What if Gallia?

[Thyrzul]

Except that doesn't make a whole ton of sense either. Freelancer's background lore makes a heavy point of showing how inter-dependent and linked the Houses are. They all produce goods the others need and have historically relied on one another to produce specialty technology and provide economic support. The Boorman Treaty was designed as a peace accord between the Houses, probably mandating the demilitarization of the border systems between Houses, because that interlinked dynamic was so important.

As an example, the sleeper ship Bretonia was damaged while escaping Sol and arrived significantly later than the other ships. Because of that, it was relegated to an extremely sub-optimal site which was cut off from the other Houses by the Barrier Nebula. This stunted Bretonia for centuries and that wasn't even total isolation. It's only after hundreds of years of inter-house cooperation, the advent of the jump gates and the very, very recent discovery of Dublin that Bretonia caught up to their peers.

If Gallia was so enormously resource rich, the Bretonia would've landed there instead. If we instead go with the story that Gallia is actually a long, long distance from Sirius, how did they find it in the first place? It's deux ex machina either way you look at it. In Sirius, isolation is an extremely bad thing. The Houses were all consuming their own internal resources too, but they still needed each other to prosper. That's one of the most puzzling aspects of Gallia if you ask me (aside from the constant and ceaseless barrage of retcons, that is).

They're trading with Kusari and Rheinland now, yes, but 4 years of open borders doesn't make up for centuries of stagnation and isolation. It's totally possible to have a self-sufficient state. But it's not going to be anywhere near competitive with its neighbours.

There are a few assumptions this wall of text is based on which I don't really find having a solid basis. First of all you imply that simply because the original Vanilla Lore had the houses dependent on eachother there cannot be an other one in our extended Discovery Lore which does not require the help of others to survive, maintain itself, adapt, expand, advance, flourish. Is there anything making these two things mutually exclusive? In Sirius isolation might be bad, but was it ever that bad in Gallia?

You state that "if Gallia was so enormously resource rich, the Bretonia would've landed there instead" but previously you also reminded us that "the sleeper ship Bretonia was damaged while escaping Sol and arrived significantly later than the other ships. Because of that, it was relegated to an extremely sub-optimal site which was cut off from the other Houses by the Barrier Nebula". It is easily possible that where Gallia is now was the initially intended destination for the Bretonia, they just had to change plans because of the damage you mentioned. Gallia being initially rich in resources does not conflict with this either and it's depleting resources in present times correlates with the massive war machine they were maintaining during the centuries.

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