Naming Conventions

Human civilization comprises an incomprehensible number of peoples and societies. As people spread out across space, they develop new cultures and technologies, influenced by the unique circumstances they encounter.

In the earliest days of interplanetary and interstellar travel, several entities attempted to establish standardized systems of coordinates, timekeeping, and other conventions that would be maintained across changing and ever more isolating cultures. Though these efforts failed in their specific efforts, humanity has naturally developed a few standardized systems that are maintained for the sake of universal interaction, though they may be replaced locally for more preferred methods.

Many interaction interfaces and other information transfer software maintain databases of all relevant terminology systems, translating them seamlessly as needed.

Timekeeping

Despite every world having its own separate day and year length, and with large populations living entirely in space, a baseline standardized timekeeping system has nevertheless become established from the roots of the original system used by humanity. 60 seconds in a minute, 60 minutes in an hour, 24 hours in a day, 365 days in a year.

The current age is the Foundation Age, which was established with year 0 FA as the year of the first successful warp drive flight. Each Foundation Age year is 365 days based on the standardized calendar. Years before the Foundation Age are simply given a negative notation, such as the year -35 FA referring to 35 years before year 0 FA.

Before the Foundation Age was established most of civilization used the Clerical Calendar, of which the current year 352 FA is 2503 C.C. A handful of societies continue to use this dating system, which remains the second most common.

Coordinate system

A common baseline coordinate system uses a 3-dimensional cartesian X-Y-Z grid of one lightyear increments to refer to general positions in space. Each 1ly cube is referred to as a sector. The grid system is centered on the Home System, with the X-axis through galactic center, Y axis in the direction of galactic rotation, and Z-axis perpendicular to the galactic plane.

For both written and verbal communication, each axis has a designation for its positive half and negative half, used to refer to 3-dimensional locations in space in a more streamlined format rather than written mathematical notation.

For each axis, the positive notation begins with a letter near the beginning of the alphabet while the negative has a letter from near the end:

Positive X-axis - Alta

Negative X-axis - Taia

Positive Y-axis - Baura

Negative Y-axis - Yirgo

Positive Z-axis - Deltus

Negative Z-axis - Zega

Considering the sector (-25,173,-18), with this system this sector would be notated as:

And spoken as:

This particular sector lies 176 lightyears from Home. Sectors can also use decimal notation as well, though the coordinate system overall is intended only for general reference locations and not precise positions.

This notation also divides space into eight octants. The star system above lies in the Taia-Baura-Zega octant.

Planetary Properties

For celestial bodies, masses and units of size are often expressed as factors of familiar objects.

The planet Home, the homeworld of humanity, has a mass of approximately 5.97x1024 kilograms, and a mean radius of around 6370 kilometers. These values are known as “standard” measurements, and other planetary bodies may be represented with their mass, radius, or and units expressed as a factor of these values.

Similarly, the planet Jovia is a gas giant world in the outer Home system. It has a mass of approximately 1.9x1027 kilograms, and a mean radius close to 69,900 kilometers. The properties of other gas worlds are often expressed as a factor of these values known as Jovian units, abbreviated as Jov.

Stars

The measurements of Sun, the star of the Home system, may also be used as a baseline to express the values of other stars, notated with the subscript Sun. However stellar characteristics are more generally expressed using a classification known as the MK system. In the MK system a letter designates the general temperature class of the star, each of which is further subdivided into its own range of temperatures notated with a number. The luminosity of the star is notated with a letter-numeral digit.