Spirits and ghosts have begun to make their way through the rumor mills once more, and with a prevalence that cannot be overlooked. Ancient legends find their place in the conversations at bars, some poor soul claiming his hauler got eaten by a dragon come from the ground or some such, or to have seen a ghost ship, or have been swarmed by a clot of wraiths on the trade lane and managed to escape in a pod. Many stories, maybe even some true ones.

In recent years, deposits of a peculiar, prospectors began to discover deposits of a previously undiscovered mineral on certain planets. Such planets typically teemed with life, and lacked heavy urban development. The deposits would be found in the forest or deep in a mushroom grove of many glowing colors, itself within a cave. At the floor of an ocean world, and some gas giants have even begun to give strange readings.

The mineral seems to be some kind of crystallized energy, though scientists are still trying to figure out how to work with it.