The Maelstrom

Public astrographic record
Property of the Royal Atheneum of Hövnís, Eörpe

The maelstrom is the name of a particularly turbulent and dangerous phenomena that begins somewhere in the core region near the Enigma nebula and ebbs out far off the stellar halo by the Skethas satellites. Astronomers believe the maelstrom may once have bisected the galaxy billions of years ago, skirting the edge of the core and continuing past the tail end of Asurla's Arm. And that this could explain the unusally high density of stellar phenomena found around Krasoy and neighbouring systems. The phenomena distantly appears as a constantly rippling and rolling cloud of plasma and dust in scintillating angry magenta, red and yellow colors. Discharges, pulses and other events are common as stellar objects that happen to drift close or into it tend to be torn apart by the gravitational forces exhibited by the phenomena, releasing immense amounts of energy. Its highest central density follow the same Z-axle as the galactic center's supermassive black hole, gradually thinning as it spreads far and wide in all directions. In terms of space travel it effectively forms a wall between the end of Agalon's arm and the Far Reach arm, and the grave dangers associated with attempting to travel through it - even at its edges - has led to many comparing it to a treacherous ocean reef.

The Darkverse Wound

The Maelstrom, like nearly all stellar objects and phenomena, also has an equivalent within the darkverse dimension. Here, it vaguely keeps its shape but similar to mass shadows appear only in black tones. Similar to a black hole, the darkverse maelstrom measures an immense gravity well and anything caught past its event horizon will inevitably pulled inside and annihilated. Though hard to definitely say it is, it's assumed it's as large as its real equivalent though growing darker the higher its density is, and only it's core being fully distinguishable from the rest of space as a jagged would snaking across the expanse. The difficulty in judging the exact size of the phenomena in darkverse, and thinking it only to be as wide as the visible area, has led to many less experienced riftcraft pilots to erronously believe the maelstrom can be navigated past through rifting.