Sword Worlds Confederation

The Sword Worlds Confederation is a loose confederation of worlds in the Spinward Marches Sector, spinward of the Third Imperium space and trailing of the Darrians. At present they are part of the Outworld Coalition and a client state of the Zhodani Consulate. Relations with the Third Imperium and the Darrian Confederation are poor.

Sword Worlders have a strong drive for independence from outside powers. They take great pride in their Terran culture and roots. This culture has origins in the Icelandic region of Terra, or more accurately in a later recreation of what this culture is assumed to have been. The Sword Worlders venerate what many describe as a Viking culture, a group of famed, daring, and often notorious raiders from Terra's past. Some have described them as "fanatical homesteaders".

The Sword Worlds government, a Confederation, allows almost complete local autonomy. Individual worlds maintain separate military forces, pass their own laws, and completely regulate their own internal affairs. The Confederation government regulates interworld trade, handles diplomatic relations with outside powers, and adjudicates interworld disputes.

In peacetime, the Confederation government maintains a pool of high-ranking military officers (selected from the military forces of all worlds) who are trained in large unit command and staff operations. During time of war, all military forces are confederalized, and placed under a single unified command.