Hekeri

The Hekeri Sunlands

> *The Sunlands of Hekeri were named thus because of their constant exposure to sunlight.*
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> *Locked in an eternal spinning dance with its very own star, the planet was unique in that one side stayed forever light, and the other forever dark.*
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Home to the Hekerin, Hekeri is a curious planet tidally locked so one side always faces the sun and the other never sees it.

## Habitability

### The Sunlands

The side of the planet perpetually facing the sun, the Sunlands are always bathed in midday light. While this means that half of the planet is always hot and arid, it also means that rare tritium gas is formed through the intense ionisation of the atmosphere by the solar rays which constantly assault its surface.

### The Moonlands

Continuous night, neverending darkness. The Moonlands are on the posterior side of the planet, and never see its bright sun. The lands are cool and can be harsh, but due to unique conditions are home to some of the most varied and interesting wildlife in the universe.

### Dawndusk

Formed at the intersection of the Sunlands and the Moonlands, Dawndusk is the perpetually almost-day zone which forms a ring around the planet's waist. Some Hekerin see this place as a concentration of their gods' energies, and others fear it as an unusual demiplane-like place of confusion.

### Fauna and flora

The Moonlands possess very impressive fauna and flora, mysterious creatures and plants adapted to the near constant darkness. The only light this face ever gets is the light from the lesser moon, reflecting that of the sun.

The Sunlands, on the other hand, may seem devoid of much life at first glance, but actually boasts some interesting wildlife, perfectly adapted to the harsh conditions. Whether underground, buried in sand, in the midst of the rare plants or hidden in the oasis waters, if one is to take the time to observe, they will not be disappointed.

### Climate

Despite always having the same side facing its sun, Hekeri doesn't suffer from unlivable heat on one side and freezing cold on the other. Climate is regulated through the presence of its atmosphere. As one side heats up and the other cools down, the differences in temperature create massive air movements. While this makes each side less extreme, it also causes powerful wind, storms and even tornadoes all over the planet and especially along Dawndusk, as this is where the air masses clash the hardest.

## Physical characteristics

### Size and shape

Hekeri is a small planet -- about a third of the Earth in volume -- with a very dense core allowing for a gravity about similar to that found on Earth despite its size.

Its shape is that of a semi-spherical wheel organised around the gravity sling as its axis.

### The Gravity Sling

Located near the centre of the Sunlands, an unassuming hole in the ground about 5 metres across was formed unknown aeons ago, perhaps by an ancient tribe or the shifting of the planet's tectonic plates themselves. Known as the Gravity Sling, this superlong hole becomes a tunnel which extends directly through the cold core of the planet and opens in the centre of the Moonlands on the opposite side.

By falling into this hole, one can essentially ride the planet's gravity and be deposited comfortably on the other side like making a bungee jump.

Hailed as both one of the fastest and one of the most dangerous forms of subatmospheric travel universe-wide, the Gravity Sling is both famous and infamous.

### Magnetosphere

With its solid inner core and its liquid donut-like torus of liquefied metal and rock, Hekeri develops a fully functional magnetosphere despite the gravity sling passing through. This magnetic field has the gravity sling tunnel -- and the planetary axis -- as its axis, with one magnetic pole always facing the sun and the other always facing away from it. This unique configuration allows for maintaining a protective atmosphere by blocking the cosmic rays around most of the planet, while still allowing most of the sun's ionising rays deep into the atmosphere at the pole, in effect creating Hekeri's famous tritium fields.

## Orbit and rotation

Hekeri has a mostly circular orbit around its sun, seemingly rolling around it like a wheel. It is tidally locked, so the same side always faces its sun, one of its poles eternally gazing into the star's heart. The planet's axial tilt is only a few degrees from 90°. Maybe because of this small difference, Hekeri's orbit around its sun has been observed to shift around the sun over hundreds of years, like a wheel rolling on the inside of a sphere with the sun as its center. This makes Hekeri a rather unique planet and a conundrum for astronomers.

Hekeri's distance from the sun is such that it falls within the right range to sustain life. It makes a complete revolution around the sun in about 1.6 Earth years, and a complete rotation around its own axis in about 32 Earth hours. The way the sun seemingly dances around the sky because of that is used by some of the locals to tell the time. Despite this annual discrepancy, planetside traders use the standardised Port Elizabethan calendar for consistency.

## Satellites

### Main moon HK-01

HK-01 is the bigger and brighter of Hekeri's two moons. Its orbit is relatively circular and centred, with a revolution time around the planet of about 64 Earth hours. Some of the locals use it to count the days.

Its rotation is much slower than its revolution, about equivalent to a month and a half on Earth. Due to its characteristic spots on its surface, it is used by some of the locals as a way to tell longer periods of time, much like navigators map the stars to determine their heading.

### Lesser moon HK-02

HK-02 is a much smaller moon with a very elliptical orbit and long revolution time. Many astronomers believe that this celestial object was caught by the planet's gravity relatively recently, and that it wouldn't take much to make it leave that orbit again. With such an orbit, it takes a long time for a complete revolution around the planet but passes by quickly when it nears it.