Spekivard

A planet of deadly plants and strange seasons.

Overview

Counting from Dagstjarna out to the void, Spekivard is the third sphere, and one of the strangest in the realm of Hvatvetna.

Spekivard at a Glance

The atmosphere is breathable and visitors report feeling lighter on their feet than usual, but they quickly adapt. Spekivard travels around Dagstjarna in 201 Liggjavard days. It is a strange planet for most visitors, due to the abnormal rotation of the planet on its axis. The ground is rocky and rich with minerals. There is no safe water on the ground on Spekivard, as any pool of liquid will have leached reactive chemicals out of the surrounding rocks. None of the plants from Liggjavard or the other spheres will grow on Spekivard. However, a vast array of lichens, mosses, oozes, jellies, molds, and slimes fight for dominance in the chemically complex landscape.

Seasons

Spekivard is most notable for its 89.7 degree axial tilt, leading to bizarre day, night, and seasonal cycles. During different parts of orbit, each pole is pointed almost directly at the Day Star. From the surface, at one pole a visitor sees the High Summer sun spiral ever upwards in the sky, until it reaches the zenith at midsummer. It then appears to spiral down to the horizon again over the following weeks. At the same time, the opposite pole experiences deep, sunless High Winter. At the equator, Spekivard has alternating seasons of "normal" day/night cycles, called Middle Summer, followed by Middle Winter, where the sun will peak lower in the sky every day. At the darkest part of Middle Winter, the sun will dip below the horizon for a few weeks, leaving the equatorial region in constant twilight, until finally starting to rise up the dome of the sky again.

Weather

The period of full daytime at the poles is summer on Spekivard. The sun never sets, and as the ground warms and the ice melts, the heat and moisture cause strong updrafts. The upper atmosphere starts pushing toward the equator, bringing high level rains to the lands away from the summer pole. At the same time, the pole in shadow is cooling, and that cold, dense air creeps along the ground toward the sunny side of the planet. At the equator, Middle Winter features cold winds from the shadow pole and heavy snow as the upper air from the summer pole cools and drops its moisture. During Middle Summer the days and nights are almost familiar for visitors from other spheres, though the storms are extremely turbulent, as the steady, massive air flows from the poles are disrupted.

Plant Life

During summer at the poles, the warmth and moisture allows the bizarre life of Spekivard to explode into activity. High Summer is a risky time to visit Spekivard, as the ground is covered with oozing, carnivorous life doing everything it can to eat and reproduce. The summer air is full of toxic spores riding the updrafts to spread as far as they can before the rains bring them down. During the bitter cold of High Winter, only the hardiest of plants stay out of hibernation, and even they move very slowly.

Divine Resonance

Spekivard is considered to be the physical manifestation of Blodstjarna, second daughter of Dagstjarna. Divine magic granted to clerics of Blodstjarna, or in the Knowledge or Death realms, may work better here than elsewhere. (Likewise, arcane magic from the necromancy school.) Those who die on Spekivard have a better chance than usual of coming to the direct attention of Blodstjarna and her court, and may have a chance to bargain for their return to the land of the living, if they have something worth offering to a goddess who knows everything.

Related Articles

Warning

The Rothilimion Engineering Command guidebook recommends against travel to Spekivard for any but the most pressing reasons.

Glossary

Sphere

What some would call a planet, the Hvatvetnans call spheres.

Realm

The Hvatvetnan term for a solar system is a realm.

DRAFT

This article is currently a work in progress and may be incomplete or subject to change.