}
The Grey Star
The Grey Star is a region of space similar in size size to a K-type star located within Florathel, notable for its bizarre anomalous properties. It is being extensively studied by nations from across Cosmoria to learn more about what causes its gross violations of the conservation of information.
Overview
The Grey Star has an irregular amorphous shape that changes at a very fast rate, causing its brightness to fluctuate with time. The Grey Star is not a star or any stellar remnant, despite emitting an amount of light detectable to nearby civilizations. The irregularly fluctuating lightness attracted the attention of various civilizations, which sent missions to the Grey Star to investigate.
The Grey Star is notable for its various effects on objects within it, which intensify as they go closer to the center. Effects on sentient beings start off as discomfort, and as a being goes closer to the center, this turns into paranoia and dread. Sentient beings who go too close to the center sustain heavy psychological damage and even brain death. The few beings who are recovered are unable to recall important events within their lives and certainly nothing of their experiences within the deeper reaches of the Grey Star, as its unknowable depths have erased their preexisting selves. Devices which convey information are heavily scrambled to indecipherability, making the Grey Star forever unknowable.
Machinery begins to be affected much later than organic minds. The damage starts with a few bits being flipped before escalating to large scale systemic damage to the computer hardware. The effects are stronger the more complicated the machinery is.
Biological tissue recovered from the depths of the Grey Star show degeneration with proteins or analogous compounds breaking down into a mushy substance. Genetic code is also severely affected, breaking down into individual bases. Judging from these findings, people suggest that the Grey Star breaks down information specifically based on complexity.
It is notable that the Grey Star affects written text, as those are only given meaning by cultures and societies, and the beings within those cultures and societies perceiving them.