Greetings,
The surface of Wolf Prime can be a harsh place. Its topography alternates between massive mountain ranges and deep desert basins. Rainfall is scarce, and the precipitation that hits the surface usually disappears below the gravelly desert floor.
Beneath that surface, however, things get interesting. The sub-terrestrial portion of the planet is largely vesicular, a vast complex of lava tubes which are often filled with water from the seasonal melting of the planet’s ice caps. There, life thrives in forms that many offworlders might find terrifying.
[h3]Moros[/h3]
Abutting the shipyard’s southern edge, Moros is situated on the shore of Necros. With the growth of the shipyard, Moros grew too, giving birth to various industries and a distinct culture of its own.
Moros had humble beginnings. It was originally a cluster of barracks, hangars, and support services buildings for the maintenance crew of the landing site established by Wolf Prime’s original exploratory task force.
In any case, the name fits. Modern-day Moros is a port city twice over, containing not just the launch complex but a large wharf on the rocky southwestern shore of Necros. Much of the maritime trade with neighboring Mining Guild settlements was transported through this wharf. The most notable exception is the Guild’s export of refined solium; as per safety protocol, this is sent directly to the shipyard’s main dock, then transported to the fuel depot adjacent to the launch complex.
As Moros grew, it diversified far beyond its original purpose of housing flight personnel and shipyard workers - although the latter still account for nearly half its population. Culture began to flourish, and with it the desire for self-governance. Unlike the nearby Mining Guild settlements, the inhabitants of Moros run their own city through the democratically elected Moros Municipal Authority.
[h3]Shipyard[/h3]
In addition to being a rich source of solium, Wolf Prime’s location at the edge of civilized space makes it a way-point for various travelers, from explorers and homesteaders to outlaws and soldiers of fortune. After all, ships need fuel, repair, and refitting.
The shipyard itself is an industrial jungle: a grimy hodgepodge of hastily constructed buildings and open staging areas. The buildings to the north, farther from the launch complex, are mostly small factories that churn out parts for fission-based propulsion systems, though the northernmost area is a vast junkyard littered with spacecraft in various stages of disrepair or dismantlement. There are tanks and gantries, cranes and scaffolds. There are yards packed with beefy ground vehicles designed to transport ships fifty times their size. There are electrical shops that specialize in the repair of equipment for telemetry, payload processing, and communications, and there are vast assembly areas where spacecraft are fitted together like giant jigsaw puzzles.
[h3]Wolf Hollow[/h3]
Wolf Hollow is a system of canyons that jut westward from the edge of the desert strip outside Moros. The area where Moros sits was once a thriving estuary fed by the ancient, fast-moving rivers that formed the canyons of Wolf Hollow. In the last few millennia, most of the runoff from the seasonal melting of Wolf Prime’s ice caps has shifted to subterranean streams and rivers. Today, surface water in Wolf Hollow is confined to a few shallow pools fed by rivulets and cliffside drip springs.
The water that once ran through Wolf Hollow molded many of its outcroppings into unusual shapes, some of which appear deliberately sculpted. Despite this, these formations are the result of natural processes. Before the canyons existed, the area was a single massive basalt lava flow from Dolus, the now-extinct shield volcano north of Necros.
Wolf Hollow’s reputation for hazardous wildlife, combined with its lack of arable land, has served as a deterrent to significant exploration. The canyons were once frequented by a nomadic tribe called the Gariba, a group of Mining Guild transplants from the desert planet Sahra-12B who abandoned their employment contracts in favor of the more familiar nomadic life, but the Gariba tribe was decimated by an uncommonly violent sandstorm in Year 68. Currently, occupation of the area by L1 species is limited to eremites and bandits.
[h3]Dead Barrens[/h3]
Just north of Moros is an expansive desert that used to be the shallows of Necros. The Barrens are surrounded by jagged ridges and outcroppings, in sharp contrast to the Dolus and the range beyond.
The surface of the Dead Barrens consists of a shifting layer of sand atop a field of dry, brittle clay. Shifting winds from adjacent desert areas keep the floor of the Dead Barrens in constant motion, sometimes forming dunes but more often flattening out into a rippling sand sea. On rare occasions, dry cold fronts from the desert move into the Dead Barrens and create sudden sandstorms.
Despite its name, the Dead Barrens contains significant fauna life in the form of migratory animals traversing its surface and various species of troglobites who thrive below ground, particularly at depths where water becomes more plentiful. Plant life exists, too: most notably in the form of trees that grow in the wind shadow of rocky outcrops. The trees’ roots, which botanists have likened to living nerves, fasten themselves onto the clay sublayer and propel the tree in the direction of the least wind. When the wind shifts, the tree population does, too.
These are just some of the locations you'll visit in Dark Sky, there are more areas to explore, secrets to find, and enemies to fight.
- Dark Sky Team
