The Beyond Sector/T5SS-Atlas/RSDT-Allarton Survey
Background: RSDT-Allarton Survey[edit]
In the period between the beginning of Imperial explorations into Zhodani territory in 500 and the start of the First Frontier War in 589, the Imperial Interstellar Scout Service made a Class I survey of the region known as the Spinward Extents, comprising the Sectors today called the Vanguard Reaches and The Beyond. Largely a record of stellar types and superficial system data, this survey went into little detail and discovered no significant minor races. This first survey was used as a basis for information gathering by the Allarton Corporation in the early 900's. The Corporation's records continued to expand until, along with the Travellers' Aid Society, they were commissioned to do a full-scale Class V survey of the entire region by Grand Duke Ardesh Varen in the year 946. The fledgling Royal Scouts of the Duchy of Trelyn (RSDT) were also enlisted to aid in this task, and between the Scouts, the TAS and the Allarton Corporation, the project fell apart.
The final survey, as published, was a cornucopia of hearsay, legends, rumors and fabrications. Wild tales of ringworlds, sphereworlds, rosettes and a few nonexistent companies were presented as authoritative data. The TAS Survey was such a compilation of misinformation that learned starfarers attempted to obtain the Allarton records of the early 900's, which were much more reliable. Years after the publication of the TAS survey, Grand Duke Laram commissioned a new survey by the Royal Scouts to include their own experience and new techniques from the IISS. The current data in the main article of this library entry, published during the reign of the current Grand Duchess Lissa Dyana, is from the updated RSDT Survey of the Spinward Extents. It easily sets new benchmarks for surveys of the area, and these data are as complete as the most recent Imperial surveys.
Original RSDT-Allarton Survey Data[edit]
Data from the original RSDT-Allarton Survey is provided below in order to clarify the origin of the sources of many of the strange tales and legends that are propagated about the Spinward Extents and its environs, and for the sake of a complete record of all data that has been collected and compiled on these sectors, regardless of its supposed level of veracity. Travellers are urged to regard any information listed below as unreliable and likely spurious. Please use caution and discretion when referencing its content.
The dark/absorption nebulae amidst the stars of this subsector that gives the "Darkling Regions" its name caused the initial Allarton Corporation survey to encounter various methodological difficulties with its attempt at an initial survey, as well as a plague of recurring jump difficulties. Further, the survey teams encountered opposition from the Floriani due to the fact that the majority of the stars systems that lie within the boundaries of the nebula regions fell within a zone undergoing colonization by the Florian League. As a result, the subsector survey was never completed prior to publication of the Allarton Survey Data. This lack of data is often misinterpreted by users of the old survey data as a lack of star-systems within Darkling Nebula proper of the Darkling Regions, when in fact it is merely a lack of data in the survey material.