Hibernia

Hibernia was a small star system swallowed by the Rift approximately 6,000 years ago. Recognizing their imminent fate, scientists built primitive space going arks to save their species from the black hole. Some 10 thousand people escaped the planet. Less than 0.001% of the original population. They have worked hard to preserve their art and history, however they have never been able to capitalize upon their early technological advances and have been forced to live under the rule of the empire for at least 5,000 years. 

Without a home world, or apparently any desire to settle on one, the Hibernian nation exists on massive city ships which venture through the void, and much smaller house ships which house family groups of thousands.

The Hibernians are a conquered race who accept the rule of the Empire as a necessary part of life. They do not cause trouble for the Empire, and the Empire leaves them to their own devices. Without any homeworld of their own they provide little value to the Empire except in information gathering and communications. 

Hibernians are humanoid, but prolonged existence in the zero gravity of space have made their bodies relatively frail. They cannot operate well in anything but the lightest gravity, this contributes a lot to their lack of interest for colonizing a new home-world.

The Hibernian race has managed to regrow it's numbers to approximately 10 million, spread over approximately 100 city ships and 10,000 house ships. This regrowth is strictly controlled through selective gene-splicing to retain the genetic diversity of their species and ensure that no dominant traits take over their small population. Limited resources also force each city council to restrict population growth.

Hibernian ships are generally made up of cubes attached together to allow for easy expansion of living quarters. Although production and addition (to the ships) of these cubes is carefully planned, this does tend to give Hibernian ships a non-symmetrical and blocky look. Although not particularly fast, the ships are very heavily shielded to protect against radiation, debris and marauder attack. Defenses come from many distributed turrets.

Although Hibernian technology is quite advanced, their city ships are only capable of approximately warp 1 to 1.5. This is partly due to the ever expanding size of their vessels and partly because they normally lack any definite destination, being content to move their ship between mining operations, while the smaller house ships run trade routes between the city's.

A typical city ship houses 50,000 to 150,000 Hibernians. The ships themselves are massive, between 100 and 200 times the size of a Galaxy star ship.

The house ships are far smaller, housing between 20 and 100 Hibernians. These are usually about a quarter of the size of a Galaxy class ship. They are typically used for cargo runs to supply the city ships and are usually operated by families who do not wish to live under the strict control of the city councils. They employ the same modular cube design, with cubes full of ore being detached from the house ship and attached to the city ship in exchange for food and luxuries. Empty cubes are then used to replace those deposited and the house ship returns to it's trade route.

House ships are easier targets for raiders and usually have fairly advanced weaponry and fast warp drives (warp 7 to 8).

Hibernians rarely board other vessels due to their low gravity requirements. They are ruled by a strict code of conduct necessitated by their permanent exile to space. No Hibernian ship will fire upon another and all will come to the aid of a stricken ship. The Hibernians tend to act slowly, but when they do they are a cohesive force who all follow the same plan of action. The Hibernian government consists of a spokesperson from each city ship, each of who have an equal voice in a subspace quorum. 

Dev Notes

The Hibernians are based losely on the Scots/Irish. They are insular and are happy enough to be left alone. They are however fiercely loyal to each other and as with the Celts in the Roman empire in Earth history could be a very destabilizing force if provoked into action.

We tried to project what a space faring nation would want in ships and came up with modular design for easy expansion and the thought that heavier shielding would be more important than weaponry. This ship is designed to protect it's occupants from attack, not to be the aggressor.

The multiple turret weapons on city ships make it very hard to disable all of the weaponry on the ship. This coupled with the heavy shields make them a difficult opponent to defeat.

 The presence of a large civilian population on board should also make any Federation officer think twice about attacking such a ship.

The Children of Ra monitor all of the communications of the Hibernian council, however the Hibernians have no interest in revolting against the Empire. They are left alone most of the time, and they are happy with that.