Quote:
Originally Posted by ak_aramis
My take...
The long night starts with massive amounts of Second Imperium naval forces blasting rebels back to TL 4 or below. And the extremes of punishment being grounds for further insurrection, until the point that the IN was both too thinly spread and the locals arming in preparation...
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So a bit of tribalism then?
The part I quote above however, has me wondering. Would the Second Imperium have been using extreme punishment or bombardment or what have you? If the "capital" of the new Ramshackle empire is as hard pressed to maintain unity as the First Imperium was from its capital - would there have even been a harsh tyranny like government at the end?
What if, based on your statement in the preceding post - the long night starts as a result of incompetence on the part of the "Governing body". Over time, those who are governed start to think "we would do better alone than we would as subjects of the Second Imperium". Then they fracture along "tribal lines" or "identity lines".
One of the things I probably should do is take all of the world listings, and identify those worlds that would not be conducive to long term survival due to the habitat of the world itself. Worlds that are marginal or were never really colonies to begin with (say, population values less than 30,000 people - that number can be open to debate, but as a starter, as a placeholder???). Worlds that were being mined, or farmed, or were resource sites - may have fallen into disuse not because people couldn't survive on the world per se - but simply because they weren't getting paid enough to stick around, and left when the writing was on the wall.
Just as towns grow to service the military might of Rome in its heyday, Helltowns that serviced the railroad in the US history - perhaps some "towns" sprang into existence on worlds to service something no longer there, and then were unable to move away due to a lack of finances etc. If those worlds did not have the bare minimum number of people required for a successful colony, then it disappears. If they had sufficient numbers, or while dying, their neighboring world begins to help support them in a small way - then the world survives and becomes a nucleus for a "minor race".
Now, for the clincher...
Let's say we call our own society, TL 7 (just for giggles). We could call it 8 if we wanted to, but we don't have antigrav etc, so call it 7.
If we suffered a Carrington event tomorrow, totally unexpectedly. What would our children today be capable of sustaining of our current technology? How far would they fall backwards?
If we tried to go back to an era using horses and other animal power - would we have sufficient horsepower or oxen power for the needs of the survivors? Would a culture in which only 10% of the population have any experience with farm life - be able to hold back the slide in Technology to the steam engine era? This would truly be an "AFTER THE END" style situation - but one in which the issue of back sliding worlds in the Dark ages might actually experience. Couple this with a world that is a net importer of food, only to have the transportation system dry up in the absence of an authority that could fend off piracy - and that world dies off. Hell, the world that is a net importer of food may TURN to piracy to wrest that which it needs to survive, largely because it doesn't have the capital goods that other want to trade any more!
I think you did point out an important facet however...
People would either want to break away, or be forced to break away. Harsh behavior of those who try to maintain something they don't have the ability to maintain could be one answer. Other worlds saying "We quit, what are you going to about it, you can't even handle the other 90 or so crisis issues you face currently" It starts with one world here, a world there, and eventually - the Vargr become a royal pain in the arse, and piracy is on the rise again as worlds say "Screw it, we need that stuff NOW, take it and be damned".
No one thing causes the problem, it is an aggregation of things, with no one solution possible save that of a large authority with the financial backing and manpower backing required to keep the empire going.
Soon - as "tribalism" comes to the fore, someone goes to war. Ships kill other ships, commerce raiding is unchecked, and each wound inflicted on either worlds and/or trade makes the situation worse, accelerating the overall death of the Pax Imperia.