Asharbyel

A long-exposure picture of Asharbyel. Yes it's that dark

Asharbyel is a galaxy located about 650,000 light years from the Silky Way. Initially just thought to be an intergalactic hydrogen cloud, Asharbyel is barely a galaxy, so diffuse that it’s basically invisible to the regular eye, and it can only be seen with long-exposure pictures. This makes stars in Asharbyel much further apart than in regular galaxies, greatly slowing down the pace of astropolitics in the galaxy, except for the centre where the environment is more similar to normal galactic environments.

There are no stars more massive than about 2.5 solar masses in the entire galaxy, due to its extremely low level of star formation. The only truly bright stars are a few second-ascent red giant stars scattered throughout the galaxy.

### Regions

Asharbyel is split into 3 main regions, which are:

* The Core - a region about 600 light years across, which contains about half of Asharbyel's ~100,000 stars. The stellar density here on average is quite low, but very high compared to the other two regions, allowing for mostly normal astropolitics. The core is home to a few polities, most notably the Agshu'urach, as well as Bauwak and its breakaway state Murshein.
* The Outer Regions - a region comprising of the rest of Asharbyel and containing the other half of Asharbyel's stars. Stars get progressively further apart the further you go from the core, which makes astropolitics very slow and allows for very long-lived polities, such as Elikom Arau.
* The Hinterlands - a region outside the strict boundaries of Asharbyel, with no definitive end, but it's mostly accepted at about 30,000 light years from the centre of Asharbyel, after which true intergalactic space begins. This region contains about 1,500 stars bound to Asharbyel, which are all extremely far apart. Many criminal organisations have outposts in this region.
	+ It's also home to a massive infrared source, likely a star cluster, dubbed Kolachio. An ancient civilisation resides here and has installed dyson spheres around all of the stars.

### History

Asharbyel originally formed as an exceptionally small dark matter halo, drawing in a lot of gas. As reionisation started, 13.6 billion years ago, Asharbyel experienced a burst of star formation like other galaxies. However, this stopped very quickly, leaving Asharbyel with much gas but very little stars. It’s currently unknown how this happened. (Just as it is for the galaxies in real life that Asharbyel is based on)

Pretty much nothing happened in Asharbyel for some time. Evidence of a few polities and empires are scattered throughout the galaxy, including one which occupied nearly all of it about 4 billion years ago. Known as the O'omyt (what they may have been known as back then) they left behind a lot of technology used by Asharbyel's current polities, as well as some strange anomalies in some areas of the galaxy.

The O'omyt, which were the only sapient species at that time, uplifted numerous species. Many died out, but some remained in small pockets and established their own polities, the most significant of which was what we know now as the Asar Empire. They themselves uplifted the Aturi, which created the oldest polity in Asharbyel today, Elikom Arau. The O'omyt also spread their homeworld's life to other suitable planets. Many of today's unnaturally high amount of sapient species in Asharbyel came from this spreading of life, such as the Yalan and the Keruyu which run the Agshu'urach.

## Polities

* The Agshu'urach: A very large, loose confederation located in and occupying most of the central part of the Core of Asharbyel. It links together individually governed systems in a mostly-STL system of transport with some wormholes, although FTL travel is becoming more commonplace. Due to Asharbyel's low metallicity, the entire polity is made up of two species, as well as AIs (many of which govern the confederation) of only four (likely) intelligent in the entire galaxy.
* Bauwak: A small empire centered on the Ekeibn System and its surrounding regions, near the core, and still governed mainly by the native species, although AIs do play a major role.
	+ Bauwak's territory stretches over 236 star systems and about 700 rogue planets, and contains about 600 billion individuals.
* Murshein: A revolutionary state comprising of one of Bauwak’s outer colonies. It controls one half of the wide binary Feysu, so just half a system, as well as a nearby rogue planet.
* Elikom Arau: A large near-anarchic expanse (with small pockets of control scattered throughout) vaguely controlled by the Aturi, an uplifted species originally subservient to an empire which broke down about 290 million years ago. Elikom Arau is located mostly in the outer regions and is the oldest polity in Asharbyel, having existed for the last 40 million years.
	+ Elikom Arau's territory stretches over about 12,000 systems, however only about 800 of those are really controlled by the polity. The rest are quasi-anarchic, and a great breeding ground for pirate gangs and other malicious organisations, most notably the Usaar Militia, a theocratic terrorist group which sometimes launch attacks into the Agshu'urach's borderlands.
	+ Elikom Arau has about 11 trillion individuals.
* Am! C'uit: Probably a very very advanced civilisation operating in Kolachio. Its origin is unknown, but how Kolachio is moving suggests that it may have originated in the Silky Way itself.

## Major systems and worlds

Itechkav System: One of the two founding systems of the Agshu’urach

* Onbultal: Homeworld of the Yalan, the original intelligent species which led to the Agshu’urach