DOMINION LORE AND TRIVIA

THIS ARTICLE IS A STUMP | Last updated March 18th 2026

MINUTIA MIGHT GET CORRECTED AND BUILT UPON OVER TIME

As seen from the Sun, the Dominion is a bubble about 8° across centered around the Coalsack Nebula

WHEN?

Being the background world of Beyond the Final Frontier (my upcoming sci-fi series), the story takes place sometime in the mid 182th century, or roughly after 18,200 CE. Long after humans expanded beyond the solar system, now living fractured amongst aliens native to this region.

WHERE?

It is a (mostly fictional) region of space located behind the Coalsack Nebula as seen from Earth's perspective, between 700 and 900 light-years from Earth. Its center is roughly 830 light-years from Earth.

WHAT IS THE DOMINION
The Dominion, or by name, The Fundational Dominion, is a region in space defined by the Treaty of Forzai as a 'neutral and civilized territory' encompassing several signatary interstellar nations. An order that has since lasted about 3,600 years. The year of the Prime Foundation is 14,650 CE in our calendar.

DIMENSIONS

It has no physical borders, but it currently encompasses mostly a spherical volume 200-300 light-years across, centered around the world of Argost, the Arrene homeworld.

The furthest civilized region within the Dominion is the hoku space around Voliloshoku, 174ly from Argost. And the inhabited planet closest to Earth is Hokushoku, at 710ly from the Sun and 119ly from Argost.

The Dominion's worlds plus the 10 brightest stars visible from Earth

View perpendicular to the Sun-Argost axis, arrene north is up

ASTROMETRICS

When seen from the Earth, the Dominion is largely obscured by the Coalsack Nebula itself, yet, 21st century humans are able to see about ~270 out of the ~450 giant stars that populate the region, visible through the edges of the dense nebula.

Local astrometric data suggests a population of 65~72 thousand stellar-mass objects in the region. 53 thousand red dwarfs, 9 thousand orange dwarfs, 5 thousand sun-like stars, 2 thousand bright sun-like stars, 400 white giant stars, and ~5 main sequence blue giants. Along with 890 white dwarfs, 8 thousand rogue brown dwarfs, and roughly 450 bright evolved stars. This also totals an average distance of 4.6 light-years in between stars.

It might be loosely associated to the lower Sco-Cen OB Association, as the region includes several bright young blue stars, such as CH Crucis and 251 G. Cen which are under 150 million years old.

Whereas the solar vicinity hosts between 15 and 20 bright stars (>50 Lsol) under 150ly from the Sun, the Dominion space is densely packed with 8~15x more bright stars, namely, evolved stars such as blue subgiants and red giants. Sporting about 120 stars which shine between 10 and 50x the Sun's brightness, and roughly the same number shining 100~1000x as brightly, all that within 150ly from the Dominion's center.

Needless to say, traveling across this space is like going through a crystal chandelier. The brighter population of which serves rightfully so, as reference 'lighthouse stars' for astronavigation by its inhabitants.

For its older main-sequence star population, it contains ~69 thousand stars distributed across an estimated 58,000 systems, from which a total of ~5,700 systems may contain at least one Earth-sized planet in its habitable zone. Between ~400-800 of those are around sun-like stars (high-mass K to low-mass F), the most likely to host Earth analogues.

These oasis for life are often separated by anywhere from 20 to 30 light-years from each other, but the specific needs and comfort zones needed for 'sophons' often mean traveling 4-5x further before stumbling on the right place for a settlement.

Out of these ~5,700 systems, only five are known to have spawned complex life, it is not yet known why and how this many life-bearing planets came to be so close to each other - as it implies through the Copernican Principle that the Milky Way must be teeming with Life and technological civilizations (between 4 and 30 million). But given its age and powers at play, the Dominion might be an isolated case.

This angle clearly frames all three zones of the Dominion's civilized systems, here UP is north from the capital Argost.

In this space, there are only 19 'civilized' systems, divided across three spaces and five major population centers. There are also around 40 confirmed habitable planets and other 100~200 potentially habitable worlds - from those wild worlds, less than 10 have been thoroughly scouted by the local charters, since not all of them are known to be located within civilized regions.

It is estimated that between 80 and 230 billion 'sophons' (depending on census methods and registration completeness) live within the Dominion by the year 18,200 CE.

THERE ARE HUMANS?
Let not the Dominion's age and scope fool you. This region has once long belonged to the extended human domain from around 10,000 CE, long before the Arrene dreamed of reaching the stars. The human societies and empires that existed long ago left countless ruins and old settlements across known and unknown space. However, the human domain at large has since gotten fragmented and isolated, the last known spacefaring human civilization, the Chelok Empire has long retracted to its homeworld of Dhéģhōm and associated nearby colonies, leaving the stars to the blossoming native civilizations to re-discover.

Nowadays, humans are sort of ubiquitous to this space, being found first by every other native races as a loose collection of hunter-gatherer or industrialized societies, having long forgotten about their pre-history or even where do they come from for that matter.

HOW AND WHO OWNS THE DOMINION?

The Dominion is less of a government and more of a 'collaborative framework' between its signatary civilizations.

One could technically refuse to join, but the prospect of doing so and its consequences are 'absurd', to put it lightly. Officially, the Dominion has a representative council, but in practice it has two steward races, the Arrene and the Qire, often found as governors of vast regions of space and at the highest chairs of administrative bodies. The Qire are almost never actually observed by the public, whereas the Arrene take pride in showing-off their domain and power, engaging in active control of conflicts and trade.

Together with starlanes, clone armies, and automated fleets, the Qiro-Arrene axis dominates this corner of the galaxy.

WHAT ARE STARLANES?

The starlanes are the pride of the Dominion's economy, here magnetic and radiation probes clean up vast tubes of the interstellar medium, allowing for faster hyper-relativistic travel in between designated waypoints. Besides, these starlanes create choke-points that can be better managed by its administration, deliberately populated with loose collections of penetrator mines.

Traveling at relativistic speeds off the starlanes isn't impossible, mainly for small starcraft, but for the frequent fleets of goods and freighters the risk of encountering a lost grain of sand can't be ignored, or worse, a drifting penetrator mine remnant from the Qire-Arrene wars.

A SHORT TIMELINE OF THE DOMINION

THE COMBINE ERA, 11,000 - 14,650 CE
The Luminary Combine reigns the current Dominion core until its fall during the Qiro-Arrene wars

10,500 - 11,000 CE, the beginning of the Luminary Combine
The Luminary Combine begins its conquest of interstellar space, landing first at Endreka, aiming to claim over 800 neighboring systems before its decamillenium.

Encountering stone-age human societies across Endreka, initially humans were thought to be natives. Genetic studies revealed they either traveled there or were brought by outside forces. The Luminary Combine was among the few bodies that still deemed spacetravel safe, and in fact, a necessary acquisition of vital space to the Arrene

11,088 - 11,155 CE, the annexation of the Ygiv peoples

First contact between the Arrene and the Ygiv, after their first confirmed detection around 11000 CE, it took the Arrene just 30 years to cross the 25 light-years separating them from the nearby colony of Thosuo.

The trip to Osuna was a near-instant decision upon confirmation of a nearby developing civilization, and mainly one that could be stewarded away from being a competitor. They arrived with an armada built specifically for the purpose of staying.

First contact and study era ends in 11,155 CE, with the Luminary Combine ultimately seizing admnisitrative powers over the Ygiv peoples. For comparison, the Ygiv were a near early 20th century equivalent in their development. The surrender was passive and a necessary step to ensure the continuation of their civilization

11,155 - 14,000, the quiet era

Up until now, the Luminary Combine encompassed the Arrene, the Ygiv, and several human peoples across 8 systems within 75 light-years from home. A rumor about a giant starship creeping about the edges of the Forzai system among human merchants reaches the Combine authorities, who arrive to investigate.

THE QIRO-ARRENE WARS, 14,000 - 14,650 CE

"Wars" is a very strong term here, inspite of what the Arrene would lead you to believe, this series if events were the result of a catastrophic First Contact case between a blooming interstellar empire and a K-II extragalactic civilization.

[see the full timeline here]

THE DOMINION ERA, 14,650 CE - PRESENT

15,709, first contact between the Hoku and the Chelok at Dhéģhōm
The Hoku were already in the process of trying to not join whatever the Dominion is, because they are afraid of whatever the elder races are doing. Nonetheless, they become great traders with the Chelok

The Hoku are briefly introduced to the idea of the Dominion, but opt not to interfer.

16,310 - 16,431, the Saffi sign up

The Saffi, seeking survival from an unknown aggressor, encounters and attacks a stationed Elder Starship and its crew over a mining outpost. This short encounter was followed by multiple expeditionary and diplomatic ones, which led to their eventual admission as an aligned neutral power.

16,714 - 16,744, first contact between the Hoku and the Nan-Nan
The Nan-Nan are visited by the Hoku, and integrated to its interstellar nation.
A planet-bound advanced society akin to 22nd century humanity when the Hoku reached up for first contact. Some wished to join the hoku out of their own volition.

17,198 - 17,203, the Hoku sign up

A century prior, hoku asteroid miners in the Muhori system had accidentally pinged a derelict Qire warship in its flyby through the system's outskirts. This ping prompted a first-contact response from the Dominion authorities, and a century of preparation for an annhilation conflict from the hoku side.

The hoku joined in 17,203 CE (2553 AdF), albeit reluctantly. After being visited by diplomatic fleet lead by the Elder Starship, Kappa, in the Muhori system.

17,292, the Nan-Nan sign up

It took them a while to decide, but are convinced the net benefit is worth it, inspite of the Hoku's waryness.

18,000 - 18,200, the fall of Hokushoku

An unknown extraterrestrial force invades the Hoku space, the Dominion is unable to send enough reinforcements in time to fend off the invaders, Hokushoku and its colonies fall within days of consecutive first contacts. The Fall of Hokushoku represents the start of a period of political unrest since the Arrene have showed themselves unnable to care for their allies against outsiders.

18,200 - 18,225, events of Beyond the Final Frontier (book I) take place

DOMINION MEMBERS (!under construction!)

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