Fate of the Old Republic
The Galaxy is a collection of stars that a subdivided into various astrographic regions, hundreds of sectors, and countless inhabited and uninhabited star systems. It is centered around a massive black hole called Galactic Center that generates the gravitational force that draws the stars together. The galaxy is circa 120,000 light years across, or 37,000 parsecs (a parsec is 3.258 light years), and approximately 13 billion years old.
The galaxy is a spiral galaxy with five, prominent arms at its exterior fringes, of which the Tingel Arm near the Corporate Sector has seen the most documented settlement and exploration. The main galactic disk is orbited by seven distinct dwarf galaxies- numerically designated Aurek through Grek- which are inaccessible by current, known navigational means, although exploration of some of these has been conducted in the past.
Due to countless hyperspace anomalies known as “the tangle,” stretching across the galaxy west of Galactic Center and the fringes of the defined astrographic regions, a vast portion of space known as the Unknown Regions is thus far largely unexplored. With this virtual border stretching almost perfectly just west of the galaxy’s prime meridian, it has been speculated that the hyperspace disturbance is a deliberate construct by ancient galactic powers, rather than a natural phenomenon.
The Deep Core is the center of the galaxy and where the black hole is located. Also known as the Deep Galactic Core, it is full of unusual worlds, antimatter and some of the galaxy’s oldest stars. Some stars are actually very close, some being near a half of a light year away from another which causes collisions and strange orbits. Due to these strange orbits and pulls, hyperspace travel is difficult at best.
The Core region comes nearly full circle around the Deep Core and is divided into three traditional regional territories known as the Negs, the Southern Core, and the Arrowhead (traditionally being considered an extension of the Slice into the Core.) It was gradually settled south and westwards over a period of 25,000 years, with a handful of sectors still remaining partially unexplored.
The region houses some of some of the most prestigious, well-developed, well-known, and heavily populated planets in the galaxy. The Galactic Republic and subsequently all galaxy-wide governments were born in the Core Worlds and spread out over the galaxy. Established as a nexus of political power early in the days of the Galactic Republic, Coruscant is considered by most to be the capital system of the galaxy and the key to holding legitimacy as galactic government. The system is the home of the Galactic Senate, a symbol of galactic governance.
Historically, Coruscant’s status as the center of civilization was challenged on numerous occasions by neighboring Alsakan, thrusting the galaxy into a series of lengthy wars known as the Alsakan Conflicts, with both systems and their subordinate territories battling for dominance and control of newly explored areas of space and the major hyperlanes that converge in the Core Worlds.
The Colonies is the region of the galaxy between the Core Worlds and the Inner Rim. It was among the first areas outside the Core to be colonized, with even some Pre-Republic era settlement conducted by Humans and other species, particularly in to the regional territory that later became known as the Slice.
Settlement was made easier by the proximity of several major hyperspace routes, such as the Perlemian Trade Route, Hydian Way, and Corellian Run. These charted routes also helped Coruscant maintain its hold on the systems there while the Galactic Republic was in its infancy. The areas between the Hydian Way and Corellian Run were the first to be settled, with further southern and western expansion continuing across the centuries as the hyperlanes were extended further rimwards from the Core.
Due to their proximity to the Core, worlds of the Colonies are typically heavily populated, cultured, and industrialized. Underlining the latter point, the region was the birthplace of the Trade Federation, with Neimodia located almost perfectly centered in the area where the Slice intersects the Colonies. Settled millennia after the rest of the region, sectors south-west of the Hydian Way in the Colonies are often referred to as being part of the Southern Core. Likewise, the sectors of the Colonies north-west of the Core, between the Perlemian Trade Route and Wild Space, are traditionally defined as being part of the Northern Dependencies and the Negs.
The Inner Rim is a region of the galaxy between the Colonies and the Expansion Region. A large portion of this territory was settled during the early years of the Galactic Republic. As such, it was originally referred to simply as “the Rim,” as it was expected to be the farthest extent of the known galaxy for centuries. However, the “Expanded Rim” (later renamed the Expansion Region) was opened within a hundred years of the Inner Rim as explorers continued to chart extensions of several major hyperlanes outwards from the Core.
The Expansion Region was an experiment in corporate-controlled worlds, with powerful corporations exploiting and profiting heavily from the planets for their Raw Materials. Inhabitants were oppressed while the corporations stripped entire stellar systems of all their resources. Eventually civil unrest spread from system to system. The Galactic Republic eventually took control of the system due to mounting pressure from its denizens by limiting or evicting corporate interests. Expansion Region worlds continued to be producers of raw materials and ores.
With fewer natural resources (and therefore a smaller population) than many neighboring regions, the Mid Rim is a territory where residents have worked hard for everything they have. Several planets have built up impressive economies, and pirate raiders often hide in the relatively unexplored spaces far from major trade routes.
Hutt Space was an autonomous region of the galaxy on the border between the Mid Rim and the Outer Rim Territories, near the entrance to Wild Space. It encompassed the Si’Klaata Cluster, and bordered on the Tion Hegemony. Hutt Space was named for the Hutt species, who dominated the region. Differing accounts attributed different numbers of planets in Hutt Space, but reasonable estimates range from a few hundred to a thousand inhabited worlds.
Outer Fringe Territories
The Outer Rim Territories is the last widely settled expanse before Wild Space and the Unknown Regions. It was strewn with obscure worlds, and rugged, primitive frontier planets.
• Corporate Sector
The Corporate Sector or “CorpSec” is an independent sector created in order to resolve differences between Galactic Republic lawmakers and the heads of many of the galaxy’s largest corporations. It is located in the Outer Rim Territories, at the front end of the Tingel Arm region.
Wild Space is the frontier of galactic society, separating the known parts of the galaxy from the Unknown Regions. The difference between the former and the latter was that some of Wild Space has been explored, though not extensively, while the Unknown Regions remained mysterious.
The term “Unknown Regions” most commonly refers to the large, unexplored region. The Unknown Regions comprises of only a few billion stars, out of a galactic total of 400 billion. For reasons yet to be demonstrated there is a lack of reliable hyperspace routes through the region. The “Unknown Regions” designation includes uncharted areas in dense nebulae, globular clusters, and the galactic halo. Past the region’s outer edge, is the hyperspace disturbance beyond the edge of the galaxy.