This guide is an introduction to the lore of Cosmoteer, as of version 0.27.2. Most of the information from this guide is taken from Ship descriptions and the Codex.


Cosmoteer most likely takes place in the Milky Way, due to the Sol system and Earth being mentioned in Centauri, Monolith, and Cabal Codexes.
The date of Cosmoteer's events is placed 300 years from today, which if counted from the game's release date, is the year 2322 (Source: Moderator's comment in a Discussion titled "Timeframe").

The Monolith Cooperative started as a mining corporation (Called the Armstrong Mining Cooperative) in the Sol system. They were the first to discover an ancient relic of an extinct civilization two hundred years before the events of the game. Once the monolith was decoded, it was discovered that it conatined the knowledge of Hyperdrives. This head start was enough for the corporation to dominate their competitors, and soon the Monolith Cooperative became the biggest industrial company in history.

Initially, the corporation's military was for defensive purposes, but as it grew, so did the corporation's willingness to use it for more sinister things. Their tactic was to force colonies to pay for the corporation's overpriced necessities uning thier supposedly defensive fleets by blockading competitors. When the colony inevitably went bankrupt, the Monolith Corporation stepped in and provided discounted police and administrative services (That were of course, theirs), in exchange for a large tax of the colony's income.

The second part of the corporation's name comes from the fact that the company has always, and still is, fully employee owned. No single person owns more than 0.1% of the company, and no shares have been traded. The company has good pay, fair treatment, and a quality of life exeeding the galactic average. The catch is however, that only 5% of the population under Monolith governance are employed, and many of are due to nepotism. Furthermore, much of the population in Monolith borders live in extreme poverty, and wealth inequality is among the highest in the whole galaxy. Even on Cooperative stations, many live in poverty, and face starvation and gangs.

The Cooperative has probably the most competing sub-companies of all factions, which often results in corporate espionage, combany buyouts, and unconventional ships. Monolith combat ships are usually painted in colours of white, & light and dark blue, while civilian ships are painted in shades of black, grey and white, or brown, black, and light brown.

The Cabal of Sol is a religious nation-state, worshipping that stars are gods, and provide energy for life. They specifially worship Earth's star, claiming that it created Humanity and the ancient civilization that built the Monolith.

The Cabal government and religion are practically inseparable. A council of 12 High Priests of Sol decide all the laws, which then are enforced by other priests and clerics. The government also provides social services, and a universal basic income. These policies have encouraged immigration to the nation, which is boosted by an open immigration policy, as long as the immigrant converts to the religion. Some stations (More specifically Elysium class stations) host refugee camps, and are usually the best picks for getting a citizenship, and are also perfect if you want to see indoctrination, and a total intolerance to anything other than the Cabal dogma.

There are rumors that the Cabal of Sol was directly responsible for the destruction of Sol, and the deaths of billions of people. If the rumors are to be believed, the Cabal were developing advanced hyperdrive and shield technologies to be able to jump into the core of a star, where it's secrets are supposed to be. However when this was attempted on Earth's star, Sol was instead destroyed, along with Earth, and the whole Sol system. Regardless, almost all the Cabal's scientific might for the 50 years since Sol's destruction has been focused on reigniting the star's dead core.

The Cabal's research on stars has also helped with research on energy weapons, which means they are widely used on Cabal ships.

Cabal ships also use curves and circles, and are painted with colourful paint. This has led to many tourists visiting the Cabal of Sol, and even a proven 12.8% increase in survivability in fights than their equivalents.

The Centuari Imperium is one of the most powerful states in the galaxy, managing to conquer nearly half of the known galaxy in fifty years. This empire originates in the Centaurus Constellation, which gained independence after the destruction of Earth.

The Imperium operates in a unique way compared to other factions. Instead of a dedicated few who vote on laws and other things, it's the citizens that vote. Even on important decisions, like accepting terms of surrender, it's the citizens that vote. As such, people feel the need to stay up-to-date on various issues and news, and civic engagement is high. The Imperium also lacks a head of state, and any significant power is usually held by celebrities, or people who can influence other people to vote in a particular way.

The military operates in a more independent manner than other factions' militaries. Each ship is an independent entity, able to make it's own tactical decisions, constrained only by the few rules of combat the imperium has. Larger strategic objectives, like capitulating a star system, are coordinated via bounties, authorized by the citizenry. These objectives are accomplished by temporary fleets formed by individual ships. Sometimes, these fleets will compete for a single bounty, in these cases, the citizens act as the final arbiter.

Citizenship of the Centauri Imperium is only granted to people who were living in the Imperium when it was formed, or to people whose parents are both Centauri citizens. Exeptions must be approved by a vote, which makes foreigners being granted citizenship extremly rare. This results in the vast majority of the population having no autonomy or self-governance, and they are usually ruled with an iron fist.

Due to the Imperium's rapid success, many have tried to desert and bargain for citizenship with stolen blueprints, and even though there have been no public examples of citizenship being granted, foreign ship designs sometimes end up in the hands of the Centauri military.

Almost all ships made by the Imperium are rotated 45 degrees relative to the standard grid. Centauri combat ships are usually painted with red, dark and light blue, and black, while civilian ships use black, grey, and white, or black, light and dark blue, and white.

Unlike most other freighters, Imperium transport vessels are usually armed with nukes, and designers have an unusually deterrence-themed outlook on designing these ships.

It is known that Centauri ships sometimes stream their battles to the citizenry of the Imperium.

The Fringe Systems Resistance are usually located on the edges of a galaxy, or between major powers. The quality of life inside these systems is low, and population is sparse. The Fringe systems have no shared laws, or even government, instead these tasks are left to the stations and settlements in a given area. Due to this, piracy in these systems runs rampant.

While one could think that the Fringe systems are in some sort of treaty with each other, this isn't really the case. Instead these systems are more unified in hostility towards the other factions (Especially the Monolith Cooperative), and cooperate mostly out of necessity, rather than choice.

Fringe ships are usually asymmetric, and jagged. Paint on these ships is often rusted and faded, and symbols painted onto the hull aren't rare.

The Terran Union was the original nation, that all of the factions now come from. It came to an end 50 years before the events of Cosmoteer.

The nation's downfall was most likely caused by the destruction of the Sol system's sun, which destroyed the capital - Earth. Some people theorize that the Cabal; A secret cult back then, was responsible for Sol's destruction.


There isn't much known about the ancient civilization that once existed in the Sol system. They created the Armstrong Monolith, the one that was discovered by the Cooperative, and also all of the hyperjump gates.

Their planet orbited between Mars, and Jupiter. Some speculate that it was destroyed using (Or rather the misuse) Hyperdrives.