The Cosmography of the Human Dominion
The Human Dominion can be imagined as a misshapen sphere with the Sol system at its center. During the great expansion, humanity was spreading out randomly in all directions from Sol, colonizing the first fitting planet on their way. Many planets colonized in such fashion weren't even properly surveyed; because of this, many human settlements were founded on planets where no sane man would willingly choose to serve as a home for his children. Numerous colony transports simply vanished (such occurrences being especially common before the beacon probes were made into a standard procedure), with their fates unknown.
Within the Dominion, there are still tales of the Star Tulip, a Netherlands-backed colony ship that had launched from Old Earth over two thousand years ago. Protectorate archives keep no less than a hundred accounts of people encountering this vessel; some even claim to have boarded it personally, although their reports are not to be trusted due to the fact that all known "boarders" returned unhinged from their presumed visit to the ghost ship.
You can probably guess what moniker does this apparition have among the Dominion spacers.
The coordinate system accepted within the Dominion uses the Sun as the starting point. Each point within the Dominion can have its position expressed via three numbers: galactic equator angle, galactic equator elevation angle, and distance to the Sun in parsecs.
The Dominion, when imagined as a sphere, has a radius of approximately 350 parsecs (about 1000-1200 lightyears). Of course, not every planetary system within this sphere is inhabited - there are vast unsettled spaces within. Many stars don't have any planets orbiting them (such as Vega); planets that orbit dim red dwarf stars (Proxima Centauri, Barnard's Star) are mere clumps of dirty ice, cold as space itself. There might be unregistered settlements as well, the ones forgotten over the thousands of years that passed since the original beacon malfunctions. It's quite possible that people of tens of planets have long forgotten that there might be other humans living high in the skies.
The Polaris Empire lies outside of the sphere, about 20 parsecs away from its outer border. The original imperial worlds belong to a tight cluster of systems orbiting Sol-like stars, no more than one parsec away from each other. As a result of the three Waves of Invasion, a wide Empire-occupied zone has formed in the Dominion; the Empire planet closest to the Sun is about 200 parsecs (approximately 650 lightyears) away from it.
Historically, most of the Elder Planets of the Protectorate (the Golden Hundred) are on the opposite side of the galaxy, but there are exceptions. Such is the world of Blood, which is now bordering the Empire and acts as a Protectorate outpost. The Empire has tried to conquer Blood over thirty times - with no success; the fact is that Blood is also a center of worship, of the cult of Khorai the war-god, one of the few cults popular all over the Dominion. Numerous followers of that Khorai godling go to Blood in order to protect it from the "blasphemers". Previously a relatively minor member of the Trade Protectorate Treaty, Blood has rose in importance greatly. It's no wonder that it now also houses the main forces of the Protectorate Starfleet.
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