Gloaming

The Gloaming is an artificial disk of unimaginable size that orbits around a star for warmth.

Background


Located a great distance from the Milky Way Galaxy, the Gloaming is a ginormous disk of matter, stretching at approximately 150 million miles in diameter, with a small zone habitable zone for humans. A star lies in its center, causing the Gloaming itself to be perpetually stuck at either dawn or dusk, depending on how you view its sun's eternal position. This habitable portion of the disk, about 3 million miles in wide and only 90 million from the star's location, is referred to by its alien inhabitants simply as the "Godsland." Because conditions within the Godsland seem to be very much the same as the Ninth World's, this would suggest a prior connection between this locale and Earth, with the only possible evidence to support this theory being the existence of the U-i-Nstor Gateway, which can leads to practically any world throughout the cosmos.

Due to its formidable defense systems against meteors and other harmful space objects, the only feasible way of reaching the Gloaming would either be through some kind of interstellar portal, by teleportation, or anything of a similar nature to the previous two.

Eternal Shadows
Certain places across the Gloaming are locked away from the light of its star, either by mountains or other similar geographic features. As a result, these areas have become much cooler in temperature than their surrounding counterparts, but are utterly devoid of most kinds of (if any) conventional vegetation. What is usually present are flora that don't require any sunlight as a means of survival and of which typically range in color from white or blue to even violet.

These regions have come to be known as the "Eternal Shadows" and are almost always the home of the Inconae. Strangely enough, some individuals have noted that any psychic abilities one might possess are greatly magnified whenever present within an eternal shadow, with ranges doubled or even tripled beyond the user's control.

The Passage of Time
There isn't any concept of months, days, or even years within the Gloaming. This is because there aren't natural satellites, nor does the son at its center even move from its eternal position. In response to this phenomena, many of the inhabitants have chosen more personal means to measure the passage of time, such as with interval-based hunger, in a unit of measurement known as the "mealspan", which is equivalent to the time spent between 2 large meals and is roughly equal to or less than an earth day in duration. Others, however, utilize what's called a "yawn", a similarly-long time frame between moment's of a creature's resting periods.

Because many of the member species of the Confederation of Iltegu had different sleeping and eating periods, a universal system was adopted called the "yan" which is the equivalent to 40 earth hours. This amount of time was chosen based of the sleeping periods of one of the more prominent races within the Confederation. Longer units of time measurement, such as the "toful" (being named for a flowered bush species which sprouts, blooms, and wilts within the span of approximately 1.5 years) are much fewer in comparison, with timespans considered beyond a creature's lifespan rarely ever needed. For many, there is only "before" and "after" and any history beyond that of their parent's lifespan or their offspring's future is almost never really talked about.

Directions
Rather than using common directions like North, South, East or even West, the inhabitants of the Gloaming utilize directions like Sunward, Edgeward, Forward, and Backward. While Sunward refers to moving toward the sun and Edgeward away from it, Forward refers to the Sun's rotational direction with Backward moving against it.

Pristine World
As the title would suggest, the Gloaming is actually devoid of any relics from any past era. Whatever ruins one might discover are those made from stone among other primitive building methods. With the exception of the disk itself, there's also no visible trace at all of the Gloaming's creators. Despite having been around for millennia, much of the Gloaming's inhabited lands remain highly untouched and virginal in appearance. With draft animals pulling wagons and plows, soldiers armed with blades of iron, and even buildings born of wood and stone, the Gloaming has shown itself to be the Ninth world's polar opposite.

In actuality, however, the true reason for why both progress and societal evolution have remained stagnant for the past hundred thousand years or so is due to the influence of the Inconae. Thanks to their mysterious mental abilities, all inhabitants of the Gloaming have been prevented from advancing in any way whatsoever. Everyone also remains content with the current state of things and wouldn't be able to remember when or if things had ever been different for them.

Instability
For some unexplained reason, the earth throughout the Gloaming will suddenly and violently shake, accompanied by a deafening, 10 minute long, high-pitched squealing noise that can be heard from miles. In what is their equivalent of an earthquake, large faults can form within the ground extending for many miles, swallowing things ranging people to entire villages whole on rare occasions, as a result.

Archadian Motes


Appearing as spheres of semi-solid light and ranging in size from a pinprick to that of an average human fist, the so-called Archadian Motes are considered leftover technology of unknown origin but are prized as valuables by the inhabitants of the Gloaming. They usually rise up from the ground during its seismic upheavals and can be shortly resting there afterward. Warm and comfortable to the touch, they can be carried around like any other physical object, despite their nature. They can also be contained for any amount of time and seem to be indestructible. The only way to really get rid of one is to use its power, which will cause it to immediately blink away. Behaving much like the Ninth World's own cyphers, some consider them to be bits of ancient technology. Always useful in someway, and even detrimental to those they're used against, most, however, have considered them to be fragments of the makers themselves, pieces intentionally left behind for the benefit of the Gloaming's vast populace.

The motes actually get their name from the Archadians, alien beings who can sense any untouched motes for many miles. Semi-intelligent I nature, they're mainly used by other lifeforms, usually thieving ones, as hounds for the objects, with it even being said that 1 in 10,000 of their species are able to sense just about any mote around, even the ones that have been touched. Being as prized as jewels by intelligent life all throughout the disk, those who go hunting for them are called "mote harvesters".

Confederation of Iltegu


Despite the origins of the Gloaming remaining a mystery, all the Confederation natives can agree that their home was made at some point in time prior to their founding. It's universally believed that a race of highly-advanced beings, referred to simply as the "makers" had constructed the gloaming populated it with flora and fauna from across from all over outer space, placing it in regions where it would most likely flourish. No one really knows what happened to the makers, with some suggesting that they died off or merely retreated to watch from a distance, and no one has ever seen one before, with the only evidence of their existence being the Gloaming itself. In the following hundreds of millennia, the various species had spread across the vastness of the gloaming's inhabitable zone and mainly kept to their respective regions, until the inevitable explorer/conqueror brought them back into contact with one another again.

What followed were mostly tons of aeons-long wars, treaties, pacts, and even more wars. But eventually, a certain race of intelligent, discorporate beings called the Iltegu managed to finally bring the hundreds of species involved together in one, enormous confederation. In the last thousand years since then, over a thousand species are now considered part of it. Just like the makers, however, the Iltegu themselves would eventually vanish, but unlike the former, their legacy is well remembered.

The unimaginable distances between each member of the confederation means that one race could only be able to encounter a few or maybe even a dozen other involved races and never make contact with the rest.

The Ubiquity
All the Confederation of Iltegu citizenry speak a strange language that anyone can understand. It's referred to as the "ubiquity" and after just a few minutes of listening, even outsiders are capable of speaking it. After just about 30 minutes of listening, one will know it completely, however without any constant immersion, it's also very easy to forget it. Each species within the confederation do have their own localized languages, but unlike them, the ubiquity is also unique in that it's devoid of any dialects or accents. The only creatures that can't speak it are those who aren't capable of any spoken language at all.

Yet another bizarre aspect of the ubiquity is that it lacks any written form, rather certain people known as Yfestrani are responsible for remembering information within the ubiquity and reciting it upon command. The only written texts within the federation are those transcribed in any of the localized languages. As a result, many residents might even hold at least 2-3 different translations of the same text within their home.

The Language was arguably the most significant gift of the Iltegu before they disappeared, allowing for the Confederation to have lasted for so long.

Flora and Fauna
An untold number of creatures, both plant and animal, emanating from millions of different worlds, inhabit the Gloaming and are thus hard to all catalog. However, those that are close to one another in distance or range tend have similarities with each other, such as how a species of mammal from within the Godsland, which feeds on minerals instead of organic matter, will most likely be in proximity to a reptilian species that also draws energy from the same resources. Some creatures, like the alioptor seem to be ubiquitous, whereas other creatures, who are far more adapted to harsher temperatures and climates zones, live on either size of the Godsland.

With the exception of the ilconae, and theoretically the iltegu as well, there don't appear to be ultraterrestrials present in the Gloaming. There also doesn't seem to be any life that's entirely or even partly mechanical in nature.

Cities
• U-i-Nstor

Other Points of Interest
• Fields of Dore

• Kraulianas Mountains

• Bottomless Sea

• Frozen God

• Shattered Orb

• People of Needles

The Devilkith:
Word around is that an extremely hostile species has conquered a portion of the Gloaming's "underside", which corresponds to Godsland. They're referred to as the devilkith and not much is known about them. However, many fear that they might, at some point, find an easily accessible path to Godsland.

The Innovator:
A creature from U-I-nstor believes that, if one combines archadian motes with one another, she can create a structure of solid light that's capable of communicating over unimaginable distances with other people who possess motes. However, this innovator, named Yevbrin, requires assistance in gathering them. Yevbrin appears to be a large creature with a segmented, multilegged form, despite her head and arms technically looking human.

Child of the Wood:
Tourum, father to a recent convert for the Way of the Wood, wants his son returned to him. Tourum works as a brewer within a village just outside the forest where the People of Needles dwell. Those who can bring his son back safely, named Yonoush, will be rewarded with tons of honey-liquor. Both Tourum and Yonoush are members of a humanoid race with greenish-grey skin, elongated necks, and long, thin arms.

Impossible Etchings:
Some of the pieces of the Shattered Orb bear etchings from mysterious lifeforms and what might be even numenera devices.

Peer into the Future:
Throughout the Kraulianas Mountains resides an avian known as the jeni bird, which bears a mysterious organ. If one consumes the organ, that person will be able to see the future of their current location - approximately 10 years in advance.

Swarmstorm:
A never-ending storm sweeps across the Gloaming, with a swarm of tiny insects riding its winds. These creatures will only leave the storms to nest inside of a cavity within an animal's body. They'll lay their eggs and then proceed to die. The leftover eggs won't even hatch until another storm passes by.

Miscellaneous
The only portion of the disk that appears habitable to humanity easily covers a surface area of approximately 50 million Earths.

Many of the Gloaming's residents aren't likely to realize that the disk is actually about 3,000 miles thick or even habitable on the so-called "underside" as well.

The inhabitants of the Gloaming will sometimes refer to the mysterious beings who created their word as "the makers," even though they don't usually give them much thought.

Weather throughout the Gloaming is usually appropriate to a particular climate zone, though storms tend to be infrequent. Overall, meteorological activity is very predictable, with regions getting practically the same amount of precipitation over a given period of time. While one may differ greatly from another, each will remain internally consistent with little variation.

The Gloaming might actually be older than the Ninth World itself. Unfortunately, known knows for sure due to the fact that its inhabitants record time differently than human would.

A spar is considered equivalent enough in terms of value toward a shin that one from the Ninth World could arguably call one such and not suffer any consequences. However, a spar may work as a shin, but the reverse isn't true.

Since many are from completely different species, the groups of residents throughout the Gloaming must mate with their own kind in order to produce offspring. Of course, as time passes, more and more interspecies love relationships emerge that have already begun to limit the birth rates of certain races.