Aiah

Far beyond the clustered stars of Cosmoria, Aiah stands alone before the void. Its cold surface plays host to naught but ice and dust. Lit by nothing, the ancient world has drifted alone since the beginning, and will continue for the rest of time, accompanied by a dark secret.

History

Aiah is almost as old as the universe itself, forming from an anomalous clumping of heavy metals before even the formation of the first stars. At the time of its formation, the background temperature of the universe was warm enough for water to survive on the surface of the planet, but this froze over before life could begin to evolve. However, life rapidly evolved beneath the frozen surface of the water, beginning as simple bacteria and rapidly evolving among Aiah's hydrothermal vents.

Billions of years later, the planet was found by an explorer from the newly rebuilt nation of Sarepha after the nation had finally stabilized itself in its new homeland. Distant enough in the extragalactic void from any other star, it never played host to any true colony, beyond ephemeral nomadic groups who wished to live beyond the reach of the Saiheran Crown.

This remoteness made Aiah a perfect site for Princess Zelera Atherian's secret base at the beginning of the War of Saiheran Succession, known as the Turkana Installation. The nomadic Selesi who were living there at the time swore to secrecy, and helped guard the station while Zelera's primary fleet was in Florathel proper during the war. The Turkana Installation survived a great many attempts to find it throughout the long war, and served as the staging ground for many a pivotal operation. The installation was heavily damaged by Prince Sais' fleet near the close of the war at the Battle of Aiah, and would have been destroyed were it not for Zelera's flight to Dimostah to end the feud.

After the end of the war, the Turkana Installation was refurbished by Queen Thoroa's decree and declared Starbase Turkana. The new infrastructure being assembled around it begun a new initiative to colonize the distant world and extend the reach of the Kingdom of Sarepha. The colony grew out of the new Starbase Turkana's underground facilities and onto the frozen surface, blossoming in population.

But its contribution to history would not end there. Kramos Yanorian, a scientist who emigrated to Aiah after the war, made a disturbing discovery. She found a specimen of a previously unknown species, buried in the rock-hard Aian ice. Taking it back to her lab in order to research it, she saw the specimen, seemingly dead for hundreds of thousands of years, stand up. Surrounded by an expanding cloud of thin black dust, it marched toward her, and Kramos Yanorian was never seen or heard from again. The colony town of Setenet begun to report incidences of a bizarre black mold growing in impossible places, spreading from Yanorian's locked down lab. The mold began to affect Yanorian's neighbors, slowly devouring their bodies and replacing them with black constructs. The town's surviving populace placed Setenet under absolute quarantine, ordering the defense systems to use lethal force against any craft approaching. The last transmissions reported much of the population turned to madness, with alien eyes and flickering personalities between the friends they knew and cunning, monstrous beings calling themselves the Talak'talan in stilted voices almost as if learning how to speak.

Starbase Turkana was ordered to destroy the colony as completely as possible. Setenet vanished in a blinding sphere of plasma, and the surrounding colonies breathed a sigh of relief, believing that the Talak'talan would not threaten them further. But a tiny craft was sighted fleeing the fireball into space before vanishing into the void. This craft has not been sighted since, but it may bring disaster to Cosmoria if it is found.