Okay, so:
The Aurigan Coalition is a province within the larger Aurigan Reach. The Aurigan Coalition is clearly demarcated here.... but where is the Aurigan Reach? Is it the black 'Rimward Frontier' region?
Help me understand space geography, plz
- Thread starter President Jyrgunkarrd
- Start date
-
We have updated our Community Code of Conduct. Please read through the new rules for the forum that are an integral part of Paradox Interactive’s User Agreement.
Okay, so:
The Aurigan Coalition is a province within the larger Aurigan Reach. The Aurigan Coalition is clearly demarcated here.... but where is the Aurigan Reach? Is it the black 'Rimward Frontier' region?
Okay, so:
The Aurigan Coalition is a province within the larger Aurigan Reach. The Aurigan Coalition is clearly demarcated here.... but where is the Aurigan Reach? Is it the black 'Rimward Frontier' region?
http://battletech.rpg.hu/images/ismaps/3030.pdf
to the south
Well, as I understand it they are one and the same. It's a bit odd but the introductory text clearly refers to the kingdom itself as The Aurigan Reach. I interpret it as the Aurigan Coalition being the name of the government pre-civil war. Then when Santiago takes power it becomes Aurigan Directorate...then when the war gets under way there's the directorate and the restoration. The thing collectively is still "The Aurigan Reach" but the name changes depending on who's in charge.
This is my understanding as well. It was never clear that the Coalition was smaller than the Reach in territory. From the game intro “The Aurigan Reach is a small kingdom in the Rimward Periphery,” and “It is home to the Aurigan Coalition, a federation organized around a parliamentary monarchy and ruled by the Arano family.”
The Aurigan Reach is the territory controlled by the Aurigan Coalition. The parliamentary monarchy rules the kingdom, seems clear to me.
Yeah it looks like its just a name for the area the Coalition holds.
Here's the lore post they made on it for reference:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/webeharebrained/battletech/posts/1614948
Here's the lore post they made on it for reference:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/webeharebrained/battletech/posts/1614948
As for the black area, that color is for all the independent systems that are not part of any interstellar power.
It's pretty straightforward. The Aurigan Reach is the area of space in the Periphery. At the start of the game, the Aurigan Reach is controlled by the Aurigan Coalition. After the coup, the Aurigan Directorate controls the Aurigan Reach.
@gruese made a great interactive map. I use it for my tabletop game.
http://www.gruese.de/innersphere/
http://www.gruese.de/innersphere/
Okay - so I'm just going to use a WWII analogy:
There is the nation of Germany, and it was controlled by the Weimar Republic. Then the Nazis took power, and it was controlled by the NSDP & the flag changed.
Same country, same territory (until the war started), just a different logo & totalitarian leadership. Is that correct?
I think the Reach refers just to that region of space, whereas the Coalition/Directorate refers to the government(s) that rule it.
The Reach is the physical region, like 'North America.'
Long story short: it's not entirely clear.
It's definitely the case that the Aurigan Reach is the region and the Aurigan Coalition is the government, but it's not clear if the Coalition controls the entire region known as the "Aurigan Reach," or if the "Reach" includes some systems outside their control (or for that matter, since the Coalition had an expansionist stage, if they expanded beyond the borders of what was traditionally the Aurigan Reach). We have no way of knowing.
It's also possible that the meaning may have changed over time: if I talk about somewhere as being in "India" today, then I'm presumably talking about something inside the borders of the modern Republic of India, but a century ago, someone talking about something being in "India" would be referring to the entire region, which could include what is now Pakistan, Bangladesh, or even Nepal, Bhutan or Burma, depending on how broad a brush I was painting. The Aurigan Reach clearly existed before the Coalition (since the latter was named after the former), but we don't know if people still make a distinction between them or not.
It's definitely the case that the Aurigan Reach is the region and the Aurigan Coalition is the government, but it's not clear if the Coalition controls the entire region known as the "Aurigan Reach," or if the "Reach" includes some systems outside their control (or for that matter, since the Coalition had an expansionist stage, if they expanded beyond the borders of what was traditionally the Aurigan Reach). We have no way of knowing.
It's also possible that the meaning may have changed over time: if I talk about somewhere as being in "India" today, then I'm presumably talking about something inside the borders of the modern Republic of India, but a century ago, someone talking about something being in "India" would be referring to the entire region, which could include what is now Pakistan, Bangladesh, or even Nepal, Bhutan or Burma, depending on how broad a brush I was painting. The Aurigan Reach clearly existed before the Coalition (since the latter was named after the former), but we don't know if people still make a distinction between them or not.
I think it's blurry intentionally. Your backstory includes your fief over a planet in the Reach. That could then be interpreted that you were part of a family loyal to Tamati II Arano, or sole rulers of a periphery planet in the Reach but not the coalition. Gives you a little leeway in how you imagine your backstory.
It's the difference between a region and a political boundary. A region ("Aurigan Reach") is broadly defined while a political boundary ("Aurigan Coalition"/"Aurigan Directorate") is very sharply defined. Like there's "North America" but it's not just Canada - that's just one of the larger areas in that region.