Basic Overview of Spelljamming and recent events in Realmspace

General knowledge of Spelljamming:

• When you stand on the surface of Toril, and look up at the night sky, what you’re seeing is Wildspace--an endless sea of darkness, in which worlds spin and circle around the sun, and many strange beings live their lives.
• As an adventurer moves higher (whether climbing a mountain or flying on a ship), the atmosphere becomes thinner and thinner until at last it becomes vacuum. The climber can still breathe, however, because as he moves upward, an envelope of air clings to him. When he reaches the point where the planet's air is no longer breathable, he is breathing his own air, held near him by his body's own gravity. This air envelope attaches to everything that passes through the atmosphere and allows normal survival in Wildspace, at least for a short time.
• Much in the way that oars and strong winds enable travel by sea on terrestrial worlds, magic items called spelljamming helms are used to propel and steer ships through Wildspace and beyond, allowing wooden ships to fly into space and take their air with them.
• The reason everything drags its own atmosphere around through space is gravity. This is also the reason why people can stand on a space-sailing ship without falling off its deck. Every body in space has its own gravity. Gravity is an accommodating force in that its direction seems to be "that which is most convenient."
• Spelljamming ships need help to navigate a planet’s gravity field. Fortunately, flying such a ship allows one to see aether currents, rivers of luminescent blue energy that descend down from wildspace onto the planet. Just as different ocean-faring groups look to control port cities, bays, and river ways, so too do factions in Wildspace seek to control these points of entry into and out of planets. These aether currents also span the distances between planets, defining preferred travel routes. (Note, this is a change from our previous SJ adventures)
• For the most part, civilizations on the surfaces of planets (dismissively referred to as "groundlings" by space-faring sailors) ignore the civilizations far above their heads. Spelljamming ships will sometimes come into major ports to trade exotic goods, but often they hide their origins.
• This ability to ignore the worlds above was shattered in the last couple of years, as an alliance of Illithids and a faction of Drow (led from the Underdark city of Menzobarranzan) darkened the sun of Realmspace for over a year, and used the darkness to attack multiple cities across the world. Drow and Illithids from the Underdark breached the surface, and attempted to dominate the people there. This is referred to as "the Dark Sun War". This war actually spanned multiple spheres, but that fact is not commonly known (or cared about) in Realmspace.
• A party of adventures called the Knights of the Reluctant Circle managed to reignite the sun about 18 months ago. Allied with various powerful individuals from Toril and the fleets of frightful allies called the Dark Alliance--independent Drow, Scro (militaristic spacefaring orcs), and Neogi--the Drow fleet blockading Toril was defeated and dispersed, and many Drow and Illithids are driven back underground from the surface of Toril. This is aided by an apparent rift between the Menzobarranzan-allied Drow and the Illithids.
• In return for their help, the Scro, Drow and Neogi are given free travel in Realmspace (the solar system of Toril), and at the Rock of Bral, as part of the price. The Imperial Elven Navy opposes this, since the Scro have been their enemies for centuries, but is unable to stop it. Similarly, all are suspicious of the Neogi, despite their promises not to take any slaves from Toril. This is a fundamental shift in the balance of power in Realmspace, but reopens free spelljamming travel there, after over a year of interplanetary war and darkness.
• The Rock of Bral is a city on an asteroid (floating big rock), part of the Tears of Selune (a group of asteroids that orbits Toril behind its moon Selune, and are visible from the surface). The City of Bral was once a haven for thieves and ruffians. And while it still serves as one, Bral has evolved into a burgeoning trading post and cosmopolitan city for countless strange, spacefaring races.
• The ruler of the Rock of Bral is Prince Andru, the grandson of the first ruler of Bral. During the Dark Sun War, Prince Andru helped rally forces from various rival nations on Toril to fight the Illithids and their Drow allies, and provided support to the Knights of the Reluctant Circle.
• Subsequently, Prince Andru formed a loose relationship with the Lords Alliance, a partnership of merchant city-states on the Sword Coast of the continent of Faerun on Toril--an alliance of which Sildar Hallwinter is an agent. Together, they have invested in building up Toril's ability to defend itself from spacebourne threats with a joint Spelljamming Navy--attempting to mitigate the risk of any individual surface nation getting Spelljamming technology.
• Together, they establish an isolated training facility called the Spelljammer Academy.