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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