Nebular

This article contains unmarked spoilers for Book 5.

System Message. Posting Book 8 spoilers will result in "acceleration" per our rules.

"Violence breeds chaos. From chaos we were born and into chaos we will succumb.”
-- A Nebular Song^[1]

The Nebular Balance (colloquially called "Nebulars" or "Nebs") is a nomadic religious cult that worships the Eulogist.^[2]

Description

Nebulars do not actively recruit, but their members consist of Soothers, Humans, elves, and dozens of other aliens from across the galaxy. They all wear the same robes and large hats.^[2][3]

Nebulars mechanically and biologically augment themselves as a form of sacrament. They often settle on barely-hospitable planets and bioengineer their children to adapt to the harsh environments; then, after the children reach adulthood, half of the Nebulars move onto a new planet. Along the way, they stay in abandoned space stations and empty worlds.^[2]

They participate in every season of Dungeon Crawler World on the Sixth Floor Hunting Grounds, and have recently been sponsoring Ysalte in the Twelfth Floor Ascendency Wars in the hopes of winning a seat on the crawl council. They are actively campaigning for the right to run a future crawl, but also state that their goal is to shut the crawl down for good.^[2][4]

Religion

The core tenets of Nebular religion are expressed in a song called Ballad of Survival. Their guiding principles boil down to:

• Avoid poverty and scarcity.
• Scarcity-based competition breeds violence.
• Violence breeds chaos.
• Chaos should be avoided.^[2]

Despite their apparent pacifism, Nebulars view crawlers and all "seeded planets" as abominations that must be destroyed. They also actively preach that all non-Nebular religions should be exterminated.^[4]

Nebulars worship the Eulogist as a god, and believe that Mantis attempts to replicate it are blasphemous.^[4]

Nebular Sin Patrol

Every season of Dungeon Crawler World, young males training to become Nebular priests participate in the Sixth Floor Hunting Grounds as the Nebular Sin Patrol. They focus their crusade on cleric and paladin class crawlers.^[2]

History

A "long time ago," the otherwise-peaceful Nebular fought a war against the Burrowers after the Mantids caught them squatting in the Hive Home System.^[2]

The Reavers were once related to the Nebulars, but are now a separate megacorporation and system government.^[5]

Story

On the Sixth Floor Hunting Grounds, the Nebular Sin Patrol claim Prepotente and Miriam Dom as their targets.^[6] They attempt to call dibs on Carl and Donut as well, after the Royal Court of Princess Donut steps into their territory, but the Dark Hive are already pursuing them.^[7]

References