Haven of the Angels
Mean Distance from Oma: 118,000 to 226,000 WA
Orbital Period around Oma: N/A
Diameter: N/A
Length of day: N/A
Gravity: N/A
Description:
Far beyond the last Fekxtah planet of Oma’s Family lies an enormous globe of celestial objects that surrounds Oma and the entirety of her brood. This is the Haven of the Angels. It begins far beyond the furthest planet, Chayffen, and it extends beyond this point as far as is the distance from Oma to the Haven’s start. It is a magnificently vast area filled with celestial objects beyond count. They are formed from loose entanglements of rock, dust, and ice, and in some cases shards of one or more of the Six Energies. They vary in size from no more than a small boulder to the size of large moons.
The Haven of the Angels was first discovered by a small coterie of eccentric Elzheni scientists who were characterized by their peers as little more than religious zealots since they did not follow the fixed, methodical processes adhered to by the broader Elzheni scientific community. The members of this sect called themselves Astromentists since they considered their abilities to be an extension of their highly developed affinity with Mental Energy. Their peers called them the Como-ists, since they made heavy use of a powerful drug made from the como plant to trigger their “explorations”.
It would be impossible, and perhaps unjust, to present the story of this small sect without using their own words. Their writings convey not only their goals and achievements, but also give a proper portrayal of the mindset that drove them to explore the extreme distances far beyond the influence of Oma. It also reveals the manner in which they achieved their goals which is certainly outside all credible bounds of scientific thought.
The reader might be asking why we would include mention of such a strange group of Elzheni in this document. The question is well warranted, and there was much discussion of this among those of us who are responsible for the creation of this summary of ancient Elzheni knowledge of the greater Fekxtah world. In the end, two arguments convinced us to include the Astromentists in this brief tome. The first was that the Astromentists had persuaded a number of the most prominent Elzheni scientists of their day that their explorations, or “journeys” as they were fond of calling them, were true. How they validated their knowledge to their colleagues is unknown. The ancient texts contain to account of the discussion, or, at least, none that we can find. We felt that the judgment of these ancient masters could not be discounted regardless of the opaque quality of their decision. By itself that was sufficient justification to include the account in this document.
The second argument centers on a strange, and unexpected, event. In the year SP~5,019, only four years before completion of this document, the Guild Division for the Science of Oma and her Fekxtah Family (SOFF) were confronted by a living entity that claimed to originate from the Haven of Angels. At first the members of the SOFF considered the creature to be no more than an individual of a new race that we had not come across before. It is well-known that there are many creatures in our world, and that we do not yet know them all. However, as the Guild members questioned this creature it conveyed information that could not be known to any other than those who had studied the accounts of the ancient Astromentists, but this could not be as the ancient tomes are well-protected from any who are not of the Guild. When the Guild members confronted the creature with this unassailable reality, it countered with information about several of the Astromentists it claimed to have known. What it said was in keeping with our understanding of that time in every respect. It was, of course, an astonishing turn of events; one which we could not, in good conscience, disregard, and we were left in the precarious position of being unable to refute the thing it claimed to be.
We believe that we have properly conveyed our rationale for the passages below. It is now up to the reader to judge for themselves whether the excerpts below are believable or simply wild tales to tell our children at bedtime.
Therefore, we will use several quotes directly from the Astromentist sections of the ancient documents.
“I begin. The taste of the como is fresh and clean. It stings my tongue with its strange bitterness, and comforts me as I recognize my body’s familiar response to its effects.
I close my eyes and my inner eye opens. It shows another world to me, one that lives within the known world, but a world that reveals much more than our physical senses can detect. I am surrounded by tendrils of Energy.
At first I do not see them. I simply know they are there. I am patient, a patience I have learned from much practice. After some amount of time (a thing which is always hard to sense in this place) I see them, their tendrils writhing in constant motion, vibrant in colors of scarlet and gold and others I cannot name.
I reach out to touch them, gently, to hold them. They accept me and we embrace. I feel their cool grasp as the distinction between my own being and theirs disappears. So we become a single thing, a wisp of life that is not bound by the physical, only by what can be imagined.
They carry me forward and we lift ourselves away from our home, my home, the Fekxtah planet Ethem. It now lies far away, a globe that sits in the vast space that fills the void between each and all Fekxtah.
Now we travel in the firmament and beyond it.
The direction of our flight is sometimes my decision and sometimes theirs.
We rush through, and quickly pass, the floating shards of Seekrem’s Halo. As we go I see Ethem’s sister planets, Aldrem and Harrayem. They are far away, but are also near enough I can sense them and the life on the surfaces. Distance exists, but not in the same way that it does for physical creatures.
We continue moving out, away from Oma, a path which carries us past the other Fekxtah planets and their many moons.
We glide past the small Fekxtah Illidreth and soon after we pass the great giant Dra Ag Ahaggalla and its moons. We fly through Oma’s other Far Fekxtah, Moralastalla, Yunah, and Mammarrell. Then there is a pause as we are carried through great emptiness.
Then we reach the Very Far Fekxtah. We pass Cantoss, Tor, and Melladdin, and, at last we reach Chayffen, the furthest of Oma’s children.
We stop and with our Energetic limbs we probe what lies beyond. I know what my race, the Elzheni, know about this place. There is nothing beyond Chayffen. Nothing other than a vast expanse of darkness, a space filled with a profound emptiness.
I have been this far before, but never further. The fear rises and I start to lose my connection with my Energetic companion, but then she pulls me back into her embrace. He assuages my discomfort with her own sense of safety in this barren place. He (for my companion is both he and she) can touch the Energetic sinews of Chayffen which lies nearby, and this gives him the satisfaction of having home nearby.
The moment of fear has passed and we probe the darkness in front of us. Something is there or perhaps we believe that something should be there. Perhaps it is only the hope that the world cannot be entirely empty of the Energy that creates living beings.
I search my Elzheni self for long enough to remind us of our charge — to discover what lies beyond Oma’s world. There is a sense of delight that I feel from my companion; an unusual thing to experience. It was almost as if she were a physical creature, at least for an instant. A real, palpable delight and then it receded to a memory, but it was enough.
We launched ourselves out beyond Chayffen and flew into the unknown.