Shadari
A Shrouded Confederacy
Great Shadar is the largest of seven associated worlds orbiting a dim star within the Kurzach Nebula, on the edge of territory claimed by the Azlanti Star Empire. Vast banks of dust and ionized gas cloak the worlds of the Shadari Confederacy in veils of gray, mustard, and rotten verdigris, providing anonymity and protection from the Azlanti empire’s scanners and patrols—a protection that’s made them a haven for criminals, vagabonds, and others on the run from the long arm of imperial law.
Shadari’s seven worlds and their respective moons host numerous individual species and cultures, unique in form, outlook, and emotional composition but united in allegiance to the Confederacy’s freewheeling and lawless ideals. The draeliks, primary denizens of the Great Shadar home world (second from the system’s dim star), are at the forefront of the multi-alien alliance. Lithe and smooth of skin, the draeliks’ vestigial neck gills and webbed hands and feet reflect an oceanic origin, but Great Shadar lacks suitable bodies of water to nourish these denizens, let alone serve as their original aquatic home. Like all the races of the Confederacy, draeliks bear the mystic third Eye of Enlightenment emblematic of their entropic religion, which focuses on bizarre interdimensional creatures called sceaduinar. Other Shadari species sharing the mystic third eye include the skrell—bulbous, psychic, tentacle-trailing creatures that float through the roiling mists of Fifth Shadar, a dreary gas giant that looks like the cross section of a bruised fruit. Even the artificial balrodds—barrel-chested automatons who escaped from Azlanti servitude millennia ago—bear the Eye of Enlightenment, marking them as loyal members of the Shadari cabal.
The latest rumors in the Azlanti Star Empire speak of a secret granted by the sceaduinar to the draelik Sovereign and his Low Council—a weapon of unthinkable power known as the Unmaker. As the story goes, the weapon is a grievously wounded entity known as an aeon, left over from the universe’s creation. The Shadari have worked for decades to pervert the aeon’s energies to “unmake” creation, a horrifying prospect in the hands of what amounts to a confederacy of space pirates and outlaws.
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