Valdyr
The Broken Ice
A Koravel-protected Far Reach moon whose rift towns turn geothermal heat into habitation, industry, and expertise for other frozen settlements.
Overview
The Record
Valdyr lives only where its ice has broken. Geothermal fractures supply heat, meltwater, and access to old stone beneath the glaciers, so towns extend in narrow lines along rifts while the ground between them remains lethal open ice.
Heat is both infrastructure and industry. Pumps, exchange houses, covered bridges, and vent controls keep a settlement connected across unstable ground. A new hold requires a tested fracture; silence in a heat pipe is a civic alarm because habitation cannot spread beyond the systems fed by the rift.
Valdyr exports geothermal surplus, cold-region fittings, and the knowledge required to maintain settlements on frozen worlds. That specialization makes the moon useful across the Far Reach while leaving every town dependent on a small number of warm seams and on routes that can carry its work outward.
Rift governments retain local authority under Koravel’s protection. Koravel defends the long supply lines and represents Valdyr externally; the moon supplies industry and mutual-defense support in return. A local crest is sufficient for a hold or heat contract, but external security still arrives under Koravel’s name.
Political Relationships
Standing
Standing at a Glance
- Political Status
- Protectorate
- Civilization Status
- Inhabited
- Heraldic Standing
- Local Crest
- Principal Power
- Koravel
Valdyr is an industrial protectorate and mutual-defense partner of Koravel. Rift governments retain authority over settlements, heat systems, local industry, and access to their habitable fractures. Koravel provides external defense and represents the relationship beyond the moon.
Valdyr supplies geothermal surplus, cold-region fittings, and operating knowledge for frozen settlements. Koravel protects the long supply lines and opens wider trade. That exchange is mutual in use but unequal in standing: Valdyr does not act externally in its own name.
The geothermal-rift crest is a recognized local mark. It identifies Valdyri government and industry but does not replace Koravel’s authority in external agreements.
Locations
Locations on Valdyr
Zorvek
City
Valdyr’s largest settlement, a geothermal rift city where 600,000 residents maintain the moon’s shared administration, principal exchanges, and protected landing field.
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Quelthar Rift
Infrastructure
A linked corridor of independent geothermal holds collecting Valdyr’s heat, building cold-rated machinery, and keeping the moon’s chief Gloam ceremonial caverns.
View location →
Physical Characteristics
Ground and Sky
- Diameter3,490 km
- Mass0.017 Earth masses
- Gravity0.23 g
Valdyr’s atmosphere is cold and thin over the glaciers, becoming thicker and wetter near geothermal rifts where steam creates local weather. Rift towns maintain breathable conditions; open-ice travel requires breathing and thermal protection. Vent ash or mineral vapor can close streets and fields without warning.
Orbit and Time
Path Around Oranth
- Orbital Order850
- Orbital Radius15,900,000 km
- Orbital Period236.502 days
- Rotation33.8 hours
- Inclination172.1 degrees
- Eccentricity0.036
Valdyr rotates every 33.8 standard hours and is not tidally locked. Glaciers pass through hard starlight and severe darkness, while rift towns depend on lamps and geothermal heat in both. Oranth is distant in the sky and provides no useful warmth.
The moon follows a retrograde 236.502-standard-day orbit. Local calendars track vent stability, ice movement, and convoy arrivals rather than inner-system seasons.
Culture
The Twofold
Travel
Travel Notes
Complete the Far Reach retrograde transfer and approach the assigned rift-head field. A missed descent can leave a vessel on glacier beyond any walkable heat. Accept a local tug when control assigns one; surface conditions, vent ash, or shifting ice may close a field after arrival.
Carry full cold protection even when transferring directly to a warm hold. Industrial and geothermal contracts name the receiving rift, and Koravelan protection may guarantee the agreement without guaranteeing safe movement elsewhere on the moon.