Periphery

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Periphery

Galactography > Regions of Space > Periphery

The Outer Frontier

The Periphery is the ever-expanding wavefront of Terragen exploration and colonisation. It is in fact the furthest layer of the Outer Volumes, beyond the furthest wormholes. Because the speed of expansion of the Wormhole Nexus is limited to 0.7c, there is a large ring-shaped section of the Explored Galaxy that is not yet connected. Only the fastest exploration and colony ships have reached this far.

The location of the Periphery changes over time, as the exploration wavefront moves ever farther out, and the Wormhole Nexus expands over time. But the exploration wavefront is moving faster than the expansion of the Nexus, so the Periphery is getting gradually larger over time. In some locations small, independent wormhole nexii have been created, not yet connected to the main nexus. Some of the oldest of these independent networks, like the Lirantiq nexus, have been connected to the main network and are now in the mainstream civilisation.

Periphery worlds can only be reached by taking a stargate to the furthest system out, then obtaining a relativistic ship (by building one, buying one or receiving one as a gift; rarely by stealing) and making for the unknown. Of course, there will always be someone who has gone further, but the periphery is so vast that there is enough for everyone. Some ships are headed for the galactic core, or the globular clusters, or even aim to leave the galaxy entirely. Many of these have abandoned their quest and established colonies at the edge of the Terragen Sphere.

There have been several major wars on the Periphery in the last millennium or so, but the only one that is generally known as the Periphery War is the one between the Arion Ascendancy and the Periphery Pact.

Articles

Alpha Jupkai - Text by Aaron Hamilton
The former homeworld of the extinct Iahi Daon species
Amerindian Worlds, The - Text by Stephen Inniss
Human baseline worlds discovered along the Terragen peripheral regions, each with re-created pre-Columbian civilisations.
Arion Ascendancy, The - Text by Espen Antonsen
Hyperexpansionistic interstellar empire in the NoCoZo outer periphery.
Arugula - Text by Steve Bowers
Vec bubblehab planet
Backscattering Waves - Text by M. Alan Kazlev and Steve Bowers
Some colonies themselves send out waves of colonsation, which may come into conflict with other waves from the original source.
Beyond, The - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
Popular term for that volume of the galaxy outside of the Terragen Sphere.
Boomerang Nebula - Text by Steve Bowers
The coldest naturally occurring location in the Terragen Sphere.
Carina Rush - Text by Anders Sandberg
Vast new volume opened up by an alien wormhole, in the direction of Eta Carinae.
Carina-Vela Outer Volumes - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
Large region of space in the outer volumes, not affiliated with any of the main empires. The Andian Mission today remains a highly regarded support organization here.
Clive's Brain - Text by Steve Bowers
Cybyotan world in the Vela-Puppis border periphery. The alien Cybyotan phylum of interconnected mobile and sessile autotrophs and heterotrophs has on this planet developed a single shared datasphere which is home to a single entity, known as Clive.
Cygexba Outer Volume - Text by Steve Bowers
Region to spinwards of the Cygnus Middle Regions, outwards of the Deneb Sector. Also the region where the merchantile archailect Lohengrin is currently most active. Notable for the presence of xenosophonts such as the Muuh enclave around Muuhhome, the Meistersingers and the Wayfarers.
Cygnus X-1 - Text by Steve Bowers
High mass X-ray binary star system 5984 ly from Sol.
Diademata, The - Text by Steve Bowers
Halo drive Colony ship, launched from Corona in 9255.
Dreaming Void, The - Text by Domagoj K
Utochishte system: colony on the periphery of Terragen Space which was isolated for more than a thousand years and developed a complex and idiosyncratic culture. This resulted in the creation of an extensive virtual world, divided into millions of mini-universes.
Ebony Xerocracy, The - Text by Liam Jones
Ex-hider polity with a long-lived high-tech society.
Eta Carinae - Text by Chris Clowes
A peculiar, erratically fluctuating Luminous Blue Variable. One of the most luminous stellar objects of our Galaxy.
Eta Carinae Nebula - NGC 3372 - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
A huge diffuse emission nebula consisting of clouds of high temperature gas some 9,000 light years from Sol. The atoms in the cloud are energized by ultraviolet light from nearby stars and emit radiation as they fall back into lower energy states (in much the same way as a neon light). It is a site of ongoing star formation. Each of the bright lobes are the size of an entire solar system. A whole mythology and economy has built up around this beautiful nebula, the so-called Carina Rush.
Golifa Nebula - Text by Steve Bowers
Artificial nebula, formerly the Golifa Triune, three stars in Perseus which were destroyed by a Metric bomb during the Amalgamation Crisis
Historical Diaconcentrism - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
The tendency for the peripheral regions to be historically and technologically backward - "living fossils" - in relation to the inner sphere (owing to the amount of transit time - usually many centuries - required to get there). Moving from the core to the periphery is in a sense like moving back in time. This phenomenon breaks down as the outer volume worlds develop their own cultures and civilisations.
Laughter Nebula - Text by Anders Sandberg
One of the five nebulae in the volume close to the War and Peace Nebula named after the Rational Virtues (Laughter, Curiosity, Zeal, Reflection and Compassion) in Konensis Mysticism.
Lawless Nell, The - Text by Steve Bowers
Non-aligned renegade ex-Lawkeeper ship.
Lernaea - Text by Thorbørn Steen
A Caretaker God who guards a number of life-bearing planets on the current frontier of the Terragen Sphere. The life on these planets may or may not be of Terragen origin.
Light Speed Frontier - Text by Thorbørn Steen
The outer edge of the Terragen Sphere.
Mobile Frontier, The - Text by Thorbørn Steen
The moving edge of Terragen expansion.
Perfect Mirror, The - Text by Todd Drashner
Alien artifact discovered on the fifth moon of the gas giant T'tul in the Carina Rush.
Periphery Region - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
Astrographic, planetary, orbital, or other areas on the outskirts of key economic activity.
Perseus Rift, The - Text by Anders Sandberg
Colloquial term for the volume between the Orion and Perseus arms; a vast and ill-defined volume rimwards of the Solar Dominion and Metasoft.
Pluton Volume, The (and the Epp War) - Text by Steve Bowers
Wealthy region in the Perseus Arm, with a large xenosophont population; site of the conflict between the Epp and their Methanoid allies, and the Perseus Princes (with the aid of the System of Response).
Sagittarius Periphery Wars - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
A serious of skirmishes, blights, and territorial wars along the Sagittarius frontier during the middle Empires period. The potentially worst of these were defused by the Specialist in a series of oft-recounted real-life interventions.
Trifid Nebula - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
NGC6514 / M20.
Utmig - Text by Steve Bowers
The first world colonised by the spacecraft Diademata after that vessel left the Nexus.
Wild Frontier - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
The romanticised and mythologized notion of the frontier, whether the outer solar system of the Interplanetary Era or the Outer Volumes and the Periphery today, as an exciting and lawless place. See also The Wilds.
Wilds, The - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
Generic term for non-sephirotic terragen space beyond the borders of the Civilized Galaxy.