then a light bloomed , dusky , febrile , as deeply red as venous blood , a light that resolved itself into a star , a smoldering sun shining upon a dark world of jagged black mountains , untracked forests , and bogs , endless bogs , bogs stretching away into the perpetual night , bogs filled with bloody plants , plants harvested by hundreds , nay , thousands , of black-haired , pale-skinned people , people who drank blood on an alien world .