> '.
>
> Since then I've always leaned towards the idea that hi-pop worlds in the TU were effectively 'balkanized' w/ various federative, autonomous, etc, regions, similar to the way a lot of nations here on earth have 'reservations', 'preserves' or other areas where one could easily feel as if he were in a different country altogether.

My daughter has chosen to go to university down in Cornwall (about 5
hours drive west of me but not actually that far in miles) and it can
feel like a different country there.  Heavy accents, strong sense of
regional identity, their own flag.  Even some of the language can be a
bit different.

My brother and his wife have recently moved to the Isle of Wight.
That's only three miles across the water from where I go down to the
beach about a mile from my home.  But it really is a different
country!  Because it's rather expensive to cross the Solent, not to
mention tedious from anywhere but particularly from our place because
we either have to travel east to Portsmouth for a ferry (or
hovercraft) or west to Southampton for a ferry (or catamaran), it's
relatively 'cut off'.  For somewhere that's otherwise close to large
population centres on the South Coast of the UK.

I understand from my radiographer uncle over there that there is even
a physiological difference in some part of their hands or something.
Not to mention attitudes about mainlanders and the like.  Until my
brother moved there, I'd been like twice in my entire life.  To
somewhere four miles from home!

Even if the planet in question isn't Balkanized, and I agree with you
it might be even if it doesn't say so, I'll bet some systems are
pretty effectively balkanized if the PCs stray off the main paths.

tc