DARK SUN & SPELLJAMMER

BLACKJAG

Type E ~ Spherical ~ Earth Body

Blackjag is one of the largest planets in Athaspace. It is an immense world, masked from Athas only by its black surface. While technically an earth world, Blackjag is made entirely of obsidian. From upthrusting obsidian mountains to fields of fine glass shards, every terrain type on Blackjag is composed of obsidian. This is clearly unnatural. Obsidian is derrived from magma, and it is unlikely that an entire planet was consumed by volcanic eruptions. More likely Blackjag is an artificial world, or a total anomaly. Athasians may draw obvious parallels between Blackjag and the Dead Lands, and they may even guess that they have the same origin.

Because it is essentially a giant glass ball, Blackjag functions as a sort of lens. Temperatures on the planet soar no matter which hemisphere the sun shines on, and at ‘night’ the ground beneath glows with an unholy fire as the sun shines clean through the world. This causes stunning visual effects, but makes the planet uninhabitable. Once in every couple of hundred years Blackjag, Athas, and the Dark Sun align in such a way that obsidian world not only becomes visible but glows brighter than any other star in the sky. If Athas were on the far side of Blackjag from the Dark Sun, then it would be destroyed by the obsidian world’s alignments. Perhaps this is how the Starroad was created.

There is no water on Blackjag, and any rain is acidic and corrosive. The few creatures who live here (if any at all) would have to be magical or artificial in nature.

dark sun & spelljammer

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