Space Travel

🚀 Navigating the Material Sea

The universe is immeasurably vast, an ocean of dark void dotted with islands of light. Conquering these distances has been the single greatest driver of technology and magic for millennia. While countless variations exist, most space travel falls into one of three distinct categories of Faster-Than-Light (FTL) travel, alongside more conventional methods.

Standard In-System Travel

Within a star system, most vessels rely on conventional propulsion. Ion engines, fusion torches, and solar sails are common for moving ships between planets, moons, and asteroid belts. This is the everyday, blue-collar travel—reliable, relatively safe, and mind-numbingly slow for interstellar distances.

✨ Faster-Than-Light (FTL) Methodologies

To bridge the gulf between stars, a vessel must bypass the normal laws of physics. The great powers have each developed their own unique solution to this problem.

The Phase Drive (The Common Method)

  • Users: The Syndicate of Mercane, Petran Clans, independent traders, and most common folk.

  • The Mechanism: The most widespread and affordable FTL method, the Phase Drive is a marvel of Petran engineering. The drive doesn't move a ship through normal space, but rather shunts it into the Penumbra, the ghostly, ethereal echo of the Material Plane. In this shadow-realm, physical distance is compressed, allowing for rapid transit between two material points.

  • The Experience: Travel is unsettling. The view outside is a grey, silent, and distorted reflection of real space. Journeys can be haunted by psychic echoes, ghostly apparitions of long-dead cosmic creatures, or the sorrowful spirits of those who died in the void. There are also rumours of predators native to the Penumbra that prey on careless travellers. It is reliable, but it is never truly safe.

The Astral Engine (The Imperial Method)

  • Users: The Stellar Imperium of Sol

  • The Mechanism: A pinnacle of magi-technical achievement, the Astral Engine is a massive arcane reactor that projects a vessel entirely out of the material universe and into the Astral Sea. In this silvery, timeless void of pure thought, physical distance has no meaning. A ship does not "fly" but is guided by powerful Navigator-Mages who use their consciousness to "pull" the destination towards the ship.

  • The Experience: Travel is instantaneous from an outside perspective, but for those on board, it is a brief, disorienting journey through a realm of pure concept. The risks are immense; a single miscalculation by the Navigators can leave a ship stranded in the timeless void, erase its destination from its conceptual reality, or bring it back to the material plane inside a star. It is the fastest and most powerful method, but it is reserved exclusively for the Imperium.

Bloom-Folding (The Concordance Method)

  • Users: The Veridian Concordance

  • The Mechanism: The Concordance rejects the brute force of tearing holes in reality. Their living bioships use a method that is part-meditation, part-cosmic communion. A council of powerful Druids and Star-Shamans onboard the bioship joins their consciousness with the Great Bloom, the life-force of the universe. They find the "veins" of this life force that connect distant star systems and gently fold the space between them, creating a brief, organic wormhole for the ship to pass through.

  • The Experience: The journey is said to be beautiful and serene, a silent, seamless transition from one point to another with no sense of movement. It leaves no scar on reality and is undetectable by conventional sensors. However, it is far slower than an Astral Engine, and it can only be initiated from and targeted to areas with a strong presence of life, making travel through the deepest voids impossible.

🧑‍🚀 Personal & Orbital Travel

The Saiyan Method

The universe has watched in terror and awe as Saiyan warriors have proven they do not always need a ship for combat.

  • Orbital Flight: A sufficiently powerful Saiyan can use their Ki to generate thrust and a protective energy barrier, allowing them to fly and fight in the upper atmosphere and low orbit of a planet with ease. This barrier deflects radiation and resists the heat of atmospheric re-entry.

  • The Breathable Limit: However, this Ki barrier does not generate a breathable atmosphere. A Saiyan can hold their breath for a considerable time, but for any prolonged engagement in the vacuum of space, they require an oxygen apparatus—typically a simple mask or breather.

  • The Divine Exception: As a God of Destruction, Kaleerus is an exception to this rule. Her divine aura is a self-contained, life-sustaining field, allowing her to exist in the deepest void indefinitely.

  • Mythic Potential: A legend persists among the Crimson Fist that a Saiyan who achieves a state of power beyond the known transformations can evolve their Ki into a self-sustaining life-support system, becoming a true cosmic being. For now, this is only a myth, but it is a powerful driver for the most ambitious warriors.