Kule

Kule
A tradesman above the caldera of Mount Forlorn
Basic Information
Other names	Celene The Handmaiden
Crystal sphere	Greyspace
Type	Moon
Size class	B
Shape class	Spherical
Type class	Earth body
Satellite of	Oerth
Day length	91 days
Year length	91 days
Population summary	Humans, humanoids, drow, mindflayers, kua-toa
Orbit distance	10 million miles (2 hours)

Kule, also known as Celene or the Handmaiden, is the first celestial body in orbit around the system primary Oerth in the crystal sphere known as Greyspace. A size B spherical earth body, Kule is the closest and smallest of Oerth's two moons.

Technically, everything that revolves around Oerth could be considered a "moon", but only Kule and her sister planet Raenei, are close enough for observers on Oerth to discern their surface features. Also, as they are the only planets to lie within the orbit of the Sun, they are the only celestial bodies to cause eclipses. For these reasons they are the only celestial bodies considered to be moons.

"To see the future of Oerth, visit Kule."
- excerpt from Devolution by Markam the Younger

Overview

"No civilization - no society - is immortal. Elves and humans alike would do well to remember that, a thought to temper our arrogance."
- excerpt from Reflections on a Hostile Universe by Taengelen Elderbower

From wildspace, the Lesser Moon is a bright rich aquamarine color, with large light-blue or white ray-like like structures on its surface, which has the color, consistency and texture of coal.

Since Kule orbits in the same plane as Liga, and is closer to Oerth than the fire body, the moon causes regular eclipses obscuring the disc of the Sun when viewed from Oerth's surface. Because of Kule's size and its distance from Oerth, its apparent size in the sky is exactly the same as that of Liga. Thus, when the moon is obscuring the Sun, the eclipse is total, presenting a spectacular view of the Sun's lacy, glowing corona (known as 'Liga's Veil'.)

Kule is a voidworld, and lacks even the barest hint of an atmosphere. However, traces of a long-vanished civilization litter the surface of the moon, with the remains of at least seven great cities having been found. Kule is tidally locked with its primary, meaning that the time it takes to rotate about its own axis (its' day), is the same as the time it takes to orbit Oerth (its' year). This in turn means that Kule always has the same hemisphere facing Oerth.

The side facing Oerth is known as 'Nearside', and its features include a number of large craters, many with strange extended 'ray-like' structures radiating out from them, a handful of extinct volcanoes, including Blackcone Mountain near the north pole and Mount Forlorn near the equator, and a large dry seabed, known as the Sea of Dust, in its north-eastern quadrant. The surface of Nearside is also littered with the debris of ruined cities, as if they had been laid waste by some great destructive event,

The opposite side of Kule, facing into wildspace, is known as 'Farside', and is covered with thousands of overlapping craters, suggesting that it bore the brunt of a great asteroid storm that may have scourged the inner planets millennia ago. Strangely enough, the derelict cities on Farside are relatively intact, with delicate towers and great citadels exposed to the void of space.

Inhabitants

The thick, cold crust of Kule is riddled with tunnels, caves, caverns, and subterranean lakes. While some of these structures are natural, the rest were excavated by the builders of the ancient cities above. The network of tunnels and caverns have since been extended by their current inhabitants, which include mind flayers, drow, and kuo-toa. Other subterranean races can be found living on Kule, but their populations are generally considered too low to worry about.

Drow

The drow are the most populous of the three main races on Kule, and certainly have the most dynamic, aggressive and dangerous society. Their main settlement, known as Urrq'azzt ("Distant home"), is a large city located within great caverns deep below the extinct volcano known as Mount Forlorn. Designed with an austere, almost cruel beauty, the city perfectly encapsulates dark elven society. The drow have also established vast subterranean farms, illuminated and irrigated using magic.

The drow have a very regimented, conservative society, and like many other drow societies, are matriarchal. They are ruled by an Empress-Priestess named Lililth. Below the Empress, and reporting directly to her, are two independent councils: the Council of Advisors and the Council of Priests. Each council is comprised of thirteen members; all drow of aristocratic birth who have proven their wisdom and initiative in life before before being invited to join the councils.

Illithid

The illithid are the second most populous race on Kule, and when they first came to the voidworld many centuries ago, they brought with them vast numbers of kobolds and other small creatures to provide them with a steady supply of brains. The mind flayers have established a single large settlement and dozens of smaller ones. All but the smallest settlement is governed by its own independent elder brain. The largest settlement, which translated into common means "Sharp Beak", is the only one to make any kind of provision for spelljamming vessels, and even these are rudimentary at best.

Kuo-toa

The kuo-toa are the least populous of the three major races on Kule. They don't have cities as such, but have established many small clan-based settlements, inhabited by extended families. They have little interest in spelljamming and have no ship's of their own. No one is really sure how the kuo-toa subsist: presumably, they raid the drow farms and the illithid "brain herds", possibly supplemented with a little cannibalism from time to time.

Trade

There is no organised spelljamming trade with any of the societies on Kule. However, both the drow and the mind flayers each maintain a token spelljamming port.

• Albest'ar - The drow maintain a spaceport within the caldera of a large extinct volcano, located at the equator near the center of Nearside. Known as Albest'ar ("Hole in the Sky"), or Mount Forlorn on human charts, the rim of the crater shields the drow from direct sunlight. The caldera itself is filled almost to the brim with air, and can accommodate vessels up to 250 feet (76 meters) in length. From the spaceport, tunnels lead down to the drow city of Urrq'azzt.

• Sharp Beak - The illithid maintain rudimentary facilities above their largest settlement, rendered into common as 'Sharp Beak'. While the area has been graded to allow ships to land, no provision is made to supply visitors with air.

Appendix

External Links

• Kule article at Greyhawkonline.com, a wiki for the Greyhawk campaign setting.
• Oerth article at the Forgotten Realms Wiki, a wiki for the Forgotten Realms campaign setting.
• Greyspace at Beyond the Moons (the official Spelljammer website)