What are Sectors? Why do they exist? Exploring Hyperlanes, Sectors, and Regional Governance

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chimericoncogene
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What are Sectors? Why do they exist? Exploring Hyperlanes, Sectors, and Regional Governance

Post by chimericoncogene »

Hyperlanes have generally been left poorly defined to accommodate shifting story requirements. Below I present the Fractal Bush Model, a working model for hyperlanes cobbled together from existing interpretations that provides a logical structure for galactic commerce while retaining superb flexibility for individual users and desired interpretations. The numbers suggested are merely for illustration – the model is intended to be flexible and illustrative.

Among hyperlane models, there is often described a distinction between “oceanographic-chart-based” and “map-based” models of hyperlanes. The two can be readily combined simply by making the efficacy of hyperspace travel a continuum, dependent on expensive, up-to-date, high quality hyperspace and realspace maps. The better the maps, the faster and further you can go on less fuel, and the less likely you are to get smeared into atoms. While a Star Destroyer on a major hyperlane can whizz across the galaxy in a day in complete safety, a spacecraft on a less well-charted minor hyperlane might have to make do with crossing a mere thousand light years a day. Any faster and it runs an increasing risk of getting smeared into atoms. The speed limit of the minor hyperlane would depend on the budget and efficiency of the regional and local hyperspace mapping authorities. Furthermore, under this model, with greater numbers of spacecraft constantly providing more up-to-date reports on hyperspatial conditions with their own (more limited) sensors, hyperlane speeds will also tend to increase with traffic volume. The fastest hyperlanes will be the biggest and busiest, incentivizing hyperlane consolidation.

There is also some uncertainty of whether hyperlanes are straight. On examination, this is an odd concern: When viewed on human (or even short interstellar) scales, an arc with a radius of curvature of 20,000 light-years or more might as well be a straight line. On the assumption that hyperlanes are charted by extensive mapping (e.g. by realspace and hyperspatial sensors, scouts, and probe droids) of short, mostly coaxial segments and then stitiching them together, one might conclude that long supermajor hyperlanes may be curved on a galactic scale, but that short hyperlanes will mostly be straight. In switching hyperlanes, it may or may not be necessary to return to realspace to navigate a “junction”. It is possible that “off-ramps” or “roundabouts” could be mapped for junctions between perpendicular major and minor hyperlanes with sufficient traffic, permitting hyperlane switching without returning to realspace – with associated expenditures of cartography droids, of course.

A spacecraft in uncharted or very poorly charted space must resort to using its own sensors to make short, slow, highly fuel-intensive hops of limited distance (say 10ly or so), with the risk of blowing up increasing rapidly if it attempts to jump further or faster (possibly in part because of changes in realspace with distance – your own sensors’ interferometric/gravitmetric map of Alpha Centauri is necessarily four years old, and poorly charted hyperspace behaves unpredictably without long baselines). A spacecraft with more powerful (military-grade?) sensors and hyperdrive, more skilled/Force-sensitive/lucky pilots, slightly newer/better maps, smaller physical size (perhaps), or greater reserves of desperation might be able to jump somewhat further or faster under such circumstances, but probably not overwhelmingly morseo. The risks are probabilistic – smuggler A might make the Fool’s Run just fine, but smuggler B, making the run at the exact same time with a similar crew, might get smeared into atoms. Enemy interdiction with mass shadow mines, battle-stations, and interdictor ships is another concern in wartime.

Beating the odds is fine for smugglers and force-sensitives and main characters with plot armor, but not fine for large military task forces, or for the shipping companies that are the lifeblood of galactic commerce. With this model in mind, the dependence of galactic civilization on expensive, continuous hyperspace cartography is immediately apparent, and this has implications for the political and economic structure of the galaxy which segue well with what we expect from Star Wars. We start by remembering the probable history of how the hyperlanes were established: slowly, expensively, and with great difficulty.

Imagine a giant branching tree, with long thick branches (major and supermajor hyperlanes) growing from a root (say, Coruscant or one of its rivals) and spreading from the Core to the Halo, mainly along the plane of the galactic disc. Instead of leaves, the branches periodically burst into starbursts (minor hyperlanes), all stretching from a local bud (say, a Sector Capital). Over the millennia, the starbursts have mingled together in the margins, many of the tips of the starbursts have thickened and grown interpenetrating starbursts of their own, and the branches have gotten lots and lots of thick, healthy crosslinks – it’s more of a bush now - but the shape of the underlying tree is still just barely visible underneath all the mess.

This is the fractal bush model of hyperspace travel.

Because mapping is expensive, it is not possible to directly link every world in the galaxy with every other one with a dedicated hyperlane for each. One obvious solution (especially in light of the fact that it is probably easier to delegate mapping to regional authorities beyond a certain distance) is a regional hub-and-spoke model, with hubs being sector capitals, and each hub-and-spoke unit being a sector. Under this model, sectors are not merely fiat political units, but are rooted in physical, infrastructural and economic geography – they are, fundamentally a cluster of star systems all linked to a common sector capital, relying mainly on the sector capital for access to major galactic hyperlanes.

The model is one of a hydraulic state – a state exerting control through control of a vital resource. In this case, the resource is hyperlane cartography. As the young Republic (or individual Core World-controlled empires) expanded towards the Rim, the Core Worlds would have been able to grow the tips of hyperlanes faster than it would have been able to fill the vast space between them. Indeed, the core may have been incentivized to head for the rim as fast as possible to claim territory or rapidly seek contact with alien civilizations. These initial forays would have formed the backbone of the later major inter-sectoral hyperlane networks. The task of mapping the spaces in between would have fallen to worlds along the hyperlanes. Lucky, well-equipped worlds would have carved out their own economic spaces, creating starbursts of daughter colonies which in time created starbursts of their own. Since it takes more centuries to build a colony world (or stimulate an alien civilization into spaceflight) capable of mapping hyperspace than it does to map a few hundred hyperlanes, and because the newly minted sector capitals would probably have opposed attempts by daughter colonies to build links directly to the hyperlanes (thus depriving the sector capitals of, presumably, control of key chokepoints and tax revenue), sector capitals would have risen to prominence, and retained economic and political control over their daughters. Hence, representation in the Senate.

A modification of an adage presents itself: All local hyperlanes lead to the Sector Capital, and all major hyperlanes lead to Coruscant.

Obviously, the process would not have been as clear cut. Coruscant was hardly the only core world headed for the periphery, and multiple backbone networks – some operated by the Duros, Hutts, and others – would have competed, grown, and merged. Powerful sector capitals might extend hyperlanes to millions of worlds, others, aspiring sectors and subsectors, might be limited to a few measly hypertrails. History would have blasted down sector capitals, broken up some sectors and merged others together for administrative convenience (perhaps only politically, perhaps physically as well with new hyperlane projects). Sectors would meet at the margins, form links, and interpenetrate, some daughters would have fought for and received independent hyperlane access, new major hyperlane cross-links and bypasses would have been mapped and established.

In the end, you would have a hyperlane network of fast major and super-major hyperlanes joining all sectors, connecting the galaxy at the 1,000-10,000 light-year (sector) scale, permitting high-speed hyperspace travel at around 10-100,000ly/day. From sector capitals along these major hyperlanes would sprout starbursts of minor hyperlanes, connecting the galaxy at the 100-1000-light year scale and permitting medium-speed hyperspace travel at a rate of perhaps 1,000ly/day. Between these would be the boondocks, filled with minor hypertrails tenuously connecting far-flung settlements at the 10-100ly scale, and vast swathes of unutilized space where spacecraft would be reliant on their own sensors to make short hops at low speeds (possibly with backup systems in the event of navicomputer/hyperdrive system failure). With this arrangement, any point in the galaxy could be reached within a few days – one day or so to cross the galaxy to reach any sector, another day or so to travel along minor hyperlanes from the sector capital, and a third day to slog across the final hundred light-years to a freesoil world. With so many variables affecting hyperspace travel, travel times can be set arbitrarily for the purposes of fun, providing the frictionless freeform storytelling and theorizing so beloved of Star Wars.

But above all, the growth and maintenance of the backbone galactic hyperlane network would provide a clear rationale and mandate for galactic government, as the maintenance of regional hyperlanes would legitimize sector authorities. In times of galactic disarray, politics and trade would fall back to the sector level if the galactic network decayed, and Sector capitals and the systems up and downstream – now pulling triple duty as the main quick-access portal to the ravenous Sith hordes at the gates, critical chokepoints along the galactic hyperlane network, and the logical point to throw reinforcements towards slow, grinding incursions from the sector margins from – would have assumed vast strategic importance, and fortified, contested, and/or destroyed accordingly.

Towards the Core, rich, interconnected hyperlane networks would break down the barriers between sectors, fostering broad economic and political integration. With the vast density of capital tied up in the core, warfare would tend towards high force densities with limited room for maneuver on both sides, with the ability to rush reinforcements to any breakthrough cancelling out the ability to mass forces for the same, in a situation reminiscent of the European Central Front during the Cold War.

Towards the Rim, lonely, poorly interconnected sectors scattered across the vast expanse of the galactic disc, the old bonds of sector capital and colony would continue to hold sway. In the Rim, substantially lower force densities might well favor wars of maneuver to secure critical chokepoints, possibly with a strong emphasis on expeditionary logistics, spacecraft with massive, powerful sensor suites capable of rapidly navigating the boondocks, and the ability to rapidly map, navigate, and supply forces discreetly through uncharted, poorly charted, and poorly surveilled spaces to bypass enemy defenses (and the required screening forces to shoot down enemy reconnaissance efforts).

With the political economy of the Galaxy so closely tied to hyperlanes, hyperlane construction and upkeep would inevitably be a highly political issue, and a catalyst for conflict and war.

Thoughts?
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Re: What are Sectors? Why do they exist? Exploring Hyperlanes, Sectors, and Regional Governance

Post by LadyTevar »

Very well thought out, and logical following the "All Roads Lead to Rome" idea.

Now, you mostly talk about military use for these lanes, with states using them to control and expand their area of control. However you've overlooked the biggest use of hyperlanes -- TRADE.
The Great Silk Road didn't go thru Constantinople, across the various 'Stans to India and into China for Military reasons. It was totally for trade goods back and forth. Also, the great trade routes across the Sahara were to move incense and other goods from wadi to wadi, not troops. Even the American Natives had trade routes that followed rivers and valleys, moving flint, shells, and other goods between tribal lands from Mexico to Canada.

The daughter colonies you mentioned would need supplies to set themselves up, and would transport goods back in payment. Sector centers would trade with other Sector heads, goods for goods, rarities for rarities. Coruscant got to the point it depended on daily shipments of food, as they ran out of places to grow or harvest food.

So, imho, the Hyperlanes were not built for military, it was built solely to get goods from one Sector to another in the most time-efficient way.
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Re: What are Sectors? Why do they exist? Exploring Hyperlanes, Sectors, and Regional Governance

Post by Gandalf »

LadyTevar wrote: 2020-12-13 02:47pmCoruscant got to the point it depended on daily shipments of food, as they ran out of places to grow or harvest food.
Indeed, the sheer amount of volume that would need to go to and from Coruscant each day would be absurd. Is there a number on Coruscant's population in the new canon?

I would think that the number required would require dedicated routes in and out of the system, unavailable to a whole bunch of civilian traffic.
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Re: What are Sectors? Why do they exist? Exploring Hyperlanes, Sectors, and Regional Governance

Post by chimericoncogene »

LadyTevar wrote: 2020-12-13 02:47pm Very well thought out, and logical following the "All Roads Lead to Rome" idea.

Now, you mostly talk about military use for these lanes, with states using them to control and expand their area of control. However you've overlooked the biggest use of hyperlanes -- TRADE.
The Great Silk Road didn't go thru Constantinople, across the various 'Stans to India and into China for Military reasons. It was totally for trade goods back and forth. Also, the great trade routes across the Sahara were to move incense and other goods from wadi to wadi, not troops. Even the American Natives had trade routes that followed rivers and valleys, moving flint, shells, and other goods between tribal lands from Mexico to Canada.

The daughter colonies you mentioned would need supplies to set themselves up, and would transport goods back in payment. Sector centers would trade with other Sector heads, goods for goods, rarities for rarities. Coruscant got to the point it depended on daily shipments of food, as they ran out of places to grow or harvest food.

So, imho, the Hyperlanes were not built for military, it was built solely to get goods from one Sector to another in the most time-efficient way.
Oh, certainly - which is why I emphasize "galactic commerce" and "economic control" in the model. Hyperlanes are hardly military infrastructure. But money is power, and Sector Capitals, as the sole access point for their daughter colonies to galactic markets, would readily have leveraged their control over that supply of economic oxygen to maintain economic and political influence over their daughters (such as by enforcing tariffs and sector trade regulations with customs cutters), and grow transshipment, manufacturing and logistics industries.
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Re: What are Sectors? Why do they exist? Exploring Hyperlanes, Sectors, and Regional Governance

Post by Patroklos »

Gandalf wrote: 2020-12-13 06:54pm
LadyTevar wrote: 2020-12-13 02:47pmCoruscant got to the point it depended on daily shipments of food, as they ran out of places to grow or harvest food.
Indeed, the sheer amount of volume that would need to go to and from Coruscant each day would be absurd. Is there a number on Coruscant's population in the new canon?

I would think that the number required would require dedicated routes in and out of the system, unavailable to a whole bunch of civilian traffic.
The import concept was actually kind of stupid. With SWs power capabilities they would have zero problem having entire areas of the planet for hundreds of levels in the underworld devoted to sunless farming enclosures, not to mention the orbital skyhooks. In the end unless they are exporting organic mass from the planet equal to what they bring in, they have everything they need to reprocess their food and other waste into most of their needs. If they are not recycling it, where the hell are they putting it?

The real issue with Courucant is heat. I assume they have some sort of way to shunt it off-world.
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Re: What are Sectors? Why do they exist? Exploring Hyperlanes, Sectors, and Regional Governance

Post by Rogue 9 »

S3E1 of Rebels supports the idea, with the protagonists needing to use a hyperspace waypoint controlled by the Mining Guild, which wanted them to pay the hyperlane toll.
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Re: What are Sectors? Why do they exist? Exploring Hyperlanes, Sectors, and Regional Governance

Post by Knife »

I never liked the idea of 'hyperlane' and prefer to think of them more as the routes between major systems. Big systems trade with other big systems, they need the infrastructure and defenses for large trade. With the big boys running those routes, smaller folks use them as well due to the infrastructure and inherent security as much as possible and then change to smaller routes for smaller areas and such. Like airports that range from major hubs to smaller ones. If you're shipping from Chicago to LA, your freight goes in a 747 and flies direct. But people going to Alaska might also have stuff on that 747 that then gets put on an 737 to Seatle and put on a 727 to Anchorage, then a bush plane to the middle of no where. ( I realize it's not an accurate depiction, just making a gross analogy)
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Re: What are Sectors? Why do they exist? Exploring Hyperlanes, Sectors, and Regional Governance

Post by Adam Reynolds »

Patroklos wrote: 2020-12-13 09:16pm The real issue with Courucant is heat. I assume they have some sort of way to shunt it off-world.
Neutrino generators as a radiator were the idea back from Saxton's ICS books, which would also likely work on Coruscant in addition to capital ships. Though I don't think they are canon anymore.

They also don't really make as much sense in light of the Death Star's exhaust port, as they would not have a weakness, but they are still better than the alternative.
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Re: What are Sectors? Why do they exist? Exploring Hyperlanes, Sectors, and Regional Governance

Post by chimericoncogene »

Adam Reynolds wrote: 2020-12-14 03:16am
Patroklos wrote: 2020-12-13 09:16pm The real issue with Courucant is heat. I assume they have some sort of way to shunt it off-world.
Neutrino generators as a radiator were the idea back from Saxton's ICS books, which would also likely work on Coruscant in addition to capital ships. Though I don't think they are canon anymore.

They also don't really make as much sense in light of the Death Star's exhaust port, as they would not have a weakness, but they are still better than the alternative.
Neutrino radiator makes good sense as a Death Star exhaust port. The exhaust port has to be perfectly straight, unarmored, and unshielded, because AFAIK you cannot bend neutrino beams easily, let alone exaton/second neutrino exhaust carrying the waste heat of a zettaton planet killer. Neutrinos don't interact much, but a zettaton's worth will definitely blow you up if they hit an armor bulkhead on the way out. There's even an xkcd.

As for why the neutrinos were collimated in the first place... eh, whatever.
Patroklos wrote: 2020-12-13 09:16pm The import concept was actually kind of stupid.
Oh hell yes, totally. With five klicks of citydeck and five meter tall floors, population density can be as low as 1,000 people per square kilometer (modern Jiangsu Province with Shanghai, rice paddies and everything) and you can still end up with five hundred trillion inhabitants.
Knife wrote: 2020-12-14 12:13am routes between major systems. Big systems trade with other big systems, they need the infrastructure and defenses for large trade. With the big boys running those routes, smaller folks use them as well due to the infrastructure and inherent security as much as possible and then change to smaller routes for smaller areas and such
Oh yes. The implication is that off route travel (or travel along those smaller hyperlanes) is more difficult, slower, more dangerous and more expensive than on route travel (doable for the military armada with giant sensor ships, legions of probe droids and starfighters, and three tankers for every warship, maybe also easy for the lucky smuggler with giant sensor dishes, nerves of steel and/or secret maps shared in seedy bars).

Also, with this kind of setup, hubs gain substantial economic and political power over their spokes, especially if alternate routes are relatively expensive or difficult. This forms a reasonable basis for regional government, e.g Sectors. The existance of a hub and spoke network of hyperlanes segues into a sector concept quite well - a sector is one group of spokes in economic thrall to a hub. The hub may have been there first because it was settled first historically, or grew into a hub because it was the richest and had the most traffic. Either way, it can exert control over its spokes, and organically can become a unit of governance.

This may well the link between hyperlanes and sectors - they are part of the same phenomenon. Sectors are built on hyperlane hub-spoke economic networks, and hyperlane hubs maintain the growth and power of Sector governments and Sector-centric economies, which in turn maintain those hubs and spokes.
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Re: What are Sectors? Why do they exist? Exploring Hyperlanes, Sectors, and Regional Governance

Post by chimericoncogene »

Hyperlanes are hardly fixed. Changes in the economic center of gravity (and BDZs and history and stuff) can change where the hub and spoke is, as can projects to map new trade routes. As the hyperlanes shift, so will the Sectors, and as the Sectors shift, so will the hyperlanes.

But economic and political centers and infrastructure have their own historical inertia, which can sometimes be as substantial as the inertia of the planets and stars on which these polities are built. Jehrico has been populated for six thousand years, London for two thousand. Of course, none have been nuked yet, but Hiroshima's still here.

Consider Tatooine, which remains an important transport and (criminal) governance hub despite some sort of calamity millennia ago. Because it sat on a major hyperlane, and still had tenuous spokes and easy access to galactic markets. It was once some sort of Sector capital, now it's the capital of a Hutt fiefdom.

Terrestrial nations are prisoners of geography to a certain extent. Similarly, interstellar nations are prisoners of the geography of galactic commerce, which is etched into the structure of hyperlane networks.
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Re: What are Sectors? Why do they exist? Exploring Hyperlanes, Sectors, and Regional Governance

Post by Paolo »

Find this approach very intriguing. If maximum safe speeds in hyperspace correlate to and magnify gross differences in interstellar medium, I can certainly imagine the vast investment in institution and infrastructure needed to support “hyperspace cartography.” Getting real time, galactic wide data on astronomical fixes for really dense celestial structures like stars would be difficult enough. You might have to litter space with with hundreds of quadrillions of probes to get cubic light week resolution.
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