Radole is a celestial body in orbit around the system primary of the crystal sphere known as Winterspace. This size E spherical earth body is tidally locked around the sun, and as such features a band of habitable land running along its circumference.[1][2][3]
Overview[]
Radole is a spherical world, with a diameter of about 7,400 miles (11,909 kilometres), and is only slightly flattened at the poles. Radole is tidally locked with its primary, meaning that it always keeps the same face towards the sun. Because of this, Radole has three distinct climactic regions: "sunside" which is in constant sunlight; "darkside" which never sees the sun; and a band around the world, running from pole to pole, where the sun is always half above the horizon and half below it. This ribbon of halflight is the only portion of the planet that is inhabitable by humanoids. It is this feature that leads many to call Radole a "ribbon-world." Radole's axis is exactly perpendicular to the plane of its orbit, meaning that the planet does not have seasons.
Sunside appears reddish-grey from wildspace. Although it is totally free of clouds, few features can be discerned from orbit. Darkside is, by definition, dark, so it's difficult to make out its appearance. Under alternate sources of light, or using other forms of vision, an unbroken cover of dirty-white clouds is revealed. Cloud cover over the Ribbon is spotty, and appears much like any standard earth body.
The planet is rugged, with high mountains and deep valleys on both Sunside and Darkside. The Ribbon itself is characterized by rolling hills and fertile plains. There are no large oceans of liquid water anywhere on the planet. On Sunside, the temperature is so high they've been boiled away; on Darkside, they've frozen solid. The Ribbon has numerous fresh-water lakes. The last mountain-forming epoch ended several million years ago, and geologically and volcanically, Radole is now a dead world. There are no volcanos or earthquakes. Radole has no moons.[4]
Sunside[]
On Sunside, the average temperature is well above the boiling point of water. On the equator at the point where the sun is directly overhead, the temperature hovers around 620°F (327°C), dropping off drastically towards the habitable band. This temperature is high enough to melt tin, lead and other soft metals. Explorers who've managed to protect themselves against the killing heat have described a blast-furnace environment, with lakes of liquid tin, and slowly moving mountains of half-molten lead. There are no clouds, and no precipitation of any kind on Sunside. Dry winds of superheated air whip across the surface.[5]
Darkside[]
Darkside is the exact opposite of Sunside. At the point on the equator furthest away from the sun, the temperature stays around -310°F (-190°C). This is cold enough to liquify the oxygen in the atmosphere. Thus, even without worrying about the killing cold, the air of Darkside isn't breathable by normal lifeforms. This brutally low temperature increases rapidly as one moves towards the Ribbon, of course. Darkside sports lakes of liquid oxygen. Cloud cover is always total, with the clouds consisting of ice and oxygen crystals. Precipitation is frequent, and consists of oxygen rain or snow. Winds are exceedingly brutal, whipping up the land's covering of oxygen snow into massive blizzards.[5]
The Ribbon[]
In the 200-mile-wide (322 kilometre) habitable region, conditions are absolutely perfect for humanoid life. The temperature is always roughly constant, hovering around 75°F (24°C) with a variance of only about 5°. Warm, dry air spills over from Sunside, and clear, fresh water runs down from the mountains that separate the Ribbon from Darkside. Winds are always moderate and very pleasant.[5][3]
Inhabitants[]
Because Radole is tidally locked, it is divided into three distinct regions, each with its own ecosystem.
Sunside[]
The high temperatures on Sunside make it instant death for most normal lifeforms. There are, however, bizarre creatures who seem well adapted to the conditions. The majority of Sunside life is roughly insectile, and resemble huge beetles with reflective shells, seemingly made of metal[6]. There are also larger creatures as well. Explorers have reported seeing great metallic dragons soaring on the thermals over mountains of half-molten lead. Recurring rumors describe at least one species of dragon that is unique to Radole, the mithril dragon[7].[5]
Darkside[]
Life is much more limited on the Darkside, since energy is in such short supply. There are reputed to be great white worms, similar to the more common purple worms, that burrow through the crust. There are also reports of shadowy, somewhat humanoid shapes that wander the dark plains, but these have been disregarded as fantasy. (In reality these creatures are shadows that have entered Radole through a gate to the Plane of Negative Energy located at the coldest point on Darkside. Thus far none have tried to cross the mountains into the Ribbon, possibly because the sun never sets, and this frightens them off.) The only life that has been confirmed to exist on Darkside is a species of white pudding.[5]
The Ribbon[]
All lifeforms on the Ribbon are familiar terrestrial species. However, potentially harmful or banefull creatures are conspicious by their absence. Plant life includes various grasses, grains, flowers, fruit trees, etc. Again, there are no baneful growths present. There are many domesticated animals such as cows, sheep and horses, plus a great many harmless creatures like deer, birds, squirrels, even (reputedly) a few unicorns. However, the Ribbon seems totally free of any animal that poses a threat to humanoid life.
The sentient races living on the Ribbon include humans, elves, dwarves and a handful of halflings, while orcs and other goblinoids are completely absent. Because the inhabitants of Radole are well aware that their world is the closest thing to Paradise many travelers would ever see, one of their greatest fears is that their idyllic existence will be threatened or destroyed. For this reason, the people of Radole are quite xenophobic. Settlers are unwelcome, and even transient visitors are treated with grave distrust.
The people on Radole are well aware of spelljamming technology, and use it to defend their home. The Imperial Radole Navy consists of 35 ships of the line (hammerships) and twice that number of support vessels (dragonflies, damselflies and wasps) . A screen of vessels is always in wildspace, ready to challenge any approaching craft, and a strike force of larger ships is capable of lifting off within a couple of hours of the alert being given. Ships accosted by the defensive screen must be able to give a very good reason for visiting Radole before they're allowed to enter the planet's atmosphere and land. No matter how exemplary the visiting ship's reason, however, it will always be escorted down by one or more Radole vessels. On the ground, visitors can leave their ships only when escorted by members of the Radole Planetary Defense Force, a well-armed and well-trained paramilitary group formed for just this purpose.[8]
Features of Radole[]
Despite having records going back several thousand years, nobody knows the true history of Radole. Most sages believe that the Ribbon's present ecosystem could not have evolved naturally; it must have been created through careful cultivation. In other words, at some time all these life forms were brought to Radole by someone, who then created a stable ecology. This means that before recorded history, before the arrival of all these intelligent races, there was already a sentient race living on Radole. The big question is, Who?
This isn't the only puzzle posed by Radole. In its entirety, the geology and topography of the Ribbon appears to have been manufactured. Ringing the planet around the boundary between the Ribbon and Darkside is a huge, unbroken mountain range 15,000 feet (4,572 meters) high. All who have studied the mountain range, known as the Barrier Mountains[9], have come to the same conclusion: someone or something built the range. The mountain range can only have one purpose; to hold back the glaciers of Darkside and to prevent the frigid winds from making the Ribbon uninhabitable. There is no doubt that the mountains themselves, and the soft slopes of the foothills leading to them, are artifacts, created by an intelligence on a scale greater than anything seen elsewhere in the universe. Channels for rivers were also constructed in a regular pattem, exactly 10 1/4 miles (16.5 kilometres) apart. It's down these artificial channels that the Ribbon gets its fresh water.
In widely-scattered places along the Barrier Mountains, huge smooth-walled tunnels lead for miles into the hearts of the mountains. These tunnels terminate in great cavems, thousands of feet across and hundreds of feet high.[10] The walls of these caverns are decorated with abstract murals and carvings, and show a recurring motif of three-pointed stars and three-petalled flowers of alien form. Dwarven stonesmiths have examined these tunnels and caverns, and have concluded that they weren't bored into the mountains; the mountains were built up around them. From this, it's an obvious conclusion that the makers of the caverns also built the mountains. Most believe that the mountains were constructed by a race that used to inhabit the planet, and that the great caverns were their equivalents of temples. Nobody knows what form this ancient race took, or where its almost unimaginable power came from. None of the murals contains any representation of anything that could be a sentient being. Legends and myths about this ancient race abound, but most are contradictory. For example, some believe that it was this great race which caused the planet to become tidally locked with its sun. The most widely held belief about the ancient race is that it was they who transplanted terrestrial life to Radole. For what purpose, no one can guess.[11]
Appendix[]
External Links[]
- Radole article at the Forgotten Realms Wiki, a wiki for the Forgotten Realms campaign setting.
References[]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Nigel Findley, SJR4 Practical Planetology, 1991, (TSR Inc.), Chapter 2 Earth Bodies, Radole section, pages 13-16
- ↑ Elaine Cunningham, The Radiant Dragon, 1992, (TSR Inc.), pages 154-155
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Elaine Cunningham, The Radiant Dragon, 1992, (TSR Inc.), page 306
- ↑ Nigel Findley, SJR4 Practical Planetology, 1991, (TSR Inc.), Chapter 2 Earth Bodies, Radole section, page 13
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 Nigel Findley, SJR4 Practical Planetology, 1991, (TSR Inc.), Chapter 2 Earth Bodies, Radole section, page 14
- ↑ Nigel Findley, SJR4 Practical Planetology, 1991, (TSR Inc.), Steelback Beetle (Radole) section, page 60
- ↑ Nigel Findley, SJR4 Practical Planetology, 1991, (TSR Inc.), Dragon, Mithril (Radole) section, pages 51-52
- ↑ Nigel Findley, SJR4 Practical Planetology, 1991, (TSR Inc.), Chapter 2 Earth Bodies, Radole section, pages 14-15
- ↑ Nigel Findley, The Broken Sphere, 1993, (TSR Inc.), page 91
- ↑ Nigel Findley, The Broken Sphere, 1993, (TSR Inc.), pages 91-92
- ↑ Nigel Findley, SJR4 Practical Planetology, 1991, (TSR Inc.), Chapter 2 Earth Bodies, Radole section, page 15