Oub

The Lost Planet

In the Jairus solar system of the Senac Galaxy, ancient and overgrown, looms the lost planet of Oub. Appearing as an ominous green orb from space and hiding countless secrets in its jungles, it is the fourth planet from the central star of Jairus. Two moons orbit the planet; their original names forgotten, the races of neighboring planets have come to know them as Satellite One and Satellite Two.

Once home to a host of advanced civilizations, Oub is now a world of wilderness. Ancient structures rise above the trees as markers of the great cities that dotted the land. Throughout all of the Jairus system, there are few constructions that compare to the enormity and magnificence of the greatest specimens of Oubian architecture, even as their grandeur has been whittled down by neglect, creeping vines, and nesting beasts. Below the canopy of trees stretch hundreds of miles of roads. Though most are unrecognizable and untraversable, having been overrun by plant life, some can be followed to the common squares of villages; yet these small civilizations are just as quiet and unkempt as the grand cities of Oub.

Indeed, there is no city great enough or township small enough to be found across all of Oub that displays any sign of life, for there is no life. Plants and animals exist in abundance, yes, but there is no dominant species on Oub—not anymore. Centuries of feudal warring brought on by a lust for land and retribution slowly eradicated the Oubians.

The War of the Patriarchs

It began with the great patriarchs of Oub: Olomel the elder and Adon the younger. Olomel, a mighty warrior, conquered and claimed vast swaths of land while Adon, a sickly specimen, could do nothing more than tend the property of his older brother, his existence like that of a common servant.

Then came the day that Olomel was out in the wilderness when a storm amassed overhead and drowned the land in a torrent of rain. For three days Olomel was stranded in the jungles until the storm subsided and he was able to return home. Having only brought provisions enough for a half-day at the outset of his escapade, he returned to his home with hardly the strength to take another step. It was at this point that Adon met his exhausted brother with a waterskin and a flank of meat. Olomel reached out for these things, but Adon withheld them, only willing to give them to his brother if he swore to turn his land over to him. To this Olomel quickly agreed, and so Adon became greater than his brother for the price of a meal.

Olomel’s sons, upon hearing what had happened and learning that their inheritance was no longer theirs, struck and killed Adon’s firstborn in outrage. Adon’s remaining sons retaliated, and from this began the endless warring that became characteristic of Oub for the greater part of a millenia. As lineages expanded and tensions intensified and split, new houses emerged until there were scores of kingdoms and provinces fighting against each other, each as hostile to the other as the next.

The End of Oub

No house ever technologically surpassed the others so far as to give them the upper-hand in combat. The advancement of one kingdom was always matched by that of another family, which is not only why the wars persisted for so many generations but also how so many grand cities had the time to develop. However, there did eventually come a house, the Lothians, that devised a strategy to wipe out all others by the use of a cultivated toxin. The plan was employed and the Lothians soon became the sole clan left on Oub, but, being overly ambitious, this last remaining house spread its members across all of the many cities of Oub to tend and repopulate them. Spread so thin, many cities had no more than two Lothians dwelling in them, and by a series of accidents and disasters, many of these couples died within a year of coming into their cities. This trend persisted in the years following until there were no Oubians, and certainly no Lothians, left on the lost planet.

So Oub has been without a dominant life-form for nearly a century. A planet that was once tamed, it has become wild again. The structures that were once evidence of its harnessed state are now relics that speak of its primacy. In the gloom of dawn and the shadow of dusk rise the artifacts of its greatest era, a period which will never come to pass again on Oub.