Lharn is one of the more unusually shaped celestial bodies found in Wildspace. The planet consists of two large, thick, parallel, centrally-aligned, lozenge-shaped disks. These disks are connected by a cylindrical land bridge which grows out of the center of the inwardly-facing side of each disk. The topside of each disk is slightly curved, so that from orbit the topside of each disk appears to be very slightly dome-shaped. By contrast, the underside of each disk has no planetary curvature. (In other words, Lharn looks a lot like a yo-yo.)
The disks of Lharn are perfectly round when seen face on, with a radius of approximately 5000 miles, and each disk is approximately 700 miles thick. And unlike the sharp or flat edges found on most disk worlds, the edges of each Lharn disk are rounded, so that you can start on the "top" of a disk and travel all the way around to the "bottom" of the disk. The region between the disks is known as the "underside." The rest of the planet, including the edges, is considered "topside." The distance between the disks is approximately 100 miles, and Lharn has a total surface area of approximately 330 million square miles.
The central cylindrical land bridge connecting the two disks is known as "the Axle" by the locals. The Axle is a source of puzzlement amongst the sages of Lharn. The diameter of the Axle averages only 25 miles along most of its length, and given the (assumed) material composition of the Axle, most sages agree that the Axle should not have the strength to hold the two disks of Lharn together. The various torsional, shearing, and other forces generated by the incredibly massive disks should be enough, in the eyes of most sages, to either tear one disk off of the Axle, or shatter the Axle entirely. That this has not yet happened, and indeed seems to be in no danger of happening, is taken by the sages to mean that the Axle is reinforced somehow with powerful magic.
Lharn has two axes of rotation. The first axis of rotation is a line that runs lengthways through the Axle, and indeed the Axle gets its name from the fact that Lharn rotates wheel-like around this axis. The second axis of rotation also runs through the Axle. However, this axis is perpendicular to the Axle, and is parallel to the diameter of the disks. This axis is also nearly perpendicular to the orbital plane. So unlike most other disk worlds (which rotate around a latitudinal axis like a flipped coin), Lharn rotates around a longitudinal axis, much like a spinning coin on a table top. Note, however, that the second axis does have a 15 degree axial tilt. The wheel-like rotation of Lharn around the Axle takes 180 days (half a Lharn year) to complete, while the spinning of Lharn around the longitudinal axis takes 24 hours to complete.
Lharn's atmosphere is quite breathable, and is similar to the atmosphere of most other habitable worlds. Natives of Krynn, Toril, or Oerth will find the air nearly identical to the air of their own worlds. This atmosphere extends 50 miles from the surface, and fills the space between the disks. On Lharn, as elsewhere in the Universe, gravity once again proves itself to be an extremely convenient force. Gravity here is almost exactly 1G, again similar to most of the habitable worlds in Known Space, and the directional pull of gravity is towards the ground of Lharn, regardless of how that ground is angled with respect to the rest of Lharn. So one could (in theory) walk across the underside of one disk, walk up the curved base of the Axle, walk across the Axle, walk down the base of the Axle on the other disk, and walk around on the underside of the other disk. At all times, gravity would pull you towards the ground directly beneath your feet, and the base of the axle is gradually curved in such a fashion that there is never an abrupt shift in the direction of gravity.
Additionally, gravity on Lharn gradually diminishes as you get farther from the surface, eventually reaching zero gravity as you leave the atmosphere. For spelljamming ships flying from the underside of one disk to the underside of the other, there is a small (50 yards or so) region of zero gravity at the halfway point between the disks. For spelljamming vehicles, it is also worth noting that within 50 miles of the Axle, gravity begins to pull in that direction as well.
Due to the wheel-like rotation of Lharn around the axis, the length of a day varies wildly depending on the location and the time of year. The locations with the least amount of annual variance are those locations on the underside, and those locations at or near the center of the topside. For those on the underside of the disks, daytime is very, very short: the sun appears twice in every 24-hour period, and for most locations on the underside the sun is visible for only about an hour each time. (As one gets closer to the edge, this will change somewhat. Locations close to the edge will have one normal hour-long period of sunlight, and will possibly have another, longer period depending on the time of year.)
For those at or near the center of the topside, the length of a day maintains an average of 24 hours throughout the year. As one moves towards the edge of the topside, however, the length of a day can vary considerably. This is due to a combination of the axial tilt and the wheel-like rotation of Lharn about the Axle. To illustrate, consider a point at or near the South Pole of a standard world such as Toril. On Toril, a point at or near the South Pole will remain at or near the South Pole throughout the year. On Lharn, however, a point that is at or near the "South Pole" of Lharn at one part of the year will be on the "Equator" a mere 45 days later. 45 days after that, it will be at or near the "North Pole." And eventually it will cycle back around to the "South Pole" again after half a Lharn year has passed. So depending on the time of year, a point on the edge of Lharn could have continual daytime for 10 days or so (for those points on the "Pole" when said "Pole" is tilted directly at the sun); or it could have continual nighttime for 10 days or so (for those points on the "Pole" when said "Pole" is tilted directly away from the sun); or it could have near 24-hour days (when on the "Equator"); or it could have a day length somewhere between these extremes when at other points around the circumference of Lharn.
Lharn is tectonically active, although on a lesser scale than most other planets. There are a few volcanos, and there was clearly an era of mountain building in the distant past. However, as near as the sages can tell, there is no continental drift currently in action on Lharn, nor are there many young, rugged mountains. The youngest existing mountains on Lharn are rounded mountains of medium age, worn by erosion and covered by plants. The tallest mountains on Lharn are only 15,000 or so feet high. By contrast, the oceans can get rather deep, with the average depth being approximately 22,000 feet once off the continental shelf, and with the deepest trenches reaching down to approximately 49,000 feet.
As a consequence of Lharn's tectonic activity, Lharn has a magnetic field and compass navigation is possible. However, compasses on Lharn point towards the center of the topside as their "North Pole", so the normal North-South-East-West paradigm familiar to spherical worlds doesn't apply here. Instead, the cardinal directions are "Axleward," "Edgeward," "Spinward," and "Anti-Spinward." "Axleward" is the direction pointing towards the center of the disk surface (this is true even on topside, despite the fact that one isn't really headed towards the Axle on topside). "Edgeward" is the direction pointing towards the edge of Lharn. "Spinward" means to travel in a circular arc in the same direction as Lharn's wheel-like rotation around the Axle, and "Anti-Spinward" is to travel in a circular arc in the opposite direction. These directions are referenced to a coordinate system similar to latitude and longitude on other worlds, but generated by using a system of radial distances (i.e. distance from the center of the disk) and reference angles. For the natives, it all makes perfect sense (since they grew up with the system). For non-natives, it can be confusing unless one has some understanding of mathematics and geometry.
The origin of Lharn is unknown. Most sages take it for granted that Lharn is a created world, shaped by the will of some uknown entity. They believe it unlikely that a world shaped like Lharn would have arisen naturally. The magically enhanced strength of the Axle certainly supports this theory. However, this does leave the question open of who, exactly, created Lharn? Although there are a variety of competing theories, the theory most commonly accepted amongst both the sages and the general populace of Lharn is that Lharn was created as a joint effort of the goddesses Meridar and Elistraee. The composition and demeanor of the population of Lharn lends considerable credence to this theory, and indeed it is so widely accepted among the population of Lharn that they have named one of the disks "Meridar" and the other disk "Elistraee."
Despite the fact that Lharn has axial tilt, Lharn has no seasons to speak of. This is a consequence of Lharn's wheel-like rotation around the Axle; since a point on Lharn's "South Pole" at one portion of the year will be a point on Lharn's "Equator" a mere 45 days later, the temperature of these regions is moderated due to the continual heating and cooling of the air and the ground. Therefore, the average temperature of any given region tends to remain more-or-less constant year-round, and tends to vary according to the distance fom the center of the topside. For those areas at or near the center of topside, daytime temperatures tend to average around 90F, with nighttime temperatures dropping to around 70F. As one gets farther from the center, the average temperature drops. For those locations precisely on the edge of Lharn, the average daytime temperature hovers around 70F and drops to an average of 55F at night.
The other consequence of the continual heating and cooling of Lharn's atmosphere is that the weather becomes gradually more windy as one approaches the edges. Near the center of Lharn, winds are rare. [Within 1000 miles of the center of Lharn's topside, winds are never stronger than "Favorable."] As one moves out towards the edge, winds become stronger, and those locations within 1000 miles of the edge are prone to high winds, tornados, and hurricanes. [Within 1000 miles of the edge of topside, use the Winter column of the Weather Conditions chart, and add 2 to the roll.]
The chance of precipitation on the topside is similar to that of any other standard world. There is a 1 in 6 chance per day that rain will fall for those locations within 2500 miles of the center of topside, and a 1 in 4 chance per day for those locations within 2500 miles of the edge. Precipitation on the topside of Lharn is always rain.
As one might expect of a region that only gets 2 hours of sunlight out of every 24, the underside of Lharn is cold. However, it is not as cold as one might expect under these circumstances. By rights, the underside of Lharn should be arctic in nature. But in actual fact, the average temperature of Lharn's underside hovers around the 45F mark year-round. The most common theories put forth to explain this discrepancy involve either heated air traveling around from topside, or the ground of underside itself being heated by magma. No one has yet put forth a convincing proof of either theory, however.
Precipitation on the underside occurs less on average than on the topside due to the decreased levels of evaporation. There is a 1 in 10 chance per day that precipitation will occur. Precipitation on the underside can take the form of rain, sleet, and occasionally snow.
Aside from the shape, the topside of Lharn looks much like the surface of many other habitable worlds. The surface is blue-green, and covered with streaks of grey-white clouds.
The underside of Lharn is not really visible from space unless Lharn is approached from the side. Even then there's not much to see since it's most likely shrouded in darkness.
Lharn's ratio of water to landmass is roughly similar to most standard worlds, with approximately 55% water of Lharn's surface covered by water. Like most habitable worlds, Lharn's oceans are connected in such a way that one could view them as two large, disk-wide oceans. (The Axle does not connect the hydrospheres of the two disks, and so the oceans of Meridar are distinct and separate from the oceans of Elistraee.) Nonetheless, the natives of Lharn have (like the natives of most other habitable worlds) given names to smaller sub-divisions of these disk-wide oceans based on perceived geographical distinctions.
The largest continent of Lharn is Gorgar. It covers nearly 2/3rds of the topside of Meridar, and wraps around to cover 1/8th of the underside. The center of the topside of Meridar is located within Gorgar's borders. The smallest landmass worthy of being called a "continent" is the continent of Cazzelano. Cazzelano is roughly triangular in shape, and covers approximately 1/10th of the underside of Elistraee. Other continents range in size and location between these two, with some continents wrapping around to cover parts of the topside, the edge, and/or the underside, and with other continents existing completely on the underside or the topside of the two disks.
Of these remaining continents, two are worth singling out: Furgh is a long, narrow continent which exists almost entirely on the edge of Elistraee, taking up about 1/4 of the total circumference of that disk. And Halliss is the Axle-spanning continent that exists on both Elistraee and Meridar.
The terrain of topside ranges from swamps to forests to grassy savannahs to green hills to desert, and includes just about any other type of terrain one might find on a terrestrial world. The only terrain types that the topside does not possess are arctic/sub-arctic terrain types and rugged, young, rocky mountain terrain. (The terrain of underside is somewhat unique, and is discussed at length in the next section.)
The flora and fauna of Lharn's topside is varied and diverse. The plants range in complexity from very simple lichens, mosses and algae to advanced plants and trees, and the entire gamut in between. The plants near the edge of Lharn are adapted to both windy and cloudy conditions, as well as being adapted to slightly colder temperatures. The trees near the edge usually take the form of flexible-trunked evergreens, similar to pines and firs and so on on other worlds, but with trunks and branches that are more supple and less likely to break off under high winds. As one travels Axlewards, the evergreens tend to be replaced with decidious hardwoods. And those regions closest to the center of topside are, depending on the average rainfall, populated either with palms and other tropical trees, or with succulents and cacti.
The fauna of topside is equally varied and diverse. While there are many creatures on Lharn that will be familiar to natives of other worlds (e.g. cattle, dogs, rats, and other common animals found wherever civilization can be found), many of Lharn's animals have evolved into different niches than they might occupy on other worlds. For example, there are gigantic insects which have evolved to fill the "grazing herd animal" niche that might be filled by antelopes or gazelle on other worlds. And preying on these insects are large flightless birds which have evolved to fill the "herd predator" niche which might be filled by lions or tigers on other worlds. And so it goes around the ecological niches, with small bird-like vermin, web-spinning mammalian insectivores, wolf-like lizards, and so on.
Given the paucity of sunlight which reaches the underside of Lharn, it is not surprising that plants which rely exclusively on photosynthesis for their energy are nearly non-existent. The few plants on the underside which fall into this category are all slow-growing, ground-hugging plants with extremely broad leaves. The majority of the plants on the underside, however, fall into one of two categories: Plants which supplement photosynthesis with other sources of energy (i.e. carnivorous plants); and plants which don't require photosynthesis at all (i.e. fungi).
But even within these constraints, one finds a similarly rich diversity of underside flora as one finds with topside flora. The various fungi and carnivorous plants have evolved to fill many of the same niches that one finds on topside. For example, there is a type of ground-covering, fibrous white fungi which takes the place of grass in its particular niche, and grazing fungivores subsist off of this fibrous fungus just as cattle will graze on grass. There are "trees" which are really carnivorous plants, and which subsist off of the bird-like fauna which lives on the underside. Likewise, there are extensive forests of huge fungus "trees" covering many of the landmasses of the underside. And so on.
With respect to fauna, the mundane creatures are unlike any found elsewhere in the cosmos. There are birds, and amphibians, and fish, and so on, and so forth. But all of these animals have adapted to the fungus-rich environment of the underside. Many of the animals live directly off the fungus (or, in some cases, off the carnivorous plants). Other animals prey on these fungivores. Most are blind, or at least very sensitive to light. The fungivores locate their food via smell, and the predators usually hunt by a primitive form of biological radar.
However, these mundane creatures are not the only inhabitants of the underside's ecological niche. In addition to the "normal" animals mentioned above, the underside is filled (some might say teeming) with a wide variety of "monster" type animals. Almost any monster that would be found in an underground lair, in a darkened cave, or in any other similarly dark and dank environment (including monsters which live in the open but only come out at night) can be found on the underside. Ropers, otyughs, slimes, puddings, aboleths; all these and more can be found on the underside of Lharn in abundance, either preying on the mundane animals, or preying on each other.
Experienced spacers who manage to find their way to Lharn are in for a little surprise. Lharn is primarily populated with orcs, goblins, hobgoblins, gnolls, bugbears, other goblinoids/humanoids, and with drow elves...
...most of whom are good-aligned creatures.
Meridar is the Goddess of Good-Aligned Goblinoids/Humanoids. Elistraee is the Goddess of Good-Aligned Drow. Both are goddesses whose sphere of influence concerns good-aligned creatures who belong to an otherwise evil race. As one might suspect, they get along fairly well.
Thousands of years ago, Meridar and Elistraee discovered Lharn by virtue of a planewalking, good-aligned drow wizard faithful to Elistraee. At the time, the population of Lharn was not dissimilar to its current population: goblinoids/humanoids and drow. However, the drow and the goblinoids of the time were primitive and evil. Seeing an heretofore unprecedented opportunity, Meridar and Elistraee each sent forth a group of followers to Lharn as missionaries.
Millenia later, the results of this effort are evident. The dominant civilization on Lharn is the Posk Empire. The Posk Empire covers approximately 3/5ths of Gorgar, the largest continent on Lharn. The citizens of Posk are good-aligned goblins, orcs, drow, bugbears, gnolls, and so on. This is not to say that every member of the empire is good-aligned. Posk has its criminal element just like every large empire. But for the most part, the citizens of Posk are devoted and faithful followers of either Meridar or Elistraee, and they try to live their lives according to the tenets of Good (most are Neutral Good, but there are plenty of Lawfuls and Chaotics in the mix as well). Additionally, the citizens of Posk are, on average, more intelligent, longer lived, and less fecund than their counterparts elsewhere in the Multiverse.
Culturally speaking, the Posk Empire is relatively advanced. They have an extensive road system which has lasted hundreds of years, and which provides cities with easy commerce and trade. They also have aqueducts, organized city guards, public schools, and many other amenities of an advanced civilization. They do not have an aristocracy, but they do have economic class stratification. Some citizens, mostly rich businessmen and merchants, are in the wealthy upper class, while others are economically disadvantaged lower class citizens. Tradesmen, merchants and craftsmen tend to make up the burgeoning middle class.
Posk operates on a unique form of democratic dictatorship. The citizens of Posk feel that a ruler with near absolute power is best suited to deal with emergencies and threats, and so they hold votes every 10 years to elect a Kashtra. The Kashtra is, for all intents and purposes, an absolute dictator (albeit a benevolent one). However, the citizens of Posk also elect an Imperial Council every 10 years. This council has limited veto powers over the Kashtra, and, more importantly, they can de-throne the Kashtra if they feel that he or she is failing to promote the good of all the citizens of Posk.
In geographical terms, the Posk Empire is much like many other large empires in the Multiverse. It spans a large portion of Gorgar, and contains tiny villages as well as large, cosmopolitan trading centers. The capital of the Posk Empire is the large, cosmopolitan city of Pandarr. Every race of Posk is represented here, and the vast majority mingle without any tint of prejudice or racism. The drow, kobolds, and goblins live underground and tend to be more active at night, while the orcs, hobgoblins and other humanoids keep daytime hours. The edgeward border of Posk is occupied by a smaller empire of evil goblinoids (Torillians may liken this empire the Zhentarim), and the anti-spinward border edges on thick jungle populated by tribes of elves.
The elves are recent additions to Lharn, at least on a cosmic time scale. Some 3000 years ago or so, an expeditionary force from the Elven Imperial Navy stumbled across Lharnspace and, eventually, Lharn itself. The Admiral leading this force was an exceptionally prideful, rigid, and prejudiced woman, and she found the idea of an advanced, good-aligned empire of goblinoids and drow to be an utter abomination. In her view, the concept of "good-aligned" drow and goblinoids was the ultimate insult to Good; it spit in the very face of all that being "Good" meant. And she determined to wipe the Posk empire (then at a smaller, less powerful stage) from the cosmos.
Many elves agreed with her and sided with her attempts. But many more found her ideas reprehensible and repulsive. Those opposed to the Admiral mutinied, and the ensuing battle resulted in the crash landing of the expeditionary force onto Lharn, in the jungles bordering the Posk empire. The Admiral survived and had the mutineers put to death to the last elf. The remaining elves dispersed into the trees, to plot the destruction of the Posk Empire.
In the ensuing years, the elves have degenerated. They attempted to start a new elf civilzation in the jungles of Lharn, but the initial genetic pool was too small. As a consequence, the elves of Lharn are somewhat inbred and primitive. Their sole motivation at this point is a blind, unreasoning hatred of the goblinoids and drow of Lharn. They do not (or cannot) see the good in the citizens of Posk; in their eyes, goblinoids should not be suffered to live.
The third race of sentients on Lharn is the myconid race (Fungus Men). The myconids live on the underside of Lharn, between the two disks. As a consequence of the abundant "monster" population on the underside, the myconids are extremely xenophobic and extremely aggressive. They grow up in a world filled with near-constant attacks from the predators of the underside, and this tends to color their worldview. The largest concentration of myconids can be found on Halliss, but they can be found pretty much anywhere on the underside to some degree or other.
Lharnspace is a difficult sphere to get to, so non-native visitors are exceedingly rare. Even the Arcane seem unaware of the existence of Lharnspace.
Spelljamming is a recent discovery on Lharn. The spelljamming helms of the Elven expeditionary force were destroyed when the Armada crashed on Lharn, and none of the surviving elves were advanced enough to create a new one. Wizards in the Posk Empire, however, have recently discovered the concept on their own, and Posk now has 3 space-worthy ships (all groundling vessels converted to the purpose). Exploration has been going on for the past 10-15 years. The Posk spacefarers have visited most of the other planets in their sphere. They have also discovered the Crystal Shell of Lharnspace, and have even been out into the phlogiston. However, the nearest flow river is at least 30 days travel through slow phlogiston, and so the Posk spacefarers have not yet discovered other spheres.
Thanks to the abundant monster population of underside, the other half of Lharn has not been explored to any extent. All expeditions to the other disk have never returned. It is assumed that this is because the monsters either killed them on the way over to the other disk, or they killed them on the way back. It has only been with the advent of spelljamming that knowledge of the other disk has begun to trickle in to Lharn's sages. But it's still almost completely unexplored. No telling what might be found here.
