Aestra

Aestra is the second planet of the Vyian system and the one closest in scale to the worlds upon which open-air life might ordinarily be expected. From orbit it appears serene and luminous, its entire surface hidden beneath layered clouds of cream, gold, and muted amber. Nothing visible from above suggests the violence below.

Pressure and temperature rise sharply beneath the upper atmosphere. Corrosive compounds fill the lower clouds, while powerful winds circle the planet at speeds that make controlled descent difficult. Lightning moves through several atmospheric layers at once, and the greatest storm systems extend across distances wider than the Great Moons of Oranth.

Nearly everything known of Aestra has been learned through orbital surveys and descent probes built to survive only briefly. Few have reached the surface intact, and none has continued transmitting for long. Large regions remain poorly mapped beneath the cloud cover, but no settlement, ruin, or other artificial structure has ever been verified.

In Oranthian tradition, Aestra is the Veiled World: beautiful from a distance, deadly upon approach, and unwilling to reveal what it keeps beneath its clouds. It appears in old teachings as a warning against mistaking serenity for welcome, and in later stories as the place where truths too dangerous for the inhabited moons were hidden from sight.