Heavenly Bodies
There are literally millions of asteroids in this
sphere, and very few have ever been Citadelized by dwarves. The relatively
recent advent of the Spelljamming Empire of Fedral has seen the conversion
of several of the largest rocks into cities in wildspace, colonized heavily
by Aklanners seeking refuge from the cold but with equality for most races.
Notable exceptions to this rule are Elves, Neogi, Vodoni, and Gnomes.
Neogi are killed on sight (as in most spheres), Vodoni are generally driven
off and/or captured for 'interrogation' by Imperial psionicists, and Elves
are treated with a shoulder colder than the mountains of Aklann.
Gnomes are treated with respect and appreciation, their abilities with
pseudo technology astound the relatively
technology-less Aklann spawned Empire. Thus all vessels in operation
by Fedral have compliments of gnomish engineers, in addition all designs
reserved for the Empire, such as the Atlas Beetle, feature gnomish additions
and supplimentary designs. There are no sargassos in Tidespace, and
as far as any know, no Krajen whatsoever, as they often wander too close
to the Great Ocean wherein they meet up with predators greater than even
they (for instance, a Giant Sperm Whale finds it hard to distinguish between
Krajen and Giant squids). There are however rumors of Undead
Krajen inhabiting this sphere, though none have ever been brought
back and examined. There are several small pods of Kindori that make
the rounds in this Sphere, and at least one of those pods is home to a
tribe of humans.
Kilvrock
Kilvrock is the largest asteroid city in Tidespace,
having a population of well over twenty thousand. There are temples
for many religions here as it is the main attraction of Tide Space.
When the Empire was founded, Fedral decided to avoid bickering and set
his palace up in wildspace, thus avoiding the obvious problem of playing
favorites by building it on any other world. His scouts found a tremendous
asteroid and he promptly commissioned several clans of Dwarves to mine
it out with giant forge helms and in doing so slowly move it to the absolute
center of Tidespace. It hovers
several thousand miles above Twirler and the view is astounding.
Dominated by a crystal clear lake that runs straight through the asteroid,
Kilvrock supports landing berths for dry and wet splash downs The underside
of the asteroid is a shadowed mirror of the top, featuring a castle formed
from the stone itself identical to the Emperors palace topside. This
is the true center for the Empire, its entire population falls under
the payroll of Fedral. Most are Naval personnel, but many are troops
and clerks. The population of Underside is 12000, bringing the full
population of Kilvrock to 32,000. The only non Imperial persons allowed
on Underside are gnomes, though their main fleet is housed Topside, here
are located their connection facilities for Millipede Leviathons.
Topside has a booming city of trade and gathering featuring embassies from
all major spelljamming races, Vodoni and Neogi excepted.
The lake is known as Lake See Through, a much shorter
version of the name originally given to it by its discoverers, the gnomes.
Opposite the lake from the Palace and City are the Gnomish Burrough and
their Space Hamster breeding pens. Gnomes experience a high level
of appreciation here and they have special docking facilities for their
vessels on the other side of the lake. This strange fondness for
Tinker Gnomes has made the Emperor a mockery in some circles, however they
stop laughing after seeing the effectiveness of the Gnomish fleet in action.
In the construction of this city, much of the excavated
rock was turned over to benevolent mages and converted, at an extremely
hefty price, into a major force of stone golems, all of which feature beautiful
dwarven carving. They are displayed as statues on every corner of
every street and all in all number at least 1 thousand. They are
usually immobile and few knew of them until several decades ago a Neogi
fleet discovered their existance. Activated only upon the danger
bell sound from the Imperial Palace, they are effective defensive tools,
also a nice reminder of the Empire's might. One might notice by the
diagram that Gifftown is located within the Palace walls opposite Main
street from the Noble homes. This reflects the respect Fedral has
for Giff, there are several platoons on permanent hire by the empire, as
well as many on temporary hire (that is, he pays room and board for service
until they get a permanent contract elsewhere). Aklanners in general
admire Giff might and they are as fascinated with smoke powder as
the blue warriors. There are guilds for all major professions
in Kilvrock, excepting assassins and thieves.
There are in fact very few of evil alignment in
the city, as Fedral has established an extensive network of guardsmen.
All are Aklann telepaths and he watches his native lands for wild talents
relating to esp and probing. They attempt to remain non invasive,
scanning for intent as opposed to specific thoughts. The actual probability
of running into one is very low as most of his so called thought guards
are just normal guardsmen, the fear of such things is enough to keep most
ill intentioned people away. There are however, an inner circle of
psionicists who watch over the Emperor at nearly all times.
Prices are low in Kilvrock as there are Imperial
caps on them and import taxes are practically nonexistant. One can
find nearly anything here, should they look hard enough. A plethora
of inns and taverns surround the docking areas and there are repair facilities
run by the empire. Avoiding customs is not advised, as there are
stringent penalties for breaking posted laws. The whole of Kilvrock
remains warm even in the center of the Sphere, because the dwarves still
work their huge forges. It is estimated that they shall take thousands
of years to fully work the asteroid, it is that large.
Several other large asteroids serve as training grounds and housings for fleet personnel. They are generally old abandoned Dwarven Citadels. One can also find several strange encounters including the Rock of Fools. There is extensive spelljammer traffic in this sphere, simply because no worldlet can ship things via sea to their fellow islands, and tasting Imperial goods has given many merchants ideas for trade.