Star Fleet Universe
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 Star Fleet Universe |
|---|
| Games |
| Star Fleet Battles |
| Federation Commander |
| Federation and Empire |
| Prime Directive (role-playing game) |
| Star Fleet Battle Force |
| General War (game) |
| Star Trek: Starfleet Command |
| Star Trek Starfleet Command II: Empires at War |
| Star Trek Starfleet Command: Orion Pirates |
| Starline 2400 |
| Captain's Log |
| Universe |
| Star Fleet Universe |
| Alpha Octant |
| Alliance Federation Kzintis Hydrans Gorns Tholians |
| Coalition Klingons Lyrans Romulans Seltorians |
| Unaligned (Alpha) Orion Pirates Interstellar Concordium WYN LDR Vudar Jindarians Carnivons Paravians |
| Andromedan Invaders |
| Omega Octant |
| Small Magellanic Cloud |
| Xorkaelian Empire |
| Technology |
| Ship Class Types |
| Capital Weapons |
| History |
| Early Years |
| General War |
The Star Fleet Universe (SFU) is the variant of the Star Trek fictional universe detailed in the series of games (board-, card-, and role-playing) from Amarillo Design Bureau Inc. and used as reference for the Star Fleet Command series of computer games. Its source material stems from the original and animated series of Star Trek as well as from other "fan" sources, such as The Star Trek Star Fleet Technical Manual. In addition, it also includes a substantial number of new races and technologies, such as the Hydran Kingdom, the Interstellar Concordium and the Andromedans.
Games set in this universe include the tactical board wargames Star Fleet Battles, and Federation Commander; the strategic wargame Federation and Empire; the card game Star Fleet Battle Force; the role-playing game Prime Directive in editions for the GURPS and D20 game systems, as well as the future General War strategic game system. Also, ADB produces Captain's Log, a non-periodical journal published roughly semi-annually with additional SFU background material, starship information and reports from various game events and tournaments.
The Star Fleet Command games draw on this universe considerably, yet maintain a number of elements not found in the original Star Fleet Universe, such as movie-era ships and the Meskeen race for the ISC.
Contents |
[edit] Nature of the Galaxy
In the Star Fleet Universe, the Milky Way Galaxy is divided up into 24 sectors, each named for the letters of the Greek alphabet. Each sector extends from the galactic rim, and inwards to where star density and radiation problems cause ion storms, precluding travel. There are five 'void' sectors (Epsilon, Iota, Pi, Upsilon and Omega), where star and planet density is low, and tend to generate large ion storms and radiation clouds, restricting travel from one set of sectors to another. This leads to the sectors in between to be grouped together in (generally) sets of three, termed 'octants', as three sectors are one eighth of the rim of the galaxy, and which are sometimes inaccurately referred to as 'sectors' themselves.
The Storm Zone is unoccupied, as even bases cannot exist there due to the severity of the storms, and ships cannot penetrate the Radiation Zone. The Core of the galaxy has never been explored.
The five areas into which the Voids separate the inhabitable portions of the galaxy are the Alpha Octant, the Sargasso Octant, the Xorkaelian Empire, the Sigma Octant, and the Omega Octant.
[edit] Alpha Octant
The Alpha Octant is the primary setting of the Star Fleet Universe, being home to the United Federation of Planets, the Klingon Empire and all the other familiar races from other Star Trek continuities. It extends form the Alpha Sector to the Delta Sector, but only Alpha, Beta and Gamma have been extensively explored by the major powers of the region.
[edit] Omega Octant
The Omega Octant runs from the Void in the Omega Sector through to the Phi Sector, and is detailed in a series of Star Fleet Battles modules. However, Phi Sector is mostly the home of the Zosman Mauraders (and possibly the Echarri, who are noted in Module Omega 3 as emerging near Branthodon space in Y201, having fled an Andromedan assault of their home space) who have not yet been published in any product.
[edit] Other Milky Way Factions and Octants
[edit] The Jindarians
The Jindarians have been in space for longer than Homo sapiens have been on Earth. They use hollow asteroids for their ships and travel in unrelated caravans. They care little about borders, governments, and wars and just travel from system to system, mining asteroid belts. They push aside any competition using their warp augmented railguns to fire thousands of cubic meters of gravel and rock at opponent vessels. They are known to be found throughout the Alpha and Omega Octants (controlling a small Freehold in the latter), with two caravans extant in the SMC.
[edit] The Xorkaelian Empire
The Xorkaelians control six Sectors, from Kappa to Omicron on the far side of the galaxy from the Alpha Octant. It is known that they have sent occasional raids to the Alpha Octant for some time, and invaded the Alpha races sometime after the Andromedan War, but nothing has been published about these events at the time of writing. Their ships are reported to have a modular design, but little else of this race has been revealed.
[edit] Sargasso Storm Octant
The Sargasso Octant contains Zeta, Eta, and Theta Sectors. It has not been covered by any product but is known to experience periods of truly massive ion storms that make interstellar travel impossible for decades at a time throughout the octant. It is believed to be home to some 20 races who live in protected enclaves and come out between storms to claim available resources.
[edit] Sigma Octant
The Sigma Octant contains Tau, Sigma and Rho Sectors. It has not been covered by any product at this time.
[edit] Other Galaxies
[edit] Andromeda Galaxy
So far, only one race has been revealed as originating from M31, but it has made quite an impact on the Star Fleet Universe...
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- The Andromedan Invaders
- The Andromedans (who were backtracked to a galaxy visible in the Andromeda constellation from Earth) were first contacted in the Alpha Octant in Y166 - though they had already made their presence felt in the Lesser Magellanic Cloud - but in Y188 they launched an all out attack on the Milky Way. They utilise technology unlike any used by known Galactic or Magellanic races, such as Power Absorbers instead of shields, which allow them to use incoming attacks to help power their ships, as well as the devastating Tractor-Repulsor Beam, which can rip enemy vessels apart.
[edit] Small Magellanic Cloud
Before the Andromedans invaded the Milky Way Galaxy, they conquered the Small Magellanic Cloud satellite galaxy, as an advanced base of operations. The races there had a long history of interencine conflict, but when the Invaders arrived they swore to set aside their own wars in a desperate bid for survival.
[edit] M81 Galaxy
The original location of the Tholian Will was M81, a galaxy outside the Local Group. Before the Seltorian revolt, it was controlled completely by the Tholians. In addition, this galaxy was once home to the Bolosco, later found in the Omega Octant.
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- The Seltorian Tribunal
- After their successful revolt, the Seltorians kept the same basic political structure as the Tholian Will in place, just with themselves in charge. Fearful of an eventual Tholian return, they have sent out large nest ships as mobile bases of operation against any remnants of the Tholians they locate. It is unknown just how many expeditions were sent out, but it is known that one did go to the Andromeda Galaxy (and presumably did not fare well), as well as to the Milky Way.
[edit] The Iridani Cluster
Adjacent to the Omega Octant of the Milky Way Galaxy, the Iridani Cluster is home to one rather advanturous space-faring race...
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- The Iridani Questers
- Otter-like party goers, the Iridani frequently travel to neighbouring galaxies, such as the Milky Way (most notably among the Omega races) and the Small Magellanic Cloud, in single ships (or sometimes in squadrons) performing "Knightly" quests. Their Cluster was conquered by the Andromedans in the Y190s, but there were so many Iridani in the Milky Way that their fleet was able to band together for the greatest Quest of all: the liberation of their home worlds.
[edit] Triangulum Galaxy
Module E2 is a playtest pack for Star Fleet Battles that details the natives of the nearby (in galactic terms) Triangulum Galaxy.
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- The Arachnid Worlds of Union
- The Arachnids are hive-minded parasites who took over other species and formed them into the Worlds of Unions.
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- The Hellgardian Protectorate
- Strangers from another dimension, the Helgardians gave up trying to get home after 300 years and began forging a new Empire. Long-lived and slow to adopt new ways, they never dreamed that the warp engines they traded away could be reverse-engineered so quickly.
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- The Mallaran Empire
- The Mallarans climbed into space on Helgardian warp engines and carved out their own niche in the galaxy.
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- The Imperium
- This is the largest territory of the Triangulum Galaxy and includes the Ninev Commercial Guild, Virax, Atlar, Edurian Theocracy, Darquay and Joquam.
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- The Demony Alliance
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- The Human Republic
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- The Star League
- This territory includes the Gorthang and Quegan Matriarchy.
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- The Yvrin
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- The Azary
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- The Xyll
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- The Sunfire Khanate
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- Unicorp
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- The Wega'an
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- The Khartax Free Zone
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- The Valorean Coalition
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- The Confederation
- This territory includes the Ussite Pack, Loth Pact and O.U.T.
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- The Frigian Kingdom
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- Tragg's Realm
- This is the remnants of the Aloola, an empire devastated by the Arachnids.
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- The Atrean Directorate
[edit] History
Official Star Fleet Universe chronology uses an Earth-based calendar (June, August, 365 days, etc.), with dates given in "Y-years". These are written as (for instance) Y168, or August Y168, and are dated to the year Earth first made contact with the Vulcans. A direct conversion to familiar Anno Domini dating is (purposefully) not given, however the Federation and Empire rules state that Y0 is should be somewhere between AD 2020 and AD 2090, while the Federation Commander rules arbitrarily set it as AD 2400 and consistently use 'AD' dates derived from that rather than use 'Y-year' nomenclature. In both cases, it is stated that the actual date cannot be precisely known.
As this chronology was created completely separately of anything done for Star Trek after the Original Series (which at the time also avoided any hard date for when it happened), it cannot (and should not) be reconciled directly with current Star Trek canon. As an example of the incompatibilities arising from the separate evolution of the two visions of Star Trek history, the SFU defines the "five year mission" of the original Star Trek series as being from Y155 to Y160, which by Paramount's chronology would put Y0 at AD 2108; while if one accepts the definition of Y0, it should be the year of the movie Star Trek: First Contact, AD 2063.
The timeline for the Star Fleet Universe in the Alpha Octant is commonly broken into several eras:
The Non-Tactical Warp Era, Y4 to Y67,
The Early Years, Y67 to Y135,
the Middle Years, Y120 to Y160,
the Four Powers War, from Y158 to Y162,
the General War, from Y168 to Y185,
the ISC War of Pacification, from Y186 to Y188,
the Andromedan invasion, from Y188 to Y202,
and the as-yet unpublished Trade Wars and Xorkaelian War era, from Y205-Y225 (the War reputedly begins in Y210).
[edit] Further reading
[edit] References
- GURPS Prime Directive, 4th Edition.
- The Milky Way Galaxy, Captain's Log #27, (ADB, 2003)
