Sandbox:Lemurian Sea
“Imagine standing in a grassy field, under the night sky. You find yourself enveloped by a thick fog, black in color, and it surrounds you so thoroughly and so tightly that the ground disappears beneath your feet. You reach your hand into the sky, only to find that not only have the stars themselves disappeared from view, so has your very hand.”
The Lemurian Sea is a region of space bordering Light’s Edge, spanning dozens of light-years, notable for being a region of space entirely devoid of stars -- or even light. The only defining feature of the Lemurian Sea is the Fog: an impossibly dense, almost soupy cloud of nebular gasses that, for all intents and purposes, should be able to birth stars as a nebula, but for some unknown reason refuses to do so. The fog obscures most sensor scans and blocks almost all forms of radiation, prohibiting ships or probes from surveying the sector in any meaningful capacity. Lights are swallowed by the darkness. Any celestial bodies that might be present in the region are impossible to chart, let alone see. Radars show nothing of note, and large ships can’t even see their full selves from one end to the other. All manners of anomalies hide themselves in the fog, shrouded from any prying eyes or ears by the inky black.
Travel into the Sea is tremendously difficult, and only those who possess explicit authorization from Assunzione, who claims the region as its territory, are allowed by Coalition law to travel into its borders. Despite this, many ships illegally enter the Sea, drawn by tales of riches, mysteries, or unknown treasures or worlds buried inside. A staggering less than 5% of these ships make it back, making the Lemurian Sea one of the most dangerous regions of explored space to any Spur-native species.
The Lemurian Sea’s anomalous properties lend it to be a topic of immense scientific curiosity and is blamed for the similarly-anomalous, but not nearly as deadly, properties of its neighboring border region, Light’s Edge.
History
The first recorded attempt to explore the Lemurian Sea was by the Skrell of the First Nralakk Federation in 1892 CE, who dispatched the generation ship Maki’i Xau’an, or the “Starlight’s Guide” to build a research outpost in a suitable water world in Light’s Edge close to the edge of the Lemurian Sea. The Maki’i Xau’an was lost with all hands, a sole surviving ship of the supporting fleet making it back to Qerrbalak reporting interference in the nlom causing every other ship to plunge into the Lemurian Sea’s fog, never to be seen again. After this incident, the Federation prohibited exploration of the Lemurian Sea, an order which persisted even during the reign of Glorsh-Omega and into the Second Nralakk Federation.
Human expeditions began in the early 24th century, primarily from the border world of Assunzione, in attempts to understand the region more. Assunzioni ships, often with blessings from the native Luceian faith, have the highest chance of making it back safely due to a combination of seemingly-supernatural blessings as well as preparedness and extremely advanced sensor technology. Today, the Sea is explored mostly by Assunzione-led crews, accompanied by IPCs, the occasional Unathi or Tajara, and rarely, Skrell either on medications or with corrective surgery, though even with all these protections in place, survival, much less finding something of note, is not guaranteed.
Despite the the Assunzioni claim, the dionae tributary cluster known as the Celestial Creed of the Explorers also make a home in the Lemurian Sea, though it is unknown for how long they have operated in the region. Some members of the tributary claim to predate even the Maki’i Xau’an, a claim disputed by the Assunzioni government. Naturally immune to the Voices and adapted to the others effects of the Sea, they have some of the highest rate of success in the inky void.
Anomalies
The Fog
The defining trait of the Lemurian Sea is its complete lack of light - even starlight from outside cannot penetrate the fog that encompasses the entire region. With the fog also blocking most forms of radiation, methods of navigation, surveying, and reliable travel break down completely within the confines of the Sea, with advanced vessels having to turn to highly advanced bluespace sensor suites in order to even know which direction is the way out, and even these sensors barely provide navigators anything more than a blur. Due to the vast size of the region, getting lost is a very real possibility and is thought to be the fate suffered by most ships that travel into the region unprotected. Once a ship is lost, the chances of it ever finding its way out is next to impossible.
The Voices
One of the most infamous effects of travel within the Sea is a phenomenon known as Acute Debilitating Psionic Interference (ADPI), nicknamed "The Voices", an auditory hallucination that affects psionically-sensitive species such as Skrell after a prolonged stay within the Sea’s borders. ADPI manifests itself differently among individuals, but all who experienced the Voices agree that it is deeply unpleasant at best, and insanity-inducing at worst. More common descriptions of the noises the Voices make are “the roar of a waterfall”, “drum beats”, “murmuring”, and “voices beckoning”. More advanced exposure to ADPI will lead to the voices gaining coherence and speaking words. Some report of voices calling and beckoning to do acts such as leaving the ship, hurting or killing themselves or another crewmember, or sabotaging their ship.
The effect is noted to have a building effect, starting mild for about one week or so before gradually increasing in “volume” and occupying more of a person’s mind until they can no longer think about anything else coherently, leading to madness. At this stage, sufferers will often resort to violence or irrational thinking in attempts to quell the noise drilling into their skulls.
While other organics with zona bovaie, such as humans, are not nearly as susceptible to the Voices, they can still develop symptoms after prolonged exposure. Most who enter the Sea talk of occasional thoughts that do not belong to them, or recurring nightmares.
Technologies and medicines were developed to mitigate the effects of the Voices, but they also reduce psionic activity in the patients as a tradeoff. Permanent resistance to the Voices for Skrell means the installation of an advanced mindshield implant or permanent surgery, allowing a Skrell to withstand the effects of the Voices but at the cost of being cut off entirely from the Srom and their psionic abilities.
The source of the Voices is unknown, though it is not believed to directly linked to the other psionic interference of the Lemurian Sea. Some surviving ships report no signs of the Voices, while others are hit with later stage effects quickly – which is usually enough for them to vacate the Sea before any crew are tempted into self-sabotage.
Gravitational Anomalies
On top of reports of numerous black holes which defy the Sea’s starless state, recent scientific expeditions have discovered that the Lemurian Sea holds an unusually massive concentration of dark matter, wreaking havoc on gravitational sensors and equipment and often giving passing ships an invisible “tug” that skews their sense of direction, gently but firmly pulling them in various, random directions. This influence extends even past the border, with many attempts to set up space stations in areas thought to be stable ending in them being pulled into the Sea’s fog, almost as if being tied with rope and pulled.
Gravitational anomalies make traveling in a straight line impossible, as ships might imperceptibly be pulled towards one direction while not being evident on sensors or scans. Faster-than-light travel is especially susceptible to the tugging effects of the Sea, often making the method of traveling in a straight line extremely difficult or outright impossible.
Another effect of the gravity anomalies are the occasional effects of gravitational lensing, often resulting in mirages when ships attempt to light up their surroundings. Crews have reported seeing their own ship flying alongside them in varying quality, from a warped visage to a perfect mirror image. Oftentimes this can startle crew, believing they are on a collision course with another ship.
Communication Deadzone
No communications equipment ever pioneered by any known group or species, Skrell and Vaurca included, have ever been able to penetrate the fog of the Lemurian Sea. Even advanced systems such as bluespace relays, Hivenet, and Skrell psionics fail to breach the fog, with those reliant on such technology immediately isolated from it upon entering its borders. Long-distance teleportation technology is also rendered impossible, forcing even advanced civilizations and groups to rely on shuttlecraft and ships for transport. Vaurca are known to exhibit a strong sense of dread while inside the Sea, cut off from the greater Hivenet and limited only to their ship for communicating with others. Vaurca civilization generally does not consider attempting to bypass the blackout a worthwhile endeavor.
Myths
To the people of nearby Assunzione, the Lemurian Sea is their own religion’s tangible rendition of Hell. To them, it is the place where the truly evil are locked away and imprisoned for eternity, stewing in their own negative thoughts and claiming the lives of any who try to interfere with them. From the planet’s surface, the Sea is visible as a dark patch overtaking a third of Assunzione’s night sky, in stark contrast to the bright starlight that decorates the heavens everywhere else. Even looking at the region for too long is considered taboo, with followers of Luceism saying that if one looks at the “void” long enough, it drives them insane.
Curiously, Luceians give religious ceremonies and rituals to authorized vessels waiting to travel into the Lemurian Sea. These include decorating the ship with talismans, replacing lights, and ensuring that the Warding Spheres carried on every Assunzioni are renewed. It is unknown what impact these rituals have, but vessels “blessed” by the Luceian Church have the highest return rate of any demographic that ventured into the Sea. Whether these are due to the natural aptitude of the crew that staff these ships, or whether it is divine influence, remains to be seen.
The Celestial Creed of the Explorers also places their own religious significance on the Sea. Rejecting light as a core part of their identity, something considered abhorrent to some diona who believe light has a religious significance.
The Lemurian Sea, and its unapproachable nature, make it a natural target of myths and stories from those who live and ply trade throughout Light’s Edge. To many Skrell, the Maki’i Xau’an is thought of akin to lost treasure, with many relics of the pre Glorsh federation still aboard, and it is rumoured that even the Federation which prohibits travel has secretly sent explorers to find it, though none have returned.
There exist several popular books known as the “Tales from the Beyond the Edge of Light” which detail the contents of the Sea, written by the reclusive Assunzioni author Ozias Terzis. While he claims the details contained within the books is based on extensive research, the popular scientific community regards it as conspiracy laden fiction, conflating stories and adding details to sell more copies.