A Holding's Sector describes that Holding's general location relative to the Celestial Palace. A Holding's Sector is described with two components, a letter which describes its (very) rough distance from the Palace (also known as its *Ring*), and a number describing its angle from the Celestial Meridian, the line along which the Palace is oriented. A Holding's Ring (the letter) describes how they interact with galactic society. Sector determines which other Holdings are nearby, which regional powers are more likely to have influence, and what threats are most common. # Rings A Holding's place in the Rings describe its distance from the Celestial Palace. These Sectors are vast, with each containing thousands or even millions of populated worlds. While cultures vary wildly within each Sector, certain facts tend to be consistent based on a Holding's location within one of these three bands. ## Core Holdings (C) Holdings in the Core Ring, also known as the Galactic Core, are those whose capital is within one hundred light years of the Celestial Palace. These Holdings are politically powerful but resource-starved, often defining the culture and politics of one or more Minor Sectors -while leeching resources from those same Holdings- even as they strive against one another to shape the galaxy at large. ## Middle Holdings (M) Holdings in the Middle Ring, also known as the Galactic Disk, are those whose capital is between one hundred and twenty thousand light years from the Celestial Palace. These Holdings make up the bulk of the galaxy by far, and spend most of their time trading, fighting, and scheming with and against one another. Though they rarely carry significant political weight on the galactic scale, Middle Holdings often provide resources, technology, and military support to the Core Holdings in exchange for political backing, sometimes even to the point of swearing fealty to a faraway Core ally instead of a powerful Middle Holding neighbor. ## Far Holdings (F) Holdings in the Far Sector, also known as the Galactic Rim, are those whose capital is more than twenty thousand light years from the Celestial Palace. These Holdings are extremely rare, though not as rare as the rest of the galaxy tends to believe. Most Holdings at this extreme remove prefer to go unknown and unnoticed, which leads to the notion that the Rim is an unpopulated wasteland. Some are havens for outlaws from other Holdings, others are held in their entirety by secretive cults or conspiracies, and yet others are home to Sapient Plagues or other creatures which would typically be killed on sight. Between motive and distance, Far Holdings only very rarely participate in greater galactic society. # Minor Sectors Each of the twelve Minor Sectors represents a slice of the galaxy, as seen from Her Majesty's throne room atop the Celestial Palace. These Sectors are not as vast as the Major Sectors (thus the name) but each still represents an almost unfathomable distance. With that in mind, each of the following regions contains many Holdings which align with that Sector's description, but each Sector also contains many Holdings which have little or nothing to do with that description. Indeed, each Sector contains many Holdings (almost always planets) which have no awareness of galactic society at all. ## Gaze (1) The Gaze is one of two Sectors aligned with the Celestial Meridian, along with [[#Heaven's Expanse]]. These Sectors are dominated by the needs of galactic society and the Celestial Empire. The Gaze is the home of the Voidstalker Corps, with dozens of Holdings devoted to raising, training, and equipping Her Majesty's forces. The semi-mythical Holding of Herongate, where the greatest warriors of the galaxy are sometimes called to serve as sparring partners to the Voidstalkers' champions, is located somewhere within the Gaze. Holdings in this Sector tend to have a martial focus, often creating mercenary bands for those Holdings unable to support their own expeditionary forces. ## Dragon's Breath (2) Generally accepted as the most beautiful Minor Sector when viewed from the Celestial Palace, Dragon's Breath emanates a brilliant orange-and-viridian light toward the galactic core. This Sector is held almost in its entirety by the Great House Sima, who lay claim to the Viridian Arm, named for the same source as the Sector. Those Holdings not beholden to the great House tend to live in a state of constant anxiety, waiting for the demand of fealty or slow obliteration. House Sima's obsession with galactic politics and their desire to influence every world in the galaxy have turned their home Sector into a sort of production line for interstellar schemers, traitors, and power brokers. ## Jade Luminance (3) When viewed from the Celestial Palace, the Jade Luminance is dominated by a bright green glow, the result of a stellar nursery from near the dawn of the universe reaching the end of its life. This Sector hosts many of the galaxy's greatest wonders. The Arcaneam, the Empty Room, the Titans' Garden, all of these and more can be found in the span of the Jade Luminance. In many ways, this Sector is quieter and safer than most. Many of the Holdings within its span are dedicated to arts of every description, and some arts which defy description itself. ## Lace Traverse (4) The Lace Traverse is, without exception, the deadliest Sector in the galaxy by far. While the Leviathan's Corpse and the many cults surrounding it are the galaxy's greatest individual threat, wandering from place to place with no discernable pattern, the Lace Traverse is nothing but pattern. Light Vaults, places which have been sealed away from interaction with the rest of the universe, dot the Lace Traverse in numbers to beggar the imagination. These Light Vaults are indestructible from the interior, but terrifyingly fragile to external harm. Each time a Holding or other power is sealed away, whether by their own action or by the action of a hostile party, the resulting Light Vault is relocated to this Sector. Those Holdings native to the Lace Traverse live in constant fear that a nearby Vault might open and reveal a monster sealed away in eons past. ## Phoenix's Wake (5) The Phoenix's Wake is named for the famous warship *Phoenix*, the only Ancillary vessel ever to serve alongside the Voidstalker Corps against a Child of the Void. While this Sector didn't actually see any of the fighting (or monsters) which made *Phoenix* famous, it is the heart of shipbuilding in the galaxy, with nearly a thousand different Holdings each dedicated to some part of the design and manufacturing process, or specializing in a particular kind of vessel. This Sector is also notable for being one of the most peaceful and least violent in the galaxy, due in large part to the complex intermarriages and alliances formed over millennia after millennia of shared interests. ## Sundered Harmony (6) Sundered Harmony, like the Dragon's Breath, is dominated by a galactic arm which is itself held by a Great House. Unlike House Sima, however, House Orman has little interest in influence and soft power. House Orman seized the arm through more than a hundred thousand consecutive years of war, and that war has not ended. Sundered Harmony is less dangerous than the Lace Traverse, but it is also where many of the Light Vaults which populate that Sector were first made, with victims, enemies, or weapons too powerful to kill locked away from the rest of the galaxy. Holdings in this Sector are either subjects of the Great House or fighting a losing battle against it. ## Heaven's Expanse (7) The Sector of Heaven's Expanse is one of two Sectors aligned with the Celestial Meridian, along with [[#Gaze|the Gaze]]. These Sectors are dominated by the needs of galactic society and the Celestial Empire. Heaven's Expanse is home to Last Vault, the headquarters of the Imperial Bureaucracy, a space station larger than most stars containing every record ever created or discovered by the Bureaucracy. Holdings in Heaven's Expanse tend to be diplomatic or economic in their focus, often using their proximity to the Bureaucracy as a means of developing strong relationships with powerful figures in advance of complex negotiations. ## Serpent's Veil (8) The Serpent's Veil was named for an ancient legend among the Kawrai people, who sail between stars on an endless journey. According to this legend, the galaxy of Lakh rests on the crown of a vast serpent, one which swims through the universe in search of its original nest, twining around galactic filaments and devouring entire star nurseries for sustenance. While there is some debate among the Kawrai as to whether the serpent is a literal figure or a metaphor, the galaxy at large seized on the idea in the early millennia of the Celestial Empire. It is believed by most scholars of the topic that the Leviathan, the greatest warship ever constructed, was designed to evoke the Great Serpent, and by some that the warship was an attempt to render the metaphorical beast into reality. Certainly, the designs came from a Sage in this Sector. Whatever the case, the Serpent's Veil is rife with Leviathan Cultists and other worshippers of dark gods seeking forgotten truths. Ironic, given that the Great Serpent of Kawrai myth is an unambiguously kind and gentle figure wracked by perpetual hunger due to its refusal to eat populated worlds. ## Nine Hells (9) The Sector known as the Nine Hells was once called Amaranthine, before the Smiths' Rebellion. When the Empress broke the Starsmith, Her wroth spilled forth and shattered the various powers of the Amaranthine, leaving only chaos and bloody conflict in Her wake. It took thousands of years for the impacts of Her battle to reverberate outward through the galaxy, but when they did, many of the Holdings in this Sector were struck directly. Those rare few who survived were warped, shifted into great and terrible powers all their own. The greatest and most terrible of those powers seized fiefdoms of their own and battled the Voidstalker Corps until Her Majesty granted them the right to exist. Now, each of the Nine Hells are ruled over by one of those who seized power in the wake of Her Majesty's most terrible battle. ## Golden Edge (10) It is said that Her Majesty has glimpsed the fourth heartbeat of time, the moment at which *is* differentiated itself from *is not*, and being wove itself from nonbeing. While there is some dispute as to whether or not even Her power is sufficient to look so deeply into the true nature of things, it is agreed that the only tool in the galaxy with which She might have done so was the great telescope known as the Golden Edge. Crafted from the fabric of space itself, a series of lenses complex and powerful enough to look to the very edges of the universe are spaced down the length of this Sector. Each of the seventy-seven lenses has a Holding dedicated to its upkeep, with the exception of the seventy-seventh, which sits a few light-seconds away from the palace itself. At each of the lenses are communities of scholars devoted to studying the truths revealed at that layer, with the conflicts and alliances between the various layers forming the bedrock of social activity in the Sector. ## Senescence (11) Once, this Sector was home to the Nameless Sage, the only Sapient Plague ever recognized as having reached enlightenment and granted the [[Honors#Sage|Honor of Sage]]. The Nameless Sage spread to cover the entire Sector, touching everything, influencing everyone, without ever harming a sapient creature. Many credit them for the fact that Sapient Plagues have joined galactic society, as before the Sage proved it was possible, most assumed that Sapient Plagues were fundamentally incapable of restraint. Now, Sapient Plagues remain hunted in many pockets of the Celestial Empire, but are no longer the galactic pariah they once were. Near the end of the second epoch, the Nameless Sage embarked on a voidwalk from which they have not returned. Since then, the Sector once called "the Mind" in their honor has been recast in recognition of their departure. ## Peymonia Dying (12) The Lace Traverse may be the most dangerous of all the Sectors, but Peymonia Dying is the most infamous. While those who live within the Lace Traverse are in far more danger, those who hail from Peymonia Dying are often regarded as heralds of doom by the rest of the galaxy. Near the center of the Sector, with a spear crafted from a world-tree piercing her heart, is the Child of the Void known as Peymonia Dying. Once the greatest and most terrible war asset of the Children of the Void, Peymonia Unconquered knew herself to be beyond death. Falsely believing that conquering death was sufficient preparation to war with the Empress, Peymonia took up residence above a singularity and challenged the Empress to single combat. She broke dozens of fleets of Voidstalkers before Her Majesty deigned to acknowledge the challenge, and hundreds before She accepted. For millennia, the two immortals danced along the event horizon, wielding powers stranger and more fundamental than any seen before or since. Finally, in Her wroth, She speared Peymonia through the heart and cast her into the maw of the black hole. The Child did not die, and can be seen trapped like a bug in amber just on the other side of the event horizon, aware, but incapable of action. For reasons understood by few, if any, the Child's undying form can be seen with impossible clarity from all over this Sector. From around millions of stars at varying distances, the residents of this Sector can simply look up and see Peymonia Dying, as though she were close enough to touch.