Caption
Sailing in Hanaq
Hanaq is a cosmic water tree. This world supports countless nations and ecosystems across its branches, leaves, and roots. It houses diverse populations of Fairies, Beasts, and Dragons and even more diverse populations of monsters.
Barkstream
The Barkstream is the ocean that covers Hanaq’s bark entirely. It serves as a massive network of waterways connecting the branches and outer trunk. The barkstream is home to massive creatures known as titans.
Structure
Planets
The scale of Hanaq’s islands are surprisingly intimate. Most planets (sometimes called planetoids) have a surface area comparable to a small region that could be crossed by foot in a few days. Even Hejmen, the largest known planet, could be circled on hoof within a month.
The world is more akin to a magical archipelago than a vast cosmic expanse, where wooden ships regularly travel between worlds and floating islands are common habitable spaces.
Sunflowers
Sunflowers are burning blooms atop stems that spring from Hanaq’s barkstream, providing light and heat to their surrounding planets. While planets vary in size, they are typically sizable enough to support stable floating islands and airship travel.
Distances between Sunflowers vary, with travel times ranging from three to fourteen days using typical airships. Most planets maintain a 24-hour day/night cycle through their rotation, though exceptions exist, such as Nimbudai with its extremely slow nights.
Twigstalks
Planets and Sunflowers connect to the Barkstream through massive structures called Twigstalks. These mile-wide connections feature twin rotating currents of water arranged in a double helix pattern, with calmer waters between the spirals. The planet or Sunflower typically rotates around this axis, with the connection point marked by a perpetual suspended geyser.
Skilled helmsmen can navigate these currents to quickly descend to the Barkstream in a minute, though the risk of spinning out makes this dangerous for inexperienced pilots. While the gentler waters near the bark make it possible to touch Hanaq’s surface in these areas, swimming too deep into Twigstalks is extremely dangerous and strongly discouraged.
Most Twigstalks rise to, at most, the height of a skyscraper, making them prominent navigational landmarks. The specific current patterns of each Twigstalk are carefully documented by pilots.
Branches
Hanaq has four major branches, known as the Four Systems, which extend outward from the trunk. Currently, two branches have been explored in the story, each housing a number of planetoids.
Southern Branch
Eastern Branch
Regions
Floating in a massive void of Evernight, Hanaq sits floating in space.
Canopy
The Canopy refers to the top half of Hanaq, it’s a collection of trees.
Crown
The area where the canopy of Hanaq meets its Trunk, the set of Hejmen and its sunflower.
Hejmen, the largest known planet, serves as a central hub for much of Hanaq’s civilization. It sits at the crown of Hanaq, the part that stands in between the upper branches and the trunk.
Trunk
The trunk is the bottom half of Hanaq, it is a hollow, massive circular ocean that extends the length of The Canopy.
The trunk has inner and outer side, and can be entered in holes near the Crown.
The outer trunk is completely dark. This region is known as the Abyss. Massive titans and exceedingly powerful Monsters emerge from this place.
The inner trunk is completely free floating islands and planets, the bark stream surrounds this floating would in a giant cylinder.
Warden chains islands together to form its empire.