The Great Clans

The Great Clans are the major historic divisions of humanity, predating the Terran Sphere. Part political movement, part race, part guild, the clans serve now as labels although few people can claim to be entirely descended from any one clan. They first formed in the Federation, when people found themselves split by the conditions of space travel. Some travelled between stars, living long lives at near-light speed while those on planets aged and died. Naturally they grouped more closely with each other, and these groups became clans. The Great War dissolved and reformed the first clans, to further meet the needs of battle. In the thousands of years since the war, they have split further.

The Aristocracy

The Aristocracy are the remnants and descendants of the ruling class of the Empire. Their authority and influence fragmented with the Empire during the Disappearance, and most of the clan became introspective, brooding on the past glories of their families and cultivating a melancholy air of mourning and aloofness while fighting for status among their peers. Although their real power is gone, their connections and formal claims give them significant status as diplomats and negotiators. (Full article)

Founders

This is the proudest of all classes, even more than the Spartans. Founders believe themselves to be direct lineal descendants of ancient human rulers, and are the norm against which other humans are compared. Their history is intertwined with that of the Empire, and they are closely related to the old Aristocracy. Their capitol, Safe Harbour, was once the capitol of the entire Empire. While their former glory has diminished, they remain one of the most powerful of the great clans, with influence almost everywhere humans are known. (Full article)

Spartans

Perhaps the best-known of the clans, and certainly the strongest, the Spartans are the military class of the Empire and the only clan to govern an entire large volume of space on their own. Although they are fiercely independent and neither serve nor ally with other clans, their help can be bought and they can be counted on to aid in any battle that affects humanity generally. Physically they are normal, and psychologically their only noted variation is legendary stubbornness. Culturally, they are greatly different from the mainstream of humanity, with their strong emphasis on self-discipline and war training. The capital of the Spartan Hold is New Thermopylae, where the ruling Duke (named Leonidas by ancient tradition) is the eighty-third in his line, holding office until he is judged to have lost the ability to command, at which point he is voted out by his lieutenants. (Full article)

Spacers

Spacers are the descendants of starship crew and colonists of vacuum environments. Since their lives depend completely on technology their culture revolves around it and many of the Spacers have made themselves into cyborgs of various degrees. Physically they are normal except for an adaptation to low-gravity environments, which prevents them from easy travel on most worlds. Their traditional base is Portal, where their current leader is Grand Admiral Sanghera. Few of them were among the disappeared. (Full article)

Drylanders

Drylanders are a physical variant on the human norm, adapted to worlds with low temperature and air pressure. Their nature implies that they are found primarily on certain kinds of worlds, although they can and do travel in standard environments freely. The drylanders are led by an elected trio, who meet on Altus and take turns living in residence there. Like the Founders, their leadership was also depleted during the Disappearance, and their new leaders are navigating complex political currents between groups who have reacted to the Disappearance in different ways. Some have turned inwards and want no further part of psi, while others are expansionist and want to follow the Disappeared. (Full article)

Aquans

Aquans come from water worlds. Like Spacers, they have adapted to an environment where humans cannot live without the help of technology. They are physically smaller than most humans after millenia of breeding to live in confined spaces, but are otherwise no different from the bulk of humanity. Aquans organize themselves in a feudal structure with leaders at the levels of each settlement, planet, and system plus the grand leader, who holds office on Marcus 3. (Full article)

Empaths

The Empaths are an ideological grouping rather than a physical one; they represent the faction of humanity perhaps most directly opposed to the Founders, and believe that humans should adapt themselves and their habits to suit the environments of planets they live on, rather than forcing their way with technology. Although the Empaths have no formal governing structure beyond the planet level, the leaders meet irregularly on the planet Xanadu. As one might expect, they were almost completely spared loss in the Disappearance. (Full article)

Taurans

The Taurans are another physical variant, a race of humanity adapted to high-radiation and high-gravity worlds. They are dark-skinned and stockier than usual, and have a high rate of mutations giving many of them peculiar characteristics such as predisposition or immunity to certain diseases. The Taurans are divided into numerous subclans, who traditionally held the leadership in turns. Their ruling council sits at Juba. Many Taurans ranked among the Disappeared, and their social structure has suffred from the loss. Many of the subclans now scramble and feud for the clan leadership. (Full article)

Clones

The Clones are the remnants of genetic experiments made at various times throughout history. Shunned for these experiments, the Clones take a perverse pride in their origins, reproducing asexually or only within their bloodlines, and prominently wearing clan tattoos. Outside their bloodline, they are less unified than most clans, being a collection of refugees united in response to discrimination, pogroms, and outright enslavement. Although they are almost universally despised, their planned breeding ensures they have traits which are too useful for the Clones to be totally outcast from society. (Full article)

Masons

These are a political clan, the descendants of a long-forgotten group of exiled dissidents. They choose to continue identifying themselves as a group and have a large body of written tradition which they protect zealously from outsiders. Masons are often the subject of muttered rumours, and there is an entire catalogue of conspiracy theories which blame them for the Disappearance. There is little evidence that they lost any more or fewer people than most clans, though. (Full article)

Pilgrims

The Pilgrims are another ideological clan. Followers of an ancient prophet named Xarus, they chose to spread into space away from other humans. The Pilgrims are known for their discipline and particular psychological traits such as extreme devotion. Their leader, the Pilgrim Prophet, is chosen by a conclave of planet leaders meeting on their capitol, Starholm, and holds office for life. The Pilgrims view the Disappearance as a punishment from God and some have begun to assert themselves very aggressively to fill the power vacuum it left, claiming themselves to be the natural and chosen new leaders. (Full article)

Inlookers

The Inlookers are the result of a eugenic movement that has been forgotten by everyone except the Inlookers themselves. Eccentric, intelligent and imaginative, they often figure in both great achievements and great scandals. Inlookers are generally valued throughout the empire, despite the difficulties of dealing with them, because many of them have rare and prized talents. While they very rarely attempt direct influence in politics, they are tightly organized and political and have significant indirect power. (Full article)

Other notable groups

The Walkers are descendants of traitors, those who chose to side with the Crucians in the Great War. The name is not one they chose for themselves, but has been stuck on them in memory of the Admiral who caused the human defeat at the Battle of Sentinel. Although the days are long past when a Walker could be murdered on sight with no harm coming to his killer, the stigma against them remains strong and they have become a secretive group.