Solistar

"It is... so beautiful. Like a constellation spreading across a fist worth of space."
"And equally dangerous. What happened there defies both the laws of physics and the Song. We can't get any closer without risking the integrity of the hull, or worth, being suck in."

Once, the Solistar system harboured three telluric planets, each with its own temple and obelisks dedicated to the Song of Things. What remains of this remote region is a haunted field of debris prone to Resonance anomalies. It is to date the only known site of a confrontation between two Inquisitors.

Break down

As history goes, the Heretic Inquisitor, formerly known as the First Inquisitor, attempted to destroy the system using a heretic Song. The Song of the End is pervasive and accelerates the surrounding entropy to return existence to void. It is believed to be the only Song able to tear down Obelisks. These relays of the Song of Things are made in a mysterious material that not even the most destructive weapon can make a dent on And yet, two of the three obelisks were completely gone by the time the Second Inquisitor arrived.

The Heretic Inquisitor, having felled the Seventh and Fifth Inquisitors awaited the next foe the Song of Things would place against him. Solistar III, the last of its victims, was rendered a barren wasteland under the influence of the Song of the End. The planet itself was crumbling down, but still holding on before the fight broke out.

The details surrounding the showdown are hazy, for lack of witnesses. Both First and Second Inquisitors were outstanding fighters, acknowledged as the greatest force of destruction the universe had ever known. As such, they never had to use their full might against any opponent. Only they were enough of a threat to force the other to use their most powerful moves. Songs so pure reality itself had trouble facing them.

The First Inquisitor was a master of the Song of Time before getting corrupted by the Song of the End. Wielding two of the most dangerous and heretical Songs, he could create areas where time flows differently, rewinds periodically or is absent entirely. Coupled with the Song of the End, it resulted in a zone of instant lethal decay that sometimes pop out of nowhere in the vicinity of what was Solistar III.

The Second Inquisitor was adept to the rarest Song of all, the Song of Stars. For most users, this Song exerts its influence on light and slightly on density, but a true master is able to generate short-lived stars of extreme density the size of a small moon, or even that of a fist. It is estimated that the Inquisitor gave birth to hundreds of such stars during the confrontation, resulting in severe gravitational instability in the region.

What happened here?

Timing unknown

The First Inquisitor learns the Song of the End from an unknown source. The Seventh and Fifth Inquisitor go missing, the relation to the First unknown.

300 cycles before the showdown

The First Inquisitor arrives to the Solistar System and plays a melody of the End. The Obelisks broadcast a cry for help in response.

140 cycles before the showdown

The first obelisk gives in and crumble. The planet is reduced to a barren wasteland.

116 cycles before the showdown

The Second Inquisitor receives the obelisk's signal and set out from the then Xenarium.

42 cycles before the showdown

The second obelisk is destroyed. The signal weakens, but the Second Inquisitor is close enough.

The showdown

The Second Inquisitor reaches Solistar and confronts the First Inquisitor. The fight breaks out after a few minutes. Thousands of stars are born for a day, and the system is irremediably disfigured.

Aftermath

The planet and its obelisk were both torn apart by the fight, shattered into a million pieces. But the scale of the battle was not limited to a single planet. Inquisitors are able to move in space just as easily as a fish in the water. The anomalies span the whole system, scorching its star in the process. It appears to be missing about a third of its volume, leaking away in strands of blazing hot gas. Where the celestial bodies generated by the Song of Stars usually dissipate in minutes to days, the temporal inconsistencies as well as their own gravity altering the course of time made them last longer than they should. About a hundred of stars exists at all time, making impossible any form of travel through the system.

It took a long time for the state of the Solistar system to be known to the Canticles. The first ships sent to investigate the cry of the obelisks disappeared altogether, taken by surprise by a blinking star or sucked into a gravity well that wasn't supposed to exist. The first reliable reports of the system came at about the same time as rumours about the showdown occurred.

Haunted

Phantoms are not unheard of in space. Even the rational minds of species who achieved spacefaring are not safe from baseless superstitions, such as the Watcher. Most of the time, they are just picking up stray strands of Resonance pursuing its course in space instead of dissipating. It is rare, but happens.

In the remains of Solistar, it is not so rare. Many ships bypassing the system recorded the same peculiar resonance, but never at the same location. A distorted Song, unlike any known melody, that is played amidst the blinking stars. Its source never identified, this Song can have grave consequences for whoever listens to it, from seizures to mental distress leading to suicide in the worst cases. Despite the many reasonable answers (leftover from the fight bouncing from star to star twisted by the gravitational pressure, faulty instruments, consequence of too many stars in a tight space,...), the ghost hypothesis is favored.

Where is the winner?

The outcome of the Solistar battle is notoriously unknown, despite the amount of information regarding the actual fight. It seems unlikely that the victor would just choose to go into hiding, not after the stunt pulled by the Heretic and the duties of the Second. The only plausible explanation is that it was a draw, both Inquisitors losing their lives in the raging chaos they created. This is worrying to many, as the two greatest enforcers of the Inquisition are seemingly gone, with two others previously eliminated. Who will protect the law of the Canticles' law, if even its immortal heroes fall?