Stellar Nomads, also known as Space Nomads or Star Nomads, are a category of people who live semi-nomadically aboard mobile
habitats and interstellar spaceships. These ships, while occasionally making use of
wormhole gateways, are generally equipped with
jump drives for interstellar travel, or in some cases designated carrier-ships will transport a number of intrastellar vessels with a single jump drive. Most stellar nomads live aboard spin habitats, which are either capable of limited mobility through a number of integrated thrusters, or are capable of being towed or pushed by other ships. This allows them to adjust their orbits when necessary, and more importantly, allows them to travel through wormholes generated by jump drives, meaning they can be relocated when necessary, potentially between star systems. Space nomad economies (and thus spacecraft) are primarily powered through
nuclear fusion due to the abundance of appropriate fuels, and the
United Leagues of Earth's strict regulations on
antimatter technology.
While stellar nomads are culturally and politically diverse, their economies are usually relatively similar. They tend to be built around self-sufficient mining, agriculture, and manufacturing, supplemented by trade with sedentary communities. Some nomad communities, however, have been known to practise piracy and the raiding of settled peoples and other nomads. There has also been evidence to suggest that some Stellar Nomad flotillas have come to blows with
Mperi ships, though this has yet to be confirmed.
Stellar Nomad Society
It has been noted in recent decades that the majority of stellar nomads are not truly nomadic, but rather simply capable of relocating their otherwise sedentary societies when the need arises. As such, they are generally classified as semi-nomadic in academic circles, though the vernacular term remains unchanged. The belief that they were entirely nomadic seems to have originated as a result of most of their contact with sedentary societies being in the form of trading expeditions, which consist of large numbers of ships visiting numerous star systems to trade, before returning to the rest of their society. This is likely why nomad societies are referred to as "flotillas", even when most of their population resides in mostly-stationary habitats.
Nomad flotillas can range widely in size, though their populations are rarely under one million, and rarely exceed one hundred million. While these populations are not tiny, they are much lower than most star states, and thus they rely heavily on automation in their economies, even more so than in standard societies. This has caused tension with many star states following the
Tavastian War, as few, if any, nomad flotillas accept the interstellar bans on fully-automated spaceships that followed the conflict. Additionally, in part due to their low populations, very few flotillas can claim control of an entire star system, which harms their percieved legitimacy as independent states when interacting with sedentary societies.
While most flotillas have generally avoided conflict with the rest of Human Space, many nomads have turned to raiding and piracy throughout history, either due to desperation, avarice, or ambition. Nomad flotillas have occasionally organised into loose confederations, primarily for the purpose of launching large raids against sedentary societies, with the largest such confederation being that of the warlord Ardager Serikov in the 26th Century, which wreaked havok across the
Outer Systems during the
Antimatter Crisis. These confederations can often field very large navies, which have historically maintained relative technological parity with their settled opponents, partially due to trade with them during peacetime.
History
The first precursors of stellar nomads began to appear in the
Solar System during the 23rd Century, in the form of groups of people making their living continuously orbiting the Sun aboard large vessels, trading with planets and planetoids as they passed them. As technology improved, and Humanity spread to other star systems, it became possible for people to live completely isolated from the rest of humanity by colonising distant star systems, each of which contained vast amounts of resources with no claim on them.
When
gateway technology was introduced, it began to centralise Human civilisation in star systems linked with wormhole gateways. This relieved some of the pressure on the more isolated nomad communities that had developed by this point, slowing their expansion away from the rest of Human Space. However, many flotillas continued to be forced out of valuable systems by more powerful rivals, meaning stellar nomads have continued to advance further into uncharted space, and it is estimated there could be as many as a billion Humans completely cut off from any form of settled civilisation. This has caused concern among some experts, who fear that Humanity's first contact with new sapient alien species could come in the form of resource disputes with disorganised nomads, as may have been the case with the Mperi.
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