Factions

_The frontier belongs to those who take it._ The Crimson Corsairs are exodus survivors who never accepted that the crossing should have ended — where the Nexus Protectorate sees the Expanse as a cradle worth holding, the Corsairs see it as a waystation the convoy stopped at too soon. They were never beaten out of the Expanse; once the Protectorate closed both doors that lead beyond it, raiding simply stopped paying, and that was enough to push them into the deep dark instead.

_The Nexus holds. The line does not move._ The Nexus Protectorate is the Expanse's lawful power, holding Helios Nexus — the Expanse's only pulsar — and both doors that seal the secured Expanse from the wider dark beyond. Where the Crimson Corsairs treat the Expanse as a waystation, the Protectorate treats it as a cradle worth the cost of holding, sector by sector, for as long as it takes to earn the right to expand.