(N.B. - I wrote this from a sort of "in universe" perspective, which is fun, but doesn't allow for certain direct comparisons. In essence, Exara is a solarpunk world, its technology equivalent to late 1960s - mid 1970s Earth. Pendula is a clockpunk setting, its overall technological level around the turn of the 20th century, from about 1890 - 1910s. However, considering the amount of different polities in play, that level of advancement can vary wildly depending on if the nation in question embraces or rejects technology. Both of these planets are settings I plan to explore in greater detail in the future, but for now I just wanted to introduce everyone to my thinking about them!)

“Two Worlds”
The Primarch

In the Triune galaxy, there are countless planets and innumerable civilizations, seeded amongst the stars. Each star is a story, every person another character on the grand stage of the cosmos. The Rakthani and associated peoples are but the biggest collection of players – elsewhere, there are plenty of worlds that are still self-contained, their people and nations struggling among themselves instead of spreading through the stars. Below are two such worlds, rich backdrops for further stories as the world of Triune continues to expand, its stories weaving a grand tapestry.

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Exara: The Fractured Garden

A temperate garden world with a G-type sun, Exara is the fifth and last planet in a solar system mostly composed of small, rocky planets too close to their host star to maintain viable atmospheres or proper orbital behavior for life to form. The exception, Exara completes a rotation around its star every 412 days. It rotates on its axis once every 27 hours, its day slightly longer than its night at 14 hours. The planet’s surface is covered by approximately 85% water; this figure was substantially lower prior to two hundred Exaran years ago, but the landscape was dramatically changed thanks to a cataclysmic event that occurred at that time.

The nature of this event – referred to as “the Fracturing” by the native population – is unclear. Surviving contemporary writings are in conflict, describing it alternately as both a war and some sort of planetwide natural disaster. Two hundred years later, with the last survivors having long since perished, the people of Exara may not ever know for certain what split their world, but they continue to live with the consequences. The Fracturing sundered the planet’s continents into collections of ragged islands, spread along the continents’ former borders. Some of these new islands were erased by the sea in the immediate aftermath of the Fracturing, ripped apart by vicious tides or simply sinking quietly to the bottom. Of the original three continents, two survive with most of their former territory spread over these archipelagoes, while the third has been reduced to less than a quarter of its original area.

In the modern era, the islands are generally connected with bridges to allow land vehicles to traverse between them; however, seagoing vessels are the main method of transportation. These vessels are overwhelmingly sail-based, due to the fallout of the Fracturing fostering in the population a particular focus on sustainability and survivability. Exara as a whole depends much more on renewable sources of energy, solar, wind, and hydro power all comprising generally equal thirds of the power grids spread over its surface. Plant life is abundant, and Exaran cities and towns are quite sprawling, unlike the densely packed population centers of their past.

Technology has been slow to recover from the Fracturing, with the natives generally focusing on agricultural and clean manufacturing techniques until recently. Analogue machines are the norm. Computers are a recent invention, and technology as a whole, while getting smaller, still tends to be large and cumbersome, as well as adorned with physical switches, knobs, and levers to access its functions.

Most of the population is concentrated in two nations, descendants of those who managed to survive the Fracturing. Slightly smaller than its neighbor, the Kolern Union is a stratocracy, ruled at the top by its military, composed of those descended from the militaries in existence before the cataclysm. Opposite the Union is the Zulei Federation, a conglomeration of peoples that banded together for survival after the Fracturing and installed a central republican government.

These two states are locked in a state of mutual distrust and armament. With a technological revolution seemingly inevitable, Exara’s future will be determined by which can gain the upper hand; but with neither willing to risk a repeat of the Fracturing, it is a war fought in the shadows, with words, lies and spies rather than armies and fleets.

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Pendula: The Clockwork World

Pendula is a world with many varied biomes, from grassy plains to scorching deserts, wide oceans to frozen tundras, and everything in between. Bathed in the orange glow of its K-type sun, Pendula is the second world in its four-member solar system. The innermost planet is a lifeless furnace, the father two distant enough from the star to be icy giants with spectacular ring systems and dozens of moons between them. The planet completes an orbit around its star in 391 days, and completes a rotation on its axis once per 30 hours. Day and night are roughly equally split. A tectonically unusual planet, Pendula is home to one main continent, sprawling in size and scope, with most of the rest of its surface – nearly 90% water – speckled with small islands and archipelagoes.

Pendula is a world of rich magic. Referred to as “Impulse,” it is a rare event for someone to be born without the ability to access this wondrous force. The name comes from its unique system of hues – Impulse responds to that which drives a person, and dyes itself accordingly. A headstrong person who values power and forthrightness would tear down obstacles with red magic, while someone more introspective and circumspect would utilize blue magic to slip around roadblocks. The source of power is the same, but who uses it and how determines its color and its shape. These colors also manifest as speckles in a person’s sclera, though using such to prejudge someone is an exercise in folly.

Roughly one hundred years ago, the Clockwork Revolution thrust Pendula into a new era. Rather than one event, a series of disparate yet connected emergences of new technologies and new potentials showed the magic-reliant world that clockwork technology was, perhaps, the wave of their future. A storm of progress, met by an equally fierce bulwark of resistance to change, ensued. In some places, the revolution became war, blood spilled between those who wanted to ride the rapids of technological advancement and those who preferred to look to tradition and precedent as their guide. A century in the past now, the echoes of the Revolution live on, with the experiments at combining magic and clockworks spreading across the land, and familiar complaints about society being too fast to embrace a potentially dangerous new technology bubbling just under the surface.

Politically diverse, Pendula is divided into ten major polities. Of these, the two most consequential are the Dejarren Empire, an expansionist state and Pendula’s biggest polity, spread across the continent’s entire western half. Opposing the Empire is the Republic of Selinke, a young nation born in the fires of the Clockwork Revolution. Selinke is seen in many corners of Pendula as being the last bulwark against the Dejarren hordes overrunning the rest of the world; within the Empire itself, the Republic is seen as a young upstart nation meddling in affairs too great for it to fully understand. The peace is uneasy and marked by frequent raids and clandestine operations from both sides, but to date, full-scale war has been avoided.

The remaining eight polities, spread up and down the eastern half of the continent, are as follows:

-Jejarren Federation – Breakaway state from the Empire, formed from those who renounced its expansionist attitudes.

-Zevayan League – Loose alliance of powerful city-states strewn through the frozen far north. With access to the sea, and the only other land border of the Empire, they comprise a formidable trade network and wield considerable political power.

-Vedic Principality – Wedged between Jejarra and Selinke, this small theocratic nation prefers to keep to itself, their priests and scholars preferring to devote their energies to the study -and worship – of Impulse.

-Kraytil, Land of Justice – Northeast of Jejarra, and southwest of the Zevayan League, Kraytil is a land ruled by the law in the most literal sense. Judges rule their fiefdoms, interpreting and enforcing the law from their courthouses

-Inserran Consolidation – A small state bordering Selinke to the east, Inserra is an insular totalitarian polity, ruled with an iron fist by its Emperor. Heavily militarized, its tiny stature nonetheless belies direct confrontation with any of the much larger powers on the continent, though its elite harbor delusions of one day ruling the entire landmass.

-Feldin Directorate – South of Selinke, and sharing a small border with Inserra to the northeast, the Feldin Directorate is a venerable nation, over one thousand years old and showing no signs of fracturing. Often called upon and mediators and diplomats thanks to their grasp of history and lack of material interest in the other nations’ affairs, the Directorate wields its influence subtly to ensure events unfold to its liking.

-Queendom of Celara – An island nation lying directly east of Jejarra, Celara is a queendom steeped in magic. Shunning nearly all technology and focusing their efforts on testing the limits of Impulse, this nation, populated primarily by equines, generally doesn’t concern itself with the affairs of the mainland. Notably, its inhabitants can be easily spotted by their elaborate neck markings, reputed to be magical tattoos that affix themselves to the coat and flesh once the equine in question finds their true aptitude in life.

-The Shattered Isles – Directly south of Celara, and to the east of Feldin, lie the Shattered Isles. Once a singular landmass, a massive magical explosion of unknown origin split the island into an archipelago, and the civilization that called it home vanished almost overnight. Now the dwelling place of outlaws, outcasts, and exiles from across Pendula, the Isles are a true anarchy with no central government and free association – people come together when needed to make decisions and debate issues, then return to their own lives once those matters are settled.