Gluun and Rakmos
Double Dwarf Planets
The world of Gluun is a small, rocky mass that, in a galactic stroke of luck, captured a passing ice ball in its orbit. The two bodies are close enough in mass that they have formed a binary orbit with one another as they journey around the Chuuva system’s sun. The tidal forces between the two satellites changed both. Tectonic stress on the rocky planet has led to geothermal heating enough to support a variety of simple life, while the ice ball developed liquid caverns beneath the surface.
Gluun’s life has adapted to the intermittent periods of extreme cold, with flora spending much of its time in hibernation between the brief periods of warmth. Rakmos had a species of sapient, eel-like creatures—calling themselves rakmodois—in the liquid methane and carbon monoxide seas within the ice-clad world, where they built an isolated, magicfueled civilization. The Swarm extracted much of Rakmos’s liquid ocean, including most of the life in it, for use as biomass, food, and fuel. Rakmodois perished in multitudes, although some survived by using magical means to escape to other planes or change into other forms.
Gluun and Rakmos might attract attention for the following reasons, among others.
Elemental End: The largest community of rakmodois leveraged their mystical prowess to open portals to a frigid part of the Elemental Plane of Water in an attempt to siphon water from the plane and create a new ocean to live in. Instead, strange, icy elemental creatures journeyed through the portals and killed many of the survivors. The icy elemental environment is spreading within Rakmos, threatening to destroy the relics of rakmodoi civilization.
Soul Defenders: A cabal of rakmodoi mages transitioned their souls into constructs in a last-ditch effort at survival. These constructs, with the aid of other magical automatons, crawl around the inside of the crumbling planet. They defend what’s left of Rakmos with a single-minded determination that might set them against any visitors seeking to recover rakmodoi relics.
Twin Ends: Rakmos is a doomed world. So much of its mass has been siphoned off that the tidal forces keeping it in a dance with its twin have begun to deteriorate. One day, Rakmos will crumble under the strain, raining ruin on Gluun. Anyone who takes an interest in the simple life still enduring on rocky Gluun might seek to prevent this coming disaster.
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