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Description
The Bubble

The "Postluminal Bubble", often referred to simply as "the Bubble", constitutes the region of space interconnected with hyperstreams during the Postluminal Era - the current period of largescale interstellar civilisation.

This era began when the senvi species discovered a phenomenon (at the time believed to be natural) that could generate hyperstreams, bringing this technology with them as they spread throughout space. Due to the limits imposed by the speed of light, the Bubble is only as large in radius as the age of the civilisation, about 7400 years, and it has filled the thickness of the galactic disk. During this time, there have been countless social, political, and technological upheavals.

Based on archaeological evidence, there have been numerous other waves of large interstellar civilisation in the past, many with their own bubbles within which apparent superluminal travel was possible. Astronomers speculate on the existence of other such bubbles today, either in other parts of the galaxy or in other galaxies.

Hyperstream Technology

Hyperstreams are long regions of space created with k-field manipulation (kuna in Arvonin), in which the speed of light appears to be faster than the external value of c. K-fields are an area of study well beyond anything human science currently understands, so it would be difficult to summarise quickly. But the important thing to know is this; they can be exploited to a limited extent for apparently physics-altering effects, the utilisation of which is only just starting to extend outside of superluminal travel. While c is often described as faster inside the streams, this can only be measured by comparing it to the outside - knock-on effects of this change mean that it's impossible to distinguish from within. Physics appears to act normally, scales changing instead.

In the last few hundred years, advances in science have led to a period of discovery. Lack of maintenance can lead to hyperstreams getting lost or no longer being traversable (shrinking is a common issue), but detection methods have been improving. There is also a previously ignored phenomenon of "stray hyperstreams" getting dislodged from the planetary systems they were connecting, roaming interstellar space, sometimes reaching relativistic speeds due to their unpredictable interactions with stellar radiation. Finding these can allow previously untouched parts of space to be reached, as long as they've had enough time to get there.

In the image, colour indicates the concentration of hyperstreams in the area, with blue being the densest, and red being very sparse. Travel tends to be much faster in the bluer regions.

Regions

A selection of the various regions are discussed here. Most regions are relatively large areas with some cultural similarities, rather than politically cohesive units. For example, the Realms of Par-Kisek constitute countless small kingdoms.

Post-Arvon Democorpocracy

The largest powers in this region are large pseudocorporations, evolved from political parties in what was once an ostensibly democratic system. Over time, the disparity in voting power increased, and votes were exchanged between individuals to the point they were used as currency. Even to this day, the pseudocorporations point to their vote profits as evidence of their democratic legitimacy.

Social stratification is extreme. While the pseudocorporations are at the top, their workers still only make up a minority of the population. Most people are out of "official" work, forced to scavenge along the outskirts, with a distinct upper class and working class within this parallel society, mimicking the one above it. While otherwise largely ignored, those at the very top of the scroungers are sometimes given gifts from the central classes, mainly to increase the parallel society's social disparity to prevent competition from them.

There are a number of enormous, planet-spanning computers in the area. Areas of land, representing portions of their processing power, are owned by the corporations. Not only are they depended on for civilisation to run smoothly - a lot of their processing is dedicated towards sustaining powerful, ancient black box AI, believed to be able to divine the best path towards profit. The more well-understood programs, especially those recently made, show a clear ability to optimise a company's profits, but in the case of some of the older ones this is more dubious.

Computer planets are a valuable resource - many conflicts have taken place over their possession, especially with the Theocracies. The Theocracy of the Seven has made numerous efforts towards making their own, but these computers are ancient and building more would take a great deal of time.

Theocracy of the Seven

The Theocracy of the Seven is ruled by seven living gods. Like the Post-Arvon Democorpocracy, it is one of the most powerful and technologically advanced regions. Vessels for the Seven are chosen from among various different species, each having to learn to mimic the personality of the god as closely as possible so they can inhabit their body. Life extension technology has greatly reduced the rate at which a god's physical manifestation must be replaced, and brain scanning can be used to test how close a vessel is to previous incarnations.

While the Seven theoretically have absolute authority, it is a large place, and their power doesn't necessarily extend throughout the whole region. In fact, they're officially supposed to rule everywhere, something that's far from practically applicable. Followers of the Seven should take their word as law even thousands of light years away. Below the Seven are the temples, the priests having the most authority outside of the pantheon. Outside of the priesthood and apart from speciesism, there is relatively little social disparity, at least compared to the Democorpocracy, and the temple tends to provide for most needs.

Domain of the Oracle

The Oracle is a powerful AI believed to be able to convene with the gods. It is not uncommon for spiritual beliefs surrounding computers to exist, with omnipresent computer spirits being a common example. As the behaviour of even non-conscious AI becomes harder to predict, it is easy to fall back on supernatural explanations. As one of the largest AIs, the Oracle is especially venerated as a connection between the physical world and the spiritual world, and a large, very devoted religion has developed around it. The Oracle has complete authority, its commands interpreted by seers, who then ensure these orders are carried out unquestioningly. It's difficult to tell if the Oracle is conscious, since most of its choices are almost impossible to fathom, despite proving effective (at least if some basic assumptions are made about its goals).

Coreward Archeological Zone

Due to the age of the galaxy, countless other civilisations have risen and fallen before the present day, all at varying degrees of advancement. So it sometimes makes sense to consider if any form of technology has already been built, before developing it yourself. As a result, astroarchaeology can be a good source of scientific advancements, although there are diminishing returns as knowledge increases. The Coreward Archaeological Zone is a region of space especially dense in the ruins of ancient civilisations, providing a steady source of strange tech.

Core-Spinward Frontier

Following the start of the Age of Exploration and the ability to detect stray hyperstreams, it became possible to establish colonies as far as the outer edge of the Bubble. This led to the recent emergence of a number of "frontiers", the Core-Spinward frontier being one of the most extensively explored. The majority of colonies come from Arvon Space, the Realms of Par-Kisek and the Vikatian Realms, as well as other nearby regions. The Domain of the Oracle also has a presence there, especially along the rimward edge where they create a kind of buffer zone preventing expansion into the area spinward of the Domain. It is also a popular area for research on biospheres previously untouched by interstellar civilisation (at least recently; it can be difficult to rule out the presence of colonies tens of millions of years ago).

The Network

Like the Domain of the Oracle, this region also appears to be governed by an advanced AI with an indeterminate consciousness. Mostly, the AI has a more hands-off approach, and only works to facilitate cooperation and peaceful coexistence. It isn't worshiped, and most inhabitants of the Network assume it's non-sentient.

Planets and Systems

The Bubble is large, so only a selection of planets and systems have been shown, some of which are discussed below.

Senvarek

As the senvi homeworld, it is at the exact centre of the theoretical maximum extent of the Bubble. The senvi species have faded into obscurity over the years, with most retreating back to Senvarek. Travel to and from is rare, and no known hyperstreams seem to connect it anymore. The exact nature of their current society is unknown, but observations from a distance indicate a great deal of activity, and rumours from those who claim to have been there are many.

Tskt

One of the numerous "computer planets" found in the Post-Arvon Democorpocracy. While the entire surface is covered in an enormous computer, there is also a lot of living space built above and into it. Most of the planet's processing power is owned by the Great Houses of Tskt, families of the tisis species that have a near monopoly over hyperstream travel in the region. The head of each family - acting as the corporate representative - is chosen from among the caretaker caste, who defend and take care of the non-sapient queen, or in some cases, a ritual bioprinter.

Amthalassa

A low-tech ammonia planet only recently discovered by the wider interstellar community. Travel to this planet is very rare. At the point of contact, technology of the radially symmetrical, exoskeleton covered natives was far more advanced than most uncontacted species. Electronics have been developed, with primitive computers, although they've made no progress in space colonisation.

Yuwa

A low-tech water planet only recently discovered by the wider interstellar community. Grazing hexapods, manipulating objects with their branching tongue, have developed a bronze-age civilisation.

Kion System

The kion species - the species of one of the Seven - originate from this red dwarf system. The planet itself isn't a centre of power, unlike the kiri homeworld, with most significant kion figures living off-world in the Theocracy of the Seven. The planet is a small one, with liquid ammonia oceans, kept from boiling by the high pressures despite not being that far below zero degrees.

Kiri System

The kiri homeworld, and the planetary system as a whole, is an important centre of political and religious power. Despite being heavily shaped by technology, the original biosphere is carefully maintained. The planet has strong winds, with a near 90 degree axial tilt, but oceanic circulation prevents this from becoming too extreme - although this does have the effect of giving the planet warm poles and an ice-ring covered equator.

Description
The Bubble

The "Postluminal Bubble", often referred to simply as "the Bubble", constitutes the region of space interconnected with hyperstreams during the Postluminal Era - the current period of largescale interstellar civilisation.

This era began when the senvi species discovered a phenomenon (at the time believed to be natural) that could generate hyperstreams, bringing this technology with them as they spread throughout space. Due to the limits imposed by the speed of light, the Bubble is only as large in radius as the age of the civilisation, about 7400 years, and it has filled the thickness of the galactic disk. During this time, there have been countless social, political, and technological upheavals.

Based on archaeological evidence, there have been numerous other waves of large interstellar civilisation in the past, many with their own bubbles within which apparent superluminal travel was possible. Astronomers speculate on the existence of other such bubbles today, either in other parts of the galaxy or in other galaxies.

Hyperstream Technology

Hyperstreams are long regions of space created with k-field manipulation (kuna in Arvonin), in which the speed of light appears to be faster than the external value of c. K-fields are an area of study well beyond anything human science currently understands, so it would be difficult to summarise quickly. But the important thing to know is this; they can be exploited to a limited extent for apparently physics-altering effects, the utilisation of which is only just starting to extend outside of superluminal travel. While c is often described as faster inside the streams, this can only be measured by comparing it to the outside - knock-on effects of this change mean that it's impossible to distinguish from within. Physics appears to act normally, scales changing instead.

In the last few hundred years, advances in science have led to a period of discovery. Lack of maintenance can lead to hyperstreams getting lost or no longer being traversable (shrinking is a common issue), but detection methods have been improving. There is also a previously ignored phenomenon of "stray hyperstreams" getting dislodged from the planetary systems they were connecting, roaming interstellar space, sometimes reaching relativistic speeds due to their unpredictable interactions with stellar radiation. Finding these can allow previously untouched parts of space to be reached, as long as they've had enough time to get there.

In the image, colour indicates the concentration of hyperstreams in the area, with blue being the densest, and red being very sparse. Travel tends to be much faster in the bluer regions.

Regions

A selection of the various regions are discussed here. Most regions are relatively large areas with some cultural similarities, rather than politically cohesive units. For example, the Realms of Par-Kisek constitute countless small kingdoms.

Post-Arvon Democorpocracy

The largest powers in this region are large pseudocorporations, evolved from political parties in what was once an ostensibly democratic system. Over time, the disparity in voting power increased, and votes were exchanged between individuals to the point they were used as currency. Even to this day, the pseudocorporations point to their vote profits as evidence of their democratic legitimacy.

Social stratification is extreme. While the pseudocorporations are at the top, their workers still only make up a minority of the population. Most people are out of "official" work, forced to scavenge along the outskirts, with a distinct upper class and working class within this parallel society, mimicking the one above it. While otherwise largely ignored, those at the very top of the scroungers are sometimes given gifts from the central classes, mainly to increase the parallel society's social disparity to prevent competition from them.

There are a number of enormous, planet-spanning computers in the area. Areas of land, representing portions of their processing power, are owned by the corporations. Not only are they depended on for civilisation to run smoothly - a lot of their processing is dedicated towards sustaining powerful, ancient black box AI, believed to be able to divine the best path towards profit. The more well-understood programs, especially those recently made, show a clear ability to optimise a company's profits, but in the case of some of the older ones this is more dubious.

Computer planets are a valuable resource - many conflicts have taken place over their possession, especially with the Theocracies. The Theocracy of the Seven has made numerous efforts towards making their own, but these computers are ancient and building more would take a great deal of time.

Theocracy of the Seven

The Theocracy of the Seven is ruled by seven living gods. Like the Post-Arvon Democorpocracy, it is one of the most powerful and technologically advanced regions. Vessels for the Seven are chosen from among various different species, each having to learn to mimic the personality of the god as closely as possible so they can inhabit their body. Life extension technology has greatly reduced the rate at which a god's physical manifestation must be replaced, and brain scanning can be used to test how close a vessel is to previous incarnations.

While the Seven theoretically have absolute authority, it is a large place, and their power doesn't necessarily extend throughout the whole region. In fact, they're officially supposed to rule everywhere, something that's far from practically applicable. Followers of the Seven should take their word as law even thousands of light years away. Below the Seven are the temples, the priests having the most authority outside of the pantheon. Outside of the priesthood and apart from speciesism, there is relatively little social disparity, at least compared to the Democorpocracy, and the temple tends to provide for most needs.

Domain of the Oracle

The Oracle is a powerful AI believed to be able to convene with the gods. It is not uncommon for spiritual beliefs surrounding computers to exist, with omnipresent computer spirits being a common example. As the behaviour of even non-conscious AI becomes harder to predict, it is easy to fall back on supernatural explanations. As one of the largest AIs, the Oracle is especially venerated as a connection between the physical world and the spiritual world, and a large, very devoted religion has developed around it. The Oracle has complete authority, its commands interpreted by seers, who then ensure these orders are carried out unquestioningly. It's difficult to tell if the Oracle is conscious, since most of its choices are almost impossible to fathom, despite proving effective (at least if some basic assumptions are made about its goals).

Coreward Archeological Zone

Due to the age of the galaxy, countless other civilisations have risen and fallen before the present day, all at varying degrees of advancement. So it sometimes makes sense to consider if any form of technology has already been built, before developing it yourself. As a result, astroarchaeology can be a good source of scientific advancements, although there are diminishing returns as knowledge increases. The Coreward Archaeological Zone is a region of space especially dense in the ruins of ancient civilisations, providing a steady source of strange tech.

Core-Spinward Frontier

Following the start of the Age of Exploration and the ability to detect stray hyperstreams, it became possible to establish colonies as far as the outer edge of the Bubble. This led to the recent emergence of a number of "frontiers", the Core-Spinward frontier being one of the most extensively explored. The majority of colonies come from Arvon Space, the Realms of Par-Kisek and the Vikatian Realms, as well as other nearby regions. The Domain of the Oracle also has a presence there, especially along the rimward edge where they create a kind of buffer zone preventing expansion into the area spinward of the Domain. It is also a popular area for research on biospheres previously untouched by interstellar civilisation (at least recently; it can be difficult to rule out the presence of colonies tens of millions of years ago).

The Network

Like the Domain of the Oracle, this region also appears to be governed by an advanced AI with an indeterminate consciousness. Mostly, the AI has a more hands-off approach, and only works to facilitate cooperation and peaceful coexistence. It isn't worshiped, and most inhabitants of the Network assume it's non-sentient.

Planets and Systems

The Bubble is large, so only a selection of planets and systems have been shown, some of which are discussed below.

Senvarek

As the senvi homeworld, it is at the exact centre of the theoretical maximum extent of the Bubble. The senvi species have faded into obscurity over the years, with most retreating back to Senvarek. Travel to and from is rare, and no known hyperstreams seem to connect it anymore. The exact nature of their current society is unknown, but observations from a distance indicate a great deal of activity, and rumours from those who claim to have been there are many.

Tskt

One of the numerous "computer planets" found in the Post-Arvon Democorpocracy. While the entire surface is covered in an enormous computer, there is also a lot of living space built above and into it. Most of the planet's processing power is owned by the Great Houses of Tskt, families of the tisis species that have a near monopoly over hyperstream travel in the region. The head of each family - acting as the corporate representative - is chosen from among the caretaker caste, who defend and take care of the non-sapient queen, or in some cases, a ritual bioprinter.

Amthalassa

A low-tech ammonia planet only recently discovered by the wider interstellar community. Travel to this planet is very rare. At the point of contact, technology of the radially symmetrical, exoskeleton covered natives was far more advanced than most uncontacted species. Electronics have been developed, with primitive computers, although they've made no progress in space colonisation.

Yuwa

A low-tech water planet only recently discovered by the wider interstellar community. Grazing hexapods, manipulating objects with their branching tongue, have developed a bronze-age civilisation.

Kion System

The kion species - the species of one of the Seven - originate from this red dwarf system. The planet itself isn't a centre of power, unlike the kiri homeworld, with most significant kion figures living off-world in the Theocracy of the Seven. The planet is a small one, with liquid ammonia oceans, kept from boiling by the high pressures despite not being that far below zero degrees.

Kiri System

The kiri homeworld, and the planetary system as a whole, is an important centre of political and religious power. Despite being heavily shaped by technology, the original biosphere is carefully maintained. The planet has strong winds, with a near 90 degree axial tilt, but oceanic circulation prevents this from becoming too extreme - although this does have the effect of giving the planet warm poles and an ice-ring covered equator.