The Modern Era

I'm supposing that the current date is somewhere in the vicinity of the fiftieth year of the reign of Fester III. The core of the Festrian Main is a stretch of worlds, accessible by J-1, reaching into perhaps three separate subsectors. It's the domain of the old duchy of Miralbis, and it's the span of worlds which Fester I was able to absorb during the Festrian Renaissance. It's closely neighbored by a handful of polities (haven't got the maps in front of me) which were pacified by Fester I, but then became largely autonomous during the Witch Wars. Fester III has re-forged relationships with all of his interstellar neighbors on a feudal basis; of the nearby interstellar polities only the Berlings "Republic" - actually an expansionistic dictatorship - has refused admission to the Empire and has been in a state of war with the Fester's coreward vassal state, the Duchy of Wisbeck.

Each vassal fields its own navy, and is responsible for maintaining patrols in its space. However, in actual practice each vassal's battle fleet is generally to be found out beyond the frontier, pressing out into the worlds of the Old Empire, guided by the reports of the wide-ranging Scouts. Fester's own battle fleets are placed close to home, both to protect the Imperial coreworlds and to maintain control over the Imperial vassal states. The whole arrangement is, as I've put it elsewhere, like a room filled with knife-wielding paranoiacs. As long as the lights stay on, everyone sees what everyone else is up to. But should the lights go out...