“Ester was once the home world of the 19 tribes of humanity. Each tribe worshiped an Old Power that represented an aspect of Ester, and by choice lived simple lives. This was because their devout beliefs made the tribes against advances that distanced them from their aspects. Only the Sky Tribe, whom looked to be nearer their aspect, wanted to truly better themselves. One day the Sky Tribe saw a fiery object fall from the sky. They searched where it fell, and found the ruins of a Daknir voidship and the corpse of a pilot, possibly a refugee of the End War. The Sky Tribe used this new found technology, and built great sky ships. The other tribes saw this as sacrilegious, and so the Sky Tribe conquered Ester and put down the objectors. The Sky Tribe had a giant tower built where they laid their capital, which extended from the edges of Ester’s atmosphere to its very core. Being so inhumanly large, it was most likely constructed by the Old Powers for a hefty cost. This might account somewhat for the rapid expansion the Sky Tribe forced upon the other tribes to make half their young leave Ester in colony ships the Sky Tribe built, and settle new worlds. Aside from these colony ships, the other tribes refused the Sky Tribes new technologies, and remained in their stone dwellings with no electricity or running water, even in Ester’s capital.
Hundreds of years later, the Daken escaped Askir in the Ships of Exodus, and began their own colonization of the worlds scattered throughout Void. One of the Ships landed on the world of the Sea Tribe, and when the Sea Tribe attacked in fear, the Daken Settlers were forced to retaliate. The warlike Daken easily overcame the Sea Tribe’s primitive defenses. This began a war with the Humans, which lasted 7 months. Soon the 18 Tribe worlds were conquered and only Ester remained. The Daken fleet surrounded the world on the New Years celebration of Ester. The Humans were unprepared and the hope was they would give up quietly. Instead, the Chief of the Sky Tribe from the top of his tower, summoned the Old Powers of the sky and the ground. He offered his life, his people, and his world, so that no Daken would ever reach Ester, and that the fleet would be destroyed.
Ester Collapsed in on itself, into a black mass at the center of the world. The Daken fleet was destroyed by the Old Powers, and since then no one has been to Ester. All that remains is the tower that went from Ester’s core, to the edge of its atmosphere. A small bit of rock clung to the tower, and so a tiny bit of the capital remains.
Unami is my apprentice. She like me is Daknir, and she is our races last child. Though we are un-aging and predate the Daken, we have become sterile. Less than 100 of us still live, of the 1000 that escaped Askir with the Daken 80 years ago. Unami alone has been sent to Ester’s Grave, with a staff that can return Old Powers to the Unmaking. If she survives, she will graduate from apprenticeship under me.”
-Dá neu, wife of the seventh Starman