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content/Cosmology/Crystal Spheres.md

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+---
+title: Crystal Spheres
+description: What is a crystal sphere?
+---
+## The Greater Spheres
+A greater sphere is a galaxy, and within the fiction of the game the word "galaxy" is a colloquial shorthand for "Greater Sphere." Greater spheres contain billions of lesser spheres, each with one or more quasi stellar objects at its center. Innumerable Greater Spheres exist in the cosmos although travel between them is impossible. There are no known hyperspace routes between Greater Spheres, and according to the dragons and the Emerald Armada, any hyperspace routes leading outside the Greater Sphere change course frequently and unpredictably. Nobody who has tried to plot hyperspace routes outside the Greater Sphere has returned.
+
+Vaardspace is a region of planets inside the Greater Saggitarian Sphere, which is part of a large structure called The Laniakea Aspect.
+## Lesser Spheres
+Lesser spheres contain star systems. Imagine a solar system in a fish bowl and you will understand a lesser sphere. Inside of a lesser sphere, ships cannot enter hyperspace, but they can travel at the speed of light using a spelljamming helm. You must be outside the edge of the sphere in order to jump to hyperspace. The journey from the center of a sphere to its edge varies with the size of the sphere, and could be four hours or several days at light speed.
+
+When ships leave a lesser sphere, they can travel faster than the speed of light by entering the phlogiston and following hyperspace lanes. In regions where spheres are dense, you can travel from sphere to sphere in about five days. A typical trip between spheres takes ten to forty days. Travel time from sphere to sphere depends on the between the spheres, which hyperspace lanes you take, and the quality of your spelljamming helm.
+## Intersphereal Space 
+Intersphereal Space is vast and empty. No sane traveler would pass through intersphereal space to reach another sphere. The journey would take too long, and there is a risk of being attacked by space monsters or pirates.
+
+In between the spheres, things  that should not be seep into the cosmos. The bigger and emptier the region, the more likely that such aberrations worm their way into the material plane. Some legends say that such things have always existed, and were present before the cosmos itself came into existence. Others say that they have come from another plane to predate on the creatures in our reality. 
+## Beyond
+If you ask a dragon, it will tell you that no hyperlanes exist that connect one greater spheres to another. This does not seem to be the whole truth, as credible hearsay indicates that the dragons have traveled to far-flung greater spheres. Regardless of what the dragons say, no civilization has ever found or left a record of a hyperlane leading to another greater sphere.
+
+Every now ant then, some brave fool in search of mystery or glory will venture beyond the edge of the greater sphere. Travelling through normal space at light speed, the farthest outside the greater sphere that anyone has traveled has only been a few light-days. When they don't travel too far or stay out too long, which is about half of them, they return alive. Injured and traumatized, but alive. The other half is lost to nothingness, and the horrors therein. 
+
+Never in any records of history has any ship that jumped to hyperspace outside the greater sphere returned. Ships within the phlogiston should follow established hyperlane routes near the edge of the greater sphere extremely carefully. Veering outside known hyperlanes carries the risk of passing beyond the edge and never being seen again.