These two sectors are obviously important because these areas link Delphi to Core and will suggest the roots of the trade network that will grow within Delphi, and the X-boat route too.
I think this will be cool, because you can start with some Imperial expansion into the area in the Recontact era, determine the trade routes, and then let those trade routes impact the development, ultimately seeing the impact in the Current era. Which will lead to stuff like:
"Why was the battle for Planet X so bloody?", "Because it was a choke point for trade with Region Y - if the Imperium tolerated any independence there, Planet Z, Q and R would be at the mercy of the Foo Empire."
Areas that need to corespond to cannon should be noted and maybe used as anchor points. Like Planet X is a naval base, with a class A port and billions of people. Since that didn't happen overnight (probably), Planet X was likely one of the first areas colonized. This should be kept track of by someone.
Actually we need a list of all cannon references (as has already been mentioned), and use this as the anchors.
James, can I suggest you create a "Delphi Project: Proposal Basis and Development Direction" document, based on what this list has already discussed? It should include a statement of what is considered basic canon (ie. unchangeable, such as the Atlas dot map, Anaxias' UWP, etc - we covered this earlier), then have your words about the intended direction of the work. Wrap it in a livery (turquoise and something?) and badging (Margaret's bird-of-prey symbol?), HTML it and post it on someone's site, possibly grandsurvey.
Suggestion: start with the existing UWPs. If you, as a developer, think there is a strange anomaly somewhere (like the one that bloo pointed out), raise it as a discussion issue. Throw around ideas, thrash it out, and either keep the UWP (because someone has come up with a brilliant explanation that is better than "just a handwave") or change it (like bloo's suggested swap of port type).
This is a good approach and one I will probably adopt.
First draft
Pre-Ancients We should decide how many native non-human races
Delphi has. One canon statement says that there are
roughly 100 minor non-humans inside the 3rd Imperium.
This works out as one per 3 subsectors on the average,
which would work out as 2 or 3 native races in Delphi
(what with 7-8 of the subsectors being almost empty).
We do not, of course, have to stick to the average.
Spinward Marches has way more than the average while
Solomani Rim is below. Still, let's make every minor
race interesting and not introduce any without a good
reason.
Ancients period The big question here is, of course, does Delphi have
any minor human races? Traveller authors tend to
introduce new minor human races at the drop of a hat,
but keeping in mind that we have about 35 or so
already named (out of 46), we should show some
restraint in introducing more. One minor human race is
possible if we can come up with a good, worthwhile
one, but two would IMO definitely be exceeding our
quota ;-). BTW, are any of the human races from the
_Azhanti_ list still nothing more than a name? If so,
we might consider using one of those.
Interim Did anything exiting happen between -290,000 and
-10,000? STL empires or... or... Actually, that's
about all I can think of...
Siru Zirka The map of the First Imperium at its height (ca.
-3500) in _Referee's Manual_ shows the Imperium
covering subsectors A, B, C[*], E, F[*], I, J[*], M,
and a tiny slice of N. The rest of N and all of O and
P was not a part. Was N, O, and P empty and
uninteresting or was there a large pocket empire that
the Imperium couldn't be bothered to deal with? And
did the spinward side of Delphi have some pocket
empires that was assimilated by the First Imperium in
its expansion phase? also, did any not-native human or
non-human races settle in Delphi at this time?
[*] The non-empty parts of these subsectors.
Rule of Man The map of the Rule of Man shows the exact same border
as the one of the First Imperium. Did anything
interesting happen in Delphi during the RoM? Any
Solomani immigrants? Or was it a forgotten backwater?
The Long Night What happened in Delphi during the Long Night? When
did RoM authority break down? Was there any successor
states? How did they fare?
Milieu Zero When did 3rd Imperium scouts first move into Delphi?
Did the Sylean Federation have any contact with anyone
prior to that? The map of Imperial wars in _Imperial
Encyclopedia_ shows that the Sylean Pacification
campaigns covered Subsectors A, B, C, E, and F, but
not I, M, N, O, or P. It would seem that the latter
subsectors were incorporated peacefully, which is
interesting, because N, O, and P were never even part
of the 1st or 2nd Imperiums. Maybe N, O, and P were
relatively virgin, with few prior settlements?
Milieu 200 Expansion into N, O, and P (And Glimmerdrift Reaches
M)?
Milieu 400 No ideas yet.
Civil War How did Delphi fare during the Civil War? Were any of
the Emperors of the Flag from Delphi?
Milieu 800 How did Delphi fare during the Psionic Suppressions?
There would propably have been one or two Psionic
Institutes in Delphi.
Rim War The fighting apparently didn't get into Delphi, but it
did get as far corewards as Old Expanses A and B, just
rimwards of Delphi. Anything useful in that?
Hans Rancke-Madsen