Asgard
Asgard is the throneworld of the Asgardian Empire, and home of the Aesir.
Geography
Asgard is a small planetary body. Unusually among inhabited worlds, it is an ellipsoid, rather than a sphere, and does not spin, or orbit any larger body, remaining apparently motionless in space. This is due to the competing gravitational pull of the nearest sun (Mundilfari) and several nearby stable wormholes, part of a network the Aesir call Yggdrasill.
The planet has a single natural satelite, a moon called Máni. Due to the nearby wormholes, it follows a slow, eliptical orbit, passing between Asgard and the sun for approximately 19 of every 33 Terran hours (as measured by physicist Jane Foster).
The planet has two continents, one on the 'top' (sun-side) called Hlýr and one on the bottom called Kaldur.
The surface is mountainous, particularly at the poles. Although the planet is an ellipsoid, the sheer terrain at the widest part gives the impression to anyone standing on top or bottom planes that one is standing on a disk with an edge.
Æsir use cardinal directions translated by All-Speak as north, south, east, and west, but are more accurately understood as north, south, towards the sun, and towards the dark.
Ecosystem
The Æsir, most Trolls and Giants, and the majority of animal species live on Hlýr, due to its warmer climate. The warmest point of the planet is the Eastern-most point of Hlýr, and this is where the planetary capital, Asgardia, is located.
The northern continent Kaldur has only a handful of settlements, many of them located within the extensive cave systems. The continent is inhabited by many hardy animal and planet species, although the far West of the continent, which recieves almost no sunlight, is largely barren. What plants do grow there rely on moonlight, rather than sunlight, for photosynthesis. There are also large number of fungii native to these colder regions, many of which are prized in Æsir cuisine.
Like many of the Nine Realms, Asgard has unusually high levels of naturally occuring background magic compared to other planets. The Æsir believe this is due to the presence of Yggdrasill. This is often poetically phrased as magic 'springing from the roots of the world tree'; in more prosaic terms, the Æsir believe that magic is connected in some way to wormholes, as this is the one common thing that all the otherwise diverse planets of the Nine Realms have in common. Although widely accepted, this idea is a theory only, and has not been proved, or even extensively studied.
Ecosystem Cycles
Lacking planetary rotation, Asgardian days are timed to the movement of the moon. Each day begins when a nögl (an Asgardian measurement traditionally defined as 'the white of a woman's fingernail') of sun is visible above the moon, and continues until the sun is one-quarter covered.
Due to the eliptical shape of the moon's orbit, this gives a day of 14 earth hours, and a night of 19. However, the Asgardians divide both day and night into nine hours of equal length, resulting in the nine 'moon-hours' being longer than the nine 'sun-hours'.
As the planet does not orbit, Asgard does not have a 'year' as it would be understood on other planets. Asgardian years are 1,647 Asgardian days (2,264.6 Earth days, or 6.2 x longer than an Earth year), matched to the year length on Niffleheim, a planet which has religious significant for the Æsir.
Natural Resources
Asgard has many natural resources, but the most prized is bifa, a highly reactive mineral which forms crystaline structures similar to quartz. Bifa is prized by both engineers and sorcerors for its unique properties.
The famous Rainbow Bridge, which connects Asgardia to the Himinbjörg is constructed almost entirely from bifa crystals. Although also a display of the wealth and power of the Asguardian Royal Family, this bridge also serves a practical purpose, as the thousands of crystals act as anchor points for the complex magic which powers the Bifrost.
History
The original sentient inhabitants of Asgard were Giants, primarily Mountain Giant and Storm Giants. No evidence has been found for Hrimthur habitation, suggesting it was one of the last of the Nine Realms to be inhabited (although still earlier than Earth).
Alternative Name(s)
The Realm Eternal
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