The Inner Sphere: Franklin Fiefs

World Name: Novo Franklin

Star Type: F6V

Position in System: 8

Time to Jump Point: 13.87 days

Recharging Station: None

Nobel Ruler: Various petty kings

ComStar Facility Class: B

ComStar Representative: Precentor Hadror Ninn

Population: 100,000

Percentage and Level of Native Life: 10%, Reptile

Description:

A hot, agricultural world known for its long summers and mild winters, Novo Franklin was settled in 2598 by refugees from the Outworlds Alliance who were fleeing Kurita invaders. Unable to decide on a common form of government, the refugees broke up into diverse factions, each going their own way. During the following centuries, these various groups evolved into a starkly feudalized system. Now the majority of the planet's inhabitants are bound to serving the needs of a privileged minority capable of enforcing its will with BattleMechs.

Origins and History

The world was first settled in 2598 by refugees from the Outworlds Alliance fleeing Kurita invaders. Within a few years, these original settlers had divided the small planet's arable land into approximately fifty large farms, whose boundaries closely match the fifty or so principalities that survive today. Eventually, these landowners began to recruit war refugees, deserters, and other fugitives from the Inner Sphere to work the fields, offering to pay for the immigrants' transport costs and provide them with food alnd lodging. In exchange, the immigrants would repay these outlays with their labor. However, the landowners, who controlled Novo Franklin's economy, used their power to ensure that no immigrant ever fully repaid his "debt." Unable to pay their debts and book passage off the planet, the immigrants faced the choice of accepting their lot or starving. Under the planet's archaic code of law -- formulated and enforced by the landowners -- the debts incurred by these immigrants were passed on to their offspring. Within a generation, the landowners of Novo Franklin had produced a class of serfs.

Novo Franklin's ruling class has employed a number of measures to preserve this neofeudal system for the past several centuries. The planet's isolation has undoubtedly been a factor in their success. That isolation, and the fact that Novo Franklin contains only a single, small spaceport, has enabled the planet's ruling class to closely monitor and controll all contact the planet's workers have with the outside universe. In addition, the ruling class prohibits workers from educating their offspring. Any worker who displays the ability to read and write or who teaches such abilities may be executed under the planet's laws. The rulers educate their own offspring, of course, to ensure that their families continue to maintain their dominant positions within Franklinian society.

In addition to these measures, Novo Franklin's ruling families retain the exclusive right to interpret and enforce the laws of their planet. At times the families have imported mercenaries to aid them in enforcing the laws, but the families generally have little problem doing so themselves, as the planet's workers are legally prohibited from possessing any form of weapon. In addition to banning weapons, workers are prohibited from possessing almost all modern tools and appliances. One result of this ban has been the reintroduction of animal husbandry on Novo Franklin to produce horses and other beasts of burden.

Reportedly, Novo Franklin once boasted nearly an entire battalion of BattleMechs, but recent intelligence reports place the number at twenty-four. All of these machines are owned by the ruling families, but these are dispersed among dozens of political states over half the northern continent. It is unlikely that any state could muster more than two lances.

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