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Aucturn

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Aucturn
The Rune of Aucturn.
(Cosmos)

Titles
The Stranger
Type
Diameter
Varies
Mass
x 2
Gravity
x 2
Atmosphere
Poisonous
Orbit
500 years
Inhabitants
Worshippers of the Old Cults
Satellites
None
Source: Distant Worlds, pg(s). 48f.
The Solar System.
SFW compass rose 150.png

This article might have further canon details available on StarfinderWiki.

Aucturn, the Stranger, is a planet-sized nascent Great Old One, the eleventh and farthest celestial body orbiting Golarion's sun123

Description

Aucturn is nearly double the size of Golarion but is bathed in a poisonous, yellow-green atmosphere. It is the only world in the system not connected to other planets in the solar system by a network of portals.4 Aucturn is rarely visible to the naked eye.1 Astronomers have reported differing descriptions of the planet, ranging from a ringed gas giant to a dark and lifeless rock.25

Rune representation

In scholarly works, Aucturn is sometimes represented by a complex rune: a long horizontal bar that has three vertical bars placed on top of it. The first vertical bar is terminated at both ends by small circles; the second is the longest of the three and has a small circle only at its base, its other end is forked in two; the third bar only has a small circle at its base while its top is crossed by the right-hand fork of the middle bar.6

Gazetteer

The planet warps itself destroying places and making new ones, though some areas remain for some time, including:2

Inhabitants

Aucturn is populated by strange native creatures: ghostly apparitions, skinless hunters, and stranger beasts. There also exists a population of worshippers of the Old Cults seeking the Dark Tapestry, the Great Old Ones, and the Outer Gods.2

Other creatures known to exist on Aucturn include:7

Alignment with Golarion

Every 56 years, Golarion and Aucturn's orbits align such that they are closest to one another, a phase lasting approximately four months. Although the gravitational influence is so slight as to go unnoticed by most of Golarion, it excites Golarion's elementals. In the deserts of Osirion, it causes spikes in sandstorm generation, resulting in the cyclical uncovering of long-lost ruins.1

In legend

Aucturn is the subject of countless legends. Some hint that the planet may be the system's link to the lightless places between the stars known as the Dark Tapestry or to the mysterious Dominion of the Black whispered in Osirian legend.2410 The Pharaoh of Numbers, one of the Four Pharaohs of Ascension responsible for unifying Osirion's historic empire, was a devotee of the planet Aucturn and thought to be obsessed with study of the planet,1 and some believe that the rapid technological and magical advances that occurred during the reign of the Four Pharaohs was due to powerful forces from Aucturn, a theory known as the Aucturn Enigma.11 Others postulate the planet is actually a vast living being in stasis.2

Some astronomers fearfully postulate that Aucturn is the very example of the nightmare world that comes of the Great Old Ones having free reign; others dispute this theory as eccentric.12

References

For additional as-yet unincorporated sources about this subject, see the Meta page.

  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 Michael Kortes. Entombed with the Pharaohs, 23. Paizo Inc., 2007
  2. 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 James L. Sutter. “Chapter 1: The Solar System” in Distant Worlds, 48–49. Paizo Inc., 2012
  3. Jason Bulmahn. “1. "The Lost Star"” in Doomsday Dawn, 17. Paizo Inc., 2018
  4. 4.0 4.1 James L. Sutter. “Into the Black” in Children of the Void, 52. Paizo Inc., 2008
  5. James L. Sutter. “Into the Black” in Children of the Void, 49. Paizo Inc., 2008
  6. James L. Sutter. “Chapter 1: The Solar System” in Distant Worlds, 48. Paizo Inc., 2012
  7. James L. Sutter. “Chapter 3: Aliens” in Distant Worlds, 57. Paizo Inc., 2012
  8. 8.0 8.1 8.2 Andrew Penn Romine, et al. “Interstellar Magic Items” in People of the Stars, 31. Paizo Inc., 2014
  9. Paizo referred to xoarians as intellect devourers until the publication of Heavy is the Crown.
  10. Erik Mona, et al. “Chapter 5: The World” in Campaign Setting, 239. Paizo Inc., 2008
  11. Jason Bulmahn. “Mysteries of Golarion” in Occult Mysteries, 6. Paizo Inc., 2014
  12. Andrew Penn Romine, et al. “The Dark Tapestry” in People of the Stars, 23. Paizo Inc., 2014