Sword Worlds Confederation/meta

Rancke Notes (2009)

For many years, there has existed two mutually exclusive versions of which worlds were lost by the Darrians to the Sword Worlds during the First Frontier War, regained in the Darrian-Sword World War of 788 and lost again in the Fourth Frontier War.

According to "Contact: The Sword Worlds" in Journal of the Travellers' Aid Society #18, Library Data (N-Z), Imperial Encyclopedia, and, most recently, GURPS Traveller, it is Terant 340, Torment, Trifuge, and Cunnonic.

But according to Darrians, The Spinward Marches Campaign, The Regency Sourcebook, and Behind the Claw, it is the Entropic Worlds.

The maps in The Spinward Marches Campaign also show Torment as part of the group.

Furthermore, the text in The Spinward Marches Campaign claims that Entrope, Winston, and Anselhome are occupied by the Sword Worlds from the end of the Third Frontier War even though the maps show that it is from the end of the Fourth.

And to make the confusion complete, Mongoose Traveller: Spinward Marches shows the three Entropic worlds as belonging to the Darrians in 1105 and the UWP listings of SMC and RS show them as belonging to the Sword Worlds in 1110 and 1117 -- that is, the reverse of what the maps and the text show.

There is no possible way to reconcile these differences.

For a while I've been suggesting that the Entropic Worlds and Torment were the four worlds lost by the Darrians in 593 and regained in 788. The Entropic Worlds (without Torment) were lost again during the Fourth Frontier War, and that's what was used in GURPS Traveller: Sword Worlds.

It also appears to be the line that Mongoose Traveller: Spinward Marches follows.

• Rancke 20:34, 6 May 2009 (UTC).