Sun, The (Realmspace)

"Primitive societies all revere the sun as bringer of light and life. We, in our "sophistication", give it little thought. Is this progress?"
- excerpt from Directions by Lukaas Benden.

Overview

The Sun is located at the exact center of the crystal sphere, and as such is considered the system primary of Realmspace. The fire body burns with such fury that it maintains the whole crystal sphere at an unusually warm temperature. Many sages believe that the older a crystal sphere is, the warmer its system will be. If this is true, it means that Realmspace is the oldest crystal sphere encountered thus far.

The Sun, when viewed safely, is a seething ball of fire. The surface is covered with lakes of molten earth and liquid flame, kept burning by the mass of, and friction created by, the sheer bulk of the sun. This causes the hydrogen atmosphere to erupt in flames that spiral out for millions of miles in enormous columns of fire known as solar flares.

The climate of the sun is one of eternal heat. The temperature is such that it easily overloads any protective magical spell or item within seconds, instantly killing the user. Occasionally, the sun will experience cool zones, which appear as dark splotches on the surface of the sun. Known as sunspots, these relatively cool areas are still incredibly hot; hot enough to negate any protection offered by any known magical device. This has ensured that the sun has yet to be explored or exploited by any of the civilizations of the system.

Inhabitants

The surface of the sun is dotted by hundreds of small portals to the Elemental Plane of fire, which allow various fire elementals and other fire-loving creatures to make their homes on this stellar object. Many of these creatures are relatively well known, such as the efreet, firenewts, salamanders, and fire minions. Other less well known creatures also make their homes here, including lavaworms and helians. The creatures that live on the sun appear to be able to return to their native planes, but they all seem to prefer the sun to their original homes.

Trade

Unfortunately, there has been no reliable way of communicating with the sun’s inhabitants. Additionally, whenever a spelljamming vessel gets within ten million miles (16 million kilometres) of the sun and survives, the inhabitants react with hostility and attack the vessel. There have been many documented accounts of helians riding a solar flare from the sun's surface and throwing burning fragments of intense nuclear heat at all ships passing within range.

However, it is believed that some of the more intelligent elemental creatures living on the sun are aware of spelljamming technology. There have been several reported cases of spelljamming vessels made entirely out of flames. There is even a documented case from a reliable source who reported that such a ship had departed from the sun. Unfortunately the flames of the ship had died long before the vessel could reach the orbit of Anadia.

Since there has only been one reported case from a reliable source, it is believed that the sun’s inhabitants either have no desire to exploit this particular mode of transportation, or that they view spelljamming as being too unreliable. Since the Plane of fire is as broad and expansive as the material plane, there is still much that requires exploration.

The Sargassos

Twelve enormous spherical magic-dead zones, known as sargassso, orbit around the Sun at about 40 million miles (64 million kilometres) out. These roughly 100,000 mile (160,000 kilometre) diameter areas are invisible and undetectable, except with a sargasso detector. These sargasso are equidistant from one another in their circular orbit, meaning that the area they are located in is quite compact compared to the rest of wildspace, and running into them is quite rare (though they are located within two hours from the orbit of Anadia.)

As with any other sargasso, entering these areas causes all magic to fail, including a ship's helm. As soon as a spelljammer enters the affected region, the helmsman at the helm will feel the lack of magic as a kind of sickening emptiness, similar to the sensation of falling. The helm will cease to function soon after, and if the helmsman remains at the helm during this loss of power, they will fall unconscious, and will remain so for a number of days. While within a sargasso, the ship will continue to move in a straight line at tactical speed due to its own inertia, and will continue to drift until it escapes the effects of the sargasso. Considering the size of these sargasso, it would take a ship many months to reach the edge of the magic-dead zone, meaning the crew of a ship trapped in a sargasso would surely perish due to a lack of air or water before their eventual escape.

Appendix

External Links

• The Sun article at the Forgotten Realms Wiki, a wiki for the Forgotten Realms campaign setting.

References

Connections