Here is a quick description of the various sovereigns in the game. Note: You may not want to include all of these in the Captain's Primer...perhaps some should be left more mysterious...

Charon Pirates [augmented humans]: A loosely organized group of pirates/privateers that prey on commercial vessels. Individual groups have a high degree of autonomy but they pay tribute to the larger organization.

Outlaws [augmented humans]: A loose criminal organization involved in smuggling, drugs, extortion, etc. They have close ties to the Black Market stations.

Centauri Warlords [augmented humans]: Armed warlords who prey on defenseless stations. Originally from the Centauri system (near Sol) but now spread-out to many parts of the Commonwealth.

Anarchists [various]: Fanatical group that opposes the Corporate Hierarchy and seeks to redistribute their profits.

Salvagers [enhanced humans]: Each salvager ship is a miniature community and most salvagers live and die without ever setting foot on a world larger than an asteroid.

Heliotropes [augmented/enhanced humans]: A quasi-religious organization founded on principles opposing entropy and energy-death. Heliotropes are generally hostile to other humans.

Sapiens [pure humans]: A small group relegated to the most inhospitable systems. Sapiens use radiation and other biohazards as their weapon of choice against the "devolved".

Sung Slavers [enhanced humans?]: Sung Slavers form a powerful but mysterious civilization beyond St. Katharine's Star. They enslave humans of all races and use them for organ transplants, drug manufacture, and processing power. They are particularly skilled at cyber technology. [Are they connected to Luminous?]

Marauders [augmented humans]: An off-shoot of Charon Pirates.

Death Drugs Cartel [enhanced humans]: The cartel produces genetically tailored drugs needed for hyper-clonal therapy, a life prolongation technique. Because the manufacture of the drugs involves the growth and exploitation of an ancephalic clone, these techniques are banned in Commonwealth space. No one knows how long human life may be prolonged with these techniques, but many believe that the original founders of the cartel are still alive. If so, they would be over two-hundred years old.

Order of Penitence [Simples]: The Order of Penitence began as a voluntary campaign of voluntary extinction. Although it was never popular, its charter was twisted by extremists to promote forced human extinction. They are a feared cult of fanatics who seek to destroy as much life as possible before their alloted time expired. They worship Oracus.

Ringer's Collective [neo-humans]: Ringers began as a colony of miners around Saturn. They have adapted their biology to live in space. Today, their knowledge of science and technology (specially those related to space) is extensive.

Ferian Miners [zoanthropes?]: Almost nothing is known about Ferians since they avoid all human contact. They mine rare and exotic materials and trade with Ringers.

Xenophobes [enhanced humans]: Xenophobes have a closed society which thrives in the depths of space. They do not tolerate other life forms.

Ares Orthodoxy [neo-humans]: The Ares Orthodoxy is colonizing dozens of systems beyond Jiang's Star. They use clone banks and intensive training to create a utopian society without dissent. They claim to be guided by Domina, but almost no one believes that.

Luminous [AI]: Luminous is an autonomous, distributed AI. Its goals and desires are completely unknown.

Ventari: [No backstory yet--other than that they are settlers of some sort]

Ranx: [No backstory yet--other than that they are a military dictatorship of some sort]

Dang, I was kind of hoping that the Pentinent's might just have been under the control of Oracus, or something. I just think they're cool, and wish they weren't total evil. That might have been a cool quest, too, freeing a station of pentinents, or something...

Oh crap, they're entire colonies?! Now I feel guilty for hunting these things down and killing them for their cargo.

Oh well, they still make me rich.

That would make a wicked plot twist, to have Dominia playing both sides for some reason. Perhaps Dominia is responsible for having the Ancient Races close off Human space.

Perhaps Dominia herself is the final boss... hmmm...

Nah.

Cheers,
- sproaticus

*monklike tones*

Domina, Oracus. The Alpha and Omega... The Female and the Male... Creator and Destructor... Two sides of the same coin.

*More monk-like tones*

Parsley, sage, rosmary, and thyme

Oh, wait, that's a song....

I wonder if the Luminous AI is Rampant?

Edit: Don't everyone speak up at once.

George, request for update, if you don't mind? ^^

Expensive as well

Anyhoo, what I was really wondering about, is what's the difference between enhanced and augmented humans? Seems pretty alike to me.

Augmented: Essentially, cybernetics.
Enhanced: Gene-engineered.

I really want to know about the Gaians. Why are they blowing everything up, and what are they constructing? Mabye they are constructing a new Earth or something like that for all of their members to live on. Also, the Abassid are scholars now. Why are they so violent?

EDIT: corrected error

And who are the Kobols?

The Abassids aren't scholars, they're isolationists. It's talked about in a thread somewhere by George.

Ho ho. Yes, perhaps it seeks to escape the closing of the universe, and for some reason its plan includes hounding me with its accursed drones.

Also; the salvagers sounds neat! They should clean up wrecks, though, to cut down on clutter, you know? You'd just better be quick or they'll beat you to the good stuff!

About Ringers and Ferians; if they trade, then why is this Ringer Station shooting at the Ferians that get near it? Some dock, but the rest get destroyed, forming an impregnable ring of debris, making it impossible to dock with the Ringers.

oh god, please dont talk about wrecks here - theres already a massive debate going on, we dont need another

the ferians, as said above, are fairly simple, meaning that they may well hit the ringer station when chasing down their attacker. the ringers have a decision - shoot down a load of their cheap workers or face possible damage. i know what id do

oh the wreck debate is nothing compared to the economy or discreet turning debates now those where some big debates

i wouldnt know, they were before my time (i think)

i was here to witness the number of turing angles debate and the like 3 page economy debate....although i didn't participate much in either...

You should go through and read those, Thom. They were pretty fun, although they were a bit heated.

heh, i will when i get the time. some of the posts are really long

i hate really long posts