ATHASPACE
ATHASPACE
Athaspace is a solarcentric crystal sphere with nine planetary bodies orbiting the Dark Sun. As the sphere cannot be penetrated, Athaspace is closed from those not born within. It does have its own variety of creatures and civilizations, including halflings, lizardmen, thri-kreen, zik-chil, and Rhulisti. A few dwarves are scattered about the celestial bodies as well.
No magic or psionic power can open a portal in the crystal shell. Athaspace can still be entered via the planes (if the Gray can be penetrated), but no exterior force can penetrate the shell and enter wildspace. This makes the spelljammers of Athaspace a closed community.
Athasspace is inhospitable to travellers. First of all, the heat of the sun is constant and uncomfortable, killing anything that remains exposed for too long (and the only shade in wildspace is cast by planetary bodies). It is not unusual for or unlit torches or even the sails of ‘land-going’ spell-jammers to ignite when brought too close to the Dark Sun. Second, the gravity of the entire sphere pulls inward to the primary body. Inert objects (apart from those following the ‘momentum’ of an orbit) gradually drift toward the Dark Sun, and are inevitably swallowed by its baleful fire. This makes Athaspace clean, but deadly. Finally, normal wizard and priest magic does not function in Athaspace. Clerics are cut off from their god (unless they worship powers from the Inner Planes), and find they can only use 1st and 2nd level spells. Mages from other worlds must learn preserving or defiling before spellcasting (returning to 1st level as if going dual-class). This makes conventional spelljamming impossible.
If a preserver or defiler were to somehow construct or find a spelljamming helm then he could use it, although it would require an unrealistic amount of plant energy to operate. There is nothing in the rules to prevent a preserver from making a 30-planet tour on the energy of one pot plant, but the DM should not allow this. After an early warning, the pot plant should turn to ash as if defiled. Either that, or defiler and preserver spells could taint the air supply.
There are several intelligent races throughout Athaspace, and some of them have even discovered wildspace travel. Their methods are far slower than spelljamming. The Rhulisti of Rhul-O have massive life-shaped spacecraft, which they rarely use, and the kreen actually hurl their craft into the atmosphere. Using either method, it can take a traveller centuries to reach even the closest planet. Both cultures have developed methods to compensate for this.