Planets 1: Floating around

 

"Why doesn't everybody fly around from planet to planet all the time? It's so easy, right?" 

Thats what most kids ask when they learn about the open space of the Disk. 

 "Yes, it is, kids." Parents say. "But have something in mind: once you set your feet off the land, our gravity will pull you less and less, and at a certain point, you'll be drafted by further gravities of distant planets, so you'll probably get to go somewhere. But the orbits are capricious, our whole universe an unfathomable clock of a myriad spheres. If you lose track of your home planet, you might never be able to find it again. I wish you would stay with us forever, and there is no shame on it. Many others do. But someday you'll be a man and might like to prove your worth far beyond those clouds..."

Nobody knows for certain how many planets there are on the solar system. It is known that the biggest one (and the most populated for sure) is probably Hytral: its enormous circumference spanning almost 250 km along its equator. The planet codices at the observatory in Emben register the names of five hundred spheres of different sizes, though the actual number is for sure much larger: its impossible to count all the smaller nameless rocks which can barely hold a handful of baobabs. The added problem of them all having different rotation cycles makes travel and observation very difficult during long spans, making most of that information incomplete and outdated,

Travelling from planet to planet is not difficult for a healthy and fit person. Although at surface level all the planets have similar gravity pull, its easy to break free of it by propelling yourself high enough: this distance is usually proportional to the size of the planet. In a very small one, an energic jump can do the trick, or you may help yourself by using a jumping pole or climbing up a tree (As a kid growing up in a small planet, I did it all the time with my friends instead of going into school). Bigger planets normally have towers dedicated to the purpose of helping departers reach the heights for low gravity. Of course, the landing is also rougher on those, and having a parachuting device is advised to those travelling into one. 

Its always wise to check your local sage for the upcoming planetary conjuntions, as you can lift off and wade through clean sky and clouds for more time than you intended, or find another place instead. In case of doubt, following a flock of birds will always lead you somewhere. On the other hand, following a flock of cloud whales will surely lead you to deep cloud formations with little or no land, in which is terribly easy to become disorientated and lost.

Most people has no real reason to travel to other planets. Some do it in their youths, as an adventure, or maybe searching for a different place in which to settle. Constant travel is much rarer, and people who does it is often treated with as much curiosity than suspicion. Though interplanar invasion and wars are very strange in the disk, probably for logistical reasons, criminals and scoundrels are not. But who doesn't like the visit of a journeyman of any strange foreign trade, looking for knowledge and sharing his own? Who isn't enthralled by the visit of a singer, bringing information that is part her own lies and part the ones that were told to her? Who hasn't followed a foreign monk into the local dojo, searching for an honorable duel in which to test his skills?