File:Human Sphere Map.png

General information[edit | edit source]

A semi-abstract astrographic map of the Human Sphere. See that page for a full description and information on the systems and colonies shown. The Cartography page also has some relevant general information.

For a searchable PDF version, see File:Human Sphere PDF.pdf.

For a full list of the systems on the map, including the real-life names of systems with actual stars assigned, see this table.

Caveats[edit | edit source]

• The map is an attempt to combine the best bits of Halo lore and real-life astronomy in ways that make sense. All deviations from Halo canon are made deliberately, either for worldbuilding/cohesion or presentation reasons.

• The star locations are skewed by the flattening of 3D space into a 2D plane, and relative distances between stars are increasingly inaccurate the further one goes from Sol. All star locations on the map are depicted relative to their distance from Earth and ignore elevation, i.e. declination. However, all stars should mostly be in the right direction relative to Sol. As a result, some stars shown on the map as being far apart can in truth be close to one another, and vice versa. However, all stars within a sector can be assumed to be reasonably close to one another.

• The colored slices make up distinct clusters of colonies generally identified as regions. Unless inter-regional connections are shown on the map, it can generally be assumed that colonies in two neighboring but distinct regions are not spatially proximate to one another; the more extreme the elevation difference, the more extreme their spatial separation.

• Though the Sectors are depicted as perfect slices of a circle, this is an abstraction for presentation reasons. Most of the sectors encompass areas of space that are in reality far more amorphous. In 3D space, the sectors' exact shape and size varies, and they can be represented in various ways. Interstellar navigators use holographic 3D models which provide a more accurate picture.

• I relocated Harvest from Epsilon Indi to a made-up system, Heimdall, which for now hasn't been assigned to a real star. I know slipspace can skew real-world distances, but I like to keep the astrography at least somewhat consistent, and throwing out all the rules with real-world distances makes things a lot less appealing.

• Likewise, Procyon is relocated to a system I called Peloponnesus, which at the moment hasn't been assigned to a real star. Like Harvest, this was done because Procyon is practically next door to Earth in the greater scheme of things, and it stretches credibility that the Covenant would hit places so close in the first years of the war, on top of those places being regarded as outer colonies.

• Sigma Octanus is an oddity. "Sigma Octantis" is a real star, but it's 281 LY away and doesn't make so much sense as an Inner Colony, plus the star type doesn't match with TFoR. As I couldn't find any stars in the Octans constellation that made sense, I just made the location up while still keeping it in the general ballpark of the Octans constellation. The name is difficult to make sense out of, but we'll just have to assume there's an interesting story behind it.

• There is an exact distance given in light years for the jump between Cygnus and Biko in one of the adjunct stories shipped with the First Strike reissue, but I had to ignore it because I couldn't conceivably fit Biko in the same region as Cygnus and have it make sense. Namely: I want the Covenant's advance pattern throughout the human sphere to be as coherent as possible, and Biko (attacked in 2526) and Cygnus (attacked in 2552) being in the same neighborhood don't really gel. On top of that, Silent Storm (which is still mostly canon here) puts Biko near a number of outer colonies hit in the first year of the war, which is why I decided to place it in the same general area as Harvest.

Changelog[edit | edit source]

To do[edit | edit source]

• Separate post-war and war-era maps to avoid clutter
• More points of interest?
• Separate icons for types of industry? (i.e. materials extraction vs. end production)

Licensing[edit | edit source]

This image is a map, chart or an infographic created expressly for Project Daybreak or a related project by its author; or, even if the image was originally created for another purpose, its author is involved with the project and thus permits its use therein.