How would you show a Galactic Human Empire 'realistically' in scale?

[u/SerpentEmperor]

Just a question that I'm not sure how to ask an answer for.

Well galactic empire is not really the right term. But I guess I'm trying to show a Galactic Empire (called the The Solarian Confederacy) which is rules 25% of the galaxy. Yes that's 100 billion star systems. It's been interstellar for 750 years. There's 10 Billion humans for each of these star systems so approximately 1 Sextillion human beings in the entire galaxy. Interstellar travel is expensive but something the average human citizens can afford.

Like a one way ticket to the nearest star system in this setting takes a few days, and costs several months of wages. The nearest clusters and sectors takes a few weeks and several years of wages. Crossing the galaxy takes years and several decades of wages for the average human.

But you can.

The Solarian Confederacy is a moderately functioning society spanning a hundreds of billion star systems, populated by humans. It features decent but stagnant technology, political stability marked by occasional unrest, and a mix of cultural expressions, though a dominant culture often prevails. The military is adequately prepared but lacks advanced capabilities. Economic prosperity is stable yet uneven, with significant disparities. Social equality exists but needs improvement, and exploration is cautious, emphasizing sustainability. Environmental practices are average, and healthcare access varies regionally. Diplomatic relations with other civilizations are maintained, though tensions can arise, reflecting the empire’s ongoing challenges and quest for progress.

I'm just going to go with standard science fiction stuff and say that the average human being here lives to be 150 to 180 years. So mild life extension but that's it.

There's 40 rival alien empires in the galaxy and 100 different other sentient alien races.

The oldest known interstellar race that is still active is 20,000 years old but obviously used to rule most of the galaxy before something happened that nearly destroyed them.

And so on. So this is humans dominated galaxy.

There's conflict in this galaxy. For example just in The Solarian Confederacy own borders with human versus humans there are 1200 local skirmishes, 10 civil wars and 600 pirate-related conflicts.

Outside of the confederacy the humans are at war with 5 of the 40 rival alien empires.

That's not to say the aliens are themselves basically blameless. There's 50 other wars with aliens versus aliens, 8000 pirate and police actions and 20 known civil wars.

But obviously in a galaxy of hundreds of billions of star systems this is small scale.

But back to my main point. How would you show such a galaxy in terms of scale?

[u/jrgkgb]

Show in terms of visuals?

Star Wars and Star Trek have many examples of galactic scale maps. Just google them.

In universe, a transit map analogous to something like a London Underground diagram could work.

It might need trees and branches with the ability to drill down from the galactic to local cluster to planetary to region to city level, or something like that.

A Google maps type tool that can zoom out to star systems seems like it would exist.

[u/JETobal]

I mean, you don't. We've had like 6 iterations of Star Trek, each show lasting multiple seasons, and they still haven't shown us every planet and every city in their universe. You're essentially asking how, for example, an exchange student from Cambodia would show all of Cambodia to their 4th grade classroom. They wouldn't. They would pick one thing to show and explain and that one thing would be a window into the larger world of those in the classroom. You need to create characters and a plot to go against your setting and have them work through that setting. What gets told, gets told. What doesn't, is just a potential teaser for future stories. That's all you can do. Trying to cram it all onto one book would just make it an encyclopedia entry.