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Worlds

Kordath

The Burning One

The innermost planet of Vya and Veo is an uninhabited world of iron-dark crust, open calderas, and volcanic fractures bright enough to see from orbit.

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Kordath

Overview

The Record

Kordath passes closer to Vya and Veo than any other planet in the system. Iron-rich plains, broken mountain chains, and immense calderas cover a crust that never remains quiet for long; in the most active provinces, incandescent rock shows through fractures kilometers across.

Heat alone does not account for the violence. The changing pull of the paired stars stresses the planet as it moves through its 64.32-standard-day orbit, driving deformation and helping to sustain widespread volcanism. Eruptions continually renew a thin atmosphere while stellar radiation strips and alters it. Hardened orbital instruments can watch the process for years. Surface packages are measured in hours or days.

No power claims Kordath and no permanent settlement has been attempted. Survey missions come for comparative geology, stellar-environment research, and the testing of equipment intended for extreme conditions, then leave before exposure consumes their margin. Among the peoples of Oranth, the Burning One remains the plainest warning against drawing too near the Twin Lights.

Political Relationships

Standing

Standing at a Glance

Civilization Status
Uninhabited
Heraldic Standing
No Unified Mark

Kordath is unclaimed. Temporary scientific surveys confer no ownership, and no Oranthian power maintains a permanent installation or issues local warrants.

Kordath, the scorched volcanic innermost planet

Physical Characteristics

Ground and Sky

  • Diameter9,600 km
  • Mass0.58 Earth masses
  • Gravity1.02 g

Kordath carries a thin, unstable volcanic atmosphere dominated by carbon dioxide, sulfur compounds, sodium vapor, and fresh outgassing. It provides almost no protection from stellar radiation and is continually replenished as it is altered or lost. Below it lie iron-dark plains, active calderas, broken ranges, and incandescent fractures; any surface instrument must endure heat, corrosive gases, radiation, and frequent ground movement.

Orbit and Time

Path Around Vya & Veo

  • Orbital Order10
  • Orbital Radius58,000,000 km
  • Orbital Period64.32 days
  • Rotation31.2 hours
  • Inclination1.9 degrees
  • Eccentricity0.041

Kordath rotates once every 31.2 standard hours while orbiting Vya and Veo in 64.32 standard days. Because the two stars move across its sky as a pair, shadows split and shift, and the color and intensity of daylight vary even within one rotation. Some seasons allow only brief true darkness. Survey schedules follow radiation exposure and thermal conditions rather than the local sunrise-to-sunrise cycle.

Archival orbit plate for KordathArchival diagram of Kordath on its path around Vya & Veo. Charted values: recorded radius 58,000,000 kilometers, period 64.32 days. Orbits are decorative and not drawn to scientific scale.Kordath

Culture

The Twofold

Kordath’s heat, radiation, and geological violence have ordinary physical causes; none is confirmed as an expression of Dawn. Its violence is often described in Dawn language, but survey teams keep that interpretation separate from their measurements.

Travel

Travel Notes

Only shielded survey craft approach Kordath. Most missions remain in orbit; surface deployments require thermal and radiation protection, autonomous landing systems, and a departure plan that assumes eruptions or ground movement may close the chosen site without notice. There is no port, rescue service, or standing authority to clear an arrival.