Fan depiction of the shellworld Sursamen, showing a Rollstar and Towers [by Luke Frost]
The Shellworlds are an array of artificial planet-sized structures. They are also known as Shield Worlds, Hollow Worlds, Machine Worlds, Veil Worlds, or Slaughter Worlds.[1]
History[]
Approximately 4000 Shellworlds were constructed by the Involucra. By the early 20th century CE only 1332 remained, with 110 of those in a collapsed state, and 86 being Dra'Azon Planets of the Dead.[1]
The Iln spent many millions of years destroying Shellworlds before disappearing. No record of their reasons survived into the 20th century CE.[1]
Astronomical Positions[]
The Shellworlds were placed around stable main-series stars in two and five hundred million kilometre radius orbits. When built they had been placed regularly around the outskirts of the galaxy but had since drifted due gravitational influences.[1]
Design and Construction[]
Fan depiction of a shellworld, showing Towers and landscape [by John Malcolm]
Each Shellworld was composed of concentric spherical levels, with the number and spacing of the levels varying depending on the type of Shellworld. Each had a metallic core 1,400 kilometres in diameter.
- Arithmetic Shellworlds had 15 internal levels, each regularly spaced at 1,400 kilometre intervals. They had external diameters of 45,000 kilometres.[1]
- Incremental, Exponential, or Logarithmic Shellworlds had intervals between levels that increased as one became more distant from the core. The intervals were determined by a number of logarithm-based ratios. The size of these worlds varied, with the largest examples being almost 80,000 kilometres across.[1] Incremental Shellworlds make up roughly 12% of the surviving population.[1]