The Refugium

**The Refugium** is a worldbuilding project created by Biblaridion.

## Real-World Information

The first version of the Refuguim was created in 2011, intended to be both a thought experiment and setting for tabletop RPGs. At some point (no later than 2013), Biblaridion formed a unifying storyline to tie the setting together, which he began to formulate into a book. However, he became distracted from the story by the worldbuilding, and later the conlanging. While he has not discarded the possibility of publishing the original story in some format, the setting mainly serves as his linguistic background (being home to all but one of his extant conlangs).

It is currently Biblaridion's oldest and most fleshed-out extant worldbuilding project, and has been home to multiple changes over its long history.

### Etymology

The term "refugium" is used in biology to refer to an area or habitat that supports endangered species or biological relicts. The word was chosen by Biblaridion to describe his world, as it is the only known place in all of existence capable of harboring life (and unlike the real world, there are no other planets humans could retreat to).

## Environment

The Refugium (referred to by its inhabitants as "the world") is an area of land illuminated by a single stationary sun. Instead of a star, the "sun" is a magical source of energy, around 100m in diameter and positioned 1000km above the ground . The Sun is the only source of natural light, and the Refugium consists of everything within the sun's light, an area roughly 6000km in radius.

The Sun is surrounded by six moons. Five of these moons (white, black, blue, green, and red), each of which are 25 km in diameter, orbit the sun in close proximity, with the remaining sixth moon (which is smaller than the other five) circling the circumference of the Umbral regions. Within the Umbral regions, the equivalent of night is created by the inner moons successively eclipsing the sun.

### Geography

The world can be divided into three regions based on their proximity to the Sun. The closer one gets to the Sun, the warmer and wetter the environment becomes. Due to the stationary Sun, the climate is highly stable and experiences no seasonal variation.

The **Central Regions** extend up to 1000 km from the center, and experience the equivalent of constant noontime sunlight. The average temperature hovers around 30-40 degrees C.

The **Umbral Regions** comprise the land between 1000km to 4500km from the center, and they are the only regions within the world to experience a day-night cycle. The majority of human civilizations are located within these regions.

The **Far Regions** comprise the remaining land, an area 4500km to 6000km from the sun. Experiencing the equivalent of perpetual evening, the Far Regions are frigid, dry, and barren. The only human territory situated entirely in the far regions is Nhlogqwa.

#### The Night Lands

The Night Lands (also called "the shadow lands", "outer darkness", or titles of that nature) comprise everything beyond the reach of the Sun's light, beginning at roughly 6000km from the center of the world. No human to enter the Night Lands has ever returned, making it impossible to determine how far the lands extend, or what exists within.

### Flora & Fauna

Artist's depiction of Flightless Bats, Flying Spiders, and Whale-Sized Seals

The Refugium's biosphere is inspired by an alternate natural history of Earth: many real-world clades of animals do not exist within the Refugium, and their ecological niches are taken either by extinct Earth clades (such as creodonts, mesonychids, placoderms, labyrinthodonts, and trilobites) or by clades that have never existed, like flying spiders, flightless bats and whale-sized seals.

Additionally, the humans in the Refugium have far more genetic variation among races, to the point where they could arguably be defined as separate species: in the case of the K'ama people, their distinct genetic makeup makes them incapable of breeding with other races.

As the Refugium lacks seasonal variation, the flora consists entirely of evergreen plants.

### Cultural Notes

A standard day is measured from the moment of totality from one moon's eclipse to the next, a period exactly 24 hours in length. Meanwhile, a standard year consists of the time for the outer moon to make a full rotation around the sun, which lasts 360 days: the calendar year begins and ends with the outer moon aligning with the white inner moon at midnight. By convention, most maps are drawn so that the line of syzygy between the Sun, white inner moon, and outer moon is vertical.

The Refugium's equivalent of cardinal directions are primarily based on the Sun, which all compasses point toward. Many languages also use the positions of the moons to distinguish more specific directions.

## History

Around 6000 years of history has been planned/developed for the Refugium, beginning in a neolithic stone-age and progressing to a "modern-era" equivalent to real-world 1940s in terms of technology (albeit with steampunk elements). The War between the Empire of the Sun and Thirēan Empire is a notable event described by Biblaridion, the victor of this war is unknown.

## Regions

* Tsannur
* Thirēa
* Pfekkadzgun
* Oqolaam
* Tiipu-K'ama
* Nhlogqwa Islands