This sphere is one of the many strange spheres in the cosmos, similar in a way to the "dysonsphere" known as herdspace. This sphere is not filled with space - but water.
At several points around the sphere, there are small gates to the elemental plane of water, and others to the point of that plane that borders the quasi-elemental plane of salt. These slowly refresh the water within the sphere, some of them with fresh water, but the majority with salt. There are areas in between of intermediate salinity, but the salt water and fresh water are slowly drawn toward the centre of the sphere (to a gigantic whirlpool in the centre of the sphere), and so generally each area is pure, for its kind.
The water in the sphere rushes in currents in some areas, yet is still as soil in others. Spelljamming is possible through it, and ships retain their own air envelopes as per normal rules. Sages theorise this was a final gift of the gods of this sphere (spoken of below), while others state it is a property of the helm itself (although ships plunding bowfirst into water worlds have found proof quite contradictory), and others seem to simply accept it as an unknown reason.
Heavenly BodiesThere are several main bodies within Aquaspace, including a large reef near the centre of the sphere, and two small sun-like objects that orbit the central whirlpool, and give of the light within the sphere. These bodies float through the water, along orbital tracks similar to normal planets. Strangely (and another point of discussion among sages), the water around the actual bodies themselves seems relatively calm at some points, allowing ships to land or inspect the bodies with ease. Most would point out that a body running through water pushes out with a turbulence-like effect, but this seems to be the case in only a few, small areas of this sphere.
The whirlpool at the centre of the sphere appears from afar to be something akin to that at the centre of the blood sea of istar, upon the planet of Krynn. Upon closer inspection (which is quite dangerous), however, it seems to act much more like a black hole. Its gravitational pull draws from as far as halfway through the sphere, and gets much stronger as a body becomes closer.
From as far away as 40 million miles, the gravity is quite strong and constantly pulls matter in. Anyone spelljamming within this area must make a saving throw vs death magic (whomever is piloting the ship) every hour, or fall 5 million miles toward the whirlpool. Within 30 million miles a ships air envelope becomes compressed (due to pressure), ance becomes 75% total size of normal. Within 20 million miles it becomes half as big (ie the boundary of the air envelope only barely covers the keel length of the ship), and under that it begins to close in. Upon reaching 10 million miles, the air envelope is compressed to only half that of the ships length, and those parts of the ship not within the envelope have broken off. It is likely that most ships break up at this point, but none have dared go close enough.
Any body, up to the size of just bigger than a dwarven citadel, is affected by this gravity. There aer rumours of someone seeing the spelljammer herself within these waters, but this rumour came from a babbling madman who managed to escape from a neogi ship aboard a leech ship using a lifejammer. He died several days later, due to the amount of damage his brain took from the increased pressure.
From as far away as half the sphere objects of the size noted above slowly drift towards the whirlpool. It merely remains of no consequence to ships until they are within 40 million miles (note this is just larger than the orbit of mercury to the sol system).
The whirlpool actually comes from a gigantic sphere of annihilation that was placed by an evil god into this sphere. The ancient inhabitants opened up the water portals in the sphere itself to compensate for this, but unfortunately miscalculated and had their homeworld crushed into the sphere after the initial rush of water pushed it to fast.
The Eternals, as they are called, are actually the two remnants of the original primary in the system, before the evil god planted the sphere of annihilation. When the sphere aws loosed, it slammed into the primary, smashing it into many pieces. One of the eldar gods managed to acuse two pieces of exactly the same size to be formed, and as they both approached the sphere to be destroyed with the rest of the star pieces, their gravitational forces caused them to go into an orbit around the whirlpool. This orbit draws most of the gravitational pull from the sphere, while the two stars push each other outward. Had neither of them been there, all within the sphere would have been slowly destroyed as it was pulled into annihilation.
The Eternals are much brighter than normal stars, which balances out from the light refraction within the murky depths. From the halfway mark of the sphere, they seem nothing more than two dim auras, far off in the water, and from only a quarter that distance again, they are unseen, simply casting their radiance through the water to reflect of the walls of the crystal sphere itself.
The Eternals make an orbit around the whirlpool once every four hours each. They move in perfect unison with each other, as though they are on opposite ends of a beam centered through the whirlpool (this is, actually, true, excepting the stick is a gravitational force).
Prophets have spoken of a great calamitythat will befall the sphere when a large body impacts with one of The Eternals. This impact will destroy the delicate, god-made balance of gravity (which cannot be restored now the gods are deceased: see further down), and start the destruction of the sphere anew. Another prophecy, however, tells of an artifact that will save the spher, though whether this would be done by destruction of the whirlpool, or the increasing of the flows from the water-portals, it is unkown.
This body is not actually orbiting the whirlpool, as the other heavenly bodies within the sphere do, but is a large, ringworld type reef of living coral, that surrounds it. It is as thick as a type E planet at its thinnest, and as much as a type H at its worst. This body slowly spins around the whirlpool, rotating clockwise while it spins end-over-end.
The Great Reef is named so because of its immense size. It would take months to travel the full length of it, without seeing much more than a glance of what lies below. There are many treasures and races living upon the reef: sahaughin in mighty coral fortresses shaped from the reef itself, strange, underwater dwarves who mine the centre of the reef for the prescious pearls within the gigantic clams living within its cavernous interior, and beautiful, peaceful elves, who tend to the myriad of flora and fauna that live upon its surface.
It is a very beautiful sight, and is the prime tourist attraction. Typical ships are made mostly of glass (or a similar substance) so even from within the decks visitors can gaze upon the beauty of the reef (of course, there is some privacy given). The Great Reef has no oxygen upon its surface, however, but does contain several sparse, bubble-like, caves, filled with beautiful amphibious creatures, and sometimes hidden pirate caches! Rings of water-breathing are sometimes rented for so-called treasure hunts, but most people find the treasure of The Great Reef is simply seeing it.
Secondary races making their homes here are aquatic dragons, and other amphibians. All are saltwater, however, as the reef is one of the few large areas within the sphere where salt-water predominates.
The next body out from the great Reef is an air world. It is thought it was a gas giant in the days when the sphere was not filled with water, many many millions of years ago. Even the ancient race whose dark gods tried to destroy the spheres contents with their sphere of annihilation are out-dated by this place.
It is theorised that the reaction of the salt-water to the gaseous areas of this world caused it to be reformed on an atmospheric scale, causing it to form oxygen and a breathable atmosphere. No one knows for certain why it is that the water does not penetrate this atmosphere, even though there is a small earth-type body within it.
This earth-type body is technically size A, although it is much more spread-out. It forms a series of plataus, and large, bridge like shapes, that connect them all to a main body towards the centre of the air body. Here, the plataues become closer and closer, and some small gaps begin to fill with a crystalline, sand-like substance, until it is basically an earth body half-covered in sand, with af ew valleys and crevaces.
From afar all this sounds amazing, and looks slightly ridiculous to some, but it has been found to be a very stable construct, not one of the plataues has ever been so mucha s chipped by anything, as they seem to be made of some substance stronger than steel, but looking like ordinary dit-covered rock. The only damage ever done to the structure is a shattered bridge (which is 10 miles wide, with a gap of 15 milse), where legend states the spelljamemr crashed in its last visit, over a millennia ago.
The plataue's and bridges in this air body maintain a gravity based upon their surface - ie, even the thinnest side of a bridge (sometimes only 100 yards thick) has its own gravity, which works much like a spelljammer ship, but always pulls straight down in relativity to the facing.
Residents in this sphere mainly do trade, from the expensive pearls the dwarfs on the Great Reef mine, to organic air-regenerators and even coral-sculpted artwork. There is also a sect of strange druids, whom live upon huts on one area of the sandy/crystalline substance. These druids are very reclusive, and none will speak to another person let alone acknowledge them, and speak in a strange language unable to be deciphered by any magical, let alone normal, means. It is rumoured that they were stranded here, long ago, either from another planet that was destroyed, or from the wrecked remains of the spelljammer itself (all residents here believe it was destroyed when hitting the bridge).
There are two major ports, one known as Samhdi-major, and the other known as Hellan. Hellan tends to be more of a rogue/pirate based port, while Samhdi-major is a free city, of artists, priests, philosophers, and the occasional sage trying to interperet the plataue's meaning, and physiological nature.
Samhdi orbits the whirlpool once every 9 standard months, and rotates once every 15 standard hours.
This body is the remnants of what was possibly a starbeast, before the great destruction that reigned in this spheres godswar. It is shaped like a Nautlis shell, and filled with age-old dirt and rock. Shejkano has an atmosphere, also kept at bay by some unknown means, that extends to two-hundred thousand miles from its surface.
The inside of the shell is filled, as said previously, and contains several cities. One is a ship construction port, owned by a n Arcane known as Gorsh. Gorsrh runs a tight city, with no shenanigans, but has well-made ships built, at low costs, and with great efficiency. He is considered an exceptional ship-maker organization, and charges only 90% standard cost.
One would ask why so many ships are not bought here, when it is so cheap and effective. This is due to the other city, which actually lies upon the outer side of the shell, known as Garranashelein. This city is run by Sahaughin, who have sea-scavvers (identical to the standard ones, but with gills and a bluish colour instead of black, able to exist only in fresh-water) trained as their hunting dogs. They frequently attack unguarded, incoming ships, and as such Gorsh typically sells only to those directed there by the Aracne, and who are under escort (the Garranashelein never attack an Arcane escorted vessel - leading to some very strange rumours indeed).
Contact with Gorsh can be made through most Arcane, though those who deal primarily in ships disdain him for some reason.
The insides of the shell, further deeper, contain warrens wfilled with a sub-race of the hurwaeti (see the complete spacefarers handbook). These Hurwaeti, known as y'thin, have fresh-water breathing gills, and the ability to see underwater with sonar, aswell as eyes. They rarely travel beyond the surface, being at war with Vodyanoi whom also live in the partially water-filled caves. It is unkown if either of these races are natives, but both have been there as long as their races memory allow (which is mainly the Y'thin's point of view).
Shejkano orbits very slowly around the whirlpool making an orbit once every 345 years. At the moment, and for the next 75 years, it is/will be within a fresh water aera, but spends 200 years per orbit in a salt-water dominated area. It is unsure what will happen to the fresh-water races during this tiem, but it is assumed it is some magical property of the starbeast that will modify their genetic structures to adapt (in fact, it is the starbeast which magically regenerates the air envelope aswell). Shejanko only rotates once every three years, in an anti-clockwise manner.
Warldus is a live world, made of layer upon layer of sea-weed, compacted upon top of each other. Some layers are dead, while others live in darkness feeding of the corpses off other pieces of seaweed, but over seven thousand, one hundred, and twenty six different species of sea-weed have been catalogued to date. It has no atmosphere, but careens along its orbit, drawing sustenance from whatever area it may be in. The only common property of all the weeds is the ability to survive in both fresh and sea-water.
Several sects of aquatic elves live within, or upon, Warldus. There are four fresh-water sects, and seven salt-water sects. While the world is within an area distasteful of the appropriate sect, the members seclude themselves in natural-formed caves of incredibly tough sea-weed, which distils the oxygen from whatever water it is in, and releases for the elves. The elves farm various species of seaweed, aswell as the few animals that live beneath the surface.
A surprising factor is the inclusion of a gigantic hollow at the centre of the planet. Here, flocks upon flocks of birds live, within an ecosystem including many different species of other animals, including rats, lizards, and some other small mammals. Looknig at the scene seems to remind one of a gigantic cavern (it is over 50 miles wide), until one sees that everything falling ends up at the approximate middle of the sphere, where there is a small phosphorescent globe (about half a mile in diameter) which is protected by some sort of invisible, magical shield. How, or even why, this is so is highly speculated, but no likely theories have been made, apart from the gods trying to preserve some of their faunic creations during the end of their godswar.
Warldus orbits once every 1.2 standard years, passing through a salt-water area for 65% of that time. It rotates as per a standard, 24 hour day, but does not alter its poles for seasonal effects. It is the last planet in the sphere, but lies just inside the half-way mark, giving some credence to the theory another planet (or similar body) once existed.
Several small cities dwell on the crystal sphere itself, which seems to have its own gravity, and is covered generally in moss, coral, and other sea-bed like areas. These cities are large bubbles of air, which have collected together to form a decent exo-sphere. Some of them move upon large plates on the inside of the crystal sphere, while others stay perfectly still. To date there are 6 major cities, 18 small villages (farming/artists colonies mainly), and several other camps of strange and rare creatures. There are also megafauna travelling upon the inside of the sphere, several large crab-like beings, one resembling a slaad with a trident, and a final one that seems to be a sleeping (or dead) shark.
There are also many larger than normal life-forms of these mega-fauna, a sparse race of giant crabmen (as from the Monstrous Manual tome, but 10 times larger), many ship-sized sharks, and even dozens of large, shelled beings, resembling the nautilus muscle, but up to 60' tall, and 30' thick. There are humanoid races of elves, sea-dwarves, humans, y'thin, and a small war-band of slaad also living on the wals of the sphere at various places, aswell as a rumoured illithid prescence (presumably collecting shells to make nautiloids out of).
Generally within the sphere there are also sea-like creatures, such as the rare tuna bigger than a whale-ship, and schools of carp, salmon, and giant-squid. DM's should make appropriate encounters based upon desired situations.
Along the walls of the sphere are the water-portals allowing new water to flow into the sphere. There are over a dozen of these portals, over two-thirds of which are salt-water. These are up to half a million miles wide, and sometimes have strange lifeforms, growing at their base. They resemble large volcanos of water, ever-flowing. Occasionally objects are rumoured to pass these portals, but it is unkown how.
There is also a large volcano in one area, close to where a salt and fresh water portal border each other's flows. It warms this area, aswell as lighting it well, and grows many strange animals in its heat. Dragons are rumoured to live within the walls of then volcano, which is over 200 thousand miles wide, although it is currently inactive. A steady stream of noxious vapours, and strange gasses constantly drifts out of the volcano, however, and ships trying to examine it run a 15% chacne for every hour spent to close to it (within 100 miles) of fouling their air one grade. This stream of gassess and dust slowly drifts towards the centre of the sphere, following the paths of various flows around the sphere, looking like a somewhat spiralled pattern. The flow of gassess has not yet reached the centre of the sphere, however, and is rumoured not to for another few centuries yet, it currently resides 30 million miles from The Great Reef.
Entrance to the sphere is made in the standard ways. Exiting is done by casting open portal 10 thousand miles away from the sphere (or whatever is growing upon the sphere), creating a gate effect similar to that of herdspace, although leaving in the same area a ship entered in is not necessary. Ships retain their air envelopes within the sphere as normal, but air envelopes of very deadly or worse begin to sprout leaks along the gravity plane, and soon fill with water. Drifting within the sphere must be stopped by use of a helm, failure to use a helm for more than two days while within the middle half of the sphere results in a slow drift beginning. It takes close to two weeks to drift to within the 40 million mile barrier of the whirlpool, and then only hours to perish.
Rings of water breathing are sold frequently here, as it is a cheap and effective way to ignore air restrictions. Once the air on the ship is fouled and the water begins to seep in, vulnerable items/areas are sealed off (in appropriate ways) and crews continue to function breathing the water with their rings. This can be deadly, however, as the insides of most ships weer not meant to be constantly waterlogged, and rigging and/or sails are likely to become more of a hinderance than a help in this situation. The only ships most appropriate to this instance are those thatcan be fulyl sealed, and such retro-fitting is usually suggested due to the scarcity of air-replenishment deeper within the sphere. All a ship needs is to loose a few helmsmen, and find it can travel only 2/3 the normal amount of time, and it can soon fnid its air is a great problem.
Of course, if the ship is sealed, the air envelope is greatly reduced, and compensation steps must be taken.
There are no gods of aquaspace - not any longer. Millenia ago, the sahaughin of the outer world worshipped a pantheon of dominating, evil, vengeful, and irrational gods, who were always fighting with noe another. The elves of one of the inner planets worshipped a smaller, much elss powerful group of deities, who promoted peace and understanding. Unable to watch their bretheren, evil as they were, destroy each other, the elven gods approached the sahaughin gods, to try ands till their raging war, lest it would destroy the contents of the sphere.
Unfrotunaetly, as they approached, the sahaughin slew them with trident and spear, and danced upon their bones. They struck back at the elves within the sphere, who were an elder, magical race, of pure heart and magical soul, and tried to scour them, lest any of them become gods and bother them again. In the end, they created the gigantic sphere of annihilation, intending to hurl it upon the elves world.. It is not sure if they hit it or not, perhaps it is one of the strange worlds still within the sphere, but it did hit the star within the centre of the great ocean that was aquaspace, and changed the sphere as it was known.
The elven people sent out their greatest, who saved the two parts of the sun as they arose to godhood, with a powerful dweomer. The Eternals now shone in the centre of the sphere, and as the water dwindled from aquaspace, the newly created elven gods snatched the sahaughin by the back of their necks as they fled in panick, and slammed them into the crystal sphere, destroying them with powerful energies, and drawing upon their essences to open the permanent water portals to refill the sphere. 15 sahaughin gods died, while more than 30 fled alive to wage war elsewhere, and the elven gods chased after them, throughout the cosmos. Now, thousands of years later, the elven gods still have not returned, and are in fact forgotten by all except the most knowledgeable sages (only the fact that a great civilisation of humanoids existed is well-known).
The sahaughin are still a threat, with ships and weapons, as well as their rumoured allies the illithids, but there are still elves and other races, who now live in aquaspace not only for its richness in life and colour, but for its great beauties and treasures. Of late, fighting has become sparse, and short-lived, as it seems that aquaspace rests before a storm approaches.
