Planet Zel Primus

This star system, located in a Drusus Marches, is home to a varied and dynamic set of celestial bodies. The system contains a single uninhabitable rock planet, two gas giants with their own complex systems of moons, and a comet cloud that marks the outer boundary of the system.

Primary Star

  • Type: G-type main sequence star (like our Sun)
  • Stability: Provides steady radiation and warmth, enabling life to thrive on the moons of the first gas giant, but the second gas giant lies further out, with harsher conditions.
  • Distance from gas giants: The star is positioned such that the first gas giant lies within the habitable zone of the star, while the second gas giant orbits farther, just beyond the habitable zone.

Uninhabitable Rock Planet

  • Type: A dry, barren world with no atmosphere.
  • Location: Positioned in the inner portion of the system, between the habitable zone and the outer reaches of the gas giants.
  • Characteristics: The surface is scarred by intense impacts and volcanic activity from a long-dead core. Its atmosphere was long lost due to a lack of a protective magnetic field, and its surface is pockmarked with craters.
  • Potential Use: While uninhabitable, this planet could be a source of raw materials or a strategic waypoint for space travel.

Gas Giants and Their Moons

First Gas Giant: Arcadia

  • Size: Massive, larger than Jupiter, but with a strong, stable orbit within the habitable zone of the system.
  • Atmosphere: Thick, mostly hydrogen and helium, with swirling clouds of methane, ammonia, and trace gases.
  • Moons: Three large moons orbit Arcadia, each supporting its own ecosystem, created by both sunlight and the immense tidal forces exerted by the gas giant.
Moon 1: Lumis
  • Gravity: Low, about 0.3 times that of Earth.
  • Atmosphere: Dense nitrogen and methane atmosphere with oxygen pockets and high clouds.
  • Ecosystem: A lush, temperate ecosystem of bioluminescent forests, vast shallow seas, and floating islands. The tidal forces from Arcadia cause extreme oceanic currents and alter the landscape regularly. The inhabitants, a combination of organic and synthetic life, have evolved to use these tidal shifts to their advantage.
  • Climate: Highly active weather systems, with cyclones powered by tidal heating, creating a perpetually dynamic environment.
  • Lifeforms: A mixture of plant-like and amphibious creatures, including glowing plants that photosynthesize and massive, sea-dwelling creatures adapted to extreme tides.
Moon 2: Vora
  • Gravity: Slightly higher, about 0.6 times Earth’s gravity.
  • Atmosphere: Thin, but breathable for most life forms. Contains high levels of carbon dioxide and nitrogen, creating a greenhouse effect.
  • Ecosystem: A desert world with massive shifting sand dunes, where giant subterranean fungi and vast root systems store water. Tidal heating keeps subsurface oceans of liquid water beneath the arid surface, creating unique oases of life.
  • Climate: Harsh winds, dust storms, and high temperatures during the day, with cold, moist conditions in the underground caverns during the night.
  • Lifeforms: Fungi-like organisms dominate the ecosystem, with specialized fauna that feed on the fungi and store water in their large, bulky bodies.
Moon 3: Sylphos
  • Gravity: Moderate, around 0.8 times Earth’s gravity.
  • Atmosphere: Thick and rich with breathable nitrogen and oxygen, along with trace gases that support plant life.
  • Ecosystem: A vast, temperate jungle world with large floating forests above an ocean of methane. The life forms here have adapted to both the low gravity and the abundant, toxic gases in the atmosphere. The ecosystem is teeming with floating flora and highly specialized flying creatures.
  • Climate: Warm and humid with constant storms that bring nutrient-rich clouds to the floating forests.
  • Lifeforms: Giant, plant-based organisms that float on the winds, evolving to harvest not only sunlight but also the gases in the atmosphere. Floating creatures, similar to jellyfish, drift through the air, feeding off the flora.

Second Gas Giant: Vortex

  • Size: Smaller than Arcadia, but still a giant in its own right. Positioned farther from the star, near the outer edge of the system’s habitable zone.
  • Atmosphere: Dominated by hydrogen, helium, and trace amounts of methane, but with much colder temperatures compared to Arcadia.
  • Moons: One moon, known as Kiree, maintains an ecosystem sustained by tidal heating and geothermal activity.
Moon: Kiree
  • Gravity: Low, around 0.4 times Earth’s gravity.
  • Atmosphere: Thin but breathable, a mixture of nitrogen and oxygen, although high levels of ammonia make it hazardous for most life forms without protection.
  • Ecosystem: Kiree is a cold, icy moon with a thick, frozen surface. Beneath the icy shell, however, lies a vast ocean heated by the moon’s interaction with Vortex’s powerful gravitational forces. The ecosystem thrives in these subsurface oceans, where geothermal vents provide the necessary warmth and energy.
  • Climate: Sub-zero temperatures on the surface, with violent snowstorms and shifting glaciers, while the underground ocean is a hotbed of life.
  • Lifeforms: Strange, bioluminescent organisms thrive in the warm depths, from single-celled organisms to large, eel-like creatures. In the surface ice, symbiotic bacteria form crystalline structures that help protect the organisms from the intense cold.

Comet Cloud: The Aether Belt

  • Location: Beyond Vortex, marking the outer boundary of the system. This cloud of icy bodies and comets slowly orbits the star in a highly elliptical path.
  • Characteristics: The Aether Belt is composed of a dense ring of comets and icy bodies, many of which are rich in volatiles like water ice, methane, and ammonia. Some of these comets occasionally enter the inner system, where their volatile contents provide a source of new elements and compounds to the moons and gas giants.
  • Potential Impact: The comets, while not directly supporting life, influence the ecosystem of the moons by occasionally supplying organic material and water vapor during their passes. Their impact may occasionally trigger volcanic or geothermal activity on the moons, especially those with subsurface oceans.

System Dynamics and Interactions

  • Gravitational Forces: The two gas giants, Arcadia and Vortex, exert significant tidal forces on their moons, especially the closer-in moons, creating dynamic, ever-changing environments. Arcadia’s moons experience regular tidal shifts, leading to active weather systems and volatile geological events, while Vortex’s farther-out system experiences more subtle but equally important tidal heating, especially on Kiree.
  • Ecosystem Diversity: The different moons support distinct ecosystems, each with unique adaptations to the local environment. While Arcadia’s moons are warmer and more Earth-like, Vortex’s moon is cold and alien, relying on geothermal energy to sustain life beneath its icy crust.