Chitara

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This topic is closely tied to several other articles. Readers are encouraged to review the following pages for additional context:

• Lepterans
• Carcids

Chitara

Basic Information
Planet or Sphere	Planet
Playable Species	Lepterans, Chitarans
Stellar Information
Number of Moons	Two
Number of Rings	None
Star System	The Arcadia System
Living Information
Typical Environments	Largely subterranean following the swallowing of their star
Unique Features	Surface entirely covered by a hostile fungus

"We've always been survivors. Hard to imagine a life in the sun, now." — Carcid miner

Pronounced “kai-tar-ah”, Chitara is a world that remembers the light. Once a beautiful and lush rainforest planet, Chitara was mutated into a slimy, frozen waste when a sphere swallowed up their star, triggering a solar flare that damned the surface of the planet to darkness. In the blink of an eye life was forced underground and in the darkness that followed a highly invasive fungal superorganism took its place. Relying on fear and parasitic infection to expand its control of the surface.

Today, civilization thrives within vast, interwoven cave megastructures that span entire continents. The Lepterans and Carcids have adapted to this subterranean existence, building a society rooted in industry, resilience, and collective survival. Yet the scars of the past remain. The surface is a hostile, overgrown graveyard, and the memory of what was lost continues to shape Chitara’s identity. It is a world defined by what it has endured, instilling its residents with endless drive. Due to its abundance of natural minerals and extensive cave systems, mining operations are extremely proficient and common here.

Geography and Environment

The surface of Chitara was once very lush, similar to an overgrown rainforest.

When The Final Sunset happened, the surface was too cold to live on, most life dying with the violent temperature change. Even for those that could brave the cold, the Raid turned it into a barren wasteland. Very few visit the surface anymore. It’s not impossible to live upon it, but it is considered either incredibly brave or incredibly foolish to do so.

The majority of the population lives underground, living off of the abundant minerals and extensive cave systems. The biomes within the caves vary wildly, as their climates are dependent on magical geothermal veins that run along the caves revealed to be similar in nature to the solar flare from the Final Sunset. Generally, the lower one goes in the caves, the warmer it is, and the closer one is to the surface, the colder it gets.

Stellar Information

Chitara is located in the Arcadia star system. It has no rings. Although it likely previously possessed one, debris was gradually deteriorated or consumed by the Arcadia energy field. What remains is the presence of particulate dust that paints the dark sky of Chitara in faint, luminous streaks.

It has two moons. These moons are irregular and heavily scarred, bearing evidence of violent celestial impacts when the Arcadia energy field consumed Chitara's neighboring star during the Final Sunset. These moons now function as the 'day and night' cycle for the planet in the absence of a proper 'sun', comically called "Kriikta" and "Carkata", (Cracks and Crescent respectively)

Kriikta: A moon with a core so full of energy it spills out from the moon itself, making artificial rays of light to at least make the surface livable and visible.

Carkata: A moon that's had a quarter of it damaged, making it look like a crescent moon.

Notable Historical Events

Chitara serves as an example of what can happen when an energy field consumes celestial bodies in a system. When the Arcadia energy field consumed the star in the solar system, Chitara was plunged into darkness during the Final Sunset. As a result of this, the Raid, previously held in check by the sunlight, was able to grow unbidden and caused many deaths. The Lepterans and Carcids fled belowground, and the species that would later become the Nythera fled to the stars.