Battletech - 1629 - The Periphery (1st Edition)

The Periphery is also referred to as Guide to the Periphery. It was updated in The Periphery, 2nd Edition, published in 1996.

For centuries, the powers of the Inner Sphere have looked down on their brethren in the Periphery with thinly-veiled disgust. To the "civilized" worlds of humanity, the Periphery is a backwater, not a place where any respectable person would want to live. And many still remember that the nations of the Periphery fought tooth-and-nail against the Star League's attempt to unite all of humanity in a new golden age. Full of hardship, immorality, lawlessness and danger, it is a vast and little-understood region of space.
But that's not the whole story. The Periphery is all of the things that people say about it, but it is also much more. The Taurian Concordat has a better educational system than most Successor States. The citizens of the Magistracy of Canopus enjoy more freedoms than their counterparts in the Inner Sphere. Even the bandit kingdoms are getting into the act, with realms such as the Circinus Federation and the Marian Hegemony making moves towards legitimacy.

ComStar continues its series of sourcebooks detailing human space with a look at the Periphery in all its facets, good and ill. Learn the history of the various nations beyond the Inner Sphere, including the Rim Worlds Republic, home to the treacherous Amaris clan. See how life differs out in the wilds, where every danger is balanced by the freedom to live unfettered by the petty oppressions of the Successor States.

Canonicity

This sourcebook is known for containing numerous factual errors. Line Developer Herbert A. Beas II once made a statement to the effect that certain products including this one are considered "secondary sources" by the writers staff, but this should not be construed to mean they are not canonical. It is standard procedure in cases of conflicting information to treat later publications as accurate over earlier publications.

“ And, if Sarna used the Luthien scenario pack as a resource there, the fact is, that book proved to be so riddled with errors, it--like First Edition Periphery and Objective Raids--is now seen by our staff as a "secondary source": Canon only in areas where it does not clash with other canon. ”

— Herbert A. Beas, BattleTech Line Developer, 08 Jul 2012