With respect to population, I see the Book 6 rules as a snapshot in time. The Supplement 3 UWP codes reflect the dominant world populationwise by "order" of Book 6, in a manner of speaking, since Book 6 directs that any other world in the system be of lesser population. Were some other world in the system to grow larger, that world presumably would become the world represented in the UWP, else that system does not conform to the Book 6 guidelines.
I see the Book 6 rules as a simplification of a complex situation. In
most cases the world with the highest population is also the system's most important world, for some definition of 'important'. There are exceptions, but the Book 6 rules ignores them and conflates highest population with most importance. The UWPs simply aren't geared to handle systems with two or more worlds of almost equal importance, so they impose an arbitrary limit on secondary worlds to avoid the problem. But that doesn't make the rules true to 'reality' in all cases.
Neither do I, but canon rules won't build those. If and where they occur in canon, they are the inventions of specific authors. Where we apply canon rules to flesh out the universe, we won't end up with those; we'd have to put the rules aside and, like those authors, invent something on our own.
And why not? Setting-building rules are suppose to help a referee build his setting, not be a straightjacket for him. If a rule starts to become a hindrance to your imagination, dump it!
Canon authors, of course, have freedom to depart from this or that rule in the interest of a captivating (and marketable) setting, but by definition they are exceptions rather than the rule.
But if you believe that authors can ignore the rules whenever they like (which they can't; they need their editors to agree), who else is left to be constrained to follow the rules without deviation?
I'm aware that there are a number of contributers to canon among the posters, including you.
Sadly not nearly as much of a contributor as I would like to be, and most of that to JTAS Online, which is not, alas, canon.
I'm not familiar with New Rome or Deneb.
Both are examples of stuff that isn't canon but contributions to JTAS Online.
New Rome was, according to me, a secondary world in the system occupied by the world Bellion:
Imperial world in the Glisten subsector. New Rome was originally a secondary world in what was at the time called the Bellion System. Forcibly settled in 86 with political exiles from the Imperium, the selection of this unpromising world was dictated by a vindictive Imperial admiral. When Bellion first expanded into space, their neighbors on New Rome were able to provide them with valuable technical assistance and became a privileged part of Bellion society. New Rome prospered and became the site of most of the system's heavy industry. Eventually the majority of the system's population lived on New Rome and the system was accordingly renamed to reflect that.
All this is from my historical writeup of the Outrim Frontier in the Year 400.
Deneb was, again according to me, originally the next world out from a world named Gashimuu that orbited in the life zone around the star Deneb:
History
Gashimuu, a world orbiting the star Deneb in the life zone, one orbit in from the world Deneb, was settled around -2400 by Vilani fleeing the Rule of Man. Like most such colonies, it regressed technologically, but not as much as many, and it regained jump capability around -80.
When Imperial scouts first visited the system in 44, they, contrary to normal practice, named it for its star and not its mainworld. With a population of 800 million and a sound economy, Deneb was the chief trading partner of the Lidash League. Ling-Standard Products, Sharurshid, and Zhunastu Industries all maintained factors in the system, and recruited and trained many locals. The IISS established a base in Deneb in 50 from which the exploration of the rimward half of the sector was conducted. There was a local naval base which, by a treaty of 83, Imperial Navy ships could use to resupply.
A lot heavy industry had already been placed on the next world out from Gashimuu, and as the years went by, the population rose until it finally overtook Gashimuu as the system mainworld. Inevitably, it became known as Deneb.
I've no idea if Rob used any of this in the MgT sourcebook about Deneb. If he didn't, I guess that by now it it is not only non-canonical but contra-canonical. But it's still an example of what I was talking about with having a secondary world overtake the mainworld in importance.
Good point, but it's still very difficult to arrive at the Supplement 3 subsector population levels without throwing out Book 6 pop gen rules for those high-pop worlds you'll need to focus on - possibly not without putting in a couple of ancillary worlds with pops larger than the already immense populations of the primaries.
I don't think there's any point in trying to preserve the Supplemment 3 subsector population levels. Let TPTB decide on a set of populations for the individual systems that they want to make the definitive populations (as they have, indeed, done for T5) and just add up those populations for each subsector. Second half of Rancke's Credo:
"If it doesn't work, change it to something that does work and stick to that from then on".
Hans
o:
