Lubau (Planet)
Lubau is a planet full of raw and untamed natural power. From the boiling infernos of the southern hemispheres where gigantic refineries on tracks extract molten ore directly from the ground and the Naar Wind can disintegrate a gold-plated reflective exo in a matter of minutes, to the dry deserts of the north full of green oases, wandering nomads, and rumored Portal Builder ruins hidden under the sand, to the smog-filled skies of the plastic metropolis Mehrabi - Lubau has everything a curious visitor could wish for.
Geography
Lubau is the planet closest to the star, giving it a good strategic position near the portals, but the planet is important for many more reasons than its location. The very first thing the starfarers noticed when they arrived at Lubau was that the axial tilt of the planet was 43 degrees and that the same side was always facing the sun. This means that the planet is without seasons and that the variations in temperature between the hemispheres are enormous. Current science says that this is due to an earlier collision with another planetary body that is now missing.
Another quirk that carries practical implications is that the magnetosphere of the planet is slight, but very strong. This explains why the only space station in orbit, Kadcidil (“the eye of the sun” in local dialects), can remain so “close” to the surface and always stay on the nightside. This is also the reason why there are no communications satellites above Lubau. Yet another mystery is that Lubau, despite its small size, has roughly the same gravitational pull as Kua. The astronics of the Foundation have no explanation for this, but it could be connected to the many problems encountered by geochemists here; despite all their advanced technology, they have a hard time getting more than shallow readings from the planet’s surface.
The two hemispheres are completely different. The temperature in the hottest areas of
the southern hemisphere can reach well over 600 degrees Celsius during the day, while the northern half of the planet has more normal temperatures of between 50 and 100 degrees Celsius.
Many Foundation chemists have written their theses about the history of Lubau, but no one has been able to present a solid theory that accounts for the planet’s oddities yet.
The northern belt is divided into three provinces:
Firstcome nomads wandering across the wastes between the oases originally inhabited these areas. Zenithian settlers later colonized the belt, especially the Kerahana province, founding what would later become the Mehrabi metropolis.
Farthest to the north, where the sun never shines, there are massive glaciers. A handful of mining corporations come here to mine ice for the fusion reactors of the spaceships that visit Kadcidil.
Fauna & Flora
There is no naturally occurring life in the southern hemisphere which faces the sun.
The north has a small belt where natural life exists in the form of a few types of resilient steppe grass, the slow-moving dromedons and the feral dirhad. Sandstone fossils found in the northern desert also indicate that the planet at some point had both forests and oceans.
Natural Resources
In the southern hemisphere, facing the sun, traveling ore refineries on giant tracks or antigrav runners gather molten ore from the ground. The refineries are isolated, peculiar communities that foster a hard and bleak population.
Lubau by From the Coriolis RPG book (pg. 283)
Facts about Lubau:
- DIAMETER: 4,879 km (roughly 40% that of Kua)
- EQUATORIAL CIRCUMFERENCE: 15,637 km (roughly 40% that of Kua)
- SURFACE AREA: 75 million square kilometers (roughly 15% that of Kua)
- GRAVITY: 0.97 standard gravity
- DAY LENGTH: 27 hours
- SIDEREAL YEAR: 91 days
- AXIAL TILT: 43 degrees
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