Aiu

The homeworld of the Ma'ur. This ancient world is barely alive. Scattered stone age villages of Ma'ur live there. Beyond the ward statues that protect the villages, vicious shadows prowl, devouring the essence of any living thing they find (except for microbial life, which seems to escape their notice, leaving the oceans' oxygen-producing cyanobacteria alive). The ward statues protect the settlements and their farms from the shadows. The Ma'ur rarely venture beyond the ward stones. It is sometimes necessary for pilgrimages to the weather wards (which are all located on mountain tops due to functional constraints) that keep the rain coming despite the almost complete lack of vegetation on the planet. There are also traders that brave the trip between settlements and scavengers that find new stones to make tools from. When traveling beyond the wards, Ma'ur use shamanistic rituals to cloak themselves in the spirits of the dead, masking themselves from the perception of the shadows, who are drawn to all life.

Type

Planet