Homeworld

OK YATOR (ock yah-taw)

Galactic Co-ordination System: Spur, OK AVTAX-1

The world on which the Skala evolved is close to the star Ok Avtax, barely within the habitable zone. Ecological studies suggest that the planet’s surface was once covered by an acidic ocean, which drained away into the planet’s corroded depths as the sun became hotter. It is now a scorched and rocky planet, with a dense crust honeycombed by cooler canyons and cavern-complexes. The days are short and harsh, with little change in temperature through the brief night; only the underworld, where the Skala make their warrens, provides the elements of life in pockets and tidal pools stirred by seismic activity.

Though the treasures of Ok Yator (which means Big Home in the Skala language) are well-hidden, they are rich nonetheless. It is a planet defined by its many layers, from the intricate food webs of the deep darkness to the caverns exposing the bright strata of the mantle – all the way down to the Skala themselves, who have developed a culture of introspection and reflection based on visibility of the past around them.

Locations of note on the planet of Ok Yator include:

• Om Valati, or First Warren, is an unassuming site of pilgrimage for many Skala – for it is what remains of the oldest chambers dug by their ancestors. It is a matter of debate whether the Skala actually evolved at Om Valati, or if it is “merely” the oldest confirmed site with conclusive evidence of habitation.
• The capital city of Da Karet, Deep Wonder, is the largest superwarren structure on Ok Yator. It lies beneath the Karet mountain range, safe from seismic activity and with access to a subterranean lake – Ul Karetan, Sea of Wonders – which provides food and power to the millions who dwell there.
• Every warren on Ok Yator has its own Ar Va, or Face Chamber. These private vaults are where Skala undergo, and enshrine, moults that accompany significant life events – the first shedding of adulthood, for example, or the last husk of a religious leader. These chambers are often the first dug in a new settlement. The largest Val on the planet is called Ar Vala, the Face Hall – a funerary complex, far from any “living” warren, in which the moultings of historically significant figures are kept alongside the recreated skins of legendary figures by Skala monks.
• The Outer Vent Fields (known to the Skala as Ki Dok, or Hot Spray), are a series of surface-accessible thermal springs. Located at a unique pressure point between continental plates, boiling acid is forced up and out of the planet’s crust at irregular intervals – hot enough to melt the plating off a spaceship’s hull, even before factoring in the corrosivity. Geothermal power is generated from stations dug into the fault lines around the springs; seismic activity is easier to predict, and manage, than the acrid jets that emerge as a result of it.
• The superwarrens of the Skala are connected across continental lines by a series of tunnel networks called the Roads of Ril. These are the product of hundreds of years of excavation, and hundreds more of maintenance. The work of keeping the roads has been made easier with modern lighting and tunnel-boring techniques, but it remains a venerated and culturally significant role.