Wanderer
All Those Who Wander are Not Lost
Wanderers, or Cosmopolitans are a people who were born traveling across the stars. During the Age of Exploration, trips between the Outer Rim and the Core World could take almost 10 months, round trip. To move the goods across the stars, some spacers spent their whole lives traveling from one side of the galaxy to the other. When their children were born aboard space ships, lightyears from any settled planet, many gave them no citizenship to a vast majority of the growing nationstates.
These wanderers brought with them goods from stars that were only a twinkle in the eyes of core worlders. They were always welcome to visit, but rarely to stay. As time went on and more generations were born into a life of traveling the Orion Arm, they formed a culture of their own. Many of them picked up beliefs and practices from the locals they spent time interacting with. Its why many Wanderers have so many shared holidays with all peoples, from earth day to Water Watch. Many of their own holidays tend to focus on the trials and triumphs of a life of travel.
After generations, the Wanderers began to take on a whole new culture of their own. The Cosmopolitan culture was first observed in places like Mordana, Draka, Straatos and Beacon, where the trade ships manned by thousands of wanderers would regularly bring the stories and ideas together in wanderer bars and clubs.
Their lack of specific homeworld or specific group also meant that the Wanderers were a welcoming culture. Many joined the wanderer caravans as a means of escaping a life on their homeworld. Many would only return to their homeworlds a handful of times in their lives. The Cosmopolitans were happy to welcome the help.
The trials of space travel have always been incredibly perioulous. A crew either worked together, or died. Caravans formed out of neccessity, where groups were less likely to be attacked by pirates or oppurtunistic warlords. It also meant that certain ships and crews could focus on specific tasks, like hauling, protection or fabrication. However, no matter the size of the caravan they all realized that each ship was important for the whole caravan to function. These caravans began to get so large that they formed the first Clans. Clans organized along specific routes, often negotiating as a group so they could score better contracts.
The Clans were key in founding the Union of Socialist Systems, helping spread their ideas around the galaxy at large. Wanderer clans regularly smuggled weapons and provided ships, pilots and money to resistance fighters who were opposed to the empire. The empire would broadly paint the wanderers as supporters of all groups opposed to the empire, which push the wanderers to the fringe of imperial influence.
The silence was what helped turn the Clans into nations. As space got smaller, the wanderers were forced to work under the thumb of more oppressive organizations. Some wanderers were forced to live among the asteroid belts or on defunct stations like High Sanctuary or the Long Belt. The silence was hard on the cosmopolitans, except for in a handful of places. In some places, the locals would kill the "void touched" wanderers in fear.
Diaspora
The shared lense of the Wanderer is the shared experience of diaspora into the Mid and Outer Rims. No longer traveling the Arm and instead, many of them found themselves as indentured servants, slaves, or oppressed majorities. Many spent their entire lives in super mines, onboard orbital mining rigs, or under the skies choked with smog and pollution. Cancer, disease and famine was regular among the Wanderers, and all the wealth they generated made its way to the richest, like the Imperial Nobility or Guilds. The wanderer clans in many places began to form their own nations, to try and work together to protect their own interests. In some regions, they were recognized, in others they were forced to go underground as resistance fighters.
The Cosmopolitans were key in ending the silence. In many regions, they had perserved the knowledge of the old gate routes that existed during the age of exploration. They helped re-chart the stars, and many of the Wanderer Nations began to reconnect with open arms. Tales had been passed down generation after generation of the great reunification.
Five Nations
Generations of isolation have formed distinct nations out of the former wanderer clans, though they all realize they have a shared heritage. When the gates re-opened, many had shared tales of a great re-unification aboard High Sanctuary. So, on the year 1 of the age of the spacer, the great wanderer nations met. For many months they negotiated, argued and compromised. What arose was the council of the Five Nations, a collective of roughly 8 trillion souls, more than three fourths of the wanderer population as a whole. Since then, while they are still considered part of the "Five Nations" treaty, there are more than two dozen various wanderer nation that are officially recognized under its protections.
The five nations are recognized by a handful of progressive governments, like the Union of Socialist Systems the Republican Remnant and the Red Sun Commonwealth. Others might view them as a self imposed diaspora of nomads. They hold no static territory, save for a few orbital stations and embassies. They do have their own courts to settle matters between cosmpolitans. However, the treaty allows the free passage and semi-nomadic residence in each of those who recognize the treaty. This treaty manifests differently in different regions of the orion arm. Under the Union, this gives nomads the same rights and freedoms as full citizens (much in line with their governing pillars) while the Coalition of Free Systems sees them as "semi"-citizens, entitled to free travel, medicine and not much else. Some governments like the Musura Federation have their treaty terms on a system by system basis.
Most of those not represented within the five nations are either so small that they merely represent a handful of a persistent clan, are so scattered around Far Space that they are rarely even contactable to get their input, or they are part of the Gemini. The Gemini nation purposely remains indepedent of the five nations. They, politically, believe that the five nations shackles them, and that the cosmopolitans need no central organization, and they do not need to cooperate with one another. A rare few actively work against the five nations, but most are simply pleased to gripe about their existence over the Omni-net.
Culture
Shared customary codes and values
Art & Architecture
Common Taboos
Common Myths and Legends
