Plains of Eidolon

The site of the final battle between the Unum’s champion, Gara, and the colossal Sentient that wished to claim the Tower’s regenerative qualities for itself. Today the remains of the Sentient, diminished and confused, wander the Plains - seeking a cohesion the Ostrons hope it shall never find.

Ancient History

Many questions remain: what is the true history of Cetus? Who is the Unum and for how long has she been one with the living Tower? What is her relationship to the Quills and what hidden purpose do they serve? The Archivist, Onkko, preserved much of the old folklore but how much of that is true?



If there is any kind of scheme to the unfolding of things, some end-point in sight, then one thing is certain: the arrival of the Tenno in Cetus is no accident.

The Tower's Flesh

“Khanung! Khanung! Clear Ingress Four-Two-Seven-Five! Shock charges have been affixed! Evacuate five hundred meters boomward! Prepare to make fire! Prepare to make fire!”



The Unum specifies which part of her Temple-body may be harvested, and when. In this manner her body eternally replenishes, providing her people with flesh to sell, Temple-kuva to refine and oils with which to make remarkable unguents. On occasion, nestled within the substrata of her being, a rare discovery awaits: forgotten technology. Proto-essence. Things which lure travelers from across the system, and so are a bounty for her people.

Ostron Patois

Swazdo-lah - a common greeting

Sho-lah - 'farewell'

Surah - 'friend'

Dah-dap - 'thank-you'

Ai yo - a common exclamation. Could be thought of as 'oh my'

Lok heb - 'hail'

Chut! - 'silence!' (request for)

Kruna metta - an imploration. 'please'.

Khanung! - a warning

Utz - a universal emphatic, appended to the end of a descriptor ("I am happy utz.") 'Very'

Doh-ga - Urgency. 'hurry'

Tools of Harvest

The Unum gives of herself, decreeing what parts of her Temple-body may be harvested for the good of Cetus. Drillers, climbing great scaffolds, punch cavities into the Temple wall which are then packed with mighty shock charges. The call ‘prepare to make fire!’ echoes across the rooftops, and all know to clear the streets and alleys boomward of the harvest. The detonations rupture the sacred flesh, freeing great blanketpieces which are, in turn, pulled free and rolled down via the use of long billhooks. It is then the duty of agile balloon drop-drivers to deliver this bounty to the butchers below.



Flensers: those who carve up the Temple’s flesh.



Eruptors: those who lay shock charges along chosen lines, and ‘make fire’, loosening the carved flesh for removal by balloon.



Retrievers: those who wring all oil from scrubs at the end of a shift.

Grineer Excavations

Perhaps it is a by-product of the Sentient’s body being scattered across the Plains. It may be that the Tower is here for this very reason. Or, perhaps, it’s just chance… but the Plains are mineral- and resource-rich. So much so that the Grineer risk Ostron retaliation, the wrath of the Tenno and the rage of the Eidolon itself to mine this place.

Amps

The Eidolon is no common beast of the Plains, and cannot be laid low with the tools of an everyday hunter. These ‘amps’ focus the user’s will into a killing beam, capable of eventually bringing one of these giant monstrosities down.

The Quills of Cetus

Secretive and respected, the Quills are the Unum’s closest adherents. Strange and reserved, their bond to her and each other makes for a strange relationship with causality. 



“We are each one viewpoint within the myriad that comprises the Unum. We watch, we anticipate, we intercede.”

Merchants of Cetus

"Attachment is pain. Whatever you wish to gain or lose is a door, behind which lies grace."



"My door is a shipment of rubedo and the cost of opening it would be...?"



"3000 credits, plus tax."

Remnants of Orokin

The Orokin Empire may have receded into the mists of history, but what it left behind is repurposed by those who remain.

The Grineer Tusks

Despatched to the Plains to assist in efforts to harness and understand the Eidolons, these shock troops stand vigil over Grineer operations. They wait for the day when the power of that lobotomized Sentient might be turned to their own ends… and loosed against the walls of Cetus.

Scavenging Way of Life

Finding worth in the worthless the Ostron clade-families have built for themselves a bastion from the bones of a once-great Orokin citadel. In the eyes of an Ostron everything may serve a second purpose, and what is valueless now can be turned to serve a useful purpose later.

Harvesting The Tower

The blanketpiece of temple flesh is lowered to waiting butchers and flensers. The balloon’s drop-driver holds her delicate craft steady as a great airing board is positioned beneath her cargo. The Old Man gives the order: ‘Sever the mainline!’

Cetus

While their floating markets may ply the rails of the Origin system, Cetus is the Ostron home: a trading hub where travelers from across the system meet to exchange information, wares and plunder in safety, protected by the Unum-enforced laws of barter and parley - free from the influence of Grineer and Corpus.

Ostron Artisans

The Ostron mercantile scavenger culture has birthed a rich tradition of artisans fluent in many styles, able to make use of whatever material is at hand to achieve stunning results. A side-effect of Temple harvesting is a light rain of gold dust, which can lead to the degenerative condition known as ‘gilded lung’. The need for masks to protect against this has led to a rich maskwork tradition unique to Cetus.

Teralyst Eidolon

Rising from the lakes at sundown and returning to them before dawn these simple-minded monstrosities roam the nighttime plains, howling, searching for a thing they can barely remember: completeness. Wholeness. An intelligence and malevolent purpose which, fate willing, they will never return to again.

The Ostrons

“I know us for a miracle. A million-to-one improbability. Our existence is the most fragile of all existences. We could be exterminated tomorrow, yet we have endured by wit alone for millennia.”



Oro-kin-ka: spirit houses for the souls of the Orokin who once inhabited Cetus. By giving them a small house in which to reside the Ostrons hope the Orokin spirits will leave them in peace. Said to be good luck.



Yoong-bat: Urns left outside Ostron doorways, filled with fresh water for traveling monks. No-one else should drink from them, especially offworlders.

Plains Animals

“It is my experience of the Plains that nature adapts with greater alacrity than we. Condrocs nest in Grineer comms towers, keeping watch over the gutted Sentient husks which Kuaka rodents have transformed into colony-nests. Master Teasonai has been of great assistance to my cataloguing, striving as he does to tame all manner of wildlife.” - Onkko, Cetus Archivist.

Life In Cetus

The cry of seabirds. The delicate, permeating scent of Temple blood. The laughter of children. The shouts of merchants and hawkers. The roar of approaching spacecraft. The distant, haunting howls of the Eidolon. Cetus.



Not much ruffles an Ostron. It is as if they have made peace with whatever will be. The closeness of the Unum provides a kind of comfort, offworlders suppose. Or perhaps some of the sanguine knowingness of the enigmatic Quills have rubbed off on them.

The Unum

“If the Unum speaks to you, traveler, it is because you have the ears to hear - though at first you may not believe it is so.”



The being known by the Ostrons as ‘the Unum’, and to ignorant offworlders as ‘the Wall’, has a reputation for prophecy. Those wealthy enough to own moons have journeyed to Cetus, hoping to buy an audience. But the Unum has no use for wealth, and she alone decides who will hear her words, and when. 



Ostrons believe she sits at the pin-center of the universe, listening to the infinite poetry of cause-and-effect.



Some visitors to her chamber leave bitterly disappointed, others elated, others furious. But one thing is certain: the information she imparts changes the person who receives it.