Setting

Geography

There are several transport networks in Heaven's Wake which form the basis of the geography of the game. Regions of space and individual systems are usually terms by which network they belong to, rather than any physical location in real space, as systems connected by a network may be on the other side of the galaxy from each other. Each network is made up of Interstellar T-Gates which allow transport across the galaxy.

The Reconnect Network

The Reconnect Network, known merely as 'The Reconnect' is a series of systems, several hundred in total. The systems are not physically congruous and systems next to each other in the network, may be many hundreds of light years apart in real space. The Reconnect is a densely populated network, most of the systems are inhabited and is it continually expanding at a rate of a new system every few months.

Some parts of the Reconnect are more peaceful than others, but wars involving more than a handful of systems are rare and most nations are too busy exploring and trading to wage large scale warfare against each other.

The Dark Roads

The Dark Roads are a separate Network of T-Gates to the Reconnect, various systems contain the T-Gates which allow access.

They are poorly understood sectors of space and fraught with dangers, natural, human or more esoteric. Some connections appear to be through some sort of mega-structure, it's dimensions are unknown, but spaceships can easily cross traverse it. Various routes have been mapped, some are even considered relatively safe and desperate traders or smugglers may use them to avoid attention or cut corners.

The High Roads

Unlike the Reconnect Network, a High Road Network T-Gate offers transport to any other T-Gate in it's Network, the systems that contain these profit from the economic and military benefits such fast and flexible transport allows, but also place themselves at risk from the porous nature of such connections.

The Megastructure

Somewhere in the universe is a megastructure of such proportion that it is estimated to be at least the size of a small star. It's location is unknown, as the T-Gates within it are fully enclosed from space. It is a diverse maze of internal structures, some barely able to fit a starship, others seemingly able to fit small moons. Atmospheres are varied, some areas contain breathable atmospheres while other areas are hard vacuum. Whether it was built by the posthumans is unknown, but artifacts of posthuman technology has been found within it.

Important Concepts

Moving from A to B

Intra-System Travel

Apex Technology

Apex technology is the pinnacle of post-human advancement, highly prized devices of technological complexity, they generally include technology that violates traditional physics, including teleportation technology, reactionless drives and causality violating devices.

T-Gate: A Transporter Gate consists of two hexagons of diamonoid joined by a single spur. There are two main types.

W-Gate: Linked in pairs, these generate wormholes which allow instantaneous travel regardless of distance. They are common enough that most major bodies in any inhabited star-system will have at least one.

I-Gate: They allow interstellar travel by deconstructing outbound matter, transmitting it as data through micro-wormholes and reconstructing inbound matter. Unlike W-Gates they are not linked in pairs and have have multiple destinations. Multiple users with different outbound destinations can use the gate simultaneously. It should be noted that I-Gates will counter any attempt to place static defences in their vicinity.

A-Gate: An Assembler gate is a hexagonal structure with an outer enclosure of diamondoid and a unknown internal makeup. The largest ones are several hundred meters across, whilst the smallest is as little as half a meter. When taken into a gravity well they will generally float above the surface either vertically or horizontally. Assembler gates were responsible for the construction of materials, from individuals to weapons of war. They have self-contained energy systems of an unknown design and are capable of operating without material input. Most known Assembler gates are heavily corrupted, producing half functioning devices or lacking complete libraries. Efforts to reverse this form a major component of posthuman research.

Datacrystals: Fortunately for humanity, posthumans stored much of their data on system’s compatible with inferior systems in the interests of simplifying trade. While the A and T-Gates themselves are unfathomably advanced, they have secondary storage devices known as datacrystals, easily read by most polities then and today. Finding datacrystals is an important pursuit.