Nocturne

In every language, the name of Nocturne is in some way evocative of the night. Whether it is Gnachtsil, Artume, Mawt, Yama, or the name in dozens of other cultures, Nocturne's presence in the sky signifies night. Whether scarcely visible at noon or hanging in the star-filled sky with a faint glow, Nocturne's presence signals a time for rest. To embrace its gaze was to shorten one's life by years. Since the first migrants entered this system, they learned to read the plants, whose leaves closed as the black hole rose in the sky. Daytime, regardless of whether the sun was in the sky, was whenever Nocturne was safely beneath the horizon.

As more advanced civilizations entered the system, shades provided protection, but nighttime's tyranny remained in place. Sunrise permanently came when Sagittarium completed the ancient Aubade megastructure, whose name means the exact opposite as Nocturne. Absorbing Nocturne's harmful radiation, Aubade banished the night and replaced it with a soft orange glow. With this power, Sagittarium conquered all stars around Nocturne, subjugating dozens of worlds. By midday, its black flag waved on every inhabited rock.

To some, evening has arrived. The great empire which tamed this beast of a black hole has fallen from grace. While officially the ruler of all of Nocturne; their victory over nature is dependent on cooperation with its prodigal colonies. The looming threat of some civil conflict plunging the system into night is a constant concern. With interstellar warheads aimed at Aubade at all times, an uneasy peace has emerged. A peace reminiscent of the ancient days when cave-dwelling foragers threaten to expose one another to the black hole. O how natural is the fear of the night.

Etymology

Borrowed from the Un'oit Notturno, Nocturne became a common name as Triumvirate soldiers began living around the black hole. As the Triumvirate collapsed, the inevitable drift of language caused many names to come to be. Sagittarium insists on referring to the black hole as Nocturne, with the object as both a source of national pride and something to be feared.

In Sagittarium, names hold significance. Only one culture gets to have the official name, so each name is a political statement. Planets with no particular tie to the Un'oit abandon their Un'oit names in favor of more local verbiage. Thalia and Euturpe are Human worlds committed to their Human majorities. Dorok is an entire star system that abandoned its Un'oit name Elegy, a change far too controversial for the other star systems. Un'oit names are deemed inoffensive and are widely used in formal documents or diplomatic meetings. It is deemed insulting to use an exonym and almost too polite to use native names.

History

At the dawn of time, the nascent universe churned with constant stellar activity. Abundant hydrogen fed massive stars, whose deaths spewed new elements into the universe. However, the young Cosmoria was devoid of elements heavier than iron; mere supernovae can only produce so much. Two neutron stars, nicknamed Nuit and Nokto, are thought to have collided. Their neutron-laded cores supplied the universe with heavy elements; at the cost of blanketing every young planet with a layer of toxic heavy metals. If any life emerged before this collision, it was snuffed out by radioactive meteors. While Florathel and Aylathiya enjoyed much of the fruits of this collision, Zalanthium ended up a smaller share of these heavy metals.

This collision, known to have happened only once in Cosmoria's history, formed Nocturne. As the new black hole tore through space, much of the newly-created material fell back into its core. Its accretion disk has never left it since its formation. Throughout its travels, it gained four stellar companions—Dorok, Requiem Oratorio, and Finale. Far beyond the orbit of these stars lie a dozen frigid worlds surrounded by a disk of debris—a graveyard of foolish planets who strayed too far from their suns.

Seeding Life

Ma'eau, the intelligent ecosystem, guided the evolution of life throughout much of Aylathiya. Transforming rocky worlds from inert deserts to garden worlds was its raison d'etre. Three of Finale's innermost worlds, protected by distance from the brunt of Nocturne's radiation, became host to thriving ecosystems. Patyrth gained reflective plant life to increase its albedo and decrease its temperature. Vistique shrunk to increase its rate of rotation—caves, lava tubes, and hollows collapsed. Sarpanitum had its shattered tectonic plates fused, suppressing most volcanic activity.

After one hundred million years, Ma'eau had finally terraformed these worlds. After letting the microbes naturally evolve geological timescales, the ecosystem could support small animals. These three worlds are Ma'eau's latest project and remain comparatively undeveloped compared to most of Ma'eau's garden worlds.

Oratorio, a protostar on the verge of maturing, became Ma'eau's largest project ever. Spaceborne Life, life native to the void, was already commonplace. However, a protoplanetary disk represents a unique opportunity. The environment is high in both resources and energy, a perfect ecosystem. Ma'eau pushed away burgeoning planets, a multi-million year process that sparred most of the protoplanetary disk. On Capriccio, Ma'eau engineered the Un'oit, intelligent beings meant to shepherd the large space-faring creatures of Oratorio.

First Wave of Civilization

Providence is the only object that bests Nocturne's mass, a terrifying black hole deep within the reaches of Florathel. Civilizations have long thrived around its tranquil satellites with only radio interference as a punishment. When Florathel's Lareas Alliance first visited Nocturne, they merely left a handful of unmanned missions to explore the place. Nocturne's accretion disk releases punishing x-ray radiation; all of its satellites were radioactive deserts. Even taking refuge near Nocturne's companions required large radiation shields.

Hyperion was the ancient infrastructure-project-turned-nation-state responsible for most of Aylathiya's absurdly massive megastructures. Hyperion's engineers built Aubade to tame Nocturne's ferocious nature. For over ten thousand years, Aubade shielded Nocturne's worlds. Despite holding out for over 9,000 years after Lareas fell, the Advaris Swarm bested Hyperion in about 181,000 BCE, littering Nocturne's satellites with flotsam. Archeologists have founded over ten million crash-sites throughout the system and millions of buried craters from this conflict.

Second Wave of Civilization

Stars

Dorok (Elegy)

Type - Red Dwarf (M9V)

Native Species - None

Dorok, known to the Un'oit as Elegy, is an ultra-cool red dwarf that numbers amongst the smallest stars in Cosmoria. It distantly orbits the black hole of Nocturne and hosts the planet Garrea, capital of the furthest member of the United Nations of Florathel. After the final destruction of Pecay-Po in 6660, the few remaining Elkeres fled the Aubade megastructure and any surviving habitats at Valme, only to be pushed away by almost every other civilization. Their only choice was Dorok, found at the edge of the borders of Florenta. The Elkeres made their home into a new Florentan province before gaining independence and then being taken by Sagittarium. Today, Mandras has finally gained independence for good as an associate state of Sagittarium and has taken great pains to lift its population out of their cripplingly poor quality of life. As it is also a high-ranking member of the UNF, Mandras is punching well above its weight and rapidly becoming among the most influential states in its region.

Planets - Garrea, Alnihaya, Harun

Finale

Type - Yellow Dwarf

Native Species - Kajkali

Finale is a medium-sized star orbiting the black hole of Nocturne. Its most distant and most massive satellite, Finale has always been the most independent of the systems under the control of Sagittarium. Its three planets are a series of terrestrial worlds whose population represents over an eighth of all of Sagittarium's people. Finale hosts more of Sagittarium's industry than its other stars. The system hosts a large Human and Elkeres population who make up the self-ruling republic known as Rendell. Other nations in the system are protectorates of Sagittarium, colonies, or the personal property of nobles who often act with little oversight. Economically-productive regions are ruled directly from Thalia.

Planets - Patyrth, Vistique, Sarpanitum

Oratorio

Type - Protostar

Native Species - Un'oit

Oratorio is the youngest star in Aylathiya, having only just begun fusion thirty thousand years before the present day. Even so, it has retained the protoplanetary disk that itself is only 500,000 years old. Extensive tampering by Ma'eau, including the strategic placement of shepherd planets, prevents the disk from collapsing into new planets. Since protoplanetary disks are quite dense, it has allowed for Ma'eau to introduce a diverse spaceborne ecosystem. Oratorio's worlds universally have low gravity, giving the Un'oit easy access to their neighboring worlds. Since they were able to tame much of the spaceborne life in the disk, they resided within a low-tech space-faring civilization that persists in some areas to this day. Overture is one of Nocturne's four stellar companions.

Planets - Partita, Capriccio, Sinfonia

Requiem

Type - Red Dwarf

Native Species - None

Requiem is a small star orbiting the massive black hole Nocturne. It is dominated by a large spinning ring-like structure that is made up of the planets it once hosted. While Sagittarium finished the structure, it was built over tens of thousands of years by previous civilizations. It is often compared to Eos, a star system with a fairly similar configuration.

Planets - None

Megastructures - Sydiah's Ring

Planets of Dorok

Alnihaya

Type - Terrestrial Planet
Native Species - None

Alnihaya (Un'oit: Cantata) is a medium-sized world with little in the way of seas. Its habitable temperatures prompted colonization nonetheless, leading to its high Rorazal population. Since speedy terraforming would destroy its many open-air settlements, Mandras never invested in introducing oceans. Instead, a queue of comets, purified to rid them of toxic chemicals, orbit Garrea. Little by little, they fill Garrea's atmosphere with much-needed moisture. Cities order larger chunks that slowly melt into reservoirs.

Moons - None

Garrea

Type - Aquatic Oceanic World
Native Species - None

Garrea (Un'oit: Motet) is the most populous world of Dorok and the capital of Mandras. Close enough to Dorok to be tidally locked, Garrea has no moons. With a fairly low-pressure atmosphere, its native Rorazals can survive in conditions fatal for most organisms. Since industrialization, pressure has massively increased with the increase in carbon dioxide.

Moons - None

Harun

Type - Aquatic Marine World
Native Species - None

Harun (Un'oit: Lauda) is a marine world cloaked in a thick hydrogen atmosphere. While not quite a gas dwarf, Harun's colonization was similar. Its strong magnetic field made its moons highly desirable. Shielded from Nocturne's punishing radiation, Harun's moons collectively host ten billion while the eternally raging seas below host only several million.

Moons - Carol, Noel

Planets of Finale

Patyrth

Type - Aquatic Marine World
Native Species - None

Patyrth (Un'oit: Chaconne) is Finale's innermost world and its first colonized planet. Ma'eau terraformed the planet 3.1 million years before the present day. With the typical carbon-based architecture of Ma'eau's creations, no native intelligent species ever arose on Patyrth. Its first colonists were Naidarans who fled the collapsing Cosmic Commonwealth of Magi. Over time, Patyrth gained more inhabitants such as the Dotsk. Humans conquered the planet in 300 CE under the First Aeternal Society.

Moons - None

Sarpanitum

Type - Aquatic Marine World
Native Species - None

Sarpanitum (Un'oit: Madrigal) is Finale's innermost world and its first colonized planet. Ma'eau terraformed the planet 3.1 million years before the present day. With the typical carbon-based architecture of Ma'eau's creations, no native intelligent species ever arose on Patyrth. Its first colonists were Naidarans who fled the collapsing Cosmic Commonwealth of Magi. Over time, Patyrth gained more inhabitants such as the Dotsk. Humans conquered the planet in 300 CE under the First Aeternal Society.

Moons - None

Vistique

Type - Aquatic Marine World
Native Species - None

Vistique (Un'oit: Canzonetta) is Finale's innermost world and its first colonized planet. Ma'eau terraformed the planet 3.1 million years before the present day. With the typical carbon-based architecture of Ma'eau's creations, no native intelligent species ever arose on Patyrth. Its first colonists were Naidarans who fled the collapsing Cosmic Commonwealth of Magi. Over time, Patyrth gained more inhabitants such as the Dotsk. Humans conquered the planet in 300 CE under the First Aeternal Society.

Moons - None

Planets of Oratorio

Capriccio

Type - Terrestrial World
Native Species - None

Caprciccio is the home world of the Un'oit and a popular nesting site for Spaceborne Life. With untold numbers of creatures, ranging in size from motes of dust to mountains, landing on this planet, industrialization is impossible. Hollowed asteroids hold most of the population, but even these fall victim to regular swarming and migration. With its surface and satellites equally hazardous, the Un'oit had no choice but to expand outward. Capriccio lies in the center of a large trading network, one originally created by force during the Un'oit Ascension and now sustained by inertia.

Moons - Gavotte, Pavane, Canzonetta

Sinfonia

Type - Aquatic Marine World
Native Species - None

Sinfonia is an aquatic world on the outskirts of Oratorio. The Euphony nation used its vast wealth to terraform the planet, a status symbol few nations could afford at the time.

Moons - Sinfonietta

Partita

Type - Hycean World
Native Species - None

Partita is the most massive world in the Oratorio system having accumulated large amounts of hydrogen and water. Existing in the gulf between Oratorio's disk, Partita is a valuable store of volatiles for anyone willing to battle its gravity for them. Most spaceborne species are not, leaving Partita relatively lifeless besides the occasional bacterium floating in its clouds.

Moons - None

Planets of Nocturne

Adagio

Type - Ice World
Native Species - None

Adagio is a small icy world whose surface has adopted a characteristic deep red color due to ferrous impurities. Countless frozen remains jut out of the red-stained ice, their contorted bodies permanently staring upwards. Intelligent species of all kinds are represented amongst the corpses. No artificial structures or materials have been found in the ice, including the equipment needed to reach this remote world. As one descends deeper into Adagio's crust, the corpses become increasingly marred. Below a kilometer in depth, the organic material begins breaking down. Below this point, heat and pressure result in coal-like deposits. High levels of phosphorus and nitrogen compounds fuel several mining operations and most of Adagio's economy.

Adagio has one moon, Divertimento. The moon is a typical airless world of a little more than a fourth of Adagio's mass. The moon hosts thousands of red-tinted geoglyphs that point toward Adagio. To date, over six thousand spacesuit-clad Kalar bodies have been discovered near the glyphs. It is unclear how the Kalar ventured to the planet; however, unusual igneous formations suggest the Kalar were Magi. The glyphs, while crude, are usually depictions of Kalar faces with pained expressions, some of which have been scribbled out. There are no settlements currently on Divertimento, but a handful of recently abandoned military bases dot its surface.

Moons - Divertimento

Berceuse

Type - Terrestrial Planet
Native Species - None

Berceuse is a barren world whose only atmosphere is a cloak of radon gas produced in large quantities by the planet's remarkably radioactive mantle. There are bacteria that thrive in the core that create large tree-like structures which take advantage of the mantle's heat. Since the planet is home to a great deal of radioactive material, it was highly sought after for much of history before cheap fusion reactors became common. Since only the largest of craft can bare the load of a fusion reactor, however, the planet's strange supply of elements is a major source of income for the planet's mostly Un'oit inhabitants.

Moons - None

Courante

Type - Terrestrial Planet
Native Species - None

Courante is, on average, the most distant of Nocturne's satellites. Its sister worlds are hardly visible in the perpetual night sky. Courante's north pole points toward Nocturne's four stellar companions. These four stars dance in the northern hemisphere while the southern hemisphere points towards Aylathiya's orange clouds. Due to its cool temperatures, Courante is home to heat-sensitive industry, in particular computing. The planet's millennia-spanning freeze-thaw cycles has encased ancient settlements in neon ice. Courante has the highest concentration of noble gases in Cosmoria, including a light but dense atmosphere of nearly-liquefied helium. It is difficult to move about on Courante because of this.

Moons - Allemende

Euterpe

Type - Chthonian World
Native Species - None

Euterpe (Un'oit: Rhapsody) is a marine world that was once the core of a somewhat large gas giant. After many close passes to Finale, its atmosphere was slowly ripped away. What remained was a metal-rich and dense world. For most of history, technology was not advanced enough to leave its surface, meaning that venturing to this world was incredibly dangerous. The Vaplein Republic invested into terraforming the world as they exported teratons of its material.

Moons - None

Fugue

Type - Ice Shell
Native Species - None

Fugue is an ice shell world currently under the control of Sagittarium.

Moons - Concerto

Introit

Type - Nitrogen Ocean
Native Species - None

Introit has a very high population despite its small size and frigid temperatures. Transparent oceans of liquid nitrogen dominate the surface. Facilities containing over four billion Ripresa dominate the planet's economy. Confined to a virtual existence, the computational demand of keeping them on Introit is immense. The nitrogen seas serve well to keep computation cheap and the facilities cool.

Moons - Minuet, Operetta

Overture

Type - Terrestrial World
Native Species - None

Overture is a terrestrial world in Sagittarium's domain. With a long history of changing hands, Overture has only recently become firmly Sagittarian.

Moons - Ballade

Sonata

Type - Ammonia Marine World
Native Species - None

Sonata is a contentiously held world, one of the few planets on which interstellar powers share a border. Sagittarium claims the Human cities while the United Nations of Florathel has a peace-keeping force occupy its seas and marine cities.

Moons - Sarabande

Thalia

Type - Aquatic Marine World
Native Species - None

Thalia (Un'oit: Aria) is a marine world whose surface is over three-fourths water. The capital and most populous world of Sagittarium, Thalia hosts about as many people as the rest of Nocturne. For the past 10,000 years, clear images of its surface have been impossible. A cloak of space habitats, a dense network of orbital rings, and the heat from immense radiators make proper imaging difficult. Thalia is known for its hazy appearance despite having clear conditions on the surface. Thalia is a center of Human colonization of Nocturne. While many of its asteroid moons have long since been destroyed, its ring system has remained in place. Thalia's one major moon of Descort is home to over fifty billion.

Despite being cloaked in eternal darkness, Thalia's Mnemosyne maintains habitable temperatures. Mnemosyne, taking the place of Thalia's core, is a Generatrix that converts Nocturne's gravity waves into heat. This heat, transferred to the surface via mantle convection, is one of the great feats of Sagittarian engineering. Before this impressive project, Thalia's orbital rings doubled as artificial suns. The rings still shine light onto Thalia's surface, but they supply a fraction of the heat they did in the past.

Moons - Tagelied, Reverie, Descort
Megastructures - Mnemosyne