Ekeko

Ozymandias' Exaltation

It is not small. Over 251 kilometers long with a diameter of 80 kilometers Ekeko is a monstrosity in the skies, a testament to mastery of physics and engineering. The ship's inner workings are a mystery to all but its designers, with black-box autonomous systems maintaining operation into the aeons. Those inside say they come in peace and prosperity.

The inner surface of Ekeko is a broad terrain, roughly square in shape, measuring just over 60,000 square kilometers. Two mountain ranges flank a central large lake, both forward and aft with several biomes represented in the landscape. The Uma Mountains are rugged snow-covered scrags with peaks over 6 kilometers high. Steep-walled valleys cut into the mountains, leading to the Saryapa Plains and Lake Puti. The plains and the downspin end of the lake are cultivated and tame. Fields and orchards and vinyards fill the gentle hills of the valley, while fishing-villages dot the downspin shore of the lake. In the boggy marshes near the lake's main intake is the ship's main city, Illacta, with a dense urban population.

The lake drains upspin through dense, hilly woodlands into the Sallqa Jungle, over 6,000 square kilometers of untamed jungle. The jungle is bounded on the upspin side by the Saywa Hills, rugged rolling highlands of shrub and shale. Aft of the lake are the Wasa Mountains, separating the aftmost parts of the ship from the more humid interior, creating a broad high-desert called Ununnaq. Two towns have grown up on the boundaries of these wildernesses: Raymi on the upspin shore of the lake, buried in the forests, and Sachacta in the semi-arid highlands aft-downspin of the Saryapa Plains. These towns are unofficial entryways into the wildlands. Safety is not guaranteed*

Finally, deep in the Uma Mountains to the fore, nestled in a high valley, is the town of Yaykuy, where visitors are processed leaving and entering the ship. It is possible there are other entrances into the vast terrain, but that is the only accessable one for strangers.

Ekeko is huge, so large the air becomes unbreathable if one climbs high enough, and at the center it's a near-vacuum. Natural weather patterns, no doubt aided by systems unseen, provide the world with rain and snow, wind and fog. Day and night come from the center, high in the sky, from a source invisible when not bringing daylight, and featureless when lit.

* Extensive and intrusive safety systems are actually pretty good at the whole safety thing

The Setting

Ekeko is a framing device more than anything. It's a framing device for more sci-fi settings of my characters. It's also a world one can explore, with dangerous animals roaming free in the wilderness. More to come, maybe.