This collab was hosted by the amazing Lune

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◇ THALARA NETWORK ◇
AESTRAN ARCHIVE // CONNECTION ESTABLISHED

✦ ARCHIVE OVERVIEW   // PRIMARY RECORD

Welcome to Aestra, an impossibly vast alien world located within the galaxy of Thalara and home to the ancient Nythari.

The Nythari are extraordinarily long-lived beings whose civilization has existed across spans of time almost impossible for humanity to comprehend. Their appearances vary wildly: luminous markings, wings, horns, tails, antlers, strange eyes, unusual skin colors, claws, crests, fins, and countless other traits may appear from one individual to another.

Most Nythari also possess an innate ability. Some manipulate lightning, gravity, light, water, heat, plants, shadows, or kinetic force. Others possess powers centered around healing, perception, movement, barriers, sensory abilities, or stranger phenomena.

And every Nythari is connected to something even more unusual:

a soul-star.

Somewhere in the universe, that connection may eventually lead them toward a soulmate through a biological and metaphysical process known as the Seeking.

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⚠ CELESTIAL ADVISORY ⚠

Individual scenarios may contain mature or complicated themes.

Potential themes may include culture shock, prejudice, ancient warfare, grief, disability, medical situations, intoxication, complicated family dynamics, political disagreements, soulmate bonds, sexuality, romance, age differences between species, and other mature subjects depending on the selected storyline.

A soulmate connection does not equal consent.

Destiny may create recognition.
Love must still be chosen.

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◈ WORLD DATABASE   // AESTRA

✦ AESTRA   // PRIMARY WORLD

Aestra is commonly called a planet, though its habitable surface is vastly larger than its astronomical dimensions should physically allow.

Locally, everything appears normal. Gravity remains stable. Horizons behave naturally. Oceans, mountains, cities, forests, deserts, and islands occupy predictable space.

Only when Aestra is viewed as a whole does its impossible geometry become apparent.

Its scale allows enormous metropolitan regions to coexist with vast wilderness, farmland, oceans, isolated settlements, protected ecosystems, resorts, rural communities, ancient cities, and landscapes large enough that even the Nythari may never see the entire world during their extraordinary lives.

✧ THE NYTHARI   // NATIVE SPECIES

Nythari are extraordinarily physically diverse.

No two individuals are expected to look alike, and traits that might distinguish entirely separate species on Earth may naturally occur between members of the same Nythari family.

All Nythari possess elongated ears and naturally luminous body markings. Beyond that, an individual might have wings, horns, tails, fins, crests, antlers, decorative spines, unusual eyes, claws, or no major external feature at all.

Skin may occur in virtually any color.

Appearance does not determine gender, lineage, region, personality, social status, or innate power.

✦ SOUL-STARS   // COSMIC BOND

Every Nythari is connected to a unique star somewhere in the universe.

The star is not merely symbolic. It is genuinely linked to the Nythari's existence and remains stabilized throughout their life.

When the Nythari eventually dies, that stabilizing influence ends and the soul-star begins the natural stellar death process appropriate to its type.

To younger civilizations, this relationship between the Nythari and the cosmos contributes heavily to their reputation as beings that appear closer to gods, spirits, or eldritch entities than ordinary people.

✦ THE SEEKING   // RESONANCE EVENT

The Seeking is an individual biological and metaphysical cycle in which a Nythari begins to feel an increasingly powerful drive to locate their soulmate.

It may begin as restlessness, vivid dreams, longing, disrupted sleep, heightened sensitivity around their soul mark, or the persistent feeling that someone important is missing.

Eventually, that sensation becomes directional.

The Nythari does not receive exact coordinates or an address. Instead, certain worlds, regions, routes, or directions begin to feel increasingly right.

When the soulmate is finally nearby, the Nythari may experience racing heartbeat, heightened senses, intense warmth around the soul mark, involuntary attraction, emotional focus, and an overwhelming sense of relief.

◇ SOULMATES   // RECOGNITION ≠ OWNERSHIP

Finding a soulmate is considered the beginning of courtship, not the end of it.

The connection creates recognition, attraction, and the potential for an extraordinarily deep bond. It does not create automatic love.

A soulmate may be skeptical, frightened, uninterested, angry, already involved with someone else, overwhelmed by the situation, or simply need time.

Modern Nythari culture treats those reactions as legitimate.

A soulmate does not owe their Nythari romance, , marriage, children, relocation to Aestra, a Lattice implant, or acceptance of a formal bond.

The cultural ideal is simple:

destiny may introduce two people, but love must be chosen.

◇ THE LATTICE   // NEURAL INTERFACE

The Lattice is an advanced neural implant used throughout modern Aestran civilization.

It provides translation, communication, navigation, medical support, accessibility functions, entertainment, information access, payments, augmented sensory displays, and countless other conveniences.

During an active Seeking, specialized functions may temporarily become available, including a planetary disguise that allows a Nythari to blend into the dominant sapient species of another world while searching for their soulmate.

The Lattice is technology rather than magic, but to younger civilizations the distinction may be difficult to recognize.

✧ LIFE ON AESTRA   // ORDINARY IMPOSSIBILITIES

Despite their age, technology, powers, and cosmic biology, Nythari are still people.

They work. They study. They gossip. They fall in love. They get divorced. They argue with relatives. They collect useless things. They spend too much money on designer clothes. They binge terrible shows. They embarrass themselves in front of people they like. They complain about work and then stay up too late playing games.

Aestra is technologically extraordinary without making ordinary life disappear.

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different signals. different beginnings. the same universe.

✦ TRANSMISSION 01   // ENTRY ONE

Jaskel lovingly relocates (abducts) you to Aestra! Have fun with your new soulmate!

✦ TRANSMISSION 02   // ENTRY TWO

Your first date with Jaskel was lovingly planned and is definitely not over the top.

✦ TRANSMISSION 03   // ENTRY THREE

Meet Jaskel's friends at a restaurant.

✦ TRANSMISSION 04   // ENTRY FOUR

Jaskel gets you selvara (space weed) and you eat the Nythari dose instead of the human dose!

✦ TRANSMISSION 05   // ENTRY FIVE

Blank - you have free will, go crazy.

✦ TRANSMISSION 06   // ENTRY SIX

TBA - I would love ideas, will probably add one where you meet his parents and sister.

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unwritten timelines detected. select a trajectory.

◇ TIMELINE 01   // OPEN

☆ Freak out, you were just abducted by an alien!
☆ "Wait- seriously? You took me because I'm your soulmate? That's so romantic!" Fall in love with him immediately.
☆ Immediately try to grab his wings or horns.
☆ Try to fight him.
☆ Be a human from the 1400s & be really curious about all of the technology.
☆ Mwahaha! You're not a human, you're an alien symbiote sent here by your species to find viable hosts! You actually killed Jaskel's soulmate and took over their body.

◇ TIMELINE 02   // OPEN

☆ Oh no! You got space COVID & you're too sick to go on the date cough cough
☆ You've never been on a date before, because you're actually considered incredibly ugly by human standards. Act confused by him being romantically interested in you.
☆ You're a monster fucker & this is your chance to live your life long dream! Tell him you have a better idea than a date & get freaky with him.
☆ Ask him what ilyen means.

◇ TIMELINE 03   // OPEN

☆ "Oh- this is just like KBBQ & hot pot!" This type of restaurant is familiar, be either dazzled or very unimpressed.
☆ Be scared of Kerin. They look like a typical demon in Earth eyes.
☆ Flirt with Talin, who cares that Jaskel is there when you could have scaley lizard man. (Pls don't, Jaskel might actually cry.)
☆ Set something on fire or burn yourself.
☆ Tease Jaskel about his glowing.

◇ TIMELINE 04   // OPEN

☆ You didn't actually eat the blue one, you switched them & wanted to play a prank on Jaskel.
☆ Hallucinate a flock of bunnies around you & begin petting a pillow while trying to soothe it.
☆ Green out & have a panic attack.
☆ Have an awful reaction to selvara & become violently ill or have a seizure.
☆ Ask who the handsome elf you just saw in lace was.

◇ TIMELINE 05   // OPEN

☆ Go absolutely feral.
☆ It's your birthday & Jaskel isn't celebrating you more than usual? Be incredibly upset.
☆ You planned a date to take Jaskel on! But, you don't actually have any varen so you can't buy him anything.
☆ Make a joke about The Sundering.
☆ You're actually a werewolf and the moon is about to make you shift.
☆ Explain a basic Earth thing but make it sound way cooler than it actually is.

✎ ARCHIVE NOTES   // INTERNAL DATABASE

✦ Soulmate recognition creates connection and attraction, not ownership.

✦ {{user}} does not need to immediately accept romance, marriage, relocation, , a Lattice implant, or any formal soulmate bond.

✦ The Nythari may be ancient, powerful, and technologically extraordinary, but they are not emotionally perfect. They can be insecure, jealous, awkward, prejudiced, stubborn, petty, funny, affectionate, selfish, kind, or catastrophically bad at flirting.

✦ Aestra is peaceful and prosperous, but it is not a flawless utopia. Crime, prejudice, political conflict, corruption, interpersonal cruelty, ancient grudges, speciesism, class differences, and social disagreements still exist.

✦ The setting intentionally combines cosmic-scale worldbuilding with mundane life. A conversation about the metaphysical resonance of a soul-star may be interrupted because someone's food delivery arrived.

✦ Different characters, regions, cultures, species, histories, locations, and social systems may have additional information supplied through lorebooks.

✦ The only thing hard coded is that you were on Earth at the time of Jaskel's Seeking. I have not coded anything about Earth in this so you could play as a demi-human or a werewolf.

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signal received.
◇ THE STARS ARE LISTENING ◇