Universal Foundations - What you just have to accept about the universe & setting.
(Humanity, I'sola, Luck, Species History)
See the Google Doc with additional formatting Here.
Humanity
Humanity has advanced to the point of space travel.
Wormholes exist but are not well documented.
I’sola
An alien species called I’sola exist in a far off place in the universe.
They live on one planet of a binary (twin) planet system, which rotate around each other.
The system is in locked rotation with the sun, with one planet (Hoset), always being closest to the sun.
The I’sola live on the planet furthest from the sun (Ma’al).
The two planets share both an atmosphere and a glass ring of melted meteors.
When their orbit takes them close to the sun, Hoset ignites.
The planet burns constantly for half the year, split into 2 burning seasons.
The I’sola are plant-like creatures.
They breathe in Carbon Dioxide and breathe out Oxygen.
The I’sola have 2 genders of seed-bearers and fertilizers, though there are no romantic pairings.
The ‘female’ will leave behind two seeds that have grown within her body when she dies.
The ‘male’ will separate the two seeds far enough apart that they will have room to take root, sprout, grow through a plant stage, and eventually into fully mobile creatures before they also die.
Side Note: The ‘male’ is not technically the fertilizer of the eggs. All ‘males’ give off the equivalent of pollen through the air constantly, collected by the ‘antennae’ at the top of the mother’s head. The DNA of the seeds take in various parts of DNA and mutate throughout the mother’s life. With both parents dead, the seedlings are raised by the elders of the community.
Because of this method of altruistic reproduction, the population of the I’sola never changes.
The I’sola believe in reincarnation, and that they are simply a reimagining of the same set of souls for all of conceivable time.
Luck
‘Good’ and ‘Bad’ luck are fundamental (aspects) like north and south poles.
Another term/way of thinking about it is the tendency of an object to dissolve/fall apart in certain ways (i.e. entropy).
Luck can therefore be ‘balanced’.
Humanity as a species is ‘bad’ luck, and the I’sola are ‘good’ luck.
The main characters in the story represent ‘good’ luck for the humans and ‘bad’ luck for the I’sola. Hoset, the burning planet, is ‘bad’ luck, and Ma’al, the planet with life, is ‘good’ luck.
Species History
The I’sola can control the direction of entropy or ‘luck’.
The prior sentient species, (a race similar to ducks), could also control entropy.
They used it to collect a large amount of ‘bad’ luck in one place for the sake of a scientific experiment.
The ‘bad’ luck conglomeration exploded, killing the entirety of the planet but for the plant ancestors of the I’sola buried deep in the ground.
The I’sola are now the only living creatures on the planet.