Nodethe
World of Waking Dreams
Fourth world in the Orphene star system, and the only world in the system that isn’t a gas giant, Nodethe is at first blush a typical habitable world. It has ice caps at the poles; over half its total area is covered in oceans; and it bears the normal mix of deserts, forests, mountains, plains, and swamps. The weather is windy, with rainstorms more likely to be heavy and dust clouds more likely to last for days, compared to most worlds. However, the breathable atmosphere, broad mix of edible and domesticable flora and fauna, and wealth of useful minerals near the surface of its crust made Nodethe an extremely appealing target for colonization. At some point during the Gap, a fleet of massive, slower-than-light ships left what was then known as the Golarion system and eventually reached Nodethe. No one is sure how these colonizers knew to head to this new world or what their intent was, but by the time history became reliable again, Nodethe already had nearly a dozen stable colony cities with elf, formian, lashunta, and human citizens.
The colony-states of Nodethe are independent, and though they compete economically and for control of the planet’s natural resources, conflicts among them have never blossomed into full-fledged war. Each has worked to earn status as a protectorate of the Pact Worlds since communication was established. Unfortunately, their refusal to combine under a planetary government and Nodethe’s unusual secondary existence have limited officia recognition to little more than embassies and trade deals.
In a poorly understood phenomenon, Nodethe is connected to an entirely separate world, Oneirian, which can be accessed only while sleeping. The geography, flora, and fauna of Oneirian are similar to that of Nodethe. However, Oneirian has a separate array of cities, each showing signs of being millennia older than the colony-states of Nodethe and populated by a much broader array of species. Anyone who arrives on Nodethe travels to Oneirian upon falling asleep, disappearing from one reality and moving about freely and with all the energy of a full night’s rest in Oneirian’s environment. They return to Nodethe when they sleep once again. Those born on Oneirian similarly travel to and from Nodethe when they sleep, but only once or twice each month; the exact logistics of this timing are still a mystery.
Although the night sky of Oneirian has a dreamy and starry quality, the heavens around it are actually devoid of stars. Travelers report that nearby space accessible from the planet is entirely empty and that attempts to travel to other planes while on Oneirian always fail. An Oneirian native that visits Nodethe and leaves the planet appears to disappear forever upon falling asleep rather than returning to Oneirian’s reality. Similarly, a Nodethe visitor to Oneirian who dies in that realm is never seen again in Nodethe’s reality.
The most common theory about the planet suggests that Oneirian might be linked to the Dimension of Dreams. References found in oldest ruins mention other locations on that demiplane, such as the Dreamlands and Leng. Scholars have recently discovered an ancient mural in an Oneirian cave that seems to indicate a coming calamity—one that will merge the two planets and kill any who inhabit them at the time.
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