Ravimarga

"Ravimarga" means "Path of the Sun"

• Fantasy setting with ships that move among the stars.
  • They are called "sunships."
• Solar system with four suns, each quite distant from one another, appearing only as very bright stars in the night sky.
  • Each generates its own gravity, with multiple planets orbiting it.
• System of planets, designed according to "Points of Light" design - few settlements, most of them large, with most shipping and transportation arranged by sunships.
• Ravimarga Character Creation
• Antiapaya: Lightcrafts of Ravimarga

The Ravimarga

• A band of "solar winds" upon which ships may sail to move quickly from one place to the other in the Ravimarga system.
  • Requires the use of "sun sails," sails of various colors that shimmer with golden pearlescence, which can catch the solar winds and propel a ship quickly.
  • The longer a ship remains in the solar winds, the hotter it gets, with heatstroke and even spontaneous combustion of wood and cloth after too long.
  • Ships that are crafted of the "divine gold" - thevaqan - are immune to this effect, and in fact move faster than other ships within the Solar Wind.
• Forms a lemniscate path, with "windstop" points along it that provide access to the myriad systems.
• At its center is Barhis, a great port of call for many of the sun-ships.

Barhis

• At the great Solar Crossroads is Barhis. It is a mighty station shaped like a round-edged diamond crafted of stone, thevaqan and massive panes of gamani glass.
• There are five "levels" to it - a wide central disc (the Commons), a disc above it in the cone where the very rich and noble dwell (the Regentum), and the topmost disc, which is the palace of the Keeper of Baharis. Below the Commons is a smaller disc where the very poor are relegated to dwelling (the Flushings), and the bottom-most disc is where the Keeper's engineers work in darkness.
• Strange arcane engines at either end of the diamond generate light, heat, and channel the power of the Ravimarga through the points of the station, providing for all its needs.

Systems & Cultures of Ravimarga

• Varijaia: The Golden Sun, home of the Rastram Kanaqa. Origin-place of the sunships and first discoverers of sunflight.
• Dragon Sun: Home of the Tyrranicum, a republic of dragons.
• Blood Sun: Home of the Blood Imperium, a nation of petty warlords in conflict with the Void Sodality, a gathering of worlds at its edges ruled by pirate kings.
• Frost Sun: Home of the Academy of Night, a scholarly institution that provides basic government from citadels high in orbit over worlds full of "frost-worlders," who live often-subsistence-level existences.

Races

• Humans, the most populous of the peoples due to their original discovery of sun-flight. Human genetics are very vulnerable to the emanations of the different suns, resulting in four "nations" of people. A child born to someone who have lived for a long time in a given system is likely to be born bearing the traits of the humans of that system, especially if his parents are of different heritages. Two humans of the same nation who have a child in a system other than their home system will likely have a child of their own heritage, but if that child remains in the system of his birth, his own children are likely to be natives.
  • Rastramal (Golden Sun), tall and graceful humans, usually with smooth long blue-black hair, golden-to-bronzed skin, and eyes that range from amber-gold through brown to black. They frequently adorn themselves in wraps of cloth and wear gold jewelry.
  • Kunmarg (Frost Sun), a tough and warlike nation of humans native to the Frost Sun, with pale skin and thick light-hued hair (usually in white, pale blonde or red) on head and body. They are well-adapted to cold environs, and tend to be thickly built but rarely over six feet in height.
  • Andimarans (Dragon Sun), the humans of the Dragon Sun with dark, swarthy skin, and kinky (often dreadlocked) hair of varying chromatic hues, including dark reds, dark greens, blues, browns, and blacks. They are heavily tattooed, and found in one of two states: the city-dwelling folk who have accepted the rule of their dragon overlords, or nomadic tribal guerillas who rebel against the dragons. The latter are often hunted by dragons for food and sport.
  • Rondilar (Blood Sun), humans whose skin tone ranges from a pale but dusky pink all the way through the red spectrum to a deep brick red, usually with white or grey hair, and silvery, grey, or blue eyes.
• Gevana, the tall, jet-skinned people of the Rastram Kanaga. They do not need water, and their eyes are always protected by a nictating mirror-reflective membrane protecting their delicate gem-colored eyes. They have six digits on the ends of their limbs and narrow chins. They wear implanted stones of qamani, the glass created by their people. They are the originators of the Suryavarna faith, and all their people are assumed to occupy a position of clergy within it, even if they are not part of the religious structure per se.
• Amagari, a race of bird-like anthropomorphs that inhabit a variety of the worlds of the Four Suns. They, and the other "gari" were said to have been created by a people they call "the Makers" who remain only in legends and strange ruins. The Amagari are artists, with profusions of beautiful feathers and multipartite voices capable of mimicking nearly any sound, and running multiple "tracks" of sound simultaneously. They hold Maker ruins and relics as precious.
• Zungari, a race of bat-like anthropomorphs. They share legends of "the Makers" but claim they were terrible slave-masters whom the zungari overthrew and slew ages ago to win their freedom. They despise Make ruins and relics, and are often violent toward amagari.
• Qyrgari, the last of the three gari peoples, who appear to be anthropomorphic mammals of some kind, with double tails, short talons, tall, pointed ears and sets of sharp teeth in stubby snouts. They are a desert-dwelling people found almost exclusively among the tombs of the Makers on various worlds, sites that they defend. Despite this, they are a largely non-violent people, and known for their philosophy.
• Dragons, a great race of reptilian tyrants native to the Dragon Sun system. They are notorious for their skill in genetic engineering, a trait that they claim to have taught the Makers (though the Gari claim it was the Makers who taught the dragons). Though they are said to have not always done so, dragon start off in humanoid form, and as they age and strengthen through the years eventually grow into draconic forms. For the first century of their lives, they have six arms, one set of which can develop into wings as they age (though they begin to lose use of it as a manipulating limb).
• Erudael, an aquatic, scaled race from Erudan, an aquatic world in the Frost Sun system. Though they are resistant to cold, they are not immune to it, and erudael settlements are all built near the warm core of the world, deep in its trenches. They have three counter-jointed digits on their forelimbs with poisoned talons.
• Dronigmar, a sexless race of amorphous slug-like creatures who long ago evolved a sticky slime that acts as a powerful glue to rock and stone. Over time, they developed stonewright skills, eventually crafting themselves bodies of interlocking stone pieces that they constantly shed as they grow and develop. Dronigmar who survive to two centuries of age develop into childwrights, elephantine creatures who split off "buds" that develop into new dronigmar (the word is singular and plural). They sail in great stone ships.