Arshalin

A planet of marshes beneath dense and sometimes poisonous clouds, Arshalin was badly damaged in a planetary calamity thousands of years ago. Some immense space station or megastructure made of ultra-dense steel fractured into massive fragments and crashed into the planet. Now, plates of steel miles high and hundreds of miles long—although rarely more than 1,000 feet or so thick—protrude from the planet’s surface. From the upper atmosphere, Arshalin’s surface resembles the aftermath of a devastating explosion: these enormous jagged sheets of metal jut from the planet, creating long, thin barricades scattered apparently at random to form misshapen lakes, odd valleys, and segmented coastlines.
Rising higher than mountain ranges, the impregnable metal sheets, called worldshards, distort the planet’s weather and ecology. Over the last several eons, native species separated by the worldshards have diverged along separate evolutionary paths, creating staggering biological diversity. Only far-ranging races, such as the intelligent, multiheaded Ilthisarian, their brutish mammalian servitors called ethesks, and the planet’s powerful saurian birds, journey around the worldshards with regularity. After many generations, the ilthisarians have accepted the worldshards as part of their planet, treating them as natural landmarks, with Sheltering Hand, Steel Ridge, and Tall Watcher among the most prominent.
The primary intelligent creatures on Arshalin are the ilthisarians, sizable serpentine humanoids with powerful bifurcated tails and a cluster of ophidian heads on long necks. Having built stone and metal cities in their great marshes before their civilizations were shattered by the fall of the worldshards, the patient and tradition-bound ilthisarians slowly recovered and now have a spacefaring society with a cultural sophistication and mastery of science and magic that rivals those of the Pact Worlds. Their long tradition of avoiding exploration has begun to fade only in recent years, so the ilthisarians have in fact spent more time traveling to other worlds than exploring the remote regions of their own.
Most visitors to Arshalin complain of its boggy marshes, where dense fog in low-lying areas concentrates into poisonous sumps, but the world’s diverse ecology produces useful plants and animals unknown on any other planet. As a result, offworlder biologists, climatologists, and Xenowardens are common in ilthisarian cities.

Tourism

The following are a few notable locations on Arshalin.
CLOUD SPIKE STATION The tallest worldshard is Cloud Spike, which extends 60 miles above the planet’s surface—well into the lower reaches of space for the small world. Three rail-propulsion cars carry personnel and crew to the top, where a sprawling space station extends over the sides of Cloud Spike like a coin on the head of a pin. Authorization for landing at Cloud Spike Station is rarely granted for large ships. Ilthisarian scientists use Cloud Spike Station primarily for scientific experiments to perfect starship technology, but rumors persist they are also using the station to develop weather-controlling superweapons.
EMPTY WALL One of the longest worldshards cuts across Arshalin’s equator, extending over 200 miles. On the less damaged side is a cathedral-like building made of the same unusually durable steel as the worldshard, sheltering an access port to its interior. This worldshard is predominantly hollow, hence its name, with internal supports made of the same metal. Bands of cockroach-like humanoids called clarkaskas hunt in the expansive, dark interior of Empty Wall, preying upon peculiar six-winged bats and psychically sensitive oozes. Debates rage as to whether these unusual creatures fell with the worldshard or tunneled up from caverns deep below the planet’s surface.
THE GOLDEN TOMBS Near Arshalin’s southern pole, cut off from easy access by interposing worldshards, is a relatively dry valley filled with monolithic structures of stone covered in gold leaf. These structures predate the worldshards and are made of components crafted to fit together on a microscopic scale. The xenoanthropologists who discovered the site a few decades ago explored a handful of the buildings, identifying them as tombs built on a human scale, but tribes of vicious ethesks in the valley slaughtered the scientists before they could escape. Since then, armed ilthisarians diligently guard the principal routes to the valley, turning away archaeologists and treasure seekers alike.
KALSARSA Kalsarsa is the largest settlement on Arshalin. Although ilthisarians aren’t usually religious, most respect Kalsarsa as a holy city and endeavor to visit it at least once in their lives. Built in the shadow of a worldshard known as Sheltering Hand, the city enjoys calm weather and is illuminated by many-hued streetlights. Every 80 days, the Kalsarsans engineer a phenomenal light display, varying the colors and intensities of city lights. Part festival and part holy day, the Time of Brightness and Dimness draws visitors from across the planet. Kalsarsa is the hub of Arshalin’s offworld commerce. Competing merchant houses each sponsor spaceports that vie with each other to host visitors from the Pact Worlds and beyond. Although first-time visitors are often flattered by rivalries for their favor, they soon learn that ilthisarians are keen traders and aren’t above threatening to impound a “guest’s” ship to encourage preferential deals.
KALSARSA LN city Population 416,640 (46% ilthisarian, 45% ethesk, 6% Human, 3% other) Government oligarchy Qualities cultured, devout, financial center, technologically average Maximum Item Level 16th

Marsh World of Poisonous Clouds; Diameter: ×2/3; Mass: ×4/9; Gravity: ×1; Location: The Vast; Atmosphere: Thick; Day: 30 hours; Year: 244 days