I know there's no larger map (yet) of the galaxy. I don't have any of the older pathfinder sources either, so I was wondering if we know the shape of the galaxy and where the PW system lies in it?
I assume its a spiral galaxy like ours, and since Golarion and the system as a whole is an analogue to our own solar system, it stands to reason that it lives on the outer fringes of one of the arms of the galaxy. But if there's a reference for this anywhere, I'd be interested to know.
None that I've heard of. I think they leave this sort of thing open for expansion later or adaptation by individual GMs
No, and drift travel (probably deliberately) makes it a moot point.
Drift doesn't care about the distance between you and your destination. It only cares about the number/size of drift beacons. So 10,000 light years? Back to absolom station is 1d6 days. 1 light year? Back to absolom station is ..1d6 days.
I think I recall that most of near space is supposed to be near the core of the galaxy, with most of the vast being the outer arms. So Golarion is likely nearer the core than Earth is.
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I think I recall that most of near space is supposed to be near the core of the galaxy, with most of the vast being the outer arms. So Golarion is likely nearer the core than Earth is.
Do we even know if Earth and Golarion are/were both in the Milky Way galaxy? We only know for certain from Rasputin Must Die! is that they're in the same Material Plane, the Pact Worlds could be in the Andromeda Galaxy for all we know!
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I think I recall that most of near space is supposed to be near the core of the galaxy, with most of the vast being the outer arms. So Golarion is likely nearer the core than Earth is.Do we even know if Earth and Golarion are/were both in the Milky Way galaxy? We only know for certain from Rasputin Must Die! is that they're in the same Material Plane, the Pact Worlds could be in the Andromeda Galaxy for all we know!I believe we know they're not in the same galaxy. Though I'm not sure if that's from published material or comments here.
James Jacobs has said as much, it might have also been stated in Reign of Winter.
Here is a map of what is known about the Galaxy. You can place the Pact Worlds where you think they should be.
Here is a map of what is known about the Galaxy. You can place the Pact Worlds where you think they should be.
The Pact Worlds aren't in the Milky Way.
I think it's safe to say that we won't get much of a "galaxy map" as it goes against Paizo's "You make it up yourself policy". I mean, as far as I know we only have one full map of Golarion beyond the Inner Sea.
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What IS to the right of taldor anyway?
Here is a map of what is known about the Galaxy. You can place the Pact Worlds where you think they should be.The Pact Worlds aren't in the Milky Way.
True -- But the easiest default assumption is to assume that Golarion is just like Earth unless we are given direct information to the contrary. Thus, its location in its own galaxy should be not too far off from where Earth would be in the Milky Way.
Here is a map of what is known about the Galaxy. You can place the Pact Worlds where you think they should be.The Pact Worlds aren't in the Milky Way.True -- But the easiest default assumption is to assume that Golarion is just like Earth unless we are given direct information to the contrary. Thus, its location in its own galaxy should be not too far off from where Earth would be in the Milky Way.
So Intergalactic travel via magic is a possible thing? I thought that Paizo said Intergalactic travel is impossible by technological means and magic.
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Here is a map of what is known about the Galaxy. You can place the Pact Worlds where you think they should be.The Pact Worlds aren't in the Milky Way.True -- But the easiest default assumption is to assume that Golarion is just like Earth unless we are given direct information to the contrary. Thus, its location in its own galaxy should be not too far off from where Earth would be in the Milky Way.
Outside of a given system, Drift tech divides the galaxy into two sectors: Near Space and the Vast. While Near Space worlds tend to be closer to the galactic center (and, incidentally, to the Pact Worlds) and the systems of the Vast tend to be farther out
The Pact Worlds are near the galactic center.
Here is a map of what is known about the Galaxy. You can place the Pact Worlds where you think they should be.The Pact Worlds aren't in the Milky Way.True -- But the easiest default assumption is to assume that Golarion is just like Earth unless we are given direct information to the contrary. Thus, its location in its own galaxy should be not too far off from where Earth would be in the Milky Way.
So Intergalactic travel via magic is a possible thing? I thought that Paizo said Intergalactic travel is impossible by technological means and magic.
It's possible with a particular magic artifact with the right key (Baba Yaga's hut) and with a tech drive invented only once (the Divinity drive).
Okay, so we do have that "direct information to the contrary". That is good to know.
And because the Starfinder setting is so magic heavy, we can ignore any scientific information that might suggest that habitable planets at the center of the galaxy might in fact be impossible.
On the other hand, having the Pact Worlds that close to the center of their galaxy would make sub-light interstellar travel less insane in the Starfinder setting than it is in our region of space. The kasatha, for example, might be from a solar system that is less than a light year from the Pact Worlds.
On the other hand, it seems unlikely that the Kasatha went anywhere but the nearest solar system with at least one inhabitable planet.
It's possible with a particular magic artifact with the right key (Baba Yaga's hut) and with a tech drive invented only once (the Divinity drive).
Time Travel is more efficient.
For what it's worth the concept of a "galactic habitable zone" has been proposed but is highly disputed. The absolute core of a galaxy probably doesn't have any stars with habitable planets because of the conditions there - lots and lots of black holes - but space is unfathomably huge, and there's still plenty of area that far enough away from that that could be called the center.
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The kasatha were going to a specific Promised Planet, not just the nearest habitable one. And if they'd waited a couple more years they'd have been able to use Drift technology to shorten their trip by centuries.
I smell a rat.
I would like to state that, unequivocally, and for the record, that neither the Cyrunian people, commonly known as Witchwyrds, nor their chosen representatives of the Tetrad Combine, knew of the eminent emergence of Drift travel when we convinced the Kasathan people to load their entire race into a tin can and blast off towards a conveniently out of the wayhabitable planet.
I would also like to state that the Tetrad Combine specifically does not advertise any access to temporal manipulation devices, commonly known as "time machines."
If they were using sublight drives and took 300 years then the Kasatha homeworld has to be less than 300 light years from the Pact Worlds by definition. Probably a lot less.
Our galaxy is about 100 000 light years in diameter by comparison.
If they were using sublight drives and took 300 years then the Kasatha homeworld has to be less than 300 light years from the Pact Worlds by definition. Probably a lot less.
Our galaxy is about 100 000 light years in diameter by comparison.
Sublight simply means less than the speed of light -- so a sublight drive with a maximum speed of 1/300 the speed of light would indeed take 300 years to travel a single light-year.
And, if any maps of the Idari exist, it would be easy to prove that its travel speed was relatively low. How much space does the fuel tank take up? If the engines are supposed to be firing for the entire 300 years, then the Idari would have a fuel tank that is several times as big as the living area on that ship.
Not all sublight drives require conventional fuel. The Idari doesn't appear to have light sails but it could in theory use a kugelblitz engine, for instance.
It all depends on exactly how this particular sublight drive works. A reaction drive powered by antimatter could, if it has enough fuel, accelerate at 1 G to the halfway point and then decelerate at the same rate -- and that is as fast as would be possible in the real universe.
Has any Starfinder source given any sort of speed estimates for interstellar sub-light craft?
Has any Starfinder source given any sort of speed estimates for interstellar sub-light craft?
You should be able to approximate it by comparing the max travel time for insystem (non-drift) travel to the max distance between outer planets on opposite sides of the sun in our own solar system.
Not really, since that's all handwavium. And top interstellar speeds could be far faster, since you've got a much longer acceleration time - assuming you're got sufficient power/reaction mass/whatever your drive uses.You should be able to approximate it by comparing the max travel time for insystem (non-drift) travel to the max distance between outer planets on opposite sides of the sun in our own solar system.
Has any Starfinder source given any sort of speed estimates for interstellar sub-light craft?
Yes really. I'm not suggesting you're solving for the intrasystem velocity, you're solving for the constant acceleration that accomplishes that travel time, then applying it to longer distances.
No, and drift travel (probably deliberately) makes it a moot point.
Drift doesn't care about the distance between you and your destination. It only cares about the number/size of drift beacons. So 10,000 light years? Back to absolom station is 1d6 days. 1 light year? Back to absolom station is ..1d6 days.
Yup with the drift it largely does not matter where it is located because effectively it is right next door to everywhere due to the way absalom station works.
The side effect of that makes me wonder how long they can defend the pact worlds. It is just about the easiest place in the universe for any drift capable opponent to stage an attack at.
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No, and drift travel (probably deliberately) makes it a moot point.
Drift doesn't care about the distance between you and your destination. It only cares about the number/size of drift beacons. So 10,000 light years? Back to absolom station is 1d6 days. 1 light year? Back to absolom station is ..1d6 days.
Yup with the drift it largely does not matter where it is located because effectively it is right next door to everywhere due to the way absalom station works.
The side effect of that makes me wonder how long they can defend the pact worlds. It is just about the easiest place in the universe for any drift capable opponent to stage an attack at.
it's also the easiest place to bring in reinforcements. ;-)
The Galaxy could be like the Pegasus Galaxy in "Stargate: Atlantis." That is, the Galaxy could be relatively small. Maybe its Fifty thousand light years across, or it could be a Large Magellanic Cloud.
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The side effect of that makes me wonder how long they can defend the pact worlds. It is just about the easiest place in the universe for any drift capable opponent to stage an attack at.
The corpse fleet found out the hard way that attacking a space station that can jumper cable its defense systems to a god rock of literally mythic power levels ranks up there with saying "i'll be right back" in a horror movie.
The corpse fleet found out the hard way that attacking a space station that can jumper cable its defense systems to a god rock of literally mythic power levels ranks up there with saying "i'll be right back" in a horror movie.
The side effect of that makes me wonder how long they can defend the pact worlds. It is just about the easiest place in the universe for any drift capable opponent to stage an attack at.
On top of this, if you conquer the pact worlds you now have, what? A resource rich system at the cost of a crap ton of military assets, and a center of trade easily accessed by anyone in the galaxy... that you already probably had full access to. I'd bet that most big empires out there looked at Absalom station and said: "eh, not worth it, we get the same benefits by being a little bit nice".
And I don't think Absolom station is all that powerful. There certainly seems to be no problem in performing hostile actions around it in Dead Suns and the Magefire Assault didn't fail because the station was too strong.
I'm pretty sure that's exactly why it failed, to say nothing of the massive fleet defending it at all times.
In general, while Absalom Station has been invaded and blockaded a lot in it's three hundred post gap years, the fact that it's still around speaks a lot to the quality of defense that the Pact Worlds and Absalom are capable of raising. As others have mentioned, while the station itself only has a few hundred million residents, it's "suburbs" include several thousand ships, most being incredibly well armed. The Armada, is no joke. While most of those in the Armada will likely flee, the fact that the Station has it's own defense forces as well as a readily available volunteer navy.
There is one truly wide spread galactic power who's reach and influence dwarfs that of the Pact Worlds, the Veskarium, and the Azlanti.
The Dominion of the Black.
And the Pact Worlds has something particularly valuable to them; Aucturn.
So that's gonna be fun.