Readers have asked for more detail about the planet Teshiwahur, also known as "The Withered Land", and suggested that it might be a good idea for me to create the equivalent of a FAQ about this distant alien world. From whether or not the Withered Land is an actual physical place in Space and Time to "How large is the planet Teshiwahur?" to "What Races Make Up the Population of the Planet?", this INDEX is an attempt to respond to some of those requests...

These are some of the BASIC things you need to know about the most mysterious and dangerous place in the universe.

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Light-years distant from planet Earth and its solar system, something horrible happened, a cosmic calamity that defied the rules of Reality, something totally contrary to Newtonian and Einsteinian physics..., the people populating the massive fourth planet in a distant solar system of seven planets called that catastrophe "the Long Death". The event created a huge rent, a tear, in the deepness of the sky, literally a hole in space. The people of that massive fourth planet in a distant solar system of seven worlds had named the slash in the universe, "The Wound".

Whole species of plants and animals died within weeks. The polar caps shifted. Weather changed calamitously and regions, in some cases continents, became uninhabitable. The economy of the star-spanning confederation collapsed even as hundreds of millions of its citizens died before the viral and chemo-biological onslaught of new diseases.

And then, wondrously, mysteriously, the land would heal. But it was only a cosmetic healing -- beneath the fading wounds of the repaired soil, something leprous and corrupted took root and grew...

The laws of physics changed... Complex machine technology that once worked flawlessly, suddenly stopped working at all. Gravity suddenly became uncertain, and in some places there were anti-gravity vortices where entire cities had unexpectedly spun off from their planetary surfaces into the cold depths of space. Earthquakes happened more frequently, were far larger than ever before, and occurred in places unused to quakes resulting in devastating, often fatal, after-effects. In some places, Time itself had broken and Relativity had already begun to hopelessly hemorrhage through open interdimensional wounds that acted as doorways for alien monstrosities.

The planet, known to its inhabitants as "Teshiwahur", which means "Kingdom of Dust", became known to a few select Earth-humans in clandestine, government astrophysics agencies as "Brimstone".

But, even amongst its own population, that world was mainly referred to as "The Withered Land".

And it is here that the saga of the renegade, dragon-riding Knight named D'Spayr begins...

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TESHIWAHUR is located in a reflection nebula* inside the Perseus Constellation some 230 Parsecs, (or 750 light-years) from planet Earth. The galactic plane (The galactic plane is the plane in which the majority of a disk-shaped galaxy's mass lies. The directions perpendicular to the galactic plane point to the galactic poles) of the Milky Way passes through Perseus, whose brightest star is the yellow-white supergiant Alpha Persei (also called Mirfak or Mirphak). The best-known star in the constellation, however, is Algol (Beta Persei), linked with ominous legends because of its variability, which is noticeable to the naked eye.

*A reflection nebula is a cloud of gas and dust which does not create its own light, but instead shines by reflecting the light from nearby stars.

The massive (five times Earth-size [makes Teshiwahur larger than Neptune] considering the circumference of Earth = 24,901 miles, so circumference of Teshiwahur is 124,505 miles... Neptune's circumference is 96,685.4 miles) fourth planet in a distant solar system of seven planets, known to its inhabitants as "Teshiwahur", which means "Kingdom of Dust", the planet has become known to a few select humans in covert technical science communities as "Brimstone". Teshiwahur has only one moon, a disc-shaped celestial object called "Pex'Insava".

NOTE: Gravity on Teshiwahur is 1.38 times that of gravity on the planet Earth. So a 185 pound human male would weigh just over 255 pounds on Teshiwahur. So an Olympic High-Jumper who could clear the bar at 7 feet high on planet Earth would only be able to jump just over 5 feet high on Teshiwahur. And a human weightlifter who could put 350 pounds over his head on planet Earth would only be able to lift 253.6 lbs on Teshiwahur.

The Other Planets in the double-star solar system are:

"Yngratialon" ...(1st planet, no moons),

"Ungrym Optimek" ...(2nd planet, no moons),

"Anthrelgenim" ...(3rd planet, two moons),

"Krakangelle" ...(5th planet, has four planetary rings, five small moons), and

"Ourubus Adranto" ...(6th planet, three moons, two massive orbit-locked asteroids).

The last remaining planet (7th) in the solar system is an Unnamed Giant (76% size of Saturn which makes it 7.2 times Earth-size, thus larger than Teshiwahur) and it exists behind a large and turbulent, macro-radioactive storm called the "Makkaryenne Elasticity". This last planet is often referred to as "Ombrusthylax", which means "Shadowhold".

Krakangelle and Anthrelgenim are Uranus-sized tekk-heavy worlds once ruled by the Emperium as part of the Celestial Hegemony. Anthrelgenim, in particular, is a heavily-populated, very political, and highly educated world and culture. Yngratialon (the size of Mars) and Ourubus Adranto (the size of Venus) are dark and mysterious Low-Tekk worlds where Magick and Alkhemastry are the predominate technologies. Ungrym Optimek (half again larger than planet Earth) is a nightmare planet of monsters and primitive, warring tribes of mutant humans.

And then, out in THE ARRAY (a huge, disc-shaped, circumstellar debris-field beyond the squiggly, elliptical orbit of Ourubus Adranto), there are the distant mega-asteroids Kulpetann and Qelshaffex...

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The DAYS in The Withered Land, which are called "heliars", last for 34 hours Earth-time.

A standard WEEK on Teshiwahur, which comes to 6.17 heliars, equals 8.75 days Earth-time. 

The Teshiwahurian DAYS of the week are, in order: Twyre, Fryre, Lenko, Wahka, Vemm, Remdyre, Kybbeh, and one extra day that was calculated to balance the Teshiwahurian calendar every seven weeks, called Xeddith.

A YEAR, which is called an "orbital solar heliar", on Teshiwahur, lasts 437 Earth-days (versus 365 Earth-days). There is no such thing as a "Leap Year" on Teshiwahur.

There are FIVE seasons to the Teshiwahurian (planet "Brimstone") year --

* Xeshargloom -- it has no Earth equivalent and is the shortest season, but it is the most climatically violent, it is the Time of Storms

* Sehrenglum -- equivalent to Autumn, the second longest season, the Darkest Season

* Vahlierglum -- equivalent to Summer, the longest season, the Season Of Dust

* Qeringloom -- equivalent to Winter, the Time of Ice, it is the Silent Season

* Pneosungloom -- equivalent to Spring, it is the most geologically-active period among orbital solar heliars, a time-period wherein there are frequent planetquakes and volcanic activity, it is the dreaded Season of Thunder

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There are Four major continents on Teshiwahur and one major island chain landmass separated by three oceans.

The largest, most populated and most industrially and technologically-developed continent is QUNDIN and, at roughly three times the size of the entire North American continent on planet Earth, it sits on the Northwestern hemisphere of the planet, 26-degrees below the latitudinal Arctic ring.

The second most populated continent with the second greatest land mass is 40-degrees south of the equator in the Southeastern hemisphere. The name of that continent is TERVAGGON and it is a place of vast frost deserts and cold, dry tundra populated by warring clans of techno-active, Tekk-heavy barbaric nomads.

The third continent, a place of dense, moist jungles and hot mountain climes, straddles the equator in the Eastern hemisphere and is three-quarters the size of Africa on planet Earth. That continent is named SAWVITA KANDUS and, though it is very technologically developed, does not possess a centralized government.

The fourth continent, twice the size of Australia on Earth, is quite literally at the bottom of the world and it is a place of unending gale force winds and towering ice mountains into which a savage and violent, inter-bred civilization of pale-fleshed, telekinetic, mutant blood-drinkers live. It is named APNAUTH'QUILYA.

The major island chain outside the territorial waters of the Pnahrryian Sea, beyond the borders of Peravendath, is a chain of nine massive volcanic islands collectively named HESHTYKKARI. HESHTYK'QARUS and HESHTYK'PARU are the two largest islands in the chain, followed by the third island, HESHTYK'WAIRRA, with each of the major islands possessing the highest population densities. The six remaining islands are only lightly populated, possessing a reclusive, mostly agrarian, mystical-oriented culture.

Then there is KAETAH, an equatorial sub-continent at the 65th longitudinal parallel in the planet's Eastern Hemisphere that is roughly twice the size of the country of India on planet Earth, sitting atop a massive, long-dormant underwater volcano. It is a bleak place of dead and abandoned Machine-Tekk shepherded by a paranoid clan of weapon-toting, cyborg Monks who were once the System Mages of the Fraternity Machus, former members of the Emperium's Knowledge Guild. The population of Kaetah are Isolationists and stay mostly to themselves. They try not to interfere in the political intrigues and power games plaguing the people on the continent of Qundin.

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Teshiwahur has only one moon: a craggy, disc-shaped celestial object some 5800 Earth-miles in diameter (which means a radius of 2900 miles and a circumference of 18,222 Earth-miles at the equator) called "Pex'Insava".

"Pex'Insava" is a Teshiwahurian mythological title, a mash-up & contraction of the Teshiwahurian Lempelloc-Speak "forbidden name of the God of Hell" and the word for "sun-killer".

It was formed by a devastating collision sometime in antiquity between two massive planetary moons.

Since it approximates a disc, the moon is flatish, with a convex extrusion at the bottom hemisphere, like the extended underside of a saucer. That underside is 860 miles deep.

The moon is geographically divided into three pie slice-shaped Zones: a glacial polar zone, a temperate oceanic zone and a craggy, rocky mineral zone. There are mountain ranges atop the disc that have peaks six and half miles tall. The single tallest mountain is in the polar zone and it is named "Faryn'galf Agonnis" (The Wolf's Fang) and it is 33,264 feet tall [6.3 miles] and 4.75 miles wide. Two mountain ranges, one in the polar zone that is fifty miles long (this is the range with the highest peaks) and one in the mineral zone that runs for nearly two hundred miles.

Pex'Insava orbits Teshiwahur 1994 Cosmonautical Leagues above its surface. A Cosmonautical League is the equivalent of 220 Earth-miles. That means Pex'Insava sits in sidereal orbit some 438,600 Earth-miles above the surface of the Withered Land.

Pex'Insava has a thick, active oxygen-rich atmosphere that stretches some three hundred miles above the moon's surface. The sky color ranges from that of OLIVE to that of PALE MINT. The climate over the mineral zone is partial to violent storms. The temperate oceanic zone has two distinct seasons, one is like Earth's Autumn and the other like Earth's late Summer months.

The Emperium settled Pex'Insava and left THREE cities there:

"KITHPELL MANUS", an Asian-styled, a gated (four gates) and axially symmetrical mountain city at the southernmost edges of the polar territories, and...

"PORT BREQHAMWURTH", a high-tech metropolis on the northwestern coastline of the oceanic region.

The third city is the sprawling, dark fortress-domain and spaceport of "ABYSSIUM" and it sits built around THE CHASM, a thirteen mile deep and three mile wide, vaguely oval, fiery crevice into the moon's crust located at the central geographic apex of the three zones. One hundred and twenty feet down from the rim of THE CHASM, set into a metal platform suspended from the crevice's walls by enormous macrenadium-alloy steel chains, is a towering statue carved from some strange green-marble mineral not native to Pex'Insava. Only the statue's shoulders and head rise six stories above the crevice's irregularly-curcular rim. The statue is in the image of a humanoid, mech-cyborg warrior of heroic proportions dressed in crisscrossing, overlapping bands of exoskeletal armor. That ancient figure is called "The Vulcanodian" and it was NOT built by human hand, dating from long before the appearance of Emperium Extraplanetary space mariners on the moon's surface.

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OMBRIA-AETERNAE is a dark and dreary, often rainswept territory next to the mighty 1400 mile-long Beyam'boshi River, a river that leads out to the Bay of Pajungoh on the Zurondee Sea. The ancient, gothic city-state sits on the southwesternmost edge of the continent of Qundin, in a loamy veldt nestled at the foot of a massive rocky plateau called "Ier'Ahndaka". It is an interdimensional Nexus, home to a "Shiftport" called "The Shunt At Caustermayr's Isthmus". Ombria-Aeternae is a Regency Territory, home to tyrannical aristocrats, rebellious witches and sorcerers, amoral teratomancers, and mercenary warrior-magicians who continually vie against one another, jockeying for political dominance. It is a rich territory due to the abundance of the quartz-like, electrical energy-generating mineral "Ohmkei" which is used to produce titanic power-batteries used by the Emperium.    It was ruled for nearly a century and a half by a monstrous hybrid being called "The Pahrayah", a telekinetic, telepathic, cannibalistic hermaphrodite who ruled as "Majestryone-Primus" of the Nightspawn-Evolved.   The Pahrayah was/were Nygeia's parents.  

YNFINITREON is a bustling, Krome-Tekk metropolis, riding atop a humongous, hexagonal anti-gravity platform three miles in diameter with half a dozen colossal building structures one hundred stories tall. The hovering city platform floats atop a magno-gravitometric suspension-field half a mile above the coarse, sandy soil of the Waqkiroon Plain. It is the most classically futuristic city on the continent, even outstripping the scientific, mechanical and digital wonders of the Emperium's continental capitol, which houses the World-Father's home. Ynfinitreon is the home of the Omayguns and the Ekzaltydd, both powerful, mutant demigod-like bloodlines in an uneasy and reluctant, often contentious, partnership with the Hegemonic Emperium.

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There were four great dynasties that guided the course of civilization of The Withered Land BEFORE the birth of the World-Father's Hegemonic Emperium. They were, in the order of their time periods:

* The Woshtek'mahnn Primacy.... lasting 1150 orbital solar heliars

* The Sharidyalle Confederacy... lasting 740 orbital solar heliars

* The Ma'arhunn-Taul Union.... lasting 980 orbital solar heliars

* The Has'Zyndamaggi Dominion... lasting 1850 orbital solar heliars

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His Imperialness Draggyn Han'Khainus-Galorketh, THE WORLD-FATHER, the Crusader Most-High Imperial, Nemesis of Chaos, also known as the "Omniperator Cosmoterius", is, by Earth-human standards, 356 years old. He is eight feet tall and weighs just over seven hundred pounds.

Once upon a time, he'd been a normal human being, born of a normal Teshiwahurian man and a normal woman, but something unforeseen had happened while he had been a Commodore in the First Extraplanetary Exploratory Naval Fleet under the old Has'Zyndamaggi Dominion, while his starship had been on patrol at the edges of the Makkaryenne Elasticity, something no one dares talk about...

He was transformed into something MORE than merely human.

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Despite Teshiwahur's massive planetary size, the total human population on the planet is only ONE-THIRD that of the planet Earth, or roughly 2.37 Billion people. During the time period of The Has'Zyndamaggi Dominion, just PRIOR to the arrival of The Wound in the galaxy, the total planetary population swelled to its largest size: 5.53 Billion.

The AVERAGE healthy Teshiwahurian has a lifespan of 164 Earth-human years. The most long-lived Teshiwahurian humans can live for almost 215 Earth-human years.

The people of The Withered Land are physically far stronger, with denser bones, more high-tensile ligaments and thicker flesh, than their Earth-human counterparts and are resistant to the many diseases and viral infections that plague normal Earth humans.

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The societal peoples and Bloodlines populating the The Withered Land, a.k.a. the world of the Emperium, immediately during the Post-Wound period:

The RAN'JADDATH -- THE MOST POPULACE, BUT POOREST AND LEAST POLITICALLY POWERFUL CULTURE

The QA'SARKOON -- THE MOST MILITARISTIC, MOST TECHNOLOGICALLY-ORIENTED AND MOST STRUCTURED CULTURE

The CID'AMMAR -- THE OLDEST, WEALTHIEST, MOST POLITICALLY POWERFUL AND MOST EDUCATED CULTURE

The YUR'SEYN'AHKTAR -- THE DISCRIMINATED-UPON, OUTCAST MUTANT/OTHER-HUMAN HOARD (warlocks, witches, cyborgs, were-beings, demonics)

.....THE KINQUELLYN are an evolutionary sub-class of the Yur'seyn'Ahktar and are a fearsome and somewhat quarrelsome, besides quixotically amoral, race of aristocratic, educated Elves who are mostly thieves, mercenary swordsmen and double-dealing spies-for-hire who have no allegiance to the Emperium or to the World-Father

The XSIEH'POTHETH, a.k.a. "the WENKRANG" -- AN ARTIFICIALLY-BRED, GENETICALLY-ENGINEERED CULTURE OF INDIGENOUS NOMADIC ABORIGINALS, they are a "gengineered" warrior-class subset of the Yur'seyn'Ahktar focused on military training and rigorous, ritualized martial excellence

SAUROTETRAMORPHS -- PRODUCTS OF PARALLEL SENTIENT EVOLUTION, THE LEAST UNDERSTOOD AND MOST FEARED NATIVE PLANETARY CULTURE, intelligent saurians, they are a species of intelligent reptile-men and women, fierce, aggressive, militaristic, and technologically-astute

The HEECHAYSII -- XENOPHOBIC, MILITARISTIC FEMALE-CENTRIC WARRIOR-CLASS, a.k.a. ALIEN AMAZONS, a plateau-living culture of ram's-horned superwomen, a sub-species of female human believed to have been purposefully cross-bred with an alien race from the region of the solar system beyond The Array by order of the World-Father, who have tamed incredibly large, flying feathered raptors with whom they have a psychic link

The MALEVYKKENS -- AN EVOLUTIONARY SUBCLASS OF THE YUR'SEYN'AHKTAR, THE MEMBERS OF THIS AGGRESSIVE SUBCONTINENTAL RACIAL CLASS ARE MUTATIONS, THE RESULTS OF BIOCHEMICALLY-ALTERED DNA, GENE CONTAMINANTS, CAUSED BY UNANTICIPATED RESULTS OF THE PLAGUE WARS; Their culture is among the youngest on Teshiwahur, being only 60 generations old, but they have infiltrated most of the ruling power structure OUTSIDE the Emperium, among QUNDIN's continental "Fallen States", like ancient Ombria-Aeternae (Nygeia's home), Ynfinitreum (home of both the Omayguns and the Ekzaltydd)and the "Edgerim Colonies", beyond the moon Pex'Insava in the depths of the Roonhaavyn Asteroid Cluster (capitol city of which is "Phylempth Ozzuhr" on the massive tetrahedral asteroid "Eunmikka")

.......PARALLEL RELATIONAL-CLASS OF MALEVYKKENS: ANOMALEUNNES a.k.a. "Vale-Ogres" -- Anomaleunnes are savage and untamed, physically strong and durable, essentially humanoid creatures closely akin to what, on planet Earth, would be called "Goblins". Proud and generally malevolent, but technologically gifted, they live in a politically feudal society wherein one achieves social status by the number of challengers and competitors they've personally killed. 

The OMAYGUNS -- AN ANCIENT & DECADENT OUTCAST CULTURE, MECHANISTIC AND TECHNOLOGICAL BUT VERY CLASS-CONSCIOUS AND SOCIALLY RIGID, they are a species of Steampunk-cyborgs, clockwork robots housing the bio-electric mental engrams/consciousnesses of titled Regency Nobles from BEFORE the times of the Emperium, their lineage dating back to the era of the despotic Has'Zyndamaggi Dominion. The Omayguns are, for all intents and purposes, immortal and apolitical

The EKZALTYDD -- Ancient, decadent, arrogant, extraordinarily wealthy and twisted, THEY ARE THE FEW SURVIVING REMNANTS OF THE GENEALOGICAL DYNASTIC GENTRY CALLED "GOD-PLAYERS" (aka "the VAYL'KEJJOAR"); they are related to NONE of the currently existing social and racial classes on Teshiwahur and are relentless, unwavering enemies of The Omayguns, whom they consider to be upstarts; a subclass within the Ekzaltydd are "the DYMONIKS", who are Reality-warpers resembling Earth's Djinn's (Genies)

XHERIM'EFARR or The HYPERLORDS -- NON-HUMAN SENTIENT EXO-EVOLUTIONARY MUTATIONS, XENOMORPHS actually, who were anthropoid representations of the essential Multiversal Elements, were known as the Xherim'efarr or "The HyperLords". A race of ageless, alien, ultra-cognitive, telepathic and telekinetic travelers and manipulators of the space-time continuum, the Xherim'efarr rarely directly interacted with any biological species. Each of the HyperLords embodied a higher cognitive cosmic constant, a force, like Analysis and Calculation, Experimentation and Implementation, Biogenesis and Xenogenesis, Chaos and Order. They lived, if alive they actually were, within the envelope of the Ventriculum, which was an impossibility, but the location or name of their homeworld, if they had one, was a mystery.

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These are the most general of the underlying facts about The Withered Land. There are, of course, many more details, but the majority of those will be explored in-depth during the course of the stories themselves as characterizations and the narrative's plot details dictate.