(Note: The following briefing has been excerpted and condensed from various classified documents on the Nebari problem presented to PK High Command by Kelyen Prax, Gellen Vren, and other scientists, including exoculturalist Shenet Li Zár, all previously or currently attached to the Arachnid Regiment.)

Dreams of the Ice Daughter

One of the few surviving ancient Nebari texts, the Kr'hregenathum Dr'eêll, includes the following passage:

With the end of Vendel's fire
As final veils descended
And all gods fell
And were lost
Before the dreams of the Ice Daughter.
The epic, concerned primarily with the lineages of the queens of Saldanar (an ancient Nebari empire) and with three millennia of intertribal warfare, contains few other references to myths concerning the beginning of the ice ages that have gripped the Nebari homeworld for almost thirty million cycles. There is also a brief mention of the Ice Daughter in the Vreenin Scroll, where she is named "Shard Mother, Ice Daughter, Walker of the Wastes." The Vreenin author writes, "She strew herself, whole, across the skies and lands, casting ice and death, destroying Paradise in the throes of her eternal and indifferent hunger. I have seen her eyes at night. I have felt her gnashing teeth in the wind."

Nebari Prime is, indeed, a world locked in ice (earlier rumours that the planet was a volcanic hothouse may now be discounted). The fourth planet from its system’s sun ( Nay'savevyen or 'vevyen), it is all but uninhabitable by higher life forms.The sentient species who call themselves Nebari evolved under these severe climactic conditions several million cycles ago. The beginning of this ice age is believed to have brought about a great, global mass extinction which wiped out almost 75% of the planet’s total biomass, a disaster which would eventually be propounded by the "Final War." When the fighting was finally over, about 1.25% of Nebari’s original species had survived (5% of the 25% that had survived, and adapted to, the conditions of the ice age). There is little precipitation anywhere on the planet. It is an almost endless white desert, broken only occassionally by the craggy black peaks of mountain ranges or rare, unfrozen patches of the pale blue-green oceans. Fewer than a million Nebari live on the planet's surface, mostly primitive prototechnological tribes that have escaped relocation and the members of a few mining and scientific colonies, while some eight  billion Nebari inhabit the planet's artifical ring, known as Sanctuary.

The vast ice caps on Nebari Prime extend almost to the equator. The continents are largely covered by massive glaciers, hundreds of metras thick in some areas. Animals are rare, and plant life is even rarer, limited almost entirely to planktonic algae and to moss- and lichen-like photosynthetic organisms. Few vertebrates have persisted to the present. There are some small rodent-like creatures, both carnivorous and herbivorous varieties, and, in the sea, a variety of fish and two species of giant whale-like mammals known as whelts. The Establishment long ago began aggressive conservation programmes to preserve what little life remains on the planet and to allocate resources in such a way as to impact the ravaged ecosystem as little as possible. Special visas are required to visit to planet’s surface, so few Nebari ever see the world that produced their race, except from orbit.

From space, Nebari is a pale greenish world. Its colour is largely the result of several species of algae that have adapted to an airborne existence, riding the fierce hurricane winds in colonies thick enough to blot out the sun. Harvest of these algae, collectively known as lethnine, is an important source of food for the people on Sanctuary.




—The view from Tar'ges: Nebari Prime's northern hemisphere as seen from its moon, Tar'ges, during a radiation pulse from the nearby Va'ganor wormhole. The hyperexcited ionosphere glows brightly above the northern pole.—


Midwater

Nebari Prime is entirely surrounded by a single, continuous seaway (Equatorial Sea, Middle Sea, Midwater, Ring of Gehllen) which lies always just beyond the reach of the ice caps and never freezes over. It is in the great, evergreem ice forests on the shores of this seaway that the Nebari people evolved from semi-arboreal homeotherms, and most life on the planet remains dependant on this relatively narrow band of ocean. No more than 3000 km across at its widest point, the seaway is perpetually swept by vicious megacyclonic storms and navigation is extremely hazardous. This fact played the key role in the slow dispersal of the Nebari people early in their history and, subsequently, to the isolation of various tribal states.



— Nebari Prime's Equatorial Sea, at the Straits of Shraven, imaged from Sanctuary —

The "Nebari Rose"

Almost twenty cycles ago, a very unusual “micro-forest” enviroment was discovered on the equatorial island of Orlian. The island is the summit of an isolated volcano, located approximately 500 kmetras southwest of the Haz'n subcontinent. Though only a few square kmetras in size, discovery of the island and its forests substantially increased the number of known, extant native species. In sheltered valleys near the shore, many forms of plants were discovered, though none more than a metra high.


— Orliandis during a storm, as imaged from Sanctuary —


A research station was erected on the island and biological samples were sent to scientific institutions on Sanctuary. Among these was a flowering, herbaceous plant which was named Orliandis. The flower was discovered to have significant narcotic effects, though the highly alkaline plant is fatal in high doses. Research was eventually begun on ways that the tranquilizing properties of Orliandis might be used to promote peace and aid in the control of "undesirable" emotions. New varieties of the plant were bred, with higher narcotic levels and lower toxicity, and it is believed that Nebari scientists have been engaged in an agressive genetic research programme to create a viral hybrid utilizing recombinant Orliandis DNA. This may well be the source of the "contagion" bioweapon rumoured to be currently employed by The Establishment to weaken the resistence of other civilizations to future invasions by the Nebari.

The plant has thick, round, plate-like leaves protected by a waxy cuticle, which aids in retention of precious moisture. Large leaves make the most of the available sunlight, increasing the surface area available for photosynthesis. These leaves are a cold bluish-green colour, almost turquiose. The plant produces red flowers several times a cycle. The sap derived from these blooms yields the highest concetrations of the narcotic substance. The flowers attract a flightless insectoid creature, the gartnik, which aids in pollination. Recently, a stylized rendering of the "Nebari rose," resembling two interlocked circles, has become a prominent decorative motif in Nebari architecture and dress (see below). To date, to images of the flower itself have been acquired by PK operatives.


— The Orliandis decorative motif, appearing here on therapeutic gravitational dampeners worn by survivors of the disease antox. —

 The Blinding Eye of Va'ganor

Va'ganor is the name which the author of the Vreenin Scroll gives to the combined effects of a nearby wormhole and a pulsar star located at the opposite end of the wormhole. In Nebari mythology, Va'ganor is the lesser brother of Nay'savevyen, known also as the unborn twins. Having murdered their mother, Vr'eth, Va'ganor was damned by the gods to a celestial underworld, permitted only periodic glimpses of the universe, during which his anger sweeps across the stars. The Vreenin author writes, "Lost beyond the farthest abyss, chained for all time, the brother of Nay'savevyen peers at us through a single hole, a hole ripped in the sky. His blinding and spiteful eye burns the darkness always." This spectacular phenomenon may have played the greatest single role in shaping the nature of life on Nebari Prime.


—Artist's impression of Va'ganor during maximum dilation, as viewed from the orbit of Prolix (the second planet in the Nebari System [see below]) —

The wormhole, located only a few light years beyond the edges of the Nebari System, dilates on a regular basis, bathing the system in radiation from a pulsar star at its other end. It is under these extreme enviromental conditions that the Nebari, and all the species that have ever existed on Nebari Prime, have evolved, necessitating the development of various biological mechanisms for coping with the regular and lethal doses of radiation. Many lifeforms, including all vertebrates and the Nebari themselves, have a remarkably reflective epidermis, shielding them from the pulsar's radiations.

String of Pearls, String of Gems: the Nay'savevyen System


There are twelve planets in the Nebari System: (innermost to outermost, left to right) Morlon (terrestrial; no moons), Prolix (terrestrial; 1 very small moon), Grah'lix (terrestrial; no moons), Nebari (terrestrial; 1 moon), Habari (terrestrial; 2 moons); Frensara (gas giant; 35 moons); Sznasara (gas giant; 17 moons); Luren (gas giant; 8 moons); Vevren (terrestrial; no moons; Vevren was probably originally a large rogue asteroid captured by Nay'savevyen); Oplixis (gas giant; 24 moons); Meh'lixis (terrestrial, no moons); Nev'yon (terrestrial; no moons).


Cosmological Summary (courtesy Llar'en):

Nebari Prime



Age: 5.1 billion Nebari cycles (10.2 standard cycles)
Mass: 2.95*10^24 mallots
Diameter: 10, 020 kmetras
Orbital eccentricity: 0.049
Distance from Nay'savevyen:
Aphelion - 2.7*10ˆ8 kmetras
Perihelion - 2.4*10^8 kmetras
Average surface temperature: 260 klances (winter) - 294 klances (summer)
Axial tilt: .04 radians
Length of cycle: 2 standard cycles
Length of solar day: 8 arns
Surface gravity: 80% standard

Tar'ges (DAR-gesh)



Diameter: 2,100 kmetras
Distance from Nebari: 650,000 kmetras
Orbital period: roughly 248 Nebari solar cycles (1,984 arns)

Nay'savevyen (NAY-sab-Ë-yin)



Mass: 3*10ˆ30 mallots
Diameter: 1.8*10ˆ6 kmetras
Surface temperature: 6,400 klances
,
Morlon (diameter, 2,337 kmetras; mass, 3.74*10ˆ22 mallots; mean distance from star, 9.7*10ˆ7 kmetras; orbital eccentricity, .041; axial tilt: .018)
Prolix (diameter, 6,458 kmetras; mass, 7.89*10ˆ23 mallots; mean distance, 1.56*10ˆ8 kmetras; orbital eccentricity, .038; axial tilt, .03)
Grah'lix (diameter, 6,123 kmetras; mass, 6.73*10ˆ23 mallots; mean distance, 2.09*10ˆ8 kmetras; orbital eccentricity, .051; axial tilt, .11)
Habari (diameter, 9,908 kmetras; mass, 2.851*10ˆ24 mallots; mean distance, 3.57*10ˆ8 kmetras; orbital eccentricity, .053; axial tilt, .07)
Frensara (diameter, 157,200 kmetras; mass, 2.528*10ˆ27 mallots; mean distance, 6.63*10ˆ8 kmetras; orbital eccentricity, .040; axial tilt, .10)
Sznasara (diameter, 112,700 kmetras; mass, 9.31*10ˆ26 mallots; mean distance, 1.05*10ˆ9 kmetras; orbital eccentricity, .038, axial tilt, .15)
Luren (diameter, 71,200 kmetras; mass, 2.35*10ˆ26 mallots; mean distance, 1.58*10ˆ9 kmetras; orbital eccentricity, .041; axial tilt, .18)
Vevren (diameter, 1,200 kmetras; mass, 2.1*10ˆ22 mallots; mean distance, 2.30*10ˆ9 kmetras; orbital eccentricity, .064; axial tilt, 1.3)
Oplixis (diameter, 109, 800 kmetras; mass, 8.6*10ˆ26 mallots; mean distance, 4.34*10ˆ9; orbital eccentricity, .035; axial tlit .14)
Meh'lixis (diameter, 1,670 kmetras; mass, 1.365*10ˆ22 mallots; mean distance, 7.14*10ˆ9 kmetras; orbital eccentricity, .044; axial tilt .15)
Nev'yon (diameter, 6,680 kmetras; mass, 8.73*10ˆ23 mallots; mean distance, 9.69*10ˆ9 kmetras; orbital eccentricity, .048; axial tilt, .12)


Encyclopedia Nebari (in progress) — a key to terms appearing in this document.


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