The North Circle is the largest expansion of Sha Rephart island. Its central feature – literally and figuratively – is the Generator. This device absorbs large amounts of potential magical energy from the Voidplane and transfers it to an array of storage crystals enclosed in two rings of spheres. That energy can then be transferred into nodes within the island’s core or into vessels. There is a element of instability with this mass absorption of magic, which is why there is a large gap surrounding the Generator.

Outside of that gap is the largest park in the nation. It includes national botanical gardens as well as community gardens that citizens can apply to get a personal growing plot in. There are a trio of triangular bipyramids off to one side of the circle. These may be purely decorative.

And because it’s available, here is another shot of the entire island.

Well, it’s been over ten years since the last time I made a post about Sha Rephart’s main island, though I have been working on it here and there.

The island is the core of Sha Rephart (“The Nation”). The structure bathed in golden light at the center is the national capital. It is surrounded by a fortress. The six lighter blue hexagons and the three-pointed areas between them make up the Social Districts. Adjoining those are the Residential Districts, made up of numerous rows of stock housing and four apartment complexes. Two Industrial Districts occupy the trapezoidal areas between the four gaps (and right now don’t really have anything in them), with the city docks attached to them on the east and west ends. A transport rail circuit and the city wall loop around the other areas.

Some expansions have been added to the island over time. To the northeast is a fountain (which needs a lot of further development). To the southeast is the Night District, a nocturnally themed sister to the main social districts.To the southwest is Beach Island, a massive attraction due to the rarity of large bodies of water on the Voidplane. To the northwest is crescent park and a large walled circle of void (its purpose to be determined).

Expect more details on areas of the island soon.

The Voidplane is a place saturated with magic. The most common applications of the power to defy the physical rules of the universe are based on manipulating elementary components of reality. The most commonly mastered types of these are thermal energy, light, electromagnetism, object manifestation, and kinetic energy. Specific applications of these are often classified into elements such fire, lightning, water, blade, and wind, especially when they are used in combat.

So a random thought crossed my mind last night. Why do the Obmunjalae’s engines use air propulsion like an Earthly jet plane instead of utilizing direct kinetic magic?

The twin nacelles attached to the back of the vessel are its main propulsion. In the picture you can see that I changed them to be symmetrical on the front and back, removing the previous air outlet nozzle. The engines work by inducing magical kinetic energy directly into a material that is highly sensitive to that kind of magic. One added benefit of changing how the engines function is that they could be capable of reverse movement now.

I’ll have to consider if the openings for the lateral engines still serve a purpose. Perhaps the kinetic impulse generates waste heat that has to be vented. This also means I’ll probably have to update the Voidskimmer vessel again. I made complicated air inlet/outlet ducts on the sides, and now I have to consider if they are unnecessary.

It just didn’t seem right for this luxurious vessel to lack a place to bathe in style. However, the placement of pools was tricky. It would not have been structurally sound to place heavy bodies of water in the suspended upper floors alongside the guest rooms. The pools are placed within the hangar along the wall by the elevators. It’s a little awkward for them to be in the hangar, but it was the only place that worked. Along with the privacy curtained pool (left in the picture), there are two shower stalls, two changing stalls, and a restroom.

Of course, to maintain symmetry, there are four pool sets, two on the obverse side and two on the reverse. The two pools on top of each other have slots in the bottom so they actually share the same mass of water, which naturally distributes itself evenly between the two sides.

There is also some new wall/ceiling decorations, the arches of purple slats that resemble the roof of the Obmunjalae’s home base.

A view of the inside of the pool. The person in the water is Tisi, a member of a new and as of yet unnamed race of immortal Voidplane natives with an aquatic affinity, hence the placement here.

The machine room is at the back of the Obmunjalae vessel. The two prominent machines found in here are the crystal core assembly and the primary air propulsion engine. The central tower that reaches to the ceiling is the air inlet for the engine, connecting via the horizontal tubes to the pair of nacelles on the outside that provide the vehicle’s forward thrust. Two smaller towers draw power from the crystal core for distribution to the various pieces of magically powered equipment and lights throughout the Obmunjalae.

On the right of the picture, behind the cabinets, is a redundant set of the pilot’s controls. In case of maintenance or emergency, the ship can be controlled from within the machine room.

New to this iteration of the room are the aforementioned power distribution towers and pilot’s controls, more details in the crystal core, a second floor deck, grated flooring, and some adjustment to the two bridges that cross over the horizontal tubing. Here’s an image of that sparser room from earlier on:

The area that was previously designated as a sort of lounge in the back section of the vessel has annexed more territory and upgraded to a dining room.

A wall that separated a small lobby and the lounge area was removed. There are pillars remaining from that wall, which you can see in the middle of the picture. Two side rooms that are now off of the dining room instead of off the main hallways have been designated as kitchens.

Due to the sloping ceiling in the dining room section, a dividing wall has been added (the violet line with the two bumps) so people won’t bump their head. Two kitchen storage spaces fill in the awkward corner spaces.

The hangar now now has a lower ceiling. Instead of having a full floor filling in the space above, there is an open framework.

Included in this space are catwalks and a ‘hidden room’ which is above the large circular logo and light ring. These are accessed by what used to be a 4th floor balcony overlooking the hangar.

There’s not really much that one could call weather on the Voidplane, but the pilot’s deck of the Obmunjalae did not feel complete without a roof over it, so I created one.

This is the dock door at the center of the big window on either side of the hangar. There is now a control station (on the right) that includes the lever to open the door, an intercom for communicating with the pilot’s deck or machine room, and a four-color dial that can be used to communicate a basic status to those same central stations. Typically the pilot’s deck is the center of command for the vessel, but a fully redundant control and communication system is located in the machine room for emergencies or maintenance.

The contraption to the left of the door is a “flipper”. The voidplane presents a unique challenge when movement from either side of the plane is required. As an object passes through the plane, the part that has crossed effectively experiences reversed gravity. How does one conveniently and safely transfer themselves? The flipper is one such device that facilities moving from the obverse side to the reverse and vice versa. It is a rectangular four-walled box with two moving floor panels. The video below shows how the transfer process works.

The box is sized for a person and has a button on the inside of the box that triggers the transfer. The user lies on their back and presses the button. The floor panel they are lying on moves away from them, lowering them into the plane and leaving them to float in it as the panel rotates out of the way. The second floor panel swings in and moves towards the user, pushing them through the plane. Once the machine halts, the user can then transition to their hands and knees, then to their feet. They then can exit the flipper, now technically upside down from when they entered it.