Unnamed Pulsar System

## Pulsar System

An **unnamed pulsar system** in the CDC-41-Gamma nebula was visited by the *Guinevere* as part of the Avalon Exploratory Initiative, several weeks after the Initiative arrived in the nebula. The system is centred around a pulsar-like object known as "the Wheel", which is of great significance to the religion of the nebula's native Advari.

## Description

The system is home to a single pulsar-like star, known to the Advari as the Wheel, which is orbited by an ore belt in the inner system and single planet on the edge of the system. Despite appearances, the star's interior is apparently accessible, and is known to senior clergy of the Faith Eternal of the Holy Advari Empire as "the Mechanism", and is associated by them with their deity Advar. The planet, probably once a sandy desert, was superheated billions of years before the present, likely by the supernova that created the pulsar, vitrifying its deserts into sheets of glass.

## History

The system was discovered by the Advari early in their history, and they interpreted the pulsar in godlike terms. The pulsar, which they named the Wheel, was considered an aspect of the deity Advar. The Advari religion, the Faith Eternal, grew around this, with its senior clergy believing that Advar offered bounty in exchange for the Advari people maintaining their population below a certain threshold. Accordingly, the Faith Eternal upheld ritual sacrifice as a means of population control. The Advari settled the system's single planet, building several terrarium-like structures just beneath the surface, in which they grew plant life. However, after this initial colonisation, the colony on the planet failed or was otherwise destroyed (possibly owing to the Faith Eternal's belief in maintaining population control), with the entire system being abandoned in its wake.

A long time later, in 0304 PCU according to the Tantalus Cluster calendar, the Avalon Exploratory Initiative detected the pulsar at the centre of the system. Because the pulsar was the first to be discovered that was reachable by Human spacecraft, the *Guinevere*, at the behest of Director Elizabeth Ancelet, was dispatched to study the pulsar closer. There, they discovered the vitrified planet, and Ancelet and Captain Cassandra Farren travelled across its surface, studying its unique landscape and alien ruins.

As a result of the expedition, the Avalon Exploratory Initiative successfully deciphered the name of CDC-41-Gamma's native species - "Advari" - discovered the remains of an Advari spacecraft and its deceased pilot, and discovered edible vegetation on the planet's surface. The following year, the Avalon Expedition Fleet relocated to the pulsar system and established harvesting colonies on the planet's surface, which they subsequently christened "the Greenhouse".

The expedition was ultimately attacked in the system by the Holy Advari Empire in 0305 PCU in the Battle of the Greenhouse. Choosing to abandon CDC-41-Gamma, the Avalon Expedition Fleet took heavy losses retreating through a Drift Gate back to the Tantalus Cluster. Concurrent to this, the Advari Empress, Valendra the Sixth, who had begun to doubt the Faith Eternal following the arrival of the expedition in the nebula, was led to the centre of the Wheel by Lord Cardinal Hastus Arvannis and made to observe the truth of the pulsar.

## Layout

### Planetary Bodies

* Ore belt
* The Greenhouse - Vitrified pulsar planet with thin, breathable atmosphere

## Behind the Scenes

Daniel Orrett has stated before that the crew wanted to explore less-travelled space and sci-fi concepts within *The Sojourn*. Pulsars are a rarely-explored concept within much of science fiction, and as such served as a perfect setting for "*Dust and Shadow*".

While the pulsar system first appeared in "*Dust and Shadow*", art of it was featured nearly a year earlier in the Official Launch Trailer.

## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 "*Dust and Shadow*"
2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 *Forlorn Hope*
3. ↑ *Contact, Wait Out*