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: Wondercrafts 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.
• Because sun-ships run on the power of the sun (which is embodied in the Ravimarga), it is the only way sun-ships can travel between different solar systems.
  • If a sun-ship leaves the Ravimarga, they are cast adrift into the Void, where there are no suns, only cold darkness interrupted by the occasional twinkle of a far-off star.
• Because most ships are not constructed entirely of thevaqan (risking the danger of fire for them) and because accidentally leaving the Ravimarga can be such a death sentence, most ships rely on the ark-ships to carry ships between the Four Suns.
  • Ark-ships are massive, hollow constructions of thevaqan and qamani glass that other ships can fly into and anchor with while the ark-ship flies the Ravimarga to other sun-systems.
  • There are six ark-ships in existence: three that are the property of the Rastram Kanaqa (named the Flare, the Scintillant, and the Majestic); the Crossroads, which is the dominion of the Keeper of Baharis; the Heartbeat, property of the Blood Imperium; and the Stalwart, property of a mercantile cooperative called the "Stalwart Shipping Manifesto," organized solely to provide merchants who invest in the Manifesto with guaranteed space in the great ark-ship.

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

• Golden Sun: Called Varijaia by its people, home of the Rastram Kanaqa, sometimes called the Golden Empire. The Golden Sun system is the origin-place of thevaqan, and thus the birthplace of sunships and sun-flight. The whole of the system is under the domination of the Rastram Kianaqa, and is considered the foremost bastion of civilization and order in the Four Suns.
• Dragon Sun: Home of the Tyrranicum, a republic of dragons. Its sun burns bright and hot, and spews projectiles across its length, occasionally raining fire down on its myriad planets. The worlds of the Dragon Sun are largely wild places, with small pockets of civilization in well-defended bastions. The Tyrranicum largely rules the inner worlds, but its outer worlds are in a state of rebellion against the 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. The Blood Sun burns hot but dark, though in its light life grows vibrant and rich. The Blood Sun system is known as the home of the Tsusni Shulam, an order of blood-witches.
• 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. Though the very rich and connected pay good coin to attend classes in one of the Academy citadels, those from the Frost Sun system live existences of extremes: either lives of desperate struggle and survival on the worlds themselves, or lives of cloistered learning and academia in the glittering everfrost citadels.