L'Starte

L'Starte is a large white star in Aylathiya. While not so important politically or economically, its small population of one billion can only do so much, L'Starte is immensely ecologically important. L'Starte is a hub of Spaceborne Life, organisms who have adapted to the harsh conditions of space. Ultimately, most life in Aylathiya came from L'Starte, its children spreading to every niche they could. Ma'eau evolved around the star and used its environment to further itself. However, as Ma'eau grew more intelligent, the aesthetic considerations of its creations became more important. Toady, this system is a monument to Ma'eau's creativity. A single drop of water on any of its planets, a cubic centimeter of ice in a comet, or a cubic megameter of space, contains more biodiversity than exists in the rest of Aylathiya, or the universe for that matter.

The ruins from the Triumvirate Civilization, which Ma'eau co-ruled as triumvir, are now nests. Farlas man the only space stations that still function as Ma'eau's stewards and its liaisons with civilization. With Ma'eau rendered unconscious, the Farlas have split into a number of groups with different interpretations of its will. The system's various factions have organized themselves just enough to join the Greater Martial Consilium as the baronies of Royer and Naidaro.

The name of L'Starte (ɛl staɹt) (like el start) is of Naidaran origin as most of the population of this system is Naidaran. Most of the system lives on Nai'Starte, the innermost planet as well as something of a surrogate home world for the Naidarans.

Spaceborne Ecosystem

Every so often, large-scale migrations completely change the space around L'Starte. Whether they are hulking beasts easily confused for asteroids, or near-microscopic worms aimlessly floating about, their migration to L'Starte creates something of a temporary "atmosphere" around the star. It seems these events, called admixtures, serve an evolutionary purpose. Temporarily gathering in one spot creates great opportunities for everything that attends, whether it means more prey or more potential mates. Admixtures make travel through the system impossible, happening about once every fifty years. The admixture cycle is like a pulse, traveling out from an epicenter until, twenty-five years later, L'Starte's denizens live throughout Aylathiya. As though they are pulled by gravity, they meet once more five years later.

Each admixture brings teratons of new organic material into L'Starte's domain. Native Flora build up nectar, pollen, and poisons to survive admixtures. Even so, over 90% of them perish each time. Were one to stand on any of the planets, the night sky would seem to have far more stars than usual. With a telescope, these "stars" are shown to be massive luminous plants using light to communicate. Some of them are more like large mirrors, concentrating light onto a small point to metabolize materials. Some convert the light into electricity, others into heat, and others hate the heat and face their underside toward the star. If there is a way to store light energy for later, a plant orbiting L'Starte has evolved it.

The Prairie

Between Velevev and Callithyia, planets two and three, lies a large asteroid belt called "The Prairie." Between admixture events, the Prairie is the largest hub of activity. Most creatures living in the Prairie produce flowers, whether they are producers or consumers. Even animals, including some pollinators, themselves produce flowers. Ranging in size from the microscopic scale to the size of all but the largest asteroids, The Prairie produces a streak of color in the night skies of L'Starte's worlds.

Since the Ma'eau War, Ma'eau's unconscious mind mostly exists amongst the Prairie. This has lead to an explosion of biodiversity in the region as Ma'eau continues to engineer new lifeforms, many of which make venturing into this belt impossible. Getting to the inner planets from the outer ones requires long paths well out of the reach of The Prairie's ecology. Even before Ma'eau's reinforcement of the region, the density of high-velocity particulates and microbes made travel dangerous.

Organisms

Flora

Anything that takes energy from L'Starte and stores it for later is considered "Flora" which happens to be the vast majority of Spaceborne life in general. Access to such high-energy radiation is a huge boon compared to the filtered weak light on the surfaces of planets.

Below are the broad categories, each one having a common ancestor ranging from one to two billion years ago. The non-flowering ones evolved without Ma'eau's intervention.

Microbes

Sometimes called "Astroplankton," the microbes around L'Starte are completely dominant. If one were to gather all spaceborne biomass into two piles, one of astroplankton and one of macroscopic life, the pile of astroplankton would be one billion time more massive, enough to become a spherical planet unto itself. Ranging in role from photosynthesizers to predators, microbes coat every rock, organism, or spacecraft around L'Starte. They prefer anything to being free-floating, forcing them to hibernate as spores until finding a new place to anchor with.

Photosynthesis Types

Typical photosynthesis, using visible and sometimes ultraviolet light to store chemical energy, is one of the rarest in space. Without ready access to unlimited amounts of matter, such as carbon dioxide, building up chemical energy this way is quite difficult. Some predatory organisms use their prey as material to photosynthesize with. Most photosynthesis types use the full electromagnetic spectrum.

Specule

Large parabolic mirrors with a small organism attached, specules concentrate light into a small area. At the focus of their light are high-energy reactions impossible with conventional biological processes. Most of the energy goes to refining the reflective material they need to reproduce. With access to so much energy, specules can process material normally useless for life. Hair-thin strands form a large magnetic trap behind them, gathering micro-organisms and dust particles. This gathering net is anywhere from a cubic kilometer to ten cubic kilometers in size. Until the mirror is scratched and fill with holes, a specule will produce billions of microscopic spores in the hope they will find a chunk of matter they can themselves make a mirror with.

Flywheel Types

With matter so difficult to come by in space, many organisms have resorted to jealously holding onto as much matter as possible. The solution some species have opted for is rotation. Containing large spinning masses within themselves, these large creatures essentially evolved a flywheel. Many of the more sophisticated types have many smaller flywheels situated throughout their body; slowing and speeding up these wheels allows for precise control over their angular momentum and orientation. Flywheels types were most likely engineered instead of naturally occurring. Flywheel types spin themselves up using a lens to vaporize internal gasses, making them "flora" despite their animal-like dexterity.

Skimmers

One solution to gathering enough matter is to take it from planetary atmospheres, typically gas giants or even dimmer stars. While L'Starte is far too hot to approach, between admixtures, skimmers gather great amounts of material. The largest skimmers descend deep into gas giants like Vossen or Xadio, both home to thriving ecosystems, and, like filter feeders, consume their weight in floating microbes. Some even make multiple passes. In a grey zone between flora and fauna, most skimmers will use the material for photosynthesis.

Fauna

Fauna feed on the abundant plants of the region and also one another. A complex food web, centered on L'Starte, covers most of Aylathiya. Even spacecraft are not safe, such valuable stores of free material and nutrients are highly sought-after.

Scavengers

Another group in the blurry space between flora and fauna, the scavengers are much more active than most flora. There are a lot of dead organisms in space, which make for good food or nests. Scavengers are the most dangerous to spacecraft, some planets even station them in orbit during wartime to make occupying their orbits far more difficult. Almost everything, even plants, are scavengers in this low-matter high-energy environment.

Filtra

Filtra do not rely on sunlight at all and are firmly fauna. Related to the specule types, filtra are small cubes surrounded by hundreds of cubic kilometers of magnetic filaments. They typically go into a state of dormancy during admixtures as the density of material makes this strategy as useless as if it were employed in-atmosphere. Filtra are very common.

Lurka

Lurka are a class of animals uncommon around L'Starte, but many make the long trip between it and Oratorio, another star with much spaceborne life. Lurka are immense quickly-moving organisms specialized in the destruction of other quickly-moving organisms. Of course, even predators take whatever matter they can get. The Lurka evolved the ability to absorb matter through their hull-like skin. Lurka do best in The Prairie but also make spaceflight through there even more dangerous.

Worlds

Nai'Starte

Nai'Starte is the most populous planet in the system with one billion inhabitants. Being a tidally-locked world, Nai'Starte is far too warm for its Naidaran population. Most reside on the planet's much cooler dark side; fusion reactors provide lighting instead of relying on L'Starte. This close to their sun, spacecraft can fly without worry of spaceborne life. During admixtures, however, the planet goes silent except for occasional ultra-low frequency transmissions. The dense cloud that descends on L'Starte makes even communication difficult. Nai'Starte is the least biodiverse planet orbiting L'Starte.

The world is divided between the baronies of Naidaro and Royer.

Velevev

Velevev is the birthplace of nearly all of L'Starte's life, save for some of the spaceborne life whose origin is unknown. The planet has a small population of Farlas working tirelessly to undo the damage of the Ma'eau War. Their hope, returning Ma'eau's consciousness to Velevev. While so far unsuccessful, the planet has largely recovered.

Velevev's entire surface is covered in dense foliage. While other planets in the system have varying climates, Velevev's climate has been meticulously engineered. From the placement of its seas to its mountains, Ma'eau used the instruments of life to make Velevev into one of the most life-bearing worlds in existence. Over half a percent of its total mass is tied up in biology, an incredible ratio. Spaceborne life regularly descends upon Velevev to consume nectar from its mountain-sized flowers. The first flowers in the universe evolved on this world, originally as communication devices for Ma'eau. As life diversified and admixtures spread it throughout the universe, flowers grow as far as Florathel, well beyond Ma'eau's influence even at its peak.

Callithyia

Callithyia is a striking purple planet and the first world every touched by Ma'eau. Callithyia is something of a reflection of Ma'eau's mental activity; geologists have precisely correlated its various eras to corresponding eras around planets Ma'eau was then terraforming. Currently, Callithyia is a window into the future of Svaelamr, a moon in the Helyar system. Covered in pools of benzene and new engineered forms of life, Callithyia's atmosphere had been completely replaced with carbon dioxide. The seas remain, but large cracks in the sea floor have slowly been draining them into the mantle. While Callithyia's ever-changing surface makes study difficult, several research outposts exist to guess about Ma'eau's next moves on the far off moon.

Eleclev

Eleclev is the least massive of the worlds around L'Starte, making it a popular destination for spaceborne life. Thus, the planet is entirely uninhabited despite comfortable temperatures and an oxygen-rich atmosphere. All colonization attempts ended in failure as scavenging creatures made any otherwise profitable endeavor prohibitively expensive. Plants on Eleclev evolved to hide deep underground during admixtures, as do animals. With its crust skimmed bare, most of the biomass on Eleclev resides in the mantle, and some have even infiltrated its liquid nickel outer core.