Planets of Mystaraspace
by Charles TaylorI dug out my old 'gold box' (now very pale gold) Immortal set and had a look. There is a couple of columns of info on space: (A lot of this has been posted before, but summarising it all here might be of use to someone).
The star system of Urt, the world that would later be known as Mystara closely resembled the solar system, but with 3 significant changes:
a) No M-Mercury or M-Pluto
b) a doomed world where the asteroid belt now is, code-named Damocles. It will explode sometime in the future, in either a few years or a few centuries, two major fragments become M-Mercury and M-Pluto, while smaller fragments become the asteroid belt (and presumably, the moons of M-Pluto, and possibly other small moons etc. as well).
c) An outer planet, called 'Charon' whose orbit fits the Titus-Bode sequence, much bigger than Pluto.
Urt's place in the larger universe is also mentioned:
IIRC, the Immortals Set pre-dated Spelljammer. Nearby stars are based on 'real universe' astronamy, with the nearest magic-capable civilisation being Epsilon Eradnii (Which I think rulls out the 'Alphations are from Alpha Centauri' theory). They then go on to describe, broadly, the whole galaxy. So if we want to drop Mystara into Spelljammer, we're going to have to change something, but we knew that already.
Ok, back to the subject at hand - a lot of Mystara-space write-ups tend to be post Damocles' destruction. If we assume that the Urt/Mystara infomation giving in the boxed sets is just prior to the Gazetter Era (i.e. just pre-A.C. 1,000), then Damocles has to break up during the Gazetter-WoTI period. Having something in WoTI be responsible for the bang is quite tempting, and probably deserves a separate thread.
However, this implies that the cataclysm has just happened, M-Mercury/Masauwu and M-Pluto/Nyx would be newly formed planet fragments, pobably hot (even Nyx), unstable, and full of powerful bits of leftover artifacts from Damocles (big scary high level dungeons). Naming them after entropic immortals was inspired (even if the descriptions don't fit).
My thoughts on the worlds of Mystaraspace:
The Sun - this should really be called Ixion - A large fire world, inhabited mostly by BECMI fire-elemental creatures
Masauwu (M-Mercury) - A broken pile of continent-sized fragments, slowly coalescing into a new world (see above) Edit: Actually, if Damocles broke up recently, then Masauwu may still be 'en-route' to its eventual destination - leading to the posibility of a near miss with any of the three inner worlds.
Valerias - (M-Venus - everyone wants to call it that ) - A Mystara-sized world, shrouded in mist, with no moons (as far as anyone knows). Like Mystara, it is hollow, but the polar openings are much smaller, and appear to be multi-mile wide whirlpools. My personal idea for the outer world is a classic 'lizard world' with large low-lying swamps and many dinosaurs. The dominant civilisations are Hurwaet from spelljammer, and possibly a race related to the Carnifex. The inner world is dominated by oceans that span all of the inner surface of the world, with dry land being provided by low-flying continents. Alternatively, we turn it inside out. The enviroment tends to be acidic, but in a 'your gear will rust or rot' sense rather than 'you go here, you die'.
Urt/Mystara Vanya (M-Mars) - not quite as red as the real mars, as the northen hemisphere is filled with water, while the south is largely desert, (a desert that gets quite hot during the day-time - we're not limited to normal solar radiation models here!) - yes, there are canals. I'm tempted to go with Ray Bradbury style martians here. I'm tempted have the interior of the planet be a giant tertahedron. (either a solid tetrahedron enclosed in a hollow sphere, or a solid sphere with a tetrahedral void - in either case, there are four entry points at the vertexes).
The ashes of Arik/Damocles (Asteroid Belt) - a myriad fragments of a recently destroyed world - maybe the harder inhabitants of that world survive on some of them. Much denser than the real asteroid belt, with a significant number of collisions between fragments. Historical Note: Given this worlds fate, whoever named it for an obscure, evil, immortal was somewhat inspired!
Ka (M-Jupiter) - From a distance this world resembles a sphere of coloured bands, in actual fact, this world consists of a stack of huge plates, each about 1,000 miles thick and separated by about 5,000 miles. Each plate is distinctively-coloured giving the world its banded appearance. Each plate has its own disticnt enviroment and ecosystem. One notable exception is a large elliptical reddish flatworld (bigger than Mystara) floating in the upper atmosphere of the southen hemisphere.
Khoronus (M-Saturn) could actually call it Saturnus A huge shell of air, what solid land exists within it is largely in the form of 'solid clouds' similar to those found on Mystara (see Cloud Giant) but much larger. The most notable feature of Khronus is its magnificant ring system, which is mostly composed of coloured crystilline shards.
Like Ka, Khoronus is accumulating a number of new, small moons from the fragments of Arik.
Odin (M-Uranus) A huge water-world, again with a hollow interior. Odin currently has five moons. It also has a ring system of delicate, thread-like rings.
Nyx (M-Pluto) See Masauwu, Arik, Damocles, currently drifting outward.
Asterius (M-Charon) The outermost world of the system, it has a significant trading port.
Other Features
Prior to the Arik/Damocles cateclysm, this world had four moons, each of significant size.
Zugzul (M-Io) - a firey world of sulpherous volcanoes (think Sirrion) inhabited mostly by fire creatures (fire giants, red, ruby, gold & brown dragons, azer, etc.) one of the more dangerous worlds of Mystaraspace.
Following the Arik cateclysm, a large number of smaller fragments would eventually make their way into orbit around Odin/Ka, adding substantually to its number of moons.
Petra (M-Europa) - A water-moon, like many of the worlds of Mystraspace, this moon is hollow, the outer shell is frozen over, while the inner surface is warmed by its central sun.
Halav (M-Ganymede)
Zirchev (M-Callisto)
Khronus has seven major moons:
Kiranjo (M-Mimas) A rocky world - suffered a cateclysmic impact from a fragment of Arik.
(M-Enceladus)
(M-Tethys)
(M-Dione)
(M-Rhea) Like it's parent, it has a ring system.
Djaea (M-Titan) This moon strongly resembles a smaller version of Mystara, with a very similar climate.
(M-Iapetus) A moon of two halves, one light and one dark, with two very different ecosystems. The dark half is covered with dense jungle, while the light half is a huge desert of pale sand.(M-Miranda)
(M-Ariel)
(M-Umbriel)
Titania
Oberon
Protius (M-Neptune) A particularly aptly named world, Protius is a sister-world of Odin (even down to the rings). It has a single, large moon, Polonius (M-Triton).
The Alphatian Aerosphere - This implies that most, if not all, of Mystraspace is now full of breathable air, and that the laws of physics have changed! (Maybe from Heardian gravity type 1 to Heardian gravity type 2, or Grubbian gravity).
This makes travelling a lot safer, but slower (unless the 'changed laws of physics' allow Spelljamming cruising speed in an atmosphere, or the 'Distance Distortion' spell from HWA1 could be used). I think Bruce came up with this as an 'enabler' of easy space travel.