SolCore

SolCore is the astrographic, cultural and political region encompassing the Sol system and its immediate surroundings within a five-light year radius. Officially, SolCore is one of the three primary categories of human colonies, the other two being the Inner and Outer Colonies. While SolCore formally includes the neighboring triple star system of Alpha Centauri and its colonies, in common usage the term most often applies to Sol alone. In both academic and colloquial use, "SolCore" also refers to the people (especially the political and/or commercial elite) of Sol, and can have variable connotations depending on the speaker.

History
The term has evolved and assumed many different meanings throughout history. Coined in the 24th century as humanity began expanding outward, SolCore had connotations to human unity and progress: as the collective trauma of the harrowing Interplanetary Wars faded to the historical background, the formerly contentious worlds of the Solar System all the way to the Oort Cloud and beyond were now seen as one political and cultural unit. Of course, this was an idealized version of a more complex reality, but the term caught on nonetheless, increasingly so as the Solar colonies began to conceptualize themselves in relation to the growing colonial sphere beyond the interstellar gulf. This was also partly spurred by the period of relative prosperity and advancement brought on by the Domus Diaspora. For a time, "SolCore" was near-synonymous with the United Earth Government, and remained so until the mid-25th century. Over time, the extrasolar colonies developed, the term began to assume more critical connotations, first within the academia in both the Inner and Outer Colonies: as the UEG's activities and centralized political structure drew increased criticism, so did the attribution of human achievements exclusively to the home system. Among many colonists, "SolCore" became a contemptuous term meant to highlight the Earth government's Sol-centrism. Many Outer Colonials would apply the term to the political-military sphere of the UEG and UNSC in order to highlight where said organizations' interests truly lie. Pressure from both colonists and the Earth public caused moderate UEG administrations to downplay the term in its original meaning, limiting its use to the astrographic and cultural region rather than the entirety of the UEG's dominion.

Culture and society
The colonies of SolCore are not culturally homogeneous, but centuries of concerted political, economic and cultural integration have tied their interests so closely together they are often seen as a singular unit, particularly by outsiders. Broadly speaking, the largest cultural groupings within SolCore are the Earthers, Lunars, Martians, Belters and Jovians, along with the colonists of Alpha Centauri's Proxima and Ammon. Despite housing some industry of note, the Alpha Centauri colonies are not politically powerful in and of themselves and are largely overshadowed by Earth, Mars and even the Jovians; for this reason they are sometimes called "Sol's backyard". SolCore also encompasses numerous marginal population groups, including the Cometarians, Communitals and other habitat-dwellers, as well as the populations on the moons of the Outer Planets and various minor worlds.

SolCore occupies a key position within the United Earth Government in many ways. Despite various attempts at political reforms to appease the extrasolar colonies since the early 2400s, the UEG's governmental bodies were still primarily staffed by SolCore natives due to their privileged position in the electoral process, to the point most colonies had little to no representation in the UEG proper, at least on a meaningful level. The administration of the colonies was instead relegated to the Colonial Administration Authority, and the UEG's de facto hegemony over the colonies being increasingly represented by the UNSC. This incidentally also made it relatively easy for the UEG to cede its power over the extrasolar territories to the UNSC at the onset of the Human-Covenant War.

Production notes
"SolCore" was originally referenced in the Cortana Letters before the release of Halo: Combat Evolved, appearing to be an early name for humanity's interstellar government and/or civilization. It is one of several pre-Halo concepts to be brought back and reinterpreted in Project Daybreak.