Keenaan

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A cold, inhospitable world, Keenaan has a scattering of large, tall islands in a highly mineralized deep ocean. The population, which consists of four closely connected settlements on one group of four nearby islands, is all near the midline, where the seasons are more moderate.

Neighborhood

Keenaan is the closest world around its little orange sun. A second icy world is further out, followed by a string of three gas giants. Next comes the Night Sun, a dim, reddish sun just big enough to show a sesame-sized disk. Nights under the Night Sun are quite dark, but certainly brighter than when the Night Sun is, in fact, visible only during the day. The Night Sun has a twin, the Little Sun, even smaller and redder, which can only be seen when it appears furthest from the Night Sun.

Keenaan has two moons, Muujhez and Miihriiyen, which are about lentil-sized in the sky.

Far, far away is an body some might call an enormous gas giant, but the locals call it the "Black Sun." It is very small for a sun, and is not, in fact, black, but rather banded in blue and green, but this is difficult to perceive due to the lack of light at this remove, over 100 thousand mlml away (EF: 1200AU). It has earned this name because it does emit light, heat, and radiation in the manner of a sun, but in such small quantity that the bodies that orbit it, be they worlds or moons, have no "day" side. They get no more light from their own sun than from its distant neighbors.

People

Keenaan was settled by Hellings from Ragny, a group of pacifist pilgrims seeking a world away from their aggressive kinfolk. The Keenaanings, as they call themselves, came in four waves, corresponding roughly to the four islands, although each settlement after the first imported several "tiiceh," or teachers, who have a nominal organizing role. The governmental structure is simple and egalitarian. Anyone of majority age may come to "miicen," which is a very quiet decision-making ritual in which people speak, one-at-a-time, without any direction. At the end of the discussion one individual stands and announces the decision, without any vote or what other worlds might call a debate. The only other official is the "rehkœdeh," which tracks the decisions that have been made. No one is empowered to speak on behalf of the miicen when it is not meeting.

Ecology

Keenaan is tilted some 40° off the perpendicular, which means that its brief, 44 day winter (0.625 sœyœr [EF: 26 Earth Days]) is dark over most of the hemisphere, and the polar caps expand significantly despite the mineralized sea. Most animal life outside the narrow band defined by the 35th parallel either flies or swims, and migrates to better weather. The large fluctuations in warming, combined with the very short seasons and extensive ocean coverage, make for active and violent weather.

Agriculure

There is little non-native life on Keenaan, due to the excessive mineral salts in the ocean. The Keenaanings all carry an intestinal parasite, a colony of lifetech nematodes that process the excess minerals. Visitors can tolerate it for several days, but long-term consumption of a Keenaaning diet can cause health problems like loss of vitality, poor healing, joint pain, and birth defects.

The Keenaanings have domesticated a land creature known as a "hraab." It is round in shape, about 9-11 jhiint across [EF: 21-26cm], with six legs and a pair of hooked claws it uses for bending down grasses to get at its favorite seeds. They reproduce quickly and yield about 9 œnz of meat [EF: 173g] when dressed. The hraab is a member of an order of land beasts that have a thin, hard shell on their backs. The shell of the hraab, like many of its kin, is brilliantly colored and glassy, and is used in numerous local handicrafts, from jewelry to a sort of stained-glass window.