Kal
Whispers
"They walked the eternities when reality was young. They saw the void and wanted more..."
- Intent: An unimaginably huge derelict and the anomalous region that surrounds it for Wondrous Ruins of the Past.
- Image Credit: +ANCIENT GOD+ by Yuliya Zabelina, Into the Depths of Self Discovery by Antoine Collignon, Srina's Contest Headers.
- Canon: N/A
- Permissions: N/A
- Links: N/A
"The Children of the Stars formed life from stardust and worlds from ... We are but figments of their glory."
- Astronomical Location Name: Hand of the Makers
- Classification: Derelict Dreadnought | Anomalous Region
- Location: Outer Rim, positioned between Rutan, Askaj, and Elrood.
- Rotational Period: N/A, the nearest star is dozens of light-years away.
- Orbital Period: N/A, the Hand itself is orbited by a variety of smaller derelicts / astronomical objects.
- Size: Medium; the Hand of the Makers is 'the size of a small moon'. The Shroud extends about 0.31 light-years.
- Affiliation: The Hand of the Makers was once the flagship of the 'False Celestials'. None have since ruled the derelict.
- Population: Insignificant. The Hand is largely uninhabited, as is the region that enshrouds it, but there are exceptions.
- Demographics: Highly varied. All manner of scoundrels, adventurers, and mystics can be found spending time in the Shroud.
- Starweirds are unusually common in the region, taking them from mythical to threatening. Strange things lurk in some derelicts.
- Accessibility: The Waking Shroud is fairly easy to find, if you know what you are looking for, but the Hand itself is more of a challenge due to sensory interference from the Shroud and a variety of spatial (and occasionally temporal) anomalies. Any security measures that once existed aboard the Hand have long since rusted away or drained into uselessness, but anomalies and structural failings are constant threats.
- Size Matters when it comes to surviving the Waking Shroud - anything up to and including a frigate can generally survive the trip to the Hand unless they're unlucky, but the same cannot be said for larger capital ships. The bigger the ship, the greater the odds that it suffer the ignominious demise of being torn apart by the opposing forces of multiple simultaneous anomalies. As if this was not bad enough, keeping too many lifeforms in an unprotected location has a tendency to lure in swarms of Starweirds. No one wants to deal with that.
- Description: An altar to ancient glory surrounded by fraying reality and aeons of collateral damage, the Hand of the Makers and the region in which it rests is both strange and wondrous. Many have come, many have left, and many have died. Few remain here for the rest of their lives, except when those lives are cut short. This is a place of bold adventurers, cautious outcasts, and studious mystics. A place of secrets.
- Anomalies are a constant fixture of the Waking Shroud, intensifying in proximity to the Hand of the Makers. Spatial anomalies stretch, compress, or otherwise alter space. Temporal anomalies shift the passage of time, slowing or accelerating it relative to the rest of the galaxy. Some anomalies are more difficult to quantify - rippling, ephemeral things that blur the line between truth and fiction.
"In the early days they made the Celestials as conduits of their wills, but their children grew greedy..."
- Hand of the Makers: A supermassive dreadnought the 'size of a small moon', the Hand of the Makers is vast enough that even in its now derelict state its mass is several times that of the long-destroyed second death star. Its hull is broken and sundered, but its structure is more or less intact, with the exception of a 'wing' the size of a large mountain that appears to have been shaved off by a truly cataclysmic weapon.
- The Residential Hives: Across the Hand can be found a number of vast crew or passenger sections that must once have been like cities onto themselves. For whatever reason, it appears to have carried tens if not hundreds of millions of individuals without any sign of their supposed role aboard the vessel, with the exception of self-sustaining facilities and an array of grandiose cathedrals. In comparison, the average crew/passenger appears to have had little more than an alcove to sleep in and communal quarters for food and socialisation.
- The Holy of Holies: Among the most impressive remaining section is what has been dubbed the 'Holy of Holies', a vast complex sized for 'giants among men' and filled to bursting with elaborate artwork made from precious materials. Over the years, vandalism and theft have tarnished its lustre, but it is still a true wonder of megalomaniacal splendour. The palatial quarters therein seem to have held entire households of servants. Grandiose murals depict luminous beings descending from the stars and uplifting the unwashed masses.
- The Hollow Heart: Near the centre of the vessel lies a vast circular chamber, its emptiness stretching for dozens of kilometres. It is said to have contained the power source of the ancient dreadnought - a main-sequence star 'shackled and compressed' by unknown means.
- The Starlances: A small number of unfathomably potent weapons systems yet remain, though none are fully functional. The greatest of these are the Starlances, beam weapons of continent-shattering potency of which the exotic weapons of the Shadows appear to be but a pale reflection. The energy output required to fire an entire array of such weapons defies explanation or categorisation.
- Belt of Lost Hope: The Hand is orbited by a stable ring of ice chunks and debris, as well as a variety of derelicts, asteroids, and even a select few moonlets. The anomalies are stranger here than elsewhere, but rarely cause widespread destruction - almost as if protecting what remains of the Hand. It earns its name from the unusually high risk of a hyperdrive malfunction within the region - good luck leaving without one.
- The Indomitable: This derelict Imperial II-class Star Destroyer, more or less intact despite its age, has come to house a major scavenger outpost known for its junk of dubious provenance, outlaw techs, and especially honourless smugglers. A few of the Turbolasers are said to remain operational; whichever gang is currently in charge will be sure to make this known to any potential usurpers.
- Krashnok's Rock: Largest of all the moonlets orbiting the Hand, time is said to function somewhat differently on Krashnok's Rock. The details change from teller to teller, but if the legends are to be believed it may be possible to wish and/or imagine oneself younger and healthier when atop it. Unfortunately, there are far more proven cases of people being aged forward by the time-storms ravaging it.
- Lady Fortune: Once the Lady Fortune was a sleek merchant ship, sailing the stars with a cargo bay full of wealth. During the time of the Gulag Plague, its crew are said to have narrowly avoided contact with the infected only to stumble onto the Hand. What happened next varies from story to story, but in exactly none did the crew survive - it is said to be thoroughly haunted. Strange things walk its halls.
- Little Mouth: A small wormhole affectionally known as the Little Mouth is located at the edge of the Belt. It is evidently a one-way trip, since nothing has ever returned, but in the event of a hyperdrive failure, it may be one's only choice - if one lacks the funds for a repair. The locals are confident that the trip is probably survivable, though none seem to know with any certainty where exactly the egress is.
- Waking Shroud: The Waking Shroud resembles a purplish nebula, albeit one on the smaller side. A small nebula is still unfathomably vast at sublight speeds, of course, and the Waking Shroud has been known to interfere with sensors and occasionally hyperdrives. It is not known to hold any stars or proper planets, but smaller astronomical bodies - especially asteroids and the odd derelict - are commonplace. Reality itself is unusually malleable within - anomalies are commonplace and belief can become almost tangible. As an example, it is possible to breathe in the middle of empty space if and only if you truly believe you can. The Shroud is not quite a vacuum, sound often travels just fine.
- Waking Dreams: On occasion, gestalts of the collective subconsciousness manifest within the Waking Shroud, storm-like phenomena pulled straight from dreams (or nightmares). This can include gorgeous beaches in the middle of space, zombies emerging from empty storage rooms, and stranger things yet. These effects are always fleeting and (almost) never extend beyond the Shroud itself.
- The Eye of Fate: Somewhere within the vastness of the Waking Shroud can be found a rock that resembles a closed fist. Atop it can be found a pool of silvery liquid held in perfect harmony by unseen forces. Reflections can be seen in these waters, but they do not always match the reality that surrounds them - it is said that they instead reflect the future as it will be, or perhaps as it could be.
- The Luminarch: A shattered statue of enormous proportions drifts eternally through the Shroud, depicting an unknown king of kings from ages past. Two vast and trunkless legs are attached to a free-floating part of the Hand and its corvette-sized head is said to have been hollowed out and converted to a smugglers' hideout in ages past. Even in its current form, some feel an urge to bow before it.
"... not possible. The sacred ship shakes with their fury ... the true gods will protect us, they cannot be... faith gives way to fear as I ..."
The Celestials are perhaps the greatest civilisation to have ever existed, architects of boundless wonder and creators of worlds. They were not alone, however. Many served them and a few were bold enough to defy them outright - in the end, the Rakata appear to have succeeded.
They were not the first to try, however. Nor even the boldest. The Hand of the Makers is believed to have been forged by self-proclaimed gods to do battle with the Celestials which they claimed to have created. To usurp their seat of power and claim dominion over all that is, was, and will be. What exactly happened to these 'False Celestials' is unknown, but the sundered carcass of the Hand makes it clear that they lost.
Even after untold aeons, it remains as a testament to their glory - or their weakness, depending on who you ask.
Over the millennia it has been pilfered, claimed, lost, and defaced, and yet it still remains, as does the shroud of anomalous space that surrounds and to a certain degree protects it. Were it not for the navigational risks posed by the Waking Shroud, this trove of exotic alloys would surely have shrunk and vanished, demolished by generation after generation of need and greed - peeled apart layer by layer to fuel wars and construction efforts.
Last edited:
