New El'dar

New El'dar is the home planet of the Eldri'an'i people.

A Brief History

When the planet of El'dar became unstable and it was clear that their planet was dying, the El'dri'an'i began work terraforming a similarly sized planet not only in the same system, but close enough it had been a staple in their sky for their entire history.

During this time they conducted extensive research into the devolving status of their home planet, only to become more and more confused as to what caused the rapid decline.

They found no clear indicator of the change or explanation for the sudden deterioration of the planet's core, and were lucky to realise what was happening early enough to begin terraforming the new planet and evacuating their population.

Ashfall

800 galactic years ago.

With nearly three-quarters of their populace relocated to New El'dar, the El'dri'an'i were confident in their efforts and ultimate survival despite the devastation of losing their ancestral home.

However.

Without warning, the core of El'dar erupted, shattering the planet into pieces.

Those on New El'dar could do nothing but watch as their home erupted in the sky. Their settlements were largely centralised as a majority of New El'dar was still undergoing terraforming efforts, but, without warning, those systems malfunctioned. The air became unbreathable, and the ground shook beneath their feet.

Their systems destructed, the core became unstable, the planet fractured.

The ships that were in transit between the two planets could only watch as both of their homes died before their eyes. All ally ships in the area watched the same events unfold, and all of their computer systems returned with the same planetary analysis: No atmosphere. No life.

The El'dri'an'i people were largely extinct.

Survival

With the two planets gone, and their pieces left orbiting their sun like cold ghosts, the star system was abandoned, but left with Governance checkpoints around the system to protect it from those who may attempt to salvage what was left of the two planets.

The few El'dri'an'i who survived had no choice but to find a home elsewhere in the galaxy. There were not enough of them to continue their species adequately, and since they largely rejected the notion of biological enhancement or interference as a cultural rule, there was little to no hope of continuing their kind.

However.

On New El'dar, unbenownst to the rest of the galaxy, survivors endured. The terraforming malfunction left the planet's landmasses fractured and malformed, creating land rings around the planet with a unique ocean in between each ring. Millions were killed, and those who remained, many of them children, adapted to a primitive lifestyle as they adapted to this new world and struggled to retain their culture and magic.

While the general consensus of the galaxy remained that these planets were dead, black market smugglers and slavers discovered decades ago that El'dri'an'i still lived there, unprotected and no longer aware of space-travel, the governance, the galaxy, or their place in it.

Around 80 galactic years ago.

An El'dri'an'i man named Vor'thal discovered an old terraforming outpost on the far island of the north. There he learned that while the terraforming systems did malfunction and essentially destroy the planet, enough of them remained in a functional enough state to repair themselves and resume atmospheric and landmass terraforming. (i'm thinking something a little bit Horizon Zero Dawn here)

This is what allowed their people to eventually spread around the planet and endure and replenish healthy numbers.

From this outpost, Vor'thal made contact with the decommissioned El'dri'an'i ship that remained in the heart of The Governance.

Today

New El'dar has become a safe haven for all lost El'dri'ani'i in the galaxy, and entry to the planet is highly regulated.

The rules of their culture dictate that anyone with any amount of El'dri'an'i blood is one of their own, and thus allowed on New El'dar. They also hold a diplomatic immunity status (within reason)

A new ship has been built that sits in orbit over New El'dar, and now houses the governing council of The Governance, with Vor'thal sitting as its ceremonial head. While there is far yet to go, the El'dri'an'i are regaining their foothold within the galaxy.

Please note that this map is an ongoing project. I'm not very good at map-making, but I knew the general layout of the rings. I have a lot of filling in and playing around to do in Inkarnate.