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Message: <blockquote data-quote="doctorbadwolf" data-source="post: 8009218" data-attributes="member: 6704184">The default 5e cosmology just isn't in play, basically. Whole regions of the galaxy can be a "plane" like the shadowfell or feywild or the hells, and there is theorised a spiral in the very center of the galaxy where the Abyss and Celestia orbit eachother. But there are also feywild style systems in "regular" space, and demons in asteriods between stars. The Starlanes serve a purpose somewhat similar, I guess, to the cosmic rivers of the great wheel, in that they are the main long distance travel and the main way you get from one plane to another. But as to travel times, it depends on the needs of the story and what feels right, which translates to "how far apart are the star systems"? Weeks or months, often enough, sometimes days or even hours. If a trip takes a week in an Aether ship, it takes a day or two by starlane. Slipstream travel is faster than light, but Starlanes are incredibly fast even within that context, connecting sometimes distant quadrants of the galaxy. The problem is they can't be made. They pop up, and they are just...there. And you hope they never go away. Meanwhile, Aether Slipstream Drives work on repeatable principles, and are an improving tech. The downside to them is that they can't really move large vessels, yet. Much like real life ion impulse propulsion, it can be pretty fast in a light vessel, but the more mass you try to move, the slower that acceleration is. You just cannot get anything larger than a frigate to move via slipstream. Just doesn't work, with current tech.The Baernian cluster is a dense region of space where many stars can be reached with modern aether ships in only a few hours. From far enough away, the Cluster looks like a single point of light, often called the Spiral or the triangular spiral formed of the three starlanes that surround the Cluster. Other regions are spread out more, and it can take months to get to your nearest neighbor. Also, there are dragons the size of moons, and kobolds live on them and keep their scales clean and eat the weird space stuff that ends up on them.</blockquote>

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