Geography

Sultonia is relatively cool and stable for its age. It has an atmosphere with a roughly even mix of hydrogen and helium, and carbon-rich sandy regions cover much of the surface. It experiences four seasons throughout the solar year, chiefly experienced as variations in wind speed and cloud coverage:

• “Becalm” is the cold and dark season, where the clouds are thickest and the wind mildest. The planet’s face is pelted with hail and pocked with frost during Becalm.
• “Wilder” is the cold and light season, during which hurricane-force winds from the polar mountains drive the clouds into faint wispy trails. 
• “Coverall” is the hot and dark season, where the winds are low and the humidity trapped under the dense clouds turns most of the planet into a soupy marsh.
• “Barren” is the hot and light season, when an almost cloudless sky and a dearth of wind means there is little relief from the red sun. 

Trace acidic compounds and complex silicates within the planet’s mantle suggest that life might have independently arisen on Sultonia, given a few billion years in isolation. Be that as it may, the planet is now firmly colonised by the Alliance and host to populations of all its species, including the few hardy livestock animals that can stand the climate.

The planet has a subtly elliptical shape, with dramatic mountainous terrain at its poles and flatter plains at the equator. The surface is marked by deep volcanic basins, many of which are filled by caustic “sharpwater” geysers that wells up from beneath the crust – there are no other bodies of water to speak of.

Sultonia is noted for having both a planetary ring and three moons to shepherd it, all of which are made of the same stellar debris that formed Sultonia itself. In order of size from largest to smallest, these moons are named Denali, Menlale and Begguya. Denali bears a lunar observation station and orbital gate, while the smaller moons are too small for development.

Key locations on the surface of Sultonia include:

• The capital city of Habit, which has grown to fill the same shady basin – the Viive crater – that hosted the very first settlements on Sultonia. Like the planet itself, Habit came about from the drawing together of different materials into a stronger whole. Life in Habit is much faster and flashier than many rural Sultonians prefer, but it is sedate compared to large settlements elsewhere in the Alliance.
• The Gaspcaps are the two farthest points on Sultonia from each other: the peaks of the polar mountains. The cliffs and outcrops around these jagged antipodes are home to miles upon miles of terraforming machinery and attendant atmospheric monitoring stations. The terraforming process is long, dangerous and dizzyingly complex: few can handle the vibrations or the vapours that the lungs of Sultonia exhale, and so the mountains are largely uninhabited save for scientific outposts.
• Stretching out from Habit towards other settlements in long and dazzling lines are the Whipscorch pylons. These gleaming pillars are tipped with flat braids of solar panels that flutter in the planet’s raging winds, generating renewable energy from both the air and the abundant sunshine simultaneously. The sight of these glittering chords at work is awe-inspiring – as is the sound.
• The Ataata range is a series of canyons that run between Sultonia’s adolescent continental plates. The range is deep, steep and treacherous – but it is also the best place to see the strata of the planet laid bare. The braver breeds of tourist and the sturdier kinds of geologist flock to the Ataata in the Barren season, abseiling down the curved walls in forcefield-lined rafts to marvel at jagged volcanic veins and geodes large enough to park a spaceship in.
• Ok Doli, “Big Flat“ in the old Skala language, is the largest of Sultonia’s equatorial alkaline salt plains. As a broad, flat and non-reactive surface on a planet where the landscape is usually none of those things, Ok Doli is the planet’s main hub for spaceship landings and launches. Markets, rest stops and refuelling stations are freckled across the surface of Ok Doli, the better to cater to new arrivals and departing travellers.
• The farming settlement of New Flustrian is a recent addition to Sultonia – a home away from home for the Lavra, a community of Alliance refugees rediscovered by the Ardent on its first mission. After being isolated for several generations, the Lavra are slowly reintegrating back into a galactic community that, for their younger members, seemed like a myth.