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As someone noted there is more than a small number of areas in the Starmap in Ports of Calls that are not shown/listed on the map!!
But maybe we can puzzle them out and pin/pen them in from all our experience, and maybe even a starfinder team member might help us out as well??!! (pretty please)
Running games tonight but maybe start with a list of the places we would like to have on the map that is'nt there might be a good start!!
Thanks
Tom
I'll be updating my virtual map in Roll20 myself as we hopefully get this going :)
Well, I did have a question... why was the a section of space marked out as Swarmspace? Doesn't the swarm use drift drives (which is why they were battling both the Vesk and Pact Systems? If so, haven't they expanded on what would seem to be an otherwise random way, not clustered in a physical vicinity of one another?
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The Scoured Stars is an existing anchor point connected to several other systems in the Vast.
Izalraan (planet). Known as Icefront in the Pact Worlds, this is the adopted home world of the izalguuns. The Pact Worlds just uses an astrometric survey code for the star itself, as far as we know. Or maybe, by the time of Ports of Call, the izalruuns on Icefront have publicly revealed themselves, now that their ties to the Scoured Stars are well known.
Kukanou (star system). Kukanou-2b, a moon orbiting a gas giant in the system, was briefly the adopted home of the mentrasi.
Rax (planet). Adopted home planet of the jinsuls. The system's unnamed star is near a vast nebula that periodically spits out cosmic horrors. That could make Rax (or at least that nearby nebula) a candidate for sitting within Pharasma's Coil.
Saaruq-Ruaan (star system). This binary star system is the adopted home of the Kreiholm Freehold, the fourth of the known Scoured Stars civilizations.
Now then. Keep in mind that the upcoming hardback could change any of this, but for now...
The adventures obviously provide no way of telling where any of these systems lie within the galaxy. And the civilizations used different (pre-Drift) interstellar drives to reach their new homes, so that doesn't fill in any details either.
But! After these civilizations abandoned the Scoured Stars, the system's deity sent an artifact to each system. These artifacts were functionally identical: all used the same unknown, pre-Drift means of interstellar travel, but--and this bit is key--they reached their destinations at vastly different times. As in, separated by thousands of years. Presumably, since the artifacts were all traveling at the same speed, the time it took to reach their destinations can tell us something about the relative distance.
So. The civilizations all fled the Scoured Stars at the same time (on a cosmic timetable), thousands of years ago, before the Gap.
The first known relic reached its destination--Kukanou-2b--only about 300 Pact Standard years after the mentrasi reached it. And their interstellar drives were based on teleportation. So, we can creatively presume that Kukanou-2b is, relatively speaking, quite close to the Scoured Stars. Certainly the closest of the known adopted home worlds by far. It's also the first the Starfinder Society found, but that was by happenstance, and the Society didn't know what they'd found until years later.
We don't know when the Kreiholm Freehold reached the Saaruq-Ruaan system, but it seems to have been post-Gap. So now we're talking thousands of years later. We have no idea when their relic arrived. So let's just pencil the Saaruq-Ruaan system as being somewhere in the middle when it comes to the distance most of the adopted home worlds end up at.
Again, we don't know when the jinsuls reached Rax, but their relic definitely arrive post-Gap, and may have only been a few generations ago.
And then lastly, we have Izalraan. The izalguuns appear to have arrived long ago, possibly pre- or mid-Gap, though we don't have details. But we know very specifically that their relic arrived within living memory - only about one generation ago, so probably right around the turn of the century. When the Starfinder Society started actively trying to locate these worlds, Icefront was the first they found, suggesting that it could be the closest to the Pact Worlds (though still in the Vast).
So, to sum up, we don't know the positions of any of these worlds. But if we were to trace straight lines from the Scoured Stars to each of the four:
1. The line to the Kukanou system would be much shorter than the other three. And if we want to get creative, placing Kukanou somewhere in Pharasma's Coil, somewhere between Lapicor and Daimalko can make some sense.
2. The line to the Saaruq-Ruuan system is much longer.
3. The line to Rax is probably longer still, but not quite as long as the line to Icefront.
Well, I did have a question... why was the a section of space marked out as Swarmspace? Doesn't the swarm use drift drives (which is why they were battling both the Vesk and Pact Systems? If so, haven't they expanded on what would seem to be an otherwise random way, not clustered in a physical vicinity of one another?
Accara IV (shakalta home world), Arquand, Hadrogess (hadrogaan home world): Not on the map, but located somewhere within the Spirit Scar (Pharasma's Coil).
Riven Shroud: "In a remote portion of a galactic arm," so possibly out near the edge of the galaxy.
Szandite Collective: We don't know other than "deep in a remote corner of Near Space," with the phenomena that occurred there thousands of years ago, these four systems could be a region of space that the Spirit Scar affected prior to the Gap.
Nodethe (AP #12): Colonized by the Golarion systen via slower-than-light arkships during the Gap. In the Vast, but presumably closer to Golarion than Marixah or Gideron.
Suskillon (Attack of the Swarm): Somewhere in the Vast near the edge of Swarm Space.
Stopgap (AP #26): "Much farther from the Pact Worlds than most Near Space locations."
Vohxa (AP #34) and Emperor's Graveyard (AP #39): Potentially in the vicinity of Gideron Authority space.
Ergodia (AP #46): Same system as Preluria.
Thanks John, great stuff, any clue where the Weydana
system might be in Horizons of the Vast?
Mapping out as best I can for all of the AP's so far, and man we need more adventures outside of the Pact worlds, thats for sure!!
The Scoured Stars will help, and maybe the Mech AP will as well?? One can hope anyways!!
Knowing where all the different areas is such a key thing for being a GM and getting that player buy in as well, a living, breathing one!!
Compared to' don't worry to much where you are, here is the name of the place, thats all you need to know, not super engaging, for new players or old vets even!! Ha Ha
Tom
Managing Creative Director (Starfinder)
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HA! I knew this would happen... ideally I wanted to get a TON of locations on this map, but we just didn't have time and the more we put some of the AP locations down, the more it would cause greater canon traps for us in the future.
Swarm Space is clustered mostly because of Pre-Drift travel, as well as the Swarm's methodical advancement. It's also there to provide a bit of "HERE BE DRAGONS" danger zone to the setting.
Some of these locations we have #PLANS for, but they're still in the works and I don't want to spoil anything for. :)
Thanks Thursty, I am sure more than a few of us thought it might be the case, new unknown stuff coming up in still known but unmapped still places.
Hoping as the new things come out you can officially say, "stick an area pin "HERE" on your PoC map"
Tom
Thanks John, great stuff, any clue where the Weydana
system might be in Horizons of the Vast?
Nothing solid, but on a creative level, the data points that the Pact Worlds and Veskarium are settling the system in a joint venture makes me want to place it somewhere between them. But more specifically...
Add it all together and I want to put Weydana near the galactic core, maybe somewhere in the triangle formed by Gideron Prime, Kehtaria, and Pholskar.
Popped into my head: Kasath. The Idari reached the Pact Worlds using slower-than-light travel, so the former is potentially fairly close to the latter. But that depends on when you think the Idari launched. Since we know the history of its launch, it kinda has to have been pre-Gap or in that very slim window between the end of the Gap and the Signal. (I, personally, go with the latter.)
From various Starfinder Society scenarios:
Arniselle (1-08, 2-18) and Wealdriad (1-01): Here's a thin thread to hang from; Arniselle is close enough to Wealdriad that its star is visible to the naked eye in Wealdriad's night sky.
Elborth (4-11): Located in "the far reaches of the Vast," which I want to say implies placing it toward the galactic rim.
Enereth-7 (2-03): "Far away from the Pact Worlds" and "deep" in the Vast. I'd want to place it near the galactic rim, maybe somewhere down in that region between Ravel Station and the Scoured Stars.
The Mentras system (3-13): Circling back on a post above, I just noticed that Kukanou-2b is in this system (i.e. the star is named Mentras, not Kukanou).
(ETA: Circling back around again, right after hitting Submit Post I had a refrigerator logic moment and realized that the star probably was called Kukanou by Pact Worlds surveyors, but was then renamed to Mentras after the mentrasi civilization was discovered, if only as a memorial gesture.)
Maelstrom's Maw (1-37): On the edge of Gideron space, bordering the Marixah Republic, so somewhere between those two points.
Sansorgis (in the Acalata system) (1-24): In Marixah Republic space (likely between Marixah and Gideron Prime, but closer to the former).
Talosin-3 (1-32): Unknown, but potentially within the Spirit Scar.
Wymdd (1-32): A pre-Gap colony of Embroi, so potentially fairly close by.
Zrulik-3 (3-09): Somewhere on the "remote outskirts of Near Space." Which doesn't mean much, but makes me want to place it sorta "mid-ring" in the galaxy, about as far from the galactic core as, say, Preluria, in whatever direction. Possibly in the general vicinity of the Veskarium.
[b]Elborth (4-11): Located in "the far reaches of the Vast," which I want to say implies placing it toward the galactic rim.
Yeah, it's hard to know what they mean when they write things like this. The vast majority of the galaxy seems to be the Vast, with Near Space a tiny fraction that is growing at some uknown rate. There's more Near Space closer to the core and less at the fringes, but there's clups of it everywhere. Given that so much is Vast and it has a (not huge) tendency away from the core, I guess "far reaches" could be the galactic rim.
Yeah, I just take the attitude that "what they meant" doesn't really matter in favor of "what do I prefer it to mean."
Kinda wish they would have put more areas for those, "Vast" Near Space" and so on, I did'nt think pact worlds would be so small, but it is, GULP, anything could still be lurking out there!! Ha Ha Ha
Thanks John for the vast help.
Almost time for PAIZOCON, just an hour and a half away!!
Tom
Adding to the list: Peak of Evening (1-27), a lunar colony (on an unnamed moon, orbiting an unnamed planet in an unnamed system) is near Kazmurg's Absurdity. I knew I'd already heard that name somewhere before!