The Scoured Stars

The Scoured Stars is a trinary star system located in the Vast, known to contain planets with vicious fauna and other dangerous inhabitants. It is  currently cut off from all travel, divination, and mundane scanning by a shifting veil of aurum energy known as the Godshield.

Geography

The Scoured Stars consists of three suns revolving around a common barycentre:
Agillae, an orange dwarf orbited by five terrestrial planets in the Goldilocks zone. The Planets of Agillae

• Agillae-1 (Standard Gravity): A warm world, usually safe and rich in resources if not very fertile. Carnivorous plant creatures are the dominant predators. The deadliest family of plants are bluethorns, which are highly sensitive to electromagnetic radiation. They either register EM radiation as prey, or it drives them into a frenzy, with the result that bluethorns stampede toward comms signals and similar emissions from miles away to attack them.
• Agillae-2 (Standard Gravity): A few enormous rock monoliths jut from the steamy swamps and jungles of this tropical world. Extreme biodiversity. Agillae-2 was the original home world of the nelentu, who joined with the thyr during or perhaps even after fleeing the system to found the Kreiholm Freehold in the Saaruq-Ruaan binary star system.
• Agillae-3: The ALQ has no data on this planet.
• Agillae-4 (Standard Gravity): A hyper-industrialized city-planet. A candidate for having been the homeworld of the jinsul, referred to as Otorak. If Agillae-4 isn't Otorak, it must then have been the home world of one of the remaining three undiscovered Scoured Stars civilizations.
• Agillae-5 (Standard Gravity): Insidious alien nanites have turned the surface of this planet into a starship graveyard.

Bastiar, a yellow dwarf orbited by five terrestrial planets, a gas giant with more than 36 moons, and two ice giants. The Planets of Bastiar

• Bastiar-1: The ALQ has no data on this planet.
• Bastiar-2 (Low Gravity): A rocky, volcanic planet with pockets of rich vegetation. Rivers of lava flow all over the planet's tectonically active surface. Bastiar-2 was the original home world of the mentrasi, who were wiped out in a natural disaster several centuries after reaching their new home on Kukanou-2b, a moon orbiting the gas giant Kukanou.
• Bastiar-3 (Standard Gravity): A fertile planet blanketed in fungi.
• Bastiar-4: The ALQ has no data on this planet.
• Bastiar-5 (Standard Gravity): A barren, gray world.
• Bastiar-6 (Standard Gravity): A humid jungle planet.
• Bastiar-7 (High Gravity): A gas giant with icy rings and over three dozen moons. Original home of the thyr, though signs of their civilization would be hard to detect. During or perhaps after fleeing their home, the thyr joined up with the nelentu of Agillae-2 and went on to found the Kreiholm Freehold in the Saaruq-Ruaan binary star system.
• Bastiar-8 (High Gravity): An ice giant with at least two moons, called 8a and 8b for convenience. One moon is rocky, barren, and inhospitable on the surface but contains air-filled cave systems. A ship operating "somewhere near" Bastiar-8 encountered the home world of a particularly nasty, non-sapient species called huskborn. While it's possible that huskborn might be native to the ice giant itself, it feels more likely that they would be native to one of its moons instead. (And it seems unlikely that they're from Bastiar-8a.)

Callion, a red dwarf orbited by two tidally locked planets which are always on opposite sides of the star. The Planets of Callion

• Callion-1 (Standard Gravity): Similar to Verces in many respects, this planet can support life but is a permanent tundra on one side and desert on the other. Its upper atmosphere is wracked by gigantic magnetic storms that wreak havoc on vehicular sensors, comms, and navigational systems, making the use of air vehicles and even starships incredibly hazardous. Home to massive, predatory sand worms.
• Callion-2 (Standard Gravity): The original izalguun home world, this planet's temperate zone is ringed by a massive, technologically advanced and entirely automated megacity, making Callion-2 particular reminiscent of Verces.

Fauna & Flora

Among the eight civilisations native to the Scoured Stars who left it, the following are known:

• The izalguuns, who settled on Izalraan
• The jinsuls, who continued to fanatically worship Kadrical
• The Kreiholm Freehold (consisting of the nelentus, thyrs, among others), who took several planets in the Saaruq-Ruaan system as their new home
• The mentrasi, originally from Bastiar-2, who moved to Kukanou-2b where they eventually went extinct

History

The Scoured Stars were the original home of eight civilisations living under the protection of their patron deity, Kadrical, who used all of his power to maintain the Godshield and isolate the Scoured Stars from the rest of the universe, despite his worshippers' pleas to be allowed to explore the galaxy. 
At one point during the Gap, the shield faltered, and the residents of the Scoured Stars wasted no time in building starships to escape. The eight civilisations went their separate ways, each settling in a distant place in the Vast. Kadrical wanted them to return, so he sent them eight magical artifacts known as Tears, one per civilisation, to serve as their beacon and key back home.
The ALQ decided over a century ago to prohibit exploration of the region both because of its obvious dangers and because the few missions that scouted the systems yielded few to no useful discoveries. This changed when First Seeker Jadnura discovered a Tear on Kukanou-2b and spearheaded a massive expedition, composed of nearly 80% of the Society's assets and agents, into the Scoured Stars to explore its connection to the Tear. 
Upon their arrival, the members of the expedition found themselves trapped by the Godshield, which cut their contact with the outside world, while also beset by numerous threats that greatly thinned their numbers.

Type

Star System Sector

Location under

The Vast

Owner/Ruler

Kadrical