Haven of the Angels

Our Solar System: Haven of 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.

Chayffen, the Planet that was a City

Chayffen, the Planet that was a City

Mean Distance from Oma: 16,200 WA

Orbital Period around Oma: 531 years

Mean Diameter: 102,400 miles

Length of day: N/A hours

Gravity: 4.2 Ethems

Description:

Chayffen is the fourth, and outermost, of Oma’s Very Far Fekxtah. Chayffen is the name that is given to this Fekxtah planet, and also to the city which spans the entirety of its surface. It was known to the Elzheni as the “planet that was a City”. The Gollanir called it “the unending house”. Each name was equally apt.

The other notable fact about Chayffen is that it is a frozen world. By that we mean that this world goes far beyond cold. It is wholly without heat, other than what is brought by those who visit. Gollanir believed that at one time the planet Chayffen had been a world of warmth and abundant life. They believed that something, perhaps some ancient being of the wide universe, occupied the core of Chayffen, and that this ancient thing created its own heat, that in turn produced an atmosphere on Chayffen that nurtured a rich abundance and variety of life, including a brilliant race of creatures called the Ultar who built the great city that occupied their planet.

According to the Gollanir (and the Elzheni concur) the ancient Ultar were the first sentient beings to populate any of Oma’s planets or moons, and they appeared long long before any the sentients of our own planet Ethem. In our accounting of the Ages of the World we would mark their beginnings at some time late in the The Fourth Age of the World which was the Age before our own. The Fourth Age of the World was known as the Time of Energies. The Six Energies came into being at the beginning of this time period and the Age ended during the ascendance of the primitive, but powerful, beings known as the “Energy Avatars”, each of which embodied in a living form one, and only one of the Six Energies (Emotion, Mental, Body, Physic, Mystic, and Shadow). If this account of the Ultar is true then it brings into question the veracity of the document we hold so very dear to our science; namely, The History of the Created World. This document, which was written by the ancient Elzheni and came down to us from them through the Heolas race, claims to be a record of all creation since the world began. Current scholars simply do not believe that any contradiction to this tome can be true. Many Guild members, and their powerful leaders, believe that it is nothing less than blasphemy to speak of it. Because of this kind of disapproval (and, we daresay, condemnation), there are very few Guild scholars who are willing to consider this alternative account. They have theorized that the Ultar were a race whose origins were from outside of Oma’s Family, which would imply that there are other (perhaps many) other races and creatures in the distant world of the stars and the Great Universe. To our great disappointment (and the joy of Guild Leaders) these scholars have offered no substantial evidence of this, and so is considered nothing more than pure speculation.

Whatever their origins, the Gollanir spent many years investigating the history of the Ultar since they rose to prominence on the planet Chayffen. According to their accounts the Ultar lived for millennia in peaceful co-existence with the other living things of their home world. They were curious about the world around them and were constantly learning about Oma and her Fekxtah Family, and even about the world beyond Oma. They created devices that allowed them to see clearly the smallest niches of distant planets and even planets and stars far away from Oma. It was said that they could even detect the movements of the Walkers, those creatures who had lived since the beginnings of the Created World and could move to all places in it. In addition, it was believed that the Ultar had created chambers of special material that allowed them to travel inside of Oma herself. These were virtually indestructible vehicles that could withstand not only the immense heat of Oma, but could withstand the Energy storms that constantly thundered throughout its interior.

The Ultar lived in this manner for thousands of millenia when suddenly disaster overtook them. The fire that had burned in the center of Chayffen, the ineffable flame that provided life-giving warmth to Chayffen throughout its long existence, suddenly, without warning, was extinguished. The cause for the catastrophe was never found either by the Gollanir or the Elzheni, but its consequence was indisputable and fatal. When its inner fire died, Chayffen no longer had protection from the cold cruelty of the space that surrounded it. The deep atmosphere quickly dissipated and was soon utterly swept away leaving no air to breathe or warm airs to keep living beings alive. In a matter of months Chayfeen and all of the things that lived on it had died or were frozen in place. Soon after the mass extinction of all of its life the Fekxtah itself died. Bombarded by the cold force of deep space its rotation slowed and, eventually, stopped altogether.

Some scientists speculated that at least some of the Ultar must surely have survived. Perhaps migrating to one or another of Oma’s Fekxtah to start over again. We can only guess, but there is general agreement among current scholars, and the ancient Elzheni, that the catastrophe must have been so immediate and profound that none could have survived.

For many thousands of years Chayffen, the city and the planet, lay desolate; a dead world continuing to circle Oma, but with nothing breaking the stillness and its unchanging cold.

Eventually the Gollanir found their way to the frozen expanse and empty buildings of this world. When they first arrived they were in awe at the enormity of the endless city and the immensity of the structures which populated it. Over time they discovered the libraries of the Ultar. They discovered their name and translated the relics left behind by this ancient, powerful civilization. As the years passed the Gollanir learned more and, as they did, they began to understand the magnificence of the Ultar and the enormity of their tragic extinction.

Eventually the Elzheni joined the Gollanir in their quest to uncover all of the secrets of the Ultar and that mutual effort was mentioned even into the final documents written by the Elzheni before they, themselves, were destroyed.

Fekxtah Station #15:

Shortly after they began inspecting Chayffen the Gollanir established outposts for their investigators. Since many of the structures built by the Ultar were still standing and sturdy, the was no need to build their own homes. They simply selected Ultar buildings that appealed to them and added the necessary accommodations. Many of the outposts were situated in tallest buildings, some of which rose miles above the planet’s surface. From these vantage points the Gollanir could view miles of the cityscape below them or look out far over the oceans. Other outposts were constructed at the surface level of the planet to make expeditions easier, and still others used places that the Ultar had built deep below Chayffen’s surface. Over time the Gollanir refurbished hundreds of structures to serve as outposts.

It was a simple process, when the Elzheni joined them in their explorations, to share some outposts and to give the Elzheni the freedom to construct their own within remaining structures. The ancient texts handed down by the Elzheni tell of three outposts they had created for their own, with others shared with their Gollanir colleagues.

Melladdin, the White Pearl

A Fross soon after rising from one of Melladdin’s oceans

Mean Distance from Oma: 9,004 WA

Orbital Period around Oma: 429 years

Mean Diameter: 31,320 miles

Length of day: 17 hours

Gravity: 8.8 Ethems

Description:

Melladdin is the third of Oma’s Very Far Fekxtah. It is a world entirely shrouded by white and pink clouds. If you were to view this planet from space, it would gleam a soft white, as a white pearl might, and thus the name.

The cloud cover is many miles deep but does not extend all the way to the surface of Melladdin. Below the clouds is a world teeming with life. A huge variety of plants populate the world from its lowest depths up to and inside of the thick cloud layer. In addition to its plant life, Melladdin has millions of species of insects and an even larger number of sludge-like creatures that are made from a single cell, though there are instances of where cells have learned to attach themselves to each other to create populations of attached cells. The one life form that is noticeably absent is any kind of animal life or creatures such as we have here on Ethem.

The climate of Melladdin is perfectly suited to sustain the life it bears; it is hot and wet, hotter than the hottest of tropical environments here on our own Ethem, but not so hot that it prevented the Elzheni scientists from wandering the lands and oceans.

There are two factors which contribute to the heat of Melladdin. The first is the thick cloud cover. It ensures that the heat generated by the planet remains on the planet. The second factor is Melladdin’s ultra-hot core that radiates tremendous amounts of heat into the surrounding layers of the planet as well as its surface. The Gollanir scientists were unable to explain why Melladdin’s core was so unusually hot. When the Elzheni scientists tried to explore the Fekxtah to explain the anomaly, their efforts were immediately stopped by the Gollani. The Elzheni were highly suspicious of the Gollanir’s odd behavior; however, they did not pursue the endeavor as they wanted to ensure relations between the two civilizations remain healthy. There is, however, a story in the ancient texts that claim the Gollanir scientists knew the answer to this question, and did not want the Elzheni to discover their secret. There are rumors that the detailed story of this interaction (and a possible trip to the center of this planet) is contained one of the ancient books, but that this book was lost long ago. Current scholars are highly skeptical that the books is lost, but only our Heolas mayam colleagues know for certain.

As we have stated so many times before, there is not sufficient space in this tome to capture the complete picture of this Fekxtah and the vast variety of life that populates it. We will however, briefly describe below several of its most interesting life forms.

Interesting Life Form #1: The Fross

The Fross are enormous plants. They are the largest life form on Melladdin and one of the largest throughout all of Oma’s Family. Their roots begin at the bottoms of Melladdin’s oceans, where they attach themselves firmly to their rocky floors. From there they rise up through the waters, then through Melladdin’s atmosphere, and they finally pierce the layer of clouds that enclose the planet. The ancient texts claim that the Fross also found anchors for themselves in the cloud layer itself. It was unclear to the ancient Elzheni how they attained this seemingly impossible (unnatural?) feat; however, it was believed that there are Energetic anomalies that are a part of the cloud layer and that the tip of the Fross massive stem has an affinity with these “Energy Clouds”, with an ability to bond with them so that the Fross are attached there in the sky.

Fross grow quickly in the hot, wet atmosphere. Of course the distance that they grow, from ocean floor up to the sky, is so great that it takes several centuries before they are fully grown. Once a Fross reaches the clouds it may spend several years searching for, and attaching to, one of the Energy Clouds that can serve as their anchor point. The ancient texts say that one of the most beautiful sights on Melladdin is a Fross soon after it has broken the surface of the ocean. Once they stretch a few hundred yards above the ocean surface they “bloom”. This bloom takes the form of enormous flower-petals that extend up the length of the Fross thick stem and stretch out over the waters below. At this time they also display colorful, roughly round seeds that soon drop off into the water to be carried away by the currents and sink to the bottom of the ocean where they will begin again the process of anchoring and growing.

During their lifetime each Fross will serve as a home to millions of Melladdin’s insects and cellular life forms. There are insect burrowers that tunnel deep into the core of a Fross to make a home for themselves and their progeny, often resulting in long networks of tunnels. Other insects make their homes in the Fross lush leaves and others live on the rough exterior of the Fross where they build nests (see Empire of Drell below).

Interesting Life Form #2: Empire of Drell

Most of the most abundant and long-lived of the endless number of insect species on Melladrin are called the Drell. They are also the most aggressive and, so the ancient texts argued, were the dominant insect species on the planet. Each Drell has multiple pairs of fluttering wings, similar to those of dragonflies on our own world. They have large heads with multiple eyes and antennae, and they have a long segmented body comprising multiple hairy abdomen connected by a slim, black filament. The smallest are less than an inch long, but the largest of the Drell can grow to be several yards in length.

These creatures have an intricate social structure that includes an Emperor or Empress (thus the name “Empire of Drell”), a leadership caste, a soldier caste and a variety of castes that are born to perform very specific construction tasks such as those who build their massive nests and fortifications and hunters who constantly forage for food (usually other insects). There are even large groups who have the ability to link themselves together to perform specialized tasks such as transporting large, heavy objects or sustaining themselves underwater for long periods of time. These groups are most prominently displayed in the Drell’s warrior castes who can form vast flights to smother and kill their enemies, often at great cost to themselves.

There are tens of thousands of Drell communities, or Empires, on Melladdin. Each is led by its own Emperor or Empress (or sometimes both) and each has their own distinct customs and caste system, and the texts say their own language or some variant on the common Drell language. The many Empires, though, are very similar in their highly militant nature and their desire for conquest and the domination of other Drell Empires. Because of this there is constant fighting between and among these warring communities that has existed for countless years.

Interesting Life Form #3: The Bee Elzud

We cannot mention interesting life forms on Melladdin and not include the Bee Elzud. These plants are similar to the fungi of our world. They appear in different forms in different places and under different conditions. At times they are a lush, soft moss that covers large stretches of earth or even the hard stone that comprise much of the dry surface of this planet. At other times, they are soft stems protruding a few inches above their mossy floor, and then there are the magnificent, complicated, twisting filaments that weave their way several yards. Each soft tendril contorts itself around the others that surround it, and often around other plants or hills that stand in their way. Some of the chaotic structures created by the Bee Elzud have spanned hundreds of yards from the top of one hill to another prominence, and then spurs will reach out from these.

This abundant plant provides a home to many insects and to other plants, including flowering varieties that layer a cornucopia of color across the otherwise consistent tans and light brown of the Bee Elzud. Though their intricate structures are soft and light but are also surprisingly strong; able to withstand the fierce winds that frequently range across the largely flat surface of Melladdin. However, from time to time, powerful hurricane-like storms rage across the planet upending everything in their path. The Bee Elzud structures will succumb to these angry winds, but, over time, rebuild themselves to re-occupy the territory that they had once dominated.

Fekxtah Station #14 (Gollanir Outpost #1209):

The Gollanir scientists had many outposts on Melladdin. This included places on Melladdin’s surface, high in its cloud cover, and deep under its oceans. They shared many outposts with the Elzheni, though not all. They also gave the Elzheni several outposts to be used entirely on their own for their own purposes. The ancient texts claim only one of these as the Fekxtah Station for Melladdin. Some current scholars believe this showed the rigidity of Elzheni thinking — one and only one Station for each planet. Others believed that the Elzheni installed their Astronomical Transportation machinery in only one of these outposts and would travel to the others through more conventional (non-astronomical) methods.

Whatever the case may be, this station was large, covering dozen of acres with multiple buildings each connected to the others through a set of underground tunnels.

One of the tomes from the ancient texts that was written near the end of the Elzheni’s existence, referred to an Elzheni “colony” that had made their permanent home in this place on Melladdin and had lived their for several generations at the time of writing. Though this author trusts the integrity of the Elzheni who wrote the ancient texts, that is an unusual position. Most scholars consider this story to be nothing more than an apocryphal tale built on top of a host of other apocryphal tales. We hope that someday we may resolve this dispute with empirical evidence.