Quote:The Voidfarer Chronicles: Citizen - Setting draft
Eight centuries after the first public use of inertia inhibition technology, the human population is governed by economic system-wide constructs known as trade alliances. Those that are not citizens of any of the established alliances do not have many of the benefits or rights that high civilization has to offer. Education, employment, day-to-day security, etc. are granted to those that are citizens, and denied to those that are not. If not born into citizenship a person has to be deemed useful to the particular society in order to be accepted. Many are not.

Another way to enjoy basic rights is to be on the crew of a free ship. The alliances are always in need of more shippers to run port-to-port with goods and people throughout system space. While their in-house trade fleets do the bulk of the work there is always the odd job offered to the able free shipper. Many successful free crew members have gone on to full employment on a fleet crew this way. As the fleet crew members enjoy full citizenship benefits this is a very attractive prospect and the competition is heavy.

Beyond the port-to-port trade within the local system there is sometimes necessary to transport goods to far destinations such as neighboring systems. Doing this as a shipper means stepping out of society due to the immense times in transit and because of this the alliances are reluctant to send their own fleet crews on such fares. Having fleet assets gone for decades incurs risk they are not willing to take. Instead they endorse free shippers to take these jobs by paying them handsomely and by treating them as upstanding members of society while they are in system. These free shippers, known as voidfarers, live very long lives due to time dilation while in near-light transit. They are treated with both awe and suspicion by system residents and tend to keep to themselves as their ties to society are lost over time.

A drifter is a member of a community outside any alliance. These people usually live in structural habitats in high orbit over a sun or a planet. The term drifter comes from the fact that they have no means for long distance travel beyond their community. They live off gathering scrap and repairing and refueling passing travelers. Alliance authority tend to accept the drifter communities as they provide important minor services to their trade fleets and security personnel. Some of the largest drifter communities are called drifter rings or drifter clouds since they mimic actual planet rings or dust clouds, becoming part of the very landscape. It is common however since one location only can support so many inhabitants that one community splits into two and one part migrates to a new location. The majority of human population throughout known space live in drifter communities.

Quote:Some more on voidfarers and the Citizen
The voidfarers is a designation for people who fare the void using inertia inhibition drives and speeds close to that of light. Early versions of this was restricted to security force use and managed to accelerate a vessel to but a fraction of light speed. Now publicly available, though very expensive, the inertia inhibitors are able to attain speeds very close to that of light but it has been concluded time and time again that this limit can never be exceeded. Traveling at such speeds is still not without problems. The time dilation, and the great distances makes a voyage of ten light-years take less than a week for the ones traveling, while ten years will have passed at the origin and destination points. For this reason, few people are willing to travel in this way and those who do have usually no attachments outside of their crews. They are the voidfarers, forming a community of their own.

There is a legend of a voidfarer called the Citizen, who is said to be one of the very first ones. While faring has been done for close to 800 years it is said that he is still out there, traveling, his life prolonged by extensive time dilation. Many versions of this legend exists, detailing various deeds and adventures, and there are many names by which he is known. Some crews and communities regard him as something of a religious figure while most treat it as a mere tale.