Editing Darkness Between And Beyond:Main Page

=Player Characters=
*[[AnomaloCarla]], the Fossil Goddess. Goddess of Time, Death, and the Earth. AC 2, HP 10/10. Hardiness 13+, Evasion 14+, Spirit 12+. (Scythe-Hand +4 to-hit, Damage 1d10+3, Range 200', does 1 damage even on a miss to the living or the undead)
*'''INACTIVE:''' [[Rocky]], the Stone Fist. God of Journeying, Endurance, and the Sword. AC 2, HP 10/10. Hardiness X+, Evasion X+, Spirit X+. (Primary Attack +to-hit, Damage roll.) (Notes regarding primary attack.)
*'''INACTIVE:''' [[Rosalind]], the Huntress. Goddess of The Bow, Alacrity, and the Sky. AC 0, HP 9/9. Hardiness 14+, Evasion 12+, Spirit 12+. (Primary Attack +4, Damage roll (4*).) (Penetrates all cover, always does maximum damage (1d8+3 = 11, 4 damage), counts as magical.)
*'''INACTIVE:'''[[Saijin Ghali]], the Burning Admiral. God of Fire, Wealth, and Command. AC ?, HP ?/?. Hardiness X+, Evasion X+, Spirit X+. (Primary Attack +to-hit, Damage roll.) (Notes regarding primary attack.)
*[[Yela Iolam]], the Witch-Queen. Goddess of Sorcery, Might, and the Sun. AC 8/2, HP 9/9. Hardiness X+, Evasion X+, Spirit X+. (Primary Attack +to-hit, Damage roll.) (Notes regarding primary attack.)
*[[ZeroDarkness|Melody Zero]], the Fugitive. Goddess of Passion, Endurance, and the Sky. AC 0, HP 17/17. Hardiness 11+, Evasion 11+, Spirit 12+. Stormsword +5, 1d10+3. Range 200, Always deals at least 1 damage to wet or metal-clad enemies.

== Dead Man's Hand ==
Our ship is a Far Scout from Mandate Archive: Scavenger Fleets.
[[File:Isaac-hannaford-143.jpg]]
[[File:DMH.jpg]]

*Speed: 5
*Armor: 5
*AC: 4
*HP: 40/40
*Crew M/M: 3/12 (See special rules)
*Power: 15/15
*Mass: 20/20
*'''Fittings'''
**Atmospheric Configuration 0/2
**Cargo Hold (60 tons) 0/3
**Armory
**Ship's Locker
**Fuel Bunkers (3) 0/1
**Fuel Scoop 0/0
**Scavver Navigation Suite 0/0
**Drive-6 6/8
**Plasma Beam 5/2
**Survey Sensor Array 2/1
**Emissions Dampers 2/2
**Boarding Tubes 0/1

*Special Rules: Far Scouts are finicky ships with extremely advanced systems. Keeping such a high-strung ship operational is a challenge for ordinary crewmen, however, and optimal performance requires that the crew include members with the skills of Vehicle/Space-2, Navigation-2, Tech/Astrotech-2, and Culture/ Spacer-2. For each lacking skill, apply a -1 penalty to all skill or attack rolls made by the ship. They are naturally equipped with a Scavver Navigation Suite. 
*'''Scavver Navigation Suite:''' The scavenger fleets produce some of the finest navigators in all of human space. Their constant interstellar drills require the repeated, flawless performance of intricate navigational computations, and this unrelenting practice and their centuries-old accumulation of metadimensional soundings leads to skill that quite possibly exceeds even the finest navigators of the ancient Mandate. The scavver navigation suite is a collection of this data and the tools necessary to make use of it, and requires a navigator with at least level-3 expertise to be useful.
*Along regularly-plotted spike drill routes the navigation suite allows for flawless drills. These regularly-plotted routes usually mark the fleet’s typical path through a given sector, and adding new legs to the route requires the metadimensional soundings from dozens of drills over the course of years. A regularly-plotted course can be drilled unerringly even decades after the last attempt, as the suite can calculate the new energy currents that have arisen since the last soundings.
*When making other drills within a known sector, or making regularly-plotted drills that have increased difficulty due to course trimming or other modifiers, the navigation suite is somewhat less effective. It allows for an additional skill check for the drill, along with any use of the Expert special ability, and eliminates any penalty for using old or unknown drill routes.
*In a completely unknown sector it functions only as well as an ordinary advanced nav computer, adding +2 to all Navigation checks. Mapping the sector sufficiently to make it known is a work of years of repeated metadimensional soundings and drill scouting, or else requires the discovery of another scavenger fleet’s records of the sector.

=Other Characters of Note=

NPCs go here

=Factions=

Factions of broad importance, including PC cults, go here

== The Illuminati ==
*Power 1
*A secret society with a lot of cash to spare, who are masters of certain dark arts.
*Action Die: 1d6
*Features: Improbably Wealthy. Archmastery of The Academy of Thought.
*Problems: Almost all members are escaped slaves hunted by the Guild (2)

== Melody's Cult ==
*Power 1
*A colony of the homeless and dispossessed, many of whom are former or hereditary slaves. 
*Action Die: 1d6
*Features: Has a vast stone temple-complex with many features to promote efficiency.
*Problems: Generally destitute.

=Setting Information=

Organized by sectors.

==Starting Sector: Tutaregio's Broken Edge==

'''Synopsis''': the further sector that can be considered part of the Ancient Human royal empire, Tutaregio's Broken Edge looked to hold sufficient planets to establish a more enduring presence, but a number of them were either already claimed or proved less suitable than originally intended. Combined with sub-optimal arrangements of natural weak points, it was deemed undesirable to continue the work of fully integrating the sector into the royal empire. As a result, lesser noble and royal lines have tried to establish it as their own territory while fringe transhumanists and xenophiles flooded the sector seeking to avoid interdictions on their desires.

'''Native Inhabitants''': no established space faring species in the system when Ancient Humanity arrived claimed it as a home system. The New Human stock cultivated out of the various worlds would have the closest claim in theory. Remnants of other species have been found on the various worlds of the system. There is suggestion in their design and in the analogous Darkness Beyond of full space faring civilization.

===Map===

[[File:Fist_Sector.png]]

===Stars and Worlds===

====The Solastelo Star at 00.00====

'''World of Note: Mallumon'''
Situated near a major nexus of weak points (@ 01.00) , Mallumon refuses to be a way station even though it could provide a stable spot to resupply before going to other systems. It has a heavy patrol between itself and the nearby nexus of weak points. A council of Ancient Stock humans rules over and lives in communal splendor, served by neo human and false intellect piloted Shells. A mix of 'extraneous' children and ambitious neo humans serve as the border force, which is what most outsiders encounter of Mallumon. The rest of the system tends to dismiss complaints about things from beyond coming through from the Darkness Beyond.

Nominally Solastelo, and thus Mallumon, belong to Tutaregio.

====The Proksimastrato Star at 01.08====

'''World of Note: Malvarmenton'''
One of the worlds that Ancient Humanity misjudged in seeding human stock, Malvarmenton never exited its "little" Ice Age after giving rise to humans. A rigid culture focused around surviving the cold formed, which gave relatively early access to space, and an encounter with the wider galaxy into which the planet was adopted haphazardly. It is a small world, a curiosity more than anything else, and also seen as a good place to retreat to for contemplation. Much of the income flowing into the planet comes from hosting off world individuals in special isolation areas clustered around the spaceport. Local religious sects are constantly agitating about this, among other things, and form a fair chunk of the lengthy travel advisories about Malvarmenton.

'''World of Note: Belavivon'''
Rejected for seeding in favour of Malvarmenton, Belavivon was claimed instead by a splinter group of Ancient Humanity which saw potential in the rejected world. The splinter group engaged in extreme biological experimentation under the guise of observing / ensuring that the other livable planet would develop correctly. This pretense was abandoned as the reach of imperial law slipped from the system. The experimentation focused largely on the radical expansion of empathy in the pursuit of recreating the hypothetical Ur-Mind of Humanity—said to be the remnant of an ascended race that in turn gave rise to humanity's consciousness. As they have yet to enfold all of humanity into their ranks, the seekers of Belavivon have clearly not yet managed to achieve this goal. They remain distinct, if intensely synchronized, individuals on the planet.

====The Null Ten Star at 02.03====

'''World of Note: Mu'''
A wreck when others arrived, Mu is populated only by the exploratory robots and more complicated artificial life that followed. Poison, irradiated air gusts out of vast rifts from the ground's near constant trembling. A few straggling survivors of the biosphere that preceded the catastrophe cling to bacterial mats near heat vents and similar extreme but energy rich environments. These are largely ignored by the robots who primarily engage in mining or accepting waste that nobody else wants anywhere near them but can't otherwise dispose of. A large moon of Mu, called Vin, hosts a small biodome and a very good data link to the ad hoc government network of the robots on the planet.

====Jenda at 02.04====

'''World of Note: Jenda'''
Not much is known about the star or the planet confirmed to have life on it. History indicates that initial exploration of the planet by human separatists led to contact with a struggling Dryad colony; the genetic stock of the humans and human compatible species led to a unique ecosystem that closed down contact with the rest of the world with the last missive explaining it was to preserve the unique treasure that had been created there. A few Shell maintained satellites on the age of the star system serve as interface points when needs be, which is rarely.

====The Dychan Star at 02.08====

'''World of Note: Dychan'''
Surrounded by mostly dead rocks, the nearly exhausted star of Dychan was almost overlooked until someone noticed one of its planets was composed of a single odd substance that existed as a solid, liquid, gas, and plasma on the planet. At first it was thought to be a purposefully extracted piece of the star, hence the naming, but it turned out to be more exotic matter. The primary industry of Dychan is the extraction and containment of the substance of the planet for export for the purpose of experimentation. The secondary industry is building and maintaining complex Shells, which are all that really dwell there. The shells are run by a single broadcasting intelligence cluster, which is generally fairly much in agreement with the right-think of its Overmind. However, the value of the Shells and the substance of the planet, means that there are rogue intelligence and body pirates. Primarily they insert false build orders and hijack the resulting Shell to ship it to sellers. The open, flexible nature of the Shell neural systems allow interface with broadcasting AIs and various other minds, and also makes them of dubious legality in many other places.

====The Hmm Emm Star at 02.09====

'''World of Note: Zygath'''
The industrial heart of the sector, Zygath is a burning, toxic world not unlike the inside of a massive ancient forge. Here the Silicates have one of their guild-cults. The cult will accept any species able to endure the heat and the trials of entry. Custom parts of exquisite skill are designed and built here. There are a few amenities on planet and in orbit for those who cannot endure the burning, poisoned air. These are often offshoots of the required isolation chambers to keep out native microbes which catalyze undesired reactions, including causing problems for the Silicates and similar life forms if infections get established.

====The Falsabeleco Star at 03.01====

'''World of Note: Danjerabestojn'''
One of the other mistaken placement of new human seeding in the sector, Danjerabestojn hosts several highly intelligent predatory animals that were not compatible with the seeding. Instead, the seeding provoked their development into even more efficient predators. The entire ecosystem looked as if it might destabilized, but it settled into a cradle for amazingly fascinating life—as well as a group of new humans eager to join a larger government and receive aid against the things that stalk their planet. The exotic life forms of the planet are in high demand as novelties, pets, and so forth. Ancient Human royalty and nobility even out of sector are willing to pay well for them, which helps keep the ruling council of the planet afloat if beholden to the various guilds involved in the capture and export of creatures.

====The Aaalaai Star at 03.03====

'''World of Note: Aaalaai'''
A warm, watery world populated by Sirens, Aaalaai is one of their premier colonies and a major point of interface between the Sirens and other species in the universe. The world runs in typical Siren fashion, without much in the way of a single government. Instead, each floating city has its own government that tend towards a semi-dictatorship under a Mayor. In turn, the Mayors form a single political block to manage things. This applies only to the unsubmerged parts of the city, people by those who are less bound to the water than the Sirens are. Under the waves, the Sirens asmacracy holds. In the underwater but air filled parts of the city there is constant negotiation between the two parts. Of particular contention is access to the pre-Siren ruins that can sometimes be seen from the cities when they drift to the right areas. These the Sirens only give access to with special dispensation.

''''World of Note: The Stew''''
Named for its thick atmosphere, the Stew is a worthless hunk of rock with microbial extremophiles as its natural biosphere. Heavy, radioactive isotopes fill the air which, along with the large amount of available land, has made it popular for those who want to go where others aren't. Because nobody cares about it, nobody cares if you come and set up a reactor or a dome or anything of the sort. Various sects, cults, and so forth have set up shop in the Stew. There are also several corporate headquarters technically here for the sake of causing jurisdictional confusion. The Sirens and other inhabitants of Aaalaai have zero desire to assume any responsibility for the Stew, allowing it to continue on as a lawless wreck of a planet.

====The Fangorn Star at 03.04====

'''World of Note: Rompitakupolon'''
Separatist new humans attempted to colonize this world of odd biochemistry. Encased in domed enclaves, the planet is a spa and resort with roaming maintenance bots with semi-intelligence taking care of the domes from without. Many often use it as a place to rest and prepare before going to the planet Fangorn for treatments. Once they've been there, the domes are closed off to them for some time. Technical expertise is often imported to the world and all in all the place runs well enough for those who follow the rules but is on a number of traveller warning lists for the way in which its law enforcement comes down brutally and without warning for those who violate its detailed and difficult to follow set of laws.

'''World of Note: Fangorn'''
Fangorn is home to two symbiotic intelligent species. There are the grand Ents, psychic trees of immense and terrible perspective, and there are the Mycoids, fungal colonies that infest organic shells (specially grown or in a pinch any animal) to give themselves better access to the rest of the material world. On Fangorn you can receive the most advanced replacement parts possible, so long as you don't mind the parts being mostly fungal with possibly a planet scaffolding. Mycoid fungal grafts are amazing but generally restricted elsewhere, requiring at the very least declaration of it. While there is a Mycoid colony at war with a number of other powers, this colony (and the Ents who are considered more trustworthy in general) denounce them for the war (among other political points should one care to listen).

====The Silentulo Star at 03.08====

'''World of Note: Silentulomon'''
A cosmopolitan city-world that takes advantage of its proximity to Far Hub to serve as a resort and prestige second home location for a number of luminaries. It is also a popular site for anything that is space intensive but can be remotely located. Vast storage tracts, calculation centres, and ostentatious tombs all occupy the less scenic parts of the planet. Silentulomon is also the recipient of the most out of sector tourism, and as such one can often find all manner of interesting things in its bazaar towers.

====The Atelanutis Star at 03.09====

'''World of Note: Atelanutis'''
Taken from a temperate but dead rock to a fusion of machine and flesh, Atelanutis is welcoming but under soft interdiction for its refusal to comply with any rules that its guiding intelligences consider unduly restrictive of their ability to pursue divine perfection. Which is to say pretty much all rules concerning how bodies and minds are treated. While the Dryads can offer potent life extending medicines, and the Mycoids can install self repairing organ replacements, the intelligences of Atelanutis can offer immortality. Accepting rule of those intelligences and submitting your body to them will ensure that said body never expires and that as far as anyone can tell, you will remain in said body. The immortality is not a static thing of mere preservation. It is an active war against entropy and idleness that few are willing to enlist in.

====The Masinadio Star at 04.04====

'''World of Note: Masinadio'''
Ruled by Zenobia Tunis, an Imperatrix of the School of Eternal Stewardship, Masinadio is wealthy off trade and the customs stations spread around the hub near its star. However, like areas ruled by many of humanity's older royal lines, it is mired in backbiting bureaucracy and beholden to an ancient ruler whose perspective is no longer aligned with most of humanity's. There is a constant concern of Zenobia importing political or even military disagreements from her scattered allies and enemies, whom she seems mostly content to engage with through shows of wealth and economic contests of other sorts.

====The Frem Star at 04.06====

'''World of Note: Idram'''
A group of new humans emerged on this world but instead of accepting full induction, they declared a heretical split from the path humanity has mapped for itself and splintered into different forced evolutionary pathways. Due to having alienated those that would have helped them, they were unable to disperse easily to other worlds to alleviate the conflict, and ended up scorching the world with radiation. Now the different biological factions live in different protective domes while fire, radiation, and lightning elementals stalk the world beyond the domes—stirred into action in the war and no longer able to be restrained once more.

====The Dush Star at 04.07====

'''World of Note: Emorit'''
Emorit is considered the major alternative to dealing with Masinadio. While Masinadio is attractive to Ancient Humans who are used to having estates on worlds overseen by millennia old tyrants, those who prefer doing business and having homes free of such go to Emorit. Using its moons and artificial satellites, Emorit has kept a fair amount of its space undeveloped allowing it to also serve as a wintry resort planet as well as a trade hub. Also as it is a planet undeclared for major powers it has attracted branches of many of the most powerful financial institutions—who pay prettily not just for having set up remote offices there but for access to the in system weak spot that is easy to find in the darkness beyond—provided you know its signature and start from the Grand Hub (out of sector).

====The Norcin Star at 05.00====
'''World of Note: Norcin'''
Home to a post human group, Norcin attracted an eclectic group of individuals who all made their way to the barren world for no discernable reason. Although it has no life on it naturally and its air is of a mix that's not dangerous to known life but also incapable of sustaining any sort of life or even easily processed into such an atmosphere, people came. They came because they were called in dreams they say and they worship a force upon the planet who they say has an avatar that walks among them. Those who came and their descendants can breathe the air of the planet and subsist off the air as well. It is sparsely populated and an object of curiosity. Spontaneous pilgrimages to the planet are far rarer but do still sometimes occur.

====The Nod Star at 05.02====

'''World of Note: Enoch'''
An industrial hub, Enoch began as a carbon rich, volcanic rock. It was considered for transformation into a Paradiso class planet, and initial biodomes were placed down to bootstrap the planet into a singular paradise. However, while the planets thrived, attempts to get the atmosphere to thicken never worked. And while some of the chemical issues found to be responsible were fixable, they would constitute a constant menace. As a result, the world became a factory planet of automated factories dotted with perfect garden bubbles given over entirely to the precision designed ecosystems within.

====Facet 18 at 05.04====

'''World of Note: Facet 18 - Primary'''
Home to a collection of abiological races, primarily Luminous ones, this world has kept its Prism Hive designation—and more troubling some of their weapons. Their willingness to use said weapons keeps the planet influential, as does the general familiarity with ancient technology—including comparison maps of pre and post Celestial Beacon maps of the darkness beyond. Prism Hive cultists of all sorts come to Facet 18 in hopes of seeing some trace of the Prism Hive. As is often the case on the abandoned transformed worlds of the hive, there are rumours of slumbering queens and of structural diamonds turning out to be the invincible titanides that once ruled the hive. The planet's strange hollowed out structure and stretching towers is generally off putting to humans, Dryads, and similar species.

====The Athas Star at 06.02====

'''World of Note: Athas'''
A desert world renowned for being one of the remaining centres of psionic learning. If you can survive the parching heat and ruined atmosphere, you can learn disciplines of the mind to rival any arcane feat from either the Halfling nomads or the Thri-kreen brood keepers if they'll have you. In addition to the secrets of the mind, the planet is studded with ruins. Most of these are the remnants of the Halfling Civilization that oversaw the ruination of their planet's ecosystem and its collapse into a desert world. However, some of these ruins are older still, emerging now from the wind scoured sands. The population of Athas are uneasy about these sites, and those among them with the most potent natural talents stay away from them. They do not, however, have anything explicitly against outsiders examining them. In fact, the latest grand gathering explicitly allowed it.

===In the Darkness Between===

====The Broken Edge Nexus at 01.00====

No stars or worlds of note. However, this region of space is filled with weak spots of varying thinness where helms have an easier time breaching the Darkness Beyond. Remnant beacons in the Darkness Beyond do point the way to the nexus; this along with other evidence in the Darkness Beyond suggest that it was a known and well used nexus before the Celestial Beacon was destroyed.

====The Lesser Hub at 01.07====

Situated near several stars, and with sufficient access to free floating trail beacons in the Darkness Beyond, the Lesser Hub was intended to serve as a secondary intra and inter system transit point. Instead it has become the primary point of departure from the system, hosting a few barebones functional satellites on in both Darks. The nearby stars have natural and artificial orbiters with a few more amenities for those who need such before a trip out of system.

=Peoples of the Universe=

They get their own section separate from locations.

==Ancient Humanity==

'''Synopsis''': Claiming a mix of spiritual and physical descent from one of the Ancients, humanity has swept across a large swath of the galaxy. Various human empires and churches are fixtures of the universe, with offshoots of humanity being not particular uncommon and several having prospered quite well. Humanity has a tendency to consider itself directly related to the baseline (the Phoenix Kings were identical, superficially at least) for the universe and see the plethora of other species sharing their rough form as (poor) relations or otherwise offshoots from some distant point in the past. This does not endear them to those they share the universe with.

===New Humanity===

'''Synopsis''': Part of the program of conquest of Ancient Humanity is seeding planets to generate "independent" human populations. A program that started before Ancient Humanity could regularly travel in the Darkness Beyond bodily, it continued a pace and has only recently slowed. The program seeds seemingly compatible worlds with biological and chemical agents that provoke the re-evolution of humanity there. These New Humans are largely identical but lack the advantages of genetic engineering and millennia of wealth accumulation that Ancient Humanity has. Most New Humans populations that achieve sufficient advancement submit to rule by their ancestors, largely as the alternatives to being a client planet are far less pleasant.

===Neo Humanity===

'''Synopsis''': The collective term for all post- and trans- human expressions, these include groups that splintered long ago and aren't truly compatible any longer as well as more recent and deliberate offshoots. Neo Humanity tends to congregate in more cosmopolitan and less traditionalist spaces, and doesn't dominate any particular large body politic. However, strains of thinking that lead in their direction are common among other branches of humanity and it is Neo Humanity that most non-humans prefer engaging with.

==Silicates==

'''Synopsis''': While most life in the universe is based on carbon and seems semi-related at least, there are odder branches of life. Silicates are an intelligent silicon based life form that is also mobile, which is generally the sticking point. They have sleek bodies that look permanently charred. Their hands can fold and fuse into tools from heavy hammers to micro-manipulators—a modification the species created for itself. They get on well enough with others, and internalized technology that allows for speaking / listening to the sort of language most others use. Many of their dominant strains of thought draw sharp distinctions between themselves and artificial forms of life, with some being out and out against artificial intelligence and the bodies such intelligences inhabit.

==Robots, Golems, Other Artificial Life==

'''Synopsis''': Many cultures across various species engage in the attempt to create successor / children beings as part of their maturation. In many cases these are attempts to advance explicit tools to something more. The results vary, and many move beyond this, but even so the original attempts and replications of success have spread across the universe. Creating true new minds and souls is at once tricky and straightforward, as much an art as a science—at least in the original conception. Like biological reproduction, it can be reduced down to pragmatic rote and a focus on results instead of process. Some are entirely free of long dead creators while others still live in essentially slavery, however most places where slavery is not allowed draw no distinction between those born and those manufactured limiting the option of bringing such beings without disguising them as something else.

===Shells===

A body of manufactured sophistication, capable of being piloted by a mind but having no mind of its own, is called a Shell. Shells can be remotely piloted by organic beings with the right technology or psychic training, or by AIs broadcasting properly. They may have an internal AI that is not fully developed or be the temporary home of an internally installed AI. A Shell that is theoretically sophisticated enough to have a "native" intellect is analogous to a lobotomized organic life form or one grown in a tank and not given the chance to develop their mind. Just as brainless clones and similar organic constructs are generally acceptable, so are Shells that couldn't have intelligences acceptable while the other sort are more likely to provoke strong reactions.

==Dryads==

'''Synopsis''': Beautiful to most organic life, dryads have various complex castes that seem to vary from planet to planet that is poorly explained to others. The Orchid caste is well known as the spiritual and temporal leaders, particularly Ghost Orchids. Dryads are humanoid, vaguely feminine, and seem to be constructed of flower petals. Their bodies are blooms and they are known to be able to go dormant and root themselves in desperate circumstances. They used to have a wider distribution and more control, dating back to before the Celestial Beacon was destroyed. Remnants of the Prism Hive show the Dryads of that time in better war with the Prism Hive's warriors of living light. However it is not thought that modern Dryads retain that scale of force.

==Sirens==

'''Synopsis''': Gregarious aquatic creatures, Sirens usually have eighteen tentacles emerging from a bulbous body capable of manipulating both air and water in order to produce interesting vibrations. Their singing is what gives them their name to other species. For their part, the Sirens seem pleased that others enjoy their songs, if disappointed that most other species are incapable of interpreting the chromatophore patterns that Sirens use to accompany their songs. Sirens are known to use a property of their songs and the darkness beyond to sing across great distances, keeping their far flung worlds connected. Most sectors have at least one water logged planet suitable for Siren inhabitation, and they are happy to negotiate for space in the oceans of worlds claimed by others.
@@ Line 176: / Line 176: @@
 '''World of Note: Athas'''
 A desert world renowned for being one of the remaining centres of psionic learning. If you can survive the parching heat and ruined atmosphere, you can learn disciplines of the mind to rival any arcane feat from either the Halfling nomads or the Thri-kreen brood keepers if they'll have you. In addition to the secrets of the mind, the planet is studded with ruins. Most of these are the remnants of the Halfling Civilization that oversaw the ruination of their planet's ecosystem and its collapse into a desert world. However, some of these ruins are older still, emerging now from the wind scoured sands. The population of Athas are uneasy about these sites, and those among them with the most potent natural talents stay away from them. They do not, however, have anything explicitly against outsiders examining them. In fact, the latest grand gathering explicitly allowed it.
-====The Malsano Star at 06.03====
-'''World of Note: Malsanon'''
-The star and its inhabitant planet had a different name in the past, but it has been expunged. It is unclear exactly what caused the current problems, but a transformative agent of some sort got loose on the planet. A quarantine was instituted quickly and the other planets around the star rapidly converted into sterilization stations, enforcing the quarantine completely. As it is unclear if it is a biological agent responsible, not even inorganic material is allowed off of the planet.
-====The Amaranth Star at 07.02====
-'''World of Note: Amaranth'''
-Once dead and abandoned, Amaranth has been re-colonized by Dryads who are pursuing a radical understanding of inhospitable biology. While the air is breathable for most organic species, the planet is uncomfortably cold and the native flora cannot be metabolized at all. In addition, the pollen of most plants on the planet causes genetic degradation—which has led some to consider that it may well be a Dryad weapon facility. If so, it is a surprisingly open one. There are several domed cities—really hot house cities—and many of them have less aggressive plant life in them.
 ===In the Darkness Between===