ARCADIA

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SAR

SPR (sph: pwr 4/4/6)

The SPR is founded upon socialist principles, the only major Sphere for which this is true.  Basically, the SPR functions as a collection of collectives.  Workers' rights are taken very strongly, and all collectives (there are officially no companies) are jointly owned by their employees.  Poverty has yet to be a big problem, though of course the Mahabharati Empire would say this is due to the SPR's seizure of a large amount of Mahabharati assets during the Ouster.

SRA

Saha

Sailendra

Saito

Saladin

Salvador

San Isidro

San Marco

San Marino

San Martin

Sapient Peoples' Republic

Saturn

Scotland

Sentient species (gen)

There may be more sentients in Known Space, but evidence is lacking.

A picture of the six known species is available.

Sevastopol

Shakta

Sharqiah

Shipstate (gen)

The first shipstates evolved as actual seagoing ships, early in the 21st century.  There were those among the rich who began to chafe under the control of the traditional nationstate, and desired the freedom to roam and the freedom to pursue goals which the traditional nationstate would not allow.  They thus began finding accomodation with floating countries, or shipstates as they soon came to be called.  Although these small nations were not the equal of other nations in terms of armed might or raw consumptive power, the immense conctrations of wealth present on them meant that the nationstates soon acquiesced and allowed them the status of nations.

However, as controls on things such as docking priveleges, refuelling and other things began to take away some of the freedom of the seabound shipstate, the richest of the rich began looking to the stars for refuge.  Some began looking to stations such as the historic Enterprise for their refuges.  Others, though, wished to be free of the bounds of the Earth completely, and set themselves up in ships which were truly free to roam the planets.

The Karlan-DaRosa FTL drive allowed for the spectacularly rich to travel the stars as they wished, carrying shipboard agrotech and only coming in to a system when their fuel began to run low.  As K-D technology improved, it even became possible for small groups of moderately-well off people to pool their wealth and invest in a shipstate of their own.

At present, there are hundreds of small shipstates in Known Space.  Many carry diplomatic recognition from several spheres, while others are in fact subsumed under the control of one or another sphere, maintaining a precarious independence.  Some are the sole property of a single rich person, something like the private islands of the 20th century.  Others contain small communities of well-heeled people.  Whatever the sort, shipstates are almost exclusively the province of the rich, and access to them is generally limited to their citizens or friends of their citizens.

One of the largest and most famous shipstates is the Pure Land.

Shojin

Shuxing

Sicily

Siemens

Sirian Autonomous Republic

Sirian Republican Army

Sirius

Siva

Slovakia

Snowball

Sol

Solitaire

Songhay Republic

Space combat

Spaceflight (gen)

FTL spaceflight

Generally speaking, the rate of travel with the K-D drive is rated in terms of Light-Years per Day, or LYD.  Currently, most commercial interstellar vessels can travel at rates of about 0.3 to 0.4 LYD, while military vessels and dedicated couriers may travel up to 0.5 or even 0.6 LYD.   Some missiles are capable of speeds up to 0.8 LYD for small lengths of time (only a few hours, normally).  Scientists believe that speeds up to 0.9 LYD may become possible in the next decade or so.

The duration of FTL travel which a particular ship is capable of does not vary by anything other than the ship's fuel capacity.  Although it is possible to build a ship which is capable of travelling from one end of Known Space to the other on a single load of fuel, this is impractical and would be a waste of capacity.  In practice, most commercial ships are capable of making a single five to ten light-year journey on a single load of fuel, while many military starships are able to go up to 15 LY without refuelling.  Settlements which are far away from other outposts of civilization may receive visitors, shipments and information from the rest of Known Space rarely if at all.  Of course, some desire this kind of exclusion.

STL spaceflight

A ship travelling under K-D, or any other known form of propulsion for that matter, will interact, however slightly, with the matter in the space through which it travels.  Space is not, after all, a completely pure vacuum.  Although densities may only be a few particles per cubic centimeter, colliding with even a single particle at near-relativistic speeds can mean explosive damage to a ship.  Therefore, ships tend to slow down drastically when travelling through areas of high-concentration ISM or IPM.

Another reason to go slower is the problem of time dilation.  As was found early on in experiments with K-D drives, going beyond the speed of light causes no time dilation, but speeds below it cause progressively greater amounts of dilation as the speed of light is approached.  For this reason, ships tend to either go well below the speed of light or over it, but never very close to it.

For these reasons, travel within a system (and wherever else STL travel is necessary) will usually be at speeds of perhaps 0.0001 LYD or less, depending upon the exact density of the local matter.  Thus, in-system speeds tend to be rated in terms of Astronomical Units per Day (AUD) rather than LYD.  STL capabilities of ships do not vary much by ship size, as even a very small K-D drive is capable of going up to and past the speed of light itself.  Rather, speeds vary with the protection of the ship against the local matter, and with the foolhardiness of the captain.

Some ships, though, do not use K-D drives when traveling STL.  These are primarily systemships, also called spaceships.  Using K-D drives within a system is basically wasteful, both of capacity and of fuel.  Therefore, most systemships use either ion engines or fusion engines.  Additionally, almost all ships engaging in interface use ion or fusion engines.

Interface flight

If an interface is only gravitic, i.e., there is no atmosphere to worry about, ships generally use fusion thrusters.  Fusion is quite economical, providing a good deal of thrust with little expense in energy and fuel.  However, fusion engines also produce dangerous radiation.  Some settlements do not care about this radiation, such as most underground habs.  Some settlements do care about local radiation hazards, though.  Exact laws vary widely, but for example, a settlement may require that any radioactive residues must subside within 48 hours of a spaceship's transit through the area.

Especially when settlements care about environmental hazards, but also when trying to conserve on fuel, interface travel may be by other means.  When an atmosphere is available, actual flight may be used.  When an atmosphere is not available and local laws ban fusion drives, travel may be quite difficult.  In such situations, orbital cables or other such methods may have to be used.  However, there really is no perfect solution to the problem of both avoiding fusion residue and maintaining interface capability.  This has prompted many settlements to allow fusion drives even where they would prefer to keep local space clean.

Spain

Spectre

Spheres (gen)

Most spheres will be composed of a group of star systems which will typically be centered around a powerful core system where the Sphere's main government resides.  Although some governments attempt to maintain power-projection abilities throughout their Spheres, most are content to police the main trade routes and perhaps maintain "borders" at their systems' Oort clouds.  The exact nature of each Sphere's government varies, of course, though they tend to be very loose groupings; maintaining strict control over such great distances is difficult in the extreme.  In fact, some Spheres are rather more like loose mutual-defense groupings, or are not truly even Spheres at all.

The Spheres of Known Space are as follows.
 
 

Name of sphere, short form	LSN	ICA	Islamic	ISC	Mahabharati	SPR	Yan	HK	Back Stretch	Corridor	Starwhale Space	Qiqiu Space	Hammerhead Space
Name, official	League of Sovereign Nations	Interstellar Commerce Alliance	Islamic Sphere	Independent Systems Confederation	Mahabharati Empire	Sapient People's Republic	Yan Empire	High Kingdom	(none)	Corridor Alliance	(unpronounceable)	(unpronounceable)	(unpronounceable)
Number of systems	7	6	4	5	4	2	3	3	3	2
Number of stars	9	10	4	8	5	2	4	3	5	2
Longest axis of sphere, in LY (very approximate)	10	7	7	10	10	4	4	8	5	5
Name of sphere, short form	LSN	ICA	Islamic	ISC	Mahabharati	SPR	Yan	HK	Back Stretch	Corridor	Starwhale Space	Qiqiu Space	Hammerhead Space
Population, total humans (billion)	15.91	7.77	4.17	4.81	2.49	1.55	0.73	0.48	0.59	0.02
Population, total sentients (billion)	15.92	7.81	4.34	4.85	2.49	1.56	0.73	0.48	0.59	(unknown)
Density of sentients per star (billion, approximate)	1.75	0.75	1.05	0.60	0.50	0.78	0.18	0.16	0.12	0.01
Income unit, official	LSN Dollar (L$)	(none)	Islamic Dinar (D)	(none)	Mahabharati Rupee (MR)	SPR Dollar (SPR$)	Yan Yuan (Y$)	HK Crown (Hc)	(none)	(none)
Name of sphere, short form	LSN	ICA	Islamic	ISC	Mahabharati	SPR	Yan	HK	Back Stretch	Corridor	Starwhale Space	Qiqiu Space	Hammerhead Space
Overall inflation, 2220 fiscal, %
Exchange rate with AlphaBank $
Per capita GDP, A$-equivalent	A$11,340	A$19,350	A$13,300	A$16,090	A$10,800	A$10,920	A$9,870	A$11,420	A$7,110	A$2,690
Total GDP, A$ trillion
Name of sphere, short form	LSN	ICA	Islamic	ISC	Mahabharati	SPR	Yan	HK	Back Stretch	Corridor	Starwhale Space	Qiqiu Space	Hammerhead Space
Central government revenues, % of GDP	4.0	2.2	7.1	3.5	8.9	15.8	12.2	16.3	1.3	(none)
Central government revenues, A$ trillion
Average military spending, as % of total government revenue
Name of sphere, short form	LSN	ICA	Islamic	ISC	Mahabharati	SPR	Yan	HK	Back Stretch	Corridor		Qiqiu Space	Hammerhead Space
Armed forces, standing, millions	17.11	5.52	3.76	1.10	2.09	25.64	0.76	0.88	0	0
Military starships: capital ships, approx.	75	25	50	10	5	5	5	10	0	0
Military starships: Small & medium, approx.	400	365	350	150	250	25	30	20	0	0
Military spaceships, approx.	1000	1500	750	200	500	250	100	150	0	0
Privateers, approx.	0	200	0	500	50	0	150	90	75	?
Name of sphere, short form	LSN	ICA	Islamic	ISC	Mahabharati	SPR	Yan	HK	Back Stretch	Corridor	Starwhale Space	Qiqiu Space	Hammerhead Space
Overall abstract rating (1-8) for commercial power	6	7	5	5	4	4	2	2	1	1
Overall abstract rating (1-8) for military power	7	5	5	4	4	4	3	3	2	1
Overall abstract rating (1-8) for political stability/integration	5	6	6	4	3	6	5	4	3	0
Name of sphere, short form	LSN	ICA	Islamic	ISC	Mahabharati	SPR	Yan	HK	Back Stretch	Corridor	Starwhale Space	Qiqiu Space	Hammerhead Space

Note that the term sphere may also refer to a professional sphere.  Thus, corporate security, police, private investigators and perhaps even bounty hunters may all be considered to be part of the law enforcement sphere.

Srivijaya

StarCom

Starwhales (sap: astrocetia sapiens sapiens)

Starwhale technology is generally at least the equal of humanity's, but their biotechnology is far in advance of the equivalent
human tech.  In fact, biotech is the Starwhales' primary form of technology; inorganics are somehow disturbing to them.
Starwhales date the beginning of civilization not from the invention of agriculture or pottery as humans do, but from the
domestication of animals.

The Starwhales are perhaps the extraterrestrial sentients most closely associated with humanity.  Primarily in the Islamic Sphere,
but also in other spheres adjacent to Starwhale space, the Starwhales actually have established communities and business ties.

Physiology

Their maw is surrounded by five manipulatory limbs, each of which is topped by three smaller members which are mutually opposable.  The limbs, which are each approximately 80 cm in length, are quite flexible, having no bones but only a cartilaginous substance for structure.  The limbs can bend back to touch the Starwhale's abdomen, or fold forward.  When all five limbs are folded forward, they form a flush cone-like shape and the creature then has quite superb hydrodynamics.

Between each manipulatory limb is a small eye node, which is generally sensitive only to high-frequency light (this being an adaptation to the Starwhales' native oceanic habitat).  These eye can fold inward, lying within the limbs when the creature is in high-speed mode.  However, doing so renders the Starwhale blind, and thus they only fold in their eye nodes when severe danger is imminent.

The interior of the maw contains a series of small bony plates which are used to crush food before digestion.  Strong muscles within the mouth allow the Starwhale to send masticated food down one of five esophagi.  Posterior to these plates are the Starwhales' extremely well developed vocal cavities, which include a variety of sound generating apparatus and focussing organs.  In fact, the Starwhales communicate primarily by sound, and can also use extremely high-energy resonant blasts to stun prey into unconsciousness.

Just posterior of the maw is the narrowest part of the Starwhale's anatomy, roughly equivalent to a human neck.  This joins the maw section and the abdomen.  The abdomen contains the majority of the Starwhale's organs, including lungs and gills (Starwhales can breathe both air and from water), heart, brain, etc.  The basic structure of the abdomen is rather different from humans, though.

The abdomen is held up by a central bone structure which is entirely pentagonal in symmetry.  This is the only major bone structure in the starwhale's body; neither the anterior maw nor the posterior fins have true bones, but only cartilaginous structures.  The anterior section of this central bone structure is five long ribs which stretch from just behind the maw to the cranium.  These five bones have a thin, wide reinforcing fin which runs along the inside of each bone's length, giving these bones a superficial resemblance to sailing masts and giving them their name, Mast bones.  Outside the Mast bones, there are various blood vessels and nerve fibers, as well as a layer of muscle and fat which runs the entire length of the abdomen, and the continuations of the Starwhale's rather amazing esophagi.

Just posterior to the vocal organs, the esophagi emerge from their protection within the Mast bones.  At this point the esophagi become digestive tubes, and wrap around the Mast bones in a series of spirals all the way to the connection of the Masts with the cranium.   The disgestive tubes typically wrap around the Masts eleven times before reaching the cranium and again straightening out, though this has been known to vary.  Males' digestive tracts wrap to the left, while females' digestive tracts wrap to the right.  Various theories exist as to why they do this, but the exact purpose remains a mystery, and indeed some Starwhales have their digestive tracts re-wrapped in the other direction for medical or cosmetic reasons with little difference in function.  The digestive tract of a Starwhale is amazingly efficient, so much so that only a thin, typically greenish liquid remains after digested matter has passed through the tract.  Starwhale biotech makes this extretion even thinner.

The Mast bones each connect to the corner of the immense cranium, which is shaped somewhat like an American football, though with flat ends.  Actually, some scientists have disputed the use of 'cranium' to describe this bone structure, as it actually contains not only the brain but the heart and liver-analogue as well.  The anterior end connects with the Mast bones, while the posterior connects with the diaphragm bones.  The anterior end and posterior lateral sections of the cranium have small holes which allow passage of nerves, blood vessels, etc.  However, the cranium is really amazingly well isolated from the outside, and was apparently designed to protect the vital organs from crushing pressures at enormous depths, something of a mystery as the Starwhales' home planet does not have any seas of more than a few kilometers depth.

Outside the cranium are the Starwhale's great and powerful lungs and gills, as well as the normal layer of muscle and fat.  The digestive tracts also run outside the cranium, though as they pass the cranium, they straighten out.  They then descend back into the

The anterior of the cranium connects to a wide cone of ribs which form something of a diaphragm for the Starwhale.  Posterior to this, the digestive tracts descend towards the center of the creature linking again at a massive bladder-stomach.  No real digestion goes on here, but the resemblance to a stomach fooled early researchers, and the name stuck.  In fact, it serves almost entirely as a bladder or large colon.  The bladder-stomach stores up to three liters of the liquid which is the result of the Starwhale's digestive process.  This liquid is used to maintain buoyancy and, in times of danger, to create a large inky green cloud behind the Starwhale, allowing it to flee forward and leave whatever danger is behind it disoriented and blinded.

The final segment of the Starwhale's anatomy is the immensely powerful rear flippers.  These are pentagonally symmetric, just like the rest of the animal.  Each flipper measures nearly a full meter in length, and is composed entirely of further muscles.  Used in conjunction, the Starwhale's muscles allow it to achieve quite fast speeds -- up to 50 kph -- though the creatures rarely need to do so.

Nested within the flower formed by these five flippers lay the Starwhale's sexual organs.  Starwhales are sexually dimorphic and give birth to live young, typically two or three per gestation.

All of the above information is based upon Starwhale-supplied information.  Very few Starwhales have ever been examined by humans, and those that were appeared to have vastly varied interior structures, likely due to Starwhale biotech.

Psychology and Sociology

Their socioloogy, though, seems to yielding itself to human study fairly well.

Technology

Among the first creatures domesticated by Starwhales were the Razorbeaks, squid-like creatures which learned to respond to Starwhales' audible commands while hunting.  Many Starwhales still use Razorbeaks as weapons in close combat.

History

Steinwald

Stolz

Stuart

Südtal

Sumitomo

Sweden

Switzerland

Systems (gen)

Several other systems are known and may have been given cursory examinations by DMTP surveyors, but are not considered to be in Known Space due to their completely unsettled nature.  These are shown below.