Tasivid

Tasivid is a harsh, unforgiving planet that is called home by a harsh and unforgiving people. Hot, bone dry, and covered with equally hard sand and rock, it seems to be a world of little or no value. Indeed, the Galactic Empire survey team that landed on Tasivid spent less than twelve hours there before determining the land was useless to the Empire.

A closer look, however, reveals that Tasivid is not as worthless as originally thought.

=Cosmology= Tasivid orbits a large orange star called Ku'Ti'Yl by the natives. Ku'Ti'Yl actually has a second star orbiting it, called Makyshi, but this second star is so small as to have only minimal impact on the planet. Makyshi is a dying red star that is slowly burning itself into extinction, and it is estimated that within the next thousand years or so, it will either be sucked into the larger sun or simply cease to exist.

Makyshi is plainly visible on Tasivid, and does provide a fair amount of heat and light in its own right, but compared to Ku'Ti'Yl, its effects are negligible. Because Makyshi does not have a stable orbit around Ku'Ti'Yl, its effects vary, and some times it passes to the night side of Tasivid so as to create a twilight day on one side of the planet while it is fully daylight on the other side. This happens approximately once every two years and typically lasts for about a month.

Tasivid's annual orbit is approximately 193 standard days, making their year just about half as long as a standard year. It has no moons or other natural satellites.

=Geology= Tasivid's surface is covered with dense clusters of rocky crags and mountain ranges that stretch for miles to vast oceans of shifting sand dunes. There is no surface water, and if there ever were ocean beds to divide continents, they have long been filled in with sand.

The planet contains a dense, hot core, which give Tasivid both a powerful magnetic field and a high gravity. Volcanic activity is common on the north and south pole, but otherwise is relatively uncommon globe wide. These areas are largely uninhabited.

Tasivid's high winds contribute a lot to the stuff. Eh?