Freelance culture is, in no way, monolithic. It would not be a stretch to say that every single Freelance settlement has a culture almost wholly distinct from any other.
That said, certain values are shared by most Freelancers—values that define what it means to live outside the great powers.
Freelancers are almost never 100% confident that any external support they may have access to today will still be there tomorrow. Supply lines shift. Trade partners go bankrupt or get raided. Governments collapse. The only constant is uncertainty.
As a result, Freelancers need to know they can grow, find, make, or trade for anything they need. A colony that can't feed itself is a colony waiting to die. A ship that can't repair itself is a ship waiting to be stranded. Self-reliance isn't just a value—it's survival.
Freelancers will, above all else, handle things themselves when and wherever they can. They don't want or need some far-off authority telling them what they can and can't do. Local problems get local solutions. If a dispute can't be resolved between the parties involved, it probably can't be resolved at all.
This extends to an almost pathological distrust of outside interference. Even well-meaning aid from the League or offers of "protection" from the [Terrans][] are viewed with deep suspicion. The Confederacy exists precisely because Freelancers refused to let others make decisions for them.
If there's such a thing as institutional wanderlust, most Freelancers have it. You're not going to find travel papers in Freelance space, and one of the only assumed, universal rights is the right to go where you will, when you will.
This manifests in striking statistics: approximately 43% of Confederacy citizens own their own interstellar-capable ships, compared to 22% in the League and 27% in the Republic. For many Freelancers, their ship is their home, their business, and their freedom all in one.
Not everyone in Freelance space has joined the Confederacy. In fact, some of the most significant powers in the region have remained stubbornly independent, forming their own political structures known as Clusters—groups of systems with strong cultural and economic bonds that operate outside Confederacy authority.
The Clusters trade with the Confederacy, cooperate on matters of mutual interest, and generally maintain friendly relations. But they have not submitted to Confederate governance, however minimal that governance may be. To them, joining the Confederacy would be trading one distant authority for another.
The Highlands Cluster consists of eight systems founded and primarily populated by those of Gaelic descent. Systems and planets tend to adopt names of cities or regions from the British Isles—Gaelia, Aberdeen, Suffolk, Cardiff.
The Highlands worlds share a common cultural heritage and strong trade ties. They're known for shipbuilding (particularly at Talbot Yards in Aberdeen and Emory Shipwrights in Cardiff), whiskey production, and a fierce independent streak even by Freelancer standards.
The Highlands Cluster maintains its own internal governance—a loose council of planetary representatives that coordinates defense and trade policy. They've rebuffed multiple invitations to join the Confederacy, preferring to deal with the great powers on their own terms.
The Empire Cluster represents something unusual in Freelance space: corporate control. Five systems, each owned by a banking corporation, with planets named for Roman emperors—Constantine, Trajan, Hadrian, Augustus, Diocletian.
These worlds are wealthy, well-organized, and thoroughly corporate. The Empire Cluster provides much of the banking infrastructure for trade across human space—including the Confederacy. Diocletian in particular is famous for VistaPlex, a planet-wide casino and theme park that draws tourists from as far as the League core worlds.
The corporations that run these worlds have no interest in joining the Confederacy. They prefer the freedom to set their own rules, make their own deals, and answer to no one but their shareholders.
Several other groupings exist across Freelance space:
Major stations throughout Freelance space also operate outside Confederacy authority:
These stations trade with everyone—Confederacy, Clusters, even the great powers—while answering to no government but their own.
The Confederacy has no formal social hierarchy—in theory. In practice, wealth and reputation determine everything.
Those who've made their fortunes in trade, salvage, or more questionable pursuits form a de facto upper class. They own stations, run corporations, and wield influence that governments in other space would envy. Unlike the Terran nobility, there's no formal recognition of their status. Unlike the League upper class, they can't hide behind government positions. Their wealth is their only protection, and everyone knows it.
Ship captains occupy a unique position in Freelance society. A captain is master of their vessel, with near-absolute authority over their crew during flight. Good captains are respected; successful captains are admired; legendary captains become the closest thing Freelancers have to heroes.
Crew members range from highly skilled professionals to desperate souls working off debts. The quality of a crew often determines whether a ship thrives or joins the countless wrecks drifting in the void.
Not everyone in the Confederacy has a ship. Station residents, colonists, and the unfortunate make up the bulk of the population. They work the docks, run the shops, maintain the infrastructure, and dream of someday owning a ship of their own.
Life for station dwellers varies enormously depending on where they live. A resident of Tycho Station enjoys relative safety and prosperity. A worker on Clew Bay Station lives in a pirate haven where the only law is what you can enforce yourself.
The Confederacy has no safety net. Those who can't work, can't find a crew, or can't afford passage somewhere else simply... exist. They take whatever work they can find, legal or otherwise. Many end up in debt bondage, working off obligations that somehow never quite get paid. The Confederacy's freedom includes the freedom to fail, and many do.
The Confederacy has no official language, but several are commonly spoken:
The dominant trade language across human space. Most Confederates speak at least basic English, and it serves as the default for inter-system communication.
Very common in Freelance space, a legacy of the significant Russian population that fled Terran territory in the early days. Many frontier worlds have Russian as their primary language.
Individual Clusters often maintain their heritage languages:
Every year, on the anniversary of the conclusion of the Confederacy War, Confederate planets and stations hold a national holiday known as the Independence Revel.
The celebration varies wildly by location—some worlds hold formal ceremonies, others throw week-long parties, and more than a few use it as an excuse for general lawlessness. The only constants are drinking, fireworks, and speeches about freedom that no one really listens to.
The Freelancer's Scope is the premiere source of information for Freelancers. One part newspaper, one part database, and one part vast informant network.
Access to the daily update feed—the most newspaper-like part of the Scope—is completely free to everyone. Access to the database requires a small yearly subscription fee (or a much larger lifetime subscription).
For direct access to the infoNet, you either need to invest a significant amount of credits into the Scope or pay a yearly subscription that would make most financial agents blush. The infoNet is overwhelming—no real filters, searching by topic or date is nearly impossible. Most people who need infoNet data pay a one-time fee to submit a request and have a skilled analyst compile the relevant information into a neat, orderly bundle.
The Scope is run by... someone. No one's quite sure who. The organization maintains its independence fiercely and has survived multiple attempts by both great powers to shut it down or co-opt it.