Geography

The Colonies

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With it's center approximately 1000 light years away from the Sun, the Sirius Sector is a medium-sized, but very dense star cluster located in the Milky Way galaxy's Orion Arm. The current version of the Sirius Atlas counts 123 surveyed systems, which are distributed between 5 regions:

• House Space, the Sector's "Core Worlds"
• The Independent Worlds, worlds between two Houses but under neither's control
• The Border Worlds, remote, partly unexplored, pirate-ridden systems
• The Edge Worlds, largely unmapped and often dangerous systems at the Sector's edge
• The Nomad Worlds, tightly guarded by it's inhabitants, the Slomon K'Hara

The Gallic Sector is split into Core Worlds and Border Worlds. Currently, only 5 systems located in the latter region are accessible. Gallia is located some 700 light years to the northwest of Bretonia.

The Houses

The Colonies are home to seven major governments, commonly referred to as Houses: Liberty, Rheinland, Bretonia, Kusari, Gallia, the Nación Maltesa and the Imperio del Corsario. While a number of smaller organizations, such as the Colonial Republic or the Gas Miners Guild often describe themselves as Houses as well, their claims are usually disregarded by the other Houses, citing their lack of size, power and influence to be considered more than just local governments. Geographically, the Sirian Houses are located at and around the center of their Sector. The Gallic Kingdom's location within it's Sector is currently unknown, though it is presumed to lie at it's south-eastern edge. House space is generally safe to it's citizens, free of major stellar hazards and rich in resources, although there are multiple notable exceptions to this, such as Kusari's northern colonies, the Nación Maltesa's Razgriz Black Hole or Corsair space in general. International travelers should be cautious however: Gallia, the Outcasts and the Corsairs are often less-than-welcome to foreigners, and while the Gallic Navy will only attempt to block unauthorized intrusions, the Outcasts and Corsairs have a reputation for pirating civilians or outright capturing them and selling them into slavery.

Nebulae

The Colonies are home to many large and small nebulae, the largest of them being the Crow Nebula, the Walker Nebula, the Barrier and the mysterious Edge Nebula. While all but the Edge Nebula have been thoroughly mapped, traveling through Colonial nebulae can still be quite dangerous; they often contain dangerous pockets of radiation, explosive gases and deadly asteroids, and they also make perfect hiding places for the many pirate and terrorist organizations of Sirius as scanner and radio waves often have great difficulties penetrating them and the poor visibility inside the clouds hides them from plain sight. Adventurous Freelancers should consider reading our guide to the many hazards they may encounter on their travels before leaving the relatively safe House space and venturing into the depths of the Colonial nebulae.

Inside the Crow Nebula

Stellar anomalies

A Baxter Anomaly

Sirius and Gallia are home to a quite large number of stellar anomalies, containing not only a quite large number of Baxter objects but also major anomalies like the Badlands, the Privas Planetary Cluster (lovingly dubbed the "clusterfrak" by Royal Navy soldiers) and even an awe-inspiring black hole. In addition, large numbers of jump holes and gate paths span a gargantuan transit web throughout the Colonies and enable economically feasible, extremely fast interstellar travel. While some of these anomalies are of natural origin, others have been theorized to be artificial "constructs" of the Daam K'Vosh.

Beyond the Colonies

Not much is known about what lies outside the Colonies. No stellar bodies have been surveyed during the flight of the Sleeper Ships; the two sleeper ships launched before the war did not return much useful information either - in fact, one of them, the Mayflower, did not return at all, while the other one arrived in Sirius at the dawn of the 9th Century only to bring news of the demise of their own home by a natural disaster.

The fate of the Sol system itself was largely unknown and it's people where presumed to be under Coalition control until the late 8th century, when edge world astronomers discovered Sol's name-giving G2V-class star turning into a bright flash of light. While it is generally agreed upon that this event has turned humanity's cradle into a barren wasteland, the reasons for this are currently unknown.