Talbott Cluster

The Talbott Cluster was a group of star systems located near each other in the Verge of the Solarian League.
== Star Geography ==
Erroneously named the 'Talbott Cluster' because the original Solarian League Office of Frontier Security outpost in the region was established in the Talbott System, the area was neither a cluster nor centered around Talbott. ()
== History ==
Before its annexation by the Star Kingdom, the Cluster was under threat of becoming a protectorate of the League within thirty years. ()
== Societies ==
Compared with other worlds of the early 20th Century PD, the systems of the Cluster had been colonized only recently, and were generally underdeveloped and poor. Bernardus van Dort, leader of the Rembrandt Trade Union, a small shipping cartel which had come to dominate Cluster trade, had implemented a long term project to increase the Cluster's economic strength so as to improve the Cluster's standing when the OFS finally moved to take control. When the Manticore wormhole terminus was discovered, he and the Rembrandt Trade Union proposed and led the campaign in favor of joining Manticore.
In the 1920s PD, following the discovery of the Lynx Terminus of the Manticore Wormhole Junction, a large majority of the citizens of seventeen of the inhabited planets in the Cluster voted for annexation by the Star Kingdom of Manticore. They considered that fate better than ending up under the formal control of OFS, renowned for exploitation and mistreatment of the systems under its 'protection'. Those voting for annexation participated in the Talbott Constitutional Convention on Flax, negotiating the terms of annexation. All but one attendee, New Tuscany, eventually joined the newly created Star Empire of Manticore as the Talbott Quadrant. (, )
No planet had more than 3 billion people, most had around 1.5 billion. Nuncio only had 350 million people.
== Cluster systems ==
* Celebrant
* Dresden
* LynxInstead of being annexed into the Talbott Quadrant with the rest of the Cluster, Lynx was annexed directly into the Star Kingdom of Manticore. Together with Manticore, Basilisk, and Trevor's Star, it formed the Old Star Kingdom within the newly established Star Empire of Manticore.
* Mainwaring
* Marian
* Montana
* New TuscanyRejected admission into the Talbott Quadrant at the Talbott Constitutional Convention
* Nuncio
* Pequod
* Prairie
* Redoubt
* Rembrandt
* San Miguel
* Scarlet
* Spindle
* Split
* Talbott
* Tillerman
== External links ==
* Map of the Mesa region by David Weber
== References ==
Category:Geography
Category:Talbott Cluster