Illidreth

Mean Distance from Oma: 223 WA

Orbital Period around Oma: 28 days

Mean Diameter: 1,826 miles

Length of day: 6.5 hours

Gravity: 0.3 Ethems

Description:

Illidreth is a small, cold Fekxtah that is found deep in the expanse of Seekrem’s Halo. It is not large enough to be considered a Fekxtah planet, but neither is it small enough to be considered nothing more than a piece of debris or a large asteroid.

Illidreth is an egg-shaped object. It measures slightly more than 1,800 miles at its longest and roughly 1,300 miles in its middle. It is made entirely from metals all of which are extraordinarily strong and dense. Even heavy rock, such as granite, is missing from this tiny Fekxtah.

The surface of Illidreth looks “a bit like a piece of dark mud that has been roughly worked by a giant’s hands” as the ancient texts say. It has crests that run across large portions of its body that look like an ocean wave that was frozen in place as it reached its crest. Some of these peaks can be quite sharp and run for hundreds of miles along Illidreth’s length. Though there are patches where the surface is coarse, most is smooth, almost glossy, and reflects the distant light of Oma.

The ancient texts tell us that finding a “path” to Illidreth was difficult because of its shiny metal surface and the strange Energetic patterns that are emitted from it, that extend thousands of miles into distant space. This metal object is composed almost entirely of Physic Energy, and of that kind of Physic that makes itself into the hard, impenetrable metals we have discussed.

Though the ancient texts were unsure of this and only offered hypotheses from a small number of scientists, it is believed that as one explores deeper into the interior of this object, the type of metal becomes harder and more compact. Speculation is that Illidreth had been the dense core of a much larger Fekxtah millions of years ago, and that the Fekxtah had been destroyed through forces inconceivable to the Elzheni or to ourselves. One of the things it left behind by the catastrophic event was this fragment of its core. It is also proposed that much of the detritus of Seekrem’s Halo comes from tiny fragments of this ancient Fekxtah behemoth.

The ancient Elzheni had a strong interest in Illidreth for two reasons. The first was that it offered them, potentially, great knowledge about materials that are fundamentally different from any to be found on our own home Fekxtah planet Ethem. Not long before their destruction the Elzheni were engaged in efforts to drill down into the utmost core of Ethem; however, we have no texts that talk of the details of that project, so we have almost no understanding of what knowledge the Elzheni gained from it.

The other reason the Elzheni had an interest in Illidreth was because of how it radiated pure Physic Energy from its body. These invisible tendrils of pure Physic Energy extended thousands of miles out from Illidreth, and the force of these Energetic lines created a complex system of Energy streams whose effect could be felt throughout much of Seekrem’s Halo. It was a great challenge for the Elzheni scientists to understand these streams and their ever changing paths, but it also had the potential to enormously deepen their understanding of the Six Energies, and Physic Energy in particular. There are also footnotes in the ancient texts that mention efforts to “ride” these streams to travel through Seekrem’s Halo, but it was a highly dangerous endeavor.

Constructing the Fekxtah Station on this object was a great challenge even for the Elzheni. However, as we know is the way with the Elzheni once they set themselves a goal, they find a way, and so they did with the Fekxtah Station, which we will describe in greater detail below.

There was another task, though, that the Elzheni set for themselves which was equally as difficult. An Elzheni scientist by the name of Chelhanna believed that the powerful, invisible, tendrils of Physic Energy that extended out from Illidreth could be used to create a device that could be used to research other objects in Seekrem’s Halo, and perhaps in Oma’s larger family. This led to a project over fifteen years, led by Chelhanna, to construct this device on Illidreth. It was called Illidreth’s Reflector, or Energy Reflector, because it was able to capture, and reflect, the Physic Energy from other objects at great distances.

Fekxtah Station #14:

As mentioned, the creation of a Fekxtah Station on Illidreth was a particular challenge, even to the powerful capabilities of the Elzheni scientists. It was extremely difficult to drill into the strong metal surface of Illidreth, even using Energetic tools that the Elzheni had used on Ethem to great effect. The ancient texts state that even when progress had been made, and a hole was created, the hole would within days, and sometimes hours, fill itself back in. It was as if Illidreth itself wanted to maintain its shape and resisted any attempt to change it.

Eventually all attempts to drill into the tiny Fekxtah were abandoned. The Elzheni next tried to reshape surface material to raise it up into walls and roofs. These attempts met the same fate, and were also abandoned. Finally, material from Ethem was brought to Illidreth to construct the Fekxtah Station. This, too, had difficulties as most materials would refuse to adhere to Illidreth’s surface and soon drifted away into the dark reaches of space, often carried by one of the Energy Tendrils. After many attempts, the Elzheni did find materials that were able to establish an Energetic attachment to Illidreth’s surface and that lasted. In fact, the ancient texts tell us that, “Illidreth not only accepted these materials from Ethem, but seemed to be attracted to them, and drew them to bind with Illidreth’s normal surface metals.”

The construction of Illidreth’s Reflector was another matter. To construct this large device, the Elzheni brought small metal objects that floated in Illidreth’s proximity as the base material for shaping and building the Reflector. Even more amazing was the ability of the Elzheni to position the Reflector so that it could control the direction and extent of the Energetic Tendrils emanating from Illidreth’s form. Unfortunately, the ancient documents in our possession mention little details about the Reflector. They talk about an immensely complex control room that is a part of the Reflector, but other than that mention they only refer us to other documents which we do not now have in our possession.

 

Seekrem’s Halo, the Fekxtah Fragments Between Middle and Far

Between the Near and the Middle Fekxtah that orbit Oma there is an area of debris that the ancient texts call Seekrem’s Halo. This name derives from one of the most famous of all the Elzheni astronomical scientists, Seekrem Dal. There are fragments of knowledge about her in the ancient texts, but they are scattered (much like the ring of debris that bears her name) and only provide small glimpses into various aspects of her life. What we know of her will be included in a separate volume about the history of the Elzheni race. For our purposes in this document, we will say no more than she was born and lived out her entire life in the City of Angzhelling, the greatest of all the Elzheni cities, and, many would say, the greatest city ever constructed by a race of beings.

Seekrem’s Halo is not a single Fekxtah. Instead it is a vast area of Oma’s Family that comprises millions, or perhaps billions, of objects made of stone, metal, ice, and other rudimentary materials. Many of the ancient scholars considered it to be the fragments of one or more Fekxtah that met a ruinous fate; destroyed through cataclysmic collisions with other Fekxtah or possibly destroyed by their own internal forces. The cause is lost in the vast tangle of time; however, whatever that incipient event might have been, there is no doubt that the objects of Seekrem’s Halo are the remains of one or more extinct Fekxtah. They range in size from rocks no larger than a dwaheely’s hand to small, large, and enormous boulders, and some objects even the size of small planets.

Seekrem’s Halo stretches across an unfathomably wide extent. It begins at a distance of just beyond 200 WA from OMA and extends beyond 350 WA. Though this band of rubble is broad, it is not deep. The ancient texts claim that it is, on average, only a few hundred yards top to bottom, though there are footnotes about “mountains” in this huge ring where the detritus accumulates to create chaotic piles of rubble as much as several miles high. Whatever it might be, it is abundantly clear that it is far wider than it is deep.

As was stated there are millions, or possibly billions (the author favors the latter) of celestial objects in Seekrem’s Halo. However, because the Halo covers such an enormous area the distances between individual objects can easily be millions of miles. The exception to this come from reports in the later entries of the ancient texts that talk of clusters of objects found in the Halo. These clusters might have objects moving around and between each other only miles apart, or sometimes less. The claim is that these clusters were found using a special Energetic device that was able to reflect the image of objects at great distances. The scientists called this device Illidreth’s Reflector and placed it on one of the few planet-size objects found in Seekrem’s Halo, which is the topic of the next entry in this document. These clusters were sometimes referred to as “tribes” though the ancient texts do not make clear why such a term, usually reserved for groups of living creatures, would be applied to an aggregation of lifeless rock floating in empty space.

It was stated that the members of clusters were close enough to each other that travel was possible among them. How one would perform this travel was not explained in the ancient texts, though there was a hint provided for why one might want to do this. The claim was that movement had been detected of creatures that traveled between and among clusters’ members. This discovery motivated the Elzheni scientists (or at least some of them) to find out more about them. The result was that a number of very bold, or very foolish, scientists began a project they called “the chase”, where these scientists tried to capture, or at least come into contact with, these strange phenomena. This claim is quite bizarre, and even the vast majority of Elzheni astronomical scientists were highly skeptical of its wisdom — “If you chase nothing, then that is what you will find.” Even so, the ancient texts included a fairly lengthy account of such a chase (also referred to as a “hunt”), and some description of a creature that had no need of breath or breathing and which had an ability to draw itself toward, and repel itself away from, the fragments.

We include below a short excerpt from that text.

I have been chasing this creature for four days now without rest or sleep. I have called upon Eshree, the Goddess of Endurance, to keep me whole and strong during this hunt.

The creature I chase is a member of the race that I have named the Annastraddem, the race of the lost Fekxtah. The Annastraddem live in these barren outskirts of the Solar System, known to us as Oma’s Family. It is a place that is far from our own world of Ethem, but still within the sphere of Oma’s domination.

The speed of this creature is astounding, and its senses are far beyond what I had expected. At the end of the fourth day, it saw me. I was sitting on a drifting, house-sized boulder that was hundreds of miles away. I knew it was out there, but could not tell its exact location until I saw a flash of sunlight reflected from its sleek form as it hurtled toward another monolith nearby.

At once I launched myself toward its destination, but I was not as fast as it was. The platform on which I sailed and the field of force that surrounded it, and me, kept me safe from the brutally cold emptiness of space; however, it held me back from attaining the speed I needed to catch my prey. I chose to use Walk in a last attempt to catch up. I knew if I did not, it would be gone and the last few days would be for nought. I had trained myself on this skill, but I had not yet used it. It was powerful and it manipulated Physic Energy in ways that were very dangerous. If used properly, I would simply move to a place that I held in my mind, and, with that single step, I would be there, without the need to travel through all the space in between those two places. If I got it wrong, I could be hurt horribly or die, or worse, I could be scattered in parts to many places.

I was determined, though, not to fail my mission and, gathering my remaining strength and one quietly whispered prayer to Eshree, I took a step.

When I opened my eyes I knew I was still whole, and was glad of that. I could also immediately see that I was not where I had been an instant before. Best of all, I could see the creature hurtling toward me only seconds away.

I prepared my net, but as I did, the creature stopped in mid-flight. It had seen me, but even more surprising it had come to a complete halt by simply raising its hand.

Suddenly, all of its arms splayed out from its body in a gesture which I somehow knew was great rage. Every arm stabbed in my direction, and the creature plunged toward me. We were suddenly face-to-face with my force shield being the only thing keeping it and its piercing arms from me. My shield was shrinking, and I no longer had room to cast my net. One its sharp, rocky appendages pierced my field, and then another, and then two more. I put all my concentration into the shield. The appendages stopped for only for a second and then each of them restarted their inexorable movement toward me. I held out my hand, palm up to make a final effort to repel this invader. A small, sharp, steely needle swelled from the end of the arm in front of my palm, and suddenly it savagely thrust the stony length of its arm through my palm, into my forearm, up my elbow. It stopped at my shoulder, but I don’t know why. It took less than an instant and in that moment of time, I thought I saw this creature’s inner self. It was hard and cold and alone. Absolutely alone, but glad to be that. And, it was old. Older than the lands and seas of Ethem. Older than Ethem itself and older than Oma, the Fekxtah star at the center of her family, and Ethem’s siblings. I saw that it lived in darkness; a darkness without limit in space or in time. Then that darkness overwhelmed me.

The next thing I remembered was my dearest friend, Allmeedee looking down at my face with a terribly concerned look on his face. When he saw me wake, he moved forward to comfort me, to tell me that I was safe back in our temporary Fekxtah Station and would soon be going back to the Elzheni Kingdom and our home world. He told me that he had, by some miracle (thank Eshree), found me floating in between two giant boulders, and had brought me back. I tried to reach up to touch his cheek in thanks for saving my life, but my arm would not rise. He saw this and sadly he told me that when he found me my arm was no more than a hard, shriveled cinder of blasted rock, totally without life. It had become like the stone from the fields of Seekrem’s Halo.

The Planet Kullarra

Mean Distance from Oma: 94 WA

Orbital Period around Oma: 231 days

Mean Diameter: 930 miles

Length of day: 12.5 hours

Gravity: 1.4 Ethems

Description:

Kullarra is the second of the Fektah planets known as “The Twins”, and is the larger of the two. Like its twin this planet has a gravity that is greater than its size would dictate, though not as great as that of Ulgarra.

One of Kullarra’s most distinctive features is its extensive system of tunnels and caverns. The planet was described in the ancient texts as a “honeycomb of passageways” and “more akin to a sponge than a rocky planet.”

The massive system of passages weaves throughout the outer shell of Kullarra. The planet is slightly more than nine hundred miles in diameter and, according to the texts. The network of passages begins just under the surface and extends down as far as sixty miles into the planet. The rock of these passageways is hard and in some cases has been transformed into smooth metals. Some of these metals are a kind of substance that does not exist here on Ethem, and, if we are to believe the ancient texts, not found anywhere else in Oma’s Family. The Elzheni had great interest in these metals because of their extraordinarily powerful magnetic fields. There are also strange accounts of creatures that are by some definition alive even though they are made entirely out of these magnetic metals. Some of the reports talk about metal-monsters that stand on two, three, or four legs (sometimes a few more) and are eight to ten feet tall. The reports claim (unbelievably) that these creatures run across the surface of Kullarra looking for hot areas, usually those places with lava flows on the surface. When they find lava flows that meet their needs (there is no indication what those needs might be), they jump into the lava to be wholly consumed. The reports call these creatures Stalldaggers, and a few reports say they have seen some Stalldaggers that are hundreds of feet tall. These move much more slowly and look for the largest and deepest lava beds on the planet before they will jump in.

The outer crust of the planet has high rocky mountains covering the northern polar region. Some of these are as high as thirty miles. There are also several massive gashes in the outer crust. These deep cuts run for thousands of miles and are constantly bubbling with lava that rises up from the very core of the planet. Several passages of the ancient texts claim that these planet-wide gashes are frequently the targets for the large eruptions that periodically plague Kullarra’s twin, Ulgarra.

Fekxtah Station #7:

It is not entirely clear where this Fekxtah Station is located. The ancient texts mention three stations, and there are indications that there may have been more.

It is the considered opinion of current scholars that there is only one extant station, and it is possible that even that station no longer exists. There seems to be a history of stations being built, and later (sometimes much later) being destroyed. Several times the texts mention that the stations were destroyed by “Ulgarra’s wrath”, a strange phrase to come from such a scientifically-minded race as the Elzheni; however, the passage has been translated many times and there is overwhelming agreement that these words have been translated properly.

The most rational theory is that stations were in fact destroyed, but not by some mythical beast, but rather by the rationally understandable scientific principles that determine the behavior of these Fekxtah. The passages that describe Kullurra’s twin, Ulgarra, talk about its instability and the periodic eruptions that plague the Fekxtah. Our conclusion is that these volcanic eruptions are sometimes so powerful that they fling material out into space and that this material has, at times, impacted Kullarra with devastating effect. This would not only explain the repeated rebuilding of Fekxtah Stations on Kullarra, but would also help understand the honeycombed nature of Kullarra’s surface.

Whatever the cause may be, we are led to understand that another Fekxtah Station was built on Kullarra shortly before writing of the ancient texts ceased. This station was built deep under the surface of Kullarra to use its rocky surface to provide at least some protection. The station was built of material gathered from Kullarra itself and that material was used to created a structure inside existing tunnels below the surface. In addition, the station was built in a number of separate parts all connected through strengthened tunnels. It was thought that if there was another eruption that showered down upon Kullarra that at least some parts of the full station might survive. We will likely never know for certain.

 

The Planet Ulgarra

Mean Distance from Oma: 94 WA

Orbital Period around Oma: 231 days

Mean Diameter: 3.4 miles

Length of day: 42 minutes

Gravity: 1.8 Ethems

Description:

Ulgarra is one of the two Fektah planets in Oma’s family that are called “The Twins”. The other is the planet Kullarra, whose description follows.

These two Fekxtah are called “The Twins” not because they resemble each other in appearance. They are, in fact, very different in their composition and size. Rather they are called “The Twins” because they closely follow each other in their orbits around Oma. Why this is so was not completely understood by the great astronomical scientists of the Elzheni race; however, there is some description of them as somehow chasing each other. Current scholars believe that to be a purely figurative manner of speech. The attached image shows Ulgarra as seen from the surface of Kullarra, from the entrance of Kullarra’s Fekxtah Station.

Regardless of its relationship to its “twin”, Ulgarra is itself one of the strangest Fekxtah in Oma’s Family. It is a roughly round and, astronomically speaking, quite tiny planet, being slightly less than three-and-a-half miles in diameter. That, however, is not its most unique characteristic. Even though it is the smallest of Oma’s Family of planets, Ulgarra has a Gravity far in excess of its size. When standing on Ulgarra, your body will feel a pull toward the center of this Fekxtah that is almost twice that of our own Ethem!

An additional oddity is Ulgarra’s atmosphere. Most of the time it has no atmosphere at all, as one would expect of an object of this size. However, periodically, at seemingly random times, the planet will extrude a thick vapor from various fissures in its surface. Within a few hours this extrusion has settled onto every part of the surface of Ulgarra. At first it is misty and clear, but soon it becomes thick and heavy, and, in places, almost soup-like in consistency. It is evenly distributed across the surface of this tiny planet, extending from its surface up to six feet from the surface at which point it abruptly ends.

The composition of this temporary atmosphere is even stranger than its appearance. It is a fine mix of wet, sticky substances captured in a dense fog, and there is a tremendous abundance of life in this mixture. It is filled with millions of creatures that range in size from that of an insect one might find in the woods of Yildreth Forest to some that are so small they cannot be seen with the naked eye. Even though the density of the mist varies across this Fekxtah it is always dense enough that, when enclosed by it, one can only see a few feet ahead.

In addition, the mixture is not static. There are rivers of movement within it that pull on an unwary traveler, and there are documented instances of folk completely carried away by the strength of a sudden current. There are also the equivalent of lakes, oceans, and terrific storms in this atmosphere that arise from seemingly nothing, and nowhere, but appear in sudden bursts inside, and on top off, the mixture. It is notable that some of these large currents (rivers of mist) cross the entire planet, though, of course, that’s not saying a lot.

The very top of the atmosphere is different from what lies below. It is much thicker than the thick mist below it, forming a tough “skin” over the entire planet for as long as the mist remains, which can be many days or weeks. This layer is less than half an inch thick, but upon close examination it will be seen as a tangle of interwoven, stiff crusty cloud-like masses. This layer is called the nellosphere (for reasons unknown to us), and it is so thick that the mist creatures are able to walk on its surface. Above that there is nothing but the cold emptiness of space.

There is one additional, notable feature of Ulgarra that must be mentioned. This planet will, at times, show patches of fire and even volcanic eruptions. It is a world that, to all appearances, is nothing more than a dead rock, and yet, from time to time, it shows that below its surface there is some strange source of heat. It is a heat sufficient to break through the rocky surface of Ulgarra and melt it. The ancient texts tell us that rarely, very rarely, these eruptions are strong enough to fling material onto its close twin, Kullarra.

Fekxtah Station #6:

This station is a tall, featureless cylindrical structure that rises from the surface of Ulgarra along its equator. It has a single door at ground level, which has a strong seal to protect incursions from the atmosphere when it arises. Though the station, at its base, is only a few dozen yards in diameter, it rises to a height of almost 600 feet. From the top of the station one can easily see the curvature of this tiny Fekxtah.

The Three Sisters

The Planet Harrayem

Mean Distance from Oma: 96 WA

Orbital Period around Oma: 1.1 years

Mean Diameter: 8,850 miles

Length of day: 23 hours

Gravity: 1.0 Ethems

Description:

Harrayem is the third of the Three Sisters, the three planet Fekxtah that includes our own Ethem. This means that Harrayem is very similar to its two sisters, Ethem and Aldrem. As with its siblings, Harrayem has an abundance of living things living on it, and inside of it. There is a great variety of creatures and plantlife.

Without doubt, the most notable difference between Harrayem and its sibling Fekxtah is its plantlife. The plant life is not only abundant but it is immense compared with that of Ethem or Aldrem. The largest of these are the giant trees of Harrayem. It is common for these beings to be many hundreds of yards tall, and the ancient texts even tell of some that rise close to a mile in height. The land masses that cover almost the entire surface of Harrayem are populated by forests of these great plants, and the air high above the surface is frequently filled with large spores and floating flowers that emanate from them. These vessels are taken by the winds and it is not uncommon for them to make their way across the entire planet while never once touching the ground.

In addition to these giants, there are many smaller plants. There are long vines that spread themselves between the many trees or around their massive trunks. There are also bushes and smaller plants that live in the vast forest floor beneath the trees. These provide food and protection for the many creatures who live among the trees.

Though it is not the norm, there are some areas of land without forests. These are often covered by smaller plants. A good example is the Fellmin. These plants have large, broad and thick green leaves, and flowering stems that project themselves out of the thick leaves. The Fellmin grow to a height of anywhere between six and ten feet tall, and during the right season of Harrayem’s year they will spawn multi-colored floral blooms turning the green seas of plants into a cascade of color and texture.

Below the Fellmin is a world unto itself. The Fellmin grow closely together, and their leaves are forever battling each other, constantly contending for this light. The result is that every inch of space is taken by Fellmin leaves, leaving little or no light to fall below, and so, below the endless waves of green leaves and light brown stems, there is a world of perpetual darkness. This environment is perfect for the nocturnal burrowing creatures who live at the base of the Fellmin. They love this ecosystem, where they are well-hidden from predators, such as the many birds of Harrayem, and where there is an abundance of food such as worms and insects. The most abundant of the creatures that live below the Fellmin is a creature called the Caldook. They are quite similar to the shaloo that lives here on Ethem. However, whereas the shaloo are great tunnellers through solid rock, the Caldook can only burrow through the soil. They do not have the razor-sharp claws of the shaloo or their immensely strong forearms. The ancient texts tell of sturdy tunnels built by the Caldook that are hundreds of miles long criss-crossing large swaths of the planet.

We must also make mention of the insect life on Harrayem. They are found in every corner of the planet. They are a great source of food for Harrayem’s other living beings, and, like on Ethem, they help pollinate the many plants of their world. The ancient texts tell tales of great dangers posed to the Elzheni Travelers by these insects. For example, there are bee-like creatures that live throughout Harrayem. These swarms are highly territorial and will not hesitate to attack any who might stray into their space. As individuals, they are painful and bothersome; however, their attacks come as a concerted effort by hundreds or thousands at a time and can be very lethal to any they find.

Finally, we will mention the winged creatures of Harrayem. The ancient texts tell of only a few kinds or races; however, they are highly intelligent beings and they control the area of the world above the forests and plants. They are the intelligent sentient races of Harrayem equivalent to our own Ten Races, and they have formed great cities in the upper reaches of the trees and in the higher parts of Harrayem’s mountains. There are seven great “nations” of these sentient flyers and each has established kingdoms and nations that control various regions of the planet. There are seven of these races, and the ancient texts refer to them as the Seven Winged Nations of Harrayem. These are the creatures with whom the ancient Elzheni had to contend when they arrived, and the nations with whom they negotiated their presence on the planet.

Fekxtah Station #3:

The ancient texts about Harrayem have been damaged (or so we are told by the heolas mayam who care for these books — some scholars believe that the heola are deliberately keeping this information from us). Regardless of the truth of this matter, because of it we are missing crucial information about the Fekxtah Station situated on Harrayem.

The texts say that the station is located in a set of giant trees that form a forest ring somewhere on one of the plains of this Fekxtah planet. If so, it would mean that this station is quite different from the others. All other Fekxtah Stations are created from stone and iron and the hard substances of the world on which they are located, but the station on Harrayem would be located inside vegetation and presents an interesting conundrum for we scholars who study such matters.

The only other piece of information we have on this Fekxtah Station is an indication that near the end of the Second Era, and therefore near the end of the Elzheni’s time here on Ethem, there was a conflict between the Elzheni and the Seven Winged Nations of Harrayem. Some of the pages that describe this time period are only somewhat readable. A number of scholars have interpreted the text to say that the Elzheni succeeded in this conflict with the Seven Winged Nations and that they destroyed, or dominated, them. However, most scholars believe that the Elzheni were driven out of their places on Harrayem and eventually had to completely retreat from the world.

We will perhaps never know the full truth of this, provided of course, the ancient texts are not a fiction themselves.

The Three Sisters

The Planet Aldrem

Mean Distance from Oma: 93 WA

Orbital Period around Oma: 1.2 years

Mean Diameter: 9,400 miles

Length of day: 26 hours

Gravity: 1.1 Ethems

Description:

Aldrem is quite similar to Ethem, though less of its surface is made of land masses. It is not quite a “water world”, but has more extensive oceans than our own Fekxtah.

The world has two major continents, Tembra and Chongalless and many small ones, though some may view them, instead, as large islands. Each land mass has sandy plains at their edges, abutting the ocean, but their interiors contain massive mountains. The highest of these mountains is on the Tembra Continent. It is called Vellarrosz and is almost 19 miles high, a truly monumental elevation.

There are many similarities between Aldrem and our own Fekxtah, Ethem. For example, Aldrem sustains living creatures much the way Ethem does and has a great variety of them, as does Ethem. One of the major differences is that the sentient races on Aldrem live in its oceans. The abundance of creatures that live on its land have no particular intelligence, nor do they have an affinity for any of the Six Energies.

The other major difference between these two worlds is that whereas Ethem is a Spirit-inflected Fekxtah, Aldrem is instead Mental-inflected. This means that the dominant Energy, of the Six, is Mental Energy on Aldrem, and Spirit Energy on Ethem.

Neither of these differences lessens the variety or abundance of creatures on Aldrem. As a world with many large oceans, it boasts a large variety, and number, of sea-dwelling beings. In addition to being the most intelligent creatures on this Fekxtah, a number of them are also its largest. The Selleemell are gigantic sea snakes, not unlike the eels of our world; however, the Selleemell can grow to be many miles long.

The War of Sea and Land

Beyond doubt, the most famous (and infamous) of the stories from the ancient texts about Aldrem is the War of Sea and Land. This was a war fought between the creatures who dwelt on Aldrem’s continents and islands fighting against those that lived in its seas. Many scholars of the ancient texts claim that this war is more accurately described as a conflict between the Elzheni and the creatures of Aldrem’s oceans. They argue that, over the centuries, the Elzheni had come to dominate the land creatures of Aldrem, and even enslave some of them. These creatures did not have the physical or mental prowess to defy the Elzheni’s desire to rule all within their reach. Nor did these indigenous creatures have any particular affinity with the Six Energies that might have given them the strength to resist their masters. There are a few tales of singular individuals who could perform some acts of Energetic control, but these folk were very rare and, of course, untutored in how to channel their abilities.

These scholars portray the Elzheni as a haughty race that considered most, if not all, other races and creatures to be inferior to them. Because of this it was natural for the Elzheni to believe that it was well within their rights, and even their obligation, to subjugate other living beings. They easily took control of the creatures who lived on Aldrem’s land masses. However, gaining control of the seas was not nearly so simple.

Initially, relations between the Elzheni and the creatures of Aldrem’s oceans were good. Each side lived in peace with the other and there were many occasions when they would cooperate with each other. Over time, though, the Elzheni’s baser instincts prevailed. Their actions became more selfish and less honest, and, at times, even cruel.  Over the years, as the Elzheni showed themselves to be ever less reliable neighbors, the creatures of the sea became wary and prepared themselves against the possibility of betrayal by their former partners on Aldrem.

Relationships continued to deteriorate until, near the end of the Second Era here on Ethem, the Elzheni launched an assault against the creatures of the sea. However, these beings were prepared, and surprised the Elzheni attackers by their readied defense and their skills in war. The ancient texts have many tales of battle and hardship as this war continued for many years. We will not recount them here.

The war at last came to an end when the Elzheni used a special weapon they had been designed in particular against all things that lived in the waters. It was called an “Energy Bomb”. This repugnant device was an Energetic weapon designed to despoil the Spirit Energy that resided inside any living creature in the waters of the world, and it was designed such that it would not inflict damage on any creatures who lived on land. It is unclear from the ancient texts how this monstrous thing was created. However, that was done, the creatures of Aldrem’s seas had found out and they had found a way to reverse the nature of this weapon so that it would have an opposite effect. It would avoid the watery domains of the world and would only affect the Spirit Energy of living beings on land.

The bomb was deplyed on the western shores of the Tembra Continent during the middle of Tambra’s summer, buried deep in the sands abutting the ocean. Once it was detonated the effects were devastating and, for the Elzheni, wholly unexpected. Instead of making its way into the ocean waters, it created a dense cloud that slowly drifted across the lands of Tembra and into the skies above it. Once they had discovered that their device had been tampered with, the Elzheni were helpless to stop its deathly crawl across the continent. The bomb appeared to onlookers as a dark cloud of churning black and gray that crept across the lands at a steady, unrelenting pace. It took only a few days for the bomb’s cloud to make its way across all of Tembra, and then, through the air, it attacked all of the other land masses of Aldrem. Within weeks all life on the continents and islands had perished. Some of the Elzheni were able to escape before the catastrophe overtook them, but many more died before they could escape back to Ethem. One of the greatest victims of this immense tragedy was the death of the great city of Allem. This was the Elzheni’s largest and most populous city on the planet Aldrem, and contained works of great splendor and superlative construction. By the end of the Energetic Bomb’s devastation, this was nothing more than a ruin that stained the lands it had once occupied. It was a city that had become a tomb, and a place to which no Elzheni would ever return.

Fekxtah Station #2:

According to the ancient texts Fekxtah Station #2 was the most used of all such stations. Over centuries many Elzheni migrated to this lush planet, and so the station was in almost constant use during this time.

At a certain point the Elzheni migration increased significantly and it turned into something more similar to a military expedition. At this point the Fekxtah Station #2 was greatly expanded to accommodate more folk and larger objects.

This station was one of the great achievements of the Elzheni scientists and engineers. Tragically, the station was a victim of the great War of Sea and Land and the horrific weapon that brought it to an end.

The ancient texts tell of several attempts to re-open the station, but the results reported back seemed to be mired in some of the fatal politics of the final days of the Elzheni Race.