Liavara

Liavara

(Cosmos)

Titles

The Dreamer

Type

Planet

Adjective

Liavaran

Diameter

×10

Mass

×100

Gravity

×1

Atmosphere

Dense, unbreathable

Year length (PST)

12 years

Day length (PST)

10 hours

Orbits

Sun

System

Pact Worlds system

Satellites

Several large, populated moons including Arkanen, Osoro, Nchak, (uninhabited) Melos, and Hallas

Inhabitants

Dreamers

Images of Liavara

Source: Core Rulebook, pg(s). 454-455

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Liavara is a gas giant, the seventh planet in the Pact Worlds system.

Geography

A floating platform over Liavara.

Liavara is a gas giant made predominantly of helium and hydrogen. Its outer layer is formed primarily of red, orange and yellow clouds, and is relatively calm, but can also experience all kinds of weather phenomena. Deep in the planet, the gas coalesces into a supercritical fluid state under a pressure dense enough to crush any starship. Throughout all of Liavara's layers can be found all kinds of useful gases, such as metasterium and thaumogen, some of which are very rare or non-existent elsewhere in the Pact Worlds.

North of the equator is the Ribbon, a band of clouds where air currents are fast and clouds are more yellow than the rest of Liavara, due to the direct exposure to the sun, which results in higher temperatures that push nitrogen dioxide away. Compared to pre-Gap records, the Ribbon seems to have shifted slightly north over time.

Ring system and moons

Liavara is the only Pact World with a ring system, which is shaped by its numerous shepherd moons, among which the most prominent ones are Arkanen, Osoro, Nchak, Melos and Hallas.

Arkanen

Heavily populated Arkanen's atmosphere constantly bleeds away, but is replenished when its eccentric orbit (deemed impossible by standard physics) takes it through Liavara's upper atmosphere. Huge electrical storms are generated when the two heavenly bodies pass by each other that act as a kind of mundane and magical dynamo. The generated energies are syphoned off by scientists and spellcasters, and some claim that the moon was built as a power source.

Osoro

Osoro's lower atmosphere is composed of corrosive and poisonous clouds that are generated by its jungles, and the only known settlements are located high in the moon's mountains. Solar powered gliders travel between them, while reinforced vessels occasionaly dive into the lower atmosphere to study the remnants of a lost civilization located there.

Nchak

Nchak is a moon ruled by the mortal incarnation of the goddess Hylax that has become a popular religious mecca for shirrens.

Melos

Melos' entire population disappeared in a mysterious event that is described either as a religious rapture or given a more sinister explanation. It is visited by archaeologists and treasure hunters who plunder it for research and/or profit.

Hallas

This moon of Liavara is under strict quarantine, as exposure to the hyperevolved beings who live there can literally explode the brains of outsiders. due to overstimulation.

Government

Liavara is not a member of the Pact Worlds government. As its inhabitants have no recognisable society, Liavara and most of its moons are administered by Bretheda's governing entity, Confluence, with the exception of the large, populated moons which are allowed to govern themselves.

Inhabitants

Liavara's most prominent and intelligent inhabitants are the Dreamers, although they are not actual natives, but are descended from barathu explorers who came from Bretheda to Liavara within oma starships. In the ensuing years, they have diverged from their cousins who remained on Bretheda. While the barathu of Bretheda developed a collectivist culture and the ability to combine consciousnesses, the Dreamers spend their days flying through the clouds of Liavara performing inscrutable social interactions (at least to outsiders). The Dreamers are best known for their prophetic songs that predict a terrible or wonderful future event. The barathus maintain Liavara's natural ecosystem as a reserve for the Dreamers, whom they view with almost religious reverence, and enforce strict quotas on corporations who seek to make a profit from its rare gases, and hold a non-interference policy toward the Dreamers, which has put them in conflict with scholars who wish to study their prophecies.

Flora and fauna

Liavara's native flora and fauna take various forms that are adapted to living within a gas giant. In the upper layers of the atmosphere, the foundation of the food chain are giant bacteria and epiphyte vegetation. Kriegakos graze upon them, and are in turn preyed upon by cloud-skates, tarenake and keji swarms. The lightless depths are home to massive predators that hunt with acidic webbing, vampiric tentacles or even magic to attract or ensnare prey. Lightning elementals and oma are drawn to Liavara's rings, and can often be seen among its clouds. Creatures living in the upper layers drop their eggs, which descend deeper until they reach neutral bouyancy and can gestate in the increased heat and pressure away from the predators above.

Settlements

The only true settlement on Liavara is Roselight, a gas mining platform where all kinds of humanoids make their living, from android miners, lashunta researchers to vesk bodyguards, human overseers and ysoki executives. The platform's government ensures that it remains fixed in one place to monitor mining corporations' traffic and activity. Above Roselight is Upwell, a space station that serves as the main entrance to Liavara. Illegal, secret mining stations exist outside Confluence's influence, but the lack of oversight means that violence and accidents are common there.

Food production

Food production on Liavara is handled by massive floating epifarms devised by barathus and Xenowardens to cultivate symbiotic epiphytes and giant bacteria. The plants produce water from trace oxygen, and the bacteria combine it with other gases to synthesise nutritions to feed the plants. This creates a sustainable source of vitamins and proteins for inhabitants, which has been exported to Upwell and some cities on the moons. The epifarmers have recently developed new strains of bacteria which produce substantially higher yields but might be sentient, raising ethical issues on whether it is acceptable to eat them.

Attraction to psychics

Liavara is subject to an above-average amount of psychic energy, which has drawn cultists who seek to absorb it. It is unknown if this energy is the cause or the result of the Dreamers' transcendence. Although this does not violate any laws, the cultists are still a nuisance, frequently getting in the way and requiring rescue operations, and those who are successful can only gain but not control psychic powers, turning them into walking hazards for themselves and others.