The Sun

The sun of the Pact Worlds system, sometimes called by its Lashunta name of Mataras ("Burning Mother"), is a yellow star.[1]

Geography
Entering the Burning Archipelago.

The sun, like most stars, is extremely dense and incredibly hot. Its gravitational forces can easily crush most starships. The sun's core emits such powerful energies that it regularly rips portals to the Positive Energy Plane and Plane of Fire.[1]

History
In 223 AG, Sarenite explorers discovered a set of deserted cities protected by transparent spheres, connected by magical tethers, and approachable by a tunnel of powerful protective magic. Although no one knows why the cities exist or were abandoned, the Church of Sarenrae quickly re-settled these cities, now known as the Burning Archipelago. The Radiant Cathedral in the most prominent central bubble of Dawnshore serves as one of its holiest sites.[1]

Inhabitants
Aside from the Sarenites, who use sunskimmers to bottle nuclear fire and maintain the Burning Archipelago's power stations, the sun also attracts corporations to its orbit for robotic experiments in algae-based energy capture, or build solar-powered robotics plants and deploy organic jungle boxes to produce rare chemicals.[1]

The sun's extreme energy, combined with the mutations to plants in NatuReal Compounds jungle boxes, has led to at least two instances of the formation sentient and carnivorous plant creatures — to fatal effect in the instances where the boxes were not fully automated.[1]

Government
The Burning Archipelago is a protectorate of the Pact Worlds, and the rest of the sun is considered a shared holding of all of the Pact Worlds' members. Each city in the Burning Archipelago has its own government, ranging from theocratic Dawnshore to corporate-controlled Fireside and Stellacuna.[1]

Diplomatic relations
Visitors from the Plane of Fire use the Burning Archipelago for trade with the Material Plane, and have provided information about ruins deeper in the sun that once belonged to fire-resistant creatures, including humanoids. Scholars have attempted to contact these "deep cultures" in hopes of learning more about the first life to arise in the Pact Worlds system, although the elemental travelers are particularly reluctant to speak more of them. Other theories suggest that time itself is warped near the sun's core, making these cultures of the future rather than the present or past.[1]