Deep Periphery

""Don't get your hopes up, we're a billion miles from nowhere." "Yeah, it probably only got a Howard Johnson's""

– Bender and Turanga Leela, describing the Deep Periphery about as well as anybody could.

The Deep Periphery is the very tip, the very last edge of human civilization before going back out into open frontier space in the BattleTech universe.

Overview

If life in the 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.

Notable Deep Periphery Powers

It should be noted that due to the sheer distance between most of these powers, they rarely actually interact through violence, and are often found dealing with their own problems rather than fighting in the way Inner Sphere powers do.

• The Clans: The Former SLDF that decided to make their own society out here. Control the most amount of power and worlds, however they are far from a united front, and are far more focused on the Inner Sphere than anybody else. The Wars of Reaving changed that, as some clans have struck out on their own.
• The Hanseatic League: Tucked between the Clan Homeworlds and the Lyran Commonwealth, they descended from Lyran refugees fleeing economic declines during the Third Succession War. The Hanseatic League has been the biggest non-clan power in the Deep Periphery, being a mercantile kingdom that has often been the lifeline for hundreds of Deep Periphery worlds. Culturally, they're similar to the merchant nobles from the real-life Hanseatic League and the Italian merchant republics. While just as two-faced as anyone else in the setting, they're less focused on battle than most and more focused on debt trap diplomacy, gun boat intimidation, and predatory lending. If pressed though, they could call upon Spheroid level tech. Got eaten alive however during the Hanseatic Crusades started by the Escorpio Imperio.
• Scorpion Empire/Escorpión Imperio: Previously Clan Goliath Scorpion who utterly consumed the entire Castilian Cluster of worlds between Clan Homeworlds and the Hanseatic League, which included the Umayyad Caliphate and Nueva Castile empires (Moors vs Spaniards in Space). Decided to loosely follow the Ghost Bear, Hell's Horse, and Snow Raven model of integration instead of holding civilians at gunpoint. This group would become a much more potent threat after defeating the Hanseatic League as the Scorpion Empire, and as of 3150 are the biggest players in the Deep Periphery that aren't tied directly to the Clan Worlds. Also began having trade deals with Clan Sea Fox in the Chainelane Isles.
• Chainelane Isles: The answer to the question of what the Succession Wars looked like in miniature. Ten competing worlds all vying for dominance over the same 100 lightyear stretch of space, where Mechs are as rare as they were in the Third Succession War. Were in the path of the Clans, but only one planet's military got the axe from them, so they were generally left alone to deal with themselves. Clan Sea Fox maintains a modest presence in the region for trade and pirate-hunting and recently began joint deals with the Goliath Scorpions.
• JàrnFòlk: Rasalhague refugees who control only four worlds. Basically became the Medieval Faroe Islands but in space. While they don't have standing militaries with lots of heavy industry, they're respectable for their handcrafted weapons, their modest trading, and capabilities as gun duelists due to their ritualized blood feud culture and (more sinisterly) hitmen or bodyguards for hire.