Nocturne

In every language, the name of Nocturne is in some way evocative of the night. Whether it is Gnachtsil, Artume, Mawt, Yama, or the name in dozens of other cultures, Nocturne's presense in the sky signifies night. Whether scarcely visible at noon or hanging in the starfilled sky with a faint glow, Nocturne's presense 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 blackhole 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 threated to expose one another to the black hole. O how natural is the fear of the night.

Below is a list of bodies that orbit Nocturne.

Stars

Dorok (Elegy)

Type - Red Dwarf (M9V)

Native Species - None

Dorok, known to the Un'oit as Elegy, is an ultra-cool red dwarf that numbers amongst the smallest stars in Cosmoria. It distantly orbits the black hole of Nocturne and hosts the planet Garrea, capital of the furthest member of the United Nations of Florathel. After the final destruction of Pecay-Po in 8042, the few remaining Elkeres fled the Aubade megastructure and any surviving habitats at Valme, only to be pushed away by almost every other civilization. Their only choice was Dorok, found at the edge of the borders of Florenta. The Elkeres made their home into a new Florentan province before gaining independence and then being taken by Sagittarium. Today, Mandras has finally gained independence for good as an associate state of Sagittarium and has taken great pains to lift its population out of their cripplingly poor quality of life. As it is also a high-ranking member of the UNF, Mandras is punching well above its weight and rapidly becoming among the most influential states in its region.

Planets - Garrea, Alnihaya, Harun

Finale

Type - Yellow Dwarf

Native Species - None

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

Planets - Patyrth, Vistique, Sarpanitum

Oratorio

Type - Protostar

Native Species - Un'oit

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

Planets - Partita, Capriccio, Sinfonia

Requiem

Type - Red Dwarf

Native Species - None

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

Planets - None

Megastructures - Sydiah's Ring

Planets of Dorok

Alnihaya

Type - Terrestrial Planet
Native Species - None

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

Moons - None

Garrea

Type - Aquatic Oceanic World
Native Species - None

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

Moons - None

Harun

Type - Aquatic Marine World
Native Species - None

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

Moons - Carol, Noel, Villancico

Planets of Finale

Patyrth

Type - Aquatic Marine World
Native Species - None

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

Moons - None

Planets of Nocturne

Adagio

Type - Ice World
Native Species - None

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

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

Moons - Divertimento

Berceuse

Type - Terrestrial Planet
Native Species - None

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

Moons - None

Courante

Type - Terrestrial Planet
Native Species - None

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

Moons - Allemende

Etude

Type - Ice Giant
Native Species - None

Etude is an ice giant that possesses a faint ring system and seven moons of varying composition. It has the highest Un'oit population outside of their home system of Oratorio. Despite its somewhat isolated position, three of its moons have populations in the tens of billions thanks to large subsurface oceans created by tidal heating. This heating is a relatively recent phenomenon meaning the system has no native life to speak of.

The innermost moon, Canon, is an icy world whose close orbit causes immense tidal heating. Thawing just one hundred million years ago, Canon's subsurface oceans are rich in ammonia and salts. Volcanically active, Canon's surface is constantly renewed and thus quite smooth.

Waltz has a natural magnetic field, making it the most habitable and populous of Etude's moons. Its dense iron core and molten mantle are still warm from formation. Waltz was the first of Etude's colonized satellites. Waltz's subsatellite, Landler, possesses large fusion reactors and light fixtures along its equator. These lights supply Waltz with habitable temperatures for the cold-resistant Un'oit. Waltz has a handful of surface oceans, but underground resevoirs, cities, and preserves host most life. Waltz has only a handful of natural craters, but millions of artificial ones. Bombing during the Un'oit Ascension vaporized a full percent of Waltz's mass. Fields of igneous rock and volcanic glass now dominate its surface.

Rondo, the smallest major moon, is also Etude's densest. The iron-rich world has a comparatively high surface gravity making it uninhabitable for the Un'oit. Consequently, Rondo is the only of Etude's companions to host a large non-Un'oit population. Most of its inhabitants are Civese colonists.

Sonatina has an ammonia ocean similar to the world of Sonata.

Intermezzo has a dense atmosphere of nitrogen that periodically freezes and sublimates. Subterrainean colonies represent the bulk of Sonatina's cities.

Moons - Canon, Waltz, Rondo, Sonatina, Intermezzo, Fantasia, Serenade

Euterpe

Type - Chthonian World
Native Species - None

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

Moons - None

Fugue

Type - Ice Shell
Native Species - None

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

Moons - Concerto

Introit

Type - Nitrogen Ocean
Native Species - None

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

Moons - Minuet, Operetta

Overture

Type - Terrestrial World
Native Species - None

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

Moons - Ballade

Sonata

Type - Ammonia Marine World
Native Species - None

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

Moons - Sarabande, Lied

Thalia

Type - Aquatic Marine World
Native Species - None

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

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

Moons - Tagelied, Reverie, Descort
Megastructures - Mnemosyne