Holding V, Stars.
Last corrected Year 399. Standing list. A mark needs a stated reason before it can go on. A place marked without one is a rumour taking up space on a chart.
The list
| Region | Mark | Reason | Applied | By |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| The Solanar Expanse, and everything the power seated there holds | Occupied | Standing order of the founding assembly. Marked at the widest margin of anything in this holding, on the order itself and not on any incident. | Year 1 | Assembly |
| Solanaris and its near approaches | Occupied | As above. No vessel of ours has been within sight of it. The widest margin we apply to any single body. | Year 1 | Assembly |
| Keiter, while the moon crosses the tunnel | Hazard | Energy surge, extreme weather, and gravitational disturbance along the Koradz-Minklan Line for the whole crossing. Calm while the moon hangs. A question of timing, not of avoidance. | Year 57 | Rhoan Ilketh Deepkeel |
| Keiter’s crystal fields, close in | Hazard | Whirlwinds of loose magical energy standing over the deposits. Instruments disagree inside them. Two of our transits recorded uncontrolled discharge. | Year 79 | Rhoan Ilketh Deepkeel |
| The lesser sphere near the Moon, and its ring | Hazard | A sealed body that does not measure the same twice between transits, ringed by asteroids under their own governance. The ring is the hazard. The sphere is only closed. | Year 30 | Assembly |
| The Moon, for landing | Hazard | The air will not carry a wing. Our own flight works there and natural flight does not, which has cost two arrivals a fall they did not expect. Gravity about a quarter. | Year 112 | Sefa Anthek Tidemark |
| Zohiruta and its approaches | Unexplained loss | The Slow Return did not come back from a charted passage in Year 218 and no account of her has ever been obtained. One loss only. See below. | Year 220 | Mirren Stellara Farwatch |
| The Zeb Rock | Contested | Hazard mark on one keeper’s judgement. Objection attached. See below. | Year 269 | Vesh Ilketh Openhand |
What the categories mean
Hazard is where the Astral or the body itself is unreliable. These are the least disputed marks on the list and the oldest we applied in answer to something actually seen. Most are conditional: a hazard that runs on a cycle is one you can plan around, which is why the reason is written down and not just the mark.
Occupied is where a power sits that we will not go near. Two entries, both standing orders of the founding assembly rather than responses to anything.
Unexplained loss is where a vessel or a contact of ours went and never came back with no account since. One mark. Mirren Stellara Farwatch’s note with it records that one loss is not sufficient ground by the standard we apply everywhere else, that she applied the mark anyway, and that a marked region drops out of the search and does not normally come back. She asked for review at any seating that could spare a second vessel. No review has been held.
Contested is where we disagreed with each other. The Zeb Rock carries a hazard mark from Vesh Ilketh Openhand in Year 269 and an objection from Rhoan Ilketh Deepkeel eleven days later:
Nine transits through that passage, nine returns, all nine in the log and available to this body. The requirement for a mark is a stated reason. No observation is stated against the Rock. Strike the mark or enter the ground, and I will plan to whichever is decided.
Neither was done. The mark stands, the objection stands next to it, and no observation has been entered against the Rock since.
Planning a transit
Read the reason, not the mark. A mark is one keeper’s judgement in one century, and four of the eight do not bind a crew that knows what they were applied against.
Both Keiter marks run on a cycle. Quiet while the moon hangs, violent while it crosses. Our transits have been planned to the quiet since Year 57. Keiter is not a world to strike off the routes over two hazard marks.
The Moon’s mark binds passengers, not us. Our flight works there. Other peoples’ natural flight does not, and two of our arrivals learned that by falling. Any crew carrying a hadozee or another natural flier should say so before landing.
Zohiruta rests on one loss and its own author disputed it. Treat it as a warning of unknown weight, not as established danger.
The Zeb Rock objection carries more evidence than the mark. Crews may plan the passage. Enter any observation on return, which is what the objection asked for and has never received.
The two Solanari marks admit of no judgement. They are the only two applied with no observation behind them, being standing orders of the founding assembly, and they are not to be planned around, tested, or shaved. Nothing in this section applies to them.