Eox

Eox

(Cosmos)

Titles

The Dead

Type

Planet

Adjective

Eoxian

Diameter

2/3

Mass

4/9

Gravity

×1

Atmosphere

Toxic and thin

Year length (PST)

5 years

Day length (PST)

30 days

Orbits

Sun

System

Pact Worlds system

Inhabitants

Undead, Elebrians

Organization

Pact Worlds

Images of Eox

Source: Core Rulebook, pg(s). 450-451

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Eox is the fifth planet from the sun of the Pact Worlds system. Most of its original citizens were killed in an interplanetary war long before the Gap, and it is now inhabited primarily by undead.

History

A structure on Eox.

Thousands of years ago, the native residents of Eox (known as elebrians) were a species very similar in appearance to humans who were gifted in both magic and technology. These gifts convinced them that they were better to any other people they encountered in the Pact Worlds system, and in their hubris they declared war on any who would not acknowledge their superiority. The first of these interplanetary wars, according to legend, was against the neighboring worlds of Damiar and Iovo, also known as the Twins. The Eoxians most powerful weapon shattered the Twins, creating the asteroid belt now called the Diaspora, but also blew an enormous hole in Eox's crust, burned off its atmosphere and oceans and killed off most of its population. Only a few thousand elebrians survived in magical bunkers or deep underground, but found that the radiation released by the attack was causing widespread infertility. The most-powerful Eoxian spellcasters decided that the only way their culture would survive on their now barely inhabitable planet, would be by turning to necromancy. They transformed themselves into undead known as necrovites or bone sages, who still rule Eox today.

Geography

Eox is a charred husk of a world and its original ecosystem and oceans were lost long ago. Atraskia, once the largest continent on Eox, is now the Atraskien Shelf, which remains higher than the seabeds-turned-basins, though the upheaval has altered much of the landscape. The atmosphere above the Atraskien Shelf is somewhat less toxic but has many more pockets of radiation than the rest of Eox.

Deminas Hollow, formerly the basin of the Deminas Ocean, is the largest lowland and stretches across Eox's equator. It is considered relatively unsafe, due to roaming packs of starving undead and ellicoths, and settlements there usually need strong, high walls.

The southern pole of Eox is a vast, broken, sparsely-populated plain. Its original name and nature have been lost to time, and it is often called the Gray Hollow, due to the grey blasted rocks and strange plants that managed to adapt to Eox's conditions. The Remembrance Rock, a massive mesa that serves as a monument of what Eox lost, is located in the Gray Hollow. Located directly opposite it is the Facinora Basin, a continent-sized crater that churns with lava and poisonous gas, due to its closeness to Eox's core. Demarcated by a mountain range known as the Fringe, the Facinora Basin is extremely dangerous, even by Eoxian standards.

The Lacustria Hollow is a vast, flat basin around the northern polar cap of Eox. Formerly the Lacustria Sea, a thriving ocean beneath an ice sheet, it is mostly uninhabited and is littered with remnants of ships and underwater cities, many of them buried under dust, silt or igneous rocks. For centuries, more offworld expeditions to the Lacustria Hollow have been approved than any other part of Eox, but most only bring back rust and scraps of cloth, and new sites are constantly discovered.

Ecology

Eox today is hostile to most life, with a poisonous, thin atmosphere, rampant radiation, and out-of-control magical fields that can randomly appear. Native plants and bizarre creatures survive on radiation, heat, and chemicals from the wounded planet's volcanism. Examples include soul-drinking ellicoths, transparent glass serpents, and semi-intelligent grub swarms in sulfur springs.

Government

Eox is run with an iron fist by the necrovites or Bone Sages, a cabal of the most powerful undead spellcasters who are also renowned as savvy politicians throughout the Pact Worlds. The Bone Sages have divided the planet into numerous personal fiefdoms and constantly bicker with and war against one another, but present a united front against outsiders. Despite the rumor, the Bone Sages are not so much evil as they are amoral and ruthlessly utilitarian. This was evidenced when the Pact World system was first attacked by the Veskarium; Eox was the first world to support a mutual defense treaty amongst all the planets in the sytem that was the precursor of the Absalom Pact. Not all of the Eoxian military agreed with this decision, however, leading to an officially disavowed splinter group to break off and form the Corpse Fleet.

Military

Eox is protected by a massive orbital defense platform called the Sentinel that is capable of destroying any hostile starship near the planet's orbit. Other members of the Pact Worlds also believe that the Eoxian military maintains secret ties with the Corpse Fleet.

Conflict

Eox is the home world for most of the undead in the Pact Worlds system, and its government faces threats from Pharasmin insurgents and crusaders willing to break their law (which treats the intelligent Eoxian undead as ordinary Pact World citizens) to uphold Pharasma's higher law (which views the undead as abominations to be destroyed).

Inhabitants

An Eoxian.

The majority of Eox's undead inhabitants live in isolated cities or defensive strongholds, leaving the rest of the planet to be ravaged by hordes of hungry undead such as ghouls or skeletal beasts.

Visitors

Despite being inimical to the living, Eox does get a fair amount of visitors and tourists from other worlds. Some come to acquire necrografts, undead prosthetics that are cheaper than cybernetics, while others visit to be transformed into immortal undead. These latter petitioners must trade centuries of indentured servitude to Eox's rulers in exchange for their undead existence or work as body merchants who import corpses to the planet to grow its population. Finally, Eox is visited by corporate professionals doing business, scholars of magic studying necromancy, or glory seekers who come to take part in the cruel reality programs and competitions broadcast as entertainment throughout the system.

Culture

Eox's blood-soaked reality broadcasts remain a sensation, consistently criticized by off-world censors but never crossing into illegality.