My main criteria for the creation of this map (and all the others that I intend to create) was to address my own issues with the new Star Trek Star Charts book by Geoffrey Mandel. He put so much effort into research and cross-referencing each race name, star position and major affiliation that I’m very appreciative and not about to disregard the majority of his work.
However, I do have problems with how close certain objects were placed to each other and where certain empires were placed on the map, although the latter has more to do with my own Star Fleet Battles background than any fault on Mr. Mandel’s part.
So, to satisfy my own desires I have used the work of both Mandel and Christian Rühl on which to base my own Star Trek Universe on.
TOS Races
Anyone familiar with the layout of the various empires from Star Fleet battles will no doubt recognise that map has been twisted onto its left side, to fit all the races into what is generally accepted in fandom as ‘the Beta Quadrant’. The Gorn are next to the Romulans, the Lyrans and Mirak are against each other and the Klingons, and the Hydrans are on the far side of the Klingon Empire, also bordering the Lyrans.
The major exception to this rule is the Tholians. I had originally put them into their spot between the Klingons, Romulans, and Federation, but if they are continuing to be a major—if sidelined—antagonistic power well into the 24th century, acquiring more territory, then they have to have room to grow. They were placed so that they had a border with both the Klingons (“because any Klingon civil war would eventually involve the Tholians” – Ambassador K`Ehleyr, TNG:Reunion) and the Federation (the Enterprise/Defiant Incident of TOS:The Tholian Web and the Tholians attacking a Federation starbase in 2353 from TNG:The Icarus Factor), and have a free space border for them to expand.
TNG Races
The Cardassians, Ferengi, and all the Alpha Quadrant powers of the TNG Era had to be put further away than Mandel’s book showed them, otherwise the Federation would have encountered them far sooner. There is even a line in DS9:Trials and Tribble-ations that states the Defiant now near Deep Space Station K-7 is “200 light-years” from it’s previous location near Deep Space Nine/Bajor/Cardassia. So, I moved the Cardassian border that much further away, but preserved the general layout of the powers in relation to each other as given in Mandel’s book.
Andor/Andoria
Andor is and always has been Andor for me, but I can accept Andoria as another name for the planet in the same vein as Earth/Terra, Vulcan/Vulcanis, and Qo'noS/Klinzhai. Also, Andor has always been in the Epsilon Indii star system for me, not Procyon.
ch’Rihan and ch’Havran/Romulus and Remus
I’ve moved the Romulan homeworlds closer, to just over 20 light-years away, as the Romulans are Humanity’s first alien enemy. I have moved into accepting that the Romulans had warp speed, just not warp power. Instead, they use fusion reactors like Enterprise’s impulse engines to power their warp drive. Thus, their ships are much slower as a result and easily outrun by the antimatter-powered, dilithium-focused Enterprise, but they can still go at warp speed. I can’t say what Jaeih thinks of this, but I’m still waiting on her reply. *grin*
Romii
I am taking Spock at his word and believing that Romulus and Remus are the Romulan homeworlds, and stating further that they are in the same star system. Romii I am assuming to be the first colony world the Romulans settled on, and in the place seen on the map.
The Romulan Neutral Zone
I have preserved the original map as seen in TOS:Balance of Terror and kept the locations of Romulus, Romii, the visible border, and the Earth Outposts in their original spots. I reject the idea that the Zone itself is a flattened egg-shape as apparently shown in 'Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan' and almost completely encloses the Romulans as shown in the Star Charts, as it gives them no room to expand. The extent of the Neutral Zone that you see on my large “local space” maps is all that was originally negotiated between Earth and the Romulans. They can grow, as long as they grow ‘away’ from Earth & Co.
Qo’noS/Klinzhai
The Klingon homeworld as described in John M. Ford’s book The Final Reflection was a full year away from Earth at sustained warp 4.5, the fastest you can go without dilithium crystals. That means Geoffrey Mandel’s placement of the Klingon homeworld is spot-on, I.M.O., at roughly 90 light-years away.
The Metrons
The Metrons obviously have to be close to the Gorn, but I wasn’t happy with where Mandel had put them. So, The Gorn got shifted next to the Romulans as per SFB and thus the Metrons followed them.
The First Federation
The First Federation has to be where the Enterprise is "…the first to reach this far." (Mr. Spock, TOS:The Corbomite Maneuver), thus if Fleet Captain Garth is from Izar and been in Starfleet during the 2250's, the First Federation obviously cannot be between Earth and Izar. So, since they are enountered less than a year before the Gorn, they have to be in the same general area, just not as far. Thus, my placement of the First Federation was secured in the as-yet unexplored region between Federation, Romulan, and Gorn space.
Betazed
In DS9, it was revealed that the invasion of Betazed put the founding member worlds at risk, and that Betazed was "close" to the "nearby" systems of Andor, Vulcan, Alpha Centauri, and Tellar. Now, "close" and "nearby" in my book doesn’t extend to a distance of 60 light-years, when all the aforementioned systems are closer than 15 light-years apart. So, Betazed is now located close to Vulcan. It was encountered fairly early on, but didn’t join the Federation for some time.
Talos IV and Starbase 11
Since Pike’s Enterprise was heading towards the Federation’s Vega Colony for medical assistance when it intercepted the distress call from Talos, I’ve put them much closer together than the 80 or so light-years Mandel has them at.
When Kirk’s Enterprise heads back to Talos from Starbase 11, it’s 6 days at maximum warp, so Starbase 11 is in this area too.
Sigma Iotia & C-111 Beta III
Christian Rühl has Sigma Iotia (TOS:A Piece of the Action) some 600-plus light-years from Earth. This is daft, as it doesn’t take into account the slow speed of the early UFP ships. Not only that, but there is the even more basic truth that the USS Horizon only had normal-space radio and Starfleet just received the distress call "last month". It is also stated that the postion of Sigma Iotia is "a hundred light-years outside Federation space" of the 2260's, which does allow a wide range of interpretation. Therefore, I have placed Sigma Iotia at around 300 light-years from Earth.
As for star system C-111 planet Beta III (TOS:Return of the Archons), no such qualifying statements are made about distance. However, the same 'been missing for a hundred years and we only received the distress call recently' reason was offered up for this system, so I have placed it at around 100 light-years from Earth, as a tight-beam transmission would have been directed to the newly-formed Starfleet Headquarters on Earth at the time of the Archon's demise.
If there are other questions about placement, leave them on the Tagboard up front or drop me an e-mail and I’ll update this page.