CRYPTARCH

Sornieth & The Deities

The original four deities escaped from a failing civilization that once stretched across the galaxy. settled on Sornieth. it is currently unknown why Sornieth was chosen, whether the rift already existed or whether the deities created it. The gods shaped the planet’s evolution and biology.

The reason the world outside of the eleven flight territories (Mare Incognita and outer space) has not been explored is due to the fact that the deities and leylines provide a conduit for elemental magic within the bounds of the main continent; dragonkind cannot exist outside these boundaries due to a reliance on elemental magic as a sort of life force. Most beastclans are exempt from this. NC has spent a long time finding a way to generate a magical power source independent of the deities; The Vigilance uses the Starmaker reactor, but the dragons who leave for outer space either have smaller reactors built into their ships or (occasionally) have been individually modified to not require an external magic source. However, these sources provide a much more raw form of magic that cannot be differentiated into elemental forms (like receiving a full spectrum of light rather than different extremely specific wavelengths refracted through a prism). The effects of this can be unpredictable. Most dragons born on Sornieth simply have a harder time performing elemental magic, with no real upside; it may also result in slight shifts of eye color. Those born beyond the reaches of Sornieth, however, seem to be.. something new entirely.

The Shade

The use of satellites or spaceflight, although theoretically possible, is simply not taken seriously as a future prospect by the residents of Sornieth due to the pervading cultural idea that Sornieth is a safe bubble, and the void beyond its atmosphere is haunted by the Shade. The fear remains that any excursions beyond the atmosphere could provoke it and bring it back.

The Labyrinth Builders

Little is known for certain of the beings that constructed the planet-wide Labyrinth on Merakai. They disappeared between three and five thousand years ago, had an impressive industrial complex, were bipedal, and judging by the size of the passages were of a size comparable to most beastclan species. The Company’s lead biological anthropologist, Tejat, theorizes the planet's previous occupants may have been the origin/common ancestor of many beastclans (centaurs, maren, serthis, harpies); she’s even suggested that they were perhaps the dominant intelligent life-form in the system prior to the arrival of the gods. Although the idea remains highly speculative, she's convinced the beastclans (or their common ancestors) must once have matched or even surpassed dragonkind's technological capabilites in order to construct the Labyrinth, and (she assumes) have made it to Sornieth thousands of years ago, where their societies faded and crumbled as the dragons the gods made in their image rose to dominance. It isn’t too unreasonable to think that intelligent life could’ve evolved in the five billion years prior to the arrival of the deities. Some worry that, were this information made public, it could ignite the already frayed relations between beastclans and dragons.

The Riftkind

The Riftkind are the residents of the parallel universe the Rift draws from, and the creators of the Shade. Due to the inherent difficulty of passing through a rift in the core of a star, very few individuals have actually been observed, and very little is known about their biology or culture, but they seem to show a vast range of biological diversity and suggest a civilization composed of multiple coexisting species; not all of them are even fully corporeal. The first of the Riftkind to make successful contact with this universe was Celeste, who came to NC wreathed in flame with the intention of establishing diplomatic contact. Celeste remains the only Riftkind to be allowed free reign of the Vigilance, and now represents Riftkind interests in the council. Unfortunately, communication is hindered by a language barrier, so their culture and alien way of life remain mysterious.
After Celeste, however, the vast majority of Riftkind who crossed over did so with violent intentions, whether out of desperation or because they were apparently engineered into living weapons. All other Riftkind are currently kept in the Holding Facility (essentially a euphemism for a cozy maximum-security prison).
In spite of their efforts, so far NC has been unable to establish a two-way communication channel with the other side of the Rift.