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Marilith 3 is one of the Marilith Zone's prominent successes. Two bustling planets, Nelleth and Gaven, are thriving agricultural and business worlds. But the system is also home to one of the most anomalous locales of the setting: Alenados Station. A bustling hub of tourism and commerce, the station is a beacon - literally - of the system's history, legacy, and one of the contentious factions of the Zone.

This is a beacon of light.

Alenados Station, sometimes referred to as 'The Lighthouse', is a civilian space station built along the perimeter of a carved asteroid. It houses many of the usual amenities one would expect of a location built partially around travel and tourism: recreational facilities, destination-themed storefronts, vacation lodging, and even guided tours.

The asteroid itself has been cut to a smooth surface, with many various runic symbols carved into each side. These markings denote its primary purpose: it is a beacon large enough to serve as the anchor for the system. None of the markings are fully visible any longer, as new platforms or structures have been constructed over time to cover the surface of the asteroid. Though this doesn't diminish the function of the rock it does make it less visually obvious to visitors or those not part of the transportation itself.

Some of these new constructions do serve some military purposes, mainly for the levels that act as docking layers with refueling and rearming. But the vast majority of the structure focuses on housing and commerce - the shops, lodging, and living blocks mentioned before. There is also, almost always, a small fleet of bustling small ships around the station that are hocking goods or services of some kind to those coming and going.

But the main attraction of Alenados Station is the small set of buildings on the polar end of the asteroid, where the nickname 'The Lighthouse' was born. A group of sages and researchers call the station home with such a focus on divination and foresight they come to the point of near religious devotion to fate.

It always begins with something else.

Marilith 3 may be considered a massive success now, but it was almost one of the nameless failures of exploration. The original colony ship that made its way to the system suffered a massive setback as it was arriving. The jump drive was sabotaged during its last jump towards the system, damaging many other systems in the process. It was quickly discovered to be corporate sabotage - a competitor to this journey's sponsor wanted to make sure they did not gain the advantage of founding another system - but the damage had been done.

Not content to simply perish as a footnote in the larger corporation wars, the many inhabitants set about attempting to solve their problems. Utilizing what was left of their astratum rails and the little amount of power they could conjure up, they managed to stabilize their orbit in the system with that of an outlying asteroid of the system's asteroid belt. The expedition was equipped with the supplies to create a colony and a beacon, so they set about doing exactly that - simply with the expired vessel as their basis for the colony instead of a planet.

Guiding a lot of the larger decisions and explorations during this time was one of the researchers of the expedition, Emerst Vallae, who was well versed in the magical processes for cheating the beacons. This leader did not stand out at first, for there were many who were capable with beacon construction on the journey, but became notable when he turned his magical theories towards augury and prediction to help make the hard decisions that needed to be made. His spells extended farsight rituals and helped predict where resources or troubles might be found. To the point that it is very possible the attempted colony might still have found failure and catastrophe without his work.

The impact of his work on these magical studies made a mark on Emerst. He began to study the effects of his work in individual detail - seeing what decisions and spells made the largest impacts versus data had they not had the information, testing the extent to which predictions could be made with accuracy, and pushing the limits on the range and power of farsight incantations. Eventually, he began to test his work against the theory of predeterminism and interpretations of fate itself.

It is not known if he came to any conclusions. But what IS known is that the colony eventually completed the beacon, and that with travel established they were able to move the colony to the planet Gaven and start proper. There was little reason to spend extra effort dismantling the structures that had been made around the beacon, so Emerst and those that took interest in his work remained with those who would keep the locale operational as a waystation.

The obsession with divination.

Over time, the scientific approach and study eventually gave way to more theological perspectives. Emerst had become almost obsessed with the art of divination and its impact on the people who make use of it, and through the practice and study he had gained savant-like mastery over the gifts of foresight and detection. To the point that even he could not be certain of when he was able to provide prediction through intellectual deduction or magical augury.

This level of disconnect forced him to devise a set of rules and methods for making use of his craft to keep results grounded, and his level of mastery drew the attention of other prospective learners of his craft. Both together created an immense interest in 'The prophets of the Lighthouse' quickly. Coronis and the Core Worlds took note, and just as quickly sent their own to investigate the fledgling group in order to make certain no heresy could be afoot.

The investigation found no mockery of the divine or blasphemy in the exploration - while the Lighthouse were adopting some monastic traditions and structured themselves similarly to a religious order, none of their teachings contradicted anything set by Coronis. They did not promote any stirrings of false gods or encourage their learners to abandon the accepted faith of the Core Worlds. They simply expressed an odd relationship with fate and destiny.

This was deemed 'uncomfortable, but acceptable' by the investigating inquisitors and that has been the line the Lighthouse has walked since. To this day the Lighthouse expresses no doctrine nor opinion on Coronis or other faiths of any kind. Only that Fate is something that finds us all.

Forever watching us all.

Fast forward to current times, and that level of unease has never truly gone away. Coronis and the Core Worlds have never had reason to take any active action against the Lighthouse, even as their membership and reach grew, but neither have they seen any reason to breathe easy. The Lighthouse has made no attempts to gain any holdings on other worlds or statons, but their Watchers can be frequently found in all corners of the Marilith Zone. These agents perform exactly as their title suggests: watching events unfold and reporting the happenings back to the Lighthouse proper.

Those of the Lighthouse have even developed their own glyphs and magical writings to assist in divinations and augury - spells and enchantments that can point a practitioner or observer towards optimal outcomes or warn of impending difficulties. The fellowship keeps most of the methods of these as guarded trade secrets the way any of the Marilith Zone's corporations might guard their own information. It is often treated by outsiders as their stock and trade.

Corporations and organizations outside of Coronis have been content to treat the Lighthouse just the same as they would any other corporation: comfort at arms distance, but more than willing to bargain on the goods and services the Lighthouse can provide. The membership of the Lighthouse indulge enough that the galactic community has welcomed the commerce, but also refused often enough to inspire the sense of an agenda being afoot.

Those that make their living either on or dealing with Alenados Station have that sensation of oddity and discomfort built into their very way of life. Some view the sense of gentle friction with Coronis as an implicit invitation for the outsiders of accepted culture, making for a veritable hodgepodge melting pot of influences among the civilian population. Despite all of the various cultures, there still is a gentle central authority given by the leadership of the station to keep things running smoothly. One of the positions of station leadership is always held by a member of the Lighthouse, but never more than that, and it has never been expressed that the Lighthouse exerts any outright attempts at control over the governing of the station.

It's an overbearing presence.

Alenados Station represents a lot of things all at once. And which element someone is referring to or calling upon can be seen in just how they reference it: The Lighthouse often speaks to the more religious aspects and the organization focused on Fate, while Alenados Station often focuses on the tourism and recreational opportunities. It has a powerful history both as a contentious organization and as a monumental locale. The complexity of this interaction is something that has defined those that call the place home and continues to hang over every interaction it has with the outside setting. It's a powder keg of possibility. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.

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