Oranth

Oranth is the blue-gold gas giant around which the inhabited system is organized. Moons are counted from it, regions are named by their distance from it, and the 427.4-standard-day orbit around Vya and Veo supplies the common astronomical year. No one lives on the planet. Nearly everyone depends on something shaped by it.

Hydrogen, helium, volatile compounds, metallic vapors, and storm-dark clouds form an atmosphere with no solid surface to receive a vessel. Gravity near the visible cloud tops is 7.6 standard gravities, and pressure increases rapidly below them. Ordinary craft cannot descend. Specialized platforms and reinforced vessels can work only the outer accessible bands.

The Deep is the atmospheric extraction operation in those bands. Kharad commands the stations, temporary corridors, permits, and descent crews. Velyrian interests financed much of the infrastructure and retain contractual access without operational command. Material brought up through Kharad supplies foundries across the Grasp, making access to Oranth economically central without making the planet anyone’s territory.

Oranth is also the Sky Father, though cultures disagree about whether that title is devotional, historical, or merely descriptive. On tidally locked moons it hangs fixed over one hemisphere; elsewhere it rises and sets. Its eclipses organize calendars and observances, while its storms give Summoners and Descriers practical work. The planet has no Twofold tradition of its own. It is the condition under which many traditions developed.