1. The Big Picture:
Humanity leaves behind a dying Earth to find sanctuary among the stars and reestablish and recreate their civilization.
2. The Bookends
- LIGHT: Previously unheralded cooperation leads to successful establishment of new civilization on various outposts.
- DARK: Internecine rivalries, power struggles, and conflict lead to excessive resource consumption and warfare that caused the exodus in the first place.
3. Palette
YES:
- Magic. Not as something that is extant at first or deeply explored, but some type of naturally occurring phenomenon.
NO:
- Instantaneous FTL. Travel outside of the cluster must be difficult. Limited FTL is ok, accompanied by cryo.