Empire has a large region under the bubble all to itself?

[drkaii]

If you galmap-filter by allegiance and have a little look around the bubble, something striking becomes obvious - the Empire has this huge region of space under the bubble where they are the only systems. All their neighbors are simply uninhabited. Everywhere else in the bubble you have a strong mix of faction(s) and independents, right up to the edges on all sides. Seeing all those blue dots under the bubble is quite incredible. Almost makes me want to joint he empire. Imagine your home is a hundred light years from the nearest enemy system? Unless you feel oppressed by the Empire. Then it could be hell.

Is there any lore reason for this unique distribution of systems? Or is this a player-caused thing?

Thanks, ever inspiring community!

CMDR Dr. Kaii

 

[Vasious]

My guess is it a lore based reason; Wont be player driven as it was like that since Gamma

The Alliance and Federation are sprinkled with independent systems even in the core areas, as we have seen systems can vote to join and leave the Federation and thee Alliance, 78 Ursae Majoris being a prime example, a Federation system that by Election joined the Alliance.
I know this was player action driven, but that we have GalNet articles about systems debating on leaving the Federation or game rules allowing systems to democratically join and leave the Federation or alliance supporting the lore

The Empire on the other hand looks quite monolithic and the down area below the bubble is far from any other power, so the Empire probably hand a free hand in taking over any independents that were there

Also without any other power near by the Empire would also have a free hand expanding non militarily there, you'll note the Empire bubble extends down, a certain radius from Achenar, but shuffle down spin and there is no systems that far down.

Another way to look at it is Each Federation system elects a Congress Member to represent it in the Federal Congress, an Alliance system is part of a Alliance of Independent systems and elects a representative to go to the Alliance Parliament.

Imperial Systems are on the other hands the personal fifes and clients to the Imperial Senators, the identity flow is the opposite direction, the outwards claim to ownership would not tolerate independent bubbles, but the further from Achenar the hard it is to hold.

Hence the more Big Blue Blob like distribution of the Empire vs the more spread out nature of the Federation which is almost everywhere.
The Alliance being younger just has not had a change to spread as much

 

[dynamicbob]

Its an open ground for anti empire player groups to get in there and assuming the background sim can be made to work a bit more bug free and as intended even in basic form begin to do what kumo crew have been doing flipping empire systems to everything but empire.

 

[Alex Brentnall]

Just spitballing from my limited grasp of the Elite lore but didn't the Empire split from the Federation and basically go off to colonise a new home?

From the wiki: http://elite-dangerous.wikia.com/wiki/Empire

What is now known as the Empire began around in the middle of the 23rd century, with the architect of peace and an anti-Federation activist Marlin Duval^[3]. She had long spoken out against the oppressive Federal administration of the time. Such was her disenchantment that she gathered her family together, along with many supporters, and left the Federation. Marlin led them to a distant star system called Achenar, many light years from Sol, in order to found a new colony based on peaceful ideals. A suitable home was found orbiting Achenar 6, a Class III gas giant, and Achenar 6d was colonised. Now named Capitol, this moon formed the core world of what would later become the Empire.

That'd imply to me that they were like Obsidian Orbital with just them surrounded by uninhabited systems. They spread out from there with only like-minded supporters around them whereas the Federation had all other branches of thought from Sol leading to a more fractured space.
After the failed 2324AD Fed invasion I'd imagine most independent people looking for a quiet life would look to colonise in the exact opposite direction of the conflict area and decide to go deeper into Fed space ideally behind a protective barrier of Fed systems hopefully protected from the Empire fleet by the Federation space defences.
If they were anti-fed they would jump in with both feet and ally themselves with the Empire that had just dominated the Federation fleet.

It could also be because of iron fisted rule etc as you folk say, I'm just guessing here, by no means familiar with all the Elite stuff.

 

[Sapyx]

On the original FE2/FFE starmap, the Empire was a fairly homogenous "ball" of space, centred on Achenar, within which pretty much every single star and planet was owned by the Empire but the Empire owned very few stars elsewhere. Outside of the Imperial bubble and beyond it, were a sprinkling of scattered Independent and even Federation systems; there was even a small cluster of three Federation planets on the far side of Empire space. The Federation was always larger in volume but more... dilute, intermingled with independent corporate states. The Alliance, of course, was not present in FE2 and was tacked on to the FFE starmap as a somewhat untidy (and rather glitchy) afterthought.

And yes, the "purity" of the Imperial sphere was explained in-lore as Achenar having been founded as a remote colony and the Empire having a centralized, planned programme of expansion out in all directions from Achenar, initiated after the Empire's original and unexpected victory over the Federation. For the most part, Imperial rule was established by peaceful colonization of uninhabited star systems, rather than conquest of pre-existing Federation or Independent colonies.

The new ED map takes this same principle, but makes it even more extreme. The Empire owning every single star system all the way out to the Frontier is something new.