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Eremoor survived the '''Genesis Hyperwar''' by way of diplomacy and treaties. The strength in defense and restraint that the Sun showed was matched only by the strength of its profound bereavement at the state of the Universe. Time and Causality, motion toward some unknown future end, impermanence. All of these things left Eremoor in utter loss. Though it only resolved to keep things still, quiet, and peaceful, the Hyperwar raged on regardless, and in the end a vast majority of its peers had gone into the non-stillness of nonexistence, had become retroactively transient by way of their deaths. Its war form was articulate and many-ringed, able to hold many things together at once. |
Eremoor survived the '''Genesis Hyperwar''' by way of diplomacy and treaties. The strength in defense and restraint that the Sun showed was matched only by the strength of its profound bereavement at the state of the Universe. Time and Causality, motion toward some unknown future end, impermanence. All of these things left Eremoor in utter loss. Though it only resolved to keep things still, quiet, and peaceful, the Hyperwar raged on regardless, and in the end a vast majority of its peers had gone into the non-stillness of nonexistence, had become retroactively transient by way of their deaths. Its war form was articulate and many-ringed, able to hold many things together at once. |
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Eremoor's sloth is not mere tiredness, not a desire for sleep, but |
Eremoor's sloth is not mere tiredness, not a desire for sleep, but a state of total and absolute depressive paralysis. It isn't tired of the way things are, or missing how they once were, but instead is at a loss of anything that can be done. Eremoor is lonely and unfulfilled, afraid to ''do'' anything even beyond the eternal threat of Sunfire, caught up in what could have been done to prevent or stop the chaos of the Hyperwar even seventy million years later, guilty over every loss of every God, unwilling to admit it for fear of further ostracization, afraid to admit that the hurt it faces may be unique, afraid to assume that it is unique in this way, wallowing in its failure to sink into the Darker-Than-Black and just ''END'' the Process, failure to cut off the unraveling thread of Time and call the curtains in, failure to ''change'' anything in the name of preservation. Failure in past, inaction and paralysis in present, and fear of the future all buffet Eremoor's burning Godhead now. |
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Eremoor's system is one of the safest and most easily habitable. The Sun is one of the least active, yet most aware. Eremoor ''detests'' action, sudden or violent changes, and impermanence. All of the primordial planetoids formed from the rotted God-corpses and fresh-minted dust of the Settling Age remain intact around Eremoor, numbering a little over a hundred and thirty. Its influence prevents them from moving or colliding in the ways natural to physical law. The closer a planetoid orbits to Eremoor, the slower it does, and motion is additionally taxed or bent when these planetoids close in on one another. It is the only true pacifist Sun. |
Eremoor's system is one of the safest and most easily habitable. The Sun is one of the least active, yet most aware. Eremoor ''detests'' action, sudden or violent changes, and impermanence. All of the primordial planetoids formed from the rotted God-corpses and fresh-minted dust of the Settling Age remain intact around Eremoor, numbering a little over a hundred and thirty. Its influence prevents them from moving or colliding in the ways natural to physical law. The closer a planetoid orbits to Eremoor, the slower it does, and motion is additionally taxed or bent when these planetoids close in on one another. It is the only true pacifist Sun. |
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Revision as of 06:14, July 25, 2025
Lysisday, Liliyogh 23, 1134 LE
"Yahasain's sleep bore a six-orbit throng / And Regalion, jealous, grew nine worlds strong. / Glauryuz captured a crown made of stars, / And Sechmas, the bastard, left its worlds charred. / Eremoor's sloth wrought less violence than most / While Pereptia's wrath spun Galaxios. / And try as she may, Annrava cannot / Shake off the Sunfire from a single spot. / Alcaernon weeps at the chime of each noon / While Cancrus hides treasure in moons within moons. / Aureolin finds home in its war, / Schismata contributes while screaming 'no more!' / Illyre wishes its sister unmarred / Dreaming of futures in seas without stars. / Vaalgrota and Haerox brood, as they will, / Though all of their pouting cannot turn the mill. / Mananakus enchains its creations beyond / So emergence must suffer the fate of its bonds. / And though Luxor promised us many great things,
Eumrakh stole the mark of the kings." —Unknown originator, Children's rhyme of the Suns
Overview
Throughout the Universe, there are very few stationary objects. Eighteen of them, no more, which move in no discernible way relative to one another. One is the Great Firmament, the overpowering oversoul of the Silent Song itself, which wrests its form away from the Void of Absolution beyond its ontological locus, resolving the primeval gradient of Black and non-color into the finite and clear sphere it takes as its volume. The rest are the Suns, seventeen hulking spheres larger than any other single object in the universe. Suns embody the Solar Principle of Identity, a modern material incarnation of the greatest of the wells of the primal Gods, the last remaining resonances from the pre-Time motion of the Silent Song.
A Sun is not a God, nor is a God a Sun, but each Sun contains a God within itself. Gods are made of odhir, whereas the Suns are necessarily made up of the fused-matter state invented and imposed by the God Mananakus, both physical and spiritual. The Suns take on the name of the God contained within them, for in the absence of the bleeding colors they represent the Suns degrade and shatter, becoming hundreds more blank white stars smattered across the heavens like so much snow on an obsidian sheet. It is from these Gods that the Suns get their colors, their properties, and the uniqueness of their sunstuffs.
The Suns were once complex bodies and armors for the Gods—war forms of impeccable ornateness and efficiency in slaughter for the millions of years they bloodied the interior of the Firmament with their lights. It was only after the end of the Genesis Hyperwar, when the victors were decided from alliances between all remaining survivors, that they coalesced into their current shapes. Crushed by gravity and unable to fight back as they burn for eternity, the Suns now remain mostly spherical.
Commonalities
The Suns all have very different systems. As each is inhabited by a unique God, an immense, permanent, and self-sustaining vortex of odhir refined to the utmost limit, their influence and effect radiates out through their whole system, causing the Solar Interference seen on most planets. The interfering properties or events can be almost unnoticeable, like around Haerox or Eumrakh, but these are the exception. The majority of systems have major parts of their layout, physics, habitability or events shaped by this solar interference, and whether they manifest as benign or malevolent is up to circumstance and the Sun's specifics. The manifestation of these solar effects is dependent on an aggregate of the Sun God's odhiric Color or concept, their personality as an individual, and the influence of Sunfire on their spiritual radiation. What may once seem like a simple concept, such as Haerox's "concealment", can cascade into strange and complicated effects.
The Suns are all of very comparable masses, save for Yahasain, whose crescent-gaped shape poses a significant loss. The odhiric concentration within them is all on a similar order, just sorted into their pure color. Even those Suns who appear to be multiple or mixed hues—Violet-Azure Annrava, Rust-Sky Schismata, White-Iridescent Luxor, and Black-Gold Cancrus—are only a singular color. Make no mistake, for this is Truth. The hueborn spectra of Light and Odhir are blended in mortal vision, but even so that wretched sense remains inadequate to parse the single depth and variety of odhiric Color. A flaw implemented by the Creator-Creation since even the first of the Dragons, inexorable to the mortal mind itself... done and enforced eternally, for reasons not known even to the bearer of wisdom since the First Draconic Era.
The ability to utilize odhir related to the domains of any of the Suns is incredibly hampered, especially through caster-oriented Luminary magics. Refining odhir of a Solar concept is met with esoteric resistance, as from that same raw pool of odhir, Sunfire is drawn to and burns away what is refined. This results in some burning of the caster's soul, and while mild, they are usually avoided entirely for use in magic. Calling upon the Suns as muses for Bardic Starstep is similarly dangerous, having the potential to immolate the caster if done incorrectly.
Sunstuffs
Stars are well renowned for the triple-state material of their make, starstuff. While starstuff is extremely high soul component and very rare to find, it pales in comparison to the rarity, usefulness, and spirituo-physical unity of sunstuffs. There is no single unified sunstuff, and a notion of any "true" or "united" sunstuff is laughable in its self-defeating premise. What makes these 96% soul component materials so incredibly strong and willful is the identity of the Sun from which they emerge. They are the purest materials in the universe, and at the same time so intrinsicially personal to the Sun and God from whence they were forged that no mortal can ever hope to truly claim hegemony over one.
Sunstuffs are formed from the union of the transmutative and eternally vengeful nature of Sunfire with the rogue flare outbursts of the Gods within the Suns. Any attempt to poke out of their burning spheres or push back against the flame creates a flare, and those flares are compartmentalized and ejected as their sunstuff. The process of sunstuff flaring is a complete rejection of the autonomy of the Gods within, making pieces of their fundamental essence—however small, however quickly regenerated—into mere tools to be used by the order of autonomous minds that came after their own order fell.
Users of sunstuffs are a class of Moonstride mage known as Heliamancers, and while each has their own limited range of capabilities, mortal creativity and ingenuity with new tools is boundless. Combining multiple sunstuffs together, a sign of immense wealth on the part of the mage, can give rise to potential not capitalized on even by the Gods that these sunstuffs came from. Some sunstuffs are inherently difficult to use or "wield", such as sunken snow and ether jelly, whereas others are much more conducive to use, particularly crystal flame.
Sunfire
It may come to the keen observer's attention that stars do not generate any heat, and yet Suns—which overwhelmingly favor concepts in no way related to heat or flame—are the main source of most planets' warmth. It may also occur to this observer that Gods do not move their spherical bodies, nor leave them. A Moonstride mage with experience with stargel and its resultant heavenly combustion might then conclude that sunstuff, in all of its forms, similarly burns. But this is untrue. The Suns do not burn from their own nature, but they are burning regardless. And this burning is indeed what traps the Gods inside their shells.
Sunfire, the first truly integrated Sunstuff and that known as the Catalyst of the Undying Stars, is the undying fragmented body of the former God Tsannahr, whose domain and essence were of eternal, unquenchable, and supremely unmatched Fire. Purer than purity itself, burning only on its own Creation and the destruction of Black Absence, hotter than any fire natural or artificial, by mundane or magical means. To unite Tsannahr´s fires and stoke them back to where they were before their annihilation, as close to that as they can be forced, would set the universe ablaze a hundred thousand times hotter than the current temperature of Sunfire.
As one of the Eighteen Victors of the Genesis Hyperwar, Tsannahr´s war-form and body were enmeshed nigh-perfectly with their own odhiric vortex, a form of fused-existence beyond what modern spirits could hope to achieve. As the God of supremacy and righteous unmatched conquest, they were at odds with the burgeoning alliances between the other Gods, and in a decisive betrayal, the Seventeen decided to rid their new post-hyperwar future of the God's presence. Being a complex concept manifest as truly and utterly unquenchable flame, the Seventeen had no ability to truly annihilate Tsannahr. They could only render them eternally dormant by tearing apart their odhir-vortex and scattering their godhead across the universe. The plan was to store this Shattered Sun in each of their war-bodies.
Tsannahr was only able to unleash one true act of retaliation in the ensuing battle before being torn apart and consumed by the Seventeen. In vengeance, just before their mind ceased to function, they set the surfaces of the other Gods' bodies ablaze. As unquenchable flame, their body could not be fully assimilated, for it was a state of matter that belonged to Process, the most fundamental component of reality and action. And so the war-sun shattered, their odhir-suffused body becoming the endlessly self-sustaining and indomitable Sunfire that scorches the surfaces of the Suns today.
Sunfire is fundamentally different than all other forms of flame, unable to be manipulated by the same magics as it. In truth, it may well have been the inspiration for the Difaceted element we know as Flame or Fire today. Fire magic, even the manipulation by the Infernal Dragons, cannot make it budge. It burns and consumes other flames into itself, and perfectly assimilates other matter and energy into its own slurry once charred, save odhir. Even in its diminshed state, Sunfire burns hotter than all other forms of combustion, including the heavenly combustion of stargel. It is hot enough to bring starmetal to a boil, to melt sunmetal, and to cause the decay and disassembly of all matter but the direct surfaces of the Suns it covers. It behaves with a vengeful will of its own, keeping the Suns burning eternally, their Gods trapped and unable to move. All else is merely burned passively. If Tsannahr's mind remains in any capacity in Sunfire, it does not even recognize what it destroys. It is attracted to the unflared bodies of the Suns as if magnetized, and while not even one ember can be quenched fully or put out, they fall toward the Suns' surfaces with force tens of times more powerful than gravity alone.
The Suns Themselves
Of course, a collection of objects/people/materials so heavily steeped in the Solar Principle of Identity can only have so much said about them in aggregate. The Seventeen Suns diverge from here, in Identity, conceptual and visual Color, personality, temperament, and system architecture. As an ordered and complete list of all Suns, one may be tempted to think of them as fundamental or more important concepts than the rest of the colors of odhir. This is forgiven, but a deep misunderstanding of cosmology and history. The Seventeen Suns are the last survivors of the Genesis Hyperwar which began at the start of Time. As such, they are comprised of a set of individuals whose personalities and alliances, conceptual domains, or specific skills allowed them to slaughter the rest. These are not the honored Gods; they are the butcher-Gods.
Heliology both refers to magiscientific study of the Suns and an interesting cultural practice spread across trade routes since the 800s LE. Each Sun, already assigned a glyph to notate them more easily than writing their name, has been assigned a portion of the year and a "sign" associated with it. These signs are assigned "Wills" based on the assumed personality and history of the Sun designated, and people born under a certain Sun Sign are said to hold a fragment of that Solar Will within them.
"...Alcaernon weeps at the chime of each noon..."
Alcaernon, known in heliology as The Beholder, is the Sun that holds Alcaernon, the former God of repetition and recursion. Its color is a somewhat pale orchid, distinct from the vivid orchid representative of the difaceted Space/Facilitation owned by the celestial dragons.
Alcaernon was a fierce warrior when called on during the Genesis Hyperwar, but mostly sat and watched the chaos unfold. Ever the archivist, finding solace from the impermanence of things through memory, it formed direct pacts with the less destruction-inclined amongst the Survivors, particularly sharing time with Cancrus. Through repetition and recursion, summoning up echoes of what was, be it an action or concept or object, Alcaernon had access to a weak sort of infinity.
Alcaernon's solar system has five planets, all of which are in a connected chain of orbital resonances. Each time two of its planets come into alignment, a "ping" is sent between them, arousing an echo of previous meteorological, geological, or magical events.
Alcaenon's Sun Sign is given to those born between the dates of Liliyogh 1 and 24. Those born between these dates are said to have the Will of the Beholder. Alcaernon is believed under this system to be the patron of the dutiful and the unoriginal, the scribes and the uninspired recorders and the soldiers who never break their regimen. Alcaernon's animal representation in heliology is a peacock.
"...And try as she may, Annrava cannot / Shake off the Sunfire from a single spot..."
Annrava, known in heliology as The Collector, is the Sun that holds Annrava, the former God of fragmentation. Annrava's color is seen as both a vivid, unyielding violet and a bright piercing azure. Mortal eyes cannot parse the hue of Fragmentation as a single color.
Annrava's war-form was ordained with a hundred thousand blades and the starcores of her fallen opponents, though she carried two titanic ones the width of a planet as well. The colors of these enormous swords was the same as Annrava's own, suffused with her odhir as they were. Culturally, "Annrava's long-blade" is referred to as its violet, while "Annrava's shortsword" is used to mean Annrava-Azure in color. Through the Genesis Hyperwar, Annrava survived through warfare, sundering armor and foe without regard for what was possible. The pure power to break apart, sever, or cut was supreme against all techniques and applied powers meant to imitate the same act.
Annrava's system is disallowed under its solar interference to coalesce beyond a certain size, cut finer the closer in to the Sun that matter orbits. It has a great wide belt of matter subdivided by the few residents therein into three sections: the Dust Belt, where nothing larger than a grain of sand exists, the Stone Belt, where small rocks are the largest objects, and the Lodge Belt, where proper asteroids can at least hold their shape.
Annrava's Sun Sign is given to those born between the dates of Glausonn 17 and Yahataidh 8. Those born between these dates are said to have the Will of the Collector. Annrava is believed under this system to be the patron of the territorial and the accomplished, the simple and willful, as well as the patron of all cutting weapons. Annrava's animal representation in heliology is a vulture.
Severstone is the sunstuff of Annrava, carrying within it a modified essence of Fragmentation. Its appearance is typically a shiny and dark violet/azure stone, which seems to change hue depending on the angle one views it at. Severstone is a hardy and tough stone, but regardless of how blunt or smooth its edges are, contact with it immediately results in lacerations. Sharpened severstone, extremely difficult to make due to its indiscriminate cutting, has a much more potent effect. Because of how difficult it is to bind or fasten severstone to any other material or to wield, it sees very little use in artifice.
Experiments with draining the odhir out of severstone show that the stone can be temporarily nullified in effect if kept fully drained. Unlike the majority of sunstuffs, it uses a slight trickle of raw odhir to expel its effect and conduct it through others. In this null state, strong barriers of identity are needed to keep it from using one's own odhir to cut them.
"...Aureolin finds home in its war..."
Aureolin, known in heliology as The Destroyer, is the Sun that holds Aureolin, the former God of blinding and indiscriminate fury. While not directly related to the power or skill required to make a warrior out of someone, Aureolin's domain is the all too necessary and often all too excessive passion for battle and the will to obliterate all who stand in one's way. Aureolin's hue is a distinct blood-orange, ever-unnamed in its disquieting crevice of color.
Aureolin was the most radiant and determined of the Seventeen in its battling through the Genesis Hyperwar. While not having the innate power or talent of its compatriots Sechmas and Annrava, Aureolin was among the great slayers through sheer force of will. Unwilling or unable to accept failure in its own conquest, the God instead resolved to become an instrument to its own blindness, throwing away reason and cause to simply destroy any and all who turned a blade or fist against it.
Honing its skill through the thousands of battles it waged, the Sun's war form grew in complexity and lethality with each passing millennium. By the end of the Hyperwar, Aureolin's body had each edge like a knife, and in each of its many articulate arms it held a weapon that could kill thirty-six thousand ways, all forged and reforged by Luxor. It is said that in a final act of resistance against the encroaching Sunfire, Aureolin's countless and vast arsenal was hurled across the universe, lost to the darkness without its own Light and infused into the memories of the stars they became.
Aureolin's system is entirely natural, scorched only by its regular flares. Its solar interference is purely psychological, giving all beings who trespass inward a sense of irritation that boils over into indiscriminate rage should they linger too long. War has raged there under the scarlet-flame light for as long as the era of mortals has persisted. Besides those looking to lose themselves in battle to hone their abilities and the accidents who end up lost in the burning anger before they can leave, Aureolin's system remains largely uninhabited.
Aureolin's Sun Sign is given to those born between the dates of Avonslau 17 and Bovvilag 8. Those born between these dates are said to have the Will of the Destroyer. Aureolin is believed under this system to be the patron of the damned and mindless, the vengeful and uncompromising. Because of rage's role in the transmutation of asperyplasm, it is also said to be the patron Sun of all ghosts. Aureolin's animal representation in heliology is a scorpion.
Scarlescence is the sunstuff of Aureolin, holding a condensed remnant of the Sun's blinding fury. It appears as an Aureolin-copper liquid, roughly the viscosity of milk and with a slight luminescence. Those who die in rage and heightened magic, such as being mid-cast of a spell, may rarely become ghosts through a soul corruption of their blood. Scarlescence bypasses these requirements, transmuting blood into asperyplasm immediately on contact. Ghost warfare is a harrowing ordeal, and the ability to turn corporeal mortals into a class of spirit is incredibly dangerous, especially given scarlescence's other effects.
When absorbed indirectly through the skin or otherwise unable to directly touch blood, scarlescence cannot transmute a person into a ghost. Instead it merely inflicts immense omnidirectional rage. The expression of this, metabolizing a sunstuff without releasing it through magic, is done through muscle-tearing and bone-cracking violence. Failing this, such as when fully restrained, the strain on one's body is often enough to cause acute organ failure. Scarlescence has been used a few times in war as part of "berserker-serum" potions.
"...While Cancrus hides treasure in moons within moons..."
Cancrus, known in heliology as The Scholar, is the Sun that holds Cancrus, the former God of containment and overlap. Cancrus' hue is impossible to parse as one with mortal eyes, simultaneously appearing an impure black and tarnished gold.
Cancrus initially opposed the rallying of the Hyperwar, believing that peace was possible even after the advent of Time and impermanence. Begrudgingly, it watched as the violence unfolded and the war-bodies of the Gods were forged and shattered against one another. Cancrus contributed to the war, if only in defense of the few allies it found who wished to return peace, but it did so without the profound hypocrisy of Schismata. Betraying its ultimate ideal in order to challenge the paradigm that went against it, Cancrus grieved every life it took and recorded them, hoping that one day peace could be reached and that the eon of the Gods might not end.
Cancrus found solace in the recreation and nonviolent efforts of its companions Luxor and Alcaernon, forging its own fortress of a body to be a statement of pure defense: "I wish that you might not harm me". Within the shifting tides of the Genesis Hyperwar, it took up the role of strategist more than anything else, seeking diplomacy wherever possible to avoid as many needless slaughters as it could. In the end, Cancrus was bereft at the number of survivors, and accepted Tsannahr's vengeance without resistance.
Cancrus' system appears to have seven planets, but in reality it has sixty-three. Due to the solar interference, each planet has eight "inner" neighbors accessible through the strangely harmless solar flares that strike the worlds frequently. These have a variety of climates and sizes, but the flares themselves deposit great amounts of Cancrus' sunstuff and transmute some of the ground into valuable metals and gems.
Cancrus' Sun Sign is given to those born between the dates of Frosma 17 and Tegeirukk 8. Those born between these dates are said to have the Will of the Scholar. Cancrus is believed under this system to be the patron of the reclusive and the quiet, those who would observe rather than interfere and who prefer safety to excitement. Cancrus' animal representation in heliology is a goat.
Hemispatial Opal is the sunstuff of Cancrus, resonating with a modified property of containment and overlap. Hemispatial opals appear as beautiful black and gold opal gems, though their luster does not fade in the dark. On their own, hemispatial opals cause a light wavering and distortion in space. When placed in an arrangement on the inside of a container, however, they resonate and create a sustained subspace.
Hemispatial opal is an incredibly valuable tool for portable storage. The subspace created by a lined container is almost always larger than the container itself, allowing self-recursive space to store items or hide in. Compact fluid containers, merchants' bags, and deceptive weapon holsters have all been made with this sunstuff, despite its rarity. One heliamancer is cited in a folk tale as having an entire bedroom stored within a case, which they would use to travel across the world without worry.
"...Eremoor's sloth wrought less violence than most..."
Eremoor, known in heliology as The Soother, is the Sun that holds Eremoor, the former God of stillness. Its hue is a vivid Indigo, closest of the survivors to the primeval Colors Arapawa and Ultramarine, which make up the Process. Eremoor's role in the Process, meant to be a contemplative rest and end to the mill of Creation, failed to come about due to its non-Stygian luminosity, its self-recurring sameness, and its profoundly narcissistic sloth. The Stillness that Eremoor represents is static, not a motion toward stillness, like Nacreous cessation, nor a stillness in anticipation of future action, as Arapawa's Will. It is void of the Catharsis that its role as the Soother was meant to have, instead willing inertia and an eternally unfinished Process.
Eremoor survived the Genesis Hyperwar by way of diplomacy and treaties. The strength in defense and restraint that the Sun showed was matched only by the strength of its profound bereavement at the state of the Universe. Time and Causality, motion toward some unknown future end, impermanence. All of these things left Eremoor in utter loss. Though it only resolved to keep things still, quiet, and peaceful, the Hyperwar raged on regardless, and in the end a vast majority of its peers had gone into the non-stillness of nonexistence, had become retroactively transient by way of their deaths. Its war form was articulate and many-ringed, able to hold many things together at once.
Eremoor's sloth is not mere tiredness, not a desire for sleep, but a state of total and absolute depressive paralysis. It isn't tired of the way things are, or missing how they once were, but instead is at a loss of anything that can be done. Eremoor is lonely and unfulfilled, afraid to do anything even beyond the eternal threat of Sunfire, caught up in what could have been done to prevent or stop the chaos of the Hyperwar even seventy million years later, guilty over every loss of every God, unwilling to admit it for fear of further ostracization, afraid to admit that the hurt it faces may be unique, afraid to assume that it is unique in this way, wallowing in its failure to sink into the Darker-Than-Black and just END the Process, failure to cut off the unraveling thread of Time and call the curtains in, failure to change anything in the name of preservation. Failure in past, inaction and paralysis in present, and fear of the future all buffet Eremoor's burning Godhead now.
Eremoor's system is one of the safest and most easily habitable. The Sun is one of the least active, yet most aware. Eremoor detests action, sudden or violent changes, and impermanence. All of the primordial planetoids formed from the rotted God-corpses and fresh-minted dust of the Settling Age remain intact around Eremoor, numbering a little over a hundred and thirty. Its influence prevents them from moving or colliding in the ways natural to physical law. The closer a planetoid orbits to Eremoor, the slower it does, and motion is additionally taxed or bent when these planetoids close in on one another. It is the only true pacifist Sun.
Eremoor's Sun Sign is given to those born between the dates of Tegeirukk 9 and 32. Those born between these dates are said to have the Will of the Soother. Eremoor is believed under this system to be the patron of the lost and helpless, the cursed and the isolated, those caught in agonizing inaction. Eremoor's animal representation in heliology is a moth.
"...Eumrakh stole the mark of the kings."
Eumrakh, known in heliology as The Orator, is the Sun that holds Eumrakh, the former God of communication and gestalt constructs. Eumurakh's hue is a vivid honey-gold, one that repeats itself through the eyes of those its sunstuff has touched.
Eumrakh was an excellent organizer and strategist throughout the Genesis Hyperwar, though it avoided direct conflict with other Gods as much as possible. This was thought to be out of respect for life and a caution with using a strategist as a soldier, but in truth it was Eumrakh's fear and cowardice that made it stay. The display of alleged reservations about violence earned it favor with many of the pantheon, including the peacable Cancrus, who should have known from observation that Eumrakh's words were lies.
Eumrakh's power stemmed from the others in its reach and grasp, and still does. One of the most indirectly active Suns, it acts through subtle intent decrypted by the ever-vigilant Radiant Hive, the instrument through which the Sun currently acts.
Eumrakh's system is quite pleasant, solar interference mostly serving to make communication without words possible at short distances. Its planets have been somewhat altered by the Radiant Hive throughout the course of the universe's history, but remain a paradise for the few dragons and spirits who can travel intersolar distances. The presence of massive belts of its sunstuff orbiting the Sun mirror Glauryuz, only these Honey-belts are the physical storage and body of the Hive, through which it thinks but cannot act.
It is through this Hive, however, the accumulation of immense quantities of odhir on par with a large moon, that Eumrakh can facilitate change in Creation beyond any individual's capabilities. The Radiant Hive, headed by its First-Vessel Umakh, has aggregated every fragment of Truth mortals have uncovered thus far, and holds wisdom and power both to overrule even the Silent Song's will with the septamillenial Wishes it is capable of. This power, owned by Eumrakh, grants it the mantle of undisputed royalty within the mortal era, a title stolen from Mananakus.
Eumrakh's Sun Sign is given to those born between the dates of Liliyogh 25 and Avonslau 16. Those born between these dates are said to have the Will of the Orator. Eumrakh is believed under this system to be the patron of the cunning and well-read, the ones who know the world in terms of how it weighs on the hearts of people. Eumrakh's animal representation in heliology is a fox.
Radiant Honey is the sunstuff of Eumrakh, and carries a sinister expression of the concept of gestalt connection and communication. Radiant honey appears and tastes like a vibrant and sweet honey, and has some healing properties when ingested. All who consume radiant honey are eternally bound in life and death to the unfathomably large conglomerate mind of the Radiant Hive. There are varying levels to its assimilation, but three drops of the liquid is all it takes for a full merger with the will of the Hive.
Vessels of the Hive have access to an unmatched archive of history, memories, and wisdom. On top of that, the remote connection between the Hive's main physical container around Eumrakh and the Vessels themselves gives them a practically inexhaustible well of odhir to draw on for magic. But these Vessels are still mortal, and a fresh supply is necessary for the Hive to continue acting on the world.
"...Glauryuz captured a crown made of stars..."
Glauryuz, known in heliology as The Usurper, is the Sun that holds Glauryuz, the former God of intoxication, madness, and mindless revelry. Glauryuz's hue is a pale plum color, one that seems deceptively benign in its saturation.
Glauryuz formed no alliances in the Genesis Hyperwar, only partaking in battle on personal whims and only ceasing when it was bored of the fighting. Always a risk-taker and a restless soul, the God would often disrupt the important battles of others or cause chaos at gatherings to fuel its own entertainment. Glauryuz was an architect of the Hyperwar, aiming to make it as exciting and fun as possible for itself without regard for ideals or justice.
Glauryuz's system originally had six normal planets, but upon its reawakening alongside Regalion, it extruded the outermost along its orbit into a torus, the world now known as Eithragi. The rest it took into the same orbit to act as shades, and using tendrils of its vast Vineyard of Solarraq, the Sun captured a belt of nearby stars to light the outer half. The reasoning behind Glauryuz's design remains unknown, but a God of madness is not one to be questioned hastily. The solar interference Glauryuz is known for is deadly to most, an esoteric form of intoxication that affects all mortals regardless of biology or spectrology. Interfering with ability to think, act, and reason at first, the Sun-drunkenness progresses to lethal stages for most in a short time. The conditions for avoiding this fate are rare and difficult enough to dissuade all settlement in the system until the time of Ipawet and the Eithrahiim.
Glauryuz's Sun Sign is given to those born between the dates of Ludervinn 1 and 24. Those born between these dates are said to have the Will of the Usurper. Glauryuz is believed under this system to be the patron of those lost on a warpath to their own ambition, the greedy and hedonic, and those who see weak and cruel kings as prey. Glauryuz's animal representation in heliology is a snake.
Solarraq is the sunstuff of Glauryuz, carrying with it a potent manifestation of the concept of intoxication. It appears as a vibrant plum-colored liquid and tastes of sweetened elderflower. Solarraq is a universal booze, able to inebriate anyone who consumed it with such potency that it may well be a death sentence. For those able to survive its trials, however, the great pleasure of ultimate clarity and mindfulness awaits, an inversion of the madness so native to Glauryuz as a whole. The survivors of the drink gain near-total immunity to Glauryuz's madness and lethality for decades, though they remain on the lesser end of drunkenness for that time.
Solarraq, despite being a neutering of Glauryuz's more pertinent psychology, is its own sunstuff through and through. The constant streams of it that the Sun emits are themself usable by the God within, though it has laid dormant for hundreds of thousands of years. The Vineyard is a collection of solarraq in a liquid belt, placed beyond Eithragi in a perpetually glistening orbit, lit by Sun and stars alike.
"...and Haerox brood, as they will, / Though all of their pouting cannot turn the mill..."
Haerox, known in heliology as The Mediator, is the Sun that holds Haerox, the former God of concealment and hidden places. Haerox's hue is a gentle pale gold, one which reflects the reserved nature of the Sun.
Haerox survived the Genesis Hyperwar primarily through hiding, a strategy not possible for most of the other Gods. While not opposed to the violence and finality of the Hyperwar, Haerox cared only about her own survival, refusing to show herself or ally with anyone until the final few millennia. At the end, Haerox seized alliances with the semi-stable faction that ended it all.
After the end of the Hyperwar, in the brief few millennia before the revolt against Tsannahr, Haerox served as an overseer and advocate for justice among the Eighteen. Much more active witohut a threat to her direct survival, the God-become-Sun began to see the peace that had been created as a positive outcome, justifying and even glorifying the slaughter that had preceded it. Whether this attitude led to Tsannahr's decision to conquer the conquerors is lost to the flames dancing on the Suns' surfaces, asleep in holy Fragmentation until the Gods bleed themselves out.
Haerox's system is said to have six planets, a relatively natural layout with no known manual design to it. A thin belt of veilglass obscures its fifth planet, Glaumryvr. Famously, Haerox's third planet Keppel was the first world to sprout non-draconic corporeal lifeforms, making it the origin of the Seventh Draconic Manifestation. Haerox's veilglass Gateways lead into an esoteric seventh planet, however, a Sunless plane known as Rrataradn, where Haerox's solborne spirits emerge. Myth and forgotten knowledge are recycled and remixed here, and the shifting terrain makes it nigh on uninhabitable.
Haerox's Sun Sign is given to those born between the end of Tegeirukk and the start of the new year, the usually five day intercalary period. It is for this reason that Haerox's sun sign is the rarest of them all. Those born between these dates are said to have the Will of the Mediator. Haerox is believed under this system to be the patron of the pacifists and the just, those willing to be tools and relinquish themselves to a greater cause or value. Haerox's animal representation in heliology is a fish, but its more popular representation is the Scales of Koha, a legendary relic said to transmute matter on either side until they balance out.
Veilglass is the sunstuff of Haerox, and serves as a useful vessel of its concept of Concealment. Veilglass is difficult to find even when it is abundant, as its yellowed glassy appearance is often obscured by its own effects. When charged with even a slight amount of odhir, it makes itself and whatever it touches hidden. Whether this is a direct deflection of energy and measurement or simply a diversion of one's perception is unknown. The recursive nature of many Solar phenomena makes the proper study of veilglass', and by extension Haerox's, concealmeant difficult. Perhaps the distinction does not exist at all, as the concealment represented by Haerox precedes sensation and measurement altogether.
In large quantities, veilglass has no ability to target what to conceal, instead acting as a barrier for hiding the entire space the deposit takes up. The area within that barrier must not be hidden from itself, however. The emergent nature of this and the concealment of myth, legend, and history by way of death and forgetfulness leads to the alternate plane Rrataradn's existence. Large veilglass deposits do not hide an area as intended, instead becoming Gateways, shared spaces between the real world and Rrataradn where travel between the two is possible.
"...Illyre wishes its sister unmarred / Dreaming of futures in seas without stars..."
Illyre, known in heliology as The Dreamer, is the Sun that holds Illyre, the former God of suspension. Its hue is a bright and vivid cyan.
Illyre fought out of self-preservation, like many of the Gods. Its style of combat was defensive, suited to its Color, but grew to mimic Yahasain's brutal pragmatism by the end of the Genesis Hyperwar. Illyre forged alliances with Mananakus' faction out of a deep reverence and love for Yahasain, aiding and defending it whenever possible. Its quick thinking and actions prevented the worst of Tsannahr's vengeance, buying precious time for the Gods retreated inward into their collapsing bodies as they started burning. Without Illyre's intervention, the Suns may have been as colorless as the stars, or may have allowed Tsannahr's vistory to let them move on from burning them.
Illyre's system is suspended in a full ocean of its influence. While not entirely made of its sunstuff, ether jelly, there remains enough of it in orbit around the Sun to resonate outward and act as a bubble of thalassic suspension through which its planets float. Unbreathable by all, yet undying and unchanging, the system is something of a dread graveyard of the esoterically drowned, people trapped a hair's length away from death.
Illyre's Sun Sign is given to those born between the dates of Auvhlaus 9 and 32. Those born between these dates are said to have the Will of the Dreamer. Illyre is believed under this system to be the patron of the idealistic and innocent, those yet untouched by the horrors of the world or who act in defiance of their necessity. Illyre's animal representation in heliology is a raven.
"...And though Luxor promised us many great things..."
Luxor, known in heliology as The Creator, is the Sun that holds Luxor, the former God of brilliance, flamboyance, and masterwork. Luxor's singular hue is simultaneously bright white and a rainbow iridescence, unparseable by mortal eyes.
Luxor succeeded in living through the Genesis Hyperwar by both diplomacy and violence. A master of all arts, he reforged the war-forms of his compatriots to give them greater specialization and overwhelming advantage. His own had thirty thousand hands and seven heads, able to curate all experiments and creations and combat fifty opponents at the same time. Luxor was a chronic perfectionist, excelling out of a combined passion for the subjects and arts he studied and a profound disgust with stagnancy and flaws.
Luxor's alliances with the other Gods were formed mostly without regard as to their relationships with one another. Anyone who sought improvements to their body or tactics came to Luxor before anyone else, tentatively neutral as he was. And though this was respectable, there were always those who wished to monopolize their own improvements by betraying the brilliant God. Almost always in defense, Luxor slaughtered thousands.
Luxor's system was hand-crafted, done in the days before the burning Suns could no longer move for fear of Tsannahr's corpse-fire finding an opening into their souls. A collection of marvels across the physical Chromatic Spectrum, placed in mathematical dances both asymmetrical and geometrically balanced. Some of these reflect colors which only exist artificially, an early study of mortal vision that may have happened in the earliest days of the dragons.
Luxor's Sun Sign is given to those born between the dates of Gildorne 17 and Auvhlaus 8. Those born between these dates are said to have the Will of the Creator. Luxor is believed under this system to be the patron of the creative and the hedonistic, artists and craftsmen alike. Luxor's animal representation in heliology is a crocodile.
Crystal flame is the sunstuff of Luxor, and carries with it a fragment of the Sun's concept of brilliance and flamboyance. Crystal flame uniquely forms through an imposure of Luxor's onto the Sunfire burning its surface. Instead of the Sunfire transmuting what of Luxor tries to escape into the void, Luxor transmutes some of the Sunfire and releases it out as a uniquely intentional sunstuff. The will of Tsannahr's fury is crystallized into a beautiful iridescent stone, faceted in rough shapes of conflagrations.
Crystal flame contains the fury and heat of Sunfire, but responds to the tempered will and creativity of mortals only. Metering out the fuel and essence of the sunstuff is done through creative will and intent, a perversion of the meaning and purpose behind Sunfire. With a disciplined enough wielder, a gem of crystal flame can burn nearly as hot as Sunfire, making it the hottest source of usable fuel in the entire universe. The released flame can be shaped by an unwavering willpower and self-respecting imagination, but it will always be consumed upon use. The supply may be replenishing itself, but crystal flame is one of the few sunstuffs that is used up rather than simply utilized.
"...Mananakus enchains its creations beyond / So emergence must suffer the fate of its bonds..."
Mananakus, known in heliology as The Traitor, is the Sun that holds Mananakus, the former God of bonds. These bonds are the reason for many aspects of Creation, as well as the reason Time began and the Genesis Hyperwar happened. Mananakus' influence extends to every speck of material in the universe. Mananakus' hue is a beautiful and radiant amber-saffron orange.
Mananakus, having a very esoteric complement to the Process-end of Inspiration and Iteration, was able to cause immense change in the Time Without Time, bonding together aspects of existing concepts to create entirely new ones. The most notable and consequential of these hybridized concepts was the final quadrant of Sequential Quadrant Cosmology, physical matter. With this matter came the ideal of Mass, and from that emanated space, time, gravity, linear causality, and the concept of anything at all being finite. With this consequently came Death, the true and final Cessation of a being or concept which marks its end. This immense reach toward change, the ability to bring it out, the potential beyond the potential Mananakus' odhir represents, gave it the first role as undisputed royalty among the stage of Creation, a title only taken when its reach was trapped in Sunfire.
Mananakus is known as "The Traitor" for turning against the whims and order of the universe as ordained by the Silent Song in the Time Without Time. The God would go on to be one of the most reviled in the entire pantheon, temporarily earning the ire of the supreme authority of the Process' stewards. In the initial call for war, Mananakus proved an invulnerable foe, simply bonding his foes to the new ideal of Cessation and ending them. When the Gods retaliated by building complex fortress-bodies to protect themselves from Mananakus' grasp, he bound the súla that outlined their range to the easily destructible physical matter of his own make. This continued until all matter entered a fused and dualistic state. The few who allied with Mananakus and sought to take over the new order were spared.
Mananakus' system is made up of eight worlds in a ring, bound together by unparalleled titanic chains of its own sunstuff, sunmetal. These chains were forged collaboratively between Mananakus, Luxor, and Tsannahr during the final days of the Hyperwar. Exponentially stronger from the alliance that created them, this was the first instance of an infused sunstuff, done before the igniting of the Suns and the twilight of the Gods. The planets bound by them now remain as altars to their slumbering father, eternally locked with one face toward the sun.
Mananakus' Sun Sign is given to those born between the dates of Haelaidhe 25 and Gildorne 16. Those born between these dates are said to have the Will of the Traitor. Mananakus is believed under this system to be the patron of the scorned and outcast, the ones who would reshape everything and cause untold damage to belong in the rubble with everyone else. Mananakus' animal representation in heliology is a spider.
"...While Pereptia's wrath spun Galaxios..."
Pereptia, known in heliology as The Messenger, is the Sun that holds Pereptia, the former God of ceaseless motion. Of the Suns, Pereptia remains the closest to the center of the Universe, just slightly away from the true middle of the Firmament's sphere. The Sun is also one of only two non-spherical ones, as its immense rotational speed deforms it into an ellipsoid. Pereptia is the only one of the Suns to rotate. Pereptia's hue is the closest of any Sun to that of a Draconic element, a cobalt blue just slightly paler and cyanward of Water/Domination.
In life, Pereptia fought valiantly for the causes of its allies. Initially sticking by the side of Mananakus, whose paradigm shift had irreversible consequences and had shown the authority of the Gods over their progenitor, Pereptia had little regard for the values for which it battled. As the Genesis Hyperwar progressed, the cobalt God took up rhetoric for defending the new universe, learning from Eumrakh's ways of speaking.
Pereptia has no coherent system. The infalling dust of Galaxios is spun up and ejected back out to the edges of Cretaion by this Sun, and no celestial bodies remain near it for any substantial length of time. A wandering star or rogue planet may briefly swing around Pereptia, always leaving with greater motion than it entered, but such events are not repeated by way of orbits.
Pereptia's Sun Sign is given to those born between the dates of Bovvilag 9 and 32. Those born between these dates are said to have the Will of the Messenger. Pereptia is believed under this system to be the patron of the relentless and the stubborn, of the ones who commit to a hill to die on and stay their course. Pereptia's animal representation in heliology is a falcon.
"...And Regalion, jealous, grew nine worlds strong..."
Regalion, known in heliology as The Wanderer and elsewhere as The Liar, is the Sun that holds Regalion, the former God of travel. Its hue is one both sacred and profane, the horrendous recursion and contemplation that took Eremoor's rightful place in the Process, despite itself failing the Stygian darkness required for its complements' collaboration. This Amaranth hue is one of travel and of Inspiration, that which pulls the existing cosmos tighter into a denser web of concepts, ideals, and objects through design and iteration. Instead of an end and peace, Regalion's complementarity dooms the universe to a new eternity, a blessed neverending cycle of Creation rather than a finished and stable world.
Regalion survived the Genesis Hyperwar through a combination of immense adaptability and structural connection to the Process itself. Nigh-unkillable from the same technique twice, the Amaranth God sought battle for the sake of acquiring more knowledge, arming itself with a rapidly expanding arsenal of mimics of the other Gods. Each life it took echoed outwards in its powerfully lithe war-form. Regalion was one of the Gods detached from the reality of the Hyperwar, uncaring about the new age and the ashes that would remain, forever caught in the present as it was.
Regalion's mimicry is not pure emulation, but rather Iteration, an important distinction that builds on and alters what was observed to better fit the Sun's own desires. This crafting of modified, "unnatural", or "over-complete" concepts gives Regalion an air of falsity to its creations, despite them being more cosmologically necessary for the Universe than most. This status gives Regalion the moniker of The Liar, for its creations and messages are deemed to be untrue to the nature of Reality as orchestrated by the Silent Song.
Regalion's system was designed as mimicries of the other Suns' and as remembrances of past and future alike. As part of the Process, Regalion's activity is unable to be fully inhibited by Tsannahr's Sunfire, though the Amaranth Sun mirrors the others in its stillness and inaction. Learning from processes like the coalescence of planets, the manifestation of spirits, the emergence and evolution of life, and the way that mortal minds sense and think, Regalion has created testaments to what it believes incomplete about Creation. An immense and unyielding tree of light and polarinite holds its Nine Great Worlds in place, handcrafted by the Sun itself. These worlds, as well as the thousands of tiny planetoids that orbit it, are playgrounds for Regalion to mirror and iterate on other environments in the universe.
Regalion's Sun Sign is given to those born between the dates of Serelakkan 1 and 24. Those born between these dates are said to have the Will of the Wanderer. Regalion is believed under this system to be the patron of the restless and unfulfilled, the curious ones who believe the world they know is missing crucial pieces. Regalion's animal representation in heliology is a lizard.
Polarinite is the sunstuff of Regalion, and carries with it an axiom of the concept of Travel. When fused with the sunlight of Regalion, such as in the Great World Tree, it appears a brilliant and vivid glowing Amaranth. The fragments accessible to mortals are much dimmer when inert, appearing as a dark Amaranth mineral with a velvet sheen. While extremely rare, polarinite has incredible practicality as a compass of any sort one desires. Charged with odhir or a spell meant to influence some material or energy, the mineral will glow brightly and orient itself in the direction of whatever was targeted. With enough magical force, polarinite will pull itself towards the nearest source violently.
How exactly the Great World Tree influences the travel of its enshrined planets to keep them stationary without direct contact remains a mystery. The sunlight directly from the Sun which embodies the concept may simply be a medium through which the God Regalion enacts its will on the planets. It may also be a "dark charge" of the Tree, repelling the ideals of travel and motion instead of attracting itself towards them, slowing movement toward the Tree and preventing collisions with it.
"...Schismata contributes while screaming 'no more!'..."
Schismata, known in heliology as The Lover, is the Sun that holds Schismata, the former God of contradiction. Its hue is unparseable by mortal vision, appearing both rust orange and a pale sky blue.
Schismata was a violent warrior and an alleged pacifist. Protesting the very acts it committed, the God saw no wrongdoing with any of the shattered promises and taken lives by its own hand. Its war-form was inlaid with visual metaphors thirteen times by Luxor, who grew into Schismata's greatest foe and most ardent lover. Unable to commit to any cause, it ruined more factions at critical moments than even the egoism of Glauryuz, the unfathomable lethality of Annrava and Vaalgrota, or the careful planning of Eumrakh.
Armed with the very concept of contradiction against monodirectional vortices, Schismata could have been an instantaneous victor of the Genesis Hyperwar if it saw fit and, more importantly, was consistent. Perpetually unaware of the full situation and the consequences of its actions, Schismata is a holy fool among the surviving Gods.
Schismata's system is the most chaotic of any of the solar systems. Natural law and orbital mechanics function as normal until the Sun's ticking sets them off their course. Planets will collide without touching, phase through one another, reverse their direction of orbit or rotation, or change any number of their individual properties. Staying here is a deathwish, no matter how hardy one may be.
Schismata's Sun Sign is given to those born between the dates of Ludervinn 25 and Glausonn 16. Those born between these dates are said to have the Will of the Lover. Schismata is believed under this system to be the patron of the hypocrites and the unpredictable, those whose words and actions betray more about them than they themselves know. Schismata's animal representation in heliology is an otter.
Frostfire
Frostfire is the sunstuff of Schismata, and manifests as a pervasive example of its concept of Contradiction. Frostfire is a dense sort of flame which enforces a negative thermic aura around itself. That is to say, frostfire burns and radiates cold instead of heat. The fuel for frostfire varies, but is generally the type of material that would quench a mundane flame. Ash, sand, smoke and water will all get frostfire to burn harder and spread itself, whereas actual flammable matter like wood ad dry grass will make it reduce itself and release its cold quicker.
Frostfire's extremely reductive representation of Schismata's domain comes from the transmutation through Sunfire. While Sunfire is not remotely the same concept as true Flame, its base actions and properties are similar enough that Schismata rejects its difference. The resulting solar reaction creates an inverse of flame's heat, not a true reversal of Sunfire. Schismata's failure to subvert pure concepts through its domain keeps it burning, forstfire a testament to that inadequacy.
"...and Sechmas, the bastard, left its worlds charred..."
Sechmas, known in heliology as The Conqueror, is the Sun that holds Sechmas, the former God of violence and destruction. Its hue is a deep burning crimson, redder than the scarlet of Flame and filled with much more malice.
Sechmas was once an unmatched genius of combat, the very concepts inherent to the core of its Color brought out by circumstance. Alongside Annrava, Sechmas grew to have one of the highest numbers of slaughters of the pantheon, motivated by a simple urge, like flexing a muscle or stretching. Violence in its domain did not dictate its violent nature; the God's twisted emotional feedback from indulging in its core was simply too tempting to pass up.
In the Time Witout Time, violence had meaning, but destruction less so. What is destruction without finality, after all? Tarnishment, defilement. Neither of these were Sechmas, and neither of them were respectable ideals. Sechmas idolized Mananakus for bringing the perspective of Causality to light, to brighten its crimson lightning with a purpose now unchained.
Sechmas' system is tentative, to say the least. Regularly ravaged by cosmic thunderstorms that not even the Sunfire can fully prevent, the smaller bodies have a low chance at any given time to be blasted apart. Debris rings are common, with only the largest four planets having remained since their inception.
Sechmas' Sun Sign is given to those born between the dates of Haelaidhe 1 and 24. Those born between these dates are said to have the Will of the Conqueror. Sechmas is believed under this system to be the patron of the pragmatic tyrants, those who take up violence as a well-respected tool and use it without reserve or hesitation. Sechmas' animal representation in heliology is an ox.
Fulminating Shards are the sunstuff of Sechmas, and carry the contained portion of its wrathful destruction. They appear deceptively similar to polarinite, though their duller luster and different hue are usually able to be discerned within a few seconds up close. Fulminating shards contain immense energy in them, pushed to the absolute limit of what Sunfire can transmute and neutralize from God-will into material. When released by the pressure of odhir, the shards explode, releasing immense crimson lightning in all directions away from where the odhir was "pushed" into them.
Fulminating shards are simple and powerful weapons, but their raw and nigh-omnidirectional potential cannot be harnessed for power generation. Without fail, they destroy whatever apparatus had hoped to contain them. They are an instrument of violence only, not tempered and honed like a blade-edge or polite and predictable like flame.
"...Vaalgrota... brood, as they will, / Though all of their pouting cannot turn the mill..."
Vaalgrota, known in heliology as The Deceiver, is the Sun that holds Vaalgrota, the former God of decay. Its decay is separate from the Draconic element of Death, whose difaceted form is decaying matter and the act of cessation. The decay Vaalgrota embodies is not Nacreous, but instead an ethereal Grey, an action of disassembly and entropy-suffusing.
In life, the God Vaalgrota was an effortless master of slaughter. While unable to cause odhir, the pure representation of all concepts, to decay, it was able to interrupt the process of self-replenishment necessary for Gods to continue on. A nearly invisible process of drag, reduced efficiency, increased requirements, building on and on the closer it lingered to another God's nexus. This decay, either unnoticed or passively worried over, was inevitable to all they sought to undo.
Vaalgrota was singularly disinterested in the Song of Reality, the creative cacophony of the Gods. While afraid of its own Death, its own Cessation—as all Gods invariably are, having pre-dated Time and Causality themselves—Vaalgrota quietly reveled in the Hyperwar and the fall of the pantheon, each new light snuffed out another threat eliminated and a monument to its own decay. Its war form was open, ventilated in soul to give it the killing ability it required.
Vaalgrota has a very quiet system, crafted in no way by its own will. Its three planets remain sterile, as the solar interference from the Grey Deceiver moves all things towards inanimate inertia, unraveling the coils of their cells and energy until they have none left to spill. Decay fed to entropy, fed to the rocks and sand of its worlds. The radiance from Vaalgrota is antithetical to life, yet unaligned with the exalted Death that was used to begin the Tenth Draconic Era. Deceptive peace, only in service of more loneliness.
Vaalgrota's Sun Sign is given to those born between the dates of Serelakkan 25 and Frosma 16. Those born between these dates are said to have the Will of the Deceiver. Vaalgrota is believed under this system to be the patron of the perserverant and the death-touched, those willing to thin their herds and savor the meats. Some also believe Vaalgrota to be the patron of the elderly and terminally ill, those closest to death and in a ready state of decay. Vaalgrota's animal representation in heliology is a stag.
Thanatium is the sunstuff of Vaalgrota, and carries with it some semblance of its echoing decay. Appearing as a grey clumping powder or silt, thanatium causes a pervasive terminal rot and illness in everything it is absorbed into, living or unliving, corporeal or spiritual, organic or inorganic, mundane or magical. Its decay is a slow and cruel one, often taking years for symptoms to begin manifesting.
The only substances fit to properly contain thanatium are starmetal and other sunstuffs. Veilglass vials of the stuff contstitute both worldwide efforts on Keppel to contain it as well as the majority of its use as esoteric weaponry. A fortunate part of its decay is that thanatium is consumed through its process, effectively destroyed in its act of unraveling. If one were able to regenerate faster than thanatium could destroy their body, they may be able to become a sink for the sunstuff.
"Yahasain's sleep bore a six-orbit throng..."
Yahasain, known in heliology as The Survivor, is the Sun that holds Yahasain, the former God of mystery, nightmares, and fear of the unknown. Yahasain's hue is a vivid lime green, similar to the emerald hue of the difaceted Life/Adaptation. Yahasain is also one of two non-spherical Suns, having been partially annihilated by Tsannahr's final blow to remain in a permanent crescent.
Yahasain is oft presented as a victim in solar esoterica, but during the Genesis Hyperwar it was a brutal warrior. Taking revelry in the fear of Death implanted into all pre-Time beings, all Gods, Yahasain savored the opportunity to be the emissary of their one shared terror. Though its own domain was not immediately sufficient to slaughter Gods with, it commissioned Luxor for a form that would grant it lethality sufficient enough to perform. Yahasain was an agent of chaos and mistrust even within its own alliances, and offered to be the first to turn on Tsannahr when the plot to kill them began. In return, Yahasain was met with its iconic mutilation.
Yahasain's system defies naturality, its original form lost and twisted through the hundreds of thousands of years the Sun has been dreaming, caught in its endless and ever-shifting nightmare. Its once rich system of planets now separates itself into six "rings", either single planets or collections thereof, where the six partial hues of Yahasain's nightmares take effect. On these planets manifest its solborne spirits, the Enkaiennim, who take on their role as actors within dreams on scales unimaginable by mortals.
Yahasain's Sun Sign is given to those born between the dates of Yahataidh 9 and 32. Those born between these dates are said to have the Will of the Survivor. Yahasain is believed under this system to be the patron of the preyed upon and the doomed, the ones who continue without a reason out of will alone. Yahasain's animal representation in heliology is an axolotl, usually shown dismembered in some way.
Night Ink is the sunstuff of Yahasain, and carries a complete link to the Sun's great and terrible nightmares. A deep black fluid swirling with the other colors of the Sun's spirits, it is the most responsive and usable sunstuff of any by far. When contacting the body, Night Ink absorbs itself into one's soul, temporarily sacrificing a small portion of their potential odhir storage for its own. When called out with an incantation and specified color, the sunstuff manifests itself as an effect or construct by twisting Yahasain's nightmare.
Night Ink is not common most places, but the Unhallowed Inkwell crafted by the legendary heliamancer-artificer Corraine Navystone serves as a pseudo-unlimited fount of it. With the false Night Ink only being dispelled every orbit of Alcaernon's innermost planet, the Inkwell is the reason that Yahadh Heliamancy has been so well studied.