as these contingents will clean their surrounds of witnesses with extreme prejudice.

Technocratium Security

Don’t let the name fool you, these are a full-on contingent of crack troops, that will destroy anything that isn’t them, or a sanctioned mission. Thankfully, most individuals are beneath their radar, unless they happen to track right across their screens. Unlike the expeditionary dukes, these will not fire first and ask questions later, rather they will extend you the (brief) courtesy of finding out who you are first.

Various Syndicratium Expeditions

These often pose as independent contractors (not connected to any corporation in the Syndicratium), so as to not invite scrutiny from Technocratium Security. However this means that they must avoid any expeditionary dukes, unless they were actually hired by them. Depending on their circumstances, they are going to be dangerous to anyone that knows who they actually are.

Peak Sect Forces

Of all the xanji, the Peak Sect are the most likely to be encountered in the Mark of Sol. For these guys, the Rift Wars never ended, and they wage a constant, asymmetric war with any Monarchrate really, but they most hate the Neolodian Church. For the general traveller or pirate, these are not as dangerous as any expeditionary duke, it depends on how much like the Monarchrate you look and act.