Some New Maps

Sandwyrm here. I've made a couple of new galactic maps. One for our section of the galaxy as a whole, and one for the extents of human colonization.

First up, we have the local galactic neighborhood (based on a non-reference quality NASA visualization). I've moved the Turids (Bugs) to the Sagittarian Arm. Adesus means eaten or gnawed. That's a better place to have them threaten both the Colser and the Republic.

Notice also that the Republic is really only fighting the "New" Colserans. There's a whole arm of them (or so they say) that's well, huge in scope. But maybe 'used up' would be a better term for what's actually there? Nom nom nom...

Here I've gone through and figured out the extents of human colonization based on the idea that only stellar groups that are close together, and not within impassible areas (at interstellar speeds) of dense gas or Novas, could be reached. It's almost fractal in appearance. We're still talking millions of inhabited worlds though. Those bright dots are stellar clusters, not individual stars.

It also has me thinking that the 'Republic' might actually only control the larger, more contiguous territories. While the long, twisting 'fingers' might be isolated enough to resist being subsumed by the Republic. Even in areas that are relatively close to Terra and the capital ring around Alpha Centauri. That leaves lots of places to conduct crusades in. :)

In particular, look at the eastern end of the Far Stars. The Grüin are in that twisted mass and it's just not practical to go in and dig them out. So you protect the chokepoints and then hope they'll burn themselves out in a few thousand years.

In the 'west', the Expanse is even more of a mess. But that's also what keeps the Colser at bay. There are chokepoints (only a few hundred light-years wide) that can be defended against incursions.

Thoughts?