Nocturne (Cosmoria)

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Dance, O Freest Aeon

This content is a part of Cosmoria.

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Index / Lexica / Timeline

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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.