The Mantle

The Mantle is the collective name for The Core and a swarm of Shards surrounding it. It's suspended in space, and orbits the normally invisible Cold Sun, with no other celestial objects nearby, and only a few stars visible. The inner radius is about 1000 kilometers, which gives it an internal area of circa ten million square kilometers, the area of Earth's Europe.

History of the Mantle
The creation and continued existence of the Mantle has been a topic of fiery debate in various social circles for as long as there has been civilization on it. Education isn't universal, so various legends and studies are afloat, though the everyman isn't terribly concerned with the past.

Universal knowledge
There are obvious signs that the Universe is kicking its very last, every astronomical observation points towards this. The existence of unnatural, ancient architecture suggests that a more advanced civilization once lived here, before the land cracked into Shards. Historians know them only as The Visitors, due to an early misunderstanding of their origins.

Grounds for debate
It is currently not known for certain what happened to the Visitors and what caused their world to shatter. Popular beliefs and theories are: There is no conclusive evidence for any of these being correct. The Zodiac Readers, the most recent of the many extinct civilizations, believed that the Visitors began a massive project to extend the lifetime of their planet once the sun went out. They tried to harness the warmth of the planetary core, but something went horribly awry, and they disappeared, leaving a deserted world behind for the mysterious new arrivals.
 * They have been wiped out by a sudden, unforeseeable cosmic disaster;
 * they have evoked the anger of the Gods and were all removed for their insolence;
 * they destroyed themselves and their world in a massive war.

The Dying Gods
The Dying Gods is a name for the visible stars on the coldside sky, first given to them by a marauder tribe, later picked up by others as well. They are believed to be the physical representation of deities who, realizing that their reign is reaching an end, created a final battleground to settle their disputes once and for all, through followers recruited there.

The Cult of Aleph
Those who later became the founders of Ismar claim to have deciphered some of the texts, images, and other archaeological evidence the Visitors left behind; however they refuse to share their findings and sources with the rest of the world. Their belief is that there was an entity, who managed to transcend the limits of the physical world, and became worried that it would have to spend the eternity of heat death alone: they named him Aleph. They think that in order to give civilization another chance to reach a higher level, it compacted some remaining matter into a star and a lone planet, fully equipped for complex life to develop.

Given enough time, this new civilization devised the means to escape their dying system and join their creator. It is unknown if they ever succeeded as no remains have ever been found, possibly due to the lack of preserving soil, or the immeasurable amount of time that has passed. Their undertaking, however, resulted in the demolition of the planet and the scattering of its shards into a uniform shell. Anchorposts are said to be their creation, which are responsible for the reintroduction of life to the newly destroyed world; as well as Embers, mysterious fragments with seemingly supernatural properties.

Research suggest that Anchorposts started dragging in loose bits of matter from the past, or alternate dimensions, including life after the visitors disappeared. Even with the original sun long extinguished and cold, the core's warmth was able to support first simple, then complex life on the inner surface, adapted to the new conditions.

Alternate theories
While the above explanation has been the most accepted by scholars as of late, other scientific and religious theories of the Mantle's creation have also surfaced, mostly having to do with intelligent design and divine punishment for everyone involved, or a failed attempt at a new Eden.

Past civilizations
As soon as the surface was able to support intelligent life for a reasonable amount of time, small communities formed, and consequently fell apart due to the lack of new blood, leaving very little behind. Two known larger civilizations, ones that needed a minor cataclysm to be wiped out, are known: the Merownans and the Zodiac Readers.

Current state
The core is cooling and droughts are threatening with famine. The delicate balance of the Mantle cannot be sustained indefinitely, and man-made meddling accelerates its degradation.

Currently the only known civilization is in and around the Golden Basin, splintered into various opposing city-states trying to assume control over resources and population. Most people give no thought about their precarious state, but some are trying to contact Aleph, to ask him for another chance to ascend.