The Jewels of De Mairan

Dynastic kingdom descended from Li Su. Social hierarchy is almost totally dependent on relationship to the original fleet, with immigrants to De Mairan society becoming little more than peasants unless they can catch the eye of a rich patron. Artistans and engineers are highly prized in De Mairan: a great beauty may be shown off at a ball alongside a particularly skilled engineer.

The Jewels of De Marain are insular and prefer to protect their own space. As time goes on they refine their terraforming techniques so they can continue to create new, perfect worlds.

The flagship Alouette Matin; three small battlefleets; a dozen extremely well-fortified border stations.

When the Exodus Fleet began to splinter, a sizable proportion of Neo-Humans- united by Paragonism and a (now-dead) language- split off with their own small constructor fleet to Messier-43, a star-forming nebula near Orion. There they found a surprising number of very small planetoids surrounding N U Orionis (aka HD 37061). One of the original engineer-captains, an HEI-4 cat hybrid named Li Su, used the artificial gravity drives of a number of her small fleet to accrete hundreds of these small planetoids. Others were mined for their water, and some fleets ventured out into the great unknown for other materials. It took their fleet over a decade, but they managed to be one of the first and only human civilizations to be able to create a planet from scratch. This became De Mairan's World, and they would use this world as a base to develop several others, collectively known as the Jewels of De Mairan. There are currently seven of these gorgeous pearls, each more beautiful than the last.   The politics of the De Mairan court are infamously complex. The newest planetoids are, of course, the most beautiful; as time goes on, the artist-engineers of the Jewels have had centuries to hone their craft. But the newest Jewels are also populated with the least desirable people of the kingdom. De Mairan nobles therefore must balance the prestige of an established post with the potential of a new one, and are forever jockeying to put rivals in poor situations while taking the plum ones for themselves. Above all of them sits the ruler of the Jewels, La Regle des Soleils, who wears the Jeweled Diadem. Inheritance of the Jeweled Diadem falls to the youngest child, who holds the right of ultimogeniture. Older siblings are expected to act as advisors to their baby sibling and historically most are fairly content to do so, though there have been some rather intricate assassinations.   The Jewels of De Mairan maintain a rigorous martial tradition, and their three small battlefleets punch above their weight class. Given their preoccupation for maintaining their own nebula, they have very little territory to cover. They have an absurd number of border space stations that can withstand attacks from whole battlefleets long enough for their battlefleets to deliver a devastating counterpunch to any invading force. Currently they maintain a frosty (yet cordial) relationship with the Sun Dynasty and have been involved in a shadow war with Neo-Economic Block spies for centuries. Their navy is still celebrating a thrilling victory over a Covenant Progeniture raiding party, and have made it abundantly clear to neighboring polities that if they don't keep their neighbors in check perhaps the Jewels of De Mairan should spread their light beyond their nebula.