Fringian Scavenger Season

A name applied to the period directly following the Dark Age and the Renaissance, reckoned to begin around 4650AD when space travel had become relatively common. It is remembered as a wild and lawless time filled with empty horizons and populated with larger-than-life characters. During this period pioneers pushed out into the wildernesses of the Fringe. Most simply sought new lands and the freedom to live how they chose, but some exploited primitive societies or looted worlds that had become barren during the Dark Age. These Scavengers stripped bare whole outposts for materials and components, often with scant respect for the Sophont remains that they found.

Scavenger Season is considered to have ended around 4900AD. By this time the former Confederation worlds had been picked clean and opportunities for reclamation and salvage were few and far between. As small settlements and outposts began to mature into independent, economically viable worlds, interstellar trade increased dramatically. The merchant vessels working between them, relatively isolated and laden with wealth and produce, proved to be tempting targets to the Scavenger communities and they began commerce-raiding. The so-called Golden Age had begun.