CNCS Border Territories

Although the league concept came about rather early in the independent political history of the planet, not all city-states have seen fit to formally ally themselves with others for trade and protection. Three of the Confederated Northern City-States’s members are not part of any league, but rather associate directly with the confederation as a whole. The city-states of Red Sands, Wounded Knee and Timmins are located beyond the edges of the confederation, in the Badlands. These settlements, along with the land they control around them, form the Border Territories of the Confederation.

Each city-state has its own government and is free to control its internal policies. The territories surrounding each settlement are officially under the nominal protection of the Northern Guard, the CNCS joint military. In truth, the Guard does little more than keep the peace, letting each city-state govern itself and its holding as it wishes, as long as it contributes to the CNCS’ coffers.

The border territories are wild places where life is much rougher than anywhere else in the confederation. Although the city-states claim total control over the land and settlements surrounding them, the truth is that the real power in the countryside is held by local chiefs, land owners and petty tyrants, many of whom keep the Northern Guard off their back by paying a seasonal tribute to the local Guard commander.

For protection, the city-states are hidden behind large makeshift fortifications (or holed up inside a crashed spaceship hulk, like Wounded Knee) and tightly control who and what come and go through their armored gates. Most of the habitations are simpler and more functional in both looks and design than the houses and estates found in the city-states further up north. Generally, the habitations are all huddled together in the shadow of the city’s great walls like frightened little children behind their mother’s skirt.