Second Place Winner in the Unique Space Station Contest!
The High Temple of the Sun can be placed in almost any crystal sphere in your campaign world. The asteroid is in a close orbit around a solar primary, so that places some restrictions, and it's probably best not placed in any of the "big three"; Greyspace, Realmspace, and Krynnspace. A suggested location is one or two spheres away from Bral. This document is designed to stand alone, so all the information you need to use it is placed in the appendices.
The Church of the Sun is a faith based on the worship not of anthropomorphic "sun gods" but of suns themselves under the tenet that all suns are one sun.
The Church is active in about a third of the spheres of known space. One of its main activities is assimilating the often disoriented worshippers of other solar religions, who are generally faced with a crisis of faith on the discovery that there are more suns than the one they have been worshipping up till now.
There are two arms of the faith; the Ecclesiasty, who run the temples and convert people, and are more magically versatile, and the Rays of the Sun; the martial priests. The Ecclesiasty makes up about 75-80% of the faith.
Being a space based faith they have no great ground based empires to draw upon, so early in their history they set up the High Temple, not so much as the centre of their faith (after all, no one sun is any more important than any other), but as a meeting place and logistical centre, a centre of training and of shipbuilding. The Temple is also the organisational centre of the Rays of the Sun, and the Church's military forces. Rays may wander as they see fit, or they may join the Church's fleet. Many often change from one to the other several times during their lives.
The asteroid is roughly round, about 1500 feet in diameter. One side is flat, while the other is convex. The thickness of the asteroid therefore varies from about 50' at the edges to 300' in the centre. The asteroid orbits close to the system's sun, with the convex side always fixed towards it. Sunside, as it is known, is blisteringly hot and barren, and is dominated by a 100' high ziggurat of gold veined white marble. Shadeside is the inhabited side of the asteroid, and is in effect a bustling town, dominated by the Temple of the Sun itself. While the base's function is mainly secular, it is still the most important holy place of the Church. Consider the spell 'prayer' to be constantly active anywhere on the asteroid and within the air envelope.
The asteroid has a population of about 100 priests, about the same number of soldiers and a service population of about 1000. One thing to bear in mind throughout all this, is the sheer amount of magic a place like this can bring to bear. A lot of the problems that might otherwise trouble a base of this nature can be solved in this way.
Shadeside is the flat inhabited side of the asteroid. Despite the fact that it is permanently oriented away from the sun it has a standard day/night cycle. This is generally held to be a miracle, but nobody expressed much surprise about it either, so there could easily be something that the priests aren't saying. The temperature is that of a summer's evening.
Most of the buildings are wood and stone, but important buildings (such as the temple) are constructed of gold veined white marble (the veins aren't actually gold, they're iron pyrites, but it looks nice, which is the main thing).
When the asteroid was colonised, a large amount of earth was imported and spread over shadeside, consequently most of the top of the asteroid that doesn't see heavy use is grassed over, helping to refresh the air envelope.
(not to scale)
___---------__
/ / \
/ docks X \
/ / \ ^
/ \ __ ship \ |
| \/ \X__/ -yard | |
| lake | "north"
| \__/ |
| ___ X |
| village | T | |
\ X | e | / X= heavy weapons towers
\ _| m |_ barracks
\ X |_ p _| X /
\ ___ |_l_| ___ /
----e----The first thing that most visitors to the asteroid encounter is, of course, the docks. There are four jetties jutting out of the side of the asteroid along the gravity plane, allowing berths for eight ships. In addition, there is space for six ships to make hard landings, but any more than four makes the docks quite cramped and loading and unloading ships quite difficult. Lastly, there is space for a couple of ships to land in the lake, but this tends to be frowned upon. There is a stone wall running around the dock area, with frequent guard towers. Two of these also function as heavy weapon emplacements for defence of the asteroid. There are two gates in the wall; a larger one leading to the shipyard, and a smaller one in the section of wall west of the lake for supplies for the populace. The asteroid relies on outside supplies of grain and cured meats, and goods such as cloth. The shipyard gets frequent deliveries of lumber and iron, and have a standing supply contract with a nearby dwarvish clan for supplies of copper and zinc (the constituents of the brass used for the ships hulls). Traders known to the church are welcome to stop over, selling everything from swords to stoves. On the face of it, this reliance on outside food supplies is a strategic weakness, but this forgets that there are enough priests on the asteroid to 'create food and water' for the entire populace, although it would be a highly undesirable state of affairs.
Within the wall there are four large warehouses, generally used for storing raw materials for the shipyard, and supplies ready to be taken on board by Church ships stopping over for resupply.
The Church has made quite an investment in shipbuilding, and this is their largest single shipyard. It is capable of working on three ships at a time. A scarab takes six months to build, and a sandhornet takes two. Currently there is a shortage of sandhornets for escort and courier duty, and for use as "lone wolves". The shipyards contain more than just drydocks, however. They have all the various service industries needed in shipbuilding; sawmills, ship's weapons, sails, and so forth, although exotic items like bombards, smoke powder and greek fire must be imported. There are also artisans making armour, weapons, clothes and whatever other supplies are required for the priests, inhabitants, and ship's crews stocking up at the temple before going off to smite evil. Firebolts are also made here; ballista bolts with small mechanisms that can be 'fire trapped' to go off when they hit their targets.
An attempt is made to keep smoke at a minimum; charcoal is preferred to coal as a fuel, and some industry is located on the other side of the asteroid (more on this in section 3), but at time when the wind is right sunlight streaming past the edge illuminates the steam and smoke in a dazzling display.
The head shipwright, and the designer of the two types of Church ship currently in production, is called Tamiret. He was part of a colonisation effort by a pseudo-egyptian groundling empire that had just discovered spelljamming. Fatefully, the main religion of the colonists was that of Ra, and sadly their priests found themselves powerless in their new home. While in time they could have established their worship and regained their powers, the Church of the Sun found them first, greeting them like long lost brothers. As normally happens in such circumstances the worshippers of Ra schismed; the faithful largely returned to their home sphere, and the Church gained another flock. At the time the Church was on the look out for shipwrights, and while Tamiret was a groundling he had an impressive knowledge of engineering, and he took to spelljammer design like a duck to water, even if he did find the legacy of his egyptian upbringing hard to shake off. Besides, say the Rays of the Sun, the scarab ships annoy the priesthood of Ptah, which can't be bad.
Most of the building on the asteroid are fairly haphazardly arranged, except for here.
Three large barrack buildings are arranged in a neat row, next to a large square parade ground. The latter tends not to be used for parades, but is used for training. This is where a majority of Rays of the Sun serve out their supplicancy and acolytehood, being trained in weapons and in those skills useful aboard ship. This is also where the lay military are trained; a force that is steadily growing as the increase in the Church's ships outstrips the number of Rays that are recruited. Mostly these people are destined to be sailors, but there are an increasing number of marines and temple guards being trained as well. Typically there will be 20-30 acolyte Rays in training, and 30-40 lay soldiers (these numbers are in addition to those of priests and soldiers listed elsewhere). Very few Rays actually stay here, as they are most often off smiting things.
Next to the barrack area, around the west side of the transept and chancel of the Temple proper is housing for the priests resident at the temple, although the Council of the Sun members have rooms within the Temple itself.
The "village" is where most of the inhabitants of the asteroid live. It is, frankly, somewhat too cramped, and a lot of building have had second storeys built on top of them, but it's still a bit of a squeeze as when the planners of the asteroid laid things out they underestimated how many people would be needed to run it. There used to be a village square, for example, but in the end considerations of space won out and it was built over.
This aside, life on the asteroid is fairly idyllic. True, the inhabitants are expected to work, and work hard; but there is no hunger, disease or permanent injury among the inhabitants as all of the above is taken care of by the priests.
On either side of the nave of the temple is an orchard. The one on the east, between the temple and the shipyard/barrack area is about two acres in size, the western one, between the temple and the lake has been encroached upon by the village and is only about one and a half acres.
The asteroid does not rely on these for food production, so the fruit is an extra treat for the asteroid's inhabitants. They also, of course, help with the atmosphere. The orchards are maintained by a halfling named Jack Halfyard, who brews a variety of concoctions from the fruit, from a light cider that is a perfect drink for a lunchbreak during a hard days work and won't impair the drinkers' faculties during the afternoon, to a brandy that will knock a grown man off his feet! Jack is getting on in years, but his two sons show the same love of the trees that their father does. The orchard also supports a couple of herds of pigs to provide the inhabitants with a small amount of fresh meat.
North of the village is a lake, about 400'x250'. A small community of about 50 lizard men live around the south bank, affectionately known a lizard town. The lake has a fair amount of fish in it, but the human inhabitants aren't allowed to fish it because it would be quickly depleted, and besides nobody is quite sure what other "pets" the lizard men have in the lake!
West of the lake are the silos and warehouses in which the asteroid's supplies of food and consumer goods are stored.
The asteroid has a standing defensive flotilla of two scarab and four sandhornets. The scarabs are armed with bombard in place of their heavy ballistae, and the sandhornets have greek fire projectors as their heavy weapon. Half the flotilla is in orbit at any one time. In addition to this there are six heavy weapons towers scattered about the top of the island. Each one sports a heavy catapult and two light dual ballistae in protected turrets.
This is not the primary defence of the asteroid, however. The real clincher is the amount of magic the Temple can bring to bear. Generally there are enough priests on station to summon about a dozen solar elementals (treat as fire elementals with movement Fl 20 (B)), and while unable to catch a ship at tactical speed, they can piggyback the air envelopes of Church ships until they can get to board attackers. In addition to this many of the eight members of the Council of the Sun are capable of devastating magics such as 'holy word' and 'fire storm' (not to mention quest spells, such as 'summon elemental swarm'). Finally there are spells such as 'chant', 'prayer' and 'recitation' that strongly militate against an aggressor in boarding or landing actions. Of course, any base can be taken by a sufficiently large force, but the Temple can certainly punch above its weight. There are plans to increase the amount of ships on guard three or fourfold, but at the moment they just don't have them to spare.
The other side of the asteroid is quite different. The rock is bare and jagged, and walking over it is difficult for this reason if nothing else. Unfortunately for trespassers there is something else. The sun beats mercilessly down upon sunside, heating it ferociously. Even at the edges the rock is hot enough to sear feet through thick boots, and the entire vista is brighter than the desert at midday. Towards the centre the ground gets hotter, the air gets so dry and hot that breathing becomes difficult and the sunlight is practically blinding.
Anywhere on sunside, walking on the scalding rocks requires a save versus paralysation every turn to avoid d3 damage from burnt feet (and yes, the pain and shock *can* cause someone to pass out). This is considered to be for people with thick boots: barefoot creatures get no save, those with thin footwear (or metal nails in the soles of their shoes) save at -3.
Halfway towards the shrine of the sun the frequency of saves increases to twice/turn. In addition the air here is so hot and dry that trespassers should save versus paralysation once per turn. A failed save means d10 damage, and the loss of one point of constitution as the alveoli in the lungs collapse. This damage is permanent. At the base of the Shrine, check frequencies increase to once/round and twice/turn respectively. As the Shrine is climbed, the temperature increases markedly. At the top, people unprotected from heat suffer 2d10 damage per round (save for half).
In essence, if you want to function on sunside for any length of time, you're going to need magic, something that the priests of the Sun have in abundance.
Sunside is dominated by this structure. A staircase leads from shadeside, behind the temple, leading to a marble pathway running up to the foot of the Shrine.
The Shrine is a stepped pyramid, made of gold veined white marble. It has a square base, 200' on a side, and rises to a 50'x50' flat top, about 100' off the ground. There is a colonnade running around the top of the Shrine, but the roof is open to the Sun. In the middle of the flat area is a gilt marble altar.
As one ascends the pyramid the temperature becomes drastically hotter, until at the summit you take d6hp/round of heat damage. In addition the top is considered to be permanently under the effect of 'sunray', that also effects evil outer planar creatures in the same way as undead. Note that this is a natural effect (or at least, of divine origin) not a magical effect and as such magic resistance is ineffective against it. In addition, the holiness of this place is such that it is under the effect of a permanent 'recitation'. The altar and shrine area is used when sufficiently powerful priests with to pray or meditate (that is, sufficiently powerful to survive). It is also used for magic item creation, and it is rumoured that the High Priest's crosier was forged here (the rumour isn't actually true, the crosier predates the Church's recorded history, but never mind).
Hidden in one of the pillars is a secret magical switch (requiring a command word) that opens a trapdoor about 20' away from the altar. Below is a smooth vertical shaft leading to a hidden room in the centre of the pyramid. The shaft is magically protected with a bewildering variety of wards, traps and guards (including among other things a passworded 'forbiddance'). There is no other way in or out. The room itself is guarded by four iron golems and four 24HD solar elementals, all ordered to attack anyone who enters without the High Priest's crozier (note: the guardians are effected positively by the asteroid's 'prayer' and the shrine's 'recitation').
The existence of this room is known only to the High Priest of the Sun, and the Heart of the Sun (see section 4 for info on both), because it is used as a storage place for magical devices of fearsome power. Over the years the church has acquired a number of artifacts and items of religious significance from other solar faiths, the use of which would be too dangerous while the gods in question are still active. Along a similar vein, items of great evil, or for use against great evil are also kept here for safety.
It is something of a conundrum how the Shrine was actually built. Actually, sunside wasn't all that hot before it was built; it was hot by normal standards, comparable to the desert at noon, but not fatally hot. Once the Shrine (and the Temple on shadeside) was completed, sunside became the inhospitable place it is now.
Spilling over the edge from the shipyard are the forges. This is where the brass plates are made for the hulls of the Church's ships. Supplies of copper, zinc and other metals are smelted down and cast into brass ingots, which are then wrought into plates. Early in the Temple's history at attempt was made to smelt the metals using sunlight, both because it would make them more holy and to cut down on smoke (this combination of reverence and practicality is typical of the Church), but the technique was never quite perfected, although it's still an option if they can ever work out how. In the meantime it's considered appropriate that the metals should at least be forged in the sight of the sun.
The forges are overseen by a dwarf named Brenn Coalbeard. He is quite a strange sight, bald, with a jet black beard (a family trait), and deeply tanned and sootstained skin, but his knowledge of alloys is unparalleled. Many years ago Brenn was a miner down on his luck, when his daughter was struck by a fatal illness. Not being able to reach a dwarvish temple, and unable to afford the prices of the local temple of Ptah, his daughter's life was saved (more or less on a whim) by a passing Ray of the Sun, who disappeared following rumours of an elvish necromancer and was never seen again, leaving Brenn unable to repay his debt. By dint of considerable effort Brenn took his family and sought out the Temple of the Sun, who agreed to employ him as a way of paying off his debt and have never regretted it. Brenn sees no conflict between his service to the Church and his quite faith in Moradin, and neither does the Church.
Some five percent of the Church is composed of lizardmen; the lizardmen's obsession with the sun makes them natural converts (when they would be unlikely to worship a humanlike sun god), and the Church appears to have had a commendable civilising influence on them. On the edge of sunside, just below the village area, are a collection of round white buildings. These contain several pools for the incubation of lizardman eggs. In quite a symbolic gesture, any lizardman priests of the sun may journey here with his or her mate to lay their eggs in the sight of the sun. It seems to work too, with the lizardmen of the Church being more intelligent than average spelljamming lizardmen, although how much of this is to do with cultural upbringing is another matter.
The Temple is a large and impressive structure; built in high gothic style with lots of arches, buttresses, and high vaulted roofs. It's roughly 100' by 500', with the transept coming out 80' either side. Inside it is truly impressive. Gold leaf has been used almost indiscriminately, highlighting parts of the vast vaulted space. Sunlight always streams in through two dozen stained glass windows, and dominating it all, above the altar is a gilt framed, stained glass representation of the sun.
The transept is not part of the cathedral proper, but houses the priests, robing rooms, and all the attendant facilities needed for a temple this size. In addition, this is where the Council of the Sun live and meet.
From its earliest recorded history, the Church has been ruled by a council of eight people; five of the Ecclesiasty and three Rays of the Sun. The Church depends on their leadership more than most faiths, because as they don't worship a god per se they get very little divine guidance (although they do receive occasional dreams and, more frequently, flashes of insight); you can't really converse with something that has no voice. Similarly they tend to get little direct divine intervention on their part, although they do appear to be protected from direct intervention by other powers (but not protected from a god saying to his priests "go and kill them all!"). The high priest is always a member of the Ecclesiasty.
[Human, 17th level, LG]
Remien is an old man, but the hand that grips the Crosier of the Sun is not yet infirm. Under his leadership the Church has, in the past ten years, consolidated it's position in known space a great deal, although it's rate of expansion has slowed. Remien is a conservative man at heart, and his policies reflect this.
The Crosier of the Sun predates the Church of the Sun's existence in wildspace, and probably was an artifact from one of the first solar faiths that banded together to form the Church. It has always been the symbol of the high priest, and many in the Ecclesiasty use mundane crosiers as their weapon of choice. The Crosier is a hooked staff about five and a half feet long. The staff part is made of a dark wood, and the crook and shoe of the staff appear to be made of an alloy of gold and mithril.
The crosier has the following qualities; it counts as a +5 weapon for the purpose of striking creatures, although it has no to hit or damage bonuses. When a creature is struck the staff bursts into flame, doing an additional 2d10 damage. This ability can be suppressed if necessary. If an evil creature or person attempts to wield the staff they take 2d10 damage per round. This damage may not be avoided by immunities or magic resistance (this does not apply to the combat damage above), although the damage can be reduced by fire resistance and suchlike.
In addition the crosier has the following spell-like powers, all cast at 20th level.
[Lizardman, 12th level, NG]
As has been mentioned, Lizardmen make up almost 5% of the faith, and Teskumelas is the most senior of them. By lizardman standards he is of genius level, and even his contemporaries consider him intelligent. He is keen to spread the faith to other nonhuman races.
[Half-elf, 11th level priest, 11th level mage, CG]
There are very few elves and dwarves in the Church. Their faiths are more or less ubiquitous, but even considering this they are very parochial about their gods. There are a scattered handful of half elves, however, and Diskalath is one.
Diskalath is officially the Church's liaison with the Imperial Elven Navy. The IEN have mixed views about the Church. On the one hand, they're certainly preferable to Ptah, but on the other the IEN would prefer that only they were allowed to meddle with groundling worlds. Relationships are somewhat complicated because ten years ago Diskalath had a fairly messy relationship with the daughter of a the high captain in the IEN. Unfortunately, this man is now a full admiral, and this has tarnished diplomatic relations somewhat. Diskalath is the most informal of the Council, and his easygoing style is very popular with the Rays of the Sun and junior members of the Ecclesiasty. He, along with Sherylin Mortack, is one of the prime contenders to be next to hold the Crosier.
[Human, 11th level, LN]
In every organisation there are politicos, and Robert is one such. By taking a great deal of interest in the Church's mercantile dealings, a job that nobody else really wanted, he assured himself a seat on the council when his predecessor died. This is as far as he's likely to go, however. Rebecca, head of the Rays of the Sun, has publicly referred to him as "a grovelling little bastard", and the view is shared by many.
Unbeknownst to him and everyone else, he is also an unwitting spy. Whenever he visits Bral a psionic compulsion causes him to visit a certain tavern, where his mind is read by an ithillid. The ithillids have yet to give him any orders while the Church concentrates on various undead and outer planar menaces, but he is effectively a timebomb in the heart of the Church.
[Human, 15th level, LG]
Sherylin is the counterpoint to the High Ecclesiast's conservatism. She hates the followers of Ptah dearly (for reasons nobody really knows) and is at the moment the driving force behind the Church of the Sun's expansion.
Unfortunately, though a devout priest, skilled organiser, and competent leader, she is also a deeply boring person.
[Human, 18th level, CG]
Rebecca is the head of the Rays of the Sun. Her formal title is the Heart of the Sun, a title she privately despises and which originated with the absorbed faith that founded the Rays. Rebecca typifies the Rays that do not join the faith's armed forces, but wander about the spheres shining a light into the darkness; something she's been doing for more years that she'd care to admit. In her mid to late forties (although with combinations of ageing effects and longevity effects it's hard to be sure) she is still in the peak of fitness. She is a striking woman, although she is, and was, never beautiful. She has a long scar from behind her ear down the left of her neck, a testament to some long dead monster that got a bit too close. She is the most powerful priests of the sun in the Church, and years of adventuring have laden her down with magic items. She wields her badge of office; a nameless +4 broadsword that functions as a 'mace of disruption' and as a 'scarab of protection' with limitless charges.
[Human, 13th level, NG]
People have joked that Avram was born aboard ship. This isn't true, but might as well be as he's lived on them more or less ever since. He is the head of the Church's small navy.
Softly spoken and unassuming, he is incredibly intelligent, and a master of logistics, strategy, and tactics. Second only to Rebecca, he is the council member least often present.
[Human, dual class 9th level fighter/14th level priest, LG]
A large and plain spoken man, Johnathan is the master instructor of the Rays and of the Church's soldiery.
Originally a soldier, he turned to adventuring when luck turned against him, until he joined the Church's military, becoming one of the first to become a fully fledged Ray of the Sun. During his career he alternated between doing stints of service and adventuring, before settling taking his seat on the council and (as he sees it) retiring. Despite his plain manner, he has a vast reservoir of common sense, and is a very good mediator; he probably does more to keep order in council meeting that the high priest.
AL: any non-evil. weapons: std. armour: leather. turn: yes.
symbol: sunburst. spheres: all, astral, combat, creation,
divination, fire, healing, necromantic, protection, sun.
+1 to saves versus energy draining effects, if the effect normally
allows no save then a save may be made at -4.
At 3rd level, may create a globe of sunlight 30' radius, centred on
themselves, of one turn duration, a number of times equal to their
level minus two. This has no blinding or damaging effects except
that it is real sunlight and effects creatures as noted in their
descriptions.
AL: any good. weapons: broasdsword. armour: any. turn: yes.
symbol: sunburst. spheres: all, combat, fire, healing, necromantic,
protection (minor), sun.
+1 to saves versus energy draining effects, if the effect normally
allows no save then a save may be made at -4.
At 3rd level, may create a globe of sunlight 30' radius, centred on
themselves, of one turn duration, a number of times equal to their
level minus two. This has no blinding or damaging effects except
that it is real sunlight and effects creatures as noted in their
descriptions. may specialise in broadsword.
T: 60, ram: blunt, MC: D, AR: 2, landing: ground, std. crew: 35 + marines, cargo: 7, save: metal(brass), weapons: 4 dual light ballistae (protected turrets), 3 heavy dual ballistae (internal, forward arc)
A big brass scarab beetle. The deck is completely enclosed, making boarding difficult.
T: 20, ram: none, MC: B, AR: 3, landing: ground, std. crew: 12, cargo: 11, save: metal(brass), weapons: 1 dual light ballista (protected turret), 1 other heavy weapon (protected turret)
An uprated wasp, used for courier or escort duty.
