The Cosmonastery of the Empty Orbit

The Cosmonastery of the Empty Orbit solemnly faces toward the stars. Hedged off from the rest of Absalom Station by a banyan-like weave of alien architecture, the squat towers of this sprawling complex stand within a courtyard on the station’s outer surface, shielded from space only by a thin force field. Here, people train their bodies and minds to tap into forces of creation and destruction that define the universe. Those who emerge from the rigors of this unforgiving school do so as solarians of exceptional skill and focus, thanks to the exacting oversight of High Sola Tabishad Oseo Markela (LN female Kasatha solarian).
Sola Sverdan Tolama Noyd (LN male kasatha solarian) and Sola Zokora “Lightclad” Yakarahv (LN female Vesk solarian) aid Tabishad in the task of running the monastery. Sverdan is a humorless disciplinarian who takes testing and hardening new initiates seriously. He likens each batch of new students to the nebulae from which stars are born, and refuses to address his pupils by name until they distinguish themselves from their peers. Through grueling physical conditioning, extended trials of pain endurance, and full-contact sparring, he teaches students to strip away distractions, distilling their resolve and vitality into a stellar mote that burns endlessly within them.
Sverdan also tests his students with drills and surprise attacks to keep them focused and alert. Sola Zokora teaches students to manifest their imaginary mote as a real force. Boisterous on the sparring field and jovial in the communal kitchen, she helps students dissociate from their subjectivity through guided meditations and lessons on the Cycle. According to solarian philosophy, small personal desires do not affect the rhythm and flow of universal forces, but a star can be a source of both energy and entropy as all parts of the cosmos strive toward balance. As students internalize Zokora’s lessons, they learn to externalize the energy they have held within them, manifesting them as outward expressions of power.
Initiates who have demonstrated solarian abilities graduate to the rank of proto-sol and proceed to train with the high sola herself, leaving their nebula of classmates behind. The protosols know the high sola first only as an imposing, taciturn kasatha of extreme martial prowess, but as they advance, they discover wry wit and wisdom behind her stern features. With Tabishad’s gentle but unyielding instruction, the proto-sols apply their new abilities in combat while acting as ambassadors of the solarian code to outsiders. Visitors to Absalom Station can request proto-sols as guides and guardians, providing an opportunity for students to escape the confines of the cosmonastery and use their training. Tabishad also sends proto-sols to speak with or help important figures on Absalom Station, maintaining good relations with her neighbors and ensuring her students develop tact.
Tabishad’s insistence on exposing trainees to the outside world stems from personal experience. She was an adolescent when the Idari first arrived within the Pact Worlds, and that period of confusion and fear left an impression on her. Rather than the ideal new home her people had traveled for generations to reach, Akiton was a rusted ruin hardly fit for habitation. Kasathan leaders chose a peaceful path and joined the Pact, but Tabishad seethed with resentment that her people’s promised land had been despoiled. It wasn’t until her Tempering that she realized she wasn’t alone in her sense of loss. The disappearance of Golarion was an inconceivable imbalance in the harmony of existence, and those who once called the planet home bore a psychological scar similar to her own. With newfound compassion and a drive to protect the balance of the cosmos, Tabishad returned to the Idari for solarian training at Pradulex Monastery, and she went on to help found the Cosmonastery of the Empty Orbit and bring the philosophy of the Cycle to the people of the Pact Worlds.
As Akiton and Golarion demonstrate, Tabishad believes technological advancement has outstripped society’s understanding of the Cycle. People of the galaxy unwittingly hold the power to threaten the harmony of existence, and she grants her students the full rank of solarian only when she feels they have learned all the skills they need to confront this danger. “You go into the galaxy as adults among children armed with plasma cannons,” she warns newly ordained solarians during their valediction ceremony. “Teach them responsibility, or take away their toys and be ready for a fit.”
Those who embody and wish to enforce these ideals can join the Order of the Empty Orbit, an elite group that opposes governments, corporations, and others who would reengineer the cosmos. These solarians negotiate or peacefully protest against reckless terraforming, planetary exploitation, and the artificial movement of astronomical bodies, escalating to direct confrontation only when the stakes call for it. Rather than risk besmirching their organization, order members sometimes employ discrete independent strike teams. Nevertheless, the Order of the Empty Orbit has powerful enemies, and Tabishad works hard to maintain allies.

Type

Monastery

Parent Location

Absalom Station