Isträ

Appearance and constitution
Isträ is the sun that is at the center of the Isträ system. Despite being slightly bigger than our sun, its appearance is widely different. The surface of the star indeed appears to be blue rather than yellow and it is much hotter. This color variation seems to be coming directly from the sun itself rather than from the atmosphere of Themeris, even though on some locations such as the Niestay southern desert at dusk and on the Argovay eastern plains at night the blue color of the sun reflects on the moon or the sand, while everywhere else it seems to be much whiter looking.

This star is mostly composed of hydrogen as well as helium. Its core seems to be made of carbon and iron, which form an inner layer of hot plasma kept in place by several layers of varying magnetic fields. Recent studies from the Planet exploration corps have shown that the star is also surroundered by a thick relatively stable magnetic field that may be the main reason of its color. The same field may also explain why the sun shows so little activity when it comes to solar eruptions, as they appear to be contained by it.

Orbiting planets
8 planets orbit around Isträ, in this order :


 * Heas


 * Asiel


 * Vaesi


 * Themeris


 * Orak


 * Sibli


 * Isaka


 * Esko

Name and origin
Isträ means Immortal in the Sacred Tongue, the first language that was given to the Gyrad and the Hyren as a gift from the Arcanium in an attempt to help the races get along. The name comes from the common belief that the sun was once orange, but was given the gift of immortality by the Arcanium in order to provide Themeris with unlimited amounts of sunlight.

Cultural importance
The meaning and importance of Isträ among the population of Themeris widely changes from a species to another. The Human race tends to give it a very simple life-giving role and treat it as a simple star rather than an actual meaningful entity, the Ether show an exclusively scientific interest towards the sun while their Altar cousins seem to see it as a symbol of wealth and power. Despite the close relationships between the Altar and the Gyrad, the sacred wolves have a very different idea of Isträ, as they interprete is as a gift from the Arcanium, sharing this idea with the Hyren, the other sacred race. The Elf race globally sees the sun as the Arcanium's own home. According to the Elven sun circle, people born under the Isträ sign are bound to be great mages as they were born in the night between 11PM and 1AM, at the moment where the two moons of Themeris are bright blue thanks to the reflection of Isträ's light. The Methys see the sun as the source of power of Korath, the dragon god of the day.

Controversy around the immortal theory
As the star's name directly comes from an old belief according to which the sun was given immortality by the Arcanium, several people have tried to disrpove or prove the theory through experiments or logical reasoning. It is usually argued that the star cannot be possibly immortal and that the belief comes from an era where people were widely misinformed. Eager to solve the issue, the Planet exploration corps has recently sent several probes near the sun in order to decide whether the star was immortal or not, but the results were not deemed complete enough to give a proper conclusion. However, it was reported that the magnetic field storming around the star seemed to be younger than the sun itself, meaning that Isträ may have once been a regular sun before turning into a blue dwarf.