The Silky Way

The Silky Way is an immense ring galaxy, and the largest galaxy in the Local Cluster. Constant star formation is one of the primary characteristics that make up the personality of the galaxy, leading to an exceptionally high quantity of early-type main-sequence stars in vast, diffuse, starforming nebulae spread across the reaches of the galaxy. The Silky Way is an exceedingly fertile area, inhabited by hundreds, if not thousands, of intelligent species and an even larger proportion of interstellar civilizations. The variety between the hundreds of forms of life is absolutely immense, ranging from carbon-based to silicon-based to having a solvent of liquid ammonia.
The galaxy's central hub of political activity is the nebulous ring that encircles the galactic core. The core itself is a region left as uninhabited as the void beyond the Silky Way, as the fall of the Qomarat Empire by civil wars cleansed the region of any life. The core, regardless, is a fascinating region in scientific regard as it contains Demos, the central supermassive black hole of the galaxy, which binds it together as a star binds a planetary system. Between the two aforementioned regions is a vast cosmic gap as desolate as the emptiest voids, home to rogue states bickering for smidgens of resources in a state of perpetual turmoil defined solely by death and atrocities.
In terms of pure power alone, the most potent civilizations are often considered the Verdan Federation and the Supreme Entity of the VondunkeAlthough technically not a part of the Silky Way galaxy they have exerted considerable influence over the years unmatched by any other in existence, besides ancient galactic empires, buried deep by the confines of time. Surprisingly, the two aforementioned states barely recognize each other, both politically and economically, with minimal contact. In addition, civilizations of every type reside within the galaxy, ranging from vast interstellar empires entrenched in blood, to utopias purely residing within virtual simulated universes, to totalitarian states characterized by brainwashing and the disregard for universal rights.
== History ==
This galaxy formed almost 13 billion years ago, so not much is known about its early history. After its formation, the galaxy was mostly uninhabitable, filled with starbursts, supernovae, and even a quasar at its center. The only life was formed in the sparser edge of the ring and the galactic halo, where resources were scarce at that time. This meant that any life which formed this early either wasn't able to expand beyond their home system and died with it, or were killed by a wayward giant star. 
After this period, things were more habitable, and several civilizations formed, each controlling a significant fraction of the galaxy. Unfortunately, a quasar outburst from Demos caused severe damage to these empires and killed off many nascent species arising inbetween them. The severely damaged Seven Nations would quickly collapse in infighting caused by the renewed resource scarcity, leaving the galaxy empty for a time. After the Seven Nations vanished, life would rise again, sporadically attempting to spread across the galaxy before their inevitable destruction at the hands of some natural disaster of internal turmoil. As a result, there were likely a number of species that survived for over a billion years and never maintained a cohesive state for more than a percent of that timespan at once, but the rise of the next galactic empire would put an end to these stragglers from an earlier time. 
Roughly 1.5 billion years ago, the Qomarat Empire arose in the deep core of the Silky Way, spreading across the galaxy and enslaving or destroying almost everyone they encountered. Civilizations that had stood across various iterations for literal billions of years were wiped off the map, including the Ancient Builders of Nalaren and probably many others. Luckily for the future species of the galactic ring, the populace of the Qomarat Empire was "mysteriously" afflicted by a morphogenic virus spread from Nalaren in an effort by the Ancient Builders to preserve their species. This virus would later be found dormant on Nalaren itself billions of years later by the Tyran Empire and put to use for its own nefarious purpose. 
This was a pandemic on a scale never before seen. There was no cure for the morphogenic virus, and much of the population of the outer empire died in mental agony as their bodies were twisted into those their empire killed. To prevent the pandemic from reaching the core systems, a complete quarantine was enacted over all effected sectors of the empire. Due to the ponderous legislature of the Empire, whatever form it may have had, the virus had run wild over much of the ring, and this quarantine caused them to instantaneously lose nearly half of their territory as those left within quickly died out. Shortly after they abandoned the last of their holdings in the galactic ring, the Empire broke out into civil war between a variety of political factions and possibly religious groups as well. Little is known about the war, but it is known that it was so massive and long-lasting that it cleansed the entire region of any semblance of life and utterly destroyed the last remnants of the Empire. The last of its species locked themselves in stasis vaults hidden beneath the crusts of many planets to preserve the memory of their great empire. Many of these still exist, particularly on their home planet Qomar, which now orbits Demos itself after being ejected from its original parent star. Aside from these vaults, there is absolutely no native life remaining in the galactic core. 
Following the death of the Qomarat Empire, most of the galaxy was lifeless save simple bacterial life, and the core was so irradiated as to eradicate even that. After the fall of the Empire, nothing of its size would ever rise again. Nothing general can really be said be said about galactic history, as anything said about the Ervo Sector probably wouldn't apply to the Astros Sector, which wouldn't apply to the Istraki Sector. Thus, after this point it is most useful to describe the histories of individual regions.
== Galactic Geography ==
The exact galactic geography of the Silky Way has been hotly debated, as it was often decided rather arbitrarily by whatever nation was most powerful at the time. As a result, what defines a distinct region of the Silky Way has changed time and time again, going from being based on distance from the core, to being based on arbitrary lines, to being based on how far above or below the disk you are.
=== The Core ===
The Core is the innermost and densest region of the Silky Way. Its borders range from the supermassive black hole, Demos, to the rapid fall-off of stellar density at the edge of The Gap. This region is the most densely packed of any galactic region in this galaxy, with the average distance between non-gravitationally bound stars only reaching a third of a light-year, and a total star count estimated to be twenty billion stars, roughly a fifth of the galaxy's entire star count. 
The Core is almost completely devoid of star-forming gas, and has been for most of its history. This is likely because most of it was excited into forming stars or ejected by Demos' most recent quasar phase, roughly 5 billion years ago. Today, Demos is an active black hole, with a large accretion disk.
After the civil war which precipitated the destruction of the Qomarat Empire, the region was reduced to nothing but desolate, lifeless worlds, a far cry from its former glory. Today, small sections of the region are controlled by small nations which emigrated from elsewhere in the galaxy for various reasons, but there are no native life-forms surviving outside of hardened vaults built by the remnants of the Qomarat.
The layout of the Core consists of an extremely dense cluster surrounding Demos to a distance of roughly five light-years. This cluster contains over a thousand stars, the vast majority of which have no planets. This cluster is nestled within a less dense, but still very dense cluster often known as the Deep Core. The cluster contains a good deal of rogue planets by virtue of the density of the cluster, as this causes many gravitational interactions between stars. Outside the Deep Core, many smaller clusters have coalesced, which are excellent choices to set up a civilization around, and many have done so.
=== The Gap ===
The Gap is widely considered the most dull region of the Silky Way, and is defined as the region between the outer edge of the Core and the inner edge of the Ring. The Gap is almost as sparse as intergalactic space. The Gap, because of its extreme sparseness, has not been colonized by any nation, with the exception of globular clusters.
The Gap also contains many globular clusters, including the Web Cluster and the Cerlus Cluster. These clusters are hotspots of civilization in the wilds of The Gap, and as such they are highly sought after by expansionist nations. There is also one anomalous artificial cluster found within this region, that being the Niblos Cluster, the structured arrangement of which implying artificial creation. 
=== The Ring ===
The Ring is the most habitable and populous region of The Silky Way, and is home to such notable planets as Teralla, Shirus, Doresyl, Campura, and others. It is a neat ring of stars with sharp borders at the inner and outer edges, defining the extent of the region. It is the largest region of the Silky Way by star count, at roughly 300 billion stars.
Various civilizations have been founded within the ring, including the Verdan Federation, Campuran Coalition, and many, many others. The average distance between stars in this region is roughly 2 and a half light-years, and it is also the most civilized region of the galaxy. 
Just like the Gap, the Ring was partially conquered by the Qomarat Empire at its height, and large swathes of it are littered with abandoned megastructures left behind as the outer reaches of the empire began to suffer from the Nalaren Morphogenic Virus.
=== Galactic Halo ===
The Galactic Halo is the sparsest region of the Silky Way. It is not home to many nations, as it is even sparser than the Gap, and all outposts of civilization are in the many globular clusters in the region, such as the Kolachio Cluster and Net Cluster. The Halo also, depending on your definition of its boundaries, encompasses some of the closer satellites. It is the largest region of the galaxy in terms of volume, but its stars are very spread apart with average distances between stars being upwards of ten light-years. Because of this sparseness, this region is difficult to govern, and the few nations here have developed their own strategies for governing this region.
== Political Regions ==
The Silky Way, due to its small number of non-arbitrary regions, is divided into several political regions, as follows.
*Core: This is similarly defined to the Galactic Region of the same name, because very few extant civilizations are present here.
*Gap: This is identical to the galactic region of the same name, and essentially nothing of interest can be found here. 
*Ring Sectors: The galactic ring of the Silky Way is split into twenty-six sectors, which are generally centered around the tightly packed clusters of civilizations which have arose across the galaxy. They are as follows:
**Ervo Sector: The location of the Verdan Federation and most civilizations known to it. It is connected to the Hinthorn Sector by the Szalana Wormhole, one of the few such stable formations in the Silky Way. 
**Kardesh Sector
**Vidaea Sector
**Gammu Sector: A mostly unknown region of space beyond the Vernarca Nebula from the perspective of the Verdan Federation and its neighbors. 
**Lazon Sector
**Istraki Sector
**Brenari Sector
**Desic Sector
**Rein Sector
**Regorum Sector: This region is the extent of the region sterilized by the Vondunke during an attempted incursion some short thousands of years ago.
**Ilos Sector
**Astros Sector: A region far from Verda claimed by a number of comparatively primitive, warring states, mostly separated from the greater galaxy by the Indar Expanse and the arrival point of the Kareland after its displacement from Keuramaske's Labyrinth.
**Kishase Sector: A region across the Indar Expanse from the Astros Sector, home to a number of star-forming regions and civilizations and suffering from Void incursions during the Kareland 's passage through the region which presumably came to an end after the War of the Broken Bow.
**Venette Sector: This region is a fairly resource-rich sector claimed by several large empires with greatly advanced technology and partly surveyed by the Kareland on its journey back to the Ervo Sector.
**Tarn Sector: According to long range surveys by the Kareland, this sector is seemingly devoid of large civilizations for unknown reasons.
**Hiram Sector: A region which has been almost completely consumed by the Void prior to their defeat in the War of the Broken Bow. From afar, there is no sign of this, showing that the Void came into existence more recently than ~60,000 years ago.
**Corill Sector: Another region consumed by the Void, possibly the center of their civilization? 
**Lucy Sector: This region has been partly consumed by the Void, who operates incursions into the Hinthorn Sector nations from the surviving stars on the edges of the sector.
**Hinthorn Sector: Home to the enormous Apple Nebula, this is a resource rich region claimed by a great number of states which were once highly belligerent in the centuries prior to the War of the Broken Bow. It is connected to the Ervo Sector by the Szalana Wormhole. 
**Kuzon Sector
**Carnelian Sector
**Emina Sector
**Vallak Sector 
**Oyun Sector
**Nyerna Sector
**Menelan Sector
*Halo: Again, this is essentially identical to the galactic region of the same name. Many globular Clusters are found here.
== Satellite Galaxies ==
What is or is not a satellite galaxy is up for debate. The boundary between a satellite galaxy and an intergalactic overdensity or globular cluster is sometimes unclear. However, there are currently several dozen known satellite galaxies surrounding the Silky Way, at various distances. 
=== Asharbyel ===
Asharbyel is a sizeable irregular galaxy located in the vicinity of the Silky Way, and is among its brightest, most prominent satellites. Asharbyel is in the midst of a starburst phase, producing many stars very quickly from its many nebulae. Asharbyel may or may not be considered a blue compact dwarf galaxy, which is one dominated by young, blue star clusters, of which Asharbyel has many. The galaxy is massive enough and far enough from its parent galaxy (about 970,000 light years) to have its own satellite galaxy, a tiny speck of a galaxy called Hö'a, orbiting Asharbyel at just 41,000 light years distant.
=== Sarjul ===
Sarjul is a large irregular galaxy in vicinity of The Silky Way. Due to its high rate of star formation, it is substantially brighter than most galaxies its size, which is already among the top ranks of satellite galaxies. Sarjul is the in a chaotic starburst phase, producing huge numbers of stars in the wombs of stellar nurseries. This creates great numbers of open clusters, including the centrally located Terava Cluster.
== Globular Clusters ==
There are roughly three hundred globular clusters held within the gravitational influence of the Silky Way. The most notable among them are the Kolachio Cluster, the Net Cluster, the Cerlus Cluster, and the Web Cluster, alongside the AE Cluster. There is also the Niblos Cluster, a hypercompact artificial cluster assembled and controlled by the primitive but powerful Minoma Imperium
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== Civilizations ==
== Species ==
== Major Worlds ==
Category:Galaxies
Category:Minmus' Articles