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The Great Star Sphere

The Great Star Sphere is the only significant area of realspace which contains matter and energy. It is composed of concentric spherical collections of stars called spheres separated by large expanses of nothingness called Abyssal Gaps. Connecting them to their neighbors are highways of traversible stars stretched between them like chewing gum called Abyssal Bridges.

The Great Star Sphere is divided into exactly fifteen Major Spheres, each of which contain their own Minor Spheres which in turn hold distinct regions and landmarks.

Galactic Topology

Following is a list of all major spheres, sorted based on whether they are significantly colonized by some galactic power. Each sphere may have multiple names, the name listed will be the canonical name provided by the Abrixine Catalog Index.

There are eight spheres occupied by intelligent spacefaring civilizations:

The remaining spheres have no known intelligent spacefaring life:

Major Powers

Main Article: Factions

The galaxy is controlled by numerous civilizations, factions, alliences, and other groups of interest. Here is a brief list of the major galactic players, sorted by the general nature of their existence.

Alliances and Federations

Following is a list of political entities and alliances which exist primarily as governances over their people.

Sovereign Enterprise

The abundance provided by the galactic scale allowed for corporations, previously shackled by their planetary vessels, to expand into their own self-governing entities that other nations had to recognize and negotiate with in order to coexist. Sovereign Enterprise, also known as mega or gigacorporations, often (but not always) have territory overlapping with those of other powers, but also have their own laws and governmental systems which affect those in their employ.

Conglomerates and Omnicorps

Space Logistics

  • Kos-Mos Dynamics - An independent trans-stellar company producing cutting-edge spaceship frames and propulsion systems.
  • Aurora Shipyards - A renowned shipbuilding company focused on custom ship design and construction. They cater to wealthy clients looking for unique, high-performance vessels tailored to their specific needs.
  • HINT Trans-Stellar - A large corporation which produces a vast variety of consumer goods across the galaxy, and ships them using a mixture of their own ship designs as well as those of other corporations and governments.
  • Ibis Exports - The first and largest trans-galactic shipping company to haul both people and goods. Ibis also acts as a middle-man transporting and dividing food from the various independent agricultural worlds dotted throughout the various independent spheres.
  • KIGA Modular Industries - A GSC based corporation which produces modular exoframes in competition with Six Stars.
  • Zenith Intelligent Robotronics - Developers of advanced AI and robotic systems for a variety of applications, from industrial automation to personal assistants and security drones.

Computing and Networking

  • NEST Exascale Computing - NESTEC is a Whark Aviform Hegemony-based trans-stellar corporation which produces and sells much of the galaxy's hypercomputing infrastructure and subluminal communications and sensor tech. In the latter category they compete directly with NanoTrasen Incorporated.
  • Signature Systems, Limited - A holding company which has, over the course of centuries, acquired hundreds of smaller computing companies,
  • TETHER Softworks - A spaceship software company that produces the primary operating system that glues together all the disparate parts produced by manufacturers.
  • KIT Systems - One of the two major consumer operating system developers. KIT OS is flexible and fast, but only optimized for computer architectures produced by Signature Systems.
  • Saraspova New Softworks - The creators of Redshift OS and numerous other widely used software products.
  • Stella Iter - A tiny company that produces the nearly unanimously agreed best navigation and flight software for both planetary and interstellar operation.
  • Epoch Galactic Mesh Networks - A large enterprise which acts as a middle-man, providing mesh-based connectivity from the major providers' backbone networks to consumers not close enough to make use of them.
  • Galactic Networking - The generically named company is the oldest company of its kind, and still maintains the most reliable sub and super-luminal communications backbones in the galaxy, although in recent decades they have left customer connectivity to their business partners.
  • Candela Connectivity Corp - A much younger competitor to GN which exploded in popularity after an exclusive contract with NanoTrasen which preempted GN's use of bluespace technology to provide superluminal communications before any other competitor.
  • Ascalon - A long-range intragalactic communications group focusing both on broadcast and point-to-point infrastructure.

Arms Manufacturers and Medical

  • Surtur Industries - The leading GSC spacescale arms manufacturer, producing shipmounted weaponry for Six Stars and NanoTrasen vessels.
  • Galactic Defense Systems, Incorporated - Provides advanced weaponry and defense solutions for both private and governmental clients. Their products include ship-mounted weapons, planetary defense systems, and personal armaments.
  • Phaethon Systems - A two-faceted company which creates both deadly energy weaponry on all scales as well as delivery mechanisms for life-saving medical care.
  • Veridion Genetics - A long-term healthcare and medical company which produces remedies for long-term and chronic maladies.
  • Stellar Labs - Known for general medicine production, research, and distribution as well as for their numerous clinics across space, Stellar Labs is known for their well-integrated supply chains as much as the distinctive “STELLAR” logo shown on all their products.
  • Tristan-Lazik - A long-established medical conglomerate hailing from pre-FTL human space.

Exploration and Exploitation

  • Astron Mining Consortium - Operates extensive mining operations in asteroid belts and planetary rings. They are renowned for their efficient extraction techniques and rare material supplies.
  • Draven Rock Lifters - A massive mining contractor which facilitates jobs, protection, and other important logistical factors for otherwise independent miners. Mining contracts can last years at a time, and operations take place in deep space as often as in civilized regions.
  • Celestial Salvage and Recovery - Experts in salvaging derelict spacecraft and recovering valuable salvage from wreckage sites scattered across the cosmos.
  • Void and Atmospheric Cleanup Crews - VACC is self-advertised as a one-size fits all solution to salvage, disinfection, and general cleanup. They are famous for accepting any non-wartime job, albeit at sometimes exorbitant prices.
  • Peregrine Exoventures - Focuses on deep space exploration and the discovery of new systems. They are known for their high-risk, high-reward missions that push the boundaries of known space.
  • Eclipse Explorers' Guild - A massive employee-owned cooperative company dedicated to charting unexplored regions of space, with a focus on habitable and resource-rich planets.

Entertainment

  • Spectra Entertainment Group - A major player in the entertainment industry, offering holographic experiences, virtual reality adventures, and interstellar broadcasting of various media content.
  • Pulsar Media Corp - A major publishing conglomerate producing primarily games and high-budget movies. They own a network of entertainment hubs and VR arcades across the galaxy.
  • USENET - The galaxy's only trans-species, trans-governmental social media network. Their employees and operatives go to great lengths to ensure that connectivity is possible anywhere in civilized space, even in wartime.
  • Galactic Speed Syndicate - The premier organization hosting and managing high-stakes interstellar races, their most famous of which is their decennial Red Line race.

Jointures and Initiatives

Numerous entities of galactic import are neither government nor enterprise, these are categorized as “Jointures” by the Abrixine Catalog Index.

  • Abrixine Catalog Index - A group of explorers, cataloguers, and archivists which dedicate themselves to gathering, sorting, and saving all the information in the galaxy. They are generally known for their political neutrality and numerous non-aggression pacts.
  • NGSC - Originally a fast-response medical unit within the Galactic Sapients Coalition, they splintered off into their own aid and relief initiative with galaxy-spanning presence after a substantial investment from KIGA Modular Industries.
  • Pan-Galactic Ethics Committee - The PGEC is a neutral organization which accepts representatives from any ACI-recognized independent entity and acts as a sovereign panel to arbitrate the rules of war and inter-galactic disputes between major powers. While they are well-respected and many powers defer to their rules, they hold no actual power themselves.
  • Joint Human Uplift Initiative - An entity made from the combined forces of the GSC and GHC which seek to contain, protect, and if necessary uplift pre-spacefaring sapient species in uncontrolled space.
  • Magara Syndicate - One of only two trans-stellar criminal organizations recognized by the ACI, and the only one currently remaining.

Inhabitants

 

Nomenclature and Culture

The galaxy described in this database goes by many names - “The Great Star Sphere” name originates from the Greater Human Cooperative and its splinter factions, but was accepted as the canonical name of the galaxy by the Abrixine Catalog Index.

Other names for it include and originate from, respectively: