DARK SUN
& SPELLJAMMER
DARK SUN
& SPELLJAMMER
FIREICE
Type D ~ Spherical ~ Earth Body
This planet was named by the inhabitants. They are human, protected from the killing heat of the Dark Sun by the strange minerals in the mountains that cover the planet. FireIce revolves around Dark Sun in a twenty-four hour day. During daylight hours the surface heat is incredible, and even the natives are killed unless they hide in the deepest caves. Similarly, FireIce plunges to freezing cold temperatures at night. Only for two hours at dusk and dawn may the people emerge from the caves. The ecosystem of the planet has adapted, and entire forests of food and animals grow in these hours to feed the people. The natives of FireIce seem human, but they are subtly different. They grow taller and stronger than on Athas, and they mature, age and die in a span of one week. Furthermore, they have racial memories, handing learned skill from parent to child at birth, a necessity in a world where there is no time for teaching. Children are born knowing of their world, what is required of them, and what there fate will be.
The people of FireIce were not always like this. Once they were spelljammers from the Known Sphere. Through the use of magic so powerful it functioned even in Athaspace, the spelljammer was made immune to fire. They were to catch a scoop of the Dark Sun, the ultimate source of power. But something went wrong, and the ship crashed on FireIce. The people abandoned the ship and hid in the caves. They began to age rapidly, and their fertility increased as well. Before a month was over, two more generations were born and the original spelljammers were dead. The rest is history.
This strange culture is based entirely out of a single valley. At dusk or dawn, when the sky is clear, the emerging people can see a glint of metal from the top of the highest mountain, almost a day’s travel from the caves. In their hearts they know this is the ship that brought them to the world. None have reached it yet without being caught in the obliterating devastation of sunrise/sunset.
(I stole the idea for this planet from a Ray Bradbury short story called Frost & Fire. You're doing yourself an injustice if you die without reading it.)