Location from Hyperion by Dan Simmons
Humanity's birthplace — supposedly destroyed by the TechnoCore's black hole experiment, actually spirited across galaxies by the Lions and Tigers and Bears, and returned during the Aenean awakening.
Old Earth was destroyed — or so humanity believed — by the TechnoCore's 'Big Mistake,' an experiment with black holes that supposedly consumed the planet. In truth, the Lions and Tigers and Bears freecast the entire planet to the Lesser Magellanic Cloud before the black hole could destroy it. Aenea traveled there through old farcaster portals and studied architecture under a Frank Lloyd Wright cybrid. Martin Silenus died there, having completed the Cantos at last. During the Aenean Shared Moment, Old Earth was returned to its original location. Old Earth is the Cantos' ultimate symbol of loss and restoration — the home that was taken, hidden, and given back. Its return is the narrative's emotional climax.
A blue marble. The original. The one everyone remembers but nobody born after the Hegira has seen. When Aenea studied there under the Frank Lloyd Wright cybrid, it was a preserved planet in the Lesser Magellanic Cloud — maintained by the Lions as a seed bank of human culture.
Also known as: Old Earth, Earth