Aun'ist

The Aunic Peoples and Their Interstellar Empire

Aun’Ist is the capital world of the Aunic peoples and the seat of their interstellar empire. Once organized under the auspices of the Aun Ecumene, the Aun have undergone a series of miraculous, civilizationwide revelations, prompting staggering civic and cultural change. Organized under religious leadership since the dawn of their civilization, the vast majority of the Aun are now zealous subjects of the Ascendancy, a relatively new ruling order governed directly by the divine. The Ascendancy’s mandate is given and guaranteed by Metat Aun, an enigmatic MONIST-class entity that shares many similarities with MONIST-1, and that speaks to the Aun through a divine representative named Os.

Aun'Ist: Capital and Holy World of the Ascendancy

Aun’Ist is both a holy world and the Ascendancy’s civic capital. It sits at the far distal edge of Union space, bordering an old spread of First Expansion Period Diasporan worlds in Boundary Garden – a developed, though backwater, sector of the Annamite Line. Aunic space is vast and its borders beyond Boundary Garden unknown to Union. Based on limited observations and reports compiled during the First and Second Expansion Periods, Union specialists estimate that their population numbers in the billions.
The Aunic peoples are descended from settlers that came to Aun’Ist on one of the Ten, the Armstrong; their sister ship, the Rihla, did not reach the destination. Following repeated hostile contact with Union, the Aun created a hard border between their space and Union space. With communications ceased and diplomatic contacts severed, the Aun were left once more to their own space.
Unfettered, they built. The Aun grew their empire to encompass dozens of worlds – a number of them arguably as advanced as those in Union’s Galactic Core – and billions of souls. Guided to a degree by Metat Aun and its immortal speaker, Os, the Aunic peoples have developed fantastic technologies, easily classified as paracausal by expert observers, that allow them to exploit the uncanny. What the Aun lack in the omninet, the blink, and Manna, they make up for with manipulation of and interaction with the firmament, a parallel space similar to the blink.

The Complexities of Aunic Culture and Beliefs

The Aunic peoples are not a monolith, nor do they share a united faith. The Ecumene hangs on as a government-in-exile, the bulk of their population living as refugees and expats across Boundary Garden, in Union space. Demiaun – colonized peoples formally integrated into the social caste system first implemented by the Ecumene, then expanded by the Ascendancy – make up a significant minority of the Aunic empire. The Ascendancy itself was created by religious schism, and while Os is widely recognized as the voice of Metat, their edicts must still be interpreted by mortals with interests, desires, and goals both petty and grand.
Aun’Ist is a developed world rich with incredible natural beauty and grand Metropolitan projects. Its capital city rivals Karrakis City in scale and scope, with a monumental plaza built to host the repeated appearances of Metat Aun. Between its metroswathes and populated moons, Aun’Ist is a world alight with life.
Aun’Ist is the capital world of the Aunic Ascendancy and has been for millennia; however, as with many deep political and cultural considerations that grip the Aunic people, the Aun are divided on whether or not Aun’Ist should be regarded as their ancestral homeland. That holy place, some argue, is still Earth.

Type

Planet