Adam Wieser · Writer, Narrative Team

I mean, that's a very detailed, interesting question, and I think something where there could be a lot of interesting, cool gameplay, because, yeah, I'm going to assume those types of contracts would violate the UEE Common Laws, which UEE systems are supposed to uphold. But as you've seen in Stanton, UEE laws aren't always being completely upheld where they are, so certain Banu ships may be able to travel through certain parts of systems and maybe not run into any interference, but they could be in big problems if they do. It's going to be an interesting cultural question going forward. And I think it's also going to be the same with the Xi'an, as there's a Xi'an system in particular that is essentially run by gangs. And when humans pass through, it's like, what's going on here? Why aren't the Xi'an doing anything about this? Until you realize that in Xi'an culture, they have essentially authorized certain gangs to operate within that system. So there are going to be these cultural differences where from a UEE perspective, it's like, that's not right, that's not how we do things, but Xi'an space is different and they handle it certain ways. And instead of saying all gangs are bad, they say, all right, you few gangs, go ahead, you just do all your stuff here and we'll leave you alone. So I think that's what's going to be really cool and interesting for the players that go out there and experience and see what happens when they brush up against these different cultures and different ways of approaching things. So yeah, of course, we don't want to lock ourselves into something quite yet. But just by bringing up the question itself, you're realizing the possibilities and the storytelling and gameplay potential that comes from these kinds of fringe systems or just differences between the species in game.

Dave Haddock · Narrative Director

And it might be one of those things, too, where, based on whatever interstellar trade accord the humans worked out with the Banu, maybe, I mean, the question specifically called out the slaver Souli, maybe they're not allowed to do business inside UEE space because it does violate the Common Laws and that type of thing. So maybe they don't venture into UEE space and they kind of stay in Banu territory and stuff like that. So yeah, there's a lot of opportunities for us to play with that, because it raises really weird, difficult questions from the UEE's perspective of how do they deal with that facet of Banu culture that they certainly don't agree with.

Mike Kinsella · Copywriter, Narrative Team

Yeah, definitely. I mean, it's a great question. It's a great thing to bring up because, sort of like we were saying, the lore sparks things in y'all and y'all spark things in the lore sometimes. So it's nice to throw it back once in a while. It's like, oh yeah, how would they deal with that? It's an interesting question, an interesting sort of political-economic question for the future.