Upsiders

Yrillian Upsider culture is a space-based branch of Yrillian civilizaton that originated in the middle of the Yrillian Concordat period, though its roots can be traced back to asteroid miners in the decades before the Osmium Wars. Though formerly somewhat isolated from planet-based Yrillian society, since the Yrillian Revolution Upsiders have been much more integrated. The majority of independent Yrillian ships and almost all large stations and asteroid colonies are primarily Upsider in origin, though many ships with crews drawn primarilly or exclusively from "downsiders" also exist. Upsider culture is so much a part of what it is to be a spacer in Yrillian society that these crews tend to rapidly take on at least the trappings of Upsider culture, consciously or otherwise. It is not uncommon for Upsiders and independent ship operators to be conflated informally, even by Yrillians.

Upsider society is the source of the form of direct democracy favoured by Yrillians and has a number of positive, pro-community social values, but it has also been criticized for promoting a level of independence and callous indifference to externalities that is a contributing factor to Yrillian piracy. However, it should be noted that new ships crewed from the planet-based population, drunk on the possibilities their ship offers and self-consciously emulating Upsider values and practices around independent ships and crews are some of the most likely to fall into piracy.