Neomuna

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Neomuna
Neomuna1.jpg

Location:

Neptune

Hostile races:

Cabal
Vex
Taken

Accessibility:

Complete First Contact

Landing zones:

Hall of Heroes
Límíng Harbor
Strider's Gate

 

Neomuna is an advanced Human city on Neptune developed by survivors of the Exodus Indigo following the Collapse; founded by members of the Ishtar Collective including Maya Sundaresh and Chioma Esi after the discovery of a paracausal artifact called the Veil lead to its creation. It was kept isolated and hidden for centuries during the Dark Age and the City Age until traces of its existence were uncovered by Osiris and the Witness; leading to an all-out siege by the Shadow Legion to claim the city and the Veil beneath it. It was added as a Destination in the Lightfall expansion.

The city is protected by a line of warriors known as Cloud Striders, who have voluntarily undergone cybernetic augmentation at the cost of significantly reducing their lifespan and defend Neomuna against both Shadow Legion Cabal and the local Vex.

History[edit]

Founding[edit]

During the Golden Age, Rasputin and the Ishtar Collective created an AI called Soteria using Vex technology. She was designed to simulate deep space travel and extrasolar colonization, as part of Clovis Bray's ECHO project.[1] Shortly before the Collapse, Soteria detected the presence of the Black Fleet outside Sol, and was unable to devise a trajectory that would allow a hypothetical launch to evade the Pyramids and survive unassisted.[2][3]

Rejecting orders from Clovis Bray I to stand down, Soteria placed subminds of herself inside a large number of ECHO colony ships and forced them to launch into space with supplies, colonists, and crew members on-board, before she was trapped in the Ares Spire on Mars. Most of the ECHO ships were destroyed in their flight, but one was caught by Neptune's gravity well and crashed into the ice giant's surface.[4] Sometime later during the Collapse, a Colony ship called the Exodus Indigo intercepted a Vex distress signal from the outer system, likely sent by the stranded fragment of Soteria on Neptune.[5]

The Exodus Indigo made it to Neptune, where its crew (which included many notable Ishtar Collective scientists, including Maya Sundaresh and Chioma Esi) discovered Soteria, along with a paracausal entity known as the Veil which had been previously hidden on the planet by Savathûn, the Witch Queen. The colonists also encountered the Vex, who had retroactively inserted themselves into Neptune's history but were prevented from making a direct assault by the paracausal influence of the Veil, not before they manage to isolate the colony from outside assistance by weaving a simulation into Neptune's magnetic field, concealing any evidence of its existence.

With the aid of the Veil's paracausal protection, the colony survived and eventually developed into a thriving city, which came to be called Neomuna.

City Age[edit]

Over the following centuries, Neomuna's technological advancement would come to exceed even that of Earth during the Golden Age. Among their most notable achievements were highly versatile nanomachines, developed using elements taken from SIVA, Vex technology and Exominds erased during the initial contact with the Veil,[6] that could be used to rapidly fabricate structures or be used in weaponry. They also developed a sophisticated computer network known as the CloudArk, which was based on the paracausal energy field emitted by the Veil, and could serve as a virtual reality environment for the Neomuni to inhabit.

The Neomuni also developed a means to cybernetically augment a human using nanotechnology, granting them heightened abilities at the cost of reducing their lifespan. Chosen from a pool of volunteers, these augmented protectors became known as Cloud Striders, and served to protect Neomuna from threats such as the Vex.

Hidden by Neptune's Vex-altered magnetic field, Neomuna would remain completely unknown to both the surviving denizens of Earth and the Awoken of the Reef. A single expedition was made by the Neomuni to establish contact and conduct cultural exchange between Neomuna and Earth, but this mission ended in bloodshed when the expedition team ran afoul of the Warlord Carnunta and his followers. As a result of this, the Cloud Strider Stargazer, who had led the excursion, asked the submind Malahayati to purge all mention of Neptune or the Exodus Indigo from Rasputin's files, in an effort to prevent any hostile invaders from seeking out Neomuna.[7] However, Rasputin's files would retain the codename "Nefele Stronghold" within his list of known Human colonies and settlements, referring to either Neptune or Neomuna specifically.[8]

After this disastrous attempt at first contact, the Neomuni opted to refrain from reaching out to the people of Earth, fearing the conflicts of Earth would reach their safe city, even after the Warlords had been supplanted by more noble Risen such as the Iron Lords and the Last City's Guardians. Likewise, they came to believe that the Exos had gone extinct after the Collapse, unaware that many continued to live within the Last City.

Arrival of the Black Fleet[edit]

Centuries later, things would change dramatically for the people of Neomuna. They would detect the return of the Pyramids to the Sol System, and as a precaution, the people of Neomuna collectively entered cryogenic suspension while their minds remained active within the CloudArk, in an effort to prevent casualties during what was predicted to be a second Collapse.

As luck would have it, war came to the doorstep of Neomuna, as the city would come under assault from the Shadow Legion. On the orders of the Witness, they sought to find and secure the Veil, which was entombed beneath the city. The Cloud Striders fought against the Shadow Legion, but despite their efforts, they were losing ground. However, the latest Cloud Striders, Rohan and Nimbus, would gain the aid of the Guardian and Osiris who had come to prevent the Shadow Legion from acquiring the Veil. Despite being skeptical of the Lightbearers, the Cloud Striders agreed to join forces with the Guardians to save their city.

At an unknown point in time after the Arrival, Asher Mir followed the Vex to Neomuna through the Nexus and encountered information about the Veil, which he began to manually research and simulate. His appearance would be noted by archivist Quinn Laghari due to his name appearing in cryptic references within the network, but Asher himself was either unable or unwilling to inform the outside world of his findings. He remained in Neomuna's sector after the Shadow Legion's invasion to monitor the Guardian's excursions into the network, though circumstances would later force him to flee back to Earth and extract his research to the material world. It is later revealed that Asher's activities on Neomuna forced him to resume integration into the Vex Network, resulting in his death four weeks after the invasion when the Nexus captures his consciousness.

Despite Rohan sacrificing his life in the fight, the Cloud Striders' alliance with the Guardians would bear fruit in keeping Neomuna and its people safe, defeating Emperor Calus and especially in protecting the CloudArk from the Vex and Nezarec's influence on the citizens. However, some Neomuni have displayed skepticism in whether the Guardians were different from the Warlords, as the Earth representatives objected to the label, clarifying that the Guardians have the Vanguard to provide checks and balances and a command structure but the same critics would point out the Vanguard's apparent lack of control over their membership and lack of accountability. To further add to the confusion, the civilian City Council of Neomuna are unsure how to legally classify the Guardians' Ghosts, especially the unpartnered Ghosts when they first begin to visit their city.

Since the Shadow Legion's attack, the Neomuni have petitioned the City Council to expand their military capabilities but this was rejected by the council as they didn't want to risk an increase in military authority or the loss of reconstruction expertise. However, they did agree to approving a petition to expand the scope of civilian defense force efforts.

After the Guardian fails to stop the Witness from establishing a link with the Veil and thus open the portal to the Pale Heart, they join with Osiris and Nimbus to learn more about the nature of the Veil as they search for a solution to bypass the portal, follow the Witness, and prevent it from enacting the Final Shape, from tracking down Rohan's notes leading into the Black Garden to listening to audio logs left behind by Dr. Chioma Esi. They also repair the Cloud Strider monuments damaged by the Vex during the Shadow Legion's siege of the city. After repairing all the Cloud Strider monuments, Soteria informs the Guardian of Ahsa's existence on Titan and that they must pursue the Augurmind's lead as Ahsa has vital information regarding the Witness's origins. The solution to bypass the portal the Witness created finally presents itself when the Guardian recovers one of the Ahamkara eggs belonging to Riven and Taranis from the Imbaru Engine, located within Savathûn's Throne World. Osiris begins his attempts to replicate the Witness's link to the Veil, but fears abusing its power would cause a similar fate to the Dreaming City on Neomuna. After recovering the remaining eggs and using the 15th wish to allow Crow to enter the Pale Heart via the Ley Lines, Osiris returns to Neomuna to begin forging a bridge between the Veil and the Traveler, allowing the Coalition to follow Crow into the Pale Heart and finally confront the Witness before it can complete the Final Shape.

Locations[edit]

Citizens[edit]

Trivia[edit]

  • Neomuni is the demonym for the citizens of Neomuna.
  • Little is currently known about the etymology behind the name "Neomuna", however, some guesses can be made by looking at the name’s components in different languages:
    • "Muna" is an Arabic name that means "wishes" or "desires", making Neomuna mean "new wishes" or "new desires".[9]
    • "Muna" is also a Native American name that means "overflowing spring", possibly alluding to Neomuna as a "new spring" of life.[9]
    • In many old/proto versions of modern European languages "muna" means "egg", which in this case could allude to the idea of 'new life'.[10]
    • "Neomuna" is a Romanization of the Korean word 너무나 (너무 = neomu, 나 = na), which translates to English as "far too much" or "excessively".[11] However, the pronunciation is "nomuna", without the "e".
    • Neomuna is also an anagram of the word noumena, the plural for noumenon, which is a concept from Kantian philosophy. Noumenon is the opposite of phenomenon, and refers to something that exists independently from human senses. The concepts of noumenon and phenomenon are used in Kantian philosophy to explain causality.

Gallery[edit]

List of appearances[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ https://www.ishtar-collective.net/entries/tm-moss-custom-duster
  2. ^ https://www.ishtar-collective.net/entries/terminus-horizon
  3. ^ https://www.ishtar-collective.net/entries/wilderflight
  4. ^ https://www.ishtar-collective.net/entries/into-the-sunset
  5. ^ https://www.ishtar-collective.net/entries/winterbite
  6. ^ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yGsqTQhhpI8
  7. ^ https://www.ishtar-collective.net/entries/laminak-li#book-cloud-strider-legacies
  8. ^ https://www.ishtar-collective.net/interactions/evidence-board-report-transcript-wound
  9. ^ a b She Knows: Muna Baby Names Meaning
  10. ^ Wiktionary: Muna
  11. ^ Wiktionary: 너무나

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