Talbott Cluster
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The Talbott Cluster is a fictional region of space in the Honorverse (the background setting of David Weber's Honor Harrington series of novels). The Cluster is the main setting of the spin-off novel The Shadow of Saganami.
It is possible that the Talbott Cluster in, Cleveland, Ohio native, David Weber's science fiction writings is named for Dayton Ohio resident Harold E. Talbott Jr. Since David Weber's books, especially those set in the Honorverse, frequently criticize interference by politicians in military matters. Talbott was the third secretary of the United States Air Force during the Eisenhower administration. He resigned in 1955 following a congressional investigation into conflicts of interest with his business activities.
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[edit] Overview
The Talbott Cluster is a group of seventeen inhabited star systems located in the "Verge" -the area of space immediately beyond the borders of the Solarian League-. Compared with other worlds in the Honorverse, the systems of the Talbott Cluster have been recently colonized, and they are underdeveloped and poor.
The Cluster comes into play in the Honorverse after the charting of the seventh terminus of the Manticore Wormhole Junction (War of Honor), which is located in the nearby Lynx System. With the San Martin annexation precedent in mind, several interest groups in the Cluster (headed by the Rembrandt Trade Union) launched a Cluster-wide referendum on requesting annexation within the Star Kingdom of Manticore. Annexation was approved by overwhelming majorities in every system of the Cluster, and a Constitutional Convention was assembled to organize a unified Cluster government under Manticoran sovereignty. Despite some delaying tactics by Cluster politicians intended on preserving the existing power structures, a Constitution was passed and the Cluster has joined the Star Kingdom of Manticore.
The Solarian League's Office of Frontier Security has long been the greatest threat to the Cluster's independence and way of life, as it has always targeted the Cluster's systems for annexation within the League. Frontier Security, alongside with Solarian corporations and the planet Mesa, engaged in a campaign to support violent groups within the Cluster, with the intention of provoking chaos, forcing Manticore out and allowing Frontier Security into the Cluster with the excuse of "pacification". The plot was foiled by elements of the Royal Manticoran Navy.
The most powerful group of interest in the Cluster is the Rembrandt Trade Union (RTU), a consortium of governments, merchant lines and businessmen from four star systems, with headquarters on Rembrandt. The RTU was founded by Rembrandter merchant Bernardus Van Dort, as a consortium with the goal of developing the Cluster's economies and making their systems strong enough to resist Frontier Security. Unfortunately, the RTU has resorted in the past to strong-arming the Cluster's governments into granting concessions to its activities. The RTU (and Bernardus Van Dort) was the driving force behind the annexation campaign and referendum.
As a side note, the name "Talbott Cluster" is actually a misnomer, as it is neither a star cluster nor it is centered on the Talbott System; it was just a convenient designation given by the Office of Frontier Security to the region of the Verge they controlled from their station at the Talbott System.
The Lynx System itself and the Lynx Terminus' system also fall outside of the Talbott Cluster, but are quite close by. Although the Talbott Cluster is petitioning to join Manticore, Lynx and the Terminus' systems have already been annexed.
The volume of space the cluster and terminus are in is considered the Monica Sector by Frontier Security, after a star system just outside the cluster, which is an OFS proxy.
[edit] Systems
[edit] Celebrant
An otherwise unremarkable system located to the "north" of the Cluster.
[edit] Dresden
- Inhabited planet: Dresden
- Capital city: Oldenburg
Until recent years, Dresden was one of the most grindingly poor systems of the Cluster, completely devoid of any modern medical or educational establishment. Ever since the Dresdener government signed an accord with the Rembrandt Trade Union, the situation of Dresden has improved, although it is still a long way from prosperity.
[edit] Montana
- Inhabited planet: Montana
- Capital city: Brewster
Montana has been settled by North Americans intended on keeping their way of life. The planet's culture and environment strongly resemble the Old West, and Montanans make a point of being extremely individualistic, ornery and honorable. The system's police force is the Montana Marshals Service. A local leading citizen, Stephen Westman, founded the Montanan Independence Movement, a group which tried to prevent the annexation; unlike Nordbrandt, Westman tried to avoid shedding blood, and surrendered after evidence was found linking the Solarian League with his activities, a support of which Westman was unaware.
[edit] New Tuscany
Another Cluster system ruled by a group of oligarchs. Its government supported a Constitution which "preserved" the Cluster's traditional power structures. It is the only Cluster system which was not annexed by the Star Kingdom of Manticore.
[edit] Nuncio
- Inhabited planets: Pontifex, Basilica
- Capital city: Ollander Landing
A system settled by religious émigres. Just like Grayson, the planet's environmental conditions killed most of the original colonists who landed on Basilica. The survivors fled to Pontifex, where most of the system's population resides. Unlike Grayson, the hardships endured by the colonists transformed them (or at least the vast majority of them) into enthusiastic atheists. Nuncio is sparsely populated and severely outdated in technology.
[edit] Pequod
A system located to the "north" of the Cluster.
[edit] Prairie
A member system of the Rembrandt Trade Union.
[edit] Redoubt
A member system of the Rembrandt Trade Union.
[edit] Rembrandt
- Inhabited planet: Rembrandt
- Capital city: Vermeer
One of the most prosperous systems of the Cluster. The colony was founded by a group of Dutch Renaissance revivalists that intended to create an utopia, a project that failed due to the planet's cold and harsh weather. Rembrandt has developed a large -by Cluster standards- merchant marine and, together with three other systems, established the Rembrandt Trade Union, a powerful merchant cartel which has brought prosperity to these four worlds -at the expense of some unfair deals with the rest of the Cluster.
[edit] San Miguel
Rembrandt's major partner in the RTU. Also prosperous compared to the rest of the Cluster.
[edit] Scarlet
[edit] Spindle
- Inhabited planet: Flax
- Capital city: Thimble
Located near the center of the Cluster, Spindle is a standard Cluster system: poor, underdeveloped and dominated by an oligarchy in democratic trappings. The system serves as the seat of the Constitutional Convention, and it will also be the center of government once annexation is complete. The Royal Manticoran Navy's Talbott Station is headquartered at Spindle. Spindle's president, Samiha Lababibi, has also supported Tonkovic and her delaying tactics.
[edit] Split
- Inhabited planet: Kornati
- Capital city: Karlovac
Founded by colonists of Balkan heritage, Kornati is a poor star nation whose political system is controlled by a group of oligarchs which resemble the Havenite Legislaturalists. Living conditions are far from adequate, and the planet's lower classes depend on government-provided social security checks. The Kornatian President, Aleksandra Tonkovic, was the leader of a faction which delayed the sanction of a Constitution until Manticore gave autonomy to the Cluster's worlds -the intention was to preserve the existing ruling cliques. A former Kornatian member of Parliament, Agnes Nordbrandt, led the so-called Freedom Alliance of Kornati (FAK) into a brutal terrorist campaign aimed at deposing the existing government and prevent annexation within Manticore.
[edit] Talbott
- Inhabited planet:
- Capital city:
Talbott system is the sector-star for the Talbot Cluster. It is not centrally located, but a Solarian League cartographer just used it as a convenient name for the group of inhabited stars in close proximity to it.
[edit] Tillerman
- Inhabited planet:
- Capital city:
A system located to the "south" of the Cluster. The Solarian Gendarmerie scouted at least one anti-annexation group in the system.
[edit] Rembrandt Trade Union
The Rembrandt Trade Union(RTU) is an interstellar merchant-transport entity set up by its founder and majority shareholder Bernardus Van Dort between four worlds in the Talbott Cluster as a means evade ingestion into the Solarian League by the Office of Frontier Security (OFS). Part of its mission statement highlights the fact that the goal of the corporation was to acquire sufficient economic capital for their member worlds to ensure that they might not suffer the fate of other OFS "protectorates" of the Solarian League. Its membership consists of:
- Rembrandt - The homeworld of Van Dort and the headquarters of the RTU.
- San Miguel - The second system to sign on to the RTU when it was formed and the home of Joachim Alquezar whose family owns 12% of controlling stock in the RTU.
- Prairie
- Redoubt
Much like the Star Kingdom of Manticore controls much of the interstellar commerce in the known galaxy, the RTU controls most of the merchant traffic in the Talbott Cluster and like the SKM are resented for it. With the fear of the OFS looming over the RTU member-planets, as all others in the Verge, they have been compelled to negotiate contracts that were less than equitable to their trade-partners. Up until the Constitutional Convention this policy was embraced by Van Dort during his tenure as Chairman of the RTU and even to a greater degree by his successor Ineka Vaandrager.
To their credit it was Bernardus Van Dort and the RTU which organized the cluster-wide plebiscite to request annexation from the Star Kingdom of Manticore, seeing this as a solution to the threat posed by the OFS.
[edit] Nearby systems
[edit] Lynx
- Inhabited planet:
- Capital city:
Lynx is a system just outside the Talbott Cluster, and the nearest inhabited system to the Lynx Terminus, hence the naming of the terminus. Upon discovery of the terminus, Lynx petitioned for and was granted entry into the Manticore Star Kingdom.
[edit] Lynx Terminus
- Inhabited planet: none
- Capital city: Lynx Terminus Astro Control
The Lynx Terminus is located in a non-descript red dwarf system with some asteroids and no habitable planets. The closest habitable planet is Lynx, in the Lynx system, some 14 hours away in hyper. The terminus system is just outside the Talbott Cluster. The Terminus System was immediately annexed by Manticore.
[edit] Monica
- Inhabited planet: Monica
- Capital city: Estelle
Monica is a system just outside the Talbott Cluster. The planet deals extensively with the Solarian League's Office of Frontier Security, providing it with mercenaries. It also provides services for the Jessyk Combine, Manpower, and Mesa. Its main military station and astroidal processing node is Eroica Station. The system was conquered by Captain Terehkov and his adhoc squadron.
