Saylua

From The Saylua Wiki
Revision as of 12:01, 31 March 2018 by Tiff (talk | contribs)

Jump to: navigation, search

Saylua is the planet that the Saylua game takes place on. The planet of Saylua is tidally locked, which means it does not rotate relative to its sun. This means that one side of Saylua is always light and the other side is always dark.

Residents on Saylua call the light side Sayleus and the dark side Luaria. In between the two sides of Saylua, there is a border region called the Dawnlands, a place where the sky is always the color of a sunset/sunrise, and the temperatures are the most moderate found on the planet. Despite the fact that the passage of time on Saylua does not correlate to a day and night cycle, Sayluans still measure time in terms of a 24-hour cycle, a holdover from a time when the planet used to have day and night cycles. However, since timezones no longer became necessary since the tidal locking of Saylua, the whole planet is unified under the single timezone of Saylua Mean Time or SMT for short.

Physical Characteristics

Saylua has a 7-day orbit around its star, Sayaris. Saylua spins on its axis, but its spin cycle is exactly 7 days long as well, causing the planet to be tidally locked. Thus, while Saylua both revolves and rotates, one side of the planet is always facing the sun, and the other side of the planet is always facing the darkness. Saylua has a relatively thick atmosphere, allowing the temperatures between its two sides to be more stable than on other tidally locked planets.

This means that roughly half of the surface of Saylua is within habitable temperatures. However, the extrema of Saylua (the center regions of each side) are still very harsh and difficult for humans to live in.

Saylua does not have any satellites around it. However, the planet of Luaris is visible from Luaria and can be seen as a large white circle in the sky, similar to the moon on Earth. Colloquially, Luaris is referred to as Saylua's moon despite the fact that Luaris is actually another planet.

Geography

The two main regions of Saylua are the light side and dark sides of the planet, Sayleus and Luaria. The hottest region in Saylua is the Noon Desert, which is located in the center, the "eyeball" of Sayleus, the light side. Opposite to the Noon Desert, an extremely cold arctic lies in the center of Luaria. The most temperate region in Saylua is the Dawnlands, which lies between the two sides.

Life

Saylua has a high amount of biodiversity with many different kinds of plants, sprites, and minis. Creatures and plants on Saylua differ significantly between the two sides of the planet because of the large climate differences. For example, the Eydrun has eyes all over its body with night vision, allowing it to stay hidden in the dark while sensing the approach of other creatures. On Sayleus, sprites such as the Fleuran have adapted to take advantage of the constant light by absorbing energy with photosynthetic body parts. In contrast, sprites such as the Gorbin use their own energy to produce light in Luaria.

Plants on Saylua

Between the two sides, plants are notably different. On Sayleus, plants tend to photosynthetic, absorbing the the sun's constant light, much like the plants on Earth. Since Luaria does not have sunlight, the plants in that region tend to be luasynthetic instead, absorbing lua particles from the ground and air. Korvin trees, for example, tend to have really deep roots, allowing them to absorb lua particles that are not reached by other plants or creatures. As a result, these trees are are often valuable distributors of lua, causing sprites to gather near them. In addition to photosynthetic and luasynthetic plants, there are additionally a few known hybrid plants which can absorb both light and lua for energy. Most of these hybrid plants are found in the Dawnlands. However, a striking example of a successful hybrid plant species is the Great Amarose Flower, found across Gardenia Plains. Using a combination of luasynthesis and photosynthesis, these brightly colored flowers have been known to grow up to 6 feet tall, making them stand out as a symbol of life on Sayleus.