Maurnak

Maurnak

(Cosmos)

Type

Planet

Adjective

Maurnakian

Diameter

×2

Mass

1/20

Gravity

×1

Atmosphere

Normal

Day length (PST)

23 hours

Source: Assault on the Crucible, pg(s). 62

Maurnak is an artificial, hollow rogue planet with a miniature star inside.

Geography

Maurnak's core is am artificial star, many times smaller than even the smallest true one but still capable of radiating light and heat and forming a gravity well. Around the star is a shell of rock and dirt several thousand miles in diameter and a thin atmosphere. The star's light dims every 13 hours, resulting in an artificial day-night cycle, but the night never plunges into full darkness, and no other star is visible in the night sky. The climate is constantly temperate, and there are no seasons.

History

Maurnak was fashioned millennia ago by a rheonnaghan as an environment from which rheonnaghans could be born. It fed magical and solar energy into its cocoon to form the miniature star, and shaped the debris that accumulated around it into a solid shell. Some dormant micro-organisms capable of photosynthesis made their home in the debris, eventually evolving into tiny plants. The rheonnaghan, realising that it would need to nurture the new world, created the artificial day-night cycle. Eventually, the oxygen content rose, bodies of liquid water formed, and humanoid life evolved.

For millennia, the humanoids lived an agrarian lifestyle, unaware of their homeworld's true nature. They named the planet Maurnak, after a great leader who united many tribes across the world. Due to the scarcity of metal, most Maurnakian tools were made of wood, and when Triune revealed the Drift to the galaxy, Maurnak's people had only achieved rudimentary flight. Ruminating on the Signal, several mystics received visions of starlit skies, and the Maurnakians began exploring their world.

The Maurnakians, believing that they had conquered the skies, turned their attention downward and constructed a large-scale mining operation near the world's capital. As they pierced the planet's shell, aberrations flooded through the breach (named the Pit) and resulted in a bloody conflict that only ended when the Pit was sealed. The capital, now renamed Void's Precipice, was fortified in preparation for further invasions.

Inhabitants

Most Maurnakians live simple agrarian or pastoral lives, no longer interested in exploring their planet. Only the bravest ones seek knowledge on the other side of the Pit. Maurnak's interior is home to aberrations seeded by interstellar migrations and asteroid strikes. The rheonnaghan has been watching the humanoids' struggles without interference and focusing on its experiments within the star, but it is unknown what will happen if another rheonnaghan could finally be born.