Ars

We Hide In Death

Written by Cr0atoan

The Ars is the self-assigned name to a hegemonic people who travel to planets and extract natural resources, especially the substantial deposits of Oste accessible on Paentellus and its moons. They prefer to reside in their dominion's exosphere amid extraction operations while they empower their reach and growth as a spacefaring nation.
Easily identifiable by their biomechatronic armor, as most interactions with the Ars only happen between citizens and the Ars military, the image the general public has of them is that of their martial capability. The view they've earned also serves as a notable indication of their broad sweep across star systems of the Yirim, with their unparalleled grasp over applied sciences and invention, the people of the Ars are challenging to resist as they establish bridges between the planets they find and their homeworld.

Civilization and Culture

History

Origin

The Frozen Folk

The Ars does not permit people outside of their hierarchal structure to learn much of their history, so the details are obscure. Still, it is widely known they originate from a mysterious planet in the Yirim described as "ice-cold" and "protected by darkness." Most experience with the Ars comes from their arrival and then their start to take over, but efforts to determine their homeworld or learn of their history as an attempt to resist them have little recorded progress.

First Descent

Arrival on Ótapi

The Ars emerged from spacetime distortions and landed in Ótapi's sublunary sphere, the space between the moons and the home planet. This planet had no contact with the species for thousands of years. The initial connection between the Ótapiará and the Ars registered as peaceful. The Ótapiará were very amicable and respected the Ars, observing their technology with almost religious reverence. Reverance to the Ars was due to the planetary natives seeing them as masters of the supernal for their biomechatronic exoskeletons that radiated similar energy that the Ótapiará sought to understand—noticing this association the Ars exchanged of some of their prototypes, before departing and leaving a few of their soldiers to occupy small camps on the continent of their first contact.

Second Descent

The Creation of the Sectors

Once the main contingent of the Ars returned from their departure, they revealed their true intentions by employing a powerful technological matrix that could seal pockets of spacetime in containment.
The containment of the dimension effectively sealed off the civilizations from the outside. Still, the Ars were ingenious in their theft and built massive communication structures they call the Eborius. Between the commanding bodies chosen to regulate them, there's still transmission between the Yirim and the sealed pocket dimension. Because the Ars has to permit to run the Eborius, the reality of life in the sealed aspects tends to have no relation to the stories told to the outside.
Thus having divided the planet into three Sectors, the Ars went to work. They turned the original homeworld and its moons sealed off from the rest of the Yirim into a site for resources and the planet's sublunary and exosphere as their dwelling and launching space for the reception of other members of their people as well as any other people they find and subjugate. The final sealing process was to remove the planet's name from its people, calling it Paentellus.

The Appearance of the Vora

Forcing the Ótapiará to extract Oste in exchange for protection from their internal disputes with each other provided a societal development conducive to massive abuse. During this time, as more and more of the land was torn apart in mining for this mineral resource that the Ars prized so highly, one particular location was overrun by strange monstrous creatures the Ars called the Vora, emerging from a mine and attacking the Ótapiará. The Ars abandoned most, if not all, their sites, leaving the Ótapiará to fend for themselves. A Third Sector designed as a living space in the troposphere and stratosphere regions of the planet soon developed. Only select people who fit the stringent testing and regulation requirements would be extracted from the earth and brought to communities safe from the Vora invasion. Ótapi, once a planet of life and wonder, was described as a literal hell, only useful for its resources and nothing more.

Modern Era

The Ars has managed to dominate the scene for three generations now, despite internal complications and attempts at revolutions from within the sealed dimension now called Sector Maraine. The events of the current campaign setting start on the anniversary of the Second Descent, where without warning, the Eborius on the moon they called Troch shatters and breaks, severing the connection to the Yirim. No one knows what caused this but the Ars have begun their scouting procedures to learn more about why the source of their control was irreparably destroyed when it is commonly known the power to resist the Ars hasn't been given the opportunity to flourish. For the first time in three generations, the Ars feel genuine fear.

Genetic Ancestor(s)

• Dvh
• Udo

Scientific Name

Udo Viatorem Placens

Origin/Ancestry

Hesper, Nix

Geographic Distribution

• Sector Kelm
• Sector Xalia