the great maelstrom
The cyclone the people of Beacon say follows the sun at dusk — borne, as Nomad guesses, of the abrupt pressure and humidity collapse as the day side's superheated water vapour cools into sudden darkness. He sketches a five-phase model of the planet from it: the dawn band, the day inferno, the dawn-side death zone, the cloud belt, and the maelstrom itself at the trailing edge. STD:TSM:Ch 8
Known facts
- chases-sunset-around-the-planetCompassion and Contemplation explain it to Nomad in council: the great maelstrom follows the line of sunset around the planet, a raging tempest of incredible violence that breaks where the rock cools and gives way to the shadowed cloud cover the Beaconites live in. It is far more violent than the ordinary storms of the dark side, and by reputation no one survives going into it.STD:TSM:Ch 32
- burns-on-vented-gasInside the storm, Nomad works out what it actually is. The day-side sun blasts the rock; the planetary core then draws heat out of the new ground so fast it cracks open and vents flammable gas — methane or something like it, not from decomposition but from the sun-blasting itself. The vents feed the cyclones, which are why the storm trailing sunset is on fire instead of full of rain.STD:TSM:Ch 34
Backreferences
- factthis world
- factElegy
- factthe Dawnchaser
- summarySTD:TSM:Ch 32
- factsunheart
- factthe Dawnchaser
- summarySTD:TSM:Ch 33
- factHardy
- summarySTD:TSM:Ch 34
- factthis world
- factSigzil