Astra Somnia

Common references
“The Somnia”
“Up-terrace sleep”
“White Silence”

Location

Embedded into the eastern green edge of the Eighth Terrace, overlooking one of the domed public parks near the New Delhi arcology. From the outside, Astra Somnia looks like a minimalist meditation pavilion built from pale cryspoly and living bamboo panels. There is no signage. If you do not already know where it is, you will never find it.

Ownership

Owner

Ishaan Valecourt

Public identity

Aesthetic philosopher, former neural systems researcher, patron of post-physical art

Actual role

Fixer-adjacent broker of experiential contraband

Valecourt is not a gang boss in the traditional sense. He is something more Eighth Terrace appropriate: a curator of forbidden experiences. His manners are immaculate; he never raises his voice and hasn't been arrested. He does not appear in criminal registries because he has never been charged with anything that could be proven.

His wealth predates Astra Somnia. The den is not a money play. It is leverage.

Affiliated Organization

The Veil Concord is not a street gang. It is a private consortium of neuro-architects, wetware smugglers, identity scrubbers, and experience designers. They operate quietly across Mars, Luna, and select colony worlds.

Their rules are simple:
• no coercion inside a dream
• no recording without consent
• no violence inside or immediately outside the den
• no selling memories of children
• no altering a client’s core identity

Breaking these rules does not result in police involvement. It results in permanent exclusion from every high-tier neuro space worth visiting.

Physical Layout

Entry Gallery

Guests enter through a silent cryspoly corridor filled with holographic light sculptures that respond to heart rate and breathing. The goal is to slow the mind before immersion. Shoes are removed. Weapons are checked without comment.

Reception Lounge

Low light. Natural materials. Flowing water features. Staff offer warm towels infused with calming aromatics. Facial recognition confirms authorization quietly. Non-residents of the Eighth Terrace are not admitted unless personally escorted by a registered patron.

Dream Chambers

Private immersion suites arranged around a central garden atrium. Each chamber is acoustically isolated and lined with layered cryspoly infused with neural dampening materials. No two chambers are identical.

Observer Balcony

Hidden, invitation-only. Used by neuro-artists and Concord members to study dream architecture in real time. Guests are never told this exists.

Staff

Dream Guides

Highly trained neuro-somatic specialists who remain present throughout a session. They do not speak unless necessary. Many are former military or medical neural technicians who burned out or were tossed out of conventional practices.

Wetware Engineers

Invisible to guests. Monitor signal stability, emotional thresholds, and neural integrity. Capable of emergency extraction in under two seconds.

House Attendants

Discrete, calm, human. No drones, bots or synthetic persons are employed here. The Concord believes synthetic presence alters dream authenticity.

Security

Unarmed, augmented, polite. Violence inside Astra Somnia is impossible due to layered neural inhibition fields and automated intervention systems.

Notable Personnel

Mirela Xu

Lead dream architect. Former BuCol neuro-researcher. Specializes in non-linear memory environments and grief processing spaces.

Father Anselm (not a priest)

Specializes in existential and death-adjacent dreamscapes. Rumored to have been present during multiple terminal end-of-life immersions for the ultra-wealthy.

Rhea Calder

Security director. Former duelist. Retired undefeated. She never enters the dream space and has never once needed to raise her voice.

Offerings

Ghost Dreams

The signature experience. These are not simulations of events. They are curated emotional states that feel like memories you never had.

Examples:
• walking through a city that loves you
• being remembered after death
• forgiving someone who is gone
• living a peaceful life you never chose
• standing at the edge of a war that never happened

Guests wake with a sense of loss, relief, or clarity that can last weeks.

Shared Phantoms

Two or more guests share a synchronized dream environment. Popular among couples, political allies, or rivals testing trust.

Ancestral Echoes

Legally ambiguous reconstructions built from genetic, cultural, and historical inference. Clients experience what it might have been like to be someone in their lineage.

Silence Chambers

No imagery. No narrative. A guided absence of thought. Extremely popular with executives and assassins.

Drugs and Enhancers

All substances are tailored per client and metabolized fully before exit.

Common options include:
• micro dosed dream stabilizers
• serotonin harmonizers
• fear dampers
• memory consolidation agents
• post-session emotional softeners

Hard narcotics are not permitted. Addiction is bad for business.

Food and Refreshments

Pre-session

Light broths, herbal infusions, mineral water. Nothing heavy. Nothing intoxicating.

Post-session

Soft foods. Warm bread. Spiced teas. Mild sweets. Comfort over luxury.

Alcohol is available only after full neural normalization and only in small amounts.

Clientele

• Eighth Terrace residents
• senior politicians
• retired duelists
• corporate power brokers
• grieving spouses
• individuals who cannot afford public vulnerability

Adi would never be a client here by default. She would be noticed immediately, not for her danger, but for how hard it would be to dream safely around her augment load.

Reputation

Among the wealthy, Astra Somnia is considered discreet, transformative, and dangerous in the way only truth can be.

Among BuCol analysts, it is a nightmare. No laws are technically broken. No evidence persists. No one leaves with contraband data.

Among Kane’s circles, it is known as a place where secrets are discovered accidentally.

Narrative Hooks

• Kane has almost certainly used Astra Somnia once and regrets it
• A Concord dream architect might recognize anomalies in Adi’s neural architecture instantly
• A ghost dream could trigger suppressed emotional rebound from Adi’s CCN
• An enemy might attempt to lure Adi here believing her vulnerable
• Asteria would object strongly to immersion