Gossamerspace
is a small quiet sphere along a major trade route. It gets its name from
the elaborate lacy nebula, shaped like graceful arcs, loops, and curves,
that occur within the outer third of the sphere. These nebula are in
fact long streams of glowing air, slowly moving and changing. They make
the night skies of Gossamerspace a wonder to behold, and nights are
never dimmer than twilight.
Another unusual feature of this sphere is that each of the planets within Gossamerspace has an elaborate system of lacy rings, making it a splendid sphere for visitors. Reigar commonly venture to Gossamerspace for inspiration, and most of the worlds are rather idyllic.
The stars of the sphere also function as the portals. The stars normally resemble a round pool of liquid that is either burning or glowing. When a portal forms, it invariably forms in the middle of one of the star-pools, and a ship may pass through the opening safely.
The sun of Gossamerspace is a ringshaped fire body with two distinct sides. On one side, the flames burn a warm orange, while the other side burns with a blue fire. The orange side gives summer heat to those worlds it faces, while the blue side brings winter. The sun-ring rotates once every 120 days, so every planet in the sphere has 30 days of summer weather, 30 days of fall, 30 days of winter, and 30 days of spring.
Endeir is a turbulent water world. The waters are very warm (about 90 degrees F), and in constant motion. The world is heated by the sun, and the complex convection combined with a rapid rotation rate (14 hours) gives the planet a constantly changing shape.
Chunks of ice occur naturally inside the planet for some odd reason. These chunks act as miniature cores, and any protrusion from a spherical state typically contains one or more of the icy cores. What keeps these chunks frozen is a mystery, but the temperature difference contributes to the turbulent planet's nature.
Aside from hardy marine flora and fauna, Endeir is inhabited by several varieties of aquatic elves, merfolk, shalarin, and marine fey creatures. They live in a nomadic lifestyle, as the turbulent seas prevent any permanent structures. A few tribes have carved settlements into the ice cores, but they avoid contact with outsiders.
Surrounding Endeir is a ring of glowing gas, similar to the lacy nebulae close to the shell. It glows a brilliant pink.
Kodizana is a cold world despite its proximity to the sun. This is likely caused by the system of ice rings that surround the planet. The terrain of Kodizana is mostly mountainous, with small cold seas which frequently ice over, except in summer months. The vegetation on this world is sparse but hardy, so communities have grown up around the various seas and lakes.
Fortunately, Kodizana has some volcanic activity, so Kodizana has a thriving underdark community. The underdark on Kodizana is integrated into the planetary society as a whole, and many surface communities trade fish for underdark-grown vegetables and livestock.
Kodizana's volcanism also creates numerous natural hot springs, which locals and reigar both enjoy.
Kodizana is primarily inhabited by (oriental) humans, nycters, and goliaths.
A system of three ice rings surround Kodizana. Rather than occupying the orbital plane like most ring systems, the rings of Kodizana are polar, and the three rings meet at Kodizana's north and south poles (which coincides with the long axis of the ellipsoid). The rings are circular and equally spaced, dividing Kodizana into six different sections, like sectionsof an orange. The rings are also close enough that they graze Kodizana's upper atmosphere at the polar latitudes.
Kodizana has one moon, a size B elliptical liveworld, called Pan'raku. Pan'raku is 34 miles on its longest axis, and has an orbital diameter of 98000 miles, and an 18-day orbital period. Pan'raku has no permanent settlements, though the wreckage of many small settlements dot the surface. Pan'raku used to be fairly amiable, but the fate of Vel'tanga (see below) gave the moon a malicious streak. It will welcome anyone entering its atmosphere via telepathy, inviting them to land and salvage goods from the ruins. Sometimes it allows visitors to search the ruins without problem, but other times it will cause tremors, open crevices under the visitor's ship, or have other harm befall the hapless victims. Pan'raku hates the reigar, but has trouble distinguishing humanoids.
Perathen is an agrarian world, covered in fertile fields, rivers and forests. The planet does not have any high mountain ranges, though about 60% of the planet is covered in oceans.
Perathen is primarily inhabited by halflings. Humans and elves also have small nations on the surface. The three races work together, and have largely civilized the entire surface of the planet. Though there are monsters, most of them have been driven to extinction. The halflings are slightly paranoid about visitors, fearing they may bring dangers or disruptions to the halfling's peaceful life.
Circling Perathen is an earth ring. Unlike most earth rings, which are composed of discrete rocky chunks, Perathen's ring is a solid flat ring. The ring is about 100 miles across and 5 miles thick, with an outer diameter of 9200 miles. It has an atmosphere, and a few spacefarers have built small communities on one side of the ring or the other. The ring has a few naturally occurring lakes, most of which penetrate the ring.
Gossamerspace's largest world, Sacafeda (needs some detail)
Sacafeda has a complex ring system surrounding it, consisting of five distinct rings. The innermost ring is a ring of small earth bodies, many of which are covered in vegetation. Despite the challenges of navigating within the ring system, the inner ring is home to many retired spacefarers and small towns. The second ring is a ring of fire, composed of small chunks of fire rather than a continuous ring. The third ring is a more typical earth ring, with larger chunks of rock. The third ring is unremarkable, though it does have a few mining communities. The fourth ring is also a ring of earth chunks, though the entire ring is enveloped in an air envelope which glows like one of Gossamerspace's nebulae. Generally, the air glows a soft blue-green, and the air envelope makes the fourth ring a popular place for small settlements. The fifth ring is a ring of water and ice. In summer months, the ring is composed of water, but it freezes in the winter months.
Sacafeda's wide rings are separated by its system of six moons. The reigar of this sphere use some of the moons and rocks within the ring system as an artistic playground, so many of them show signs of reigar artistry.
Ulforin is a small icy world with a variety of arctic life. Uldra (see Frostburn) are the most common inhabitants, though arctic dwarves and a few other arctic races have also claimed territory on Ulforin. Unlike Kodizana, Ulforin has few mountains, instead having a number of pine forests and tundra. It has a thick cloud layer, so the planet resembles an elliptical white egg from space.
Surrounding Ulforin is a complex system of spiral-shaped rings made of ice. These rings, or spirals, form a complex interwoven series of ice strands curving around the planet's middle. The effect from space - particularly over the poles - is spectacular.
At the outer extent of Gossamerspace's solar system, Rayelmi quietly orbits. It has seven major cities, each on a small shallow lake, and ample farmland. All of the cities welcome space travelers, and they have excellent provisions and repair facilities.
Each of Rayelmi's cities is dominated by a cabal of reigar. These cabals do not actively control the city, though their lakshu servants control the city guard. Instead, the reigar simply set the cultural tone for their respective city, and expect the populace to follow suit. The reigar cabals compete with each other on a (Rayelmi-)yearly basis, designing great artwork and showcasing their talents. Each year, a neutral group of judges judge the competition. Offworlders are frequently asked to judge, as they are less easily biased by any individual. Of course, the inhabitants of Rayelmi aren't above "actively recruiting", or abducting, judges from Gossamerspace's inner planets.
Rayelmi is encircled by a ring of fire, which orbits in an oscillating fashion.
The outer 280 million miles of the sphere is filled with lacy nebulae, glowing in many colors. The nebulae do not fill the space (so most stars are visible from the planets), but they do provide light. For spacefarers, they also provide air, though a ship that mingles its air with the nebulae will find that its atmosphere glows for the next 2-12 days.
Many of the nebulae are sparsely inhabited by non-sentient aerial creatures such as birds. The nebulae do not have a gravity field, so ships can fly into them without any complex navigation. This makes the nebulae an ideal place for ships to replenish their air envelope. Of course, this also means that pirates may lurk in the nebula, waiting for prey.
Hidden above the elliptical plane of the system, within a particularly thick veil of gossamer nebula, lies Vel'tanga. This small world resembles a sphere, but with various arms, legs, eyes, tentacles, claws of various creatures (all planetary size) and so forth stuck onto it. The appendages do not move, and make the worldlet resemble a bizarre child's plaything. Vel'tanga is inhabited only by lakshu and other reigar servitors, and they will try to kill anyone who finds Vel'tanga or tries to land on it.
Millenia ago, Vel'tanga was a moon orbiting one of the planets of Gossamerspace. It was also a liveworld, like Hon'orma. One aspiring group of reigar was talented with various flesh-grafting techniques, so they suggested to Vel'tanga that flesh-grafting could let it interact with other worlds. Vel'tanga agreed, but the process eventually drove the moon insane. It demanded more and more grafts, becoming a nightmarish entity that threatened the solar system. Ultimately, the reigar were able to kill the livemoon, and moved it to its current location.