Star

Stars in Solar Storms are not often classified in the normal manner of the 20th century. The Three Empires have had other priorities during their conquest of the Milky Way than simply determining a star's spectral type, and mass, metallicity, and variables are far more important. Thus, the dwarf-giant phrasing is used more often than classifying spectral type or emission lines (beyond distinguishing population I from population II).

For the most part, the most common and largest stars translate fairly well - in concept if not exact meaning.

• Brown dwarfs are rarely considered to be stars. They are Jovian-like planets that are massive enough to fuse deuterium and sometimes lithium, but not normal hydrogen. They have between roughly 13 and 80 or so Jupiter masses.
• Red dwarfs are sometimes not considered true stars. Unable to fuse helium, they only range up to about .4 solar masses. When planets form inside their temperate zone, they are quickly tidally locked, preventing many of the cycles so necessary for the evolution of complex life.
• White dwarfs are dead stars, often little more than giant balls of carbon, nitrogen and oxygen that are slowly cooling into invisibility.
• Neutron stars are another form of dead star. Quark stars, preon stars, pulsars, and magnetars are all considered to be subsets of this 'class', though the former two have technically undergone yet further collapse. These stars are often used as reference points.
• Supergiants are those stars which possess an excess of about eight solar masses. This is slightly less massive than the 20th century definition, the cutoff point being the capability to undergo supernova.
• Hypergiants are often translated as 'beacon stars' when the literal meaning is converted into English. Like pulsars, they are often visible across the entire Galaxy, and thus used as reference points. For most spacefarers in the Galaxy, the difference between hypergiant and supergiant is solely a matter of luminosity - if it's bright enough to be seen from the other side of the Galaxy, it suits.
• Metal poor or population II stars are also frequently referenced, usually translated literally as 'worldless'. Although a rare few do have jovian planets orbiting them, these are likewise rather bland worlds, often appearing as featureless blue orbs. Due to their extreme age, they generally have between .5 and .8 solar masses.
• Dreadstars are another class of 'forbidden' systems. Most of them once belonged to the Renlai and Sorenen civilizations, and are either a result of various experiments, highly defended installations, or cataclysms in their individual wars with the First. The Hellskearn, where Sol was previously located, is considered one such dreadstar, even if the star itself is no longer present. The systems hosting the seven dreadskearns are also sometimes considered such, though the Procyon Concord eliminates most of the threat these systems pose.

For various reasons, the above are rarely colonized or settled. The smallest cannot support a stargate, while the largest output intense radiation that only the heaviest shielding can block, and even the minor eruptions these massive stars produce can be devastating, to say nothing of the final supernova. Those that possess worlds are almost universally inhospitable, and those that do not have nothing of value.

Due to their lack of a theocracy inhibiting technological progress and application, humans frequently have bases or outposts near these stars. Many have personal havens tended to by artificial sapiences which only they, and sometimes their closest friends, know about.

With the above removed, those stars that remain make up the majority of the Dyrajt, Thireshi, and Khavene holdings. This still represents over a hundred and fifty billion stars, however, though barely a tenth of a percent see much utilization. The rest have, at best, a single beacon staking a territory claim, as those worlds that exist around them are too difficult to terraform. Most of these systems lie in a ring about twenty-five thousand light-years from the center of the Galaxy. The ring itself is about five thousand light-years thick, varying significantly at points.