The Sun
While the pact worlds’ mother star bears a different name in every distant culture to observe it through a telescope, within its system it is usually referred to as simply the sun, or sometimes mataras (a lashunta name meaning “burning mother”). Like most stars, the sun is an incredibly inhospitable place, almost incomprehensibly hot, with pressures capable of crushing ordinary starships like overripe fruit. In its heart, the massive energies unleashed regularly tear holes to the positive energy plane and the plane of fire, giving birth to whale-like fire elementals and plasma oozes that roil and breach in its photosphere, as well as certain efreet, salamanders, and intelligent flame-dwelling creatures with the supernatural ability to withstand the sun’s tremendous pressure and heat. Though largely left alone by the pact worlds, the sun nevertheless attracts a few ordinary humanoid residents; of these, members of the church of sarenrae are by far the most common, as befits worshipers of the sun goddess. Roughly a century ago, sarenite scholars orbiting and observing the star discovered an anomaly: a collection of inexplicable and deserted bubble-cities, tethered together by magic and somehow floating unburnt within the sun’s flaming seas. What’s more, as they approached, the sarenites found a magical tunnel opening miraculously in the sun’s fire, allowing them to approach the cities without being destroyed. Though it’s still not known who built the cities, how they were constructed, or why they were abandoned—mysteries scholars and engineers desperately study—the burning archipelago quickly became the church’s most sacred settlement. Engineering used to mutate ordinary plants can sometimes twist organisms more than their corporate creators initially intended. twice in the last year, various jungle boxes operated by natureal compounds ltd. Have gone feral, with sentient plant creatures roaming the halls and devouring the attendant crew. Fortunately, most jungle box operators have learned (somewhat) from the scandal and have gone entirely automated—yet they still need to quietly hire independent operators to accompany their repair technicians any time a box goes dark. in addition to visitors from the pact worlds, trade delegations from the plane of fire regularly use the burning archipelago to meet with material plane contacts. These dignitaries have much to offer, but perhaps the most interesting information they bring to the table is word of strange ruins and whole empires of fireimmune creatures—some even humanoid—floating within the sun’s deeper layers, as yet unreachable by outside races. Combined with the apparently vast age of the bubble-cities, this news leads some scholars to wonder whether the sun might harbor clues to the first races to arise in the system, perhaps even the legendary first ones of aballon. Many different organizations quietly monitor the sun’s surface in hopes of making contact with these solar dwellers or claiming new artifacts forced to the surface by stellar convection. yet, if these so-called “deep cultures” are truly progenitors of the pact worlds races, why have they staunchly refused to respond to the messages and shielded probes dropped into the sun’s depths? and why do the efreet and other elemental travelers seem so scared to speak of them? Of late, one particular theory has been sweeping the conspiracy centers of the bubble-cities’ infosphere: the idea that the energy is so great at the center of the sun that time itself begins to warp, making the civilizations in the sun’s depths not representatives of the past but of the future. while the sun is officially held in common by all of the pact worlds, the burning archipelago is considered an independent protectorate, and its citizens are afforded the right to self-govern. though the bubble-cities are very close to theocracies, thanks to the heavy sarenite element, each one has its own unique flavor, from the heavily religious central bubble of dawnshore to the more corporate fireside or stellacuna with its science labs. today, the radiant cathedral in the central bubble attracts worshipers and scientists from all across the system. Gleaming sarenite sunskimmers use stellar sails to soar dangerously close to the sun’s corona, servicing the orbital power stations that gather solar energy or magically bottle nuclear fire for resale. In slightly safer orbits, various corporate outfits fly robotic tankships full of algae genetically engineered to capture that same energy via advanced photosynthesis. Corporations also operate solar-powered robotics plants and so-called “jungle boxes” in which modified plants extrude rare and complex chemicals. These last are somewhat controversial, as the extreme magic and genetic
Like so many systems throughout the galaxy, a burning star anchors the Pact Worlds system, providing heat and light to the many planets orbiting it. While the intense heat of its plasma and its crushing gravity make the sun unlivable for most life-forms, strange creatures and beings from other planes of existence can survive within its heart, thanks to magic and innate resistances. Scholars and sages find all manner of interesting phenomena to study on the sun—a task made significantly easier since the discovery of a collection of deserted, magically connected bubble-cities floating unburned within the sun. Protective tunnels in the plasma fire opened miraculously when the Sarenites who located these structures first approached them just over a century ago, allowing access to the abandoned buildings within. Over the next decades, pioneers, religious pilgrims, and scientists have come to occupy the bubble-cities, which are collectively named the Burning Archipelago. Many have attempted to discover who built these structures and why they were deserted, but none have succeeded so far. With the inhabitation of the Burning Archipelago, the sun has become a major point of interest in the Pact Worlds, with tourists looking for once-in-a-lifetime experiences, companies wanting to exploit the sun’s seemingly inexhaustible natural resources, and even ambassadors from the Elemental Plane of Fire using the area as a home away from home. All told, the sun is a dangerous and fascinating place.
RESIDENTS
Not much can live within the sun itself, though a few intelligent fire-immune creatures (such as efreet and salamanders) travel through the star’s photosphere to its depths for their own unknown purposes. The majority of the sun’s population resides in the Burning Archipelago, a melting pot of races and cultures from across the Pact Worlds. Humans make up almost half of the population of the Archipelago and hold most of the strings of power. Most of the Sarenites who rule Dawnshore are humans, as are the leaders of many of the trade unions and corporations that call the Archipelago home. A large android community based around Fireside Foundry designs more heat- and pressure-resistant bodies to allow future iterations of androids to work in the newer, less-shielded stations built “below” the Archipelago. Solarians are naturally interested in the sun, and a few kasathas have founded monasteries in the smaller bubbles among the outskirts of the Archipelago. In a little-understood psychic resonance, most lashuntas who visit the Burning Archipelago are beset with a constant feeling of some impending doom rising up from the star below to engulf the floating domes. This constant mental assault means that only the toughest lashuntas can stay in the Archipelago, and those who stick it out tend to be unusually isolationist. They have taken over an entire bubble for their own use, and while Asanatown welcomes visitors with legitimate business, other races are discouraged from putting down roots. Hailing from the Elemental Plane of Fire and immune to the sun’s worst effects, efreet are a common sight on the Archipelago. While it might seem to outsiders that efreet are constantly at each other’s throats in issues of commerce, culture, and politics, efreet society is solidly rooted in respect and unity. Deep down, all efreet in the Burning Archipelago are on the same side, and anyone who assumes otherwise will end up finding trouble. SOCIETY The sun is recognized as common ground held by all the Pact Worlds, but the Burning Archipelago itself is treated as an independent protectorate. Granted the right to govern themselves, each bubble-city has an elected representative on the Archipelago Senate, which decides on major issues that affect the Archipelago as a whole. In practice, the senate operates more like a negotiating society than a legislative body, as major trade guilds, especially the powerful Linecrawler Operators Union, can speak freely at senate meetings. Civil government in the Archipelago is limited largely to infrastructural concerns, both keeping the residents from interfering with bubbles’ selfsustaining technology and maintaining the peace between the many disparate groups that inhabit the bubble-cities. The culture of the Burning Archipelago is a give-and-take of competition and communalism, as a multitude of different peoples inhabit the structure. While the church of the Sarenrae is the most powerful force, maintaining a strong hold over the central bubble of Dawnshore, they can’t and don’t wish to control the entire Archipelago, relying on the rest of the power players’ cooperation to keep the settlement on an even metaphorical keel. Despite the Archipelago’s strange location, daily life in the bubble-cities is not much different from the routines on other planets. Residents wake up, eat, go to work, enjoy their time off, and sleep just like those who live on Absalom Station or in Qabarat. But the Archipelago isn’t a peaceful utopia: citizens argue with their neighbors, crime occurs even in the corridors of Dawnshore, and unions go on strike when their corporations don’t take their demands seriously. Here, though, all of these mundane concerns play out against the backdrop of the sun’s nuclear furnace, which burns only a few thousand feet away. Outside of the Archipelago, Sarenite sunskimmers make regular trips through the stellar fire (but remaining far enough away from the sun’s corona to avoid incineration) to service the various industrial and scientific substations in orbit, using mystic shielding techniques known only to the sun worshipers. These clean platforms run on a mix of solar power and incidental energy from the sun’s fusion reactions, and they can maintain a crew for years at a time without needing supplies. Many Sarenites consider these tours to be holy duties, and some even meet partners and raise families during these extended periods. Various companies also own satellites in orbit around the sun, most notably NatuReal Compounds Ltd.’s so-called “jungle boxes”—transports filled with genetically engineered plants that sometimes react strangely to solar radiation. In addition, independent traders and haulers make the sun a popular destination to rendezvous with other vessels from the Pact Worlds and beyond.CONFLICTS AND THREATS
Even aside from the danger of the sun’s hostile environment, the Burning Archipelago and surrounding areas are not free from threats. Most of the settlement’s residents are inured to the possibility of instant death should the bubble-cities’ protection mechanisms suddenly fail, but many are less comfortable with the problems from within. Lashuntas who live in the Burning Archipelago for any length of time retreat into the psychic equivalent of a defensive stance, becoming less tolerant, more isolationist, and more paranoid. Their claimed bubble of Asanatown has the trappings of a military base, and rumors swirl about the activities and preparations taking place behind their sealed blast doors. Every so often, a seemingly harmless initiative by one of the corporations or governments of the Archipelago will set off the lashuntas, sending their agents into a flurry of activity. This generally results in the offending enterprise being abandoned, sometimes after a series of what can only barely be described as accidents. These outbursts have become more frequent lately, leading to tensions between Asanatown and many of the Archipelago’s powers that be. Described by the Church of the Dawnflower as “an extremist splinter group,” the Preservation Front is a sect of Sarenites who believe that the Burning Archipelago is destined for some purpose known only to Sarenrae and that any but the lightest modifications might make that purpose impossible, with disastrous results. While some of their points are seen as reasonable, such as the occasional disturbances in the tethers as more linecrawlers have been put into use, few outside the sect see restoring the bubbles to their original nature as a priority or even a possibility. Thus far, the preservationists have acted only through diplomacy and negotiation. In addition to engaging in trade, ambassadors from the Elemental Plane of Fire have reluctantly spoken about ancient civilizations that exist within the sun’s deeper layers. None but they have seen or spoken with these obviously fire-immune creatures, leading some to believe that the efreet are telling tall tales. However, this hasn’t stopped many scholars from trying to contact these sun dwellers, theorizing that they are responsible for the Burning Archipelago’s construction and hoping to learn more from them. Deep culture scholars, as they call themselves, think these unknown cities might be home to a legendary progenitor race, perhaps even the First Ones of Aballon.Geography
As the sun is a ball of superheated gas, its geography is constantly changing. Waves and currents, most of which are imperceptible to the naked eye, move across its vast ocean of plasma. Sunspots and solar flares mark obvious changes on the sun’s surface, sometimes when the energy produced by the constant fusion reactions rips the fabric of space to create naturally occurring but short-lived portals to the Elemental Plane of Fire and the Positive Energy Plane. The Burning Archipelago is more stable than its surroundings, consisting of force bubbles of various sizes with cities or large platforms suspended within. Unknown mechanisms, which many believe to be powered by magic, maintain a habitable temperature and atmosphere within the bubbles while deflecting the constant solar radiation. The force bubbles are slightly polarized so that creatures within whose vision is based on sight aren’t immediately blinded by the sun’s brightness. The best minds of the Pact Worlds have thrown themselves into attempting to understand how the Burning Archipelago functions—mainly in case the bubbles ever begin to break down—to no avail. However, incidental knowledge gleaned from this research has paid dividends in technological achievements, from advanced materials able to withstand proximity to the sun to more efficient solar sails. Dawnshore, the largest and most-connected bubble in the Archipelago, was the first to be explored. It is the stronghold of the Sarenites, as well as home to the civil apparatuses that keep the Archipelago humming. Corona is home to much of the Archipelago’s trade with the Elemental Plane of Fire. Stellacuna is the Archipelago’s center of learning, both mundane and extraordinary. In Fireside, large industrial factories operate in close proximity to their corporate headquarters, while the entire bubble of Verdeon is given over to greenhouses and pleasure domes that simulate the gardens of Castrovel and lost Golarion. The most-used entrance to the Archipelago is through the narrow tunnel of reduced solar energy that appears whenever a vessel approaches the appropriate area of the sun. This tunnel leads to (and seems to emanate from) Dawnshore, making that bubble the Archipelago’s spaceport. The outer end of the tunnel is protected by the Sarenite-controlled Sunrise Station, which closely monitors all traffic in and out of the Archipelago. Anyone who can prove they have legitimate business in the Archipelago is permitted within, though the Sarenite peacekeeping force known as the Dawn Patrol keeps a close watch on those they deem suspicious. Tethers of energy hold the bubbles in an unchanging formation, but they also serve as the backbone of interbubble transport. Ferries known as linecrawlers hug the tethers, using them to traverse the turbulent solar atmosphere between the bubbles. Those in more of a hurry or with a need to leave the beaten path can charter sunskimmers, vehicles built by the Sarenites to harness the violently unpredictable solar winds. All vessels must enter and exit the bubbles at their tether points through magic membranes controlled by each city’s government.
Maps
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The Sun
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