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Maldin's Greyhawk

Osraspace

by Denis Tetreault
 Version 1.0


Not too distant from the Radiant Triangle lies a crystal sphere known as Osraspace. A key sphere in a small cluster of humanoid-dominated spheres, Osraspace was the location of several major battles during the last Unhuman War. Evidence of those battles can be found throughout the sphere.

Osrad, the most important of the planets within Osraspace, is where I have placed the setting location for the Mayfair Games' Role Aids product "Dark Folk", published in 1983. Within that publication there is much information about orcs, kobolds, goblins, gnolls, and trolls, including setting information on towns, villages, fortresses and dungeons, and a map of the continent of Mamaryl.

1. Rastur Fire World Size H Spherical Primary


2. Rasturell Earth World Size C - 900 mi Spherical 40 million miles

The name of this world translates to "Son of Rastur". The sun-blasted planet has what would be considered extreme deserts at the poles, however everywhere else on the planet the heat is so intense as to be completely hostile to all normal life. Sparsely scattered about its surface are communities of fire elemental creatures such as azer.

3. Torsia Earth World Size D - 3500 mi Spherical 140 million miles

Temperate and tropical plains 20%, Forests 30%, Deserts 30%, Mountains 10%, Cold (arctic) plains 10%
Torsia is unusual in that there are no oceans or clouds and is believed to have no free surface water. Water exists, however is entirely underground. Native plant species have unusually deep roots that allow them to extract water from beneath the surface. Highland areas tend to be deserts, and mountains are lifeless, as there is no reachable water. Native animal species get all of their water from the food (plant or animal) they consume.

A great civilization once existed on Torsia, but it mysteriously collapsed and disappeared over 5000 years ago. Ruins can be found all over the planet, all heavily damaged often to the point of being difficult to distinguish from natural rock outcropings. Rumors persist of preserved underground structures. Torsia is now thought to have no native intelligent life. The current small, reclusive human population consists of refuges and shipwreck survivors, many descendents from the Unhuman War.

3a. Ryan Water World Size C - 200 mi Spherical moon of Torsia

Ryan has no atmosphere, so landing on its watery surface is quite problematic. Any ship contacting Ryan would lose its atmosphere as well, so it remains relatively unexplored. There does not seem to be any native life. It seems to be the irony of the multiverse, to have a planet with not a drop of surface water with a moon composed of nothing but water. There have been radical Osrad sages that have postulated that this is not a coincidence, and that Ryan is the water that once was on Torsia.

4. Tefir Air World Size G Spherical 240 million miles

The most notable feature of Tefir is a fire ring that surrounds the planet. Cloud cover is complete and impenetrable, and thus it may not be obvious that the planet is an air world. There are numerous, yet small, earth bodies that move through the air world, all less than a quarter mile in diameter. Tefir is the homeworld of a race of winged "wind elves" that call themselves "zephyr".

5. The Curtain Earth World Size B Asteroid Belt 800 million miles

The Curtain is a very wide asteroid belt occupying a region resembling the equatorial third of a sphere. Even though Greyspace's massive Grinder is a complete sphere, the Curtain represents many times the volume of the Grinder because its radius is 4 times greater. Within this chaotic jumble of rocky asteroids can be found many pirate bases, salvage yards, rogue outposts, and headquarters for secret organizations. Many of these are humanoid in nature, though not all. It is believed that there are several secret bases housing the remains of the humanoid fleets, the ogre fleet being perhaps the most dangerous. There is a persistent rumor of a secret ogre shipyard that was suddenly abandoned during the last Unhuman War for unknown reasons, with several ogre mammoths in various states of completion. The shipyard may also be lost to the ogres themselves, as they seem to still be searching for it. The immensity of the Curtain makes that a difficult process. The absence of any major ports of call on the planets inside the Curtain mean that few spelljamming crews bother to take on the dangers of the Curtain - making it the perfect location for the activities that it does see, of course.

6. Osrad Earth World Size E Spherical 1400 million miles

As one approaches Osrad, one of the dangerous legacies of the last Unhuman War will quite commonly become apparent. In orbit around Osrad are countless hard jagged white balls that will be picked up by the gravity planes of passing ships. When these balls land on deck, they will move and unfold into skeletons and attack (Lorebook of the Void p. 62-63, and Skull and Crossbones p. 54). Many of the skeletons are humanoid in nature, and can sometimes be surprisingly tougher than expected.

Osrad is an ancient goblin-kin homeland, and contains very large populations of kobolds, goblins, orcs, ogres, and gnolls. The variety of troll species here, the higher-than-expected intelligence of some of those species, and their long history seems to suggest that Osrad may possibly be the original troll homeworld.

There are 6 continents, and numerous large islands of note. The three largest continents are dominated by humanoid populations, sometimes with secretive and beleagured human populations struggling to survive. There are two smaller continents that are dominated by human and demihuman populations, although humanoids are still quite common. One of these is the continent - and human nation - of Mamaryl (which is described in the "Dark Folk" publication described above). The last continent, smaller than the rest and thankfully isolated from the others by wide seas, is a continent overrun by humanoid undead. Why they are there is unknown. Some have theorized the existence of a mysterious and powerful undead ruler, while others suggest the effects of a powerful artifact or ancient spell effect. Whatever the cause, it may explain the unusually high numbers of undead-manned ships in the Curtain.

7. Yarga Water World Size C - 200 mi Spherical 2000 million miles

From space, it looks like a frozen ice world, however Yarga actually consists of liquid water below a 10 km thick ice crust. The planet's name means "Where Yarg lives". Yarg (short for Yargnarrel) is one of the gods of the troll pantheon on Osrad. There is no native life on the surface of Yarga, and virtually nothing is known of what lies below its thick icy crust. From orbit, the surface seems fairly uniform and featureless, except for a 5 mile diameter depression in its northern hemisphere that seems to have been filled with more recent ice.

7a. Shard Ice World Size B - 5 x 25 mi Spindle moon of Yarga

Shard is a spindle-shaped solid chunk of ice orbiting Yarga. There is a forgotten legend from prehistory of an ancient colossal god-like elemental beast that was banished from Osrad many millenia ago by the pantheon. It remains in suspended animation, locked within Shard, and may someday awaken.





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This page last modified on June 18, 2011