Phio

Phio, Moon of Aomori

Under the light of Alvero, Phio appears as a plain, if elegant, gray orb orbiting around Aomori. The surface of Phio is mottled with bombardment from both natural sources and the works of House Reticulum’s finest smiths, a face covered both in craters and deep jagged scars.

However, in the shade of crater walls, in the shaded clefts of ravines, and on the whole of the “dark” side of Phio, the moon glows with an ethereal turquoise light.

Phio is home to a thriving ecosystem of bio-luminescent algae, known as faerie fire on the world below. The algae feed on energy, well suited to basking in Alvero’s light to produce their characteristic glow, but the advent of Reticulum using the moon as a weapons testing ground, have found incredible new sustenance by way of the waste heat and radiation put off by the regular bombardment of the surface.

Each new scar on Phio scours the immediate vicinity clean of the algae for a time, although the algae begins to aggressively recolonize this fresh source of nourishment. Days or weeks after a new crater is formed, it begins to grow even brighter than it did before.

The origins of the algae population are unknown, presumed lost with the Scream. With no clear native cousins on Aomori, it is unknown if the life on Phio was introduced through artificial means, or the descendants of transplant via ancient bombardment.

Phio in Bloom

Rarely more than once in a decade, Phio is said to “bloom”. Coming at a time when Phio and Aomori are precisely aligned in their orbits, the bloom is heralded by a meteor shower on Aomori. Although the meteorites burn up in Aomori’s atmosphere, their siblings find no such impediment as they impact into Phio, slowly and chaotically wiping the dark side of the moon clean.

In the month that follows, nighttime celebrations abound across Aomori, as spectators rejoice beneath the blooming moon, the ethereal faerie fire slowly reclaiming the surface as the days pass. On the final day, the dark side glows almost as bright as the light, as the world below unites in one final day of reverie.

A marriage under Phio in bloom is said to be granted extra luck, lent strength by the rare and beautiful event.