Pelorin
The Private Gardens
An Aurelian estate moon whose sealed garden vaults shelter private residences, retreats, archives, and the inheritance rites of old houses.
Overview
The Record
Pelorin houses the private gardens, archives, retreats, and guarded residences of old Aurelian estates. Its 85,000 inhabitants live in climate-controlled garden vaults and sheltered basins linked by sealed rail, while the cold exterior remains nearly airless.
The gardens are displays of continuity rather than practical agriculture. Estates maintain them at a cost no harvest could repay, using cultivation to demonstrate that a house can preserve living collections, staff, and inherited obligations across generations. Private archives stand behind the gardens, and their contents pass through inheritance rites not discussed with guests.
The Pelorin Estate Compact manages shared utilities and disputes among properties that otherwise govern themselves. Aurel retains final jurisdiction, represents the moon externally, and supplies the public authority no estate mark can provide. Pelorin therefore has many house signs but no collective crest.
Quickeners maintain the gardens; Sextons keep the archives and attend the transfer of what must remain closed. The two practices support the same continuity but are kept institutionally separate. Pelorin’s wealth can preserve a private world inside each vault. It cannot make those worlds independent of shared life support, Aurelian law, or an invitation system that keeps nearly every visitor at the public terminal.
Political Relationships
Standing
Standing at a Glance
- Political Status
- Chartered Dependency
- Civilization Status
- Inhabited
- Heraldic Standing
- No Unified Mark
- Principal Power
- Aurel
Pelorin is Aurelian territory divided among old private estates. The Pelorin Estate Compact manages shared utilities and disputes, while each estate controls its own grounds, residences, gardens, and archives. Aurel retains final jurisdiction and represents the moon externally. House marks identify individual estates; Pelorin has no collective crest, and public authority is exercised in Aurel’s name.
Physical Characteristics
Ground and Sky
- Diameter1,030 km
- Mass0.0003161 Earth masses
- Gravity0.05 g
Pelorin has no dependable global atmosphere. Its 85,000 inhabitants live in climate-controlled garden vaults and sheltered basins connected by sealed rail. The open surface is cold and nearly airless, so movement between estates depends on pressure infrastructure rather than exposed travel.
Orbit and Time
Path Around Oranth
- Orbital Order263
- Orbital Radius3,550,000 km
- Orbital Period24.963 days
- Rotation599.11 hours
- Inclination0.36 degrees
- Eccentricity0.006
Pelorin rotates once during each 24.963-standard-day orbit and is tidally locked to Oranth, which remains fixed above one hemisphere. Estate architecture frames the giant as part of the landscape, but interior gardens use chosen twenty-four-hour light cycles rather than following the long exterior sequence of starlight and darkness.
Culture
The Twofold
Pelorin’s estates retain Quickeners to sustain gardens whose value lies in continuity and display rather than yield. Sextons keep private archives and attend the inheritance rites by which sealed records pass between generations. Both practices preserve an estate, but they are kept apart: the two are never presented at the same function.
Travel
Travel Notes
Public arrivals use Pelorin’s small orbital terminal, which handles staff, guests, and deliveries. Surface descent beyond the shared administrative basin requires an invitation from the receiving estate. Travelers without one remain at the terminal; private estate lines and sealed rail connections do not create a general right of access.