Editing Deep Periphery (section)

== Overview ==
If life in the [[The Periphery|Periphery]] feels like you're in the boondocks, then the Deep Periphery means you may as well be off the grid. The Deep Periphery generally speaking describes the space completely outside of the HPG Network and farther out from the Inner Sphere than even the Periphery is, and as such much of the Deep Periphery's inhabitants (not that there are many) are completely isolated from the concerns of humanity. Because the term is so vague, anything outside the bounds of the traditional Periphery powers and going out into deep space could be called the Deep Periphery. Any surviving settlement out here may as well be a kingdom unto themselves, as most of the time it takes a ''lot'' of work to keep any of the worlds surviving, let alone thriving. 

Most Deep Periphery worlds were settled by small groups (hundreds to maybe a couple tens of thousands) of people with limited resources. Often because A: they had no choice, B: they were willing to take an extreme gamble at the edge of the map for the potential long term reward or C: they deliberately wanted to escape the Inner Sphere and leave it all behind. Similarly resupply is rare even if you want it. Most Inner Sphere or even Regular Periphery JumpShip captains won't spend months traveling to the edges of the map for a world with maybe a couple million dirt farmers and overworked technicians who are hard pressed to keep the lights on which might have suffered major die-off due to the outbreak of some new disease, crop failure, breakdown of essential but overworked equipment, civil war or some combination of the above. For all practical purposes, worlds in the Deep Periphery are on their own and need to redevelop everything from the ground up. Even if things go right all the time, this is a job that takes centuries.

Even if things go well, things can get weird out in the Deep Periphery. A lot of people willing to risk it all on the frontier would be fringe groups with out their viewpoints. Among those that don't, the perspective of your typical deep periphery world would wander down it's own path given that their only interaction with the greater galaxy would be the occasional trade ship which flies by every few years. If the local dictator wants to LARP as a pharaoh or orders that ten thousand Hobbit Holes be built for farmers and issues tax policies incentivizing that architectural style for Rural Housing, such measures can stick.

This doesn't mean there aren't major powers out in the Deep Periphery. Plenty of mercantile kingdoms, religious states, and minor nobility have the capital to control more than a few systems at a time, and of course the big axe hanging over everybody's head is the Clans, who fled to the Deep Periphery hundreds of years ago, and whose influence gets felt whenever they make moves.

Probably out there beyond the tiny section of the galaxy that has been explored by mankind there are sapient aliens somewhere. But if they are out there, they're a far way off the beaten track.