The Nightstalkers of Krell. The religious villains of Echanism. Mutants in the Subnet. Weird noises in the air vents of your ship. Face-stealing tentacle monsters. Spider people making your clones. Rockhoppers are creepy AF if you stop and think about it for a minute. Horror stalks the citizens of Starmourn, lurking in both imagination and reality.
We’re a week out from Halloween in real life, and for the next seven days, we want you to help us bring even MORE horror to the game with our first annual Starmourn Halloween Contest! Based on an inspired suggestion by Saio (who has been on a total roll lately) we want you to send us details about the scariest legend, critter, ghost, or monster in your race’s history you can come up with!
WHAT WE WANT: A paragraph or two from you describing a creature, fear, nightmare, or terror commonly known among members of your character’s race. Give us your space bigfoots, your slender men, your cthulhus, your ghosts, and your headless horsemen. This is your chance to dig deep into your psyche and flesh out your understanding of your character’s culture. Make it weird, guys. Our bodies are ready.
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Things to include in your entry:
- Who you play/what your character name is.
- A name for your horror (e.g. The Foogu, slime monster of Benu Wen)
- A description of your horror (e.g. The Foogu is a massive horror of ever-increasing size and amorphous shape made of viscous, ambulatory slime. Fungus and moss grows liberally upon it, making it impossible to detect when walking in dark forests until you are already consumed.)
- A backstory, explanation, or creepypasta about why this is scary to your character’s race. (e.g. Said to have been grown from unstable molecules that escaped from a laboratory of W’hoorn scientists several centuries ago, tales of The Foogu and its rise to sentience are used liberally by W’hoorn parents to make their children mind them and stay close to home. Rumor has it that those lost in the woods are absorbed by the Foogu, but don’t die, remaining in a fullyaware, hellish stasis, used as nutrient batteries for the monster’s continued existence. Though no definitive proof of the Foogu’s existence has ever been found, a plethora of photographs and grainy video footage can be found on the commsphere.)
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The winning entry will receive a unique minipet loosely based on their creation (unless the winning entry is a really compellingly described version of existential dread or similar, because I just don’t know how to make a creature out of that), and details about it will be added to our public wiki, solidifying the fruits of your depraved imagination into game canon forever.
Entries should be emailed to Eukelade@starmourn.com, and will be shared among game staff where they will be judged mercilessly and/or cried about while we all hug pillows and tremble. Your deadline is 11:59pm EST on October 31st. We’ll take a couple days to decide, then announce the winner!
RULES
- Must include ALL required information detailed above.
- One entry per player.
- Player must already have a character of the race they are writing about, and this character must have been created before this announcement was posted. In other words, if you want to write about a Krona ghost story, you must play Starmourn as a Krona.
- Entry must be 500 words or less.
- Collaboration is ok, but only the person who submits the entry can win the prize.
- No stories or creepypastas lifted directly from current Earth culture. Taking inspiration is fine, but the final product should be unique and wholly yours.
Good luck, Starmourners – let’s get spooky!
Discuss this post in our forums, OR start brainstorming your entry with the rest of the community on our Official Discord.
The call came down in the year 960 A.E. It came at the beginning of the month now known as Starmourn, in the time before everything changed.
Everyone felt it.
You felt it.
But only a select few among every sentient soul in the sector were charged to join in the defense of the Isochronon, the Empyreal whose long-dead corpse (or what passes for such immense beings as corpses) lay under seige in the Gnomon Institute, a facility safeguarded to house it.Let’s lay down some backstory, shall we?
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For months, the galaxy as you knew it had been under the assault of strange, anomalous creatures. For months, semi-stable rifts had opened at weak points in the timestream, pulling hapless adventurers backwards and forwards in time.
Heroic researchers from each faction performed dangerous experiments, seeking to understand the ongoing instability within the sector. Laboratories were opened on Biloxan, on Delphi, on Tranquility Deepness. Sometimes, these experiments came with catastrophic results. Many lost their lives in the pursuit of knowledge. Some, like the Elgan scientist Flipilaria, lost years or seconds, trapped in a fog of time until the actions of her friends and compatriots restored her.
The ongoing catastrophe eventually reached such a state of destruction that the Gnomon Institute revealed itself, opening its doors to the galaxy for the first time in millenia. Chronomaster Javick Amadi, head of the Institute, explained that the anomalies were a defense mechanism of the Isochronon, which was under a subtle attack by the Ishvana – an attack that became more violent and desperate as the weeks wore on.
Eventually, the Ishvana’s methods shifted from exploratory and subtle to a full-fledged assault. The halls and chambers of The Gnomon Institute were swarmed with an army of invaders. Rylek Ironbound, Kreelein, Lanaya, Lupisentia Ironbound, Naldan T’aeir, Rhujj Redstrike, Vega T’rvati, Hope, Jaidyn Nova, Flipilaria, Zarrach Merzavetz, and many more were instrumental in the ongoing defense of the Institute, keeping its chambers and hallways clear enough for the researchers to erect forcefields, for reinforcements to be assembled and deployed.
For a short time, it seemed like perhaps that was all that would happen. A tentative, fragile peace lasted, even if the air of tension and expectation was palpable. Silence reigned in the halls of the Institute.
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It didn’t last.
A great stillness and tension descended upon the galaxy. A broad-band mindsim broadcast went out on all frequencies – the Gnomon Institute reported a galacticlevel threat. The Chamber of the Isochronon, so far unmolested by the Ishvana’s assault, had been breached at last.
Wherever they were, whatever they were doing at the time, a host of temporal defenders were pulled through time rifts into the very heart of the Gnomon Institute. Among these brave souls were Zarrach Merzavetch, Akiko, Clover Moonchild, Hope, Digit, Azlyn, Flipilaria, Holgorath Ironbound, Lupisentia Ironbound, Rylek Ironbound, Isabella, Jaidyn Nova, Kass Stareater, Lanaya, Milo Moonchild, Naldan T’aeir , Quark, Steve Sol’lun, Van T’rath, and Lord Commander Vega T’rvati. But time is a funny thing. Perhaps you were there. Or perhaps you will be, in your future.
The chamber was an alien place. During debriefing and interviews after the fact,some described it as similar to standing in a barren wasteland, a landscape made of flesh. The only conclusion that could have possibly been drawn was that herewas the remains of the Isochronon, large enough to be a small continent in its own right. Many recounted the scent of lost things, and the strange, unnatural stillness. A stillness that lasted until the eruption of the Ishvana’s final, greatest attack.
Erupting from the landscape was a monster nearly as large as the Isochronon itself, but of a completely different make – oily and black with the evil sheen of the Ishvana’s darkest servants. Immense limbs thrust up through the ground, powered by something vast and unseen. Defense against this attack required coordination, direction, but this was difficult to achieve when time itself was fracturing, reflecting infinite versions of reality in a starry void. Several defenders told commsphere reporters that they heard a great voice calling for aid, that a sense of something incomprehensibly ancient was present in that place.
In every direction, purple light fractured and insubstantial anomalies poured forth, mobbing the Ishvana’s attackers in several billion separate realities at once. The attack went on for an eternity – or for hours – or for just a few seconds – but eventually, each immense portion of the Ishvana’s soldiers had been defeated, and a glow of life suffused the dead landscape on which they fought. All heard the rumble of the Isochronon’s voice, assuring the mortals that it had been defended – that it would maintain temporal continuity in whatever version of reality it still existed in.
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After the defenders exited from the greatly changed Chamber, Chronomaster Javick Amadi approached the group. Already, he said, the Institute was reporting that the speed of the Synchronization had increased exponentially. The shape of reality had shifted slightly – the names of months and weekdays had changed, and even the memory of what they used to be called were slipping from the minds of most people who hadn’t been present at the heart of eternity.
No longer would the Synchronization occur every month, but every four days instead, evidence of the Isochronon’s watchfulness. Javick requested that the new Chronomasters continue to protect the Institute and the Isochronon from any continued assault by the Ishvana – for its defense was more critical than ever.
The full extent of the changes wrought by the Isochronon’s waking will take time to fully comprehend. After centuries of service, Javick Amadi left the defense of the Institute in the hands of the warriors who had protected it so well, and departed for planets unknown.
The Event Horizon, a research vessel owned by the Ironbound dynasty, still exists at the edge of the sector to this day, captured in an eternal state of unnatural temporal flux.
The doors of the Gnomon Institute remain open.
Exciting news travels swiftly through Starmourn Sector – the planet Rama, in the Atheni system, long since closed to outsiders, appears to be open to traffic for the first time in what historians say is centuries. Housing the last remnants of the Rek race, the ancient city of Hox has finally been revealed, along with a strange and vast Institute located on what the locals call ‘Gnomon Island’.
In other news, the time traveler and research scientist Flipilaria, thought by many to be lost in the wreck of the Event Horizon, has somehow reappeared. Rumor has it that her return is related to the planet Rama opening its doors to travelers once more, though it is unclear why, exactly, this would be.
The leaders of the various temporal research initiatives that have been started around the sector might know more…
Log on to join in the fun!
or
Discuss this event on our Official Discord!
On the 20th of Milli, in the year 960 A.E., an experimental spacecraft was launched from Omni Station, bound for the far borders of the sector. Fitted with an experimental skipdrive, modified to use the temporal crystals that have become ubiquitous throughout the sector, the ship was populated with a crew of scientists and explorers, and piloted by Holgorath Ironbound.
In addition to the captain, the Event Horizon’s crew consisted of Erni and Lynair Ironbound, Jaidyn Nova, Lanaya, Isabella, Rogzel, Shardclaw Dragonlord, Akiko, Ordarris, Lain T’rath, Soza Phis’tor, Naldan T’aeir, Steve Sol’lun, and even the Lord Commander of the Song Dominion, Vega T’rvati. Of course, the entire reason for the voyage existing in the first place is all thanks to Fl..i//[ERROR: FILE NOT FOUND]p –//#%%%- ia.
The Event Horizon, as it was called, was donated by the Ironbound dynasty to Fl..i//[ERROR: FILE NOT FOUND]p –//#%%%- ia – an unknown explorer, who piloted the ship to RS-7749, just inside the border of the Ibyssian Brotherhood region of space.
While locked in broad orbit around an unpopulated star, experiments were conducted upon the Event Horizon that researchers are still attempting to understand. What is clear to everyone is that the entire galaxy felt reality and time go into temporary flux, locking everyone into a frozen state for a short period.
Reports are conflicting as to what actually happened to The Event Horizon. Those on board the vessel state that the ship was destroyed, that it wasn’t destroyed, that it aged before their eyes.
Rescue of those stranded on The Event Horizon was only possible after an experimental maneuver with the skipdrive of Fl..i//[ERROR: FILE NOT FOUND]p –//#*%%%- – after which the wreck and everyone on it once again became accessible to the commsphere. Fortunately, Erni Ironbound was able to rescue the stranded crew in his ship, the Alternating Current.
Long range scanners confirm that the wreck of the Event Horizon remains in orbit in RS-7749, ruined beyond any hope of salvage, the dangerous, anomalous lifeforms within sustained by a strange energy.
Breaking news from the Starmourn News Network! Over the past few weeks, citizens of the sector have come under assault by bizarre behaviors in the fabric of space and time. Reports are coming in from every faction about unplanned trips to what seems to be the past. People have claimed to see Oldtown before it was old, the planet Song before it was irradiated, and the subnet before it was buried. There have been repeated instances of monstrous anomalies springing up in random locations, assaulting unsuspecting citizens with horrific visions of the past and future.
Strangest of all, perhaps, are the unnatural prisms that seem to be linked to these temporal incidents and anomaly attacks. Efforts by scientists and researchers to understand these incomprehensible, physics-defying objects have led to nothing but destruction, misery, and a great deal of death. A representative from H.E.T.E. claimed that ‘business had been very good lately’ – a statement for which the cloning monopoly later apologized.
What does it all mean? Is there a purpose to these seemingly random, unconnected events? Can anything good ever come from meddling with the fabric of space time? Does the fate of the universe hang in the balance, or is a hungry mad scientist just trying to find the long-lost original recipe for Scatterhome Gumbo?
One thing is sure, the weeks to follow will almost certainly shed some light on what’s going on. You wouldn’t want to miss it, would you? Log in today!
Want to learn more about what all the fuss is about? Check out our discord!
Have you ever wanted to work on a professional MUD?
Iron Realms Entertainment is looking to hire a new part-time coder for Starmourn. In this position, you would be working with Eukelade (Laura Lindborg), the lead Producer for Starmourn. Even though your primary job revolves around code, you would be part of the visible face of the MUD to the players. Applicants need to enjoy communicating with players in addition to being a skilled programmer.
While we don’t expect you to have all the following skills, the ideal candidate for Starmourn would:
- Be a coder. You don’t need to be a Google level engineer, but you do need to be good at programming.
- Be currently working or running an active MUD. If you don’t work on a MUD, you’ll definitely need to be someone who loves to play them. If you stopped playing or working on them years ago, we’re not interested. We prefer to have someone with significant MUD experience and being part of a team, whether commercial or non-commercial.
- Be a fan of MUDs. That doesn’t mean you played them for 2 months six years ago.
- Be a creative, disciplined, and logical thinker. Even as a coder, you will be part of the Starmourn development team. You must be able to code game design systems and also assist in creating logical systems. You need to be able to see the big picture as you add these features to a game with hundreds of intertwined skills.
- Be a people person. Our players are very passionate about their games. You must be able to communicate with them in a calm, collected manner when they are upset about the latest nerf to their favorite class or system.
- Be self-motivated. You’ll be working from home. You must be able to focus and get things done in that environment. We don’t care where you live and we won’t be telling you what hours to work. We have a couple of weekly meetings that you are required to attend with set times. Outside of that, you can plan when to meet with the producer and what times you would like to work.
- Be familiar with Starmourn or even other IRE MUDs. This would be great, and it will make getting into the code much faster. It is much easier to know what parts of the game need balance if you’re familiar with all of the intricacies.
This is a part-time position and compensation is based on the candidate and their qualifications. There are opportunities for raises and future full time employment. Employees will receive a quarterly bonus based the performance of the game. Just to reiterate, this is a part-time position and the pay will reflect that.
If you think you might be able a good candidate please send an email to resumes@ironrealms.com with the subject line “Starmourn Coder”.
Discuss this post on our forums or on our official Discord channel.
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