Jun 22, 2024 2:08 am
BACKGROUND:
Known as Mataras—a Lashunta name meaning Burning Mother— the Pact Worlds’ sun is an enigmatic star. Its flaming depths containing portals to the Positive Energy Plane and the Plane of Fire. Whether these doorways were torn open by the incredible energy of stellar fusion or advanced that process might never be known.
Within the sun’s plasma seas live outsiders from the Plane of Fire and strange organisms adapted to the incredible heat and pressure. Most Pact Worlds citizens are restricted to the Burning Archipelago, an ancient network of mysterious bubblecities discovered a century ago, crafted by an unknown species and floating in the sun’s atmosphere.
Rumors persist of civilizations in similar bubble-cities deeper within the sun—stories efreet who have traveled within the star refuse to confirm. So far, no Pact Worlds scholars have been able to either replicate the technology that protects the Archipelago or otherwise descend into the sun to make contact with these so-called deep cultures. Speculation about these societies runs rampant, from anacites who believe the legendary First Ones might dwell in the sun to Sarenites who imagine the Burning Archipelago exists for religious purposes.
At the forefront of this research is the Deep Cultures Institute (DCI), a group of scholars some see as romantics or charlatans. Despite shaky claims from the DCI’s members, efforts to prove the existence of these deep cultures have come to nothing...