Stellar Geography

The galaxy is vast, with several hundred billion stars packed into a spiral structure over one hundred thousand light-years wide. From a central bar of densely packed stars, two major arms twist outward. Most of the stars in these arms have several orbiting bodies, and many support life (or could be terraformed to do so). Floating between the arms are spurs; strips of stars spill from the main arms like sparks from a raging fire. Just behind the main arms are a pair of “minor arms” composed primarily of gas pockets, nebulae, and stellar nurseries, though they also contain absorbed spurs with star densities comparable to those of the main arms.

The Inner Core

Within the center of the galaxy is a nigh-unnavigable, dense megacluster of ten million stars and gravitational anomalies surrounding a supermassive black hole. Not to be confused with the Core Systems, the Inner Core is relatively small, only a few parsecs across. Extending from the north and south ends of the Inner Core are the poles, dense pillars of stars that each extend approximately ten thousand light-years.

The gravitational forces in this region are powerful and unpredictable enough to rip starships apart at any moment, and civilian space traffic avoids the bubble of gravitational danger around it and the poles altogether. Most FTL drives simply cannot attain more than a fraction of their potential velocity within the gravitational danger zone, which extends 10,750 light-years to the east and west of the Inner Core and 18,000 light-years to the north and south along the poles.

The Mahact are one of the few cultures with the technological capacity for dealing with the unpredictable gravitational forces of the Inner Core. In fact, their homeworld of Ixth rests just outside the southeastern edge of the Inner Core. The Dark, the nebula where many spot Empyrean gatherings, is several thousand light-years into the gravitational danger zone of the northwestern Inner Core.

The Ring

Surrounding the gravitational danger zone are two star-filled arms that appear as a ring around the Inner Core. A number of inhabited systems lie within the ring, including the home system of the Yssaril to the west. A bare majority of systems in the ring, particularly those in the northern half, are mapped, which makes this region one of the best explored in the galaxy. Navigators often include those in the northernmost section when referring to the Core Systems.

The Northern Arm

The Northern Arm of the galaxy officially begins at Mecatol Rex, the galactic capital in the Gul system. It winds galactically west through the Core Systems and then south, passing through Shaleri space and the Mahact Plateau before circling north beyond the Locust Star-Forming Region.

The Northern Minor Arm

Just within the Northern Arm, tracing its path like a shadow, is the Northern Minor Arm. It has a sizable spur along the middle of the arm that forks near the Arill Cluster, centered near the Sol system. The Northern Minor then trails all the way out to the Mirist Stars.

The Southern Arm

Extending from the southern pole and starting near the Loki system, the Southern Arm winds to the east, encompassing the Quann Wormhole and Xxlak system. It travels north through the Unicorn Nebula and Quenwari Cluster before heading west to the Quann Wormhole and then south through the Phorus and Muaat systems. It has two sizable spurs: the first is known as the Morgallen Cluster, and the second branches near the Ordinian system, which leads all the way to Hope’s End.

The Southern Minor Arm

The Southern Minor Arm begins near the Primor system, just south of the northeastern Alpha Wormhole. It wraps around the edge of the galaxy westward through Nekro space to Mordai II.