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the Milky Way and all of the Local Group are not just large spirals, but have a whole host of smaller galaxies and clusters that orbit around them.

for example, the Large and small Magellanic clouds that orbit the Milky Way, an example of Dwarf Galaxies

or the dozens of Globular Clusters like NGC 47 that orbit galactic cores.

if the 3 galaxies that comprise the Phase World setting follow typical groupings, they will also be surrounded by dozens of sattelite galaxies, dwarf galaxies, globular clusters, and the like.

such sattelite groups and clusters offer possibilities for exploration in phase world that the standard 3 galaxies do not. for one, they would be more or less unoccupied by the big 3 galactic civilizations (CCW, TGE, UWW), if not completely untouched by them. because of this, they would have their own cultures, nations, and technologies. given their isolation, it is possible that contra-gravitic technologies would not be so prevelant, or had developed in a different direction from the 3G's proper.

from a astronavigation point of veiw, Clusters and dwarf galaxies tend to possess a greater amount of 'atypical' bodies, such as Nuetron stars, black holes, pulsars, ect. at the same time, large Nebulas tend to be rarer, making for a more unique region of space to travel in, which can only lead to more plot options.


does anyone make use of such potential?

Doesn't the Phase World book note how close the next nearest galaxy is to the Three Galaxies?

Or are we assuming that that "other" galaxy refers to an actual galaxy, and not a dwarf galaxy or a globular cluster?

~ Josh

i think the main distinction would be if the galaxy in question orbits another or not.

for example, the Magellanic clouds orbit the Milky Way, but Andromeda does not. size probably also plays a part. Andromeda and the Milky Way each have somewhere between 100 and 400 billion stars, while dwarf galaxies usually only run about a tenth that size at most.

the 3G's probably represent a 'local group' type cluster, with 3 distinct subclusters of galaxies, each a large galaxy surrounded by various dwarf galaxies orbiting their centers. they might not have as many though (the MW has about a dozen at last count).

That's a good idea glitterboy2098. This could provide several new locals that need to be explored. I can see there being mini satellite galaxies and globular clusters.

I don't think it says anywhere that there aren't any dwarf galaxies so why not?

Carl

I like it too Glitterboy. And as Carl said earlier it could add some unexplored space in the 3G's.

Well, someone DID created such a setting:

http://mywebpages.comcast.net/jacksonsd ... divide.htm

In other words: good idea.

Adios
KLM

I have used this sort of info in the past, got about 20+ books on astronmy might as well put them to use.


I don't think of the 3 Galaxies as a representation of the local group, I think of it as the Milkyway and the LMC and the SMC. Or better yet the Milkyway and Canis Major Dwarf Galaxy and the Virgo Stellar Stream, seems to fit. The books say that the nearest one is 300,000 LY away, presumably away from the edge of 3 Galaxy group, which is doable. Thats about a 500 day trip with a 5LY/H drive.

The Milkyway and Andromeda both have about 15 galaxies nearby, and Triangulum has a handful. The farthest one that is one of our companions is about 825,000LY BTW. Like 1200 days travel



Globular Clusters have a crapload of use, the Milkyway has about 150 of them, each with hundreds of thousands stars packed into an area only a couple parsecs wide(Omega Centauri stars are about 0.1LY apart). But they're not the best of places to get a planet even though one has been found around a pulsar in a cluster. But they are a great place to hide. Your sensors would be going nuts, hard to find a gravity signirture when everything is off the charts. Then there is the possibilty of Black Holes and Neutron Stars, Pulsars and other weird crap.

Sure why not, add a few minor races, and with the galaxies being dwarf ones and possibly younger ones then there are bound to be fresh resources ripe for the taking.


They would make well for staging grounds and beachead fronts for large scale wars as well as decent hiding spots for pirates and other black market and illegal tradesmen as well.


In that respect who knows, always fun to just have an option of the unknown.


Nother possibility is to haev races who were not involved with the Dominator threat of old. Even set up a secret watcher race who may hold a clue to the location of the cosmic forge.

I think the overall theme here is that people want to go exploring the unknown again, not deal with the big four. Braden is working on thundercoud galaxy in addition to Phase World starships, this book promises to delve into dark territory and explore the unknown reaches of the thundercloud.

Actually... the book promises to leave 47% of it relatively unwritten about, so you all can put whatever the hell you want to in there.

Unexplored parts of the galaxies sounds fun to me. I allways liked to have some space to put my own stuff in. But does dwarf galaxies really have the same attributes that makes the biospheres of larger galaxies habitable? I mean it's science-fantasy so it doesn't really matter. Just wondering.

gadrin wrote:

Braden, GMPhD wrote:Actually... the book promises to leave 47% of it relatively unwritten about, so you all can put whatever the hell you want to in there.

Question, what have you come up with for the Royal Exchange of Dracul from the Anvil Galaxy book? In that one, they've got branches on 150,000 worlds, so I guess they've got all sorts of races and types working under their (impressive) banner.

I hadn't actually thought about them. In the Thundercloud, the Consortium portions are being developed by a chartered company (the aptly named Thundercloud Development Co.) which has the power to establish its own banks.

Does Dracul deal with the TGE?

I see them as an old-world kind of Swiss bank... maybe with most of their planets in the Corkscrew?

From the few tidbits we've heard from Braden I think the Thundercloud Galaxy book is going to be cool. Reading this thread gave me the idea that maybe the territory "claimed" by the big power blocs is still unexplored. They just popped in, dropped some navigation satellites and said here is our border. I'd have to reread the PW book to see if that contradicts cannon.

Carl

Carl Gleba wrote:From the few tidbits we've heard from Braden I think the Thundercloud Galaxy book is going to be cool. Reading this thread gave me the idea that maybe the territory "claimed" by the big power blocs is still unexplored. They just popped in, dropped some navigation satellites and said here is our border. I'd have to reread the PW book to see if that contradicts cannon.

Carl

actually it sounds about right. i had figured something similar.

for example, lets use the CCW. the CCW decides to exapnd to counter the TGE in the 'example sector'. so they build a base on the edge of the sector, dispatch a small fleet to 'defend the base' and start sending colony vessels and research tems into the region. once you get one or two colonies in the sector (which might be a few hundred thousand cubic light years) they dispatch a larger fleet to 'protect' the region. then repeat on adjacent sectors.

likewise, if there is a native culture, the CCW would 'declare protectorate status', station a small research and defense fleet nearby to 'protect the natives'. basically annexing the region without actually using it.

ditto for regions empty of people, but with lots of resources. open up mining rights, get some colonies going, 'defend'.

thus the CCW is like butter scrapped over too much bread, possessing far more territory than they can possible make full use of.

the TGE and the UWW would be more or less the same, although the motivations and terms would change.

glitterboy2098 wrote:[
thus the CCW is like butter scrapped over too much bread, possessing far more territory than they can possible make full use of.

the TGE and the UWW would be more or less the same, although the motivations and terms would change.

Exactly, space is big and there is no way to escure all of it with the limited populations presented in cannon to date. Therefore it is possible for TGE fleets to travel into CCW space and never be noticed, and visa versa.

Greyaxe wrote:

glitterboy2098 wrote:[
thus the CCW is like butter scrapped over too much bread, possessing far more territory than they can possible make full use of.

the TGE and the UWW would be more or less the same, although the motivations and terms would change.

Exactly, space is big and there is no way to escure all of it with the limited populations presented in cannon to date. Therefore it is possible for TGE fleets to travel into CCW space and never be noticed, and visa versa.

i would imagine both sides sow large #'s of sensor drones and stations through out their 'territory', so i'm not sure about the 'without notice' part.

but i would imagine military deployments focus on a few 'core systems' (may or may not be centrally located) with a vastly under strength 'border fleet' that is little more than police. the border fleets keep the peace, and if a military situation arises, a fleet from a core world is sent in to 'show the flag' and deal with it.
i would imagine that the CCW probably also has 'homeguard fleets' run by the member worlds, a sort of 'national reserve/militia' seperate from the main starfleet. these would be the main defense of most most member worlds.

There are some more interesting ideas floating around here on this subject.

That would be one way to do it. That would be a slow process, but at an almost reasonable expenditure.