The Edinburgh System is the intellectual capital of the Highlands Cluster—home to its finest universities, its most sophisticated financial services, and a cultural scene that rivals anything in the Confederacy. Edinburgh thinks of itself as the civilized heart of the Cluster, a view not universally shared by its neighbors.
Edinburgh was founded by colonists who sought to recreate the Scottish Enlightenment in the stars—a society that valued education, rational inquiry, and cultural achievement. They succeeded well enough that Edinburgh has become the Cluster's center for higher learning and professional services.
The system's universities attract students from across Freelance space. Its banks and investment houses handle much of the Cluster's internal finance. Its legal scholars are consulted on matters of clan law and trade disputes. Edinburgh has made thinking its primary industry.
The system's primary world and namesake, Edinburgh is a planet of universities, museums, and carefully preserved historic districts. The planetary capital is built around the original colonial settlement, its architecture deliberately echoing Old Earth Edinburgh's blend of medieval and Georgian styles.
The great universities—St. Andrews, Heriot, and half a dozen others—dominate the planet's culture. Academic achievement is the surest path to status here, and intellectual debate is the preferred entertainment.
Lothian is Edinburgh's technology and research hub, a world of laboratories, research parks, and the commercial enterprises that spin out of academic work. The planet has become a center for advanced technology development, particularly in computing and biotechnology.
The relationship between Lothian's commercial focus and Edinburgh's academic ideals creates productive tension. Researchers complain about commercialization; business leaders complain about impractical theorists. Both sides keep working together anyway.
Fife is the system's agricultural world, supplying food for the more urbanized planets. The world is known for its golf courses—a tradition maintained with almost religious devotion—and for producing some of the Cluster's finest whisky.
Life on Fife is quieter than on Edinburgh proper, and some academics retire here when they tire of university politics.
Arthur Station is the system's primary orbital facility, named for the legendary seat said to overlook Old Earth Edinburgh. The station handles trade, transit, and the constant flow of students arriving for the academic terms.
Edinburgh's culture is bookish, argumentative, and quietly proud. The system values learning, eloquence, and the ability to hold one's own in debate. Social gatherings often become impromptu seminars; pub conversations can turn into philosophical disputes that last until closing.
This intellectual focus can shade into arrogance. Edinburgh natives sometimes view their Highlands neighbors as provincial—hardworking, certainly, but lacking sophistication. This attitude is not appreciated elsewhere in the Cluster, and Edinburgh has learned to express it carefully.
The system serves as a neutral ground for Cluster disputes that require legal resolution rather than the Gathering's political negotiations. Edinburgh scholars maintain the records of clan law and precedent that give the Cluster what passes for a legal system.