Ioverse

Art by Sea\_bayer

The **Ioverse** is the primary setting of Phase 3 of the World of Io Series. A pseudo solar system orbiting around the artificial sun known as the Nova, the many moons of Jupiter have become a veritable cradle of life, danger and wonderment. Though Io itself remains ascendant amongst its extraterrestrial neighbors, many other planets are now open to exploration and have developed their own societies and culture. In a universe of endless possibilities, who knows what awaits among the stars beyond Io...

## History

### Early History

The Jupiter system is believed to be the oldest planet in the Solar System, forming just 1 million years or so after the creation of the Solar System itself some 4.6 billion years ago. Over millions of years, it would gather matter, migrate and capture satellites within its gravitational orbit. Jupiter was first discovered on Earth in the 7th or 8th Century BC by the Babylonians, and its four largest moons were discovered in 1610 by a human called Galileo Galilei.

Before the fall of Earth, which was now known as Auroran Prime, the system became home to other forms of intelligent life, namely the Astari. The Astari made Io their home and created a prosperous society. During their time there, they feuded with the god Kaasma, the enemy of all life, and sealed it away into Jupiter for centuries. While they had earned their peace, it was soon shattered by the arrival of the Auroran Federation, the desperate survivors of their fallen world seeking a new home. This lead to war between their peoples to determine who would call the Jupiter system home.

### The Jupiter Incident

As the war raged, the Aurorans captured an Astari named Lagos and attempted to learn the secrets of Astari magic through him. Lagos was experimented upon, dissected and cloned multiple times with varying success. The eight and final clone, also named Lagos, was their finest simulacrum and, in an attempt to weaponize him against his people, they inducted him into their navy. Lagos was stationed on Jupiter when the ceasefire between the people was in effect. There, the voice of Kaasma spoke to him and revealed the truth of his origins. Enraged at both warring factions, Lagos released Kaasma, causing Jupiter to explode.

The Jupiter Incident, as it became known, exterminated the Astari and scoured Io. The Auroran Fleet was all but destroyed. The devastation forever transformed Jupiter into a new sun called the Nova. Kaasma meanwhile drifted as a colossal corpse between the two celestial bodies, having lost its newborn children and its life as a result of its release. The surviving Aurorans landed their ships on Io and began to terraform it and fill it with life. Their successors, mortality, would colonized Io in their place. Over time, societies would rise and fall at the whims of the capricious gods made to shepherd mortality, DIV and VOID, until they too were cast down by a group of brave heroes to take their fate into their own hands. Io would face many threats, but it and its new people would persevere again and again.

### The Shattering of Io

Some 2,000 years after the Jupiter Incident, Lagos would once again attempt to destroy his hated homeland. This time, using Auroran Starships piloted by Kindled, he launched an orbital bombardment of Io. The weapons of the starship were overcharged with a mysterious energy called Black Star and they successfully shattered the planet. Believing he had succeeded at last, Lagos and his fleet departed, now bereft of purpose. However, Io was not as destroyed as he thought. A group of powerful entities, former mortals who had ascended to godhood, managed to protect Io and its people and reformed the planet into a shattered version of itself, its landmasses anchored to an iridescent core by chains of deitic energy.

### Taking to the Stars

In this new and strange paradigm, the gods reached out to mortality to aid them in adapting. To this end, they gifted mortality the power of Shard Technology, pieces of the Deitic Veil they resided in that could serve as the basis for mankind's next step forwards. Over the following 500 years, mankind made rapid progress in understanding and utilizing Shard Technology in every aspect of their lives. This allowed for once disparate peoples to travel between Arks in newly created shardships. In time, these shardships became capable of interplanetary travel, allowing the people of Io to explore the many different worlds found within the Jupiter system. Though there is peril among the stars, there is also limitless potential. Thus, life continues to travel out into the Ioverse to uncover its secrets and face its dangers, unflinching and unafraid.

## Major Locations

While the Ioverse is vast and contains many places of interest, the following are the most important and the most prominent within the setting. These major locations are the Nova itself and the four Galilean Moons that orbit it; Io, Europa, Ganymede and Callisto.

### The Nova

At the center of the Ioverse is the Nova. Once the gas giant Jupiter, a devastating cataclysm called the Jupiter Incident lead to the planet transforming into a pseudo sun. The Nova, as it is now known, has been this way for over 2,500 years, emitting light and radiation as if it were a true star. However, though the outer atmosphere burns, the surface of the Nova is still inhabited, though it is charred and barren. This planet core bears the ominous and rather suitable name of the Nova Hellscape, and every day upon it is a struggle to survive. The denizens of the Nova have become known as demons due to their violent nature and terrifying appearance. Demons occasionally raid Io from a portal on a forsaken island before returning back home with their ill-gotten gains.

### Io

The innermost planet of the solar system, Io is a diverse world with a storied history. It is a world of many different climates and biomes, boasting incredible biodiversity and incredible quantities of magic and technology. Once the home of the Astari people, war with the Auroran Federation led to their destruction in the Jupiter Incident. What Aurorans survived terraformed Io to become a mirror of their own homeworld, Auroran Prime (also known as Earth) and also repopulated the planet with all kinds of flora and fauna. They also created their successors in the form of the myriad races collectively called mortality. Io faced many threats over the next 1000 years, but heroes always rose to defend their home from destruction. Even when destruction came at the hands of Lagos, The Emissary of the End, Io still survived. Though the Shattering left Io in pieces, the gods of Io, once mortal themselves, held the planet together and gifted its people the means to adapt and thrive over the next 500 years.

### Europa

Once a world entirely covered in ice, Europa has undergo significant warming. The result is a global ocean with some few islands. When Ionians first took to the stars, Europa became their first colony. With the power of Shard Technology, Europa became a hub of commerce, with cities manifesting both above and below the waves. Taking advantage of the planet's vast oceans and hollow core for travel, Europa is a interconnected maritime society, with its own cultural identity distinct from Io.

### Ganymede

A mysterious planet of metal, Ganymede is the largest of Jupiter's many moons. With no atmosphere and an inability to sustain life, Ganymede is not suitable for colonization. However, its vast resources make it a territory of great importance to Ionians, Europans and the Ch'i. While none have claimed the planet, many outposts can be found on its surface. Meanwhile, below the surface lies a vast number of labyrinthine ruins of unknown origin. Scholars and explorers have concluded Ganymede was once home to a civilization of some kind, but have little evidence of what it was or where they went. An equally inscrutable feature of Ganymede is the gargantuan crater in its southern hemisphere and the vast quantities of debris scattered around the planet. Whatever caused such an impact was earth-shattering indeed, but is just as much a mystery as its previous inhabitants.

### Callisto

Callisto is the furthest moon from the Nova and was once a world of rock and ice. However, the planet became inhabited by the insectoid race known as the Ch'i. Through their tireless burrowing, Callisto has transformed into a massive hive, with its surface begin completely riddled with holes and tunnels. Within the solid rock below the remnants of the crust, the Ch'i make their homes. Warlike by nature, the Ch'i do not take kindly to any infringement upon their territory. When Ionians came to Callisto in the name of exploration, the Ch'i immediately took it as an act of aggression and declared war on Io. However, their spacefaring technology pales in comparison to Io's and they have yet to achieve more that the occasional raid.

## Other Locations

The following location exist outside the of the Ioverse. They may exist in the far reaches of space, in alternate planes of existence or even in altered realities.

### Veils of Reality

* The Astral Veil
* The Shadow

## Mechanics

*Main article: Technical Details*
The world of Io is a heavily homebrewed setting with many experimental mechanics working at the same time. As an example, there are mechanics that apply only to a single campaign, and there're mechanics that are shared between multiple campaigns.

## Trivia

* The Ioverse was first announced in the Io Direct on the 28th of January, 2022.

## Images

### Official Art

Star Map of the Ioverse (Original Art created by ???)