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Astronomy

The Ekiras system, in which Gaeleth is the 1st moon of the 2nd planet. Ekiras is a class G1 yellow dwarf star, located within the normal stellar zone of a large bar galaxy. The stellar neighborhood is conventional, with the only star of note nearby being a binary pulsar some twenty-two light-years away, at forty-five degrees from the north plane of the Ekiras stellar plane. Ekiras itself is a bit brighter than Sol, appearing slightly more white than our own yellow sun – and putting out a bit more heat.

There are only three planets orbiting Ekiras, one of which is class M, like earth. The second planet out is a gas giant several times more massive than Jumpiter, known as Maroth. Maroth has two class M worlds – the innermost of which is Gaeleth, and the outtermost being Brijanis. The third world in the system is Kara, a class L world whose surface is covered in glacial ice. An asteroid belt lies between the gas giant of Maroth and the inner world of Gaeleth.

Jazed is the innermost planet of the system, completing a revolution around Ekiras in 272 days, coincidently the incumbation period of developing humans. Jazed is periodically beset by impacts from the asteroids and comets that in habit the system, knocked into resonance by Maroth

Maroth is a large, faintly luminous brown dwarf star that never had enough mass to ignite its fusion core. It completes a rotation around Ekiras once every 365 days. In that time, Gaeleth completes thirteen rotations (or months) around Maroth, and Brijanis completes twelve rotations. From the surface of Gaeleth, Maroth takes up nearly an eighth of the sky, shedding a dim red light at night equal to that of earth's full moon – but without destroying nightvision. From Brijanis, Maroth appears roughly the size of earth's moon, though its lumination is more red-orange than Gaeleth's.

Kara is a frozen world, orbitting Ekiras once every five years. Kara's atmosphere is very cold, and the planet itself is geologically dead, with no internal heat and no moons.

General

Latitudinal study, and oceanic view of Gaeleth.Gaeleth is slightly larger than earth, but with a mean density less than that of earth, it's gravity is nearly the same (.97 times earth normal). The core of the planet is molten iron, surrounded by a crystalline iron shell. The mantle is a silicon dioxide (quartz) slurry heated by the radioactive core and tidal flux caused by Maroth's tidal pull. The crust is a mixture of basalts and granites, punctuated in places by magic seeps that reach tendrils through the mantle, all the way to the core. Gaeleth has a nitrogen-oxygen atmosphere with a 70/26 percent mix (roughly earth norm), as well as oceans of hydrogen oxide (water).

Surface tides caused by Maroth can roll in and out scores of miles, and vary in height from tens of yards to nearly a mile in certain funneled regions. Rip tides, currents, surface waves, and weather patterns are insanely rough. Magic fronts left over from mage battles still linger, altering weather and ocean patterns into unrecognizeable patterns of cause and effect. Planetary science may never develop on Gaeleth, because of the chaotic forces governing the planet, due almost entirely to its proximity to a brown dwarf star.

Gaeleth as a planet developed out of the primordial haze in tandem with the other Sister Worlds, orbiting Ekiras. Ten-thousand and five-hundred years ago, the Sister Worlds were at war with one another. Gaeleth's mages and clerics contrived to tap into interplanetary space, and capture a nearby anomoly known as the Oddity. The time-space distortion was tapped into with magic and divine intervention, so that it rolled into Maroth's gravity well, and then into Gaeleth itself. Temporal and spacial distortions, coupled with the power and mathematical analyses performed by the preeminent mages and mathematicians, contrived to transform the Oddity into the Shield.

The Shield also transported Gaeleth to another star system. The world was placed into orbit around the star Vulgarious at approximately 92.5 million miles (or roughly the earth-sun distance). The internal matrix of Gaeleth was severely disrupted by the sudden lack of tidal gravity flux, and the world very likely would have cooled into a ball of ice within several hundred millennia. In the meantime, the Shield locked out all forms of interplanetary transport, save for preconstructed Gates and other locater items. Teleportations no longer functioned. Alien gods could no longer interfere in Gaelethian works. All demons and planeswalkers were either locked on or locked out.

The Shield was never intended to last longer than a dozen years, after which time, Gaeleth would be returned to its proper orbit about Maroth – after sitting out the Sister Worlds War. Unfortunately, agents on both Brijanis and Jazed conspired to sabotage the project, and the Shield became a prison. Trying in vain to undo the Shield, and save their world, the original mages and minds involved in the project eventually died or faded into obscurity. Gaeleth remained locked within the Shield.

Five thousand years later, long after the Sister Worlds War was over, and the last of the minds behind the Shield was dead, the Shadow Star appeared. It was an image of the original Oddity approaching Gaeleth, and rolling down into its gravity well. Gaeleth roiled with gravitic interference caused by the spatio-temporal, and seismic disturbances nearly tore the surface apart, from volanoes to waves many miles high. The terrible geological events were coupled with equally deplorable acts of violence and evil, unleashing magics that would have profound consequences for many years.

Ten thousand years later, the same events occurred again, indicating that Gaeleth would remain locked within a five-thousand year cycle of repetition. Mages and minds of the time discovered the truth of the Oddity and the Shield, and resolved to tap into the magics stored within the crystalline iron core to ease Gaeleth out of the Oddity. They succeeded – five-hundred years later.

Gaeleth suddenly reappeared in its proper orbit and resonance about Maroth, beginning the healing of the planet's mantle and weather. The sudden appearance of Gaeleth caused a minor atmospheric flurry about Maroth, lighting it up for all the solar system to see for a few days. Within two or three hundred years, the planet should regain its former stability. In the meantime, it is chaotic, and barely controlled by its gods. With the Shield down, it is also once again open to planeswalkers and summonings.

The auroras on Gaeleth are rather pitiful, because the world lies within the magnetic and radiative belts of Maroth. Maroth's aurora's are plainly visible from Gaeleth, and can cause night-time shadow flickering. Visible even during the day, the light shows and lightning of the brown dwarf can be inspiring.

Geology

Vulcanology and plate tectonics of Gaeleth.Gaeleth's plate structure differs significantly from that of earth's. The tidal influences of Maroth have created volcanic lines and plumes that erupt across the face of Gaeleth in a rolling wave of hot magma, without defining the actual line of the plates themselves. The upwellings typically characterized by volcanoes, which indicate where one plate submerges beneath another, are absent. The subduction zones present at plate borders is atypical from earth because of the roiling tidal fluxes present beneath the crust.

Plumes are present, and briefly light, letting the larger crustal plates vent building heat or stress. More often, the massive plates simply bow under the pressure as the mantle quickly redistributes itself with another pass around Maroth. Upwellings of this sort can cause massive oceanic instabilities, throwing currents into chaos, and rising enormous waves to sweep the coasts. The ocean goddess of Gaeleth, Olorin, controls many of these instabilities, protecting the coastal areas from being swept away.

Volanic activity on land is usually controlled by the earthern god Mikindim or the dwarven god Galgiran. When the gods are capricious, or when the world is simply too powerful for them, the volcanoes can ignite with sudden and devestating force. Deadly lahears – waves of semi-liquid mud, earth, and hot steam – often are the first warning that a volcano will blow. Worse, the volcanoes usually ignite in sequence, lighting a line of hot lava through their mountain chains.

Of particular note are the Heavensbane Mountains. Their eight mile high spires of black basalt are linked directly into the magical seep that runs straight to the core. All arcane magics within the Heavensbane are amplified, using the Heavensbane as giant antennaes. This effect powers the Gate Nexus found within the Heavensbanes, and also powers the various Gates scattered across the planes of the multiverse. These Gates were built during the Sister Worlds War to facilitate the armies of Gaeleth, and they still stand in some places.

The crust has also taken a number of direct meteor strikes because of Maroth's gravity well. These chips in the crust sometimes become volcanoes, and sometimes form a ring of volcanoes around an enormous upwelling of magma. Circular patches of glass dot the surface of Gaeleth, some of them hundreds of miles wide. Smaller meteor strikes often make entire cities disappear overnight, and have even destroyed armies on the march.

Meteorology

Weather cells of Gaeleth.Predicting the weather is more art than science on Gaeleth. Magical energies left over from past mage wars continue to wreak havoc on the air currents across the planet. One can watch a storm front run into an invisible wall, where the magical cells still curtail movements in the middle atmosphere. These odd cells across the face of Gaeleth make the global weather patterns very odd. Although Gaeleth does experience seasons, they are somewhat mitigated by these weather cells. Two areas barely a mile from one another can experience two entirely different weather phenomena. For these reasons, the God of Storms, Brigain, is highly revered for his ability to quell storms and predict the weather through his priests.

Gaeleth experiences a wide range of weather phenomena, from stale air that does not circulate for months, to awesome tornadoes that expand out of proportion into hurricanes of incredible strength. Particularly violent or dangerous storms systems are usually confined to specific areas within their weather cells, but not always and not necessarily in a predictable fashion. While rains and more gentle weather are much more predictable because of these cells, the very instability of the magic that sustains them makes more extreme weather that much more unpredictable.

gaeleth/science.txt · Last modified: 2021/09/28 15:47 (external edit)