I'm going to call the campaign Crown and Spaceship after the design of the imperial seal. Those of you who have read The Mote in God's Eye may recall this as, "crown and spaceship, eagle sickle and hammer," reflecting the Empire's roots in the U.S. / U.S.S.R. Co-Dominium. At least, that's where the fleet came from. The alternate timeline used will be the one in Mote. There are references in the sequel (The Gripping Hand) to the collapse of Soviet Russia. We will assume for our purposes that Gorbachev never came to power and that Moscow came under the control of oligarchical pragmatists who smartened up the economy without loosing control. Or whatever...it's not that important, since by the time the campaign starts it's 1100 years in the past.

David Brandon / <dbrandon@politics.tamu.edu>