Shield Space 2 of many

Shield Space
This Crystal Sphere was sealed until recently.  There were no portals nor
could any be made.  The Gnomes and other creatures were trapped within.
This probably changed when Humans were placed here.  This sphere is in the
nexus of a number of phlogiston currents and thus far, 21 of these currents
have been found directly connecting Shield to other spheres.  This might
explain why there is such a diverse amount of life in Shield space as
perhaps inter-sphere traffic was very high in the past.  Whatever the
reason, this sphere is once again open for travel.

 Thus far, three natural portals have been found, At he top and bottom of
the sphere and one following the line of planets to the equator of the
sphere.  Thus far, all attempts to create other passage ways have failed.
The stars that show on the sphere are huge blobs of glowing something slowly
moving along the shell wall.  All attempts to investigate further have met
with failure.  This movement is very slow and the constellations formed by
these glowing blobs will not change perceptibly in a human lifetime.


The planetary system is somewhat normal in that there is a sun in the middle
and planets and such orbit it.
This system has far more debris than most systems as is evidenced by the
grinder (see below).  In addition, three planets share the same orbit along
the same plane.  The term orbit however is somewhat of a misnomer, as the
planets do not orbit the sun but rather just stay in place.  There is
another unknown force akin to gravity at work holding the planets safely in
place and manifesting itself in other ways.

Temperature: The Ether seems to transmit or control temperature within a
Sphere.  The ambient temperature is about 150 degrees at about 10,000,000
miles from the sun, dropping to about 75 degrees around Shield and then
about 60 degrees at the Grinder.  Just after the Grinder, the temperature
plummets to 0 and drops to about -100 towards the Crystal Shell wall.  The
Ether has no effect on planetary bodies and the ether itself does not seem
to exist within a gravity well.  (There is no trace of Ether or its
associated effects to within six times the planetary bodies' radius.)  The
ambient temperature on planetary bodies fluctuates based on the distance
from the sun, available light, reflection index, atmospheric composition,
internal heat sources and whatever else I missed.

The System:
The sun is not as hot as expected and a far lower amount of hard radiation
is emitted by it.  Its size is about the same as ours (865,000 miles in
diameter) and seems to be a doorway to the elemental plane of fire.
Fire-based creatures abound on the sun but do not seem to leave or at least
travel far from its surface.  This might be due to the very deep gravity
well and the fact that the sun does have a stronger gravitational pull than
normal by about 10 times.  As a note, this 10G gravity well extends out
about 2.5 million miles from the sun!

As mentioned, the planets are fixed in space and are arranged in a
straight-line leading straight towards the equatorial portal with the
exception of Splash and Hagor as they share the same orbit with Shield and
are 120 degrees apart around the Sun.  As such, Shield space on the other
side of the sun from the portal is know as the the far side. Aside from the
Grinder, The far side is quite empty. The only item of note are the large
ether storms.

 The Planets, orbits and distance to the equatorial portal:
Hell: Orbit 10 million miles, Size 3,000 miles, 190 million miles to portal
(7.3 days)
Swamp: 30 million miles, size 10,000 miles, 170 million miles to portal (6.5
days)
Shield: 40 million miles, size 2,000 miles, 160 million miles to portal (6.1
days)
Splash: 40 million miles, size 10,000 miles, 170 million miles to portal
(6.5 days)
Hagor: 40 million miles, size 10,000 miles, 170 million miles to portal (6.5
days)
The Grinder: 60 million miles, 1 million miles thick, 5.4 to 10 days
depending on location )
Marble: 80 million miles, size 10,000 miles, 120 million miles to portal
(4.6 days)
Rock: 90 million miles, size 10,000 miles, 110 million miles to portal (4.2
days)
Biggie: 110 million miles, size 10,000 miles, 90 million miles to portal
(3.4 days)
Days are based on Shield's 26 hour day as SpellJammer's can travel about one
million
miles per hour.  (see attached pic)

The Planets:

Hell: Orbit 10,000,000 miles. Size: 3,000-mile diameter.  No atmosphere
Hell resembles Mercury with a liquid metal/rock surface.  Pure liquid ores
exist on the surface but due to the large amount of hostile fire-based
creatures that inhabit Hell, little effort has been applied to any kind of
mining attempts.  (Moreover, it is somewhat hot.)
Distance to Equatorial portal: 190 million miles (approximately 8 days)

Swamp: Orbit 30,000,000 miles. Size: 10,000-mile diameter. Breathable
atmosphere
Swamp is a large, hot jungle world full of nasty biting things.  Average
temperature is 140 degrees.  Due to the high heat and 100% humidity along
with the nasty dangerous life forms such as dinosaurs it is a place mostly
avoided, as the reward vs. risk is low.
Distance to Equatorial portal: 190 million miles (approximately 8 days)
There is a small Lizard man enclave under Shield's protection as of AE 72




Shield: Orbit 40,000,000 miles. Size: 2,000-mile diameter*. Breathable
atmosphere
Shield is a fragment of a planet and looks like an ice cream cone, see
details below. Shield shares its orbit with two other worlds about 120
degrees apart (or 1/3 of the orbit apart), Hagor and Splash. Shield's
gravity field extends out in a uniform 3500-mile radius.
Distance to Equatorial portal: 160 million miles (approximately 6.1 days)
*2000 miles wide at the top by 3000 miles long.


Splash: Orbit 40,000,000 miles. Size 6,000-mile diameter.  Breathable
atmosphere
Splash is an ocean or water world; there is no land, no core, just water.
There is a huge amount of life with some of the creatures big enough to eat
ships whole.  Thus far all attempts to live on Splash are eaten.  Splash
shares its orbit with Shield and Hagor.
Distance to Equatorial portal: 170 million miles (approximately 6.5 days)


Hagor: Orbit 40,000,000 miles. Size 20,000 miles. Gas giant.
The three moons of Hagor all have the same atmosphere as Hagor and as such
are quite poisonous to ANY air-breathing humanoid.   Hagor and its moons are
inhabited by what are known as the Methane Breathers.  All attempts to visit
have been thwarted by these Methane Breathers and therefore we have no clue
how they live and if there are cities or whatnot as the atmosphere is too
thick to see through.  Attempts at magical scrying have also failed.
Distance to Equatorial portal: 170 million miles (approximately 6.5 days)


The Grinder: Orbit 60,000,000 miles. Asteroid field.
The Grinder is a dense asteroid field that fills the orbital slot 20 million
mills beyond Shield. It is composed of countless millions of asteroids,
planetoids and planetisimals, ranging in size from about 100 miles in
diameter (size B) down to the size of golf balls.  The vast majority of the
bodies fall into the middle of this spectrum, with the average object being
several tens of yards across.  There are perhaps 1,000,000 sizes A bodies
(those between one and ten miles in diameter) and 20,000 or so size B bodies
(those between 10 miles and 100 miles in diameter). The larger
asteroids-those with a diameter of a mile or more-usually have atmospheres,
although there are some exceptions.  Smaller rocks are generally void
worlds, although there are exceptions here too.  Unlike a typical asteroid
belt, the Grinder is not a torous (or donut shape) that lies in the
ecliptic. Instead, the planetoids of the Grinder are spread out into a
hollow sphere, surrounding Shield and the inner planets with the exception
of the stellar poles.  This means that every SpellJamming vessel bound for
Shield from the outer planets or from the boundary of the Crystal Sphere
must pass through the Grinder or detour around the Grinder via the stellar
poles then come back to the ecliptic.  The Grinder is a chaotic place
indeed, because they all lie in approximately the same orbit, all of the
asteroids and planetoids making up the Grinder move at approximately the
same speed.  Unfortunately, they do not all move in the same direction, each
body has its own distinct orbit, inclined at its own angle to the ecliptic
and traveling in its own direction.  Some move clockwise within the ecliptic
while others move counter clockwise, some arch high above the plane of the
other planets, and some dive below.  This, of course, leads to collisions as
rocks are constantly drifting into each other, shattering, or bouncing off
in new orbits. (Though slow, two 100-foot-wide rocks impacting one another
at 10 or 20 miles an hour will create a huge amount of debris as this would
represent a very large transfer of energy.)

The Regent, once estimated the amount of mass of the Grinder and came up
with a fascinating result: If all the planetoids and planetisimals of the
Grinder were combined into one single planet, they would form a world over
500,000 miles in diameter.

For obvious reasons, pirates and other rogues of the space ways find the
Grinder to be a perfect place to ply their trade.  First, their potential
prey will almost certainly slow to tactical speed, making an ambush much
easier to orchestrate.  Second, there are many planetoids large enough to
hide a ship behind, maximizing the element of surprise.  Third, the density
of the asteroid field lessens the chance that the prey can simply turn tail
and flee at full speed.  (Of course, this can backfire on the unwary captain
who finds his intended prey is tougher than he had guessed....)  Remember
that ships traveling above 100 MPH produce a visible wake and a ships course
can be plotted by observation.

This of course raises a number of problems and benefits.  There are so many
asteroids that virtually every race, or every nation or any special-interest
group, can create its own port.  Even the largest asteroid is tiny when
compared to a world, making escape time much less of an issue (it takes only
minutes to escape from the largest asteroids gravity well.)  Trying to
prevent this is just about impossible, as there is just too much to cover.
However, as these groups, whatnots and whomever's come to the Grinder, they
mostly bring economic gain and trade from other spheres.  Many of the larger
groups even pay a tax to Shield for police protection.  Thus attacking them
is attacking Shield, no small deterrent!  Thus far, some of the larger
settlements are Dwarven and Gnomish in origin.


Marble: Orbit 80,000,000 miles. Size 30,000-Mile diameter.
Marble is a gas giant about the size of Neptune. Has 4 moons.
Distance to Equatorial portal: 120 million miles (approximately 4.6 days)





Rock: Orbit 90,000,000 miles. Size: 6,000-Mile diameter. No atmosphere
Rock has no atmosphere at all! It's just a rock, like the Earth's moon.  It
is totally dead with no plate tectonics, etc.
Distance to Equatorial portal: 110 million miles (approximately 4.2 days)


Biggie: Orbit 110,000,000 miles. Size: 200,000-mile diameter.  Biggie is a
huge gas giant twice as big as Jupiter with 14 moons.
The ambient temperature around Biggie is about 80 degrees. This is from the
planet itself as it radiates a lot of heat in the infrared spectrum.
Nine of the moons have the same atmosphere as Hagor.  One of the moons seems
to be developing this same atmosphere and one seems to be developing an
oxygen atmosphere.  The other three moons have no atmosphere.  Methane
Breather activity is quite heavy here.
Distance to Equatorial portal: 90 million miles (approximately 3.4 days)

The Crystal Sphere wall is about 200,000,000 miles from the sun.