Faster-Than-Light (FTL) travel was discovered in the late 21st Century, but there is no FTL communication, so star systems are still connected similarly to the 18th-century days of sail, with message-drones and ships carrying data and people between stars, often taking days, weeks, or even months for flights. Explorers might be out of touch for many months. Thousands of star systems and planets have been explored, and some have been partially terraformed. The dominant cultures out among the stars are the descendants from former British Colonies, but there are scattered colonies from various other places as well.A supernova at Eta Carinae disrupted subspace enough that FTL was shut down for several centuries, and each terraformed planet (and planets that were still very much “in progress”) and colony had to survive (or not) on its own. This was known as “the deep dark” or “the big blackout”, as well as by several other names. Places still inaccessible are often referred to as being “in the dark”
