Oort Cloud

Featured Article — 25-2026

Far beyond our borders it lies; the offcuts of our creation. A vast matrix of the same material that made us, stretching thousands of times wider than our own system. In the dead silence of space, it whispers.

Far beyond Neptune and the Kuiper Belt, the Oort Cloud envelops the Sol System. It is a a wasteland of frozen debris and cosmic dust wider than the Inner and Outer World combined.
Comets from the Oort Cloud bring with them oortite, and sow corruption in their wake. Probes sent into the Oort Cloud return garbled and warped information. Whatever exists out there probes the planets for weaknesses. The Sentinels in the Kuiper belt is the Sol Systems serve as a stalwart defence against the entities in the Oort Cloud.

As Old as Sol

Billions of years ago, long before life as we know it had come to be, rejected remains of the protoplanetary nebula were slung out into distant orbit by Neptune and the other outer planets. The majority of this protonic debris was concentrated in a dense inner cloud that still crests around the orbiting planets today. The inner ring of the Oort Cloud begins about two thousand AU out from the sun, thousands of times further out than Neptune.
The inner ring feeds into an outer halo, forming a sphere around the entire Sol System. The outer halo is far sparser, spanning an unfathomable distance.

It would take a spacecraft travelling at max speed eleven years to reach the beginning of the Oort Cloud. In comparasion, it takes two months to travel from Venus to Neptune. Exiting the Oort Cloud, however, could take over a thousand years.

As Unforgiving as Sol

The protonic debris contained more than just dust and dead rock. Among it was the same seeds of creation that formed life in our solar system. Out in these distant deadlands a different, hungrier, kind of life began, overseen by somethings, or someone, as old as Sol itself. Though today we have the brave Sentinels to protect us from most of the physical dangers of the Oort Cloud and beyond, ancient civilizations were not so lucky. Cosmic cults proliferated across the system, seeking to appease the entities in the Oort Cloud.
The more fortunate cults never drew the attention of the entities they attempted to worship. Those that did invariably drove themselves into extinction. As better methods of dealing with the dangers of the Oort cloud were developed, these cosmic cults have naturally faded away.

by Annie Stein

A Beacon from Afar

The Sol System is always in flux. As the Galaxy yawns, the galactic tide pulls comets out of the Oort Cloud and into the Outer and Inner Worlds. Other comets have orbits that take them into the Oort Cloud. All entities that enter the Oort cloud are irrevocably changed, however, regardless of their origins.
The sight of a comet streaking across the night sky is a bad omen. Warnings are issued when a comet contaminated by the Oort Cloud is detected. People are advised not to look up as it passes by, but many skirt the rule by viewing them through specially crafted goggles that purportedly reduce the risk of exposure.
Far more dangerous than the mere sight of a comet is the debris left in its wake. Special cleaning crews are deployed to contain the event if and when solid matter reaches the surface. Oort-tainted meteoric substances are extremely dangerous, causing a large amount of adverse mental effects. Many artefacts from ancient Cosmic Cults were made from oortite and meteoric metal, and the trade of these artefacts flourishes in black markets despite the risk.

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See Also

Outer Space

Locations Asteroid Belt ( The Collision Course ) · Oort Cloud Species Deep Space Leviathan · Orbitross · Astroplankton Materials Astrallite · Oortite Technology Crystal Technology · Super Wide Access Network · Spacecraft ( Dragonfly Carrier ) Society Traditions ( Dumplings in Space · Oil-Slick Star ) · Organizations ( Sentinel ) · Conditions ( Deep Space Syndrome · Oortic Poisoning · Cosmic Bloom · Crystal Infestation · Paradisius )

Distance from Sun

2,000 to 200,000 AU

Location under

Sol System

Related Materials

• Oortite