Planet
Nyxara
Eternal night: a planet its dying star no longer lights, where all life has taken to making its own light.
Nyxara does not turn about the Zaharim A / Zaharim B pair that lights the rest of the system. It belongs to a third sun, a distant companion of the other two — and that one has been dying for millions of years. It gives out no more than a red ember, too faint to make a day. On Nyxara it is night all the time — and yet the planet is not dark.
The forest that lights itself
Nyxara does not live off its sky: it lives off its belly. The planet is young, its crust thin, and the heat rising from its depths is enough to keep its oceans liquid and its forests standing. Every joule on Nyxara comes from below.
Light, therefore, is no longer for feeding: it is for speaking. Lacking a sun, everything alive on Nyxara makes its own light. The trees rise in blue columns, the mosses trace green paths along the ground, and the flowers pulse slowly like hearts. Each species has its colour, so that on Nyxara one navigates not by the terrain but by the hue.
Hunting by going dark
Since everything shines, the predators of Nyxara have learned the opposite: they go dark. The nyx, a great lightless cat, moves like a hole through the landscape — you do not see it, you see the forest vanish behind it. Prey, for their part, shine brighter when frightened: it is their way of screaming.