Explanations regarding the map and cosmography in general
Star System Colors
Empire Capital - Capital systems of sovereign states are marked in green. Why these systems are usually the safest places to be needs no explanation
Secure - Secure systems are marked in blue and are patrolled predominantly by either local authorities, a local peacekeeping organization, or the Metropolitan Police, a coalition whose mission statement is to make a shipwreck of anyone who tries to do illegal shit
Vulnerable - Vulnerable systems are marked in yellow and are more or less decent places to live, but their system authorities or measures implemented by said authorities possess some sort of flaw that provides the opportunity for heightened criminal activity
Contested - Contested systems are marked in whatever the orange color that Starscape uses to mark contested systems is called, and the only criterion for being labeled as such is some form of instability brought on by external forces, such as a war. Despite this, contested systems are, in times of peace, decent places to live, usually no worse than a vulnerable system. Contested, along with fractious systems, are often collectively referred to as “unstable.”
Fractious - Fractious systems are labeled in red, and are labeled as such due to internal causes making the system dangerous. This can be for any number of reasons, including heightened levels of piracy, a failing or extremely incompetent system authority, or simply general disarray. Despite being under the same umbrella as contested systems, fractious systems are generally the most dangerous system type in general, considering contested system authorities usually protect people within the system’s boundaries, and wild system explorers have the vastness of space on their side.
Wild - Wild systems are marked in purple, and are defined as systems without a permanent or semipermanent human population. The main hazard is the sheer emptiness. Help is light years away from you if you need it, and occasionally a large freighter will be lured into wild space before being ripped to shreds by pirates
Hazardous - Hazardous systems are marked in magenta, and are defined as systems where simply being there presents danger to human life regardless of the presence of other humans. Almost all hazardous systems’ threats are posed by dangerous astronomical objects, such as a black hole or nebula (both make it difficult to escape the system). No system with the hazardous classification exists within the boundaries of this map
The Districts
The Metropolis is subdivided into sixteen districts by peacekeeping authorities. They aren’t really political boundaries (although no star empire’s core territory stretches across more than one district), they’re the boundaries of small groupings of stars, each of which is serviced by a MP field office (the boundaries are more visible if you remove the lines, oddly enough)
The names of the districts are all derived from constellations. Some of the names selected are somewhat relevant to the district’s features, such as Ursa and Octans being the northernmost and southernmost districts respectively, as well as the Argo Navis district being the most prominent shipbuilding location thanks to abundant materials vital for starship construction. Most, however, were picked because they were either culturally important to the people there or, for more than one according to a cosmographic surveyor, just because it happened to sound cool.
Sovereign States, Arks and Stations
Sovereign states usually hold a claim to a single habitable world and the surrounding star system, marked in green. Many also lay claim to nearby stars, and a few have multiple planets under their belt. (The Orion district is named after the fact that one lucky empire happens to have three planets in one system)
There are, of course, numerous exceptions to this. Space station states are relatively common, but most of them are vassals to larger nations, so most international organizations tend to treat them as if they were a core part of their overlord state.
Arks (arks are the largest type of ship, basically a mobile city with big ass ftl engines) are similar, but they tend to exercise more independence, considering they can literally just pack up and leave. Arks tend to either congregate around other arks or drift through the cosmos nomadically, but in any case, large fleets of them often either operate like a fully independent country or are actually considered one. One such example of an ark city is in The Junction (the system that took an embarrassing amount of time for me to get it precisely in the center of the map). Despite The Junction being a pretty garbage star system for human habitation, boasting a rather violent home star and hot, asphyxiating hellscapes for its planets, it’s got enough raw material to build an ungodly number of ships, including new arks.
Almost every inhabited star system has at least one space station somewhere in the system. Traditionally, systems without a planetside settlement (and many with an inhabited world) are governed from their biggest space station.
