Ondobaern

The sphere of hot gas that is Ondobaern is at the upper limit of E size. From a distance, it looks more like an air body than fire, though it glows with a dull, inner radiance, and its clouds are in constant, violent flux, roiling like sunspots. The planet is blood-red, dim enough to look at straight-on, and displays occasional creeping areas of black when viewed in visible light. Even at their greatest extent, though, these areas are bright in the infrared spectrum.
Hovering among the cloud banks of Ondobaern's upper atmosphere are efreeti outpost-fortresses. Each looks like a brass bowl, with buildings and minarets projecting from its rim. The efreet are mostly cut off from the Elemental Planes; a large, ship-size portal near the equator operates intermittently, while smaller portals in most of the outposts open on a regular, if infrequent, basis. When the equator-portal is open, it causes weather patterns similar to Jupiter's Great Red Spot.
The core is rich in any number of exotic metals, near-solid only by virtue of the immense pressure it is under. Mining stations hang precariously a mile or more above, sending miners into the extreme environment to tap the valuable materials as quickly as possible, before retreating to the relative safety of the stations. Each station is owned by a separate efreeti, as are all its inhabitants, who are mostly azers and genasi, with a handful of magically-mutated, fire-resistant humans and hardy, neogi-built constructs. Even with their inborn protections, though, additional countermeasures are needed for the miners to survive the crushing pressure. The efreet fight each other for mining rights and control of especially successful stations.
In low orbit sits a neogi-run space station, where the efreet and neogi engage in trade. Other races are not unknown there, though only those on the moral level of the neogi would even consider doing business. The neogi sell slaves and the occasional mining construct, and buy the efreet's metals, with which they build more constructs.
The station is low enough that overheating is a problem. With their magic, the neogi manage to keep it from burning entirely, remaining just on the threshold of comfort for the efreet, and distinctly uncomfortable for most other races. After losing far too many umber hulks to heat exhaustion, a new, fire-resistant strain was developed. Even so, the cost of breeding the fire hulks means most manual labour on the station is performed by lesser slaves, or the ever-present neogi constructs.

Type

Planet