The Suprosa Cluster

The setting primer for the Suprosa Cluster (also known as Alacia to some friends) Setting. It is a Sci-Fi noir settings heavily inspired by settings such as Mass Effect, Stellaris, The Expanse, Alien, The Orville, Firefly, and Starfield. The tone of the setting is gritty, dark, somewhat bleak, but also cautiously optimistic.

The Surposa Cluster as viewed from a telescope in the Milky Way Galaxy (NGC-6050)

Galaxies in the cluster:

• G1: The largest and the galaxy humans originated in
• G2: The smallest and is roughly 'in between' the other two major galaxies
• G3: Located across a vast void of space from G1
• G4: A tiny galaxy orbiting the cluster - about the size of LMC
• G5: Another tiny galaxy orbiting the cluster - nearly 2x the size of LMC
• G6: A small spiral galaxy heading toward G1 at an extremely rapid pace.
• The Gap: A nearly empty void between the galaxies G1 and G3 where very few stars exist.
• G7-G34: Various other galaxies consisting of the cluster, many of which are naked eye objects in space. They are much further away than the other galaxies and are not as sgificant.

  

  Suprosa taken at a distance of approximately 1 million light years as part of an unmanned probe mission to photograph the galaxy from various angles.

An image taken from the first probe sent to G4 - one of the first images of Suprosa ever recorded.

Galactic Size

• G1: 181k Light years across
• G2: 100k LY across
• G3: 123k LY across
• G4: 31k LY across
• G5: 59k LY across
• The Gap: About 220k at the widest tips, 120k at the closest approaches
• Total estimated stars in the main cluster: 4 trillion+

Total number of settled worlds:

17000+ fully settled worlds. Includes worlds with populations over 1 million individuals

Total number of star systems with some sort of settlement (space station, research base, etc)

650,000 partially settled worlds, including new colonies, research outposts, military bases, non-permanent settlements, or other edge cases.

Galactic Human Population:

30+ trillion

Allendar, capital of the planet Alfador which orbits the gas giant Second Sky in the Gylon system.

Major Powers:

• Alfadorian Star Empire - Mostly in G1
  • Theocracy ruled by an absolute Monarch and governed by a Nobility class.
  • Broken up into multiple Sectors which operate as their own independent governments under the direct rule of the greater Empire.
  • 6000+ settled worlds worlds
  • 197000+ partially settled worlds
  • Founded 8000 years ago
  • Follows a multi-class system: High Nobility, Low Nobility, Admirality. Military CItizen, Free Citizen, Non-free Citizen, Non-citizen.
  • A society that does not use personally owned exchanged monetary currency, but rather reputation and drive as its currency. There are, however, non-state-sanctioned currencies in trade and black markets.
  • Consists of hundreds of sub-nations, some of which are at war with one another or are in active rebellion to secede.
• Ionasan Congressional Republic- Mostly in G3
  • Oligarchy ruled by an elite board of congressional directors.
  • 1800+ fully settled worlds
  • 40000+ partially settled worlds
  • Originally part of the Alfadorian Star Empire, but was able to purchase its freedom and is an independent power.
  • Operates as a hyper-capitalist society where its citizens generally live a good life but extreme wealth inequality exists.
  • Technologically superior to Alfador, but inferior in overall military might and power.
• Federation of Alacia - Mostly in G2
  • Federation ruled by a democratically elected congress and president
  • 1200+ worlds
  • 65000+ partially settled worlds
  • Originally part of the Alfadorian Star Empire but was able to assert itself as its own power after a bloody rebellion.
  • Slowly growing in power and influence.
  • While technologically comprable to Alfador and with a much weaker military, it has invested heavily in automated defenses and uses an advanced fortress military doctrine, making its space very secure and difficult to invade. It also benefits from G2's hostile topography.
  • Has access to some rare resource that i need to think of.
• Neutral Territories
  • Locations not under the control of one of the three major powers.
  • 8000+ settled worlds
  • 350000+ partially settled worlds
  • Neutral Territories account for nearly half of all settled systems across hundreds of smaller factions

Technology progression:

• Overall Progress: Stagnation
• Kardashev Scale: 2.3 - 2.4
• Antimatter Reactors are unstable and have been in development for 100+ years but still aren't commercially viable.
• Dyson swarms on some worlds.
• Energy to Matter replication at industrial / military level, not consumer level
• Universal Translation techology exists
• Antimatter planet-killers exist
• FTL - Able to travel between galaxies (with major limitations / requirements)\
• Terraforming commercially viable - takes 30-100 years depending on planet size
• Artificial Gravity exists - common use

Aliens:

Variable. Can exist, or not exist! Currently configured that humans are the only intelligent species - but there are lesser developed species throughout the galaxy being observed under a non-intervention policy. There are also ancient ruins of spacefaring races throughout the galaxy.

Small Arms:

• Ballistics and directed energy weapons
• Plasma and particle accelerator weapons exist but are expensive
• Disruptors exist but are banned in most places, and are unstable

Personal Armor

• Personal Shields are common
• Armor is able to withstand varying degrees of punishment based on function
• Large Arms
• Similar to small arms.
• Antimatter weapons are WMDs.

Melee Weapons

• Not extremely common, but both kinetic cand energy based weapons exist
• Specialized vibro blades are used by assassins
• Energy blades are unstable and are mostly used for industrial or specialized engineering work (hull breaches)
• More common to use on heavily modified/augmented people

Body Modification

• Capabilities similar to Cyberpunk settings but exceptionally more robust and safer.
• Bioware
• Cyberware
• Genetic Modification
• Cloning

Lifespans:

• Natural lifespan of the original Alfadorian race was about 75-120 years, but through advances in medical sciences, genetic therapy, and augmentation frequently exceeds 500 years.
• Limited immortalty through the use of sophisticated technology available to roughly 10% of the population.

Empress Serena Alfon, the most powerful psion ever known.

Supernatural

• Psionics are extremely rare - appx 1 in 1 billion humans are Psions.
• Psions can manipulate matter with their minds, interact with other intelligences by thought, and can perceive space/time in a unique way that allows them to understand where they are in the universe. Psions can communicate with each other at any distance in real time.
• Psions are becoming more common than ever, having once been rare enough to number in the hundreds only a century ago, there are roughly 8000 psions known, with many believed to also exist undocumented.
• Psions emit a special type of radiation that can be measured to roughly estimate the maximum potential of the psion.
• Most psions emit around 75 PSI Rating. The most powerful Psion in history, Serena Alfon- Empress of Alfador - emits roughly a 12,000 PSI Rating
• Psions with a PSI rating of around 200+ are generally biologically immortal, though can still be killed.
• Psions with a PSI rating of over 9000 are likely completely immortal, as they can regenerate their own tissue.
• Psions are able to increase their power through intense training, controlled exposure to certain types of radiation, and through mental domination and assimilation of weaker psions.

Artificial Gravity

• Gravity can be generated in space ships, habitats, and on planets. Can increase or decrease.
• Sub-Light speeds:
• THe fastest sub-light speeds are usually in the range of 0.1% the speed of light. Acceleration, operational speeds, and other things vary ship to ship. Not taking into account acceleration and deceleration, a ship moving at sub-light would take about two months to go from Earth to Jupiter (taking into account acceleration, deceleration, and flight adjustments).

FTL

• Multiple varities based on use-case
• Alcuberie Drive - Used for interplanetary travel. Most commercially avaiable ADs are limited to 1000 AU/hr for safety, but there is no top speed to an alcubierre drive. Fastest accelerations are about 20 AU/hr per minute and average are 4 AU per minute. Average deceleration is about 450AU/m² and the fastest is about 3500AU/m² The average time it would take a ship to get to Pluto from Earth using an average commercial grade vessel: About 39 minutes. Average time for the same to go one light-year: 23 hours and 12 minutes of deceleration (reaching a top speed of 5460 AU/hr)
• Jump Drive - Used for inter-system travel. Jump drives are very expensive. They function similarly to ADs, but require a different fuel source. Once a ship enters jump, it does not have a top speed and can accelerate continuously as long as it has enough fuel. The average rate of acceleration for a jump drive is a continuous 15000 AU per minute squared and the average deceleration is a continuous 150000AU/minute squared. This enables a jump-drive enabled ship, on average, to theoretically make the jump between G1 and G3 in roughly 96 hours assuming it has the fuel to accelerate continuously through the jump. Maintaining speed requires almost no fuel and deceleration requires less than accelerating. Jumping is extremely dangerous, and is not practiced commonly. Used by military, criminals, and deep space explorers. Jump drives are generally considered too inaccurate for interplanetary travel but can be used by skilled pilots to cut travel times down to seconds.
• Gate System - Used for inter-system travel. Gates provide nearly instantaneous travel between two points in space. A gate propels a ship to a speeds in excess of 100,000 LY/hr, but only to another connected Gate.  Gates are how most FTL Communications and interstellar travel is conducted. Gates have 'tunnels' where matter cannot enter from the outside, and are effectively perfect vacuums with zero chance of matter collision.
• Particle Displacement System - Shields are able to gravitationally affect particles in front of a FTL ship so that they are scattered before the physical ship arrives. They can also withstand the impact of micro-particles at certain speeds, but anything faster than 1000 AU/hr is more or less impossible to travel at completely safe without extremely sophisticated shields.

FTL Communications

• Gate System - Messages utilize Gate infrastructure. Standard comms.
• Burst Communication - A burst communication uses a tachyon system that sends communications out at a specified speed. The most sophisticated burst communications can travel at speeds of up to 1 LY/m. These communications can be intercepted and stopped by certain technology.
• Quantum Entangled Comms - Enables a unique pair of devices to have instantaneous communications at any distance in the universe.