The "Known Galaxy" is the part of the Milky Way Galaxy that has been explored and is known in some detail. It is the home region of a number of space powers that have spread into space and formed wide-ranging volumes of influence at about the same time, and likely represent a concentration of power in the whole Alpha Quadrant. The term "Known Galaxy" is a common Odonan reference to refer to the section of the galaxy that had been explored and known, as opposed to the "Unknown Galaxy" which refers to the section of the galaxy not yet explored or generally known. This usage predates the quadrant naming system but has been largely replaced by it. Although the Known Galaxy represents on a tiny fraction of the Milky Way galaxy, perhaps only five percent of it, exploration has been carried beyond the limits of this map until roughly a quarter of the galaxy had been tentatively explored. When the quadrant system was set up, the quarter of the galaxy that had been at least explored was defined as the Alpha Quadrant. The rest of the galaxy was divided up into quadrants of similar size. It should be noted that the precise placement of the boundaries has not been established and that the quadrants may be considered as imprecisely defined. It should also be noted that the centre of the galaxy is not included in the quadrant system. The Alpha Quadrant is said to end about ten thousand light years from the core, and space towards the centre from this boundary is not defined.
On this map, the space powers are shown in various colours. A race does not solidly control all of space as portrayed on this map, since in reality each race only controls strongly the space immediately around a planet or other space installation. In the core areas, those with the more solid colour, control is more effective since a space power likely would have monitoring stations and other navigational controls to maintain at least some surveillance of space. Areas outside of the core regions might be controlled only around the planet or installation, and space beyond the immediate region would be somewhat open. Smaller space powers and non-warp capable civilizations are often located inside space administered by another power.
Space boundaries are not precisely defined because as stars orbit around the centre of the galaxy, their positions relative to other stars is in a constant state of flux. All that can be clearly said is that space around a star, usually out to the Oort cloud or about one to two light years, can be established as belonging to one space power over another, but open regions of interstellar space are not strongly claimed. Neutral zones might be established between competing space powers, but these too are not precisely defined.
The Milky Way Galaxy is approximately 100,000 light years in diameter, with a thickness in the spiral arm region of 10,000 light years and in the core, upto 30,000 light years. However, the majority of the mass is concentrated towards the centre plane of the galaxy, with most of the stars capable of supporting inhabitable planets located in a band 2500 light years thick through the central plane. The map shows mostly Class O,A and B stars, with some F-class and low G-class (G0 and G1) stars also shown. Not included are most of the G-class stars and the K and M-class stars. The exact shape of the Milky Way galaxy is somewhat open to conjecture, but it is assumed here that the Milky Way is a barred-spiral galaxy, with two long spiral arms connected to the central nucleus with a short but thick straight "bar" of stars. Somewhat thinner and shorter spirals branch off of the central nucleus and fill out the remaining space. The spirals themselves show banded structure with bands of higher-class stars forming discrete structures within the galaxy. Lower-density areas are found between these bands. The lower-density areas have a higher ratio of the older K and M-class stars than do the higher-density regions. The interspiral voids are the main gaps between the spiral arms, and here stellar density is very low. The stars, when present, are usually found in loose clusters and are mostly K and M-class stars. Earth is assumed to lie about 35,000 light years from the core, and in its vicinity, the spiral arm is about 2500 light years thick in the vertical dimension and about 10,000 light years thick in the horizontal direction. The Earth also lies about 15,000 light years from the plane edge of the galaxy, although where the galaxy "ends" is somewhat open to conjecture.
Space is a volume and so spreads over three dimensions, which is somewhat difficult to show on a two-dimensional image. There are regions when the volume controlled by one space is above or underneath another, but this is not clearly shown on the map.
The Known Galaxy consists of a number of significant races, some of whom have developed a large interstellar presence, or some have developed a significance in terms of their history or their location in space. The following lists the significant planets and regimes in the Known Galaxy. (Note: this information is canonical in the universe of "Star Trek: Athena," but may not be canonical in the "official" Star Trek universe)
United Federation of Planets
The United Federation of Planets is the largest organization in the Known Galaxy, and is the only significant body with a wide variety of lifeforms. The Federation was founded in the 2161, after the Romulan Wars, by the five founding members, Earth, Kent, Vulcan, Andor and Tellar. Over the two centuries since, the Federation has expanded either by establishing colonies from the member races or by having new races join the Federation. Most of the Federation's races tend to be newly-emerging space-capable races who find themselves close to Federation space or within it, and thus their cultures and technologies are often smothered by the more advanced Federation societies and technologies. Several of the more recent additions to the Federation, in particular the Bolians, Benzites, Bynars, Betazoids and some others, have found their niche in the Federation, but for the most part, the Federation is run by the five founding races and operates in their best interests. In particular, humans from Earth are seen as running the Federation, and some outsiders have even referred to it as the "Terran Empire." The structure remains primarily because the Federation does not promote an active, expansionist philosophy and are not known for starting wars. Their military power responds defensively only. The Federation also maintains Starfleet, which is primarily an exploration and diplomatic operation designed to keep the peace and prosperity that the Federation has become known for, and for keeping the Federation Core secure. Membership in the Federation is over one hundred and fifty member races, virtually all of whom have over eighty percent of their populations still living on the race's homeworld.
Klingon Empire
The Klingon Empire is the region of space controlled by the Klingons. Klingons live primarily on their homeworld, Qo'nos, and on a number of smaller colonies, the largest of which numbers no more than twenty million. Klingons are divided into a number of races, destinguished mostly by size, skin colouration and bone ridges on the skulls, and when one particular race controls the Klingon government, that race tends to be favoured and the others assigned to less desirable locations and professions. The Klingon culture is a warrior culture filled with violence and concepts of honour, and as a result, the culture is very unstable and the economy is usually in a depraved state. Civil wars, power struggles and unrest mark the Klingon Empire. The culture often cannot see beyond the short term effects of war and violence, and tends to favour the style of war, and the concept of honour, above any chance of winning. As a result, the Klingon record in war is very poor, having lost virtually every war they entered. They fought three wars against the Federation, losing all three, and four wars against the Odonan Empire, losing all four (and in the first one, half their population as well). Wars against the Romulans have been somewhat more successful in that no planets were lost-but none conquered either. So decrepit is the economy that to prevent total collapse, the Klingons have had to join alliances first with the Romulans and then with the Federation. Technology, especially outside of the area of warfare, lags significantly behind other races.
Romulan Empire
The Romulan Empire was the first major interstellar power encountered by the expanding exploration of humans, and were the adversaries in the first big war, the Romulan Wars of the mid twenty-second century. The war consisted of mostly hit-and-run attacks in open space as first Earth vessels attempted to resist incursions into their space and then struck at Romulan positions to prevent further attacks. The war was never really settled and ended in a ceasefire that came about mostly because neither side could sustain the war. Humans simply did not have the resources to build ships and support long-range operatins, and the Romulan faster-than-light drives using a forced quantum singularity in place of dilithium or other focusing agent were rather unstable. The Romulans lost more ships due to engine failure than to enemy attack. After the war, the Romulans retreated to their space and built up their culture and power to a greater degree. Nevertheless, despite skirmishes and the establishment of a neutral zone, the Romulans and the Federation have never fought a major war. Romulans are believed to be an offshot of the Vulcan race, the descendents of a group of warlike and militaristic Vulcans who could not accept the course of peace and logic promoted by Surak. They left Vulcan in multigenerational ships two thousand years ago, finding a system with two class-M planets that was unoccupied. The two worlds became the Romulan homeworlds, most commonly known by their Earth names of Romulus and Remus. The Romulan Empire has subjugated some races within their space, but find holding those planets to be rather difficult and a drain on resources. The Romulans also have a number of colonies, but the population of those colonies combined is only about fourty percent of the population of the two homeworlds. The Romulan Empire suffered a major blow in the early years of the twenty-fourth century when the Arosians attacked. The Empire essentially collapsed, and was reduced to just the space around the two homeworlds, which were about to fall before the Arosians abruptly retreated. It took the Romulans some fifty years to rebuild their space fleet and regain control over their assorted colonies and subjugated worlds. Nevertheless, the effect of the Arosian attack had taken some of the edge off of the Romulans, and instead of being overtly warlike, knowing they did not have the technology to compete, they have become much more covert, operating behind their ruthless intelligence agency, the Tal Shiar. The Romulans joined the Alpha Quadrant Alliance against the Dominion when a plot by the Dominion to abrogate the non-aggression pact came to light, but the war was costly in that a large number of ships were lost and many personnel killed. A subtle attempt at "unification" between the Romulans and the Vulcans is on-going.
Odonan Empire
Shortly after contact with the Klingons, the Federation contacted the Odonans, who have a large interstellar presence of their own. The Odonans have a long history, stretching over twenty-six millennia, and a presence in space for many thousands of years, although for the most part, Odonans were not adventurous explorers and rarely ventured outside of their own space. Odonans are a humanoid race, rather short and slender compared to humans, but with a different muscle system that allows them to show surprising strength and running speed. Odonans are divided into three races, distinguished by average height and density of san, or body hair in which nerve cell endings are embedded. Other distinguishing characteristics are claws instead of fingernails, whisker-like facial hair called phyyza found in both males and females and the ability to generate static electricity that can be emitted through specialized san called orsor. Odonan technology is very advanced, and their ships are considered among the fastest in the Known Galaxy. The Odonans maintain an extensive intelligence operation whose prominent feature is spying on virtually all the other races. Odonans willingly will steal technology developed by others if that technology is seen as a threat to them, or something that they could find useful. The Odonans will often improve the technology they have stolen. A recent example of this is the theft of a quantum shapeshifting inhibitor developed by the Cardassians. The Odonans stole this, and vastly improved the operation and effectiveness. The use of this device played a major role in the Dominion war by exposing virtually all of the Changelings that had infiltrated the Alliance. With the Changelings out of the way, the Alliance was able to plan and prepare without their activities being exposed to the enemy, and this turned the war around. At one time, the Odonans numbered over a 130 billion spread over more than fifty star systems, but a disastrous war against the Klingons (the first war or "Great War") saw ninety-five percent of all Odonans killed either in the war or shortly afterwards due to radiation. Upto this point, the Odonans had never fought a war, and did not even know what warfare was. They had no weapons and no warships or ships capable of defending themselves. Every Odonan system but one (Gisch) was attacked at least once in the war and more than half lost or destroyed. Odonan culture shifted enough to make sure that such an attack could never happen again, and as a result, the Odonans built up a powerful military that had easily resisted three further Klingon wars (the fourth Klingon-Odonan war so lopsided that the Klingons sued for peace within days of starting it).
Gorn
Tholia
Organia
Tzenketh
Bajor
Cardassia
Breen
Ferenginar
Ksassans
Tyrannia
Kemon
Korpeian Confederacy
Voy
Lagaka
Kazmarine
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(c) 1999 by White Tornado Publishing, all rights reserved. "Star Trek" is a trademark property of Paramount Pictures, and commercial use of this property is prohibited. "Star Trek: Athena" is a non-commerical hobby site created for the entertainment of the site creator and visitors to the site. Trademark infringement is not intended. The map as portrayed here is not considered canonical within the "Star Trek" universe, but represents one interpretation of that universe.
The Gorn are a reptiloid race (built on a lizard base, not dinosaurian like most other reptiloids) that inhabit a small region of space. Although powerful physically, Gorn are cold-blooded and prefer hot environments, where they can be most active. The Gorn can be viscious but are not technologically advanced, and they have been boxed in by the Klingons and the Federation. They inhabit the Gorn homeworld and have small colonies nearby. Hostilities between the Gorn and the Federation have been somewhat limited.
The Tholians are a mysterious race of crystal-based beings believed to ultimately hail from outside the galaxy. Little is known about the Tholians because they live in a fundamentally different environment. Tholia itself is not class-M and cannot support carbon-based life. Tholian ships are small and not very powerful, usually resorting to slow and inefficient energy-dampening fields to trap ships that might intrude into their space. Because Tholian planets are generally not inhabitable by non-Tholians and because resources required by Tholians are not those required by non-Tholians, there have been little point to any hostilities. Trade between Tholians and non-Tholians is limited but not unknown.
Organia is the home for a race of energy beings who have evoled into "pure thought and energy" from beings that were once physical and humanoid. Apparently, the essence of a living entity, the organized energy and thought, has transcended the body. The Organians envision a peaceful, harmonious universe where all races can live in peace and security, and at times, they have attempted to impose this vision on the neighbouring races. However, their powers, although impressive, were limited to some physical effects that at first prevented the two sides from firing on each other, but these powers were soon overcome and the Organians became defenseless to stop the wars. Still desiring a role for themselves, the Organians set themselves up as a kind of Galactic Court of Justice, where the two sides in a dispute can meet before the Organians, present their cases and listen to the learned judgement of the Organians. They have become quite accepted in this role.
Little is known about this race, although they are known to have advanced technology and are somewhat warlike, seeking to create an empire for themselves. Although they have powerful ships and brilliant tacticians, they still lost their war to the Federation. Under the command of Admiral Dagmar Muller, the Federation achieved a stunning victory over the Tzenkethi and forced them to sue for peace. The Tzenkethi resisted overtures from the Dominion to join their alliance, since the Tzenkethi are reluctant to share power with anybody.
Bajor is not a space power, but a single planet with a culture that has existed, in various states, for over fifty thousand years. The main failing of the Bajorans was that they never discovered the secret to faster-than-light travel. Although their physicists understood the theory, they never could get beyond the engineering difficulties and never developed a Bajoran warp drive. On the other hand, they did develop effective and efficient interplanetary travel, and through this, discovered the Bajoran wormhole. Bajoran culture has been every uneven, rising and falling in cycles over thousands of years, with the latest rise coinciding with the discovery of the wormhole and the Orbs, probes of wormhole-alien intelligence emitted by the aliens in the wormhole to explore space around them. The Bajorans turned the Orbs into religious artifacts and the wormhole aliens into the Prophets. Because much of the religion of Bajor was based on historical fact and known aliens and their conflicts (especially the one between the "Prophets" and the "pah-wraiths"), this religion became very powerful and dominated the culture. Nevertheless, the lack of interstellar flight capability and a "soft" culture based on the religion meant that when the Cardassians came, aiming to exploit the rich resources of Bajor, the planet fell easily and a fifty-year occupation ensued. The Cardassians, try as they might, never could find the "Celestial Temple" nor could they understand what it truly was. On the other hand, an Odonan starship did find the wormhole but kept its existence a secret, realizing that Cardassia would massacre every single Bajoran and never relinguish the planet if they knew a stable wormhole existed in the system. When the Bajoran Resistance finally convinced the Cardassians to leave, the Federation moved in to help with the rebuilding. A Federation Starfleet crew under the command of then-Commander Benjamin Sisko took over an old Cardassian mining station, and with enough hints slipped them by the Odonans, they found the wormhole quickly. During the Dominion War, Bajor, despite being right on the front lines, maintained neutrality, and as a result, the subject of Bajor joining the Federation has been suspended. Nevertheless, Bajor is a member in all but signing the official documents, as a number of Bajorans are serving in Starfleet. Bajor still, however, has yet to build a warp-capable ship, which would make them the second race to be admitted to the Federation without demonstrating warp capability (the other is Kent).
The Cardassians are perhaps the galaxy's hard-luck stories, constantly doing the wrong thing thinking it is the right one and getting hammered as a result. The Cardassians envision themselves leading a powerful interstellar empire, but every attempt to establish one has failed. The so-called "Cardassian Union" is limited to Cardassia itself and a small number of colonies and mining operations. They have attempted to conquer other worlds, but in most cases have been rebuffed or eventually driven off by a resistance force (as on Bajor). Cardassian society is one with a history of trying to improve themselves through force, through military power and the order and dictatorial culture of the military. This has led to disaster after disaster, both before Cardassians developed warp capability and after. Cardassia itself is littered with archaeological ruins from societies that rose and then collapsed, starting with the Hebitian culture (believed to have an off-world, non-Cardassian origin). Ill-prepared and power-hungry leaders have led Cardassia to one disaster after another. They actually picked a fight with the Klingons and lost, and the collapse of the military control of Cardassia caused such a downward spiral in the culture that a new leadership group brought in the Dominion to help them rebuild and re-establish their power. The ultimate aim was to use the Dominion to build up Cardassian power in the Alpha Quadrant to the point where the Cardassians could throw off the Dominion and establish dominance in the quadrant. Reality went the opposite way. The Dominion grew in power and eventually the Cardassians realized that they were just another subjugated people and that the Dominion, based on Cardassia, was the controlling force. In the dying days of the Dominion war, a civilian resistance was brutally crushed, leading to the deaths of eight hundred million Cardassians. When the war ended, Cardassia had lost most of its fleet, all of its colonies and the homeworld itself was in ruins. Once more, the Cardassians have found themselves crawling to the Federation for help, but still dream of rising again.
The Breen are a little-known race occupying a region of open space some distance from Cardassia. The Breen are seen wearing environmental suits since they come from a planet that is extremely cold and not based on liquid water as the basis of life. The Breen have a roughly humanoid pose, but do not have blood circulating in their bodies. The Breen homeworld is securely guarded by a fleet of ships and installations, and approaches to the homeworld by non-Breen is severely limited. Because the Breen occupy an environment fundamentally different from others, there is little competition for planets and resources between the Breen and others. The Breen fight wars mostly for the fun of it, and to test their technology and prove their worth to others in the galaxy.
The Ferengi are a peculiar society, and a society that has undergone fundamental shifts in short periods of time. The Ferengi themselves are short humanoids with large, sensitive ears, hairless heads and some rather disgusting bodily practices. Ferenginar is a lush world with an extensive biology, and it rains a lot there as well. Ferengi generally do not live on other planets, but do exert some influence over a region of space that they term their Economic Influence Space. They have some control over a number of subject races who do things such as mine resources, build ships and generally create wealth, which the Ferengi use to buy whatever technology and resources they need. Ferengi culture is based on extreme capitalism, and the fundamental belief that nothing is free. Even sitting down in a chair costs money. Ferengi success is measured in profits made, and failure is measured in money lost. The Federation's first contact with the Ferengi was with their pirate-based military. Using starships of the Maruader-class, the Ferengi used intimidation and even violence to achieve their goals. The starships, although nominally under the control of the Ferengi government (called the Ferengi Commerce Authority), actually acted as pirate vessels, operating under their own laws to steal resources and technology that could be sold for profits. In time, however, the Ferengi government realized the long-term danger to such a strategy, as the powerful races beyond Ferengi space might tire of the pirates and return in force and crush them. The Ferengi government took control of the starships and turned them into a conventional starship fleet with professional officers on board, but so fearful of losing those ships in a war were they that they stayed out of the Dominion war. The Ferengi saw greater opportunity for profit by using economic routes into space controlled by others. They became traders, merchants, gambling-house owners, barkeepers and anything else that allowed them to provide a service, no matter how dubious, in exchange for profit. Modern Ferengi culture relies heavily on deal-making and negotiations rather than military power to achieve their aims, although the military power is there if it is needed.
The Ksassans are a race of humanoids occupying a small volume of space spinward from the Odonan Empire. The Ksassans are impressive specimens, tall and well-built, with golden-coloured skin and golden-coloured hair, worn long by members of both sexes. Ksassans also have large heads and a large brain-to-body mass ratio, and are considered by many to be extremely intelligent. Ksassan society is very advanced, with sophisticated technology in place on the homeworld, Cas. However, the Ksassans are driven by their religious beliefs, which state fundamentally that all races in the galaxy, because so many are clearly humanoid, are ultimately related and created by a progenitor race that existed billions of years ago and which ruled the entire galaxy. The Ksassans also believe that they are the direct descendents of this progenitor race and so are destined to again rule the entire galaxy. To achieve this, the Ksassans are busy developing the technology that would allow them to use the Borg transwarp conduits (which the Ksassans believe was built by the progenitors) to access any part of the galaxy. The most notable feature of Ksassans is that they are a sexually-charged culture, with sex a fundamental aspect of control and conquest. Ksassans, besides being physically very attractive in the eyes of nearly all humanoid races, also emit powerful pheromones which allow the victim to become highly suggestible. It is not uncommon at all for Ksassans to use an individual of the opposite sex to influence and gain control over a person. Ksassan groups exist on many planets (even Earth) where they preach with religious devotion their belief of galactic history and their place in it, and they have attracted many followers (especially since the discovery of evidence encoded in the DNA of many races that in fact a progenitor race did have an influence on the evolution of humanoid races in the galaxy), enough to cause worry in some governments. It is the misfortune of the Ksassans that one of the few races immune to their pheromone effects is the Odonans, and as a result, Ksassan space has been more or less contained by the Odonans. It is strongly believed that the Ksassans have acquired metagenic weapons from the Cardassians, for use against the Odonans, and also have stolen from the Borg a transwarp conduit (it is not known if the pheromones work on the Borg, however), technologies they have been working on. The Ksassans were invited to join the alliance led by the Dominion, but the Ksassans basically said that the Dominion had to be joking. Any non-humanoid race is an enemy to the Ksassans and must be destroyed.
The Tyrannians are a vicious race of humanoids occupying a small region of space. The Tyrannians have a culture that promotes violence, as the strongest Tyrannian is the one who can vanquish his enemies. What is worse for the galaxy at large is that the Tyrannians have little respect for other sentient races, and consider them as little more than slaves in the making. The Tyrannians often will skin their victims, sentient or not, and make ceremonial vests and coats from those skins. Such antics, of course, prompt retaliation from the races that have been victimized. The Tyrannians have been repeatedly battered by the Ksassans and the Odonans also retaliated when the Tyrannians wiped out a colony at Ninhching. Tyrannians are tall, slender humanoids whose most distinctive feature is a long, narrow, whip-like tail equipped with a venom-tipped stinger. Their skin is scaly with a downy, feather-like covering, as Tyrannians show features found in mammals, birds and reptiles. Tyrannians live in a low-oxygen environment, and higher levels of oxygen damages their skin. Warp technology among the Tyrannians is not advanced, and it is believed to have been stolen from a ship from an unknown race that came to Tyrannia, either expecting to found a colony there or to contact the inhabitants. Tyrannians are carnivores who do not practice agriculture, nor do they raise animals either; instead, food comes from hunting the abundant wildlife on the rather lush planet they call home. Tyrannians also have no science establishment and little industry.
The Kemons are a humanoid race living in a small region of space around their homeworld, Kemon, which is embedded mostly in Odonan space. Kemon is a cool world heavily enshrouded in clouds, so much so that a sunny day is almost considered a day for celebration. Because the light is dim, Kemons have large eyes for humanoids, but they cannot see in colour. Black and white and shades of gray is all that they can see, which would not bother them so much since their world is so gray. The plant life exists on a kind of "heat-synthesis," using infrared radiation instead of visible light to activate their photosynthesis process. The leaves are thus gray, and the stems and trunks are also gray. Kemons themselves are gray-skinned beings with grayish-white hair that is bushy and worn long by members of both sexes. Kemons are on average shorter than humans but taller than Odonans, and have a strong, muscular build. They are also relatively long-lived, with an average life span of about two hundred years. When viewed by others, those with colour vision, Kemons themselves and their buildings and their art is rather jarring, since their colour choices are meant to look appealing in black and white, and can be quite garish and clashing when viewed in colour, leading to the belief that the Kemons are eccentric and tasteless. Kemons are generally non-violent, and realize that being hemmed in by the Odonans does not give them much chance to expand, but like the Odonans, the Kemons do not wish to be ruled by other races. Overtures of Federation membership were rejected by the Kemons because they feared giving up their starship program, and they are quite proud of the achievements that they have reached in their relatively short time as a warp-capable civilization (just over a hundred and fifty years).
The Korpeians are the Known Galaxy's longest-lasting space-capable civilization, having been such for over a hundred thousand years and now existing as an interstellar political unit occupying over a hundred star systems and with a population in excess of one trillion. Korpeians are humanoid, but are short and slender, with a triangular face coming to a virtual point at the chin, with a small mouth as a result. They have large, round eyes, a rough, dimply skin and long, stringy hair that is often decorated with narrow ribbons and beads and other small ornaments simply for decoration or to mark position and status in life. What the various hair decorations means varies by culture to culture. So diverse is the Korpeian culture that even the standard language is not standard. Korpeians at one end of the Confederacy speaking the "standard language" cannot understand Korpeians from the other end speaking the allegedly same language. Korpeian society is divided into many different cultures and socio-economic groups, often identified by colours and regions. In most cases, the colours are associated with the hair decorations and common clothing colours. The Korpeians have a wide variety of economic variation. The planets towards the Odonan and Klingon Empires tend to be rather poor and overcrowded, with conservative cultures that rejects replication technology and relies on agriculture instead. The organized criminal elements of Korpeian society often dominate these planets and maintain pirate fleets of ships, including mainline Korpeian military ships, to enforce their rule and to enrich themselves. The centre of the Confederacy is much more advanced, culminating in the planet Ilko, the administrative capital of Korpeian space (but not their homeworld; the Korpeians no longer know which planet they originated on, or even if they still live on that planet in any way). This world is one planet-wide city, with all of the land area except the extreme north pole and the oceans (for the most part) covered in structures. It is home to 147 billion people, living in tall skyscrapers, some of which extend three kilometres in the sky, and other living quarters extend a quarter kilometre underground. There is multilevel transport systems, underground, surface and many levels of air transport. Extensive floating cities operate in the atmosphere, and they are primarily used as oxygen factories, processing the carbon dioxide and releasing oxygen in return. Ilko has an extensive closed-circuit transporter system. The planet is surrounded by a network of orbital stations, power stations and orbital processing plants. A fleet of ships constantly brings in resources and removes the waste products produced on this world. Although the Korpeians have existed as a space-going society for a hundred millennia, they have not been able to expand outwards mostly because they are not a military species and do not wish to conquer, but also because hypermatter resources are very limited. Korpeian ships, except for their mainline fleet ships (which are as advanced as anything in the Known Galaxy), tend to be large and slow, with the most common commercial vessels so slow it takes them six years of non-stop travel to go from one end of the Confederacy to the other (the map does not show all of Korpeian space). Korpeians have a lifespan of a hundred and twenty years, although this is higher towards the core and lower in the outlying regions.
The Voyans are a blue-skinned humanoid race whose main characteristic is their lack of individual distinctiveness. The shapes of their faces, the position, size and length of the bone ridges over the skull and the placement of the few stiff hairs around those ridges are the same in every individual. The Voyans are so similar in appearance that even Voyans themselves cannot distinguish one from the other. Unlike other races, Voyans do not mate. When the desire to reproduce comes to an individual, he or she will contract with a member of the opposite sex to produce the necessary services, with the person initiating the contact assuming responsibility to raise the child. Voyans who do raise children are accorded extra status and priliveges in Voyan society. One unsettling aspect of Voyan culture is that the Voyans have developed a race of "biological constructs" that consist of a genetic subset of themselves. These constructs do all the mundane, and even dangerous tasks in Voyan society, such as operating machinery and even fighting the battles. The constructs are bred with different abilities depending on the tasks at hand. These constructs, and many Voyans themselves, have devices implanted in their heads that allow them to take orders, operate machinery or communicate telepathically. Voyans are fairly advanced technologically, and they developed the long-range subspace transporter that essentially allows planet-to-planet beaming. Their ships operate with the same technology, beaming themselves to where the captain wants them to go. Contact with the Voyans was first achieved when officers from all over the Known Galaxy stumbled upon abandoned Voyan ships, investigated them and then found themselves beamed back to Voyan space. This was done by a rebel group, thinking that the people they would capture would be security officers and the like, trained in warfare, as they did not want to fight their own rebellion and could not trust the constructs. Ultimately, the captured officers could not be trusted either and they rebelled, exposing the Voyans to the larger galaxy and also handing over the subspace transporter to the other races, although only the Odonans retained a working version. Voy itself was not like the society in the rebel planet, but was a relatively advanced, unified and peaceful cluture. After fifty years of contact between the Federation and the Voyans, there is talk about Voy joining the Federation, although a decision was put off due to the Dominion War.
This is the homeworld of the secretive Lagaki, a race of humanoid aliens whose most distinctive feature is red skin-bright red skin. The Lagaki are tall, strong, well-built humanoids, and their females in particular have the shape and the curves to get the hearts of most humanoid males thumping quickly. Little is known of the Lagaki beyond a few of them who got lost and stumbled on the other races of the galaxy. For so long, the Lagaki lived in fear of revealing themselves to the Arosians, so they completely isolated the location of their homeworld and did everything possible to not reveal the location, including ritualistic suicide should any Lagaki encounter an alien. When an Odonan mission to Lagaka located the planet, the Lagaki refused to believe that the Arosian Empire had been destroyed and that space was safe again. The Romulans have also apparently attacked Lagaki planets as well.
At one time, the Arosian Empire numbered over a hundred and twenty worlds, with a population of over a trillion and a starship fleet with over thirty thousand mainline ships. The Arosians evolved out of a Kroosian garrison assigned to protect a distant reserve of tam-ulk-yr in the dying days of the Kroosian Empire. They were to hold the reserve until the Kroosians re-established themselves and returned, and if they could not hold the reserve (located on Kazmarine), they were to destroy it. This garrison formed a colony that over time grew and expanded, and corrupted their military orders into a kind of religion. One aspect that was reinterpreted was that the Arosians had to destroy any group that learned of their existence. Arosians did not conquer and expanded only as their population did, so their march through space was quite slow. Most of the groups they encountered were rather small and easily destroyed. Other races in the area, such as the Lagaki, learned of the reputation of the Arosians and went to great lengths to conceal themselves. Unfortunately, the Arosians eventually encountered the connected races of the Known Galaxy, capturing and destroying a Federation starship, but not before accessing its computer and detecting the emergency transmission back to the Federation. The Arosian War was on. The Arosians first invaded the Romulan Empire, reducing it in days to just Romulus and Remus. They struck at the Federation, destroying a few colonies, and they massed their ships for a strike at the Federation Core, forming five strike groups to destroy the five founding worlds of the Federation. At the same time, the Odonans learned of the Arosians, and from their excavations at Kroos, learned exactly who the Arosians originally were. They sent a ship to Kazmarine with a part of what was called the "Oracle." The Odonans had half of it, and the Arosians had the other half, considered a most sacred religious icon. The Arosians were obliged to let the Odonans come (curious, of course, at seeing beings so like them) and conduct the challenge of the Oracles. Others had come in the past with the alleged other half of the Oracle, but the one that the Odonans had was the real thing. The Oracles mated and the message was played-but the Arosians did not like the implication, that their society was at an end, its purpose complete. They decided that the Odonans' Oracle too was fake, and that any Oracle anybody would produce would always be a fake. The Arosians decided to reject the Odonan request to stop the war and join the galactic community. The Odonans, however, expected exactly this result, and the presentation of the Oracles was merely a ploy to bring a large number of Odonans into the presence of a large number of Arosians, from all over the Arosian Empire. The Arosians, having originated from a Kroosian military caste and not the science caste, were not immune to overhimpenyon. Within a month, this disease began to ravish the Empire. Even their ships became infected since on their rampages, they tended to capture Odonans they found, mostly again because they were curious about beings so like themselves. With the population on Kazmarine dropping at a horrific rate, the remnents of the leadership went back to the original orders. If they could not hold the tam-ulk-yr reserve, they were to destroy it-and themselves. All of Arosian society, every planet, every ship, every installation in space, everyting (save the Battlesphere, the main military command post with its wormhole-generator drive) was rigged with a society-wide self destruct mechanism. This was set off. Within a two-month span, the mighty Arosian Empire was reduced to wreckage, with no survivors. The Battlesphere was captured by another Odonan ship, which had been given the access codes by the dying Arosians. The collapse of the Arosian Empire, of course, left a large vacuum in space destined to be filled by some other race moving into the space.
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