Nethrys
Where every instrument disagrees
An uninhabited moon whose electromagnetic interference makes instruments disagree about position, depth, orientation, and sometimes the ground beneath them.
Overview
The Record
Nethrys cannot be surveyed into agreement. Intense electromagnetic interference disrupts navigation, communications, and surface instruments; independent teams observing the same site report incompatible positions, depths, and magnetic orientations. Fewer than 150 researchers rotate through shielded temporary habitats because no permanent settlement can rely on the local record alone.
The interference is confirmed. Its cause is not. Conductive geology, interacting fields, buried machinery, and orbital effects that amplify instrument error all remain active explanations, but no model accounts for every observation and no expedition has produced evidence that settles the dispute.
Research therefore depends on remote reference beacons, redundant inertial systems, and records kept outside the affected region. Dawn and Gloam practitioners examine the contradictions from different disciplines, but neither practice has identified the source. Nethrys remains useful precisely because it exposes the limits of instruments and interpretation without explaining them.
Political Relationships
Standing
Standing at a Glance
- Civilization Status
- Uninhabited
- Heraldic Standing
- No Unified Mark
Nethrys is unclaimed. Outer-system institutions coordinate research access informally, but none accepts permanent authority or rescue responsibility. Temporary habitats use expedition markings; the moon has no government, common warrant, or crest.
Physical Characteristics
Ground and Sky
- Diameter760 km
- Mass0.000061575 Earth masses
- Gravity0.02 g
Nethrys has a tenuous, ionized exosphere rather than a breathable atmosphere. Temporary habitats require pressure systems, electromagnetic shielding, and navigation references maintained beyond the strongest interference. Outside them, crews face vacuum, radiation, charged dust, and instruments that may disagree about local orientation.
Orbit and Time
Path Around Oranth
- Orbital Order832
- Orbital Radius15,150,000 km
- Orbital Period219.968 days
- Rotation17.9 hours
- Inclination31.7 degrees
- Eccentricity0.074
External observers place Nethrys’s rotation near 17.9 standard hours and its orbit around Oranth at 219.968 standard days. Electromagnetic interference makes precise surface longitude and local orientation unreliable, so the rotation is accepted as an approximate global measurement rather than a dependable surface clock. Research shifts use remote timing references.
Culture
The Twofold
Dawn practitioners attempt to reconcile contradictory observations; Gloam practitioners study what the instruments fail to disclose. Neither aspect is confirmed as the source of the interference, and no practitioner has produced a reading that resolves the physical evidence. The disagreement remains an object of practice, not proof of a Twofold cause.
Travel
Travel Notes
Close approach requires a specialist pilot, remote reference beacons, redundant inertial navigation, and procedures for continuing after local communications or orientation data diverge. Vessels should not use Nethrys as their sole navigational reference. Berths belong to temporary research habitats and must be arranged before entering the interference zone.