Dreams of Horizon
Documenting the lives and times of worlds far removed in both time and space, Dreams of Horizon is a speculative fiction series pushing the limits of what is physically possible in order to explore some of the most exotic and wondrous denizens of deep space. From exploding galaxies to chromatic ice worlds, we embark on an atlas of the fictional Mira Cluster in an exploratory vision of what may lurk out in the endless void.
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All Articles
The Saturnia System: One Last Time For the Road
Between the nebular shells of the Gordian Reach is the inconspicuous Saturnia system. This array of once Mars-like worlds has been rendered unrecognizable by the activities of an intruding civilization, converting it to a scientific testing ground of nightmarish appearance.
The Erebos System: The Light, the Dark, and the Hateful
We come to a seemingly serene system in the middling reaches of the Comatula Nebula which hides a dark secret - a massive black hole, slinging around a normal star from its invisible perch. But this monster is still lying dormant - for now.
The Geometra System: Fragments of the Past
We come to a system of scattered giants, spread from the fiery depths to the icy exterior of a young, A-type system. Sitting in the wings of a young, scattered cluster, this billion year-old system stands to witness the catastrophe that awaits Passiflora.
The Oroseira System: The Young and the Old
Our travels bring us to the edge of the Tommotia Cluster, where we find an old system shrouded in dust, dying for the first of two times. Even as the first sun of this motley assemblage pulses in its violent opisthotonos, new life is forming in the wings, exhaled as soot in its dying breaths.
The Polynoe System: The Transient Mortality
We wander to the edge of the Nereis Cluster, where we stumble upon the ephemeral beauty of a council of giants. With little time to live, white star Polynoe seems determined to make up for lost time with a truly staggering diversity of strange and wondrous worlds.
The Phyllodoce System: In the House of Oceanids
In the supernova-shocked corridors between the ethereal nebulae of the Gordian Reach, we find a curious array of planetary giants bedazzled with strange worlds all their own. This lone star, Phyllodoce, casts an eerie vision of an alternate history of our own - one where the giants of our Solar System devoured their terrestrial siblings in the womb.
The Oceanus System: The Primordial Waters
Near the edge of the Comatula Nebula, we find a demure old binary system with a magnificent entourage of planets. This system, Oceanus, hosts a diverse set of small worlds from sun-baked deserts to magmatic hells to azure ocean worlds. But all is not well, for Oceanus toes the line of instability, inviting a future that may bring cosmic tragedy.
The Fortuna System: Temporally Disjunct
Our journey takes us to the orange star Fortuna, which hosts a simple array of planets that might initially seem generic. But even the most subdued of systems will hold a few surprises.
The Horizon System: Praya, the Exotics Author
Striking out towards the final sun of the Horizon System, we chance across a world in its sibling’s image. Though this great leviathan is an impressive creature in and of itself, it serves only as an accessory in the wonderful oasis of life that is the Far Shore of Horizon.
The Horizon System: Physalia, the Miracle Author
Drifting over to the other face of the Horizon System, we find a surrealist vision scattered across five suns and forty-seven worlds. Many are small things not unlike Mars, tiny oases kept on life support by the invisible hands of gravitational giants.
The Horizon System: Olindias, at the Edge of Infinity
Rendezvous with a foreign world, hailing from the now-vanished arrays of Ceratium’s quarter. Finding safe haven from the rapacious hunger of Physalia, this Saturn-like world has accrued its own impressive array of satellites, including a miniature version of Antipathes-Cerianthus. Cloaked in seas of liquid nitrogen, these small worlds are a last stop before the infinity of interstellar space.
The Horizon System: Rhodactis, the Ruin Author
Embrace the gravitational infinity of a failed star. With eleven times the mass of Jupiter crushed into an electron-degenerate mass nearly as dense as gold, this frigid gas giant hosts an entire solar system in miniature. With fifty round moons and innumerable smaller ones, one could spend lifetimes unpacking the numerous enigmas of this ruinous behemoth.
The Horizon System: Antipathes-Cerianthus, the Azure Duality
Gaze upon a trio of clouded, frozen worlds. Two Neptunian holdovers from their past heyday dance through the cold void together, a Mars-sized aquarian ice world trailing the pair together. Draped in shades of grey and blue, they provide a demure end to the splendor of the Resonant Worlds.
The Horizon System: Cryogenia, the Frozen Periphery
Peruse an icy beauty of a super-Earth, kept on the brink of a deep freeze with the help of oceans doped with poisonous ammonia. Lashed by brutal winter storms and pelted by meteor showers, this dark, chilly tundra is nevertheless a ground for clever biological innovation divorced from the brutal rat race of Horizon.
The Horizon System: Horizon, Lost in Paradise
Bask in the glory of a natural splendor far removed from the familiar and ordinary. The youthful biosphere of this carbon-choked jungle world thrives in its unusual conditions, sprouting satellite lineages across the galaxy and giving rise to one of the most diverse and ecologically unique communities in the whole of the known universe.
The Horizon System: Panthalassa, the Infinite Sea
Journey to an unending ocean flaunting chromatic exuberance far in excess of Earth’s comparably meagre seas. These sun-soaked tropical seas have accrued all sorts of odd hitchhikers and hanging-ons, from ancient biological relics of eras long past to sailors and outlaws the galaxy over.
The Horizon System: Changxing, a Broken-Glass Rose
Mourn the passing of a once-verdant world, laid low by its own children. A sinister secular resonance among this super-Earth’s extensive array of moons has rained heavenly wrath on its inhabitants below, bringing a mass extinction of epic proportions. In the lichen reefs and bacterial forests that emerged in the aftermath of the disaster, a new set of strange creatures is set to conquer this empty planet.
The Horizon System: Acidianus-Thermococcus, at the Edge of Existence
Regard a pair of acidic paradises, teetering at the edge of habitability. Wracked with volcanic activity and covered in natural nuclear reactors, the metallic, acidic oceans gave birth to a strange ecosystem of quartz trees, metallic gastropod-analogues, and radiation-feeding titans.
The Horizon System: Riftia, in the Shadow of the Sun
Explore a world pushed beyond the brink, rendered completely hostile by a brightening sun. As the oceans slowly evaporated and the surface got hotter and hotter, most life fled the deteriorating conditions by taking to the air, while an exotic domain of wholly alien biochemistry moved into the empty lands below.
The Horizon System: Tonicella, the Life-Giving Drought
Examine a minor world of endless sands, eroded and disfigured beyond comprehension. Once briefly a verdant, Earth-like paradise, its oceans have dried and its lands have grown barren as Actinophrys has steadily robbed it of its water. Nevertheless, the few lifeforms marooned on this anaemic world eke out a meagre existence in shadowed canyons and lowland oases, their desire to live carrying them through this endless suffering.