POLITICAL STRUCTURE

        Kwown space is an irregular sphere of about 200 light years in
radius.  Most of the area is occupied by the ConFed, except for a smaller
sphere of ILR territory.  The periphery of known space is referred to as
the "rim", and contains a number of independent, unaligned worlds.  Quite
a few of these worlds have not been heard from since shortly after the 
beginning of the war.

   CONFED

        Before the war, the EDF could count on VLCC (Very Large Command 
Carriers) which could transport numerous mechanized infantry units.  Those
units also had extensive facilities that enabled them to manufacture just
about any piece of equipment, and even help rebuild a planet's industry so
long as supplies held.  Obviously, those ships were high-value targets, and
only one yet survives.
        The EDF controls a significant part of merchant shipping, and all
those merchants have been modified to receive armament and, when there are
enough ACVs (quite unlikely) they have the firepower of a frigate.  The
current EDF fleet strength is quite small, limited to one or two battle
cruisers, a few light cruisers, and handful of destroyers, and several ships
of lighter firepower.  Those ships are spread thin, very thin.  And most
of them have only a few ACVs on board due to the shortage of those missiles.


        THE HOMEGUARD

        While this used to be an EDF concern, system defense is now partially
left to the Homeguard: the EDF provides trained personel, and tries to faci-
litate the acquisition and transport of system defenses, but, in most cases,
does not have the ships necessary to assure the system defense of every
colony.

        
        PLANETARY GOVERNMENTS

        In few words, anything goes.  Dictatorship, democracy, comunism,
anarcho-syndicalism...  Odds are that somewhere, a given form of government
will exist.  So long as this does not violate the ConFed charter, ConFed has
little to say in the inner working of a government.
        In this age of trouble and uncertainty, there often are opposition
groups or movements, armed or otherwise.  This complicates things tremendous-
ly, especially in places where the opposition targets irreplaceable equip-
ments, or needed supplies.


        ILR: INDEPENDENT LEPINE REPUBLIC


        During the war, even more draconian controls were put on non-rabbits,
with disappearances, "interrogation" sessions, and the like a relatively
common occurence.  Even now that the war is ended, those measures persist.
While the ConFed has been much better on the issue of civil rights, rabbit
citizens of ConFed member systems have had to face some limitations of their
rights, and, in the opening stages of the war, after the strikes that razed
whole cities, quite a few lepines were lynched by angry mobs.
        The ILR military fight a hard and often dirty war.  While not fana-
tics, ILR troops are highly motivated, and by and large larck any sympathy 
for their opponents.  Acting entirely without malice, they will readily per-
form the most shocking atrocities, but only after coolly calculating the long
range results and far reaching impacts.  Republican troops will fight with
great ferocity, but will surrender when it becomes clear that they can no
longer cause damage to their opponents.
        Currently, the ILR is extremely weak.  Its industry nearly totally
wiped out, the heavy civilian losses, and the near total destruction of its
fleet and space stations has made it so that the only way the ILR can possi-
bly hope to survive, and eventually recover is to raid "enemy" or neutral
colonies for needed supplies, and have its ships pirate isolated merchants.
While the EDF is aware of this, there is little it can do as the ILR does
not outright attack ConFed systems, and, more importantly, the amount of
ACVs remaining for ILR systems defense is such that it would be very costly
for the EDF to take any serious action.


        NEUTRALS

        Surprisingly enough, neutral systems abound, especially on the
rim.  As it is, they are mostly small colonies or stations that have little
in the way of population and industry.  Those colonies hoped to avoid taking
a side in the war, and generally managed to survive intact.  The aftermath of
the war, however, hit those colonies very hard.  Alliances having little for
themselves in the way of shipping saw no reason to divert critical ressources
to support and defend those colonies.  If a colony is not self-sufficient in
its basic needs, the EDF might try, if the ships are available, to help the
colony, but this is irregular at best, and traders do not often stop at those
unlucrative colonies.  Evacuation often is not an option.  The future for
these colonies is bleak, and some of them have seized, or tried to, merchant
ships in the design of using those ships for their own exclusive needs. 
While this worked, at first, it also had the effect to drive away those tra-
ders that might have been willing to help.
        And then, of course, there are the pirate havens.  Systems that 
survive, even thrive on pirate trade.  Pirates, often little more than armed
merchants, bring the booty in-system, and the least fussy of traders come 
in-system to trade for it.  While both the EDF and ILR try to put an end to
this, the number of ships in-system renders the task of stamping the pirates
out fairly difficult.  And every pirate ship destroyed is another merchant
ship blown away...


        ENCHAWAH

        Before the war, Enchawah was THE biggest interstellar corporation:
it outright owned several systems, and had stakes in quite a few others.  As
it is, the founder of the corporation saw the war as inevitable many years
in advance and prepared for it.  In relative secret (Enchawah controled   
several shipyards), the company built a small but professional fleet.  The
crew of the ships came from the Enchawah merchant fleet, and most of the
officers were ex-EDF discharged officers.  It is still not known why, but
a significant part of the most brilliant EDF officers were retired or dis-
charged a few months before the war.  Most of them ended up in Enchawah.
        The ILR had not planned for serious resistance from the Enchawah
worlds, and they were surprised.  As a result, Enchawah weathered the war
better than any other, and even managed to incorporate in its defenses a
few very important defenseless colonies.  Enchawah and the ConFed cooperate
closely to try and find long term solutions.
        While life is generally better on an Enchawah world or station, it
does not come without a cost:  Enchawah expects the best from its citizens
(the word employees comes to mind), and visitors often compare the discipline
of the citizens to that of ants.  


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        You may use this file for personal use.  You may also redistribute 
it provided that this message is there and no alterations have been made to
this file.
        Albedo and Birthright are copyrighted by Steve Gallacci.

        This file was written for use with my Albedo email game; elements in
it may very well diverge from the official storyline.  As well, in this or
other files, certain elements may have been modified to suit my game.

        This file may contain game-related information directed at my players
that make no sense to you: I unfortunately do not have the time to go over my
files and make the necessary corrections.

Louis Fillion
kamerym@cam.org (main address)
lfillion@buscom.ca (secondary address)

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