From the secret journals of Tescelin Maratim,
15 Nightal 1372

As we approached the crash site with hopes of discovering some clue about the Sun Slayer, we found slayers of a different sort. Three more huge wolf-like monsters attacked when we approached the strange spelljammer wreck.

I feared that none of us would live through to see the end of the battle. I’d drained nearly every spell from my mind before it was over. When the last beast had fallen we were left with three of our own dead. Kerith, Shane and Alheric had all been slain by the primal ferocity of the mother brachyurus and her two cubs. It took us an hour to raise our fallen and heal the wounded. We brought our ship in closer so we could load the dead monsters aboard. Later we would take their pelts as well. The female wore a collar marked with the symbol of a sun. It looked to have little value for more than the mystery it suggested. Whose fell pets were these? How could anyone tame such huge and terrible monsters?

The inside of the wrecked ship had been torn apart and had long served as a den for the beasts. The bones of giants gave evidence of the prey upon which they sustained themselves and their cubs. There was no sign of a helm but we did find a strongbox filled with gold coins. Each coin was marked with the same sun symbol as we had discovered on the brachyurus collar. Writing on the coins was strange but referenced the “Antilian Empire” and the “Power of the Sun Mages.”

Brother Cole had never heard of the Antilian Empire but had been busily updating his charts and taking measurements while we were off exploring and skinning the canines from hell. He told us that the sphere contained thousands of asteroids, many of them earth bodies capable of supporting life. He also informed us that the central fire body had grown 15% brighter since our arrival.

We slowly made our way back to the earth body where we first made planetfall and carried the largest pelt, hastily tanned on board our spelljammer, toward the great hall, largest of the longhouses. We received an audience at once due to our trophy. Kerith told an epic tale of our landing on the icy asteroid and our battle with the den of brachyurus. The people were spellbound by the tale and greatly moved when it was done. They provided a great celebration feast in our honor.

Late into the feast, when most everyone had had their fill and more, we pressed the King for answers to our more troubling questions and showed him the collar found on one of the monsters. He called for “The foul woman Helgrad” and kicked nearly everyone else from the Great Hall. Helgrad arrived, preceded by a terrible stench. She was filthy and had animal skulls braided in her hair. She offered to tell us the history of these big, fair people. She clearly meant to exclude the paler, smaller, dark-eyed people we had seen here and there.

Helgrad brought us to caves near the longhouses, accessible only through a teleportation circle keyed to a runestone and carefully scattered debris. At the other side was a grand hall carved out of living rock with magical lights in crystals decorating the celing. Huge buttresses rose along the walls. A carving of a hand marked the keystone. The hand held a crystal.

One rock wall was covered with roots. She broke off a root end and chewed it, using the pulp as a spell component. The spell revealed the secrets of the people’s history, of the past, of the roots of the “World Tree.” It was here, in one of the oldest of the spheres where two worlds collided and formed “Astromundi.” A deformed people lived below the earth. They are “Unbidden”. After the collision, the people studied the Art and other powers, powers of the mind. They found new gods who blew up the world. The mutants remain hidden. Now the sphere remains easy to enter but only the elves know how to escape.

Neogi traders ply the many asteroids that are all that remain of the planets. Mercane came to Astromundi and provided items of power to all the peoples, but few if any know why they came or what they want now. Today the Sun Mages compete with the Illithids for domination while the other races, including our new friends the Thoric do what they can to stay out of the way and thrive on the edges of the greater fight.