Connected Space: thousands of inhabited star systems linked together by a vast network of artificial wormholes, works of such mighty power that many worship their Builders as gods. For countless generations, the people of Connected Space have lived under the aegis of the Symphonate, whose leaders claim to speak for the Builders, enforcing their technological strictures on diverse cultures and species who were otherwise mostly left to their own devices. Now, though, that peace has shattered: proclaiming that the Builders are dead, a rebel faction has thrown of the yoke of the Symphonate, breaking the old order's monopoly on antimatter and challenging its restrictions on research and development. Entities throughout Connected Space confront the possibility of large-scale social upheaval for the first time in living memory...
This setting is intended as a spiritual prequel to Beyond the Twelve Worlds, and an attempt to make a coherent hard sci-fi Space Opera that can withstand a fairly high degree of scrutiny while also retaining the aspects that make space opera settings fun.
Key Topical Index
The major polities: the CS/Symphonate and its upstart rival, the CS/League, and their CS/Civil War.
The CS/Pale of technological developed enforced by the sacerdotal state, and the CS/Pax Symphonica that has prevailed until the beginning of the recent war.
The technology of CS/Stardrives and the CS/Outer Priesthood who are in charge of them.
The CS/Wormhole Network and its CS/Builders, their CS/Construction Ships, which they also have sometimes used for the CS/Punishment of transgressors.
The various CS/Sophont Species, of which CS/Humans and CS/Biran are examples, and the forms of CS/Artificial Life and CS/Synthetic Intelligences known to exist.
The CS/Economics of Interstellar Trade and Travel, and the CS/Foundations of Interstellar Political Power prevailing at the end of the Pax.