Eos (Cosmoria)

As far as stars go, Eos numbers among the smallest in Cosmoria. At just 200,000 km across, its habitable zone lies a mere two million kilometers from its surface. Under normal circumstances, this star would have a population somewhere in the billions, a mote on the scale of Cosmoria's civilizations. Eos, however, is not a normal star for surrounding it is a megastructure dwarfing nearly all others. This massive structure is a large flat disk orbiting this dwarf star. On this disk reside 9 trillion, environments unseen anywhere else, and some of the most influential empires in history.

The gateway from Aylathiya to wider Cosmoria, Eos lies in the center of Martial Space. An economic powerhouse: merchants, companies, and governments often use the large structure as a staging ground for their commerce of all kinds. Underneath the trade-friendly orderly surface is an eternal conflict as dozens of factions strive to take advantage of Eos' lucrative position. A gilded world, the guise only occasionally disappears. When it does disappear, however, it disappears with great force, leaving the rest of Cosmoria suffering generation-defining recessions at best.

Nearly every group imaginable takes credit for the creation of Eos, from the Dotsk who have a reputation for building mega-structures, to nationalists in Florathel that claim only the Lareas Alliance could have created the structure. Historians on Eos sometimes credit its creation to Ohko's Civilization, but they just as often credit the First Aeterna Society. Regardless of the origin, it has continually existed for 2 to 4 million years, likely taking much of this time to construct. It is technically unfinished, as a large section of the structure has never been filled in.

The world remained a backwater on the galactic stage until the rise of the Triumvirate Civilization 200,000 years before the present day. This civilization's meteoric rise caused Eos' population to balloon to over 20 trillion by 15,000 BCE. When the Triumvirate fractured as its three leaders went their separate ways, the resulting war caused its population to dip below one trillion, resulting in a galactic recession that has still technically not ended. From then, Eos has continually united and fractured until the modern day, currently existing united under the Greater Martial Consilium.

Physical

Embedded within Eos is a large mechanical apparatus of fractal complexity. The task of maintaining the disk against tidal forces, asteroid impacts, opportunists looking to harvest its materials, and other degradation, is one that requires more energy than the remarkably small star can provide. Eos has an entire ecosystem within and around it that serves to maintain the structural integrity of the disk. Powering this ecosystem is a vast sister-structure located around the nearby star of Gira Gira.

Structure

Eos is composed of a substance called Resolute Bronze, a gold-brown-colored alloy widely renowned for its material strength. While most certainly not the strongest material known, it is cheaper than graphene by just enough to sacrifice material strength for the cheaper price. As such, structures like Eos have a maximum theoretical diameter of a little over four million kilometers, about as wide as the structure is currently.

Eos is three million kilometers in radius and has a surface area equal to 25 trillion square kilometers. Embedded within this structure are a series of large orbital rings with a thickness of, on average, 1150 kilometers. Within them, small charged black holes race around the star at relativistic speeds, their momentum cancelling the force of gravity to prevent the disk from collapsing.

The disk is not quite flat, it gently angles upwards to form a concave structure. The reason for this is simple; it keeps gravity uniform and "downwards" across the whole of the disk. Were it perfectly flat, gravity would pull towards the center, straining the orbital rings as well as making life impossible on its surface. The disk thickens as the distance to the star increases. It has 0.01% grade, resulting in only an imperceptible slope across its surface. Minute variations in the thickness results in mountains, lakes, flats, and oceans. Overall, Eos is very smooth.

Climatic Regions

The Icaran Ring

A mere one million kilometers away from its star lies in the innermost region of Eos. Carbon-based life of any kind simply perish in these hellish conditions, becoming a mist within moments. In this region, seas of lead are commonplace, with an entire ecosystem of this lead-based life inhabiting its seas. As the lead evaporates, at a slow rate give how close it is to its melting point, the toxic clouds interact with Eos' oxygen-rich atmosphere, creating particles of lead-oxide which can travel far across the disk. Drifts of the snow-like substance are common much further into the disk, but if they fall back into the Icaran Ring, they will degrade into liquid lead once more.

Silicon dominants the soil of this region, most carbon quickly becomes carbon-dioxide in these conditions. The occasional solar flare from the star can liquefy large portions of the soil, leaving in its wake nearly-pure quartz crystal which cools into massive structures. Large fields of these crystals are often the only feature for hundreds of kilometers. The other structure to break up the flat landscape are massive wind turbines, capable of converting the powerful wind currents of Eos into energy. Winds in the Icaran Ring rarely drop below 50 kilometers per hour, requiring life such as the Atlins to seek shelter in caves or behind large walls. The air is choked with smog, particulates, and other impurities, while also having nearly twice the pressure as it does towards the edge of the disk.

For the past 200,000 years, large mirrors have existed above Eos to concentrate light onto Orcubor settlements, creating regions of over 2000 degrees Celsius. These hellish regions threat the very structural integrity of the disk, requiring extensive cooling systems maintained by various governments. The most extreme of Cosmoria's life, aluminum-based creatures made mostly out of liquid quartz, inhabit these furnace-like conditions.

The Hadean Ring

Further out lies an area that is too hot for liquid water to exist but also too cold for the seas of lead. The only life in this area are organisms capable of weathering its intense extremes. Dotted by the occasional oasis, not of water but of gallium metal, clouds of this material are a rarity. Interaction with air and water vapor from further out causes the gallium to oxidize, creating a thin crust above the lakes of metal. Beneath the seal, low-energy ecosystems are occasionally present.

Life from D'Naevium is perfectly adapted for this environment and exists in isolated communities around the gallium deposits. The animals learned to punch through the thin sheets to drink, while also becoming far more resistant to wounds as their injuries become self-cauterizing. With ferocious abandon, the largest predators know no fear, throwing themselves at anything they can. Vehicles passing through the region are prime targets, forcing travelers to use hyper-sonic trains that not even multi-ton predators could survive an impact with. The trains are usually so large that little could obstruct their path.

Far from the pools of gallium, the only thing to disrupt the landscape are train-tracks, wreckage from an untold number of battles, scavengers, and autonomous machines poking through the igneous soil. Large fields of solar panels are occasionally used to power remote facilities and factories while the occasional settlement, like a space-station for every species except Ror Units, are usually located near to the rail lines. The atmosphere is mostly pure compared to the Icaran Ring.

The Common Ring

The Common Ring is the largest by area and the most heavily-populated. Beginning two-million kilometers from Eos, the ring is dominated by vast seas representing the majority of the water in Martial Space. Remnants of an ancient molecular nebula explain where the resources for the region came from. From the nearly-boiling seas of the interior to the periodically-frozen seas of the edge, the Common Ring is filled with life of all sorts. Every intelligent species, save for the thermophilic Orcubor and Atlins, have large populations in this region.

As one moves from the center of the ring to the edge, the variation in the surface increases. By the time one gets to the common ring, large mountain ranges and valleys dominate the landscape. As for visual variety, the Common Ring reigns supreme as vast forests cover much of it. They battle against the massive carbon-dioxide production of not just the Icaran Ring but the intense industry of the region. If a species is carbon-based and can tolerate water, chances are that a population lives on Eos. The interaction between trillions of bacterial species creates a unique ecosystem in which nearly all forms of life can survive. Governments throughout history have had to tailor new viruses to combat dangerous populations.

A very small percentage of the Common Ring is inhabited despite its favorable conditions. Its sheer size means that urban areas account for less than a percent of a percent of its surface. The areas between major settlements are truly untamed wildernesses punctured only by the occasional village, of which there are many. There are currently 40 million settlements containing 100 or more inhabitants within the Common Ring. Like the stars in the skies above them, the settlements are spaced-out by vast distances. Many are unaware of the civilization around them and have no access to it.

Seasonal Climate

Since the disk is far more massive than the star itself Eos bobs up and down in the center of the disk and the disk itself wobbles. The wobbling creates freeze-thaw cycles in winter areas as the experience longer or shorter "days." Eos bobs up and down in the center of the disk, orbiting a barycenter between it and the disk. Consequentially, this bobbing is more like an orbit, causing it to becoming closer to some areas and farther from others throughout the "day." Eos takes three days to orbit the barycenter, creating a day-night cycle.

Orbiting Bodies

Numerous bodies orbit Eos, many of which are fragments of the object that were broken off of it in its long history. One such planet, Hikari, was a large mass of Eos that had enough mass to collapse into a sphere. Another orbiting body is Albedo, a world that reflects so much of starlight that it ranks among some of the brightest objects in Eos' night sky. The second brightest object in Eos' night sky is Eosphoros, a Hedonist World locked in a perpetual stasis over the so-called Dark Side of Eos.

Dark Side of Eos

Reverse the highly populated side of the disk is a sparsely populated region poetically called the "dark side." At different points in history, it was just as habitable as the "light side," however, radiation from the neutron star Demiurge makes it uninhabitable in the present. With only a population of three billion calling this side home, the opposite side is, both politically and economically, the mirror image of the main side. Nations on Eos simply control the territory they possess all the way through the structure.

Composition

Outside of the rings and the filaments connecting them and supporting the ground, Eos is composed of whichever substance was cheapest for the civilization building the section. Some areas are composed of lithium and beryllium, suggesting a civilization capable of large-scale fusion without much use for these materials. Many areas are composed of heavier metals; asteroids were commonly turned into a liquid and used as material for 3D printers. Silicates are common as well. There is evidence that entire planets have been used as feed-stock for some of the oldest areas.

The most recently-built areas, built by the Dominion of Astraeus, are composed mostly of an iron-slilicate mixture. It was created by importing energy from Sagittarium to turn an orbiting planet, Aura, into raw materials for the expansion of the disk. While most of the disk is solid, filled with an ultra-low-density substance that maintains rigidity despite being mostly vacuum, many of the newer areas have yet to have been filled in, creating a slightly diagonal pull of gravity in those regions.

Phaethon

To maintain the vast structure of Eos requires far more energy than the small star could ever hope to provide. While power draw from the star is practiced in the innermost regions, most areas require imported energy. Without robust supply chains that can provide all the needed antimatter, industry on Eos crawls to a halt. Those who built Eos were also aware of this glaring problem, the disk requiring nearly ten times more energy than Eos can provide just to stay together.

This is where Phaethon comes in, the system that powers Eos. A decentralized network of quantum computers, servers, and autonomous craft, Phaethon tirelessly works to maintain the orbital rings and the infrastructure powering them. Phaethon has demonstrated to be somewhat intelligent. Occasionally, its drones will find asteroids or other free material to repair Eos; it is always careful to never take any obviously artificial material.

Structure

Phaethon is made up of two twin rings, the outermost ring of Eos which is a counter-rotating generator, and a much larger rotating ring orbiting within Gira Gira's atmosphere. The ring around Gira Gira gathers and remotely transmits power to the ring on Eos. There are numerous subterranean factories on Gira Gira's largest planet, Taek, which are most likely responsible for the creation of the various craft Phaethon commands. Something notable about these factories is that they are nearly entirely mechanical, with few electronic devices present. A central line shaft is responsible for the power supplied to each of machines. The factory has never been observed to work, but it is frequented by some of Phaethon's drones.

The drones themselves are similar to the factory and seem to be powered by the gradual release of a spring. It is unclear how they power their sensors or even how they are capable of such complex actions as they are each made up of billions to trillions of often microscopic gears. They contain thousands of smaller machines within them responsible for internal maintenance. Their springs need to be rewound every so often, likely at substations similar to the factory. They are made up of the same tungsten-titanium alloy as the ring. Those that are capable of space travel make use of Thaumic Drives to pick up speed.

On Eos, capturing or otherwise interfering with these drones, even if they cause damage to property, is a capital offense. This is obviously to protect the structural integrity of the structure but to also learn about them. They seem to be somewhat sentient as cameras or sensors placed on them are inevitably removed. There are most likely several factories or substations located within Eos, but internal exploration of the disk is impossible. Boring into Eos is impossible, Phaethon usually forcibly stopping the process by sending strong electromagnetic pulses at the offending borers. Thus, Phaethon's structure has been shrouded in mystery, the construct doing everything it can to keep it this way.

Operation

Phaethon primarily gathers its needed energy from the star Gira Gira, with over sixty percent of the system's components located around the star. The main component is a ring composed primarily of tungsten alloy that orbits within Gira Gira's atmosphere. Only a kilometer wide, the ring gathers all the energy needed. To transfer this energy, Phaethon uses a Thaumic Drive. Through the remote activation of a drive located on the external ring on Eos, which most likely shares a pylon with the ring on Gira Gira, the ring on Eos spins. This spinning provides power for the other orbital rings to maintain Eos' orbit.

It is unclear where or how the Thaumic Drive works even though the external ring is visible in many places. It is also unclear how this spinning translates to the other orbital rings. The current proposed method is through the use of Faux Pylons to thaumically accelerate the micro-black holes within the other rings. If this is true, this would be the largest scale Faux Pylon within Cosmoria. Others hypothesize that the outermost ring is a generator which can then transmit the power to the other rings through more conventional means.