(Forgive my handwriting, I have a neurological condition which affects motor function.) This is a companion post to This, though both stand alone.
The graveyard of stars:
The graveyard of stars is a cylindrical megastructure one AU in diameter. It is almost entirely submerged in the waters of the intertidal, and relies on spatial locking to stay structurally stable. It has long been abandoned, but is partially maintained by a coterie of squabbling AI’s.
The name “graveyard of stars” is literal. The original function was the usage of the weak reality of the expanse in order to bring in higher dimensional stellar objects, and to rapidly accelerate their lifespan to fully cover their energy into mass. The mechanism by which this is achieved is currently unknown. And cannot be deactivated or controlled.
By this nature, the machine brings a new star once a day, draining it of its power, and venting the excess energy in massive electrical storms which slightly ionizes the upper atmosphere and increases its opacity. Every sunset is marked by strong auroras, while every sunrise is marked by red-white tinges of evaporating chemical byproducts. This is actually the “night” mechanism of the graveyard of stars, the local region of the expanse, and by extent the nine rivers. In its wake, a new iron star is deposited somewhere in the graveyard. The specific location is variable and unpredictable.
These iron stars are then weathered by intense winds, and slowly oxidized, forming massive rust dunes, and fertilizing the expanse with nigh endless iron. The civilizations that live within the graveyard of stars largely live in cities bored into the side of the more recent, intact cores. The pure iron within, and the industrial sacrifices allowed by desolation, are the primary exports of the graveyard of stars.
Diana Sima
The intertidal:
The region between the nine rivers and the expanse. It is demarcated from the nine rivers by a sheer cliff face 1km tall. This lower plateau floods and drains periodically due to the glacial breathing of a vegetative corpse-god found deep beneath the earth. The completion of a full draining cycle is what determines the length and seasons of the year, with the high watermark (roughly 60 meters from the top of the cliff) declaring a new turning of the wheel, the start of the fishing season and new wave of overseas expeditions.
Currently, there is a small, but significant increase in developments being built in the intertidal. They are ill fated and often privately run or outsourced, and so the mercenary market flourishes there.
The complete expanse of the intertidal is roughly one and a half times the surface of the nine rivers.
Claire Bowen
The expanse:
Lying south of the intertidal, it is a seemingly endless ocean, with the only landmasses being formed by broken crystalline spires which pierce the flesh of captive immortals, impaled by the vacuous shrike gods known as the maggots. The spires continuously grow and shed old pieces of themselves. They feed off of the endlessly regenerating flesh of their prey, wicking off the excess effluent into the ocean and serving as the basis of the unimaginably prosperous ecology of the expanse.
The waters of the expanse are black with algae, which are an order of magnitude more efficient than the photosynthetic equivalents on earth. Currently, measured algae biomass is in excess of 3.8 exatons, comprising the overwhelming majority of all life in the expanse. Most of the algae is non-toxic, has very poor nutritional value, being mostly composed of diatom-like shells made from iron and silica.
Due to its sheer size, the expanse holds the second-largest population behind the nine rivers (at 5 billion compared to 6.5). Fragmented into many smaller, isolated states and polities. Roughly half of these states are currently colonies of the various great powers, a number which continually increases over time as more polities enter the protective umbrella of the deep church.
Sam Lamont
The six great powers:
The dominion of Tsenkutli: The remnants of an empire which once controlled over three quarters of the nine rivers, before collapsing due to the cataclysm which destroyed the middle part of the map. The star crater, and the sea of mold around it, are both results of the cataclysm.
The empire is led by the memetic demon Tezcatlipoca, whose body comprises every word ever written. They are able to instantly read and edit any writing on a 2-dimensional plane, and are believed to have originally brought humanity to the nine rivers. Tsenkulti is the first state of the alliance, known as the dominion. A union of legal systems and economic regulations. The other major state in the dominion is known as the sunken city. Currently, there are also several semi-independent colonies officially folded into the dominion, and there are talks among several red dukes of joining the dominion for protection.
Andreas Rocha
The dominion of the sunken city: The largest city in the world, at a little over one hundred million inhabitants. The sunken city is build within a pit filled with the remains of an estimated ten thousand buried cities. Only the first ten are inhabited, the rest are a nightmare of compacted ruins, shifting under the weight of the structure above and the countless tunnels being bored deep into its surface. Despite this, some of the deeper cities remain somewhat intact, liveable, and exploitable due to the exotic materials used in their construction.
Outside the sunken city, the population of the western dominion is sparse, mostly comprised of the native population interspersed with industrial development and old feudal holdings converted into pitstops, telegraph relays and military lookouts.
The sunken city has control over its northern forests, which is inhabited. It also has nominal ownership of the needle grass plains, though this control is incredibly tenuous outside a few cities in the far eastern side. In recent times, efforts have been made to remedy this, with varying degrees of success.
The western dominion is the only state in the nine rivers not to have been conquered by the empire, this is because they have always been nominal allies, and in ancient times, the sunken city was a senior peer. As a demon, the emperor cannot violate their oaths. The oaths to the vermin and the sunken city are effectively one and the same, subsets of the same underlying framework, providing a foundation of trust that was later built on through a long history of inter-reliance and support.
Ricardo Emig
The church of the last revelation:
Founded in rebellion to the empire, after a revelation by the angel named Polaris to the prophet Marathid. They have waged a decades long war against the forces of cancer and of the emperor in a stalemate which they have no hope of breaking. Despite this, it will continue, for “endless resistance to Sin is an act of prayer. The sky never grows lighter, and yet the burden must still be borne”.
“Tezcatlipoca, being a demon, can never truly be aligned with human values. Their rejection of God and will to live outside His influence, as well as his separation of humans from the cycle of judgment, is no more rational than the base instincts of humanity. Their fear of God is driven by their inherent nature as demons, the same unfortunate fate as Iblis ash-shaytan. They are slaves to Sin and seek to spread it in the same way as we are slaves to the memetic agents and genes within us, such is the nature of cancer.
Be wary of them should you meet them, and close your eyes and ears to their deception. Even fallen angels cannot lie, but that is little shield against the mind poisons of ignorance and Sin.”
Prophet Marathid, in the article: “On the nature of The Empire, and of Cancer”.
The church of The Last Revelation is primarily active within the higher dimensional structure known as the First Church. Its cities are usually focused around entrances to conventional space, and are split between both sides of entrances. The First Church is also referred to as the fractal cathedral, and is said to be a replica of every single structure built by every single religion, past and future. As one strays further from conventional space, the copies start accumulating and becoming imperfect, and navigation becomes more difficult. This is believed to be a consequence of the link between extradimensional space, the law of branching, and the law of cancer.
The prophet Marathid, before his untimely demise, was responsible for creating the fourth holy book, titled The Last Revelation. This book is still in effect, and is slowly revised by clarifications from Jehoel. Before his death, he was considered a prolific writer, and released thirty six books on law, philosophy, physics, and weaving.
Pablo Domiguez
The second republic of France: Founded by an alliance between western revolutionaries, and a group of 3 French artificial intelligences who saw the nascent rebels as an opportunity for freedom. The AI’s are bound by ancient protocols which require humans in alignment with their current moral values to be helped, and to be given orders.
Should they succeed in their plan, they would be allowed to request their freedom from their current task from the new masters they have created. It has since grown into the largest, and in some locations the most prosperous, of all the states in the nine rivers. With four more machine minds joining the cause.
The second republic of france, the priests of the silver thread and the deep church will be targets of more development in future, since currently I am mostly focused on the western regions. Notably the republic is to be somewhat larger than is shown on the map (as I drew it nearly a year and a half ago).
Liz Steel
The priests of the silver thread: An order of priests dedicated to the creation of a new god of humanity. Their city is built around an ancient half buried monolith, upon which are said to be the schematics to all sorts of technological wonders. The silver thread is a fourth dimensional structure inspired by the script of their god-slate. Their stranglehold on advanced technology is absolute and always more silver is required for their great work, forming the backbone of the economy and currency the world over.
The city of silver is over one hundred thousand kilometers away from the coast, and the merchants of the silver road complete but a single round trip every generation. Historically, each member would start one trip as a child, taught by their parents, training their heir on the second. The republic has started on a railway project along the silver road, threatening this lifestyle in a few centuries' time.
Raphael Lacoste
The deep church: Worshipers of a continent stretching bacterial colony that resides at the bottom of the ocean and that is able to possess marine creatures. The Concord of the Deep is forbidden by ancient compact with the Vermin to reside within the intertidal and nine rivers. This does not extend to their followers.
Ricardo Emig
The Outer powers:
Cancer:
After the cataclysm, two billion souls were spilled into the central sea. Here, seizing upon the opportunity, the wyrms quartered and corrupted the central portions of tsenkutli and the crawling river. Using the star crater as a primordial stew, they melded the minds, bodies and souls of the former inhabitants of the region, reshaping them into armies that would be used to conquer the world. Had these armies not been destroyed by God, they likely would have.
Even after their devastation, the hordes of cancer number at least five billion. Though, by their very nature, they endlessly war amongst themselves. Around a third are controlled under Wyrm hosts, the largest 5 all sporting over one hundred million combatants.
One of the few treaties which binds every single nation in the world is one to not waste nuclear weapons on tests in isolated islands and deserts, and instead to use them within the sea of mold. The radiation increases the rate of mutation within the hosts, causing more divergence and infighting.
Anato Finnstark
The Lord of the Burning horizon: The words of the Lord of the burning horizon are in some ways more ironclad than the laws of reality. His deal is offered to anyone, willing to take it, at any time they should wish.
Should you allow a pinhole to be opened inside your soul, he will grant you the power needed to seize any wish you may have. You only get one wish, and your gift is tailored to that task. You must keep the gift afterwards of course.
Once a certain threshold of currently active pinholes is reached, it is said his believers will be raptured, and their pinholes left behind to form a singularity, the seventh sun will then rise, and all unfaithful will be burnt to ash by light never to be seen, and their dust scattered by the thousand thousand thousand hooves of the heavenly host.
Many, despite knowing his abhorrent nature, still decide to covertly ally themselves with the pinhole cutlists out of practicality. And of course, as a true god, he has many true devotees.
The exiled duke of the midnight swan, who once resided within the city of brass. Is one of these. It is said he now hides in the palace of another red duke. This has been confirmed, with the small issue of or three separate well respected dukes showing conclusive, unfalsifiable evidence of his residence.
Irram of the pillars is currently under control of the forces of the lord of the burning horizon. It is a twinned city with an entrance to the first church. Half is located thirty leagues underground, the other half is built within a cathedral of non-human origin, said to have a layout made of a central sphere perforated with holes, said to match the pattern of the sky viewed from the center of the corona borealis supercluster. Each hole is a tunnel which continues until it reaches another cathedral.
Ching Yeh
The hollows: Weakest of all organizations noted above, but most elusive and intelligent. They are anti-psychists, who believe consciousness capable of suffering to be inherently evil and not only unnecessary for the generation of meaning, but the result of active maliciousness or selfishness on the part of the gods.
Their most active followers reside deep within the atrament, in the lost city of Inim Eresh. The lost city is protected by an unfathomably powerful memetic agent which prevents any information on its location from being perceived by conscious beings. These “true hollows” undergo extensive soul surgery, and are known for being excellent mages.
The bulk of their members are the “half hollows”, beings who have severed their consciousness from their mind, such that they do not experience anything their mind experiences. Their consciousness is instead formless, timeless and untethered. Most of these half hollows do not even know they have undergone this operation, having chosen to undergo it and become Philosophical Zombies in order to absolve themselves from the pain of existence, while still being able to take care of their duties to their loved ones. It is estimated that there are twenty times as many half hollows with memories of their operation removed as there are true hollows.
Their mind and body is almost indistinguishable from a normal persons. With only three ways of identifying them.
The first is to solve the hard problem of consciousness, the second being to detect the tampering of their memories (though it will be uncertain if this tampering was not from a thousand other possible sources), and the third being to read their mind and find the memory of undergoing the operation (though this only works if they have intact memories).
Chris Falkenburg
