Dyson Galaxy

The Dyson Galaxy (Formerly NGC 1003) is a nature preserve located 43.59 Mega lightyears from the Earth located in the Perseus Supercluster. The Galaxy is protected by a small security force to make sure the civilizations inside are not tampered with in any way. It was named after Freeman Dyson in 2044 CE.

The galaxy has become a large scale experiment, to see how history could have gone if FTL has never been developed. However, it was not intentionally set up this way. The galaxy was discovered to have a somewhat large human population in 47904. They had no access to FTL technology, making this a very unique place in the universe.

Due to the illegality of creating quadrillions of self-aware AI's to simulate something like this (because they are all terminated at the end of the experiment), this is the next best thing.

Locally, the galaxy is called many things, each language having it's own pronunciation. However, the words are usually all variations of the Loxan word "Taimu." With common pronunciations being "Daime," "Tain," and "Ramu." The languages are descended from General Human, making translation very easy for translation software.

All information below is gathered via remote observation as to not interfere with the civilizations in the galaxy.

General

The Galaxy has no self-aware species in it besides humans, although one species did manage to evolve 2.6 million years ago, before it destroyed itself.

Origin

In the Generations Catastrophe, a ship (most likely the The Golden Time or, less likely, The Soul Survivor) went wildly off course and ended up travelling all the way to the Dyson galaxy instead of the Large Magellanic Cloud. The crew was in stasis, so they only knew of the issue by the time the ship detected it was near to a star and woke up the crew.

Landing

Many stories are told throughout the galaxy of a "Platinum box" descending from heaven onto the planet Lox. The box released thousands of people onto the planet and then rested on the highest mountain. The stories vary greatly, but this is the most common origin story. Other stories describe ways to "move faster than time" ways to "twist reality" and ways to "move above it." Most people in the galaxy do not believe these stories, dismissing them as nonsense.

The ships were all designed to search for habitable planets or to terraform them before waking up the crew. The ship found a very Earth-like planet called Lox, and released the crew there. It is estimated that the landing took place sometime in 10034 CE.

Expansion

The original ship most likely sustained large amounts of damage during the landing. It is estimated that over 75% of the crew died during the landing. The remaining people were thrown back into the stone age. They remained in this state for over ten thousand years.

They finally got into space in about 20764. Lox only had a few asteroids as moons, making space travel slightly harder. Eventually, in about 20809, they landed on the nearest planet, Momonga. Expansion was very typical beyond that point, reaching the nearest star with probes in 20967. After this, however, everything became much different from a typical race. Faster than Light technology was never developed.

It took five years to go to the nearest star with the best technology. Laser Highways^[1] were developed between the nearest stars. Expansion was very slow. It was nearly impossible to keep a civilization with communication lag of 5 years. However, life extension technology mitigated this effect drastically.

Designation as a Nature Preserve

The CoB attempted to colonize the Dyson Galaxy in 47,904.They colonized 50 stars before realizing that the galaxy had other humans in it. A debate broke out about the ethics of taking a galaxy from these humans, whether it was right to give them FTL or let them develop on their own (many were enraged because aliens are usually just given the technology and annexed, so why would humans be any different?)

In the end, a septillionaire by the name of Mordecai Rigs, bought the entirity of the galaxy and then transferred the ownership to the "various peoples, nations, and organizations that claim them to be their own in NGC 1003." This ended the debate as Rigs had absolute say over what went on in the galaxy, and his choice was final. It's officially recognized as a "Nature Preserve."

Fracturing

All of the humans in the galaxy were organized into one massive nation called The Array. It was organized into stellar blocks, and each of these cells were divided into cells, each cell into individual stars, allowing regional governors to quell rebellions, instead of the main capital itself. This somewhat circumvented the issue of the ridiculous travel times.

The Array came to control over 1000 systems before it broke to pieces in 51763 CE. The Array continued to exist, but it only had 153 stars, with hundreds of smaller nations all around it. These nations continued to fight and expand until 132094, when the entire galaxy was colonized. Trillions of colony ships were used to accomplish this.

However, the division continued. Humans also began to diverge by this time, with many becoming entirely separate species. The basic humans in the galaxy are very similar to the basic humans outside of them. They grew larger and sharper eyes, became accustomed to the low gravity of Lox, white hair, and grew paler skin. Their eyes are typically violet. These are called the Loxans.

Other variations have arisen, with all of them being listed here. Another major race are the Flin. This race is adapted for the low gravity of small moons, asteroids, or dwarf planets. They have much thicker skin, are stockier, and have a layer of protecting fat to protect the organs from ionizing radiation. Yet another race is the Dast. This variation has revolved a prehensile tail, claws, and great strength. They are adapted for the construction of domes on non-terraformed planets. They have deposits of oxygenated iron in their body, allowing for emergency breathing in suddenly de-oxygenated environments (like an air leak). Many other races exist.

Modern Geopolitical Setting

Nations

The Array

The Array has continued to exist for the thousands of years since it's creation. Currently, it controls well over 15% of the Galaxy, making it by far, the largest nation. More here.

The Servants of Jinnlok

The Servants of Jinnlok are a cult worshiping a man named Hexda Jinnlok. Jinnlok has uploaded himself onto the "Higher Plane" (their equivalent of the internet) giving him total control over all of the happenings in the nation. This nation controls 9% of the galaxy. More here.

The Dast

The Dast are capable of living on far more hostile planets than the other species, allowing for easier terraformation of worlds. They control 7% of the galaxy.

The Kouud Ministry

The Kouud Ministry is a small socialist state controlling the central black hole of the galaxy. They have constructed something similar to a Birch Planet around it. However, due to the time dilation experience by it's inhabitants, they are the most human like out of every race in the galaxy, as only 49,000 years have passed for them relative to everywhere else. The ministry also has colonized the cluster around the black hole.

Galactic Regions

The Core

The Core is the central area of the galaxy, there are twenty nations inside of it. Territory there is very valuable due to how dense the area is. Numerous wars have been fought between the nations there just to gain a black hole.

Dead Space

Intelligent life seems to have been able to evolve once in the Dyson Galaxy, however, they destroyed themselves with a non-self-aware Artificial Intelligence that seeks to optimize food production. This AI has since expanded to take up an entire arm of the galaxy (20%). All of the planets are dismantled and converted into O'Neill Cylinders for growing crops toxic to human biology.

This area continues expanding (over geological time scales as the AI has no means of Faster than light technology either). However, many nations routinely exterminate large numbers of O'Neill Cylinders to use for parts. Ships that spend too much time in Dead Space are flagged for destruction by the AI, and thousands of harvesting ships would begin to dismantle it.

The AI is not good at adapting, it's only strength is the shear amount of resources it controls, making it very difficult to contain.

The

↑ Laser Highways are paths in space kept clear of debris used for interstellar travel. Large lasers are shown into ships, accelerating them to near light speed.

[1] Laser Highways are paths in space kept clear of debris used for interstellar travel. Large lasers are shown into ships, accelerating them to near light speed.

[1]