Reaper

Reaper is an isolated planet in the Mortem System, subject to a system-wide effect of time dilation. It was used as the base of a demon known as a Watching One, of the last of Legion's augmented commanders left behind in Realspace.

## Description

### Overview

Reaper is a rather barren planet in the Mortem System, whose star, Eye of Death, is covered by a temporal anomaly, manifesting itself as a black hole engulfing the star and subjecting the entire system to time dilation, with time within Reaper moving far slower than time outside of it. Due to the anomaly's dimming of its star, and the world's distance from it, Reaper is a cold and dark world. In addition, Reaper is an unholy hotspot, and while not holding as much unholy energy as the volcanic death worlds of Infernis and Ardor, it was still a prime candidate for a demonic military installation. Reaper's unholy energy influences its atmosphere to create an aura of fear, sadness, and even insanity among any sapient lifeform that stays on its surface for prolonged periods of time, something even the Solemn are not completely immune to. This field is amplified and utilized by a species of aeroplankton that is common in Reaper's atmopshere. Reaper is a low gravity world, where a human can jump to heights over 3 meters.

### Geography

Reaper is covered in plains of black rocks and rare lakes of frozen liquids, occasionally dotted by patches of dark plants. Most of its surface also appears quite flat, and elevations can appear unusually monolithic. Caves, often housing liquids, can be seen around elevated areas.

### Environment

Reaper has a year-round cold climate, and an atmosphere that is toxic to the natives of a Type 1 atmosphere world. The constant darkness has often been akin to being on a moon, with unusually clear skies. Reaper is also a considerably dry world, with very little surface water, which is in truth an alien liquid that is incredibly toxic to humans.

## Inhabitants

### Native species

The native sapient species on Reaper is a technologically primitive race known as the Solemn, a race of tall, skeletal, pitch-black humanoids adapted to the extreme cold of their homeworld. The Solemn communicate telepathically, although their telepathy can create audible distortions in the air, which can sound like a gust of wind. They are fully aware of their world's anomaly, and of the unholy energy lying dormant beneath their surface.

### Flora

Reaper's flora are known to be pitch black, a trait they took on to absorb as much sunlight as possible, as light from their star still permeates around the anomaly akin to the rings of light around true black holes. Most flora are very tall, swaying as if in water. One such plant has a top that appears to be a flower.

### Fauna

The fauna on Reaper share the pitch black skin tones as the Solemn, and most are equally lanky. A black-furred quadruped mammalian creature, about the size of a human child, was spotted by Nara and Thomas Fru while running to the Watchtower, feeding off of one of the tall plants. Within the frigid waters and beneath the thin layers of ice over them, a tentacled creature with black skin, with an oblong body shape ending in two points on opposite ends, trailing its tentacles behind it, can be seen swimming among the inky depths. Almost all fauna on Reaper have alternate forms of vision, such as electroreception and infrared sight, and some have no visible eyes, vestigial or otherwise. A form of aeroplankton spreads throughout the atmosphere, dispersing Reaper's negative emotional aura even further. These plankton have a symbiotic relation with a six meter tall, armored, carnivorous eyeless creature, which uses their negative emotion manipulation to overload the minds of prey with dread. The carnivore sees through electroreception, and possesses incredibly enhanced hearing. Despite its large size, the low gravity environment allows it to move at high speeds.

## Government and politics

Reaper does not have a planetary government, and as far as has been observed, has no advanced systems of government beyond simple communities of Solemn. Reaper has no military, no known law enforcement, and the only economic system sighted by those who were trapped on its surface was bartering between Solemn, usually using food as the items that were exchanged.

## History

Reaper formed as an inhabitable unholy hotspot planet in the Mortem System. Due to its distance to its sun, the planet had cold temperatures, and its low gravity caused many native species to grow tall and lanky. However, its system had formed on a growing temporal anomaly, which first had minuscule effects around the system's star. However, the anomaly grew and grew, soon engulfing the star. Native life on Reaper was forced to adapt to the new system, most life gaining a pitch-black pigmentation to absorb as much sunlight as they could. The native sapient species, who had unusually powerful telepathy, saw that they were isolated in their system. On top of that, they could start to see the anomaly's borders, and while they were unable to see what lay beyond, they knew that they were alone, and lacking the resources to escape. The race named themselves the Solemn, for they knew that they were damned to live on a barren world of darkness. Sometime in its past, demons from the Legion of Sin landed on Reaper, commanded by a monstrous being known as a Watching One, a commander serving under the composite demon lord Legion. Using highly advanced demonic technology, the Watching One set up a temporal stasis field and bridge to space outside the confines of the anomaly. The structure housing the Watching One, known as The Watchtower, was used as a command station for Legionnaires, although the rest of Reaper itself remained unaffected, with its entire system being used as a hiding spot for the Watching One. However, when Legion was cast back into Hell by the archangel Slayer, the Watching One went dormant. Very rarely did other visitors enter Reaper, all of which had been thrown off-course in hyperspace. The last visitor to Reaper was an astronaut from the Commonwealth, and he was stranded on Reaper for centuries of standard time, although only for a few years from his perspective. The Watching One became active again as former Commonwealth Lord-Director Bartiman Rik utilized its activation key to call demonic armies to invade Eiel Britonica, taking refuge alongside fellow former Commonwealth executives the Watchtower itself, although the temporal bridge was accessed by human Holy Faction operative Thomas Fru and Parfinoid United Republic of Amer Prime operative Nara Genopos, who were soon followed by elites of the Royal Eiel Army, Republic Army soldiers, and SDC Marines. Following a battle in the Watchtower, Bartiman Rik was killed by the collapsing roof, destroying the Watching One as well. Thomas, Nara, and their allies fled Reaper through the collapsing temporal bridge, leaving the surviving demons and Commonwealth officials behind to be trapped within the anomaly.