Although the Hive Federation lies some 70 parsecs trailing of Magyar sector, I have been thinking a little bit recently about Hiver worlds. A few years ago I had developed the data for Langere sector that is currently up on Traveller Map. Langere is an interesting frontier region on the border of the Solomani Confederation and the Hive Federation, with plenty of unclaimed, non-aligned, and potential client state worlds.
Hivers: Traveller Alien Module 7 (1986) provides the first and really only detailed generation sequence for Hiver worlds, although GURPS Traveller: Alien Races 3 (2000) offers up some very helpful color. When I developed the Langere data I used Traveller5 rules for generating the Solomani Confederation and non-aligned worlds, as well as the planetary data for Hive Federation worlds. But I used AM7 for the Hiver political data.
The Federation is an interesting polity, said to include 170 different member races. Although the Federation was “originally founded by the Hivers, and widely based on their cultural precepts, [it] is, in fact, a true union of many diverse worlds and races. All member worlds are co-equal in status, in representation in the central government, and in access to the benefits of interstellar commerce and interaction” (AM7, 34). GURPS Traveller: Alien Races 3 notes that “Of the Federation population, Hivers do not form a majority but are the largest single group (45%)” (25).
While most populations are fully integrated into the Federation, many worlds “have a predominant native population and only a small Hiver presence. Such worlds are those less favored by the Hivers, although they remain suitable to the natives” (AM7, 35). An even smaller number of these non-Hiver worlds—those with starport type X—are interdicted and allowed no formal or open contact with the Hive Federation.
Using AM7 rules for Hiver worlds, Population is generated by 2D - 2 as normal. Government is generated by Pop - 1D, with the results then translated into special Hiver codes. Hiver worlds within the Federation have only 8 different government types. Gov 0, 1, 2, and 6 are the same as in Traveller5 and almost every other version of Traveller. Then there are four special codes:
- S: Governing committee of seven nest leaders.
- T: Unsupervised Anarchy. Individual agreements between all citizens.
- U: Supervised Anarchy. Individual agreements between all nests.
- W: Governing committee of nest leaders.
Using AM 7 worldgen, and assuming the Federation consists of approximately 4,400 worlds, the estimated breakdown of government types within the Federation looks something like this:
| Government Code | Interdicted Non-Hiver Worlds | Assimilated Non-Hiver Worlds | Hiver Worlds | Total % | Worlds in Federation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0 | 0.24% | 0.00% | 32.18% | 32.42% | 1,437 |
| 1 | 0.17% | 0.21% | 10.73% | 11.11% | 493 |
| 2 | 0.22% | 0.37% | 10.73% | 11.32% | 502 |
| 3 | 0.27% | 0.00% | 0.00% | 0.27% | 12 |
| 4 | 0.30% | 0.00% | 0.00% | 0.30% | 13 |
| 5 | 0.31% | 0.00% | 0.00% | 0.31% | 14 |
| 6 | 0.30% | 8.67% | 9.93% | 18.90% | 838 |
| 7 | 0.27% | 0.00% | 0.00% | 0.27% | 12 |
| 8 | 0.22% | 0.00% | 0.00% | 0.22% | 10 |
| 9 | 0.17% | 0.00% | 0.00% | 0.17% | 8 |
| A | 0.12% | 0.00% | 0.00% | 0.12% | 5 |
| B | 0.08% | 0.00% | 0.00% | 0.08% | 3 |
| C | 0.04% | 0.00% | 0.00% | 0.04% | 2 |
| D | 0.02% | 0.00% | 0.00% | 0.02% | 1 |
| E | 0.01% | 0.00% | 0.00% | 0.01% | 0 |
| S | 0.00% | 1.05% | 14.30% | 15.35% | 681 |
| T | 0.00% | 0.84% | 6.36% | 7.20% | 319 |
| U | 0.00% | 0.16% | 1.19% | 1.35% | 60 |
| W | 0.00% | 0.05% | 0.40% | 0.45% | 20 |
| Total | 2.74% | 11.35% | 85.82% | 99.91% | 4,430 |
The results are interesting—almost a third of the Federation worlds have no government structure (Gov 0), and almost 20% are Captive/Colony worlds. The special Hiver codes (S, T, U, and V) are rare enough that I wonder if they are really necessary. Maybe just associate code S (Sept) with Gov 3 (Oligarchy), T (Unsupervised Anarchy) with Gov 4 (Representative Democracy), U (Supervised Anarchy) with Gov 5 (Feudal Technocracy), and W (Committee) with Gov 7 (Balkanization). Although the last one seems a bit of a stretch, the other codes are sufficiently broad to cover a wide variety of governments.
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