Solar Storm

10 Million Degrees

Written by Endrise

The red sun hates all life, and seeks to bring the plane of fire back to desolate world. One scorched of all life, where nothing blooms or grows.
Only then would the sun go silent, and the flame of this world burn out. An era known as a quiet age, a silent age, an age of a sleeping ember.

— Common Tale in the Plane of Fire

Solar Storms occur across the Plane of Fire, caused by its sun’s flares reaching the surface of the world. While a harmless occurrence for surface dwellers, those above the clouds know of its dangers. And sometimes, even the lands below know its destructive capabilities.

Solar Flares

Solar Storms begin on the sun, caused by a massive release of energy in the form of a solar flare. Most are spotted several minutes before they reach the cloud layer, both by a bright flash on the sun and a rapid increase of the atmospheric temperature.

After the warning signs, a wall of heat and radiation slams into the cloud layer, cooking the air instantly. Organic matter evaporates into nothing, as the sheer force produces enough sound to make the storm audible from miles away. A truly devastating display of power.

A storm may last anywhere from a few minutes to hours, dissipating as quick as they arrive.

Multiple at Once

There are occasional moments where multiple solar storms erupt at the same time. While the cloud layer separating the sun from the surface can sustain a few bursts, consecutive bursts are too much to handle for it. During these, the first few weaken the cloud formation long enough for one or more solar storms to breach it and reach the ground itself.

These moments show the true destructive capabilities of a Solar Storm, igniting the air and eradicating all surface life. Survival is not an option, as creatures even immune to heat cannot handle the change in temperature, causing death on a mass scale.

Locations scorched by a Solar Storm end up a barren wasteland uninhabitable for months, if not years. Without the cloud layer protecting from the heat, life struggles to return, even if only for a moment. Once enough ash blocks out the sun, the surface may attempt to recover.

Surviving a Solar Storm

Confronting a Solar Storm head-on is a death sentence for most living beings. If the temperatures do not kill you, the high concentrations of radiation will instead. The only way to survive them in any capacity is to avoid them in the first place.

Underground bunkers are the best way to protect themselves from the destructive force of a Solar Storm, airtight so that not even the heated air can enter it. Many surface civilisations hence develop downwards rather than upwards, building their cities into the ground in vast networks of tunnels and mazes. All to ensure when a disaster strikes, only the top parts get destroyed.

Cities built above the cloud layer avoid the temperatures via heat repellent plating. Any areas exposed to the outside stay locked off during a storm encounter, leaving the population stuck within their homes until it all settles down.

Regional Occurance

Plane of Fire

Frequency

A few dozen each year

Type

Natural

Natural, or Supernatural?

While the predictability of a Solar Storm forming became better over the centuries, the patterns between them remain a mystery.

They can occur at any moment, sometimes multiple times in a short period. Other times, it may take months, if not years, for a storm to manifest. Any attempt researching it closer proves to be difficult, as the red sun's distance makes it impossible to reach it.

The only distinct pattern is that Solar Storms ramp up during Demonic or Angelic incursions. The longer these outsiders remain within the realm, the worse the storms get, as if the realm itself wants them gone at once.

The sun’s presence in the fire plane and the storms’s origins end up questioned during these situations and how much intention really exists in their presence.