Background
Classic Traveller
Alien Module 6 - Solomani named subsectors A-D and detailed Home, the capital of the Solomani Confederation. Home’s exact location is not specified, only described as “in Aldebaran sector approximately thirty parsecs from Terra” and is shown in subsector B on a map of the Solomani Confederation circa 1111. Note that although the star Aldebaran (Alpha Tauri) was originally placed in the Cicero system (Solomani Rim 0938), this appears to have been retconned.
The descriptions of the rimward subsectors of the Solomani Rim make it clear that Jardin and Kukulkan subsectors were largely undeveloped until after the formation of the Solomani Autonomous Region (704), and the Near Boötes Cluster in Castor and Gemini subsectors was not discovered until “early in the history of the Rule of Man,” which begins in -2204.
The module also has a map of the Terran Confederation circa -2204 that shows the Confederation border as encompassing most of subsector A, all of subsectors B, C, and D, and small portions of E, F, G, and H. These borders are hard to explain, if Terran exploration hadn't advanced to the the rimward portion of the Solomani Rim by -2204. The map also shows four Terran settlements outside the Confederation in subsectors J and K. Sublight expeditions could have established outposts or colonies in those locations, but don't really explain the mystery of the border.
The
MegaTraveller Referee’s Manual has a map of the Rule of Man (-2204 to -1776) that shows the border of the Terran Confederation as significantly smaller than the -2204 map in Alien Module 6.
In this map, the Confederation only barely touches the rimward sections of subsectors A, B, C, and D. These borders are a lot easier to reconcile with the rimward history of exploration and settlement described in Alien Module 6.
DGP’s
Solomani and Aslan explicitly located the Solomani capital at hex 1009, which matches the location shown on the CT Alien Module Map. But then
Solomani and Aslan goes on to produce a dotmap of Aldebaran Sector that infamously excluded Home. That said, the dotmap alone has several interesting implications: the sector has relatively low stellar density, and Jump-3 is necessary to reach many, if not most of the worlds in Aldebaran—reinforcing the idea that the Terrans couldn’t have explored much of the sector until they developed J-3 late in the Interstellar Wars.
The dotmap also shows the borders of a couple of interstellar, presumably human, polities not otherwise detailed: the Malorn Union and the Winston Democracy.
Solomani and Aslan included write-ups of two large Solomani member-states located in Aldebaran -- the Grand United States of Quesada and the Third Reformed French Confederate Republic -- as well as a third member-state with influence on the region, the Boötean Federation, a socially liberal and economically powerful force in the Confederation. All three member-states get name checked in the d20 supplement
Fighting Ships of the Solomani Confederation.
Quesada is a large member-state, a lively republic active in both the lives of the people and the political arena. The Quesadans speak fluent Spanish, with Anglic as a second language, and have a proud Hispanic heritage.
The French Republic is also described as a large member state, a union of three French member states and a number of independent worlds. Both the Quesada States and the Republic developed starship designs used by the Confederation Navy in the Rim War, which indicates these polities were in existence at least as early as 990 and probably much earlier.
Solomani and Aslan also names the world Inerria/Aldebaran, birthplace of the Solomani historian Albirto Majuan.
GURPS Traveller: Rim of Fire doesn’t provide any new information on Aldebaran Sector, though it gives us some hints. The book largely echoes the Classic Traveller information, though it walks back from some details in
Solomani and Aslan, most notably
the notion of a Confederation member-state and the Boötean Federation. The GURPS timeline features a much more fractious Confederation teetering on the edge of civil war.
The Mongoose Traveller
Alien Module 5 - Solomani provides several interesting details but relatively little in the way of world data, with the exception of mentioning Willeson (Aldebaran 1216), a world in “Sephi Hydra” subsector. (Both the world and subsector names were in the original CORE dataset.)
Aldebaran is described as one of the Confederation's frontier sectors, “a less populous region ripe for future Solomani expansion. Their rimward subsectors are sparsely populated with many young colonies and border a region of space not yet claimed by any other major powers. The population is 90% pure Solomani; the rest are mainly primitive indigenous races and genetic uplifts such as dolphins.”
The Mongoose alien module makes Aldebaran sound like a great place for adventure, a recently wild area experiencing a dramatic expansion: “A few worlds have been settled for thousands of years but only the coreward sectors of Aldebaran were heavily populated prior to the Solomani Rim War. This changed once Home/Aldebaran was selected as the new capital of the Confederation. Development of the sector has became [sic] a prime engine of new economic growth. The worlds around Home are benefiting from their proximity to the Confederation’s new centre of gravity while settlement of the undeveloped rimward subsectors has been accelerated.”
For semi-canonical data, Steven Eric Schwartz detailed Darsei (Aldebaran 1401) in the article "Bootean Federation," in
Imperial Lines 2. Darsei belongs to the titular Confederation member state and is notable as one of the few Confederation worlds that reached TL 15 by 1120.
For Jon Zeigler’s lost Aldebaran project he evidently ignored the dotmap from Solomani and Aslan and redid the whole sector. He referenced several undetailed Aldebaran worlds in various GURPS Traveller New Service bulletins from 1120-1130:
- Covenant (Aldebaran 0000), a world with a planetary parliament,
- Daedalus (Aldebaran 0000), home to the pleasant island resort of White Kyros, known to cater to Solomani Party leaders,
- Europa (Aldebaran 0000), a world struggling with an ongoing civil rebellion in 1121,
- Euxene (Aldebaran 0000), presumably located in subsector A,
- Heimdall (Aldebaran 0000), a balkanized world with the breakaway nation-state of Bremagne,
- Marava (Aldebaran 0000), a hereditary monarchy ruled by a deposed noble family that claims title to the Iridium Throne. Emperor John III ascended in 1119,
- Monterey (Aldebaran 0000), a system with multiple gas giants near Home,
- Teilhard (Aldebaran 0000), a "relatively isolated world,” and
- Twilight (Aldebaran 0912), the homeworld of Marc Chissano, who served as Secretary-General of the Solomani Confederation in the GURPS timeline from 1120 until he was deposed in 1122. The hex location would put this world in Subsector F. The 132-1121 TNS bulletin references a "Star Bridge" subsector, which may refer to F. Twilight was an authoritarian dictatorship ruled by the Chissano family until overthrown by a junta in 1121.
Finally, Paul Drye and Zeigler collaborated on a great little article, "
Shuanyun," which appeared in
JTAS Online (April 1st, 2003). It details the Shuanyun (Aldebaran 0334) and Taurea (Aldebaran 0532) systems, Taurea Subsector (M), and the nifty Taurean minor race.
