Created by Captain Michael Turlogh Kane on Nov 13, 2016 @ 3:13pm

THE ALPHA QUADRANT

The ALPHA QUADRANT is the common designation for one-quarter of the explored galaxy. It is the quadrant in which the United Federation of Planets is located, and is the most densely-populated and well-explored part of the Milky Way galaxy. The Federation's power and influence are centred here, and its lights are brightest in this quadrant of space.

The boundaries of the four quadrants were redrawn by Federation astronomers in the late twenty-fourth century to make it easier to understand borders in a three-dimensional galaxy. Using the Terran star system as a central reference point, they divided the galaxy into quarters, circumventing other boundary points (such as the Milky Way's spiral arms) to create a map of the known galaxy.

As well as the Federation with its dozens of member worlds and teeming trillions of citizens, the Alpha Quadrant is also home to the powerful Romulan Star Empire, the rebuilding Klingon Empire, the rising Orion Syndicate, the New Ferengi Alliance, the declining Cardassian Union, the mysterious Tholian Assembly, and the isolationist Breen Confederacy. It is also the location of many independent worlds, and also includes lawless areas of space like the Badlands and the Triangle.

The Alpha Quadrant is linked to the Gamma Quadrant through the Bajoran Wormhole, the only stable wormhole known to exist anywhere in the universe.