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Gnibile

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Overview

Gnibile is a baleful dark red gas giant, only slightly smaller than its' sister planet Edill. The planet is sheathed in an unbroken layer of caustic, corrosive and extremely toxic clouds 500 yards (460 meters) thick, whipped up into a frenzy by enormous storms that make the hurricanes of Oerth look puny by comparison. The worst of the storms are concentrated in the upper 1000 miles (1609 kilometres) of the atmosphere. Deeper in the planets atmosphere, the weather conditions become more moderate, but are still incredibly unpleasant.

Below the outer layer of red caustic clouds, are several concentric layers of interior clouds, separated by between 500 and 1,500 miles (460 and 1,370 kilometres) of clear air, while other cloud formations are more fragmentary. These interior clouds are non-toxic nor are they corrosive; instead they are simply composed of water vapor. The inner clouds are dark and dense, and resemble the thunderclouds of Oerth. Incredibly powerful bolts and sheets of lightning arc and flare within and between the clouds, providing virtually the only illumination within the atmosphere of Gnibile.

Unlike Edill, Gnibile does not have an atmospheric membrane: instead the roiling tops of the outer cloud layer represents the outer edge of the planet. Sometimes upwellings of air from storms deeper within the world drive bulges or columns of clouds miles into wildspace, For some reason yet to be explained the gravity field of the world extends up into these prominences; spelljamming vessels in close orbit around Gnibile need to be cautious around these sudden upwellings.

Similar to Edill, Gnibile does not have a core of solid matter, but still experiences the effects of gravity. “Down” is towards the geometric center of the planet. The force of gravity remains constant regardless of the distance from the geometric center, and is slightly more than one normal Oerth gravity. A falling object will drop to the center of the planet, accelerating to terminal velocity. When the object reaches the center, it passes right through and flies toward the opposite side of the planet, decelerating all the while. Because of air resistance, the object will not achieve the same height from the center that it started at. Once the object has slowed to a halt, it will start falling towards the center again. An object will continue to oscillate until it eventually comes to a stop at the center, after many, many cycles.

Gnibile is, in general, a cold world. The only exception is the outer cloud layer, where chemical reactions between its component compounds raise the temperature to about 100° Fahrenheit (38° Centigrade).

There are countless bodies of elemental material spinning around in Gnibile's atmosphere, all orbiting the planets' geometric center. There are only two classes of elemental material present, however: water and earth. The water bodies form clusters of ice crystals up to a hundred yards (91 kilometres) in diameter, similar in effect to an enormously powerful hail storm or the effects of an ice storm spell. The ice clusters usually follow quite eccentric orbits, diving down toward the center of the planet, and then climbing again to stop somewhere near the outer cloud layer (or plunging straight through it.)

The earthbergs are huge chunks of rock, roughly spherical, and up to 2 miles (3.2 kilometres) in diameter. They follow more circular orbits, and tend to stay approximately the same distance from the planet's center. These flying rocks are a lot warmer than the surrounding atmosphere, and some are even semi-molten, glowing with their own sullen, red light. More common, however, are the volcanically active earth islands, featuring their own small volcanos, bubbling pits of volcanic mud, geysers of steam etc. The largest are constantly shaken by earth tremors, while some of the smaller earth islands have been known to blow apart without warning due to the enormous pressures building up within them.

Inhabitants

Most of Gnibile’s earth bodies are inhabited by undead. Some of the largest orbiting islands have huge necropolises ("cities of the dead") built on them, featuring castles and fortresses ruled by the more powerful undead, including vampires and liches. Even the semi-molten earth bodies have their own share of undead inhabitants: almost exclusively various types of incorporeal undead.

No one is sure where all these undead come from. Many believe Gnibile serves as some kind of "hell", where the souls of sinners are sent for an eternity of torment. Others believe that, centuries or millennia ago, Gnibile was a more peaceful and populous world, similar to Edill, until some calamity killed all of its inhabitants, who have since risen as undead to haunt their charnelhouse of a planet.

What no-one can argue with, is that Gnibile has an unusually strong connection to the negative elemental plane. Spontaneous gates frequently open throughout the atmosphere of Gnibile, providing access to the plane of death. So it is quite possible that the undead actually come from somewhere else, and merely travel through these portals, willingly or not, to inhabit the air world.

In addition to the undead, Gnibile is also home to a unique type of creature, known as the porton. These large mysterious creatures have the ability to open gates to the negative quasi-elemental planes.

Trade

Gnibile has no significant resources and the undead have proven to be completely uninterested in trade. However, one settlement has shown some interest in spelljamming technology.

  • Deathwatch - This large earth body, also known as "Necros" to explorers, is 2 miles (3.2 kilometres) in diameter, and follows a perfectly circular orbit 10 miles (16 kilometres) below the outer cloud layer. The largest earth body to orbit within the atmosphere of Gnibile, Deathwatch has a massive necropolis built on its surface, bleak and forbidding, with a great castle at its center. The city of Deathwatch is home to several thousand undead; all ruled over by the warrior-lich Samanda. There is no water on Deathwatch, and therefore nowhere for water-capable ships to put down. Outside the city walls, there is a landing field on which are kept the Lich-Queen's fleet of 12 spelljamming vessels (all acquired from explorers who were foolish enough to approach too closely.)

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