publisher blurb Starwhales birthed the universe as we know it. When a starwhale dies their body disintegrates, leaving behind a hot, dense heartstone that drops through the atmosphere and settles at the core of the gas planet that the whale called home. If left untended there, the heartstones of dead whales ignite the planet’s core and create new stars. All stars are the products of dead starwhales. Legend has it that if the heartstone of a dead starwhale is retrieved and returned to the upper atmosphere, it will summon the whale back from beyond death.