STellar Nations: Once and Future Meta-Empires?
There are a number of holes in the definition of a meta-empire, with no one uniform definition fitting everything that is typically considered to be a meta-empire. Most definitions outside of those that concern themselves with size exclude one or more of the polities that conventional wisdom holds is a meta-empire: the definition of "civilization as polity" leaves out the Verge Consortium; the definition of "multiple national entities and states" leaves out the Imperium and Nariac (and to lesser extent, the Borealis Technocracy); definitions regarding size will invariably end up sitting the mark so low that Nariac ends up getting left out; basing the definition on economic power can sometimes leave out the Monarchy and Nariac; basing them on government types means that the Monarchy and the Imperium functionally become the same since both are absolute monarchies when anyone with even just a passing familiarity knows that isn't the case.
However, averaging out all the definitions produces a list of meta-empires that can be treated as reasonably reliable; names that often appear across the lists but only get left off one or two lists can generally be considered meta-empires: the Andromeda Regency, the Aquila Imperium, the Borealis Technocracy, the Nariac Republic, the Pavonis Monarchy, and the Verge Consortium. However, it's the names that wind up on half the lists but not on the other half that present problems; names like StarMech, the Australis Union, the Orion Umma, the Archosaur Autocracy, the Yellowstone Demarchy, and the Shangtao Imperial State. A number of megacorps often make the list, too, despite not being governments: VoidCorp and the Worldtree Commons being the two largest, although Mittlesohn and Xu Wu often creep on a handful of them. These are not full-blown meta-empires, but by some metrics they equal the meta-empires while being surpassed in others. To cover the odd negative space that these entities fill, some sociologists use the term stellar nation. What makes a stellar nation is even more poorly defined than what makes a meta-empire, since stellar nation, as a concept, was designed to fill the gaps left by a concept that barely had a unified definition itself. Despite this, the convention a definition of a "stellar nation" is often "a meta-empire, but less", which can be problematic when one realizes that VoidCorp as a megacorp has a larger economy than Nariac as a meta-empire, or that Australis Union has a much larger military than the Pavonis Monarchy, and depending on how one defines "human", the Exeat Theocracy may one of the largest populations in the Verge and Bleed. Many stellar nations are often on the cusp of being meta-empires by even most conventional definitions of meta-empire: the Australis Union is the best example of this, followed closely by the StarMech Collective. Others, like the Krabill'sk Cluster, may technically qualify as meta-empires, but nobody is 100% sure if the Krabill'sk are human, God AI-designed, or are legitimately alien. An interesting economic consequence of stellar nations is that they are often smaller in a number of ways and thus, lack the ability to control multiple wormholes. For them, the typical meta-empire policy of automated mercantilism doesn't apply; they require trade, because their economies simply aren't large enough to reliably carry out automated mercantilism effectively. This has lead to one of the most interesting definitions of meta-empire: a polity for whom automated mercantilism is a viable strategy. This would cover all the major meta-empires, but it also nets the Australis Union, StarMech, VoidCorp, and others, so it's just a reminder that every definition has its flaws. |
Indistinct CulturesWhile not universally true, one of the most interesting observations about stellar nations is that they lack distinctive interior cultures or cultural entities. What this means is that the culture of a stellar nation is often similar to a neighboring meta-empire. For instance, the Australis Union and StarMech share similar cultural features, because they descend from the same cultural heritage. While the Andromeda Regency has a number of planets with distinctive cultures, all of which are part of an obvious overarching culture - and the same can be said for Nariac, the Imperium, the Technocracy, and the Monarchy - it can't be said for StarMech and the Australis Union, or the Archosaur Autocracy, all of which tend to have identical cultures across different planets, or have planets who diverge very little culturally from the baseline "meta-culture." This is to be expected from smaller polities, but it also points out an interesting and possible distinction between the two: meta-empires are collections of different cultures that all share a same cultural heritage, while stellar nations all have the same cultural heritage but lack the unique cultures that developed from it. Naturally, there are exceptions. The Krabill'sk Cluster is a prominent example: there are many different cultures within the Cluster, having developed from a number of "meta-cultures." The Yellowstone Demarchy is another counter example, with the former Glitterbelt at one time housing hundreds of different cultures and social models. However, no definition will be perfect, and this one highlights an interesting fact that serves as a reminder of scale more than anything: even the largest of the stellar nations, like the Australis Union, is still small compared to the Meta-empires, regardless how many wormholes they may control. |
The STellar Nations
Dividing a stellar nation from a meta-empire isn't easy and in many cases there is significant overlap. However, many of the names below appear on lists that attempt to define both the stellar nation and the meta-empire, with some of them crossing between the two lists.
Archosaur AutocracyInsightOrion UmmaStarmech collectiveYellowstone Demarchy |
Australis UnionKrabillsk ClusterOrlamu TheocracyVerge ConfederationWorldTree Commons |
Exeat TheocracyLucullus LeagueShangtao Imperial StateVoidCorp |
Future of the STellar Nations
The future of the stellar nations is a common theme of discussion in some historical circles. Being smaller than the meta-empires on average, many suspect that he stellar nations will eventually merge and become meta-empires in their own right, or grow to become meta-empires. The current trajectory of some of the stellar nations, such as StarMech and the Australis Union, seem to suggest just that. However, not everyone agrees; some suspect that the stellar nations will grow, rise, and eventually fall just like nations before them did, only to be replaced by something else. Just as with the meta-empires, the ultimate fate of the stellar nations really depends on which theory one accepts regarding what precisely they are, and the only certain thing that can be said is that they exist now, and will likely continue to exist into the foreseeable future. ∎