Population: 2,150,000
Populous: Humans, Dwarves, Thrikreen
Trades: Metal Works, Magic Items
Planets: Sigress, Carnia, Brimstone
Type: Sphere
Hundreds of years ago, Carnia was the main planet in this sphere. It is somewhat small for a spherical planet, had little surface water, but hits underground rivers feed a rich and diverse plant life and the plants in turn feed a wide variety of animals. It’s proximity close to the large sun in the sphere meant it would be hard for humans to live on the planet if it was not for the huge trees with large upper leaves (some the size of a ship’s sails) that covered the land absorbing the sun to make the surface temperature more like that of a warm jungle. Few people ventured outside the forested areas as temperatures could reach as high as 160 degrees in direct sunlight. When the Outsiders attacked, they burned all the forests of the planet to the ground. The chemicals they used mixed with the fires that burned for years made the air of Carnia unbreathable even to this day. Today Carnia is a dead planet with nothing of value left on it, and no way to refresh its air. Any people that survived the Carnian destruction fled to Brimstone.
Brimstone is one of the last places in the known realm that one would expect to find a thriving civilization. Its surface is riddled with active volcanoes and lava flows that criss cross its surface separating what little habitable land there is into fractured islands. There is no vegetation and very few creatures. In addition to the heat of the sun, there is a constant heat and glow given off from the lava flows. Even at night the temperature can be above 80 degrees. Perhaps that is why it was overlooked by the outsiders when they conquered this sphere. After destroying Carnian, they simply moved on.
In the days before the War of the Known Realm, Brimstone was home to a small group of dedicated fire mages. They researched Brimstone and found large habitable areas of land that were stable enough to not produce any new volcanoes any time soon. They set up a small town of sorts. They had convinced a group of dwarves that the planet would be prim for smithing purposes as there was a constant source of metal melting heat in the lava. In exchange for the mages aid in working with the dangerous material, the dwarves constructed barriers to the lava flows and buildings of stone for them all to live in since tunneling down was not an ideal option, you never know when you will hit an underground lava tunnel. The mages reinforced these barriers with magic spells to protect them and keep the temperature down to a tolerable level (though not completely cool as the mages tended to appreciate the heat.) The furnaces built by the dwarves could produce temperatures greater and more precise than any in the realm. Swords made on Brimstone have long been claimed to be nearly unbreakable and capable of holding their edge for the life time of multiple owners. For decades the only beings living on Brimstone were the few dozen fire mages and their dwarven counterparts in the one community. People would seek out their settlement for trade in the dwarve’s master quality weapons or the mages particular experience in fire spells, but few ever stayed on the planet long.
After Carnia was decimated, the few thousand survivors that escaped before hand or were lucky enough to get to a ship before the fires became all consuming fled to Brimstone. They soon found the only encampment on the planet, and started to gather there. The mages and dwarves instantly started to plan to help the refugees. Dwarven strong holds were expanded until they became small cities. The mages increased their magical protective barriers and worked with the dwarves to create protected stone bridges that spanned the lava flows and connected to other nearby stable land masses. Although this was enough to help the initial survivors, it soon became clear that if Brimstone and the Carinians were to survive, they needed to find other stable land masses to inhabit as well.
The first years were harsh on the survivors. The mages had only ever planned for enough food and other resources to support themselves and not thousands of people. Brimstone itself gave little to nothing in the way of food. For a time, many survived on a type of algae the dwarves found in the subterranean caves of the planet. With a war going on however, Brimstone soon started exporting enough weapons that they could trade for all the supplies they needed. Even to this day it is more likely for someone from Brimstone to want to trade for an item or service than pay for it (though currency is an excepted form of payment for offworlders.) The camaraderie in those early years between the mages, dwarves and human refugees was strong. The Carinians literally owed them their lives in many ways. A sense of working together to survive permeated the entire colony. A real sense of recreating themselves, a sort of rebirthing from the fires of Carinia (a metaphor that the fire mages appreciated.) It didn’t take long for the Carinians to lose their ancestral ways. They started sending their children to mages to learn their trade, and learning from the dwarves how to work with stone and build their own homes. Today even direct blood line descendants of Carinian refugees will say they are from Brimstone, instead of their ancestral lines.
In addition to the humans and dwarves that live on Brimstone, there is fairly sizable population of Thrikreen. Immediately after the War of the Known Realm, persecution against Thrikreen was high. For individual personal reasons, certain groups of Thrikreen chose not to stay on their home world any longer. When they searched through the Known Realm for a place to stay, one of the few planets that accepted them was Brimstone. The planet itself, or Carinia for that matter was never attacked by the psionically controlled Thrikreen so its inhabitants never experienced what they were capable of first hand. The Thrikreen were seen as refuges that no other place would take in and so they were brought into the society. The Thrikreen rather like the warm temperature, work tirelessly on construction projects, and are tough enough to withstand even some minor contact with lava spurts. They have no hive queen to guide them and their descendants have become very individualistic and an important part of the Brimstonian society.
Today, there are many different cities on Brimstone. Though they exist on large sections of stable land and are interconnected with bridges to form the city, no means of land based travel between the cities exist. The individual cities still float on a sea of magma and over tithe years will drift apart from each other across the planet. Even magical means of traveling across the ground is considered too dangerous. Intercity travel is done exclusively by spell jammers. Though it is safe for a wooden ship to land in one of the cities, many captains do not wish to do this, and there are no water landing spots anywhere on the planet. Many ships will dock in orbit at asteroid stations scattered around the planet that will then have metal hulled spelljammers to fairy the passengers and crew to the planet’s surface.
Xeno-phi
The original small encampment has grown into the largest city on Brimstone. Although many of the cities are similar in building style and what you can find at each, Xeno-phi obviously has the most, and oldest items. It is the city most often visited by off worlders.
A few grand master fire mages still exist on Brimstone from almost a century or more ago. They tend not to appear in public much, and are often secluded in their stone homes away from the rest of the society, even the rest of the wizardly world. Almost all of them live in Xeno-phi.
Carinian
Carinian is a lifeless, burned-out world. Its atmosphere is unbreathable and in some parts completely poisonous. Efforts to try and revive the air on this planet have failed. It has no known life of any kind on it. (See above for historical references.)
Sigress
Sigress is a small rocky planet that is closest to the sun. Surface temperatures range from 450 – 700 degrees. It has no atmosphere and supports no life. It is named after Feldon Sigress, a legendary character from Carnian lore. He was a great hero and an supposedly one of the original space explorers. He had magical boots that allowed him to walk on the surface of the sun.
Customs
Males from Brimstone often shave their head completely, or wear their hair shaved except for a long braided top knot. Females will sometimes shave their hair, but most often will braid it back in complicated and delicate patterns. This is done mostly from living on a fire engulfed planet, but the fashion is often continued to be followed even by Brimstonians not on planet.
Red is the predominate color worn by the fire mages. Though it is a common themed color in the dress of anyone from Brimstone, the fire mages take it to the extreme wearing all red, and the most vibrant, almost shimmering and reflective of colors of red. Almost all clothing worn by native Brimstonians is interwoven with or made completely out of indigenous cave spider silk that is known to be fire retardant. Other natural, alchemical, and magical means are used to protect clothing as well. Most every resident has some sort of magical bracelet or the like that protects at least somewhat from fire and heat (with the exception of the Thrikreen.) Most fire mages have enough protection on them at all times that they could probably walk on lava if they truly desired.
Every house of any native Brimstonian has an eternal flame lit in some main room of the house. This flame is lit from a main flame in the center of the city. Extreme care is taken to keep the main flame lit at all times. People will use the flame in their homes to light all flames needed for the household. It is not bad luck, or looked down upon or anything if the main flame in a home goes out, but they will take the time to go out and relight it from the eternal flame in the city center before lighting any other fires. It is not law, but more of a common social custom. Like many cities on other planets have a common well where water is drawn from.
Vesta Worship
As more humans began to appear on Brimstone, and honor and venerate the element of fire it seemed to cause an awakening of a long dormant god. Vesta’s strength was at first week, but has grown over the past fifty years as more and more mages envelope their entire life with fire, and clerics of Vesta follow their studies to know her better. Though Vesta is not worshiped in many other spheres and her power is quite week anywhere else, she has become very powerful and dominant in her own sphere nearly to the point of exclusion of other gods and goddesses. Most priests that do not worship Vesta feel no different inside the Brimstone sphere than when they are in the Phlogiston. Even the priests of the Sisters seem to have a decreased amount of power in this sphere.
Vesta is of course the goddess of fire in the sphere. She is seen as having been resting deep within Brimstone, and sometimes Brimstone is seen as the physical embodiment of the goddess. She is active in the preservation of her worshipers. Clerics of Vesta often perform miracles, redirecting entire lava flows to save cities, completely curing the burned, and bringing charred wood objects back into being. They make no claim to be using any powers of their own or even channeling powers when performing these great works, but instead state that the power comes from Vesta herself. Even clerics who have just recently joined the order can perform miracles if they are true of faith. For these reasons her followers are very devoted.
Vesta appears as a young female with bright red skin and long dark black hair. She is most often shown nude or with only holy symbols or jewelry adorning her body. It is said she can take the form of an ignis lizard, a black skinned lizard with red markings that is one of the few indigenous creatures of Brimstone. The lizard lives underground for the most part, and is often seen as a sign of good luck, or a sign that Vesta is watching over someone when it appears above ground. In portraits, even in her human form, she is often shown with a forked tongue.
Tourist Tips
“Stay the path.” This commonly uttered Brimstonian phrase may seem simple and understood to many humans with similar sayings, but it is not meant more literally in any other place than here. Of course it is most often used to mean the metaphorical saying of “keep focused on what you are doing,” or “continue with what you are doing.” However, on Brimstone it is even more important as there are literally areas where you can not walk. The walk ways in the cities are made of a white stone. When in the densest part of the cities, it is fairly safe to walk on any ground. When on the outskirts of the cities or transferring between islands however it is always recommended to stay on the white stone paths. Often the dark ground on either side of the walk may seem perfectly fine, but some patches might be upwards of 800 degrees or greater in temperature just below the surface. Leather shoes would instantly burn away along with flesh in the next few moments. These areas come and go and are hard to keep track of, so instead of designating possible danger areas, it is suggested to stay on the insulated stone paths provided for you at all times.
“. . . live in the bosom of the fires! There only is independence! There I recognize no masters! There I am Free!”
-Captain Ommen-
Brimstone Fire Mage and Fire Elemental Servent