The Atlas Star ✧ Issue #13

Welcome back, Explorers!

Today your Atlas Star, the iconic Star Atlas newsletter, where all adventures begin and end, has been hijacked by academics from every corner of the Galaxy! We have economists, sentientologists, and archeologists coming to share with you their knowledge about the current state of affairs in the Star Atlas galaxy and beyond.

In fact, the main article for this edition is a summary of the latest book of one such academic superstar, Professor Argadal, from the Council of Peace Biological Research Academy (COPBRA). This recently released hallmark of sentient species research is a deep dive into the secretive members of the ONI Consortium, the Mierese.

If you are an enthusiast of the many civilizations of our galaxy and their secrets, this is a must-read for you!

As you probably know by now, the Atlas Star is home to a wide range of content related to the Star Atlas metaverse, including the latest updates on project development and much more!

In this edition, you’ll find:

• The latest roadmap updates for all Star Atlas Products - SAGE, Showroom, the DAO, and more.
• A deep dive into the Showroom R2 release coming later this year.
• All the details regarding the inaugural community awards, a.k.a. the Jonis!
• The release date of the next thrilling edition of Star Atlas: CORE, our hard-to-put-down, official graphic novel.
• An overview of the Star Atlas Golden Era start sequence and all opportunities currently available in the Star Atlas metaverse.

With those topics in mind, we invite you to find a comfortable seat and enjoy everything Star Atlas has prepared for you.

Enjoy your reading, Captain.

An Introduction to The Fascinating Creatures of The Galaxy Book I - The Mierese

Introduction

Dear Readers,

First of all, thank you for acquiring a copy of my Introduction to The Fascinating Creatures of The Galaxy - Book I. I’m Professor Argadal, an intergalactic Sentientlogist and head of the analytic research on sentient species at the Council of Peace Biological Research Association (COPBRA).

As a member of COPBRA, my job is to identify, catalog, and research all forms of life in our vast galaxy, safeguarding their existence and stories to the best of our abilities, so future generations will know how this beautiful cosmos evolved from rudimentary cells to the enormous living planets, like Neuno.

Speaking of which, today’s entry will take us directly to the Neuno system, which derives its name from the peculiar planet that is home to one of the galaxy’s most intriguing species and members of the ONI Consortium, the Mierese.

The Mierese as a race are consistently described as free spirits, adept in the arts of stealth and survival, and often prone to improvisation, which quite often ends up in misunderstandings and trouble with members of other species.

Being perceived as unstable or even chaotic by more orderly and analytic-focused species like the Ustur, the Mierese thrive even if they lack some of the formal structures other civilizations have, like, for example, a written language.

Another prejudice about the Mierese is that they are often viewed as cowards, especially by the Sogmians, whose culture finds dying for one’s cause as the ultimate honorable behavior. For the Mierese, based on their culture and background, this idea is simply purposeless and stupid.

Nevertheless, to truly appreciate the rich and complex Mieresian culture, we must first understand their past and where they came from. This is where our research will take us now, to the beginning of the Mierese “Grand Tale”, as I heard from one of the eldest Mierese lore keepers.

Chapter One - The Story of Onato and The Grand Tale

Onato was the most beautiful and powerful god in existence back in the early days when time and creation had just parted their ways after the fateful meeting that gave birth to this galaxy brimming with life.

He had many talents, from singing to dancing to creating stories to fighting. He prided himself on accepting any bet offered from another god and not having lost a single competition. However, Onato was also prideful, stubborn, and spoiled, but most of the other gods loved him regardless, as he had a good heart and would help his kin when needed.

Another god, Juriko, was envious of all the attention Onato was receiving. As his resentment grew, he started to formulate a plan to take down Onato.

Since Onato was an immortal god and couldn’t be destroyed, Juriko devised a plan to entrap him for all eternity.

Juriko called all gods to a competition of challenges to establish who was the most powerful god, and Onato, of course, decided to participate.

In the final round, Juriko dared Onato to escape a prison he had created, and if he could do that, he would be deemed the most powerful god. Onato, of course, accepted and entered the prison, which consisted of a simple cell with a lock that could be opened by giving the correct password.

The only hint given to the Mierese god was that the answer was a good story, perhaps one that hadn’t even occurred yet.

Onato tried his best to crack the password. He used his fantastic memory, trying to think about every event he had lived through in the past, but to no avail. He tried to combine words, but the lock didn’t respond. He tried to create words that didn’t even exist, but the cell wouldn’t budge.

Juriko, who knew Onato well, offered him the possibility of surrendering, needing just to admit he wasn’t the most powerful and smart of all gods. Still, the Mierese father angrily denied his offers and proclaimed to every god that he would only leave once he found the correct answer to the enigma.

Onato was no fool. He quickly understood that this was a trap from Juriko, but he wouldn’t be defeated by some underhanded plot from an envious god. His pride wouldn’t allow it, and he developed a plan to win the competition.

First, he created a record of his story, with every word, secret, and story he used in the competition, keeping track of everything he had tried.

Then, he separated a part of his essence and breathed life into it, creating the first group of Mierese. He came to his children, explained the situation and made a pact with them.

He would allow them to live a vibrant life in the galaxy that he and the other gods created. Every Mierese would be free to live however they saw fit, with the condition that, once they died, they would need to tell Onato at least one new story about the galaxy that he had never heard in order to help him find the answer to the enigma.

Should the Mierese fulfill the condition, that individual would be entitled to live in a paradise prepared for them. If he or she didn’t, they would need to keep company with Onato, helping him crack the puzzle for however long was necessary.

The first Mierese then proceeded to recite everything that their god told them, and this great story became known as the Grand Tale. It’s embedded into the heart of every Mierese since their first day under the stars, and from then on they vowed to find stories for their god so they could help him find the key to his imprisonment and find their way to a fulfilling afterlife.

The Grand Tale has been, henceforth, updated by generation after generation of Mierese Lore Keepers, which incorporated in it the most relevant characters and events regarding the galaxy and overall Mierese culture.

Being featured in the Grand Tale is the supreme honor for the Mierese society, and this founding story, while we don’t know if it’s true or not, impacts and informs every aspect of the Mierese culture and society.

While this is only one of the fundamentals that inform Mierese society, it’s one that impacted how this population evolved through the ages and reached the current establishment and organization.

In our next chapter, we’ll investigate the second pillar of the Mierese current civilization, a pillar that isn’t part of the Mierese culture but of their world that tested this civilization's will to survive for thousands of years.

Chapter Two - The Living Planet Neuno

It’s no secret that the cosmos is filled with wonders, and even the most seasoned explorers can’t help but gasp in awe when contemplating a new piece of this infinity puzzle that we call our galaxy.

Nevertheless, a few of those pieces are so exotic and unique that they strain the imagination of most of the galaxy's citizens in trying to understand how such a wonderful or dreadful existence is possible. Those events are called singularities in our literature, something that defies the laws of creation precisely because they are not bound by their commandments, and Neuno, the Mierese living planet, is one of them.

Neuno history is shrouded in complete mystery up until the beginning of the Grand Tale one thousand years ago. In the Mierese tradition, their god sent them to this planet to prepare for the great mission that awaited their civilization in the stars. If they were to succeed and discover the secret to his prison, they would first need to master the deadly ecosystem that is Neuno.

As one can see, even this story doesn’t tell us much about how Neuno was created, or born, although it hints at the possibility of it being created specifically by the Mierese god to prepare his people for their quest.

Regardless, this is an impossibility considering the current technology, and the current hypothesis is that Neuno wasn’t always a living being, but something like a meteor, probably coming from the cataclysm, carrying the seed of this life form, and it started to fuse itself with the planet as it continued to grow.

This hypothesis is reinforced by the fact that most of Neuno's organs and vital functions seem to come from the southern pole of the planet as if it started from there and then subsequently started expanding its structure to all corners of the planet.

In all fairness, a being the size of a planet is also not supposed to be possible, but the undeniable reality is that it exists and, in fact, has been living and breathing for at least three thousand years, as carbon dating suggests.

Aside from the mystery of its existence, most of Neuno's functions and biological traits remain a curious enigma, as it seems to reunite characteristics of different types of beings. Here are some examples:

First of all, it seems to gather part of its nutrition from the radiant blue sun of its star system, unequivocally doing a form of the photosynthesis breathing cycle, which helped shape the current atmosphere of the planet, which is rich in oxygen. Nevertheless, it’s currently unknown how the creature’s cycle works, as it’s consistently exposed to light and lacks any sort of other plant-based structures to transform carbon dioxide into energy.

Second, it has a very powerful immune system, which the Mierese have experienced since the first day they opened their eyes on their homeworld. As the Mierese society expanded, Neuno seemed to be taking more and more actions against them on various fronts.

Things like spontaneous tsunamis, droughts, diseases, and poisoned crops all have been attributed by our researchers as reactions of Neuno to the expansion of the Mierese society on the planet.

Finally, Neuno seems to “hibernate” for a few months every year when the planet is more distant from the blue sun of the star system in its yearly cycle.

When this happens, the verdant jungles of Neuno give place to desolaces of dust and grass. Enormous native animals leave the surface and find shelter underground. It’s also tangible for anyone living inside the planet that the pace of life itself gets slower, as if the entire ecosystem was, at the same time, saving its strengths.

Aside from those curious environmental conditions, the Mierese planet is mostly composed of jungle-like biomes and high temperatures due to the warmth of its sun. Any expedition to the wild parts of the planet reveal forests full of deadly species that hunt and stalk their prey.

As one can imagine, this has had profound effects on the Mierese, who have become extremely adaptable in order to survive in challenging environments.

Also, due to the harsh conditions of the environment, the Mierese have had to organize themselves into small groups which were easier to move and keep fed during drastic environmental changes. This is somewhat easier nowadays due to the efficiency of their technology, but still, this fundamental worry still exists in every Mierese soul.

To be a Mierese is to know that everything outside of your group is dangerous and is trying to get you. This mentality, although partially blunted in the current peaceful age, is still deeply embedded in the Mierese culture.

With all of these conditions, one might think the Mierese would be wary of strangers. That would actually be the case if not for a fortuitous meeting in the distant past.

When the Mierese were nearly annihilated by the planet's increasingly harsh conditions, a group of benevolent space explorers from an unknown civilization came to Neuno. The group helped the Mierese by terraforming part of Neuno and advancing their scientific knowledge.

This group of explorers also set the basis for the first intergalactic travels of the Mierese. Once their work was done and the Mierese started their journey among the stars, the benevolent aliens left to never be seen again.

All details of this fateful encounter are recorded in the Grand Tale, which taught the Mierese a great lesson about helping other beings and cooperation.

With an understanding of this unique background, we are finally ready to dive into the core of the Mierese soul.

Chapter Three - The Mierese Culture

In my field of research, I often observe that a founding myth is used as a way of conveying the fundamental values of a given society in an understandable manner, allowing members of that community to be able to share the same underlying principles and infer rules of social engagement.

The Mierese story is a full-course meal in this regard. Many lessons which represent the essence of what a Mierese is can be derived from the Grand Tale, ranging from cultural values to status before the society. We can learn a great deal about them if we look into what the Grand Tale teaches the Mierese, and that’s where we will take our investigation now.

For instance, the first thing every Mierese learns is the danger of pride and the value of freedom. As the story of the first chapter tells us, Onato is currently imprisoned by his pride, and every member of his race sees it as a deadly trap. It’s common for a Mierese to remind fellow companions of Onato’s prison when one starts to boast about any of their feats.

Being humble will keep you free from your ego, and it’s a tradition in their culture to observe this commandment.

Another interesting point of their founding myth is the great value that stories and overall lore play in Mierese society, and how this pushed them away from the written language.

“Don’t rely on possessions or notes. When your day comes and you stand before Onato, you will be alone. Only your memory and intelligence will help sway our God’s favor.” I heard one elder of the Mierese tribe share this lesson with a young lad on Neuno, and I never forgot that raw demonstration of the Mierese society.

This is why the Mierese place so much value on self-expression, secrets, adventures, skills, and intelligence; and why things like possessions, details, protocols or dogmas are irrelevant. A Mierese will focus on substance, experience, and subjectivity. Their god's secret lies in a good story, and no good story was ever lived by doing mundane chores or taking notes about trivial things.

As one can imagine, this creates problems for the Mierese explorers, looking to live an epic adventure but forgetting things like making sure their ship got refueled.

Nevertheless, it is this conjunction of factors that sets the stage for one of the most interesting institutions in Mierese society, the role of the stories and their influence on every aspect of Mierese life.

While most children of Onato have no written language, a few have learned the common written language in order to interact with other factions. The Mierese feel this form of communication is severely lacking, to the point of being almost useless.

If you ask a Mierese to explain why, he would probably feel it’s too much of a hassle to explain such an obvious fact, and if you can’t see for yourself, you might be beyond salvation. But, should you insist, and this particular Mierese is feeling generous, he will tell you that written words are a very poor medium to convey the most important part of stories, emotions, and sensations.

Few things compare to a Mierese Lore Keeper narrating a part of the Grand Tale.

Suddenly, the whole room around him goes silent. If he starts a tale in summer, he will tell you of the warmth of the day, and you will feel embraced by the sun even if you are sitting on a cold night in the mines of Gerio. Should he describe a character, his voice will invoke the peaceful semblance of the maiden or the wrathful gaze of the villain. He will move and dance, cry and laugh, and as time passes, you will see yourself inside the tale, as if you are part of the play and the facts narrated are happening before your very eyes.

Only those who have lived through this experience will understand what I’m currently writing about. In fact, on this point, the Mierese are absolutely right, and written words in any of the 34 different languages that I managed to master are not enough to do justice to a Mierese performance.

At this point, you might be wondering, if the Mierese don’t have written language, how are they supposed to keep track of all the different stories and the overall progress of their species?

That’s where a very important figure in the Mierese society appears: the Lore Keepers. We are going to explore this in the next chapter about the Mierese society.

As a last note before we move on, it’s important to note that although the Mierese are born into extreme conditions and bound to a pact from the day they are born, this hasn’t stopped them from becoming a very cheerful population.

In fact, walking so close to danger has enabled the Mierese to have a lighter approach to life and problems. You will always hear Mierese making jokes before others would even consider it, or saying things like “Ok, this is how we die” just to alleviate the tension in the room.

Of course, members of other species often mistake these comments for mental illness or a lack of intelligence.

Personally, I feel this is a great mechanism to cope with all the stress, cheers to good jokes and stories!

Chapter Four - The Mierese Society

All right! Let us get back on track to discuss the Mierese social structures.

As we discussed, the Mierese are not fond of order, protocols, and governance. They work in small groups and villages, and the local leadership deals strictly with the common affairs of the population, never going into their individual sphere unless it’s absolutely necessary.

Before the Convergence War, the Mierese didn’t even have a central government. Nevertheless, due to pressure from the rest of the ONI Consortium to help in the upcoming war effort, the Mierese reunited their Lore Keepers. They then elected a group of notables to govern and organize their efforts as a cohesive front.

This group of notables elected a speaker which represents and governs their species as a quasi prime minister. Still, his governing functions are limited, and they directly avoid establishing general rules and laws for their brethren unless absolutely necessary.

Even with these limited functions, the government is always viewed with suspicion. If the Mierese god allowed everyone to live however they wish, why should anyone dictate how they behave or act? The only thing keeping the government viable in the Mierese society is the support from the Lore Keepers, and it’s time we start talking about them.

The Lore Keepers could be called the foundation of the Mierese society. They are a special class of individuals trained from their childhood to offer religious support for their people and to act as guardians of the collective memory of their civilization.

Potential candidates are chosen by an elder keeper and start living with them from a young age, learning the Grand Tale and all the tricks of memorizing great quantities of information, including the many minor stories in the Mierese culture.

A small detour here is necessary. As you might have guessed, yes, the long tail of the Mierese head is what makes their prestigious memorization skills possible, and lore keepers tend to have even longer ones than the usual Mierese.

Going back to the Lore Keepers, they exercise many functions in the Mierese society, including tending to the Grand Tale, which includes selecting what should be incorporated into it.

There is a learning curve, of course, and a young Lore Keeper won’t be the one voting for the next installment of the Grand Tale unless he proves himself to be extraordinary. Usually, at the beginning of their journey, they will provide religious instruction to small communities and help organize their city story while documenting the relevant facts of that region.

Here an important point needs to be addressed. We already know that the Grand Tale is the most important story for the Mierese. Every Neuno year, the elder Lore Keepers reunite in an unknown location to share the stories they’ve collected and vote on which should be incorporated into the Grand Tale. This way, should any one of them die, the information will be safe with the others.

If you think about it, their logic is pretty much the same as we use in the Council of Peace Star Atlas chain, but instead of nodes, they use the keeper's prestigious memory.

Nevertheless, aside from the Grand Tale, which is deemed as the main story, the Mierese society is formed of thousands of parallel stories, and each individual, family, city, and institution has its own.

Mierese measure success by the number of stories that an individual appears in. Usually, an individual will be part of their family story, and perhaps their city story, or their craft story, should they prove to be worthy. The regional lore keeper is the one responsible for safeguarding those records and selecting who is worthy of joining the bigger stories.

In every sense, they act as representatives of Onato, judging the Mierese stories in the physical realm.

A Mierese who is not part of any other stories during adult life is perceived as useless and slothful by their brethren, usually suffering prejudice and exclusion in social circles. The biggest penalty in the Mierese society is not death but being erased from your family and community stories.

From the outside, one might think this is not a big deal. But a Mierese is expected to recite the stories they are a part of when formally introducing themselves to other Mierese. If one is excluded from those tales, they are seen as non-existent beings.

In the early days of the Mierese culture, the non-existing were classified as not having rights, and you could even kill someone in this condition as they were already deemed worse than dead by all relevant Mierese parameters.

Nevertheless, the Council of Peace stepped in to protect the lives of the “non-existent,” and although they usually aren’t killed anymore, they are viewed with utmost disrespect and prejudice.

This is even reflected in the religious aspect of their society, as the non-existent supposedly never get to meet Onato, and instead simply vanish after dying.

Speaking of religion, it’s time we move on to this final pillar of the Mierese race.

Chapter Five - The Mierese Religion

The Mierese fascination with stories overflows even to their comprehension of spirituality.

They believe stories are living entities, existing in another plane where the gods live, and that they can connect with them spiritually. More than that, they feel that these stories exert influence over our reality. In this sense, the more famous and relevant a story is, the more significant it impacts our galaxy, as if the moral value or the theme of big stories would happen again and again as if they portray natural laws or phenomena.

To put it in Mierese words:

“Stories are simply the vessels for the universe's moral themes. If you pay attention, you can understand its underlying values as one can infer physical laws from natural phenomena.”

In this sense, both planes, the one where the gods and ideas live and the physical world, influence one another in a cyclical manner.

This fascinating approach is reinforced in the Mierese culture by the spiritual concept of the afterlife. It is said that a special function of the Lore Keepers is the ability to communicate with the spirits and their stories, with the exclusion of those who are deemed non-existent.

This happens through medium sessions, where souls of good or bad intentions inspire the participants to look forward to the lessons in the stories, offering guidance through indirect means.

This, together with the overall appreciation and desire for stories, generate curious outcomes in some individuals.

Sometimes the idea or story is so strong in a particular Mierese that he is almost “possessed,” firmly believing that their creed is the actual truth, becoming an avatar of his idea or story, to the point of dying for his belief. The Mierese lore sees this as an extreme case of the Onato trap we discussed in chapter 1.

That’s one of the reasons the Mierese are so reluctant to embrace an idea or a concept to the point of dying.

In extreme conditions, a Mierese would be so entangled with stories and narratives that they would develop other personalities, which represent the character they envision themselves to be, allowing acts beyond the grasp of their original self. Nevertheless, this also causes troubles, as the Mierese often lose sight of reality, causing everything from mild depression to complete despair.

This might even end up flipping their moral values as they lose themselves to the second conscience. However, this is a rare occurrence, witnessed only a few times in the whole Grand Tale history, but always having a significant impact in Mierese history.

Final Notes and Closing thoughts

Hopefully, this brief introduction to the main topics of the Mierese civilization served to awaken your curiosity regarding this interesting and exotic population.

Our galaxy is filled with fascinating creatures, and exploring their creeds, traits, and histories is a fulfilling experience for us in the sentientologist field of research.

I would like to dedicate these last notes to some curious facts relating to the biology of the Mierese. Their bodies are slim, and they have a much richer specter of voluntary muscle control than the human body due to the presence of more motor neurons.

Nevertheless, they tend to be weaker than humans since their overall system can’t support much weight and evolved to keep them consistently moving. However, their skin has high puncture resistance, and armor is rarely needed. So, they are often quite exposed by MUD standards, especially due to the high temperature of their home planet, which often generates funny, and sometimes awkward, situations. The Tail on their head is also a particular muscle that serves many functions, from balancing their bodies and fine physical control to serving as a repository of memories. It’s divided into many parts with different functions.

The Mierese value sports focused on broader motion control, personal skill, hand-to-hand and weapon combat, and their favorite game of all: narrative battles, a sort of bard face-off similar to an ancient MUD rap battle!

The Mierese diet is wide-ranging. After a thousand years of adapting to the environment of Neuno, they manage to digest almost anything aside from inorganic matter. Still, their favorite food so far is the MUD invention called ice cream, which they use to soothe the infernal heat that is always a part of the Neuno weather.

Speaking of heat, they are naturally more tolerant than humans to it, being able to withstand temperatures of nearly 45 degrees celsius without any loss of biological performance. The Mierese are also naturally resistant to poisonous substances, being exposed to a variety of them during their time on Neuno.

Finally, just like their god, the Mierese love bets, although they are always aware of every detail about them.

This is it for this Mierese insertion. I would like to thank you once more for reading this report, and I would invite you to keep an open eye on our next release when we will focus on another sentient species of our galaxy.

Yours truly,

Professor Argadal

The Showroom State of Development Update

The Showroom development roadmap remains unchanged, and the next update, the R2, also known as the pre-season, will be released at the end of this year.

With this launch, our community will be able to experience multiplayer interaction in our metaverse for the first time! You will be able to use text chat, locally and globally, voice chat, add your friends to your friend list, and decorate the showroom with your NFT art.

And, of course, you will be able to summon your ships and compete with your friends for the best scores! There will be two different leaderboards, one for the Titan Arena, the first ship vs. ship Dogfighting system inside the Star Atlas metaverse, and one for the racing track, where you will be able to challenge your friends to time trials and see who is the best pilot!

All of this will be possible, even if you don’t own a Star Atlas ship, as the Floyd Liner will be there waiting for you. It will be ready to fly, complete with interior design, VFX and SFX. The same will be true for the Pearce X4, if you are lucky enough to own one of those. In time, all ships available for purchase will be able to be piloted among the stars.

The owners of the Calico Medtech, Pearce F4, and the Calico Jet will be able to see the complete version of their ships, interior, and exterior, on the launch date and the BYOS Packlite will also be present as a work in progress. In future updates of the showroom they will be flyable!

Not only that, but our community will also be able to choose to play with four different characters. From the selection screen, you will also be able to choose different free skins to use, and, in the future, you will be using the custom skins that you manage to craft or acquire.

Aside from that, expect to see major changes in the Showroom as the MUD’s growing ambition for progress expands their usage of the last fragment of planet earth. There will be major changes in the exterior area of the Showroom, allowing players and their friends to explore the new grounds together.

You will also notice a complete restructuring of the material libraries of the interior and exterior of the Showroom, as well as the refactoring of the light rigs, improving the consistency and overall quality of the already beautiful Showroom. All of this, and some other surprises, will be available to our community later this month, so get your guild together and enjoy our Christmas present!

The Punaab Whisper - The Atlas Star Tabloid

Welcome readers from all planets and civilizations of our majestic galaxy!

Today your favorite reporter and his faithful assistant Libra.iddt are accompanying an expedition led by the famous MUD archeologist Nanteg Nanvek to planet Evisco.

Evisco would be your average planet in the frontier of the High-Risk Zone if not for a very curious phenomenon that happens there called the Light of Evisco.

As professor Nanteg explained to us, civilization started pretty early on Evisco. In his previous expeditions, he discovered that the first civilization on the planet, whose name and records are now lost to the sands of time, was able to reach space even before the first Sogmian was born. This theory is based on scraps of engines and machines found scattered across the landscape.

Curiously enough, the only remaining piece of structure that still stands is a giant ancient city ruin, which the current Evisco population, formed by semi-sentient quadruped beings, never dares to venture to.

This ghost metropolis, built with minerals only found in deep space, is a sad testament to what might have been one of the most advanced worlds of its time, and no obvious answer has been found regarding what happened to its populace or triggered its downfall.

Yet, according to the professor's research, one thing still seems to be working in the city's temple. If one can survive the monsters that took hold of the ancient city and the drifting paths, which seem to be moving inside the city from time to time, they will find the famous light of Evisco, a stream of pure liquid light.

As you can imagine, my dear reader, the perspective of finding liquid light baffled this reporter, and that’s the reason why we joined the professor’s expedition, hoping to find concrete evidence that such a thing is possible!

Indeed, scientists have yet to understand how light could be condensed and made into liquid form, yet, against all logic, you can bottle up light in the spring of Evisco Temple, if the information relayed by explorers and hunters across the galaxy are to be believed..

However, working with this liquid light appears to be difficult at best. If not properly managed, it’s said to go back into a ray of light, dispersing itself before the wielder's eye. This is a property that only adds to its rarity and value as a resource, according to those specialized in the hunting of rare materials.

After investigating the subject in alternative markets, this reporter has indeed confirmed rumors that the Photoli are paying good ATLAS for even a small bottle of the light of Evisco. Should that be true, one may wonder why and how they would use such a thing.

We also discovered that different groups and manufacturers often try to set up quests to raid the old city in search of the light, as it has been impossible to retake the ruined city from the monsters.

As we draw closer to Evisco, this reporter couldn’t help but be super excited to be part of this adventure! Hopefully, we will find the answers we seek and bring our readers the truth! Stay tuned for our next report in the one and only Punaab Whisper!

Updates

In this second part of the Atlas Star, we will address the latest updates in terms of partnerships, lore, and overall updates!

Joni Awards

If the question we were all asking was “Which gaming community is the best on the planet?” there would be no question – and no contest – because there would be no doubt. The Star Atlas community is head and shoulders above all others, with passionate members supporting one another, educating newbies, even warming the hearts of the entire team with constructive feedback during crypto winter. You truly do it all.

But if we want to celebrate the individuals and guilds who have donated their time and effort or otherwise made an extraordinary contribution to the Star Atlas community during 2022 - well, that’s a difficult question to answer because there are so many exceptional candidates to choose from.

But celebrate them we will!

Welcome to the Jonis, the first ever Star Atlas community awards. This event is named after the original Joni, the fearless fighter pilot who has guided all explorers through the Showroom since day 1.

These awards will be held every year in her honor, and winners will be given a commemorative NFT with the name of the category, their own name and the year “2022”.

Take a look at the categories below and be sure to nominate those who you feel deserve one of these highly coveted awards.

Joni Award Categories

• Community Member of the Year – Recognizing a Star Atlas community member who provided the most value to the ecosystem.

• Most Knowledgeable Star Atlas Community Member of the Year – Recognizing the community member that has the most extensive knowledge about Star Atlas.

• Community Helper of the Year – Awarded to the most helpful community member in Star Atlas, who excels in outstanding community support. The fact that we have this award at all shows the values we hold to be most important of all others.

• Community-Created Project of the Year – Awarded to the community member or team that created the most useful tool this year.

• Meme of the year – Recognizing the funniest meme of the year.

• Small Guild of the Year – Recognizing a guild with 0 to 199 members for most outstanding conduct as an organization in 2022.

• Medium Guild of the Year – Recognizing a guild with 200 to 2000 members for most outstanding conduct as an organization in 2022.

• Large Guild of the Year – Recognizing a specific Guild, from 2000+ members, for most outstanding conduct as an organization in 2022.

• Best Guild Website – Recognizing a specific website, made by a guild, for best design and usefulness.

• Star Atlas Video of the Year – There have been so many entertaining and/or educational videos this year, but which was the best?

• Content Creator of the Year – The content creator or creators judged to be the most outstanding for quality of work and quality of information given.

• Favorite Solana Project – This is specifically for a well loved project that is involved in the Star Atlas ecosystem. (Examples: Step, Raydium, Orca, Phantom, MagicEden)

Nominations will run from December 1st - 5th.

Voting will take place from December 8th - 14th.

The award show will take place in the Star Atlas Amphitheater on Discord on Friday, December 16h.

Nominate your worthy candidates here!

The Golden Era

(Editorial from Foute.eldr, Senior Professor of Macro Economics at Ustead University)

For those of you that have been heads down working on guild strategy or planning your mining operation, you may have missed what has been happening over the past few months. It can be easy to miss these types of things when focusing on the day to day. For myself, as an academic, it can be easier to look at the bigger picture and to observe the massive sea change that has been quietly taking place.

For more than a year, there has been a palpable buzz felt throughout the cosmos as thousands of new explorers from all races and factions have come online and started networking and working. Guilds have been formed, leaders identified and plans laid.

At the same time, a number of historic announcements have come to pass, including the launch of the Star Atlas DAO, ATLAS and POLIS staking, the F-KIT, and much more.

The gorgeous Showroom demo debuted, allowing owners a chance to explore a key hub in our metaverse and check out their ships up close for the first time.

The next update to the Showroom, dubbed R2, is now on the horizon, offering more chances for fun, thrills and exploration. As we disclosed above, multiplayer gameplay will be finally a reality in the universe of star atlas, allowing guilds to come together and take their first steps in the metaverse.

In addition, dozens of new ship models have come on the market, many designed for specific tasks related to transport, mining, fighting and more. All following the massive Start Sequence of SAGE.

And now, even as I write this article, the Council of Peace is offering certain ships at a steep discount, and the community has responded by making a significant number of purchases.

It’s also important to notice that the Factions of Star Atlas have even opened their Central Space Stations gates for the brave explorers that want to acquire a residence for themselves in the hearts of the Galaxy seats of power in a way of helping support the war efforts in the medium risk zone.

All of these steps are laying the groundwork for what comes next. The devnet version of SAGE will launch in the near future, followed by the mainnet version, which will transform the Star Atlas landscape.

While these developments may lead to some armed conflict – or, let’s be honest, a lot of armed conflict – it will also allow citizens to access massive amounts of resources on planets and within asteroid fields for the first time, and to use those resources to build like never before.

These new opportunities for wealth creation are why so many are so hopeful about the future, and why everyone from reporters to guild commanders are already calling this the start of The Golden Era.

While there are some concerning events involving inter-faction disagreements, let’s not take anything for granted or forget how far we’ve come in so short a time.

There may be other universes out there, and some say our shared existence in this realm might in actuality be a giant simulation (though I don’t agree). Either way, there is no place I would rather be than protecting the foundations of our galactical civilization..

Live, love and learn. Power to the People.

Foute.eldr

CORE - Episode 2 Coming Soon!

As reported in the previous issue, stories are once again circulating across the galaxy of a lucky few explorers claiming to have heard the Voice of Iris.

This supernatural phenomena manifests as a ‘whisper of wisdom and foretelling’ carried across the cosmic winds. A few individuals from across all races and factions appear to have been granted the ability to hear this cosmic oracle.

And what is Iris’ message? It speaks of CORE.

For those of you who have been heads down mining or focused on other deep space work, CORE is an epic graphic novel that takes you on an adventure beyond the furthest reaches of known space and time as Gyun and crew face danger, heartbreak, and adventure across 18 episodes. This tale is set before the creation of the Star Atlas, on the cusp of the great Convergence War, before the Council of Peace and before the Golden Era.

The big news from Iris – Episode II will drop December 7!

Be sure to be the first to enjoy it, and the first to pick up on the latest clues which will help you solve the ARC cypher and unlock the mysteries hidden within Star Atlas.

And if you haven’t checked out Episode #1, be sure to do so. You can sign up for newsletter here.

Note: Due to the fact that Magic Eden was down for a week, we have extended the availability of the first episode for an additional week.

The Atlas Brew

The Atlas Brew, the voice of the people inside the Star Atlas Metaverse, had another thrilling month of content! If you have been unable to follow our theorycrafting about the Star Atlas galaxy check our links below, provided by our awesome community records!

Episode #36 - Community Updates: Star Atlas Brew No.36

Episode #37 - Economics - The effects of Bots: The Atlas Brew #37 - economics

Episode #38 - Politics - Conflicts within the Factions: The Atlas brew #38 politics

Episode #39 - Game Structure - Resources: SATV 24/7

Episode #40 - Freestyle and Titans: The Atlas Brew #40 Freestyle & Community Updates

Project Report

Project: UE5 Showroom - R2

Art: BUILDING /// Design: BUILDING /// UX/UI: BUILDING /// UI and Gameplay Engineering: BUILDING /// Sound: BUILDING /// VFX: BUILDING /// Animation: BUILDING /// Vehicles: BUILDING

Updates: Environment art is being finalized and optimized. Lighting being polished. Tech art under performance optimization. /// Main menu updates - done, Pause menu - done, Support Motion Blur and VSync - done. Support of the new Leaderboard design - done, Pop ups for switching to gamepad, settings screen update are in progress. /// Leaderboard, voice chat, backend for text chat - in progress. - Gamepad controls support - in progress. - DLSS system in research done, implementation for R3. - Movement component for Multiplayer (gravity in the ship) - in progress. /// Pearce X4 - Done. Space Racing Track and Showroom Racing track - Done. FloydLiner (engine sounds) - In progress. Calico Medtech (interior and exterior) - in progress. BYOS Packlite (interior) - in progress. /// Pearce X4 and FloydLiner - done. Dogfight FX elements - done. Level Art - in progress. /// CHA animation on speeder - in progress CHA animation in FloydLiner - in progress. Captain sit - in progress. /// FloydLiner lighting optimization - in progress. Blueprints optimization - in progress. Movement component for captain sit - in deployment.

Upcoming activities: Performance optimization. /// Chats (voice and text) UI implementation. /// - Tests multiplayer movement component (gravity in the ship) with a flyable vehicle - Multiplayer test - Beta build preparation. /// Level Art VFX. /// Drone rigs. /// Polishing.

Project: SAGE v1.0

Game Design: BUILDING /// Blockchain: BUILDING /// UX Design: BUILDING /// UI Design: BUILDING /// Web: BUILDING /// Art: BUILDING Updates: Continued to define explicit requirements for core gameplay mechanics and game systems design. Finalized Council Rank Progression system. Started SAGE player manual. /// Continuing planetary mining system within the Fleets Program. Completed Points program and Points Store program and ready to be audited. Completed Starbase upgrade work. Introduced craftable item banks instead of handing over mint authority to the Crafting program. Player profile added to Cargo program. Implementing mining related emissions / R4 consumption formulas into program. Building a test program for movement system to hook up with our light client to build an integrated test pipeline. /// Continued to build out various UX flows (onboarding, crafting, mining…) and solicited feedback from Game Systems Design, Engineering, and other stakeholders. /// Consolidated current UI designs into design system (typography, colors, buttons, components). /// Migrating to new software architectural pattern to ensure scalable and performant game systems. Modeled the data the same way the front end will receive data from the blockchain. Create client side package to hook into the client. Worked on fleet formation and disbanding. Added ship metadata into the game. Started Network Manager. Added various functionalities to the overview menu. /// Working on starbases and planets. Refining textures and lighting on assets. Completed various battle damage particle FX work. Completed beam laser shader. Completed muzzle flashes for various sizes of ships. Completed thrusters for various sizes of ships (different from marketplace). Continuing to work on warpgate FX, including inactive FX as well as active FX when a ship passes through. Continuing work on the planet shaders for procedural planet texture generation. Upcoming activities: Continue to define explicit requirements for core gameplay mechanics and incorporate feedback from SAGE stakeholders. /// Build, peer review, and test programs on testnet, then audit. /// Review wireframes with Project Stakeholders. Continue to iterate until wireframes are approved. Hand over wireframes to UI team. /// Continue to build out UI screens and elements and solicit feedback from stakeholders. /// Migrate game functionality over to new software architecture and implement UI functionality and data handling. Focus heavily on the hooking up of blockchain data to the client side. Continue to add key functionality to the UI. /// Add all assets and FX into SAGE.

Note: all on-chain programs associated with SAGE will undergo cybersecurity and threat modeling prior to the official launch.

Project: Star Atlas DAO - Usability Improvements

Product Design: R&D /// UX design: R&D /// Web Team: BUILDING /// Blockchain: R&D

Updates: Scoping discussion features. /// Treasury details. /// Dark mode; better update handling. /// Scoping on-chain forums.

Upcoming activities: Dark mode, new wallet connect. /// Discussion forums and proposals. /// Wallet modal alignment with PLAY.

Project: Graphic Novel

ART: BUILDING /// UX/UI: BUILDING

Updates: Episode 2 done. Episode 3 in progress. /// Reader and home page done.

Upcoming activities: Finish all promotional materials. /// Make Episode 2 available.

Project: Play.staratlas.com

Features/Bug fixes: Star-atlas-portal Live updated to v0.5.129 PRE-ALPH. /// Graphic Novel Bug fixes. /// Galactic Marketplace Titan Ships Added, Remove all remaining Serum code.

Features in pipeline: Star-atlas-portal: - [BUG] Ship enlistment fails. - Sorting and Orderbook changes. - AB Testing Framework. - [UX] A number of ux enhancements. Galactic Marketplace - Build a method to call Amplitude and SignalFox at the same time. - MoonPay and Jupiter integration. - Orderbook History. - Bug fixes for the new landing page. - Discount Icons. Graphic Novel - Multi language support - Bug fixes - Next Episode Button.

Known issues: -

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ABOUT STAR ATLAS

Star Atlas is a next-gen gaming metaverse emerging from the confluence of state-of-the-art blockchain, real-time graphics, multiplayer video games, and decentralized financial technologies.

Using Unreal Engine 5’s Nanite, real-time graphics technology allows for cinematic quality video game visuals. In addition, blockchain technology using the Solana protocol establishes a largely serverless and secured gameplay experience. Non-fungible tokens obtained and traded within Star Atlas create an economy that replicates tangible world assets and ownership. To learn more, visit StarAtlas.com, join a faction at Play.StarAtlas.com and send your spaceships on a deep space mission by enrolling them in a Faction Fleet.

JOIN OUR COMMUNITY

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Disclaimer

The updates in this report are provided for informational purposes only about the Star Atlas game and metaverse, for which ATMTA, Inc. is the lead developer. Except for statements of historical fact, the statements included herein are forward-looking statements that are based on the beliefs of ATMTA, Inc.’s management as well as assumptions made by and information currently available to ATMTA, Inc.’s management. Although ATMTA, Inc.’s management believes these forward-looking statements are based on reasonable assumptions, there can be no assurance that forward-looking statements will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. ATMTA, Inc. undertakes no obligation to update forward-looking statements if circumstances or management’s estimates or opinions should change except as required under applicable law. These forward-looking statements are, by their nature, subject to significant risks and uncertainties and include, without limitation, statements about ATMTA, Inc.’s business prospects, future developments, industry and market trends and conditions, strategies, objectives, and goals. These statements are not guarantees of future performance and undue reliance should not be placed on them. No financial, tax, or legal advice is given or implied.