The Slumber Ark
The Slumber Ark is a Light-Hugger-era Earth ark that drifted into the Hollow Daen system at some point nobody can date, ran silent for centuries, and was found, half-buried in the continent's north ice, by the cult's founding Witnesses.
Rules Reference
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Aesthetic | ruin |
| Anchor System | The Burning |
| Controlling Faction | The Day One (the Watchers of the Hollow; sealed, pilgrimage-restricted) |
| Fold Bleed | high |
| Population | 0 |
| Role | satellite |
| Zone | Rim |
Notes
Dangers: Fold-bleed inside the ark is severe and concentrated; the ark's frozen-sleepers did not all wake, and the ones that did are not all dead; the cult's Witnesses are not guards in any meaningful sense -- they are acolytes who will not leave.
Hooks: The Watchers have permitted, for the first time in seven years, a non-cult inspection of the Slumber Ark; the inspector must enter sealed, unarmed, and with a Witness escort; what is inside has not been seen in living memory., A Drift Logistics salvage-claimer has surfaced a legitimate pre-Collapse title to the Slumber Ark's salvage; the Watchers do not recognise Confederation titles; Drift has retained a Surikov-armed escort and is approaching the system., A gene-psion child in a nearby Rim clan has drawn, repeatedly, the same diagram that appears carved into the Slumber Ark's forward bulkhead; the Watchers want the child; the clan has refused.
Lore: The Slumber Ark is a Light-Hugger-era Earth ark that drifted into the Hollow Daen system at some point nobody can date, ran silent for centuries, and was found, half-buried in the continent's north ice, by the cult's founding Witnesses. It is the cult's foundational relic: the Witnesses teach that the ark's frozen sleepers are still dreaming, and that the dream is the true voice of humanity before the asset-machine was built. The cult has not opened the Sleepers' Vault. They have, on seven occasions, brought a Witness inside the Forward Hold to listen, and on four of those occasions the Witness has not come back out. The Witnesses do not call this a loss. The Forward Bulkhead Carving was found already there; the cult did not make it. The Confederation has, on paper, a salvage claim on the ark through Drift Logistics. The cult's response is the same response they give to every Confederation approach: the ark is not an asset to be realised, it is a grave, and graves are not for sale.
Notable: The Forward Bulkhead Carving (a diagram no scholar can parse); the Sleepers' Vault (sealed, the cult says it contains three thousand still-dreaming); the Witness Choir (twelve cult elders who maintain a constant low chant at the ark's airlock).