Tillshield

Overview

The largest space station in Makerus, Tillshield has grown throughout the millennia as more asteroids and comets are added to it - so much so that the name reflects this, with the top being a slightly disc and the bottom being comprised of captured asteroids and comets so that it looks like a tiller under a shield. Also unique is its status as an occasional recruitment source for the Crimson Bulwark, owing to the brutal feudal structure that is tied to the asteroid mining clans. Kept from any too-advanced technology by the overseers of Tillshield, the mining clans pick apart their 'kingdom' and vie for more asteroids by attracting the captains of the vessels responsible for capturing by promising more returns or quicker speed. This frequently erupts into violence between two mining clans competing over the same haul, and the wide access tubes connecting the asteroids and mining segments are oft filled with miner armies equipped with self forged mail or plate armor and forged swords or metal crossbows.

The rulers allow this to continue for many reasons, chiefly being that it keeps any potential unrest in check as long as they're fighting each other, it motivates each mining clan to mine faster and more efficiently, and the weapons used cannot damage anything important. These feudal conditions combined with the experience in fighting are ideal recruitment grounds for the Crimson Bulwark, and every now and then a group of aspirants are singled out. As the normal vassalage system of the Bulwark cannot apply to Tillshield, instead a group of the successful aspirant's mining clan is relocated to a proper town on one of the other worlds of the Bulwark, in exchange the mining clan who stay behind (the majority) are granted a large asteroid manuevered into place by a strike cruiser, heavier duty siege weapons built by the Bulwark (the most popular being the automatic balista), and a large sum of rations and crafts forged by the villeins of the Bulwark.