THROUGH THE TELESCOPE
You’ve crossed the galaxies. Now it’s time to look a little closer. Ahead are four worlds of The Aethra Galaxy, each alive, inhabited, and entirely its own: Evernia, Laylabora, Lunestra, and Noctyrr.
Through your telescope, you’ll uncover them one by one. There’s nothing complicated about this journey. Just pan down, your telescope will do the rest.
EVERNIA
Bring the telescope into focus and allow me to introduce you to Evernia, one of the four inhabited planets within Aethra, also known as Audulis Mundis. From this distance, you’ll notice something familiar immediately. Blue oceans, green continents, sprawling mountain systems, cloud formations, and enormous polar regions make Evernia appear almost Earth-like. Look closer, however, and that resemblance begins to disappear.
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Evernia supports a population of roughly 16 billion inhabitants, nearly twice that of Earth, spread across ten continents and a world rich with distinct civilizations, species, cultures, and magical traditions. Its people speak thousands of languages and dialects, including Drathellian, Hailotian, and Adyntian, making Evernia one of the most culturally and linguistically diverse worlds you’ll encounter through this telescope.
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Now watch the planet through a complete orbital cycle. Evernia experiences five seasons rather than four. Gramigor begins the year with heavy rains, planting, and religious observance. Fervima brings warmth and dry weather, followed by the gentler Siccolous, a season of harvests and festivals. Then comes Fridjourna, when extreme cold and relentless snow transform enormous regions of the planet. Finally, Aesturria brings aridity, cleansing, renewal, and preparation for Gramigor to begin again.
Evernia's recognizable modern planetary form is only a few million years old, yet its civilizations have already produced immense histories, ancient religions, magical systems, and creatures found nowhere else in Mythrendar™.
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Keep your telescope trained on Evernia for a moment longer. This is the world where many of my greatest high-fantasy stories begin, but what you’re seeing from here is only the surface.
LAYLABORA
Adjust your telescope slightly and the blues and greens of Evernia give way to something warmer. This is Laylabora, an inhabited world dominated by vast deserts, rugged mountain systems, immense canyons, salt basins, seasonal rivers, and landscapes painted in shades of gold, amber, and red. It may appear barren at first glance, but keep looking. Laylabora is very much alive.
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Approximately 11.7 billion inhabitants call this planet home, spread across eight continents. Only about 43 percent of the surface is covered by water, divided primarily among four great oceans. Much of Laylabora's freshwater is actually hidden beneath the ground within an enormous network of aquifers, underground rivers, and reservoirs known as the Underwaters. On this planet, finding water has shaped where civilizations rise, where borders are drawn, and where people can survive.
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If you observe Laylabora long enough, you'll also notice that its climate follows six major seasons. Rashara returns the rains, Solkar brings rising heat, and Varessa offers the planet's gentler weather. Then Ashkarra arrives with punishing temperatures, followed by the great winds and dust storms of Dhurra. Finally, Namaris brings moderation and preparation before the rains return and the cycle begins again.
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Laylabora's recognizable modern surface is estimated to be around 1.2 million years old, and there is evidence everywhere that the planet was once much wetter. Ancient shorelines, fossilized reefs, buried river systems, and enormous salt deposits remain where water disappeared long ago.​
LUNESTRA
Lower the telescope again and watch carefully as the light changes. That brilliant sphere wrapped in white, silver, and glacial blue is Lunestra, the coldest of the four inhabited worlds we're observing. Don't let all that ice fool you. Lunestra isn't a dead frozen rock. Beneath those enormous ice fields is a remarkably active planet filled with oceans, mountain ranges, geothermal regions, and civilizations that learned long ago how to thrive in extreme cold.
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Now increase the magnification. You'll notice two moons accompanying the planet, while an immense system of rings encircles Lunestra and reflects light across its frozen surface. Much of the world remains locked beneath snow and ice, but geothermal activity creates warmer regions both above and below the surface. These natural refuges have allowed life to flourish where, from this distance, you might assume nothing could survive.
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Lunestra is also considerably younger than Evernia, its recognizable planetary form having developed within the last few million years. Its inhabitants have adapted accordingly, building territories around the rhythms of ice, geothermal warmth, long periods of darkness, and dramatic seasonal changes.
NOCTYRR
Lower the telescope one final time, and don't be surprised if it takes your eyes a moment to find our last planet. This is Noctyrr, the darkest of the four inhabited worlds we've observed. Very little direct light reaches its surface, leaving much of the planet beneath an almost perpetual veil of twilight. Through the darkness, you'll make out black oceans, shadowed continents, volcanic regions, and faint traces of natural luminescence scattered across the surface. And no, those lights aren't all cities. Much of Noctyrr's native life has evolved to produce its own light.
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Increase your magnification carefully because Noctyrr isn't an easy world to study. This is the homeworld of the Stygianus Tribe, a civilization known throughout distant regions of Mythrendar™ for galactic travel, warfare, invasion, and planetary conquest. Their ability to travel beyond Noctyrr has allowed us to learn something about its people, but surprisingly little about the planet itself. Noctyrr, it seems, is very good at keeping its secrets.
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What we do know is fascinating. Life here has adapted to extreme darkness through geothermal environments, subterranean ecosystems, and naturally luminous organisms. Like Laylabora and Lunestra, Noctyrr is younger than Evernia, its recognizable planetary form developing sometime within the last few million years. Exactly what else may exist beneath those dark oceans and unexplored continents is something we'll have to discover another day.
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And with that, this is as far as your telescope will take you... for now.
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But don't worry. Mythrendar™ is much bigger than these four worlds, and as time goes on, we'll be discovering new planets together. I'll keep turning the telescope toward unexplored corners of the universe, and whenever another world comes into view, you'll be right here to see it.
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For now, take one last look at Noctyrr before you pull away from the lens.
Our telescope may have reached its limit, but Mythrendar™ certainly hasn't.